DAY NINE Burgess Junction, WY to Yellowstone
Woke up before the sun to get some good driving in before the kids woke up. Strapped them in their car seats and hit the pavement. As the day dawned, we could see the mountains that have been looming on all sides since last night. It’s been kind of slow going with the steep grades and curves. Stopped in the town of Cody, the last real town before national parkland. It was a cute place, actually, with nice little shops lining the road. We bought a newspaper and mailed some mail. Ate some oatmeal and peanut butter bread and Nora got to play on the bed for awhile. Fed, walked and watered the dogs. After we drove out of Cody, we passed a lot of private ranches and inns. Some of the architecture was pretty cool.
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Pulled up to the East Entrance and there was a huge traffic backup because of road construction. We cooled our heels for maybe an hour or so. Good thing we had our house with us. Then we made it through the gate and had to wait another 15 minutes or more until it was our turn to get to use the road, which was down to one lane. Once we got on the road, it wasn’t paved for several miles. We did get back on pavement but I was going a little crazy from trying to keep both whiny kids and whiny dogs quiet so David could drive on the snowy road (yes, it’s snowy here) coupled with the fact that I feel like I’ve only been out of the camper for 15 minutes in the past 2.5 days. At my request, we pulled off into a picnic area for lunch and naps. It started hailing during our nap. I did get some nice sleep though. This park is huge and it was a LONG drive to our campground. The last 30 minutes David joked, telling us about every 4 minutes that the campground was 15 minutes away. The landscape is so wild here. There are just big holes in the ground belching steam. It’s easy to imagine how it must have seemed to explorers. We are bracing for some cold nights and cold days, but we’re determined to have a good time. For one thing, it will be a relief not to have to drive any distances for awhile. One day we will probably drive the big park loop, which is close to 100 miles I think, stopping at a lot of the scenic areas. But for at least a day or two we will stick close to the campground and try NOT to be driving. We are not the only loons here this time of year, by the way, it’s quite populated here at Madison campground. Even most of the sites in the tent camping area are full. I saw at least 40 tents over there when I was walking the dogs, including an old canvas one hung over a line strung between two trees.
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We put out our awning (for shelter from the snow, not the sun) and our camp chairs. Our neighbors in the next campsite are very nice. Their first grandchild was recently born, so the lady, Karen, was fawning over Michael. They had a fire going with wood left by a camp neighbor who left the day before, and they said we could share their fire. We cooked brats on it for dinner. We are only allowed to run the generator up until 8 p.m., so we are trying to get the coach battery charged up as much as we can. We plan to run the furnace tonight, but we already know from last night that there isn’t enough juice in the battery to run the furnace all night.
It’s a little frustrating because there are a few sites here that have full hookups, and it’s unclear why they aren’t available to the general public. Or why, if they were running electric to those sites, why they didn’t just run electric to all the sites.
But on the other hand, it’s kind of refreshing to be worrying about things like basic survival. That’s what camping is supposed to be about. And man existed for thousands of years before forced-air heat, so I’m sure we’ll be fine. We put Nora in her warmest pajamas with the feet in them, and overtop of that some fleece overalls my sister made for her. We put her over the cab in her bed, where I had taped newspapers to the windows and taped some of the curtains shut. Michael went to bed in Pjs with his blanket that Velcroes around him and another blanket and an afghan. At 8 p.m., we shut off the generator (and the CD player and the lights and the furnace) and played cards by the light of a single bulb, running off the battery. We went to bed not too long after that, due to sheer exhaustion. We had an old blanket we brought along to use on the beach or for the kids to play outside on, so we put that on the bed, too.
I think I understand why they have the generator rule, and maybe even why they don’t run utilities to the sites. It’s so incredibly dark and quiet. We can hear the elk making their elk noises down by the river. They sound like wooden flutes, the kind that were cool in rock bands in the ‘60s and early ‘70s. Aside from that, you really can’t hear anything at all.