Life with Larry-1/1/11

Imagine seeing a bison come ambling down a hill behind you as you cross country ski on Tower Falls Trial in Yellowstone at 6278 ft. elevation and -6 degree temperatures.  Yes, Life with Larry has given me another first time experience with extremes.  Our son Aaron is a chip off the old block.  He arranged the two night winter get away at cabins at the Yellowstone Institute in the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park...  When I heard that it was predicted to be bitterly cold, I assumed we would be canceling; but the word cancel is not in the Schuerr vocabulary. 

 I was comforted with the fact that the cabins were heated, but my bottle of water nevertheless had turned to lumps of ice by the morning.  I tried to negotiate with my bladder at 1:10 AM telling it to shut up and let me sleep.  But it persisted and I had to accommodate it.  I grabbed my fleece coat and gazed at the breath taking stars that filled the dark sky until I remembered that I had to be on the look out for stray bison who wandered into the camp occasionally. I heard the sound of a coyote in the distant and hoped it was not hungry for a short squat Norwegian American.  Finally, I made it to the bathhouse 50 ft. away which doesn’t sound like much of a feat, but it got down to -28 degrees that night. Yuk!

We covered nearly every inch of skin and donned our cross country skies to face the cold.   I didn’t want to get out of the truck until August, my 10 year old grandson, said, “Suck it up Grandma.”  Our three grandsons and my son and daughter in law never complained, but just skied along happily enjoying the snow-capped hills and wild life.   They totally inspired me as my  thumbs were the first thing to freeze and my toes felt like ice cubes, but soon the constant activity, lack of wind, and sunshine warmed me up.  “It’s a dry cold,” Larry would remind me.  When we got to Calcite springs, we poured cups of tea and nibbled on Cheesites.    

When we got to camp to prepare dinner, I said, “Larry, why don’t you sleep outside tonight in your winter tent.” He weaseled his way out and saved face by saying, “I can’t. My sleeping bag is only rated to -20 degrees”. 

As it turned out, the temperature improved to a balmy 10 degrees the next morning so we put on snow shoes, a first for us, and became Louis and Clark explorers.  By 1 PM Grandpa and Grandma said good-bye to the hardy campers and headed to Chico Natural Hot Springs to thaw and recuperate.