"Just to put everything in context, an eruption of Huckleberry Ridge dimensions would mean the end of civilization as we know it. This is something to think about when you're standing on top of Mount Washburn staring south at 37 miles of mountains that no longer exist... With this in mind, I don't really mind sharing the boardwalk. We're all just potential puffs of steam anyway, and the earth is mighty beyond our imagining." - Tim Cahill, Lost in My Own Backyard
Picture from Amazon.com - not sure if I can link to it or not but its free advertising so they shouldn't complain!
I went to the coffee shop for a healthy dose of caffeine and some good reading. I had picked up a book by one of my favorite travel authors, Tim Cahill, about one of my favorite places, Yellowstone. The book was good enough that I read the whole thing. In less than an hour and a half. Yeah, books are good, but good books are better. I ate it for dinner!
Ok, so it was a short book - a bunch of related short stories (adaptations of articles written for magazines in some cases) about hiking in Yellowstone. I had planned on writing a good review of why this book is great, but well I'm distracted by the election results coming in, and Sex in the City reruns.
Focus. Book report. It's just like writing a book report in middle school. You can do this Lisa. Concentrate...
Awe hell. Too distracted. I'll just put in another quote to illustrate why I like Tim Cahill so much. He's much better at expressing in words exactly how I felt - sarcasm and wry humor included - while trapsing around Yellowstone this summer, with all that hot magma action bubbling beneath my feet and snarly grizzley bears hiding behind every bend in the trail. It's about hikes in Yellowstone, but not like a travel guide - more like anecdotes about specific areas in the park. So if you're into humorous travel books, he's definitely on the top of my list!
"He wanted to see a place where fish could swim across the Continental Divide. Tom, I should explain, was raised on a cattle ranch in South Dakota, 60 miles from the nearest town, and is prone to become excited about concepts like fish swimming over the Rocky Mountains."
Hee hee. I think that would be pretty cool too. How dorky am I??
"We stood for a strangely triumphant moment on the exact instant of the Continental Divide and discussed transcontinental trout."
Right on!
Lisa, this was an excellent analysis and summary - thanks for your advice. :) Well, I guess if it's going to blow, it'll take out the whole country anyways, so if you're bored sometime, take me out there to Yellowstone, eh. Hmmm... at the moment, Bush is up 196-112 in the electoral vote count. Ugh. I guess if Yellowstone blows up, the fact that his anti-environmental policies have been so terrible won't really matter anymore... Anyways, you're crazy - lovely! :)
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