Hello all!

The morning of July 2nd started at the campsite with a loud screaming type sound that woke Joy and I up. I don't think I told this story yet, but if a duplicate sorry about that. Well, Joy and I awoke to this sound and we were pretty convinced it was a goose. Kind of a loud "caw" sound. Well, Joy stuck her head out the tent, and it was a Peacock! Just sitting on the fence directly behind the tent. We think he liked the popcorn that we popped the night before at the fire. It was amazing watching him walk around, he hung out for about 20 minutes.

We ended up leaving Billings after buying breakfast at the KOA. The drive to Bozeman was next. When we arrived in Bozeman it seemed to be an interesting little town. Everyone was riding bikes and seemed very young. It made sense because we found that there is a Montana State University in town. We made it to the Museum of the Rockies, which was a huge and well developed dinosaur museum, working farm exhibit and partial childrens museum. Pretty nice place. Lots of interactive exhibits and technology. This was a great stop, and we have tons of pictures for this.

Next was a rotten meal at a McDonald, which we have tried to avoid as much as possible. The next trip was the drive to Yellowstone!!! 88 Miles on a twisty, but amazing highway. The mountains seemed to just jump out of the sky, with snow topped peaks coming through the clouds. I can't describe the beauty, and the driving was a little slow and I was overly cautious.

We enjoyed seeing the white water rafters as we drove closer to town. The rivers run pretty hard and also you see bikers, quad runners, and horse riders.

Driving through West Yellowstone on route 20 was a great little town full of charm and not too much touristy stuff. Sure there are some tourist traps, but they are not like "the Dells" or anything.

Of course the black clouds came zipping through when we started putting up the tent. It was stressful and some screaming was involved, but we managed. We were so stressed we zipped back into town and paid for dinner. Everyone ate and enjoyed shopping, and of course ice cream. The frigid night reminded us that we're really at mother nature's whim now.

We're up and ready to start our day. Hopefully I'll get more pictures downloaded soon.