Dinner at High Heskett

We're just back from a wonderful evening with Bob and Lynne, Lynne's friends from WI Ellie and Joanne, John and Bob's friend Loring and his partner of 25 years, Melody, and Bob and Lynne's neighbors Deborah and Greg. The drive to Bob and Lynne's takes about 25 minutes and their house is located at the top of a hill near the science school. Their place is the ultimate Wyoming getaway my favorite features are the enormous stone fireplace and plank floors. We had a blast hanging out with everyone, enjoying a wonderful dinner and lots of laughs. I'm feeling dog tired at nearly 11:00 PM so unfortunately I'll have to come back to this post tomorrow to share more details. I watched Good Hair while John was out skiing in the afternoon. I guess my expectations were a little too high and Good Hair turned out to be a Bad movie. John had a really good day of skiing including a 45 minute hike up a mountain to a remote area carrying his skies all the way up. He called before skiing down to report his exact location in case something went wrong, and about 10 minutes later he called from the bottom of the slope to report that he was safe and sound.

I couldn't resist posting this handsome photo of John posing in front of the cozy fire he built last night.

Huckleberry Hot Springs

Today got off to a rocky start for John and me but we managed to get back on track by the early afternoon and the rest of the day was fantastic. John decided to ski in the morning and left the house around 9:00 AM only to discover once he arrived at the gate to the park that he had left his wallet at the cabin. So he went to the library and caught up on emails before driving back to the house. The Comcast guy showed up around 11:00 to install wi-fi service and after about 45 minutes the cabin was wired! Fortunately, I checked to make sure it was working before the guy left because it was not working and he had to spend another 25 minutes or so working out bugs in the system. John arrived home a few minutes before the internet guy completed the installation. We decided to drive up to Dornan's for cookies and snacks before driving out near the entrance of Yellowstone National Park. We stocked up on cookies and milk and hit the wide open highway for about a 40 minute drive. The point of the drive was to get within snowshoeing distance of a geothermal area and hike to a hot spring there: "Grand Teton National Park’s worst-kept secret is actually located just north of the park in the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway area. Formerly the site of a private campground, all traces of development have been removed and the 100°-105°F springs have reverted back to their natural state. Locals soak here year-round, using cross-country skis to gain access in the winter." The drive was beautiful, clear and sunny and even a little warm with temps in the 30s. The park ranger told us that sea otters had been spotted near some open water about 3 miles into Teton National Park so we stopped hoping for a sighting but no luck. The hike to the hot spring was really nice and very easy because others had made a trail so this snowshoeing adventure was really just walking in those clumsy snowshoes, and as a matter of fact we didn't even use them on the walk back to the car. The hot spring was HOT! A jacuzzi in the middle of nowhere surrounded by snow covered mountains and evergreens. The water was very warm probably close to 100 degrees and in some spots scorching hot, but unlike a jacuzzi the natural spring is muddy, slimy, rocky, and a wee bit stinky. It was still a lot of fun and I'd definitely recommend a trip to the hot spring to visitors to the park. We got back to the house around 6:00 PM and had a really nice dinner, a fire in the fireplace (finally), and watched a western, The Outlaw Josey Wales starring Clint Eastwood. I could barely keep my eyes open 20 minutes into the movie but John enjoyed it; he loves westerns. This post is late because I really couldn't keep my eyes open long enough to blog last night.

Snow Day

Today was the first overcast day we’ve had since arriving in WY a week ago today. We lazed around the house for much of the day enjoying the snow falling outside and catching up with friends and family over the phone. I had a nice catch up chat with Judy who brought me up to speed on what’s been happening in her life since she retired at the end of January. I took what I believe was only my second afternoon nap since going on leave in December and it was absolutely fabulous! Today was the perfect day for napping and the only thing that could have made it better would have been a fire in the fireplace. I’m trying to talk John into building a fire for us later but for some reason he’s just not all that big on fire building. The internet installation was pushed back by a day so I’m still “borrowing” wi-fi from one of the neighbors and it should be installed here on Thursday. We went into town for groceries and for a stop at the library. We also made a stop at the video rental where we picked up three movies including two westerns, John’s favorites and I rented Good Hair. It’s been snowing all day so ski conditions should be great tomorrow and John plans to spend most of the day on the slopes. I will be at the cabin watching my movie and reading tomorrow.

We really should be having dinner right about now but John has been "helping" Mary with a paper for well over an hour more like two hours, so I skipped on over to the Swedish cabin to post this entry. Call me old fashioned but in the olden days our parents didn't "edit" our papers or help with homework after say elementary school; apparently things are different now it's common for highly educated parents to "edit" college writing assignments! It seems a very fine line between helping and cheating when a college student gets over 2 hours of help writing a paper it smacks of academic fraud in my opinion and how can someone feel good or right about turning in work they haven't done entirely on their own? Ugh! This is becoming a major source of conflict and might well be the death of our relationship because I can't stomach cheating of any kind! Does this sort of thing happen on college campuses all over the country? Have we really became a culture of "whatever it takes to win"? Am I just so out of touch? Should I just keep my opinions to myself and mind my own damn business, because after all what does this have to do with me? I am struggling with this and could really use some advice and guidance.

All is well here in WY with nothing too exciting to report. However, our dance cards are booking up for the weekend with plans for dinner with Bob and Lynne and some of their friends on Friday night, and dinner here at the cabin with Peter and his mom Ingar long time friends of John’s Saturday night. Peter built John’s original cabin in 1987. We ran into Peter this afternoon at the grocery store and I think it was the first time they’ve seen each other in several years. Peter is battling cancer and has been for over a year, but John thought he looked pretty good considering his prognosis and said he seemed in good spirits. I met his mom last summer when she came to the cabin for dinner. She’s in her nineties and still drives herself all over the place and is quite active in the Jackson community. She has an interesting story so I’ll tell you more about her in a future post.

Idaho Falls, ID

Whew... I'm really just too tired to blog tonight, but I'll give it a shot. I slept pretty well at the western cabin all by my lonesome and didn't let a few creaks and rattles disturb my slumber; although truth be told I didn't go to bed until I was absolutely exhausted because I was a little nervous about being there alone. Bob and Lynne picked me up for our field trip to Idaho at 8:30 sharp and I was at the bus stop right on time. We stopped for coffee and bagels in Wilson, WY and then off to ID. The drive to Idaho took a little over 2 hours although the distance from Wilson to Idaho Falls is only 89 miles. The ride takes longer because there's simply no way to drive 65 over the pass and up the mountains and around the curves and turns so the speed for much of the trip was below 50 mph. We made it to Idaho Falls just after 11:00 where we shopped at Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, looked in on a furniture store, had delicious lunch at Cafe Rio, Bob went to his doctor's appointment and Lynne and I shopped some more at TJ Maxx and made another stop at Bed Bath and Beyond. We met up with Bob at the mall and all shopped at JC Penney and made a stop at Barnes and Noble where I was able to pick up a copy of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a book I've been wanting to read for a couple of weeks . Our last stop at the mall was at Precision Mountainwear where I picked up a pair of soft shell ski pants and a soft shell jacket. Yikes performance gear... are you reading this Gretchen? Finally we decided to check out "downtown" Idaho Falls to complete the trip, but the drive to downtown took less time than the actual scoping out of downtown Idaho Falls. It was 3:30 or close to 4:00 when we started the drive back to Jackson. I had my picture taken in front of the the Welcome to Wyoming sign and shortly after my photo shoot we were back in the town of Wilson where we stopped at the Stagecoach bar for beers and a little mixing with the locals. The same band has performed at the Stagecoach every Sunday night for the last 40 years so we're planning to stop in on Sunday night and I'm hoping we can talk John into going. We met a couple really nice people at the bar and they're expecting us back on Sunday so we can't let 'em down. A note about the Stagecoach, it has a drive thru liquor store! I've never seen such a thing so of course I had to snap a photo. After the Stagecoach it was definitely time to head back home because Bob and Lynne had plans to hang out with their neighbors, and I was anxious to see how my purchases would go over at the Swedish cabin (shower curtain, towels, kitchen stuff, mats, etc). On our way to Solitude we spotted a woman stuck in a snow bank in her Subaru station wagon, fortunately she had a tow rope so Bob was able to pull her car out of the snow. It turns out she's a hospice nurse who was answering a patient's call when she got stuck. Her job seems stressful enough without the added stress of not being able to get to a patient in need; so glad Bob was able to help her out. I made it back to the SW around 7:00 PM. I think john will be pleased with my selections but I predict another trip to ID is in our future. I'm spending the night at SW because Bob located the circuit box so I don't have to blog in the dark tonight and since I'm already settled in here there's no point packing up at this late hour. John's flight arrives tomorrow afternoon at that's just perfect because February 23 is the 2nd anniversary of our 1st date:-)

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.