Sadly, Yellowstone is one of the top five visited parks in the nation, and there is limited vacation housing to accommodate the many millions who want to go. I am not certain it is feasible for this summer at such a late date unless you can pay primo primo, like $350-500 a night. I don't think the campgrounds have any openings either. But if you wait until September, the crowds go down, and peak season is over so you might find rooms at a better price. We do long road trips, and I always plan them out. Last minute hotel reservations or walk ins these days are often met with no vacancies or extreme prices so your fears of seedy establishments is a strong possibility. The way I plan them is to first establish how long we want to be at our desired, main attraction/location. Then extrapolate how much we need to drive each day with the remaining days of vacation. From there, I do a lot of research to determine what a reasonable amount of time is for each side stop we want to make and weed out the ones that would take so long that we can't make it to point X in the time allotted. We then stick close to the itinerary. I do make sure not to run it so tight that we can't enjoy it or linger an hour extra here or there. I make reservations a year in advance or as close as allowed for each overnight stop. We usually take a lot of our food, and picnic out. Many rest stops and parks have grills which is very nice. This allows more flexibility because we don't have to find restaurants and wait to be seated or stand in lines. This may be a specially good move for visiting National Parks since their remoteness can often mean limited food options around, and some have none (Agate Fossil Beds National Monument), or what they have (South entrance of Yellowstone, Jackson Hole for instance) is very expensive and absolutely packed with people. I have heard of people waiting two hours in line to get into restaurants in Jackson Hole. If you go to MT Rushmore, depending on your route, you might be passing Badlands National Park, and I highly recommend that journey. You would also be super close to Wind Cave National Park. I am in the planning phase now for two road trips next spring/summer. Let me know if you need more help. I am happy to help you.

Update: It seems like every time we think we will get a, b, c done in x, y ,z time, we are so wrong and it takes a lot longer. So we are still working to get the garden in. We have completed the shoveling of top soil and compost, 3 cubic yards of the stuff (2.295 cubic meters), and have tilled it. We paid the higher price for garden soil, and they delivered very crappy top soil that was full of clumps, and rocks, and even pieces of copper wire. I took pictures, and made a bit of a stink after the company was first going to do nothing. They refunded us our money, but wouldn't send anyone to scoop up the junk stuff, and we couldn't deal with another massive amount of dirt to move. So we have been using it, but having to sift every shovel full. I am so worn out! That said it is with great satisfaction that I announce today I was able to put the seedlings in, and though two weeks late, we have 12 broccoli plants, 3 cucumbers, 4 eggplant, 4 red chili peppers, 4 bell peppers, 4 jalapenos, 4 basil, 1 oregano, 8 Amish Paste, 4 cherry tomatoes, and a bunch of marigolds. The little raised bed kit Mark got on sale has been assembled and contains four snow pea plants and will be seeded tomorrow with a row of scallions. The old raised bed has 2 rows of carrot seeds and one of radishes. (I am going to have a very hard time waiting up to three weeks to find out if I sowed the carrots correctly.) We now have to complete the pallet beds for the green beans. Bush beans. I have 8 transplants, and will also sow seeds with the hope of having 48 plants total, fingers crossed. Never take your man to the nursery. Just don't. 😂 😂😂 I was supposed to have 4 more bell pepper plants. But he got giddy over snow peas. So I sacrificed the space to make him happy. I was supposed to have 15 strawberry plants, and ended up with blueberry bushes. 🙄 I still have room for strawberries since the blueberries go in a completely different part of the yard. However, he kind of blew my budget out with those 1 gallon potted blueberry bushes instead of a flat of young strawberry plants. Oh well. No harm done. I wasn't going to be able to plant enough for our needs anyway, and will end up at the u-pick farm and orchard no matter what so it is okay. Oh, and celery. I sacrificed the space for 4 more broccoli because he spied celery. That is okay too because I am actually quite curious about growing it, and we do use a lot of celery. He has worked so hard to give me all of these raised beds. He has shoveled 80% of that dirt because he has been worried about me injuring my back which does act up ever since the car accident. I want him to be happy with our harvest too!

This! And also be very careful. Last time there scam artists on Amazon selling non certified glasses, and some people fried their retinas. Get NASA approved ones. Here is the list of approved companies from the last eclipse. I have not yet seen an updated list. https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-approved-eclipse-glasses-brands-2017-8

Also, here is a tip. If you can possibly be out in the country, that is best. Cities in the totality may still have a lot of light pollution because of devices and cars with light censors that aren't turned off causing lights to be on, and of course hospitals and what not must keep their lights up so you will experience night time, but not the depth of darkness you would get in a rural setting without light pollution. A night sky park in the path of totality is awesome for the experience, but they will fill up hours, many hours in advance.

We have high hopes that Arkansas will have clear skies. We reserved a vacation home out in the country in the path of totality and will be there with our 12" telescope and sun filters. We are hosting astronomy camp for our eldest grandson who will be 8 years old then. There are beds for nine people, so six more can come from within our family, but none of our other kids and their spouses/s.o.'s know if they can get time off yet. We have the house for four days, and will make a jaunt down to Hot Springs National Park before eclipse day. ETA: We made our reservation four years ago through vrbo, asked the home owners to allow us to book that far in advance. That was excellent planning on our part. Now that everyone is making reservations and the count down has begun, the rates have absolutely skyrocketed.

Really cute!

This is great!

Cintinative is wise. This is what is getting you. You did a wonderful, kind thing. But going forward, if they keep requesting help, you need to refer them to social services and remind them that they need to call the hospital social worker or have an ambulance take.her back to the hospital if they cannot figure out care at home. You do not need to answer the phone or the door if they show up again. It is entirely up to you. "I am sorry, but I am not a skilled nurse so I can not continue to provide assistance. Here is the number of a home health agency to call." You can set a boundary. Be kind to yourself.

I hope the rain keeps coming!

"Grow Great Vegetables, Michigan" by Bevin Cohen. "The Backyard Homestead" by Carlene Madigan. I am not backyard homesteading, but I needed help with some gardening issues, and raised bed layouts to take advantage of sunny spots that are narrow.

It isn't something we would be interested in.

😂😂😂.Ya sometimes I am scared! But most areas of Michigan are not this crazy. So don't let it scare you off from the state.

I unfortunately spent half of a high school football game next to a set of these people. Sigh. My niece was elected to homecoming court, and my brother was hospitalized. His whacky wife, sent her friends to take photos of niece for her because she didn't trust me to take any pics. It was insufferable. They kept asking me about my blood type, then explaining their insane beliefs and proselytizing me to join their gang of crazy. I was ever so thankful at half time to go help niece adjust her hair, and touch up her make up. I never went back to the bleachers, and instead ran to my car, fetched my lawn chair, and sat behind the sidelines with some band parents. My sister in law is absolutely freaky. She considers herself "a natural healing practitioner" and is anti-medicines except essential oils and whatever herbs she harvests, anti-vax, eat for your blood type, all kinds of stuff, and tells people to do very, very dangerous things with their health like starving their cancer. Literally, not eating and only drinking water for 21 days because that will cause the cancer to to die. She is going to get someone killed with her fruit loop ideas. She wanted to "cure" Mark's plantar fasciitis with a vitamin c poultice. We are very done with her and my brother. He has major thyroid disease, but she convinced him not to take his meds, and instead to take iodine drops. He is showing signs of iodine toxicity but keeps doing it. She will probably kill him. My former boss in the community fine arts program had three separate run ins with flat earthers attempting to proselytize him. I think these folks move to this area because property values are so low. They can buy a few acres with a small barn and an old house for a song, and they tend to try to live self sufficiently. Lots of poverty among the folks with these beliefs. I am fairly certain that if we lived in an area with much higher property values, we would not run into so many or at least not ones openly proselytizing because if they needed a lot more money to live on, they would have to play well with others in order to keep a job. There is a lady who goes to my mom's church who believes denim is the devil's fabric, and that demons inhabit all stuffed animals. She is very very hard to deal with in the church setting, but nothing is ever done about it. Though we do not attend, I have twice come across her path at the gas station, and she has tried to force her pamphlets on me. It gets old.

I try not to stay around people spouting this stuff, and don't engage. I have no idea how they know. My guess is they have no way to avoid dh negative people unless they go live off grid in a bubble as hermits. It isn't possible to know. My guess though is they don't want to "inbreed" so they teach their kids to demand laboratory reports of any potential mates so they only date, marry, procreate with dh positive people. But then, who knows? We have flat earthers around here too, and frankly, I don't engage either. Some of the flat earthers do carry signs and walk up and down the side walks of the county seat, but only once or twice in the last four years. I expect them to be out though for eclipse 2024 since astronomical events like that tend to set them off.

There are a couple of conspiracy/mythological beliefs on this. One is that RH negative is reptile blood, thus lizard people. Another is that RH negative people are descendents of aliens from ancient times. The 3rd, and far more rare than the other two since it represents a very small religious group, is that people who have RH negative blood type are descendents of Nephillim who somehow survived the biblical flood.

This. Some "beliefs" are most definitely a bridge too far for me to be willing to have someone in my life socially.

Hey everyone, our main vacation this summer will be a vacation house in Little Switzerland, NC. We will be visiting Pisgah National Forest for kayaking and hiking, and driving around the area for quilt shops and antiquing. If you have suggestions of somewhere to eat, bring it on. We will cook nearly all of our meals, but we like to have one night off for a nice restaurant meal and relaxing, maybe a little wine or mixed cocktail. Also, on the way there, spending one night at Cuyhoga Valley N.P. We will picnic for lunch, but only have a standard, motel room so no kitchen for supper. We could try to grill out, but I am curious about what restaurants might be worth checking out.

Mama Lu's Modern Day Taco Shop - Traverse City, MI. Slabtown Burgers - Traverse City, MI. Delft Bistro - Marquette, Mi. Pasta Shop - Marquette, Mi. Elizabeth's Chop House - pricey, oh so pricey and likely more of a romantic night out thing, but the food is divine! - Marquette, Mi. Courtyard Ristorante - Alpena, Mi. Pink Pony - Mackinac Island, Mi. Wheelhouse Diner and goat locker - Paradise, Mi. Pizza Transit - Niles, MI. (Awesome pizza, lots of fun with kids, family owned, highly recommend) Clementines Too - St. Joseph, MI. Broomstack Kitchen and Taphouse - Maple City, MI. (within close range of Sleeping Bear Dunes if headed that way. We really like this place.)

I am so very sorry for your family's loss! I hope everyone is at least safe. Many hugs to all of you.

Exactly. I do not want to talk about the president's ears again. Just no. Enough. And ya, we have people in this town, more than one family, that are openly hostile about "RH negative bloodlines". So done with it. The extremes are so bad that people who exist somewhere in the middle like somewhat left or somewhat right of " center", are trampled and demolished by the extremes. And then if you are a person who can't be "pegged" in any possible way, welcome to the utter most no-man's land. Ultimately, I am very fortunate. I know how lucky I am. My husband and I are best buds, my kids want us around. We have been invited to D&D parties, euchre parties, movie nights with the two bachelors and their eclectic mix of GenZ friends. If I need to socialize, I do have immediate family I can do that with. But, I am also coming to terms with a comfortable ease of backing away from very much "community".

This issue is one that caused us to become distanced from a lot of people who were once "friends". "Covid is a hoax and no one is dying, we should force LGBTQ people to lewd quiet lives of desperation but hey, making me wear a mask is too much government intrusion, blah blah blah" and literally watching folks we once thought of as good people not give a crap about any other human being on the planet until all of a sudden they got terribly sick, their mother or aunt or whatever was hospitalized or died, and then not showing any remorse for their attitude and conspiracy blathering, was so far over the line for us, that we were done. With friends like that, who needs enemies? We live in a toxic community. Very toxic. This is NOT the village anyone should yearn to have involved in their lives.

This is what I see a lot of, and also couples work opposite shifts so they can't spend much time together, nor can they get together with other couples. I feel like my adult sons have way better work life balance. They do not have children, work about 45 hrs a week, and do not own homes so no yardwork/maintenance stuff on the weekends. They carve out time every week to visit with friends or family. Most people I know work 60-70 hours, do the house stuff on the weekend. If it isn't Thanksgiving, Christmas, or the Super Bowl, they are just working, sleeping, and ferrying kids to activities, no social life, no down time with their s.o. Mark and I are kind of different. We really are best friends, and prefer each other's company to anyone else, and have many common interests and hobbies. We have one other couple very similar to us, and about five times a year, we get together with them and go to a movie, to the DSO, or to a play, and always have dinner together. It seems to be all we need.

1/3 cup agave, 1 cup lemon juice, pour into quart jar, fill the rest of the way with water, and shake. Hopelessly addicted. Mark is too. And I really do not need the sweetener. Sigh...... I told her she was on my naughty list and might get coal for Christmas! 😂

This is NOT on you. Ever. Please get a therapist, because you should not feel guilt about this. Our healthcare system is beyond broken, total, effing chaos. The amount of skilled nursing that family members who are NOT nurses are put upon to provide is staggering, and frankly, insane. None of this is on you. Full stop. You also do not need to be your mother's medical proxy. No one can make you do that. Just because she may list you as next of kin, does not mean you have to accept the role. Frankly, due to her own narcissistic behavior she makes a lot of choices that are the worst thing for herself, and then expects you to take part in that. 30 days. You tell her you are not coming back. When she can't or won't take care of herself, her live in can call an ambulance when she gets the blockage or skin breaks or whatever. The hospital has social workers to arrange for nursing home care for this reason. When they call, tell them you are no longer caring for your mother, will not be making any decisions or taking part in it, and are in fact moving away. It isn't their business that your move is not immediate. I nearly ruined my marriage and my relationship with my three sons because I felt guilt tripped into dealing with medical issues for my father that I should NEVER have been doing. I am so freaking lucky that my husband and kids forgave me! So damn lucky. My father lived for only one year after I finally put my foot down and said I would no longer provide skilled nursing - and I am a person who literally turns green just being around hospitals, and am the last human on earth even emotionally and mentally prepared to do it, barely surviving my own kids just getting the flu and such - and would no longer be abused by him, manipulated by my mother. Oh, my mother and brother TRIED to tie me into knots. But at the point at which I realized my soon to be adult sons might decide to cut me out of their lives as adults unless things drastically changed, and that my best friend in the whole world, my husband, was interviewing divorce attorneys, I became suicidal. That was how far this goes if you don't stand up for yourself and your family. A good therapist made me see the light. My greatest regret in this life was the time I spent doing his nursing care. I will regret that to the day I die. It nearly destroyed all of us. I know your marriage isn't going to make it. However, the terms of that break up, the emotional fall out, can actually be worsened by continuing to hang on with your mom. You have a daughter who needs you, and you need her. You have decades of future living to plan for. Please do your daughter a huge favor and walk away. In 30 days, your mother either takes charge of her life, she gets bad enough to go to the hospital, she wallows in self pity, she gets her surgery and the social worker finds her a bed in a facility, or she dies. But that is all very okay as sad as it sounds. You have done more than any family member should do, and paid a horrific price for doing it.

In our area to, we need to seriously regulate pick up trucks that practically nothing for gas mileage. They are everywhere, big ego machines. Something like 90% of them are not registered to farms or small businesses. It is absolutely ridiculous. I wish people would be more responsible with their choices, and I hate legislating this kind of choice all the tike, but something has to be done. I wish that for those not registered for actual businesses, the tax penalty on them was so cross prohibitive people would stop buying them. But again, the interests of the Big 3 will likely continue to "win" which means we, as a country continue to lose.