Sharing a Favourite Memory

I've traveled pretty extensively over the last few years, and as a result I have made wonderful friends, shared lots of adventures and made happy memories.

One of my favourite memories took place in the USA a few years ago while I was embarking on a 3 month overseas trip. My dad and I spent weeks driving around Canada and the USA, including a 2 week tour. The tour group was one of the best I have ever traveled with. There was none of the normal squabbling and cattiness that can occur when you put that many people together in a confined bus. During the tour, my Dad and I became close to a couple called Bernie and Judy.

Dad and Bernie began telling jokes and bouncing off each other which made them hilarious. Judy spoke about her grandchildren and showed me lots of adorable pictures. In return I showed Judy and Bernie pictures I had brought with me, and when I got to the last picture that contained an image of my grandmother and myself Judy and Bernie stopped in surprise. They knew my grandmother from a walking group in Sydney! It was the strangest thing to meet people who knew my family whilst halfway across the world!

By the time we got to Yellowstone we had joked about coming across a bear quite often. So one night after walking to dinner at Yellowstone, we came across this sign:

This sign did say bear at one stage but as you can see the elk are the bigger threat

 Of course this was very helpfully placed at the end of the path that we had just walked on. It made my dad start bragging though. He was all 'I'm a cattle man, I can handle an elk" "I'll be the matador". Of course we didn't see a single creature on the way back.

A day after seeing that sign at Yellowstone my dad, Bernie and I went for a walk to explore the area. All was going fine until we came across an elk on one of the paths. She was clearly a little distressed and kept looking over he shoulder which indicated she had a calf hiding in the bushes. Fortunately she was alert but not alarmed and we walked past.

Since it was the only way back to our accommodation, we had no choice but to return the same way and that is when things got interesting. The elk went from being just aware of us, to wanting to get us out of there ASAP and started moving her foot like she was going to charge. Guess who was the first to bolt for the cover of the trees? That's right, Mr big shot matador. Bernie and I turned around and he was gone, leaving us to fend for ourselves.

Who would run from this cute elk?

After that my Dad was named 'The Elk Whisperer' and he will never live it down.

Sadly Bernie passed away last month, after a long battle with cancer. He will be greatly missed.

Even his illness couldn't keep Bernie from attending our engagement party.