Friday, August 1, 2008

More on that Yellowstone wildfire

We're wondering if our family brings bad luck when we travel. Both Yellowstone and Yosemite had wildfires on the day we visited them. And there was an earthquake in southern California the same morning we were driving out of there. Perhaps it would be better for everyone if we just stayed put in Joliet next summer?

Unlike the Yosemite wildfire, the Yellowstone wildfire didn't make the news, but it sure impressed the heck out of us. This morning I found out that it's already burned 2000 acres in the Shoshone Forest east of Yellowstone, and that we actually passed only three miles south of it yesterday, on the road from Yellowstone to Cody. The people in Cody seemed unimpressed by it, despite the smoke and ash in the air at the rodeo last night. Wildfires around Yellowstone aren't that unusual at this time of year, we were told. But it's a pretty crazy experience for us Illinoisans. Here's some more pics of the fire from the road:




3 comments:

teresa anthony said...

Cool fire, but I kind of got stuck on "Illinoisans" - is that right????

That kills me. I mean I know we're Pennsylvanians, but that sounds normal. Illinoisans. Shouldn't it at least be Ill-i-noi-sians? with the 'i'? Spelling it Illinoisans just sounds like you're a really noisy group of people.

The Schultz Family said...

Ah, my sweet little sister, I must give you another American geography lesson, as I did so long ago. You see, 'Illinois' was named by the French, so you don't pronounce the final 's'. (Like 'Paris;' the French call it 'Par-ee.')

So you should pronounce our state like this: Illinoy. And 'Illinoisans' is pronounced 'Illinoyans'. (Though if we were really being totally French in our pronunciation, we'd call the state 'Ill-i-nu-wah" But let's not get TOO carried away, shall we?)

Love,

Your nosy IlliNOY kinfolk.

teresa anthony said...

Ok, you lovable dork,

I KNOW that it's a French name, and I KNOW that you don't pronounce the 's' in Illinois!!!!

... I will admit that I put it back in when you added the 'ans'. So ok, you can correct me on that one. But now I say that instead of sounding like a really noisy group of people, "Illinoyans" (phonetic spelling), makes you sound like a group of annoying people. :)

So from now on every time my big sister Cathy annoys me, I'll call you "an annoying Illinoisan"!