Travel Blog

I'm back in Wyoming, and have been for a week now. I would have posted sooner, but I've just had too hard a time adjusting to work again. I'm a slave to physics, I guess. Thanks to all for the support you have given me since my dad died. It was a sad event, but a story that one of my dad's friends told me when I was home puts it in perspective (my dad's perspective, in any case). My dad was in and out of the hospital since I saw him last in April. On one of these stays, a high-school chum of his was also in the hospital. His wife saw that my dad was there too, and popped into his room to say hi. She said, "Clem, what are you doing here?" My dad replied, "Trying to die, goddammit, and these people won't let me." I'm not being sarcastic when I say that those are my words of comfort.

As for the kayaking incident. Phil and I went kayaking the day before I was to fly home to Pennsylvania. We went to my favorite part of the park: Oxbow Bend. We haven't kayaked together too much, and we're still getting used to each other's paddling styles. We were having a good time, and we were all over that lake. It was a hot day, and after a couple of hours, I was getting a bit hot and a bit cranky. So there was one time when Phil and I just weren't communicating to each other, and I paddled one way, and he paddled another, we tipped, and I fell out. And I had the camera on me. (Don't worry Glen, it was a cheapo camera.) Phil stayed nice and dry in the kayak, and I'm still not sure how that happened. He's lucky I didn't tip him to even the score.

But here's a picture of Oxbow before I fell in:

When I was in PA, Phil's moms came for a visit to keep him company. Since I'm self-absorbed, I didn't ask them what they did without me, but I found these pictures on the camera.

The moms decided to hang out after I came back, and we all took a trip up to Yellowstone yesterday. I know over the years I have taken many, many pictures of the place, but tough. Here are some more. We had a pretty lucky day in the Upper Geyser Basin. We saw Old Faithful erupt, of course:

Then we were walking towards Morning Glory and got to see Grand Geyser erupt. (I don't have a picture though because we didn't grasp the significance when it was going off. That geyser doesn't go off regularly, so we were really lucky to see it. I mean, we spent 7 months in Yellowstone five years ago and didn't see Grand go off.) And then we got to watch Daisy Geyser erupt.

And then we saw Morning Glory Pool, always a crowd pleaser:

Just a random Yellowstone pic:

We went and visited our friends, Bill and Dee, at the Visitor Center, and then it was time to find some bubbling mud. There are a few places to see such sights, but one was way too crowded (I just cannot recommend coming to Yellowstone in August), so we moved on to the next - Artist Paint Pots. I thought since this last winter dumped soooooo much snow on the area that the mud would just be going nuts, but not so much. We saw some dried up mud holes for the longest time before we got to the goods.

My picture is not going to do it justice, so just believe me when I say that you could stand and watch this thing for hours.

By the time we left there, we only had time to get some food and head back to the Tetons to take care of the dogs, but we did see the mountains at sunset, which is just breathtaking.

And when we were getting closer to our campground, we got to see the colors that a nearby fire is creating.

And that about sums things up for me for the past few weeks. I'm currently standing in a hot laundromat while my hubby is off having a massage. If Phil ever badmouths me I think we should remind him of that, don't you think?