Road trip across America… daily reflections by Ema and Elle.
By Ema ~ We started our day going into the Old Faithful Inn and getting some oatmeal for Elle, as our yogurt and most of the food in the cooler had gone bad again from the heat and lack of electricity to keep it cool. After we got cleaned up and dressed for the day we headed over to the Old Faithful Visitor Center and continued on the Junior Ranger Program where Elle earned the last of the three patches for Yellowstone. They do not have badges here, so we got her a pin to add to her Junior Ranger hat, plus a badge that is a replica of the first Park Rangers, known as Scouts.
We watched Old Faithful put on her water show and calculated the prediction for the next eruption. Our prediction was the same as what the park predicted.
We actually watched her several times throughout the day from different places around the basin and found her longest eruption time to be about four minutes.
We also had the honor of seeing the Beehive Geyser erupt which only happens about every 24 hours. It was extremely powerful, even more so than Old Faithful.
We learned about the different colors of the bacteria and algae that thrive in these hot springs and I was surprised that the blue water was actually hotter than the orange and reddish tones. To a mermaid many of the springs were so tempting by sight, but the reality is that most of them would cook you alive and some even have acids strong enough to dissolve flesh.
Anyhow on a happier note, Elle completed the Yellowstone Young Scientist Program also and earned a patch for this. We were given a backpack to utilize while we studied, which included instruments to even read the temperature of the springs. A storm rolled in so we were unable to see all that we had hoped, but decided to wait until morning to part as it was already past sunset and there was no point in driving the rest of the park in the dark.
We got dinner at the cafeteria and the man was nice enough to charge me only for a rice and vegetable side, instead of the normal rate for a grain bowl, as I had no meat. It halved the price of my meal and I was grateful, as my budget for this trip is dwindling much faster than I had expected. I am doing my best to just trust that somehow there will be enough to get to Cali, manage my storage, and get us back to Michigan. The rains had finally come as we finished our dinner and we caught Old Faithful once again doing her thing through the downpour, as we ran back to the van trying not to get wet. Of course I had carried an umbrella most of the day with the clouds rolling in, but left it behind at the van before dinner. Thankfully Elle had my rain jacket on and could protect the camera. We were blessed with a rainbow on the way, doubled, plus one was actually two within itself. These extra wide rainbows are a new thing for me to witness. Maybe it is something about the high mountain elevation.
It is chilly tonight and the rains have continued. Elle is reading before bed and I taking time to write this and hopefully my postcards before I need to sleep. We will hope to part Yellowstone tomorrow and see the Grand Tetons National Park on our way south to the Fin Fun Shop.
By Elle ~ Today I awoke and was greeted by sissy’s welcoming smile. I soon discovered I needed t pee so after a moment of sissy being really slow I told her my poor little bladder was going to erupt like the old faithful and she bluntly said we weren’t going anywhere until my mop of a Brenda was brushed. I quickly grabbed the brush, brushed my hair, and told her let’s go. Of course she had more to do, so I had to wait a second. We went inside the Old Faithful Inn and I peed. Then sissy saw a poncho in the shop and I went in. This is when I saw the mostest amazing sight, it was a stuffed big horn sheep! I was in love. I grabbed him up and showed him to sissy. She told she didn’t have any money with her and we weren’t even half way through the trip, but I knew this was love and I needed him. Sissy disagreed and told me I wanted a stuff animal every place we went. I knew she wasn’t wrong, but this was special I explained. She just walked on looking at stickers.
I kept “Moose” in my arms and walked with her. When she rang up some patches and made me put him back I didn’t want to but knew if I didn’t I might hold up sissy, so I set him sideways from the other ones and left. From the time we left the store I was talking about “Moose” constantly. Sissy got me a jr scientist book and I asked if I could say goodbye. She agreed, so to the store I ran. I was shocked to find that that “Moose” was in a little boys hand along with a bunch of stuffys. I was hoping he would chose another stuffy so I could get him when he set “Moose” down, but of course he chose MY Moose. This was when sissy stepped in. She asked them to switch out “Moose” with a different ram. They agreed and left to pay. I was happy. That’s when sissy started to walk to the cash register. I was confused as I was there to say goodbye. She told me to put Moose up there and she got me Moose. I am still so happy and grateful for him. Then we took moose to start my Jr. Ranger and watch Old Faithful go off and we ended up having to get an umbrella and the headlamp. We left for the trail. We went on the trail and watched Beehive Geyser go off which was really lucky because it only goes off every 24 hrs, so it was really special that we got to see it go off. We worked on my young scientists book for a few hours, that’s when a ranger came up and told us there was a storm coming and it was going to hail and become very bad and we needed to leave asap. We told him about my book and he helped us before we had to leave. After that I was just finishing my Jr. Ranger so we stayed there and explored for the night.
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