#1048 Throwback Thursday - biking in Yellowstone Park

This photo just makes me smile. This is MT and I in Yellowstone Park, riding our bikes along the road from West Thumb Village to Lake Village. Round trip is about 50 miles, I think. We went on this adventure with our good friends Rob and La Donna. It must have been in the early 90s, but I'm not sure of the year. I can't remember if Caz (their son) had been born yet.

We went to the Park sometime in May. I think it was before Memorial Day because there wasn't many people and it was still pretty chilly. On this particular day, the sun was shining and it was not windy. We parked the car in West Thumb, got on our bikes and started riding. MT and Rob quickly left LA and I behind. She and I just wanted to go slow and steady. The ride isn't very hilly, but it's still a long way.

When we got to the Lake area, everything was closed, but we had sandwiches with us, so we had some lunch and rested for a few minutes before we headed back. As I recall, that was kind of a mistake. Our bums were pretty sore from sitting on those small, hard bicycle seats. Again, MT and Rob rode ahead of us and the plan was for the two of us girls to ride as far as we could back and the guys would meet us with the car and pick us up. We were pretty tired.

Remember, these were the days before cell phones and iPods. We were just out there chatting and riding and having fun.

Thinking back on that day, I remember we rode past marshy spots where you could hear the frogs croaking in a loud chorus. Sometimes we would hear branches snap in the forest, and we wondered if there were any deer (or other animals) monitoring our progress. The thing I remember being most worried about wasn't a bear or any other creature; it was about getting hit by a mirror sticking out from a big trailer!

Everything went just fine. LA and I almost made it all the way back to West Thumb. The boys picked us up about five miles from the destination. At the time, we were glad to be done riding, but later that night, as we talked about the ride over dinner at the Old Faithful Inn, I remember that we were both sorry that we hadn't made it the whole way.

Yellowstone is such a cool place and I have a lot of happy memories of being there with my family when I was a kid and later with MT. We haven't been there in a couple of years now. Better put going to "The Park" on our list of things we must do next year.