The Final Chapter

Well boys and girls every story has a beginning and an end. I now write the final chapter of, "Our Adventure in Yellowstone". I left Florida on April 28th. with my two dogs, Molly and Mia, and my Harley in tow. Claire was still teaching and would not be able to join me until the first week in June. She flew out of Ft. Lauderdale into Cody, Wy where we set up house in our new travel trailer which was located in the employee RV park. I had never been in a RV or travel trailer so I had no idea what to look for. All I knew was that it had to be new. I purchased a 27Ft. travel trailer on line in Billings, MT. Now 27 ft. sounds pretty big, how would I know that I should have had slide outs for more room? Well, we did manage although it was small but comfy. I should not complain as we had a great time. Will we come back for another year? As Arnold would say, " I'll be back". Yes, we will return. Why wouldn't we. YNP is such a beautiful place. Why would anyone ever deny Creation. OK, to get up with my final chapter. Oct. 6th. would be our last day. A week before that we had to deal with the fire which was closing in on us. We were under a 24 hour possible evacuation. Now we only had one more week to go, the temperature was dropping, with snow on the way. We were told that our trailers would have to be towed to an area that would not have electric, propane, sewer or bathroom facilities, should I say more. Well we prayed a lot and our prayers were answered with snow... lots of it. This stopped the fire from advancing and we were safe. The fire is behind us and now it is snowing. Guess what? Due to the snow the park services started closing the roads due to snow and now we are wondering if we get get out. The 6th. rolls around and the weather should be nice and it was. We were anxious and got up around 4:00AM even though we couldn't check out until 9:00AM. With snow on the ground, all over the car with ice on the windshield, (temp. was 9 degrees) Claire went out to start up the car. Now if you live where there is snow and ice you do this to warm up the car. As the car was warming up she decided that perhaps she could get some laundry done before we left. As she was putting all the clothes in the back of our SUV she shut the back window and heard this beep. We all know what the beep means. The doors are locked. She comes into the trailer and asks me where my keys are. My reply, " they are in my pants where they should be". Panic now sets in. Her keys are in the ignition with the car running and my keys are in my pants, in the car, with the car running. She had placed my pants on top of the dirty laundry and when she closed the back window it connected with my remote and locked the doors. Now the big problem. It is 6:00AM, the service stations at the general store within one mile of us is closed for the season. Several roads are now closed. We got in touch with YNP park service and they had one service station that was still open for a few more days. This was 30 miles away and he had to dig out his truck from the snow in order to get to us. Two hours latter, the car still running, however with no snow or ice on the car as it all melted. We went to the hotel where the retail staff got together for the last time and to take photos. We then got into the car and the RV dealer arrived to take our trailer to be stored in Billings, MT. Driving thru Cody, Wy we saw a cattle round up with real cowboys. Claire was thrilled. We spent the night in BIllings and made our way to S.Dakota. The next day we spend driving around the Bad Lands which was a real thrill for me. We stopped for lunch at an outpost where I had a bison burger and Claire and bison indian tacos. On the way out we stopped a ANOTHER general store so Claire could buy more books, (we now have a couple hundred pounds of books) After a few stops at a couple of service stations,(because the bison didn't agree with Claire) we made it to a motel in S.Dakota. I was playing with the computer when Claire comes in sobbing, "I can't find my wallet". What now? We both have the same credit cards so If I cancel them, how do we get home? I called the credit card company to get phone numbers of the places we had stopped at. Now remember, one place we stopped at we did not get gas. Was that the place where she lost her wallet? No, it was the service station that we got gas at. Someone turned in the wallet. No problem. Sir how far are you from where we are staying for the night. His replay, "140 miles". Guess what? We got up in the morning and traveled 140 miles seeing the same sights as the day before. We got the wallet and now traveled back 140 miles seeing the same sights for the third time. Made it to Iowa for the night. Next morning we get up, snow and ice, a white out. Now driving 30 miles per hour is right up my alley. Hate to drive fast. Did we have an exciting drive up? Check out the photo of the dogs. They tell the whole story. The final chapter comes to an end. Two people, two dogs, in a trailer, in Yellowstone National Park, what an end to this beautiful story. Thank you all for reading my blogs, it has been fun. Life is short, enjoy every minute of it. God created all this. Just for you.