Yellowstone! (Part 1)

It's always good when I get to spend time with my son.

Tanner flew into Denver about 2 weeks ago, with a primary goal of collecting some things he hadn't been able to take to Seattle when he moved there a couple of years ago. Of course, while he was here, he was also obligated to spend (minimal) time with his parents, hang out with his school chums and former band members, and bless his mother with extra laundry to do.

The best part of it was that I was chosen as the designated transporter to get him (and his stuff) back to Washington state. He and his roommates had recently moved into a nice house in Bellingham, and it seemed like the perfect time for Dad to come for a visit.

Due to time constraints, I am forced to tell the tale of our adventure in episodic fashion. I took several hundred photos along the way, as we visited National Parks, toured incredible museums, and saw natural wonders galore. The biggest danger we faced was probably the necessity to drive without a rearview mirror, since the car was stuffed to the gills with amplifiers, keyboards, clothing...and even a miniature refrigerator. Tanner's mom packed us a lunch for the road, and we headed north to the accompaniment of the world's best vacation music.

Our first stop was the rest stop between Cheyenne and Laramie with the giant scary Lincoln head. I'm sure if I'd have read the placards, I'd have learned why this, um, tribute is situated in the middle of nowhere, WY...but my guess is that he spent the night here once when he had a flat tire on his covered wagon during the civil war or something.

Actually, my great grandfather Asa Osias Gere claimed that he met Lincoln once when he was still just a country lawyer. Since Asa's parents ran a hotel in Illinois, his story is reasonably plausible. He did not say whether Lincoln was wearing a brick coat and scowling like he'd just seen an Oakland Raider.



It's a nice little rest area, though, with interesting Wyoming exhibits (including the wanted poster shown above.) We didn't stay long.

As you can see in the picture, it was a drizzly day...just a few hours before the horrendous floods began to hit Colorado. We were planning to spend most of the day Thursday exploring Yellowstone, so we wanted to get the motel room we had reserved just southeast of Teton National Park. We were hoping to check in, have dinner, and then go back out after sunset to see billions and billions of stars visible in the pitch black sky of the Wyoming wilderness. Two things were wrong with that plan; one was the constant cloud cover obscuring the sky...and the other was a minor navigational error we made on the road north from Rawlins.

But that story will have to wait until tomorrow. Stay tuned, though, because geysers and wildlife encounters await. Have a great day!