6/22/24 (My Birthday)
Opal-
I woke up to an alarm, the room
was dark and Oliver said to me "I know it’s early but we need to get up now we have
a big day ahead." I snuggled back under the covers momentarily and then asked
while reaching for my phone “What time is it actually?” The clock read 5:30am.
I was shocked. Had Oliver really woken me up that early on my birthday. About 30 minutes later we were climbing the many stairs to the
roof of the Old Faithful Inn. I can’t say I was fully surprised because I had seen
a slip of paper Oliver had been keeping with the number of one of the Bell
workers (who raise and lower the flags on the roof) fall out of his pocket, but
my suspicions had not been confirmed until we started walking away from the
employee dining hall and towards the bell desk. When we arrived on the roof the
sun was just rising over the hills around the Old Faithful basin. We helped
raise the flags and saw Old Faithful erupt. The view was excellent and despite
the cold, it was a very pleasant way to start the morning. Gus, the Bell who
brought us up, told us he had been witness to a proposal gone wrong on the roof
where the woman had abruptly said “Nope you’re not doing that up here” when he
had gone down on one knee.
After the roof, we ate breakfast
and promptly went back to sleep until nine. When we woke up, I opened some
packages and Oliver told me the plan for the day. We were headed to Cody for
the Rodeo.
The drive out of the park to the east
is truly beautiful, you pass Yellowstone Lake with its expansive views and Sylvan
Pass which slopes down and flattens out into what seems like a desert canyon as
you leave the park. We stopped at Buffalo Bill Dam and got a free ride from the
parking lot to the visitor’s center on the “Dam Shuttle”. As I looked over the massive
drop at the edge of the dam all I could think of was “Damn”.
A little further down the road, we
stopped at a turnout and trail along the Shoshone River that was supposed to
lead to hot springs. We never did find any hot springs the water was cold
enough to make your body tingle. Instead, we took a quick dip after a picnic of
ramen. Oliver ONCE AGAIN got his shoe wet. It’s becoming a bit of a habit I
think.
When we finally made it into Cody
we stopped at a few garage sales, thrift stores, and shops along the main
street. Neither of us purchased anything but it did get Oliver invested in
buying a cowboy hat. Then we walked to a Mexican place where we were served by
a high schooler who probably came up to us around 15 times to check if we were
doing alright. The food was good at best, but it filled us up.
At this point in the day, we were
both tired and Oliver took a nap in the car. We briefly stopped by the river
again and did some drawing before heading to the rodeo.
Cody is the self-proclaimed rodeo
capital of the world and boy do they hype that up. It was a classic rodeo all
in all, they had bull riding barrel racing, and more. Of course, the clown made
horrible jokes and there was a prayer said before the national anthem. We got
our money’s worth though because a man at the door gave us his extra tickets. All
in all, it was a great American experience. My favorite part was when they made
all the kids in the audience take off one shoe and race around the arena. You
could just see the blatant confusion on some of the kids’ faces.
After the rodeo finished up, we
grabbed some blizzards from Dairy Queen and drove back into the park.
It was almost a full moon and the
reflection on the lake was quite gorgeous.
Although the events of the day
were fun, and I enjoyed them very much what really made it perfect was that
Oliver had planned it all for me and was there for all of it. Something he has
said before is that “it doesn’t matter what we’re doing, or if something goes
wrong, it's always worth doing if it's with you.” That I feel applies especially to
this summer. Because what we’re doing is amazing and would be without having each
other here but doing it together makes it all the more better.
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