Dateline: August 28, 2009 Yellowstone National Park
Today’s Theme: Trail Blazers
Today’s Alternate Theme: All Good Things Must Come to an End, Sometimes Sooner than You Plan:
Deb: As you read this, Linda and I have sadly parted ways with our fellow adventurers and will soon be headed back East. Unfortunately, we are both suffering from “altitude sickness”. On Wednesday afternoon we went to the Urgent Care Clinic to get things checked out. We each saw a different doctor and were both strongly advised not to go into higher elevations. Sadly for us, that means we are unable to continue our Adventure and travel to Yellowstone. The decision itself was not too difficult to make. After all, each of us must take care of ourselves and do what is best for our health. That said, it was also a very emotional decision.
Thursday morning at breakfast we spent time with each member of our Adventure group – saying goodbye. While only spending just a couple days together, we had already begun to connect and really really enjoy each other’s company. What an amazing and wonderful group of folks to travel with. Special thank you to our Adventure Guides Daniel and Landon — you guys are awesome and we so appreciate all you did! We hope everyone on the trip continues to have the time of their lives!
So, with all that said, Deb’s photos have come to an end, but the Quest for the West blog continues! Follow each day as Beci and Mike post photos and continue the Adventure by Disney Quest for the West.
The Itinerary
Breakfast and Lunch are part of our Adventure today. After breakfast we are off to see Old Faithful at Yellowstone!
Lunch and then the Fountain Paint Pot Trail. There are fumaroles (steam vents), blue pools, pink mudpots and mini-geysers along the trail.
Back to the hotel and we are on our own for dinner and the evening.
Here are some facts about Yellowstone National Park (from the National Park Service website):
Established March 1, 1872, Yellowstone is the first and oldest national park.
It is the 2nd largest national park in the contiguous 48 United States, Death Valley National Park is larger.
96% of the park is in Wyoming, 3% in Montana, and 1% in Idaho.
The highest point is 11,358 ft at Eagle Peak.
Yellowstone is larger than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined.
Enjoy Today’s Photos (remember we are on Mountain time) :
Good morning from the Snow Lodge from Mike Mary Tod Sue
Good morning Old Faithful!
Mike & Beci at Old Faithful. Now off on a nature hike of the upper geyser field.
Firehole River, Yellowstone
Old Faithful Inn. The inspiration for Disney’s Wilderness Lodge & our dinner spot tonight.
Adventurers on our nature walk thru the geyser basin
Sam and Ashley enjoying the show
Castle geyser showing off
The group at Castle geyser
Great afternoon checking out the local geysers. The pic does not do justice to the amazing blue color. Closest I have seen was in AK.
Adventurers on the boardwalk for a closer view
Ronia and the geyser
Beci writes at about 10:30 p.m.: Had A wonderful dinner & nightcap at Old Faithful Inn. Tomorrow we leave for Brooks Lake Lodge. Yipppee! But the days are really flying by!
HOW TO FOLLOW OUR ADVENTURE!
Once the Adventure by Disney begins on August 25th, there are THREE ways you can follow us! With new social networking, we plan to do something a little different.
TWITTER
There is a program called “Twitpic” that allows one to send photos via a mobile phone directly to Twitter. Mike Newell and Beci Mahnken will be posting photos “live” via the Twitter network.
Mike Newell: http://twitter.com/MouseWorldRadio
Beci Mahnken: http://twitter.com/beci_mousefan
FACEBOOK
We also have our twitter accounts transmitting automatically to our Facebook accounts. So those of you who are “friends” can follow our adventures that way!
BLOGS
At the same time, AllEars team members Jack Marshall and Debbie Koma will be back home copying our Twitter photos and combining them this daily blog. So, you can follow us either here, on Twitter or on Facebook.
We have been told that there are areas where we will travel that have limited, if any, cell phone service, but we’ll make it up once we get service back.
I hope this provides some cool ways for you to follow us on the adventure of a lifetime, an Adventure by Disney to Wyoming!
I was so sorry to read that you both got so sick. I hope you are doing better now!! Your stories will be missed.
DEB: Yes, thanks, we are feeling better. Hard as it was to leave Wyoming, it was the best decision. There will always be more stories 🙂
Sorry you had to miss the rest of your trip! Altitude sickness is awful! I had it when I first went to Colorado. I was able to prepare for my second trip by drinking lots of water and Gatorade about a week before the trip. I had no problems once I started doing that!
Hope you make it back someday soon!
Sorry that you had to leave the adventure so soon.Hopefully you are feeling better by now.
Take care
DEB: Thanks Cathy. We actually began to feel better once we reached Salt Lake City to change planes. Even better now that we are back at sea level on the east coast.
So sorry to read this. I hope you both feel well soon! Perhaps Yellowstone another time… I so enjoy your blogging & photos!