More traveling.....heading to Iowa!

We left Yellowstone on Friday, August 19th and headed north towards Bozeman, MT and then east to Miles City, MT. It was a long day for JB...more than his 300 miles that he seeks as a goal. We followed the Yellowstone River all the way....very scenic and not very mountainous. Stayed at a KOA in Miles City for $11. I used 15,000 of our KOA points and saved $25.00!..but there were nearby trains all night long!

This is suppose to be the world's largest metal sculpture. It's somewhere in eastern Montana or western North Dakota. I didn't make a note but, hey, I got the picture on the move.

We were VERY surprised to see thousands of acres of sunflowers in ND. Did you know all of their heads face east? These pictures were taken on the move too but they are all a blur. You'll just have to imagine how striking the yellow fields were.



Saturday we arrived at Riverdale, ND, north of Bismarck to see our new RV friends, Terry and Marlene Martin. They were our neighbors last year in Apache Junction.

They manage a CAMPGROUND (not a resort) during the summer. We had a great evening with them.

Before we went out on the town...we were entertained by their hungry, friendly gophers!
We left Riverdale on Sunday and drove to Alexandria, MN to see Michael and Gloria Brygger (Apache Junction RV snowbirds). We hit several very dense patches of fog. I-94 has a couple spots where the road is 2 lane because of flooding that is still obvious in that neck of the woods. They are actually rebuilding the road to prevent future problems.


We parked in the campground that we stayed at 2 years ago in Alexandria. We were able to pick any site we wanted. Can't do that most places. We had a lovely evening with Michael and Gloria. It was so good that I forgot to take their picture to document the occasion. Sorry guys!


Monday, August 22 we moved onto Becker, MN, south of St. Cloud to the River's Edge CG where Gary and Roberta Gehlen (also Apache Junction FULLTIME RV snowbirds) are staying for the summer.

Is it time for beer thirty yet? Their mosquitoes were ferocious!! Had a great dinner and met some of their friends, one of whom contacted a buddy about our windshield.

He pushed some resin stuff into the cracks and charged $10.00. (He earned a tip!) If this works, it'll be a pretty cheap windshield fix!

Tuesday we moved on to Stan and Barb Peterson's farm place near Hutchinson, MN. We met them in Apache Junction and twice have gone to Talladega with them. We had a great time there and I forgot to take their picture, too. Sorry.

We've been on the road 2 weeks. Got to my sisters and BIL in Waukon on Wednesday the round-about way. WE drove about 2500 miles and spent about $1200.00 in fuel. Have stayed under $4 a gallon. Iowa is the cheapest so far but, of course, we filled up in MN. Figures out to be about 50 cents a mile or an average of 8 mpg. We're paying about the same as we did in the summer of '08 for unleaded. That rig got 6.83 mpg so we're way ahead of the game with the diesel!

Next up will be family activities in Iowa.

PS.......lovely weather and no bugs!

Yellowstone National Park

First, some old business.

I forgot to add in a previous post that we were lucky enough to catch a rock on the windshield on our way to St. George. A construction truck was the guilty one. It sounded like a gunshot! It's pretty mushy but hasn't decided to spread yet. I'm really glad the rock didn't break the glass all the way through, as it would have hit me! You may remember we've already had one windshield replaced on this rig!

We stayed at Yellowstone Grizzly RV Park in West Yellowstone, MT. It's a lovely big rig park and just on the edge of the west entrance of Yellowstone National Park.

Yellowstone National Park is a phenomonal place. Did you know that most of the park sits on top of a volcano? It supposedly erupted 2 million years ago, then 1.3 millions years ago and again 640,000 years ago! How do they know this stuff? The magmatic heat that powered those eruptions still powers the parks geysers, hot springs, mudpots and hydrothermal vents. The huge park has very diverse terrain. You see evidence of many forest fires with different stages of re-growth. The last REALLY big fire was in 1988.

There are five locations in the world that have concentrations of hydrothermal features: here at Yellowstone, Russia, Chile, New Zealand and Iceland. The Upper Geyser Basin in Yellowstone, where Old Faithful is, is the largest concentration of geysers in the world!

These pictures are of scenery, wildlife, geysers, hydrothermal vents, waterfalls, and mudpots. I should add that JB was at the park when he was about 10 and again when he was 21. He did recognize a few things but his perspective of size has changed.


The first critters we saw were elk.


A biker lady with a skunk hat!















Here we are at Old Faithful, the world's best known geyser. It was named in 1870 for it's consistent performance. It's eruption is averaging every 93 minutes, give or take 10 minutes. Although the average interval has lengthened, they say it is as specular now as it was a century ago.

Prior to the eruption.





Sat next to some people from Kasson, MN, a few miles from where we lived in MN.

The back end of the first buffalo we saw.

Then a little further down the road a lone buffalo stopped traffic and crossed the road.



There was even hot steam coming out of a grate in a parking lot.

A mudpot- bubbling mud! Really cool! No it was really hot!

This was the dragon slayers something or other. The activity was through this cave and there were growling sounds with the puffs of steam.




There were several areas where the hydrothermal activity had ended.

The buffalo were concentrated on the east side of the park that had more meadows and open range.

Looking south from Fishing Bridge. JB remembers being here.

Looking north at Fishing Bridge.

Wonder what the geese are finding to eat on this crusty stuff!

Hydrothermal under water.

This is the Fishing Cone that is on the edge of Yellowstone Lake. It got is it's because mountain men told of a geyser along a lake where they could catch a trout, swing the pole around, dip it into the boiling pool and cook the fish without taking it off the line. This activity was first described in 1870. (Seems like everything happened in 1870!) They no longer allow fishing boats close to this area. It does go under water when the lake water rises. Yellowstone Lake is North America's largest mountain lake. It's 20 miles long, 14 miles wide and 430 feet at it's deepest part.

I have many more pictures but I think this is enough to bore you with. It was a great stop and a must see for everyone.

When JB was here before, he was tenting it. I much rather be in our 40 foot coach. Hope you enjoyed the tour through the park.

PS We saved $25 by using our senior pass!