Back to that other post...

Continued from here: http://xmas711.blogspot.com/2007/07/all-in-betweens.html

Well we got towed off the curb then on the road again headed 90 west to Buffalo, Wyoming. I was in the back doing something and kept getting distracted by all these flashing lights. I finally yelled up to Zach to ask what it was (I really can't see much unless I squat down to the level that they are at and look out the front window) and he answered that it was lightening. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. The land was still completely flat so the light was just bouncing off of all directions. I really can't put words to what it was like. There were streaks and flashes happening at the same time and in different parts of the sky. It was other-wordly. It appeared as if the entire planet was lit when the lightening went off. Yet it also seemed that the entire world existed in the expanse of plains we were traveling through. I was bent on getting a picture, so there I was with my head and most of my torso hanging out the window. I had my camera at the ready for when the lightening flashed and I was completely mesmerized. I don't know how long I was like that for, but I finally started to feel rain drops land on me (it had been raining for a while, according to Zach, but there's a slight overhang so I had no clue) and it occurred to me to get my camera to safety. Never did it occur to me that maybe I shouldn't be sticking half my body out the window in the middle of an electrical storm with a partly metal object gripped in my hands. I was that transfixed.

The storm got pretty bad and the wind was so strong that we couldn't continue driving. Zach got off an exit in the middle of nowhere. It had only a tiny little road that wasn't wide enough to turn around on and apparently not even inhabited because there weren't even driveways or parking lots to pull into. So what did we do? Just kept on driving - that's not all really, we were yelling at each other and arguing about the best possible option - I haven't really written about that much, but anytime you see me write about any sort of confusing situation, imagine our shouting matches pervading the RV.

Maybe six miles down the road we finally found a lot. We pulled in only to stay for 5 minutes because there was also something creepy going on there. Remember Pee-Wee's Big Adventure? Remember Marge and the Alamo and all that other freaky stuff? At many points in our trip I have felt like we are in that movie. Maybe I am just too sheltered.

Well, we got back on the road eventually and to our KOA destination at 2am. The boys had a pancake breakfast in the morning while I uploaded pictures and then we all went swimming.
We left at 1pm headed to Big Timber, Montana for another KOA and the Big Timber Water Park next door to that. I've been saying to a few people that at each campsite we stay at there is one completely random kids' attraction that you would not expect, yet it is the coolest thing. There was the petting zoo at one of our earlier campsites, and at this place they had the Air Pillow (or something, I can't remember it's proper name) which was posted about all over the campsite. It's one of 6 in the country and the biggest in the west. It was a giant tarp pillow on the ground blown up with air (I'm in a hurry, that's the best I can come up with). It was the greatest thing. We basically jumped on that thing til they kicked us off a half an hour after the posted closing time. Then we were back at that sucker as soon as it opened in the morning and once again before going to the water park. Ah, the water park. It was a shoddy kind of place, yet good enough for us. In the pool I almost got cut by a rusty nail sticking out of the side. And even though I walked away without needing a tetanus shot, both Zach and I did get cut at different times on the slides. The life guard was on her cell phone basically the whole time. She completely missed the fact that a kid climbed the life guard chair that she was supposed to be sitting in and then dove off the top (right next to the sign that read, "No Diving!"). There were people smoking all over the place (I realize this is a very sheltered statement, but at home it against the law to smoke in most public places really, especially where kids are). It was overall just not safe, but it was more funny than annoying. People were breaking rules left and right and I quickly realized no one cared, so neither did I. People were having fun, and so were we. Geeze, it feels good to not be so anal all the time!

Then we left for Yellowstone, which was supposed to be a one-day thing. We spent the first couple hours in town shopping. We got a little out of control. We wanted to buy things for people and these shops were really nice. We never spend money like that, but this is a vacation, right? We didn't get to Yellowstone until 7pm. We did a little hike and then headed back to the town we came from to find a place to stay. Well, that was the first time we had any trouble. A lot of trouble. We couldn’t find anywhere to stay and ended up at Canyon Campsite which was just a serve yourself kind of place and mostly tent campers (aka: real campers, not like us spoiled RV babies). The way we ended up hearing about the mountainside site was that I finally decided to go into a hotel myself and I took Jacob, barefoot and sleepy looking (for the sympathy factor) to ask if we could pay them to just park in their lot. The whole experience felt very ‘Mary & Joseph’ - No room at the inn, you know?

Canyon Campsite was nice though. The air was cool and crisp and the sky was clear and bright; I think it was the best night’s sleep we all got so far. Again we left much later than we planned and headed back into town to Yellowstone. We decided on the way that we would just take a ‘quick’ stop to a couple of the shops we hadn’t gone into the day prior. Yeah right. We spent a couple hours too long and more money than I’m prepared to admit to spending.

Finally we got back to Yellowstone and headed right to Old Faithful. I was sick the whole time from riding in the camper along the windy, bumpy roads. I didn't really look out the window at the spectacular views, lest I toss my cookies. I more or less spent the drive curled up in the fetal position in the bed, trying not to die from puking up my entire inards. Old Faithful was fantastic. I don't really know what to say about it. It was one of the things I was most looking forward to, and it came through for me, but I think also, it's going to be one of those things that settles in more when we've been home for a while.

More driving through bumpy roads - I thought I might die again, but I managed to stumble out of the car long enough to take some awesome sunset pictures of Yellowstone Lake. More driving, more construction sites, then FINALLY we stopped driving and that was the campsite with the horses. There. Caught up.

If you read my second post from yesterday before mid-morning today, go back and read it again. I totally got an entire paragraph wrong and then completely forgot to fill in some of the blanks I'd left. It bothered me all day that it was unfixed and out there in the world so as soon as I got internet this morning I fixed it. There. We are leaving now. Going to Colorado.