June 6: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

We had wanted to do some hiking in the Badlands the next morning, but when we got back on the road (after waiting for several more bison to cross it), we found that it was too foggy to see anything. Luckily we had driven the whole length of the park the day before and got to see most everything, as well as take some great pictures.

Instead of hiking, we went to Wall’s Drugs in nearby Wall, South Dakota, which we had seen advertised on billboards the whole length of the state. Starting with “Wall’s Drugs: Only 355 More Miles,” these billboards had gradually become more and more enticing, and we were eager to try some of their homemade doughnuts and 5¢ coffee (especially after the long, cold, wet, sleepless night we had had). Wall’s lived up to its expectations. The doughnuts were absolutely delicious, and the coffee was worth well more than the five cents we paid for each cup, but that was not all that Wall’s had to offer. A tourist Mecca in the middle of nowhere, South Dakota, Wall’s had so much that it probably would be possible to live there.

We considered buying such things as knives, cowboy boots, and chaps (the guy sitting next to us while we drank out coffee was wearing a pair), but finally Emily settled on a cowboy hat. We both also got a free Wall’s Drugs bumper sticker and card – these make it all over the world, as photos lining the walls prove.

Once we crossed over the border into Wyoming, we stopped in Gillete, the energy capital of the state. We saw seemingly endless trains, each car filled to the brim with coal, as we entered the small city. The purpose of the detour into Gillette was to find a Laundromat to dry Louisa’s sleeping bag and pillow, which were hopelessly soaked through. We got to live some real Wyoming culture as we sat in the Laundromat watching men with mustaches and cowboy boots fold their laundry.

Our next Wyoming stop was Buffalo (the second city of the name on our journey, as well as our new favorite animal), where we ate lunch next to Crazy Woman Liquor Store. We also saw a drive-thru liquor store in the same town. Then we set off into the mountains on our way to Yellowstone.

At first the road through the mountains was impossibly treacherous – so foggy that we couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of the car. But it quickly cleared up as we got higher, and soon we were seeing snow-covered peaks rising up in front of us. Then the unimaginable happened: it started snowing. We jumped out of the car at a look-out point and had a man take a picture of us among the snowfields, wet snow collecting on the brim of Emily’s cowboy hat. Little did we know what was to come.

The temperature quickly rose as we descended through the mountains, and soon we were traveling through sunny, flat, most empty Wyoming.

When we got to the entrance of Yellowstone, we asked the park ranger for a weather report since we were wary of staying in the tent again if we were only going to have a miserable repeat of the night before. The ranger laughed nervously as she told us that the low was predicted to be 28˙F, and she gave a sad smile at our stunned faces as we drove away.

We drove through some of the park, looking at the beautiful scenery and wildlife and marveling at the steam that rose out of the ground at random places. We found our campsite but didn’t even bother setting up our tent, resigning ourselves to a night spent in the car.

We set out on a walk through some hot springs, and decided to make ourselves some hot soup when we got back. It was just our luck that it started pouring as soon as we got in the car to head back to our campsite. We stayed in the car and made peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches (a welcome change from peanut butter and jelly) and then curled up in our sleeping bags after failing to complete even one crossword puzzle. We reluctantly cracked a couple of windows and quickly fell asleep.