Loring News for Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023

This week the weather was nice and warm but cooled off in the evenings. That’s one more positive thing about this area: it can get warm but almost always cools off in the evening! Of course, the wind was still present!

I just got back from a wonderful sibling trip to Yellowstone National Park. My sisters and brother stayed in a VRBO near Emigrant. It had 12 miles of really rough mountain roads, but the bunkhouse was very comfortable, and we played a lot of cards in the evenings and looked at old photos that I had taken down for each sibling. During the daytime, we went to the park on different scheduled vistas. When we drove past Mammoth Hot Springs, we spotted an elk lying under a big tree chewing his cud. It was beautiful and I understand how tourists could think they are not harmful. But for me and mine, we will stay in the vehicle! A little farther up the road on a bridge we had a traffic stop because a bison was ambling down the bridge. And of course, several people got out of their cars to take photos. The bison just continued on and no one got hurt!

We went to Grand Prismatic Springs, Old Faithful, Upper Falls, Lower Falls and Yellowstone Falls on the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River! We’d just be driving along and steam would be coming out of the water or ground! The trees were really thick in most of the areas, but the grassland was also available. We went up to the highest elevation that the car could go on the road! We did not hike to a high point on the mountain! We saw quite a few eagles, osprey, woodpeckers or flickers, and sandhill cranes plus many water birds!

My Buster stayed with the Lumsdens. He loves playing with their dogs! And I’m thankful that Carol and Pete like him too! Carol hosted Bible study on Wednesdays, and we studied the blessed places in our lives.

The ranchers are getting the bales in off the fields and some are seeding winter wheat. The bulls are separated from the cows and are resting. I still have a few sunflower blooms.

On the last morning of our trip before the sun came up Debbie and I stepped out to the deck and were treated with a fabulous view of the early morning planets and stars! Venus was so bright and so was the golden globe of Saturn! I heard a wolf howl and then I heard the yipping of coyotes.

Oh, and we spent some time in the pools of hot spring water at Gardner and made sure to stop at the coffee baristas! In the park the crowds were definitely there, but not many children! Two thousand people on the boardwalk at Old Faithful, which spouted off for over three minutes!