Day 59 - Sunday, September 14, 1997

We started today by catching the Redskins game at Bullwinkles, a local pub. There we met a few other folks from the DC area. It turns out they work in the restaurants by Old Faithful. During the game the satellite transmission got garbled. The first time it got messed up was right before Westbrook made a great catch for a touchdown. We missed the entire play. All we saw was a single frame with Westbrook being congratulated. We had to deduce the rest! The next time it went out was in overtime, right after the Redskins got the ball in Arizona territory. All we got was a frame showing Coach Norv apparently running on to the field. He looked happy, so we deduced again that we scored (and therefore won)! What a crazy way to watch a game!

After the game we cruised up to Mammoth Hot Springs inside the park. We enjoyed the scenic Gibbon Falls and more geysers at Norris Geyser Basin. At Mammoth we hiked around the steaming terraces, which are made of travertine, which is calcium carbonate (got that, Harold?) brought to the surface by hot water coming from beds of limestone. The terraces are like nothing you've ever seen (unless, of course, you've already seen them). In the town of Mammoth Springs there were numerous mule deer grazing in the grassy areas just yards away from the sidewalks. This is kind of funny since elsewhere in the park people will stop on the road blocking traffic just to catch a glimpse of them in the woods.

The 45 mile drive out of the park was a long one. First, we got started behind a truck painting the center lines on the road. There's nothing quite like being the first car in line behind the truck placing the cones on the stripes that the truck in front of him just painted! One time the guy placing the cone messed up, so we stopped and Jim fixed it for him. Heck, we had nothing else to do except drive at 15 miles per hour. After about 30-40 minutes they finally let us pass. We didn't go too much faster after that since there were lots of deer on the side of the road and in the road. We had to stop several times to let them cross. Deer may be pretty, but they sure are stupid!