Day 6: Yellowstone and the Helena Brewers

Click HERE to see photos from Day 6.

Fun Fact #1: The mileage now totals 2,020. We drove over 1,000 miles in Montana alone - more than 20% of the total miles we expect to drive - in two days!
Fun Fact #2: Ordering a sausage and egg McMuffin without cheese and with a "folded" egg baffles the minds of people out here. So far, three have been ordered on this trip. The number correct? Zero.
Fun Fact #3: Yellowstone National Park was the first national park established in 1872 by Teddy Roosevelt.

Day 6 began, once again, with a 6:30 a.m. wake up call. We were on the road at 8 to get to Yellowstone National Park and still make it to the game in Helena on time. Whatever negativity I may have expressed or implied about the size and boredom factor of Montana has been rescinded. I love this state and this photo illustrates why. It sucks to drive 500 miles straight in one day, but the scenery is incredible and ever changing. Anyway, we made pretty good time to Yellowstone only to sit in traffic for a half hour once we entered. During that time, we saw a bald eagle atop a tall pine, but traffic started flowing before I could snap a pic. That, along with the traffic, angered me more than I can say.

Yellowstone rocks. Like Montana, it's got many different landscapes within a vast area. Pine covered mountains, snow-capped mountains in the distance, rocky desert-like areas, the huge Yellowstone Lake, geysers and thermal springs, grasslands and new growth trees after a huge fire in 1988. And wildlife. A ton of wildlife. We saw the previously mentioned bald eagle, buffalo herds, elk, and a bear. We don't know if it was a black bear or a young grizzly, but it was a bear.It tried to eat me, but I fought him. I won with a figure four leg lock. Dumb bear couldn't bear the pain (get it? bear the pain? God, I'm humorous.) and submitted in 25 seconds. We didn't get a photo of that though. The bear had knocked the camera from my grasp during the struggle.

I really wanted to see Old Faithful, but it's very hit or miss on your timing. If you miss the eruption, you have to wait 90 minutes to see it again. We didn't have 90 minutes to spare, so we would have been on our way without seeing it. However, the gods were smiling. We parked and walked up to join about 2,000 other people. It erupted within 2 minutes. It was a sight to behold. Once it subsided, it was like leaving a baseball game - everyone rushing to their cars to get the H outta there.

Have I mentioned that I love the 75 m.p.h. speed limits up here? I can't say that enough people. So we left Yellowstone by the North Entrance and started the 3 hour drive to Helena to see the Brewers. Helena was an odd place. It was kind of pit-like, but not really. They have a 2,000 square foot Dillard's in a 10,000 square foot mall. Everything is smaller here in the capital of Big Sky Country. Go figure. It's a place that time forgot. Lots of mullets, mesh-backed hats, Oakley sunglasses, tattoos and motorcycles.

The game was over by 9:15 and we were back in Butte with Adrienne, Dave and the dogs and cats by 10:20 and it was still somewhat light out. We got to hang out with them some more before going to bed. They are cool peeps and we will be coming back to spend more time with them, visit Yellowstone again and do some white water rafting. That's now a lifelong goal of mine. It shall be done! Speaking of done, I'm gonna wrap this up now.

We've now driven 2/5 of our projected miles and we're headed out of Montana today for Spokane, Washington and an Indians game tonight. We actually got to sleep in a bit today because we're not driving a million miles.

As always, for the drifty-eyed people who skim to the bottom, click HERE to see photos from Day 6.

Next stop: Day 7 in Spokane, Washington.