Travel!!!

Well, we made it to Wyoming and back. In this installment I'll tell you some of the highlights, the low points, and review some motels/hotels.

The flights out (Philly to Salt Lake to Billings, MT) went fine. Got our car quickly. FYI for later in this story, Philly to Salt Lake is 4.5 hours.

Found our way from Billings to Cody quite well. This gave us our first impression of what was in store. Along the route, we passed through what is called, the Bench. The Bench is a LONG, flat strech of road, with ranches on either side. We drove onto this area, and saw mountains ahead. 'Wow, nice, we should get to those in a few minutes.'

45 minutes later, we were continuing to think we'd get to them soon, but were beginning to wonder if it was some sort of illusion. They were growing in view, ever so slightly. That's just how BIG and VAST things are out there.

I will consider Cody Wyoming the world's first 'tourist trap'. It was laid out by Buffalo Bill Cody to be specifically a tourist town, and talked the goverment to put an entrance to the worlds first National Park (YellowStone) right where Code would stand, so you can't use the East Entrance to Yellowstone without passing through Cody.

Words can't describe the park. I'll put pictures up soon, but try to see it yourself if you can.

Hotels

Our first motel was the Rainbow Park motel in Cody, WY. This was an inexpensive place, older, but clean. It had a kitchenette with a stove and fridge, but not pots/pans/or utensils. I'd give it a 2.5 - 3 out of 5.

We were supposed to stay 1 night in Billings before our flight home. Our choice, Red Roof Inn. Eh... 2 out of 5. It had an indoor pool and was okay.

Crown Plaza, Billings. This was unexpected, and usually expensive. More about why we were here later. The beds were plush, and the room nice, but I don't know if that would justify the usual $129/night price. Maybe it was all the service they were 'supposed' to offer. The tub was filthy. In room movies were $14.99. Only 30 or so channels. Local calls were $.75 apiece. I'd give it a 3.

Why 2 nights in Billings?

Adventure, don't you love it? We originally were scheduled to leave Billings on a flight that would take off at 7:50 AM, Tuesday. We were alerted that the flight schedules had changed, and printed up the new itinerary, which showed the new flight time of 7:30AM. However, our E-Ticket that we originally printed up said the original time, 7:50. Due to several issues Tuesday morning, we got to the ticket counter at 7:15AM. Luggage check-in stops 1/2 hour before the flight, so we would have been fine for the 7:50 flight, but we got stuck since we had the 7:30 fligh now.

Long story short, there were no available seats left on Tuesday, so we needed to reschedule for Wednesday's 7:30 AM flight. But what to do instead? Well, Delta was good enough to get us set up at the Crown Plaza, and Crown Plaza sent a shuttle over to get us. We caught up on some sleep and walked around the hotel (as we had no car anymore) finding a small museum to tour.

Flights Home

The flight from Billings to Salt Lake was on a smaller, Canadair, jet, with a young zippy pilot. This allowed for some bumpy flying, especially at landing. Kinda upset my wife's stomach and head.

From Salt Lake to Philly was a larger 757, and was pretty smooth except for one large patch of rough turbulence. However, there were 3 young ones sitting close behind us. If one wasn't screaming, the other was singing. (Jingle Bells of all things.) (The two directly behind us were able to also kick our seats quite frequently.) The flight out had 2 young boys in front of us who were quiet as mice. Thankfully their mother had brought along a portable DVD player. Way to go mom! I wish the ones on the way back had thought of something like that, but what ya gonna do.

Needless to say, my wife's headache got much worse on those 4.5 hours... but we're home, safe and sound. Our luggage is rough, but we're ok.

So, that's our trip in a nut-shell. And as I said, pics will be forthcoming.