Yellowstone trip 2024 - Day I

 We have a penchant for visiting National Parks in America. So far we have traveled to many, from the Mammoth Cave National Park in the North to the Smokey Mountain National Park in South. As we have already covered the Acadia National Park in East, it was high time to do some balancing act by visiting its counterpart in the West. So we chose to make a trip to the Yellowstone National Park in the Mountain West.

Not a bad time to get away from the prickly Georgia heat now searing at 95 degrees and 100 plus heat index if you add to it the humidity factor. As the 4 hour long Delta flight from Atlanta descended on the Salt Lake City Airport, we descended from a temperature of 95 to 65 with this feeling of crispy, mountain was up in the air, for we could see and feel the high mountains and valleys all over place glittering under the golden late afternoon sun. The undulating Rocky Mountains were still snowclad in June, though bit sparcely, looking like the brownish-gray forehead of a person smeared in white sandalwood paste. The tip of the mountains looked icing on gigantic trianglular cup cakes with golden sprinkles spread by sun. The glittering valleys chose to take a crimson shower.

The gargantuan sized Salt Lake acted like a gigantic mirror reflecting the crystal clear azure sky. It seemed thousands of sparklers chose to fall on its blue waters and stars couldn't wait until nightfall to take a dive into the lake. The mesmerized Lake reminded me from the stanza of a song from movie "AAP KI KASAM" voiced by the legendary singer Kishore Kumar espousing a lover's call to his beloved smitten by her beautiful eyes :

JHIL SI ANKHON MEIN ASHIQ
DOOB KE SO JAEGA,
ZULF KI SAAYA MEIN
DIL ARMA BHARA HO JAEGA.
TUM CHALE AO NAHI TO
KUCH NA KUCH HO JAEGA.

Roughly transliterated...

Inside your Lake like blue eyes,
the lover wants to drown, see himself lost,
In the shadows of her long hair,
Gets fullfilled the desires of his heart.
You come over, otherwise
Something or other shall happen to me.

Before driving North towards our destination of Yellowstone Park, we wanted to grab something to eat as we were starving. So we Googled a local Indian restaurant not far from the Salt Lake City Airport. We were greeted by a tall, pretty Punjabi girl with an aqualine nose. I reciprocated - "Sat Sri Atal. Wahe Guru Ka Khalsa, Wahe Guru Ka Fateh", meaning...

In devotion to Guru lies purity,
It will be rewarded with Victory. 

She looked impressed and smiled back at us. Leading us to our table she asked us which part of India we are from. I answered - "We are from Bhubaneswar, Odisha". "Where is it" - promptly came her inquisition ? I replied - "Do you know Puri" ? "Oh, Jagannath Dham", it rang a bell to her. She wasn't interested any further conversation about Bhubaneswar or Odisha but complimented - "It has been a long time a non Punjabi wished me "Sat Sri Akal". She served us a wonderful dinner and obliged us by taking our picture.

There was a Punjabi encounter of different kind and flavor when we checked in to a motel in Pocatello, Idaho for a night halt, couple of hours drive from Salt Lake City enroute to the Yellowstone. These days when a guest arrives at your home, instead of a glass of water the first thing you offer is your WiFi password. Similarly, the receptionist offered me the electronic key to the room, followed by the WiFi password "benchroad". It sounded more like the popular Punjabi greeting "Beh***od". I had to the make the receptionist repeat again to ensure that the password isn't what I heard. Glad this time the lady wasn't from Punjab. More later...