• 12 : 59 A.M. PST
  Yellowstone Nat. Pr4k

Geothermal stuff viewing day! I'm not sure if it was intended to be thematic, but the shower at the Westwood Inn is certainly geyser-esque. Shaving and rinsing with this steamy fire hose was an adventure in and of itself. No, well, I guess it was just shaving. But blasting shaving cream off my face so violently that it splattered every object in line-of-sight was, uh, invigorating, I guess you could say. The Russian-accented dude that grudgingly sold us the room wasn't there at check out time. A similiar looking young man with a similiar accent dropped by on his bicycle after we waiting a short time in front of the locked office, and we handed him the key and ran.

I saw boiling water squirting out of the ground today, making rude noises and smells which I do not currently have the means to portably record. I sat around waiting for Old Faithful to erupt while a nearby child urged his dad to leave again and again, certain that his old man was just making excuses to sit around motionless, as adults seems so bent on doing. (You are not wired to appreciate anything that doesn't happen within 5 minutes when you are that age) I did not try to photograph Old Faithful erupting. It is 100 vertical feet of flying water. A still picture of that looks like a big white smear.

We managed to find an espresso cart somewhere in the Old Faithful lodge, though they mainly seemed to be distributing shame. Ahead of us, an elderly man was embarassed into ordering nothing. Then, when Helen tried to order a hot chocolate, the counterperson explained that their hot chocolate was made from powdered mix and water, though they could make a chocolate "steamer" for her. ("Look, I know how to make a hot chocolate, cretin. What you're talking about is instant cocoa," Helen thought silently) She served my double mocha and Helen's "steamer" simultaneously, and when Helen inquired which was which, she nonchalantly pointed out that the mocha had a "crema" on top. ('crema' is the light colored part on top of a well pulled espresso shot. What she was pointing at is called "froth" or "foamed milk" or whatever.) Being around as much of this crap as I am in Seattle, it's hard not to complain internally. ("Look, you may be a regional expert, but where I come from you are a lousy barista").

Helen's first Buffalo pictures suffered from the Elph's shot latency

We got stuck behind buffalo herds wandering down the street a couple times. Saw buffalo butt a lot.

We're not supposed to come within 25 yards of these guys

One of the features of thermally active springs is an abundance of microorganisms. Often they form "mats" of solid gak. ("Gak" an unscientific term meaning algae, or bacteria) Yellowstone has posted many signs advising people not to write stuff in the bacterial mats. This is a good idea because a) it defaces an artifact of this national park and b) gross.

"This is your brain on eggs." --Helen

I really like Yellowstone, the whole place is uniformly weird, it definately deserves to be our oldest national park.

We're now getting ready to sleep in a Econo Lodge in Rock Springs. The 24 restaurant is named "Thads". The sadly unexaggerated waitress is missing half her teeth and has fresh scars up and down her forearms. It is the worst meal I've had in years. Periodically, the PA in the restaurant announces in an automated voice that "Shower one... eight... two... is now ready!" (but the numbers keep changing. Checking again, there are no showers on the menu. Combined with our either abused or mentally damaged server and the mysterious telephones at each table, it makes me careful not to think about the food much. I notice it is awful, though.

Helen probably remembers today better.