Ramblin' On

The day finally came to leave Yellowstone and head towards Florida with a couple of planned stops in between.  It was quite cool out, and as we drove along the Gardiner River, we could see the steam rising high from the section called Boiling River (a spot where the thermal hot spring flows into
   the icy cold river…great for soaking normally but not during the shutdown).  Fall was definitely in the air, and you could see the changing colors not only in the park but also in the distant hills.  Odd thing was that we didn’t see any elk or any other critters for that matter as we made our way
north and out of the park.  However, we had one last reminder of the shutdown as we approached the entrance/exit, and we simply took the road to the right to leave because going through the Arch with the RV is not an easy thing anyway.  Goodbye Yellowstone until next year.

 

We continued our travels along Route 89 heading towards Interstate 90 and about half an hour later, we found the elk!  This huge herd of at least a couple hundred was just hanging out probably waiting to give us a fond farewell.  J

 

As we travel the highways and back roads, we see some interesting things and that afternoon was no different.  Just take a look at this house with the cool old farm equipment lined up out front like artistic sculptures and antlers wrapped around the front porch posts.

 

We spent our first night in Laurel, MT, with plans to spend the next night in the Cabela’s parking lot in Rapid City, SD.  As we approached the town, evidence of the recent snow storm that was accompanied by high winds was everywhere.  It had slammed into town after days
   of temperatures in the 70s and caught many off guard, dumping 3 ft. of snow in some areas.   It was windy when we arrived but not too bad, however, the winds increased during the night.  The next morning we started out but only
       got as far as the next exit before turning back to Cabela’s.  Winds were averaging 40-60 mph, with gusts even higher, and the RV was rockin’!  Abby was petrified as she hates loud noises of any kind, and the wind was creating a lot of noise.

 

We ended up staying 3 nights at Cabela’s before moving on.  The freak storm had been especially bad for ranchers as they lost tens of thousands of cattle who had not yet grown their winter coats and were subjected to rain, high winds, and then heavy snow.  As we drove along the highway, we could actually see the bodies of dead cattle in the snow, one of which is pictured above left.

The rest of our drive was fairly uneventful as we made our way to Columbia, MO, where we planned to stay for the next couple of weeks.  However, we did pass this overturned truck but couldn't really tell what happened.  In Iowa we saw thousands of small birds suddenly take off in flight (below left) from various spots along the highway...we're guessing in migration.  And not long after crossing into Missouri, another flock took off from trees on the other side of the highway (below right).  Unfortunately, there was no way I could tell what kind they were, but what a sight!



 

Autumn is my favorite times of year, and the leaves on the trees were changing into the many shades of red, orange, and gold with a little green thrown in here and there.  The wind was still strong in spots as you can see by the flags flying in the photo below left, but Russ had no trouble driving.  Halloween was a couple of weeks away, but we saw evidence that several folks were already getting into the spirit!