Day 5: Chronicles of Glovebox Gnome - Rainbow Acid Trip Extremophiles!

Day 5
Today started off soooooo much better: Irate Mage made a sugar-sweet request to all the big bad bears in the tiny tiny room to set up the extra cot and they all slept like Goldilocks drugged their porridge. Ah, heaven! Housekeeping ran out of pillows, however, (I suspect a lot of pillow-fort building in the lodge next door) but other than that - I mean really?! Who needs all those damn pillows?! All was well. CD Rogue and Youngest Master Druid got outside in the wee hours for astronomy*, and struck up a conversation with an Indian gentleman describing his childhood experience with a constellation that sounds like it may be our Westernized Orion. Ah, we all tell different stories and myths for the same stars, don't we? I was kind of wondering if Irate Mage skipped town and somehow pulled the Sugar-coated Shaman out of her hat, she was such a different woman! Sugar-Coated Shaman was all hey, Animal Cookies! And look, fresh green apples and cheese sticks! Oh wait, forgot my coffee....FORGOT HER COFFEE? I suspect the Mage did indeed pull a fast one here. Irate Mage never forgets her coffee. Meanwhile I tried to look as inconspicuous as possible and slipped a few postcards in my satchel and pick-pocketed a tourist or two, but all I gained were receipts for Slim-Jims, Sinclair gas, and a two-week old bowling shoe rental. These people need to put more money in their pockets and less testimonials to bad snack decisions. Bowling is fine though. I approve.

Oh, and:
Suck it, New Zealand and Dominican Republic. Yellowstone has the Grand Prismatic Spring, the third largest in the world! We're Number Three! We're Number Three! Okay okay, sorry, got carried away. But the photo above does not do it justice: the pool is made of different heat sources and the bacteria responds in kind--the steam turns from blue to orange. BLUE STEAM! Blue as a Draenei, blue as a dream...it was lovely. I am so happy Irate Mage shoved me in the glove compartment and let me tag along. The bacteria in the pool are known as 'extremophiles.' Isn't that a most excellent word?! I know that there is life on Mars now. There is no doubt.

And in all of this natural beauty and grandeur, an American tourist, an older man, very large, with a small fuzzy white dog on the end of his leash, squawked to his dry, prune-faced wife, loudly, "Is there anything worth seeing up there? Is it worth it?" She squawked an unintelligible reply.

Anything worth seeing? Yes. Open your eyes. There are extremophiles all around you.

Mage's Favorite Souvenir: Bison Beanie

*Yes, a large telescope made the journey along with stand and stool. Hmmmm. No wonder things were poking thighs...but Irate Mage understood. The stars are different up here.


Theme Song: Life On Mars - Seu Jorge version