Woke up around 6am because both of us had to use the bathroom. Getting up consists of letting the air out of the mattress to make exiting Alfie easier, then Shar begins converting the car back into Driving Mode while I get coffee and breakfast ready. Its a process that is working very well. We beat yesterday’s departure time by 30 minutes, but had only just started back down Highway 20 when a loud scrapping type noise made us pull over. What we initially though was a flat tire turned out to be a piece of Alfie’s undercarriage that had broken loose from its second to last bolt. I crawled under the car and managed to pull it loose. We debated having a funeral or not, but the piece of plastic ended up in a garbage can at the gas station in Idaho Falls many miles later. 
Craters of the Moon National Monument was fascinating and definitely something we wished we had more time to explore. We did one short half mile hike around the Devil’s Orchard and two even shorter walks looking at two splatter cones.
Lunch was at an awesome place in Arco called Golden West. Fantastic food, portion sizes, and the service was fabulous. We left very full and got back on the road.
Our next stop was EBR-1, the first nuclear reactor to supply electrical power. You can either do a self guided tour, or wait for a group and walk around with one of the volunteer docents. We chose self-guided, and I fulfilled a lifelong dream of pretending to be Homer Simpson pressing the SCRAM button.
At the junction of 26 and 20 near Atomic City, Shar and I were finally traveling on undriven Highway 20 for both of us. We had taken much of 20 from that point home we we travelled from Denver four years earlier. We were both grinning as the road bent to the north towards Yellowstone.
We steadily climbed, passing through several small tourist towns and used Tripadvisor to secure a room at Buffalo Bill’s Antlers Inn, in Cody, Wyoming. The price to stay 52 miles east of Yellowstone vs 10 miles west of the park in West Yellowstone was significant. The $114 we paid at the Inn wouldn’t get you a cardboard box on skid row in the tourist gouging town west of the park. We made a plan of hitting Old Faithful and some of the sights around that famous landmark, picking up our souvineer patches, and then heading east. Unfortunately we missed the eruption by 10 minutes, though this did give us some exploring and shopping time. We checked out some of the minor geysers and hot pools, but Morning Glory Pool was just too far away to make it without risking missing Old Faithful. Around 7:45pm we got a couple of decent seats and waited until 7:53 (only three minutes “late”) for the spectacular display of water shooting from the earth. You would have to be pretty jaded and/or have hyped it up too much in your own mind to be disappointed by Old Faithful. Everything took longer than anticipated, but we were lucky enough to get reception as we made our way past Yellowstone Lake and raced down into Shoshone Gorge. We got the phone number for the Antlers Inn and called them to say we might be late. Carlee had no idea we were coming, but luckily they still had rooms and she saved one for us. 
At 10:55pm we finished rolling through Cody and found the Inn. It was a great way to end the night. The owner had just finished cleaning our room and Carlee continued to be nice and helpful. It was a comfortable, clean room and getting a hot shower was fantastic!
Miles Driven: 396
City/Towns Passed: Arco, Butte City, Idaho Falls, Ashton, Island Park, West Yellowstone, Cody
Temperature at 10:00am: 69
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