A Side Adventure (1/15/2015)

How can there be more adventure when the Yellowstone trip ended Sunday and I got home Tuesday night? I've been to work two days already! Well, this blog entry isn't about my adventure, it's about my suitcase's adventure.

When I arrived in Boston Tuesday night, one of my bags was on the carousel, but not the other--not the black bag, which I borrowed from my mom to bring home all the good stuff I purchased while in Albuquerque. I found a very nice Southwest baggage claim staff member and she filled out the paperwork to initiate the search and promised to call to keep me posted. At noon, I had a message from her saying it hadn't arrived yet but they were continuing to watch for it. Then Kristin, our great administrative assistant, got a call from Logan Lost and Found. They had my suitcase. It had been found at the car rental terminal. What?! I didn't go anywhere near the car rental terminal. No one quite knows how it got there. We have to assume that someone accidentally picked up this bag thinking it was their own and then figured out it wasn't theirs. But why did they ditch it at car return? If they were coming back to Southwest to pick up their bag, why didn't they just bring my bag back at the same time? The baggage claim people and I could not imagine any other scenarios.

In my Tuesday night conversation at Southwest, they said they would FedEx my bag to me in Farmington when they did get it. But now it's obvious this isn't Southwest's issue. They got my bag to Boston, I just didn't get it off the carousel before someone else did. The Lost and Found person explains how they can get my bag to UPS for me. It will cost $20 plus packaging and shipping. I decide to call Southwest to let them know they're off the hook, but also to ask them how much it would cost to use their FedEx service. No way, they say. It's still their responsibility and they will pay to get my suitcase to me. Even though it's clearly not their fault, they're going to get my suitcase to me! The agent calls Lost and Found then calls me back. The FedEx guy has already come for his last run of the day, but she convinced him to come back and get my suitcase, so she personally ran over to lost and found to pick it up and get it to the FedEx guy.

By the time I finished, I had worked with three different Southwest agents and two Logan Lost and Found agents. All of them were kind, generous, understanding, knowledgable, and easy to talk to. And then there's the Fed Ex guy. Heaven only knows how many different folks my adventuresome little suitcase had encounters with. Hopefully there was only the one scummy person who didn't take responsibility for his/her actions and that all the other people it encountered were as awesome as the folks I encountered.

And tonight when I got home from work, look who was waiting for me at my front door.

I LUV SOUTHWEST AIRLINES!!

"The End" of The Yellowstone Adventure (1/13-14/2015)

This blog entry is about one of my travels, so it goes in my travel blog. But it *ends* up in Maine with an adventure that could only happen in Maine and so it belongs in my Life with the Mainiacs blog, too. It's a double entry.

I had 36 hours in Denver and then it was time to pack it all back up and head out again. I acquired a lot of goodies in Albuquerque, so I borrowed a suitcase from my mom. I was able to stuff my purse into my usual carryon, so now I can check two (the black bag and the big orange bag) and take two on board... a carryon bag (the smaller orange bag) and a personal item (the orange striped bag. With enough wheels and straps and creativity and agility, I can actually make my way into the airport without any assistance. What a traveler!

On Dec. 18, when I left, I drove to Boston and Rodney and I did an amazing car swap. I picked him up at Logan's terminal C and he dropped me off at terminal E. Then he had the use of my car for the 9 days he was in town and parked my car at the Portland Transportation Center on Dec. 27. It saved me paying 9 days of parking and he got the use of a car. Pretty cush deal. This is the photo he sent me to show me where my car was parked.

This is what it looked like on Jan. 13 when I arrived in Portland. Can you tell that the holiday travel crunch is over? Can you tell that they had some snow after Rodney left and before I got back?

Check out the snow and ice on my car. Actually, if you're going to have ice on your car, this is what you hope for... a layer of soft fluffy snow first, then a layer of ice. I got the bonus of more fluffy snow on top of that. It made it sooo easy to get the ice off. It was like a reverse oreo...two layers of soft icing with a hard cookie on the inside. I was actually able to lift the ice off in sheet and just toss them on the ground. The top layer of snow went with the ice and didn't add any weight. A simple brush took off the rest. It took some time and in 7 degree weather, it was a little chilly, but all in all, it wasn't bad at all. Except for the part where my doors were frozen shut. I couldn't get into my car! It doesn't matter how clear the outside of your car is if you can't get in.

 

In desperation, I tried the trunk. Well, that opened. Uh oh. Was that really my only choice of solution? Hmmmm. I looked online using my phone to see if I could google any other ideas. There really weren't any good ones I hadn't tried except the one with the blow dryer and the one with boiling water, neither of which I had access to. I could call AAA, but I really didn't feel like waiting 30 minutes or more in the cold in the lonely parking lot. So I plucked up my courage, fought off a few thoughts of claustrophobia, and crawled in. I released the two back seat releases, pushed the seats down, and wiggled and crawled my way into the car where I was able to open the doors from the inside. I was so tempted to take a selfie, but it physically wasn't possible. So we will just have to use our imaginations. Does the picture that popped into your imagination make you laugh? I was laughing the whole time. Fortunately, my car started right up and after the very nice bus station employee let me back into the building to use the facilities and to pay the $4 rate instead of the $6 rate at the exit, I was on my way home. It was actually January 14 by the time I got home. Today was a very long day.

Somehow this was a fitting "End" to this crazy trip. Though I didn't get a selfie of "the end," I did notice a security camera in the parking lot. Let me know if you see my adventure on YouTube.

Last Day (1/11/2015)

Even with an extra day added, our time in Yellowstone was too short. Our last day arrived. We are scheduled for an 8:30 departure on one of the bombardiers. Sunrise isn't until 8:00 so it was dark when we checked out of our cabin and made our way to the main lodge. They provide little sleds for guests to use to get their luggage back and forth. They work quite well! We had two orange ones the first day. But this morning, I got one of the cool tie-dyed looking sleds. I'm sure it worked better because of the great colors. That funny haze is the reflection of my flash on the steamy fog coming off the snow. It's really cold this morning.

 After breakfast we boarded our bomb and headed out. There are only two stops on the way back to Flagg Ranch. And it's downhill, so this trip is much shorter than the trip from Flagg to Snow Lodge. We stopped at Kepler Cascades. It was fun to see it in daylight after listening to it in the dark the first night. I'm not sure what the warning sign is trying to warn me of, but it's a great icon.

We had intermittent sunshine and clouds on the way out. Are those the Tetons?

 Yellowstone and The Grand Teton National Park are practically intertwined. Instead of going through Jackson, we cut off an hour of drive time by heading east at Moran Junction.

from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_Grand_Teton_National_Park.jpg, in the public domain

Somehow, we managed to go in and out of the Tetons and back in again. It was the only sign we saw of the Tetons, so to us, we were leaving the Tetons and here's a sign to prove it...sorta.

Wyoming is a B I G state. And most of it is remote and wide open. We drove for over two hours with no cell service. Fortunately, there were enough AM radio stations carrying the Broncos game that we were able to keep up with the news. After about 7 hours of driving, we ended up in a bad snow storm and still had another 2 hours to go. It was a very long day. But we made it safely to our destination in Denver.

Happy Birthday, Karen! Look what birthday adventures you would've had had you come with us.

Stay on the Trail (1/10/2015)

This little adventure was in the middle of our walk on the Upper Geyser Basin Trail. We're just hiking along, enjoying the scenery, when Rodney looks at some footprints in the snow. He looks to see where they lead and suddenly, notices what had made the tracks. Do you see it?

Look a little closer.

That's a 2,000 pound bison less than 100 feet from us. They can tell the humans to stay on the trail, but the bison can go wherever they want. It's just sitting quietly in the snow, chewing its cud, going nowhere and saving energy. Yep. We are definitely in Yellowstone.

Geysers and Geezers (1/10/2015)

The day we arrived, we knew we needed to change our plans. Ride 4 hours, do stars at night, do an 8-hour photography tour the next day, the next day do another long ride to leave. Too much, too fast, and too much time in a bombardier. So after dinner the first night, we extended our visit by one day. So today is our "bonus" day. 24 hours of not being in a bomb and time to soak it all in. I started my day with a Belgian hot chocolate, made with cream, butter, and Belgian chocolate. Oh my, oh my!! Oh, there was a yummy breakfast that went with it.

Our photography friends said their plan for today was to take "The Geysers and Geezers Tour." So we decided to do that, too. We walked the 2+ mile loop through the Upper Geyser Basin to Morning Glory Pool.

  

Giant Geyser is currently pretty inactive (last eruption January 2005), but when it blows, it's giant! 200-250 feet, expelling over a million gallons of water over a 1 to 1.5 hour period. I was fascinated with the fact that the "large sinter shroud surrounding Giant Geyser's vent may be an indication of the geyser's great age. The slow accumulation of mineral (1 to 2 inches every 100 years) indicates that Giant could be thousands of years old."

Morning Glory pool, which isn't as glorious as it once was. Humans throw things into the pool which change the thermal dynamics and cause the water temperature to drop, which changes which organisms can live in the pool and where and it's the organisms that give the pools their color. It's still pretty amazing.

Riverside Geyser erupted for about 15 minutes while we were there. And guess who else was there... the Geezers! We walked the rest of the trail back to Old Faithful with them. It was a delightful end to our walk.

The Photo Safari Comes to an End (1/9/2015)

There are two hatches on the top of the bombardier. Sometimes when we stopped, we were so close that if we had gotten out of the bomb, we would've disturbed the animals, so we would take turns standing up and taking our pics out the roof of the bombardier. Here Lisa (our guide and teacher) and Rodney happen to represent the spirit of the day: photography and phun.

We ended up staying too long (too many great stops) and so had to hurry home. This is the area that was covered in fog at our first stop just a few short hours ago. There really is a lot of geothermal activity in this park!

We shared the road most of the day with caravans of snowmobilers.

Sunset and steam.

Old Faithful (1/9/2015)

What's a trip to Yellowstone without a visit to Old Faithful. We met up with our friends from the photo safari...the four of them know each other from days of yore in Pennsylvania; the one couple has since moved to Idaho. What a fun way to get back together with old friends! There's a group shot of the six of us that one of them is going to send to us. Actually, Cindy is going to create a DropBox account we can all use to share our pics with each other. Anyway, this was a great way to end a great day, followed by a yummy dinner with a great waitress and some delicious wine. Now this is a vacation.

Lunch and then Wildlife (1/9/2015)

There was a "warming hut" set up at one of the parking lots. It was just a trailer with a big heater, some benches, and a little concession stand. We had all purchased sack lunches the night before and Lisa picked them up for us. We sat on the benches in the warming hut and ate lunch. A little bonus action was that the engine in a different kind of snow coach had caught fire and the driver pulled into this parking lot to let out his passengers and extinguish the fire. It was all out by the time we arrived, but the stories were good and we got to see Yellowstone firefighters in action (they came to double check that all was well). There were no injuries or loss of material goods.

Pretty close up on a bison.

Same bison, different angle. In the background, the three formations on the side of the hill are called "The Three Brothers." This is actually a shot that Lisa described as a good landscape picture with good composition...she didn't know I'd already taken this shot when she was telling others it would be an interesting composition. Yay me for having composed a good shot. As Rodney says, "Even a blind squirrel can find a nut sometimes."

Eagle!! This shot was taken out the hatch on the bombardier. He would land for just a few minutes, then move on down river a hundred feet or so and perch for a few more minutes. Not bad for iPhone zoom.

 Three coyotes.

 One of the coyotes got nice and close.

Lady elk.

Video would've been better. These ducks were pretty fun to watch as they simultaneously dove underwater and then would emerge as a group in a different location.

Photographer's Haven--Firehole Falls (1/9/2015)

There was a lot to learn about a special technique for photographing waterfalls. It involved the largest F-Stop possible (smallest aperture), plus a low ISO and a long shutter opening...or some such combination like that. The light and shadows kept changing which made it all very interesting. I was too busy just soaking it all in.  Turns out, there was some good people watching at this location as well. At least 5 other tour groups in bombs stopped by and probably 5 or 6 snowmobile caravans. Somehow, they all managed to get out, get the shot, and get going again. But we stayed and learned and enjoyed.

Some photographers will go to great lengths (or in this case, great depths) to get just the right photo.

We got our photography teacher to take our photo. :-)
Note that I'm wearing a headband/ear warmers and a hoodie and my new extra warm coat with a hood. Layers will save you when the day starts at 8 below.

Photo Safari Rest Stop (1/9/2015)

Nature's beauty is everywhere, including these trees right in the rest stop.

 Hmmmm. Weather doesn't look too good right now. This is the road ahead of us.

 We did spot this lone bison on the plain. The real photographers got some great shots.

Photo Safari Journey (1/9/2015)

I got to ride shotgun in the bombardier today so I got the great road shots. You can see the sun came out and the skies got bluer, yet the snow stayed white and pristine and beautiful...on the trees and on the ground.

 A stop by a big rock.