A Trip Down Memory Lane

We are now in Yellowstone Grand-daddy of all National parks. Cameo and I have been here several times. Both as kids with our families and before and after we were married together. We, especially Cameo, have always wanted to take our kids here. It has been as cool as expected so far. We have seen Bison, Elk, Deer, Moose, Yellow bellied Marmot, a black bear with two cubs, and a Grizzly with one. I have pointed out most of the animals we have seen, much to the shagrin of our children whom I told I would give $10 to, if they could find a moose or bear for me and told Cameo that I am practically a mountain man now. She gives me no credit just because most of the animals I've seen are ten feet off the road but I still feel half mountainman at least. Oh I better not forget to tell you about the stinky geysers Cameo loves so much. We have seen geysers.

We are now in Gardiner, Montana. A small town outside of the park where Cameo and I spent about a week the one time when our Toyota Tercel broke down. It turned out that it was just the alternator that went out but the good folks here took one day debating whether or not Ford or Chevy made a Toyota. They couldn't comprehened the abstract idea that an American would buy a car from Japan. After they figured out the origin of the car I think they had to send to Japan for the part. On about day three of our time in Gardiner, having exhausted all forms of entertainment the town had to offer 3 hours and 14 minutes after we arrived, we were sufficiently motivated to do something drastic.

We took the bikes we had and undertook the challenge of biking the 5 or so miles into the Mammoth Hot Spings, the first real attraction in the park. We must have forgotten how uphill it was when we drove out in the car. Its funny how your opinion on how steep a hill is depends on if you are in a car that only requires you to push a pedal a little harder on steeper grades or if you're on a bike that requires you to use all of the muscles you forgot you had all the while sucking in air you desperately need and wondering why you ever decided to undertake such a foolish endeavor to begin with. This thought was running through my head the whole agonizing trip up the mountain but I couldn't voice my true feelings because I was to busy yelling back at Cameo, who was doing a great job expessing my opinion for me, which she obviously held as well. I just kept reminding her of "the little engine that could" and telling her it was much flatter just ahead. What I meant was, I hoped that it was flatter just ahead, but it never was. We did however manage to make it to the top and had a great time. That is until I wrecked on the way down. That story another time perhaps.

When we came down the hill today I couldn't believe that we had onced biked up the same road. Goes to show what 8 less years and 30 less pounds will do for you. [Cameo: "You're only referring to yourself there, right?"]

Our alternator finally arrived and we were on our way. Of course we were very well acquainted with the thriving metropolis of Gardner and its 500 residents by that time so it was a little hard to leave all our new friends and hangouts but we had to be on our way. Life does run in circles though and now after all these years away from our one time home away from home we are back. More on Yellowstone later.
-Lynn