<head><style>body{font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:9pt;background-color: #ffffff;color: black;}</style></head><body id="compText"><style>body{font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:9pt;background-color: #ffffff;color: black;}</style><style>body{font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:9pt;background-color: #ffffff;color: black;}</style><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,arial,sans-serif;">Hi again!  I've been wanting to write about some of the sights from my trip Oct. 20-23.  Please accept my apologies for being so slow!</span><br><br style="font-family: verdana,geneva,arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,arial,sans-serif;">   As you might have guessed, I spent a lot of my time at Fan & Mortar during my visit. I was definitely missing the other gazers who take turns watching the vents during the summer months! I did take breaks from it, though, so I did get to see other geysers.  </span><br style="font-family: verdana,geneva,arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,arial,sans-serif;">    I was able to catch 2 Oblongs from the boardwalk ( as well as a couple of others from the bike path). The second one that I saw close up erupted in the rain on Friday. It had excellent thumps that were easily felt at the beginning of it!  Kitt Barger and I were annoyed by the rain, but realized that we had all of our gear on and we were facing away from the wind while Bill Warnock was down at F & M with just an umbrella and a jacket - and he was facing into the wind!</span><br style="font-family: verdana,geneva,arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,arial,sans-serif;">    All of the Grand eruptions that I saw were from other places. I saw a 3 burst and a 2 burst from the bike path across from Giant. I really wanted to see Grand from the benches, though, so after an event cycle at F & M on Saturday I decided to head there for the last half of the window. (The morning time from Grand was 0428e.) I was able to see my first up-close Bulger's Hole eruption (1300) and a nice Oblong (1315ie) while I was in the Grand area. When we had the Vent delay, I took the opportunity to hustle to the bike rack and race down to check on F & M. I missed one Turban, but was easily back in place for the next one. I was settling back in when I noticed that Grotto seemed to be heating up, and then a nice and tall Rocket Major took off. (Too bad it didn't do that either when I was just down there or on the other 2 occasions when I waited for one, but it was really pretty from Grand.) With a vigorous Turban at 1518 (V4), the pool didn't look very good as the time for the next Turban drew near. So I again hurried to Castle to go check on F&M. As I was unhooking my bike from the bike rack, Kitt called that we still hadn't had Turban and the pool was rising. So, I hustled back to Grand, only to have it not erupt and have a Turban delay to boot! (This Turban was at 1552!) Back to Castle and the bike, all the way down the hill to F & M and back to Grotto, I made it just through the trees on the boardwalk when Grand finally erupted at 1608. I plopped myself down on the boardwalk above Oblong and watched the rest of the eruption (T2C). I still had hopes of catching it up close Sunday morning, but, alas, we found Turban & Vent ie at 0711. Grand had recently finished (0650e)! Oh, well. It's hard to complain when I really did see some wonderful Grands!</span><br style="font-family: verdana,geneva,arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,arial,sans-serif;">    I was luckier with Beehive. I saw the one on Thursday (1538) from the overlook and the one on Saturday (1007) from the bend in the river along the bike path.  (For that one, we were just in the process of giving up on an event cycle at F & M when we heard that Beehive's Indicator was ie from a webcam report.)  On Sunday, my husband and I were just about to head for Great Fountain and then home when Kitt called Beehive's Indicator ie at 1211. I decided to run for the hill, and made it with plenty of time to spare for the 1235 Beehive! The wind cooperated nicely and allowed me to get close to the cone without getting very wet.  </span>(Of course I missed Great Fountain's first series which included a blue bubble super burst, but I was still happy that I had seen Beehive from the hill.)<br style="font-family: verdana,geneva,arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,arial,sans-serif;">    One morning a group of geese were seen hot-tubbing in a pool near Daisy. After their morning warm-up, they flew off to find breakfast. Later that day, we saw a flock of 32-34 trumpeter swans flying overhead. On 2 of the days a lone bald eagle flew up and down near the river.</span><br style="font-family: verdana,geneva,arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,arial,sans-serif;">    One morning, a coyote was yipping nearby as we started down the bike path from Castle in the very early light. He followed us for a little way before his family began calling him over to their position. We also saw lone coyotes on a couple of other occasions. We heard an elk bugling in the distance both Thursday & Friday mornings, and one also grazed one morning behind Oblong up on the hill. We had to keep an eye on a couple of bull bison that were feeding near F & M and Riverside, as they came close at times. There was a herd of bison in the road as we headed out of the Old Faithful area on Sunday, but no large herd in the Lower Geyser Basin yet.</span><br>   All in all, it was a good trip and I enjoyed being in the basin to say good-bye for the winter.<br>   <br>Here's to the webcam - may it help us get through the winter!<br>Polly Panos<br></body>