Day Eight - Jun 20, 2004

Missoula, MT to Yellowstone NP, WY

High Point: Brian & Theresa - Driving in to Yellowstone

Low Point: Brian - Finding out the new windshield seal is not all that is can be Theresa - Finding out the road to the Specimen Ridge hike is washed out

Miles By Automobile: 315

Miles Theresa Drove: 212

Miles Total: 2897

Price Per Gallon: 2.03

Today's Weather: Sunny, incredibly rainy, forbodingly overcast

Tonight's Lodging: Norris Campground

Where Uploaded: Billings, MT

Wildlife: Cows, sheep, horses, flying pigs, literate bears and bison

Daily Didactic

We rose early in order to get the bus to the Mountain Imports auto shop, in hopes of getting a "we are on the road" walk-in look at the increasingly noisy rear end of the bus. It sounds like we have a dead shock absorber or a broken motor mount. We got there a little after eight and their sign clearly said they opened at eight...on weekdays, turns out it's Sunday. You people and your weekday/weekend regimens. So rather than wait an extra day in Missoula for auto repair, we got an early start to Yellowstone National Park.

Theresa drove down the interstate at break neck speed and we arrived in Livingston a few hours later. We stopped in Livingston to upload a couple of initial web pages, when a deluge fell from the sky. Unfortunately, the deluge was soon delivering a small, but noticable, percentage of itself into the bus, through the seal around the new window we had put in a few weeks ago. Something to add to the todo list... Anyhow, the deluge was short and heavy, we finished a little uploading, and then we headed south to the Yellowstone Park entrance.

The drive into the park is beautiful and we rubber necked at steaming ground, meadows and bison for the forty miles in to Norris Campground where we ground to a halt for the night.