Chapter 16

[Preservation – Jim's Travels]

It was early afternoon when we pulled into the park itself. I had spent an hour going over information at Rushmore and had picked out our camping place already. It would have full facilities for our RV. I figured we would pick up a jeep or something for touring once we arrived. We found the place and pulled in. The hookups were easy but nothing was working until I went in the office and flipped some switches and then turned on water. It had never been turned on from the winter! I found no vehicles there. I realized that I would have to walk back to the entrance where I had seen a jeep or unhook. Cathy and I decided to walk. We carried our guns. She had her shotgun and I took a rifle. We both had pistols. We knew this was a wild area. I didn't want to shoot anything but didn't want to be a meal either. We, or they, were lucky. All we saw were squirrels and the like. One deer saw us and quickly left. We came to the entrance building and I broke in and found the office. In there were keys for the jeep we had seen. I went out and tried to crank it but the battery was dead. I found a charger and hooked it up and we waited while the charger did its thing. It was a big charger and I figured this happened regularly. I also saw some electric golf cart type vehicles but decided to give them a pass. They were very open and I liked the idea of being inside and having four-wheel drive available. We had found keys to the vending machines and opened them to get cokes and snacks while we waited.

We drove back to our RV in the jeep with brochures and maps that we liberated from the office. As we got out, the ground rumbled. "What was that?" Cathy hollered.

"I think we just had an earthquake." I replied. "I hope that's all that it is."

"What do you mean?" Her voice was shaky and high pitched.

"There's a volcano under the entire park but it has been quiet except for these little shocks for a long time. At least, that's according to what I had seen on TV and the Internet before the Day."

"That's not funny!"

"I know but it's true. Everything should be okay. According to what I read, these little shocks happen frequently but aren't life threatening."

"It's scary! I don't like it."

"We should be okay, just ignore them. Besides, if it's the big one, we won't have time to be hurt or to run."

"That's not specially comforting, Jim."

I chuckled and said, "I know, but it's all I have."

"Okay, let's get some food and figure out a plan for our tour. The views are exciting. It's like nothing I had ever seen in Maine. Not that I had seen that much even in Maine."

We did that and mapped out a tour for the next day. There were no more rumbles through the night. We rose in the morning and had breakfast and coffee. We went outside and back in quickly. We both shivered. It was unexpectedly cool. I went online and checked the weather. It never gets hot here! At least, it's not hot in the morning. We added light jackets to our attire and left to look around.

Naturally, our first planned stop was Old Faithful but I drove slowly. The animals were out and neither of us had ever seen such a sight. The lack of traffic this year had moved the animals to ignore the road more than they ever might have. I once had to honk, twice, at a bison or buffalo that was peacefully chewing its cud while standing in the middle of the road. I didn't want to stray too far from the road. Old Faithful was just that. We watched it go off. I knew when it would go off again. It was an amazing sight each time. We went through the rest of the park over four days. We could have driven it in a day but we stopped and looked at everything. I don't know if Cathy truly realized it, but the likelihood of either of us ever passing this way again was negligible. I knew I wanted to see it all.

We left the jeep and the boat at the campground. I was tired of it being back there and not being used. We went out on Yellowstone Lake but used one of the park service boats. Carrying the boat was one mistake that didn't need to continue. I tried each night to get on the radio and call on various frequencies. We heard Ben and Roger talking on forty meters but they couldn't hear us. Radio wave propagation works that way. I thought that I heard someone with a four call on thirty-nine seventy but it was faint and I wasn't sure. Cathy didn't hear it.

Working HF on a mobile rig compared to the bigger antennas for a base rig was different and frustrating. I had contacted stations that were mobile who had poor signals by comparison to a base operating very close to the mobile station's location. Antennas were the biggest issue.

At home, I had an inverted "vee" dipole. It was omni-directional and had a good wave pattern. I could tune it to have a good signal ratio, called SWR. On mobile, it's hard to pack as much antenna performance into a ten or fifteen foot length. My antenna at home had two sixty foot plus legs of wire! Antennas without serious compromises for mobile use were really almost impossible. Since they were self made and the mobile antennas were store bought, a ham also had more flexibility when you built your own. The base units were cheaper because they didn't have to be as compact.

Anyway, we saw everything and Cathy specially loved seeing all the animals. We went armed. There were many more animals in the world now than there were humans of course and, if the ratio was to change, I wasn't sure I knew which direction I wanted!

As we headed out to Glacier Lake from Yellowstone, I noticed that Cathy had a pensive look. I had learned her over the weeks and waited. She would talk when she was ready. I concentrated upon my driving, as the road was tight and twisty. It was slow going driving the RV. After an hour or so, Cathy spoke up, "Jim, how long does this trip take?"

"I expect to arrive in Richmond by late summer. This is not where I would want to spend the winter. Glacier Lake is right at the Canadian border. We probably aren't any further north than Maine but the winters here are much harsher as I understand."

"It's such lonely country. There is nothing out here but trees and rocks. What are we gaining by making this trip?"

Cathy, I wanted to see the United States' natural, and some not so natural, wonders before settling down as a farmer. I don't expect to ever return and that makes me want to see everything possible."

"What about people?"

"I expect more people on the return trip. We will drop south and then head east. I expect more people then. This is vacant country. We may find a few people but it won't be often. I warned you that it would be a long, lonely trip before you came. You could have gone with Ben and the rest or stayed in Maine."

"Not really, the other women didn't want me. Having the men start to chase me would not be good either. Staying in Maine was not an option if I would be by myself. I guess I didn't expect this trip to cover so much area. Looking at it on a map is very different from traveling it in a big, lumbering bucket."

"I understand. I'm sorry if you're disappointed. I tried to warn you as best as I could."

'I know, I know, I'm just frustrated. I had hoped we would see more people than we have."