Road Trip Day 6 - South Yellowstone and Gardiner, MT

I'm not sure I'm that into geysers.

After taking a somewhat agonizingly long time to make our way through Yellowstone to Old Faithful and eventually to our home base in Gardiner, Montana, that's the conclusion I came to. The highlight of the day for me was actually coming to the realization that people in other parts of the country are so...NICE. I've long suspected that San Franciscans can be a little frosty (I think it's the fog and bad parking), and it's not much better in LA (I think it's the haze and paparazzi) - and today, I put my stake in the ground. We Californians just aren't the friendliest bunch - at least not in our own state. But it's been all smiles since we hit the road - especially when it comes to Moby.

But people still say the damndest things. For example, take the nice man from San Bernardino we met at Old Faithful (yes, that's California - but again, the rules change when you leave the state). He approached us with his two boys (and later his wife, who looked kind of like Kenny's mom from South Park - sorry, she did) to ask about Moby's breed. We're talking and all is going well until he talks about how he acquired his own dog, who is apparently a 45-pound version of Moby. He explains to us he was out paintballing, and he and his buddies heard something rustling in the bushes. He thought it was a bobcat, so he got out his knife (which of course, you carry on you at all times) and was prepared to "gut it." Pause here. Now I might alternatively suggest you simply move away from the bobcat rather than stab it. But hey, different strokes. Back to the story, turns out the "bobcat" was his now dog. Way to go, buddy. Good thing you didn't kill your dog.

We continued to meet really nice, if not insane, people all day. And of course, we continued to see the standard morons who get out of their cars off the side of the road to approach, you know, a small herd of bison with a calf, for example. Go ahead, dude. Be our bait so that the bison will look up and we can capture the photo from the car.

Speaking of insane...I invested in the most horrible idea ever for our tour through Yellowstone for these couple of days. It's called the "Gaper Guide." Now, when described online, it sounded to me like a navigational device cum tour guide - perfect for the car-centric Yellowstone experience. Turns out it's a talking moose with a gaggle of strange animal and tree friends, as well as the ghost of President Roosevelt. I'm going to take a moment to allow you to absorb that. Perhpas that's why the woman gave us that, "And don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out" look when we picked up the device yesterday. It is the most horribly annoying little thing ever, and provides absolutely no useful information at all. It spent the better part of the day calling out scenic overlooks once we'd already passed them, "super secret cool spots" that were populated by dozens, and random historical facts without any context. I hate you, Gaper Guide.

The day eventually wrapped up in a new state. Gardiner is certainly everything you'd expect a town right outside an entrace into the world's largest national park to be - kitschy. The "true Montana steakhouse" next door to our Best Western certainly did not meet my expectations...more on that in my Yelp review. But after two nights without a TV in our hotel room, we'll deal. Depriving guests of this standard feature during the Olympics is totally uncivilized.

Until the next post...Michael Phelps, you're a God. Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson, thank you for bringing pride back to American female gymnastics, all but lost after Kerri Strug's one-legged vault. And Tyson Gay...please don't be on steroids.