The Earth sure can tell time. Well, relative time, anyway. Old Faithful shoots scalding hot water dozens of feet into the air every hour and a half or so. It’s the “or so” part that makes people antsy.
After treading through snow and slush on the boardwalk in freezing temperatures to the Old Faithful viewing arena, we stood around anxiously anticipating the legendary spout as the sun came out, turning the slush into fat water droplets an prompting us to unzip our coats and remove our hats and gloves.
We stood next to an old couple, likely visiting Yellowstone on a long-awaited retirement trip. The poor old man kept raising and lowering his camera, hoping to capture the first sprays of the geyser. He must have lifted and lowered that camera over seventeen times, sometimes eagerly, and always awkwardly.
Meanwhile, Old Faithful trudged along, huffing and puffing with billows of hot steam. Occasionally, it would spew a false alarm spray, to the oohs and ahhs and then consequent disappointment of the several hundred onlookers.
At last, a shy little squirt, followed by a full blast, at which time the old man proceeded to snap several photos, first landscape, then portrait as the water rose higher, then back to landscape again.
Ah, sweet relief.