We're in West Yellowstone, just outside of Yellowstone Park. This is officially the Rocky Mountains. I've been here before, 43 years ago when my grandmother and uncle loaded my sister and my five cousins into 2 cars pulling trailers and headed for Disneyland from Calgary. We were gone for weeks with no real set itinerary, just a list of places we wanted to go, kind of like this trip. We went to Yellowstone, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Crater Lake, Good Grief Idaho ("Population 2 Dogs and an Old Grouch," I looked around for it on our way through this time but I guess the Grouch died), and we had the time of our young lives.
Yellowstone is pretty much as I remembered it, Geysers, Bison, Elk, Wolves, and a large bird I'm positive was an Ostrich but the guy on the front desk at the Days Inn isn't so sure. I don't remember there being roving packs of Japanese tourists though. They're everywhere! Bus loads of them! Taking pictures of everything! Including us! We were leaving one of the parking lots when I spotted a group of them tracking us with their still and video cameras. Haven't they ever seen two Michelin Men on motorcycles rolling past a snowbank before?
The multiple layers we're wearing to ward off the cold of the elevation we're at (6,667 ft at the dry Adiabatic Lapse rate of 3 degrees centigrade per thousand feet of elevation makes this place 20 degrees colder than at sea level) presents some unique challenges. It can take as long as several minutes to go get geared back up when we stop, and when the reason for leaving is a Bison that's seems to be as curious about us as we are about him it can become a real problem. And imagine going to the bathroom while you're wearing more layers than an onion? By the time we get checked into our room I can't wait to shed it all for jeans and a T shirt. Tonight when we got to the room I couldn't choose between getting rid of my long underwear and ballistic pants with insulated liner, or having a beer. So I tried to do both. I pushed the pants down to my knees, opened my beer and inserted a slice of lime, started trying to extricate one leg from the pants, which is when I realized the beer (which had been rattling around on the back of my bike all day) had started to foam all over the dresser. I dove over to it, wrapped my lips around the top, and with beer foam shooting out from around my lips and out of my nose tried to hop to the bathroom sink as Ray shouted "Where's my camera?!" All I wanted to do was get rid of my pants, it shouldn't have been complicated.
Every night when we go for dinner we seem to wind up in a place that has a selection of locally made craft beers, and every night Ray goes through the list, interrogating the waitress in detail about the selection, and then he makes his choice. Tonight it was easy, the first one on the list was "Moose Drool". He couldn't pass up a name like that. He claimed to enjoy it. I went with Corona Light, not very adventurous but at least you don't have to ask for a fork with it.
The town is rather eclectic, there's a place a couple of doors away between 2 liquor stores and across the street from a third, called "Gun Fun". "Shoot a Machine Gun!" I'm thinking we'll get a couple more drinks in us before we go give it a shot. Give it a shot! Get it? While we were at dinner somebody at the next table stood and started singing songs from Les Miserables. Around the corner there's the "Ho-Hum Hotel". According to the sign out front they include TV, Air Conditioning, and Free Heat. And yet more Japanese tourists scurrying about taking pictures of it all.
I couldn't resist the temptation and bought a bottle of EVERCLEAR, 190 proof pure grain alcohol. Twenty bucks. I think it's illegal to posses in Canada, but that shouldn't be a problem, I'll get Ray to take it across the border for me. I'm sure it'll be a hit at the Drop Zone.
Tomorrow we head back through the park, departing out the northeast entrance towards Cody after making our side trip as far as we can up the Bear Tooth Pass. I'm sure it won't be as bad as the pics that Jan sent, but then again, judging by the size of the snowbanks at Old Faithful.....
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