Trip Report #2

Today has been one of the most incredible days of my life...

I woke up, opened the tent to see the sun peeking over 10,000 ft mountain tops and shining down on Yellowstone lake. I cooked eggs, toast and coffee over an open fire and ate it 50 feet from 4 deer. I've seen wild horses, bison by the hundreds, the Old Faithful guyser, the north rim of the Grand Canyon, inspiration point, and so much more.

I've seen mud boil, more colors of rock than I thought possible, looked 500 feet down the wall of a dam, and fell asleep to an incredible thunderstorm that was unlike anything I've experienced before. The lightening was blinding, the thunder so loud that it made the truck rattle, the 3lb latern in the tent fall over, and literally shook my balls as it echoed for 30 seconds or more bouncing from mountain to mountain and through the canyon.

... and yes, the mainstreamed Sioux indian chicks are hot!

After much negotiation and 3 different facilities, I finally managed to convince a ranger to let me park in the seemingly arbitrarily labled 10 minute parking for 30 minutes and FINALLY got to take a shower!

At about 3 am, the cold winds from the storm became too much to bare. The temperature had dropped to 40 degrees (keep in mind that only 4 days before, I was in Jacksonville where it was 100+ degrees and over 95% humidity - 40 degrees might as well been absolute zero!) and the wind was blowing at over 30 MPH. I moved into my truck, started it, probably waking half the people in the campground, but I didn't care, as hypothermia was setting in. Ran the engine for about 15 minutes (it's a diesel and takes 10 minutes before the temp guage even moves), turned it off, and slept the rest of the night in peace.