I am currently sitting in a nice house by a fireplace in Madison, WI and it is warm and great. Every night prior to this one has not been so. However, other than cold nights at campgrounds or rest areas, things have been going very well. The snow day at Yellowstone cleared up by the afternoon so it wasn't a completely lost day. Unfortunately, Missi wasn't feeling well so she just rested. I did not. I took a four mile hike, following the Gardner River upstream. At first it was beautiful, but things soon took a bit of a turn. The path got really muddy and began stick in layers on the bottom of by All Stars (not good hiking shoes in case you were thinking of trying it). Then, everything got really quiet and ominous. I realized that nobody was anywhere near me and started thinking of wild animals and what might happen if a bear or wolf met me on the path. I pushed the idea aside and kept going...until I saw animal bones just to the side of the path. Still, I shrugged it off and went on. Awhile later I saw a wooden post with an arrow pointing towards the river from the path. I saw another wooden post by the river so I left the path and walked towards it. I was watching my footing so it took me a little while before I noticed the animal that was previously blocked from sight by a tree. It wasn't a bear or wolf, but it was a fully grown bison and it was less than 40 feet from me. It stared me straight in the face. I think it smiled at me. Not the friendly kind of smile, but the kind that is almost evil. It was as though he was saying "Get the eff off my land before I gore you to death." I quickly backed wawy from him and back to my trail. Then I ran. He gave no chase so I escaped unharmed.
The next day was spent seeing Old Faithful and a few other things at Yellowstone that we missed previously. We then made it to Wyoming which is very beautiful. The next day we went to South Dakota. Mt. Rushmore was really cool and I felt like a learned some about US history as well. That whole area was great to drive through. Once we left that area, things took a bad turn meaning we entered the rest of South Dakota (also called Stinktown). It was incredibly boring. When it wasn't boring, it was creepy. There were signs for many miles for Wall Drug Store. The signs had fun little cartoons or catchy slogans on them. It was clearly a tourist trap...and it worked. The store was closing when we arrived so we didn't get the full experience, but I am fine with that. It had lots of manicins and dummies n the windows and I am convinced that they come alive at night. We left there and kept driving the lonely road. Suddenly, a dinosaur skeleton appeared by the road. At first was sort of cool, until I saw that it was on a leash, held by a human skeleton. The sunset was directly behind them which made it even creepier. We were happy to leave South Dakota.
Tomorrow will begin the city portion of the trip as we head to Chicago. More stories will follow.
