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2007 Road Trip Notes
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Thursday, July 26th, 2007

Thursday, July 26, 2007 We got up at 6:00 and the kids got up at 6:30. After everyone got ready, we got the camper ready and took it with us. We left at 7:15. We took Highway 40 east; we know this because the sun was shining in our faces. At 7:25 we took Highway 206 south. It was a sunny clear day, with a temperature of 62 degrees. At 7:35 we took Highway 35 south. Grandpa and Granny saw a deer. We did not. Granny gets 1 point. We are following them because they are pulling the camper. OK, the truck is pulling the camper, not them. Ron also saw a deer and Grandpa and Granny did not. Ron gets 1 point. I saw a turkey; Ron saw it too. Grandpa and Granny did not. I got 2 points. At 7:48 we took Highway 83 south. Ron saw a whole flock (6 – not sure if 6 constituents a flock or not, but in our world it does) of turkeys. He got 5 points. Zach needed to throw his empty drink bottle away. When he put his bottle in the trash bag, Sarah said, “Guess what happened to Zach’s cap? We don’t know.” Zach loses a lot of bottle caps. So many that when we drop a bottle cap we say we Zached our cap. We passed Swan Lake. It was very pretty. This is a very pretty drive. We stopped at 8:23 by the side of the road for our 52 ˝ BB. OK so we used the camper bathroom and not a bush. We left at 8:35. It was 56 degrees. We saw a sign for “Old Squeezer Loop Road.” Granny (1 point) and I (1 point) saw a deer. Points as of 8:49 on 7-26-07: Grandpa 10 Granny 11 Ron 19 Sarah -9 Trillion Sheila 15 Zach - No points because he’s the Point Nazi Sarah has not been nice to the Point Nazi. We passed a log cabin church. I told you this was a very pretty drive. We saw big osprey nest with an osprey in it. We stopped at a rest area at 9:42. This was our 53 ˝ BB. We left at 9:51 and took 200 east from the rest area. The drive along Highway 83 has been very forested with lots of trees beside the road. We saw lots of log homes. Now on Highway 200 it is rolling hills with brown/yellow grass and mountains in the distant. We took Highway 141 south at 10:17. At 10:21 it is 77 degrees with lots of white clouds and hazy over the mountains. I saw 2 deer at 2 different locations. 2 points to me. We saw 2 antelopes. We saw big giant piles of hay and also lots of big round hay bales. We took Highway 12 west at 10:52. Zach is watching “Ace Ventura, When Nature Calls” on his iPod. He is laughing. We took interstate 90 east at 11:08. It was 76 degrees and hazy. We took exit 184 at 11:17 for our 54 ˝ BB and gas. We stopped at a Sonoco station. The gas was $2.99 a gallon. We have been 201.1 miles since our last fill and 3,895.1 total miles. The Conoco station was a gas station, liquor store and casino. We left at 11:28 and returned to Highway 90 east. We had to cross cattle guards getting off and on the interstate. We stayed on interstate 90 east. We stopped at 12:14 at a chain up area next to the interstate for lunch. I made peanut butter sandwiches and we ate beside the interstate. There are no rest areas marked on the atlas in this part of the interstate. I noticed someone had put the dirty paper plate in the candy bag. I told Zach not to put his garbage in the candy bag, he said Grandpa did it. I also need to look for long handle plastic spoons or plastic serving spoon to get to the bottom of the peanut butter jar. It was very messy. We used our 55 ˝ BB in the camper. We left at 12:40. It is a very pretty drive coming out of the city of Butte. There are lots of big rocks. Zach had a near Zaching. He dropped his cap, but found it. At 1:15 Grandpa passed someone. At 1:16 another someone. Yea!! We saw 2 combines driving down the interstate. This is agricultural land here. At 1:58 it is 82 degrees and sunny with white clouds. We are driving towards the mountains that are covered by clouds, low white clouds and grey clouds. We stopped at a rest area at exit 305. It was 2:02. We got to the rest area at 2:04. It was very windy, like Wyoming windy. This is our 56 ˝ BB. We left at 2:15. It was a very nice rest area. It is not marked on our map. We returned to interstate 90 at 2:16. It is extremely, Oh My God Windy. I saw a grizzly bear on top of a fenced in area at an exhibit for bears. No points were awards by the Point Nazi. At 2:35 it started sprinkling. We saw a sign “Gusty Crosswinds”. No kidding. We took Highway 89 south at 2:46. It is still sprinkling with grey and white clouds. We stopped for gas at 2:49 at a Conoco station. We have been 148.3 miles since our last fill up. The suburban is getting better gas mileage than Grandpa’s truck. That’s because we have all our luggage in the camper. Our total miles for the trip are 4,043.4. Gas was $2.99 a gallon. We also took our 57 ˝ BB. We left the gas station at 2:55. It had stopped raining. I spotted a deer way off the road. I got 1 point. We crossed the Yellowstone River at 3:30. Points as of 3:31 on 7-26th Grandpa 10 Granny 11 Ron 19 Sarah -9 Trillion Sheila 16 Sarah was real argumentative, mean, and negative with the Point Nazi. Zach has been taking points away. Highway 89 south is a very pretty drive. Part of the road follows the Yellowstone River. At 3:38 it started sprinkling. We reached Gardiner at 3:52. We turned left on 4th Street and drove up the hill to reach the campground at 3:54. It was the Rocky Mountain RV Park. Ron and Grandpa checked us in and got out camp site. Jack showed us where to park. We were on the upper level, #31. We parked the camper at 4:04 and parked the Suburban at 4:05. Ron helped Grandpa set the camper up in the rain. It is still sprinkling. We left the camper at 4:49. It is still sprinkling. We were going to get supper. We check Naggie Maggie for restaurants in town, but it only listed a Subway. We drove through town looking for somewhere to eat. We stopped at the Yellowstone Mine Restaurant at 5:00 to check it out. The chicken Cordon Bleu was $16.00. We decided not to eat there. We went to Helen’s Corral Drive Inn at 5:02. We decided to eat there. Grandpa, Ron and I had Buff burgers (buffalo burgers), Granny had a fried pork sandwich and the kids had chicken tenders. It came with fries and a small salad with ranch dressing. The dressing was not cold, so we did not eat the salad, but everything else was good. The buff burgers were really good. We ate outside on a picnic table that needed to be pressure washed. We left there and drove to the park, Yellowstone National Park. We entered the park through the arch at 5:46. It was still raining, so we did not stop and take a picture in the arch. We entered Wyoming at 5:54 and crossed the 45th Parallel. At 6:10 Grandpa saw a big elk with big antlers. We were going to drive down a one-way dirt road and then go to where we thought there might be some buffalos and wolves. We missed our turn to Blacktail Plateau road (the dirt road). We turned around and went back. It is still raining. We got to the road at 6:21. We drove on the road for a while and did not see any animals. With less than ˝ mile to go, Ron said he thought this would be our best chance to see a bear and we had not. Zach said, “We were not out of the woods yet.” We returned to the main road at 6:57. It is still raining and 58 degrees. We decided to drive on toward where the buffalo were supposed to be. At 7:02 Grandpa saw a deer. At 7:09 Grandpa spotted a buffalo off in the distance. We reached Lamar Valley were the buffalo are supposed to be at 7:14. It is 59 degrees and still raining. At 7:20 we saw 3 small herds of buffalo. Ron got 8 points for spotting them. We drove on and saw lots more. We saw some close to the road. We could hear one on each side grunting and pawing the ground at each other. This is rutting and matting season. 2 had a standoff in the middle of the road. Ron saw 2 butt heads. A really, really, big, big buffalo crossed about 2 feet in front of the Suburban. Ron thought his horns were going to hit the Suburban. It made him cuss and almost caused his to release the brown cloud. Ron said he thought it might have been a simultaneously release of the brown cloud. Grandpa said visibility would have gone down. We turned around at 7:52 and drove back toward the camper. We watched the buffalos for a long time. It was fun, except when we thought one was going to hit the Suburban. Ron got 8 points for the buffalo herd. Grandpa gets 3 points for 2 deer he saw at 8:18. We entered Montana at 8:45. It was 59 degrees and still raining. We left the park at 8:50. It is still raining and 60 degrees. We reached the campground at 8:54.