Our Day of Discontent...and Grand Tetons!

Every long family vacation must allow for at least three days of discontent. Yesterday we used up at least two of those days between 6:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.! It all started when I woke a certain tween up from a solid comfy motel room slumber in order to snag a campsite at the Colter Bay campground on Jackson Lake in the Grand Teton National Park. Our early-waking boy has been a reliable household alarm clock for years, but it seems that we are witnessing the beginning of some changes to his circadian rhythms.

The next incident was when we exited the motel and walked to the van. I was temporarily blinded by the brilliant sun and managed to walk right into a tree limb at forehead height. Ouch! That left quite a goose egg and put me in a bit of a funk.

Finally I failed my family by finding a less-than-stellar grocery store for breakfast items and sub-standard coffee. When we finally hit the road and head northeast toward Wyoming and along the Idaho border, we took turns being very grumpy, and this sour mood hung like a dark cloud over us all until a while after we set up camp. The mood did lighten considerably when we stopped for groceries and a picnic in Jackson Hole. The quality and range of the offerings were not far off of Wegmans standards, quite a change from the last time we were here in the mid-90s. They even had things like pre-packaged Portobello mushrooms with basil, finely chopped tomato and feta cheese, all ready for the grill and a wide range of fake meat products.

It always takes a little while to feel settled in at a new campsite, so instead of immediately putting up the tent, we took in the breathtaking views of Colter Bay and the rugged Tetons in the background. Then we did the ritual tour of the visitor center and gift shop. We were most impressed by the quality of fresh produce and range of products available in the camp grocery store, including our favorite Greek yogurt, which made for a great lunchtime treat today.

Family peace was restored when we went to the evening program, sang familiar campfire songs, and learned about the history and the biology of the bison. We continue to be most impressed by the quality of the programming. Every park ranger that I’ve met has been so patient and kind, and they deserve kudos for figuring out how to manage the endless questions and occasional inappropriate interruptions from the junior ranger crowd.

We woke up on Sunday to a beautiful sky, and I worked on the omelet and home fries breakfast while Gail went for her first run in a little while. After piling on the calories, I went for a bike ride to the Yellowstone border and back. This was my fastest ride of the vacation, and aside from a 600’ climb spread over 3 miles, it was great time trial material—I wish I had aero bars for the flat sections, but in spite of that, I averaged 21.4 mph over the 37 mile ride with almost 2200’ of total climbing. The return trip was most rewarding, with views of the Tetons and a tailwind, but surprisingly I didn’t see many other cyclists.

This afternoon we went on a three-hour ranger-led easy hike. Ranger Danielle was terrific, and she taught us a great deal about the trees, plant life, animals and the entire web of life in this portion of the park. The bear claw markings on the lodge pole pines were most impressive, and I really hope that we have any close calls with bears, based on the size of the incisions. I’ll definitely be buying a canister of bear spray, since the Tetons, Yellowstone and Glacier are all prominent bear territory.

When it started raining, I raced ahead, since once again I forgot to close all of the tent windows. When will I learn? Fortunately nothing got too wet, and the skies cleared again after a two-hour light shower. A burrito dinner hit the spot, and now we look forward to another evening program. Tomorrow it’s off to Jenny lake and some more adventurous hiking that will take us closer to the big mountains, particularly Rockchuck Peak, which is just over 11,000’ high, weather permitting. The current plan is for me to bike ahead to the trailhead with a bit of a head start. Hopefully we’ll also find a 3G hotspot so that I can upload this blog entry as well!

Mitchell SD to the Black Hills

Good morning! I’m writing this post from our beautiful campsite on South Dakota’s Sheridan Lake. It’s early (not yet 7 am), and we’ve already been awake for way too long. Why can’t anyone in my family seem to sleep past 5:30 when we’re camping? Especially when we were up so late last night!

Anyway, we woke up in Mitchell yesterday morning and got out of town quickly after doing some grocery shopping at County Wide, which boasted a really nice selection of goods and wine. The weather forecast called for temperatures over 100 degrees in Mitchell, and we were eager to get on the road. Luckily, we drove out of the worst of the heat and by the time we stopped at Wall Drug it was in the 80s and breezy.

The boys thought Wall Drug was the highlight of the trip so far. Of course, the gazillions of billboards built up their anticipation sky high and they weren’t disappointed. They spent a lot of time looking at pocket knives, and the lady behind the counter was very patient about answering their questions. They each spent some of their money on small knives and carving around the campsite will be a big occupation for them.

We all loved the change in landscape from the endless flat fields to the hilly country. Seeing the Badlands was just amazing. They suddenly loom up out of the landscape without much warning, looking sort of alien after hours and hours of monotonous green fields. From there we saw the Black Hills in the distance, and were soon driving into the piney woods.

The air here is fresh and clear, pine-scented and refreshing. After setting up camp, the boys quickly made friends with some neighbors from Louisiana and ran around, happy to be out of the car. We fit in a quick bike ride before having an early dinner, and then we headed out to enjoy the evening of the 4^th at Mount Rushmore.

What a hoot that was! It was crowded, of course, and people watching was part of the fun. There were tons of flag shirts along with an unbelievable variety of sparkly, starry, patriotic-themed headbands, and I heard many different accents (American and otherwise) throughout the evening. We decided to wait for the evening lighting ceremony and that was by turns annoying, hilarious, and touching. We took our seats around 8:15, nearly an hour before the scheduled start to the show. Some of us are better than others at waiting, so the time passed kind of slowly. Finally, the ranger emerged onto the amphitheater stage to start the program. Alas…her microphone wasn’t working! She scurried backstage to get things working and we all waited. And waited. She nipped out to apologize (yelling at the top of her lungs to the assembled crowd), then went backstage again. After a while, they started the video that precedes the lighting of the monument, but there was no sound and the curtains in front of the screen had only parted a few feet. We could see portions of the video and some of the closed-captioning, so it was a bit surreal. We laughed ourselves silly reading the bits of words that we could see. They finally got their sound issues straightened out and the ceremony began. The lights come up slowly, so the monument seems to glow in the darkness. Then the ranger called down all service members and Peace Corps members from the audience. This was a touching sight, as a huge number of people came on stage and accepted our thanks for their service.

We made it back to camp after 10:30 and the boys crashed quickly. We all woke up to an owl hooting sometime in the middle of the night, and were all up for the day woefully early. It’s cool and cloudy, with a chance of thunderstorms today, and we’re looking forward to minimal driving. We’ll probably go for a hike later, and Armin’s setting off to bike on some hilly, twisty, beautiful roads. I need to put on my running shoes at some point today. I haven’t gone running since Saturday and I’m wondering if I’ll feel refreshingly speedy after the time off, or if I’ll feel like my legs are made of sandbags.