Fare Thee Well, Wyoming

Tuesday, 8/10
This was to have been the day to pull out and move to Jackson Lake. I was grateful that the plans had changed so we could have a more leisurely day after that fast “side trip.” Today's plan was to either
1) spend the day seeing a part of the park on foot/via car, or
2) inflate the dinghy and paddle around in the relative safety/still water of the marina harbor, we have purchased a permit for it, after all, and it has never been out of the truck bed.

I was astonished to hear Sid say that there were only 2 things he had never seen in the park and wanted to. He later tried to correct my understanding of what he said, but he still basically said the same thing. In my mind, there are 2.2 million acres in the park so I don’t know that I could actually do all the hikes I would want to, paddle on rivers, etc. in a lifetime. 

After milling around until after noon, we finally decided to go to the Yellowstone Grand Canyon. Sid was sure he had seen the Lower Falls but not the Upper Falls. We discovered that it was actually the reverse. I persuaded him to also stop at a Mud Volcano area on the way to the Canyon.

Lower Falls selfie

More Lower Falls

Wildflowers

Wrong label: Actually Upper Falls!

Dragon's Mouth Hot Spring

Too many photos to post. My testimony is that no matter how many times you see these beauties, they are stunning. 

Our final night the elk really put on a show:

Bridge Bay Sunset final night

Really that close to the marina!

In the Harbor of Bridge Bay

Stunning

Elk Between Parking Lot and Marina

The phone does not do resplendent!

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. Romans 1:19-20

Wednesday, 8/11
Today is pull-out day. The boat was fairly ready to go and getting it on the trailer was the easiest ever. We drove south out of the park and I’m pretty sure I hadn’t seen that part of the park since I was a kid. Grand Teton National Park is almost immediately south of Yellowstone and again, the mountains are stunning. We stopped at the marina where we were to have stayed, but these photos show why the reservations were cancelled. The West is definitely on fire and in a drought situation.

Colter Bay Marina 😕

Down at least 35 feet

We continued south toward I-80, which traverses Wyoming in the south. We drove through Jackson Hole, and though we could have used gas, Sid was sure that we could do better on price later on. Our destination this evening was Green River, WY so that the Flaming Gorge marina was a short drive. Between the Tetons and I-80 we stopped at a small town, Pinedale, for dinner. Again, Sid was sure that gas would be cheaper closer to the interstate, despite my objections. [shoulder shrug] Imagine his surprise as gas got increasingly more expensive. I guess he didn’t believe that I was current with news, so he was even more surprised a few days later when several places were out of gas! 😂

We stayed at a small, mom & pop motel in Green River. The owner was at the desk when we arrived a little after 9 pm.

He began extolling the virtues of Flaming Gorge, showing us all the great features on a

Chamber of Commerce type map.

We asked where he would like us to park since we were hauling a boat. He walked outside to take a look and said, “You have a sailboat! Well, THAT will be interesting.” 

My reply, “It has been so far!” 

Idaho

Friday, 8/6

I lived in Idaho, with my girls, from 2001-08. Both girls graduated from high school there and it was with mixed feelings that I left in 2008. Though I had hoped to, I had never been back since I left, so I was excited to see how things had changed (they had) and how they had remained the same (some things had). I was also very much looking forward to seeing some great friends and to attending church there.

Each summer while both girls lived at home, we would drive back to CO and NE to see grandparents and for girls to attend camps, etc. In most of those years, I was the solo driver, so I remembered the drive from Yellowstone as lovely but arduous. We would make a point each year to go through Yellowstone on one of the legs and each year stop to see one of the major features. They are sweet memories, though I still remember how tough I though the drive was.

All that to say, I knew how far we had to go. We planned to stay with friends and I strongly preferred to not show up after 8 pm. We were also on Day 4 of no showers, so I was a bit apprehensive about that. My recall was that I had never entered or left through the west entrance of Yellowstone so we decided to try that. Of course, it was lovely, but without cell service, my navigation was not available and we ended up taking a very scenic route which added more than an hour to the trip. We had also considered stopping at a truck stop to shower somewhere on I-90 before arriving at our destination. Does that tell you how desperate I was for clean hair? We went for it in Missoula, and I was honestly surprised how nice, clean, and easy it was to do that.

Stunning scenery all the way, all the more so to see it again and we stopped for a picnic supper in a city park near the downtown marina of Lake Coeur d’Alene (ID), still about 90 minutes from our destination. WSJ ran a piece several weeks (months?) ago about how Coeur d’Alene was becoming a magnet to those fleeing the west coast cities in CA, OR, etc. and I would say Sherman AV now reflects that with lots of cute hipster eateries, shops, galleries. Of course, all Sid cared about were the boats. I did a terrible job of taking photos on this side trip so all I have is this interesting bird. I've never seen a brown gull so not sure what it actually is.

On the left-a brown gull?

Closer look

We arrived in Moscow just as daylight was leaving, so Sid had to postpone seeing the lovely views of the rolling hills and mountains. He was pleasantly surprised in the morning.

Saturday, 8/7

Our friends, the Blakeys, like us are empty nesters. So besides raising alpacas both for yarn and as sale

One of the views from our hosts' home

animals, they have begun offering rooms in their home as Air BnB opportunities. Since Moscow has both the Univ of Idaho and a local, fast-growing Christian college, New St. Andrews, they have many customers. Though I remember when they built the house, it still seems new and the setting atop a hill is all the more gorgeous with trees maturing. 

A great serendipity was that there was another guest overnight on Friday with whom I was acquainted. It was delightful sharing stories and catching up on mutual friends and former co-workers.

All suggested that since it was Saturday, the Farmer's Market was the place to be. We did want to drive around and see the old haunts, but the Market has grown from a parking lot into closing off blocks of Main St. I imagined that Sid would prefer to view the confluence of the Clearwater and Snake Rivers were they become the Columbia which then flows to the Pacific. It is how Lewis and Clark finally got there. There is a dramatic overview of the canyon with a 2000' drop that has always been one of my favorite views. It did not disappoint this day, except due to all the fires still raging in the general Northwest, the view was hazy.

Clearwater on the left, Snake coming from the top

We drove down the old road, built in the 1920s, engineered for cars to go no more than 35 mph. I had never taken that road, but it was perfectly fun in the summer. When I lived there I was typically in a hurry as this is where we go for Costco (Clarkston, WA) just across the end of the Snake River. We did some sightseeing and a tiny bit of hiking, but Lewiston, ID and Clarkston, WA are generally 10 degrees hotter than up on the Palouse by virtue of being at an elevation of 700-ish ft compared to over 2000 ft on the plain above. It has been hot everywhere this summer, so it was even hotter down there that day.

We did make it back to Moscow and drove around to see all the old sites: schools, U of Idaho campus, places the girls & I had lived, worked, etc. We then took the Blakeys out to dinner and had a wonderful catch-up time before Patch needed to depart for CA in the morning to attend an uncle's funeral. I can hardly believe that I forgot to take a photo of us all. 😢

Sunday, 8/8

Today, I discovered the REAL reason Sid had wanted to come to ID. He wanted to hear Doug Wilson preach. I explained (again) that I had been in his church originally, but then a 2nd church was planted and I had gone with the group that became the founding congregation. When I said that church, Trinity Reformed, was where I had hoped to go, he quickly tried to figure out services and took off to try to also attend Christ Church. 

He didn't wait for the explanation that there was now another location downtown where Christ Church was meeting and he ended up there, instead of the original location (where Doug typically preaches). He enjoyed hearing Ben Merkle instead and met us, eventually, at TRC for another service. I didn't get to see as many familiar faces as I had hoped. The church now has a lovely facility, but have started to outgrow it, so now meets in two services. Apparently, many of those with whom I was still acquainted attend the first service or were traveling.

Three of the Blakey grandchildren!
Christa's sister, Jessie, had just had her 4th baby, 
so we only got to see J's husband & other 3 kids

Generally, I was having too much fun to take many photos. What a FAIL!

The funniest part of being there, though, was that Sid had recently remembered that his real estate license was about to expire. Never mind that a license-holder has 2 years to take the required CEUs. He now was in a grace period. He has until early September to complete 3 courses or he has to start all over again to get re-licensed. Therefore, every spare moment, he was to be found with his nose pointed to his phone, trying to progress through the 1st course!

Monday, 8/9
Travel day back to Yellowstone. Plan was to leave between 8-9 am; reality was after 10.

Happily, I got to visit my all-time favorite coffee shop, Bucer’s, before picking up groceries at WinCo, another favorite!

Bucer's 

Bucer's (as in the great friend of Martin Luther) was part of the reason for the delay. I waited until just after 8 am to go, but apparently students & parents were arriving back in town, because it was PACKED with primarily non-business type folks. As far as I could tell, Sid’s nose was in his computer working on real estate license CEUs until I got back. 

He was in no hurry to leave, but again, I would have preferred to be back in the park no later than sundown. Our leisurely pace did not allow for that and somehow, I drew the straw for driving the final leg. Sid thought that he had never come in/seen the park from the north entrance, so we did that. It is completely lovely, but once inside the park, the road in some places is harrowing. We were losing light as we entered the park and still had over an hour to get back to the marina. I would love to tell you the trip was uneventful, but a buffalo was coming up on the road (beginning to cross?) just as I came around a corner. Fortunately, he was in the other lane and didn’t move fast enough to get to my lane but it was a close call seeing the shining eyes on the shoulder then have them come toward you! 

I was happy to arrive back at the marina even if it was after 11 pm before we got to bed.

Yellowstone Part 3

Tuesday, 8/3

Due to late arrival in Cody the night before, we will need to do laundry and grocery shopping this morning. Contrary to his SOP, Sid decided to read EVERY display posted in the lobby of the hotel as it related to the history of Buffalo Bill Cody and the town of Cody, WY. He then came back to the room to excitedly tell me every detail. It IS interesting, but I’m finally connected to internet and feeling the minutes of opportunity ticking away while he talks. By and large, he has cell service in Yellowstone so has been able to post at will and keep up with email, etc. as much as he wishes.

The clock strikes 11 am and we are off to do laundry. Sid talks in depth with the owner as he now has an entrepreneurial vision for a laundromat in KS. He learns this one will be for sale within a year for $900K. He later tells me it was not to buy that one but to understand the business model. 😨

Laundry done, we pickup our grocery order and head back to the park. Once inside, he decides he wants to take a closer look at the hotel on the lake which appears from the water to be in a lovely setting. The area is called Lake Village and there are actually two properties, Lake Yellowstone Hotel and Lake Lodge, along with cabins to rent.

Lovely fireplace in the lobby of LY Hotel

View of the lake from the hotel setting

Entry Patio

  

                                   

Apparently, Lake Yellowstone Hotel is the oldest continuously operating hotel in the park. It is lovely, as a couple of my photos may show. We enjoyed a glass of wine with the view from the sunroom after walking around and admiring the immensity of the lake. Then back to our “campsite” on the boat.

Wednesday, 8/4

As you may recall, the whole purpose for this trip is to “sail” the Rockies. So once Sid got some intelligence about day sailors launching in West Thumb, this became his next single-minded focus. Because he also wanted to make a “side trip” to Idaho, where I once lived, and we had hard arrangements to travel and see friends on the weekend, the only possible opportunity for sailing was on Wednesday. Well, Thursday would have been possible, but I strongly discouraged it, knowing how long it takes us to both step and later unstep the mast as well as prepare to move the boat on the trailer. Almost prescient!

Therefore, on Wednesday morning we pulled the boat out of Bridge Bay Marina, and hauled it down to West Thumb. The boat ramp is actually at Grant Village, a few miles further south. We got the mast up and the boat launched, not without difficulties, including a brand new one: a bent turnbuckle. I’m told that is a BIG DEAL, but apparently not enough of a deal to nix the sailing. 😉 We got to sail for about 2-2.5 hours before the late afternoon storm clouds rolled in. Even Sid began to muse about whether or not all this was worth it!

Mark Lamb's vessel-could be a separate post!

We got back to dock just as the rain began. Thankfully, it was short-lived since we still needed to trailer the boat and, hopefully, begin to unstep. We tried several times to get the boat on the trailer, but there were complications. As I was standing on the ramp I noticed the beautiful sunset and wished I had not left my phone on the boat since I would now either miss the photos or irritate Sid by wanting to get back on the boat as he was continuing the attempt to get the boat on the trailer. So, he tried to “motor” the boat onto the trailer, which is what all non-sail boats do. Without a rudder (one of the complications) that was too difficult to do successfully because the sailboat must rest in a rather precise position on the trailer. Apparently motor boat trailers have more wiggle room. He was getting ready to try something else when I got down from the trailer. I was already wet up to my mid-thigh, but walking back up the ramp I caught my foot on a 3" joint on the ramp and went all the way in. Since we had all but lost the light and I was now extra cold because of being soaked, we quit for the night. He tied off on the dock and we camped, breaking out the portable heater for the first (and likely the last) time on this trip.

And now I had a reason to be grateful that I had left my phone on the boat!

Thursday, 8/5

Sid had mentally wrestled all night with how to get the boat back on the trailer, but apparently wanted me to read his mind the next morning regarding the solution he had come up with. We began a “problem solving” session which quickly degenerated into the worst fight of our marriage. We never really agreed what to do, but a park ranger was called and assessed of the boat situation. The ranger agreed this was a situation but was personally forbidden from assisting. Fortunately, God had mercy on us and sent a gent, Mark Lamb, to the boat ramp who was planning to do some sailing in a very interesting personal vessel, but also had enough personal experience of sailing he was willing to get in the water and help get the boat trailered. It took about 10 minutes, so happily we had the boat out of the water ready to unstep the mast by midday.

We arrived back at Bridge Bay in time to make dinner and preparations to leave for northern Idaho the next morning. We had spent almost 2 full days to enjoy no more than 2.5 hours of sailing.

Is that a win? 

Yellowstone Part 2

Moby Dick Revisited

Friday 7/30
The day didn't start as well as it could have. Our room at the guest ranch had a Keurig machine but only one pod. Sid got up fairly early so used the pod thinking he would track someone down to get replenishments. No such luck. The ranch consists of a restaurant (dinner the night before) which is apparently locally popular, and a series of "bunkhouses" which are rustic rooms with beds and private baths. Really charming but no "front desk" nor regular staff on hand. So...I had to wait for coffee until we got into Cody to do some shopping and computer catch-up. Makes me wonder if I am too dependent on coffee? ☕️ Never!

I had noticed a couple odd charges on our bank account, but we hadn't been as vigilant as normal while traveling and they were very small. Today, there was a $50+ charge on Amazon and we definitely had NOT ordered anything on Amazon for several weeks. That was our first clue that Sid's card had been compromised. Then it got declined when he tried to buy me coffee, so we headed to the library to begin the investigation/reporting. You would think this would be straightforward, but the customer service person we got...well, it took a long time. I had my laptop but Sid was using a library computer, so it timed out after an hour so we had to keep getting a library worker to give him a new logon. 

Apparently, I had chosen a special medical research area of the library, unknowingly, and these were "special" computers.

Bench outside the entrance to Park County Library 😂

Foyer of the library

We were planning to visit friends in Idaho the following weekend, so were able to have a new card sent there. 

As it was the end of the month, we also needed to do some routine financial end-of-month tasks and this was our opportunity for internet. We still needed to do a few days' grocery shopping and by the time we got all that finished, we decided to eat an early dinner. We chose a Mexican restaurant in downtown Cody, which has become quite the tourist town. We enjoyed the food 🌮and the atmosphere, but each of us had repercussions in the next 24 hours which we chalked up to the food. 🤢

It was nearly dark by the time we got back into the park and to the boat (about a 2 hour drive).

Saturday 7/31
Sid had been watching the fishing guide boats go out day after day. Gorgeous Grady-White boats with 250 hp motors and every possible fishing gadget you could want to succeed at trout fishing. They will fish for whatever the paying groups wants, but cutthroat trout are currently "endangered" so they are caught just for sport and released. Park officials really want you to catch and kill the lake trout as they are considered an invasive species and are causing the demise of the the cutthroat. Lake trout apparently are commonly found at deep levels so the guides have a downrigger system. This weights a line down to the depth that their handy Garmin fish-finders have determined the fish currently are and trails the lure and hook along behind. Nifty!

Sid, ever the fisherman, bought a 3-day Yellowstone fishing permit and unbeknownst to me, had purchased a hand weight at Walmart on the shopping trip (along with postcards to be sent at regular intervals) and some fancy lures at the marina store. He was determined to create a "poor man's downrigger" (his words) and catch a fish. Thus the Moby Dick reference. 

Saturday was Day 1 and he was not that disappointed that he caught no fish as he was still revising and trying new iterations of his creation. Then thunderclouds began to threaten, so once it began to rain, we got off the lake. We quickly discovered that certain little things that had never been properly sealed in the top of the boat were beginning to drip in the rain. I was not thrilled with the prospect of a wet Saturday evening, so he appeased me by offering to go out for dinner. Apparently he was unaware that COVID restrictions were back in place and that staff is hard to find, therefore the few available restaurants were only serving carry-out, if at all. We lucked out at Grant Village and were able to get a take-out meal 20 minutes before they closed.

Sunday 8/1
We had passed a couple of churches/chapels on the east side of the park or just outside in our various trips in and out. My hope was that we would make the effort to worship at one of them. However, Ahab had taken over. He was continuing to rework the downrigger system and when I mentioned worship, he thought we should go out on the lake by ourselves and have our own. Seemed plausible, but the reality was that he asked if I had any hymns or praise songs downloaded on my phone. Since I did, he asked me to play them while he continued to get ready for another go at fishing. Once we got out on the water, no mention again of anything but fishing. It was, after all, Day 2 of the permit.

Weather was predicted to be rainy after 2pm and it was nearly 1 pm when we got out. Fortunately, the weather was more cooperative than predicted. The fish, however, had lockjaw.

Yep, weeds tangled on the weight

Monday 8/2
Day 3 he was determined to catch a fish. At each opportunity he had visited with guides to get pointers, he had talked to fishermen who were regulars at Yellowstone. This was to be another hotel night and I mentioned that if we got to town in the afternoon, we could get laundry done in the evening and do a grocery pick-up first thing in the morning and be back on the lake before noon.

While that plan sounded good, it was no match for the fact that this was the last day to fish. We followed the guide boats close, but not close enough for them to feel like we were encroaching. We watched the Garmin fish-finder to swoop in on the prime spots. We made multiple passes over the very spots where the guide boats had been. We made another pass over "the spot." We made just one more pass over "the spot." OK-this is the last pass over "the spot." This really is the last pass...

Happily, he was in good humor enough to pass close enough to the shore of Stevenson Island to let me photograph this:

Poor Ahab finally admitted defeat. It was time to go back to the marina and get to Cody for a dinner that was anything but fish.

The Stupid People Trick for this post is a melted tea pot spout cover and trigger. Don't ask-he's had enough trouble.