What’s that sound? Rain drops? Huh… don’t want
to go! I know I’ll be stuck in the plastic bag again. Maybe my boss should make
me a raincoat and hat. Then I wouldn’t have to be sitting safely in the
handlebar bag! My woman doesn’t know what to wear: sandals or sneakers – long
pants or shorts – rain jacket or not… It doesn’t rain hard at all… Let’s have
breakfast outside on the parking lot of the cafeteria. Already the sun was
trying to fight its way through the clouds. This was going to work. There were
no raindrops at the time we left Canyon Village. My boss was very anxious about
this ride: she had even gone into the Ranger Station to ask what she could do
when bison would come to her… and she got no real satisfying answer. But with a
good guardian like me around… who needs to be afraid of the bison?? Well, we
cycled for a good 5 miles upstream along the Yellowstone river when suddenly,
just behind the bend, two of those monsters were walking on the road. Mamamia…
I crawled in the bag and made me as small as possible, while my boss turned 180
degrees – and cycled a little bit back to the first turn out she felt safe at.
This wasn’t going to work, she thought. She hesitated so long … the two animals
suddenly appeared in the meadow next to her. Goooooooo… she thought, and on she
went. But she knew Hayden Valley was up ahead: a green oasis with the
Yellowstone river running in it. Canadian geese were taking a bath in it! And
behind the bump… a herd of bison. Heck… what now! I could feel she was getting
desperate: where to go? Hitchhiking seemed like the best idea, but pickups
going our way were scarce. Two turn outs further – in between herds of bison –
she stopped and finally a pickup did the same thing. A woman got out and this
was like the perfect moment. “Could we have a ride to Fishing Bridge?”, she
asked and yes, we were allowed to put the Sweet Machine in the back. Bye, bye
bison! The woman introduced herself as Cindy, coming from Bend Oregon, a Native
American (she named 3 tribes but all we remember are the Blackfeet) with Welsh
roots. She told us she was on this
mission ride for almost a month now: traveling the road she and her sister had
done years ago as kids. They had talked about doing it again but her sister got
murdered 18 months ago. So now she was doing this, with her sister’s unicorn
along – in remembrance of her! My boss has never met anyone who had a relative
that got murdered and boy, it did make her speechless for a moment! The lady
was very friendly and 10 miles later, when we arrived at Fishing Bridge, my
boss gave her a big hug, as we said goodbye to each other!
After loading up all
our luggage, we head south along the Yellowstone Lake (yup, the river starts
even more south of the lake and runs through the lake) – a ride going up and
down and round the corner. At one point my boss took some pictures of flowers
that were growing in the earth that had burned.
Here the trees were still
blackened and without needles – no high trees to see. And guess what – hidden
in between those straight dead trees were 2 elk sitting. My boss never noticed
them … it were the other humans taking pictures of them. It was like “Where’s
Waldo?”. Some miles further we arrived at West Thumb and its geyser basins.
Time to stretch the legs and walk around on the platforms.
Fishing cone – were
people used to boil their fish and the Black Pool are some of the attractions
here.
Another two mile and we arrived at Grant Village, named after the
president Grant. My boss had dinner at the Lake House and she confessed to me
that it was the first time she realized that what she saw across the water was
actually on the same site of the lake! And the rain… well, only those few drops
at breakfast got us wet!
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