Yellowstone Part 3

Tuesday, 8/3

Due to late arrival in Cody the night before, we will need to do laundry and grocery shopping this morning. Contrary to his SOP, Sid decided to read EVERY display posted in the lobby of the hotel as it related to the history of Buffalo Bill Cody and the town of Cody, WY. He then came back to the room to excitedly tell me every detail. It IS interesting, but I’m finally connected to internet and feeling the minutes of opportunity ticking away while he talks. By and large, he has cell service in Yellowstone so has been able to post at will and keep up with email, etc. as much as he wishes.

The clock strikes 11 am and we are off to do laundry. Sid talks in depth with the owner as he now has an entrepreneurial vision for a laundromat in KS. He learns this one will be for sale within a year for $900K. He later tells me it was not to buy that one but to understand the business model. 😨

Laundry done, we pickup our grocery order and head back to the park. Once inside, he decides he wants to take a closer look at the hotel on the lake which appears from the water to be in a lovely setting. The area is called Lake Village and there are actually two properties, Lake Yellowstone Hotel and Lake Lodge, along with cabins to rent.

Lovely fireplace in the lobby of LY Hotel

View of the lake from the hotel setting

Entry Patio

  

                                   

Apparently, Lake Yellowstone Hotel is the oldest continuously operating hotel in the park. It is lovely, as a couple of my photos may show. We enjoyed a glass of wine with the view from the sunroom after walking around and admiring the immensity of the lake. Then back to our “campsite” on the boat.

Wednesday, 8/4

As you may recall, the whole purpose for this trip is to “sail” the Rockies. So once Sid got some intelligence about day sailors launching in West Thumb, this became his next single-minded focus. Because he also wanted to make a “side trip” to Idaho, where I once lived, and we had hard arrangements to travel and see friends on the weekend, the only possible opportunity for sailing was on Wednesday. Well, Thursday would have been possible, but I strongly discouraged it, knowing how long it takes us to both step and later unstep the mast as well as prepare to move the boat on the trailer. Almost prescient!

Therefore, on Wednesday morning we pulled the boat out of Bridge Bay Marina, and hauled it down to West Thumb. The boat ramp is actually at Grant Village, a few miles further south. We got the mast up and the boat launched, not without difficulties, including a brand new one: a bent turnbuckle. I’m told that is a BIG DEAL, but apparently not enough of a deal to nix the sailing. 😉 We got to sail for about 2-2.5 hours before the late afternoon storm clouds rolled in. Even Sid began to muse about whether or not all this was worth it!

Mark Lamb's vessel-could be a separate post!

We got back to dock just as the rain began. Thankfully, it was short-lived since we still needed to trailer the boat and, hopefully, begin to unstep. We tried several times to get the boat on the trailer, but there were complications. As I was standing on the ramp I noticed the beautiful sunset and wished I had not left my phone on the boat since I would now either miss the photos or irritate Sid by wanting to get back on the boat as he was continuing the attempt to get the boat on the trailer. So, he tried to “motor” the boat onto the trailer, which is what all non-sail boats do. Without a rudder (one of the complications) that was too difficult to do successfully because the sailboat must rest in a rather precise position on the trailer. Apparently motor boat trailers have more wiggle room. He was getting ready to try something else when I got down from the trailer. I was already wet up to my mid-thigh, but walking back up the ramp I caught my foot on a 3" joint on the ramp and went all the way in. Since we had all but lost the light and I was now extra cold because of being soaked, we quit for the night. He tied off on the dock and we camped, breaking out the portable heater for the first (and likely the last) time on this trip.

And now I had a reason to be grateful that I had left my phone on the boat!

Thursday, 8/5

Sid had mentally wrestled all night with how to get the boat back on the trailer, but apparently wanted me to read his mind the next morning regarding the solution he had come up with. We began a “problem solving” session which quickly degenerated into the worst fight of our marriage. We never really agreed what to do, but a park ranger was called and assessed of the boat situation. The ranger agreed this was a situation but was personally forbidden from assisting. Fortunately, God had mercy on us and sent a gent, Mark Lamb, to the boat ramp who was planning to do some sailing in a very interesting personal vessel, but also had enough personal experience of sailing he was willing to get in the water and help get the boat trailered. It took about 10 minutes, so happily we had the boat out of the water ready to unstep the mast by midday.

We arrived back at Bridge Bay in time to make dinner and preparations to leave for northern Idaho the next morning. We had spent almost 2 full days to enjoy no more than 2.5 hours of sailing.

Is that a win?