Okedoke.. first up...
Had an appointment yesterday and scheduled my c-sec :) When we were coming home, we decided that August 12th instead of the 5th would be better. Mostly b/c of Zoe's birthday being on the 8th and me wanting to do something special for her that weekend. If I was to get a c-sec on the 5th, I'd still be in the hospital or going home on her birthday and while she is still young and probably wouldn't care... I don't want to be out of it like that on her birthday.
Just gotta hope baby cooperates and stays put until then though lol.
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So where did I leave off..... nasty hotel I think.
After that, our next destination was Kansas City I think. Or maybe Kansas City was where the nasty hotel was. I don't even remember.. it all sort of blurs together lol.
We were going to go to a BBQ place but saw this Chinese place featured on some food show that sounded good so we went to that. Blue Koi.
While it wasn't bad... it also wasn't all that great either. Regret not going to get BBQ but oh well.
Lemme say... driving through Kansas SUCKS. Holy crap is it boring as heck.
I think it was on to Colorado after that. As I had mentioned earlier... we were going to stay in Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, but learning that they have no AC and how rundown the rooms are.. we decided it wasn't worth it so stayed in a La Quinta Inn in Fort Collins? Fort something....
That hotel was being renovated, but the rooms were SUPER nice. Really clean and just updated.
Also, their breakfast was pretty good. Decent selection.
The traffic from Denver to Fort was awful though. Think it was 2 or 3pm and traffic was already terrible.
It was pretty cool though to see the snow covered mountains in the distance. Sucked that we weren't going to see them up close, but oh well.
We got to that location early enough to go get something to eat. Not wanting more fast food, we decided on some local place that was in a booklet the hotel had in the room.
That was a bad decision. The food was ok enough, but it was WAY overpriced and the service was awful. The whole restaurant was dark and dingy and just.. bleh. You could tell that it had never been updated since it opened 20+ years ago. Just glad we didn't get food poisoning or anything.
So after Fort... it was finally off to Yellowstone! We still had a good long drive ahead of us but man, it was a gorgeous drive.
We didn't realize it until we were almost at our next stop that we were driving through Grand Teton national park lol. There weren't any signs or anything to indicate that that's what it was. Should've figured though heh.
We did come across a ton of people on the side of the road gawking at a grizzly bear. We should've stopped but we came upon it so quick and there were SO many people there that we just kept going.
So Flagg Ranch was our next rest stop. They have 3 different lodging options. 1 is for military only, or well.. only military can book the RV trailers. Thankfully DH's friend was able to get us one of them for 2 of the 3 nights. Nothing super special, but also better than their other option of a room w/ bunk beds.... nothing else. No electricity, no bathroom. That would be a great option for those that aren't heavily pregnant and need to use the bathroom in the middle of the night lol.
The other option is paying $300 a night for... basically just a larger than normal hotel room. It was nice, but absolutely NOT worth $300. Hell, breakfast wasn't even included... cheap bastards.
It was a nice place though. Just outside of the south yellowstone entrance.
BUT... no one warned us about the mosquitoes. Holy shit the mosquitoes. You get SWARMED by them. The amount of mosquitoes is actually scary. I can't emphasize just how bad the flying leaches were and just how many there were. Everyone that was there had to adopt their own arms flailing ritual whenever they entered or exited their room/car or else you'd be stuck with at least a dozen of the bugs in your room and car.
Bug repellent WITH deet? was the only thing that helped, but even then, it only helped a little. Those bastards still got to you through your clothes. I had about a half dozen bites on each hip... and I got lucky. After that first night.. I didn't stay out too long the other 2 nights while DH and friend's family did. They all got eaten alive.
Anywho.... in Yellowstone though, no mosquitoes thankfully. Yellowstone was really nice. Long and slow drives (specially if you get stuck behind someone going under the speed limit), but the scenery was amazing.
We saw a lot of buffalo which was cool. Only one or 2 here and there, but then we came upon a HUGE herd of them w/ some stopping traffic to cross the road. :)
There were also 2 instances of coming upon a bear sighting. Always a ton of people stopped. The first one.. the black bear was WAY off in the distance and down a cliff. Scary as hell. I didn't bother getting out of the van but DH did and said it was scary trying to not fall to his death lol.
The 2nd black bear sighting... also a ton of people but thankfully the bear along w/ her 2 cubs were in a little overgrown field. Couldn't really see them. Just their furry backs above the tall vegetation.
We stopped at a few of those boiling hot pools and whatnots. Was not expected the boiled egg fart sulfur smell lol. They were really pretty and super neat to see though.
Of course we stopped at Old Faithful. Took about 30 or 40mins to erupt and we got sprayed with boiled egg fart water, but it was neat.
We also got sunburned too. Wasn't expecting that :\
Oren was a huge hit with the Asian tourists for some reason. Yes.... he's adorable, but they were really going crazy over him... /shrugs.
And lemme say.... there were A LOT of Asian tourists. Not a bad thing or anything lol... just thought it was... I dunno... kinda weird?
The bathrooms without the plumbing were a bit freaky and gross. Basically a slightly fancier porta-potty with a dark pit of doom that you had to sit on. That crap was scary at one of the places we stopped. I sat down to do my business and as soon as I did, I swear I heard something moving under me in the sludge O_O.
Anyway.. Yellowstone was very cool and I would love to go back and stay longer one day.
Maybe actually get started earlier so we could hopefully see more wildlife.
Oh and if you're going to go... bring some REAL food with you. The military only RV trailers had dishes, utensils and a working stove w/ oven. Or you can just cook something on the fire.. whatever.. just bring some real food. After a week of junk... DH and I were dying for something that wasn't processed lol.
Ok... enough for today!! Oren is napping and once he wakes, gotta give the kids and bath and get him ready for his checkup today. :)
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