Two Miles and Four Feet from Home

Wow! Another great night of sleep! It got chilly but not cold. We decided we would go ahead and pack up and drive the loop in the Craters of the Moon park and then set our sights on West Yellowstone city. The closed camper in the cooler make a great table and chairs and so we decided to have breakfast out on the loop. The first scenic view looked perfect and I fixed breakfast while Lyn took pictures. Today's breakfast was unconventional but delicious all the same. PB&J and chips for me and Lyn had Vienna sausages and left over corn on the cob. It was delicious and the view could not be beat. After that we continued the drive and just admired everything about this unusual place. After about 45 minutes we were on our way with a big day of driving ahead of us. Most of the driving was easy on small highways without anyone around. We arrived at West Yellowstone city at around 2. It is pretty cool looking but super touristy and lots of people moving about. We thought about camping there but decided to go into the park and try our luck. Right when we passed all the gates we saw a sign showing each campground and the fact that they were full. Now Yellowstone is a huge place and some of these campgrounds where over 60 miles away. We decided to drive the North loop which would takes us past three campgrounds and out the North gate. (One of my favorites by the way.) We came to the first campground and it was full as expected then the second which was full. Then we saw a spot that looked over Nymph lake. It was beautiful and was complete with bubbling pools of water and the blue and gold colors that seem only to be found at Yellowstone since it was not a picnic area it was not crowded and since we are pulling our own picnic table we decided to have lunch there. We had pork chop sandwichs and chips. Leftovers are always good but with this view and the company I keep it was the perfect place to take a break and get rejuvenated. We only had one campsite to try in the park and if we had no luck we were going to head north and exit the park and find something there. There was lots of construction with one way roads so traveling was slow but hey we were in Yellowstone not a bad place to take your time going through. We made it to the last campground and it was full. Since we had been here twice before we headed north through the Roosevelt gate. and decided to stay at a KOA about 45 miles north of the park. This would put us closer to our next destination which is Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. We were really hoping that they had a space and we tried to call but could never get an answer. Finally we made it and after going down a 1 mile road we turned into this beautiful little KOA. I went inside and asked the lady behind the counter if they had a site and she said they did. What a relief! She also noticed my North Carolina plates and said her Granddaughter was here for two weeks from Mayodan NC and that she was going to Rockingham community college that was an actual program at her high school. I said that I knew that program well since I worked at a High School that had the same program. Small world again. :) Anyway we drove to our site and it was perfect and had electricity! We also had the bathrooms near by with cows for next door neighbors. This place is just what we needed. It had been raining for the last 30 minutes so we set the camper up fast and in about 20 minutes the sun came out and Lyn fixed chicken menudo for dinner and it was awesome as usual. Then we sat around and got caught up on the blog and other internet things. While we were hanging out the campground owner brought her granddaughter down to meet me and we had a fun talk about her plans for the future and how her high school program is giving her the chance to get a two year degree with no debt. Awesome! You are doing it right! After that we took much needed showers and then did laundry. The laundry room was crazy. It had pinball machines and electronic games from the 70's and a big screen TV. We called it a night about ten and the nights temperatures were supposed to get down to about 50. We covered Jasper and went to sleep. To morrow we head to North Dakota! Still looking forward to each day!