We read that there are 1000 geysers in the world and 500 of them are in Yellowstone - well, we think we’ve seen all of those! Most are gentle columns of steam rising skyward - and they are truly everywhere you look - but some “blow” every so often. Old Faithful is the most famous of course and we were there to see it: It happens regularly on an irregular basis, so to speak, every 40 to 120 minutes. We had to wait nearly an hour and it was sleeting heavily, but saw it we did. More interesting was the Beehive Geyser about a hundred yards away which only goes once per day and we happened to catch that one too.
Yellowstone National Park, as many of you gentle readers already know, is worth a visit. We just stayed one night but we toured aplenty the day before and day after and feel that we saw all we need to see at this stage of our lives. Bison and elk up close (and I mean close, 20 feet away), coyotes, cute little ground squirrels, white-tailed deer, and a bald eagle that flew about 15 feet directly above our heads - in addition to glorious scenery that changes every few miles. We went from 78 degrees the day before to 30 degrees in the park with near white-out conditions in the pass that leads to Old Faithful. As a man who hates winter and hates snow in particular, this was not a pleasant event!
Our accommodations at the Lake Hotel on Yellowstone Lake were comfortable but rather basic considering the price - they’ve gotcha in the park and can pretty much charge whatever they want, which they do. But the setting is gorgeous and we had a grand time. Solitude was a plus - no TV, no radio, no internet, not even cellphone service. We both found the lack of telecommunications amazing as well as restful - but it is a mystery how the preponderance of Asians in the hotel managed without being connected. It was the first Sunday of my adult life that I remember when I could be in a bar at this time of year in the US and not be subjected to the noise and bluster of various football games.
The elevation of most of the park 7,000 to 10,000 was a challenge for me - I was born at sea level and have lived most of my life very close to sea level, and gasping for oxygen is not my idea of a good time! Not quite gasping, but it’s disconcerting to feel out of breath just by taking a flight of stairs. Cindy isn’t as bothered but she felt it when she went on her usual morning run through the buffalo herds. Okay, two buffalo - but they were up close and personal.
Yellowstone was to have been a stop on our way to an anniversary party in San Diego on October 14 that also included a loop over to Phoenix and up I-35 through Oklahoma and Kansas, but alas, Megan needs us in Florida so we are turning back nearly 3 weeks early. It has been hard to not be with her, but we would have just been in the way. Now, we are able to go and provide our TLC, which we are only too happy to do - turns out that being in remission, while very good news, actually means that she’s ready for the next step which is a bone marrow transplant and is a brutal process. They’ll use her own marrow not a donor’s, and therefore they will remove all of her marrow, clean it, and put it back. Modern medicine is amazing but also scary! She will need 24/7 monitoring so we will form a tag team with her husband so that she is not alone for even a minute. On October 9th we’ll take a mandatory daylong workshop to learn how to do this properly and then we’ll be in Florida for most of the next several weeks, at least until Thanksgiving.
More tomorrow on our way home. Cindy and Wm
No comments:
Post a Comment