Last night started off on the hot side but later cooled for great sleeping with the windows open. I headed for the showers. Discovered that, after all that laundry, I had forgotten to wash my jeans which I had put in the suitcase since my dirty bag was full! Necessity is the Mother of Invention. I wore my jeans to the showers and washed them while I wore them! Took 'em off and finished my shower to later use my towel to roll them up in. Will dry them in the back window of the car today where it's always sunny and hot.
Today began with our usual 6am natural wake-up. I just love not having an alarm clock go off! Stretching, coffee, bathroom jaunt and breakfast and we're out the door by 9am for our hike of the hot spring formations that overlook Mammoth.
This is the perfect time of day with the least amount of tourists and the paths all to ourselves for great photography without tons of people in the shot. Not that I don't like people but crowds are not my thing.
We spent 2 hours on our hike and returned to our room for the daily downloading of photos, journal writing and I snuck in a nap for over an hour. Felt divine. Made a General Store stop and a purchase and headed to the center of town for our drive to Gardiner, Montana and this wifi internet café at 2pm.
What is this greeting us in the center of Mammoth? Over 35 elk! The rangers were out to keep visitors safe. He said, “The elk have a great deal of patience but short tempers.” And he didn't want anyone getting hurt. They kept all of us at a safe distance but we were able to get off some good shots of the largest gathering behind the Visitors' Center. Hope you enjoy the photos. I told the ranger that the visitors to the park didn't realize that WE are the zoo inhabitants in our cars and the wildlife were viewing us!
In Mammoth, due to the free-roaming elk, many of the bushes and beautiful flower plantings are covered with fencing to keep the elk from eating them. As you can see from one of the pictures here, they eat the plants down to the stem.
We reached the Internet Café, ordered hot chocolate and settled into a high top with a power plug nearby since we may be sitting here for quite some time to catch up! We each ordered a hot chocolate and paid our $2.50 that gives us internet access for the day. Dinner will be calling us soon and we plan to checkout the western restaurant that also offers a salad bar.
Stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few essentials for our next few days of breakfast and lunch. The man in front of us tried to buy liquor and the cashier informed him that in Montana, you can only buy beer and wine on Sundays. I didn't realize it was even Sunday.
Outlaws is a pizza, pasta and salad bar stop so we shared a medium with bacon, chicken,olives and onions and a white sauce instead of the normal red tomato sauce you find on most pizzas. We had half of the pizza leftover and plan to eat the rest for breakfast and lunch. When our waitress returned to bring us our to-go box, I said "I just have to ask you a question." Her reply, "Bulgaria". I said, "Oh. But my question is what perfume are you wearing since it smells wonderful." She blushed a little and said, "Armani Co". With her accent, I guess I'll have to search the Armani fragrances to figure out the rest of it.
Returned to the Internet Cafe for Moose Tracks ice cream and spent some time talking with Lynn, our cashier, who has lived in Gardiner for 30 years. Her boys are in their twenties. Kids in Gardiner, Montana have little to do during the summer except work for motels, gift stores, or restaurants. Many food establishments hire young people from Bulgaria because they are hardworking and willing to work 18 hours a day. They stay for the season (roughly May through the beginning of October) and return home with lots of money. Two town families literally own most of the businesses in the town. There are 250 kids in the K-12 school in Gardiner. The big mall is 2 hours away in Billings and families make a day of it when they drive to the mall, Wal Mart and other shops. Yellowstone also offers courses during the summer for kids who are too young to drive. There is also a resort nearby that allows kids to pay to swim in the spring-heated pool. Not the many choices that our kids back home have to entertain and distract them.
On our way back to Mammoth, the rain had left a double arch of rainbows in the sky. The beauty of this place must be experienced to truly understand our national park wilderness. I'm so glad that we will continue to save it for future generations to enjoy as well.
Should have internet access tomorrow when we reach Red Lodge, Montana and the Yodeler Motel for the night. Will download and add photos to this blog tomorrow.
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