Last Saturday, my parents and I began our bus tour of yellow stone, mount Rushmore and more. The last time we were on a bus tour was 7 years ago in Thailand. My, was that a luxurious trip.
This was not. Since we had to cover alot of grounds, the first two days were pretty intense... we basically ate and slept on the bus, which reminded me of my trip home after 9/11, but that's another story. We didn't pull an all-nighter per say, but the amount of time we spent on the bus far outweigh the amount of time we spent doing anything else. To add to the mix, the bathroom on the bus was off-limits unless you had to tinkle. Just so you know, there were 56 people on the bus, and we make a rest stop every 2.5 hours. Needless to say, we were all a little cranky. Then, there were the hotels. Sigh. Let's just say that some didn't have elevators or a working bathtub drain. Mind you, I am not high-maintenance. I was perfectly happy with our yellow stone cabin. I just don't like spending over a hour trying to fix all these little hiccups after spending gazillion hours on the bus.
Fortunately, things picked up on the third day, when we started visiting sites. Have you all heard about Crazy Horse monument in South Dakota? Its quite impressive. It took the sculptor 60 years to carve Crazy Horse, a Native American's head, on the black mountain. He still has a long way to go. My favorite part about that place has to be the free coffee. It perked me up after many hours going without caffeine. Not to mention that it was delicious. Then, we were off to Mount Rushmore.
Mount Rushmore was what I expected. I enjoyed the presidential trail the most, as it gave me a chance to exercise, which I haven't done for a couple days. Also, the bison burger and leaf shaped earrings made quite an impression. I was happy as a clam when we left.
Off to Badlands national park, which I have not heard of prior to this trip. Its basically erosion on display. Apparently, the place used to be under the ocean, then became a tropical forest, to eroded mountains on display. Felt rather otherworldly while I was there. Not to mention the "Beware of Rattlesnakes" signs everywhere. Fortunately, we didn't see any.
Finally, we got to Yellowstone national park. I didn't know what to expect, but it was quite engrossing. All that whiteness, bitter cold (even snow) and just awe-inspiring natural beauty just floored me. Running into the animals were great as well. No bears, but we did see plenty of elks, bisons and even a wolf. We spent the night in a Yellowstone cabin, which was quite cool. Not so cool when we realized that we couldn't really control the temperature of the room, as its either too hot or too cold. But since we only were in the room for ~ 7 hours, we weren't too hung up about it.
My favorite spot has to be the artistic point. The coloring on the mountain was breathtaking. And the snow! So caught off guard were we, that there was only one person in a group of 54 that had a pair of gloves on. The old faithful was alright. Frankly, we have seen so much hot springs/ geysers by that point it became a bit mundane.
Then, we jetted off to Grand Teton national park. Which was supposedly what the Paramount logo was modeled after. It reminded me of the Alps from "The Sound of Music". We wrapped up the day playing with doe, elk, goat and even bears in Bear World. At the end of the trip, we visited Idaho Falls and Snake River Canyon. Did you know that there is such a thing as potato lotion? I was tempted but not that tempted. O, and I won $7.27 from the slot machines.
All in all, a good trip. Not sure if I would do another bus tour, as I longed to have the freedom of doing thing when I wanted to. Also, I missed my bf terribly, and was quite glad to come home. I wished I was a better daughter, as I realized that I have quite a short fuse at times with my parents. Something for me to work on for next time.
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