Idaho Falls and Blackfoot

The main reason for going to Idaho Falls yesterday was to have our new tires checked for air leakage. The Tire Pressure Monitor System (TPMS) in the Jeep has been showing the Low Tire Pressure light for about a week and we wanted to make sure there wasn't any problem with the tires. So, we went to the Walmart in Idaho Falls - where we purchased them - to have the tires checked. We also needed to fill one of our propane containers and thought we could get a better price on propane in Idaho Falls. We also needed to pick up some toiletries and it was a good opportunity to do that.

We spent 2 hours at Walmart where we had to wait for them to get a service bay available to check the tires and to perform their tests. They checked all the tires and found the one with the lowest air pressure and removed it to do a water check for leaks. That's when they place the wheel into a tub of water to look for bubbles to see if there is a leak. There were none. They then removed the tire from the wheel and remounted it with more sealant in case there was a problem with the original mount. Anyway, it was around 3 PM when we were done with Walmart. All of our shopping was done while we waited for the tire check so we decided to check out a casino that was located just south of Idaho Falls in Blackfoot, ID. We got directions and headed out for the 25 mile trip to the Fort Hall Casino. Before leaving the town of Idaho Falls, we passed the beautiful Mormon Temple in town:

These temples can usually be seen from most areas in towns where they are built. You may recall the beautiful temple we saw in Logan, UT on the trip north to Jackson.

We arrived at the casino at around 4 PM:

This is a brand new casino and hotel but the people that have told us about it said it was worth a try. We played with our usual small stake, and ended up playing for probably 3 hours, before finally making our donation to the Indian causes. We didn't care for the slot machines - they were mostly penny slots where you have to play a dollar or more to win anything - and the casino was relatively small compared to those we are used to playing. Even though we would probably never return to this casino, it was fun, as usual.

The trip home was a little longer from Blackfoot, but was nonetheless beautiful. There were peaks of the Tetons along the drive:

and there was a full moon that made for some nice photos, the best of which is below:

It was a good day all around and we accomplished our goals for the day. We got the propane at an RV dealership in Idaho Falls that we passed before getting to the freeway (I-15) to head to Blackfoot.

The skies are overcast this morning so our schedule is not set. There are some chores to be done this morning but maybe we can get out to some place nice later today...

August Weather

Since it was a slow day at work and nothing else of any significance happened yesterday, I thought it would be appropriate to review our weather for the month of August. One of the main attractions of this area, aside from its beauty, is the beautiful weather. With only today and tomorrow left in the month, we have had 23 days with highs in the 80's. There have only been 4 days where the high was 90 degrees or higher, and the highest temperature we reached was 93 degrees on August 8.

The lows for the month are another reason why folks love this area - especially for sleeping at night. We went into the 40's for our low temperature a total of 19 days. There were 2 days we even went into the high 30's, and there were only 8 days where we only went as low as the 50's at night or early morning.

Measurable rainfall for the entire month has only been .01 inches. It's hard to imagine anyplace in the country where the weather during the summer months is any better. The forecast for the last 2 days of the month, today and tomorrow, is for a chance of rain, but given the weather so far this month, it can't change the overall statistics by very much.

Our plan for the day is to take a trip to Idaho Falls to take care of some necessary business that can't be accomplished here and we always look forward to taking drives anywhere in this beautiful area...

More Signs of Slowing Season

Our working partner for Tuesdays and Wednesdays - Jim - was not feeling too well last night. He purchased a home - $82K for a single wide trailer - and he was sore from moving himself over the last few days. He is a divorced 38 year old and had been living with his parents until they recently moved to St George, UT, leaving him to find his own place. He was complaining the whole night until our General Manager, Mike, told him to go home and not to worry about getting paid for the lost time. That was at about 7:45 last night. Business was slow, and we could certainly handle the rest of the night ourselves.

Just a note on Jim's new residence. The $82K he paid for a single wide trailer is outrageous and is another example of the ridiculous prices of real estate in Jackson. The trailer is also on leased land! Can you imagine paying that kind of money for a used trailer that would normally cost in the $15-20K range, and not even own the land it sits on?

I have mentioned the slowing business and the fact that there are fewer customers in the lodge. I took these shots to show the RV park this morning and how many empty spots there are vs a totally full park just a couple weeks ago:

 and then this shot of the lodge parking lot as seen from our fifth wheel:

If you take away our truck in the picture, it doesn't leave too many occupied spaces.

It is actually to the point in the lodge where we can get by with just 2 individuals working the front desk instead of the 3 people we now have scheduled for most of the daily shifts.

You can also see from the above shots that our crystal clear and blue skies are back. The smoke and haze has almost totally disappeared and that is good news.

We have scheduled another trip to Idaho Falls this Thursday to get a few things done. We keep getting our "low tire pressure" warning light in the Jeep and we need to make sure it is not the new tires causing the light to come on, but rather a problem with the Tire Pressure Monitoring System. We also need to refill one of our propane tanks that we have been using for the whole year and finally emptied. We know we can get it a lot cheaper outside of Jackson. Add in some needed toiletries, and we can justify the trip. It should be a beautiful drive if the weather stays clear.

Today is our "Friday" at work and it seems like this week went very fast...

Invitation to Return

It was just Josie and I working the front desk yesterday as it has been every Monday while Chelsey is gone. She is, as you recall, the manager's daughter that went to Costa Rica for 5 weeks. The volume has been low so it is not a real pressure type situation for us. What it does do however, is give us time to talk with Judy, our manager, in a one-on-one situation.

We had several occasions to talk with her during lulls yesterday and we approached the subject of possibly wanting to return here next year. She was very happy to hear that we had been thinking about it and they were waiting for us to express an interest. Evidently, she and Jim Triplett (the Administrative Manager) have been hoping that we would want to return. Judy and Jim both indicated that we would be welcomed and that we have first shot at returning. That was a relief for us since at all of the other places we have worked, we have been approached first about a second season.

The fact that we have the opportunity now to return to Jackson takes away some of the pressure, or the need, to try and see everything this summer. There are some things that we can save for next year, such as a second horseback trip with a different stable in a different area, and a second rafting trip with another rafting outfitter. It also allows us to save some of the restaurants we want to try until next year. There are so many in town that have been recommended to us that there is no way we could try them all this year. There are also many hikes that we would like to take that we will not have time for this year.

We also talked to Judy about returning earlier next year to allow more free time before starting work on the first of June. She indicated that we had the whole week prior to June 1 next year to come and enjoy the area. Jim also invited us to come to the Lodge over the Christmas Holidays - at a very attractive rate - to get a taste of Jackson in the winter and to see the Christmas programs that are scheduled that week. That is something we would definitely consider.

It looks like the smoke is finally beginning to dissipate in the area and it looks like the mountains will become majestic once again. That will allow us to get out and enjoy some of the areas that were not so clear before we leave here in early October. The time sure flies by as we are just about to start September in a few days, our final month...

Glider Rides

Once again we had a day that is becoming typical for this time of year. It was pretty slow and we had the (now) usual number of checkouts. It almost seems like we can get by with just 2 people working the front desk on weekends instead of the 3 we now have on the schedule.

Once we got off work at 3 PM we just tried to catch up on the tropical storm Isaac that is headed for the Gulf coast. It looked like it was going directly over the Sunshine Key Resort on Big Pine Key where we worked a year and a half ago. We are sure that everybody has been evacuated from the island and we are going to try to contact some of the people we worked with to get an update.

As I was grilling some chicken outside for dinner, there were a couple hang gliders coming down from the mountain behind us. I got some good shots and noticed that there were 2 people on each of the gliders. We had heard about rides that were being offered on these hang gliders and this is where they take place - behind our rig:

Josie has said that she would like to take one of those rides and we probably can get one "comped" as employees of the Lodge. She can do that while I take the pictures - just like I did when she went on the hot air balloon ride on her 50th birthday. I don't feature jumping off the side of a mountain to float down on the end of a kite, even with somebody else holding the ropes. We'll see about that...

Trumpeter Swans

Our week kicked off at 7 AM yesterday and it was again an indication of the slowing pace. There were only about 80 checkouts and except for the enjoyable conversation with Donna, was a slow day.

There was an ad in the local paper for properties - cabin sites and 2-5 acre parcels - that were available just outside of town to the south, so we were anxious to see them after work and find out what kind of enormous price they were asking. It was kind of a joke as we approached the "ranch" and a guard came out to greet us. He said there was no one in the sales office, handed us a small post card with a small amount of information and asked us to call the name on the card. We asked if we could drive through the area to check out the properties and he said no, that it was very exclusive, and we would need an appointment. Forget that place. If it is so exclusive so as to not allow potential customers a chance to see the area without a salesman, we wouldn't want to live there. Not that we were seriously looking anyway.

There was a Preserve nearby that we had visited briefly on another occasion. It was an area devoted to the care and breeding of trumpeter swans. It is a very nice area at the edge of town:

Most of the swans were out of view when we arrived there but we were able to capture these photos of the few that were visible:

It's nice to see some land being put to this noble cause for the shrinking population of the trumpeter swans.

Today should be pretty close to the same kind of activity as yesterday, but we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel as we approach our final month in Jackson Hole...

Football Returns - Big

Our activities for the day yesterday - which were not much to talk about - took a back seat to the return of the High School Football season in Naperville, IL. It was the first game of the new season for Austin's team (Waubonsie Valley)and we were lucky to be able to watch most of it on a TV station - High School Cube - that broadcast his game as the game of the week in their conference. They are a station that broadcasts games in different parts of the country by streaming the broadcast on cell phones, I-Pads, computers - you name it. Our reception was not the best in this area but we were able to see enough of the game between slow feeds to know that it was an exciting game.

The game was played against a very good Naperville Central Team that made the playoffs last year and will probably make the playoffs again this year. Austin's team won 34-14, and Austin was clearly the star of the game. In fact, he was named the station's MVP for the game after scoring 3 touchdowns and running for almost 300 yards. There were numerous runs in the 15 to 25 yard range, including touchdown runs of 34 yards and 11 yards, and Naperville Central was not able to stop him. We are very proud of him and can't wait for the rest of the season's games to follow his progress toward what we hope will result in some tough scholarship choices from colleges. The announcer on the station kept saying that colleges will be watching him and scrambling to sign him.

Except for Josie baking some cookies and a trip to the store, the rest of the day was just spent around the fifth wheel catching up on taped TV shows. Thanks to Austin for making our day...

Curtis Canyon and Golf

Our early drive to Curtis Canyon took place as planned at around 9:30 yesterday. The location is just east of the National Elk Refuge and the drive took us past a very large, flat area of farmland where we spotted these antelope:

They were far away and all bedded down so they were difficult to see. Josie counted 41 of them and represented the largest herd of antelope we have seen anywhere. More on those later.

It was a winding dirt road the whole way to the end of the canyon. There were Trailheads indicated on a map that was on a forest service bulletin board and we took a picture of this map to try and show the many trails that can be accessed in this wilderness area:

Our location was at the red square at the top, left center. If you look closely, you can see the black dotted lines all over the map that represent the trails. All of the red squares are the different starting points for these trails. You could spend months here and never walk all the trails in this wilderness area.

The drive was through some beautiful country and at one point we could see the sleeping Indian mountain up close:

The views should have been spectacular from the top of this mountain we were on, but, as can be seen, the smokey haze from all the neighboring wildfires still blocked the views of the Tetons:

On a clear day, that photo would be a beautiful view of the mountain range. You can barely make out the outline of the Tetons in the photo.

Coming back down the road, and very close to the area we saw the antelope, Josie wanted to stop to get a shot of these beautiful lupines that were in full bloom:

The antelope were on their feet and walking away from us as we passed the area on the way out:

It was another fun drive through an area we hadn't seen before.

I played golf in the afternoon and Josie did some laundry and other tasks around the fifth wheel. My golf match with Duane was again at the course in Driggs, ID, and it was forgettable for both of us. We each hit a long, straight drive off the first tee and it was downhill from there. We both scored the worst round of the year for us and cannot explain why both of us just couldn't get any consistency. I lost 3 balls in the water, and Duane lost a similar number. It was an ugly round. We will try to get one more round in before the end of our season here.

Plans for today have taken a little turn since we both are bothered by back pains from yesterday. The hike is out for today, but we may find an alternative activity to enjoy the day...

Busy Schedule Ahead

It seems like the last day of each work week is always the longest. We watched the clock most of the afternoon/evening last night waiting to begin our free time. It doesn't help when the pace is slow as the number of check-ins shrinks with each passing week.

Our time is running short to do some of the activities that we want to complete before leaving, so we need to plan each free day to squeeze in as much as possible. There is another golf outing with Duane scheduled this afternoon so this morning we are planning to take a drive to another area that we were told not to miss. It is to an area called Curtis Canyon and we hope to get some nice photos from that.

We are thinking that another hike may be in order for tomorrow, so we'll research those possibilities. There are so many hikes that we can take that it is very difficult - but fun - deciding which are best suited for us. We still have partial days between working hours to see some of the local places we don't want to miss. One of those is the Tram that goes from the bottom of the mountain in Teton Village to the top. We can do that for free after Labor Day as they have offered free trips to locals following the holiday. There are also several restaurants we want to try and, of course, the Million Dollar Bar in town where we haven't visited yet is on that list. Where has the time gone? We only have about 5 weeks left in Jackson Hole...

Hoback Ranches

As we didn't have to start work until 3 PM yesterday, we took a drive to an area south of town that has been advertising 10-20 acre ranches for sale - Hoback Ranches. We are not anywhere close to buying anything in this area but we are very interested in finding good values in this area of seemingly outrageous real estate prices. These properties were within commuting distance of Jackson, and the prices were much more in line with what we thought would be traditional values. The commute would be about 40 miles, but the ranches sit 3 miles off of the main road. The winters indicate that snow mobiles would be the normal mode of transportation for folks living year-round on these ranches. The views were great, although not of the Tetons:

There were some pretty homes and log cabins that we saw along the winding road and the prices of these ranches ranged from about $50,000 for a 10 acre ranch to $200,000 plus for larger parcels with a home on them. The roads were gravel, although well maintained, and most were wooded with lots of aspens and spruce trees. Our interest in any property would be for summer use only and these would be difficult to justify as there are no stores nearby or any other sign of civilization within 15 miles of the entrance. There is plenty of wildlife in this area although all we saw was this hawk that had just flown into the top of a dead tree:

It was still a very interesting drive and gave us another opportunity to compare areas and prices.

One more day to go this week. We will probably take another drive before work today but for now it is still up in the air...

Touch of Rain

Even though we didn't get any measurable rain, we had a typical Washington morning yesterday. It rained just enough to spot our vehicles and cool things off to where the low temperature for the day was 44. It still climbs into the 80's during the day and the sun eventually came out in the afternoon. We continue to have the smokey haze from all of the forest fires in the area which blocks the view of the mountains. It's a shame for the visitors who will not get very good photos of the area and will leave with a less than fulfilling experience of Jackson Hole.

There is definitely a downturn in the number of guests at the Lodge. We only had 65 check-outs yesterday - vs about 120 when we are full - and that included a tour bus with 24 rooms by itself. Josie and I handled everything without incident or problems and we got home shortly after 3 PM.

We went to the post office to check on mail deliveries that don't contain our PO Box in the address. Josie sent for a book from the Mayo Clinic and it contained just our physical address and hasn't been delivered. It turns out that you need to have both the physical address and the PO Box to have mail delivered to us at the Lodge. We do have both for our normal mail but the post office doesn't have delivery and we always have an employee of the lodge physically pick up the mail each day at the post office. Actually, we haven't seen any mailboxes in front of homes so we are wondering if there is any mail delivery to homes or businesses anywhere in town. In fact, we haven't seen mail trucks anywhere either. The clerk in the post office said that mail would be returned to the sender if it did not contain the PO Box. Sheesh!

This is a day (Tuesday) that we like each week as we have until 3 PM to start work. That gives us a half day to do something and gives us a nice break in the schedule...

Full Circle at Work

Our second day with a substitute for Donna was a smooth business day. Senne, the girl taking Donna's place, was nice to work with and we saw some continued changes in the pace. We noticed that over the last week the number of guests has shrunk somewhat and the telephones are not ringing as much as they had been for the last 8 weeks. Also, it seems that the kids are back to school and the guests have taken on an older profile. There were no kids around over the weekend and it appears that we have gone full circle now since we started working in early June. It is with mixed feelings that we welcome the slower pace. When it's busy, the time goes faster, but when the pace gets slower, it is a more controlled atmosphere. We have not sold out in the lodge for the last week and, except for a couple of special events coming up, will probably not sell out for the rest of the summer.

We relaxed at home following work yesterday and actually watched some westerns on TV for the first time in a long while. How The West Was Won was on the Westerns Channel and it was good to see some familiar scenery in a movie for a change.

The plan for our winter months is still unclear - at least past October. We are still watching for opportunities in AZ and expect to find something in the near future. There are always instances where an employer has to make last minute substitutions for people that cancel and we are hoping that happens soon for us. Meanwhile, we can at least expect to enjoy some down time and relax for a month or two...

Substitutions at Work

Our favorite working partner, Donna, was off this weekend so she could visit a friend in Denver. Yesterday, we had a gentleman work with us - Harvey - whom we had not previously worked with. He is a lifetime hotel/hospitality individual with about 30-40 years experience working in the industry. He also doesn't own a home and lives in hotels wherever he works. The primary location for him is Daytona, FL, and he has been coming here for the summers for several years. He is staying here in a rented condo in a neighboring town - Victor, ID. Although a very different kind of individual, we enjoyed working with him and talking to him during lulls throughout the day.

We were off at 3 PM and just tried to catch up on home duties that were neglected during our 2 day trip to Montana. One of the common events that we have seen all summer long is the hang gliders that take off from the hill behind us and slowly drift down to the area directly behind us. I happen to catch these two as they started out from the top:

They weren't coming down very fast so I came back in to finish other duties.

Josie received a replacement phone for the one that died from the coffee soaking it received several weeks ago. We activated the new phone and she now has to get up to speed by reading the manual on all the features. That's something she does not like to do.

We have another different replacement for Donna today - Senne - who is an individual we have worked with before. She runs a winter tour business through Yellowstone with her Outfitter husband. It seems like all of the local employees - those that live here year round - are anxious for the summer crowds to go away. The winters are brutal here so that doesn't make much sense. We go to work knowing that each day will bring new experiences...

Livingston, Yellowstone and Home

We were up and ready to go following a continental breakfast at the hotel by 8:30 AM. We took I-80 to Livingston which was only 25 miles from Bozeman. We liked Livingston, as a town, slightly better than Bozeman although Bozeman has all the big name stores. This entire area of Montana is beautiful and we would look seriously at acquiring property at some point anywhere between the Montana state line and Bozeman/Livingston. The drive to Yellowstone was as spectacular as the drive to Bozeman and we stopped at a rest area along the way on the Yellowstone River where we caught these shots:

The family that was fishing in the second shot hadn't caught any fish - at least while we watched them float by.

One of the goals for our trip was to experience the final entrance to Yellowstone that we hadn't experienced up to now - the northern entrance through Gardiner, MT. We have now entered the park from each of the 5 entrances. The city of Gardiner was kind of nice - a small, tourist town, in a different kind of area as far as landscape is concerned:

It didn't take very long - probably 5 miles or so, before we reached the visitors center at the Mammoth Lodge on the northern loop road. It was familiar territory from that point on, heading south. We took the eastern road through the park as it was not only shorter, but the wildlife, traditionally, is more plentiful on that side of the Park. We were very happy to see our first herd of bison. Having gone through the opening day of bison hunting in Jackson, we were happy to see these calm and protected animals in the Park:

It wasn't more than a couple miles further south when we spotted this second herd:

And then, there was a third group a little further south along the river. This group was in and out of the water and we were watching them from a small turnout along the highway:

There was an unusually small calf in this group that caught our attention as the birthing season was long past:

As we were watching them, they all began entering the water and crossing the river at the same time:

They kept coming and coming and we began to think they were coming for us. The calf was staying close to its mother and it was a wonder it didn't drown on the swim across the river:

They marched directly at us and we got back into the car to watch the rest of the parade. They marched right through the turnout, passed our car and crossed the road:

Whew! That was exciting. :)

Our trip wound up at 4:15 when we arrived back home after driving through the Tetons with a thick smokey haze still blocking the view of the mountains. We feel sorry for the tourists who only have a day or two to spend here and will not get a real good view of these majestic mountains.

We are so glad we took this trip and discovered some new and beautiful areas that surround these Parks. It is almost a certainty that we will return again next year...

Destination Bozeman

First of all, I didn't get the blog entry done until we returned home today. The Internet connection in Bozeman was sporadic and we had to leave this morning before I could finish. Actually, I never got it started.

We left early in the AM yesterday for Bozeman and we took our time as we wanted to stop at Mesa Falls in Idaho and any other places that looked interesting to us along the way. The Falls are located just north of Ashton, ID and we had come past the turnoff to these falls on our last trip home from Yellowstone when we came out the West Yellowstone entrance and drove through Idaho to come home. Somebody told us not to miss this so we planned the little side trip on this visit to Bozeman. It was fairly easy to locate and because there were actually 2 falls - lower and upper - we visited the lower falls first:

The lower falls were located in an area that was very difficult to see. The viewpoint was not the best and although we took several photos, this is probably the best:

We didn't spend a lot of time at the lower falls and we moved on to the north to see the upper falls:

This was a special treat. There was a path that went from the visitors center down a long and winding set of stairs to the falls. As we approached the falls, it looked like a negative edge swimming pool:

Once we past the top of the falls, the stairs contained several different landings where we could get some excellent views of the falls:

The river is actually the Henry's Fork of the Snake River, and the river looked amazing from the falls downriver toward the lower falls:

I mentioned the winding stairway that led to the falls and we grabbed this shot to give you an idea of how it wound around the hillside to provide the great views of the falls and the river:

The remaining part of our drive to Bozeman was through the Gallatin National Forest along the Gallatin River and was nothing short of spectacular scenery. The road followed the river for at least the last 50 miles and we passed many areas where rafters were enjoying the river. Some of them looked like they had barely enough room to squeeze the raft through the boulders and rocks in the river, and we took these shots as examples of the rafters:

All of the rafters we saw were wearing helmets which said a lot about the rapids they were traveling through.

We arrived in Bozeman around 3:30 PM and got settled into our room and headed out to explore the town. The town itself is not that impressive but we located the Costco and did our planned shopping and returned to the hotel. We stayed at the TLC in Bozeman, mainly because the reservations weren't made until the last minute and most of the other hotels we wanted were booked. It worked for one night and the first leg of our trip was a huge success...

Bison Hunt and Smoke

Before going to work yesterday afternoon we wanted to see where the bison were gathering in the Elk Refuge in town - according to a local newspaper article. The article stated that they were arriving in the Refuge earlier than normal this year. What we didn't realize was the 15th - yesterday - was the opening of the bison hunting season.

As we drove onto the road around 11:30 that goes along the back (or eastern) side of the Refuge, we came across a pickup truck on the side of the road. There was a lot of activity around the truck and we noticed that the people were wearing hunters orange. They were hunters that had taken the first bison of the hunting season, right there on the open range of the refuge. We stopped to take a look and to talk to these hunters:

The hunter on the right above is the hunter that took the animal with one shot from his 30-06. He said it had taken him 5 years to draw a bison tag and he had this herd staked out so that at first light he could snag one. The state issues about 200 tags per year. We felt that it was a shame that this herd is the one we had seen on several occasions in this area - crossing the street to stop traffic. That's the nature of hunting. Once he fired the shot, the rest of the herd disappeared and we will probably not see any more bison while we are here. We're sure the rest of them are hiding out in the hills where they will remain until the hunting season ends, which is after we leave.

The rest of our drive was pretty much uneventful. The smoke from neighboring fires was so bad that we couldn't even see the outline of the majestic Tetons for the first time. Here is an example of the effects of this lingering smoke in the area:

That would normally be a beautiful shot of the countryside on a clear day.

As bad as the smoke was, it didn't stop Josie from getting some shots of these Lupines that were growing wild in the fields:

                                                      
It was a very different kind of drive for us. We returned home early and put in our final work day for the week.

This morning we leave for Montana where we will drive north through Idaho to Bozeman where we will spend the night. Our plan is to return home tomorrow while driving through Yellowstone from the northern entrance - the only one of the 5 entrances that we have not yet experienced...