7/5/08 Wyoming We got CURT!!!!

Chapter 10: In which Curt arrives
We spent the night at the KOA campground. The night was clear when we set up camp but around 3AM the wind started whipping like crazy. The moral of the story is you can't trust the weather in Wyoming.
KOA had showers and laundry, and both were welcome. Ria and I took some time apart, as I wrote postcards and did laundry and she broke camp, and .......well I'm not sure that's what makes it time apart.
It was a nice planned break, because we had to pick up Curt in Cody at 2pm, so it's not like we could have made time anyways. It made for a more relaxed morning.
When we finally did drive into Cody, we stuck to the tarmac while picking up Curt.
Again, more hugging than picture taking, so you will have to wait until Yellowstone to see Curt pictures.
We tried to stop at a local restaurant for lunch, but the Breadboard was out of bread. NO SERIOUSLY....... THE BREADBOARD WAS OUT OF BREAD! How does this happen? Apparently the day after the 4th was busier than the 4th itself. who knew? Not the staff at the breadboard.
So we had Subway, and headed off for a place in Cody with Internet. We decided to ask the information center people where we could get internet, and amazingly they had some for free!!! :-) . Grant the helpful and flamboyant guide allowed us to use internet, gave us time frames for getting to our campsite, provided us with mildly bad puns (calling the Cody Dam a Dam good time) and discussed tattoos. He was a multi-purpose guide.
Cody was much more interesting than deadwood, but we were on our way to yellowstone, and could only spare a few minutes to stop and snap pictures.
And just so Wyoming could prove that besides sneaky weather, it could have animals, and pretty landscapes outside Yellowstone it provided us with this while driving along.
Yet somehow what said Wyoming to me most was these fences

Yellowstone.
As promised my Curt picture.
I think the best way to explain traveling with Curt and Ria is through pictures.

That and there was an ongoing bad pun war.
It's good that I love them both.
Anyways back to Yellowstone. It started with a pretty lake. which is a good place to start, because if you ended there you wouldn't think it was all that exciting, but it really was pretty.
The all of a sudden as we are driving we see this plume, and the two people who currently live in California assume it is a forest fire. I'm driving so I don't have time to assume anything.
It's not a forest fire.... (I'm only explaining because you look nervous, I can stop if you want me too. Okay fine you're not scared, just concerned, I'll keep telling the story)
It was a gaseous cloud of sulfur, billowing forth from the earth. No really it was. It Smelled something fierce.
It was one of a collection of cauldrons in the earth.

Like the Churning Cauldron
and I believe the Mud Cauldron
And the aptly named Dragon's tomb.
Sort of makes you understand why people thought dragons lived in certain caves.
We then continued out to the waterfalls
At this point in the day I would like to claim that I was too tired to smile, but Ria says I don't often smile in pictures, so eh maybe my claim doesn't hold much water.
We then drove and hiked and climbed down stairs to try and get a closer more interesting shot. I climbed down 173 stairs, and decided I liked the shot, and also that I didn't think I could handle climbing back up more.

Curt and Ria climbed down and back up over 350 stairs.

Meanwhile why they were climbing the extra stairs I took a brief wrong turn and got hijacked on the trail by two deer, one of which was a stealth deer that had learned to blend in on photography. However I did capture this one on film.
By this time we we pretty much headed to Canyon Campground our campsite for the night, and had a nice dinner at the restaurant in Canyon Village, with a waiter who I believe was from Massachusetts. (all Yellowstone employees have their name and location of origin on their tag.) Then went off to bed/tent.
Next up: More Yellowstone