Hello again. It’s the brothaman back at you from the road. This time from Montana. I’m on my maiden voyage in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. This is God’s Country. We left Denver on Monday, headed up to Wyoming and spent the night in Flagg Ranch, but we’ve got to fill you in on our journey post-Denver.

Let me tell you, I’m an easy going guy. I like seeing wildlife and nature, but on the Swing, I just want to fly. This year, that was no different. My wife, Billie Jo, and I had everything planned out for the Swing. That was until my boy TY, that’s PR Ted to you all, told us about his epic journey going to see Yellowstone and Montana and two of the biggest national parks in the country. When the wife gets excited, what happens? The plans change. So, with my eyes wide open and my mouth shut and my ears glued, let me tell you about this journey.

We finished loading up hospitality with Big Jim on Monday morning at Bandimere and then stopped by GoFast! to drop off a winner’s circle hat. Then we were on the way to Yellowstone. We briefly went off the beaten path to Table Mountain Ranch. My wife, the lovely Billie Jo, is photographer and we stopped to take a photo of some cows. We were a few feet from this cow and she stopped and looked at us like what the heck are you humans looking at. The cow stopped chewing and just starred at us like get outta here people. When we saw the sign that said: Survivors will be prosecuted, we turned around and went back to the highway.

Once we arrived at our first national park, Grand Teton – brothaman was once a boy scout and I thought the boy scouts were going to prepare me – but they didn’t prepare me for this trip. An old square knot wasn’t getting me out of this. We got through the park gate and paid our $25 and the first thing we saw was a caribou. At least that’s what my wife thought. A caribou looks like a moose, but me, with my depth of wildlife knowledge, knew it was a black-tailed deer. After I looked it up on my Blackberry. LOL Then we ran into quite a bit of road construction where we had to follow a pilot vehicle on steep one-lane roads in beautiful Wyoming.

The landscape was just stunning. From deep valleys to majestic mountains, we saw so many different colors, it was just amazing. I know they call Jersey the Garden State, but my old home doesn’t have anything on this. We were so far up, I felt like I could touch the clouds. The deep greens of the trees are just so pure. We were in the middle of summer and it was in the high 50s. We finally reached a place that we had to stop and rest at, Flagg Ranch. We didn’t want to drive through Yellowstone at night, so we stopped for the night. We saw plenty of bear warnings and I learned to drop and curl into a ball and cover your stomach and neck if you ever get attacked by a bear. We spent the night in a cabin after in interesting dinner of appetizers at the bar at Flagg Ranch. The restaurant closed at 9 p.m. and we missed the special of buffalo ribeye. Let me tell you, the national parks play by the rules. Make sure you stop by 8:30 so you can get you some good eats. We got lucky to find a room or we really would have been out like shout all cold and hanging with the bears.

It certainly didn’t feel like summertime on our walk to the cabin. The setting brought back memories of the movie: Friday the 13th. It made me think of Crystal Lake and I know the brothaman is always the first to go out in the movie, so I was the first into the room. The room shuts you off from the world, which was kind of peaceful. We didn’t have a TV or cell phone service. I was happy just to have hot water and towels. If you take this trip, I’d recommend Flagg Ranch as it worked out just great for us.

Next, we got up at sunrise and it felt like December in Indiana. It was 37-degrees out. We wanted to see some beautiful wildlife at dawn. TY was the first to rise and shower and, like always, we had to wake up the Corradi Kid, Nick, like 10 times. He’s not a morning person. We hit the dusty trail just after 6 a.m. and a few minutes later we were in Yellowstone. We drove by Lewis Lake and our first stop was Lewis Falls. The water was crystal clear and the sound was just so peaceful. We stood on some bulging rocks and it made me feel like I was in a land before time. Watching the water really put me at ease. It made me relax. Sometimes you need to take a step back and just take in and appreciate the beauties of nature that surrounds us.

Our big stop of the trip was at Old Faithful. We saw her blow at 7:34 a.m. from Kepler Cascades. We were taking pictures and saw the steam rising from a distance. It was breathtaking. Once we got to Old Faithful, it was so cold out, in the mid-40s, brothaman needed some new threads to stay warm. We stopped at the Old Faithful Inn and had some eats and picked up a sweatshirt and hat. Then at 9:07, we watched her blast off again. It’s one of the most unbelievable things I saw in my life. The water is so clear and yet so hot. Then we stopped at the Black Sand Basin and the Midway Geyser Basin to check out the Grand Prismatic Spring. It was so remarkable. The bright, brilliant colors are hard to describe. It was the most aqua blue I saw, but so clear and it’s over 160 degrees. It’s so cool to read and learn how all this amazing stuff happens. I know if I ever got stuck in Yellowstone in the winter, the brothaman would be using these springs as a hot tub.

Then we took off and stopped by Mammoth on the way out of the North end of Yellowstone and we were out like shout. We only covered a mere spec of the park, but all the sights we saw just blew my mind. Next year, I’m going to come prepared and spend at least three days and enjoy the beautiful place that is Yellowstone. Brothaman needs to see some bison and elk and a bear, not just deer.

I’ll be in Seattle in a few hours after we cruise through Coeur d’Alene and eastern Washington and we’ll get ready for my second trip to Pacific Raceways. We’re having dinner with our great Matco friends Dave and Patti Weber in Tacoma on Thursday night and then it’s time to race. I might even sneak in some shopping at Nordstrom’s on Friday morning, but don’t tell my wife.

As always, love, peace and hair grease, and I’m out like a 37-degrees-in-July shout. I holla later.

Antron