Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Day 8 - 10 June 2009


The campground we had stayed at was pretty high up in altitude. There were patches of snow on the ground. The early part of the night was fairly warm, we had to unzip our sleeping bags because they became too warm for us. But toward morning the temperature dropped to the point that the heater in our RV came on. Exactly how low the temperature got I do not know because I forgot to put out the thermometer when we arrived at the campsite.

In any case, we got going at our usual time. The weather was less than great - cloudy with rain showers. We stopped for breakfast at a general store. They have these scattered throughout the park to feed the hungry tourists and to provide them with the necessary souvenirs. This store was large with lots of jackets, t-shirts, and baseball caps with variations of the park's name printed on them. Postcards, books, and camping paraphernalia as well as snacks and some groceries also found room in the main part of the building. What interested us most was the lunch counter in the shape of three horseshoes next to each other so that the waiters and waitresses could walk into the open ends of the horseshoes to serve the customers. Needless to say, there were quite a few customers. And wouldn't you know it, just as we sat down, the kitchen was inundated with a giant order of pancakes for a group of some sort that was staying in one of the hostels next door. Rachel, the English girl (working there for the summer) who was waiting on us couldn't stop apologizing for the long time it took before any of the guests at the counter got any food. Some people left right away, others left without waiting for the food they had ordered. We tried to comfort Rachel, telling her that it wasn't her fault, but we were getting pretty hungry too. Fortunately or unfortunately, as the case may be, we were forcibly entertained by a loud man from Florida who insisted on carrying on a conversation across all three horseshoes and otherwise behaved as if he were alone in the store. I avoided making eye contact because I didn't want to be pulled into the whirlpool he was creating. We finally got our eggs, ham, hash browns, and toast - and it was good!

We managed to see many of the geysers, including Old Faithful and many bubbling cauldrons of hot liquid that smelled of sulfer. Maybe we were becoming saturated with geysers and mud holes so that Old Faithful didn't seem as spectacular as we had anticipated. We were lucky though, because Old Faithful did his thing within ten of fifteen minutes of our arrival. A large crowd was watching, so we departed while Old Faithful was powering down so as to avoid the traffic jam when everyone else left, because the parking lot was quite large and amply filled when we were there. By the way, I actually saw Old Faithful erupt only through the display of our digital camera because I was filming the whole thing. Unfortunately, my friend erased the film clip accidentally later while deleting some unwanted pictures. In my memory Old Faithful's plume is about an inch tall.

As I said, the weather was lousy. We headed south out of Yellowstone into Grand Teton National Park. I expected one or two grizzlies to be standing at the side of the road waving good bye - no luck. We didn't see any more wild animals except squirrels and chipmunks. We did see some tell-tale-signs of free-roaming animals. There actually was a book for sale in the park with the title "Who Pooped in the Park" that identifies the animals that go with the various droppings.
I was tired of driving so we stopped at the next campground for the night. Sorry that there isn't more to report today, let's see what tomorrow will bring. So much for day eight.

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