America the Beautiful.

The last two days have been the most awe inspiring days of he trip. When we left Rapid City, Nancy, Mark and Wayne wanted to go see Devil's Tower (the rock formation from Close Encounters) but Terry and I wanted to get to Cody to see the Buffalo Bill Cody museum.

US 90 gets us going west and then north, right in the path of.....all together now.....torrential rain. We didn't leak TOO bad (most of the leaks are on Terry's side) and the wipers got a workout. The further north we went the less it rained until it finally quit. I guess one day without rain was enough!

From 90, Route 14 is the quickest way to Cody, but there are two 14's, regular and alternate. We decided to take the alternate since is was marked 'scenic' on the map.....'scenic' doesn't come close to describing that road. As we started crossing a mountain, a huge rock formation pushing out of the earth looks almost prehistoric and then Terry spotted a moose in a bog. The road was very nice, traffic non-existent. We even hit snow!!!

Coming down a 10% grade (ten miles of that gets STEEP!!) we came upon the Big Horn Basin.....the colors and shapes in the basin way below us took our breath away. It looked like a backdrop painted by an artist with streaks of red and pink which were to big to be visible at ground level later. It was spectacular!!!

We got to town in time to visit the museum, a history of what was probably the first man to take advantage of every communication method available to promote himself and his Wild West show. Hundreds of personal items, from guns to medals to furniture, were nicely displayed. The museum was closing so we headed to our motel, but of course it was pouring yet again as I tried to get the bags out of the car.

This morning it was sunny as we hit the road at 7:30, wanting to beat the crowds to Yellowstone. At the entrance they had a buffalo statue out in the field right next to the road and we commented on how life-like it looked when it suddenly moved!!! Here was a huge male buffalo, separated from us by a simple log fence!! However, he seemed more interested in the grass in the field.

Our route through Yellowstone had to be shortened because of road construction but we still got to see Old Faithful blow twice and visit some other pools. Overall, it was a bit disappointing because the fires in '88 and '06 killed thousands of acres of trees. They're starting to come back but it's going to be decades before its all green again.

What awaited us in Grand Teton National Park more than made up for burned trees. It is truly spectacular, huge peaks covered in snow framing lush green plains below. It all went by so quickly since we had to get to our next stop, Idaho Falls.

Just out side town we were stopped by road construction, long enough that people got out of their cars. The driver of a semi in front of us started telling us that a big group of woodies was coming to Idaho Falls tonight..... I mentioned that we were the only woodies touring the country to my knowledge but he was sure it was a big group......okaaayyyyyy. He was interested in the Hunter's '48 since he has a '47 coupe.

We got to town, went to dinner and returned to our motel and were covering the car when a couple in a PT Cruiser drove up, determined to find the big woodie group he heard was visiting town. I told him I'd been told the same thing by the semi driver.We came to the conclusion that our three cars were the 'big group' and while chatting the PT guy, it turned out he knew the semi driver who was the one passing the rumor about the big group. Small world!!!

Tomorrow we're off to Utah to visit the Golden Spike site, then Ogden for a photo shoot with a photography group which has never SEEN a woodie ending up in Salt Lake City. See ya then!