Day 21

It was a a challenge to sleep for all of us last night. There was a section of sites that seemed to be all camping together having a great time with music pretty late. The kids and I were laughing remembering our late night neighbors singing karaoke in Pennsylvania. We were just thankful it wasn't that again!

Today we were going to try to hit all the best spots for hiking. After my initial research on hikes along the parkway I purchased a book that has really been indespensible for planning the best outings for us. Evey isn't really up for hiking so today we were looking for the most bang for our effort.

Our first stop was the Linn Cove Viaduct. We were actually fortunate everything in this area was open today as up until a few days before the road and all the trails had been closed for inspection and repaving. The viaduct is the iconic road in most pictures of the parkway with it's long curve around the mountain tucked into the trees at both ends. Our hike underneath and around was fun with lots of cool caves and rocks to climb over.






Our next stop was Rough Ridge to take the Tanawha trail south for a 360 degree view on a rock. This trail is different as it has been built mostly over an around some of the sensitive environmental plants in the area. There were beautiful arched footbridges and boardwalks taking us to the overlook. The trail was very busy which always reminds me it is a not-to-miss trail but also to try and pick these trails on weekdays instead.



The first viewpoint was beautiful but there were so many people we kept moving after a few seconds. There were people sitting on rocks jutting out a little higher that we decided to target. The hike was a climb but nothing we couldn't handle.  The second viewpoint was even better with those mountains that seemed to stretch forever.

Here is our view of the viaduct a few miles away!

The third viewpoint there was only a spot for Emily and Evey since there were a few other people there so we tried to find a bit of shade while they made Father's Day phone calls.

With so much success hiking with Evey we decided to take a short drive into town. Brayden had spotted a place with 40 different kinds of milk shakes the day before so we thought it would be the perfect post-hike snack. Emily also needed to pick up batteries and ice so it was a good excuse to make the drive. We also took the opportunity to call Dave for Father's Day while I had service in town (but we didn't tell him about the shakes!).

By the time we got back to the campground it was pouring down rain so we all raced to our tents and tried to dry out. We played cards to pass the time and I dominated in 3Up 3Down as well as Sorry Revenge. I was close to giving up as I hadn't won any of the games in weeks!

Once the rain slowed I walked down to the boat dock to check on kayak rentals. Our water kids were excited about the opportunity to get out on the lake and explore! I don't have any pictures from the outing as I was nervous about bringing my camera or phone but we all had a great time exploring all the little inlets of the lake and spotting some enormous bullfrog tadpoles. Some were as big as an egg!!

Next up was showers. It felt like a month since we'd had showers but we were suprisingly not as stinky as I'd imagined when planning the trip. Or maybe I'm just used to the smell! It sure did feel great though!

It was dusk once we were finished so the kids snacked for dinner. I have no idea how they could possibly still be hungry but they are all three bottomless pits these days. They must be growing like crazy!! Our deer made her daily visit to us so Laney took a few more pictures of her. Then Laney and Brayden tried to beat Brayden's and my record with the frisbee while Evey and Ryan caught fireflies. We repurposed a peanut butter jar for a collection jar. I think they must have caught 50 before letting them go for bedtime!

 

Day 34

I woke up this morning a little early and was surprised to find out the wifi could reach to our campsite! I wrote for a little while and started the long process of going through emails since we've been gone. I must check my email ten times a day when I'm at home, but on the road it just doesn't matter. Everyone who is important to me knows I'm not reachable so the rest just can wait!

We decided to make a quick breakfast of bagels and fruit and get on the road. We had a very long drive today with a grocery stop and a border crossing. Dave has become quite adept at packing up by now so I can just handle things as I have time in between wrangling kids and cooking breakfast. The kids definitely appreciate having the extra help instead of being the extra help!

We stopped for gas right around the corder as in these parts of Canada and Montana you might not see a town for 100 miles or more. The older Canadian versions of Jay & Silent Bob were standing outside smoking and noticed we are from Florida so they chatted with us for awhile about the hurricane. A guy on a motorcycle pulled up and starting chatting with us about where we'd been and where we're headed. It must be Dave because noone ever talks to me on the road. Or maybe they think I'm some crazy lady from Florida carting my three kids around the country!

Our next stop just down the road was none other than the World's Largest Teepee. I had a little help from Dave in planning this trip so this was one of his additions. We hadn't made it to many of his stops simply because our day was already long or they were just too weird. This stop was just down the road and I was pleasantly surprised by the sheer amount of information there was here!

Once we got on the road, Dave finally got a taste of my Montana and Oklahoma drives this leg of the trip with us not seeing any city for most of the three hours he drove. I don't think we saw more than 6 cars in the 2 hours to the border. He also did much better crossing the border back into the U.S. as our border guard was not having any funny business. I think Dave was a little concerned he was going to confiscate the beer he'd bought but the guard let us go on.  And we finally found a real welcome sign for Montana!!

After about another hour we found a Walmart for a stock up. It was the smallest Walmart I'd even been in and by the time we got to the check out lanes I was ready to be back in the woods. Perhaps I'm not quite ready to get back to civilization yet.

We pulled into our next stop - a real RV park - and after a little confusion were setting up as was our normal routine. Ryan and Brayden had watched The Lord of the Rings movie in the car so all the kids ducked into the tent to play the Lego version. After I threw a couple loads on laundry in the washing machines, we adults prepped dinner and snacked a little as we watched some football. Hooray for DirectTV in the RV!!

We had a delicious dinner of salad with grilled shrimp while we watched and looked for hurricane updates. We were becoming spoiled with wifi at the last two places! The building with laundry also had a few bathrooms - real home kind of bathrooms eek! - so I took a shower once all the laundry was finished and everyone was in bed. I took a little while to edit pictures but got to bed by 11 as Grammie and I had already decided to get out of town by 8 with another long drive ahead of us.

Day 20

We had a relatively short drive into Yellowstone this morning so we took our time getting packed up. We met up with Grammie at her campground because Brayden decided he wanted to ride and stay with her for a few days. We agreed to meet up at the first visitor's center once we got into the park to get our bearings and learn about Yellowstone.

During one of the program at her park, Grammie learned about a few places that are often overlooked in the park. One of them she mentioned to us was a waterfall just after driving through the gate. We pulled into the first picnic area we saw and started hiking. We were walking along a river and spotted some rapids, but no waterfall. After checking the map we decided it might be a little ways up the road.

We reached Moose Falls within a few minutes and went the few steps down to check them out. A couple of ladies were picking raspberries on the side of the trail and offered the girls a few. They were the tinest raspberries I'd ever seen! The falls were rushing loudly as we sat and watched.

Once we got back on the road we were greeted with some pretty intense construction for the next 20 miles along our route. My first though was wondering why in the world they try construction during the busy summer months, but I quickly realized they can't really see the road any other time of the year!

The first visitor's center we would come to was actually our campground so we stopped and picked up junior ranger books and took a look around. There were two movies coming up so we decided to stay.

The first was a documentary about the time after the 1988 fire which destroyed 1/3 of the park. I remember some more recent fires, but I had no recollection of this devastating fire. It was apparently very controversial as it was one of the first time the National Park Service let the fire burn uncontrolled until it came close to the historic Old Faithful Inn. While so many disagree because of the loss of trees, habitats and wildlife in a fire, it is obvious that it was the right thing to do as the forest in the park regenerates with new, healthy growth. It's just not as quick as many would like and will definitely not be replaced as it was in my lifetime.

We also watched a short orientation video for the park then parted ways to check in to our campground. We would be staying the next 4 nights in Grant Village, aptly named for President Grant who is credited with creating this first national park. We quickly set up at our spot then drove to the vistor's center at Grammie's campground 30 minutes away to see what it had to offer. There was an interesting bird museum of many of the birds residing in the park. The kids are starting to identify many of them on their own thanks to junior ranger programs and books!

There was a junior ranger program starting in just a few minutes so we went to the amphitheater to join in on the fun! This afternoon's topic was pollinators and when the kids found out they were not at all thrilled. They all thought the entire thing was going to be about bees and they all do not care for bees one bit. We were suprised to learn so much more about pollinators in general as well as specific information about those in the park. I thought I knew a good bit, but definitely learned my fair share as well. Us vegetarians definitely need them for our entire food supply!







We said our goodbyes and headed back to our sites to get ready for the next day as Grammie had scheduled a bus tour for us. While Dave cooked dinner I headed to use one of our 2 showers we could take tonight. It had been another 3 days since I'd had a shower and I do believe I heard angels sing when that very hot water hit my skin. Our last campsite had been extremely dusty so my feet were beginning to look the color of elephant feet!

We had our delicious dinner of veggie chili, salad, and breadsticks then headed to our amphitheater for the early program. Again, we weren't thrilled about the topic of Mapping Yellowstone but once we realized how fun it was going to e we jumped right in. Each family was assigned to make their own map of Yellowstone but since we'd just gotten here we decided to make a map of our journey so far and what we hoped to see while we were here.

While the girls worked, Dave and I enjoyed our beers and the sunset behind the Lakeshore pavilion. We offered input when necessary, but they really did an excellent job and had so much fun doing it!  Laney had a great time presenting it to the group who was very surprised at our trip.







Several families stopped us after the program to chat about how we manage, where we were going next, and where we'd been in the past. They chuckled as we were describing our tent set up with sleeping bags and quilts as a Florida family would. They all wished up much luck, especially with the 34 degree night! And this is still August!!