appolgies in advance for typing and spelling errors. 

first the minor misadventures which mainly were eating related. 

we did seem to have dead batteries when we needed them to be going. my two photographers do not seem to know how to pace themselves. they just took pictures until the batteries were dead without thinking about how much time of every day were were in the park. 

we went to the park every morning and only came out after it was too dark to continue. 

since none of us are creative breakfast eaters any place would do. so Judy went to a micky-dees after dressing and pick up breakfast while Ben and i then took our turn in the tiny bathroom and got ourselves ready to go. the folks in west Yellowstone have never heard of "have it your way." first it was you can't get that with cheese because that is not on the menu with cheese. they can't put a slice of cheese on something? okay no problem it is just a fill up the hole meal. next was Ben's turn. " hot cakes come with sausage not bacon. okay I'll go with that. 

one night Judy just wanted burgers from the DQ. NOW JUDY IS THE ONE WHO DOES NOT LIKE BURGER WITH CONDIMENTS OTHER THAN KETSUP. i order her a cheese burger with ketsup only and bot been and i order double cheese burgers. what we got was a double cheese burger with only ketsup and a cheese burger for me. what is so very funny is they even held off the cheese. so why would someone order a cheese burger and hold the cheese? i think that was dumb as a rock. i thought fast food workers were bad in Atlanta. 

food in the park was just fine. we eat more in the park than out. 

we went to the Tetons one day and we had finally got around to dinner as we had skipped lunch (too busy to eat) stopped at jenny lake lodge thinking we'd eat there. found that durning peak season one had to have reservations. we did not so we went back to moose to eat and there was a place called darnons chuck wagon. i think that is correct, anyway they were gearing up for a concert and would only sell food if we wanted to stay at the concert. so we crossed the street to a deli and was told they were closing. we went back into Jackson. i tried to get Judy to stop at the cowboy bar and steakhouse. I'd saw it as she drove thru the first time. to my chingrin she said there's a line and drove past but was stopped at a  traffic light and i said "that's no line, just tourist standing around. she drove on anyway. at the place we did eat i was inquiring as to wjy she would not stop. turns out that she can't parellel park. if that was all they could have gotten
 out
 and i'd have got under the wheel and parked the car it was a little camery and i have drove and parellel parked cars several foot longer.  you know how long cars was in the 60's? so i missed the bar KYLE. 

tetons were absolutly breathtaking especially when i got to 10450 ft. litterally i had to slow down with the COPD and not let it panic me. but beautiful they are. 

the only other misadventure was that i left my BP meds in atlanta at the airport hotel. that was fixed with the drug store (one in town) calling my doc and getting a 8 day script. 

okay on the first day after a day of travel, we got some maps and
 info from the west Yellowstone visitors center and ventured into the park just to get a scope of it. after it was dark after just driving from the west entrance to old faithful basin we had an idea of just how big the park is and we went to the hotel and planned the first full day. 

the first full day we went to the painted pots, the midway geyser basin. the biscuit basin and old faithful basin. my two photographers had dead batteries before we got to old faithful. we did stop there for that day. we did have a good meal there. we decided we'd come bake  to old faithful on day two. wildlife of day one was a small heard if elk a few miles inside the west entrance. males were young knoby heads and many females. 

day two started with a hike that Ben and Judy made while i chilled watching tourist. i was amused that they all would pose for photos before procedeing into the basin. accually since i awoke having a bad day body wise this was a good start and by the they returned from the hike i was a bit better and we went on to old faithful. i could not believe ben had killed a camera battery completely on the hike knowing he was coming back so he could get a filming of old faithful. Judy saved the day as her cam was ready to go and was handed to him as he is by far the best with a camera in our family. having a shory movie of the famed geyser in hand we had a good lunch went on to Yellowstone lake and west thump basin. we went further north toward Hayden valley but was turned around as the road was closed because of a forest fire that unfortunately took the life of a firefighter. wildlife of day 2 was the same elk heard inside the west entrance. (we found them there
 every day.) a funny happening we were the first car off at the pull out with cameras out. as we found always the case others stopped to see "what do you see?" Ben was angling for a little closer shot when i decided to go back to the car for a drink of water. (remember i was having a bad day physically) a man was there being ask what was there. he had a northeastern accent and was replyimg "a moose a big ole moose. :-) i thought "first time out of the city eh?" he'll get home and show photos of his moose. :-) i was just amused. later at west thumb we were really just a few feet from elk grazing. they can seem almost tame so you have to keep reminding yourself they are wild. right before we were turned around at the fire we saw a large male deer with a good sized rack on his head. 

the 3rd day was a banner day as far as wildlife. we started out going to norris basin and saw the steamboat geyser that can go as long as 50 years without erupting. of course it did nothing while we were there. after viewing this basin we went toward Hayden valley. we came upon a bison right on the side of the road and stopped to take pictures. then we noticed there was another laying down further out. Ben said "hey there is something swimming in the water (a Creek down sout a river up there.) when it climbed out we saw that it was a black bear. the bear went into the woods at an angle that would bring him out heading toward the bison laying in the field. ben said "that bison out weighs him by 10-1, i don't think he'll try to take the bison." the bear did keep the angle and come out of the woods heading straight toward the bison. ben smiled and said "this might get interesting. after the bear had goten about 50 yards away, the bison stood up and the bear
 took a 90 degree turn and went into the woods. oh well no fight. 
we then drove further and came upon a heard of bison at the edge of the road we stopped to look and we were in the middle of the hear crossing the road. they  were in front, in back and walking up both sides of the car looking in. we were there for quite some time. of course ben hasd killed his battery but used our cam for snap shots and we used the old VHS-C camcoder we had broght on a 2nd thought. wish i new how to put that online. 
we finally went on to mud volcano and then turned back. the bison were all across the road. we also had seen a good number of water foul. on the way back we say 2 cayotes 2 bull elk with good rack, one like a tree on his head but twilight and no photos, then at last we saw a wolf, no pack just a lone wolf. all in all though a great day for wildlife. 

   on the fourth complete day  ben started with a long hike and after dropping him off judy and i went back to west yellowstone for some shopping.  we did have to get sourveniors for the grandchildren. 
  judy did a load of laundry at a laubdramatt  while we waited for ben to call. 
   then it was back to norris for a trail off the basin that judy and ben polished off quickly while i looked at the basin more closely than i did the day before and wished for a rare eruption. we then went to hayden valley again and saw more bison, cayote, elk and water fowl just not quite as spectaular as on the 3rd day. at dark we headed for the exit. 

  the fifth full day was devoted to the tetons. i'll not mention the mis adventures again, but will say the tetons were spectaular. the altitute did affect me as i have said, but at 10450 feet the view was great. and we did see a prong horn, another lone wolf, and our only moose. lots of driving involved in this day. i also found that ben is a real grouch when hungry but as soon as fed becomes his self again. 

the 6th full day was started by going to mammoth springs at the north entance and visiting Gardina. we shopped there and had buffelo burger. huge ones at that. if it had been dinner time we'd have had the steak. 
we went to yellowstone (grand canyon) it was very pretty. we me a group from alabama who walked right up to me and introduced theirself becouse i was wearing a cap with the Auburn emblem on it. we enjoyed the chat and all the threats of "we'll beat you guys this year." at a pullout right inside the north entrance we saw a prong horn that was like he posed for photos before trottting off. 
then we went again into hayden valley for some more wildlife. there we saw something  that was troubling. the heard was at the side of the road. same heard of bison. some (a few) had crossed. lots of people had stopped and we saw a man following this bull around with a camera. the bison was visually noticably irratated and he would wall away from the man who would then follow. he just kept irratating this bull. i told ben to put his cam into movie mode and if the bull raised his tail to start the cam that he was going to he a man being hit by a mad bison. luckily the bison finally just trotted away for a good distance. that man did not know what he was doing. agrevating a 2000 pound animal is not to smart.    

the last day we checked out and took ben to a trail he wanted to get and judy and i stayed at olfd faithful inn until he finished. we lunched and headed to bozeman to spend the night before flying back to atlanta. 

it was a great trip. sorry ben did not post to youtube so you could see.     






      

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