Yellowstone National Park and Virginia City 31 May (Revenge of the Buffalos
or Buffalo Jams)
Intended to get up early and spend a few hours in Yellowstone and head to hotel in
Billings to relax; but ended up in Virginia City and much longer in Yellowstone
than planned--partly due to the buffalo traffic jams--they have no problem
walking in the middle of the road as long as they want and clearly have no fear
of cars. Considering they weight around 2,000 lbs and the hand-outs from the
park claim the buffalo also have no problem with spearing tourists with their
horns--no one messes with them. Sat in traffic about an hour before I realized
the problem was that the buffalos were all over the road with no intention of
moving for cars. I have several
blurry pictures of the roof of my car and the dashboard when I rolled down
window to take pictures of the buffalos as they were so close I could touch them
and got very nervous thinking about them goring me or my car.
At one point, it also was raining quite badly with a dose of hail.
Then, I erroneously made the decision to take the NE exit to Billings--per GPS. That was a mistake--ended up in some frozen, snowy, curvy mountain pass. Way scary. Didn't get to hotel till 9:30--had planned on around 2. Turned out hotel was a dump--a Red Roof Inn. No internet--although advertised that they did--clerk claimed the phone jack provided internet if you had a dial-up account. Huh? Pool never opened, and laundry broke--all reasons I booked hotel. They did give me a partial refund after I vehemently complained.
No luck lately with Priceline and even dumps are over-priced--so hotel situation not as good as before--plus problems with hotels and internet--if they have it, it goes out and no one has a clue as to how to fix it. Prices of hotels go up drastically in June.
Yellowstone was just overwhelming--a day was not enough; it just went on and on!