The sunset we drove home to after three days in Yellowstone...
Old Faithful
Posing in front of Lake Yellowstone, clearly after not showering for three days
Water flowing over the top of Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
Autumn, Laura, and I at the Lower Falls
The moose we chased for a mile through the woods
Hiking around Beaver Ponds
Autumn & I on our strenuous hike
One of the rainbows we chased on the way to Yellowstone
This weekend was crazy! I know I will forget things as I type, so hopefully I write an inclusive summary of what all happened. Well, my "I'm completely overwhelmed" feelings have been subdued slightly, and I am feeling better. Thursday was a full day of class, and we all ended up at the Kettlehouse after class for some good de-stressing. I popped a tire on my bike on Wednesday, and I definitely felt naked without my bike for a couple days! It's my #1 form of transportation, and it comes to be a long walk to campus and downtown otherwise. Fortunately, I got my tire fixed on Friday morning, so it should be all good for the rest of the semester.
Alright...and, to the weekend! Friday, Laura and Autumn picked me up at my apartment in early afternoon to make the roadtrip to Yellowstone. We were all so excited! We drove the 4 1/2 hours and found ourselves with very overcast skies and rainstorms once we got about an hour away. Needless to say, we were a bit worried about the fact that I didn't bring a tarp to put under the tent (mental note...need to buy one). We literally followed about five different rainbows (beautiful) into the north entrance of the park. Luckily, it stopped raining just as we got into the park. It turns out that the rangers plotted some very nice bighorn sheep close to the entrance, one of which almost jumped onto the hood of the car. It's our firm belief that they put these animals especially close to the entrances, just to suck people in. We made our way to Mammoth Campground and found a site. What an adventure! We pulled into our site, and our tent area was occupied by four elk, who were grazing nicely on the grass around our tent area. We tried to be quiet in the car, while I begged Laura to put her window up. For some reason whenever I am close to deer, elk, or any other large animal, my mind flashes back to a video (maybe Funniest Home Videos or something???) of a guy getting mauled by a very pissed-off deer. Anyways, we nicely told the elk, "Hey...we're supposed to put our tent there. Could you please move?" It took a while to get through to the them, but finally they gave up their stubborness and our campsite. We set up camp and headed to get dinner in Mammoth Village. Later that night, we attempted to play a rousing game of Scrabble in the dark, while all our neighbors sat nicely by their cute, warm campfires, cooking marshmallows. I guess we were completely under the assumption that it was too dry to have campfires! We weren't prepared. So, during our game of Scrabble, a neighbor (who looked like Harry Potter) completely snuck up on us to invite us to their fire. After calming down from my heart skipping a beat and finishing our round of Scrabble, we joined them. Laura also definitely took them up on their offer for S'mores. So, we spent the evening with Harry Potter and his silent friend, who were on a roadtrip from Florida and Nebraska heading to school in California. Fun times. We definitely went to bed early, as we were exhausted!
Saturday morning, we dressed for our hike to Beaver Ponds Trail. Well, since I do not have my beloved Tevas (they are at the manufacturers getting replaced...hopefully), I had to dig out the men's Columbia hiking boots I had. With the wool socks, I definitely had "man legs" for our hike. Nice. Our bodies had definitely not acclimated to the elevation yet, and we were all too proud to admit that we needed a break during the initial part of the hike (all uphill....). Finally, I said, "Wow, I need a break!". We all felt so out of shape! But, we were all thinking the same thing...wondering if we were actually going to make it, or if we would die from lack of oxygen. Anyways, the hike was great....it was a bit hot out on the last part, which was straight across meadow-type land with no shade. We went back to the campsite to nibble on lunch and to all work on our tons of reading for homework. After all almost falling asleep after a few hours, we decided to drive the north loop of the park. Beautiful! We saw a few waterfalls, some bison, a coyote, etc. It would be too much to describe here. The whole north loop took way longer than we were expecting, and so we were absolutely starving!
We decided to leave the park for dinner that night, so we drove to Gardiner, MT, which is right outside the north entrance. It is a cute, little town that sort of represents the Old West. And now, I will begin some of the most random stories you may possibly ever hear. We ate at a little diner and thoroughly enjoyed our food. Meanwhile, our waitress (who was possibly from Russia or Eastern Europe somewhere) brought out a piece of "birthday pie" to the man sitting alone behind us. It turns out that he was celebrating his 40th birthday, and he felt a bit pathetic to be alone (his words), so he invited himself over to our table. Such a nice and interesting guy! He was a first-generation Haitian immigrant who grew up in NYC, but had spent the last how many years in South Dakota delivering babies (he was an OBGYN) on a reservation. He had planned to do a cross-country roadtrip in 1993, but apparently it never worked out, and now, to celebrate his 40th birthday, he decided to give it a try. Anyways, we all had a very nice and interesting conversation, and when the restaurant closed, we got nicely kicked out and said our "good-byes". We never got his name. Random.
Anyways, so the night continues as we were walking back to our car to head to Yellowstone. It was about 9:00 at this point, probably. We (Laura, Autumn, and I) see a sign for "$1.00 Pints of PBR". How could we not pass that up??? We said, "Ah, let's go have just one pint." Okay. So, we decided to play pool, and since there were three of us, and we wanted to get a good game going, we took pity on one guy who was sitting at the bar kind of by himself. So Laura asked him if he wanted to play, and he said sure. As it turns out, this guy was actually a bartender at this same bar, and he happened to know everyone in the place. Hmm...last time we'll take pity on someone and ask him to be our friend! Anyways, so through the process of this all, we met some very nice and interesting people, including Jim - who had dreadlocks in his hair down to his waist, Irvin - who was a very traditional-looking Indian man who carried a very large knife on his belt, and Josh - who seemed to think he could dance, but I'm sure he will eventually figure out that he cannot. We also saw a guy who was obviously addicted to meth that persistantly danced with the casino machines, a 50-some-year-old man who decided to dress like a "gangsta" by rolling up one pant leg, tipping his hat to the side, and showing a little too much plumber-butt, and also a world-champion pool player who definitely did not look like a world-champion pool player. Alright...so the night continues, and we played a lot of pool and talked to people. However, the fun does not stop there.
(DISCLAIMER: These are observations about Montana, of which I do not participate...). So, many of us have noticed since we've moved here that Montana tends to have a lot of people who participate in drug-doing, especially there is a large amount of people who smoke pot. Just something we have noticed. Do not worry - I still carry my D.A.R.E. education from 6th grade around with me in the back of my head. This all makes sense, as this state tends to be a bit of a hippie-haven, and if we all know anything about hippies, we know that they like to party. Anyways, back to the night at hand. While we were playing pool, we got invited to go to the parking lot and "smoke" by two different groups of people, as if we were in junior high school and needed to go smoke cigarettes in the woods. We nicely turned them down, and they proceeded with their evenings. About a half hour later, when we decided to go home, we walked out of Red's Blue Goose Saloon and directly across the street saw two of our new "friends" having conversations with some nice federal rangers/police officers, one who was already handcuffed. Deciding to avoid a situation, we walked around the block and chilled out on somebody's front steps in order to kill time. Keep in mind that Autumn had not had much to drink because she was our DD for the evening. However, she had had something to drink, so we wanted to be safe. We headed back around the block, and Laura decides that it would be a good idea to ask the officer for a "pre-sobriety" test. She explains the situation, and tells him that if he does not give his approval for her to drive, we will camp in our car. The officer complies and kindly gives her a test, telling her that it's alright for her to drive. Meanwhile, only one of the two gentlemen had been arrested, and the other one asked the officer if it was okay if he asked us for a ride home. We respond with a "Sure" before we find out that he lives about 25 miles does a gravel road in the middle of nowhere. Hmm. So, flashing back to some Unsolved Mysteries episodes I saw as a little kid, I try to calm my anxieties. It all turned out okay. We found out that both of these young guys probably lost their jobs, because they both worked for a tourist ranch and since they were caught on federal property, they were being charged with felonies. Anyways, so it was a random night. We turned out safe and sound, and we returned to our campsite at 3:30 AM. So much for that "Well, let's just have one PBR" philosophy.
The random stories do not end, however. We woke up the next morning and packed up our campsite before we driving around the south loop of the park, to the falls and Old Faithful, among others. At our first destination, Norris Geyser Basin, we randomly ran into our friend from the night before who was celebrating his birthday. Crazy! How big is Yellowstone? And we see someone who we had just met?? Wow. Anyways, we exchanged names (Moise), and we all decided to caravan through the park and see the sights together....
blah, blah, blah...so I have been saving this post for about five days now, without the success of finishing it. I think you get the point - Yellowstone was beautiful and random all at the same time, it was a wonderful weekend away. And yes, I am alive. I know after about a week of no posts, you must be wondering what the heck I am doing!
I am now sitting at the Best Western in Whitefish (outside of Glacier) with my dad and Janet, who arrived on Monday. It's been great having them here, besides the fact that I've had class and haven't been able to spend as much time with them as I would like. But, we've been doing a lot of eating and sight-seeing. Glacier is wonderful, besides the rain today! Hopefully, tomorrow it will be clear. I will be posting pictures from Yellowstone soon...I promise...ohhhh the school work that has unashamedly taken over my life! It's wonderful and stressful all at the same time...
Peace and love...have a great weekend!
Alright...and, to the weekend! Friday, Laura and Autumn picked me up at my apartment in early afternoon to make the roadtrip to Yellowstone. We were all so excited! We drove the 4 1/2 hours and found ourselves with very overcast skies and rainstorms once we got about an hour away. Needless to say, we were a bit worried about the fact that I didn't bring a tarp to put under the tent (mental note...need to buy one). We literally followed about five different rainbows (beautiful) into the north entrance of the park. Luckily, it stopped raining just as we got into the park. It turns out that the rangers plotted some very nice bighorn sheep close to the entrance, one of which almost jumped onto the hood of the car. It's our firm belief that they put these animals especially close to the entrances, just to suck people in. We made our way to Mammoth Campground and found a site. What an adventure! We pulled into our site, and our tent area was occupied by four elk, who were grazing nicely on the grass around our tent area. We tried to be quiet in the car, while I begged Laura to put her window up. For some reason whenever I am close to deer, elk, or any other large animal, my mind flashes back to a video (maybe Funniest Home Videos or something???) of a guy getting mauled by a very pissed-off deer. Anyways, we nicely told the elk, "Hey...we're supposed to put our tent there. Could you please move?" It took a while to get through to the them, but finally they gave up their stubborness and our campsite. We set up camp and headed to get dinner in Mammoth Village. Later that night, we attempted to play a rousing game of Scrabble in the dark, while all our neighbors sat nicely by their cute, warm campfires, cooking marshmallows. I guess we were completely under the assumption that it was too dry to have campfires! We weren't prepared. So, during our game of Scrabble, a neighbor (who looked like Harry Potter) completely snuck up on us to invite us to their fire. After calming down from my heart skipping a beat and finishing our round of Scrabble, we joined them. Laura also definitely took them up on their offer for S'mores. So, we spent the evening with Harry Potter and his silent friend, who were on a roadtrip from Florida and Nebraska heading to school in California. Fun times. We definitely went to bed early, as we were exhausted!
Saturday morning, we dressed for our hike to Beaver Ponds Trail. Well, since I do not have my beloved Tevas (they are at the manufacturers getting replaced...hopefully), I had to dig out the men's Columbia hiking boots I had. With the wool socks, I definitely had "man legs" for our hike. Nice. Our bodies had definitely not acclimated to the elevation yet, and we were all too proud to admit that we needed a break during the initial part of the hike (all uphill....). Finally, I said, "Wow, I need a break!". We all felt so out of shape! But, we were all thinking the same thing...wondering if we were actually going to make it, or if we would die from lack of oxygen. Anyways, the hike was great....it was a bit hot out on the last part, which was straight across meadow-type land with no shade. We went back to the campsite to nibble on lunch and to all work on our tons of reading for homework. After all almost falling asleep after a few hours, we decided to drive the north loop of the park. Beautiful! We saw a few waterfalls, some bison, a coyote, etc. It would be too much to describe here. The whole north loop took way longer than we were expecting, and so we were absolutely starving!
We decided to leave the park for dinner that night, so we drove to Gardiner, MT, which is right outside the north entrance. It is a cute, little town that sort of represents the Old West. And now, I will begin some of the most random stories you may possibly ever hear. We ate at a little diner and thoroughly enjoyed our food. Meanwhile, our waitress (who was possibly from Russia or Eastern Europe somewhere) brought out a piece of "birthday pie" to the man sitting alone behind us. It turns out that he was celebrating his 40th birthday, and he felt a bit pathetic to be alone (his words), so he invited himself over to our table. Such a nice and interesting guy! He was a first-generation Haitian immigrant who grew up in NYC, but had spent the last how many years in South Dakota delivering babies (he was an OBGYN) on a reservation. He had planned to do a cross-country roadtrip in 1993, but apparently it never worked out, and now, to celebrate his 40th birthday, he decided to give it a try. Anyways, we all had a very nice and interesting conversation, and when the restaurant closed, we got nicely kicked out and said our "good-byes". We never got his name. Random.
Anyways, so the night continues as we were walking back to our car to head to Yellowstone. It was about 9:00 at this point, probably. We (Laura, Autumn, and I) see a sign for "$1.00 Pints of PBR". How could we not pass that up??? We said, "Ah, let's go have just one pint." Okay. So, we decided to play pool, and since there were three of us, and we wanted to get a good game going, we took pity on one guy who was sitting at the bar kind of by himself. So Laura asked him if he wanted to play, and he said sure. As it turns out, this guy was actually a bartender at this same bar, and he happened to know everyone in the place. Hmm...last time we'll take pity on someone and ask him to be our friend! Anyways, so through the process of this all, we met some very nice and interesting people, including Jim - who had dreadlocks in his hair down to his waist, Irvin - who was a very traditional-looking Indian man who carried a very large knife on his belt, and Josh - who seemed to think he could dance, but I'm sure he will eventually figure out that he cannot. We also saw a guy who was obviously addicted to meth that persistantly danced with the casino machines, a 50-some-year-old man who decided to dress like a "gangsta" by rolling up one pant leg, tipping his hat to the side, and showing a little too much plumber-butt, and also a world-champion pool player who definitely did not look like a world-champion pool player. Alright...so the night continues, and we played a lot of pool and talked to people. However, the fun does not stop there.
(DISCLAIMER: These are observations about Montana, of which I do not participate...). So, many of us have noticed since we've moved here that Montana tends to have a lot of people who participate in drug-doing, especially there is a large amount of people who smoke pot. Just something we have noticed. Do not worry - I still carry my D.A.R.E. education from 6th grade around with me in the back of my head. This all makes sense, as this state tends to be a bit of a hippie-haven, and if we all know anything about hippies, we know that they like to party. Anyways, back to the night at hand. While we were playing pool, we got invited to go to the parking lot and "smoke" by two different groups of people, as if we were in junior high school and needed to go smoke cigarettes in the woods. We nicely turned them down, and they proceeded with their evenings. About a half hour later, when we decided to go home, we walked out of Red's Blue Goose Saloon and directly across the street saw two of our new "friends" having conversations with some nice federal rangers/police officers, one who was already handcuffed. Deciding to avoid a situation, we walked around the block and chilled out on somebody's front steps in order to kill time. Keep in mind that Autumn had not had much to drink because she was our DD for the evening. However, she had had something to drink, so we wanted to be safe. We headed back around the block, and Laura decides that it would be a good idea to ask the officer for a "pre-sobriety" test. She explains the situation, and tells him that if he does not give his approval for her to drive, we will camp in our car. The officer complies and kindly gives her a test, telling her that it's alright for her to drive. Meanwhile, only one of the two gentlemen had been arrested, and the other one asked the officer if it was okay if he asked us for a ride home. We respond with a "Sure" before we find out that he lives about 25 miles does a gravel road in the middle of nowhere. Hmm. So, flashing back to some Unsolved Mysteries episodes I saw as a little kid, I try to calm my anxieties. It all turned out okay. We found out that both of these young guys probably lost their jobs, because they both worked for a tourist ranch and since they were caught on federal property, they were being charged with felonies. Anyways, so it was a random night. We turned out safe and sound, and we returned to our campsite at 3:30 AM. So much for that "Well, let's just have one PBR" philosophy.
The random stories do not end, however. We woke up the next morning and packed up our campsite before we driving around the south loop of the park, to the falls and Old Faithful, among others. At our first destination, Norris Geyser Basin, we randomly ran into our friend from the night before who was celebrating his birthday. Crazy! How big is Yellowstone? And we see someone who we had just met?? Wow. Anyways, we exchanged names (Moise), and we all decided to caravan through the park and see the sights together....
blah, blah, blah...so I have been saving this post for about five days now, without the success of finishing it. I think you get the point - Yellowstone was beautiful and random all at the same time, it was a wonderful weekend away. And yes, I am alive. I know after about a week of no posts, you must be wondering what the heck I am doing!
I am now sitting at the Best Western in Whitefish (outside of Glacier) with my dad and Janet, who arrived on Monday. It's been great having them here, besides the fact that I've had class and haven't been able to spend as much time with them as I would like. But, we've been doing a lot of eating and sight-seeing. Glacier is wonderful, besides the rain today! Hopefully, tomorrow it will be clear. I will be posting pictures from Yellowstone soon...I promise...ohhhh the school work that has unashamedly taken over my life! It's wonderful and stressful all at the same time...
Peace and love...have a great weekend!
1 comment:
Recall that the only 2 people in the history of the world to only have a single $1 pint of PBR were Ghandi and Mother Theresa. No one else can accomplish such a feat.
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