Well....the birthday trip has transpired and it was officially a disaster!
Jeff Foxworthy in an unorthodox redneck dictionary had a word that kind of sums up my vacation! Nee-dle, v, to desire urgently. "After I finish this I'm gonna needle little vacation".
An hour and a half into our trip to Yellowstone/Grand Teton we detoured into downtown Ellensburg for a bite to eat. Halfway through an intersection moving at 25mph on a green light we collided with a young man (driving his mom's car) when he turned left in front of us.
With only enough time for me to yell "watch out" and for Kent to swerve left slightly we crashed on my side of the car.
I immediately knew that it hurt, but figured it was just seat belt bruising. I was flummoxed as to why my leg hurt until I notice the caved in dash. Still I was walking and talking, only a bit shook up. Most importantly everyone else was perfectly fine.
After getting a ride to the tow yard with our mangled car I requested the tow driver give me a ride to the ER to make sure I was really OK. X-rays showed no problems which was a load off my mind so we decided to proceed on our trip.
After Kent got the only cab in town to drive him the 40 mile haul to Yakima for a rental car (there were none in Ellensburg) he transferred all the contents of our car to the rental, picked me up at the hospital and got my prescription. At 6pm we finally got some lunch, then proceeded on our trip.
We had planned on taking a few day's to get to Grand Teton's where our first reservations were, so I figured that the bruises would be tolerable by then and I could proceed with that part of the vacation as planned. I was looking forward to getting away from the crowds and doing some day hikes, fly fishing in the Firehole river, horse back riding and biking. I really didn't think I would even need the multiple heavy duty pain pills. By that evening though, I was beginning to realize how deep the bruises were.
If you've ever had a bruised or cracked rib you know how painful it is, so imagine bruising the place where all those ribs connect. My sternum was deeply bruised making breathing, talking, moving, even trying to open my bottle of pain pills an agony. My leg was so swollen I had trouble bending it, but it was mostly numb, so not much pain.
For the first week of the trip I sat in the car while Kent took short hikes and took pictures for me to see. I enjoyed most of the parks from the car window. It wasn't until the last few day's that I could walk a few hundred yards or so at a time and getting in and out of bed was a task of a few seconds instead of a few minutes.
To compound my discomfort our reservations were botched at Old Faithful Inn and a nasty excuse for a person lied to and humiliated us to the best of his ability...on my birthday! If you thought for even a second you were in favor of government health care, might I suggest staying in government housing such as a national park lodge. There is no incentive to be anything but passable...if that. No accountability, no empathy or concern, overpriced, bare bones accommodations, no recourse to making amends.
In the places we stayed outside the park, even modest motels, they went out of their way to make sure we had a good experience and sought our return business and/or word of mouth referral, all of which were totally lacking in government management.
We did the entire vacation ( if not exactly how we had planned it) and finally made it home after a 2 hour detour to exchange our rental car for a different one because of some stupid insurance company rule.
I'm still covered in bruises and have to be especially careful of sneezing. My leg is still numb and swollen and I vacillate between thinking "stupid kid" and "we all make mistakes".
All in all Yellowstone is still as "alive" as ever and the Grand Teton's are "ever present" and beautiful. The crowds were not too bad, but international tourists tended to be a pain with no respect for the parks nor fellow park goers.
If you don't mind shorter day's I recommend going in the Fall, having reservations for dinner anywhere in the parks (lots of seniors and asian tours that prebook everything and have you waiting until after 9pm for a table) and staying outside the park!!!
I needle little vacation now!
