My parents have been my biggest supporters in every way throughout my cancer journey. They have gone to almost every appointment with me, every chemo treatment I allowed them to attend, and every surgery I had. My mother stayed by my side all through the horrors of chemo and nursed me back to health after each surgery. My dad went to a lot of appointments with me and drained my tubes every 4 hours after my mastectomy. Without them, I couldn't have made it through this. So after I was done with all my treatments, I wanted to take them on a trip, to show my appreciation. It was going to be a Cancer Celebration trip. The final hoorah to celebrate to end! For several years I have wanted to go to Yellowstone National Park. I have heard how beautiful it is and I wanted to see it for myself. I almost went 3 years ago with a friend, but the plans fell through at the last minute. So, when a breast cancer organization was willing to give me a substantial check, I knew exactly what I was going to use the money for. On July 15th, my parents and I embarked on a two week trip out west to Montana and Wyoming to visit Yellowstone National Park.
We drove my car out there, and it took us four days to get to Big Sky, MT where our resort was. We took the northern route along I-90, so we could drive through South Dakota. On the drive there, we stopped at Mt. Rushmore, The Badlands National Park, Wall Drug, an 1880 Town and Custard's Last Stand. When we arrived in Big Sky (which is actually the #1 ski resort right now, even beat out Vail), we had a day to relax before going to Yellowstone. Our resort was WAY UP on this mountain. We had to take a winding road 13 minutes (9 miles) up to the top where the resort was. I can't imagine how busy that place is during the winter. Anyway, for our day of "relaxation" we decided to partake in some of the extracurricular outdoor activities that MT had to offer. I really wanted to learn to fly fish, but mom and dad thought it would be too boring. So, instead we decided to go zip lining and white water rafting. The first time to do both for all three of us. It was really fun! The zip line course had 3 lines and I was sooo scared to do the first. My hands and legs were shaking. But by the third line, I was going hands free! We did white water rafting down the Gallatin River in 2-3 rapids. Our guide said that was the river that "A River Runs Through It" was taped on.
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By the 7th day of our vacation, we finally made it to Yellowstone National Park. We'd planned on spending four days there. Our first day at the park, I'd planned as "pink day". We all wore pink. I wore my shirt that said "Heck yes they're fake. My real ones tried to kill me". Our four days in Yellowstone were awesome! We saw a TON of wildlife, including buffalo, elk, pronghorn, marmots, chipmunks, a bald eagle, osprey, killdeer, a coyote, a grizzly bear and a black bear with her 3 cubs. We went to every part of the park. With the hour drive we had to and from our resort each day, we'd be gone from sun up to sometimes past sundown. It was an exhausting four days, but very enjoyable. We got to see Old Faithful go off several times along with other geysers, we saw several buffalo herds with their babies. We even got as close as 6 feet to one buffalo that was grazing. We also had a buffalo cross the street right in front of our car. We also went on two different Ranger-guided hikes. For those that are thinking of going to Yellowstone, four days is just the right amount of time.
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After Yellowstone, we left our resort and headed south through Grand Teton National Park. It is much smaller and not very much to do in this park. So we just drove through it in about 2 hours or so. The Teton mountains are gorgeous! We got pretty close to them. The first town outside Grand Teton NP is Jackson, WY. This was our next stop. We stayed here for two days. Jackson is a cute tourist town. Expensive shops and restaurants surround the town square. As soon as we got into town, we went to town square to watch their nightly "Shootout". A local theater group reenacts an old western shootout every night at 6pm. It drew a large crowd. The next day we explored Jackson some. We went to Sky King Mountain and went horseback riding and alpine sliding. Alpine sliding was sooo much fun! It is a giant slide that you ride down the mountain on in a cart thing. If you ever get the chance to go alpine siding (they have them in several places), I would highly recommend it.
Jackson was our last stop before heading back home. We took another four days to get home, and this time we took I-80 through Nebraska. We made stops at the Frontier Prison Museum in Rawlins, WY, and at Laramie for their Frontier Days. This was basically like our state fair. It was at a fairgrounds, and they had things like a rodeo, an Indian village, shops, food, etc. We finally made it home after 15 days on the road, exhausted, but thankful!
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