A watched pot never boils!

Today's trip into Yellowstone saw us leaving very early to avoid the traffic and arrive at Old Faithful for the first of the ranger talks/guided walks, and the 8:35am geyser explosion.

The walk was great. We took so much more away from it with the ranger's anecdotes, than if we had simply walked around and looked at the geysers on our own. Funnily enough each of the geysers that were 'regular eruptors' were all rather tardy. So as we tired of waiting for 'the event', and headed off to continue our tour, the geysers obviously sensed it and chose to erupt once we were all about 50 meters away!

Of particular interest to me were the underwater geysers in Yellowstone Lake. The water in the lake was so clear, that seeing the opening under the water was no problem at all. The other hot springs in the area by the lake were rather sulphorous - leading the boys to exclaim that 'this place stinks, it makes me feel sick' (Oliver) and 'I wish I wasn't here!' (Benedict)

Again today we passed bison grazing on the grasslands with their young, and wandering along the road, as well as spotting deer in the distance. The whole area of steaming hot springs, geysers, waterfalls, bison wandering freely, exposed volcanic rock, and fertile green plains surrounded by tall pines, made me recall reading the "Clan of the Cave Bear" series by Jean Auel - it is just as I imagined where Ayla would have lived and hunted (albeit in Europe).

bison

Old Faithful

dangerous chipmonk!

steam and smell!

Old Faithful again

The girls and fabulously blue water

Oliver and Black Pool - misnomer, I am sure

staring into the abyss

On a trail walk, crossing a suspension bridge

Blog entry by Sophia - Yellowstone day 1

Today I went to Yellowstone national park. In the national park I saw a chipmunk and some bison.
Which animal is more dangerous - a bear or a bison?
Bison are more dangerous than bears. A ranger told me about a person that surprised a bear by accident. He did not have any bear spray. The bear charged at him. The man threw a rock at the bear because he did not have bear spray. The bear came right up to the man so the man so the man could smell the bear's breath, then the bear walked away. The man never threw a rock at a bear again. Also today a bison ran past me, it was so close.

A ranger also told me a story about a man who walked up to a bison because the bison looked like a cow. The bison charged at the man and bucked him in the air. The man broke some bones. He had to go to hospital!

Bears
The difference between a grizzly bear and a black bear is grizzly bears have claws the size of people's fingers, and a lump of muscle on their back near their shoulders. The grizzly bear's footprint is larger than a black bear's footprint. Black bears do not have a lump of muscle on their backs. Black bear's claws are shorter than grizzly bear's claws. Black bears' footprints is smaller than the grizzly bear's!

"Black bear" by Sophia

Blog entry by Victoria - Yellowstone day 1

Today my family and I went to Yellowstone. We saw heaps of AWESOME volcanic stuff, like:

• geysers (big things that shoot water into the air!)
• hot springs (water pools that look like puddles that bubble with toxic gas!)
• mud springs (they are like hot springs but are full of mud. In fact one was so full of gas that some mud shot into the air!)
• Really breakable ground (so breakable that if someone stepped off the track the ground would break under their feet and they would fall into a hot spring!)

It was all really cool and no, don't ask, I HAVE NOT SEEN YOGI BEAR!

Talking about bears do you know a lot about them? Take a quiz and see...

1.  Which is more dangerous - bear, bison or eagle?

2.  Can bears swim?

3.  Bears attack when standing up - true or false?

3 out of three - you're beary clever

2 out of three - bear with it

1 out of three - bearly there

0 our to three - unbearable

(Answers: Bison; Yes; false)

Beautiful vista!

the boys

ground squirrel!

At the ranger education session about volcanic activity

The bison that just wandered by!

Falls!

The girls in their Junior Ranger jackets, adorned by badges

boiling mud!

... and again

Steaming pools of mud and water

Tori's description of what she learnt today - sorry it is upside down!

Craters of the Moon, Idaho

So we left Twin Falls and headed for 'Craters of the Moon' National Monument, just west of a little place named Arco, Idaho. http://www.nps.gov/crmo/index.htm

This place was awesome. Such an unusual lunar landscape. It was the training place of the Apollo astronauts for their rock collecting mission on the moon.

Furthering the children's Earth Science study - we had flown over the San Andreas fault line, which had sparked discussion about tectonic plate movement - we spent the day exploring volcanic eruptions and its shaping of the landscape. The park has a 7 mile loop drive, with stops along the way, encouraging people to get out and walk on clearly marked pathways to experience the environment. We walked up a cinder mountain "the pinnacle", looked into the mouth of a spatter cone, and walked through the remains of a lava tube, now a cave.

Once again the kids completed their curriculum workbooks, received an iron on patch, and were sworn in as park rangers at Craters of the Moon National Monument. The best bit of the swearing in was being able to wear a space suit helmet - well in keeping with the lunar theme.

Mr Oliver in the rocky field. Our RV in the background.

The kids and spatter cones

Trying to look into a volcano hole!

The park ranger getting Oliver to demonstrate being a seed in a crack, and Phi being a seed on rock -  guess which seed does better

Helping Benedict as we climb out of a hole in the ground, exiting the cave

Another 'crater'

"I don't need to hold your hand mum, only when I am on the rocks"
"What are we walking on Benedict?!"

That is Oliver under the space helmet, with Victoria, being sworn in as Park Rangers

Sophia under the helmet this time, with Benedict

We are now in West Yellowstone and will be spending the next 5 days here. So much to explore in this area.

As far as the driving is going, all is good. Ken and I share the driving and are getting more comfortable with placement of the RV on the road every day. Highway driving is fine now, towns still create nervousness. It costs about $150 each time we refuel / US$4 per gallon.

We are now another hour ahead (Mountain time).

July 4th Twin Falls, Idaho

Huge day driving. Ken and I shared the driving which was good. We briefly stopped at the California Trail Interpretive Centre. Will post photos and update info another day.
Great dinner at Idaho Joe's - we were somewhat of an oddity to the server who couldn't believe Australians would be in Idaho!
It is 10pm now - kids watching fireworks. Night all.

The kids deciding what they would pack in the wagon if they were going to travel from St Louis to California

In period costume

Reno - the biggest little city in the world

So a night in Reno tonight. Not bad highway driving - again kudos to Ken.

We had a half day here in Reno. Took the chance to visit the National Automobile Museum. What a gem of a find!  http://automuseum.org/  The copper Rolls Royce took my eye!

The boys enjoyed the treasure hunt throughout the museum - they had to read descriptions of cars and go and find them in each of the 4 display halls. All children were very excited to see the winning car of the New York to Paris 1908 car race - the Thomas Flyer. They were astounded when reading the route the cars took, "but Mum, that is a really, really, really long way! How did they get over the water?!" The car even has the mud still on the wheels! How that got through customs is anyone's guess!

Crossing from California into Nevada was very interesting geographically. We went from mountainous to flat expanses, verdant greens to yellows and browns, and the weather - into heat (yeah!). The Interstate roads built by the Army are concrete - an expensive feat of engineering - but a great surface for driving on (so Ken reports to me). 

Tomorrow is a huge day of driving for us - 8 hours - our destination Twin Falls, Idaho. We plan on taking it easy and stopping to enjoy the scenery along the way. There are very few of these long days on our itinerary; we are grateful for that. We'll have one night's stay in Twin Falls, then it is onto Yellowstone for a stay of 4 days - yeah! Continue to pray for our safe passage.

Eating in the RV

Concrete roads 

The boys writing their car 'findings' down in order to earn a sticker from the Museum docent

Dressing up to drive the Model T Ford - glamorous girls! Tori chose a very girly pinafore , whilst Phi - bless her - chose the fur!

The copper Rolls Royce - looked far more 'bling' in reality

I forget what the heck this one was, but I liked the orange-ness! :)

Hispano-Suiza: the car Miss Phryne Fisher drives in the Kerry Greenwood novels

The boys cruisin' in the Model T Ford

Thank you San Francisco!

16 days in SF have flown. It was an awesome start to our holiday.

Today consisted of returning hire car, collecting RV, grocery shopping, negotiating carparks and suburban SF to get to freeway. Ken is absolutely superb.

We are both tired from the stress of driving such a huge vehicle. My stomach muscles hurt from holding my core tight all day long! The RV rattles to buggery, and the winds in some stretches make for hairy driving. Ken has earnt a long, cold drink!

He has taken kids to the pool - we are now at Sacramento West KOA. I am trying to play reverse tetris - unpacking and finding places for all our assorted junk. Really need to go out and run 10k just to shake off the day ... but I can't ... so I will leave you tonight, reassuring you that we completed our first RV day safely.