Yellowstone Park

What a great time! We took two days to see the whole park, but collected all the Passport Stamps at the Visitors Centers (there are 6). We saw Old Faithful erupt, and even cooler, saw Beehive Geyser erupt. Old Faithful is on a 90 minute cycle this year, but Beehive is on a 16 hour cycle, so is harder to see.

Didn't see any bears, but saw elk and bison. Most of the elk were in the middle of Mammoth Falls at the north end of the park.

Most of the bison we saw on the first day, were bulls walking down the side or middle of the road (they got to choose which). One walked right by Steve, and he got a good shot of his nose. On the second day, we got a good look at a lot of bison, who are gathering for the fall rut.

Had a great time, but didn't get to see everything there is to see. Probably would need 3 or 4 days to get to all of the trails and stops.

Yellowstone's Edge RV Park, Livingston, MT

What a view from the campsite! We can see the Yellowstone River. This park has a nightly campfire, which Steve took great part in, and the store sells great ice cream, which we both took great part in! It also has a webcam on their website, so friends in KC could see us at the campfire. COOL!

Well, Cathy actually agreed to kayak down the Yellowstone River, so we rented an inflatable kayak, packed a picnic, and took off from our campsite! Steve had already taken the truck to the location where we would get out, and cycled back to the campsite. We had a great time, even Cathy enjoyed herself. Minimal rapids and minimal paddling, as we had the wind at our back that day!

Garryowen, MT

On to Montana, and what a long drive it was. 7 hours in the truck, hauling your house is a looooong time. Camped at a place called 7th Ranch. Named after Custer's group. Toured the Little Bighorn National Monument. They have added tombstones where soldiers were originally buried, and added some where known Indians fell. Most of the Indian dead were taken away by the tribes as they left, so the numbers are not known.

Ate some local cuisine, since we were surrounded by the Crow Indian Reservation: Indian Tacos sold out of a tepee. They were really good, sort of like a funnel-cake tasting flatbread with ground beef, lettuce, cheese and taco sauce. They were huge, and lasted for two meals!

Murdo, SD

We camped in the big city of Murdo, SD. Steve now thinks about living here, as the bar at the top of the hill has a long happy hour, and 50 cent draft beer. Good thing the RV was at the bottom of the hill when he was done! Here was his view from the bar:

We went to Pierre, SD to look at the state capitol building (this is our third state capital. It was small, but beautiful, and was NOT under construction. Great marble staircases:

Mitchell, SD

Saw the Corn Palace, which is pretty cool. Also toured the Hansen Wheel and Wagon Shop, which restores or builds new stagecoaches, chuckwagons, etc:

Wilbur Czech Festival

Steve met Joyce from KC, and Dwayne and Ruth from Syracuse, and had a blast. Turns out that Joyce and Ruth were classmates in Wilbur for a year in high school. It is really a very small world. Steve brought back kolaches for Cathy, who stayed behind and did laundry!

Loess Hills, Iowa

Loess Hills must be Indian for weird dirt! Tour was not as interesting as we thought it would be, but was very scenic. Steve has to touch!

40th Class Reunion

In the big city of Tecumseh, home town of Steve Colton, we met our good friend Bob, you remember his look alike from Joliet! Bob drove us around town in his 500 HP Mustang! That was fun.

Also got to see the other musketeer, Leonard.

Closed the bar down, and a good time was had by all!

Pawnee City Tourists

We toured the big city, home of Dan Whitney (Larry the Cable Guy). Had a great time at the PEDAL CLINIC, which is a museum, exibit of all kinds of pedal cars, trucks, trains and other toys. It was worth the time.

Also toured Schilling Ridge Winery and Microbrewery, home of Git-R-Done beer! We had to buy some beer, as well as Hot Flash Red and Women Gone Wine!

Back to Nebraska City!

Here we are again in NE City. Took some time and traveled to KC for some appointments and to visit with friends.

The found hearing aid was finally sent to us, and taken to KC for testing. All was well, and they took the new one back and gave us a refund!!!!! Yeah.
Had a great time with friends at our favorite Friday place, Fuel Bar and Grill ($1.00 burgers on Fridays).

Babies!!!!

On July 29th, the Colton family added two new members: Fayth Ryan, and Gracie Leigh!!! Yeah, the first girls in this generation! Proud parents are Clint and Melanie.

St. Paul, MN

Today (july 26th) we toured the MN capital building in St. Paul. We were able to see the Supreme Court room as well as the House and Senate rooms. This capital is our second, and we are on our way to tour all 50 of them.

We did not tour St. Paul Cathedral, but we will have to do that at another time. We were told that all of the different cultures that settled here were able to decorate a nave with their traditional religious items.

We did eat at Mickey's Dining Car, a local dive.

We also did tour Grand Street, and had an ice cream at the Grand Creamery (highly recommended).