Ru
Merry Christmas, dear readers! In the spirit of the holiday season, we are straying from our publishing sequence for a December mini-series. Don’t you often find yourself more grateful for your friends and family around the holidays? We certainly do! In light of those warm, cozy feelings, we’ve chosen to write about a recent family trip to Wyoming. We hope you enjoy our memories as much as we do!
Featured photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/s7jJUoTxZxhRLqom6
September 28th, 2024 - Wyoming Day 1
My sister swayed with the jerky motions of the airport shuttle bus. Her eyes still wore the sleepy shutters prompted by an early alarm clock. I watched her curiously. What was she thinking about? Tyler and I sat across from her, comfortable in the familiar traveling routine. I tried to remember my first trip out west. When I first boarded an airport shuttle bus, I was delirious with honeymoon bliss and anxiety about missing our flight. I didn’t settle down until our honeymoon plane landed in Las Vegas several hours later. Unlike me, Ru portrayed nothing but self-assuredness. It was her first trip west, but she wasn’t betraying any anxiety. I smiled. Ru had always been braver than me.
When we were little girls, Ru and I fluctuated between best friends and sworn enemies. No, that’s not quite right. We were the eldest daughters of four online-schooled girls. With that much time spent together, not even a grudge could form between us. There was no such thing as enemies in our home. No, Ru and I fluctuated between being best friends and occasionally annoying each other. Our worst disagreement probably happened when I was eight or so. We were taking violin lessons together, but neither girl loved to practice. We would get annoyed when the other suggested we rehearse our songs. As the issue continued, Ru came up with a clever solution. She began sweetly complying with my requests to practice. She would pull out her violin and rosin her bow. Then, she would lift her instrument and pretend to play. Too caught up in my own music, I wouldn’t notice her silent instrument until the end of practice. Well done, Ru, well done.
Our childhood relationship was most defined by our nighttime discussions between bunk beds. Swaddled in the darkness of our bedroom, we’d talk about everything together. We knew each other’s secrets, ambitions, and frustrations. We knew each other’s hearts. We cherished each other. When adulthood captured our youth, our sisterly bond remained. Though college and careers have yanked us from our bunk beds, we still love each other the same.
I'm awfully proud of the person she has become. Ru has always loved nature. When I went through a girlish phase of doodling horses, she was sketching elk. When I learned how to sew, she was teaching herself how to tan leather. She knows how to trap, hunt, and woodcarve. Her college thesis was about the value of handicrafts. In other words, Ru is really cool. When Tyler and I started traveling, I was convinced Ru would love the isolated, rustic charms of Wyoming. After our second visit to Grand Teton National Park, I knew we had to make it a reality. Wyoming has captured my heart. If I adore the state so much, how much more would Ru enjoy it? We managed to coax my Ohio-bound sister onto an airplane, and off to Yellowstone we went. For weeks before the trip, I had (not) subtly asked her things like “Do you think we’re going to see a bear in Yellowstone? There’s a ton of grizzlies out there. I bet we’ll see a bear.”
What Ru initially didn’t know was that I had hedged our grizzly bets. 20 minutes outside of Bozeman, there is a grizzly rescue facility. For $13, you can stand ten feet from a grizzly bear without risking death. Naturally, I bought tickets. I’m pretty sure I ruined the surprise by the time we made it to the Montana Grizzly Encounter, but it still hadn’t prepared us for the shock of seeing the bears. Grizzlies are huge. Like, way bigger than you’d expect them to be. Once we got over their enormous claws, though, they were fascinating. You might even say they were pretty cute! I thought so, anyways. Ru, who frequently displays more common sense than I, remained firmly in the “Bears are scary and I’m going to stay away from them” mindset.
We got to see two of the three rescue grizzlies at the facility. Bella, the smaller of the two bears, had a predisposition for throwing logs at unsuspecting visitors across the moat. She didn’t throw any at us, sadly. Max, a hefty boar, made up for Bella's disinterest. He climbed a log and straddled it as if riding a horse. He waded into a pond and wrestled with a 200-pound tree stump. When he tired, he floated in the pond and plopped a clump of pond plants on his head like a wig. We stayed at the Grizzly Encounter for quite a while, enjoying the bears doing their bear business. It was refreshing to see animals in captivity that actually seemed happy. Near our hometown, there is a small zoo. Our last zoo visit left us pretty sad. The zoo enclosures were small, the animals were cramped, and all of them seemed dejected. At the Grizzly Encounter, it was a much different environment. The staff of the Encounter were well-acquainted with each bear’s preferences and needs. For example, an aviator-wearing cowboy (a staff member) informed us that Bella was permitted to spend time in the pasture by herself. As she aged, she had grown less agreeable to sharing the space with the other grizzlies. The Encounter accommodated her "social anxiety" simply because they wanted her to thrive. Max was the star of the show. The sunglasses cowboy told us that the jovial bear loved being in front of a crowd. He was the opposite of the antisocial Bella. He was also very, very big. The cowboy said that if Max kept growing (a likely scenario for the young bear), he might tip the scales as the biggest grizzly ever recorded. Staring at the big bear atop the log, this was a shocking fact. We couldn’t imagine Max getting any bigger than he already was. I, for one, was thankful that Max lived behind a moat and not on a hiking trail!
The rest of the day was spent giving Ru a classic Yellowstone experience. In Gardiner, we posed for a picture under the iconic stone entrance arch to Yellowstone. At Mammoth Hot Springs, we strolled the boardwalks and wrinkled our noses at the sulfur smell. We perused the displays in the visitor center and gaped at a gorgeous bull elk sleeping in the shade outside. Then, we crowned the day with a drive through Lamar Valley. Before the trip, we had attempted to describe the incredible wildlife experiences of Lamar Valley to Ru. Lamar Valley, however, defies description. The rolling hills, punctuated with yellow aspens, are too beautiful to adequately capture. Nothing can prepare you for all the wildlife either. Until you’ve been caught in a bison jam in Lamar Valley, you truly can’t understand the breadth of Yellowstone’s wonder. The bison herds also reveal the breadth of tourist stupidity. On her first day in the park, Ru witnessed a Yellowstone touron. At a pull-off near a broad prairie, Ru watched a bison herd while I snapped aspen photos. Another car pulled into the pull-off and its three occupants disembarked. Immediately, it became evident that they were tourons. While we stayed respectfully close to our vehicle, the women scattered across the landscape. Two of them planted themselves in the center of the road to take an Instagram photo. The third decided that she wasn’t close enough to the bison herd. To rectify her issue, she walked out onto the prairie. With the boldness attributed only to tourons and some Walmart shoppers, she strolled right up to the bison herd. White pantsuit billowing in the wind, she lifted her phone for a classic touron selfie. We watched in awe. It was like witnessing a tornado. A sense of awful foreboding overcame us. Were we about to witness a sunhat-wearing touron get airlifted by a bison? Or, like the swirling mass of a hurricane, would she disappear into the horizon without any harm done? We were convinced she was going to get gored. Somehow, the woman got lucky. Clutching her precious phone and new selfie, she returned to her car without a scratch. Then she was gone, leaving just an astounding memory behind.
That evening, Ru got to meet Tom. Tom was an employee of the Range Rider Lodge in Silver Gate, Montana. Tyler and I met Tom during our Yellowstone trip the previous year. Tom’s warm friendliness and excellent storytelling had made us fast friends. Because of him, we had been eagerly awaiting our return to Range Rider. Would Tom still be working at the lodge? Would he remember us?
Tom did remember us. We sat together around a campfire that night, roasting s’mores and exchanging stories. It was as if time had never passed. Tom took a quick liking to Ru. I think he could sense Ru’s character, her affinity for the outdoors, her gentle heart, and her quick wit. Within a half hour of meeting Ru, he was trying to convince her to move to Wyoming for work. It brought me joy to see them interact. We’d spent an entire year telling our families about Tom from Montana. I wrote about him too. Now, under a blanket of sparkling Montana stars, Ru was experiencing it for herself. Tom told us many excellent stories that night, but they are too numerous for this blog post. Next week, we’ll feature the adventures of Tom from Montana. Stay tuned!
More information about the Montana Grizzly Encounter: https://www.grizzlyencounter.org/
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