Adventures in running: Yellowstone

Last week I had the opportunity to go to Yellowstone with most of the family. Some couldn't come because of work and other conflicts, but they missed out. Games, walking around the park and let's not forget the lightning strike. That's right, I said lightning strike. More on that later. We left Monday morning and started making the trek to Yellowstone. We stopped in Idaho Falls to have lunch and stretch our legs. Isn't it beautiful? It was a gorgeous day at the falls. Stopped at a little diner across the street for lunch. Had to ask and make sure they were open because we were the only patrons there. Another table of people showed up shortly after us, no worries.

Tuesday we headed out to Yellowstone National Park for some boardwalking and geyser gazing. It was a little chilly (highs were in the 50s for this trip), but it was still great. We entered the park and just started driving and stopping wherever we thought we'd like a picture. Falls, paint pots, old faithful, buffalo, bears, oh my!

Well, it decided to rain on us the whole time we were there. But we weren't going to let a little rain get us down. Not at all. We trekked it through the rain to see the geysers. Tuesday afternoon we had seen Old Faithful and had lunch. We were going to make the rounds to the other geysers in the area. It started to rain again (no surprise there). Then it started to hail. At that point I was thinking it was probably time to go back because I didn't have a waterproof jacket and I was going to be soaked within a few minutes. All of a sudden we heard a huge CRACK! It took me a second to realize that lightning had struck 10 feet in front of us. And not just struck the ground, but struck a group of people. Two people were shot off the boardwalk and another was lying on the boardwalk, not moving. People ran to get the two guys that had been shot off the boardwalk. One wasn't all together after the strike, but they just kept trying to get him up. My dad yelled at them to keep him down to make sure he was okay. Then they were telling the group to go for cover under the trees. Umm...isn't it lightning 101 that you learn not to take cover under trees in a lightning storm? Apparently they missed the day they taught that valuable lesson. Keep in mind this was all within seconds that this all transpired. The lightning hit and all chaos broke out. Mom, dad, Brad and I told everyone else to run back to the lodge. Little children didn't need to be out in that any longer than necessary. We got over to the man that was lying defenseless on the boardwalk, wanting to make sure he was okay. A lady ran over, very intently, and stated, "I'm CPR certified!" and pushed everyone out of the way and immediately began compressions on this man. Didn't even take the time to assess him and see if he even had a pulse. My mom (the nurse) and brother (the med student) were there as well. My cute mom had taken off her jacket and she and my dad were holding it over this man so he didn't get drenched. My brother stated he had a pulse, but to no avail. The woman continued with compressions. My mom later stated she had her arm on this lady and was ready to pull her off this defenseless guy if she didn't stop giving compressions. No need to puncture a lung if you don't have to, lady. In the meantime, the rest of the family was on their way back to the lodge. A ranger came up the boardwalk, like he was on a sunday stroll. Honestly, someone was just struck by lightning, you'd think he'd have a little kick in his step, but no. He got to us and was on his walkie talkie, the ambulance was on it's way. By that time he told us that if we weren't family, we needed to go back to the lodge because we were still in the middle of the storm and at risk. They told us to walk to another lodge that was a little closer. By this time, the boardwalk is covered in hail, making it not so easy to walk fast. We are approaching the lodge and we see the paramedics coming with their defibrillator, gurney and one woman with a backpack (filled with medical supplies, I'm sure). The woman with the backpack was running and not 15 steps into her run, the hail covered boardwalk gets the best of her and she goes down like humpty dumpty. You saw the look in her eyes of "can I just go back now." It took her a minute to get back up because it was as if she was on an ice rink in tennis shoes, not a good combination. Another paramedic decided he didn't want to gamble with the boardwalk and just jumped right off and ran next to it. We got to the lodge and waited for the rain to die out so that we could go back to the other end of the park and meet up with the rest of the family. When we did, we were all a little shook up about the events that had just transpired. The reality of the situation had hit us and we realized that we were within steps of being struck ourselves. And that my friends, is the adventure of the lightning strike.

Brad, Mel, Jeff, Holli, Leah and I were playing cards that night and all reminscing about our different experiences and what we saw during this event. Mel asked, "what if you had been struck by lightning and thrown into a geyser." Jeff replied, "then someone really wants you gone." We really were lucky that we weren't close to any geysers at that point, because the situation could have been a lot worse. And poor Chloe, pretty sure that's the only thing she remembers about this trip to Yellowstone, that some guy got struck by lightning. And it made the Jackson Hole news. We picked up copies of the paper on the way back. The news reported that 8 people were hospitalized. I only saw 3 that were injured, but maybe they took the family members in, who knows. And it also stated people were waiting for Old Faithful to erupt. Pretty sure we were behind Old Faithful and we were walking in a hail storm, but I guess the paper wanted to make it sound more interesting or something.

Here are some pictures from Yellowstone: