Livingston, Montana

It is after midnight and we have just found this Livingston, Montana Econo Lodge. "Montana?" you wonder. "What happened to spending some time in Yellowstone National Park? Isn't Yellowstone in Wyoming?"

well... let me tell you a little about today before I test out these motel pillows.

We did drive into Wyoming to see Yellowstone and we did take an exit for the park. This exit led us straight into a mountain pass and we started to wonder again if this is the sort of thing people do with their household goods. We drove about 30 miles traveling an average of 20 mph because we were driving up into a mountain range. We hadn't actually thought about this when we were back in Raleigh. Visiting Yellowstone sounded then like a great idea. It didn't so much today. We made it to the peak of the mountain pass but knew there would be miles and miles before Cody, Wyoming and the east gate of the park. We asked some folks who were heading back down the mountain if the rest of the drive would be so strenuous. They said we had done the worst, but that there would be more passes to climb. And they said the east gate was actually closed due to a forest fire. This settled it in our mind. What had taken us an hour and a half to climb took us thirty minutes to descend and we were back on the interstate. We decided we'd take a family vacation to Yellowstone someday, but not on this roadtrip and not with our couch.

So we drove on into Montana. And because Montana is in the middle of their state fair every hotel and motel along the interstate between Billings and Livingston (about 120 miles) is completely booked. We stopped for dinner in Billings thinking we'd stay the night there but once we started looking for a room it soon became apparent that we'd have to get a ways down the road first. And that's why we are now in Livingston.

We plan to sleep in and enjoy a continental breakfast. At this rate, I guess my next post could be from Canada.

And thanks for leaving comments, dear friends. It's nice to hear from each of you.