Bret Hobbs' Adventure in Retirement: Yellowstone Adventure 2021

Got a good nights sleep and woke up in time for breakfast in the EDR. The EDR staff is short handed and they are doing a great job with what they have, but are being overworked a lot. Everyone tries to thank them whenever they can for the good food, even if they may not be serving something you like. After breakfast I got ready to leave and it was then I noticed that I made one mistake in doing the laundry yesterday. I forgot to take my wallet out of my pants pocket. So needless to say it was rather wet. I took everything out of it and set it in front of the fan I brought. I took my credit card and my drivers license and left the rest to dry and headed out. My plan was to get to West Yellowstone and get my phone and computer updated with either cell service or McDonald's free WiFi. I also planned on talking to Cathy as much as possible because at the dorm we can only text or message. I can call but it is a WiFi call and the internet is not that good.

I left the dorm and drove out of the Old Faithful area. God was sure with me as it seems some people decided it was good to drive on my side of the highway. You see we have 4 lanes leaving the Old Faithful area. Two for one direction and two for another. Well I look up and my mind said this does not look right. Sure enough cars were coming at me going the wrong direction. They all adjusted and went to the left side lane as I passed by. It was not just one car but three. Further down the road I came to the reason why. Someone had managed to breakdown and then pull across both lanes. So the people were going around them and for some reason or another they continued on the wrong side of the highway instead of getting back on their side. God was with me for sure.

Once I arrived at West Yellowstone I could see traffic backed up again trying to get in the park. Thankfully I was leaving and that traffic snarl did not bother me in the least. I got to McDonald's and went into get a tea for the road. I ordered my tean but noticed immediately that customers were grumbling. Seems the McDonald's ran out of drinks and were able to only give people juice or tea. The customers made a lot of comments, but I thanked the person behind the counter and wished her a better day. She smiled and said she hope it gets better when more supplies arrive. I got into the truck and went across the street to the IMAX parking lot and from there I would make my call to Cathy and update my computer. It did not take long when I was settle in for the ravens to come around begging. The tourists seem to feed them a lot and then they get used to it and beg to anyone that is around. They are not cute but pesky birds and feeding them does not help the situation at all. A couple pulled up a little ways from me and the birds decided I would not give them anything so they moved to the couples car. As they circled the car one bird started to peck at the grill of the couple's car. The raven was trying to eat the bugs that were stuck in the grill area. I motioned to the couple that the raven is the one pecking on their car. They just waved. If you let them go a raven can make some pretty good dents in a car for sure.

After talking to Cathy and getting the phone and computer updated, I headed down the road to Virginia City Montana. I love the drive there as it takes me through the Madison River valley. It is a very scenic place where the river is on one side and the mountains line up on the other side. There are plenty of places to pull over to the river and sit or picnic too. I stopped a a couple of places and watch the fly fishermen trying to catch a few. I really like watching a good fly fisherman as they put on a great show.

On my way up to Virginia City I stopped at an overlook for my PB&J lunch from the back of my truck. I have said this before and I will say it again. I will take a PB&J and a great mountain view over any fancy restaurant. I stopped in Virginia City and walked around a bit, just to give my legs a stretch. I was surprised at how good they felt. My knees still hurt but not as bad as my first day working. In case you don't know Virginia City is half commerce tourist town and half Ghost Town, with many great buildings restored to their original state and filled with great items. The town has a narrow gauge train that tourists can take from Virginia City to Nevada City. Nevada City is mostly a Ghost Town with many building either from their or brought there. The area has a rich history of gold mining, vigilanties, lynch mobs, robbers, crooked lawmen, and a great boot hill cemetery.

Leaving Virginia City I headed to Twin Bridges Montana, with several stops along the way to look at small towns and scenery. Twin Bridges was an interesting town. It was named for the two bridges that went over the rivers there that were made my town founders. It seems they built the bridges then charged a toll and then bought more land and turned the area into a thriving community. I visited the museum there and walked around the town. The lady running the museum was very polite and we had a long conversation about the tourist traffic and how things have changed around the area aver the years.

Leaving Twin Bridges I decided the head back to the dorm. On my way back I ran into a storm. If you have never been in the mountains in the middle of a lightening storm, then consider yourself lucky. The rain was the size of marbles and the lightening came down with a crash. The temperature dropped into the 50's and I reduced my speed on the highway considerably. During the storm I passed through quake lake area where many people died during an earthquake and some are still buried under the water at the lake. The storm made that area twice as eerie I can tell you.

As I approached West Yellowstone the storm stopped suddenly, as most high mountain storms tend to do. I entered the park with no trouble, as most of the tourists were now going the other direction. I made it back to the dorm in time for dinner. The total wild life I saw today were one bison, 5 elk, one eagle, several ospry, one 8 point buck, and several ravens. That is about all for my first day off. Thanks for reading and please pray for Janie Elliott.