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Alex Schmieg

Mrs. Hand

AP English

4 March 2010

Narrative Paper

Family Trip to Wyoming

The morning began at the crack of dawn, it was time for another Schmieg family

vacation. I packed my luggage in my suitcase and woke up the family. It was only 2 o’clock in

the morning and it was time to leave for our trip to Wyoming. My family members that would

be attending this trip were: My dad, My mom, My brother Jared, and myself. We packed all of

our luggage into our Durango and started the long journey across West. Since it was so early in

the morning the only person that would be staying awake to drive was my dad. My dad’s main

goal was to get on I-90 and take it all the way to South Dakota. So I fell asleep and woke up

several hours later to find out that we were already entering South Dakota. I was so surprised

that we had already driven that far in what seemed to be such a short time.

The trip through South Dakota was an interesting one; we saw so many things when we

passed through it. Our family came together and decided that we wanted to stop at Wall Drug,

South Dakota; a small and popular attraction. When we arrived there it was chaotic because

there were so many people in a little strip mall. So we walked around and looked at souvenirs.

When walking through a knife store, I spotted ninja throwing stars. I asked my mom if she

would buy them for me and she responded with “I am not buying you that.” I gave up on the

idea and before we left the strip she asked me “so do you really want them,” and I responded

“yes!” When we left Wall Drug I was happy because I got what I wanted. That day ended when
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it began to get dark, we pulled into the nearest hotel which was a Holiday Inn. The next day

consisted of driving another couple hundred miles and finally ending up in the town Cody,

Wyoming. When we arrived in town we Decided to stay at KOA Campground, where I was able

to swim in the pool and enjoy laying in my tent. Later on in the day we went to the Buffalo Bill

Historical Center and looked at historical items. After leaving there we took a little drive to

Buffalo Bill Dam. The dam was not that great when we arrived so we decided to leave and go

back to our campground and rest for the big day ahead of us.

The next morning was one of the most important morning of the whole trip. We had to

get up really early and make our trip to Yellowstone National Park. The drive there took a

couple hours. When we got there it was full of people and all of the campgrounds were full so

we could not stay there for the night. We then decided to just go ahead and visit the park for the

whole day and then return back to our KOA Campground. The first thing that we did when we

entered the park was stop at the Visitors Center where we gathered the necessary information to

get around the park without dying. When we were at the center we decided to eat lunch for the

day. So we got out our bread, ham, cheese, and miracle whip and made some delicious

sandwiches. While eating a park ranger came up and told us “be cautious, there is a grizzly bear

in the nearby area. We quickly finished up eating and left for our destinations at the park.

Our first destination at the park was Old Faithful; a geyser that my dad has wanted to see

in person for a long time. When we arrived at the attraction we had a hard time finding a parking

spot, but found one right after someone left. We walked up to where all the people were

standing and there in front of us we could see where the geyser was soon to be erupting. After

waiting for 20 minutes, it finally erupted and all the people were awed at the sight. I myself was
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not awed because I think it was kind of boring. The geyser soon ended and we were off to the

gift shop and then shortly left to the next part of the park.