Dear Friends, Family and Creepy Stalkers,
I haven't written on here in a while. I have a lot to write about, but I forgot about my blogspot.com account. I apologize.
We moved to Yellowstone July 5, 2011 for the season. We left Yellowstone on November 5, 2011 for six months. On May 4th, 2012, we moved back to our same apartment in Old Faithful, Yellowstone, Wyoming and here we sit.
So far in the last month, we have done quite a bit. I've yelled at a giant wanna-be redneck (no offense to people who think I'm offensive to you), we've seen Big Horn Sheep, and more Bears than we saw all of last year. Our friend Corey Rue was lucky enough to come to Yellowstone with his Grandma and Dad for a visit, and we got to roam around the Old Faithful Inn until 3am.
We've seen Old Faithful go off quite a bit already this year, and honestly it's not such a big deal to us anymore. It's still amazing to watch, but unless we're showing someone around, we don't usually go over and wait for it.
I bought a book called "Yellowstone Ghost Stories", which is actually pretty good. It's more than just Ghost Stories, you can actually learn quite a bit about the park! I read a man was unhappy and bitter, so he was charging out the ass for boat tours at Yellowstone Lake back in the early 1900's. People were paying him only because he was the only boat tour, and held the only license. When he saved enough money, he purchased the largest steamboat in his fleet. Yellowstone's head-honcho's back then revoked his license because he was an ass (I'm paraphrasing, of course. Read the book) and right after the man purchased the boat, he drove it (floated it?) to Stevenson Island and set it aflame. The remnants are still somewhat there, also. I'd love to go check it out, but I'm not into renting boats for outrageous prices and for ten minutes. We'll see though, I'd love to get pictures for my hub.
Speaking of hubs, a hub is a column of information that is not like a blog. A blog is for personal feelings, events, etc. and my hub is for traveling, and some of the more "professional" information I come up with. We go out and experience things, and bring people that information maybe to learn from our mistakes, or just to enjoy the tips we have.
My hub's address is http://www.stefa.hubpages.com. If you like it, make your own hub and follow me. It's very easy to use, and there's plenty of things to read. Anything from recipes to how to start a business to how to make money online with your underwear wrapped around your face. Seriously, anybody with fingers (and some without) can write. I take offense to that.
Also, another website to check out is my twitter page, which is @StefaGT. Twitter is awesome, I love it. I hate facebook.
Our travel Twitter page is @GrovesTravels. It sounded better that Mitchell's Travels because Coty's last name is already plural and mine isn't. It's also not just me traveling, he is the driver and I navigate. Sometimes I drive and navigate, and slap the dog around, but that's because I'm a multitasking fool. Anyway, the actual name of our little information stuff is Groves & Co. Travels, because the "Co." is me and Tank. Although, Coty doesn't write anything but he doesn't give me story ideas.. so I guess he can still be included. Haha. Kidding. He also pays for everything, which I prefer since I'm a gold digger.
Kidding. I wish we had some Gold. :)
Here's all our information again:
@GrovesTravels Twitter
@StefaGT Twitter
Groves & Co. Travels Facebook Page
Email
Stefa's Hubpages Link
Enjoy the day.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Monday, November 14, 2011
Buffalo Mosh-Pit
In Mid-October...
Coty and I had driven to Idaho Falls, Idaho from Old Faithful, Yellowstone, Wyoming to get some groceries. It's about a 130 mile drive one way, and takes one hour to even get out of the park, depending on BJ's (Buffalo Jam's), despite the 31 mile trek it is to West Yellowstone, Montana, which is the entrance/exit to Yellowstone. Technically, it's the West Entrance, hence the name of the town. There are many entrances to the park, but this is the closest one to us.
On our way back from Idaho Falls, Idaho, it was dark. It was pretty late by this time as we had explored for a while in Idaho Falls, and went to Walmart for probably 2 hours. We ate dinner there, and headed back after getting enough groceries to last us at least two weeks so we don't have to go on another 6 hour trek just for groceries.
We entered the park at night, which is one of the coolest things ever. It's so dark, zero street lights, and you get to see some animals doing some weird things as you normally wouldn't during the day. Granted, at this hour there was not one single car around for miles, and it was 2:30 AM. We rounded the corner by Midway Geyser Basin where luckily the speed limit is 35 mph, or we probably would have smooshed the Coyote in the road that was just around the bend.
After seeing the Coyote, we slowed to a stop. It was standing about ten feet from an unsuspecting loner Bison, in which case the Coyote looked at us like he was doing something wrong and headed back up the mountain. The Bison continued to munch down about a pound of weeds and grass every few minutes, so we continued on. If you've ever come up on a Bison in the road at night, it's one of the most horrifying things ever. Your headlights reflect off of just it's eyes and horns, which looks like the Devil is standing in front of your car and is just about to steal your soul.
We rounding the next turn which was maybe a mile up the road, and were forced to come to a dead stop again, which happens a lot. There were about ten Bison, shoulder to shoulder, running down the middle of the road. You wouldn't think these 2,000+ lb. creatures would be able to book it, but they can run 30 miles per hour or better, and they can even jump fences. That's a whole other story, though.
As these Bison are running shoulder to shoulder, they're taking up both lanes, so there was no going around them. We had to stop and observe, in which was some of the freakiest events I ever saw Buffalo partake in.
Something had spooked them, I imagine, as we came up on them, they were running away from us. We thought that one little Coyote could not possibly have spooked 200 Bison, which we saw all over the place as we got closer to the ones running in a straight line. The Bison all at one steered themselves to the right and were in a field by Fairy Falls trail. As we snuck closer to them in hopes we could pass them eventually, we had our windows down. Yes, it was cold, but it's no fun not being able to hear what they were doing out there.
We could hear them all around us, but could not see them. We could hear them sneaking up behind us, because they were snorting, breathing heavy and we could hear them walking. All year I did not see or hear of any Buffalo charge a car, but I didn't want to be the first. They were everywhere. All of a sudden, we saw Mom's and Babies running away from where we were just a few minutes prior, and they were running away from something. Up ahead, after dodging Buffalo driving about 1.2 miles per hour, we saw an injured one. She was apparently scalded by the hot water nearby as there are quite a few hot pools in that area. This happens a lot, and the poor girl was limping. Her fur was scorched off her skin, and her skin was bubbled. It was not a pretty sight, but there's nothing my animal-loving self could do about it, so we continued on.
As we approached a pull-out (a place where you can pull off to the side of the road, turn around or just sit and observe), we stopped. There were probably nearing 100 Bison hiding in the trees, and I'm assuming that's where all the other Buffalo were headed was to meet up with the rest of the herd. I'm no animal scientist, but I can tell when something is up, and I wanted to know if they were high-tailing it from a bear, or a pack of wolves.
We turned around because our curiosity was getting the best of us. We sat in the pull-out prior to the one we were at down the road, and turned on our brights. We could see there were about 40 Buffalo in a stampede headed straight for us down the road. Luckily we were off to the side of the road, but just as they darted across the street, they looked spooked and turned around all at once and went right back to the field they were just in. They all gathered into the thin trees, and with our headlights only reaching their eyes and horns (we were at a safe distance), the only thing we could see was all 40 Buffalo bucking.
Every single one of those Buffalo, babies and all, were bucking like they had never bucked before. All you could see were their eyes bobbing and weaving. It was spooky, to say the least. They did this for what seemed like a very long time, and it's like they were trying to keep moving so whatever was after them would fear for getting trampled to death instead of getting their Buffalo Burgers for dinner.
Even though it seemed like a long time, it was probably only 4-5 minutes. It looked like a Buffalo Mosh-Pit. A Mosh-Pit is what happens at concerts, where a whole bunch of people are jumping, and running into each other on purpose, and it's just a large group of chaotic moving about.
It was almost 3 AM by this point, and we were only about 6 miles from home. We kept blinking and rubbing our eyes and asking each other if the other was actually seeing this because we were tired and hallucination was possible at this point. Neither of us were hallucinating. You should have seen our dog, Tank, during all of this chaos. I think he was just as amazed and horrified as we were, and probably just as confused. He just sat in his back seat and watched. After these Buffalo finished their mosh-pit, they all just stopped at once all at the same time. All you could see was 80 eyes staring at us from about 100 yards away. We knew there were triple the amount of Buffalo up the road behind us, and we didn't want to be snuck up on by whatever was after these large creatures, so we drove in the direction our car was facing, which was going back towards Midway-Geyser Basin.
We were trying to find what was after them, and if I could have given them a heads-up, I would have, but we saw nothing. We didn't see any signs of Bears, and we didn't smell anything peculiar. When a Bear is nearby, the air smells like absolute crap. Bears smell awful. If you are in your tent, or whatever, and you smell something just completely horrifyingly bad, your partner probably did not fart, and it's most likely a Bear.
We weren't away from the Buffalo for more than a minute and after we turned right around and went back, every single Buffalo was gone. The Mosh-Pit Buffalo had disappeared, and we couldn't see them in the field at all. We drove up the road a little ways, and it seemed all of them had gathered in the trees. I guess they too believe you're better off in large numbers than by yourself. There's no way a Coyote could have spooked all of them that bad, but Coyote's hunt in a fascinating way. Coyote packs send one Coyote by him or herself out to find prey to take down, the lone Coyote then is the bait, and once it finds food, all the rest of the pack comes out of the trees or where ever they were hiding, and attacks in numbers. I can see how a pack of Coyotes could spook a buffalo or two, but Coyote's aren't dumb enough to go after 200+ Buffalo when there's only 8-10 in a pack.
After being completely freaked out by all these events happening, and Buffalo staring at us, and moshing about and running their big butts off, we arrived at home. Our apartment is a one-level building in an 8-Plex. We are on the far end, closest to the forest, and closest to any animal sightings. Our dog knows to go right to the door at night, just in case, but the moment we opened our doors, a foul smell filled the car, and we immediately shut the doors and drove to see if there was a bear around. If there was, it was gone, luckily, but we smelled it, and sat in the car for a while just in case. Even though we didn't go to bed until about 4 AM (we still had groceries to put away), it was a very memorable night. I tried to find any explanation of the Buffalo's in this kind of activity at night, but there is nothing I have found so far. Animals act a little crazy prior to a storm or earthquake, but there were neither that night or next day.
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| Buffalo, Lamar Valley |
On our way back from Idaho Falls, Idaho, it was dark. It was pretty late by this time as we had explored for a while in Idaho Falls, and went to Walmart for probably 2 hours. We ate dinner there, and headed back after getting enough groceries to last us at least two weeks so we don't have to go on another 6 hour trek just for groceries.
We entered the park at night, which is one of the coolest things ever. It's so dark, zero street lights, and you get to see some animals doing some weird things as you normally wouldn't during the day. Granted, at this hour there was not one single car around for miles, and it was 2:30 AM. We rounded the corner by Midway Geyser Basin where luckily the speed limit is 35 mph, or we probably would have smooshed the Coyote in the road that was just around the bend.
After seeing the Coyote, we slowed to a stop. It was standing about ten feet from an unsuspecting loner Bison, in which case the Coyote looked at us like he was doing something wrong and headed back up the mountain. The Bison continued to munch down about a pound of weeds and grass every few minutes, so we continued on. If you've ever come up on a Bison in the road at night, it's one of the most horrifying things ever. Your headlights reflect off of just it's eyes and horns, which looks like the Devil is standing in front of your car and is just about to steal your soul.
We rounding the next turn which was maybe a mile up the road, and were forced to come to a dead stop again, which happens a lot. There were about ten Bison, shoulder to shoulder, running down the middle of the road. You wouldn't think these 2,000+ lb. creatures would be able to book it, but they can run 30 miles per hour or better, and they can even jump fences. That's a whole other story, though.
As these Bison are running shoulder to shoulder, they're taking up both lanes, so there was no going around them. We had to stop and observe, in which was some of the freakiest events I ever saw Buffalo partake in.
Something had spooked them, I imagine, as we came up on them, they were running away from us. We thought that one little Coyote could not possibly have spooked 200 Bison, which we saw all over the place as we got closer to the ones running in a straight line. The Bison all at one steered themselves to the right and were in a field by Fairy Falls trail. As we snuck closer to them in hopes we could pass them eventually, we had our windows down. Yes, it was cold, but it's no fun not being able to hear what they were doing out there.
We could hear them all around us, but could not see them. We could hear them sneaking up behind us, because they were snorting, breathing heavy and we could hear them walking. All year I did not see or hear of any Buffalo charge a car, but I didn't want to be the first. They were everywhere. All of a sudden, we saw Mom's and Babies running away from where we were just a few minutes prior, and they were running away from something. Up ahead, after dodging Buffalo driving about 1.2 miles per hour, we saw an injured one. She was apparently scalded by the hot water nearby as there are quite a few hot pools in that area. This happens a lot, and the poor girl was limping. Her fur was scorched off her skin, and her skin was bubbled. It was not a pretty sight, but there's nothing my animal-loving self could do about it, so we continued on.
As we approached a pull-out (a place where you can pull off to the side of the road, turn around or just sit and observe), we stopped. There were probably nearing 100 Bison hiding in the trees, and I'm assuming that's where all the other Buffalo were headed was to meet up with the rest of the herd. I'm no animal scientist, but I can tell when something is up, and I wanted to know if they were high-tailing it from a bear, or a pack of wolves.
We turned around because our curiosity was getting the best of us. We sat in the pull-out prior to the one we were at down the road, and turned on our brights. We could see there were about 40 Buffalo in a stampede headed straight for us down the road. Luckily we were off to the side of the road, but just as they darted across the street, they looked spooked and turned around all at once and went right back to the field they were just in. They all gathered into the thin trees, and with our headlights only reaching their eyes and horns (we were at a safe distance), the only thing we could see was all 40 Buffalo bucking.
Every single one of those Buffalo, babies and all, were bucking like they had never bucked before. All you could see were their eyes bobbing and weaving. It was spooky, to say the least. They did this for what seemed like a very long time, and it's like they were trying to keep moving so whatever was after them would fear for getting trampled to death instead of getting their Buffalo Burgers for dinner.
Even though it seemed like a long time, it was probably only 4-5 minutes. It looked like a Buffalo Mosh-Pit. A Mosh-Pit is what happens at concerts, where a whole bunch of people are jumping, and running into each other on purpose, and it's just a large group of chaotic moving about.
It was almost 3 AM by this point, and we were only about 6 miles from home. We kept blinking and rubbing our eyes and asking each other if the other was actually seeing this because we were tired and hallucination was possible at this point. Neither of us were hallucinating. You should have seen our dog, Tank, during all of this chaos. I think he was just as amazed and horrified as we were, and probably just as confused. He just sat in his back seat and watched. After these Buffalo finished their mosh-pit, they all just stopped at once all at the same time. All you could see was 80 eyes staring at us from about 100 yards away. We knew there were triple the amount of Buffalo up the road behind us, and we didn't want to be snuck up on by whatever was after these large creatures, so we drove in the direction our car was facing, which was going back towards Midway-Geyser Basin.
We were trying to find what was after them, and if I could have given them a heads-up, I would have, but we saw nothing. We didn't see any signs of Bears, and we didn't smell anything peculiar. When a Bear is nearby, the air smells like absolute crap. Bears smell awful. If you are in your tent, or whatever, and you smell something just completely horrifyingly bad, your partner probably did not fart, and it's most likely a Bear.
We weren't away from the Buffalo for more than a minute and after we turned right around and went back, every single Buffalo was gone. The Mosh-Pit Buffalo had disappeared, and we couldn't see them in the field at all. We drove up the road a little ways, and it seemed all of them had gathered in the trees. I guess they too believe you're better off in large numbers than by yourself. There's no way a Coyote could have spooked all of them that bad, but Coyote's hunt in a fascinating way. Coyote packs send one Coyote by him or herself out to find prey to take down, the lone Coyote then is the bait, and once it finds food, all the rest of the pack comes out of the trees or where ever they were hiding, and attacks in numbers. I can see how a pack of Coyotes could spook a buffalo or two, but Coyote's aren't dumb enough to go after 200+ Buffalo when there's only 8-10 in a pack.
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| Bison - Lamar Valley |
Thursday, November 10, 2011
The Most Annoying Species in Yellowstone
During the Summer in Old Faithful, it never really got too hot. Being from Utah, we were used to 100 degrees or more, so Old Faithful's 80 degrees was nice. What bothered me more than anything in Old Faithful, besides certain foreign tourists who didn't understand that it is rude to butt in line, was the Mosquito's. In Utah, our Mosquito's are mainly small. In Old Faithful, Yellowstone, they were bigger, and actually hurt to be bitten.
Our neighbor was standing outside talking to us, and he had about twenty on his back and we had to tell him. It was disgusting. We went through SO many citronella candles, 100% Deet bugspray, and regular bug spray. We even had to buy dog bug spray because our dog was being eaten alive. We bought a big fly swatter, and our walls looked like a slaughter house for about 2 months. Every time the front door would open, at least ten Mosquito's would hijack a ride on our clothing, or wait by the door for it to open. They were everywhere. I was sure I was going to catch West Nile, or even Malaria. Ha!
We ended up having to take our dog to the vet back in Utah because his Mosquito bites became infected on his stomach, then of course he licked them and made them worse. The bug spray for dogs that we purchased is called "Flys Off" (Not Flies). It worked GREAT. For anybody who is going to a bug infested place and want to protect their dog, that's the stuff to get. Our dog has weird allergies to things, and seems to go to the vet about once every 3 months for some random thing we have never heard of a dog getting. He's allergic to Corn, Mosquitos, Biting Flies, etc. But, that is a whole different blog post about him. He's mine and Coty's travel buddy, so we seem to run into some weird issues with him when we go places we don't usually find ourselves.
Needless to say, we had so many Mosquito bites on us, it was awful. Coty is allergic to Mosquito bites, so his would turn into scabs and he looked like he had some rare form of Leprosy.
If you've ever been to the middle of no where, and tried to sleep, it's a little rough. It's ridiculously quiet, although for those few months during the Summer, we could hear the Mosquito's at night when we slept. If one got inside, it could be heard in the Kitchen from the Bedroom down the hallway. Try to sleep with buzzing all night long. I tried to find it to kill it, but ended up using ear plugs instead. Just my luck.
Our neighbor was standing outside talking to us, and he had about twenty on his back and we had to tell him. It was disgusting. We went through SO many citronella candles, 100% Deet bugspray, and regular bug spray. We even had to buy dog bug spray because our dog was being eaten alive. We bought a big fly swatter, and our walls looked like a slaughter house for about 2 months. Every time the front door would open, at least ten Mosquito's would hijack a ride on our clothing, or wait by the door for it to open. They were everywhere. I was sure I was going to catch West Nile, or even Malaria. Ha!
Needless to say, we had so many Mosquito bites on us, it was awful. Coty is allergic to Mosquito bites, so his would turn into scabs and he looked like he had some rare form of Leprosy.
If you've ever been to the middle of no where, and tried to sleep, it's a little rough. It's ridiculously quiet, although for those few months during the Summer, we could hear the Mosquito's at night when we slept. If one got inside, it could be heard in the Kitchen from the Bedroom down the hallway. Try to sleep with buzzing all night long. I tried to find it to kill it, but ended up using ear plugs instead. Just my luck.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
The Prairie Dog Incident
As we opened the hood, we looked down in to the bumper of my car and saw nothing. I was trying to think where something could hide in my bumper if it were small. I have an air horn that my Dad and I installed a few years ago that I've replaced probably 3 times since, and there's a decent pocket down in there. As I looked at a different angle, something was staring back at me and did it's squeaking noise, which also happened to sound like a loose drive belt on a vehicle, except the car was off.
It was a Prairie Dog living in my bumper, and it was pissed off. It wouldn't come out, not with Tank freaking it out or us poking at it. Finally we found a metal rod type thing that was about two feet long and skinny, so Coty shoved it down in there and whacked it on the head. He didn't hit it hard, just enough for it to get the hell out of my bumper. It jumped out and ran out the back of my car in which case our neighbor, Dan, was sitting outside drinking beer. That P-Dog (or P-Dog-like animal) ran straight for Dan and got within a foot of him, in which case Dan began to flail (yes, I mean FLAIL) his arms and legs like a crazy person, never losing a drop of beer. That P-Dog was gunning for him, and at the last second it went around him and under his trailer, never to be seen again.
Luckily it didn't eat through any wires, or make a nest, but that P-Dog drove ALL over the Grand Loop with us, and lived in my car for a week. Coty thinks he picked him up at his work up the road because he saw one of those little creatures hanging out by my car.
Needless to say for about a month after that incident, Tank checked every bumper on every car we came across. He still looks under my car now and then, and has ever since become Squirrel crazy.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Yellowstone in July
Once we arrived in Yellowstone, we met a man named Roy. Roy works for NPS (National Park Service, a branch of Dept. of the Interior), and he is in charge of Payroll, and other things in the ESB (Emergency Services Building) which Coty also works out of doing Maintenance around Old Faithful, mainly in the Visitors Center and other bathrooms around including the Ranger Station. Roy showed us our apartment that we would be living in until November. It is in an 8-Plex building, which is all one level and is nearly brand new at the back end of the Government living area. Although there isn't much of a living room in our apartment, it has a great porch, and nice big bathroom.
We moved all our things in, and went to see Old Faithful go off. In July, the weather was decent here. It was sunny, and not too hot. I think in July it was about 80 degrees here, but once the sun went down it was about 40 degrees. It was dark when we went to see Old Faithful erupt, and was pretty cold since we had just left Utah which was in the high 90s.
In July, we drove the whole Grand Loop road, and saw Mammoth, Canyon, Fishing Bridge, Old Faithful and Tower/Roosevelt. We found some pretty sweet places that are just off the road a bit, most things most people would never know were there unless they got curious and had nothing better to do, like us. We saw the petrified Redwood tree, which is a quarter mile off the road after Tower/Roosevelt heading East, I believe.
I was on a quest to find a Wolf in July, but without a large scope it was impossible. Luckily I found a man that had a scope that was capable of viewing up to 16 miles. I saw a Wolf eating a Buffalo carcass. It was amazing. Coty's schedule is 4 days of work, 3 days off, so we had a lot of time to drive and view anything and everything.
July was mostly spent getting our bearings of the park, unpacking, and exploring. We also found the exploring never ends here, and it's great.
We moved all our things in, and went to see Old Faithful go off. In July, the weather was decent here. It was sunny, and not too hot. I think in July it was about 80 degrees here, but once the sun went down it was about 40 degrees. It was dark when we went to see Old Faithful erupt, and was pretty cold since we had just left Utah which was in the high 90s.
In July, we drove the whole Grand Loop road, and saw Mammoth, Canyon, Fishing Bridge, Old Faithful and Tower/Roosevelt. We found some pretty sweet places that are just off the road a bit, most things most people would never know were there unless they got curious and had nothing better to do, like us. We saw the petrified Redwood tree, which is a quarter mile off the road after Tower/Roosevelt heading East, I believe.
I was on a quest to find a Wolf in July, but without a large scope it was impossible. Luckily I found a man that had a scope that was capable of viewing up to 16 miles. I saw a Wolf eating a Buffalo carcass. It was amazing. Coty's schedule is 4 days of work, 3 days off, so we had a lot of time to drive and view anything and everything.
July was mostly spent getting our bearings of the park, unpacking, and exploring. We also found the exploring never ends here, and it's great.
The Beginning of our Yellowstone Adventure
For those of you who do not know me, my name is Stef. On July 5th, 2011, I moved to Yellowstone in the Old Faithful District from Layton, Utah for a job through National Park Service that my boyfriend/fiance, Coty, had received.
We had never lived out of Utah without our families so this was a new experience for both of us. We were very excited to get to move away from Utah for awhile, and happy to travel. I guess you could say that we caught the travel bug. We have both gone many places we never heard of, or thought we would ever see.
On July 5th, we left Utah and headed North to Old Faithful. We took my father's Suburban because both mine and Coty's cars are far too small to even fit out television in. It is a 5 hr. 49 min. drive from Layton to Old Faithful, but it took us a little longer since we kept stopping along the way. It had been months or even years since either of us was out of Utah, and we were just happy to be in Idaho for a moment.
We finally crossed in to Montana, and stopped at a "pull out". A woman had her 4 children whom all were under the age of 5, and was having car (er, van) trouble. We didn't initially stop to help her (we saw a cool sign that said "Caldera Rim Lookout") but we ended up helping her. Luckily Coty knows a thing or two about anything and everything, so he informed her of what she needed to do (I was reading the sign, not listening) and she was on her way to get whatever it was Coty told her to get to fix whatever issue she was having. She thanked us because she had about ten jillion kids (It was 4, I know), and had no Air Conditioning to add to her problem.
We finally reached West Yellowstone, Montana. The town is very quaint, and all the people there are nice (unless you drop a wooden duck on a glass table that says "DO NOT TOUCH, COTY"). He's the adult version of Chunk from "The Goonies" (if you haven't seen that movie, what's wrong with you?) but, don't tell him I said that. Actually, you can, I don't really care.
After taking our dog, Tank, to pee about 40 times in West Yellowstone, MT, we went to the gate of Yellowstone, and had to explain how Coty works there now and we need in. Luckily we actually remembered where his paperwork was that stated he works for NPS (National Park Service) now. It's a 31 mile trek from West Yellowstone, Montana to Old Faithful, Wyoming. Along the way there is a few rivers, streams, trails and only about ten trillion Lodgepole Pine trees.
I hadn't been to Yellowstone since I was about 7 years old and had shoes that lit up when I walked. I miss those shoes, do they still make those? Somebody let me know, because those were awesome. Maybe I'll google it later.. Coty had never been to Yellowstone so the day we moved here was the first day he had ever been here, and neither of us knew what to expect. The next day was Coty's first day of work, which also happened to be the first bear mauling in about thirty years in the park. Just our luck.
We had never lived out of Utah without our families so this was a new experience for both of us. We were very excited to get to move away from Utah for awhile, and happy to travel. I guess you could say that we caught the travel bug. We have both gone many places we never heard of, or thought we would ever see.
On July 5th, we left Utah and headed North to Old Faithful. We took my father's Suburban because both mine and Coty's cars are far too small to even fit out television in. It is a 5 hr. 49 min. drive from Layton to Old Faithful, but it took us a little longer since we kept stopping along the way. It had been months or even years since either of us was out of Utah, and we were just happy to be in Idaho for a moment.
We finally crossed in to Montana, and stopped at a "pull out". A woman had her 4 children whom all were under the age of 5, and was having car (er, van) trouble. We didn't initially stop to help her (we saw a cool sign that said "Caldera Rim Lookout") but we ended up helping her. Luckily Coty knows a thing or two about anything and everything, so he informed her of what she needed to do (I was reading the sign, not listening) and she was on her way to get whatever it was Coty told her to get to fix whatever issue she was having. She thanked us because she had about ten jillion kids (It was 4, I know), and had no Air Conditioning to add to her problem.
We finally reached West Yellowstone, Montana. The town is very quaint, and all the people there are nice (unless you drop a wooden duck on a glass table that says "DO NOT TOUCH, COTY"). He's the adult version of Chunk from "The Goonies" (if you haven't seen that movie, what's wrong with you?) but, don't tell him I said that. Actually, you can, I don't really care.
After taking our dog, Tank, to pee about 40 times in West Yellowstone, MT, we went to the gate of Yellowstone, and had to explain how Coty works there now and we need in. Luckily we actually remembered where his paperwork was that stated he works for NPS (National Park Service) now. It's a 31 mile trek from West Yellowstone, Montana to Old Faithful, Wyoming. Along the way there is a few rivers, streams, trails and only about ten trillion Lodgepole Pine trees.
I hadn't been to Yellowstone since I was about 7 years old and had shoes that lit up when I walked. I miss those shoes, do they still make those? Somebody let me know, because those were awesome. Maybe I'll google it later.. Coty had never been to Yellowstone so the day we moved here was the first day he had ever been here, and neither of us knew what to expect. The next day was Coty's first day of work, which also happened to be the first bear mauling in about thirty years in the park. Just our luck.
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