The running of the stallions to open the rodeo.
They had all kinds of events! They rode bucking broncos, had team roping, bull wrestling, barrel racing, and of course bull riding- it was amazing!
We made it to Cody and looked up a mechanic- his name was Joe. He said it would take at least 2 weeks for him to get to fixing the clutch and that we were pretty much out of luck. But, we begged and pleaded and told him we live in the truck and have to get back, so he gave in and started working on it that night. He pulled the transmission out and our poor truck was in pieces in the shop.
yep, that is right, we camped in the auto shop yard! 
Self explanatory.
I really, really wanted to see Old Faithful, so off we went. As you may have guessed, you cannot command a geyser to explode at a certain date and time so we took a chance that we may get to see it. It goes off anywhere between 90-100 minute intervals. We walked up to it and this is what we saw... we were not totally impressed, but I saw Old Faithful, so we took a picture and turned around to leave. 
As I turned away from it, I heard a swoooshing sound and the geyser shot 100 feet into the air! I whirled around, camera in hand and started shooting! I was so excited- we saw Old Faithful!!!
These are "thermal" areas where the geysers and pools begin.
I am fascinated by these orange/yellow minerals. At first, I thought it was the color of the water, but it is not. It is the color of the rock underneath the clear water.
Deep, Sapphire pools of sulphur.
I think it looks like someone spilled the rejects from the Sherwin Williams paint store- isn't it a crazy color?!?
Bubbling rocks.
Geyser.
I practically had to hold Melodee back from jumping in - it does look inviting, though.
More crazy colors.
Hot tub, anyone?
As we were approaching the East exit of the park, we saw people lined up on both sides of the road, pointing at a hill, taking pictures and talking to each other. The people driving past were all pointing out the windows and Melodee and I looked at each other . . . there was nothing there. We looked really hard, but we saw nothing. There was a ranger directing traffic and we asked him what was going on. He said they had seen a bear and her cub over the hill and they may come back, but they weren't there just then. We kept moving, but felt better because we couldn't understand what all the fuss was about!
Then, traffic was stopped for a very obvious reason- bison crossing! There was a herd of bison that were taking their sweet time crossing the road. Of course, we stopped and waited until they were all across and then kept moving, but I felt like we were back in India!
We camped on the East side of Yellowstone that evening so we could head out early and get to Cody, Wyoming where we could get our clutch fixed.
Can you see the head of the rock giant!?!? We have taken to finding pictures in rock formations and I think this looks like a giant's face.
We passed some of the most beautiful country we have seen yet...
These "fences" on the side of hills are used to block snow in the winter. It took us quite a while to figure that out!
Our funny dog, Skeeter, loves to put her nose in the vents and let the air blow on her. We are not sure if it is just the air she likes or if she is sniffing radiator fluid, maybe she likes the smell of the engine? No idea, but it is so funny!
We made it into Yellowstone as the sun was setting, which I have to say was beautiful!
We stopped to see some of the sulphur pools- they are beautiful! Many of them were such a bright turquoise color full of boiling water. 
This was a "bubbling clay pot" that seriously looks like bubbling clay- you can hear it gurgling deep inside and then pop, a bubble bursts!
Some of them were steaming vats with a strong sulphur smell.
And, here is a geyser! It was going off when we were there. 
We made camp at 10:30 that night and quickly went to sleep.
The course was beautiful and quite demanding physically- steep slopes, sliding rocks, all kinds of fun stuff! Here is Melodee getting her Frisbee. 
Our game was cut short by a huge thunderstorm that rolled in, so we skipped a few of the holes and called it quits a bit early. 
We went back to the house and watched movies and drank cherry 7up like real Americans! 
View from the top.... this is the panorama mode on my nifty, new camera.
The "M" up close.
Skeeter at the top, panting.
I can't say we did much better!
Later that evening, we had Arabic tea, which is an African tradition. The family we are staying with were Melodee's dorm parents in Africa and still do Arabic tea, so we joined them.
For those of you who don't know, the tea is served in three rounds. The first round is bitter, because you are a stranger. The second round is sweeter because you are a friend, the third round is sweetest because you are now family. We mostly drink the first a little bit and then a lot of the last round!
Once we got into Western Montana, we followed a "Louis and Clark Trail" 70 miles along a beautiful, clear river. It was about 30 feet wide with a combination of deep pools, rapids and shallow, rocky areas. It was beautiful! Melodee was driving, and I sat about as close to the window as I could and watched the river for 70 miles and still didn't get enough of it!
We got to our destination in Montana that evening and watched the sun set behind the mountains. We are staying with Melodee's dorm parents from when she lived in Africa, and they have had a great time catching up!
Tadaaa!.!.!.... waterfalls. . .
We saw this little lizard in the rocks.
Melodee jumping off the cliff- wahoooo!
Skeeter was getting hot, so we stopped at a river for her to cool off.
I felt like I was back in India because there were cows in the middle of the road! They were crossing the road just like they do in India, only they were a bit faster because I couldn't quite get a picture! 
We camped for the night in a National Forest campground- Melodee played a few tunes for us before we went to bed- she is getting quite good on her guitar. 
We took the dogs (all 5 of them!) Here I am with Gismo. 
Okay, this is where it gets good. I don't have any more pictures- this is it. You can see the top of the waterfall in this picture. You also see the stream of water flowing toward it. Well, yours truly decided it would be a good idea to cross the creek to get a better picture of the falls- from the top. So, I think to myself, "Self, it would be really bad if you slipped and fell and drooped your camera into the water." So, I wrap my camera cord around my wrist a bit tighter. I choose a pathway across the creek that looks harmless enough- as far as creeks go. So, I make my way across and just as I am turning, my foot slips a bit and I heard myself say, "my feet...!!!" and I realised I was slipping a bit and that my legs were in the water and as I tried to sand up, I slipped on the rocks and everything but my head (and my arm holding up my camera securely attached to my hand) were above water. I tried to get up again and slipped again and the noble attempts to save my camera were overcome by the fact that my head was in the water and I was drowning! That was a HUGE hole in the creek, I am not even kidding! Needless to say, my camera was drenched and I decided since I was already in the water, I would just sit down in it- it was very nice, cool water.