Walking Through Snow

It’s hard to believe that two years ago tonight I was meeting John for the first time at Lucia’s restaurant in Minneapolis. Tonight we’ve just finished dinner together in Wyoming after an afternoon of snowshoeing in Teton National Park. In my wildest dreams I could not have envisioned this journey and that has made it all the more amazing. Although we’re embroiled in a disagreement tonight I wouldn’t trade him for anything in the world.

I met John at the airport at noon and we headed into town for lunch at Shades Café and then to the library for a wireless connection. Fortunately, we didn’t spend much time at the library because it was an absolutely gorgeous day and one to be enjoyed out of doors. We stopped at the cabin and picked up the snowshoes and drove up to the park. This was my first experience on snowshoes and the hardest part was getting them on properly. Lucky for me I got it right the first time around and my snowshoe remained intact throughout the hike. John wasn’t as fortunate or maybe as skilled so his snowshoes came off a few times. Snowshoeing is basically walking through deep snow on something resembling a lightweight mesh skateboard (the original ones looked like gigantic tennis rackets). While snowshoeing is just walking through the snow it is much harder than it looks. Imagine walking through mud with 5-10 pound cement blocks on your feet! I stumbled a few times and fell down in the snow but my new soft shell pants and jacket kept me warm and dry. Actually once we got going on our snowshoes the performance gear proved a little too warm because it was easy to work up a sweat even in the cold because it’s hard work and the sun was intense. We pranced around on our snowshoes for a little over an hour but it felt more like two or three to me. We were back home before 6:00 and just finished dinner and I’m off to the Swedish cabin to copy and paste today’s blog post

Oh I forget to mention that I managed to lock myself out of the Swedish cabin last night after I posted that I would be sleeping there. I decided around 11:00 last night to put John’s car in the garage. Once I walked out to move the car I realized the door had locked behind me! Luckily I only had to drive about a 100 yards to find shelter and warmth.

Solitude

I'm coming to you from the new cabin where I managed to tap into a neighbor's wi-fi just as I was about to drive to town to pickup wireless at the library. I stopped over here to get my computer and discovered I had very little battery life so I plugged in the PC and low and behold a wireless connection! I'm still planning to drive to town but now there's no rush. John, Gretchen, Dan, and Ross left early this morning for a day of skiing. I didn't mention that Dan brought along his 6 month old rottweiler puppy named Faust (we're all renamed her Fausta) she's a sweetie pie and it's been kind of fun having a puppy around the house. Butch got an early start on the road leaving here around 5:00 AM. Last night John took Butch and me out to dinner at the Wort Hotel in Jackson, the food was excellent and they had a really good blues band performing. Gretchen and her friends hit the hot nightspots and took a taxi home around midnight.

I'm on my own today making the most of the time to catch up on my blog and maybe finish my latest travel book The Member of the Wedding. So in catching up on my blog I'd like to write about the Solitude subdivision and also about an experience I had here on Thursday. Solitude is the subdivision where John's cabin is located and I think from this point on I will refer to the two cabins as 1. the Western Cabin (W) and 2. the Swedish cabin (SW) for kicks and simplicity. The subdivision came into being about 20 years ago, and John's cabin was one of the first. The subdivision allows building on 5 or 10 acres lots so nothing less than a 5 acre lot is ever available for purchase and the cabins on these 5 and 10 acre lots range from quaint log cabins like John's to mansions; there's plenty of open space and great views of the Grand Tetons (you can see the Grand Tetons from both living rooms) and Sleeping Indian is easily seen from the Western Cabin's kitchen window. The road through the subdivision is private so there's no thru traffic because the road doesn't connect to any other road. Thursday I was walking from W to SW about a 2 minute walk, but I needed to walk along the road because the snow is too deep to cut across the yard. So Thursday as I was walking to SW a passing car slowed down alongside me... I thought "oh no someone's going to ask for directions and I'll be of no help whatsoever." I guessed wrong. It was a man in his late 30s or early 40s wondering if I wanted a ride. I laughed out loud because the question seemed so utterly ridiculous. After the 5 second interaction with the man in the Lexus SUV my amusement turned to irritation, then to anger, and now I'm blogging about it because more than anything it was confusing to me; so I'd like to use this post to sort it out. Did the man in the SUV really believe I was hitchhiking through a subdivision on a road leading to nowhere? Was he concerned for my safety and well-being in a subdivision overrun with multimillion dollar homes at 2:30 in the afternoon? Was he trying to pick me up? I've probably seen a few too many episodes of Cops and Law and Order but isn't the, "you want a ride" line one used by guys cruising for hookers?! Was he just a well-meaning guy who had no idea how far I was planning to walk simply offering to give me a lift if I was in need of one? I don't know the answer so I'm trying to sort out my feelings about this confusing encounter with the man in the fancy SUV. It clearly raised questions for me about race, class, and to a lesser extent gender. I have to believe this guy passes people walking in the subdivision every single day but doesn't offer to chauffeur them around the neighborhood, maybe that's because they look like they belong here, and I don't look like I belong or at least mine isn't exactly the face most expect to see walking around snow covered Solitude. Okay, now that I've blogged about this I'm starting to get over it;-) Oh solitude.

On a lighter note... internet service will be up and running at the cabin Wednesday afternoon:-)

Friday, February 19 John and I were just trying to piece together what happened on Friday since I wasn't able to blog that day. I have no idea what we did all day but in the evening John, Butch and I went into town for dinner at the Wort Hotel and listened to some music at the Silver Dollar Bar, the music was really good soul/blues. I think we were still dog tired from the long drive so after dinner we posed for a picture in the square still decorated in bluish lights for the holiday season, and then headed home. Gretchen and her friends went to the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar for an evening on the town. John had wanted to stop by there but was too tired, fortunately.