Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Day 10: I finally Saw a Grizzly Bear!! Sordof.....




June 10, Yellowstone National Park

Yep, we saw a grizzly bear today; sordof.  Actually, he was sleeping under a tree about 1/2 mile away. Had the park ranger not told us that was a grizzly bear, we would never have known it.  It looked like a huge lump of bear dung under the tree to me.  But the facts are, we saw a grizzly bear!  YEA! That was the whole goal of today...the last day at Yellowstone.  Mission Accomplished! (See picture above)

It was still a very cold day here at Yellowstone.  And wet.  Rained hard last night, therefore, our campground mud-pit was now a mud-swamp.  Oh ya.....but that didn't stop us!  No sir-ee.  We hopped on that old trustee trike and headed the 30 miles down the road to the East Entrance to Yellowstone.  We made our way through rain, sleet, HAIL, and a little tiny bit of sunshine and the views were breathtakingly worth it.  Absolutely indescribable.  We saw tons of buffalo; some so close you could reach out and touch, but Chuck made me promise to keep the Trike in gear so we could make a run for it if we needed to.  One way to be sure you don't miss anything is to pull over when you see other people pulled over & check out what they're looking at. Chuck and I thought it would be funny to pull over and "act" like we're excited and looking at something really important (pointing/picture taking/excited...)  and then watch people start pulling over for nothing.  After we got our kicks out of that, we decided to find the waterfalls.  They were beautiful.  We had parked in a kinda  "illegal" parking spot and when I went to pull out, I thought it would be easier to just go straight between these two curbs instead of backing up.  It seemed like a good idea at the time, but what I didn't see was there was an actual BIG curb beyond the two I went between.  After the front tire went off this BIG curb, we were now teetering back and forth.  Do you have this picture in your head yet?  We couldn't go forward as we would probably take out the gas tank on the BIG curb; we couldn't go backwards cause the trike is too heavy.  We're drawing a crowd about this time and finally one old guy came up to me and said, "What were you thinking, little lady?"  "Well, little man, it seemed like a good idea at the time", I said.  We could tell he was doing everything he could to stifle a laugh which I thought was pretty considerate of him.  We both got off the trike, put it in neutral and pushed it backwards until we got the front tire up over the BIG curb.  I thought the crowd was going to cheer!  It kinda reminded me of the time I got the riding lawnmower stuck on the septic tank cover and I then promptly fell in the septic tank when we finally pushed the mower off.  I really hadn't seen a pattern until just now......hum......

Anyway, by the time we made it back to the RV, it was late...and poor Murphy had his legs crossed and was having an anxiety attack.....We rode about 240 miles on the trike today and our butts are sore, our bones are cold and wet and we are going to sleep well tonight.

Tomorrow, we pull up sewer hose and head north.....to warmer weather!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are going to head north where it is warmer??
Neat grissly, but the waterfall was absolutely
breath taking....being there was probably
10X better....I'm getting greener with envy.
take care.
ant ellie

Anonymous said...

I am so enjoying your trip while looking at the pictures and hearing you weave your fun and adventures and I am so not enjoying it too!!!!! No seriously, I'm glad you and Charlie are getting to experience all of those things. I hope you don't burn out on it so when we're ready to go you will still want to go with us. Keep sharing your adventures so I can live vicariously through you. Give Charlie and yourself a huge hug for me. Really gonna miss you!

Talk to you soon

Kim

Anonymous said...

ya'll are my hero!!!! i've heard my brother tell me about all the places around yellowstone when he and the gang rode to sturgus. they had some great pics as well, but most were of abunch of craziness that bikers do. ya'll be safe!!! tim

Anonymous said...

We have had lots of rain and storms here the past two days. At least you have beautiful scenery through it all. I love your gift for storytelling! Sorry we will miss you this weekend. Pat

Anonymous said...

Girl! You crack me up! Love, Lee

NORMAN H said...

HEY YOU ALL,

BOY THE SCENERY LOOKS BEAUTIFUL. WISH WE COULD HAVE BEEN THERE FOR THE BIG BIKE PUSH OFF.

SOUNDS LIKE THE WEATHER IS KNINDA NIPPY.

LOVE YOU ALL

SUE AND NORM

PS: KTDC

Anonymous said...

Hey guys, awesome pictures. Thank you for keeping us posted. drive safe and God Bless!!

Israel