Vacation at Warp Speed...

Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner. We just got back from a little 4 day/3 night vacation. On the ‘vacation’, we went through Yellowstone Park and Mt. Rushmore. Since funds were short and hotels were very expensive, we wanted to keep it short, but still see both of the attractions.

Close to Mt. Rushmore, we stopped at Sturgis, since they are having the annual motorcycle rally. I was completely stunned by the size of it. It took up all of the hotels, gas stations and restaurants for about a 100 mile radius. Bikes were everywhere and took up all available space. At ground zero, people were selling spots on their lawns for tents and lawns were full, stake to stake with tents. It was probably 10 times the size I thought it would be and I thought it was large.

We saw a documentary on TV about it some weeks ago, but it didn’t give you the idea of how large it really was. And, I understand there are some permanent campgrounds out of town that also hold many thousands more of people and bikes. One campground has a permanent stage and was having big name bands/attractions such as ZZ Top, Bob Dylan, etc., etc. Thousands and thousands of Harley's everywhere. We also saw many bikes with Chevrolet small block V8s in them. Crazy stuff…

While we were in Yellowstone Park we saw Old Faithful blow her cork and checked out some of Yellowstone's geothermal displays. And while waiting for some road work close to dark, we saw this very large herd of buffalo migrating from a feeding area and across a river. We were able to watch them for quite a while as we followed the pilot car.

Besides Harley's, the other thing that was everywhere was pilot cars. We must have seen 100 of them throughout the trip as they were working on the mostly mountainous roads that we went on. So, we just about saw all of the things that Yellowstone is famous for - geothermal displays, beautiful forests and Arctic plateaus, and wild animals. We didn't see much of each category, but we did see a little of each one...

We were pretty worn out by the end of the vacation, but it was great fun. Storm and Jenny and their 4 kids were great during the whole trip and there was a lot of stressful events that happened because of the time an all the bikers. We had 2 kids in our rooms most of the time.

Pam was also great during the whole trip. She was having trouble with her hands, but didn't let that stop our plans. I drove most of the time and she was very helpful in tracking down trip details and variations because of the road work, bikers, and minimal planning. At the end of the trip, when I ran out of gas, she took over and got us home while also picking up the doggies that were staying with Aunt Robertta.

I didn't realize that Yellowstone Park was so close to DaHo, being only about 4 hours away. We plan on going there again often to see its beauty when we have more time to enjoy it. This trip was fast, but we saw it all and more - real fast. It was a lot faster than stuff usually happens here in DaHo...