The Kidness of Strangers in Yellowstone Park

I have to share the kindness that has come my way in the past couple of days.  Two days ago I was standing at the front desk of the Old Faithful Inn in my lovely maroon shirt.  I was trying to act like I knew what I was doing, miserably, I might add, when a nice young gentleman approached me and said, "Hi, Judy."  This might not have been strange considering that I wear a name tag that says "Judy." but he acted like he knew me.

It was my blog friend, David, who runs Yellowstone Traders, a store in West Yellowstone.  I had whined to him, something I do better than most, about my mundane life at the front desk.  He risked life and limb driving through bison, elk and other wildlife to see if I wanted a job at his store.  Long story short, he slipped me his business card, and I am meeting him at his store tomorrow morning.

I'm not sure if this will work out as there are many unknowns at this point, but the worst thing that can happen is that we get to know each other better.  He even took my picture and put it on his blog.  Check it out at http://blog.yellowstonetraders.com/.  You never know when you might need some bison fiber gloves, and David sells the best ones around.

Kindness number 2 happened today, again, at the front desk.  Franz, who was working next to me, took a call and said that someone was asking for Judy from Ohio.  Me?  A call for me?  Was it a complaint?  No, it was the lovely wife half of the couple who have the best darn Yellowstone National Park site in the world...http://www.secretyellowstone.com/  She offered me words of encouragement about hanging in there for the season.  She and her husband will be out in June and want to meet for lunch.  How sweet and how cool.  This is a magical place.  Check out their site even if you don't plan on coming to Yellowstone.  There are tons of facts that are worth reading.

Now for the pictures of the day.  Grizzly son took me on a death march up to Observation Point which overlooks Old Faithful.  I was sure my heart was going to explode in me chest, but I made it and here are the pictures to prove it.

Here's a picture of me as we entered the woods.

I am praying that there are no bears or rabid bison on the path. 

Notice the orange tag above Grizzly son's head?

They put these on the trees so when it snows, you can still find the path.  Grizzly is 6'4", so go figure how high the snow might get.

Me resting on a rock near a hole.

I had been coughing up a lung, so it seemed like a good idea.

Grizzly reassured me there was nothing in the hole.  Like Mr. Nature would know.

The view from the top...pant, cough, pant.

No,this is not Old Faithful.  Just it's little brother next door.

Here's Old Faithful doing it's thing, right on cue.

I was feeling pretty proud of myself, making it to the top.  Then a young couple carrying a baby on the dad's back came up next to us.  They weren't even sweating.

I'm still proud and the view was incredible.

On the way down the mountain, two yellow bellied marmots posed for us.

Grizzly was fascinated by these would be ground hogs. 

They seemed equally fascinated by him.

Here is my artistic picture of animal scat.

I couldn't help myself and there was so much of it.

I thought that black and white would soften the blow.

Sorry.

And finally, a tree with a heart.

This is my postcard from Yellowstone to all of you fine people who follow my blog.

Love you all.