One Out of Twelve Ain't Bad

Sometimes we learn as much by what doesn't go well as we do by what does. That is what I am telling myself as I am reflecting on the day.

I actually thought I was set for a great day. I did laundry last night and finally had my comfy jeans cleaned. I stayed at a great hotel and had a nice breakfast, the car packed fairly easily and I was sure I had things figured out and I would experience Yellowstone and feel like I was a true blue American for having visited one of the most well-known National Parks. And all that happened, but not without a few adventures along the way.

Shame on me for not trusting the Garmin. I have been putting in the towns that are along the non-interstate roads and have had no problems following the voice - turn right in point 2 miles. But for some reason today, I was not accepting the directions that I was given. As I was leaving Idaho Falls, I was convinced I knew better and ended up having to turn around to get on the right road.

The road was Wyoming 20 but you had to get on interstate 15 and then get off on 20 right away. That worked and was good and then I took 47 so I could experience the scenic route and the various 'passes' that you go through to get to Yellowstone. I ended up taking a side road which lead me to the Mesa Falls, which was worth the side step.

I eventually got into West Yellowstone and stopped at the visitor center. The woman that gave me suggestions and ideas on where to stay and how to approach the rest of the states I intended to visit had me really pumped. I was supposed to go into the park, drive to Old Faithful, possibly take a few walks, return to West Yellowstone and then tomorrow go back into the park and head towards Montana.

I did listen to her for the most part. I went to Old Faithful and some of the "lesser" geysers along the route. I did a walk around the geyser trail and saw lots of thermal areas and smelled the sulphur smell that i remembered from my visit to the Hot Sulphur Springs. It was a nice experience, and then I decided that maybe I should just head north and not worry about returning to West Yellowstone.

That was when things started to go downhill. I got to an area where I could see animals in the field, and I grabbed my binoculars and found that they had fallen apart. I have no idea why, but the lens had fallen out, and then the magnifier part was no longer attached. Bottom line, I had binoculars that did not work. They went into the trash bag that I am using and disposing every day.

I continued on the trip into the park and did see some wildlife. I saw a herd of Moose or deer (they seemed to big for deer, but they didn't have antlers so I had no clue), saw some bison on the hilltop and thought I was extremely lucky.

Little did I realize that in a short while I would see bison walking down the road and keeping traffic from moving fast through the park. I am sure that is not their intent - but there are a lot of buffalo in Yellowstone and I visited at a time of the year when they were coming down from the high areas and going to the plains. Very interesting to get so close.

Old Faithful was not going to "blow" for a few more hours so I was disappointed. I walked around the area and saw many thermal areas. Really - there are way more geysers and hot spots than you can imagine. In fact, they pop up in lots of places. I saw them on all the open roads I traveled on. (I say open because there were many area that had gates and bars and were still closed off. If I was a couple of weeks later, I think there would be more opened.)

During the drive, I decided it made no sense to go back south when my ultimate goal was to get to Montana. I took a route that would take me further into the park, I would see a couple of waterfalls and then I would head north and say farewell to Yellowstone. That was the goal, until I drove through a Visitor Center parking lot and a nice young man, Nick Hopkins, was backing out and never checked behind him and did not see me. Since I saw him I honked my horn and then actually laid on it - but he didn't hear anything and continued to back out until he hit me and messed up my front panel. I know it Will get fixed, but it makes me mad anyway.

My first words to this dredlock, hippy looking kid was - did you look behind you and how could you not hear me honking. My second words were that this was an accident and I know he did not deliberately run into me. That said, what do we do next.

Luckily there was a Park Ranger nearby and we had to fill out paper work and that was it....sounds like this happens a lot; in the park anyway, not to me. Most of my dings and dents are one's I do on my own.

I had to fight all of my urges to cry, get mad, decide this was a sign to return home, look for a million things that this could mean. I finally realized that it as a dang car accident. My poor little Alice looks bad, but she can get fixed, so let it go. I will do that, but I will be very embarrassed driving around in a dented car.

Anyway, got through the park and into Montana where I stopped at the first hotel, got a room and crashed.