<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> <title></title> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> Last Sunday, my family and I left Yellowstone after spending 6 days in the park.  After two days in the Tetons and an airplane ride home, any news from me is old news (After reading the posts from Barbara, Tara, Scott, and others, during the time I was without internet, they did it better, anyway).  This post contains some random thoughts and feelings on my return home. ● My trip highlight was my first Fan and Mortar.  I have been a GOSA member for about 20 years and have managed to see many geysers erupt, but F & M have eluded me.  The Aug. 21 eruption was great, even in a 30 mph wind.  I placed on youtube a quick computation of clips and stills       <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQFCSIyCrMQ">www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQFCSIyCrMQ</a> ● Is there anything (you can do in public) better then relaxing when waiting for Grand?  It doesn’t matter if you read a book alone, or talk with other gazers or visitors. ● I only make it to Yellowstone about every other year (see below).  I get to  vicariously enjoy Geyser Gazing by the webcams and through the posting by others whose names become familiar.  This trip I was lucky to be able to meet some of them and learn they are also very nice people.  I enjoyed the 6:30 a.m. visits at Beehive or Grand with Barbara Lasseter, long talks with various members of the Cross family at Grand and the Inn, hearing (tall?) tales from Bill Warnock, along with meeting and talking with others.  Thank you all.  It made my trip more enjoyable. ●Things that will stay in my mind for a long while:     ○My 1st Fan & Mortar     ○Beehive erupting with the wind just so, so that it seemed I could reach out and touch the water spout, and the roar it made     ○A certain person standing in rain gear in a blowing wind directly in/under F&M’s spray for the entire eruption, and throughly enjoying it     ○Jeff Davis, sore foot and all, struggling to Grand and then F&M     ○Tara’s walking violin finales     ○An ospray with a fish in it’s talon flying over Grand, and a coyote and it’s pup walking by me at Daisy     ○”The Wave” by visitors waiting for Old Faithful ● A lesson I keep learning and forgetting (or hoping I’m wrong)–Don’t come to Yellowstone to watch geysers with those that do not share your passion.  I love my wife and daughters dearly, but next time I visit the park, it will be without them.  They think I’m crazy to get up at 6:00 a.m. and spend the day visiting geysers.  This trip, to keep family harmony, we spent two days visiting, as one gazer put it, water traveling the wrong way, at canyon, and seeing bison. Don’t get me wrong, the other features at Yellowstone are great, but I came hoping to see F & M, Grand, etc., enjoying the vistas and wildlife in the basins as extras.  “I’ve already seen Grand” and “I don’t want to wait for another geyser” became the battle-cry s of my wife and daughter.  I’ve already made reservations for late May of 2009, and I’ll come by myself and hope to visit with other gazers then. ●  I knew it was time to leave when on Sunday morning I missed by 10 minutes or less Grand, Riverside, & Lion.  I have mixed feelings that Fan & Mortar have erupted twice since I left, and Giant yesterday, especially since people I visited with just days ago saw them both.  But the good part is that the same excitement will be there on my next visit. Hope to see you next Memorial Day, Gary Einstein </body> </html>