Day 6 - The War is On.

Someone once said "War is Hell." I'm not sure about the Hell part, but they've never been on the Tate Family Adventure either. At approximately 9:00am mountain time this morning, the first shots were fired on a gruesome battlefield. I wondered how long it would take for our family to begin the feud, and we surprisingly lasted about five full days before the first blows were delivered. It all started in playful banter of course, as throughout the week my sister and I have traded remarks, mocked each other, and most of the time in our family - it's no holds bars, anyone is fair game for a sly remark or sarcastic comment, but today things went too far.

I was in the bathroom, nothing unusual as I had finished my typical morning routine. However, my family decided that it was time to hit the road and as I've expressed before, we are a family of Darwinists, survival of the fittest, and when it's time to pack up and leave. It's go time. I apparently missed the boat this morning by minutes, but that wasn't without a price. My sister conveniently unzipped my suitcase, which was already pre-packed from the night before, and due to my rush, I was unaware when I went to head out the door. Now, not all of my belongings fell out or anything, as I have cat-like reflexes and was able to recover myself. However, now that we've moved from verbal assault to complete action, I'm glad to know that I have free-reign to plan my next attack accordingly. Although we're not a military family, when it comes to planning and strategizing the best way to get on each other's nerves, members of the Tate Family are masters of deception and sabotage. I assure you it's only a matter of time before a revengeful strike will smite my younger counterpart.

Regardless, onto our day. The Lodge at Big Sky was a nice resort spot with a great view of some of the Rockies as they slope down from Canada and through the Montana skyline. We got an extra hour of sleep or so today which made us all feel a bit better about our full day of travel and we started that travel in our car as we embarked for Yellowstone and the greater national park. On our way, we saw a grizzly bear grazing by a stream and took a few pictures, and stopped to grab lunch supplies upon entering the park too.

Our trek around Yellowstone was at a rather slow pace. Without being able to go above about 45mph it was a stop and go experience as we traveled around the outer loop road and past the Mammoth Hot Springs and water falls in the northern portion of the park. We stopped a few occasions for wildlife too. I got some great close-up shots of a grizzly bear mother and her two cubs as well as an eight foot tall bull elk with at least 10-points on its massive antlers. Other than that, the day was spent mostly from our rent-a-car as we saw sights, snapped some photos, and moved on our way. We made an executive decision to skip past Old Faithful since we'd already seen some other geysers and hot springs and also had about another six hour drive ahead of us toward Salt Lake once we actually got out of the park itself. Therefore, we hit the road and got moving south. Taking a different route, we're going through Idaho's fields and farms, small town America, and passing plenty of livestock on the way. We should be arriving back in Utah around 11pm tonight, and are to get on an overnight train to Sacramento, California by tomorrow afternoon. We'll see what lies ahead for us in California, as I haven't even got a chance to showcase my own attractions and cities on our route. We also will be tallying up points and provide you with an update on who's tours have been the most spectacular, and who might be voted off in next week's episode. But really, don't put it past us. :-)

~Josh