The rain has gone and the sky is blue…….not many clouds and those are moving by quickly. Finally, non Washington weather! Today we trek to Yellowstone. Our travels will take us back through Grand Teton national park, along the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway and into and through Yellowstone national park all the way north to the west entrance at West Yellowstone Montana taking highway 20 to Island Park Idaho where we will be staying at A river Runs By It bed and breakfast for 7 nights.

Our plan was to have the Cowboy Cadillac, our 2007 Chevrolet Suburban, all loaded up and ready to go. So after breakfast, all we have to do is get in and go. Right before breakfast Nik didn’t feel so good. He has had some bouts with being cold and then fever a few times over the trip, the biggest bout was the night before we left as mentioned in a previous post. He didn’t eat much and the breakfasts were incredible at The Sassy Moose bed and breakfast in Wilson, Wyoming near Jackson Hole. The sausages were some of the bestest I have ever had and as many of you know, I am a sausage guy! Nik too loves sausage and he didn’t really want any……not a good sign.

As always we left a bit later than we wanted to but you always meet interesting people while at breakfast of a B&B. We still left earlier than the day before though so all was not lost…………but the day is still young. We took the back road into the park again in hopes to see some game but not much showed it’s self to us. Stopped at the ranger station in Moose, awesome place. Nik earned his Junior Ranger badge here. Really nice visitor center. As we traveled along I got some pictures of the mountains with pretty blue sky rather than the clouds from the previous day that prevailed.

At one stop where you can see the Cathedral Group, Teewinot, Grand Teton and Mt. Owen, very well. Got some nice pictures but on arriving back to the truck, Nik was not good at all. He was cold, but had a fever and his heart was racing. Called the ranger station to find out where we should go to see a doctor and they said to bring him to the ranger station.  Luckily it was just a few miles down the road, when we got there the dumb ass ranger says we need to get him to a doctor and he is only trained in first aid! Michelle explained the situation over the phone, we weren’t talking about a hang nail here!

The closest doctor was in Jackson Lake about 15 miles up the road. Speed limit 45 through the park, Nik is not good. Elk, bison and deer jumping out in front of you at any moment, windy roads, people taking pictures of trees everywhere in my way…………Love the power of that rig! When I passed people and stomped on it, it felt like a 787 taking off there is so much power. Okay, I can only imagine what that feels like, nobody can really tell us from experience but those are some powerful engines. Anyway, I blew by people and those folks were probably cursing the crazy bastage from Washington driving 75 MPH through these windy roads. I was concentrating very hard on the sides of the road looking for wildlife and it is a good thing I was. A mule deer jumped out right in front of me but I had plenty of room to slow down and not break my bug shield and turn that deer into venison. Kinda freaked my passengers out cause the brakes slammed on but we made it to the clinic in one piece.

The doctor was really cool and good with Nik. Turns out he has bronchial pneumonia. He has had it for sometime and this was the time it finally showed it’s self…….Vacation time, of course. Doc said the night he had the 103 temp that almost canceled our trip and the other times of fever and feeling cold is all part of the deal. We had been giving him some Tylenol stuff and doc upped that dosage and prescribed some antibiotics. In addition he said no more drinking coffee, beer, whiskey, no smoking and under no circumstances…..no dairy. He was a nice fella and it turns out his daughter is going to school at Western Washington University.

So our fears were vanquished and Nik was feeling better already while in the doctor’s office, so we got back on the road and it was as if nothing traumatic had happened at all…..We just weren’t as far along as we had hoped to be at this point. Also saw a really large coyote while racing along. No pictures of the wolf or the scared out of it’s mind mule deer, just to busy at the time. Sorry, lol.

We had one more ranger station to visit in the Grand Tetons up north before leaving the park and then it was all cruising time from there on out. The southern entrance of Yellowstone follows the Lewis river and it is incredible. The river, the canyons, the beauty……….great sites to see. Then we drove by all the thermal areas where Old faithful is located……..crazy stuff, can’t wait to visit these locations but at the moment we are just passing through trying to get to our bed and breakfast in Island Park Idaho.

Almost to West Yellowstone I spotted an elk laying next to the Madison river with a fly fisherman across from her fishing, I couldn’t help myself. I stopped and took pictures. Such pretty sites. Also, there was a whole bunch of cars stopped along the highway, we stopped too. Thought there was a herd of bison or a pack of wolves or something……nope, a lone bald eagle. We are so spoiled we just kinda said, “oh, it’s an eagle” and drove away. We are lucky to have so many of them in Washington, their natural winter home and feeding grounds.

We finally made to our B&B, A River Runs By It…….INCREDIBLE HOME! It is huge and all log. Absolutely gorgeous, gorgeous. Just gorgeous!  We have the whole down stairs. Private bedroom and bathroom, hot tub, TV, loads of movies, microwave, fridge, 4 more beds, fire place, couches, easy chairs, a pool table and huge checkers table. Plus it has a beach and dock with boats we can use. It is just like being at home, it is a shame we don’t have the time to utilize all these amenities. We just won’t be here that much. I think Tom and Judy are gonna be excellent hosts just by looking at their place……..incredible.

For additional pictures from this day, check out the link on the left of the home page under photo sets labeled Grand Tetons/Yellowstone Day 5 - Leaving The Grand Tetons for Yellowstone