Road Trip - Part 2

Day 4: Possible solution and fast forward through Yellowstone
Let me put your mind at ease....our car did not break down. However we did find a service station inside of Yellowstone and decided it would be best to have it checked out. They were able to reassure us it was NOT the coolant, but a much much bigger problem...most likely. Basically whatever the problem was, they wouldn't be able to really know unless they took the entire engine out. AWESOME! Yeah, not really. They told us that it was probably an issue with the head gasket and if they ordered a part for us it would take 3 days! Rather than sit around at Yellowstone for 3 more days (we had places to go, people to see) we decided to sit around in Cody, WY for an entire day. After frantically calling service station after service station we found one that could overnight the part and could work on the car (it would be a 7-9 hr job). We also found a hotel after many, many attempts. Did you know Cody, WY is a major tourist town and hotels are often booked throughout the summer? Yeah, me neither.

So by now it is 3 o'clock and we have the rest of the day to explore Yellowstone....without putting to much extra ware on the car. We got to see Old Faithful - which honestly was a bit of a let down. I had seen it go off before and remembered it going much higher. Oh well, still cool.

We also saw tons of thermal pools. Ask Neile to describe Yellowstone and he might just tell you it was stinky (hmmmm the smell of rotten eggs - gotta love it).
Then we saw some most amazing waterfalls and canyons. Beautiful.















Day 5: Goodbye Yellowstone, stranded in Cody
Early, early, early we get up and pack all of our stuff in the car. I may not have mentioned it yet, but this is now day 3 without showers. Also at this point I definitely have a cold and all I want to do is sleep (do you feel sorry for me yet?!?). We get to Cody (just under 200 miles - some of which went straight over the Bighorn mountains - from our campsite) around 10:30. The service place shuttles us to our hotel where we find out we can't check in until at least 1pm. So we decide to just start walking.

I have no idea how many miles we walked that day, but we did go to a Sierra Trading Post outlet store on the complete opposite side of town. We also stopped for lunch at a cute little Mexican restaurant. Well, it was cute until they ran out of Salsa! Yes, it is true and very very bad as I love my salsa dearly. As the customer sitting across from us said, "that's like a Chinese restaurant running out of rice". After that fiasco it was almost 1 so we headed back in the direction of our hotel. Thankfully, when we got there a room was ready and I was able to bathe and pass out on our bed. So nice.

At this point we still didn't know if we would be in Cody longer than one day as we hadn't heard how our car was doing. But our fears were put to rest just before 6 as they called to tell us it would be ready soon! That was exciting...much more exciting than the bill they also told us about=(.

Day 6: Colorado here we come!
Due to our automobile difficulties we had to scrap one day of our trip. All in all it worked out amazingly well (it was only 1 day after all), but we were both bummed to miss the Tetons. This night we were set to stay way up in Rocky Mountain National Park. This was a new place for me. Absolutely beautiful. Honestly, the drive into the park was just breathtaking. I only wish we weren't so tired at this point....I'm sure we would have enjoyed it more. Also, we only had 1 more picture remaining on our camera and knew we wanted to save that for some very special people.

Day 7: Ahhh so cute
We didn't have to do too much driving as our destination was Colorado Springs. It was here that we got to see my dear friend Liz. This is the girl I have known since I was 9! AND she just had her first baby. A precious little girl, Eleanor. It was just so amazing to see her and to spend time with Liz and Jeremiah. Even though it was a short stay (less than 24 hours) it was still very rich and full. Day 8: And back again
Our return to the Black Hills. By now, we were both pretty exhausted and definitely ready to be home. We stayed at the now deserted science station and got some needed sleep. It is so strange to go to a place after it is closed down for the season...the quiet is so unexpected.

Day 9 and 10: Set out on our separate ways
Not too much exciting these days. Just straight driving and in separate vehicles at that. We offered to take a truck back to the college which meant we got to be bored alone rather than together though all of SD and MN. So by the time Monday rolled around we were more than ready to be done with the car.
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Man our trip was longer than I thought (are you even still reading??), but soo good and needed. We were soo relaxed after this and really ready to kick off our next big thing. Finding a house. Yes the hunt is on!