Thursday, July 1 - Day 18 - 72.5 Miles - 1239.9 Total Miles

First of all, the storms did not hold off last night. In the middle of the night, a strong storm rolled through dumping a good amount of hail onto our campground. It was pretty cool lying in the tent, listening to the hail bounce off of the tent. It was quite loud and tent moved like someone was outside shaking it. I think Kim was expecting me to come into the van, but as long as my tent stayed up, I was ok where I was.



The next morning looked like a possible repeat of the night before. Just as we were about to take off on our bikes, the skies got dark and we got hailed on again. Luckily, it did not last long and we were able to hit the road toward Yellowstone National Park. I am not a big fan of parks where people can "get in touch with nature" from their cars. People stop to take pictures of the weirdest things at the weirdest times. Cars just stop in the middle of the road and people jump out with cameras rolling. The real lazy ones shoot the pictures from their seat. Kim and I figured out a long time ago, the only way to visit a place like this is to go to a part of the park where you have to take 10 or more strides to see the views and no one will be there. Sure enough, Kim found a trail that had to be walked to see the sights....and the parking lot was empty. Taking off the seat belt to see nature is just a little challenging sometimes.



We set up our campground at Grant Village Campground in Yellowstone and set off to see the only thing that we all wanted to see....Old Faithful. We all agreed that you can't visit Yellowstone without going to Old Faithful. It is an amazing natural phenomenon and I think the kids really enjoyed seeing it.



One day of Yellowstone was good for all of us. We are getting up early tomorrow and trying to get in a 100 mile day to get out of this car/rv infested area on our way to Dubois, Wyoming. There is one good climb that happens 60 miles into the ride, but it is all downhill from there. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. Sunny skies and tailwinds would suit us just fine.

I was about to end this post, but was just strong-armed by my wife...turns out she has something to say as well......

(Enter Kim) Steve made it seem like the kids and I did nothing today! We stopped and saw several things in Yellowstone along the way. Firehole Canyon, the Painted Pots, the great Prismatic Spring, and several other geysers and boiling pots. They were really cool. The weather was super, the kids enjoyed it, and we managed to see a bison or two along the way. After securing our camping spot, we all (bikers included) doubled back in the evening to see Old Faithful. Very amazing! So, enjoy the pictures/video below!