My Yellowstone Odyessy

Chapter 16

Although I could tell they were trying to be quiet, the muffled sounds of our friends packing up and eventual starting of motors woke Terry and I, we were facing away from each other, but rolled over to look at the other. "I suppose… What time is it?" I looked at my watch and said "a little after 6:30 baby, a few more minutes." Uhhh, OK!" "s**t, I was going to call my mom last night but forgot 'cause of the party, where's my damn phone I'll call right now, my dad won't have left for work yet." I pawed around and finally found my phone where I had left it…In my jeans pocket. I held it up to catch the growing light and dialed, "Hello," "Mom, Krin, sorry I forgot to call last night, we were over talking to our friends and I forgot." "That's all right, we weren't home anyway, how are you?" "Great mom, we're going fishing here in a little while, say mom, did you hear anything about Ted's funeral?"

"Only that there were a lot of people there, there's a nice obituary in the paper, I'll cut it out if you want me to dear?" "Ummm I guess, Pam told me the family is blaming me for his death that's not right mom," "We haven't heard anything like that, are you sure?" "Pam's usually right about stuff like that, mom she knows people who would know," "I certainly hope not, that boy has certainly caused enough trouble for you." "Yeah, I know, now it appears even when he's dead. Could I talk to dad?" "Sure, here he is." I talked to dad for a moment telling him about Yellowstone, the bear jam's the trail ride and the friends we made. "Are you and this Terry getting along all right?" "We're fine dad, we're going fishing pretty soon," "Your mother says I'm not supposed to ask about your sleeping arrangements…" "But you did anyway" I could hear mom saying something to him in the background. "Look dad, I'm a big girl now, we're not doing anything for you and mom to be worried about, my future comes first, I'm not going to do anything to jeopardize that, Terry knows it, I'm making decisions with my interests coming first." "Well, we trust you Krin, I trusted you at the store, you didn't disappoint me there, just be careful and ride safe."

I knew this thing had to be driving them crazy, but no blame, no shame, the damage was done, time to move on, "When are you two getting back here," "We're shooting for Sunday the 29th around noon or 1pm, We're leaving through West Yellowstone working our way south, picking up US 26 into Alpine Junction then30 then 89 at Sage then Woodruff and finally into Evanston, why do you ask?" "Oh, nothing, well, can't talk anymore call us Sunday morning about this time OK?" "Will do dad, bye"

Showing alarm, Terry said, "Are your folks going to be pissed at me or something?" "Naw, I'll never get them to admit it, but I think they're secretly proud of me, and dad's always looking for a reason to ride somewhere, don't be surprised if we pick up a couple stragglers once we swing back into Wyoming on Sunday."

We got dressed, I started the stove to heat coffee water grabbed fresh clothing, and made a beeline for the shower, Terry said he'd wait until we got back later this afternoon to take one. I went through 50 cents before the water was hot and ended up spending $2.50 on a lousy shower, but I needed to wash my hair so I guess it was worth it in the end. I put on shorts and one of my black tank tops and my leather chaps over that since we'd be riding for awhile. After coffee and a couple stale doughnuts, we got ready to go, Terry checked his fishing stuff, and reminded me that we needed to stop at the Hamilton store to pick up a permit. Soon we were heading north again towards the Yellowstone river. A few miles from Bridge Bay, we had to slow because there were some moose hanging around a small creek that fed into the lake, people just stopped in the middle of the road and got out of their cars, idiots were jammed up along side either side of the road causing traffic to bottleneck, but what the hell did they care.

About half an hour later Terry indicated a pull-off on the other side of the road to turn into, we slowly pulled into the parking area and shut off the bikes. Terry was doing something else and didn't see him, but I happened to look back into the woods further and saw what I thought was a large dog, but quickly realized my mistake; it was a large grey wolf watching us. I stood perfectly still, and quietly got Terry's attention; he realized what I was watching and then stood still as well, staring at the wolf.