Day 22

Day 22- Monday, July 13th, 2009

Indian Creek Campground, Yellowstone National Park, WY to Snider's Rustic Inn Motel, Thayne, WY

I stumbled out of the tent with maybe 4 solid hours of sleep under my belt to notice clear skies in the morning dawn. Recognizing that I was in Wyoming, where the state motto is "If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes" I knew it was only a matter of time before the rain came again. I washed the dishes from last night and made some coffee, most likely waking up Tara in the process, though she is too polite to admit it. When she went off to the restroom I looked to the west and sure enough, dark clouds were forming. As she returned I gave her the options for the morning: a) Pack up our still wet tent and gear from the storms last night before the next wave came or b) Pack up our even wetter tent and gear after the current storm passes, whenever that may be. She chose the former and we haphazardly threw everything in the car with minutes to spare. As we drove toward the U.S. Park Service Ranger Museum for our first stop of the day, the morning storm unleashed its full fury. The storm had passed by the time we completed learning about the U.S. Army Calvary unit that became the Park Service Rangers and we continued our tour around the Grand Loop of Yellowstone.

We stopped at another geothermal vent area and found a buffalo munching on the grass right by the walkway.

Tara nearly jumped out of her skin and off the wooden walkway when the buffalo decided to cross the walkway to the other grass, but otherwise the big galoot was docile and looking for a meal. When we reached the southern most point of the Loop, called West Thumb, we decided to forgo the quarter that we had yet to see and drove south along the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway that wound through the Grand Tetons National Park.

Both National Parks are beautiful and we did them a complete disservice by spending so little time in each, but we really wanted to dry off our wet supplies and take a shower. We made a stop at a Kmart in Jackson Hole, WY to pick up a bug hut, some After-Bite and a hatchet, and continued on to Snider's Rustic Inn in Thayne, WY.

The proprietors at Snider's were nice enough to allow us to hang our sopping belongings on their fence out back and we managed to repack the car so that we could see out the back once again. Tara went out to get a pizza while I relaxed out my crabby mood from lack of sleep and we retired to the very comfortable bed early.

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