Yellowstone

Sat : Arrived at Yellowstone.

Sun: We made the requisite visit to Old Faithful. While walking around the geyser basin we met some folks that are geyser watchers, a.k.a geyzer gazers. The older ones are geezer geyser geezers. They are sort of like the geyzer version of storm chasers in tornado country. They might sit there for hours on end lest they miss an eruption. They monitor, record on notebooks and report their observations. They keep in radio contact with their associates and also with the rangers. They are better able to predict the next eruption than the rangers. They told me that a geyser named Grand was predicted to erupt between 3:45 and 7:45 pm. Grand is larger than Old Faithful. It's the largest 'predictable' geyser.

I decided to watch Grand. The weather was less than cooperative. It was cold and windy and began to rain. Distant lightning was fast approaching. I decided to get inside. While waiting, it rained, snowed and hailed. Approaching 5:30 we noticed a ranger walking toward the geysers. Dianne remembered that a ranger guided hike was scheduled to start at that time. The weather had begun to clear and I decided to join the tour. After about 15 minutes into the tour we came to Grand and within two minutes of our arrival, it began to erupt, and lasted for over ten minutes. I later learned that the ranger was a geology professor at Beloit College, about 10 miles from where I grew up.

After this, I strongly doubt that I will ever become a geyzer gazer.