America Through My Eyes-Yellowstone -6

America Through My Eyes

Yellowstone -6

Telugu Original : Dr K.Geeta 

English Translation: V.Vijaya Kumar

The final day of the visit to the Yellowstone expedition came to an end.

          We decided to take the western route instead of the southern one when we were coming back. But the route goes through Norris.

          With the previous day’s traffic jam experience due to road repair, we had to give up that route and choose the southern highway. It’s even better in a way. On our way back, we passed Titan Park and Jackson Hole village. So we could see many other sights.

          We vacated our lodge and left very early in the morning. We departed Yellowstone Lake with heavy hearts, preserving the rays of light reflecting on the lake in our memories. A small inconvenience is that I woke up with a fever in the morning.

          We have to move ahead without bothering the fever. I ate and rested all the time after taking a tablet. Satya took driving all day, altogether morning to evening.

          We bid farewell to Lake Village around 9.00 am. It took us another hour to reach Tatton Park crossing West Thumb. A video show had already started in the visiting hub so we waited for the next one. The show was a detailed exposition of the lifestyle of the wildlife. In the winter the national park would be covered under a blanket of snow.

          feasting on those streaming rivulets and pressing the bubbling snowy light to the eyes, we passed ahead the hills and dales, rivers and lakes.

          We reached Jackson Hole by lunchtime. We tracked down the one and only Indian Restaurant. We parked Downtown and circled the Antler decorated Park on foot to the next street. There it is bright and warm.

          When we were almost certain that we had discovered the Indian Restaurant that we were hunting for, there we found a “closed” board on it. That’s Tuesday. To those remotely run Indian restaurants people come only on weekends so they closed it perhaps. Our hunt continued for another half an hour for the American Restaurants in the neighborhood as we gave up the idea of searching for any other Indian Restaurant because of lack of time and patience.

          We have already filled our stomachs with outside junk, so we lost our appetite for any food. Finally, we stepped ahead towards a comprehensive Restaurant cum Bakery at least to fill our stomachs with some cakes.

          The children preferred Pasta and we confined ourselves to some soups. There the children were given elastic strings that could be made into many shapes to play with. The children enjoyed making shapes and we ate something that can’t be named.

          When we were about to wind up our trip, bidding farewell to Jackson, we found something worthy of a sightseeing location from our online search: a ropeway to travel to the nearby snow hill. 

          As we strongly decided to go there, we drove there. It’s very far. The GPS location is as usual wrong. After a bad long drive, somehow we got it but it was delayed.  

          By the time I parked the car and bought the tickets to travel on the ropeway to the hills from near the board “Jackson Village” it was 4 p.m.

          We still have another 350 miles to go. However, we went up to come quickly.

          A very cold wind started blowing. I remembered Lake Tahoe. But it’s a shorter journey than that. There was no snow in the lowlands but on top of the mountains. As far as the eye can see beyond the mountains, there was much more snow on the mountains.

          As we reached the top of the mountain, getting down from the ropeway, we were engulfed by a biting cold wind and also some amazing views. All of a sudden we started shivering as the warmth was gone.

          Even in such a biting cold wind, Siri was stubborn not getting down from the rocks. Going there is an unforgettable experience, and standing on the top of the mountains makes the mind thrilled with the joy of reaching the sky. We felt pride in traveling over clouds. I would like to fly over every mountain peak rising steeply in the gusty wind with my wings. 

          It was 5 p.m. when we came down. We were in a hurry then and there was no time to stop anywhere else that day. We can reach Salt Lake City only by 10 pm. though we start immediately.

          The fever, which I quieted down with medicine in the morning, flared up due to the cold air before we left Jackson. And for the rest of that day’s journey, my job was to sit and whine. No more patience to get down anywhere. I did not know when I was sleeping and when I was awake. The children slept well.

          While coming, instead of taking the scenic course, we took the fastest freeway in the state of Idaho. Satya drove very fast (in fact, you shouldn’t go more than 70 mph on the freeways here) and arrived in Salt Lake City by nine-thirty.

          The flight is at 6 o’clock the next morning. So we should get up at four o’clock and get ready. I don’t know how we could manage to wake up as we were so tired after traveling all day.

          The funniest thing of all happened on the way back the next day.

          After the children and we were ready, we left the hotel at 4.30 am. We suddenly remembered that it was a rental car from the Airport, and we should hand it over only after filling the tank of the car with petrol. 

          We turned back to finish the work in another ten minutes. We didn’t know how wrong it was at that moment. There was no petrol station anywhere nearby. We drove back 6 miles in search of a petrol station. While returning after filling petrol, the road was blocked due to road construction and was delayed for another 15 minutes.

          The GPS address we set to return to the airport took us to “Salt Lake City Air Base! After we got the correct address we came to the actual airport, returned the car, and ran to the check-in. At the check-in, we were delayed due to the water bottles in our handbags. At the last minute of the flight, we arrived like the last passengers.

          It was an unforgettable bitter experience for us, who were always well-planned. All those events that happened that day prevented us from boarding the flight. However, we reached Sanoje safely. The rash of mosquito bites remained until another month after coming home.

*****

(Rest in the next part)