Eli – July 14

Today we are staying at a RV Park in Bozeman.  There is a water park (but it is small).  They also have a swimming pool and a miniature golf course.  The last 3 days we were in Yellowstone National Park (more to come).

Emma – July 14

Today, we went to the Museum of the Rockies.  I think that the museum was pretty cool because there were many exciting and interesting exhibits.  My favorite exhibit was the Dinosaur exhibit because there was a real T-REX skull!  There were also a lot of other real bones!  I also liked the NASA exhibit which was a RV trailer that showed us lots of cool space things, facts and a movie about Mars and the Earth.  They let us touch a moonstone from the moon.  There was a movie about technology and what they (NASA) plan to do in the future.  I thought that it was very interesting.  Another exhibit that I liked was the Pioneer and Early Settlers exhibit.  There were some very practical houses.  They had just what they needed and nothing else.  They didn’t have “junk” scattered around.  They had a use for everything.  They also had a lot less technology than us today.  In general, the museum was very interesting. 

Phil – July 14

Trip Odometer 2258.2 miles

Gas – 39.32 gal ($114) @ $2.89/gal

Barb – July 16

We made it to the Glacier National Park after a long drive from Bozeman, MT where we stayed overnight at a KOA.  The kids loved the KOA because they had a mini waterpark with sports of shooting water and buckets of water that filled up and topped over on your head – I just watched the fun from the dry area.  In Bozeman, we stopped at the Museum of the Rockies – a great place.  We saw a real T-Rex skull and assorted other dinosaur bones and were able to touch them!  It also has a nice exhibit on the geology of this part of the world and how it came to look like it does today.  There was a Lewis and Clark 200 year event going on where people were dressed in clothes of the time and they showed different aspects of life at the time Lewis and Clark cam through Montana in 1806.  Eli assisted a gentleman that was demonstrating how to shoot a flint-rock rifle – it was very loud.  We all tried to out run the gizzly bear game – where someone dropped a marble through a maze and the chasee tried to run around a fence before the marble hit the bell – if the bell rang before you made it back to the start, you loose.  Well, we all were eaten by the bear.  Elis was eaten several times.  Before we left Bozeman we stopped for lunch in down town Bozeman where Phil somehow caught a street sign between the RV rear and bumper.  It was really wedged in there until some kindly Bozeman guy vandalized the street sign for by bending the sign side-ways so we could drive away.  What a nice guy.

Phil July 17

Running Gin Rummy Score

Mom – 135

Eli – 149

Emma – 133

Dad – 331

Sam – watching

Emma July 17

Today we stopped at another water park.  I thought that the other water park that we went to had more rides but longer lines, so they were pretty much the same ratings – 5 stars.  I am getting car-sick so I will rest.

Emma July 18

Today we are on the road and we have 8 more days.  I think his trip has been fun.  We are in Washington right now and we will be in Oregon soon.  I think that the best part of our trip was probably Crater Lake because there was lots of snow and it was beautiful.  I also like Yellowstone because it had cool monuments.  My favorite part of Yellowstone was probably Old Faithful and all of the buffalos. 

Eli July 18

Today we are staying in a RV park that I don’t know the name of.  It has a swimming pool, an arcade, a general store, a laundry mat, hook-ups and a noisy train that keeps coming by our site.  A few days ago we were at Glacier National Park.  We went on a 3-mile hike that felt like 100,000 miles!!! We saw lots of glacier goats and Bighorn sheep.  My favorite part about the hike was throwing snowballs at my Dad and my brother and my sister.  Of coarse I got hit back.  Awhile ago we were at Yellowstone National Park.  I haven’t had a chance to write about it so this is what we did.  The day we got there we started a contest to see who could see the most animals.  We say Bison, Deer, Elk and lots, lots more.  My favorite animal was the Bison.  They were so big and looked really happy.  Also, on the first day we say Old Faithful.  It was kind of lame.  We went for a walk and we saw a lot of hot springs and geysers.  I fell and bruised my knee.  I’m glad I didn’t fall into a hot spring.  The temperature can be about 202 degree’s F.  On the second day we went for a hike in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  One the last day we went to Norris Geyser Basin and to Mammoth Hot Springs.  See ya later.

Sam July 18

I am in Idaho.  I went to Yellowstone National Park.  I didn’t really like it because it smelled because of the sulfur  - it smelled like rotten eggs.  And I also didn’t like it because we didn’t make it to Canada.  When we went to Glacier National Park.  There was a lot of snow and I threw a lot of snowballs at Eli and Dad and Tian Tian, Dan Dan, and Yian Yian  (stuffed bears).  When we were in Montana there was a little water park and a swimming pool.  After you go in the water park you can jump in the swimming pool and it feels like a hot tub.  There was a hot tub but it was for 18 and over.  Now we are at a RV park.  There’s a swimming pool here and an arcade and a general store and a playground.  It is hot here.  After I finish writing this I get 5 quarters.

Emma July 18

Today I am in Oregon.  The pool here is boring because it is mall with no fun features in it.  There was a weird movie playing in the game room at the KOA that we are staying at.  It was a low-budget horror movie about bugs coming out of your body.  This weird-o girl was getting ready for bed and bugs started coming out of her.  She went crazy and eventually killer herself.  (I won’t say how – it’s really gory).  The blood was super fake and dumb.  Overall I think the movie was dumb and funny because the producers must have been pretty desperate for a movie!

My favorite part of our trip was probably Yellowstone because it was very interesting in the way that there were a lot of geysers and hot springs that were very majestic and unfortunately very smelly.  Half of the time we were in Yellowstone it smelled like sulfur – which is rotten-egg smell.  Even the showers smelled bad. 

I also like Glacier National Park because there was soft snow.  We threw lots of snowballs at each other and my hands froze.  We saw this tiny little goat baby!  It looked like a little lamb in its white fur and angelic eyes!  The water parks we visited were very fun because the slides were curvy and swirly.  They had a cool white ride that you went down in a tube.  You would hit a sharp turn and fly around.  On our first water park, I like the waves and black tube because the waves were very high and the black tube was pitch black (when you were inside).  I have really enjoyed this fun trip.

Barb July 18

Glacier National Park is awesome.  We rented a car so that we could drive across the “Going to the Sun” road which doesn’t allow big, fat RVs to traverse – and a good thing because that road was scary enough in a little 4 door Buick.  At the top of the road, Logan Pass, we stopped and took a hike to Hidden Lake.  Wow.  It was really gorgeous.  As we hiked you could spin around 360 degrees and everywhere around us there were these very tall jagged peaks and canyons that had been carved out by glaciers long ago.  It was hot out,  but there were still sections of the trail covered in snow.  And me in my Teva sandals.  The snowballs were flying, but luckily I stayed out of the fray. 

Last night we stayed in a state park in Northern Idaho.  We ate pizza in Sandpoint, Idaho and found the Natural Foods Store in town -  after getting directions from a women at the Pizza place whose sister lives right near us in Glen Park.  Small world.

Phil July 18

I spent the afternoon in the back of the RV resting on the bed with Ringo while Barb drove.  I reckon after I nearly wrapped the motor-home around a pole in Bozeman,  Barb had nothing to loose.  Resting with Ringo, I see he hates traveling in the RV.  He can’t sit still or bend his front legs when the vehicle is moving.  Sitting on top of me isn’t helping my ride.  When we re-board the RV after a break, Ringo literally digs in his front legs not wanting to get back on- board.   Luckily he’s only 6 pounds (even after my beef up Ringo with Alpo program).   He’s quite happy now with a solid earth under his belly at the KOA campground in Oregon. 

We tried our second patch of instant potatoes tonight for dinner.  The claim was the “best mashed potatoes or your money back”.  A bit starchy and thick though Eli ate them all (and he’s a tough sell).