Let’s start with something that happened a day or so ago leaving a small town in Wyoming and like all small towns, the speed slows to 25 before the highway opens back up to 70 or 80 or whatever unimaginable speed I cannot attain.  I’m almost through town and to the left of me is a confederate flag, basically covering the entire front porch of this home.  On the porch is a young boy and as I drive by, he starts pointing and telling his dad to look.  Well, dad and I exchanged looks that clearly were not friendly greetings.  It made my hair kinda stand up as we passed.  I would have liked the ‘photo’ I observed as part of my journey.

One more side bar…in order to be efficient about my travels until I connect with Linda, I am staying at RV campgrounds.  These are pretty funny places in strange locations.  All so far have been near railroad tracks and had trains blaring horns at all hours.  Maybe it’s like trailer homes and tornados, but intentional.  Anyway, each of these campgrounds have their own special rules, usually dictated by the house madam.  At the one in Wall, she walked me through the procedure of using the restroom by going in one door and exiting at the other end.  Inside there were sinks, toilets, showers, but no reason for a one-way trip through!

On to Wednesday.  Once again, froze overnight but this time with the windows closed – maybe time to get a small heater before Linda arrives, although we will be mostly at sea level.  Hit the road early to get a jump on all the other cars crossing the Beartooth Highway into Cooke City and the Northeastern entrance to Yellowstone.  Stunning drive and scenery!  Did really well on the climb to 10,900’, although I was in second and third gears for most of the 62-mile run! Speed limit is 45 on most of this road and with all the switchbacks, climbs and descending, 25 and 30 mph is standard for most everyone.

Met Dan, see photo in front of his white Porsche.  Also note the GoPro mounted to the roof and what you can’t see is two other GoPro locations inside the vehicle.  Naturally struck up a conversation since our cars are related.  Dan is on a 12-day run and will cover 5,500 miles.  About half way through and he struck a deer last night.  Deer and car were only slightly grazed and he is rethinking nighttime driving.  Interestingly, he also owns over 20 pre-1985 Porsches.

Made it into Cooke City and thought – great, now I might have cell service and can call Becca to discuss some biz, do email, etc.  Ahhhh NO!  The entire town of Cooke City is without any cell service.  Pretty cool actually, but would have been good to know in advance.  So, I ran to the Chamber of Commerce, along with everyone else, for the free wifi and a facetime with Linda.

Wednesday after catching no fish in Yellowstone (Soda Butte and Lamar rivers), I thought ‘well, I sucked at fishing, maybe I should treat myself to a room for the night’.  Only one place had a room, but the wifi was so bad the caretaker quit using it as well.  If I’m gonna pay, I want my wifi!  Off to the US Forest Service campground ($4.50 a night on my senior pass) that has no services besides toilets and potable water, but plenty of Grizzly Bears!  See photo of proof that the bear indeed does shit in the woods (and specifically in my campsite).  NOTE – All my food items are now in the steel box next to my campground and shortly I will go and spread peanut butter on the rest of the campsites (an alt version of the Passover story).

UPDATE after I wrote the above: The campground host (even in the US Parks) just came by to welcome and inform me my pop top has to be lowered as a grizzly would make quick work of coming in!!!

‘In the still licking my wounds department’, maybe the reason I got skunked today was there were a friggin million fishermen /fisherwomen fishing every spot.  I’ve never seen this many people fishing at one time.  That kind of pressure on a stream certainly will not improve chances of a catch.  Some get pretty angry if you drop into a section of stream and they are working downstream and come upon you.  A young couple with their 6-month old (strapped to the chest of the father fishing!) got a big lecture and some f-bombs.  Not the way to enjoy the National Park.

Hope to fish my way through Yellowstone tomorrow and possibly get a bit aggressive and get to Livingstone MT before sundown – I don’t do after dark and will stop before if necessary.  I’m feeling it’s a long way to go to Seattle if I’m picking up Linda by 4:00 PM and then having dinner with cousins in Seattle.

Will send this and photos if I ever have internet service again.

Best wishes, no fishes (yet),

Gary