...to look for America....

well.... we are coming to the close of the 4th day of our journey, and so the Baileys are tired but totally satisfied! We have seen some beautiful pieces of country and logged a lot of hours in our ol' gal Van-a-White. We zipped through Washington and Idaho, did some shopping in Missoula MT, had our first night of camping on the trip and at KOA in Butte MT, (where Ben was ecstatic to discover the World Mining Museum also happened to be:) and have had lots of fun little adventures along the way. But yesterday afternoon brought us to one of the main highlights of our adventure:Yellowstone National Park!

It was amazing! This visit to Yellowstone was a first time trip for both of us. Ben and I have discussed it and agreed that even as much as we were looking forward to this bit of the trip, the park completely exceeded our expectations. (I LOVE when that happens!). It was so beautiful, and big, and wild feeling out there. I for one was not expecting such a wide variety of terrain and scenery. We walked and drove through forests, over mountains, across open plains and even through some parts of the landscape that looked a little like something out of the most recent Star Wars movie.

Of course we stopped on our way to camp to check out Ol' Faithful, where we waited with just a few other folks, for the famous geyser to show us some action....

and waited....
                       and waited...
                                              and waited....
until FINALLY!!!

(totally worth it, and the 6 year old little girl sitting next to me in the junior ranger outfit completely agreed)

Our campsite was lovely and cozy: we followed all of our very specific, and very scary instructions about hiding our food and girlie smelling shampoos from the bears, and nothing bothered us during the night (besides the people who decided it was a good idea to watch "Notting Hill" on their SUPER LOUD laptop, cause that's a great way to experience nature) and in the morning we woke up early and headed back out where we got to meet this guy.....

and these guys...

(I for one and VERY thankful that in spite of the sequester, the park ranger who is responsible for driving up and down the main rode nudging the bison back to the grass still has his job, otherwise Ben, Van-a and I might still be in that same spot)

All in all we felt like Yellowstone was a huge success, and both talked about how fun it will be to come back some day with a couple of baby-baileys in tow. :)
High off of our wildlife experiences, we booked it across Wyoming today, and made it all the way to Rapid City SD, where we now find ourselves smack-dab in the middle of Sturgis Biker fest, and surrounded by bikers. Tomorrow we head out to Mt. Rushmore and the badlands. Van-a-White is taking the trip like a trooper, but she's told me when we got the the hotel tonight that she's glad we done with the whole "Rocky Mt." thing.

We will put up pictures of the next phase of our adventure soon! Love you all!