In search of North Dakota (day 7)

Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah

The Cody Cowboy Village offered only a continental breakfast (compared to the full breakfast offered at the Country Inn & Suites places we had stayed in all the other nights). We ate and packed, filled the car with gas (Pete's Volkswagen Jetta wagon takes diesel), and continued west on what was now combined U.S. routes 14, 16, and 20.

A little ways up the canyon, perhaps eight or ten miles, we went through a long tunnel and stopped at Buffalo Bill Dam and visitor center. The dam was built from 1905 to 1910 on the Shoshone River and at the time of its completion was at 350 feet the highest dam in the world. It was originally called the Shoshone Dam, but was renamed the Buffalo Bill Dam by President Harry S. Truman in the late 1940s.

A while later we had to stop and wait for three buffalo to amble across the road in front of us. We soon entered the east entrance into Yellowstone National Park. The road had just opened a couple weeks earlier, and there was still snow on both sides right up to the edge of the road. In the higher elevations it was higher than our car. This was the first time any of us had been in the eastern portion of the park, and I thought it was a much more dramatic entrance than coming in from the west. After descending from an 8,000-something-foot pass, we had a spectacular view of Yellowstone Lake, which was still mostly covered with ice. Anna read that it is the largest mountain lake in the United States or North America or some such thing.

We continued through the park until we came to Old Faithful. The only animals we saw were herds of buffalo. At Old Faithful we watched the geyser erupt and then fixed noodles for our lunch. There we saw some very large black birds that may have been crows but were really huge.

We left the Old Faithful area about 2:30, continued up to Madison Junction, following alongside the Firehole River, and out the west entrance of the park, following the Madison River. We left Wyoming and entered Montana again before leaving the park. We continued through West Yellowstone on U.S. 20 and soon entered Idaho. We passed through Ashton, St. Anthony, Rexburg, and Rigby to Idaho Falls. As we drove by Rexburg, we saw the new temple that was just dedicated earlier this year.

We rejoined I-15 at Idaho Falls, having come full circle since the beginning of our trip. We were going to stop and see Peter's sister Marta, who had just moved to Idaho Falls on Saturday, but she didn't return their call until we were on the freeway south of Idaho Falls. I called Rachael and told her we would stop in for supper in about an hour and a half to two hours. It took us closer to the hour and a half to reach Malad. Rachael kindly fed us breakfast for supper: pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, that sort of stuff. We helped her with the meal and with the baby. Robert came home from work, hurriedly ate, and went off to a school board meeting concerning his becoming a basketball coach.

After about a two-hour visit, and even toying with the idea of spending the night, we decided to press on home. Just as we were crossing the border from Idaho into Utah, I called Claudia to tell her where we were. She was very excited, since she was expecting us back tomorrow evening.

We arrived in Bountiful about nine o'clock. Peter and Anna dropped me off. They still had to drive home to Salt Lake City. Peter, who had driven the entire 2,700-mile trip, looked very tired.

My calculations, based on Google Maps, is that we drove more than 2,656 miles: the first day 609 miles from Salt Lake City to Billings, the second day 610 miles from Billings to Fargo, the fifth day 577 miles from Fargo to Rapid City, the sixth day 407 miles from Rapid City to Cody, and the seventh day 453 miles from Cody through Yellowstone to home.

Only twice during the entire seven-day trip did we actually eat out, both times in Fargo: the Friday night before the marathon, and Saturday afternoon after the marathon. All the other times we were having breakfast in our motels and fixing our own lunches, dinners, and snacks from food Peter and Anna had brought, and our final supper at Rachael's house in Malad.

Peter and Anna are great traveling companions. In my estimation, as road trips go, it had been a great trip.