hank_tassie

We had an absolute blast at Yellowstone.  I had been twice before - but both times were almost identical, the visit was for less than a day, and I did the same stuff both times.  Tassie had been once when she was much younger, and the reportedly cried the whole time because "It smelled so bad".  Cute - she still didn't like the smell of sulfer coming from all the geysers and springs....  Anyway, it's great to be in the park for a few days to explore.

So, the funny part of the trip (that got less and less funny the longer we stayed) was the constant barage of stupidity from so many people.  It's amazing.  The first time I visited in 1999 was w/ some college friends.  We were talking to each other and a lady walked up and asked "So, are you guys from Australia?".  We replied "No, we're from Mississippi".  She just looked confused and walked away.  I'm sure we looked confused too....
The last time I was there was in 2003, where we heard one of the greatest spoiled-idiot-teenage-kid comments of all time.  While looking at a bright blue boiling spring, some kid said "Great, boiling blue water, we can do the same thing in the kitchen with a stove and food coloring."
This time didn't disappoint either.  So - for an intro - Yellowstone sits on a supervolcano that will eventually erupt and destroy civilization as we know it.  That's why it has so many springs/geysers/cool-stuff.  When you walk around the "thermal areas", there are wooden walkways that you must stay on, and signs that say "STAY ON THE PATH - over a dozen people have been scalded to death by boiling water because they got off the path".  It's printed in like 8 different languages.  Read that again - 8 different languages - so nobody has an excuse, with the possible exception of some African tribal dilects.
So, the first morning, we saw a group of about 8-10 Asians walking off the path.  And not just "sort of" off the path, and not just some of them - the whole family had circled around a hot spring for a nice picture.  We decided to take one too!  Notice the lady in the red shirt - bending over to touch the water.  The greatest part, is there was a sign directly in front of them w/ the warnings mentioned above :


As much as I wanted to see one of them fall in, or maybe even see the ground give out beneath them, Tassie thought it as best to inform them to "Stay on the path".  So, we did - Tassie said it somewhat nicely, while I used my old "customer service" tone (which is why I'm not in customer service anymore).  Anyway, we also told the ranger about them.  The ranger nodded, saying "Thanks, I've already scolded them, and you are the third person to report them."  So, that's good - at least some people are looking out for the park.  
The ranger also told us an awesome story - where she walked up to a kid who was throwing rocks into a geyser, and told the kid to "STOP".  The kid's dad was standing next to him, and told the ranger, "That's okay, he can do it, I gave him permission".  Incidentally, there are geysers in the park that have stopped erupting because of idiots letting their idiot kids throw rocks in the geysers.  So, hopefully the dad is in jail now, or at least maybe stopped procreating?  
There were also lots of sightings of entire families walking up to Elk or Buffalo for a picture right in front of "Do not approach wildlife" signs.
Anyway, that sums up the only problem w/ the park - mother nature giveth, and the people taketh away.

ANYWAY... on with some goodness!  We were there for 2.5 days, and as is the case w/ many other parks, we got to see a lot, but could spend a month there and not see everything.  Here are some nifty pics we took over the trip :
Tassie at Steamboat geyser :


Hank at Norris Geyser basin - I thought this was cool because it looks like a war-zone :


Tassie at Old Faithful - because you gotta have a picture of that!


Hank at Churning Caldron - whose temperatures are around 170-degrees - notice Tassie got a photo while the water was shooting up - very cool!


Tassie at the "Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone" - notice the yellow walls


Hank at Lower Yellowstone Falls :


And finally - a picture of Grand Prizmatic, the largest spring, and incredibly colorful :



We also got some cool wildlife pics, this was my favorite - do note that we were in the car, utilizing our camera's limited "zoom" - we did not approach wildlife like the people I made fun of earlier...



We had originally planned to do some camping at the Grand Tetons, but alas, time is running out!  So, we just drove through them w/ hopes to return another year.  We stopped at Jackson, Wyoming, for lunch - very nice resort town.  

Anyway, here's where I realize that I'm tired of driving....  All throughout Yellowstone, people will come to a complete stop to get pictures of animals (as did we).  There are lots of places w/ parking on the side of the road for this - but often people will just stop in the middle of the road - sometimes even park and get out of the car, sometimes causing long lines of traffic jams.  We were in one that was about 1/2 mile long one time.  But, usually it's actually for something exciting, so you don't mind too much.
So, when we got out of Yellowstone, I think "GREAT!  We're away from all the madness of all these drivers, and we can just drive to Utah and relax - we'll be there soon!"  That all turned out to be wrong.  Apparently when people leave the parks, they actually have to drive home too, and the 180-mile trip from Jackson, WY, to Logan, UT, took us a whopping 5 hours.  That's just under 40m.p.h. for you non-math types.  That's SLOW for anyone younger than 85.
The worst slow driver contributors seem to be :
1. Utah drivers.  The funny thing here is the Utah license plate has "Utah!" on it - with the exclamation point.  I thought they should change it to "Slow!!!"

2. Women driving RVs.  I'm not being sexist here - I'm just stating the truth.  Everytime we'd pass a horribly slow RV (and I should add, an RV that doesn't use the turnouts, despite passing dozens of signs saying "slow traffic use turnouts" which are designed for people from Texas to pass...).  Anyway, every time we'd pass a really slow one, Tassie would say "Why?  Why?  WHy does it have to be a woman?  She's making us look bad!"

3. "Cruse America" RVs.  Cruise America is apparently an RV-rental company.  I'd never heard of them before this trip, but they rent RVs to people wanting to make a trip (like ours) but don't want to drive their own car.  I don't know exactly what their screening process, but I suspect it's something like this:
Do you have one of the following :
An arm
A leg
A face
If so, you qualify to rent a Cruse America RV!  And please don't use the turnouts.


Anyway, we're heading home soon - have an exciting day of laundry and TV watching today, should be in Zion on Thursday, and planning to be in Austin in about 8 days.