Holden’s digestive issues have continued unabated. He trails behind him a cloud of gas that clears rooms. Strangers catch the eyes of others in their group and regard each other suspiciously: Oh my God. Was that you? As my grandma used to say, “It’s time to lift this pony’s tail and look the problem straight in the eye.”

This morning at breakfast I instituted a new gluten-free trial period for Holden. He had to eat scrambled eggs while jealously watching his sisters eat pancakes. He was NOT happy. “If I can’t eat anything I like, then I might as well just not live!” he said through tears. I pointed out that he eats nearly gluten free at home (I don’t tolerate it well, so most of my cooking doesn’t include wheat as an ingredient) and he has no complaints, but that is hollow reassurance to a man watching his sisters wolf down waffles and cakes.

We stopped at a grocery store on the way to the park and loaded up on gluten-free picnic food, which means we filled our cooler with fruit, sliced deli meats and cheese.

Yellowstone Canyon

On the way into the park we saw more huge herds of bison. So far all we’ve seen are bison.

Yesterday we pulled over every time we saw one and got out of the car to take photos and admire their magnificent size. “What impressive animals!” we said. In one spot, bison kept crossing the road and had traffic at a standstill, both because people wanted photos and because bison are huge and don’t move any faster out of a desire to be polite. After the last bison finally ambled off into the field, one frustrated guy pulled his car out into the middle and illegally (and dangerously, I might add) sped through the tunnel of stopped cars lining both sides of the road. He had a death-grip on his steering wheel and the expression on his face said If I have to stop this car for one more goddam bison, I’m gonna lose it!  Everyone in our car said, “What a jerk. He can’t wait two minutes? He comes all the way to Yellowstone and gets mad when he sees wildlife?”

Back to today; with bison around every curve in the road, we started, by degrees, to turn into that guy. “Oh, look. More bison.” By mid-afternoon it was bordering on irritation. “More bison? Are they scaring away all the other animals?” If our experience at Yellowstone is to be believed, the whole of the park contains ostentatious numbers of bison, one jack rabbit, one marmot, and a few geese.

No zoom needed. Just open the window and shoot.

Picnic on the Yellowstone River

We stopped at most of the geysers and mud pots, which reek of sulphur. The kids were both disgusted and amused. Running along the walkways pinching one’s nose and exclaiming about the horrible stench is pretty fun, although prolonged exposure can get a good headache going.

On one of these walks, I noticed Holden gulping for breath and panicked. The elevation is fairly high (between 6,000 and 8,000 feet depending on where you are in the park) and there are a lot of gasses being released into the atmosphere. I feared he was experiencing life-threatening hydrogen sulfide poisoning.

I raced over and said ,”Bug, what’s wrong!?” He sheepishly said, “Isabella told me that if I swallow air, I’ll be able to toot, and this stinky air would make perfect toots.”

Ah ha! After a gluten-free breakfast and lunch … no toots. Not a single one. He saw the writing on the wall and realized that if he didn’t work up some gas, he was going to be bereft of pancakes for the rest of the trip, if not for the rest of his life.

The big after lunch snowball fight on the Continental Divide

Our timing to see Old Faithful was spot on. We pulled into the parking lot, walked over to the viewing area, and only had to wait about 3 minutes for the eruption. The kids were all a little disappointed. Old Faithful is, indeed, very predictable but not particularly impressive. Josie was still holding a grudge from yesterday, too. “Uncle Brian would have made this a lot more fun,” she grumbled.

Old Faithful, or as Holden keeps mistaking, “Old Reliable.”

Tomorrow we head to Sun Valley and Ketchum, the place where Hemingway ended his life. We have rooms in the Sun Valley Lodge, where in 1939 Hemingway stayed in room 206 and completed For Whom the Bell Tolls.  Adam is really looking forward to this.