Today was the big day--Chris and Annie flew in from Portland to West Yellowstone (via Salt Lake City). We drove over to West Yellowstone early to check out the town and because we weren't sure how long the trip would take.
It turned out that the 57 miles took only two hours--quicker than we expected, since it's all on park roads. One of the hazards of driving in the park is that people often drive slowly or outright stop to see the wildlife. Another is that there is lots of road construction, and the section we were driving warned of potential 30 minute delays. It turned out that we were delayed less than 10 minutes at the flagger.
West Yellowstone is quite small. We went first to check out the grocery stores. The largest was better stocked than many we have encountered in small towns. It belongs to a chain that sells Western Family house brands. We picked up a few things, then went on to explore the town.
That didn't take long. The town evidently exists mainly as a tourist gateway to Yellowstone, so it's full of souvenir shops and the like. We did check out the Grizzly RV Park. It's nice, but we're happy to be in the middle of the park.
When we drove up to the airport, it was as small as any we've ever seen--the kind where you go out and look up in the sky to see when the airplanes are approaching. One gate. Very nice people. Even the TSA employee was pleasant.
It was great to see Chris and Annie emerge from the plane and walk across the tarmac. At first I only recognized Annie--but who was that handsome guy behind her? Although I had heard that Chris had "gone natural," I was unprepared to see him with solid gray hair. Annie was amazed at how tiny the airport was.
The drive home wasn't as long as anticipated. We were home by 9 and heating up the spaghetti for our hungry and tired group.
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