Gardiner, Montana. I'd made it! The long-haul solo-venture from suburban south-central Pennsylvania to the northern portal of Yellowstone National Park in this April of '09 was not as tedious as it might have been, given that my dear sister & brother conveniently reside in Chicago, IL & Fort Collins, CO, respectfully (although my sanity threatened abandonment at an exponential rate as I made the suicide-drive through Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and parts of Wyoming & Colorado in a single day. The ChiTown-to-FoCo drive becomes particularly testy when the blazing, setting sun sits nonchalantly beneath one's visor, yet still above the horizon, as one's windshield points west). My administration building at UYNP (which is to say, the HR shack for the company that hired me) would collect both freshman & return students alike the following morning for a session of beloved paperwork and then send us out to our designated campuses for orientation. I'd checked into my hotel room for the evening and set out on-a-wander through the tiny town, my awe never ceasing at the Absaroka & Gallatin ranges above, nor at the rushing Yellowstone River below.
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| A view of The Gallatin Range from the rooftops of Gardiner. |
The evening proved fruitful. . . an up-&-down stroll of The Gardiner Strip quickly reveals Red's Blue Goose Saloon as the hoppin' joint in town. Didn't take long to throw a sheet or two to the wind, beaming with satisfaction at how much Tanqueray the bartender could smother the tonic with relative to how little he charged for the beverage (ahhh, Montana!). I milled around the floor of "The Goose," enchanted by conversation with locals & long-time Yellowstoners.
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| Reveling in the back billiards section of Gardiner's Blue Goose Saloon - a hot-spot for fellowship & forgetting. |
The saloon wasn't too packed that night. . .I found myself at the back billiards-table, schmoozing excitedly with two other incoming freshmen & a returning sophomore, sharing expectations and back-stories as cue ball clashed with coloreds on a green-slate range. I could immediately sense that the other fella in the group, Bark Scarz of Baton Rouge, was a winner. Not that he'd visibly obtained any trophy or ribbon, but here's a guy who set out from his native land, just like me, and was ready to CarpeDiem-the-fuck out of our incoming Yellowstone experience. "So Bark. . . you seem cool, wanna be my roommate?" His what-would-become trademark expressionless face told little as to whether he felt any immediate apprehension. "Sure. . . just one question: Do you drink much?" Well hell. . . maybe it was my 3rd or 4th rum-n'-coke after 2 or 3-ish gin-n'-tonics, but I was just melting the ice to meet people really. I had definitely majored in binge-drinking at my last college. . . but that was a state university. . . this was Yellowstone! The wide open air, the trails to wander, the geysers to gaze upon, the bears to brawl with - I wasn't planning to keep up the party-life, not here. There was so much ELSE to do. . . so much wholesome, sober nature to soak in. I responded in all honesty of intention, "Nah. . . I used to in college, but not much anymore." "Cool, sounds good," responded Bark. Directive achieved: destroy roommate anticipation anxiety.
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| The Force leads me to Bark Scarz. |
After the charade of checking-in & fitting for uniforms the following morning, we were gifted with a pass to get into the park and directed to the Mammoth Hot Springs campus for lunch & orientation (also, as Bark & I were both assigned to be living & working on this campus, we'd seek out our living-quarters as well). The five-mile drive from Yellowstone's northern gateway in Gardiner to Mammoth Hot Springs was most staggering for us newbies. Cliffs, rivers, bison, big-horned sheep, crossing from MT to WY, magic geo-steam. . . much of what appealed to people about The Park was included in this short trek. We arrived at Mammoth Hot Springs and took an earful of freshmen orientation. . . mostly stressing the "dos" & "don'ts" of flirting with grizzly bears in the back-country. After a satisfactory lunch of some chicken at the employee dining room (or "EDR") it was time to fill the empty residential halls with our eager clangs & clatters. Giddy-up.
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| Arriving at the Mammoth Hot Springs campus. |
Nice!
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