Clearfield UT to Colby Kansas to Columbia Missouri

 Part 1: Utah to Kansas

We drove a lot on this part of the trip with little stopping. We wanted to get as far as possible because we knew we would be crossing mostly states we had seen before. We drove through the beautiful Rockies again, a lot of Wyoming and then went south into Colorado. Unfortunately, we drove through the corn field part of Colorado instead of the mountains. Some day I want to go back and visit Boulder.

Through a lot of Colorado I napped. I was so incredibly exhausted that I just couldn't help it.  Napping made me more refreshed and felt good.

In Colby, a smallish town, we were surprised to discover that the Days Inn we had planned on staying at was full except for one smoking room. We ended up at the Super 8 down the road, in a decent enough room with supposed working internet. It didn't work. I brought the netbook to the office and they fixed it, but it was so slow that it wasn't even really worth using.

We slept well though, and overslept a bit because we knew we had a short day ahead of us.

Part 2: Colby Kansas to Columbia Missouri

One of the first slightly strange billboards we saw upon leaving the hotel was an ad for a store proclaiming that it was the SECOND FRIENDLIEST YARN STORE IN THE UNIVERSE! This billboard raised a lot of questions for me. Why the second friendliest? Who is the first? Why wouldn't you just say you were the first? And - the Universe? Really? Have you been to that yarn store out on Venus? Mars? It all made me smile, but I can't remember the name of the store.

I wanted to go to Liberty Kansas, home of animatronic Wizard of Oz displays. But it was three hours out of our way, so we went to the Oz Museum instead. We first saw billboards for it not long after the yarn one and immediately knew we would stop because we both love the Wizard of oz and the billboard just looked cool.

So, a few hours of driving later we got off of I-70 and on to "The Road to Oz" towards the museum which turns out to be in a town full of a whole lot of nothing. Indeterminable stores lined a downtown area with one restaurant that I could see - Toto's Tacos - and an Oz Winery.

The Museum itself was set up well, if a little cheesy. You opened the screen door on a farmhouse facade and entered a very colorful Oz with wax figures of the main characters and lots of glass displays. I particularly liked seeing the old Oz books and illustrations. There were also Oz games and toys from around the world and a really cool selection of props from the musical Wicked. Overall, we spent about a half an hour wandering there and it was pretty fun. We could have sat and watched the movie too, but of  course had to keep moving.

A tale of Smelliness and a Lesson in Curiosity:

We stopped to get gas somewhere in Missouri and Matt goes in to the bathroom while I pump the gas. He comes out laughing a few minutes later and I have to ask what he's smiling about. He tells me that in the bathroom there was a box on the wall that you could buy cologne from. There were these little knobs to pick which scent you wanted and then a big knob. He pulled on the big knob out of curiosity, not really expecting anything to happen, and a stream of cologne shot out straight at him. We had to drive with the windows down for a while until the smell went away.

After that little adventure things got boring until we stopped for the night. This time the Days Inn was empty and we watched Dave and munched on ordered Dominos. By the way, their Mac N Cheese bread bowl is crazy good. And the chocolate lava cake is even better. The internet worked perfectly and I blogged a lot that night. It was good.

Jackson Hole WY to Clearfield Utah

There's a less artistic photo of the Elk Antler arch in Jackson Hole for you. :) In the morning we walked around town, found some postcards to buy and then headed to Utah. On our way out of Jackson Hole, on the side of the highway, we saw a Sheriff and two inmates who, I swear, were wearing orange and white striped jumpsuits and digging a hole or something. It fit in very nicely with the old West feel of the town and definitely made me look twice.

Along our drive we saw some interesting things:

A Liquor Drive Thru at the gas station,

Sheep!

a truck with my name on it. Granted, my name spelled differently but still!

Along the way we also drove through the Rocky Mountains on a path we took the last time we were out that way. Last time it was in April and the mountains were covered in snow. It was raining and foggy and very moody and I loved it. This time everything was green, the sky was blue and there were puffy white clouds. We stopped at a pull out that we had stopped at last time and took the same photos as best we could remember. At some point I'll post the old photos alongside the new ones, but for now:

For a late lunch we finally hit up a Chick-Fil-A. We both love Chick-Fil-A, but there aren't very many in the Northeast and there are NONE in Connecticut, so we always get excited when we find one. It was about 103 degrees outside and one of their employees was in a cow suit outside waving to people, we felt kinda bad for him or her. The food was delicious. 

In Utah, we stayed with my cousin Elizabeth and her husband and three kids. We spent some time chatting with Liz, playing Mad Libs with her daughter Zoe, playing with the cat Cooper and just relaxing. We watched The Three Amigos, which both Liz and Matt were astonished that I'd never seen. :) I liked it.

Missoula MT to Jackson Hole Wyoming

 On Day 14 we explored Yellowstone National Park. We started by driving through a stone archway entrance at the Northern part of the park.

The first section that we stopped at was Mammoth Springs - a series of bubbling geysers that smelled of sulfer and other nasty things. They were really cool to look at though.

 We also saw the "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone", which was formed of beautiful colored rock and a gorgeous green river. Yellowstone is also one of the places that we saw the most animals. Bears, Elk, Bighorn Sheep, Coyote, Bison, all were there causing traffic jams just by going about their business.

I enjoyed Yellowstone, but I didn't connect to it as much as I did to Yosemite. I was a bit uncomfortable being on top of a volcano, which didn't help, and though the views were beautiful - I loved the Grand Tetons in the distance more than the mountains I was on.

 It was a good day though, a hot day. Walking around outside and driving through the beautiful park was fun and we even waited around for Old Faithful to go off.

Driving through Grand Teton National Park to get to Jackson Hole, I couldn't stop staring at the gorgeous mountains across the lake. The sun was setting behind them and they were glowing in the light.

In Jackson Hole, our fun stalled for a bit. We had trouble getting a hotel room as most hotels were full, food also became an issue. We decided to walk and arrived everywhere just as they were closing. We eventually drove to the two fast food joints just outside the cute tourist area. If you are planning a trip to Jackson Hole, WY and it is Summer - CALL AHEAD! This is the lesson we learned.

The town itself is super adorable and a bit upscale. Shops and restaurants are all Old West Cowboy style and their park entrances are marked with arches made of Elk antlers. Elk shed their antlers every year and the local boy scouts go retrieve them from the woods so that these arches can be made every year. Pretty cool.