A Day of Firsts

Day 32: July 28, 2009 – Gardiner, MT to Worland, WY
A True Wyomingite Now

Considering the lack of comfort which Mike dealt with through the night and the chill of the morning air, he was loading the car at a quarter to 6:00 and we were soon on our way into the Nation’s first National Park and our home state. First #1: Yellowstone National Park, WY, first #2: Melissa visiting Yellowstone National Park after having lived in the state of Wyoming for 20 years.

As luck would have it, one of our first sights was a lone buffalo grazing in a golden meadow. By this time, about 30 minutes into the drive, we had seen some of the steaming hot springs and the rolling hills of the Absorka Range. Knowing that we wanted to be in Worland, WY in time to go to a special event for the parents of our Best Man, Abram, we rushed a little through the park making sure to see Yellowstone Falls and of course, Old Faithful.

We hit up Yellowstone Falls first and were amazed by the amount of water spilling over the edge of this fall. Being on the west coast, we saw many falls, but none were as beautiful and powerful as this one. We admired the crashing waters and the yellow walls of the canyon in which they fell before continuing on our way through the park and the main geyser basin area of Yellowstone. Having passed by many small geysers and seen a few spurts of water, we finally arrived at the site of Old Faithful.

The geyser has semi-recently blown so we had first pick of seats in the “Old Faithful Amphitheater.” Mike decided a spot with blue sky and mountains in the background would provide for the best pictures, so we sat and waited, took a couple goofy pictures and were entertained by some English speaking foreigners…

- Pronunciation of Geyser: Gay-ser
- While watching a small geyser in front of Old Faithful: “What if someone thought that was it?They’d be like, ‘That was it?’”
- For some odd reason, discussing the possibility of being a Calvin Klein underwear model.
- Preparing for the geyser to go: “Ok, when it goes, I will video tape it for a few seconds then you two get in front of the camera and I’ll take your picture.”

By the time Old Faithful was expected to blow within the next 15 minutes the “Amphitheater” was full! Huge crowds had gathered to see this natural phenomenon take place. And soon enough, Old Faithful provided his crowd-pleasing act, spurting water high into the air and letting out huge amounts of steam. A few of the audience members clapped, most took photos and a couple accepted cell phone calls - all-in-all, a good show.

Having seen the most important aspects of the Nation’s first National Park and seeing that we would be wise to make our way to Worland, we wound our way out of the park toward Cody where we planned to stop at Dairy Queen with hopes of seeing one of our HSI students. Low and behold, we did see an HSI student! Not the one we were expecting, but beggars can’t be choosers. So we made a purchase, said a warm hello to Reese and made our way to Worland where we would partake in a surprise Anniversary party for the Heller’s and also surprise Patty Harrington by being in town many days prior to our expected arrival.

After quick showers we headed to the Catholic Church where we were re-united with Abram and Mallory where they promptly put us to work decorating for the surprise anniversary party of Mr. and Mrs. Heller. Abram and his two sisters had spent a little time planning this event for their parents as a way to celebrate their marriage and their family. His parents were greatly honored and definitely surprised by the many guests, including Mrs. Heller’s sister from Maine, who were in attendance. We enjoyed some good food and eventually made our way over to the Harrington household where we enjoyed some time chatting with Patty and Molly, sharing some pictures and stories. Before making our way to bed, we watched Twilight (since we’d been in Forks, WA and surrounding areas), gained a great understanding of vampires and finally closed our eyes for peaceful rest.