Viva La Vagabond: To Yellowstone and Beyond.

2 national parks later and another state down! Last Dwayne's day morning we said our final goodbyes to our new family from San Diego as we all departed from the cabin. We biked 20 miles back to West Yellowstone, got some groceries then made our way to the park entrance. It felt like we were about to go into Disney World! It was still early so we were able to take our time on a leisurely ride through the park. We stopped to see all of the geysers and mud pots but we were disappointed that we didn't see any animals. We made it to Norris campground fairly early. We followed the path to the biker/hiker area and as we came around the corner we couldn't believe what we saw. A bison sitting right in be middle of the campsites! He stayed there all night. We almost had an extra guest for dinner but he just continued on his way, making his rounds until he laid right back down in his little spot. We had the entire next day to explore the park. We stopped by the Canyon Village Visitor's Center and learned all about the history of the park. We saw more geysers and had lunch right on the shore of Yellowstone Lake. Yellowstone has a lot to offer for cyclists..except for shoulders on the roads! It was a little scary at times but we had an amazing time regardless. We camped at Grant Village where we ran into Matt & Sara, our other friends from San Diego who we have not seen since Baker City, and Brent from Bruce's Warm Shower house in Missoula. It has been nice running into familiar faces so frequently. We were excited to camp with fellow road friends and to top it off, we got delicious leftovers from an outdoor company called Backroads that is based out of Salt Lake City. I don't know that we have ever enjoyed food so much in our lives. The next day the vagabonds had to split up for the first time. Natalee continued on the trail and out of the park with Matt and Sara in order to pick up an interesting package from mom while the boys visited Old Faithful. The vagabonds eventually met back up at Colter Village. Luckily we ran into Backroads again and got more leftovers! But even cooler than that, we met their staff member, Olivia, who just graduated from UT and worked for their outdoor program with some friends of ours. It's a small world after all. Today consisted of one big, long climb over Togwotee Pass, but we met some interesting people along the way. Jeff and Matt are from D.C. going to the west coast. Mark and Erica were traveling with their whole family!(just wait for the picture) We made it into Dubois exhausted and ran into Sara, Matt and Brent again at the Cowboy Cafe. Yep, small world. After the three of them left we were stuck at the table trying to figure out where to stay. Does this story sound familiar? Have we ever heard of planning ahead? We were trying to figure out a way other than paying $40 to sleep in a tent at the only campsite in town so we asked the waitresses if they had any ideas. Long story short, we are staying in Meredith and Brent's workshop with beds AND a shower. A lady with her family sitting next to us heard this happen and told us she got chills listening. She biked across the country years ago and had the same experiences. We can't quite figure out what it is but people have been nothing but supportive of our trip. It is an amazing feeling and reassures us that we are supposed to be on this adventure. But as for now, we have a busy night of counting each other's mosquito bites. Any guesses for Jordan? Natalee? Israel?

With our friend Jess at the Cabin