Wall, SD

We finally made it into South Dakota after spending a lot of time in Montana and Wyoming. Sorry for not posting yesterday - for some reason our Super 8 in Cooke City decided not to provide the free WiFi... so, here's the update:

Yesterday: Yellowstone!
* Miles Traveled: ? - we drove from Bozeman down to the north entrance and through the main loop hitting up Mammoth Hot Springs, Norris, Old Faithful, West Thumb, and then back out through the Northeast Entrance. Then we spent the night just outside of Yellowstone in Cooke City. I will say that Old Faithful is definitely the place to hit up and some of the stops in the other "towns" weren't really worth it. Driving around Yellowstone Lake was really pretty, but long. And going out through the Northeast entrance is even longer with some steep cliffs - oh yeah, and Bison blocking the roadway - but the vistas were pretty - especially with the sunset hitting the mountains. Pictures to come... probably will set up a picasa album and put a link up on the blog.
* Hours in the car: ? - we did spend a good amount of time walking around and sitting out at the lodge at Old Faithful. Definitely less time in the car compared to the previous day.
* License Plate Bingo: Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Virginia. Bonus Points: Ontario. Über Bonus Points: Deutchland (yes, really - European plate with the lovely "D" sticker)
Unfortunately, we did not come across any recently married Jens and Cams :(

Today:
* Miles Traveled: 547
* Hours in Car: 10 hours (Including 1.5 hours sitting on I-90 12 miles from Buffalo, WY waiting for roadside assistance to come with some gas to get us to Buffalo like we had hoped. Moral of the story: don't trust the husband with the history of the car - get gas as soon as you find a station after your gas light turns on - stupid me for not pulling the veto rank as "driver" at that moment in the afternoon. Though, what's a roadtrip without some hiccup and needing to pull off to the side?)
* Liscense Plate Bingo: Iowa (finally! Now all we need are the East Coast states which are to come. Also really hoping to come across Saskatchewan as we keep heading east... who knows, maybe tomorrow...)

Also to note with License Plate Bingo - it seems like almost all of the trailer trucks come from Oklahoma... very rare to see one from another state.

I must say that it was nice to take US Highway 212 back to I-90. Yes, the road did suck as you traveled through Bearclaw Pass as you went up and down the mountains through several switchbacks and hairpin turns with cliff on either side of you the whole time (yes Becky, we have not found a cliff or a ditch to go into yet!). Hard drive, but really worth it for the views and the elevation change. We went from 8,000 feet in Cooke City to 11,000 at the top of the pass and then back down to 7,000 feet in about 80 miles. It was also fun in the sense that we started in Montana, to drive through Wyoming to get back to I-90 in Montana, and then pass back into Wyoming, all to get to South Dakota. At least I can now mark South Dakota on my list of states visited :)

Tomorrow - drive through the Badlands (we are just a few miles from the beginning of the loop) and maybe head into Minnesota - Andrew will be taking over the computer shortly to figure out the itinerary. Sad to say that we are not hitting up Mount Rushmore, but that was a detour that we felt was not necessary for getting there just to take a picture and say that we visited that landmark (go ahead and tell me how wrong we are...) Anyway, we drove past all opportunity to go detour there and would have to back-track.

Anyway, I'm tired, I think it's time to rest up for tomorrow's drive.

Later!