Chris and Annie Fly Back to Portland

Today was our last day with Chris and Annie. We got up at 7:00 a.m., figuring we had plenty of time to make an 11:50 a.m. flight from West Yellowstone.

Chris made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch, and we packed our last apples and some chips and bananas. For breakfast we fixed fried potatoes and tofu scrambler. Chris found a recipe online and made the tofu while I fixed the potatoes. We ate our last grapefruit, leaving the fruit bowl empty and the produce drawer nearly so.

We all worked on the dishes--Annie dried. Our timing was working out well. We drove away from the campsite at 9:08 a.m. We were slowed down by people watching bison (Chris reminds us that the average visit to Yellowstone is 1.9 days--these are probably the first bison they have seen. Annie says, "Bison, meh!") We saw a large herd of bison on the west side of the road in Hayden Valley. A little further on we came to another traffic stop--but this time it was a wolf, the white alpha female from the Canyon pack. She loped across the road about 20 feet in front of our truck, then stopped and looked back. We figured she must be waiting for her pups, and when they didn't show, she finally went back up the hill and disappeared in the sage. we didn't have time to stop and wait for more, but Ken got some good shots. We were all very happy to have seen a wolf at close quarters, rather than through high powered scopes.

It was Sunday morning, so we figured (hoped) that the road construction on the Norris to Madison leg of the trip would be halted, or at least restricted. No such luck. We were stopped by flaggers twice. The first time was only a few minutes, but the second was over 40 minutes. We were figuratively chewing our fingernails. Would we make it to the airport in time?

We parked at the airport exactly one half hour before the flight. Chris walked up to the desk, checked his large suitcases, and got boarding passes for him and Annie. The lady at the counter said, "Are you Anara?" When Annie said yes, the lady asked how old, and Annie said 11. At this age, she didn't need a photo ID. We all hurried to the restroom, emerging just in time for the call to go to the TSA screening. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. Just time for a final kiss and hug, and away they went.

We did our grocery shopping, getting enough fruit and produce to last the week, we hope. Then we headed back towards Fishing Village. This time we had much shorter delays. We stopped at a picnic area and ate our lunch along the Madison River. An elk was eating on the steep slope across the river.

When we came to a turnoff marked, "Virginia Cascades" we took it, not knowing what we would find. It was a winding road along a canyon, with steep dropoffs and no railings most of the way. Suddenly we came to a wonderful sight--a steep whitewater cascade down the rocks as the Gibbon River tumbled into the canyon.

When we got home we put away the groceries and took a walk. Smoke from a forest fire we had seen in the west drifted towards the campground, and dark clouds were gathering. After a bit they dissipated, and the sun came out again. We had only a very brief shower.

As far as the battery charging problem goes, we're pretty sure it's not the generator's problem. We isolated the generator by turning off the circuits to the inverter, and the other outlets worked fine, even with a load (e.g., toaster).

When we turned on the inverter circuit breaker, the monitor panel showed an error message. The manual said to reset the inverter, which we did. A few minutes later, as I was changing a setting, the charging suddenly was fine. At least until I decided to vacuum. That screwed everything up again. So we went through the whole sequence again. This time Ken decided to turn the fridge to gas, and voila, the charging was fine again.

We're pretty puzzled, but we're planning to contact the inverter manufacturer tomorrow.