A journey through the Great Plains that almost wasn’t
Trip 5 has come to an end and I am back home after a good flight (well, two flights) from Iowa to Florida. On this trip, for the first time, I had company. A former work colleague, and good friend, joined me on the trip through the Great Plains. I’ve known him for over 20 years and we worked together at two different jobs.
Though having someone along to share the trip (and driving!) was great, it was to cause me great stress before our trip ever began.
We had been talking about this trip ever since I told him about my plans to visit every park unit. His favorite park is Yellowstone and we agreed over a year ago that we would visit it this year. Detailed planning started last January – it’s good to get Yellowstone reservations in very early – and we targeted the last week of June and first week of July.
I got the details all worked out when the first setback happened. My colleague could not make those dates due to a last-minute family obligation. No problem. We looked over our schedules and could both do the trip at the start of August.
It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as torrential rains caused major flooding in Yellowstone, forcing the park to close at the time we would have been there on the earlier schedule, so sometimes these things work out for the best.
However, that was not to be the last hurdle thrown at us. I planned to fly to Iowa on a Tuesday, pick up the rental car on Wednesday and load it that evening, then leave early Thursday.
By Tuesday night, I was not feeling well and Wednesday dawned with a painful sore throat and bad cough. We canceled the car pickup and I went to the local Urgent Care. Yep, despite the vaccine and booster, I had managed to get COVID. My first thought is I just ruined the entire trip. We could not push everything back as I had a return flight date etched in stone, changing Yellowstone reservations was going to be iffy, and my colleague returned to his job in education three days after our return.
Fortunately, my quarantine was only 5 days and I used those five days to rearrange our schedule, keeping Yellowstone in place but moving other sites as needed. In the end, I had to eliminate three sites from this trip, but we were still able to visit 12 NPS sites and had a great time.
The highlight of the trip, of course, was Yellowstone. We stayed two days and took in a lot of the high points of the park. Our first day was beautiful – sunny, clear blue sky, comfortable temperatures. The second day was cool (jeans and sweatshirts), overcast, and drizzling all day. Nonetheless, we endured it and still enjoyed it.
I found I have been taking the weather for granted on my trips. Through the first five trips, I’ve had amazing weather. Trip one had some overcast skies at the last park. Trip two had light drizzle on one day in Charleston, SC. Trip three had mornings with frost, but sunshine. Trip four had two weeks of perfect weather, and now trip five had two days of rain while the rest were perfect.
Our second day of rain was at Grand Teton National Park, where low clouds obscured the mountains almost completely. Fortunately, we had both visited this park before on better days, so we simply enjoyed the effect of the clouds softening the entire landscape.
After two trips driving over Wind Cave in South Dakota, I finally took a tour. I’m glad I did as it was fascinating and educational. I would have liked to tour Jewel Cave too, but one cave per day was enough.
Minuteman Missile was interesting – and scary when we learned of how close the world came to an accidental nuclear war multiple times. Badlands and Theodore Roosevelt National Parks offered their own beauty and history. My colleague was surprised by Theodore Roosevelt and is already making plans to return and spend more time there.
I’ve commented before about how I manage to learn something new at every park I visit. Our last two sites were small historical parks in North Dakota. Both had very few visitors (we were the only ones for a while at Fort Union Trading Post). Though he did not say anything before we arrived at these sites, after leaving he had the same comment about both: “I really didn’t expect too much from this place, but it was far more interesting than I imagined” (paraphrasing but that is the gist). Exactly my point!
I don’t think he has been bitten by the park bug as deeply as I am, but after our trip, I think he is already looking forward to visiting more of the smaller sites within the system. And I certainly plan to continue my trips for as long as I can.
Steve
