Day 7

Tuesday

Like the park in Colorado, our camping area in Yellowstone has one centrally located shower building. Since this is the Camp of Ever-Present, All-Invasive Dirt, I was more than happy to take a shower this morning. At least, I was happy until the shower itself. Have you ever had to take a shower that is coin-operated? First bit of advice: don’t plan to enjoy it. The showerhead was an instrument of torture designed by sadists, and I can honestly say this was the most painful shower I’ve taken in my life. The water felt like a hundred needles hammering into my skin, and the water came out so fast that I couldn’t even catch any in my hands to splash on my face—it blasted into my cupped hands so fast that it immediately splashed out. Forget actually putting my face in the water; that would have left visible bruises, I’m sure. The temperature varied from ice water to scalding, which certainly didn’t add much to the ambiance.
Second piece of advice: count your quarters very, very carefully! The shower cost $2.00, quarters only, for six minutes of hot water. After the allotted six minutes, the water reverted to its previous arctic temperatures, and more quarters were required. Since I was not speedy enough to finish rinsing off in less than 6 minutes, and since I didn’t want to spend the day with my hair covered in conditioner, I had to walk three steps back to the changing stall to insert more quarters. Lo and behold, after I put all my remaining quarters in the slot, I was 25¢ short. I could think of no other option than to open my stall door three inches and try to get the attention of someone passing by to help me. I stood there for probably five minutes, dripping and shivering, before I caught the eye of a woman walking by. I quickly explained my dilemma and asked if she’d please run my dollar bill to the change machine just a few feet away so that I could finish my shower. Apparently my face was more pathetic than I realized, because she smiled, handed me back my dollar, and gave me a quarter. I don’t know that I’ve ever been more grateful for 25 cents!

I left the shower building clean, feeling human again, and very, very glad that I’d decided not to bring Kendra and Aspen with me to take showers as well. They would have hated me for years for that experience.

After such an auspicious beginning, though, the day could only go up from there. We were packed and ready to leave by about 10:30, and headed towards the Fishing Bridge (from which, ironically enough, there is no fishing allowed). We were delayed for about ten or fifteen minutes due to construction traffic, and while we were sitting and talking to the kids, Aspen asked for a piece of black licorice. I said no, it’s a treat for later, and we don’t eat in the car. Jeff added that we would eat it when we were stopped. Aspen gave him her Captain Obvious look and said, “Um, Daddy? We ARE stopped.” He had no response to that, mostly because he was laughing too hard. Can’t argue with the truth!

After walking around the Fishing Bridge for a while, and seeing thousands of minnows but no big fish (Jeff saw one, but I didn’t), we hopped back in the car and drove for a little while, stopping in Canyon City for lunch and souvenirs. For this trip, the kids each have their own souvenir budget, and they can choose how to spend it. We’ve talked with them about the amount they have, the number of places we’re going, and we won’t tell them how to spend it or how little or how much they can put on any one item. I did have to specify for the older boys, though, that The Parents reserve the right to veto any purchases of knives or other weaponry. Cue chorus of “Awww, man!” It was interesting to see what each one chose to buy. Both Andrew and Jaden bought bear claw necklaces for themselves, but each of them also purchased a gift for a grandma or a friend. Levi at first picked out a hat—very appropriate, I thought, since we are wearing hats almost every time we’re outside—but the hat lost out to the yellow Pull-Back Action Ranger Truck. Kendra is the proud owner of a pillow featuring a 3D stuffed wolf, and Aspen is carrying around her white bison that she’s dubbed Princess Buffalo.

We finally made it out of Yellowstone at about 4pm. It’s roughly another ten hours of driving to my mom’s house in eastern Washington, and we really didn’t want to drive for another three hours just to unpack the tent and all of our stuff and then have to pack everything back up in the morning, so we’re just going to drive through the night tonight. Stopping at a grocery store in Montana for dinner gave the kids a chance to stretch their legs, and they picked out cheese, crackers, sliced turkey, and Levi decided that we absolutely must have Lighthouse sugar cookies for dessert.

We’re not far from I-90 now, and once we hit that it’ll be a looong ways into Washington. Probably have to stop one more time for gas and a root beer.

Total wildlife spotted in Yellowstone today: 9 bison, one coyote, a pelican, and five elk. I was slightly disappointed that we didn’t see another bear, but I guess you get what you get. Total miles so far today: 150, but we’re not done yet!