We got up at 8:00 to a below zero morning. I had some very minor chest pain last night when we came back to the cabin after supper. It went away as soon as we were back in the cabin so we blamed it on the higher altitude and the colder temperatures. I bumped my leg on the desk and had quite a bit of pain. The leg did not look bad so we decided to go to breakfast to see if the chest pain returned. Because of the cold temperature, the snow squeaked underfoot as we walked to the Snow Lodge. Despite the cold, I had no chest pain on the walk from our cabin. After breakfast Deb went over to the Visitor Center to check on the geyser predictions. When she returned she told me that several 4-stroke snowmobiles pulled in as she walked past the parking area. She noticed the squeaking of their skis on the snow more than the noise of their engines. On her way back, she picked up our box lunches.

We had taken the computer along and word had spread that I had some decent pictures of the bobcat. For the next two hours I was showing a small sample of the pictures we took. We went back to the room to get our packs and cameras to go out into the geyser basin and then headed over to the Visitor Center again. They had updated their predictions and now we would not have time to catch Riverside. That was ok since the window for Grand was now coming up earlier and after Grand we could catch Castle. The original predictions for Grand were for later in the day and Castle had been predicted to erupt after dark.

We headed out to Grand. There were a number of bison near the bicycle path so we stopped at one of the benches to watch. We had plenty of time before Grand was predicted to erupt. While we were there we caught an Old Faithful eruption. We continued on to Castle. Nothing was happening so we did not stay very long. We continued up to Grand. Sawmill was not erupting and neither was Penta. Everything was very quiet in the basin. There was no radio chatter.

We got to Grand and cleaned off a couple of benches. All of the benches had about a foot of snow on them. We settled in to wait for Grand. Deb noticed a lot of steam in the direction of Riverside. It was about the right time so we notified the Visitor Center. Giant went through several real hot periods. We saw Lion erupt from a distance, and then another Old Faithful eruption. Sawmill started while we were waiting for Grand.

It was very quiet and serene. There was no wind and you could not hear any noise from the road. You could not even hear the snowmobiles. All we could hear was the trickling of the water in the runoff channel. The shadows from the steam made very nice patterns in the snow.

Grand began to overflow so when Turban finally erupted we knew the cycle had started. There was too much steam for us to see the pool, but we knew from the runoff that the pool was full. We could not see the wave action. Since everything was so quiet we decided to call in each Turban cycle. After the second Turban we had our lunch. While we were finishing our chips Turban started its third cycle. Deb called the Visitor Center but before she could finish the call on Turban, Grand started to erupt. Deb changed her call from Turban to Grand. Shortly after that Vent joined the show. We looked to the side and noticed the Oblong was ie. We called that in too. Grand had a single burst that lasted about 11 minutes.

We left Grand and headed back down to Castle. While we were waiting for Grand, Sawmill started but it paused when we went by. When we got to Firehole River bridge at the bottom of the hill, we noticed a bison in the water near one of the thermal features. Deb got some pictures and soon a second bison joined him. I had some mild chest discomfort so we decided to go to Castle and take a break. The chest discomfort went away, but my knee was starting to really hurt. Since Castle was not predicted for a couple of hours and it was getting cold, we decided to go back to the cabin.

We got down to the bottom of the hill and I was having fairly serious chest pains. We stopped and they went away again. Deb wanted to get a ranger to help, but we were close to the Visitor Center and I told her I thought we could make it. She lessened my load by taking the camera. I was having more problems so she also took the backpack. In addition to the chest pains I was having problems walking because of the pain in my knee. Deb told me we were not doing any more geyser gazing this trip. I was banned from the geyser basins.

We got to the Visitor Center at about 4:45. There are no medical facilities at Old Faithful and that the only thing they could do was to air evac me to Idaho Falls in an emergency. I had taken a nitro and was feeling better so we decided to go back to the cabin and wait until morning to see what would happen. When we got back to the cabin I took a second nitro and had no further chest pains. My knee was hurting real bad and when Deb checked it we saw that was extremely red, swollen and hot.

This was not a good sign. It indicated a systemic infection centered in the knee. I have had numerous cases of cellulitis in that leg in the past. Two years ago I spent almost two months in the hospital due to cellulitis centered in the ankle. For some reason cellulitis has a negative effect on my heart. It went into Afib when I had the cellulitis centered in the ankle.

I was not hungry, but some of the medications I take must be taken with food so we had a cup of yogurt. I changed out of my Polartec clothes and put on jogging pants. As soon as I did that I got the chills. These were not normal chills, but body shaking chills. Deb turned up the heat in the room and I took some Tylenol and went to bed. The shaking subsided and we retired for the evening. It was 7:30.