This is the entry for 7/13:
We got up this morning and after going through the morning ritual I went out to start the car. Same thing. We called Avis, and left a voice mail asking to swap cars. I kept playing with it and finally got it to start. We went into the town of West Yellowstone to a) check the airport to see if we could find the Avis guy; b) see if we could find his wife who owns a diner just off the main drag; and c) check out the town we keep just driving through.
As we pull up to Avis man’s wife’s diner, he calls us back. He says he will be right there. He shows up in less than 60 seconds. (This is one weird town…) He tries it and of course it starts on the first pull. He mentions that he has had one other Ford vehicle with the same problem though and is more than happy to swap this one out for another vehicle. He gives us a Ford Mustang convertible. Talk about a change in vehicles. In the Excursion you could play racquetball, in the Mustang, there isn’t even enough room to read a book! Also, within a hour or so it started to sprinkle! Oh well. We took off for the park, looking for game.
We never did find a moose. We didn’t see any bear. But we saw everything else and boy do I have a story about a buffalo. (I also have it on tape.) I’m not sure how close you have gotten to a full grown, mature, buffalo but I have now been within a couple of feet of one. I’m talking less than three feet away. I could have touched it.
After taking pictures and video of one buffalo Susie and I get in the car and head down the road. We come around a corner and traffic is stopped. We are trying to see why traffic is stopped (Is it a Moose?) and I look into the other lane and this buffalo is walking down the middle of the road. I should say he is lumbering. Man are they big. We were stopped and he passed right by the driver’s door. (This is one of those times when I would have rather been in the Excursion, than a convertible Mustang) Talk about exciting! What an experience!
Once he was past, we took off and there must have been a mile of cars waiting in the other direction. It seems that he was traveling on the road for quite some time.
We continued on to Mammoth Springs. Did some more shopping, turned around and then headed home. We dropped our loot and then went into West Yellowstone and walked the streets and did more shopping.
We got home way after dark, and went to bed.