You Can't Rollerskate In A Buffalo Herd

Bison in the Park

Thank you Ulysses S. Grant for setting aside 2.2 million acres named Yellowstone for the enjoyment of the people. We have had a magical two days exploring Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Both are breathtaking. I was trying to think of adjectives to describe what we have seen but there aren't words that would do it justice. I've taken about four million photos and am busy uploading them as I type. I'm planning (and you know how these things go) to put the address of the web album in this post before it goes up. We have seen a bear, some elk, coyotes, tons and tons and tons of bison and a huge raven...several of them actually. I'm like a kid in a candy store when we have wildlife sightings. "Oooo, oooo, wait, wait, I have to get one more picture!" while traffic piles up behind us. We have seen Old Faithful and several other geysers (very cool) and gobs and gobs of sights that just left us speechless. "Oh wow," and "Incredible," and "Holy sh*t," were the words all day long for two full days. It was just...incredible! Old Faithful Inn and Fishing Bridge Inn are both very old (early 1900's) structures, well maintained and beautiful in their design. We only explored from the south entrance to the west, through the central portion of the park to the east and back to the south in the loop. Next time we come through this way we will take in the northern part of the park. I...the person who is always writing War and Peace length descriptions of our experiences am having trouble coming up with descriptions of what we have seen.

Old Faithful

You can always tell when there is a wildlife sighting. You will be driving along and then all of the sudden you will see a group of cars parked along side of the road. About the third or fourth time that happened today we pulled over so that I could get a few shots of some buffalo that were grazing across the road in a large meadow. We pulled into a small camping area and parked the car in the shade (we had Breezy and Ransom with us today). I was busy snapping photos when John pointed at the outhouse in the campground and said that he was going to make a quick stop before we moved on. "Okay," I said as I kept my camera busy. After a minute or so I heard him behind me. "Karen!" he said in a loud whisper. I turned and saw him pointing to the left of the outhouse. I said, "It's to the right," pointing at the outhouse. He pointed to the left again and said, "No!" in a loud whisper. I was wondering why he was whispering and now he was jumping up and down pointing to the left of the outhouse. "He can't see the darn thing," I thought to myself. "Better make an appointment with the eye doctor." Then what he was trying to tell me came to my attention. There was a HUGE bull buffalo wandering through the campground to the LEFT of the outhouse. "Oh shit!" I said as I jetted over to the car where John was standing. I started taking pictures of the buffalo and then looked at John. "I'll wait," he said. "Probably smart," I said. They warn you to stay 100 feet from the buffalo in the park. When I heard them growling and grumbling in a herd it made me think of Jurasic Park. It's kinda creepy but really cool at the same time. So I took a few more photos and then we got in the car and went on our way.

BUG Falls

A little later we happened upon a pretty falls so we pulled over and I got my camera out. We got a good look at it, stretched our legs a bit and then continued on our way to the next stop, which was to find a place to take the dogs for a little walk. John was driving and I was busy looking out the window when something caught my eye on the console of the car. Right by the hand brake there was a bug. It wasn't just a bug though. It was a monster bug with inch long antenna and hairy long legs. I'm not normally weird about bugs (mice and lizards are another story all together) and spiders but this one made me jump. "What the hell is that?!" I yelled and pointed. John looked down and said, "It's a bug." No kidding... I guess I was looking for him to tell me what kind of bug it was. "Just put it outside," he says. Not wanting to look too much like a "girl" about the whole thing I took a deep breath, grabbed a paper towel, folded it in half and reached to pick up the bug so I could put it outside. Well there is a rubber slot that the hand brake sits in. What is under the slot I've never known. I just clean around it when I'm tidying up the Camry. I've always suspected that there under that rubber slot is a lot of dust and dog hair and bits of food and things that have collected over the nine years that I've been driving the car. Anyway, I gently pushed the paper towel over the bug (with goosebumps running up my arms) and when I went to close my fingers around the thing it disappeared into the slot with what ever else lives down there. I picked up the paper towel and looked at it. "Did you get it?" John asks. "Uhhh...no." I said. "Where is it?" he asks. "I think it's under the hand brake in the console." As I said I'm not normally goofy about this kind of thing but I had developed a serious case of the creeps and glanced down at that slot about every 20 seconds. That sent John into a fit of laughter every time. It was several minutes of hilarity before another sight caught my attention. We got out of the car, took the dogs for a walk and decided it was time to head back to Mary for the night. So thirty minutes later we are driving along past Jackson Lake enjoying the beautiful scenery when out of the corner of my eye I see THE BUG crawling down the lapel of my vest. Stop heart. Bug eyes. Gasp for air. Grab the paper towel and mug the bug. John bursts out laughing as I hit the window button, roll down the window and toss the bug out the window, wildly shaking the paper towel to be sure that he is gone before I roll the window up again. I sunk back in the seat to allow my heart to return to a normal speed. John was still laughing. "Why do they like me?" I asked. He just laughed harder. After a few minutes sense of relief washed over me and then the thought struck me...what if when I shook the paper towel out the window he flew off and got sucked back in the window to the back seat? I looked back a Breezy and Ransom. They were both sacked out in the back seat. Ransom is my bug dog. He is wild about bugs and flies and anything that will run or fly that he can chase. He was unfazed by anything that had happened in the last few minutes so I assumed that I was successful in ridding the car of the bug. Time will tell I guess.

That night, after dark we arrived back to Mary. We got some dinner and settled in for the night. Tomorrow we meet Jimmy and Helen at the airport in Jackson and we will begin our adventure as dudes. This ought to be a riot!

Here is the address for the web album that takes us from Indianapolis to Moran Junction in Wyoming: http://picasaweb.google.com/tagfish1/WestToWyoming02?authkey=8iNJ2sKv0Uo#

Next time I'll have a Yellowstone and dude ranch web album!

Peaceful Tetons