Family Walks in Yellowstone Park

It was one of those mornings.  You have all had them.

I was lounging around, talking to hubby on the phone when I glanced down at my work schedule.

Egads!  It was almost 7 a.m. and I was to be at work at the Old Faithful Inn at 7 a.m.!

I had read my schedule wrong.  Easy to do, I tell my aging brain, when your time changes every day.

I jumped into my uniform and made a dash to the Inn.

On the way, a little gray haired lady almost ran me over with her bike.

She could really move.

She gave me a big smile as she rang her bell.


I made it to work, unharmed by bison or speeding vehicles.

I truly love living in Yellowstone Park, but this working thing is annoying.

An hour into my shift, my 20 something supervisor called me into her office.  Double egads. What had I done?  Would I get fired from my $7.75 an hour job for putting a key in the wrong slot?

"You clocked in from lunch 3 minutes early," she said.  "Really," I said.  "Does this mean I will do some Federal time?"  I find it hard to take things like this seriously, in case you hadn't noticed.  They didn't haul me away in cuffs.  I returned to work wondering why I was even concerned about getting in trouble here.

After work, I strolled down the road that runs in front of my dorm.

The Yellowstone Park rangers and other full time staff have some nice digs.

This looked like an upscale vacation condo.

This appeared to be an actual house. 

There were several more down the road with hammocks and clothes lines.

People live somewhat normal lives here it seems. 

They have satellite dishes....can you believe that on this street in Yellowstone Park, people are watching "Dancing With The Stars?"  It seems wrong somehow.

When I finally caught up with the children, we decided to go for a hike.

It always feels like you are walking through a Christmas tree farm around here.

Except that a bear might be around the corner.


That doesn't happen much back home.

Older son didn't want his picture taken.

Just make mother go away, please.

But I am the Mama and I can move pretty fast when necessary.

He's a handsome boy.

There was a grizzly sighting....no wait....just the younger son in pursuit of a bird.

I think it was a robin, but I didn't want to burst his bubble. 

Tomorrow is a day off for me and back on the road again.  The older son has to go to Gardiner, which is just outside the park, to sign in at the human resources office.  At least this time I will have excellent company.

After we get back, he will be moving to his location at Grant Village.  I am optimistic that there will be some great photos from this excursion.

I have been checking out some of the items in the gift shops at Yellowstone.  It is time for a contest.  Stay tuned and you may have the opportunity to win a bison poo Christmas ornament.  It is environmentally friendly and oh so attractive.  Your friends will be jealous. 

Love to Walk in Yellowstone Park

It has been another long and full Yellowstone day.  If you feel that there are not enough hours in the day, may I suggest that you live in the Park for a few months.  I believe that the sun comes up around 4:30 in the morning and goes down around 10:00 p.m.  Now, this probably isn't true, but it sure feels that way.

This morning I are a gourmet breakfast (sarcasm) and went for an hour walk around the Old Faithful geyser basin.  The one thing I will miss the most about Yellowstone is the great opportunities to walk.  Back home, walking on our country road is almost more dangerous than this,,,,

stepping in bison poo while looking at the pretty little flowers.

I know, I'm back on the poo thing, but seriously, it is a problem.  And if there is poo, there are bison.  Fortunately they were dropping their poo somewhere else and my walk was safe and pleasant.

The Castle Geyser was going off and going off and going off as I strolled by.

Quite impressive as it only erupts 3 times a day and it lasts for 15 or 20 minutes.

Now that I'm a Yellowstone Park expert (sarcasm again), it's fun to watch the tourists running to get a picture.

The poor simple souls don't know that it lasts lots longer than Old Faithful.

And if you run at this altitude, you should carry an oxygen tank.

This is what happens to trees if they are down wind from a geyser.

Of course there is always steaming water pouring into the river.

A somewhat eerie landscape, but you get used to it.

There is always something steaming, bubbling and spitting around here.

This is the Old Faithful Inn in the distance.  I was trying to figure out how to get there.

I was afraid if I walked any longer I would start to look like one of those dead trees.

I liked this dead tree.  I felt like Dorothy looking for the Emerald City at this point.

I wouldn't have been surprised if the tree had winked at me and pointed towards the Inn.

If I only had a brain or courage or a bottle of water.

Just as I was giving up hope of ever seeing civilization again, three lovely girls from China came along.

This gave me hope.

Or perhaps I was really off track.

One girls asked if I wanted her to take my picture, so I grabbed the other two for a little more interest.  You must be tired of seeing me.

 They were the sweetest girls I had met in Yellowstone.

I finally made it back to the Old Faithful Inn.  And oh yes, I got to wave at the hubby back home.  I found the web cam hidden in the trees at Old Faithful.  I called him, he pulled it up on his computer and there I was waving like a fool at a tree.  It brought tears to our eyes, I must say.

I went to work at 2:30 and didn't stop for a breath until 10:00 when I limped home on my swollen ankles.  Just another day in this strange paradise.

Tomorrow is the long trek to Livingston where my dental fate will be determined.  Keep your fingers crossed that I don't come home minus a tooth.  I know I will come home a lot poorer.  I just want to get it over with.  The anticipation is almost worse than....no....the actual dental work is always worse.  Needles and drills and...put your head between your knees hubby.  He hates the dentist.  Wish you were with me to hold my hand.

Also tomorrow, hubby is driving my oldest son to the airport so that he can join us in Yellowstone Park.  Isn't the hubby a fine man?

More tomorrow.  There will be photos of the trip and maybe the gaping whole in my mouth.

Is Yellowstone the Next Iceland?

I'm not going to bore you with everything I did today to get ready for the Yellowstone trip. All you need to know is that it involved another trip to Walmart or Walmarts as they call it here.

Here's the "artsy" photo of the day.

I bought the hubby an old sleigh several years ago.

It was to be a lawn ornament of sorts. 

Things tend to fall apart around here.

NOW, for yesterday's big news.  My little family adventure made the front page of the Xenia Daily Gazette, my hometown newspaper.  I guess it was a nice change from the plant closings they usually have.

How did this happen?  I called them and suggested that this would be a great human interest story.  When I told Grizzly son that an interview was going to happen, and the mama demanded his presence, he was almost speechless.  He sputtered and protested, but I won in the end.  He even took a shower.

And he got his picture in the paper.

The girlfriend came along too and participated but she sort of got left out of the story.  Just so you know, her name is Jamie.

Our reporter, Aaron, was delightful.  We loved him.  But you didn't have to put my age on the front page!  Jeesh.

Thanks anyway for getting the blog out there for me.
A moose poop ornament may be in the works for you young man.

Fame is just a nano second away.  Today Xenia, tomorrow the world.

I just checked out the web cam at Old Faithful.

Wait, there are tourists there.  Last time I looked at this there were only bison and snow.

They aren't wearing heavy coats.  It's supposed to be cold there and I've packed for cold.  The temperature is in the high 50's.  Am I packing the wrong things?

The hubby has tied me down so I won't repack. 




Have you been following the volcano erupting in

Iceland?

The ash drifting over Europe has delayed flights for an indefinite amount of time.  Seems like it clogs up the jet engines and they drop like stones.

Hmmmm.

Do you hear the producers of 2012 dancing a little jig?  Nothing like having your disaster movie turn into partial reality.

I mention this because.  Who has their hand up?  That's right class.  I WILL BE LIVING ON TOP OF ONE OF THESE FOR SIX MONTHS!

There's someone else happy with this news.  Check this out to see what one of California's finest has come up with http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/13/vivos_bunkers/.  If you have $50,000, you can reserve your spot in his upscale bunkers.  I can hear the checkbooks opening now.

So, if the Yellowstone volcano goes, just get in your Bentley, pack a few overnight things in your Gucci bag and head to the Mojave Desert near Barstow, California.  Hang out for a year or so with a couple hundred of your new best friends. 

Gee, are there any flaws with this plan?  Don't all talk at once.  First of all, and this will be my only point since it's the best, if most of the world has been wiped out, are these wealthy folks going to rebuild it?  Will they know how to dig a ditch?  Can they grow a garden?  Are they too old to reproduce?  I could go on, but I'll leave you to add things to the list I don't want in print.

I will not think about this anymore.

Before I go stare at my packed bags and think about starting over, let me share a recipe with you.

This is one of my husband's favorites.  It shall be called "Guilt Artichoke Dip."

Drain two cans of artichoke hearts packed in water and chop them up.

Add 3/4 cup of Parmesan or more,

3/4 cup of Mayo or more,

1 teaspoon of lime juice,

1 teaspoon or so of garlic salt,

and some pepper.

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes or so.

Eat with whatever you have...crackers, chips, your fingers, a spoon.

You can tell I care about the amounts.  It doesn't really matter.  It tastes good because it has Mayo in it.

I also have to make him a malt before he goes to bed.

I'm assuming that he thinks the appliances will shut down when I leave.  

And don't any of you feel sorry for him.

You know what he got today?  DVR or TiVo or some such television thing that records and skips through commercials and all that.

Picture a contented man in his underwear with five remote controls watching "Red Dawn" five times a day.

It will help ease the pain.

Moose Poop and Yellowstone Park

Today's big news.  Ta Da!  I am a WINNER!

Sherry over at http://niteswimming.blogspot.com had a contest, and I won!

Sorry about all of the exclamation points, but I never win anything.  And I won a book which is awesome since I love books.  I'd be excited to win a toothpick, but I actually won something I love.

My luck is this bad.  I was at a golf outing once which is a long story since I hate golf.  We all had raffle tickets in a big drum.  People were winning golf balls and tees and other items that didn't interest me in the least, BUT...it got down to 2 raffle tickets, one of which was mine, and one prize.  It was probably a ball washer (tee hee) or something I would probably give away, so who cares, but I cared because it was the principle of the thing.

My ticket got stuck in the drum.  Someone else won the crappy prize.  MY TICKET GOT STUCK IN THE DRUM!  That is why I'm excited about winning a beautiful book.

My luck is changing, I do believe.

Speaking of a crappy prize, I plan on running my own contest when I get to Yellowstone. 

Pay attention here.  The grand prize will be a Christmas ornament made out of Moose poop. 

I hope you weren't eating dinner.

The boys brought me one from Yellowstone.  They're special guys.

I'll leave it for you to imagine.  It was kind of gold with a nice ribbon.  I think some kind of image was molded on it, but it still looked like poop.

It didn't smell.

I wonder who makes these things?  Do they press poop into molds?  Do they use their hands?  Do you tell your friends that your job is spraying moose poop ornaments with gold paint?

I'm not kidding about this.  Here's a website where you can buy your own poop jewelry and ornaments in case you can't wait.. http://tellmewhereonearth.com/.

Scroll down the left side until you come to poop - moose & deer.  There you go. 

I leave for Yellowstone in 11 days.  The sooner I get there, the sooner you get your poop ornament.