After the Reynolds' camping adventure, we continued our eastward trek towards Yellowstone National Park. Just the 150+ mile drive through the park is breathtaking. We saw mule dear, bison, bald eagles, rivers, waterfalls, hot springs, geysers, and much more. The kids really enjoyed the sights. We made the mandatory stop at Old Faithful and waited almost an hour to see it's magic. The weather was beautiful and half of America was there as well. After an hour of waiting and a visit to the gift shop, Old Faithful put on a show as predicted. It was pretty awesome.

Later, we continued our drive through the park, stopping to admire the beauty of Yellowstone Lake. After dragging our trailer up and down the hills of the park, we finally made it to the East entrance and pressed on towards Cody, Wyoming. Until now, the truck and trailer had performed pretty well. We knew we were quite heavy but felt confident in the abilities of our little Nissan Xterra. Arrogantly, we bypassed the few gas stations in Cody and pressed on towards Graybull. In Graybull, we still had a almost half a tank of fuel and didn't think we needed to stop. We also thought the biggest hills were behind us. Bighorn National Forest proved us wrong. The drive from Graybull, WY to Sheridan will humble even the strongest of motor vehicles. About halfway up the mountain, the truck began to protest and showed its displeasure by pushing the engine temperature gauge towards the "H"! We had to pull over and let things cool off. After a quick break and engine check, we continued towards the 9,000 foot pass - a little slower this time. While watching the engine temperature spike, we watched the fuel gauge plummet and the little "gas light" stare us in the face for another 25 miles or so. Not only were we worried that the "little truck that could" wouldn't make it over the mountain, but that we were going to run out of gas in the middle of nowhere and have to walk 20 miles down this behemoth to the nearest gas station. In the end, the truck made it and we coasted into a small country gas station just on the other side of the mountain. We filled up and pressed on.

After a stressful morning and afternoon, things smoothed out a bit and we made good progress. We finally made it to our layover stop in Rapid City, SD. Everyone was happy and we all slept like the dead.