The Adventure Begins...

The adventure begins, or should I say continues? It has been a series of misadventures already in preparation for leaving.

This week has been a series of two steps forward and one step back in preparation for leaving. The gps is loaded with multiple geocaches and terracaches along our route, a new map book is in hand (thank you UNT Bookstore!), and the rental lenses for the Frog's camera have arrived, although he is missing the right size circular polarizer. Maybe a stop at a camera store along the way will be in order. (I will talk more about the rental lenses as they are put to use. One is a wide angle lens and one is a zoom lens.)

I identified several possible stops between home and Yellowstone that might be interesting but would require the payment of an entrance fee unless we already have the National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass , but I had not planned to purchase that until we arrived at Grand Teton National Park. Unfortunately it was too late to buy the annual pass online and still get it before we leave. No problem... an online search indicates that the LBJ Grasslands office in Decatur sells them and we will go right by it on our trip. A phone call indicates that they have them, but they will not be open on Saturday when we plan to pass through Decatur. Ok, Plan B...long lunch break. A quick run over there at lunch and I have one in my hot little hand. I triumphantly show the Frog that night that we now have an annual pass. Oh, wait, they did not stamp it correctly and it is LAST year's card. Back I go again to Decatur the next day. I am now a recognizable, frequent customer in the LBJ Grasslands office! (In apologizing for the mistake, the receptionist told me they only sell about two of the annual passes at that location a year. Having now bought two, does that double their count?)

The Frog came home early yesterday to mow the grass before we leave, but the weather gods had other plans. We have not one, but two rain showers before he can get it mowed. What was it, a 10% chance of rain and we get TWO rain showers? What luck! We should have bought a lottery ticket when we can beat those kind of odds! We are hoping it will be dry enough later this morning to accomplish that chore before leaving.

While trying to be quiet this morning I did a quick check of news items related to the national parks. A woman was attacked by a bison in Yellowstone this week when she got too close trying to get a better picture (mental note to self: do not throw items at bison in hopes they will look at the camera). It has been a tough week at Grand Teton National Park, with the death of a college student and a multiple injury from lightning strike event. Hopefully we can avoid those types of problems. Fortuantely there is not much more about the forest fire in Yellowstone, so hopefully that will soon be resolved. We did luck out in one area. I had an initial panic when I saw Vice President Biden was to visit Yellowstone. Fortunately he will be long gone before we arrive.

In case enquiring minds want to know (or watch) here is the page of webcams for Yellowstone: http://www.nps.gov/yell/photosmultimedia/webcams.htm I did watch Old Faithful go off on one of those webcams last weekend. Someone indicated you could see smoke from the forest fires on the Mt. Washburn webcam, but I forgot to look when it was light.

So, what is left to do? Pack. Load the car. Provision the cat. Head out. No problem. The adventure begins...