Day 61 Mile 880-895

Howard’s Spring to West Yellowstone

Did some Yoga stretches in the woods before eating some trail-mix and fruit and energy bars. filled up my water at the fountain and drank lots with my head right in the spout and my beard all dripping wet. Pushed up and over Targhee Pass and entered the state of Montana! Off in the distance the plumes of the fire are still huge and high. As I approach I see planes old war bombers flying over head dumping loads of red fire retardant on the flames. The retardant suppresses the fire from moving forward and is also a fertilizer that will help the new growth and allow the forest to recover. All around I am surrounded by forest but they are all young new growth trees. All having come in after the last great fire. I came into the town of West Yellowstone and found a bustling tourist paradise with shoppes and restaurants and curio shops. I headed straight to the Post office to pick up my new pair of z-coils! Thanks again so much to my Guardian Angels Mike and Jan from Sweet Home Oregon for sending me my beautiful new shoes and a signed Z-Coil Hat! I found the only Hostel in town. There were three beds in the room and I chose the one that was not a bunk bed. Across the hall were two retired gentlemen sitting together talking and sharing a drink. They invited me to come in and visit and after some introductions they invited me to join them for dinner. I went down stairs with Bill and Cliff to their rental car and we punch into the GPS system Pizza and the pleasant computer voice spoke to us and led us in the direction of nourishment. Cliff was an architect and general contractor while Bill was in the military and later an intelligence officer working around the world during the Cold War era. These two very accomplished individuals met in Florida where Cliff was general contractor on the Florida State Capital Building and Bill was going to Graduate School. We ordered our pizza and beer and started in discussing Iran, US foreign Policy, and our Intelligence gathering and analysis. Bill affirmed that we have the best intelligence gathering network in the world, but our intelligence analysis is impoverished by a lack of area experts and a bureaucracy that does not build intelligence officers over time based on merit and accomplishment, instead young officers cover Africa and over time you work your way up and someday you may get an appointment to Europe. Bill was very complimentary of me and was excited to talk with an ‘informed American’. He said with my background the state department would jump at a chance to pull me in. Cliff said that it takes money to get things done and money goes to those who get things done. Thats part of what’s wrong with the intelligence system, all the good people are in the private sector where the money is, which leads to an impoverished intelligence analysis capability. Both Cliff and Bill are Free Masons and they both had their rings. Bill was a member of the Scottish Right and offered to fill me in on who and what the Masons are as I have always had a healthy curiosity about them and as I had been taking photos of their lodges in almost every town I visited on the walk. We went back to the Hostel and I took a shower and cleaned up and then went out to the balcony to visit further with Bill. Joining us was my roommate Jonas, a 20 year old young man from Denmark. I learned much on the current state of Denmark and the EU from listening to Bill ask Jonas about all sorts of things. Jonas would talk about Denmark’s economy, the shipping job he had lined up upon returning home, the influx of immigrants from Eastern Europe and Turkey. Yet, Jonas never asked one question. I was surprised by his attitude, while he was evidently well educated I would expect a traveling young man to be more inquisitive. instead he seemed quite content to speak on the world as he knew it, and Bill the intelligence officer was just soaking it up with questions intended merely to updates his already comprehensive knowledge of the state of the European theater. He would inject some of his own experiences and anecdotes to keep Jonas interested, but Jonas never asked anything. This further cemented my belief in listening. I am a listener. Listening brings knowledge which I may never speak of but may guide affective actions in the future. To quote Lao Tzu “Those who talk don’t know, and those you know don’t talk”