Jackson, Wyoming

2009-05-31

The drive started going downhill as we left the park and we had some glorious views of mountains, lakes and valleys. We soon turned onto interstate 395 North and left California heading back into Nevada. The drive up to Carson City and then Reno was picturesque. We arrived to the Fairfield in Sparks around 4 pm and unpacked. Lori spent some time on the computer while Ian watched a movie. We went to Walmart to buy watershoes for our upcoming rafting trip and then went for dinner at Chilli’s. Amy had given us coupons, which we were happy to use. Ian had a bacon, jalapeño burger with fries and Lori had chicken taco with rice and beans. When we got back to the hotel, Lori continued her work on her USA taxes while Ian watched a movie.

Ian nearly got knocked out of the boat on Lunch counter when Owen, who was in front of him, got knocked back by a big wave.

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2009-06-01

We woke up at 8:30 am, so we would have time to get breakfast which finished at 9:30 am. While Lori got ready, Ian caught up with his Mum on Skype. It was hard to believe that it was only three weeks until she would be joining us in Vancouver. We had breakfast and were in the car around 10 am. We had a long day of driving ahead of us; eight hours to Salt Lake City, Utah. The drive down highway 80 was pretty uneventful. Lori was busy reading  “New Moon” and watching the scenery as Ian drove. The clouds grew dark and we went through a hail storm. We stopped for lunch to let Ian stretch his legs about half way through Nevada. Another few hours and we were going across the salt plains in Utah. As we are only driving through them on the highway, it was hard to compare them to the ones we had seen in Bolivia. Parts of it were very white and reflect the sun causing a reflection. We lost an hour when we crossed the border into Utah and were back on Mountain time. We arrived at the Fairfield Marriot outside the Salt Lake City airport at 7 pm. Luckily, there was a Perkins next to it, so after we settled in we had dinner there. Lori had an opened faces turkey sandwich with stuffing and Ian had a mushroom burger. After dinner, Lori finished her taxes and unfortunately found that she owed the USA some money.

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2009-06-02

As we only had a four and half hour drive, we slept in and got up just in time to grab breakfast at 9 am. It was nice to have something other than cereal for breakfast.  Neither of us were that awake and Ian managed to spill orange juice while getting his breakfast. We took our time getting ready. Ian talked to his mom and then we packed up and left around 11 am. We stopped at the post office to mail Lori’s taxes and then by Walmart to stock up on supplies for the next several days. We bought so many things, we had to pull out the soft sided ice chest that we had used and leaked. We hoped to get the oil changed as we were getting close to another 3,000 miles, but the Walmart that we went to did not offer that and we did not really have time to drive around looking for a place that did. We were on our way outside the city close to 1 pm. We took interstate 15 north and were soon on highway 89 and entering into Idaho. Lori was wrapped up in her book while Ian drove. Soon after entering Idaho, our fourteenth state, we stopped at a remote area where two other cars were parked for lunch. We quickly made our sandwiches as it was freezing outside. We could definitely tell that we were driving further north. We were soon in Wyoming, our fifteenth state, as highway 89 followed the border between the two states. Lori managed to finish her book and soon we were on the winding drive along the Snake river just North of Jackson. We did not make it into the town that day as the KOA where we were staying was just outside of it. It was pretty cold when we checked in and the weather was not looking promising, but we decided to try sleeping in the tent. After we got the tent up, the heavens opened and we ducked back into the car to avoid the down pour. A few minutes into it, Ian went back to check to see how the tent was holding up. Unfortunately, it was not good, there appeared to be a leak in the top and the tent was wet in the middle and along all the outside where the water cover did not cover it. Ian was not feeling great and neither of us wanted to get sick, so we decided to pack it in and went an upgraded to a cabin. For the money, neither of us were impressed with it, but at least we knew we would be warm for the night and it was cheaper than a hotel. We also decided to cash in our KOA points, which saved us $25. After we got everything into the cabin, we took the tent down. As it was still raining, we were pretty wet and cold by the time we got it done. We warmed up in the cabin for awhile over cups of tea. As it was close to 7 pm by this time, we started making dinner. Ian had some trouble getting the gas stove started, but with some olive oil on the pump, it eventually roared to life and we were able to cook onions, mushrooms and spicy sausages for dinner. We both had two and saved the extra one for lunch the next day. We cleaned up, did some admin and then watched an episode of Smallville.

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2009-06-03

When we checked in the previous day, reception told us that our rafting ride was at 9 am the next day and to be there at 8:30 am to get our wet suits organised. When we orginially booked the trip, our reservation said that our trip was at 10:30 am, but we thought nothing of it as we assumed reception knew what they were doing. We were up at 7:30 am to be ready by 8:30 am. Reception gave us a late check out as we were going rafting, so we only packed up some things. We went to reception and arranged our wet suits. When the bus arrived to pick us up, they asked us if we had book the scenic and white water rafting trips. We told them we had only booked the white water rafting one and then they told us that our tour was not until 10:30 am. Before we could say anything they told us to go ahead and come along and do the scenic tour and they would give us lunch as well. We told them that reception had told us to be ready at 9 am for the tour and they said it was there mistake and not to worry about it. We got onto the bus with two other couples; Courtney and Owen from Portland and Alexia and Jared from Palm Springs. We had a short ride down to the Snake River where we met Kyle our guide for the tour. We had a brief safety talk and were soon on our way down the river. As this was the scenic part of the tour, we did not have oars and the river was very calm. We spotted a nest with a Bald Eagle and a baby in it and several Osprey nests on telephone poles, which Kyle told us they prefer to make their nest in. Kyle told us that the river was currently flowing at 23,000 cubic feet and it is normally at 5,000 cubic feet, so we were moving quickly down the river. As the raft moved down the river, you could hear the rocks below moving and it was amplified by the raft. Kyle explained that people first came to the area to trap beavers and other animals for their fur. This industry has died out over the years. The land in the area is now 85% owned by the public, making the other 15% very expensive to live on and many people that work in the area cannot afford to live in the area and have to commute in. Most of the homes in the area are listed as holiday homes given the expensive land they sit on. Given the severe winters in the area, it was not until 120 years ago that this area had year round residents. After an hour and a half, we arrive at our first stop and Kyle guided the raft in. We had a short break there and then more people arrived. Three more people were added to our boat; Norah, Mariah and Jessica. Another boat of people went white water rafting at the same time as us. We had a longer safety briefing this time and were given jackets to wear underneath the life vests as the water was a cool 38 degrees Fahrenheit and we were bound to get wet on this portion of the trip. We were also given oars and were soon back in the raft. Eight of the nine of us would help oaring during the ride. We spent the next hour and a half going through several series of rapids including a class four called Lunch counter. Due to the high volume of water on the river, this was the biggest one that we did and Big Kahuna, which is supposed to be the biggest one in the summertime, we just floated over. Ian nearly got knocked out of the boat on Lunch counter when Owen, who was in front of him, got knocked back by a big wave. At the same time, Lori’s side of the boat went pretty low and she was almost in the water as well. Luckily, neither of us went in, but we were still pretty cold after we finished due to the cold water. We both really had a fun time and just wished that it had not gone so quickly. After we got out of the river, we picked our lunches up and were soon back on the bus heading towards the KOA. Alexia and Jared got off at the KOA with us. Jared had a clever camera that we wore on his head during the ride and he gave us the photos when we got back to the campsite. We got changed, packed up the rest of our things and were soon on our way to Jackson. Our first stop was a Float-o-Graphics. They had taken photos as we had gone over Lunch Counter. The photos looked ok, but they had not finished touching them up, so we decided to wait to order any. We spotted a camping store on our way out of town and decided to stop and look for a trap in case it rained again that night as we were planning on camping. They did not sell what we were after and pointed us to Kmart. We drove there and again they did not have what we wanted and they pointed us to Staples. Of course, they did not have we wanted either, so we made one final stop at Ace’s Hardware and luckily they had plastic sheeting and clothes pins that we could use if it rained while we were camping again. With all this running around, we did not leave town until close to 4 pm.

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