We spend two wonderful holiday weeks in Montana on Asley Lake with our Canadian friends Leona & Brad. 

We pass the time with swimming, stand-up paddling, kayaking and Brad's party boat and do not really want to leave. Thanks again folks for the wonderful time with you. 

But at some point we have to move on. The world is big and there is still much to discover and mid-October is our shipping date. So we make our way to the Yellowstone National Park with a heavy heart. Although we were there with our children ten years ago, the park is always worth a visit and has more than 4 million visitors every year. We stay 3 days and look at the geysers, mud holes and hot springs. The main attraction is the Old Faithful Geyser which spit out its water every 60-90 minutes Of course, one should not think about going for a walk on a super volcano whose magma chamber is 8 km deep. When the lid flies away there is not much left of North America.

We cross Wyoming from west to east and travel miles and miles around, with nothing but endless cornfields, sunflowers and cattle ranches. From time to time we come through a uniform small town with the usual fast food providers, before the road stretches endlessly to the horizon again. During the hours of driving, we ponder how many kilometers of road all American Interstates have together and reach a proud 77,000 kilometers. Not so much considering that the US is 28 times bigger than Germany and we are doing at least 13,000 highway kilometers. In Europe, only Spain has more (16,000 km) and China is the world leader with 130,000 km. What a surprise as we still thought they still drive with bicycles in China. 

We'd rather make a stop at Badlands National Park in southwestern South Dakota. A 60 km long loop road leads through the park with beautiful viewpoints on the bizarre rock formations.

We continue our way east to Wisconsin and into the pretty town of Madison where we stop for a look at the second largest US capitol and stroll around the large colorful weekly market.

Then it goes on to Chicago where we visit our friends Monika & Gerhard, who live here since one year. We can stay in the guest room and MOMO is parked in the street in front of their house, which means that we get a lot of emails about our car with invitations to various parties and dinners with strangers. By bus and train we are relatively fast in the city center. Monika is an excellent tourist guide and accompanies us most of our sightseeing tours. Chicago delights us with its many parks, beautiful beaches in the middle of the city and nice flair in the various neighborhoods.

Dave, an old friend from our student days in Heidelberg, whom we last saw 36 years ago, lives also in Chicago. He was with us when Karin and I first met. We spend a very nice evening with him and his family and revel in old memories. Thanks again for the time we could spent with you folks. It was great seeing you again after so many years. 

After three beautiful days in Chicago, we continue north around Lake Michigan up to Superior Lake, where we take a look at the Pictures Rock coastline, whose steep coastline and clear water attract a crowd of visitors. It's weekend again and we are lucky that we get a place on a campground at the lake.

In Sault Sainte Marie we look at the huge lock, which can accommodate ships up to 300m in length, before leaving the US for the last time on this voyage and returning to Canada via the bridge from Lake Huron.

In the next few weeks we explore Canada's east with its Franco Canadian flair and the Indian summer. But what we experience there is then part of our next blog. Until then enjoy reading and watching the pictures.