Yellowstone limited

 We had a leisurely start to the day yesterday and were dogged by rain showers and thunderstorm cells. Michael had to do some (nasty) injector cleaning at our picnic stop and we didn't get up into Yellowstone until late but it was very overcast and we were tired of driving and just wanted to walk and assumed we were near where we were going to camp and not thinking about time. It seemed like the .7 mile Natural Bridge would be a nice stroll and it was ... along the way we saw two unusual things. A chipmunk completely ignored us to retrieve some morsel buried in the ground and a porcupine scooped up a huge mouthful of grass and waddled away with it...

I guess they were smarter than us..they knew what was coming. Just as we got to the bridge. At that moment the skies opened up, lightning started striking in quick proximity with thunder and dark shuttering down the light. We returned as fast as we could, staying at least 50 feet apart so one of us would survive, in case. It was pitch black and we were drenched on our return to the mother ship.
At that point the truck and the vagaries of the Yellowstone National Park service took over. We couldn't find a place to camp and of course we got pulled over for no running lights by that rare creature, the park police. His instruction was curt and simple- Fix it. So Michael did, out in the rain.

 Then we made a run on the east park border in the absolute darkness and heavy rain. This was our view back into Yellowstone this morning... snow on the peaks and expected to be under 30 degrees tonight. We decided it wasn't worth it. Too many problems. We headed out to the east. To Cody, then south.

 The Wyoming rockscape was beautiful coming out of the Shoshone National Forest but we aren't running on veggie. Michael gets no rest and it just isn't feasible for him to take on that one thing that seems like an energy expensive luxury. The truck is always throwing up new ploys for his attention. Each challenge he meets but that Yellowstone adventure was really marginal and yet we were both sorry to make such a fleeting visit there.

There are grease dumpsters here in Cody but he thinks the recent rains have probably gotten into these poorly closed devises. I want to cut him the slack. (I'm no help.) We could change the name of the blog to the Dirty Diesel Voyagers... perhaps we should. But, I'm grateful for every uneventful and interesting mile we travel. Sorry earth for our pollution-- intention and action are too different animals and can not be reconciled by regret. Mea culpa.