All along, we’ve been saying ‘it’s the people that make the journey’ but when we said that, we meant the people we’d meet in the hotels, barber shops, and convenience stores of our trip.
What we did not mean were the people who were our virtual travel companions, namely all of our friends who have volunteered to receive our travel reports and offer advice about destinations.
What’s been so inspiring is not just the response to the places we have been, the encouragement and support for taking advantage of this time in our lives, but really, the wealth of knowledge lodged in the brains of our friends.
Lee Smith told us about the Bighorn mountains, Laura Sheppard suggested we go to Dubois, Wyoming (too bad we don’t have wireless email since we got it too late) and the Beehive Museum in Salt Lake (which we will do today), Cheilaugh Garvey told us to get depressed in Driggs, Idaho (and we almost did, but it was getting very late and we were tired, so we went the other way-no offense, Cheilaugh), a number of people have given us suggestions for Lake Tahoe, Dennis McGreevey and Eran Megiddo told us to go to Washington (alas, too far out of the way on this trip), and my cousin Leonard reminisced about being in Idaho Falls when McGovern was nominated.
We’ve also been rebuked. Ferrel Atkins, a professor and a park ranger at Rocky Mtn. National Park whom I met in May writes “Don't let anyone in Yellowstone hear you referring to management of the national parks by the Forest Service!!! Jer, the Forest Service is in the Department of Agriculture -- they're basically "tree farmers". The national parks are managed by the National Park Service, established in 1916, in the Department of the Interior. Ranger Ferrel”
Lewis and Clark may have had more meetings with the natives than we’ve had (by the way, we’re almost done with the book and will be listening to Lonesome Dove next), but we have such a wonderful support group, full of information, ideas, support, and suggestions. More than anything, the fact that you are traveling with us makes us appreciate you even more. Thank you very much and keep them coming!
Now onto the events of the day.
After spending Sunday night in Cody, Wyoming (named for Buffalo Bill Cody, who was one of the town’s original founders and biggest investors), we walked through the gift shop of the Cody Wild West Museum. Considering we were heading to Yellowstone, we balked at the $15 admission fee per person since we were going to afford ourselves about 1 hour there, so we read some books in the gift shop instead.
This opened up an interesting debate for the two of us. On the one hand, we were most likely never going to be in Cody, WY ever again and the museum did look interesting, but somehow we felt the price was more than we were willing to spend. This is an ongoing question. On a trip of this length, where we don’t really have a budget per se, but our goal is to spend money as judiciously as possible without being cheap (sometimes difficult for me), how do you decide what is ‘worth it’ and what is ‘not worth it’? Obviously, we don’t want to forego an experience, but obviously our budget is not unlimited.
Anyway, after reading the bulk of two books on the life of Buffalo Bill in the Gift shop, we decided that a $5 donation to the museum was the right course of action in addition to the purchase of two lapel pins (my one significant hobby collection-I’ve got 574 as of right now. They are great souvenirs-easy to find, relatively low cost, and easy to transport).
Then, perhaps the greatest discovery of the trip occurred. Tamar found out about Walmart.
As we drove out of Cody, Tamar wanted to find some fresh produce for the road and I suggested Walmart. “They don’t have groceries,” she said. “They are the world’s largest company, they have everything,” I replied, but even I was shocked to see they could do oil changes, which we needed anyway, for $19.
One hour and $100 later, Tamar was in a state of Euphoria (and that’s with a capital E). We have these Motorola talk-abouts which we carry with us when we split up (cell phone service with T-Mobile, between Rochester, MN and Idaho Falls was non-existent) and as I was listening into the Monday morning staff meeting (the store did $314,000 in business over the weekend in Cody- a town of 8000, which was slow), she kept radioing to me:
“Sweetie, you’ve GOT to see this produce aisle”
“Sweetie, I’ve never seen this many of Product X”
“These prices are UNBELIEVABLE!”
My new method of getting out of Tamar’s doghouse is to take her to Walmart.
I joked that when we got back people would ask about the trip and Tamar would say “Mt. Rushmore was nice and the Badlands were cool, but Walmart was the highlight!”
At last we extricated ourselves from the store and made our way to Yellowstone National Park, which was America’s first National Park. The land was ‘discovered’ by Private John Colter, of the Lewis and Clark expedition, who left Lewis and Clark in South Dakota on the return trip to join a private party going back into the Louisiana territory.
Yellowstone-what can I say? Describing the natural beauty of this country is proving to be the most challenging part of recording our journey. It is a mix of high, snow-covered, ragged mountains, with one huge, and I mean massive, lake, called, appropriately enough, Lake Yellowstone, which is so clear and blue. It is simply the purest of mountain water.
We saw bison (two of the males were duking it out by ramming their heads and horns into each other), a coyote, a Grizzly bear, some mule deer (which are pretty big animals), as well as numerous birds.
>From the east entrance of the park to Old Faithful (of course the
>primary
destination and our northernmost point on our travels) is about 65 miles; it took us about 2 hours because we kept pulling over to look up at some mountains, down at some valleys, observe the wildlife, stare at the trees, or, as I am wont to do, just take deep breaths of very, very fresh air.
Old Faithful is by all accounts, a beautiful work of nature. Approximately every 2.5 hours, a jet of water, which is scalding hot and looks more like a steam hose than anything else, emerges from the ground. It’s in a field of geysers (2 points for anyone who can provide the etymology of this word—we don’t know it) which erupt at intervals ranging from hours to weeks. You can take a boardwalked hike through this field of natural hot springs and geysers. The geology is certainly unique.
Unfortunately, however, Old Faithful falls into the category of over-hyped experiences. I wish it didn’t, but I mean, all of the signs point to it, there is a semi-circular viewing area with benches, the information in the ranger station tell you that it will erupt within 10 minutes of a specified time (the average time between eruptions seems to be getting longer for a variety of reasons-including people who throw trash down it), and as the time approaches, the excitement, anticipation, and throngs grow. We could only imagine what it would be like in the height of the summer season, packed with Japanese and European tourists.
I don’t want to take away anything from the natural splendor and impressiveness of God’s creation and work, but it was just our impression that this is one of those examples where the human tendency to exaggerate and over-commercialize builds expectations to such a point that you walk away thinking “that’s it?”
Speaking of natural splendor, the Tetons fall into that category. Exiting Yellowstone from the south and heading towards Jackson Hole (so called because it is literally a hole formed by a volcano that is surrounded by
mountains) you drive along a rode bordered by the Tetons (a part of the Rocky Mountains) along your western edge.
We did it at a perfect time of the day, right around 4pm; the sun coming in over the tops of the mountains, with their tremendous peaks, through a barren valley, almost alone on the road, proved to be a virtual spiritual experience.
Back in Colorado (in May, when we flew in for the Davis/Handis wedding), at least in Denver, we were close to the mountains often on the highway, but this road was arguably the most scenic (it also wasn’t an interstate) view of any mountain range we’d ever experienced. The highest mountain in the range is called, surprisingly enough, Grand Teton, with Middle and Lower Teton filling out the highest peaks.
If you ever have the chance, do this drive.
In Jackson, we saw something we hadn’t seen for a while and it only dawned on us later. Using the bathroom at a gas station, the attendant was an African-American. We realized that since we had left Chicago (with the exception of one woman walking along the street in Mitchell, SD), we had not seen any other black people.
We’d seen a few Hispanics in the Black Hills and met one 20 year old guy in Wyoming whose grandparents had come from Mexico, but for the most part, it only then dawned on us how “white” middle America –or at least this part of
it- really is.
This morning, checking out of the motel in Idaho Falls, I saw the housekeeping staff fixing up the rooms and they were white as well. That’s certainly not the norm in most of the East Coast and I bet the West coast as well.
Jackson seemed a bit too touristy for us, so Tamar took us over the Teton Pass at 8429 ft. and into Idaho. By the way, Tamar’s driving skills are improving significantly. She lacked a little confidence coming in, but taking us over the Bighorn and Rocky Mountains and driving the Plains @80mph has helped cure her of that notion.
It was getting darker, but as we crossed the mountains, it felt like we were chasing the sun, keeping the daylight in our favor as we raced westward.
The landscape in Idaho was more fertile and we saw crops for the first time since South Dakota really. I looked for potatoes, but don’t have any idea what a potato field looks like and as it was dark, so it was difficult to see anyway. Also, the mountains here (not sure of the name) are a bit different. They are not as jagged, they are high, but they seem to roll a bit more (if you get my drift)- and have more color to their vegetation.
In Idaho, we were treated to yet another fabulous sunset, a hallmark of the western states in this part, not challenged as much by pollution and certainly fewer tall buildings, not as many people and consequently fewer lights to obstruct the view. Then, when the sun goes down, you are treated to a night sky full of stars, that is so clear, you feel like you are in a Planetarium. It’s really a glorious feeling.
I was just thinking that we’re going to LA from Idaho (and of all of the places in between) and that the people who live there and here in Idaho are all part of the same country. It’s so difficult to assign a national culture to America, because so many miles separate everyone. It’s not like Europe or smaller countries where there’s a national culture (and even there are regional differences in those countries). It’s just neat to think about everyone sharing the American experience, whatever that is, in the fall of
2002 (though we may have an answer for you in 2 weeks).
Well, we have just passed Brigham City, Utah and caught our first glimpse of the Great Salt Lake (more on that later) and we are continually inspired and grateful for the opportunity to do this now.
Thanks for sharing the voyage with us.
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