Yellowstone and on to Billings, MT

Yellowstone was interesting yesterday, we did the West half of the two loops. Most of it made us sad to see so many dead trees. Only saw one bird for wildlife until we got to Mammoth Hot Springs. Then Elk were downtown and on the edge of town--lots of them. Just before Mammoth Hot Springs, the veiws became spectacular--waterfalls, great rock formations, lots of healthy trees.



My favorite part of the trip, of course, was the rain, some of hitting the windshield like sleet. Absolutely beautiful after our long stretch of summer! And it sounded heavenly hitting the roof.




We got to Old Faithful 5 minutes after it erupted, so Gary got a photo of the after effects. Didn't have time to stay 90 minutes to see it again. There was road construction in several places. They make everyone wait for 30 minutes, then have one side go thru, then the other. After the first three of these delays we realized we were going to be late meeting Mom's plane in Billings, so didn't stop for anything. Considering we were towing the CR-V in the mountains, then going 65 mph on the freeway (Gary never drives the RV that fast) we thought we did real well getting 7 mpg. To complicate things, Mom's plane arrived 35 minutes early, so she had to wait an hour for us to get to the airport. Thank goodness for cell phones.

Saw a very interesting rig in the parking lot by Old Faithful. It had a German name, new to us. We sure enjoy seeing the interesting ways people travel. Saw several tour buses and thought of Kris and Terry--wondered if they were on one of them.

We stayed at a nice Good Sam RV park in Billings. When I took the dogs out this morning the first thing we saw (right next to the RV) was a cute little bunny hopping away from us as fast as it could. Then as we wandered thru the RV park toward a field, we discovered several deer. The first two we saw just looked at us, then a half dozen popped up and started running around a tree in a complete circle with their tails wagging, then they all took off to go hide. I sure wish I had taken my camera on our walk.

Didn't get to the RV park until after dark, then had to make dinner while Gary set up the water and electricity. Then we had a nice, but short visit while we tried to stow all of Mom's stuff. I woke up in the middle of the night with ideas of where to put the rest of her stuff. Now we are organized, or at least as organized as we are going to be on this trip.

Williston, ND, here we come! Tomorrow we'll be at the Hostfest!