Operation Yellowstone Ranger: Coconut Curry, Little BigHorn Days and Ricky Nelson

Woh.
So much has happened since I last wrote. It is actually overwhelming.
After I wrote this on Wednesday night, I met up with the lovely Christina, Udeitha and Eric. We went for a scrumptious dinner at the Iron Horse, which has a beautiful deck over the Yellowstone River, and went back to Mammoth to watch Airplane. Yes!
Thursday was a good day. We encountered 280 people at Canyon during the Wildlife Olympics! That is our record thus far! And I'm sure it will only start to get busier as the summer moves forward!
After work, I immediately set in to making dinner. For the last few Friday night potlucks, my contributions had been lacking or non-existent. To attempt and make it up, I decided to cook Red Chicken Coconut Curry for the entire crew. The vegetables turned out to be a little soggy...I should have done them last. BUT, overall, it was scrumptious. Udeitha made rice with cardamom in it...mmmmmmm. And then we enjoyed it outside. MMMMMM! Following dinner, we watched the movie Momento. Good stuff.
Friday was an interesting day. I had a list of things to accomplish during the day, but it soon became obvious to me that I was the ONLY person in the office. Finally, after finishing a couple of errands, I couldn't take it anymore. I decided to go to two ranger-led-programs around the park. I went to West Thumb (near Lake) and Black Sand Geyser (near the Old Faithful Geyser Basin). Such beautiful areas. It never ceases to amaze me the absolutely gorgeous area in which I live.
After returning to the office and finishing up a few other odd jobs, I quickly ran home, packed and dashed to meet up with Devaney.
My end destination was Hardin, MT...but we met up in Billings first. After a 3 hours + drive, I finally made it to Billings and we enjoyed a sushi dinner. Following sushi, we went to an interesting dance saloon called the West. It was a very interesting cultural experience. Needless to say, we didn't stay too long before heading to Hardin to crash.
In the morning, we grabbed some coffee and ran to the Little Bighorn Parade. It was fun to be involved in a small town parade where everyone knows one another!
After the parade, we grabbed food and supplies and headed up to the Yellowtail Dam on the Crow Reservation. We met up with Devaney's grandparents, loaded their boat into the water, and we were off. We quickly found a shady alcove and ate a lunch of fried chicken, fresh fruit and vegetables. After eating, we boated over to Black Canyon where Devaney and I proceeded to go tubing on the back of the boat. I don't think I can even begin to explain how gorgeous this entire area is. The pictures I provide below fail to display the beauty. And to go tubing in this area...AMAZING! I was so blessed to be able to go with Devaney and her grandparents!
After tubing was cut premature, (as my tube flipped, throwing me into the water, the rope was cut by the rutter. Sad day) we decided to stop at Mile 7. We climbed up to the Mile 7 marker and stood on the 17 foot drop. We decided to go for it, leaping into the air and plummeting into the water! It was so great!
After these activities, Devaney's Grandpa decided to drive us into the reservoir as far back as he could before we had to turn back for dinner. We got all the way to Mile 20 before heading back. But her Grandpa assured me that there are miles and miles of beautiful waterways, and we had only scratched the surface!
After getting back to the load-in area, we realized how absolutely fried we were. We drove back to Hardin, showered, got dressed and realized we were miserable. We slowly made our way to the Little Bighorn Days concert area. The streets were shut down, and vendors lined the sidewalk. We decided to share an Indian Taco (and by share, it meant Devaney eat two bites and Grant consume the rest). It was around this time that Devaney started to not feel well.
After eating, we sat down and got the introduction to the upcoming concert. The guest band was the sons of Ricky Nelson. Apparently they formed a band to tour the country, singing their father's songs and other top hits throughout time. -I must confess, neither of us knew who Ricky Nelson was. We had to ask the older lady sitting next to us.-
After a while, we met up with all of Devaney's friends. Lots of introductions. We just hung out in the streets, talking, listening and having a grand old time. Around midnight, Devaney and I couldn't take it anymore. Our burns got the best of us and we went back to her house and I crashed in her guest room.
The next morning, we woke up, cuddled with Devaney's four kittens, and ate the AMAZING breakfast Devaney's mom made for us! Around this time, Devaney had started to not feel well. We finally took her temperature and found it to be 101 degrees! After eating, she decided to go to the ER since they were leaving for Costa Rica the next morning and she couldn't be sick! It turned out to be sever dehydration and strep throat! I think we both learned our lesson about applying TONS and TONS of sunscreen!
After slowly making my way back home, I'm just chilling out, doing some laundry. There is a big week ahead and I need to get some sleep tonight! Please enjoy the pictures below. It is going to be hard deciding between all of them!!!