Yellowstone arrival

April 24, 2017

We have arrived in Yellowstone

Wow what a whirlwind as Paula and I left Florida on April 14 headed to Yellowstone. We were very fortunate and missed all the severe weather that had plagued the south the week before.  Seven days and 2700 miles later we arrived in the Yellowstone park on Thursday April 20.  

To summarize our journey here is a day by day break down:

Day 1 April 14 was Cedar Key Florida to Jemison Alabama which carried us through rural Alabama and the city of Montgomery. Because it was Easter weekend we ended up staying at the Peach Queen Campground. Because this was Easter weekend our choices were limited but we were able to find this location before it filled up. It was an old KOA campground and suited our needs for a place to sleep. We also had dinner at Cracker Barrel on one of our gift cards

Day 2 April 15 was Jemison Alabama to Benton Illinois. This was mostly all interstate as we traveled to Nashville and then across Kentucky and southern Illinois where we stayed at a KOA campground. We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant and got a good nights sleep. We also tried to locate an Easter sunrise service but it seems they don’t have those in Benton.

Day 3 April 16 took us from Benton Illinois to Beatrice Nebraska which was our longest day which was roughly 536 miles and 9 hours. This took us west on interstate 64 to St Louis and I-70 to Kansas City. After KC we took a rural road that was what used to be the original Pony Express route and then joined up with what was the Oregon Trail. Paula and I were talking and she said, I wonder how those people packed up everything they owned in a wagon and took off to forge a new home in the west. I laughed and said what do you think we are doing, now we aren’t in a horse drawn wagon and we do have a few modern conveniences but we are headed west with our house in tow.  We spent the night with my Aunt and Uncle Bob and Maxine Burroughs. This is the first night we spent in a house in over a month. It’s was very nice to see Bob and Max who is my dad’s younger sister.  We had burgers for dinner and then we sat around chatting and catching up. The next morning, we had breakfast with them at a local café before we hit the road. We really enjoyed visiting with these two-special people.

passing by the St Louis Arch

                                                                Pony Express Trail

Day 4 April 17 was the shortest day as we did not leave Beatrice until around 10:30 and traveled to Mitchell SD home of the Corn Palace. This day took us through Lincoln Nebraska, Sioux City Iowa, Sioux Falls SD and into Mitchell. This was the first day where we started to notice that the urban sprawl was fading behind us.  The view was large farms and small towns scattered along the way. We stayed at a very nice campground in Mitchell and when we arrived we were the only ones there but 3 more rigs came in before morning. We drove into Mitchell for dinner and drove by the Corn Palace to see how it was decorated. For those who haven’t seen the Corn Palace it is the local civic center which is hand decorated in corn with a different theme each year. This year is Rock of Ages and they had the images of Elvis and Willie Nelson on the building which were done in very good detail. After the Corn Palace, we had dinner at the Cattleman’s Club where we both had the probably one of the best steak dinners we have ever had.

                                                                    

                                                                        Corn Palace

Day 5 April 18 was Mitchell SD to Sheridan Wyoming. This was all west on I-90 which carried us through the Bad Lands, Sturgis SD, and by Devils Tower. The landscape really changed on this day as we entered the high desert plains and gained about 3000 feet in altitude. This was the first day that we were effected by weather as we picked up an 18-mph head wind blowing in our face. Needless to say, this cut our fuel mileage and almost felt as if you left up on the accelerator you may be going backwards from the strength of the wind. This was another 500 miles plus day and carried us into the mountain time zone that we will remain in for the remainder of our stay this summer. We grabbed a quick dinner at a local Pizza Hut buffet and headed off to bed.

                                                                 Bear Tooth Mountains

Day 6 April 19 Sheridan Wyoming to Gardiner Montana.  At around six am the wind picked up as a storm rolled through the area. Now if you have never been out west even a small rumble of thunder will carry for miles. As I lay there listening to the storm I could see two brown eyes next to me glowing in the dark, after listening to the wind blow for a while we discussed our options as we had planned to stay 2 nights in Sheridan to break up the drive. We decided to pack up after checking the forecast as the weather was supposed to improve the further west we traveled. The rain slowed down long enough for us to get hooked up but the wind began to increase and was blowing at around 29-mph when we left Sheridan.  After only about 5 miles west bound in a steady rain we came upon a highway message board with the following message;

 HIGH WIND WARNING GUST IN EXCESS OF 40 MPH USE CAUTION

Now if you don’t think that will get your attention as you are blowing around on the interstate with all of your worldly possessions in tow then you might want to think again. The landscape was rolling hills and ravines some of which blocked the wind some of which allowed the strong 40-mph gust through. Again, it was a head wind and limited our fuel mileage but with the grace of God and a few clinched hands on the steering wheel we were able to make it out of the high winds in Billings Mt. Now our plans had been to meet another couple in Gardiner Mt on April 20 and going to Yellowstone on the 21 after filling out paper work at the human resources office in Gardiner. But while we were traveling we received an email from the staff at Yellowstone advising of a pending snow storm for the 20^th and they advised everyone to try to be in the park and head toward the campground by noon. So, with this news we changed our plans and ended up in Gardiner Mt for the night at the Yellowstone RV park located right on the Yellowstone river.  We restocked our food supply, washed our clothes grabbed a quick meal of Salmon Burgers at “The Corral” restaurant in Gardiner and then headed off to a good nights sleep.

Day 7 April 20 we woke up to a temp right around freezing and we realized that we weren’t in Florida anymore and that the calendar my say spring around the country but winter still had a grip on the Greater Yellowstone Region. We topped of our water tank and our propane and left Gardiner behind as we entered Yellowstone. We were most defiantly entering into a different world. The natural beauty around us was amazing. We have been here on two other occasions as visitors in the summer but this was different. The mountains were snow covered the elk were in the valleys grazing, the bison were in the roadways to avoid the snow drifts in the meadow. The snow had a wide array of animal tracks which were visible from the roadway as we passed.  It was truly a heavenly portrait and confirms to us that only God’s hand could create such beauty.

                                           Big Horn Sheep grazing on road to Gardiner

                                                                                  

                                           Roosevelt Arch North Entrance to Yellowstone

                                                                                 

We were able to arrive at our campground before the snow storm rolled in. As we arrived at the Fishing Bridge RV park we found that the snow plows had opened the roads and the sites of the campground and that’s all they had done. We located our assigned site which is #71. On either side of the cleared site was a snow bank about 24 inches high. The sites are back ins so to make the turn we had to dig our way in which included cutting down parts of the snow backs on either side of the site and shovel the snow out. Then once on the site additional snow was removed to allow the slides to open properly. After about 2 hours we were all cozy and set up on our site ready to start work the next morning. To be continued……….  

Until next time from the RamblinRuis.

Allen and Paula