Despite the not so great weather and despite the government shutdown, we did have a great week with Andrej and Andreas.

On Thursday, September 26th, we drove the 820 miles from Las Cruces to Salt Lake City. The weather changed from sunny mid 80 temperatures to rain and snow into very low elevations.

The first day in Yellowstone was mixed weather but at least it was mostly dry, we saw a lot of animals. The second day was very wet and we were glad to have a good heater in our cabin to dry all our clothes and shoes over night. For the third day the forecast was wet and cold as well so we did not go into the park – we still had two more days after that to visit the hot springs we wanted to see in better weather and on the last day pass through Yellowstone and Teton National Park on our way south towards Salt Lake City again.

Well, the government forced us to change our plans. Nobody understands why the National Parks had been closed – all the tourists visiting the parks are supporting the economy and spend their money – why would anyone cut this income stream? The savings they achieve by closing the parks and not having to pay their employees certainly do not make up for the income they are loosing! Moreover, it damages the image of the United States as a beautiful country and upsets thousands of tourists.

Also, the businesses around the parks have been hit hard. Only just the motel we stayed had 12 cancellations on the first day of the shutdown – this is 25% of their business.

On Friday, October 4th, we dropped Andrej and Andreas off at the Salt Lake City International Airport again. We got up at 6:15am, had a nice breakfast and after a 10-minute drive dropped them off at 7:45am.

We then went on our way back to Las Cruces. First we drove through rain and snow over the mountains east of Salt Lake City. Once we arrived at lower elevations the weather started to clear and by the time we were back in New Mexico it was sunny again and the first time in a week the thermometer went up into the 70s! We arrived back in Las Cruces at 9pm after an exhausting 13-hour drive. We were greeted by two very happy kids, had a drink, exchanged news and showed them some pictures before we hit the pillow.

We drove 3,250 miles in 8 days, of which 1,600 miles with Andrej and Andreas in 6 days – you are great travel companions and we really enjoyed the time together. Andreas’ dry humor cheered us up when the bad weather and the government shutdown tried to pull us down!

Thanks for coming over.