Day 18 National Parks 2011
Soba noodles were perfectly cooked this morning. I was out and about by 9:45am and went to the
Grant Village Visitor Center to get hiking information and postcards. I am happy to finally come across pretty
ones. I then rolled off for Old
Faithful at 10:38am.
The simple nineteen miles felt long. The curvy mountain incline, decline was
stressful over the continental divide. I
also stopped at Keplar Cascade. 
Old
Faithful was a big complex touristy place with a beautiful historical inn. The Lodge was nice, built of stone and
wood. I took the time to use their
cleaner well maintained restroom. I
checked out all the shops for t-shirts, cards, food, and ice cream. Food is pricy and was not tasty. Why is it not good? It’s really not hard to make food tasty. The ice cream is all Wisconsin and not
Montana ice cream. I find it
inferior. The place to sit is on the
second floor of the inn. However the
view overlooks the parking lot. The
interior décor has great ambiance. I
decided to eat my roasted potato, carrot, and zucchini in the car. 
I finally made it to Old Faithful at 11:33am and it went
off at 11:41am. I didn’t have to wait
long. I sat on a fallen tree and stayed
out of the crowded bench area. It’s
quite a show. The people watching are pretty fun to watch too. I wondered how these
tourist in front of my eyes got physically so big.
I drove nine miles to Fire Hole Lake Drive, it’s a one
way three mile scenic drive. I loved
this drive, there were beautiful springs.
Most of all it wasn’t crowded and I got to walk up close to it. There
were beautiful pools of water to look at, all hot and clean. Like a religious cleansing transformative ritual, I threw in more lies and anything else negative etc… into the thermo pools to transform and recycle for the benefit of all. People seem to have caught onto what I was doing.
I pulled over to the side of the road when I saw two women put their
hands into the Fire Hole river. They
said it was warm. I tried it and it was
shower water temperature. It was shallow
enough to dip my feet in. I am getting
my hot spring soak wish. I did my hands
too and sat on the bridge as cars passed by. Like a religious cleansing transformative ritual, I asked to clean and clear these hands and feet so they can truly be
honest, straight, upright, and be of service from a place of compassion and
wisdom to all, to end all crooked, evil ways and habits. The water felt really good. I was hungry and felt tired after this.
I proceeded to all the pullouts in the area. At Fire Hole Lake, I stood there and got a
sauna treatment from the steam blowing by the wind. Like a religious cleansing transformative ritual, I asked for a back steam to steam all stuck
ignorant ways away. This felt so
good.
I went to Paint Pan Hot Springs and saw swallows
there. It was a beautiful place filled
with amazing colors, textures, a feast for the photographer’s eyes. As I walked around I met a newlywed couple on
their honeymoon from Stockton who spent the previous night at Idaho Falls and
said it down poured and thundered last night.
They are headed to Tetons and Bryce after this.
It was 3:12pm and I found myself feeling exhausted. A bus load of tourist got off the bus and I
headed for my car. It was good timing, I
was already exhausted and to be in the midst of tour bus crowd, I would just
become overwhelmed even more. It might
just put me in the red zone which would not be good for my drive back to camp.
I stopped at Shoshon Lake lookout, I was looking down for
it and saw nothing when an SUV pointed out to me to look at the horizon. It was then I finally saw a tiny sliver of
water way-way out there. It was much
further then the ranger described it. I
found it funny. Or maybe I was just so exhausted and the fatigue induced this. I was laughing hysterically on the inside, but too tired to laugh
so the hysterics had no chance to exercise itself, take over and live.
At the general store, I educated myself on what is
available on the shelf. I also looked at
the grill menu, ice cream bar, and souvenirs.
I bought a t-shirt there.
I went back to camp to drink honey water, the cold tap
water was perfect. I looked forward to
laying on the hammock and then it rained, splotchy for five minutes. A neighboring dash hound barked off and on
for thirty minutes. Then at 5:35pm, the
dog’s female guardian screamed, yelled, and fought with her traveling female
human companion. It was about money,
about how she wants to leave this park, about how she hated this country, how
she just ruined this entire year for her, how this entire vacation was ruined. Scary!
That was the vibe I picked up yesterday at this
place. I think it’s all the fishing,
killing, hunting karma and maybe that was why I found people looking more
strange here, scary, and unfriendly, protected and guarded.
Beautiful sighting, the three college friends got up and
read books underneath the sun and then planned the rest of the day’s activities
together.
It poured and hailed at 7pm tonight for about 15
minutes. Dinner was avocado, corn
tortilla and baked beans with tomato and lime with a cup of hot coco.
My new neighbor the Bair family told me they were stuck at
Old Faithful intersection around 3pm, an accident between Tacoma and an
Outback, a head on collision and cars flipped.
The outback had a set of grandparents in front and a granddaughter in
the back. The little girl was fine but
the grandparents are still unknown in health.
I hope they are okay. I see why I
had to be back in camp by 3pm.
