special mtgs

Cheyenne - Nov 29

Pine Bluffs - Dec 2

Torrington - Dec 6

Lusk - Dec 9

Gillette - Dec 13

Buffalo - Dec 16

Sheridan - Dec 20

Then I go out to Oregon - Jan 1 - 17.

BEAR

(so sorry, Jen!)

Well.  

Where to start?  At the (almost) end, I think.  

Monday, a few mondays ago, Nichole and I set out to Dillon on our way to Yellowstone on our way to Billings on my way to *drumroll* Wyoming!

We drove south, through Centennial valley (where are supposed to live many moose, but they are of the mythical variety, as we saw nary a one.)  But it is a beautiful drive none-the-less, and Nichole and I saw several houses we would be quite happy to live in.  We finally decided on one in particular, and happily divvied it up between ourselves as we drove past.

Then we got stuck behind a cattle drive.  This has happened to me once or twice before - cows walk exceedingly slowly, if you weren't aware of it.  We gave up at last, shut the car off, and sat in the road waiting for them to get far enough ahead that it was worthwhile driving after.  Good thing we were on a not-very-traveled gravel road!  No one came along to honk at us for hogging the road until the cows turned off and we were gone. 

Yellowstone was gorgeous.  We went in at the west entrance, and down to Grant Village.  Along the Madison River (I think that's the right one?) we saw quite a few elk, but only one bull.  He was quite the patriarch though - I think he had 6 points on each side.  We stopped to see Old Faithful, and found we were only about 20-30 min ahead of when it was scheduled to erupt, so decided to stay and watch it.  (This decision had Consequences, I will tell you, but such is life.)

Then on to our campground.  Consequence #1 was that we didn't get there until it was dark.  We were informed at the gate that there was a grizzly who had made this area part of his or her territory, and to be extra cautious about anything smelly in tents.  We promptly decided to follow the rules to the hilt, and didn't leave anything in the tent at all except our two selves, our sleeping bags and our air mattresses.  We didn't even eat in it, for fear of stray grizzly-attracting crumbs.  

Consequence #2, arising from Consequence #1, was that we decided to turn our car lights onto our campsite, and set the tent up in their light.  After about 20 minutes spent putting together poles and threading them through nylon tunnels, we retired to the car to plot our next move, noticed the lights looked dim, and discovered Consequence #3.  Our battery was not in the flush of its strength, and had gone dead. Consequence #4 has been alluded to above.  We set up the tent by flashlight.  Thankfully, it wasn't complicated.  Consequence #5 was that we didn't get to have a campfire, having neither matches nor car to go and get firewood from the ranger station.  Consequence #6 was that we went to bed early.  This one might be a good one... it would have been, surely, if I'd gotten any sleep!  

I can't say that getting no sleep was a consequence of having stopped to wait for Old Faithful.  Nor was it a consequence of learning there were grizzlies prowling our campground.  I had successfully convinced myself there was nothing to fear from a bear - everyone around us had a campfire, and any grizzly who wanted to come wandering past would have to dodge a maze of smoke and fire with nothing tasty-smelling at the end of it all.  However... the elk kept me awake.  They started bugling at about 11 pm, kept it up until about 12:30, stopped, then started up again around 2 am.  It was gorgeous.  Really it was.  It sounded like there was one about 200 yrds to the north of us, and one 200 yrds to the south of us, and they were calling back and forth to each other.  But it would have been a lot more gorgeous if I hadn't wanted just to Go To Sleep.  

Consequence #... 7!  We got quite a nice amt of exercise bright and shivery early Tuesday morning!  No one nearby us had jumper cables so we got to walk out to the service station.  It was at /least/ 700 miles, I'm sure.  (Ok, ok, only probably 1.5.  I think.  Not sure.)  The rest of the day went much better.  We went to see the mud pots, stopped at several of the prismatic springs, and zipped on out the east entrance towards Cody - and saw a grizzly bear!  Right along side the road.  I got a picture of him from about 20 ft away.  That was very exciting.

The rest of the trip is dull by comparison.  Got to Billings, headed on to Buffalo, ate brownies, arrived in Torrington, and now am awaiting Laurel's arrival.