The Yellowstone Diary

Its been a while since I wrote a travelogue. Actually, let me think ... have I written one at all ? Maybe not. Oh well, here is my first one then.

The first thought

Goody. So where should I start, hmmm lets see ...[The camera pans back, and slowly zooms in to the emanating steam from my coffee mug ... and we flash back to January 1999] ....

The snow is still fresh and white. Supratik has come to Maryland for our hallowed wing-reunion and we drive up north to Boston, for the event. And then in one of the lunches at high noon, someone proposed the next meeting venue ... How about Yellowstone this summer ? Supratik was excited ... Oh why dont you guys come to the wasteland, I call home ... Arizona, that's where he subsists, ... and we can all drive for 10-15 hours and reach Yellowstone. Yeah, right ! Like we all were dying to drive round in circles through the desert.

To Yellowstone or not to Yellowstone

So it turned out, that I was having to go westwards in August 1999. And guess what, I will be only 700 or so miles off Yellowstone. Maybe this is a good opportunity, what says ?

Ring, ring ... Hey Supra, what are the chances of you making it to Yellowstone actually. Maybe not a wing re-union, but we can pull in a few heads and make that stray thought real ? Two choices : Aug 11-14, or Aug 21-24. Okay, lets try the latter. And so where do we sync ? Fine, we will meet at the Salt Lake City airport and then drive from there. See you on 21st morning then.

And so Supra has to get the all the camping stuff (didnt I already mention we will be camping ? No ... ok, now you know). And I had to get myself. One other head agreed to join us, Giri's. All's settled.

The night before


Okay, so I am all set. Things are ready. Another call to Supra. So where do we meet. My flight reaches first. So I walk over to the gate where your flight arrives. We will meet there. Even if any of the flights get delayed, we will meet at the gate of your flight. And don't miss your flight. Get up in time and reach the airport in time. Yeah, yeah, neither will I.

Rendezvous SLC

And so I am up early. Its 5.25am when I leave for the airport. The flight's at 6.05am. Lots of time. I reach the airport at 5.40am, or was it 5.45am ? And disaster strikes. The flight's overbooked. My seat reservation has been released !! Its 6.05am. I stand near the gate, and slowly watch the aircraft disappear into the distant runway ... and off skywards. Merde ! Feel like suing the airline. Their next flight overbooked too !!

Supra reaches Salt Lake City. He and Giri get their flight, and arrive on time. I am not at the gate to meet them. Oh well, I must have gone to get a bite or something. Time rolls on. No me in sight. He calls home. Finds my message on his answering machine ... Supra I missed my flight. Will keep you posted. Merde, again !

Ah, finally, I get a seat for Salt Lake City. To reach Salt Lake City at 3.30pm. Hope Supra waits for me. The flight routes me through San Francisco !! And so I land at San Francisco at 12.30pm. Lunch break. The biggest worry is, how do I get in touch with Supra. [I should have called his home answering machine, a simple solution which I overlooked since I was not sure that he will check his answering machine - Ed.] And so I call Salt Lake City airport. Could you please page passenger Supra and inform him that I will be arriving on flight (whatever the flight number was) at 3.30pm. Thank you !

Meanwhile in Salt Lake City, Supra and Giri are getting into indecision. Supra knows that I missed my flight, but has no clue whether I will be able to make it. He is wondering whether they should move on to Yellowstone without me, or how long they should wait. They go and get the rental car that we had booked. At this crucial moment, in booms the voice of an announcer over the public announcement system ... paging passenger Supra ... your friend .... blah blah blah ... coming on flight from San Francisco at 3.30pm. San Francisco !!! How the hell did I get to San Francisco ... thats what crosses Supra's mind. He heard the announcer wrong, he thinks.


The flight from San Francisco to Salt Lake City was without any unwanted excitements. The flight lands as scheduled. I step out as the last passenger from the aircraft ... and lo behold ... Supra is waiting, almost certain that I have missed the flight yet again, or that he is waiting at the wrong gate.

We exchange gaalis, greetings. How difficult is it to reach the airport in time ? I did : the airline screwed up. And so we rendezvous.


And we hop into the car and drive drive drive ...

Road to Grizzly Town

The ride was simple and easy ... well, at least the first chunk of it. Around 8.30pm we were closing in to the entrance of the park. The directions we had took us into some small village roads, and soon we started entering the park ... well, I would have called it deep forests actually. And then nite came upon us. The road soon became unpaved. There was no vehicle going the other way. We were driving at 10 mph ... it was weird !

After an hour on that road, we were forced to stop. A couple of moose (what's the plural of moose ? Moose, right ?) were blocking the road. We didnt know whether to honk at them on not. So we didnt. And they went their way and we went ours. A while later some other small animals came out of nowhere from one side and streaked away into the darkness of the other side. Driving was getting too tiring, and the ride wasnt comfortable either. It was bumpy, with rocks and pebbles all over.

After what seemed like ages, we emerged out of it and ... we didnt believe our eyes ... paved roads ! God knows, why our directions ever guided us through that crazy route.

Around 11.30pm we reached our campground. No, there wasnt any bear scare for the nite. So we unpacked, put our tent up, gobbled through the food and dozed off ... zzzzzzz ... zzzz ... zz ...

Sorry folks ... thats all I have managed to write till now. I am sure to be adding more stuff to this one soon. So do come back and check it out later. Meanwhile enjoy the view of the photographs below.

These were my comments and thoughts. Do you have yours ? If you do, please add them into my GuestBook.

Coming soon (don't know when)

 

Last updated on Aug 2000 
-- Suman