As I’ve pointed out in previous posts, life seldom goes as planned. You’re in the wrong place at the wrong time. You don’t have something you need. Something breaks. Or something just plain unexpected happens and you have to “roll with the punches”. In dealing with those kinds of issues we often say “it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission”.

Since John married Diana we have been an international family.  And this week Diana introduced us to the Bulgarian version of that…

“We’re from the village and we’re only here for a short while”.

She used that to get us into the Laughing Water’s  Restaurant without paying the $27 entrance fee to the Chief Crazy Horse Monument. And there were a few other incidents along the way where it has seemed to explain the unexplainable. Such as the Great Bathroom Incident.

We are hot.  We are tired. We have just taken a good hike in Yellowstone.  We need a bathroom.  I need a bathroom.  We get in the car and backtrack to the Roosevelt Lodge Gas Station and Convenience Store.  Roll up to the side of the building and what do we see?  Signs that the bathrooms are closed for cleaning.  NOOOOOOOOO………

John gets out of the car, walks up to the men’s room door.  Knocks.  No answer.  On the curb in front of the door is a bucket of cleaning tools.  John looks around.  No one in sight.  Rummages through the bucket of cleaning supplies and “finds” a ring of keys. And miraculously, finds a key that fits the lock!   Me first!  John guards the door. I snap on the light and find that the floor has been recently mopped. Oh well.  One by one we use the facilities.  When we are done John deposits the keys just where he found them.  We get in the car.  Diana mentions the fact that she wonders what they will say when they return for the cleaning supplies and find everything just as they left it.  But there are muddy footprints on the nice, otherwise clean, floor.  I think for a minute and reply “I’m from  the village and I am only here for a short while.”

I wonder if the attendant noticed the car pulling away.  The one with the occupants laughing uproariously.  I guess you had to be there…..