I was ten years old; Reagan was on his second term for President. I have a twin and older brother that were with me when we were being guided by my Grandparents for a wonderful trip to Yellow Stone National Park.
Grandpa liked to smoke his pipe as we drove in the motor home going from place to place. My brothers and I loved the smell of his tobacco, but the dog disagreed. Our pet would lean across us and try and push us out of our seats to get as close as possible to the window when Grandpa would light up. We all loved to travel. It was always special to have a “house” on the road for all of our travel needs. While driving, however, we could never figure out how Grandpa could get the letters off of the license plates before us, while playing the alphabet game. Not until I learn to drive did I figure it out – those darn review mirrors!
Grandpa and Grandma came to Idaho to pick us three up for the summer with them. This was always an adventure. Each drive across the United States we drove a different route to see new parts of this great country of ours. This year we headed to Yellow Stone National Park. In our prep for the trip Grandpa told us stories of all the wild life that we could have the potential to see. The catch was that we needed to be on our good behavior, which was the key to having good luck to get the chance of seeing all the great wild life Yellow Stone protects.
Since we were on our best behavior that any young boys could be expected to have, we had great luck! We stayed three days in a campground, with each day visiting a new section of the park. Boy oh boy was the wild life out and about! We saw buffalo for the first time, even for my Grandfather who was well traveled.
The first day a very large moose also let us know we were on his schedule not ours, and he would clear the road when he was ready. The size of him was just unbelievable for a person of a ten-year-old stature.
Day two brought us to Old Faithful geyser and all the sulfur hot springs we could stand to smell. Grandma particularly liked this part of the trip because she taught biology at the high school in her hometown. We learned about the algae and bacteria that can survive in the extreme temperatures there. I just wondered how they could stand that rotten egg smell in their home.
Day three was the tourist area and gift shop for us to add to our pin collection we started years earlier of all the stops and places we visited. The item I loved most was the wonderful time being a kid with out a care in the world and getting to experience the great outdoors with two of the best Grandparents a child could only dream of. I miss them even now. I can’t wait until Yellow Stone comes up on a trip with my boys. I hope they get that feeling of wonder that I received.