What is a touron, you might ask? Well, "touron" is a term coined by
Kate to describe someone who is both a tourist and a moron. The type of person you might see hiking in keds with no water, or putting their child on the back of a bison because it makes a great photo op. A touron would allow their children to do this:
forcing our national park system to put up signs like this:
We joined the throng of tourons at Yellowstone on Sunday. We felt like true Americans, spending six hours in the car, only seeing the sights you can see from the road. As mentioned in a previous post, our goals for the day were a bear, a moose, and a bald eagle snacking on a buffalo carcass. Unfortunately, we did not see any of those things. We did, however, see:
- a bald eagle in its nest
- a gaggle of geese
- two peregrine falcons (which we later determined were actually nesting osprey - thank you, signage!)
- a western tanenger
- a field full of elk
- a bison wailing on a tree (a.k.a. scratching his head)
- an otter? a beaver? a piece of driftwood? (Dad swore he saw it dive, but I missed that action.)
- several tourons coming well within the recommended 25 yards of an elk resting in the grass
- a kamikaze beetle that crashed into Brad's face
- pot guts (I swear I had never heard of a pot gut until Camp Misconduct last summer - is it a chipmunk? A squirrel? A new species of rodent? What exactly is a pot gut?)
5 comments:
Although tourons refer to these little critters as pot guts, whistle pigs and a variety of other things. The technical term is Uinta Ground Squirrel. Interesting things about these scampering things (science cap goes on) are:
a) they live in the ground and not trees. when you see those little moundy trails all over the place, yep that's them.
b) they don't have a bushy tail like other squirrels because it would get stuck in the ground.
c) and they have one of the longest hibernations at around 9 months. A way to wrap your brain around that is to imagine sleeping through the entire school year. Lucky (or lazy) little critters!
d) they only have three months to get fat and roly poly again and thus feel the right to eat everything in sight. even if it the yummy trail mix in your hand.
The mystery of pot guts revealed. Because I know you were dying to know. :) This is Savannah by the way, if you couldn't guess.
They also love to eat chocolate decadence, as we know! I'm honored htat you have adopted "touron".
haha, I hate to admit it, but the picture of the kid getting burned cracks me up, especially because of the non-chalant adult walking by oblivious to it all...I think he's walking by chuckling at at it all. At least that's what I'd do. :)
I'm jealous you went to Yellowstone. Haven't been there since I was a kid...and I drive near that area 3 times a year and never get a chance to go!
Travis
Sweet, funny Jessica... it's nearly mid August and still no new blog. I miss your clever insight.
Pot guts also eat each other. They are cannibals.
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