Day 13

Got up at 8am. I've got to get re-adjusted to central time because, if this was still mountain time it would have been 7am. Well, Mari and kids are still asleep. I get cleaned up and they are still asleep. I gather my suitcase and computer and take my stuff down to the car. Then head to continental breakfast. What a spread. Start off with coffee of course, and whats to go with it is coffee cake. Also had a Jimmy Dean breakfast egg, bacon and biscuit sandwich and some mandarin oranges. Shortly Mari joins me. I wait for her to finish before going to see if my parents and brother awake. Jeez, I had to wake them up too. After getting everyone going we take off for home shortly after 11am. My plan is to drive straight through with out stopping for lunch.

Well dad is driving his vehicle and he does not go the speed limit, he like to go 5-10 mph below the speed limit. Michelle is driving hers. Since I'm ready to get home I take off at the speed limit and soon they are left behind. Well it was about 1:30 pm when we got to Lincoln, NE before Mari and kids are ready to stop for bathroom break. Well, I told them I was not stopping until we are in Iowa. We did see either some high wind or tornado damage near Lincoln in the fields and buildings. Also, encountered dang road construction from about Lincoln to Omaha. In Omaha there was a Men's College World Series, so traffic is already heavy. This can be frustrating especially since one is ready to be home. We got to Council shortly after 2:00pm and stopped at the second exit and used the restrooms at the McDonalds before continuing our drive. Did we eat? Nope, since kids got up and had a mid-morning breakfast and they had plenty of snacks I pushed on.

The road construction was just as bad in Iowa on I-80 as it was in Omaha. We did not see much flood damage from the interstate. But did notice a few locations that had some flooding near rivers or low lying areas. I'm sure if we had gotten off the interstate and taken some back roads it would have been more obvious. We ended up getting to our house about 4:oopm. The three cats were happy to see us. We got the lugage unloaded and into the house. David got his suitcase in and was on the phone immediately. Kind of ironic since he was poking fun at Marissa through out the trip that she was on her mobile phone constantly. Turned out David used all his minutes texting friends and what not. He had also started his car before even getting his stuff in to the house.

After the car was unloaded and things put away Mari & I ran to get Lizzie (5yr) and Patches (1yr) beagles. While we were on vacation Jana and her kids dog-sat at their house. They had some minor issues with them but they did good. Both dogs were excited seeing us. We are very grateful that they watched them. I think the kids were sad to see them go especially Lizzie. She is a lap dog and is very calm. Patches is still young and want to play all the time.

Well everything is back to normal. David is off running. Mari is studying. Marissa is watching television, hope she starts looking for a part-time job now. Dogs and cats won't leave us alone. And, I'm going to bed. It's been a very long day as well as long 2 weeks.

Oh, happy fathers day! Mari had to remind the kids.

Thad

Day 12

I would recommend staying at the Nagle-Warren Mansion Bed & Breakfast in Cheyenne, WY. Last night I shut the drapes, turned down the air conditioner, and switched on the gas fire place. I slept great until about 4:30am, my brother-in-law called my mobile phone. Well turned out he wanted to talk. Apparently Ryan and Breack stayed out and came back to the bed & breakfast and stayed up late. Ryan apparently went to bed about 4am. Anyway after talking for about an hour I was able go back to my room and finish sleeping. I got up at 8am. Mari and I went down to breakfast. The owner and inn keeper, Jim Osterfoss was serving breakfast. Both my parents were already sitting at the table as well as a few other guests of the B&B. The first thing served was cup of slice strawberries with whipped cream. Jim the main course, quiche, bacon, toast, sliced tomatoes. For the drinks; coffee, milk or juice was served. Once breakfast dishes were cleared away by Jim I took off take a few more pictures of the B&B and headed back to our room to finish packing. The room was not cheap but I would say it was well worth the money, but next time no kids. So, check out was at 11am, we got checked out about 10:30am. I filled up the explorer and everyone went over to the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens. We enjoyed the gardens. Most of it was outside. The best part of the gardens is it was sunny and warm. No cold. No snow.

After the gardens we got on the road to head to Kearney, NE. On the way we stopped at Cabalas at North Platte, NE. Seemed like we were there forever. Once we got everyone corralled and out of cabalas we grabbed a bit to eat at fast joint and continued our drive. I ended up following my parents. I noticed something hanging from underneath their expedition. I got them to pull off on an exit. I crawled under the vehicle and found that the tail pipe had fallen off the muffler. Dad ended up pulling out some wrenches from his vehicle. I unbolted the pipe and he stashed it in the vehicle. Once again we were heading east towards home. We hit the central time zone about 6pm and all of a sudden it was 7pm. We drove about another 1-½ hours and made it to Kearney, NE. Michelle made it to Kearney about an ½ hour earlier and scouted out hotels. We ended up staying the Country Inn & Suites. The price is just under $100 for the nights. Glad Michelle scouted out the hotels and reserved the rooms. She reserved the last three rooms before they filled up. Mari and the kids got to go swimming and now we are hitting the sack. Tomorrow is our last day on the road, about another 335 miles and will be home. Mari can’t wait to see the dogs, Lizzie and Patches. Marissa can’t wait to call her boy friends (she has been on her mobile phone non-stop) and see her friends. David can’t wait either, he has less than a month of “freedom” before he leaves for boot camp. He can’t also wait to drive his car. I can’t wait either…

I’ll finish up day 13 tomorrow. I’m going to bed.

Day 11

Hello from Cheyenne, WY. Today we got to sleep in a little since check out was noon at the Parkway Plaza Hotel. I got to sleep in till 8am today. Again, got up, cleaned and packed. This time mom was up early too. So her and I took the Excursion and headed out to find some rolls or donuts. After driving around she finally got her self lost, but we did find a Pastry/Bakery shop. They had already run out of donuts so we opted for some fresh bagels (blue berry, cinnamon/raisin, snikerdoodle, trail mix, cranberry and etc.) and flavored cream cheese (strawberry and praline). To get back to the hotel she let me drove. Not a problem to get back to the hotel. Turned out the bakery was about a half-mile to the hotel. Got back to the hotel and everyone was up.

We got checked out and had some time to spare before we had to be in Cheyenne this afternoon so we went miniature golfing. We ended up splitting up into two groups of five. My group consisted of Ryan, dad, David, Mari and me. Well since this was kid friendly environment no alcohol was available. I don’t think it would have helped my game but sure would have made the game more interesting. Anyway in my group I did not win. Go figure miniature golfing is not my game either. After golfing we headed to Pizza Hut for lunch. Then we hit the road for Cheyenne. Cheyenne is only two half hours from Casper. I rode with my parents. My brother drove. David drove the Explorer. This was an interesting ride. We stopped at Chugwater for fuel and break. I went back to the Explorer and drove.

We got to Cheyenne shortly after Chugwater. We ended up getting split up from the others. Well after driving around for a little while I ended up grabbing the laptop and plugging in the GPS. It turned out we were only about 6 blocks from our destination. As we arrived Michelle and my parents arrived. Our destination is the Nagle Warren Mansion. We went in, and they were expecting us. Anne, the manager showed us the mansion and to our rooms. WOW! This is an amazing mansion. If you are ever in Cheyenne, WY you will have to check it out. I did find out that this is a bed and breakfast. I did explorer some of the building. Turns out it is two building, the mansion and the carriage house. Our rooms are in the carriage house. It is totally remodeled. I did take a few pictures.

After getting settled in Mari, kids and I went up town a block on foot and at OneWest. This place serve all kinds of flavored hot wings and chicken strips as well as other foods. After a late supper we headed back to the bed and breakfast. I went and got into the hot tub, Mari sat up in the room. I don’t remember the last time I sat in a hot tub but that was great. To bad Mari did not want to join me. So, sat in the tub about 15-20 minutes and headed back to the room.

So, here I am typing my blog. I'll finish this and head to bed. Turned down the AC to 65 and turned on the fireplace. This place is awesome. Tomorrow I guess they will serve a real sitdown home cooked breakfast. I have never stayed at a bed & breakfast and would recommend it to anyone.

Day 10

Well, its day 10 I’m first one up again at 7am. I got cleaned up and packed. Well once again everyone is starting to move. I don’t think we are going to make the 9am deadline to leave. Our plan was to go through Yellowstone Park and south through the Grand Tetons and head east to Riverton, WY then on to Casper, WY by today. This is supposed to be about 8 hour drive. I called the Yellowstone Park road conditions. Dang, the pass from Old Faithful to the West Thumb junction is closed right now. It sounds like we are going check with the west entrance and see if they have opened that road pass. If not we will have to go south into Idaho and cut over the grand Tetons. This will add 2 more hours of travel. Well, got to go.

Before leaving I got a few pictures of the cabin and a group photo. We decided to try drive through Yellowstone Park. We made a quick stop at the Midway Geyser Basin then continued on. The drive was to Casper, WY was uneventful except for the snow. We drove from the West Yellowstone through the park going past Old Faithful route into the Grand Tetons. You would not believe the amount of snow. It snowed from West Thumb junction to 10 miles west of Dubois, WY. We did see a couple of snow plows out in a couple areas. One snow plow in the Grand Tetons and the other in between Tetons and Dubois. After a 3 hour drive from West Yellowstone to Dubois we stopped for a stretch. The last time we were in Dubois was 3 years ago; we stayed at the Crooked Creek Cabins. We caught up with my sister and parents. We decided that we endure the drive the rest of the way to Casper. I made reservations at the Parkway Plaza Hotel.

We made one other stop between Dubois and Casper at Riverton for a quick stretch. Boy, it was a long day. We made it to the hotel without any problems, thank goodness for GPS. Even though parents and my sister were ahead of us we still made it to the hotel before them. After a few phone calls they arrived. Well tomorrow we are going to stay Nagel Warren Hotel, a bed & breakfast, in Cheyenne, WY. We don’t have to check out till noon tomorrow so it sounds like some of us will be sleeping in. Cheyenne is only a couple of hours from Casper.

I have been watching the news and keep getting updates about the weather and flooding back in Iowa. I hope that everyone is safe and okay. I attached a few pictures to show you what the cabin looked like in West Yellowstone.

Day 9

Well its day 9 of the White’s Family Vacation. Wake up this morning and look out side. It is snowing still! I get up and head down stairs. Now one is a wake. I started a pot of coffee. Then start cooking up a mess of French toast. Slowly everyone starts waking up and coming in for breakfast. Once breakfast is done I cleaned up. Mom & Michelle decided head out to a laundry mat to do laundry. The kids start playing board games. I get on the computer and check out weather for the area. Apparently we are to get 4 – 6 inches of snow. We discuss about still going up to Virginia City to check out the sites up there. After discussing we decide to stay here in town. We are supposed to leave tomorrow to start heading home. I called Yellowstone Park road information. They have closed the east entrance from Cody, WY and the northeast entrance from Cooke City as well. We will have to check the road conditions tomorrow morning. Our plans are to head south and go through the Grand Tetons and cut across to Casper, WY. Besides cooking breakfast this morning, I have gathered the trash and dirty towels. I have been trying to keep busy. I think I’m going to head up town and find something to do either at the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center or go to the IMAX Theater. I have checked out the weather conditions for Iowa and see Iowa is still getting hammered and there is flooding. Mari just informed me that her cousin and family that were going to stay in West Yellowstone tonight through Sunday are stuck in Cody, WY. Will update this later, I have to get out of the cabin for a while. I'll go fill up the Explorer first, I guess the price of gas went up to $4.19/gallon here.

Well, Mari, David and I got out of the cabin; Marissa did not want to go. First we went and filled up the Explorer with gas. Wow, what a shocker. I put 17 gallons in, for a total of $71.40. Boy, I’m glad we don’t own my sisters suburban or my dad’s expedition. After filling up we went up town and checked out a few of the shops. My first purchase was a stocking hat since I did not bring a coat, gloves or stocking hat. My second purchase was another sweatshirt to wear. I think I would rather have the rain and warmth of Iowa right now. Mari ended up picking up a few souvenirs for David, Marissa and herself. We walked over to the West Yellowstone Museum to check it out. Well, we ended up going back to the cabin since it was to cold, wet and windy to stay out and do anything.

At the cabin I watched a little television and played on the computer. Michelle made reservations to go to a play here in town. The play was called “See How They Run” at the Playmill Theatre. It is a British comedy about 1942 idyllic English village of Merton-cum-Middlewick the residents are bracing themselves for imminent German invasion. Meanwhile, at the vicarage, Reverend Lionel Toop goes to the parish concert leaving his wayward wife to hold the fort with the incompetent maid, little imagining the chaos, unexpected arrivals, mistaken identities and wild rumors which will ensue...

Mom made supper at the cabin. Afterwards we cleaned up the dishes then headed up town to the Playmill. After watching the play we discussed it. At first David said he did not think it was going to be any good, but he enjoyed it. Marissa thought it was okay. Mari and I thought it was excellent. You should have seen David and Marissa, they were both sitting their in their seats like we dragged them both to their deaths. They were both laughing and at times sitting on the edge of their seats to get a good view and to anticipate the next scene. Anyway, I would recommend checking out the Playmill if you are out in West Yellowstone.

Well tomorrow is going to be early. We already started packing to head home. We need to be out of the cabin before 11am but I think our goal is to head out about 9am. We are going to try and make it to Casper, WY. Sounds like the roads and weather will cooperate, so I need to go ahead and make reservations tonight. Later all.

Day 8

I’m the first one awake. As I get out of bed to clean up Mari gets up to. It is sleeting and raining this morning. Marissa and David are still asleep. I head off to the shower to clean up. Mari heads downstairs to start cooking breakfast. She has wanted to make biscuits and gravy since we have gotten here. I come downstairs and see dad asleep on the couch. I make way to the kitchen to find Mari slaving away over the stove working on the breakfast. Ah, a fresh cup of coffee. A little weak, so I dump some and add more coffee into the coffee maker and add some more water. Michelle is awake now. Talking about whether they are going fly fishing or not. She explains about the prices from the 2-day license all the way to rules of keeping specific trout. Who would have guessed that trout fishing is so involved? I’m not sure what I want to do today; there is a Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center here in West Yellowstone. I would like to go to Artist Point, there you can find the upper and lower falls. This is described as the grand canyon of Yellowstone. Looking at the weather, it appears it will be in the high 30’s today with scattered thunderstorms.

Well I moved from the kitchen to the television room. Everyone is eating now. Mari keeps nagging me to come and eat. We will see what we do for the day since it is now 9am here.

Michelle, Breack, Phoenix and Ryan went to the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center. Mom and dad took off exploring the town. Mari and Marissa stayed at the cabin. I took off to the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center and paid for my ticket when David called. He was finally awake from sleeping. The ticket is a 2-day pass that allows the patronage to come and go over a two day period. So, I drove back to the cabin and picked him up and went back to the center. It has several displays about grizzly bears and black bears and wolfs. I enjoyed going out to the grounds and watched three grizzly bears come out of their quarters. Apparently, kids were out in the grounds hiding food for the bears to find. I took several pictures while I watched the bears. While watching the bears Mari called and wanted know if I was still planning on going into Yellowstone Park today. She decided to walk up to the discovery center so we could go to the park.

David and I met up with her in the gift shop and headed out. We decided to drive from the West Entrance to Madison Junction, north to Norris Junction, to Canyon Village, south along the Yellowstone Lake, to West Thumb Junction around past Old Faithful and back out to the West Entrance. The drive started nice. It was a little cloudy with the temperature running 40 – 50’s degrees. By the time we started working our way back to the entrance we encountered snow. The temperature was in the low 30’s by this time.

During our trip around Yellowstone I was able to get a few pictures. On the way back we got into a buffalo jam from the Madison Junction to the West Entrance. This portion of the trip is about 14 miles long. It should take about 20 – 30 minutes, it took us 2 hours. The reason was that there were two groups of buffalo walking down the middle of the road. The first group had four bulls and the second only had two bulls. People just had to stop and take pictures. This made the trip frustrating long, since we were ready to be back at the cabin. Once we got through the two jams we were back at the cabin within in 10 minutes.

Day 7

Good morning. I’ve been awake since 6:30am but did not get out of bed until 7am. The sun is shinning. My dad is up drinking his coffee. He usually is not up this early (usually 10 or 11am) but said that he could sleep because of the snoring in the room he is in. I made some coffee and cooked up an egg, cheese and toast. I gathered my laundry to wash. Then I cleaned up. I started my laundry. Other people started getting up. Gathered all the garbage and empty it. Now people are asking about what we are doing today. It is going to be a nice day, the weather forecast for the next 4 days is suppose to be rain/snow mix. So, if we are going to do ATV’s, horse riding or whatever then we need to decide soon. I called around to find out were we can go. The closest place for ATV’s is Island Park in Idaho (about a 20 min drive). I also, checked out about renting bicycles for here in town.

Michelle and Ryan are working on supper already. Michelle is cooking bacon and Ryan is cutting potatoes. I guess they are going to cook up cheesy potato soup and let it simmer all day. Well, need to go check laundry. So I will continue this later.

I’m back. Well Mari & I took off on foot and explored the shops of West Yellowstone. We did find a couple places that had a few bargains. I had to talk Mari into waiting on making any purchases. We need to see what other shops have and prices. As we were walking around the streets we ran into mom and dad up town. The rest of the group drove by. They were heading out to Island Park, Idaho to rent some ATV’s. We continued our exploration of the town. We ran into the grocery store and grabbed a few things. One of the items we got was some push pins. We decided to get these to use to hang a blanket between the bathroom area and bed room area. We walked to the Museum and found out that Yellowstone park rangers would have a talk at 2pm today about the beginnings of the park. We headed back to the cabin; it looked look like it was starting to sprinkle.

We got back to the cabin, had a lunch. After lunch we hung the blanket, finally at least a little privacy. Mari stayed at the cabin and I went to the ranger talk back at the museum. I found the talk very interesting. He talked about how the army first patrolled the area and established the posts. And how the poaching had been bad, and how the first poaching laws were created. Apparently at one time there were only 30 left. The ranger did a great job talking. After the lecture I headed out and explored the rest of the town by vehicle. Not much to see; lots of cabins, hotels and motels. Dad called and said they picked up Michelle and Phoenix from ATV’ing and they were going to head to Yellowstone Park for site seeing and wanted to know if I wanted to go. I headed back to the cabin. Got back to the cabin and we gathered our things and to head out. Found out the rest of the crew ended up renting 3 ATV’s. The price was about $100 for each for 4-5 hours. Mom, Michelle, Phoenix, Mari and I loaded up in the Expedition and headed to the park.

From West Yellowstone we went south towards Old Faithful on Grand Loop Ave. We took a side road, Firehole Canyon Road and drove past the rapids and stream. We had seen several anglers fishing for trout. We watched them as they waded out into the stream and their lines whipping back and forth to catch the trout. We did not see anyone catch anything. We did stop and let Phoenix dip his feet into the stream. He said, "Ah, this is so refreshing."

We made it to Old Faithful site and parked next to the Old Faithful Inn. We just made it in time; all we had to do is wait about 5 – 7 minutes for the eruption. I got a series of pictures. It is always neat to watch.

We then went into the old inn and checked it out. This is an amazing building. I true enjoyed it because of its architecture and being built of logs. I did snap a few pictures of the inside. Mari visited the gift shop of course and found a few things. She was pretty proud of herself for getting about 5 items for total $20. After visiting the inn, it was about 5:30pm and decided to head back to the cabin for supper with the rest of the family.

By the time we got back everyone else had eaten. The cheesy potato soup was outstanding. Ryan out did himself as always. Cleaned up the kitchen and loaded the dishwasher. Mari and I with our kids headed off to drive around town for a little while. We got back to cabin. I worked on this blog. Not sure what we are doing tomorrow. Michelle mentioned going fly fishing, but I think it will be raining, cold and miserable. Not sure if I really want to stand out next to or in a stream freezing my butt off. Well, I let you all know tomorrow.