Grab a hankie, friends, because the day has arrived.
Once I drive through these gates, I will be out of Yellowstone Park.
I may never return.
Actually, it's almost 100% that I will not return.
Shoot. Now I need a hankie.
Well, I did it.
The polyester uniform and the name tag have been turned in.
I'm no longer a front desk monkey at the Old Faithful Inn.
Sob.
O.K., I've been complaining about it and I won't miss the job at all, but...I've been living in Yellowstone Park, for heaven's sake. That qualifies as a once in a lifetime experience.
Sob and sob some more.
Even though my eyes were misty, the scenery didn't disappoint on the way out.
We took the eastern route to Cody, Wyoming.
We had to stop at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.
Like everything else in Wyoming, it was bigger than big.
We only spent an hour or so there which hardly does it justice.
Hubby didn't see a moose in the Park, so this is the next best thing.
Did that thing move?
Here I am with Sackajawea or Sacajaweea or heck, you know, the Indian chick.
I don't think she was this big. Must be the clean mountain air.
And then it was on to the Big Horn Mountains.
There were signs along the road explaining what kind of rocks are along the road and their age.
It started out with 300 million years old, which freaked me out and then....
There are mountains here that are almost 2 billion years old!
How many zeros would that be?
Of course there was road construction.
The guy with the stop sign looked just like Homer Simpson.
Hey! We sat there a long time. The mind can play tricks in the high altitudes. Lack of oxygen and all.
At one point we were at 10,000 feet.
Even the birds were dragging around little oxygen tanks.
So look way, way down in that valley, and you'll see where our road is taking us,.
Wyoming is the most incredible state.
How they get these roads paved with a state population of 200 is beyond me, but everyone must be incredibly hard workers.
Eventually, we got a room in Buffalo, Wyoming, and as we speak, hubby is snoring away. Just like living in the dorm. I feel at home.
See this look of horror? Hubby is preparing for a hike. In his words, "If you can't drive there, it isn't worth seeing."
But since he is in Yellowstone Park, he decided that maybe he should get off the road and venture down a trail.
I took him to the Lone Star Geyser which is about a 45 minute walk down a paved road. For hubby, this is the equivalent of basic training.
Note to self....do not drink a cup of coffee before going on a hike. Walking next to running water causes one to have the urge to, well, you know. I got to practice more of my roughing it in the woods techniques.
Here's the path.
Common phrases for the non hiker are...
"How much farther?"
"Are we there yet?"
I heard them a lot on the hike.
This is my artistic shot of moss on the tree.
Here's hubby climbing over a tree on the path.
Remember, there is very little dirt here. The trees just fall over.
They may be more dangerous than the bears.
We reached our goal. The Lone Star Geyser.
It sits all by itself in the middle of nowhere.
It goes off every three hours or whenever it gets the urge.
Hubby was determined to wait it out.
No way he was wasting a 45 mile walk that didn't end up at a bar with a big screen t.v.
And then it happened. Lone Star gave us a show.
It erupted for at least half an hour.
Here's another view of our little beauty.
It was well worth the wait. There was only one other couple there, so for the most part, we had the show to ourselves.
You can have Old Faithful.
We had the Lone Star Geyser.
Much to hubby's dismay, the return trip was another 45 minutes, but he was glad he made it there. His circulation thanked him also.
There's not much time left in Yellowstone and believe it or not, I'm growing misty over the prospect of leaving. Not sure I can get hubby out for another walk before we leave.
Check in tomorrow for more tales from Yellowstone Park.
It was another one of those perfect Yellowstone Park days. Cold in the morning. Comfortable in the afternoon and evening.
I talked Grizzly son into one last hike before hubby gets here tomorrow.
I had been wanting to see Mystic Falls which is only a couple of miles from Old Faithful.
It's a short hike...1.4 miles to the Falls.
Notice the smugness? It's only a 3 mile round trip. You would think I was a veteran hiker.
The trail starts out like this.
Not much of a challenge so I know you're not impressed.
Yet.
Hang on. Here's the Firehole River.
And here's Mystic Falls.
All uphill, by the way. Not too bad, but I did pant and puff a bit.
Here's a closer look at the top of the Falls.
This was the view behind us.
See....I was really there.
After hiking up to Mystic Falls, we drove farther down the road to the Grand Prismatic Hot Springs.
Our goal was to climb the hill so we could look down on it which is an awesome sight.
This was as high as I was getting. I've straightened up since the 60's.
At this point, we discovered that mosquito season has started.
They're big here and numerous and I was afraid our entire blood supply would be drained if we stayed longer.
On the way back to Old Faithful, we saw a ruckus ahead. Tourists were pulling off the road, heading into an open field.
We actually saw a MOOSE! A rare sight around here as most of them are in the Tetons. Grizzly son went crazy as his goal has been to spot one and photograph it. He got a picture of it before it disappeared into the woods. I hate to mention this as he is still in a deep funk, but the picture came out blurry for some reason.
He will recover. I think. Hopefully soon. There will be other moose, son.
He graciously shared a couple of his best pictures.
This picture of a bald eagle was taken on a recent trip to Bozeman.
I think this is an incredible picture. Prize worthy even. Good job son.
This picture of a wolf was taken near West Yellowstone.
According to Grizzly, he was the alpha male protecting the kill.
So tonight I am a happy woman. I've had a hike. I saw a moose. Roommate is off with some people in Cody and I have the room to myself. I get to go to Bozeman tomorrow to pick up hubby and enjoy civilization for a couple of days.
This is the only big news from Yellowstone Park today.
C.J. Box, who has written a series of mysteries, was at the Old Faithful Inn signing copies of his new book, "Nowhere to Run."
I got a close up personal moment with him. The other women didn't, so I was quite smug.
I bought his new book which cost me a day's pay, but it's signed which is special.
Check out my cute cowboy at his website, http://cjbox.net. I firmly, absolutely, totally believe in supporting authors. Writing is tough work.
I worked the mid shift, 9-6:30 which pretty much guarantees your day is shot. Tomorrow I work from 7-3 and the day after I work 6:15-2:30. And then, on Saturday, it's off to Bozeman to pick up hubby at the airport.
I'm so excited that I can barely sit still. I get to spend a couple of nights in hotels that have hot running water. I can get a hair cut. I can go to Walmart. Wait...let me clarify...
Really, truly and sincerely, hubby dearest, I am excited about seeing you, but all that other stuff just pushes me over the edge. Hot water!
It will be like Christmas in June or getting out of boot camp or living like a civilized human being again.
I'm all aflutter.
It was more of this today.
Cold, wet weather.
Nothing happening.
So, how about some more YouTube?
Why doesn't something like that happen when I'm around?
Did the bison just want to get to his favorite scratching, rolling place?
Why are people still standing around after this little spectacle?
It would just make my day if I saw bison gone wild. From a safe distance of course.
So from Old Faithful, where we are all lost in time and space...good night for now. Something is bound to happen tomorrow.
I have less than two weeks to work in Yellowstone Park or the Land of Oz. Why am I making this comparison?
The most striking similarity is...
I am convinced that two of my managers trained under the Wicked Witch of the West. They have all of her charm and people skills.
Neither one speaks to the front desk staff unless they have something negative to say. Have I pointed out that we make $7.75 an hour, minus room and board, we stand on our feet 8 hours a day and work shifts that change daily? Stop rolling your eyes behind my back. I know I am repeating myself, but I don't have television and there isn't anything else to occupy my time.
Yesterday, I came close to grabbing one of the managers by the ears and slamming her face into the outdated computer monitor. I believe we can play Pong on it. With great effort, and I mean dangerously high blood pressure effort, I controlled myself.
You know what relieves stress when the boss pushes buttons you never even knew you had? Try this game. http://whackyourboss.com/. When I played it, there were 17 ways to "whack" or "off" your boss. Now they are up to 20 ways. Can't wait to give the other 3 a try. It isn't pretty, it's dark and gruesome and I love it. Don't go there unless that last big red button, hidden in the reptilian part of your brain, has been pushed by your Wicked Witch.
I feel better now. Thank you.
To balance the universe, let me share some things that I will miss.
My early morning walks around the Old Faithful geyser basin are therapeutic. Better than an hour on a psychiatrist's couch.
It must work since my managers are still alive and the rangers haven't hauled me off.
The tourists swamp the area later in the day, but in the morning, they're too busy packing or buying over priced lattes to get out on the walkways. Thank the gods for that favor.
This morning, every time I turned around, one of these little chipmunk fellows was staring at me.
Don't let the cute fool you. They have beady eyes.
There were beautiful little yellow flowers next to the brightly colored rocks next to the rushing river...
Uhhhh....there he is again.
What? I don't have any food!
I sat my Morning Glory Pool and listened to the birds and the geysers.
The geysers sort of sound like waves pounding on the beach.
A peaceful sound in the morning.
I did not take this path.
If the Wicked Witch works here, her flying monkeys live down there.
But I did take another path that looked perfectly harmless and found this.
Sorry if you are eating breakfast or dinner right now.
I'm all alone on this path, by the way.
I couldn't resist taking a photo before I made a frantic dash down the boardwalk.
I was singing my bear songs..."Here I am in the woods...no one knows I'm here...I love the friendly bears...they never shed a tear." I think I was singing this to the tune of "Blue Skies" an old song that anyone younger than me won't know, but the point was to make a lot of noise so that whatever chewed this carcass would decide to run the other way.
Bears are quite sensitive to poor singing. They run off and stick their head in a geyser if it's too bad. It's called "suicide by geyser" I believe. Happens all the time.
He's back.
Stop staring at me with your little beady eyes.
I know you've seen this on YouTube, but it can't hurt one bit to see it again.
That always makes me feel better. How about you?
Until tomorrow, I promise to control myself....if I only had some courage or a brain. Must visit the Great Oz. He can tell me what to do.
First of all my faithful, friendly, flighty friends (I love alliteration) you need to check out my guest blog at http://www.somewhinewithcheese.com/. Oh, alright, let me explain for those of you who aren't in the exclusive blogging community.
Ahem.
Occasionally, bloggers of great taste ask other bloggers of great taste to do a guest post, so that they can take a holiday from the grueling world of posting every day.
So Laurnie, of "Some Whine With Cheese," wisely asked me to guest post for her, which I did. Check it out and seriously, become one of Laurnie's followers as she has a quality blog. Actually, she has a ton of followers, so if you want to spend more time on my blog, I wouldn't complain.
This message is for hubby, but the rest of you can listen if you want. Hubby....ahhhh.....shuffle, shuffle, I sort of said some bad, or sort of bad, things about you on my guest blog. I implied that you are a control freak, which sounds like I'm complaining, and actually, being in control isn't bad, and you're so cute when you think you're in control, cause no one really has control, but it's o.k. cause I'm sort of used to it and I'm not plotting anymore how to hide your body in the woods, so if I hurt your feelings you know that I was just trying to be funny and went too far, and really, being in control is good, not in control of me of course, but in control of the car and yourself and things like that, and maybe I'll just shut up now.
I'm sorry and can I still come home?
Now, for some Yellowstone Park information, since Yellowstone is supposed to be my topic. It didn't rain today! When I went out this morning, it was foggy. So foggy, that when Old Faithful erupted, this is how it looked.
I could hear it, sort of like waves on the beach.
Everything looked different in the fog.
I was just hoping that the bison and bears weren't using the fog as a cover to leap out at me.
I felt quite brave, but in reality my head was darting back and forth, imagining all kinds of danger lurking out there.
A Western Blue Bird, posed for me, which I thought was sweet.
So I took several pictures for his portfolio.
Which do you think is his best side?
Remember, the big contest is over Wednesday night. Don't miss out on your chance to win a bison poo Christmas ornament. Just tell me why you have to have it. Come on....you know you want it. Don't let good taste get in your way. It's never stopped me.
I even got a comment from the people at http://www.dunganddunger.net/ who make the bison poo items. They are going to be in Yellowstone this summer displaying some of their finer works of art.
You all should do your Christmas shopping with them this year. Don't you want your gifts to be memorable? Cousin Harvey won't re-gift them to Cousin Marvin cause word gets around about unique items like this.
Tomorrow, I will introduce you to my friend Jacqueline, and there will be some mystery bird pictures. A bird actually scared me silly, but more about that later. Until then, remember who loves you.
