It's snowing here in Yellowstone!!!

This post will cover Monday, Tuesday, and today, Wednesday.

Monday Sept. 28
Guillermo left our hotel early this morning to get the oil changed in our car and to have them check the tail pipe under our car, since we noticed about 2 days ago that it seemed to be hanging really low.  Turns out that everything is ok with the tail pipe.  We all had a nice breakfast in Berit and Tomas's hotel room and then we packed up our stuff and headed to Yellowstone.
It was a beautiful sunny day, and quite warm!  We drove straight to Old Faithful and got to see it erupt just minutes later, so it was perfect timing.

After watching Old Faithful, we walked the Upper Geyser loop slowly - stopping at each geyser, marveling at how each one was and wondering what was going on in the earth under our feet.  By the end of the loop (which is 2.8 miles) we were all pretty tired.  Then it was time to drive to our vacation rental house!!  We were going to eat somewhere first, but decided to go look for the house while it was still a little light outside.  We had a hard time finding the house anyway, and it was totally dark before we finally found the place.  Whoa.  What a nice place!!!

Tuesday Sept. 29
We got up fairly early and drove out to see if a very necessary road to see Yellowstone was open or closed.  This road has been closed the last few days due to a major fire.  And to top it all off, another very important road was closed due to construction!!  Well, when we got to the park, we found out that the road is still closed because of the fire.  We were desperately hoping they had made more progress on beating that fire, so this was really rough news for us. There was nothing we could do about the other road that was closed due to construction, since it was plain closed. To get to the part of the park that we really wanted to see, the part of the park with the most wildlife, we would have to drive all the way up to Bozeman, Montana, and then back down into Yellowstone.  This would make us drive an extra 300 miles total out of our way, just to get to where we want to go in the park, but we had no other choice.  We thought maybe we'd wait one more day, for Wednesday, to see  if the road would be open then, but the forecast called for snow on that day, so we decided, if we're going to do it, we'd better just go ahead and do it today.
So, we headed on out to the Hayden Valley of Yellowstone by way of Bozeman, Montana.  As it turned out, we made an excellent decision to go this day, even though it meant being on the road for 6 hours - OUTSIDE the park.  The weather was beautiful, and we saw lots of interesting animals!!  We saw a Grizzly Bear, Bison, Black Wolf, Coyotes, Elk, Pronghorn Antelope, and Bald Eagles.  We didn't leave the park until about 8:30 at night, had a late dinner in Gardiner, Montana and then drove the 3 hours back to our comfortable house back in West Yellowstone - we got back at around 12:30am.

Our day in the park

Wednesday Sept. 30
When we got up in the morning, there were snow flurries outside!!  We took it easy this morning, after the long day we had yesterday.  By the time we left to go visit Yellowstone one more time, it was snowing harder.  We first went back to the Old Faithful area to do a little souvenir shopping and to have lunch.  The trees were starting to get white with the snow.  We visited several geyser sites, and the weather was really cold, with the wind blowing the snow against us as we walked around.  It was so COLD!!

Later, we stopped at a grocery store and picked up things to cook for our evening dinner. Fernando was going to grill outside, got the grill out and everything, but it was so cold, and the grill was dirty, so we thought it'd just be easier to put everything in the oven. It turned out to be a great dinner after all!

Today we meet up with Fernando!

But before talking about meeting up with Fernando, here is what has been going on since our last post.

Friday morning, the 25th, we had an EXCELLENT breakfast in our hotel and got out on the road just a little late - for the length of drive that we were  going to be doing that day.  From Albuquerque, we drove to Gallup and then up to Shiprock, NM.  That drive had us going through the Navajo Nation, and that was a kind of sad drive because it becomes so obvious what kind of land the Indians were left with.  Absolutely ugly, where nothing can grow - which is how too many of their reservations are.

From Shiprock, we drove up to Cortez, Colorado, through Dove Creek and then made a turn north at Monticello, Utah.  It seems like once we were in Utah, the land became much nicer. We saw so many beautiful landscapes along the way and we'd have gotten nowhere if we had stopped to take pictures of all the interesting things we saw.  Utah was actually a very pretty state as far as the landscapes go. There were lots of beautiful rock formations and mountain ranges.

Vicki at a rest area in Utah

We loved the little town of Moab!  After Moab, we took a left at Interstate 70 for a few miles until we got to the turnoff to Highway 191.  We got a little turned around in Price (missing that loop around the city).  We considered spending the night in Helper, but from the highway it looked like there wasn't much there, and since the sun was still kind of high in the sky, we decided to press on.  The drive from Helper to Duchesne was beautiful, sort of like driving through a canyon, which then opened up to a narrow valley where the land was open range.  So, we came across cattle on the road every now and then.

Once at Duchesne, we headed east and since it was dark by now, we decided to stay in Roosevelt.  There wasn't that much there, either, and if we had only known, we would have gone the extra 28 miles to Vernal - which we saw the next day was a really CUTE little town.

Saturday Sept. 26th- we ate breakfast in our room - no free breakfast at the Best Western there!  We drove through Vernal just a few minutes later and saw how precious the little town looked, and there were lots of places to stay.  Petunias grow so beautifully around here, and the streets in Vernal were lined with LOTS of big pots filled with purple, pink and white petunias.

From Vernal, we drove to the visitor center at the Flaming Gorge and got several maps.  The lady there recommended taking the road on the west side of the Gorge so that's what we did, instead of going across the dam.  We saw lots of beautiful views along the way and even stopped at a place where the lady had said we could probably see Salmon spawning, but all we saw was one trout.

View of Sheep Creek Bay

Down in Sheep Creek Bay

But, we did pass a nice little mountain stream later where we stopped and we DID see Salmon!!!  It was so exciting.  We took the little trail that took you right down to the river and we could see the salmon so well from that trail.  It was just beautiful!

Pretty much after that, we left Utah, and the land was kind of ugly again.  The land in Wyoming at this point was not beautiful at all.  We drove to Green River, Wyoming, then to Rock Springs, where we then turned north on Hwy. 191.  We saw lots of Pronghorn Antelope along this highway and the landscape didn't start getting pretty until about Boulder, Wyoming.

Views  around our hotel - the Flying Saddle Resort

On September 27th, we headed to Jackson Hole, Wyoming and we saw these beautiful trees along the way.  We are excited today, because in a few hours, we will meet up with Fernando, Eva and meet Eva's parents for the first time.

We checked into our hotel in Jackson Hole and waited nervously for Fernando, Eva and her parents to arrive.  We kept looking out the window of our hotel room to see if we could see Fernando's car!  When they arrived we were so excited!  We greeted Tomas and Berit - saying a few words of welcome to them in Swedish.  We were so happy to have everyone there and we will never forget this nice day!

We all visited the Tetons Park later that day.  Here we are by Jenny Lake.

In Albuquerque!

It was not our intention to go as far as Albuquerque the first day, but after missing important exits, and then passing through Indian reservations where there ARE no turn-arounds, well, we ended up in Albuquerque, and then on the west side of Albuquerque.  The good part about that is our trip today will be a little shorter!

So, anyway, we had rain at the beginning of our trip yesterday, but it pretty much quit around Kerrville.  Then it was cloudy until Fort Stockton, and then we were in the sun the rest of the way!  At least the weather was cool!

It would be nice to go to Rio Rancho today, but since we don't know where to go, or if we did know where to go - if anyone would be there,  we are just going to head on up to Utah this morning!  Too bad, since we're so close.  But we've got a long hard drive today, not on expressways like yesterday, so it's best we get going!

Fall is here for sure

Giddy over packing!  It's feels so free to be packing for a road trip.  The last several trips we've taken have been on planes, and traveling by plane is full of "everything we want to take HAS to fit into ONLY these two containers (suitcase and carry-on).

Traveling by car - well, besides packing up our suitcases, if we want to put some stuff in a paper grocery bag, which will remain open on top (imagine that!!), then we very well can!!  We don't HAVE to stuff our shoes into the suitcase.  We can even hold them in our hand as we go out the door, and put them under our seats!!   It's great!!!!

We can't wait to meet Fernando, Eva and Eva's parents in Jackson Hole next week!!!

A little cold front came through our area today, on this first day of Fall.  The weather got rainy and really nice and cool, at times we even felt cold!!  The weather is just lovely right now.

How about my birthday hat!

Just had to post about the hat Fernando sent me for my birthday!!  I LOVE it!

 The picture on the left shows how I spent almost 2 hours of every morning during this past summer.  Minus the hat, though.

Morning Glory beauty

Some more pictures of Morning Glories. They are just so beautiful right now. When the plants were new, there was only one bloom each day. Now, there are about 6 blooms everyday, and they just look so beautiful contrasted with the orange flowers.

Appraisals were supposed to start on our homes this week, but we haven't heard a thing from anyone. No one has called or come by. We were kind of wanting our home to be appraised before we take off in a week and a half.

Summer may be over...

Well, we've been getting some rains lately and the weather has cooled off a little.  All the plants are starting to perk up!

Guillermo counted over 50 blooms on this plant!

Corn is getting big!

Our grass is starting to look better

If we do ever have to leave this house, I will miss this view out the kitchen window.

Beautiful flower on a ginger plant by our front porch

No shot?!?!?!?

I talked with Mom today and she told me she had a root canal done this morning.
She went on to remind me that when they went to the dentist when they were little, they were never given any shots.  If they cried or anything, the dentist would get mad and yell at them.  I don't know how she could stand it back then.  Sometimes I feel like I need a shot just to ENTER the dentist's office.