I think the epic things that happen as you get older just get more surreal and less devil-may-care. My entire family got trapped in Yellowstone National Park once. All the gates closed at 9, except one on the opposite side of the park from where we were going, which we'd all forgotten in the giddiness of looking at all the animals and whoa, look at that geyser, and whatnot. So, we had to drive all the way back through and around the park, only there is nowhere to get gas, and we were on E, and oh crap. So, we pull into one of the park gas stations just to stall and figure out what to do, and we see men with hatchets wandering around the inside of the gas station, and my mom does that real low, real calm, but totally terrifying, "get back in the car kids," and then someone else pulls up and says he's heard the gas station 10 miles up will sell you gas if you give them a 20, and then one of the dudes with a hatchet comes out, and tells us he'll sell us gas for a 20 -- apparently the guys just hang out with hatchets because they're scared after closing while they count down the money. So, they sell us gas and we drive all the way back through Yellowstone at night, and all the way around, and we call the hotel and say it'll be late, real late, and they say sure whatever, and we get there at 4 a.m. having eaten Bugles and Oreos we had in the car for dinner, and we all pass out until like noon the next day. We've all been telling that story ever since, because who does that happen to? And, my parents were well into their 40s at the time, and I'm sure they'd never had such a thing happen before.
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