The view where we left Mom, Paul, Jack, Pennie, and Annie
Today started a little more out of the ordinary than most days. First of all my dog Pennie woke me in the early ours of the morning because she was weezing in my ear. She happens to be about 14 years old in human years which is about 98 in dog years. Shes a relic, so I can’t blame her. Then when I finally got to sleep again my family was rudely woken up by banging on the RV door from some guy who I guess took it upon himself to be the local bear awareness patrol officer. Since there was no place to sleep last night (being only 2 miles away from Yellow Stones northern gate, we decided to perch the RV that my parents rented on the side of a dirt road on this mountain which over looked the town of Gardiner. I guess upon driving up the mountain (by the looks of the way his car was parked) this twenty something, nerdy looking bear awareness officer felt the need to come wake everyone up to give me some shpeal about how he hopes there isn’t food in the the 2 coolers we left right outside the door (b.c there was no space in the RV). I was too tired to be defensive so I just answered his 10 million questions and concerns and greeted him as pleasantly as I could muster.
As I sat there stuffing my sleeping bag into its stuff sack agravated, I wished I had been a little more unpleasant to the guy who decided it was his duty to wake up an entire family. I wished I had told him that he had not to worry, that there was nothing in the coolers because we fed the bears last night and then gave him a little speech about respecting other people. Either way I didn’t think of it soon enough, but if theres ever a next time I’ll be prepared.
A sweet view in Yellowstone
So besides our little run in with the “law”, I realized today how using a public bathroom to do always seems to be an interesting experience on the road. For instance, sometimes bathroom stall doors don’t lock, sometimes the door knobs are missing so theres a tennisball sized hole in the door, and other times there is no door at all. Today there was a door, that locked, no worries right? So I thought until I saw someone trying to desperately open the latch as I was going about my business. It took quite a while until I guess they finally realized someone was in there. Most people would just leave and then come back a few minutes later in hopes that the stall is open then, but not this persistent guy. After the door shaking stopped, I then heard a series of big sighs, foot stamping, and what really caught me off guard was a 7 year old with a mohawk hair cut cupping his hands over the crack of the door trying (what I assumed) to see what was causing the stall to be occupied for so long. To my astonishment it didn’t only happen once, but twice! and I’m not going to lie, kinda weird having a stranger try to hurry you up off the pot by staring at you through the crack of the door. None the less, I had my revenge.
We then proceeded to say good bye to my mom and Paul headed out for the second leg of our trip. It’s kinda crazy how a little bit of family time can recharge you for another 6 weeks on the road. I was of course a bit sad since it was the closest taste of home I had felt in a while. The blues do set in, but you can’t let them get to you on these trips you just kinda use your new surroundings to trick your mind into thinking about other things.. Like cyclist eating bears for example, or mountain lions chasing you down the highway. Whatever floats your boat.
We didn’t intend on getting too far today but surprisingly we cycled about 82 miles, 60 of which were into the wind as usual, making even going downhill a struggle. Since we left Gardiner to where we stopped tonight in Clyde Park we’ve dropped about 2000 ft in elevation which is awsome, I can finally breathe again! Tomorrow we head to Helena, and hopefully in a few more days we’ll be in Idaho, one state away from Seattle which has been a milestone for our trip. Tonight we spend the night in the city park with hopes that it doesn’t get as cold as it did here last night which some of the locals said was 37 degrees! BRRRRR! I guess I’ll wear all the clothes I brought on the trip.. .
2 x dry fits t-shirts
1x cotton shirt
1x pair of shorts
3x pair of socks
1x long sleeve
…hope it all works out for the best :)
PS … Since I’m posting this after the fact, I might as well fill everyone in. As our luck has it we woke up at 3 in the morning to the parks sprinklers going off full blast. Funny part about it was that they were only doing their sprinkling in our side of the park and of course with the freezing weather the water didn’t make either of us too happy. I kinda felt as if the park manager (who we coincidentally asked if we were allowed to sleep there) was pulling a big one on us. Watching and laughing at us scurrying around bare bodied trying to figure out a solution to our inconvenience. As I spanned the tents rain fly (raincoat for tents) around us to at least block some of the water marcus “borrowed” some firewood from a neighboring house and stacked them like lincoln logs around the sprayer to keep it from getting distance. I always knew he was a genius. We slept peacefully the rest of the night. The next day turned out to be AWESOME!
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