Yellowstone Wrapup

Because my vacation ended over a month ago, and blogger just ate my somewhat detailed writeup, here's a wrapup:

*We saw Old Faithful go off around 4 or 5 times, not because we were particularly interested in Old Faithful, but because the Old Faithful Lodge area was a good place to pick up food or take a shower. After taking a shower Brent stepped out of his stall to find an old man pissing into a drain in the floor, despite the fact that the next room contained a wall of urinals. He exclaimed "Dude, what are you doing?" and the old guy didn't even look up. Old dudes: They piss where they want to and they don't give a damn what you think about it.

*We did a couple fantastic hikes, including Mystic Falls and another one to some lake out in the middle of nowhere. These hikes are highly recommended because you end up out away from everyone else and it's almost as though you've got the whole park to yourself. These hikes are not recommended if you're with someone who decides they need to take a 20 minute restroom break while you're eaten alive by bugs WHO LEAVE YOU WITH BITES THAT STILL OCCASIONALLY ITCH OVER A MONTH LATER.

If you're going to hike, take a bug spray bath first. And then maybe drink some, just in case.

*While driving back to our campsite one evening, we came across a giant buffalo walking down the road directly in front of our vehicle. We took a picture, and slowly paced the buffalo, waiting for him to walk out of our lane. He began to do so, crossing the center line, and that's when I noticed the car coming towards us in the opposite direction. Wanting to alert the other driver that there was a buffalo in his or her lane, I began flashing my lights. Instead of slowing down, the driver continued on at her 45 mph or so pace and ran right into the buffalo.

You can imagine that's pretty traumatic, but it's even more unnerving when the buffalo rolls onto the car's hood, puts a horn through the windshield, bounces off and starts running back at your car. He narrowly missed our stopped vehicle, ran around the passenger side, and then continued to stand in the road directly behind us, apparently unhurt.

The woman got out of her car, which now had a crushed hood and smashed windshield. When we pointed out that we had tried to warn her, she said "Oh I didn't even see you." So somehow she missed a giant buffalo and a Ford Explorer with flashing lights. In hindsight, we probably all would have been better off if the buffalo had gone through her windshield. I don't mean that, and I'm glad everyone was ok.

*After Yellowstone we headed south to Grand Teton National Park, which we just drove through. Then we stopped in Jackson Wyoming, stayed a night, had some good BBQ, and drove back the next day. And that sucked. The end.