Picking it up from last time, Kyria and I were getting ready to leave Helena and our Airbnb host had promised to bake scones. Did she follow through and where did we go next? Read on to find out!
Day 7
Start: Helena MT
End: Dollhouse HQ
States Traveled In: Montana
Ohio License Plate Sightings: Zero. Sigh.
Things We Did: Toured the capitol, went to the state museum, and then we went to Michelle's house!!! I got to see the dollhouse IRL. She and her husband gave us a tour of their ranch, we talked, and we had an epic dinner.
Eats: fresh baked scones c/o our Helena Airbnb host, car cooler sandwiches for lunch, and dinner was steak, bread, and salad with strawberry shortcake for dessert.
Media Consumed/Road Trip Activities: none, since we didn't have much time in the car
Best Thing: Getting to meet Michelle and her husband! They gave us a tour of their ranch, and Chip the Ranch Dog came along on the tour to keep the cattle in line.
2nd Best Thing: Touring the capitol. Fun fact: the vote for state capital is known to have been fraudulent. The votes for Helena outnumbered the population, and afterwards a large number of ballots for other cities were found tucked away in the houses of the people who were in charge at the time. With a history like that, all that you can really do is to acknowledge it and continue to live your life.
Worst Thing & 2nd Worst Thing: nothing really comes to mind but I've got write something. What was less than perfect...oh yes, I know. It was hard to pass a slow moving car on the freeway at one point.
Day 8
Start: Dollhouse HQ
End: Yellowstone NP
States Traveled In: Montana, Wyoming
Ohio License Plate Sightings: there were a few sightings at Yellowstone. Finally!
Things We Did: drove tractors at Michelle's (Kyria more than me), drove to Yellowstone and checked out Fountain Paint Pot and hiked at Mystic Falls. Then we checked into the lodge which is right next to Old Faithful.
Eats: yogurt, granola, and honey for breakfast, car cooler sandwiches for lunch, and then we were both hungry as banshees for dinner. We had smash burgers for dinner and ice cream for dessert.
Media Consumed/Road Trip Activities: We listened to a bit more of On the Banks of Plum Creek
Best Thing: hanging out with Michelle and her husband. Why do we all live so far apart?????
2nd Best Thing: Mystic Falls, even though it was a more difficult hike than we planned for.
Worst Thing: staying at the lodge. There was no hot water in the sink and no water of any temperature in the shower, and they were a bit evasive about telling us. It was fine, they let us shower at the Old Faithful Inn which is within walking distance, but sheesh. Overall though it was a good place to stay since it's right next to Old Faithful.
2nd Worst Thing: See above. No shower/hot water is a big enough deal to qualify for two slots on the worst list.
Day 9
Start: Yellowstone NP WY
End: Ten Sleep WY
States Traveled In: Wyoming
Ohio License Plate Sightings: two in the NP parking lots
Things We Did: walked around Old Faithful and saw it erupt, stoll along the boardwalk at Yellowstone Lake, Natural Bridge hike, stop at "The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone", dinner and a stroll around Ten Sleep.
Eats: stop me if you've heard this one before...yogurt/granola/honey bowl for breakfast, car cooler sandwich, and a beer and burger at the nearest pub to our hotel. Bonus points because we picked up the buffalo wing challenge that we started in Buffalo two years ago and split an order of wings for dinner.
Media Consumed/Road Trip Activities: we finished On the Banks of Plum Creek.
Best Thing: strolling around the geysers at Yellowstone and watching Old Faithful erupt.
2nd Best Thing: Ten Sleep WY! We're only stopped there because it was a good halfway point between Yellowstone and our next stop, and it's a nice little town. The motel is great, the pub where we had dinner was good, and it was pleasant to walk around the town after dinner. The town name comes from the fact that it was "ten sleeps" aka ten travel days between a few major areas back in the day.
Worst Thing/2nd Worst Thing: Not having a ton of time to see the sights, limited down time.
That's a wrap on the latest edition of the Great Blogger Road Trip! Come back in a few days to find out where we went next.
Thanks for hosting us, Michelle!!! Her side of the story is here.
AMAZING! I love that you saw Michelle and Pat and cows and their ranch dog! I love that you went to Yellowstone and were near Old Faithful! I will say that this much driving is making me tired. Not that I’m tired of reading about it, that I’m tired thinking about how much time you are spending in the car!
ReplyDeleteIf I had it to do all over again, I would have written down how much time we drove each day. Kyria planned our stops so that we're never much longer than six hours total and we switch drivers every two hours-ish so it's not that bad.
DeleteI didn't write this, but it wasn't just Michelle, Pat, and Chip...they have three barn cats!
I was going to ask if you saw the barn cats! I heard about them.
DeleteYOU WERE AT DOLLHOUSE HQ. It cannot get any better than that!!! It just can't! THERE ARE GNOMES EVERYWHERE. What a great trip you are having! *happy sigh*
ReplyDeleteYES THERE ARE GNOMES EVERYWHERE!!! Can confirm;-)
DeleteYYYAAAAAYYYY! This is my favorite post about your road trip! It was so much fun to meet you and Kyria! It warms my heart to know that you enjoyed your stay with us. Thank you so much for including us on your epic road trip! I'm glad that you enjoyed Montana overall, including the capitol building. The water situation at the lodge is definitely worth two "worst things." How frustrating.
ReplyDeleteMontana was beautiful. I can't wait to come back.
DeleteSO MANY COWS! I AM BEYOND JEALOUS.
ReplyDeleteAnd another blogger to meet IRL--how awesome. It sounds like you had a blast. You met Michelle AND her dog. Truly a big day.
Your lodge stay reminds me of a motel we stayed at in Toma, WI. It was actually a cabin setting, and there was no TV, tepid water, and very suspect standards of cleanliness. And the lights automatically turned off at 9PM! What a dive.
No one there baked us scones, either! You're having a 5-Star trip, for sure.
(Oh, and were you at all disappointed in Old Faithful? I just remember thinking, "Is that all there is?" Of course, I was 17 and there under duress, so that might be a large part of it.)
I'm still processing the YS experience, but yes, I did feel a bit of "that's it?" at OF.
DeleteYipes on lights turning off at 9!!! To be fair we're not staying up that much later because we're still somewhat on east coast time, but that is harsh!
YOU GOT TO HANG OUT WITH MICHELLE AND HER HUSBAND! And you saw Old Faithful. AND YOU GOT TO HANG OUT WITH MICHELLE.
ReplyDeleteThis is also my favourite post/stop so far. I love all the pictures of cows.
These days my thought when we have sub-par lodging is that it will make for a good blog story ;)
YES WE DID GET TO HANG OUT WITH MICHELLE!!! It's real!!! It really happened!!!!
DeleteWhat an epic string of events, the best of which was seeing Michelle, her husband, the dollhouse and all the animals. And you drove a tractor! Wow! That lodge at Yellowstone sounds terrible!!
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't get much more epic than seeing Michelle & Co!
DeleteOh my goodness, the irony of staying right next to Old Faithful, surrounded by boiling hot water, and then having no hot water (or even no water) in your room is just too good!
ReplyDeleteAnd yay, the scones actually happened! The Helena AirBnB definitely deserves a 5-star review.
I don’t know Michelle! I clearly have to fix that, because whoever has a dollhouse, a dog called Chip and a ranch must be an interesting person.
Excited to see where the BirchieMobile takes you next!
I'm excited for you to "meet" Michelle! In addition to all of those things, she has three very sweet barn cats which somehow I forgot to mention in the post.
DeleteThe list of good things keeps getting longer and longer, but definitely meeting Michelle was a top highlight! I am laughing at the fact that Old Faithful lodge got two bad slots, because for me that was not that bad, but this is exactly why reading reviews can be challenging/confusing, as everyone has a different point of view! I was not excited about the shower situation but the proximity to the geyser and walking trails made up for it a lot!
ReplyDeleteIn my defense, it's been very hard to come up with items for the bad list! Both things are true: the lodge was not great AND I wouldn't have wanted to stay anywhere else because of the proximity of OF and the geysers.
DeleteYep, it's official. You win the prize for Most Epic Roadtrip Ever. And you're not even done yet!!! I do hope we get to see more photos eventually... but i'm loving this short and quick recap as you go along.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea! I'm sure there will be a photo heavy finish.
DeleteYou met Michelle and her husband and their pets/farm animals. So cool. I am crossing my fingers that we can meet in June when the whole (not the whole, but as many as we can wrangle) fam damily heads to Yellowstone. The pics are so great. The food sounds delish. It rained the day we took the kids to see Old Faithful. It was cool, but not our fav part of the park. There's so much to see in Yellowstone. I can't wait to see where you are headed next. Or is that the end and you're heading home? Looking forward to the next update. *the shower situation - what even? And they didn't come out and let you know right off the bat. Weird. did they think you wouldn't notice? :0
ReplyDeleteMichelle does not live far from Yellowstone, so I'm sure that you can make the meetup happen.
DeleteTechnically speaking we are heading home, but the trip is not over yet!
I feel like you two are road trip experts and craft them to perfection - good friends, good sights, good car listening. I'm enjoying it all vicariously.
ReplyDeleteI knew a guy in college once who got a summer internship counting and timing geyser eruptions at Yellowstone. He would write me letters as he sat and waited. It was very sweet. I think I only realized afterwards the he had a crush on me.
What a perfect summer job! Sign me up!
DeleteYou certainly are Going Places fast. I haven't even processed the previous post yet. Fascinating to see a working cattle ranch (beef producers are in the news these days). Such an interesting and yet unsurprising story about the selection of the state capitol.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, this was a long trip with many fast stops!
DeleteLOL. Why save the evidence (the votes). Why not get rid of them??? History is so interesting.
ReplyDeleteEXACTLY!!! If it had been me, I would have sent the stolen ballots right into the nearest fire.
Delete