“All my bags are packed. I’m ready to go……” The Hyundai was packed…..and packed almost to capacity…..with all the assorted things we would need to lead a semi-comfortable life roughing it in KOA campgrounds for the next sixteen days. Our clothing, of course…..enough to last at least eight days, the halfway point. The two comfortable camping chairs….the kind that fold up into an easily portable package. The cooler…this time with dry ice instead of regular ice….Fayez’s idea. And the utensils and equipment we would need when preparing our meals. Fayez Alruwaili arrived the previous afternoon. All of the stuff was piled in the front room waiting for him to arrive with his Hyundai. With everything ready, packing the car was a piece of cake….as they say. The only thing remaining to buy was the dry ice…..a good excuse to go to Topeka to eat…..sit in Weller’s Bar and Grill for a while…..and stop by Dillon’s to pick up the ice before returning home. I have taken dry ice before…..several years ago when Sebastian and I took this same journey in 2002. We walked into the now defunct Food-4-Less store in North Topeka and asked a guy if they sold dry ice. He disappeared into the back room and returned a new minutes later with some chunks of dry ice wrapped up in some paper bags. “Here you are,” he said. “Will this be enough?” “Yeah….it should be. How much do we owe you?” “Nothing…..just take it. It comes with frozen food.” That was what? Twelve years ago. Things have changed. We walked into the Dillon’s store after we left Weller’s to buy some dry ice. It obviously was not going to be free this time. The dry ice was located in a regular vending machine in the front of store. The vending machine clearly warned….”You must be at least 21 to buy dry ice.” And…..the vending machine was locked! With a padlock. The security guard….of all people….came over to us, as we stood there contemplating what to do. “We want to buy some dry ice,” we told him. That set off a chain reaction of activity. Nobody seemed to know who had the key….or even where the key was located. Obviously, they did not sell a lot of dry ice…..and especially that late at night. After some scurrying around, the person with custody of the all-important key was located. And, I, being a few years older than 21, was allowed to buy some dry ice. We left the store with our dry ice…..and also a few questions. Why is the dry ice locked up? Why do you have to be 21 to buy it? Why was it so difficult to find a person to unlock the ice chest? Why didn’t they take a mug shot….or my fingerprints. “OK, let’s be in the car….and pulling out of the driveway at 6:00 tomorrow morning.” That was our unanimous agreement….both of us. “OK….wake me up at 5:30,” Fayez asked me. “OK. I am getting up at 5:00.” Now….let me say, it is never I who has problems getting out of bed in the morning. I am out of bed the minute my eyes open. Sometimes I have a problem waking up the other person….but never myself. I am dependable….on time….prompt….. Thursday, May 15, rolled around….early. I opened my eyes, looked at the clock…. Wow, I couldn’t believe my eyes! It was already 5:30…..after 5:30, in fact. I was almost in a panic. I jumped out of bed….almost literally….rushed to the bathroom to take a (very) quick shower….got partially dressed…..turned on the light in Fayez’s room….shouted for him to wake up…… It was pretty obvious that we would not be driving out of the driveway at 6:00! Finish getting dressed….a quick breakfast….last minute stuff to pack into the car….. It was close to 7:00 when we were finally heading down 130th Street toward the Ferguson Road….. We still had to stop and fill up with gas….. Fayez grabbed a couple cups of coffee and a couple rolls while I filled up the car…… We are more than an hour late now. Oh well…..we will drive fast…..not stop unless absolutely necessary…..and make up the time. Finally we were on our way….heading to Holton to meet up with Highway 75, which would essentially take us up to I-80 in Nebraska. But not so fast……When we got to Holton, Fayez casually said we should stop and put some air in one of the tires because it was starting to get low. No problem….there is a service station at the corner where we would turn to get on Highway 75. But….of course…..there was a problem. What looked like a major problem. The cap on the valve stem would not come off. And, yes….the tire was getting very low. Low enough that it would not be safe to start out on a major trip. We finally located a garage that was open and explained our problem to them. You know…..I am constantly amazed at how kind people are sometimes. They stopped what they were doing, drove the car into one of the bays to take car of the problem. But….again….not so fast. They were also not able to get the cap off the valve stem. In the first place, it was some sort of proprietary part, put there by the tire retailer….and second of all, it appeared to be rusted on the stem. The solution? Lift the car up….cut off the valve stem….and replace it…..after repairing the leak, of course. Not really a major problem….unless you are already a couple hours behind schedule. There was no other choice. One of the “good” tires also had the same sort of valve cap, so they replaced both of them. They charged us…..of course. They weren’t that generous or humanitarian. But, at least they didn’t said, “Bring it back this afternoon at 1:00 and we will take care of it.” And, I can imagine that both of us must have looked rather pathetic and disheartened…..and they merely took pity on us. About 8:00 we were finally on our way…… We put our problems behind us, and looked only to the exciting sixteen days ahead of us. A couple minor setbacks were not going to ruin….or even dampen…..our fun. A couple problems were only something to be laughed about later. Our first stop…..Laramie, Wyoming. Fortunately, there is not much to see between here and Laramie. Our main objective of the day was to drive through Nebraska as quickly as possible. I know this is not going to make the people of Nebraska happy……no more than it pleases the people in Kansas to have our state referred to as a vast wasteland….and merely a hardship to be endured on the way to Colorado. As we drove along, I saw the vast stretches of land as more than an obstacle in our path to Laramie. When a person looks out over the thousands of acres of green crops growing in the springtime….wheat, corn, soy beans, milo….and providing grazing land for thousands of cattle and other livestock…..it is difficult to escape the realization that in a few short weeks….or months….this is the food that will feed our country. This will be the hamburger that will later be known as Big Macs…..or the flour that will become Duncan Doughnuts…..or egg McMuffins. This will be the food that will feed the people of Los Angeles….Las Vegas….Disneyland….New York City….. This will provide the food for the nation’s airports….national parks….roadside cafes….and exclusive restaurants of the nation. True…..we were not tempted to stop the car to take pictures of the crops growing in the fields….or even the cattle grazing on the grasslands. But, to write off the highways of the mid-western states, such as Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota shows a profound lack of appreciation for their value and importance and their significance to our nation….and to the world. Which can you give up? Eating…..or gambling? Surfing? Theme parks? For me, it certainly is not going to be eating. We stopped and took pictures at all eleven of the signs as we entered the various states. But, other than that, I had told Fayez that the only thing worth stopping to take a pictures of between Valley Falls and Laramie was a huge sculpture of Abraham Lincoln’s bust somewhere on the north side of I-80 in Nebraska. It makes a good picture….and it is a worthwhile place to stop, get our of the car for a few minutes….and stretch our legs a little bit. I am not really sure if Fayez knew who Lincoln was….at least, until I told him. But, to have a statue that large, one knows that he must have been somewhat important. Almost immediately after we turned on to I-80 just outside of Lincoln, I began to watch for the statue. We had driven well into the afternoon….and I was still looking. We were approaching the Wyoming border….and still no sign of the statue. I was almost sure that it had not been taken down. I mean….what why they? Even the Tea Party couldn’t get away with that. And, anyways, it was much too big. I told Fayez that I had obviously missed it….let it slip past while we were talking. Oh well….it is really not a tourist attraction. Just something interesting….and photogenic….and a chance to stop and rest for a few minutes. We crossed the border into Wyoming, and I stopped looking for the sculpture. We continued to drive west toward Laramie….our destination for the night. Suddenly I looked out the car window…..and there was the statue of Lincoln….perched upon a hill on the north side of I-80…..in Wyoming….not Nebraska. (Personally, I think somebody moved it just to confuse me!) So….we made our first official “tourist attraction” stop…..long enough to take a few pictures…..go to the restroom (never pass up an opportunity!)….and to stretch our legs. Ahh…..a feeling of both satisfaction….and embarrassment that I didn’t remember where the statue was located. But….somehow I doubt if I will ever forget its location. After an exotic meal at Subway, we spent a couple hours visiting with one of my old high school classmates. We spent the night in the KOA Campground, and on Friday morning we packed up and headed toward our first major destination….Yellowstone National Park. The highway from Laramie to Yellowstone National Park cuts through Wyoming from southeast to northwest….maybe a six or seven hour drive, if you keep pushing it. As the highway heads out of Laramie, it is easy to “push it”. The landscape is the same as it was yesterday when we finally arrived in Laramie, rather worn out….and maybe just a little bit bored from the unchanging landscape of sage brush and low hills covered with scrubby trees…..a semi-desert, in my opinion, although Fayez would be quick to disagree. The landscape is dotted with entrances to ranches…often with fancy archways with the name of the ranch written on it…..ranches which you cannot see because they are set far back from the highway. This is land where a home may be as much as thirty, or forty, or fifty miles or more to the nearest town. It is not the kind of location where you jump into your car to drive into town to pick up a loaf of bread. I can imagine that a careful housewife plans her shopping list very carefully before she heads into town….and that town may be more of a village than a real town. School children are picked up early by their school bus….often while it is still dark outside….and dropped off late. A wise student could probably finish most of his homework while on the bus…..and many probably do. A lucky student will own his own transportation…..probably a pickup truck. And, if he has younger brothers and sisters, he is no doubt their “school bus”….whether he likes it or not. Here in Northeast Kansas, our high school athletes are accustomed to a thirty minute bus ride to their opponent’s school….except on rare occasions when the trip may be further. Parents get off work, eat their supper….and then head out to watch their child play. Can you imagine what it would be like if your opponent’s school is one hundred or more miles away? At the very least, there is going to be a lot of missed school time….and a lot of late nights….and sleepy mornings. As we drove along, these are the sort of things we speculated about. Would I like to live in such a rural, isolated location…..the answer is NO. And, that is the answer that Fayez gave, too. It takes a special person to live there…..probably someone who was born there and have lived there all their life. This is “home”. This is “normal” for them. And, I am sure that many of them like it that way. But….and I can’t prove this….but I can also imagine that many of them leave and go somewhere else as soon as they graduate from high school…..looking for green pastures. As we continued toward the northwest, the elevation became higher…the hills began to transform into small mountains. But….it was still arid land….land that would probably require at least thirty or forty acres to support one cow. No wonder the ranches are so huge. But, we also began to see rivers and streams flowing through the land. We could spot these rivers a mile in advance…..the landscape changed from brown to green and back to brown…..almost magically. Streams of living water in the desert. Around noon or one o’clock, we passed through the picturesque town of Lander….a welcome bit of civilization. A grocery store…McDonald’s…..Dairy Queen….motels….service stations. It is a summer tourist town. A welcome stop after the miles of semi-barren land….miles and miles of land. But…..it not big enough for a Wal-Mart. Sorry. After a short, but refreshing stop in Lander, it was back to business again. But, not before we prepared and ate our tasty lunch. We had an assembly line process in place…..Fayez made the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches….and I made the sliced meat and cheese sandwiches. After a few days, we got the process down to perfection. Once the sandwiches were prepared, it was on to our next major stop: Dubois. A real wild-west town…..fake, to be sure….although I am sure the surrounding area is populated with many ranchers. On a trip several years ago, we stayed in a local motel. The next morning we went to a cafe for breakfast. There were several ranchers also eating breakfast….all of them dressed in blue jeans, cowboy hats and cowboy boots. And also a deputy sheriff….also with his cowboy hat and cowboy boots…..and a pistol strapped to his belt. We couldn’t help but overhear their conversation…. They were talking about some cattle that had been rustled the previous night. We felt that we had walked into an old Roy Rogers movie! Dubois was another welcome stop. It was an opportunity to fill up with gas and buy the food we would need for the next couple days…..and pay a visit to the nearest restroom. Prices were already high….much higher than we pay here at home…..but they were inexpensive compared to what we would have paid in Yellowstone. We had spent a long morning of driving through the semi-arid spaces of southern and central Wyoming….. This land is probably not a desert in the classic meaning of the word…..but yet it is dry and unproductive. Fayez kept looking for camels…..but he had to settle for cattle instead! As we drove along, we enjoyed the landscape….as much as you can enjoy miles and miles of seemingly unsettled land. As the miles rolled by, Fayez and I were so occupied in our conversations….and laughing….and joking…..that the time was far from boring. As a matter of fact, the time slipped by quickly…..although I use that term in a relative manner. At fairly irregular intervals, we would spot what appeared would make a good pictures. At the earliest opportunity, we would pull over….usually into the entrance to a field….get out and take pictures. Sometimes, just a picture of the long, endless highway makes one of the best pictures we took. As the Oak Ridge Boys say in one of their songs: “The highway goes on forever.” Beyond Dubois the scenery begin a subtle change….slowly merging the endless hills covered with sage brush into an almost imperceptible rise in elevation…..and the steady emergence of trees that gradually morphed into forests. Finally, we were approaching the Grand Tetons National Park. The Tetons jut up from the landscape like the teeth on a saw…..snow-covered and barren, for the most part. With the mountains in the background, and the meadows, the forests and the lake in the foreground, they are an invitation to take pictures….lots of pictures. After a while, a person starts to realize, “I am simply taking the same picture over and over again.” Ah…one of the benefits of being a senior citizen. As we pulled up to ticket booth at Grand Tetons National Park, I whipped out my senior citizen Golden Pass….a little card that admits me and my companions to enter the park free of charge. This little plastic card cost $20.00…..and it has paid for itself many, many times in the past eleven years since I officially took on the status of “senior citizen”. It entitles the owner admittance to all national parks, national monuments…..and almost anything else operated by the United States government…..along with selected state parks, too. If you are not already a senior citizen……hurry up, so you can get one of these. Yellowstone National Park….what can I say about it that probably already hasn’t been said a millions times before? Probably nothing. OK. One thing I can say was that this was the first time Fayez had been there….obviously. And, I was hoping that it would live up to my advance advertising campaign. It is probably true to say that a person’s first visit to Yellowstone is always their best. This may not always be true…..but there is nothing like seeing a geyser or a bubbling mud volcano or the yellow walls of the canyon….or the spectacular water falls…. or a herd of bison…..or sitting and waiting for Old Faithful to erupt…..for the first time. I had already been to Yellowstone perhaps twenty times; in fact, I worked in Canyon Village for three months one summer back in 1989. Geysers and bison are nothing new to me. The one thing that stood out for me on this trip was the amount of snow! We entered the south gate, and on our way to the Loop Road, snow was piled up seven or eight feet on both sides. I arrived in Yellowstone about the same time in 1989…..and the only snow that I saw was on the mountain peaks. It was obvious that Canyon Village, where I worked, had been drifted shut until very recently. The parking lot had been cleared to make space for the cars to park….but there were mounds of freshly piled snow which covered the entire parking lot. Dunraven Pass, up north of Tower Falls, the highest road in the Park, was closed because of snow drifts. This was the point of a major annoyance….not to mention inconvenience. It would have been considerate for the park service to post signs at the major junctions leading up north around the Loop: “Warning: Road Closed Ahead”. Instead, the chose to spring it as a surprise about one mile from the spot where the road was actually closed. After forty miles of driving, our only option…except to utter a few unkind words….was to turn around and retrace our route. Forty plus forty equals 80 miles! The only advantage was that Fayez got a chance to look at the scenery twice. By this time, he had stopped looking for camels, though. What did we do while we were there? We walked some of the boardwalks through the geyser basins, looking at the almost surreal, barren landscape of mineral covered earth with steam or bubbling water or bubbling mud rising out of the ground. We saw too many water falls to mention by name….except for the water falls of the Yellowstone Canyon, where the Upper and Lower Falls paint a spectacular picture as they cascade down the Yellowstone River. We saw an abundance of wildlife….bison, elk, moose, eagles. And, we saw thousands of annoying Japanese tourists scurrying around like little insects….acting as rude, annoying and inconsiderate as they usually act…..walking through camera shots….hogging the best camera view while each one of them had his picture taken….multiple times…. Motioning for other to step aside so they can take their picture….. I have thought for a long time what every national park should be closed one day a week….and open only to Japanese tourists. That will be their day at the park…..and leave the other six days so normal tourists can enjoy it. Oh yes…..we also saw Old Faithful…..but only barely. We arrived at the site of Old Faithful….and it is almost impossible to miss it. It is usually fairly easy to tell when the famous geyser is about to erupt. Old Faithful is the only attraction in the Park that has its own grandstand…..two or three rows of wooden benches which form a ninety degree semi-circle around the geyser. When it begins to fill up with people, this is a good sign that the geyser will erupt soon. When we arrived, there were virtually no people there….a sign that it would be a while before the next dazzling performance. Old Faithful erupts at intervals of about 65 minutes or so. With time on our hands, we started walking the boardwalk trail out into the Old Faithful Geyser Basin. As we started walking, we heard two women talking….and breaking one of my rules…..I overheard one of the women say to her companion that Old Faithful would erupt again at….I don’t remember exactly….but let’s say 4:00. It was only about 3:10, so we had plenty of time to walk slowly, take pictures, and make it back to Old Faithful with time to spare. We made it back to Old Faithful, took a seat on the front row bench to wait for the water show. And we waited….and waited….and waited. Apparently I had been somewhat gullible…..and I was being rewarded for listening in on other people’s conversations. We had obviously gotten there too late….although more and more people began to filter in and take a seat. After thirty or thirty-five minutes, the geyser started belching out small spurts of steam and water…..sort of a prelude to the main event….like it always does before it erupts. Suddenly, however, the skies opened up, and we here being pelted with hail stones….assaulted by Mother Nature…..the same Mother Nature who had created Yellowstone in the first place. This was no gentle rain…..it was a serious “I am going to get you.” hail storm. Hundreds of people immediately ran for shelter…..leaving only the old, the sick, and the weak behind. And…..yes, I was one of those people! After a few minutes of debate and consideration, Fayez and I it would be wise for us to head for shelter, also. So….as briskly as we could….and that was not very brisk….we made our way to the near-by Yellowstone Lodge….although the word near-by is completely relative in this case. All the time, the hail continued to pound us. If you have ever been caught in a hail storm, you probably already know that hail can hurt! Sort of like having somebody throws little stones at you…..and all of little rocks hit you! We sat in the main lodge, which is a spectacular site in itself….constructed entirely of logs…with giant tree trunks holding up the roof and the 360 degree balcony or mezzanine. After a few minutes we saw people leaving. Apparently the storm was over….it passed as quickly as it had come. We left, too. Just as we rounded the Lodge to head back to our car, Old Faithful began to erupt. We quickly began to take pictures. Not exactly front row seats…..but certainly within perfect camera range. We got our pictures of Old Faithful, after all. It must has been Mother Nature’s way of saying, “I’m sorry about the hail.” And, we accepted the apology. Our two nights in West Yellowstone were unremarkable. We defied the motel rules and fixed our supper in our room. We sneaked the rice cooker into our room and dined on steamed rice, topped with mixed vegetables and picante sauce. The motel didn’t burn down, so we felt somewhat vindicated by the wanton disregard for motel rules. And….we had our choice: eat in our room….or spent twenty five or thirty dollars eating in one of West Yellowstone’s many restaurants, And, that would have been one of the cheap ones. Our brief sojourn in Yellowstone National Park was coming to an end. Fayez seemed to be more impressed by the vast mountain vistas, by the water falls, and the Hayden Valley than he was in the geysers and the mud volcanoes. I think he enjoyed seeing the buffalo and the other wild life….but not nearly as much as I. Maybe he just isn’t an animal person. And, let’s face it…..Yellowstone doesn’t have any camels! Without a doubt, the foremost thing that you must see is “Beryl Spring”…..an awesome sight….one that you will carry in your memories for years to come. Seriously, though…..Yellowstone was an awesome experience….for both of us. Do I hear somebody asking, “What advice can you give to somebody who is visiting Yellowstone for the first time?’ Good….because I am going to give you some. Try to spend at least two days in the Park. It is a huge place. Don’t be one of the “stop and shoot” tourists….the kind who leaves the car running, jumps out, takes a pictures….and then drives on to the next stop. Even if you can spend only ten or fifteen minutes at each of the natural features, it is better than none at all. Turn the car off, get out, walk around, take some pictures. At least, you can say that you were really there. Better yet….if you have the time….and if you are physically able….walk some of the paths….get as close to the geysers, the water falls, the canyon as possible….while still obeying the rules and regulation of the park. If there are explanatory signs….read them. They will tell you a lot about the park….and how it was formed. Take a lot of pictures….but remember….you are not the only ones wanting to take pictures from the best spots, so be courteous and quick. Do you thing….and then let other people have their turn…. do you hear that, all of you Japanese? And, obey all the signs….the rules and regulations. They are their for a purpose: to keep you safe, and to preserve the park for future generations. OK. Now it is time to pack our stuff into the car….and move on to those “wild Montana skies” and our next destination.