Big Sky country...

***Miles travelled today: 342

***Total Miles:

***States travelled through: Montana

I have banished Jay from the blog today as her entries seem to go on forever... see what happens when I fall asleep early!!!

Once again today we have put some serious miles on the clock...

We decided to go into Yellowstone again this morning, to make our way northwards to where the hot springs are - at a place called Mammoth... well, we have seen postcards and photos of the terraces from the calcium deposits that are made from the springs, so we went in search of the terraces that are on all the postcards... but when we found it - it looked very different... the calcium terraces are really odd, they are like folds of white all layered on top of each other and in some places the springs continue to run and the water pours down the terraces... well, the terraces that we went off in search of were totally dry, as the underground spring has changed direction... Yellowstone is amazing in terms of the activity that must be constantly going on under the ground... things that we don't even see or seldom contemplate!!!

As I have not blogged for the past few days, I need to share a conversation that took place early on in our adventures in the park - talking about the possibility of seeing bear... Well, we were discussing what might happen if people came across bear whilst they were out walking and Jay felt that simply taking a pot of honey with one would suffice... when I asked what made her think bears like honey - her response was, "Winnie the Pooh does!!!" So, if you are ever travelling in bear country, forget bear spray - simply take a pot of honey with you!!!

After having stopped at the general store for some ice cream (Jay is really loving the peanut butter ice cream... there is peanut butter everything in the States!!!), and a bit of shopping... (we have bought our little niece something really cute... but we can't blog it as she and her Mommy and Daddy are following the blog!!! But - we just couldn't resist!!!) Anyway - we finally left Yellowstone at about lunch time... and we had about 280 miles to do as we had booked our accommodation at Missoula... it is Independence day weekend and so we needed to make sure that we had our accommodation booked for the next few days... as it is really busy and the prices of things have sky rocketed... last night driving into West Yellowstone we noted that at one garage the price of petrol was $2.89 and it was $2.95 at the one across the road - so we decided that we would fill up this morning... well they were both marked up to $3.05 this morning... solely for the weekend travellers... and if you need petrol in West Yellowstone - you need to get it - as there is none for a number of miles in any direction!!!

We have travelled most of the afternoon on the Interstate 90 West - we do keep coming back to it!!! We have travelled through Montana... what a lovely state... even though we were on the interstate... the scenery is just amazing... although it was rainy and the sky was grey... Montana is called the 'Big Sky Country', as the sky seems so much bigger... we didn't quite know what that meant... until driving along the roads that go on forever and there are rolling hills and mountains and areas that are just flat in between... and the sky reaches all the way down to the ground... which it does everywhere I know, but somehow it just looks different... we didn't really manage photos of this today, but will hopefully take some tomorrow as our travels are not on the interstate...

Just wanted to say 'thanks' again to all your comments, on the blog as well as e-mails, SKYPE and Facebook... we don't know what we would have done without the laptop... it has been brilliant...

Thanks too for the positive comments about the photos... We cannot believe the cameras that people have over here - they are huge... although we have not been able to take real close ups of things, our camera is doing pretty well - even if I say so myself... I don't even want to consider how many photos we have... every day we go through them and delete the ones that we don't want... some days we still end up with over a hundred... even after the dud ones have been deleted... I'm trying to contemplate what our scrapbooks of this holiday may look like... when a holiday of two weeks results in two huge albums with over 600 photos in them... mmm... I have no idea what these albums will be like!!!

Suzi, you need to find a place on your map called MISSOULA... we are only travelling a short distance tomorrow... to Flathead lake where we are staying for two days - where we are going to try and do nothing!!! Before venturing up to Glacier National Park - which is where we were headed but could not find any accommodation for the weekend... so changed our plans!!! We can't quite believe that two weeks today we get rid of our lovely hire car in Seattle where we will then stay until the 20th of July before flying back to Boston for our final week on Cape Cod...