Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Just a quick post in actual real time.  We left Yellowstone this morning and stopped in Cody Wyoming for grocery’s.  The computer comes in fine in the parking lot so I have scheduled a few post for the next couple of days.  I still have several more to post of Yellowstone and will take care of that over the next couple of days.

Thanks so much for all the compliments on the photos that I have posted.  I’m amazed at what my little camera can do.

We are traveling across Wyoming today and will camp somewhere in the northeast of the state and then continue on to Custer State Park in South Dakota tomorrow and stay there for a couple days.

I will get back to answering individual post soon.  After we leave Custer we will be staying at KOA campgrounds because I am sure we will need a/c and it was easy to make reservations for them!

Welcome to my new readers – I have been getting notes from new people and thank you for the compliments on my quilts and the photos of the trip.

In Yellowstone quite a few nights it got very close to 39 degrees and had to have the heat on all week at night.  Felt good!

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Today we drove back over to the Old Faithful area.  There were more walks to take and also wanted to catch Old Faithful blowing off steam again.  Of course seeing as we knew we could get internet signal there we brought our computers along and spent about an hour on the second floor checking mail and scheduling blog post.  I do believe I have posts scheduled out to Wednesday.  What I am posting now and in the next couple days I will schedule for later in the week.  One day I will get caught up and you will read things the day it happened

Today I made sure to take my camera into the Old Faithful Inn to get some shots:

This shot is looking down from the second floor balcony where our “temporary office” is located   people were starting to line up for an early lunch already (reservations are needed almost all of the summer)

The large fireplace which has a fire going in it frequently except on warm summer days:

This shows part of the second floor wrap around balcony with the wood ceiling, as you can see seating is all around it and on the 3rd floor also:

Another part of the second floor balcony:

Stairs leading to the 3rd floor,that is Mike at the computer at the double desk – I was there a short while before working on my mail, he was slower than I and that gave me time to get in these photos of the Inn:

Another part of the 2nd floor – doors open on the end to go to an outside balcony which overlooks the area that Old Faithful blows steam at:

Part of the outside balcony is covered and part of it isn’t.

Downstairs in the lobby looking up:

The check in desk area:

The snack bar at one of the stores/food shops  – we had planned on having our picnic lunch like we normally do and then view Old Faithful but it started to rain. We decided to have hamburgers for lunch instead and went in this shop – old fashion counter style service:

Cute signs:

We got the best waiter in there I bet.  This is Alex from the country of Moldova (I think this spelling is right) which is near Romania.  He was fast, efficient, talkative, friendly – it was embarrassing to see the other two workers working – they were from the US and looked like they could care less about their jobs.  When we went to pay the bill, the girl asked if I was leaving a tip on the service to add to the card and I said yes and commented on how good the service was and she said “did you have Alex” – what a reputation this young man must have!

I am not sure how it is so many foreigners work here at our national parks but we see that all the time and have for years.  I do not know if it is some kind of exchange program or just that young people from other countries have the opportunity to work at the national parks in exchange for a place to live and a salary so they can see the area.  Workers in the park stores and lodging areas come from all over the place as well as the states.

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One thing that is always noticeable at Yellowstone is how very popular this park is to people outside of the United States.  If you listen to the conversations around you, you hear French, German, English in U.K. and  Australian accents, Spanish, Dutch, you name it and you can hear it.  This park is very popular.

This is a beautiful trail that we took – but so steep, switchbacks, and steps at the last part of it.

The beginning of this trail, not so bad I thought:

A couple minutes later looking down over the edges:

Unusual dead tree roots – a rock was caught in the middle and stayed there:

More steps – by this point I was beginning to wonder how I would walk back up

Oh no – I’m in trouble now! I have to go back up this.

What we hiked down this trail to see – another view of the same waterfall

Looking back up – contemplating getting started.

More steps!

On the way back up – Mike taking a “talking” break discussing the trail with a gentleman from India – if that man could do this trail surely I could – he looked to be about 70 or more – he was taking more rest stops than I was though.

All those dark skies finally turned into a rain storm – including pea size hail – this is after we got back to our campground – hail outside of our door.

I skipped one trail today that Mike wanted to go on. I told him to go for it but to drop me off at the nearest visitor center/shopping area.  The trail he went on is called “Uncle Tom” and it is by the rim overlooking the waterfall as well – only problem with that one is you know in advance that you will be descending over 300 steps which means climbing them to get back to the car -  I knew if I wanted to do any of these other trails and still be walking tomorrow I would need to skip it!!  I wandered through the visitor center at Canyon Village and numerous shops.  Watched a video at the visitor center and mildly passed close to 2 hours time away in comfort while Mike trudged up 300 steps back to the car   I was satisfied with my time

As far as sewing goes I have been working on my final appliqué block that I brought with me for the red/green appliqué quilt, it has quite a few pieces in it and I doubt I will finish it while at this park as I only work on it for an hour or less in the evening.

(this and the previous 2 post were about our day on the 7th – Saturday)

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