Saturday, 7/2- To West Yellowstone! HOLY WIND!!!! The day started out wonderfully. We were all thinking this would be a shorter, relatively easy day. A nice ride with some rolling hills with the mountains all around and then suddenly... WHAM! The wind hit us like a ton of bricks!! A group of 7 of us tried to huddle together and block the wind from one another but it seemed as if the wind was coming from every side. This was definitely our slowest day thus far. At one point it took us about 40 minutes to go 3 miles... insane! By lunch we were famished... tired, hot and hungry... not a good combination. After lunch, the ride continued... up a hill of course. After the hill, however, the ride continued along a beautiful lake... beautiful scenery is often the cure for getting through a tough ride. Finally, we arrived at our KOA greeted by Nancy Almanza, mom of Samantha Almanza, a former LV in RI, who cooked us the most amazing camping style burritos paired with a beer... or 3... delicious!

Sunday, 7/3- YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK!!!!!! After a late start getting through the gates, we started our journey through Yellowstone... WOW! I will definitely say, the ride had its ups and downs... in many ways. The thousands of cars driving and stopping and parking and honking... a down. Seeing elk and bison on the side of the road... up... although a little intimidating at times! Riding up the hills... 8% grade up for 3 miles... steep uphill that seemed to never end... steep uphill after what we thought was our final uphill... hard uphill... a downer. And unfortunately, what went up had quite a pathetic down on the other side. But I have to say, regardless of anything else, Yellowstone is amazing. We saw wildlife up close and personal, we walked through the many phenomenal geysers and stood over remarkable waterfalls all under blue skies with the sun shinning down (hot as it may be). Another long day. We stopped often and soaked in everything we could. It was the latest we arrived to camp thus far but well worth it. When we got to camp we were welcomed by signs warning to keep ALL things locked away in the car/trailer in order to keep the bears away. As exciting as I think it would be to see a bear, at camp might be a little too up close and personal. Tomorrow... a rest day in Yellowstone on the 4th:)

Monday, 7/4 REST DAY- As I explained to my fellow riders, and as many who know me would agree... I’m not good at resting. I did sleep in a little... 8am or so. We all headed to Old Faithful which I thought was amazing as well. Afterward, half went back to camp to rest, and I, of course, went with the other half to squeeze as much into the rest of our day as possible! We explored some more geysers, saw a lot of Bison, and stood in awe of the astonishing waterfalls. No, I did not rest, but I had a great day:)