2019 Yellowstone road trip May 26- June 3
We packed up the car and started our journey. We stopped at McDonald’s for breakfast. We got to Hannibal Missouri about 10:30. We went to the twain on main festival. We walked up 244 steps to the lighthouse. We bought a ticket package for $21.67 and went to the wax museum, haunted house, train museum and the car museum. We had lunch at the brick oven. We checked into Reagans queen Ann bed and breakfast. Our room is on the third floor. The place has character. But it certainly has not been dusted in a very long time. “stuff” is good…but this place needs a weeding out. The bathroom is very strange….and there is little post it rules everywhere. We paid $193.25 for this room. We had sandwiches in our room for dinner.

Monday May 27, we had breakfast… Crustless egg quiche and a muffin, loaded the car and headed toward Iowa. We drove in rain off and on all day. We had sandwiches in the car for lunch. We got to Alexandria Minnesota about 7 pm and checked into the Hampton Inn and had sandwiches for dinner.

Tuesday May 28, we got up and had breakfast and drove to Miles City Montana. We stopped in Jamestown North Dakota at the National buffalo museum. We had sandwiches in the car for lunch. We checked into the miles city hotel and got the presidential suite. We paid $169.84. The room was huge. We had dinner at the black iron grill. Steve had beef wellington and I had chicken fried steak…$71

Wednesday May 29, we got up and had breakfast at the hotel. This was the best room and the best breakfast we had on the trip. Then we drove through Montana and went through the north gate of Yellowstone in Gardiner Wyoming. We had sandwiches in the car for lunch. We drove through the park to the west gate and back into Montana and then to Idaho. We turned around and came back through the west gate. We saw elk, ravens and lots of bison. We checked into the old faithful inn. Our room is in the west wing, built in 1927. The room is small, plain…has a tiny bathroom, no air conditioning, no internet and sporadic cell service and the view is horrible…all for $400 a night. We had bison burgers at the grill…$67… and then went to see old faithful erupt at 6:50 pm.

May 30 Thursday. We got up at 5:30…showered and hit the road. We took the north road over to the northeast entrance. We saw 5 bears.!!! We saw tons of bison, elk, pronghorn antelope, osprey. We had dinner at the old faithful inn. Steve had salmon and I had quail. $126.41

May 31 Friday, we left Yellowstone and drove across Wyoming. We had sandwiches in the car for lunch. We crossed the South Dakota border and were greeted by thunderstorms and hail. We checked into the Hampton inn in rapid city. We had sandwiches in the room for dinner.

June 1 Saturday, we ate breakfast at the hotel, then went to mount Rushmore, crazy horse, and to the bad lands national park in red shirt which is part of the Lakota Indian reservation. We drove the animal loop in Custer state park and saw bison, pronghorn antelope, big horn sheep, prairie dogs, and burros and had dinner at blue bell lodge in the park. We had buffalo chili…$65. Again, we had a thunderstorm and hail.

June 2 Sunday. We had breakfast at the hotel and then drove to Wall and took the loop through the badlands national park. We saw bison, big horn sheep, rabbits, and prairie dogs. We had lunch in wall at the cactus café…what a dive.

June 3 Monday. We had breakfast at the hotel. We packed up, gassed up and began the journey home. We drove through South Dakota…but we did stop in Mitchell to visit the corn palace. WOW…what a waste of time. We got back in the car and drove to Iowa…we stopped at the first rest stop…and talked to a very nice lady who informed us that 29 was flooded for 120 miles…WONDERFUL. So, we took back roads and arrived in Omaha Nebraska at embassy suites for the night. We will figure out the route home tomorrow. We had dinner at the embassy suites. Unfortunately, it was in the middle of a huge renovation so there was no internet and lots of things were covered in plastic.

June 4 Tuesday. We got up and had breakfast at the hotel and began the journey home from Omaha. Due to tremendous flooding we had to take back roads home and it added an extra couple of hours to our travel time, but we finally made it. We drove 3721 miles…visited 9 states…in 10 days of travel. It was a wonderful trip and we saw so many animals and such beautiful scenery. America is a beautiful country…so diverse in so many ways and each place special. We now have 4 states left we need to visit to finish our 50.