Greetings to all you “Easterners”!

Yesterday we pulled out from Gillette, WY heading for Yellowstone with great expectations of beauty and grandeur… We traveled through some of the most beautiful country composed of rolling hills and the stunning Big Horn Mountains. It seemed every turn revealed another waterfall or canyon composed of craggy stone or painted stratas of earth. We went through Cody, WY where Buffalo Bill is still a major tourist attraction. The Cody National Park was a part of the mountains too.

As we approached Yellowstone from the east all seemed well until we began seeing smoke. The smoke became thicker with each mile. We arrived at the Yellowstone gate where the Ranger informed us that, “You can’t get there from here…” we could not go through the park to get to West Yellowstone as planned. This route would take us about 45 minutes. The fire forced road closings which caused us to have to take another route that took us about 6.5 hours.

The park ride yielded a wonderful journey viewing elk, buffalo, bubbling cauldrons of sulfuric acid and unmatched mountain elevations of Yellowstone beauty. Rather than arriving at 4 PM as planned, it was near midnight instead. Our presidential suite was not quite as impressive as the mountains, being so tired, but it was beautiful and we enjoyed the space and amenities.

This morning we enjoyed breakfast in West Yellowstone and were off to the park. We photographed some stunning views and beautiful areas that only Yellowstone offers. We did not see Old Faithful blow her cool, but we saw her steam just the same. We did see streams teaming with fly rod anglers and elk in the middle of the fast running waters. It seems the park is filled with new growth areas of trees rather than the magnificent vistas we had expected. Tomorrow we will head for the Tetons and Jackson Hole. More tomorrow from wherever we stop.

Hello from Gillette WY! 1700+ mile so far... We feel like the dead end kids. We started off early… very early! Wayne was on wake-up detail this morning. He woke up about 0430 Atlanta time thinking we were on central time. We were up showered, dressed, gear loaded and ready to go at 0530 Atlanta time. It was then we came to the reality that we were in Mountain Time. This had us pulling out at 0330 rather than when we planned. We pulled into the Badlands at 0-Dark-thirty. We waited a while before the sun even thought about coming up. At least we were early… Real early! All worked our well as we really wanted to be early for the Badlands. OK, maybe not that early though! Wayne is not on wake-up detail for tomorrow morning.

The Badlands is a remarkable place! WOW! We captured some wonderful images. From there we went to Wall Drugs for breakfast and to tour this 76,000 location. WOW again! We had a great time misbehaving! You will see soon. Vets got free coffee and a donut. We took advantage of that too!

Rushmore is impressive! Great place to visit and tour. The presidents are a WOW! The location is beautiful. From there we went to Custer State Park. Took the “pigtail and tunnel” route through mountains (at 6,000+ feet) of true beauty. Buffalo are huge… and there are a bunch of them there with cowboys working a Buffalo roundup! Deer were all over the place too! From there we were off for Gillette, WY. We are very tired after a very long day. We have about 400 miles to click tomorrow to be in West Yellowstone tomorrow afternoon sometime after 1600 for our evening at the timeshare. Russ was working on images to post, but I don’t know where he is. I will post some others. We have a video to post soon too. More tomorrow.

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The image is of Wayne, Russ and Rusty in front of the almost TP as we crossed into Saouth Dakota. Bob was behind the camera. We will get him inot the shot tomorrow!

We made it to the Badlands! We are ready to pay our visit there in the morning. After the Badlands we will go to Mt Rushmore and Wall Drug Store.

We have never seen so many miles of acres of corn! Green corn, yellow corn, trimmed corn, old corn and corney corn, I mean to tell you we have seen CORN! Wayne is calculating the fact that there is more than enough corn to fead every man, woman and child enough corn that no one shoud ever want for food EVER! Corn flakes, corn mush, pop corn, cornbread, hominy, Grits, corn on the cob, corn tortillas, fritos, other inferior corn chips, corn oil, ethanoll and so much more. Did we mention we saw a bunch of corn? We even fulfilled Wayne's obligation to his mother-in-law to visit the corn palace. Lord knows we have seen a lot of corn!

We saw a beautiful view coming down though the Missori Valley at sunset on I-90 as the corn slowely faded from our view... More tomorrow! Time to get wome sleep before we visit the BADLAND

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800+ miles later we find ourselves just out of Kansas City, MO. The "Arch" is still standing for all who had any doubt. We had to hold Bob in form hanging out the window taking pictures! He has never seen the Arch. The sunset was something special to see reflecting off of the silver structure.
Weather has been great! Little rain, but not bad.
We have laughed like kids all day at silly stuff, but we have not killed anyone yet... yet that is.
Time to crash, more tomorrow from Wall, SD with the first pictures.
From the "Wild West Bunch"...

Tick- Tick- Tick... Tomorrow morning is going to be here in 17 hours. We will pull out heading to Kansas City, MO. Route is set, weather is checked, gear is packed and we are looking forward to the journey. Sweeping vistas, craggy cliffs, swaying grasslands and asure blue skys are awaiting! Tomorrow will be from on the road.

Necessary items are being carefully selected and camera gear is being tested and double checked. Weather reports are a regular patch from zip codes of the different locations we know we will be visiting or passing through. There has been an “all-points-bulletin” transmitted to all hotel, motel and rest stop locations to be on the lookout for four wide-eyed grandfathers and worse traveling in a silver colored Silverado traveling west… Don’t quite know what we have done yet, but they are prepared for the worst. Wall Drugstore in Wall, SD has nailed down all 76,000 square feet as they ready themselves for the onslaught. Rushmore has dawned sunglasses so they will not be overwhelmed with the flashes of new found fame. Walter Winchell is turning over in his grave missing the fanfare being stirred up by these despots from the southland!

The Wild West Tour... Day 1

Plans and conversations have now become a thing of the past, e-mails have been sent and commitments have now been finalized, the date is set and we, J. Robert Russell, Dennis Wayne Walther, Robert Carney and Russell W. Johnson have made a pact… The Wild West Tour is about to become a reality.
Friday, September 25, 2009 we leave the Atlanta area for, first stop, Kansas City, MO. We will stay in or around Kansas City for our first night. Saturday morning we head north on 29 to 90 then it is due west to the Badlands, Rushmore, Yellowstone, the Tetons, the Canyon, the Bridges, the Arches and home. How long… til we are finished.
Head um up and move um out… We are on the move.