2020

Yellowstone National Park is uniquely situated so that it spans 3 states: Wyoming (96%), Idaho (1%), and Montana (3%). So all week we were bouncing back and forth between these states! (Fun fact: Wyoming is the 9th largest state in the U.S. in terms of land size, but the least populated of all 50 states. Montana isn't much different, ranking 4th largest in land size and 44th in population. No wonder this is Big Sky Country--there are no people or businesses or homes to block your view!) After leaving Yellowstone through Cooke City, we took the Beartooth and Chief Joseph highways into Cody, Wyoming. I can't tell you how many people we've met in the last few months who have told us to go to Cody. No one ever said what we were supposed to do there, however, they just said to go. We found a town full of history and museums, guns and graves. And I couldn't muster up the energy for any of it.  I sent Randy and Van off to explore while I took a nap (the ...

I was very much looking forward to our trip to Wyoming. Between my junior and senior years in college I spent the summer at Yellowstone National Park in the northwest corner of the state. It was by far the most foundational summer of my life. My parents probably thought I'd "gone prodigal" (to steal a phrase from Greg Laurie) because I wasn't much interested in hearing from home. But it was the first time I'd ever been immersed in a culture so different from the one I had grown up in. And I couldn't get enough of it. When you are surrounded by people who have always been where you have been and have grown up the way you have grown up, no one thinks to ask who you are. They assume they know. They assume you are just like them. And you can start to assume you are too. But these people I spent the summer with were people from every state and multiple countries and a variety of backgrounds and they all wanted to know: who are you? what do you like? ...