He Said:Seriously. If there was a packing competition, someone would come to me and say "Brad, you have to do it! You're the king!" and I'd say "No, really, I'm not in it for the awards. It's just something I do". And they'd say "no, seriously, you HAVE to do it! It's in Vegas for a week, we're all going, get packed." Then I'd look at him, standing as I am and say...."I already am".
Today we packed up and left the KOA Livingston. Definitely our nicest stop so far. We then did a trek down to Old Faithful. I don't know...I don't want to sound uncultured, or unappreciative of nature's wonder, but - I really expected more. It was not worth the 3 hours out of our way. It was definitely not worth the drive back. Half the highways in Montana are 'down to one lane', and I have yet to see a single sign of actual construction. I was unbelievably agitated. I shouldn't talk about it though, as I hid it so well from Shannon. The Holiday Inn is miles nicer than the Quality Inns we've been doing. Shame we have to leave tomorrow. We're heading into a set of long drives here, to line up Kelowna for the weekend. I just spent the bulk of the night trying to find accommodations for the next two nights that also split up the driving relatively well. It's almost 2AM. I HATE it. That's the trade-off to an open schedule, I suppose. I'm going to try to nail down the rest of the trip home tomorrow, I think. Be done with it.
She Said:I do recommend going to see Yellowstone. I don't recommend going in the middle of July. The park just can't accommodate so many people. Old faithful area is one exception. The road there is awful. No shoulder and deteriorated. I guess that's why there was construction. Couldn't believe there were people biking and walking along the road sometimes. Plus there's wildlife sightings and people just can't help themselves from doing stupid things like screeching to a halt in the middle of a highway because they see an elk 100 yards to their left. Sometimes I wonder why there such specific safety regulations and rules about say, what you can and can't flush down a toilet. And then I see what people do of their own judgement and just shake my head. Signs everywhere telling people that the stuff coming out of the ground is toxic and dangerous to people. Railings up to keep people out. Then some yahoo (30 yrs old at least), lies down on the boardwalk to reach his hand out to touch the water. He was trying to joke and he screamed as if it hurt. The places that the water could actually hurt you have railings 50 feet from the water because of idiots like that guy. I read a book by Penn Jillette (larger one of the Penn and Teller magician duo). He's a libertarian and wants the government to stop regulating everything. Believes in the free market and doesn't want to be told "don't eat that", or "wear this for safety" etc. He thinks peope are well meaning and smarter than they are given credit for. Sounds ideal if we ignore the reality that given the opportunity people are evil and stupid. Ha. But maybe he also feels that those people who are too stupid to protect themselves from obvious dangers will just weed themselves out of society naturally. He just doesn't say it.
Anyway. The gas station/western wear store/soda fountain that we stopped at in West Yellowstone was fantastic. We had enough awesome Wilcoxson's ice cream to feed three families for $12. Kept the kids quiet for the too long car ride to Butte and microwave KD and popcorn for supper in front of the TV. Good times.