Bubbling, hissing, steaming, smelling, plopping, roaring, erupting.

So going to start with another thank you – this time to Irma and John for treating to my breakfast yesterday – thank you very much.

Irma

So I still have a fat bruised left arm – it doesn’t like sudden movements but seems to be holding out on the bike.

Bertie and I made it to Yellowstone. Since setting off from Oregon we’ve travelled through a variety of landscapes – the birds and animals are different; the towns and buildings are different and the folks speak with a funny accent but a lot of the scenery is very familiar – there is just much much more of it. This applies to the start of Yellowstone too – until you get to the hot springs and geysers and then wow – I’ve never seen anything like this before – the heat, the smell, the colours – a constantly moving and changing environment – difficult to put into words and not sure if any of my pictures will do it justice – but definitely worth the effort to get there.

After leaving the Yellowstone East Gate (which involved a very long and cold descent in the rain) I ended up in Buffolo Bill territory – and this is much more like the scenery I remember from watching Westerns – not that I watched very many as I could never figure out who was the good or bad guy and who was shooting who – but the scenery is amazing – lots of horses too.

Easy flat riding yesterday, which I was needing and then, today, probably the biggest uphill I have ever done – typical of me I hadn’t checked how big a climb it was – I set off from the campground this morning about 7.45am and was still slowly going up well after one pm – never thought I was going to get there but I did and me and Bertie conquered the Granite Pass in The Bighorn Mountains – scenery amazing and so glad I did it but was questioning my sanity at times – long sweeping downhill to Dayton which was mostly good but I found the “there may be 12 miles of lorries out of control” (or something to that effect) a bit disconcerting.

A few more miles and I’m camping in a wee place called Ranchester. Cheated for dinner and had takeaway chicken and gravy and sweet corn followed by chocolate ice cream.

Now in my 5th USA state and loving everywhere I’ve been so far.