We left Pocatello, ID about 8:30 and headed to West Yellowstone, MT. We stopped for gas in Gardiner, MT and Nick noticed the Jeff's saddle bags had nearly ripped completely off. Nick and Rob had a couple of spare straps so we strapped the saddle bags on really well and continued down the road. Rob traded positions with Jeff and took over the tailgunner position and kept an eye on the saddle bags. We checked into our motel about 11:30 and walked down to the Slippery Otter for lunch.
 
We walked into the restaurant and was met by our waitress, Jen . She seemed pretty surly. But Nick applied his Social Director skills, with the assistance with Assistant Social Director, Dave, Jen turned into the highlight of our trip. At one point she had just delivered a particularly favorite beer to Nick. She passed out the rest of the drinks and just happened to be standing behind Nick when Nick said "Come to Mama", referring to the beer, and without a pause Jen said "I'm already spoken for". Later, we asked her to take a picture of the four of us and she said she would for $10 each and if she could take a selfie. She took our picture and when Rob was reviewing the pictures she took, there was a selfie, see below.
 
We asked the concierge where a hardware store was and he gave us a map and marked the spot. After lunch we walked down a block and headed west, about 10 blocks. We didn't find it. We went back about eight blocks and south one block where Jeff went into a gift store and asked where the hardware store was. We had to go back down the road west . Jeff and Dave walked faster than Nick and Rob, they were almost two blocks ahead when Rob notice a half block south what looked like typical palates of 2x4s. We yelled to Jeff and Dave, they didn't hear us. Rob called Dave and Nick called Jeff and they had to return. Anyway, we purchased what Jeff needed to secure his saddle bags and walked back to the motel.  
 
We took off to Yellowstone Nation Park for an afternoon adventure bison hunting. We where a couple of miles in the park when the traffic came to a stop. There were three elk in the meadow. We stopped several places and looked at the falls, geysers, and walked a couple of miles at Norris Geser Basin. We saw some amazing, stinky, sights, see pictures below. So far, six elk, one wolf, and no bison.
 
When we got back to town we walked back to the Slippery Otter for dinner. We got Jen again, she remembered us, of course. At lunch we learned that she was raised on a milk farm, and lived there until a couple of years ago. She moved up to West Yellowstone and works at the restaurant. A table next to us was taking a selfie but it looked like they were taking a picture of us. Jen told them that she took a picture for us at lunch. She offered to take their picture for $5. We yelled "hey you charged us $10." She just laughed. We took a picture outside with her. She was energetic, crazy, entertaining, informative, and just fun to be around.

240 miles today
1041 miles total