Sam's Fireside - Cosy Book Reviews & Recommendations

Summary  Thank you if you've managed to read this far and I hope you found at least some of it helpful and interesting. As a quick summary, we booked Hilton hotels (primarily Hampton Inn & Suites) throughout all the time on the actual road, apart from Yellowstone where we chose an independent hotel. We were more than happy with Hilton; choosing the same hotel means you know what you're getting. We had a budget of £150 per night (apart from Yellowstone) so that should give you some idea of what we were getting for our money. Food has always been expensive in Vegas but it seems to have increased, even in the last twelve months. To put this into perspective, we had a Subway in Vegas and for two, foot-long subs it was $46. We had the same in Rexburg and it was $19.  That was just one example, it's easy to spend $50-$70 on breakfast/lunch in a restaurant and upwards of $100 for dinner. We went to Prime at Bellagio on our last night and there wasn't much change from $400....

Day 17 Up early (not the best night’s sleep - the mattresses definitely need replacing) and back on the road for the relatively quick journey to Yellowstone National Park and the part of the road trip I have been looking forward to the most. We were quickly within Targhee National Forest where there was still snow amongst the trees and deer peering out from amongst the branches.   Yellowstone is in both Montana and Wyoming and we drove from Idaho to Montana to Wyoming today. We arrived at West Yellowstone around 10.30 am and headed straight for the West Entrance. It costs $35 entrance fee and you’re good to come and go as you please for 7 days, 24 hours per day. Our plan for the first day was to drive the first half of the bottom loop down to Old Faithful and then back up again. We went via Madison Junction, driving along the banks of Madison River and stopping at a number of places along the way, including the Lower Geyser Basin. The snows have been melting over the last coupl...

Day 16 After a restful twelve or so hours sleep (the driver needed it and the passenger didn’t have anywhere else to go) we headed back onto the I15 around 9 am. As we were driving through Salt Lake City, Dave asked me to look at where the shop was for Kindigit Design (Kindig Customs on TV - Google it)! It was literally ten minutes off the freeway, so we made a quick detour. Dave reckons that if he ever has the money, he will get them to custom-design his car! Anyway, he bought a couple of metal plate designs for his collection in his garage and we continued with our journey. As Utah turned into Idaho, it became flatter and a lot, lot greener, with just miles upon miles of space. There were some flood warnings in place as the temperatures were rising, the snow was melting on the mountains and the rivers were filling fast, but we managed to avoid anything and arrived safely at Hampton Inn & Suites, Rexburg.  Sarah checked us in and she picked up on where we were from and the U...