This past weekend, we joined a snowmobile tour from West Yellowstone to Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. The amount of anxiety leading up to this excursion almost wasn’t worth it. With so many travel plans destroyed due to COVID, I have been insanely hesitant to book anything ahead of time. Since we emergently returned home to the United States in March of 2020, we have booked ONE activity. Only one. Every other part of our national park road trips was spontaneously planned and because we stayed in the Jeep, we didn’t even book hotel rooms. The one activity we did plan was a plane flight to Isle Royal National Park because that was the only way to get there, since the boats weren’t running due to COVID. And I was panicked the entire time, until we physically boarded the little hopper plane, convinced that it would be cancelled just like everything else. Planning this snowmobile tour was just as incapacitating as booking that flight. When we finally got up the courage to book it, within a week I realized that I had stupidly forgot I was on call that weekend. Because I wouldn’t have cell service in the park, we had to reschedule. That was only further proof that we weren’t meant to plan anything EVER AGAIN. Dramatic, I know. We luckily could move it to the weekend after without paying any penalty fees. The whole week leading up to it, I was constantly verging on tears. For some reason, I couldn’t fathom leaving our little Yuni Pumpkin alone from 3pm on Saturday until 8pm on Sunday. She is a cat. Let me just clarify that. There is absolutely no reason that leaving her for a night would be a problem. But, with my overwhelming anxiety, I sat around catastrophizing (I know that’s not a word, but roll with it) all of the things she could get into while we were gone that would kill her. She could randomly decide to eat a plant in the house that would poison her, or fall off the counter and break a leg, or somehow escape a locked apartment. The possibilities were endless. So, when the time came to leave on Saturday I cried. I cried about leaving our damn cat for a night. Who am I?
We drove to Ennis that afternoon with plenty of sunlight until the last hour of the drive. As we were driving, I couldn’t help but notice the lack of snow the entire way. All I kept thinking was great, we are going to get there and we won’t be able to snowmobile BECAUSE THERE IS NO SNOW! F*ckin La Nina! But my freak out was completely unnecessary because there was plenty of snow in the park. Phew!
As many of you know, I am an overly cautious person. So me and snowmobiling don’t really gel. It’s something I had never done but always wanted to, just once to experience it. As we began the tour, both of us felt a little uneasy as the snowmobiles were more unsteady than we anticipated, ours getting pulled into the wobbly tracks of the snowmobile in front of us. But we got the hang out it, and set off enjoying the views of Yellowstone. It was incredibly cold, but very worth it.
I’m thankful we did it, but learned a valuable lesson. I am not who I used to be pre-COVID. I do not enjoy running around on weekends, cramming an insane amount of activities into my free time. I would much rather hang out at home with my fur baby. I know, I know… Who am I? I sure am still trying to figure it out myself.
