This page chronicles my drive home with my new Thunderbird. I flew into Helena MT on Saturday, May 17, 2003 at about 3:30PM, where the seller had the car ready and waiting. A few minutes later the car was mine. The odometer showed 121.0 miles. Armed with directions out of town, I stopped at a grocery store and loaded up with supplies for the drive to central Arizona.
After fueling up (the car and me), I headed out of town. On the way, I spotted a Ford dealership, behind which was a hill with a paved street. A perfect place for some "first pictures" of my 'bird. As you see, it was an overcast day, and downright cold for me. It was very windy also, but the 'bird handled it extremely well.
(Click on the thumbnails below for full-size pictures.)
After spending the night in Boseman MT, I woke up to find the little 'bird had been snowed on!
I haven't seen snow in ages and it was really pretty nice since it wasn't sticking to the roads. Driving was a breeze with the 'bird. Onward to Yellowstone with the YellowBird! It was snowing a lot of the time I was there, but I managed to get a few pictures anyway.
On the way to Yellowstone,
south of Livingston, MT.
The north entrance to
Yellowstone:
Bears guard the Yellowstone
Post Office. Where's Yogi?
Buffalo (or is it bison?) have
the right-of-way here!
These are some of the other pictures I took in Yellowstone:
Then it was on to Idaho Falls. These are at a rest stop north of the city:
After driving 550 miles
including the time in Yellowstone, I spent the night in Springville UT. I once
again headed south on the morning of the 19th. I took highway 14 east from
Cedar City to go east around the Grand Canyon instead of through Las Vegas.
These were taken in southern Utah where I pulled off onto a logging road for a
break.
Then it was on east to Page
AZ. These were taken from a scenic overlook at Lake Powell.
Then after passing through
Flagstaff AZ, I stopped at Lake Mary.
Finally, after 700 miles that day, the little
'bird was safe at home in its new nest.
The whole trip was right at
1,400 miles - a lot more than the 121 miles showing on the odometer when I
picked it up just two days before.