Wednesday, May 19th

Today was one filled with adventures.


First adventure was that the furnace would not work so we spent a very cold, rainy night which got down to 40 degrees outside and not much better inside.

We left the Fishing Bridge camp site at about 7:30. It was overcast and it was impossible to see any sunshine at all. We returned to the Canyon which we gave up on it yesterday afternoon because of the weather. We were the ONLY people at all of the sites we visited. That was a nice reward for getting up so early. I learned why the area is called Yellowstone – this whole canyon is made up of yellow rocks and cliffs. Duh! Cliff told me this important fact that should have been self-evident. The only thing left on our agenda was visiting the Mammoth Hot Springs. Not much lives there in the flows from these vents.

While leaving the park, we were on a narrow road with cars on the driver’s side and rocks on the passenger’s side. There came a time when Cliff had to decide to hit or be hit by a car on his side of the RV or take his chances with the rocks. Rocks one, RV zero. We discovered down the road that the exhaust pipe was slightly bent and the rear tire had a gaping hole in its side. We found a rest area that was sort of flat (just like the tire), parked and called AAA. After much diplomacy on my part and the perseverance of a Montana AAA employee, we successfully added RV coverage to our membership. Cliff said it was like breaking your leg and then applying for health insurance to pay for it. The Triple A charge for the coverage was just $45.00. The new tire was $215.00!

We had a lot of down time but still didn’t get too far off of our schedule. We spent the night in a privately owned pretty RV park where I had a lengthy conversation with the owner about his efforts to grow fruit trees in an area where only cotton woods grow. The master gardener in me came out. Just couldn’t help myself.