Vacation 2015, #1 - Camping in West Yellowstone

Thought I'd better get busy with vacation pictures or else I won't remember anything about some of them when it comes time for me to do a write-up.  Well, it's about that bad already so I figured that I would start with our first campsite and buy some time for sorting into the other pictures.

So off we go.  Our first night of vacation was spent in a hotel in Laramie, WY.  Nothing special about the hotel, the meal we had, or heck, even the town itself other than that the local grocery store had a good craft beer selection and I broke the ice at that store.  So it wasn't a total loss!  :-)

The second and third nights of our vacation were spent in the two of West Yellowstone, MT just outside of...  wait for it...   the West entrance of Yellowstone National Park. 

It was a fantastic campground with plenty of stuff to occupy young brain boxes...   Lets have a look.

A little bit tight setting up our tent as it's more tucked in under those pine trees that the picture indicates.  I still have the scar on the fat of my lower back from the puncture wound I suffered when trying to get the tarp staked in.  There was, and probably still is, a broken off branch nubbin that stuck out about 5 inches from the trunk of the tree.  I backed into prior to knowing of it's existence.  From that point on, I was keenly aware of it and encouraged other to avoid it.  Just past the fence, or above if you'd rather, you can see part of the playground for the kiddos.

And the playground is complete with a mini-golf course of which, Aunt Molly took the lads over to for a hard fought battle of supremacy. 

Molly is dialed in for this putt with laser like intensity.

Here's a better shot of the playground.

That's mama and the boys on one of the rental bikes.  That building is where the laundry rooms, bathrooms, and general store are located.  They are either the coolest campground in the world, or they knew I was coming, because that general store had at least 15 different kinds of craft beer that I had never had the pleasure of consuming.  The best part was though, that they only had 1 facing of Bud Light. 1!!  That was awesome and I was sure that I showered them in praise every time I went up there for wood or other supplies. 

A better shot of the bike and it's crazy "Captains".

The boys took it for a spin after Mom was done.  As far as we know, there were no insurance claims...

So we were leaving this campground on the morning of July 10th, 2015.  My 45th birthday.  We got in to leave and start our drive upwards thru Montana, Idaho and eventually Washington, as our desired drive was to make it to Spokane, and to our surprise, the van would not start.

Luckily for us, this campground was huge and they employ a staff of MANY!.  They dispatched a few fine members of the maintenance crew out and got our van jumped and us back on the road for one of the most beautiful... no, THE most beautiful drive on a persons birthday ever!!

Mark it down, it was amazing.  Sad part is, we were just driving so there are powerful few photos of the day.

Such is life.