Trip Report - Winter 2006
Lewis and Debra Demler

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Thursday, January 19, 2006 — Hello Yellowstone

We were again in good shape packing this year. Deb had everything packed by Tuesday night. We got up at 2:30, showered and put all the bags in the Tacoma. We spent some time with the dogs as they were very uneasy. They knew something was up. We were ready to leave by 4:00. We got to the airport by 5:00. We checked our bags and got our boarding passes at the curbside check-in. We went directly to the security checkpoint and breezed through with no problems. They did not make us take off our shoes and they did not open any of our carry-on baggage.

The plane left Harrisburg about 10 minutes early. That was good as we had close connections in Cincinnati. The flight to Cincinnati was uneventful and we arrived ahead of schedule. We head right to the gate and boarded the plane to Salt Lake City.

Everyone was on the plane early so they pushed back a few minutes early. We started to taxi to the runway and then plane stopped. We waited for a few minutes and then the pilot announced that we had to go back to the gate. They were having problems with the flight control system and they would not take off until the mechanics fixed it. I guess they did not want to take a chance of us landing in Iraq or California or some other undesirable place like that. They fixed the problem, went through their checklist again and we finally headed for Salt Lake City about an hour late. We knew we were not going to make our connections in Salt Lake City.

The flight to Salt Lake City was great and we landed on time. The landing was perfect. We were taxiing towards the gate at by 11:10. Unfortunately our connecting flight to Bozeman left at 11:04. They said to check with the agents inside if we had missed our connecting flights. The next flight to Bozeman, leaving at 1:05, was full so we were confirmed on the 3:05 flight. We got something to eat and settled in to wait for our flight. We decided to call John at the Yellowstone Village Inn to let him know we would be late. We got out the Emergency Contacts list that we give to the pet sitter. We discovered that the number we had on that list was for John’s FAX, not the front desk. We finally got the right number and called John. We made arrangements to pick up the keys if we got in after the lobby closed. We then called the pet sitter to give them the revised number.

The flight to Bozeman was good. It had been snowing when we arrived at Salt Lake City, but cleared up before we left. The sky was relatively clear and the sun was shining for the first part of the flight. It clouded up before we got to the Tetons and was cloudy most of the rest of the trip to Bozeman. The landing at Bozeman was good and we were in the terminal by 4:30. Our original flight would have had us there by 12:15. We got our bags, and much to our surprise, not one bag was opened. This is the first time since 9-11 that our checked bags had not been opened and searched by TSA. We then got the rental car and headed to Bozeman to do some grocery shopping. We didn’t get everything we need so we stopped at the Albertsons in Livingston.

We were finally on the last leg of our trip to Yellowstone. It started to snow just as we left Bozeman and that would be with us all the way to Gardiner. It was dark by now so we knew we would not get to Yellowstone tonight. John had warned us about deer and elk between Livingston and Gardiner so we drove rather slowly. We did see several herds of deer right by the road, but no elk. After we saw the first herd we really slowed down in case there were more.

We got to Gardiner around 8:00 and checked into the Yellowstone Village Inn. We checked out room. We have the suite since it has a refrigerator and microwave. The gentleman at the front desk said Doug Dance was in the same wing as us and he said Frank Wombacher (Auwingwalker) was looking for us. When we went out to unload the car we met Frank and he helped bring the bags into the room. We discussed the planned dinner on Friday and there seems to be questions about the location. That will be clarified on Friday.

We unpacked a few things and Deb made chicken pies for supper. We finally turned in for the night. It was a very looong day. We came close but did not make it to Yellowstone.

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Friday, January 20, 2006 — Out to the Lamar

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