Miles traveled: 350
Number of sleeping bags strewn randomly around the bus: 14
Number of bagel and hummus sandwiches made: 37
9 am– We rolled out of the Unitarian church with a goodbye to our kind host Dan, the guy who lives in the basement, and the prospect of Yellowstone before us.
2 pm –Pit stop at the Pitt, the Berkely Pitt in Butte, MO, one of the largest superfund sites in the country, where years of mining exploitation have left poisonous chemicals a few years away from seeping into the aquafiers and poisoning the entire watersupply in the area. It’s a tourist attraction now—pay two dollars to hear about the destruction, and a nice ladies voice talk about how mining there financed the industrial revolution. Yippee.
4 pm– Detour to the Buffalo Field Campaign, a few log cabins on the outskirts of Yellowstone housing incredible activists working to oppose the massacres of buffalo in Yellowstone that happens every year to maintain the population within the park. The group began doing direct actions and media coverage of the atrocities in the late 80’s, and discussed the multiple levels of injustice that are apparent in the situation with the buffalo –from historic racism against the most important connection to the land and heritage that Native Americans have, to the conflict of interest between private farmers wanting to use public lands, to the bureaucratic state agencies stonewalling change for their own vested interests. Check out more at
6 pm—Yellowstone! America’s first national park! 25 bucks to get in, and pure glory all the way through. Except for the construction. It was like a cross between a safari and an amusement park –real live animals, but seen from the comfort of your car barrelling down the road. The vistas were stunning, dropping in out and of hillsides with the Rocky Mountains in the distance and rushing streams and green trees on every side. Most of Montana forces you to remember that America is truly amazing and gigantic.
10 pm –Decision to camp in an RV park…which promptly turned the sprinklers on us. Not so happy campers.
11 pm –New campsite with rushing water and expansive stars lulling us to sleep. No sprinkers.