Day 1:
The first day was boring with half of it driving through the rain until we reached Lubbock to stop for the night. Standing out in the parking lot of the LaQiunta, I noticed that we were staying on Mac David Ln... in Lubbock Texas... guess what song gets stuck in my head the next day of driving?
After all, not much to keep you entertained out here.
Day2:
After driving for half the day, I decide it's time to roll the bike off the trailer and let Ja follow me for a while. That evening, we start to see signs of some of the terrain we were expecting.
Later that evening we stop and find a room in Leadville CO, a quaint little town in the mountains.
Day 3:
It's Monday morning, the temp is cool, great for riding so I decide to ride and have Ja following in the tow rig while we make our way towards Wyoming.
We head up to Vail and catch I70 West. The ride through Glenwood Canyon was great...
After riding for the first half of the day, Ja radios me and says she is falling asleep. We find a place to pull off and have a picnic lunch and I load to bike back on the trailer and do some more driving. We get to green river and cut a path towards Flaming Gorge. Heading up the mountain, I have a kid in in a ricer buzzing along behind me. I think he was quit surprised he couldn't keep up with Ja's FX35 that was towing 1800 lbs up the mountain. We stop in the gorge to take in the sights and the kid comes by and gives us a wave...
It turns out to be a good decision to tow the bike. As we climb back out of the gorge, we get on a mesa and run into about 50 mph winds and a driving rain. We continue on until night finds us in Rock Springs WY so we find a place to stay for the night...
Day 4:
It's Tuesday morning and I had already hoped to be in the Tetons but I guess we will be there today. We roll on all morning through fairly featureless terrain the first part of the day and make it to Pinedale WY and stop for gas. I have a friend that just moved there so I give him a ring but his voice mail picks up so I leave him a message and we move along. Later down the road he calls back but we are too far down the road to turn back. Sorry to have missed him.
We make it to Jackson WY a little before noon and stop at the Visitor Center and collect some literature on some cabin and head on up into the Teton National Park. We finally settle on staying at Colter Bay on Jackson Lake and rent a cabin for 3 nights. We unload the rig at our digs.
Seems we have a local hanging out at the cabins keeping an eye on us.
Still plenty of daylight left so we take a short ride around the park, man this place is gorgeous!
Some rain clouds descending through the pass.
We take the road up to the top of Signal Mountain and I look at what is in out path back to the cabin.
Luckily, by the time we get done messing around and head back to the cabin,the sun comes out and we avoid getting wet. After all, we didn't have our rain gear with us. Later that evening, after dinner at the Chuck Wagon I go down to the marina and snap a couple shots. Pretty place at sunset the place is...
Day 5:
As usual, I wake up as soon as daylight starts peeking through the window. I had left the window open on my side of the cabin and crawl out of bed to a cold environment. I dig into the camping gear and find my backpack stove, coffee pot and come grinds and head outside to make me some brew. They don't allow cooking in the cabins but I like the outdoors and this is as close as we get to camping the rest of the trip. I find frost on everything and find it is 25F degrees outside.
After I convince Ja to drag herself from her warm nest, we go down to the Chuck Wagon for some breakfast then back to the cabin to suit up and take in some of Yellowstone. This is her first time to get into all the cold weather gear I brought for her to which she says I made her look like the Michelin Woman. Although she had a little trouble getting used to the gear, she later told me she was glad she had it.
We hit the road and I stop to get a snap at the park entrance.
A little further into the park, we find some of the stuff we don't see down here on the Texas coast very often.
The next place we stop is what everyone comes to Yellowstone to see.
Sitting there we find an older couple with their grandson sitting next to us who are from Livingston Texas and live not too far from our little weekend place by the lake.
Before we leave to see some more sights, I call the office and have Roger get on the web and capture Ja and I (left of center on the boardwalk) just for kicks.
Everywhere you look, there is some cool/hot features to look at.
We see lots of waterfalls and snap a few.
More thermo features.
This steam vent has some hardy little plant growing in it.
Time slips by and we find ourselves on the North side of Yellowstone lake needing to get back to the Tetons as the rain catches us. We stop for a comfort stop at a roadside and as we are standing there, snow starts to fall. It didn't last more than a few minutes but was a novelty for us.
Another geyser but this one was full of sulfur and was quite pungent.
Stopping on the way back into the Tetons.
We get back to the cabin, get refreshed and head down to, you guessed it, the Chuck Wagon for dinner before returning to the cabin to enjoy this place of beauty and solitude.
More to come...
