Colors

Camping in Yellowstone. . Check. One thing after another comes off our bucket list. Thankfully, the list is long.

The last thing I heard last night was the pines soughing with the wind. We woke up to fresh cold air of 38 degrees. It was time to break out the sweatshirts although we switched to shorts as the day progressed.

We left camp quite early in the morning forgoing breakfast (which we ate later out of the trunk of the car) because we knew it would be feeding time for much of the wildlife. Almost immediately we had another huge bison in the road. We saw a variety of wildlife, but no bears (which I really had hoped to spot) as we traveled along, and gave the binoculars a good workout.

The majority of our day was spent walking miles of trails through the geysers. The colors of Yosemite are so beautiful! A visit to Yellowstone wouldn't be complete without watching Old Faithful blow. As we watched I thought of my Grandfather, my Dad and Jim and I with all our young children, all watching the same geyser at different times over the years. While it feels like these volcanic mountains will endure forever, it amazes me to know that all this pressure lies below the surface of these mountains, and they could all blow up. I am so grateful that our nation has not only protected this beautiful land but also made it accessible to everyone.

We think we heard languages from every continent today and have seen license plates from about every state in the Union. I found the people as fascinating as the landscape.

We finally broke down and did some laundry this evening. It is probably a good thing to have a few responsibilities again!

Tomorrow we are headed toward Idaho. It should be a lovely ride through the mountains. This is our last night of camping for a while. I will miss the fresh air and the sounds of the outdoors, but it will be good to enjoy the simplicity and convenience of a hotel again.

On top of the world

North Dakota. Check. One more State off our bucket list of being in all the contiguous US States before we leave this earth.

We had an interesting ride through eastern Montana. Almost immediately the landscape changed once again. I think children should not be told that the earth is a like a nice round ball. It is actually a very bumpy sphere!

There is a reason Montana is known as Big Sky country. The vistas are so vast that it seems like the sky is a huge blue dome. I kept thinking it seemed like we were riding on top of the world. It was a very relaxing ride.

We arrived in Yellowstone mid afternoon. We came in the North Entrance which worked out nicely because we were able to drive through a large portion of the park to get to the West entrance where we are camping for the next two nights. It was hard not to take a picture at every bend because we saw one beautiful scene after another. We hiked along some of the hot springs and geysers. I was amazed at the amount of heat I felt on my body just standing near them.

Jim spotted more wild bison but I was thrilled to find the first elk. Jim usually spots wildlife and birds way before I do, so I was very excited.

The beauty of this national park is awesome. The lyrics of a song ran through my head "Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the world Your hands have made..." .
Tonight we are camping in a place which is surrounded with mountains. It has become sharply cooler and I expect we will be grateful for our down comforter. It will be warm and sunny tomorrow. We are so thankful for the really great weather we have been enjoying on this trip.

The Internet connection we have available here is very poor so I am not sure this will post or not today so I will notate that it is Wednesday, August 29.

New Landscapes

It was so nice to wake up in the cool of the day this morning. We broke camp rather quickly and were on our way before 9 AM.

The trip through northwest South Dakota was mind boggling. We rode on a perfectly straight road for at least an hour through the most barren land and without sight of any town. When we finally found a rather dilapidated building which sold gas (and I imagine a few groceries and sundries) I was grateful to have an outhouse available. It was another 40 miles before we saw any other commercial enterprises and then it was just a conglomeration of odd buildings. We can't imagine how anyone lives there with any degree of comfort.

Not long after we drove into North Dakota the landscape changed abruptly. At the recommendation of our Iowa cousins we are staying in the little western tourist town of Medora. It lays at the gate of the Theodore Roosevelt National Badlands Park. Our trip through the park was the best part of this day. The land is rugged and uncompromising but beautiful in its own way. We saw many wild bison, and were a bit startled and uneasy when we had a 2000 plus pound bison standing in the road directly in our path. He had no intention of moving, and with another bison laying at the edge of the other side of the road we had little room for passage. Jim eventually did go around him, and if I had stuck my hand out of the window I could have petted him. But since we were warned at the gate not to mess with the bison, we thought better of it and drove on. We also saw Elk and at least a thousand prairie dogs.

We went to a large outdoor buffet in the evening and had steak that was grilled on pitchforks. Shortly after the meal we were treated with a cowboy musical that was presented in a large 3000 seat outdoor amphitheater. It was a good show, but we were both ready to get some rest. We are staying in a motel tonight because our day was already so full and because it's a hundred degrees outside. Here's hoping that Montana will be a little cooler tomorrow!

I don't have many options for arranging this blog using an app so I am unable to label pictures. I will have to sort it all out when we get home. At least this will help us remember the blessing of this trip.

Tenting Tonite

We left Randy and Linda in the morning, and started on Phase Two of our Victory Lap. All morning I had the old Civil War song "Tenting Tonight" running through my head. I still can't quite believe that we are doing this. Somehow I just can't picture my
Mom tenting at this age. The concept makes me laugh.

Our first stop was in De Smet where we found this sweet little church from the Laura Ingalls Wilder era. We stayed off the Interstate highway as much as we could and drove through miles of wheat and sunflower fields. I thought I would find the drive boring, but instead it was very peaceful and relaxing.

After several stops along the way we arrived at Mt Rushmore around supper time and set up camp in a little over 15 minutes so we could take in the lighting ceremony at the monument. It was a really good program and at the end of it all the attending veterans were acknowledged and introduced on stage. Standing at the base of the monument and having just watched a presentation of how America's freedoms came to be made it a very moving experience for Jim and all the veterans standing alongside him.

We had a late dinner in a saloon in Keystone. I feel a bit like the Unsinkable Molly Brown tonight.

Sunday blessings

"I was glad when they said to me, Let us go up to the house of the Lord". Psalm 122:1

We started our day with Randy and Linda's church. It felt so good to be back in congregational worship. It is a very small church with only 17 people in the pews, but the singing was like a choir of angels. I couldn't help but think that whether it was a large congregation or small, there were people all over the world praising God this morning. It is a good feeling knowing that in our troubled world there are people everywhere lifting their hearts in prayer to our God.

This afternoon Linda and I walked all through Volga and I took pictures of our first apartment here and the old house we lived in during most of our South Dakota years. We also saw the church we attended here and once again remembered all the blessings that church brought into our lives.

Randy and Linda's daughters and son-in-law and grandson were here for a wonderful dinner at noon. What a lovely family they have!

Tomorrow we embark on a new phase of this Victory Lap. We are headed west and will see where we land after our no-more-than-six hour drive.

Past and Present

Jim and Randy were up at the crack of dawn today and drove out to a lake they had fished together years ago. They fished the entire morning and came home grinning like little boys with their big catch of Bass and Walleye. I think they would both have loved to spend the entire day out there.

Linda and I spent the morning connecting on that special level of soul sister-ness that is our treasure. We all had a late lunch/dinner at a great Italian restaurant and then drove onto the campus of SDSU where Jim once again stood under the shadow of the campanile. The campus was filled with students and parents and it brought back so many memories of the day Jim first matriculated into that University. I felt the energy of the students as they start their school experience and remember well the excitement we felt as we embarked on that journey. We remember those years as such happy years.

Memories of Blessings

We left Rock Valley around 10:00 AM and once again I wondered if and when I would ever return. What we are taking away are wonderful memories.

We met up in Sioux Falls with Randy and Linda. It is so good to be with this youngest of my Soul Sisters! After lunch we went to the Falls Park of Sioux Falls. It seems odd that I don't remember this beautiful park because I know I was in Sioux Falls many times when I was a child. The river is so low this year because of the drought, but there is still enough water for some of the Falls to be flowing.

It is good to be back in Volga. This is the town with the church which blessed us beyond comprehension during the three and a half years we lived here while Jim earned his Bachelor's degree. A part of our hearts will always be attached to this place.