Yellowstone and Teton Ntnl Parks, again

As you may recall, I stopped smoking a few years back. Actually, August 31st marks 3 years since my last cigarette. Yep… still not smoking and I doubt I ever will again as my self-worth just wont allow me to consume something that is only harming me. Labor day weekend, is also the 3 year anniversary of my first road-trip into Yellowstone National Park, which started all the traveling I have done over the past 3 years.

I had planned to take the Datsun up to Yellowstone to re-live that weekend, but Imelda and Timmy decided to come with me, so we all piled into the van. While Tim has gone with me a few times since 2009, Imelda has never been up there. In fact, this past March was the first time she ever went on a multi-day road trip with me, (I came back alive… it was in serious question at times), so this will only be the second trip she had done with me. So, after Imelda returned from work on August 31st we loaded up the van and begun the long drive up into the mountains.

After 5 hours of driving I was done. My old age is catching up to me I swear! I use to be able to drive 20 hours without blinking an eye, but now-a-days four or 5 hours is a huge task. I made 5 hours of driving before reaching a rest area about mid-way up. It at least gave us an actual  bathroom for the morning as Imleda refuses to use the porta-potty in the van. We finished up the drive in the morning with another 5 hours on the road… but this brought us to Grand Teton National Park for the first time as a family.

In Grand Teton we spent the day doing some of the “must do’s” as we only had a half-day in the park. We took the shuttle boat across Jenny Lake to hike out to Hidden Falls before heading into Coulter Bay to get a camp site and get showered before we settled in for the night. It turned out to be a great schedule, as by the time I made it out of the showers (last one in, second one out) it was pouring down rain which never let up the rest of the day and night. Once at our camp I cooked up the three of us a simple dinner of chicken and rice before watching a few shows on the laptop to get us all wound down for a good night’s sleep.

By morning the rain had cleared and we began the short 1-hour drive up into  Yellowstone, stopping along the way to show Imelda some of the sights before heading into the Old Faithful area to wait for the hourly burst (which happened about 2 minutes after we arrived… HA!). Here we took a 2 mile stroll along the boardwalk to view the many different geysers in the area. Before returning to the van we stopped in the cafeteria to snatch up an ice-cream cone (this is becoming tradition for Tim and I) and relax for a few before some auto-touring the rest of the Southern half of Yellowstone, including the Canyon area, and Yellowstone Valley, and the Yellowstone lake itself… where Imelda (I know, right?!) walked up to the water and immediately got her feet wet when the next wave came up to give her a kiss. It was hysterical!

We were soon driving East, out of the park, where we dinned in Cody at what turned out to be a very popular eatery, both with the locals and tourists. The place was packed with large men in cowboy hats and the food was ‘down home’ and full of grease. Imelda looked completely out of place :)

We drove another 5 hours before camping the night at the same place we stayed our first night of the trip. This gave us another 5 hours of driving on Monday morning to get home just after lunch time to complete an 1100 mile journey with 3 nights in the van and again we all came out alive.