Day Seventeen

Up and ready to go by 8.35am. Didn't need to shower as our activity negated the need to.

Drove an hour north east to Bozeman. Parked up and signed in here http://madisonrivertubing.com/

Got our stuff and then got on the classic American yellow school bus which proceeded to take us halfway back the way we had come. Unfortunately that couldn't be helped as to do the trip you need the shuttle bus to transport you back, otherwise you'd end up 5 miles from your car.

The bus dropped us off at Warm Springs Creek on the Madison River. We had three tubes, one each for us and one for the cooler. We filled it with drinks and snacks and we were ready to go. Ann befriended some Texans who were also on the trip.

There was an annoying family who had a waterproof speaker playing pop music which wasn't really what we wanted to have as we cruised peacefully down the river. We tried to avoid them but kept ending up next to them. I decided to act and jumped off my tube at a fairly shallow part to stop us for a while. The water was moving much faster than I realised and it was a battle to just hold the three tubes still against the current. After a while the annoying family had disappeared into the distance and I managed to scramble back into the tube and get us going again.

We ended being pretty much last out of all the groups which suited us just fine. We sat back and cracked open the cooler. Apologies for the poor sound quality in this clip.

After a while somehow we ended up catching up and then overtaking nearly everyone, luckily we also flew past the annoying noise and had peace at the front. Had a bit of a chat with the Texans who were at the front as well. It was more of a shout across the river really.

We did then get stuck in the shallow water and slowed dramatically. The Texans disappeared at a rate of knots and we had to battle to get out of it and back into the current. Eventually we did.

We got and dried off. Whilst waiting for the bus back to Bozeman, somehow Ann got us invited to stay with a couple from Lincoln, Nebraska. Lincoln is where we are watching the eclipse, so they asked if we had somewhere to stay, which said yes and they said well if it falls through come and stay with us. They gave us their phone numbers and everything.

Eventually we got back to Bozeman. Got changed and drove back to the motel in Ennis. Had a very late lunch at about 4pm and checked on the flight status of dad. He was only an hour away or so. FaceTimed Paul and Helen who were also tracking his progress. Spent most of the conversation making sprinkler noises at each other.

Had a quick shower and then headed out to here http://virginiacity.com/

It is basically a town that still looks old except for the cars parked all the way through it which ruins the actual appeal of the place. We added to those parked cars and mooched around a bit. Some of the buildings are untouched from the mid 20th century. Still full of the things that were left there.

Courthouse from 1876

Cars

Saw a beam in a building that five people were hanged from. Bought an ice cream. Bought a book. Got invited into an art gallery party with free wine. The woman who invited us in had a long chat about England and then Donald Trump. She apologised to us for him. We had a look at some of the art, some was decent, some wasn't.

Eventually we managed to sneak off and headed back to the car. Drove back to the motel. Saw some deer on the way.

Oh dear

Dad then FaceTimed us from his hotel room in Denver to say he had landed and made it into the country.

Off to bed soon as Everton kick off at 8am.

States visited - 7

Deer watch - high

Sprinkler watch - high