The next day was short. Brian and I did some riding around the park, looking at the geysers and other natural wonders. We met a group of thirteen touring with a youth hostelling group. They all appeared to be college age or younger.

Brian and I parted at the Norris Geyser Basin. He went north; I went back to West.

Soon after, I met Marge and Sid, a couple from Sacramento that who was going to be married the next month. They were on the American Lung Association bike trek up to Jasper in Canada. We shared lunch and stories back at West.

That night, I stayed at a motel. At over $40, it was probably the most expensive stop on the trip. I resisted going to a restaurant, and instead, went to a supermarket and brought back a roast chicken from the heat lamp section, a box of chicken-in-a-biskit, and some plums. I finished it all.

it was the big western pines motel.

Right after dinner, a fierce wind came from nowhere, and caught everyone by surprise. Not five minutes earlier, it had been perfectly calm when I walked to the soda machine outside. The blast whipped up great clouds of dust and rain in the street. Everything was swaying: street signs, the motel sign, even buildings. The sliding glass windows of my motel room rattled violently. Screens were torn off from the outside of the motel. People in the streets were running in all directions, trying to find cover. In the fluorescent sky, lightning bolts danced about and battered the nearby hills.

Then, as abruptly as the storm had come, it left. All was calm again.

That night, I had my weekly call back to Merrianne, and found out that she had not mailed anything to Old Faithful, after all. I got the names of my housemate Sandy’s relatives in Berea, Kentucky from her. Lester & Mary Lore.