Sailing in the Rockies: Yellowstone Part 2

Moby Dick Revisited

Friday 7/30
The day didn't start as well as it could have. Our room at the guest ranch had a Keurig machine but only one pod. Sid got up fairly early so used the pod thinking he would track someone down to get replenishments. No such luck. The ranch consists of a restaurant (dinner the night before) which is apparently locally popular, and a series of "bunkhouses" which are rustic rooms with beds and private baths. Really charming but no "front desk" nor regular staff on hand. So...I had to wait for coffee until we got into Cody to do some shopping and computer catch-up. Makes me wonder if I am too dependent on coffee? ☕️ Never!

I had noticed a couple odd charges on our bank account, but we hadn't been as vigilant as normal while traveling and they were very small. Today, there was a $50+ charge on Amazon and we definitely had NOT ordered anything on Amazon for several weeks. That was our first clue that Sid's card had been compromised. Then it got declined when he tried to buy me coffee, so we headed to the library to begin the investigation/reporting. You would think this would be straightforward, but the customer service person we got...well, it took a long time. I had my laptop but Sid was using a library computer, so it timed out after an hour so we had to keep getting a library worker to give him a new logon.

Apparently, I had chosen a special medical research area of the library, unknowingly, and these were "special" computers.

Bench outside the entrance to Park County Library 😂

Foyer of the library

We were planning to visit friends in Idaho the following weekend, so were able to have a new card sent there.

As it was the end of the month, we also needed to do some routine financial end-of-month tasks and this was our opportunity for internet. We still needed to do a few days' grocery shopping and by the time we got all that finished, we decided to eat an early dinner. We chose a Mexican restaurant in downtown Cody, which has become quite the tourist town. We enjoyed the food 🌮and the atmosphere, but each of us had repercussions in the next 24 hours which we chalked up to the food. 🤢

It was nearly dark by the time we got back into the park and to the boat (about a 2 hour drive).

Saturday 7/31
Sid had been watching the fishing guide boats go out day after day. Gorgeous Grady-White boats with 250 hp motors and every possible fishing gadget you could want to succeed at trout fishing. They will fish for whatever the paying groups wants, but cutthroat trout are currently "endangered" so they are caught just for sport and released. Park officials really want you to catch and kill the lake trout as they are considered an invasive species and are causing the demise of the the cutthroat. Lake trout apparently are commonly found at deep levels so the guides have a downrigger system. This weights a line down to the depth that their handy Garmin fish-finders have determined the fish currently are and trails the lure and hook along behind. Nifty!

Sid, ever the fisherman, bought a 3-day Yellowstone fishing permit and unbeknownst to me, had purchased a hand weight at Walmart on the shopping trip (along with postcards to be sent at regular intervals) and some fancy lures at the marina store. He was determined to create a "poor man's downrigger" (his words) and catch a fish. Thus the Moby Dick reference.

Saturday was Day 1 and he was not that disappointed that he caught no fish as he was still revising and trying new iterations of his creation. Then thunderclouds began to threaten, so once it began to rain, we got off the lake. We quickly discovered that certain little things that had never been properly sealed in the top of the boat were beginning to drip in the rain. I was not thrilled with the prospect of a wet Saturday evening, so he appeased me by offering to go out for dinner. Apparently he was unaware that COVID restrictions were back in place and that staff is hard to find, therefore the few available restaurants were only serving carry-out, if at all. We lucked out at Grant Village and were able to get a take-out meal 20 minutes before they closed.

Sunday 8/1
We had passed a couple of churches/chapels on the east side of the park or just outside in our various trips in and out. My hope was that we would make the effort to worship at one of them. However, Ahab had taken over. He was continuing to rework the downrigger system and when I mentioned worship, he thought we should go out on the lake by ourselves and have our own. Seemed plausible, but the reality was that he asked if I had any hymns or praise songs downloaded on my phone. Since I did, he asked me to play them while he continued to get ready for another go at fishing. Once we got out on the water, no mention again of anything but fishing. It was, after all, Day 2 of the permit.

Weather was predicted to be rainy after 2pm and it was nearly 1 pm when we got out. Fortunately, the weather was more cooperative than predicted. The fish, however, had lockjaw.

Yep, weeds tangled on the weight

Monday 8/2
Day 3 he was determined to catch a fish. At each opportunity he had visited with guides to get pointers, he had talked to fishermen who were regulars at Yellowstone. This was to be another hotel night and I mentioned that if we got to town in the afternoon, we could get laundry done in the evening and do a grocery pick-up first thing in the morning and be back on the lake before noon.

While that plan sounded good, it was no match for the fact that this was the last day to fish. We followed the guide boats close, but not close enough for them to feel like we were encroaching. We watched the Garmin fish-finder to swoop in on the prime spots. We made multiple passes over the very spots where the guide boats had been. We made another pass over "the spot." We made just one more pass over "the spot." OK-this is the last pass over "the spot." This really is the last pass...

Happily, he was in good humor enough to pass close enough to the shore of Stevenson Island to let me photograph this: