Today is a zero of sorts. We take a leisurely breakfast at the grill in the Grant village store. Yeti and I stop and talk to three cyclist who are doing the trans American route. I think we are both starting to long for our bike and we take every opportunity to talk to cyclist to find out what the riding conditions are like. We will definitely be back here one day on the bucket, our trusty tandem.

After breakfast we move out to the road to get a lift to old faithful. We have our sign and the three of us stand on the side of the road at the edge of town trying to look friendly. Pretty soon it works and a couple pull over and offer us a lift. They are about our age and have flown into Denver and driven up for a couple of weeks touring. We have a great ride with them and soon are at old faithful.

Our first stop is the impressive visitors Center as we check the next eruption time. We have about 20 minutes so we walk around the displays and learn about the park. We take our seats amongst what we think is a large crowd but we latter see that compared to the afternoon crowds it was practically empty.

After watching old faithful erupt we walk along the board walks and visit the various pools and geysers. It is a spectacular place and we are all thankful that we delayed our trip through the park and have the time to spend a day being tourists. We take our lunch at the new lodge and hang out and watch the crowds build on this beautiful afternoon.

We eventually decide it is time to go back to Grant village so we find the road out of the carpark heading in the direction we need to go. It is an extremely hard hitch back with a constant stream of cars passing us. A lot are either overflowing with family or if only caring two people are overflowing with bags and other gear stuffed into the back seats. After traveling all this time with just our packs it is amazing to see how much stuff people bring with them on holidays. We eventually get a lift with a young couple that are doing a crazy long road trip around some national parks. I think they have been on the road for a week and driving about 12 hours a day. It sounds horrible but then walking for 12 hours a day would sound horrible to many people as well.

As we are sharing our camp site with others we decide to get Hot dogs and smores to cook around our fire pit. We don’t know if anyone else will be at our site tonight but if they are we can extend some hospitality. We even pick up a six pack of moose drool beer, being in town is a really luxury.

When we get back to the camp site we have two guest cyclists to share with, one young trans am rider out on his first big trip and one more experienced rider doing a loop around WY. The young guy is riding his mothers touring bike which while it is a great touring bike he has loaded with way to many things. He is even carrying a full size hammer to pound his tent stakes in with. The older guy, who is about our age, is riding a really nice carbon fibre road bike and packs the exact opposite of the younger guy. I don’t think he even has any street clothes in his tiny pack as he spends the entire time in his riding gear.

We have a great night around the fire and it is a perfect way to finish our day at Old faithful.