i'm goin' to jackson...

over dinner in ohio nearly two months ago, john and cammy invited me to join them for part of their october trip to jackson, wyoming. boy was i honored. this was just before we adopted each other. they are my newest aunt and uncle. funny thing is, they were certain i would find some reason to bail. i guess this was before we'd spent enough time together for them to know me. i was going to be there and i was stoked.

october 16th rolled around. i took my loved ones to the salt lake airport, stopped at home to shower and load my things, and i was off. goin' to jackson, as johnny cash would say. well, there was one small delay: by the time i was heading out of town it was 10:30 am and I was starving. i reasoned that i would make a quick stop at subway before heading up the canyon. i walked out of subway with my food in hand, and a gallon of coke for the drive, of course. as i reached in my pocket for my keys, they weren't there. i audibly said, "this is not good." i then peeked in the window of my jeep and saw my beloved keys dangling from the ignition. damn it. there was my phone sitting on the center console, gps telling me where to go. damn it. so i hooofed it a few blocks to jonna's house and she helped me get things straightened out. at 11:30 I was finally on my way.

i met up with john and cammy at the snake river brewing company. we drank some real good beer while watching the hawkeyes slime michigan (my apologies to the neighbor of john and cammy who is a big michigan fan). we then made our way to teton village where we were staying at the four seasons. it was a little better than the super 8, but no big deal really. IT WAS SO AWESOME! we hot tubbed, watched some tv, drank more good beer and ate some good food. i love laughing cow.

sunday was great. we hiked around part of jenny lake. i fell in. that was great too. provided some good laughs and quite the jovial spirit for the group. it was particularly funny that almost as if queued john had said, "if you fall in i'm gonna laugh my ass off." finishing the sentence at the exact moment that i fell in. life sure can be funny sometimes. and funnier still that after the incident cammy did what any good person would do and stood on the dock 50 feet away taking pictures with both of our cameras. thank you cammy for not allowing that moment to pass by uncaptured. after hiking we cleaned ourselves up for a night on the town that began at the million dollar cowboy bar and then we met up with abigail and howie at the wort for dinner and yep, you guessed it, more drinks. then, there we were, minding our own business. driving out to the village. when we nearly hit an elk standing on the side of the road. i somehow missed the obvious animal in the middle of our path (i'll blame it on the dark) so cammy turned around and drove back. as she turned around i saw what seemed like a million little eyeballs staring at us in the meadow. "no way! there are a bunch of them standing in the meadow on the side of the road!" i yelled that, i'm sure. so cammy pointed the car at the meadow and shined her brights and sure enough...we saw a shitload of elk! it was SO cool.

monday was the dreaded, last day. we got up early. drove through the tetons. on to yellowstone. saw some more elk...but not a shitload. we saw old faithful. hiked to inspiration point. not to be confused with the inspiration point that we had hiked to the day before in the tetons. turns out there are a lot of inspiration points around here. it's easy to see why. i was inspired to say the least. after seeing old faithful blow his top one more time we headed to the only food joint open up there this time of year and got some beer and food. then it was the drive back to teton village. i napped most of the way. until we had to stop and get ice for cammy's bad knee. things got pretty exciting after that. then we saw a bear on the side of the road. well, john saw it first. i was looking in the wrong direction. then i got out of the car to get a closer look...with no shoes on. it seemed like a good idea, or maybe i was just overcome with excitement because we'd been looking for this all day. and i'm really glad we met that lady from steamboat springs. she was cute as a button, and funny. she knew how to keep those old ladies from alabama in line. when we got back to the village there was hot tub time, cocktails, beer, even a shot at the hotel bar. Then we met up with jacksons best at pica's. that was loads of fun. we pretty much planned the blueprint of my life out that night over some margaritas and dos equis. thanks guys. my last night in the princess bed with cable tv. i wanted to savor every minute. i bet that bed misses me as much as i miss it. i am certain.


tuesday morning i rose bright and early to get back to the office at noon. thank you john for getting my car so early in the morning. i forgot to tip you! check's in the mail. the drive home was beautiful. is it sick that i love driving so much? i think it makes a difference that i'm usually driving in some of the worlds most beautiful places. i started out well before the sun came up. so i had some quiet driving in the dark, watched the sun rise, and then started seeing some awesome wildlife. first there was a moose and her calf in a stream. then, about 20 miles down the road on a sun drenched hillside this beautiful bull was watching the world pass by. made my day. a moose was the only wildlife we had sought but not found while i was in jackson. i hoped john and cammy would have a moose sighting too. i wanted their trip to be as complete as mine.