Day Eleven: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

My heart is very full tonight as I do a quick entry...It is after midnight and I have to get to sleep soon as we are having an early morning blast-off for Glacier. We only have one over night planned there so we realized tonight that logistically we have to arrive in time tomorrow to try to do all our touring tomorrow and not Thursday. Sadly, we are only able to tap the surface of all of the incredible places we are visiting. Even more sadly, we have to bid adieu to the Judbergers and "Uncle Ray" tomorrow. We have had the greatest time with them and it doesn't seem fair that Uncle Ray is staying two more weeks and we have to leave! Ann tried to talk me into staying one more day but we 1) already have a pre-paid motel reservation up at Glacier tomorrow and 2) want to have enough time to visit with all of the Erbs in Spokane. (Plus I told Ann that one more day isn't really what I want; what I really want is to buy land adjacent to their's and build a log cabin and be like the Ricardos and the Mertzes. Ann immediately launched into her best Lucy impersonation, implying that Olga and I have to be the older, fatter, dumpier Ethel and Fred!! The nerve!) We have just had so much fun together and I am so thankful that we were able to reconnect like this. Ann warned me as we were saying goodnight tonight that we can't wait another thirty years to see each other again or we'll be in our eighties! Ugh!

So anyway, today: We got up on the early end for Ann and Ivan's amazing Apple Crumble French Toast, which by far was the best French toast ever. (Oh wait, are we supposed to still be calling it Freedom toast?!) Then we blasted off for Yellowstone. We caravaned down in their two vehicles--it was so sweet of them to do all the driving so I have had a glorious respite from driving the past two days so I feel rested and ready for tomorrow. We stopped for lunch in West Yellowstone - a quaint little gateway village to the park. The drive up showed even more spectacular Montana scenery than I have seen yet. If I had made us stop every time I wanted to take a picture, we still wouldn't have gotten there! While we were in West Yellowstone we found two more state license plates (Alaska and Mississippi) plus two more province license plates (Saskatchewan and British Columbia) I know, I know: I am developing an obsessive compulsive disorder over license plates! Thanks Mom!

We pulled into the park and within the first half hour we were treated to an amazing view of two bald eagles in their ginormous nest right by the road - one of them buzzed right over our heads! Next we encountered several young elks napping near the road, and then two sets of mother buffalo and their babies. The kids (and grown-ups) were mesmerized. Then we toured the smouldering, gurgling and steaming mudpots, places where the underground volcano is heating and boiling mud and water - there is a wooden walkway around the whole area and it was fascinating. Then we drove on over and got good seats for Old Faithful and ice cream to eat while we waited for the eruption. As it was spraying, I ran around the circle to get a better angle for a picture and I heard someone saying "Dr. Nichols?!"... I turned around and there were two Houghton students: Dan Brubaker and Jon (maybe Brooks? I'm not positive about his last name) They are both soccer players and they are driving across country back to Houghton. We were flabbergasted that we would end up at Old Faithful at the same day and the same time! AND that we found each other among the hundreds of people there. You truly seem to be able to find a Houghton person no matter where you go!

After Old Faithful we went to poke around the beautiful lodge and gift shop nearby and then headed out. There was a giant traffic jam on the way out of Yellowstone which turned out to be buffalo-related. There was a small herd ambling along the road snarling traffic in both directions! But we got some really cool pictures as we passed them! They were so close we could have reached out the car windows and touched them. We got back to West Yellowstone and stopped for dinner at a GREAT restaurant where I had the best veggie burger ever! It was done up as a reuben with swiss cheese, sauerkraut, thousand island, and grilled onions on marbled pumpernickel bread. It was delicious. I road home with Ivan and really enjoyed getting to know him better - what a great guy and we discovered that we are quite similiar ideologically. And now WAY before I am ready, Ann and I had to sit down and look at the atlas tonight to plan our next leg of the trip tomorrow. I can hardly stand to leave already. We've decided that we have to come back sometime and bring Olga.

Tomorrow we drive on up to Glacier National Park just for one night and then on over for our Erbfest - visiting my cousins and uncle and aunt in Spokane, I leave with a richly renewed friendship with Ann, two new friendships with Ivan and Ray (an old family friend of theirs who made this visit even more fun!) and with a new love affair with state of Montana - who knew this much grandeur could be packed into one state?

OK, now I really have to get to sleep....Thanks again for your continued interest...