Last night I dreamt I was at Yellowstone with my dear friend Hess. In the dream, she told me that she had never been to the Old Faithful Inn, and I was absolutely thrilled to show her what I consider one of the most magical places on earth.
Why was I so thrilled, you may wonder. Allow me to explain. Growing up (not included in last night's dream) my family had a fun tradition of making the roadtrip to Yellowstone over UEA weekend (usually in late October). It was our way of communing and helping put that magnificent park to sleep before its long winter. We would all crowd into the station wagon, loaded with our warmest of winter clothing, and drive the length from Salt Lake in one day. Easily the best and most rewarding part of the trip was turning into the driveway of the Old Faithful Inn and getting your first view of her majestic wooded roof and her sweeping wings with the dormer windows. We would gather our belongings, check in at the front desk, and find our rooms without delay. Some years we stayed in the original wood structure with rooms furnished with beds and a sink....toilets and showers were down the hall and shared with other Inn guests in your hall. Other years mom and dad splurged and got rooms with en suite bathrooms. Both were fun...we were usually just relieved and so happy to be there. We had arrived and guaranteed an enchanted weekend.
We would spend our days touring the geysers, each of us seeing how our favorites were holding up. I always loved the simple Morning Glory pool, and was deathly afraid of the deceptive Beauty Pool where you if were at the right angle, you could see the skull of a bison who probably went to the pool's edge to water and collapsed due to the shock of being scalded. We would travel to Yellowstone Lake, peek in the windows of Lake Yellowstone Hotel (which was vacant for years and years when I was a child), cross Fishing Bridge, brave through Porcelain Basin with plugged noses, go north to Mammoth to see the elk hanging out besides the buildings, gaze at the gorgeous Mammoth Hot Springs, and see as many mud pots, geysers, and wildlife as we possibly could in the daylight.
My favorite part of the day, however, was when the sun went down and it was too cold to be outside any longer, and we would retire to the Inn. I felt like the Inn was mine to explore, study and discover. I loved finding the most secluded stairways, or look closely at the wood pillars used in all aspects of decoration, and dream of what it would be like to live there year round. The pinnacle to any Old Faithful Inn visit, whether you are staying overnight or not, is spending time in the Great Hall. As far as man made structures are concerned, there is no fonder or better place in my mind.
With the lamps aglow, the wind whistling outside and my comfy sweater on, I would sit for hours people watching, use a reading table to do a little "UEA weekend" homework assigned by a teacher, and kick up my feet with the siblings and parents after a long day of hiking and walking. I would look up to the crow's nest (which has been out of use for my entire life) and imagine what it would have been like to be serenaded or played to by an orchestra in the "heavens". I imagined what it was like to stay in one of the three "Third Room" suites that cost a million ga-gillion dollars. I never recall a feeling of boredom while I was there. I do remember having feelings of intrigue when I'd happen upon other friends who were also visiting with their families. We would find some of the old couches with fluffy stuffing sitting on wood frames and talk talk talk. There were the hide and seek games that would always start and end in the Great Hall as ally ally oxen free, or just a simple jaunt down the main staircase to visit the gift shop by the main entrance. There was something very special about sharing that weekend with my classmates, as it has made a most indelible impression in my mind, one which I have never, nor will I ever be able to shake. It's as if I made permanent bonds with them after sharing something so sacred to me. For me, no memory in my mind is more cozy and more nostalgic. I savor those memories as I savor my closest of relations.
So....why is the post entitled "Nightmare" and why have I taken so long to get to the point? I wanted to paint a picture of how much this place means to me, even today. Well, back to my dream....Hess had never been to the Inn, and I felt it a deep honor to introduce her to one of my most beloved places on this green earth. The building's facade was unchanged, as was the fun front door with its decorative and twisting 9+ locks that actually work in the winter to keep the place secure. As Hess and I walked in, my stomach twisted as my heart dropped and my mind started to spin. We walked past the front desk into the Great Hall to see that a re-decorating crew had covered all the stately timber pillars with white faux wood paneling, and had painted the paneling to make it resemble a birch forest--and a very unnatural and poor one at that. Instead of taking our first steps into what should have been a room filled with dark browns, grey stone, and golden laquer finish on the wood illuminated with warm oil lamps, we stumbled into a very generic looking (albeit large, tall and airy) hotel lobby. They had placed white carpeting on the floors, covered up the stone fireplace with more white paneling, and had high-teched the place out. Parents and children weren't sitting the traditional rockers, but were sitting in lazy boy recliners with game controls in hand and staring off into space at the hundreds of flat screens in front of them which televised their loud video games. I could hardly breathe. I wanted to scream and cry "INJUSTICE!". I turned to the clerk and asked with tears rolling down my cheeks, "What have they done to my Great Hall?". He looked at me with sad eyes and said, "People want their conveniences, and we are just trying to cater to them. Plus most people aren't interested in all of that old decor anyway, so the hotel thought it best to do some minor updating".
I made myself wake up that instant (something that I can do when I just can't stand to stick around in a dream any longer) and my eyes shot open as I felt my heart racing. It really had just been a HORRIBLE nightmare. There were still some tears in my eyes, and I was scared to fall back asleep in fear that I'd have to go back to that godforsaken place. Luckily, the Old Faithful Inn is a National Landmark and registered with the National Historical Society, so they will never be able to do anything like that to it. I don't usually hold that much stalk in my dreams, and I'm not one to go sharing them with other people, but I just had to get this one off my chest. It really affected me. I just don't know what I'd do if that were to really happen. That's why I had to write about it. Plus, I felt this would be a good way to declare my undying love for Yellowstone National Park and to thank it and the organizations (National Park Services, etc...) and the laws that are in place to help us protect and enjoy these blessed areas.
I want to also publicly declare that its never a good thing to use wood paneling. I understand its a cheap option, but c'mon. That's just my inner wanna-be interior decorator SCREAMING inside.
And I want to let it be known that I love the Inn and hold it so near and dear to my heart. May it stand for years and years to come and continue welcoming visitors who can share in its magic as I have.
