Days 18-21

Day 18- Bozeman to Glacier National Park

We left our motel in Bozeman around 11am and stopped at the dollar store and Safeway supermarket to stock up on food before heading in to Glacier, which has no shops or diners, unlike Yellowstone. We had about a 6-hour drive today; luckily it wasn’t too boring because we had such amazing landscapes to look at! I lost service on my phone before even entering the park that is how remote this area really is. About 45 min before reaching Glacier we passed through a Blackfeet Native American town and it was heartbreakingly impoverished. There were run down houses and cars everywhere, there was even a skinny three-legged dog running down one street. It was just so sad seeing this entire area living in such poor conditions. We passed a school in the town and its playground was horribly rusted and really not something young children should play on. Anyway, as we began to make it closer to the mountains of Glacier, we could see how much snow there was still left on them in June! The park’s mountains are lower in altitude than Yellowstone, but somehow have much more snow still to melt. We eventually arrived at the St. Mary’s East Entrance and were met by a very friendly Park Ranger who was being eaten alive my the swarming mosquitoes. She informed us that the only road that crosses the park, the one we needed, of course, was closed due to snow after 18 miles. She directed us on a road outside the park for tomorrow’s journey to the western side of Glacier. We decided to drive up Going to the Sun Road until the barriers, and let me tell you, it was one of the most beautiful drives I have ever taken. We had perfect views of the jagged mountains covered in snow and the blue lake resting at the base of all the surrounding mountains. We made a few pit stops along the way to take one mini hike and take loads of pictures. During out 18-mile drive we stumbled upon a grazing male deer and one black bear hiding in the trees (still not sure how I managed to spot it). Once we reached the road closing at the Logan visitor’s center we got out to search for small animals and play in the snow like everyone else. Here we saw an adorable ground squirrel type animal and a Big Horned sheep, which was lying down in the distance. On our way back down from the mountains to the camp grounds we saw another black bear running across the road ahead of us. This bear was much larger than the first and ran across the road in a very entertaining manner… they almost rock on their paws as they run. As I am writing this, it is 10pm and the sun still has not set! Glacier is definitely one of the most beautiful places both Josh and I have ever been.

Day 19- Glacier National Park

Today we drove around and had to leave the park to reach the other side due to road closures. We passed though two main towns and stopped to have a delicious milkshake that had dark chocolate chunks in it. When we arrived on the west side of the park we went for a short drive up until the road was closed off. Afterwards we set up our tent with that tarp over it because a ranger had stopped by to inform us of severe weather heading our way. It was severe indeed! It was an incredibly loud thunderstorm that also down poured with rain. The storm took about 45 mins to pass over. We then made dinner and crouched next to a small fire. The sun didn’t fully go down until gone 10pm so we stayed up until about 10:30, which sounds early but everyone in campsites go to sleep early since there isn’t much to do. Unfortunately, we had a loud snorer in one of the campsites near us!

Day 20- Glacier National Park

We woke up later than usual at about 9:45am. We were about to make oatmeal for breakfast when the family next to us offered us a Costco sized bag of pancake mix, saying they were going home today and didn't need all the food. The wife also passed us loads of other odds and ends from their cooler before leaving. Honestly, having pancakes felt like a real treat after living off of the very basics of cereal all day long and pasta for dinner for me and cup of noodles for Josh. After we had filled up in pancakes, we headed off for what Josh said was a 6 mile hike (he lied because it was actually about 8 miles and he didn’t think I would do it otherwise… and he was right because the assent was also about 4,000 ft. We only got about a mile in before we finally decided to turn around not only because of how hard it was but the path was overgrown with vegetation and swarming with mosquitoes. When we got back to the car and I read the sign, that was when I realized Josh had been hiding the difficulty of the trail. It also did have any nice views, just dead trees that had charred and fallen over from a forest fire. We decided to try the avalanche trail instead which was only 4 miles, and had only about 400 ft in assent. This hike was much more enjoyable and scenic. We ate lunch on a secluded pebble beach with a gorgeous view of the lake and mountains. On the way back it began to pour with really cold rain. Both Josh and I became soaked and our waterproof jackets were not strong enough to hold out the downpour. We had to sit in the car at the campsite to wait for the rain to pass. The rain also cooled off the temp, making it much colder than earlier in the day. My socks were really muddy and soaking wet from the hike, so I was trying to dry them under the hand dryer in the campground bathroom and when a women asked if they were my only socks, she offered me a pack of socks she had bought for a dollar and wouldn’t let me leave the bathroom without them. And I was indeed very glad I took the socks! The temp really dropped during the night, however it was, luckily, not as cold as Yellowstone.

Day 21- Glacier National Park to Sandpoint, Idaho

We woke up around 10am today and it was so cold and rainy we really didn’t want to get up. Our fingers froze just taking the tarp down from covering the tent. We didn’t even stay to make pancakes for breakfast; I just ate dry rice crispies on the go. We passed through a few small towns before reaching Sandpoint and to show how small their high schools are, all of them are the size of one floor of one wing in Haverford High. So tiny! There was one town that had beautiful wooden carvings of eagles spotted along the main road. We eventually crossed into Pacific Time when nearing our final destination. It was still raining heavily and very cold so we gave into staying in a hotel, even though we can’t really afford it. The nice women behind the front desk gave us discounts to a price more in our range. I think she was very sympathetic to our situation of being on a road trip, camping in the cold and rain, only having access to a shower every few days, and being very low on money. The hotel is really nice as well! We are definitely looking forward to the free continental breakfast tomorrow morning! Tomorrow we head to Canada :]

Day 16 & 17

Day 16 Yellowstone National Park
As Yellowstone is enormous we decided to break its enormity down into two days; the first day we would do the touristy bits, i.e. the geysers, Old Faithful etc, and the second day would would go into the less busy north of the park in search of wildlife.
We began the day by driving to a new campsite; hoping to escape the cold temperatures of the previous night. We arrived, set up our tent promptly and then began our trip down the geyser filled western side of the park. We started off at the Steam Boat geyser, the largest in the park when it erupts however it has not gone off since 2005. We continued along stopping periodically to gaze at the various blue pools and multicolour muds of the numerous areas of thermal activity. By around 3pm we arrived at the Old Faithful geyser, the most famous in the park and probably the world. Old Faithful goes off around every 72 minutes and with this predictability it attracts large crowds. In fact the geyser is surrounded by several rows of benches for spectators. We waited and the geyser went off as predicted, spewing water 20 meters into the air and the crowd went wild!
After the Old Faithful experience we drove around the rest of the loop stopping off at Yellowstone canyon to view the spectacular waterfalls. We arrived back at our campsite prepared for what was to be an incredibly cold nights sleep.

Day 17 Yellowstone's north and Bozeman Montana
And it was. The temperature at night got down to near 0C and neither of us had brought clothes that could insulate us against these fierce June temperatures. After we had packed up the frost tinged tent we headed off into the north. By around 11am the temperature was back up into the high 20s, how does one prepare for that kind of temperature variation? Anyhow we drove into the north in search of bears. We instead found hundreds and hundreds of bison grazing on the wide planes. We also encountered dear, chipmunks, mountain sheep, and elk. As we thought all hope was lost we did see a black bear walking over a distant hill. In Yellowstone one can normally tell what type of animal it is by the size of the crowd of cars that have pulled of the road. Small crowds = gophers or goats, whilst large crowds = bears or wolves.
By around 2 we left the park through the northern exit headed for Bozeman two hours to the north. Bozeman is a small college town, home of Montana State University. It seems to be rather cool, well at least by Montana terms. We checked into a cheep motel ready for some non-freezing sleep.

Tomorrow we drive north to Glacier National Park, Canada and then Seattle, this does however mean it will be a while before the next update so our apologies but we will try to keep people posted.

We have already driven over 4000 miles, through 14 states and three time zones but there is yet more to go.

Days 12-15

Please excuse any grammatical, spelling or structural mistakes! All of the posts so far have been written late at night!

Day 12- Milwaukee to Mitchell, South Dakota
This day was mainly filled with 9 hours of driving, with stops to eat and fill up on petrol every now and then. I knew the midwest would be farm country, but I did find it very upsetting to see two visible factory farms from the highway and see cattle trucks driving full in one direction and empty in the other. Anyway, we stopped at this random diner in the middle of nowhere, where we were the only customers. Josh had a battered country deep-fried steak, which he said made him feel his arteries as though his arteries were clogging, and I had surprisingly delicious french toast (allegedly made with free range ingredients). We did pass over the Mississippi River, which was really neat. The areas we passed were very rural and there were times when we drove 100 miles and then 150 miles without having to brake.  We eventually made it to Mitchell and set up our tent. Unfortunately, we only managed to last in the tent until around 3am, when it became very windy with distant lightening, so we had to move to the car.... again.

Day 13- Mitchell to Badlands National Park
We left Mitchell early and made our way to Badlands, stopping at The Corn Palace along the way so Josh could take pictures. We also took a detour to see the historic Minute-man site, which had ICBMs and could view one in a remote farm field. The one open to the public was decommissioned in 1992. As we made our way into Badlands, we were in awe of the spectacular landscape. Pictures will never do it justice, I highly recommend  it as a National Park to visit! We set up our tent and then went to explore. Starting at a window like opening over the formations, we worked our way through numerous stops trying to take in all of the park's beauty and see as many types of animals as possible. Unfortunately, the first day didn't yield too many animals, only adorable prairie dogs, numerous types of birds, and bats. There was a evening program put on by a park ranger at our campsite and she taught us all about the animals living in park and what has played a part in the shaping of the rocks/mud. Our last stop before calling it a night was to go star gazing down a path near a canyon. There was no human light or sounds and the sky was completely clear. The stars were breath-taking and and all we could hear were the crickets.

Day 14- Badlands to Devils Tower
We woke up early to make the most of our time before leaving Badlands. We drove down a road known to have bison present nearby. The first bison we saw was behind a fence, however, the fence soon ended and we found ourselves in the middle if a herd! It was amazing. They are incredible animals and because of this I saw way too many people getting out of their cars to get close enough (at times less than 10ft) to take pictures , basically just asking to be gored by an animal that weighs over  ton. By the way bison can run up to 40 mph so no human standing that close would stand a chance if one felt threatened. On our way out of the park a group of female big horned sheep came out onto the road and and walked on either side of the car. Then just a few feet beyond the next bend in the road we spotted another sheep with her lamb up on a cliff edge. They are so agile!
Once we left the park we made pit stops at Mount Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Monument, and the Jewel Caves. Mount Rushmore is fantastic and much better looking in person than in any photo of it I have seen. The Crazy Horse Monument is not due to be finished for another 50 years, so only the face of the man had been completed. I guess we will just have to go back in 50 years to see the finished product! Disappointingly, we arrived too late for the jewel cave tours, but were did go on a short scenic walk in the area.
During the last leg of the drive to Devils Tower, I began to realize how remote some areas in the US can really be. All that could be seen were fields and cows. We even got lost on a dirt road that was sign posted to lead to a campsite, but never did. We must have been driving for about 45 mins on this creepy road with small and somewhat rundown looking homes every few miles. We finally reached the end of this one car road and were able to turn around in a random ranch. Its not a real road trip unless you get lost on a dirt road at least once right? The Garmin tried its best to help us, but kept telling us to turn onto roads that no longer existed. After we made it off that dirt road, we finally stumbled upon a KOA campsite; I don't think I have ever been so happy to see a camp grounds. It was actually in a fantastic location, right at the bottom of Devils Tower (just so you know its not my terrible grammar, for some reason the "Devils" does not actually have an apostrophe). For the Native Americans of the area, this is a sacred place. They believe the tower is a tree stump from a tree that was knocked over by a giant bear. They story is awesome, but science has sadly proven that it is actually igneous rock that was originally hot magma. I personally prefer the bear theory. The campsite actually showed "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" where aliens land near Devils Tower. After watching the film Josh and I decided to drive up to see a night view. On the way up there was an adorable porcipine walking along the side of the road. I made sure to steer it into the grass from a safe distance so it wouldn't be hit by the other night visitors. The tower looked great against the night sky, lit by the moon and starts. While up there we heard elk off in the distance with their distinct vocals. We then made our way down to the campsite and were able to fall asleep quickly after such a busy day. At about 4am we were woken up by lightening and insanely strong winds that bent the tent inwards!

Day 15- Devils Tower to Yellowstone National Park
We woke up early to do the 1.3 mile walk around the base of Devils Tower. It was really crowded, but still enjoyable. Although the Native Americans asked for people not to rock climb up Devils Tower during the month of June (it is their most holy month), we did see a number of climbers making their way up to the top. The view from the top must be spectacular! We then started to make our way to Yellowstone, having to pass through two mountain ranges that are both apart of the Rockies. The drive was beautiful! We eventually arrived at the East entrance of Yellowstone, where the temperature was drastically different to the Devils Tower that morning.... it was snowing and about 30 degrees. The snow on the mountains was fun at first, until we realized the campsite was the same temp. We set up the tent to claim our spot in the camp grounds (grizzlies had been seen wandering around there the past two days) but had decided it was too cold and would sleep in the car. Before it got dark we went to see some of the geysers and hot springs close to the campgrounds. We got back after it had gotten dark and set ourselves up to sleep in the car... little did we know how cold the car would also get. I woke up after a few hours and could not feel me feet at all, even though I was sleeping in a sleeping bag. I tried to warm them with my hands, but they were just too cold. I had to turn the car on to blast warm air to slowly thaw my toes. That was one of the most miserable nights sleep we both had ever had.... but little did we know that the next night would be worse.

Badlands

Josh at Badlands

Bison at Badlands

Josh at Mount Rushmore

Mt. Rushmore

Crazy Horse Memorial- can see the face near the upper left

What the Crazy Horse Memorial is meant to look like once finished

George

Geyser at Yellowstone

Native American Dreamcatcher at Devils Tower

Devils Tower

Rocky Mts

Snow in June

Snow in June

Geyser at Yellowstone

Prairie Dog

Badlands

Badlands

Days 9, 10 & 11

Day 9- Chicago-
We woke up early to the sound of loud country music, but this enabled us to head to Chicago to make the most of our time in the Windy City. Although it hadn't rained that night while camping, it had been really cold and there was loud country music playing from another tent site, both of which made sleeping quite difficult. Anyway, in the morning, we arrived at our motel called "Colony Motel." Since it was a Sunday, the trains only ran every two hours into the city. Josh and I headed to  24 hour restaurant called Tony's during our wait for the train. It had great food and was really inexpensive. We ended up having to run for the train, which was 10 mins late. It was a double decker train and was absolutely packed due to the blackhawks' game. Chicago reminded us a lot of NYC and it has become my favorite place we have been to so far on the trip. We decided to start by just exploring the streets and stumbled upon the filming set for "Divergent," a movie coming out in 2014. We decided to walk to the waterfront and found that there was a free Blues festival going on. It was so nice to just sit on the grass and relax while listening to the fantastic music. It began to get quite chilly so we moved on to get dinner. After dinner we went for another short wander around the festival before heading back to the train station.

Day 10- Chicago-
That day was my favorite thus far. We started off getting breakfast at Tony's and I had delicious chocolate chip pancakes, while Josh had an eggs benedict on a giant croissant. We then packed up our room and drove into Chicago, finding incredibly cheap parking for $2. We made our way through the city center and on our way to the art institute, stumbled upon a literary fest, where I bought an awesome map of PA from 1911. It also had loads of awesome books for really cheap and neat retro posters from the 40's and 50's. We finally made it though the festival, and went to art museum, which was amazing. Josh puts it at the second best art museum he has ever been to, just behind the MOMA. They had incredible collections, but it was very disappointing to find the Nighthawks had been loaned out to a museum in NYC; that was the piece Josh was most excited to see! Afterwards we drove over the the free zoo, which was really well  put together for a free zoo. I was able to see my favorite animal, the slow loris, along with bushbabies, and the cutest sleeping sloth. Josh was excited to see the gorillas, which were all asleep except the silverback who was picking his nose and eating the boogers. We could barely control ourselves with how funny he was. It was really gross but hysterical how he examined every one before eating it. The zoo closed at 6pm, so we then found a pizza place to stop for dinner, so Josh could have a Chicago stuffed deep-dish pizza. Then I took Josh to DQ so he would have his first DQ hot fudge Sunday. We finally headed off to Milwaukee, which only took about 2 hours.

Day 11- Milwaukee-
First, let me say driving in Milwaukee really sucks. Moving on, we got to sleep in a bit today at the hotel, which was really nice. The past two nights have been a wonderful break from camping. I have to make the most of sleeping in a real bed and having a TV tonight, because apparently we are camping for the next week and a half... YAY! However, I am really excited for all of the National Parks, so I guess I can suck it up! Anyway, we started today by getting breakfast at a place called troop cafe, which is actually a non-profit organization that only started up a month ago. Josh and I loved it there! You can find them on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TroopCafeMKE?ref=ts&fref=ts. Afterwards we visited the Miller Brewery, which was really interesting! We were able to take a free tour too see the different stages of the brewing process. At the end we were each able to have 2 samples of beer. I gave mine to Josh, I am not much of a beer person, so I just made the most of the free lemonade. We then made our way to the lake front and took a walk along the beach before going to a very cool, but hipstery pizza place called Classic Slice Pizza. I was finally able to have my first slice of pizza in the U.S. in ages! Every pizza place I have visited has animal rennet in the cheese and doesn't offer any vegan options. At this place they had loads of vegan options! I had a slice of delicious plain vegan pizza and Josh had a fantastic vegan pesto pizza. After filling up on great pizza, we went bowling at this underground bowling ally. Not long after we started our first game we were swarmed by small children who wouldn't leave us alone, but they were very cute and sweet. We made our way back to the hotel to relax for the evening before our long day of driving tomorrow, we are looking at about 9 hours!

My awesome map of PA from 1911

Miller Brewery

Lake Michigan