by Pa Rock
Road Warrior
Yesterday morning I left Interstate 5 in Albany, Oregon, and got on a two-lane road, Highway 20, headed east. At the end of today I am still on that same two lane road, only now I am in Cody, Wyoming. For the most part, the past two days on the road have been backroadsy and very scenic. Highway 20 even goes through Yellowstone National Park. Starting tomorrow I will explore some new roads as I head east toward South Dakota.
There were a couple of spots, like around Boise, where the two-lane melded with an interstate and I had to do some impromptu drag-racing, but for the most part it was two-lane, and I only got turned around a couple of times.
Tonight I am in the Super 8 Hole in Cody, Wyoming, where I have a lovely standard motel room for the unbelievably low price of just $210, supposedly including a discount because I am a "senior," though nowhere near as old as Biden or Trump. The. hotel management is very nice, and the room is clean. The desk clerk made me a hot chocolate while I waited on the rain to subside enough so that I could bring in my luggage. (In truth, the luggage stays in the car, and I carry in boxes and a basket each time I stop. Can you say "hillbilly?")
I stopped at the visitor center at Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho today. I've been there before and done the tour, but today my primary concern was finding a bathroom, and there is a nice one at the visitor's center. While I was there I looked at the exhibits and purchased a book for one of my grandsons and a walking stick for myself. The stick is to help me get up and down while doing yard work or just walking, but it is large and could be used as a fighting staff, similar to the ones Robin Hood and Little John used back in the day.
My close friend and old college roommate, Ranger Bob, worked as a park ranger at Craters of the Moon many years ago, and at one point had a close encounter with Charlton Heston in the park's vast lava fields. I would ask him to expand on that via a comment to the blog, but I don't want to put him on the spot.
My second purely tourist stop was a sojourn through Yellowstone National Park from the West Gate to the East Gate. I get in all of the national parks free with the senior pass that I purchased at the Grand Canyon a dozen years ago. There were only two drives open at the West Gate as I entered, so I assumed that since it was a weekday, there probably were not many tourists in the park. It was my third visit, and I had never encountered crowded conditions before. I was quickly disabused of that assumption.
I hadn't gone more than ten miles inside of the park until I came to the first traffic jam, and it was a doozy. At least a mile of cars in each direction were stopping and starting and moving at a literal snail's pace. I couldn't find a radio station to listen to, and Alexa was not getting a wifi signal, so I amused myself by watching the other tourists. There was a new Ford F-350. pickup in front of me with a male driver and a female passenger. The woman was riding in the backseat and hanging out of first one window and then the other snapping pictures of the geysers letting off steam. She soon began sitting in the truck windows to take the photos, and on several instances she appeared to almost fall out as the driver shot forward two or three feet. I was amazed that she kept her balance and stayed in the truck. I was also amazed that she didn't clobber the driver!
After finally circling the bottom half of the park, which took nearly two hours thanks to two of those monster traffic jams, I finally arrived at the road that would lead me out of the park twenty-six miles later. That road lead higher into the mountains before beginning a very long and steep descent that lasted ten miles or more. I was in the second spot in a small convoy that was doing the 45 m.p.h. speed limit when the lightning started popping and it began to rain in torrents that were even worse than those I had driven through last week in South Dakota. The wind gusts felt like they could send vehicles plummeting thousands of feet down the ravines. But that was not as bad as it was going to get - oh, no! Then the hail started - and me and the little convoy just kept trucking right along at about 25 m.p.h. If there were any mud or rockslides, they happened after I left.
I outran the awful rain about thirty miles outside of Yellowstone, but when I reached Cody and was signing into my bargain room, the desk clerk insisted on taking her own sweet time, even though I told her that a biblical storm was bearing down on her town - and as I finished registering, it caught up with me. It was an hour later before the rain let up enough to get my stuff out of the car - which is some of the reason this blog is so late in getting posted.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
More tomorrow - possibly from the looney bin!
2 comments:
I believe this was the summer of 1970 and I was a seasonal ranger at Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho. I started my shift that day at 10 am. The chief ranger called me into his office to let me know that a celebrity was visiting the park with his family. They would be driving a yellow with brown trim Jeep Wagoneer. He didn’t expect any trouble, but he just wanted me to know.
I went on my patrol. As usual, I stopped at a popular overlook pull-off which was complete with a trail up to the top of a spatter cone (a geologic hill of lava formed by globs of molten rock being frothed up into the air and landing in a semi-solid state. It piles up and hardens as it cools into a cone shape).
Visitors are supposed to stay on the designated trail so that they don’t grind the lava into grit as they walk. I observed a young man about my age at the time (early 20’s) who was “off trail”. I got his attention and asked him to come back to the trail. He complied. I explained to him the reasons why all of us needed to remain on the trail and we began a conversation about volcanic features. I thought to myself that this young man was well-traveled as he compared the volcanic features of CRMO to those of Haleakala National Park in Hawaii. As he talked, his eyes diverted to the top of one of the spatter cones. My eyes followed his and I saw Moses carrying the “Ten Commandments”. It was at that moment that I realized I was taking to Charlton Heston’s son. Charlton was simply watching his son talk to a ranger. Although, he was not wearing a robe and didn’t really have anything in his hands, in my mind’s eye, I clearly recall seeing Moses on the top of that spatter cone back lit by the morning sun.
I went on and stopped at another trail head parking lot. I was visiting with a couple about the park when the yellow and brown Wagoneer went by. I commented that this was Charlton Heston and his family. The man said, “Charlton Heston! Charlton Heston! I’d rather see Charlton Heston than the president! Get in the car, Marge.” They jumped in their car and took off after the Heston’s. I suppose somewhere down the road they caught up and got an autograph and a photo. I suspect they remember the incident as Moses in a robe and carrying the Ten Commandments, too.
Thanks, Bob. That's a great story!
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