The female crew took forever to get ready. They almost missed breakfast. Interestingly enough, the same staff that greeted me last night, was also at the desk the next morning. Buffalo’s population is only about 5,000 people. All three of the staff members stood outside and smoked as we packed the van up again. It would be a 4-hour drive on the 16 to the Eastern Entrance of Yellowstone National Park. Along the way, we had to stop at Bushes for a restroom break. When we got there, we drove up a mountain through miles and miles of trees. There was snow at the top. Some of the crew got out for a snowball fight. I drove around Lake Yellowstone until I got to West Thumb Geyser Basin. I saw my first geothermal pools and got up close with an Elk. It was 17 miles to Old Faithful. The visitor center parking lot was packed. I quickly found out why. As soon as I found a parking space, I saw water and steam gushing up into the air up over the building. “It’s Erupting Now!” I sprinted to the geyser and caught it dying down to a very small geyser. All but one of the crew members joined me for a picture. Inside the visitor center, the estimated eruption was 4:29 p.m. The next eruption was estimated for 6:12 p.m. Well, that would have to do for me. Katrina suggested watching a 15-minute informational film about Old Faithful to stall time to get back into the van. The plan was to leave to the park at this time. The cars had begun to slow down. Low and behold there were massive bison by the side of the ride. They were everywhere near Biscuit Basin. We got great pictures. I turned into the parking lot of the basin to see more geothermal pools and geysers. It was worth the stop. They were beautiful and colorful- blues, green and orange. Much larger than the first ones I saw. Only Matthew got out and walked the boardwalk with me. Everyone else could not waste their energy because they were starving. Out of the West Entrance and we entered Montana. We got McDonald’s and before I knew it, we were in Idaho. We stopped in Idaho Falls at 10:30 p.m. for the night. It was hard to find a decent priced room. I settled for Comfort Inn. It was disappointing, just a cut above Quality Inn from the previous night. The indoor pool had water in it. The crew argued about the tight sleeping arrangements. Kelsey chose to sleep in her favorite place, the bathtub.
