Twiggling!

Jane here:

Driving through Yellowstone with LuAnn as the front seat passenger is giving me the “heebie jeebies”. Whenever she sees wildlife she lets out this huge gasp and yells “What’s that?” Of course, I think I’ve just run over something by the sound of that gasp. She constantly tells me to “Look, look – did you see that”? I’m constantly telling her that I have to keep my eyes on the road. And then there’s the time she yelled at me to “Stop, stop” – in the middle of a two lane road. I yelled back “No, no”. She now accuses me of offering discouraging words while home, home on the range. We think she may need a refresher course in driving, one of those AARP ones for seniors!

The picture of the elk sleeping along the Madison River shows him “Twiggling”. This word is new to me but one that Lu uses often. It occurs when they wiggle their ears as in “Oh look, the elk are twiggling.” It’s something between a wiggle and a twitch but I kind of like it. Webster’s will like this one. I think it might be better than some of the words that have been added to the dictionary in the last few years.

We are camping at Madison Junction in Yellowstone National Park. We at the confluence of the Gibbon and Firehole Rivers that form the Madison River. At the ranger program last night the ranger referred to it as YNP – Yellowstone National Paradise. I think she is right. The crowds have gone, the animals are starting to move down into the meadows and the weather is perfect. Daytime temps are running in the 70’s but the night temps let us know that fall is on the way with lows of 27 degrees. We hunkered down in our travalsaks until the sun brought some warmth this morning – that would be about 9:30 or so. I’m not saying what the “or so” may be but brunch is a good thing! We’ll be here through Sunday the 10th just soaking up the beauty of this place. Life is good!