The Millers Go RVing - Day 21

Monday, July 4th, we drove back into Yellowstone so JS could go fishing. (It didn't take any prodding to get him moving that morning!) He decided he wanted to fish in Lamar river so we did not have to drive back up that steep mountain -we could enter Yellowstone at a different entrance that was a bit more RV friendly. Along the way we saw quite a bit of wildlife.  

  

  

  

   

 

Fished all day but he caught no fishes, out in the deep blue sea river.

We drove almost out of the northeast entrance of the park in the afternoon looking for better fishing spots, but the water turned real muddy from the wind & rain somewhere upstream. Eventually we gave up and headed back to Gardner. We drove into the wind and there for awhile R was hanging onto the steering wheel with both hands 'for dear life' to keep Big Bertha on the road. FYI: I am not a fan of being in a motorhome in a windstorm. Is it always that windy out west or did we just have the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time multiple times? Kept life interesting. 

Look at the birds on this bison's back!

  

 Score! I wanted to see one holding up traffic and this big brute couldn't decide if he wanted to cross the road or not. He was quite laid back about it.

 (And we saw about a gazillion of those CruiseAmerica rental RVs all over the west.) 

  

 You can get quite close to the elk. They aren't the least bit disturbed by the traffic and tourists milling about with cameras.

 Hello!

 Aww, those darling little ones, some with their white spots still showing!

 We stopped in Gardner to check the prices at the town laundromat. $2.25 sounded pretty good after $9.75 so we did a couple loads. While I was doing laundry, JS walked down the street to the little fly fishing shop and had a good visit with the guy. JS found out he could have rented a fly rod for just $20. According to this fella, the fish of Yellowstone are smart and it's nigh to impossible to catch trout with a regular rod, but if JS would've had a fly rod we would've been feasting on trout that evening. Too bad he didn't 'do his homework' sooner.
Speaking of not doing one's homework, we walked down into town from the RV park without having a clear idea where we were going to eat. What prices were at the various options and what wasn't closing early due to the holiday, etc. After too much walking, R & I made the executive decision to buy Subway. So this was our 4th of July cookout in Montana...  

It was right after we ate that we got the text that our dog, Buster, died. He had surgery to remove a tumor, but got a new one just before we left on the trip, so we think he was filling up with cancer. It wasn't a shock but we were sad that we weren't home to say good-bye to our faithful watchdog. In all honesty, he was a rescue that I was opposed to taking in and while I was never fond of him, I grudgingly have to admit he did make me feel safer when R is gone overnight with work.

Around 9pm the fireworks started. It wasn't quite the caliber we're used to, but surprisingly good for a small town.   

  

  

  

Around 10:30 it started to rain so we retreated into the RV. The Grand Finale was advertised for 11:30 but we were too tired and "crashed" before that. 

to be continued...