Yellowstone Complete and into Idaho

This morning I woke with a song in my heart which is not unusual for me. The words seem to come from nowhere and I choose to believe it is the Holy Spirit directing my thoughts, The words that appeared automatically this morning were Gaither song words. " Yesterdays gone and tomorrow may never come, we have this moment to share". That is truly the feelings I have as we make this awesome trip. There are certain things I wish to bottle and take home to bring out on occasion so as to relive these days. Those would be:

Pine Tree Fragrance
Noises of the buffalo
Noises of the prairie dog
Sulpher smell (not necessarily pleasant)
Thirty five elk we saw in a group today
Feeling of awe at the sight of the Tetons
Thrill of Old Faithful (some say it isn't reaching the height of years before but we saw a good one today)
Bright turgoise water in the pools at the geyser basins
Mud Pots
Clear dry air

I was disappointed that we didn't see any bear in Yellowstone, something that has not happened to me before in about four or five visits. Then there was the moment when we passed the Continental Divide and Ken didn't stop and I fussed until he turned around and we went back to take pictures. A few miles down the road we passed another Continental Divide spot and then a few miles later yet another. It became one of the jokes of the day and we decided that the Continental Divide divided Ken and Gayle.

We started out our day coming back into Yellowstone from the north. As we came back to the Mammouth Hot Speryring area we came across some elk in the compound there. We were so busy watching and taking pictures that Sue didn't notice she stepped into a fresh pile of Elk manure. She had quite a messy shoe but the nice grass did a good job of cleaning it up. It's not everyone that steps in elk poop.

We enjoyed the Teton peaks with the beautiful dark colors with a thumbprint of white snow. Gorgeous. So often we have commented about God's beautiful creation. We feel so blessed. Then we spent a half hour or so in Jackson Hole. What a commercial place that is. Busy as ever. We enjoyed our short visit but were happy to get onto to the Teton pass and get out of there. We really enjoyed the 10 percent grades and hairpin turns. What a thrill.

We finally got to Idaho Falls and got a Super 8. We have had two of those and find them most comfortable and clean. Last night at the Best WEstern, I had to call the desk and ask them to get someone to clean the restroom before I would use it. When the housekeeper came into the room she was disgusted with the exchange student who had cleaned the room. We certainly had a clean restroom after her work.

Tonight we ate in Swan Valley Idaho at a local cafe/bar. Ken was enjoying his barbecued beef sandwich. Suddenly he bit into something hard. It was a plastic lid, probably from the barbecue sauce bottle. He showed the waitress and she was shocked. Ken got his meal complimentary tonight. All is well that ends well.