My Last Day of Work…

September 30 was my last day of work before retiring from a potato processing company in Idaho Falls. I am now officially “reDeploying”!

To celebrate this life milestone, my wife, Lisa and I decided to take a three-week road trip to Shawnee, Kansas to visit our son, his wife, and our fifteen month-old grandson. Our route to Kansas would take us through Yellowstone National Park (we’ve lived less than two hours away for the last six years but never had/taken the time to explore it), the Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument, Mount Rushmore National Monument, Badlands National Park, and Fort Pierre National Grassland. I was in Lassen National Park hiking with some good friends the weekend of September 21, so picked up an Annual National Park Inter-agency Pass to save a little on entrance fees on our Road Trip to Kansas.

The first day was awesome! Yellowstone is a beautiful place, similar to but much different from the Lake Tahoe National Forest and Yosemite National Park where we’ve visited several times in the past. We wanted to take the Grand Loop north and south but the road south of Tower Falls was already closed for winter. No problem. We took the Norris Canyon/Grand Loop roads by the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, Yellowstone Lake, and Old Faithful. We saw gorgeous terrain, deer, elk, bison, and several species of raptors. It was foggy, making it difficult to enjoy some of the vistas. And it rained. But we had a great time driving, talking, and beginning this adventure together.

Old Faithful is incredible. I am a scientist at heart. The geological activity all around Yellowstone is absolutely fascinating to me. What makes Old Faithful so amazing is that fact that it erupts every 90 minutes, +/- 10. This cycle occurs naturally, with no human intervention. Crazy!

4:04 pm was the time of the eruption during our visit there, or sometime between 3:54 and 4:14 pm. I was standing next to a young family as rain started to fall and they were debating how to get their daughter the best view of the eruption. They were having a private moment in public. The mother got frustrated as time went on. She seemed to think that the predicted time of eruption should be more accurate. After hearing her make a reference to what would happen if they ran her bank on this schedule, I reflected on how impatient I’ve been about so many simple things in life over which I have no control. This small life-lesson was just the beginning of what we would learn on the Road Trip to Kansas.