Yellowstone National Park

Good morning my dearest!
Last week-end I was with Walt, Adam and Mei in the Yellowstone National Park which is famous for its wildlife (buffalos, elks, mooses, birds of every size and colours, coyotes, squirrels and of course BEARS). We left on Friday night and decided to camp in the National Forest because in Summer the campgrounds inside the Park use to be full. On Saturday morning we had a tour of some of the most known places in the Park which surface is almost bis as Switzerland. We stopped often on the road to admire the terrific views.
Yellowstone is a "supervolcano": the surface of the Park is above a huge caldera which activity is pretty inpredictable: if the volcano exploded -I was told- half of USA would be definitely canceled.
Without any place in a campground we had to hike 8 Km and go camping in the backcountry which means at a certain distance from other people where the danger of bears is more relevant. In fact, you have to get a permission to go camping into the backcountry and you are obliged to watch a video before that which mainly explains how to react in case you see a bear or better a bear sees you, but also how to prevent a bear attack. For example you are supposed to talk during your hiking in order not to surprise the bear arriving, your food is gonna be hung at a certain height on a tree and far from your tent to avoid to attract any bears/to feed them. Fortunately, we couldn't see any bears even if I would have been happy to see one from our car. The only animals teasing during our hiking were mean mosquitos. Before getting to "our" campside we passed a nice lake and some swans and finally we went through a river and arrived... at someone else campside. Walt and Adam went looking for some wooden for the fire while Mei and I worked on assembling our tents. For dinner: cheese tortillas.
At night we were so tired that in spite of the rocks underneath my pad I could sleep pretty good. Today after brushing our teeth in front of an awesome view we hiked back to our cars and we got to the canyons: I cannot remember any more amazing view in my life as the one of the big falls in the Canyons (where I met for the first time since I've been in WY some Italians). It's incredible to see from the top of the fall how the water flows and goes off from a huge rock...
Driving back we had some other great panoramas included wildlife and boiling calderas.
After such a unique experience it feels strange to be here writing about that...
Tomorrow I'm living to the NOLS ranch since we're gonna issue a re-ration to a field (horsebackpacking) on Tuesday morning: it's gonna be the subject of my next post.

Now I'm dead tired:)
I wish you all a great beginning in your week!


see ya!

Antonella

An Italian in Wyoming

Signore e Signori,
meine Damen und Herren,
Ladies and Gentlemen!
It's with great pleasure that I announce the birth of Sofia, the first baby of the next generation in my big family! This post is entirely and warmly dedicated to Sofia! Benvenuta tra di noi Sofia! Non vedo l'ora di vederti. Auguri Anna e Luca!

It was an intense week. On Monday (and on Thursday) we had to issue 4 courses which means prepare on one day about 1.75 pound food for about 70 students + instructors for 30 days = 1665 Kg to be issued on one day. The challenge is to move many people including instructors and students very quickly and efficiently so that they can leave the Rocky Mountain Base as soon as possible and get by bus out into the field by the same evening. The Rations Department is pretty much well organized; there's always space for improvement, though and I regret being here in a so busy time, where you don't even have the time to think time is going by... that Justine comes and says "can you believe it's Friday again? I mean, we had Friday last week!" She's so funny. I was driving with her from Riverton back to Lander on Friday night as we saw a huge orange and blue fireball going through the sky. I was scared for a second as I thought it was a burning plane being almost as big as the moon and, in addition, it seemed to us to be very closed to the meteor. Awesome scene! We were coming back from a car show where you could see old cars "Happy Days style" and experience some good intentionally and proudly and legally polluted air: the "burning tyres competition" is a serious staff. More you burn your tyres stepping on the accelerator, more chances you get to be the winner. Families with their young children were standing and following carefully this stinky show. No comment!
Walter showed us the journal office where he works and then we got to his place to get a good view from his terrace. To get there we needed to climb up through a small window of the kitchen. It was actually the best show of the evening after the meteor!
But this was also the week of my first horse ride through the desert thanks to Jane, my co-worker, and her husband, Steve, who rode with me. It was so great that I accepted to do a longer ride instead of going back directly at home in spite of my strong snakes phobia. Afterwards, we had a super-delicious hamburger at Jane's.
On Saturday morning I woke up at 7 am, reached the Open Door Coffee Shop where Justine works, had breakfast (I love having breakfast in places which look like the TV series "Friends") and went to work. In the afternoon Matt, Justine and I got to an Indian powwow, which is a traditional dance taking place in one of the many Indian reservations in Wyoming. Everything starts with 2 marines holding 2 American flags and 2 other people holding 2 other flags. After that they went in procession to remember an Indian marine dead in Iraq as I could understand from the picture of the soldier with an American flag background.
After that different groups start singing and playing drums which are made with a tree log whose diameter is about 1 m and alk skin. Everybody wears feathers with some differences: the boss has bigger ones and a menacing stick in his hands. Normally you are not allowed to bring any camera as they believe you would steel them their soul by taking pictures. They are very serious... however, Justine and I could take a picture from the backside. (I'll publish it as soon as Justine sends it to me).
Talking to different people here in different places I realize most of them have never met an Italian which is a kind of weird and interesting stuff for me.
Today I got up pretty early to ride my bike to the only catholic church in Lander (there are 12 different churches of other religions, though). At noon it was again climbing time! I've been enjoying it a lot here even if I'm not so good as the others;P
Tomorrow I'm starting at 7 am so that I can take next Friday off to get to Yellowstone Park! I'm looking forward to it! But now it's time to go to bed.

Buona notte a tutti!
CU next week!

Antonella

Cheyenne not Casper is the capital of Wyoming !

My goodness! Last week-end I went to Casper: I was pretty much convinced I was going to the capital of Wyoming. I had to get there to learn from Mei I was just in the second biggest town of Wyoming ('cause the first one is the capital, Cheyenne).
It can happen to make confusion with geography... if you're in Wyoming:P
Anyway, dear readers: welcome back to ANTONELLAMIX blog! I should probably explain the reason why I chose this name: in the Rations Department, also known as "Gulch", there are plenty of trail mixes which you can have during your hiking/climbing/mountaneering or whatever if you're hungry. They give you much energy, are not heavy both for your pack and for your stomach and represent a good solution for people who have no time to stop and cook at noon.
Back to last Saturday: after a strong coffee Walter and I were on the road to Casper, where Mei, Adam and Dustin live (they're the same guys who I was camping at the Snowy Range with). Before arriving at Casper Walter showed me a cool rock formation below the road where Indians were supposed to attract bulls (or cows?) to kill them. We took some awesome pictures of that but I erased them by accident:(
... Walt and I got to Mei's and Adam's. (They both live in the same dorms). It was nice to see Mei again (ok also Adam and Dustin:P); Mei had birthday on Thursday, so I brought her some homemade brownies. We played frisbee at the swimming pool, as the picture of Adam jumping in the pool witnesses, and afterwards we went to a typical American restaurant to have dinner.
I was starving as I got there so I could quite enjoy the big weird mixture that was in my plate: like beef+peppers+mushrooms+mashed potatoes+cheese+whatever.
After that, Mei and Adam showed me the TV station where they work respectively as anchorwoman and metereologist (s. better picture below). It was cool to visit around an American TV station: well, actually, I've never been neither at an Italian TV station. The evening continued at one of the most famous cowboy bar in Wyoming, the Beacon bar. Can you imagine a place where men dress those cowboys hats and those belts with those boots...? Here we go: that's the place! If I wouldn't have seen it, I would have thought it can just happen in old movies. People of every age and size dance with anybody. The music is a mixture of "normal" American music and line dances: I found it particularly fun to learn a line dance which I definitely should show you when I come back. It was fun!
On Sunday we slept in and then we went tubing along the Platte River. You are supposed to have just your backside and feet in the water. As you lay down in your tube the current is gonna bring you quite quickly forward. We tried to float together either putting our feet on the same flat raft or binding ourselves with eachother and then to the big raft. The most enjoying part of our floating were definitely the rapids which are a steep part of the river where there's turbulence. You have your lifevest on going through them because even if you are a good sea swimmer the current of the river is very strong and you're gonna drink water... someone of our group could experience that lifevest doesn't protect you from drinking a lot of water, though, neither from burping after that!:)
Our adventure finished after 4 rapids. The hardest stuff to do was stopping to get out of the river as the current was incredibly strong for a person who was in a river for the first time. I had to brace my feet against the stony ground and thanks to Mei I got out of it.
It was 4.15 pm: we were starving. The decision had been made while still in the river: mexican food. It's there that my Casper week-end finished. I had "Lacosta tacos": after that I decided I don't like any cornmeal tacos. But please Mei don't feel guilty about my choice!
I fell asleep for a while as Walt and I were driving back to Lander. As I woke up I put on a cd of U2: it was good.
Have a great day!
- Thank you guys for another great weekend!

Antonella

PS: I forgot to tell you about one picture showing Macbeth. I went to the City Park last Wednesday being quite excited about that but I couldn't get anything of it - I hope just because of the old English... anyway, this picture is a special one for the most famous sister that I've ever had!

1st Party at Lucky Lane

Somebody could think that this blog is about my job or that I work in the wildernis. Actually, it's all about my evenings and week-ends in Wyoming and in the surrounding areas.
Referring to your requests I'll tell more about my job and house in my next post.
About my last week-end: Friday was the last work day of Erin. She is the one who remembers me Ansa -my German room mate who left after 3 months- and like Ansa, Erin's gonna leave after a few time I met her.
On Friday night Erin and I organized a great goodbye-party at Florian's and my place at Lucky Lane. During the lunch break of the same day I made the dough for 10 pizzas which resulted in what you can see in the pictures below. Everybody was delighted... Probably I don't need to explain the difference between an American and an Italian pizza. The first one is thicker and fatter (they put every ingredient in great quantity on it). The second one is simply the best:)
In the evening about 30 people reached our place -most of them working at NOLS. The party was very funny; I guess because of the will to have fun, the Italian food, the beer and last but not least the cool people! We even danced in our living room which was something I've never experienced at parties since I'm here.
"Great Party! Awesome pizza!" said people leaving. Thank you everybody for coming guys! After the party it was sad to tell Erin goodbye but I'm very happy and lucky to have met her.

The following day Florian, Walter, Adam and myself left for another adventure: Green River Lakes, WY. It's an area about 3-4 hours North-West from Lander which is special for the amazing lake and rivers. About 18 miles before coming to destination there were warnings about grizzly bears which are enormous animals particularly known for their greediness. On the way you see antelopes, cows, bulls, eagles, squirrels, llamas, horses, goslings... (Un)fortunately I could see no bears, though.
As we came to the campground it was totally warm so we decided to go swimming in the lake. As I put my feet in the water I realized the temperature is not exactly the same of a Baggersee near Karlsruhe: it was ice cold! I felt like my blood circulation could stop. Adam was the only one who could dive for a second! Afterwards we went hiking on a trail around the lake and then up to the mountain to a natural stone bridge. About 16 Km of a heaven looking landscape which was all worth of it.
Back to our campsite the guys cooked some hotdogs and I dealt with rigatoni with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese (which is not the same as the Italian mozzarella of course). They were delicious:P As dessert we had "smore's" which is very typical if you are in front of a campfire here. It's a snack that you obtain putting a marshmallow and a piece of chocolate between 2 thin honey cakes.
... and since Latins said "Dulcis in Fundo" I'm gonna come to the end for today.

Before that I would like to thank the ones for e-mails and comments and encourage the others to let me hear about themselves.

Good night,

Antonella

The 4th of July

Here we go dear readers!

The Independence Day is a very very special
day in the Lander year. For the occasion you are allowed to do several things which are normally not allowed such as walking with an opened alcohol container or driving your car even if you're a little bit drunk (= opened alcohol containers are normally not allowed in the street).
The party starts the night between 3rd and 4th when Dr. Bills, a rich dentist of Lander, offers the town some magnificent fireworks which are accompanied with music, while a voice tells the story of the independence over the radio. What's more the smokes coming out of the fireworks remember the war.
Florian and I looked at fireworks from a patch together with Florian's boss and her big family. We were offered beer and a very good margarita (probably a little bit too strong...). Afterwards I went sleeping (!)
The morning of the 4th I went to the parade with many other people of NOLS. We were all very excited looking at the trucks parading in front of our eyes. People from trucks kept on throwing candies and other stuff in our direction. As I believed I could finally catch something, it was a water balloon!! I got totally wet and everybody laughed out loud! (in the picture you see Matt, the intern working in our department, and other NOLS people).
After the parade we went to the City Park for the Buffalo Barbecue. We paid 6,50 $ for what you see in the picture below + lemonade. The meat is definitely tasty here! After lunch we chilled out on the grass before trying some balance exercise on a rope. It was funny and I wish I could do better as they say it's helpful for climbing learners.
It was about 3 p.m. as we decided to leave to Lucky Lane -where I live- as some neighbours were having a party. The evening before I had prepared 2 cakes: one for my neighbours' barbecue and the other one for the next barbecue at Marianne's place, my colleague where I could ride my first horse. Basically, on Independence Day I had been eating through the whole day.
Marianne lives in a ranch a couple of miles away from the town. I got there with Erin and Claudia, my boss. The place is marvellous; you see a picture of the view of her property where they use to have cows and horses. There we had the most tasty meal of the day. They cooked hamburgers, pasta, beans and some other good stuff which I really appreciated. (I took a picture in the kitchen of Marianne as we were helping her getting ready; see below).
After that Claudia, Erin and I went to the rodeo, which was the most sensational experience of the day. There were cowboys capturing horses, cows, bulls, steers with their ropes. Some other cowboys (and also some cowgirls) rode crazy dangerous horses and bulls. Then some other tried to take the steer from the horns to push it on the ground. It was simply amazing!
We left after more than 2 hours to get to my boss' place from where we looked at the last fireworks of the Independence Day. Essentially everybody makes fireworks: I could count till 12 different firework sources but they were many more (in a town of less than 7000 Inhabitants!).
It was a great day as I could experience so authentically the Western spirit even if some American people coming from other states of USA found it a little bit "American" exaggerated.
Thank you all for your e-mails and comments. Keep on writing, I'm looking forward to hearing about you!

cheers,
Antonella

The Independence Day

Hi there!
USA celebrate the Independence Day today and Lander becomes particularly funny for the occasion. I've a lot to write about: city parade, several barbecues and last the amazing rodeo show!
I've just put some new pictures, enjoy them. I just wanted to share with you the impression of the day since it was terrific!

I'm gonna write more about it all soon.

Take care,

Antonella