There is not much art in my life at the moment, because we are renovating our villa in Spain. Yet I have little pieces of time, in which I try to report our trip through the United States. If you don't want to read it, you have to be patient for the artsy stuff, but at least the report will be here in my little place on the web. Earlier posts on this trip are in the Four Summers ago category in the sidebar. Let's travel!
For this first motorhome trip four summers ago, we only had
a few fixed dates: the start, our flight back to our Caribbean island (from
Albuquerque) and we had to pick up our son at Seatlle Airport on July 6. He
intended to travel with us during the Canadian part of our trip.
By now we also
had more or less developed our camping routine and gotten used to the
facilities of the US campgrounds and our motorhome.
Our next highlight was Yellowstone National Park. As there are no interstates crossing
the Rockies from South to North, we decided to drive along the eastern slope of
the mountain range via Hwy 25 and 20. The landscape throughout Wyoming was
very, very empty. I remember driving the endless empty spaces without hardly any
other traffic. We came through sleepy places like Wheatland, Casper, Shoshoni
and Meeteetse. In later trips we noticed that most American cities are built
according to a kind of blueprint, and that they all seem very similar for this
reason. But here we were in the West and just saw villages that had maintained their own
character, and so were the people: men and women with cowboy hats were no exceptional
view. After a few days of empty, but beautiful spaces we entered Cody, situated
almost at the south eastern Yellowstone entrance. Cody was a lovely and lively
town, where we learned many facts about Buffalo Bill (Colonel Cody) and the
Blackfoot Indians, the history of this area. It had quaint little shops and I
must say that the silver jewelry and cowboy boots looked very tempting to me...
We entered Yellowstone National Park and bought our
admission fee, received various maps and other information. There was a place
at one of the campgrounds for only two nights, which we decided to reserve.
Everything was organized very thoroughly, without doubt due to the long
experience since the park's existence. Yellowstone was special, with the
fumeroles, the steaming and hissing that seemed to be everywhere, with Mammoth
Hot Springs and the river and canyon landscape. We did not see many wildlife,
only lots and lots of visitors with huge cameras. After having seen the Old
Faithful erupt, we made a tour around the park and noticed big parts of the hills
had burnt trees. For us two days among so many tourists was enough, and we continued
our trip in the direction of Bozeman (Montana). Passed through villages and
little cities westward and drove the Lewis and Clark trail starting in
Missoula's Bitterroot Mountains. Here in Idaho the country was mountainous and
very green.
After staying at a campground in Lewiston we crossed the Washington
state border the next day in Clarkston. Washington was full of fruits!! Apples,
cherries, what not, could be purchased along the road that took us via Walla
Walla, Richland, Yakima to the coast, where we wanted to stay during the
festivities of July Four. In the distance we also discovered Mount Rainier with
its snow covered top...
It was at the coast of the Olympic National Park that we
were completely taken by the beauty of this part of the country. Lake Quinault
and the driftwood at the coast were certainly highlights of this state. Finally,
after the holidays, we drove to Tacoma airport and there he was: our companion
for the weeks that were left.
Oh, and this was our first 4th of July celebration! In our campground fireworks were forbidden, but overall it meant bbq, lots of drinking, blue white and red flags, and lots of smoke...
If you have been, thanks for reading!
Regina
