We toured the Deschutes Brewery in Bend and spent two nights camping in Eastern Oregon. I won’t get into those, because we were perfectly happy and it’s impossible to be interesting about perfect happiness. (Unless you are Dorothy L. Sayers and writing Busman’s Honeymoon. But I am no Sayers.)
We drove across Idaho, where we we collected my favorite road sign:
We were able to secure a campsite in Yellowstone with no notice — something I did not believe possible — and arrived there shortly before sunset. We got the stove and tent set up in short order and had dinner, washed dishes and built a fire.
Then Gene noticed that the trees, which normally point up at the sky in a tree-ish sort of way, were being bent nearly horizontal by a high wind. Curious, we investigated further and discovered that the sky was slowly filling with a big, rolling cloud, the sort you expect to see with an angry cartoon face drawn on it. In case we had missed the point, some lightning zipped about the sky in a peppy sort of way.
A few minutes later, the storm arrived properly, with torrential rain and thunder and all those weathery sorts of things. We had the tent down and in the backseat of the car, with ourselves in the front, in under a minute. (Lest you think this is easy, I will tell you that the tent contained two heavy moving blankets, two inflated Therma-rests, two unrolled down sleeping bags, two pillows and assorted nighttime gear, and we also had to remove the dew cover on top and the tarp beneath.)
Well, a night in the car never hurt anyone, and luckily we had pirate-themed Mad Libs from Nuala and Garren which kept us entertained until bedtime.
The next day we drove all over Yellowstone. Well, not all over, because it’s the size of a state, but we did see quite a bit. We also saw a bald eagle, a baby moose, many sorts of deer, an absurd number of bison, an otter, a brown bear and a pack of wolves.
I recommend Yellowstone to anyone who likes things that are weird but good. It’s the Bi-Rite Salted Caramel ice cream of the National Parks system. Check out some pictures of the park here.
My man: weird but good.