It’s posted all over the place, “Beware Don’t Approach The Animals”. I mean you have to wonder what idiot tried to ride a buffalo to get those signs posted everywhere. That being said the real warning sign they should post should read “Danger, tourists don’t know how to drive, read signs, use common sense or walk. Please help us protect them from themselves.”
Speaking of protecting a tourist from himself… I started my day off with a park ranger waking up my little community of squatters at about 5:30am. He was actually pretty cool about it, just knocking on car doors and tents and repeating the same line, “I get that you were too tired to drive to an open campground, but you can’t be here”.
Apparently the Ranger was in the area because some genius left a bunch of food in the bed of his pickup a mile or so down the road and the bear who found it had wondered our way.
So I wondered off and found a picnic area with a single bar of cell coverage and attempted to post yesterday’s posting. It should be noted that I then spent the rest of the day fixing what was done as I found things… At any rate, as I was posting and updating the world I had my normal Tea and Oatmeal. This meal is pretty much the only constant in my world on this trip. My eating habits can otherwise be described as grazing with the occasional large snack.
After breakfast I headed to Old Faithful and earned myself a point on the scavenger hunt.
I then spent several hours exploring Yellowstone and doing my honest best to avoid people. I think tourists driving and then suddenly slamming on their brakes because they think they saw a squirrel in the bushes kinda ruined the adventure for me. Don’t get me wrong, the park is beautiful! But I had to get out of there before the stupid rubbed off on me… or more importantly, before my luck ran out and I get into a wreck when some young parents slam on their brakes to point out the buffalo in the distance.
Actually let’s talk about that one a bit more. These people rapidly stopped their minivan while straddling the center line (stopping traffic from both ways). They then proceeded to get out of the vehicle and pull out their toddler to point at what they thought was a buffalo in the distance. It was a rock folks…
That was the moment that the universe spoke to me, and I turned Jeff towards the nearest exit (only 30 miles away) and came up with a plan that didn’t involve spending the night in the park. The new plan, drive towards Glacier National Park and find a campground on the way. I wanted to get just far enough away from Yellowstone to not be dealing with the large quantity of concentrated dumb…
Well I screwed up. At first all the campgrounds were too close to Yellowstone. Then they were just picnic tables and gravel (not even a tree to be an anchor for one side for my hammock). Next they just didn’t exist for 200 Miles. So I ended up making the drive to Glacier National Park today.
I arrived around 11pm and decided to avoid stumbling around the park after hours trying to find someplace to sack out. So I stopped at East Glacier Motel & Cabins. Andrea the manager seriously took care of me. You see all I asked for was the cheapest room they had. My plan was and is to just sleep and try to be in the park by 8 am tomorrow. Well they have just opened for the season and are still getting things up and running. None of the empty cheap cabins/rooms have working heat yet (I think she said it was on the list for tomorrow). So she gave me a seriously upgraded room from the basic cabin I had requested and just charged me for the cabin. The universe made finding a place to stay hard, but Andrea made sure I was taken care of. So if you ever are in the Glacier National Park area, please return the favor to Andrea and stay at East Glacier Motel & Cabins.
Now to enjoy my first shower in a week and the first real bed since starting this adventure!
Daily Scavenger Hunt score: 2
– 1 point for accruing another 1000 miles
– 1 point for a selfie with Old Faithful
Total score to date: 9
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Sounds like a fantastic day, if you ask me! Glad you were able to check off some to-dos and avoid the stupid, and ultimately get treated to a little deserved “pampering” – aka, a bed and shower 😉