Endless Job

We made some real progress yesterday getting our bedroom organized and the walk-in closet organized. Our closet is a unique configuration and one that we aren't thrilled about, but it is large enough even though it is awkward to maneuver in. There is a section of the closet that is hard to get to and we tried to place things there that are hardly used. We have too much stuff and too many clothes. I guess we kept buying clothes over the years without regard to what we had in storage and in seasonal clothing containers. Someday soon we will have to do a downsize exercise and create a few boxes for Goodwill.

In addition to getting things done in the bedroom, we hung more pictures and have most of those in place where we want them to hang. Again, we have lots more pictures than wall space, so we will have to figure out what to do with the excess pictures.

It was a nice birthday celebration for Josie yesterday as we ended the day with a dinner at Applebee's.

They have changed their menu and have great selections that are healthy and have lower calories for us folks that are watching that kind of thing. The cost is reasonable and we enjoy going there once again after having that restaurant chain on our favorite list years ago before they fooled with the menu the last time.

I have a landscaper scheduled to come today to help me figure out the irrigation system in our yard. There are some problems with coverage that I can't figure out, so maybe the mystery will be solved today and we can begin to see some healthier plants in our yard...

Computer Stuff and Relaxing

Most of yesterday was spent catching up on emails and computer stuff. One thing I had to do that took  some time was to change our credit card info at places where we have automatic payments made to it each month. It seems that some creditor - we suspect Target - had compromised our data and B of A issued a replacement card. I understand the reasons and the need for that, but it is a royal pain to make the changes anytime that happens. Josie enjoyed the day mostly relaxing and resting from the long trip and her day at work on Tuesday.

Today is Josie's birthday and we don't have anything planned, although she claims the trip to Jackson was more than sufficient for any birthday gift. We'll still figure out something special to do even if it is only to go to dinner someplace nice tonight. Other than that, the day will be filled with odds and ends stuff that we still need to organize around the house...

Back to Normal Routine

It was back to work and back to our normal routines yesterday. One of the first things I did in the morning was to place my cross stitch with the newly won ribbons (center) back on the wall to take its place among the other Fair winners we have hanging in our family room:

We have my cross stitches hanging all over the house in various locations, but the recent winners, along with some other Native American/Western décor, are located in the family room. By the way, I recently ordered the cross stitch pattern for my next project and entry for next year's Fair.

Josie worked yesterday following the marathon drive home from Jackson and she had no problems with fatigue or after-effects of the long trip. She has today and tomorrow off as her regular days off, so she gets to truly recover from the trip.

There are still many areas that need attention in settling into the house. We haven't even looked at the garage yet but as long as the temperatures are around 105-110 every day, we aren't anxious to work in the garage. That duty will be saved for cooler days. I also want to re-assemble the storage shed outside, but that also is something for early AM or for cooler days. At any rate, we know we have more work to do, so we will tackle each area one at a time...

Safely Home

We were all packed and ready to go at 7 AM yesterday before stopping to pick up our County Fair pieces and our money for our ribbons that we won. They were a little late in opening the doors but we were gone by 7:30.

The drive home was very good with no stops except for gas/potty breaks. The total drive, including stops, was about 15 hours and we made it to our driveway at almost exactly 9 PM local time. We gained an hour on the return trip, so it was actually 10 PM Jackson time when we arrived home. The good news is that, except for the last one hour, the entire drive was done in daylight. Here is a shot of the twilight that occurred along Route 93 before arriving at Wickenburg as the sun went down:

What a terrific week we had in Jackson and we are now (almost) ready to begin our regular schedule at home. Josie works today and I have lots of chores lined up to more than keep me busy. All of our friends and co-workers at The Virginian Lodge are expecting us to return next summer so we have some serious planning to do between now and next May...

Final Day of Vacation

We tried to squeeze in several small trips on our final full day in Jackson. We started by driving to the Schwabacher Landing area in the Park for the last time to get one last look and a few more shots.
These are the final shots from there:

Once again, we saw no wildlife but lots of people coming and going to the area..

We then drove around the area where the town of Kelly sits and we took the Forest Service Road along the Antelope Flats area. This is a shot of the Tetons from that part of the drive:

In 1925 there was a huge slide that occurred that dammed the Gros Ventre River and nearly destroyed the town of Kelly. We drove to that area and took this shot of the slide area as it appears today:

At the time, it was of the largest slides that had ever occurred in the world.

The drive back from that area was pretty as well, and this shot is one we took on that drive back from the slide area:

We arrived back in our room after topping off the gas and getting a few groceries for our trip and started the task of packing up to leave this morning. It is sad to reach this point in our vacation, but all vacations eventually come to and end. We will pick up our entries from the Fair at 7 AM and be on the road to Glendale, AZ. We expect to arrive late tonight, at around 10 or 11 PM.

It was a terrific week!!

Big Hike and Virginian Party

It was a tossup yesterday whether to do our big hike of the week yesterday, or wait until today when the weather is suppose to be the best. We decided to do the long hike yesterday so that we would have extra time to get ready to leave and extra time to recover, if necessary.

It was 9:30 AM by the time we reached the trailhead at the Taggart and Bradley Lake. It was about a 7 mile hike, moderate in scale. There was some fog when we started out into the Park and Josie caught this shot of the low clouds against the mountains before we reached the trailhead:

We packed our snacks and water into the backpack and headed out:

It wasn't very far into the hike before we reached this nice waterfall:

The trail to the first lake - Taggart  - was very different terrain all the way from the beginning to the lakeside. Aside from the creek and waterfall, there was open terrain:

Woods:

and lots of hills with all kinds of flowers, below of which are just a couple that Josie caught on camera:

We finally reached Taggart Lake at about 11:30 and we only stopped for a short time to get some pictures before moving on to Bradley Lake. This one is of Taggart Lake:

The trail leading to Bradley Lake from Taggart was very hilly and through some pretty thick forest. We eventually came out at the lake, but there was no easy path down to the water, so this shot is taken from our vantage point about 25 feet above the waterline:

Our return was also through some rugged and, in some places fairly steep terrain, but we made it back to the car by 1:30 PM. We saw lots of people along the trail - more than we have ever seen on a hiking trail - and several of the folks said they saw a small black bear along the trail - we never saw it. The hike served to make us aware of just how much out of shape we are. Also, it was difficult for us adjusting to the elevation change which also tended to tire us out faster. All in all, we are happy we did the hike and, believe me, we miss the activity.

We returned to our room and freshened up for the Virginian Lodge 50th Anniversary Party being held in the courtyard. It was a very nice affair and we saw most of our friends from the staff and enjoyed a couple hours of food and cheer. Also there, of course, was Virginia who made the trip from San Diego to celebrate the occasion. She is as spry and chipper as ever and you would never know that she is 91 years old:

It was wonderful to see her and we were happy that this occasion was timed to pretty much end our week's vacation here. We only have today left, and we would stay if we possibly could...

Planning Around Rain

We are trying to get in a good hike this week and each day we think would be a good one, there are thunderstorms. Yesterday was no exception but we could have gone earlier in the day to beat the storms - but who knows.

We spent another great day though, riding around to various nice spots and just enjoying the day. We had lunch at a new place for us - The Pizza Artisan - where we had a terrific salad and personal pizzas. That is a place we will remember to recommend to guests next year.

I also had time in between our other stops to grab a haircut in town. Before going anywhere in the morning, we visited the lodge to pick up a paper and to see everybody before the weekend, and Julie - the Financial Manager - gave me a gift certificate to use at the Teton Barber. Josie went with me and I waited for about an hour while several folks came in with appointments that had to be taken before me. It was a different kind of experience as almost everybody that came in knew each other and it made for a friendly experience. The haircut wasn't bad either.

We walked around the Lodge grounds after our local travels to check out the grounds as they get ready for the Virginian 50th anniversary birthday event that is scheduled for this afternoon. The courtyard looks great as they prepare for the festivities with the hanging baskets that are in all their glory and the tent going up:

We also took a shot of our room location at the lodge this week. We are in the corner room on the second floor and that is our Ford Escape out front:

After walking down to the RV Park to say hello to a couple friends that work there, we returned to the room to watch the storms roll through - which they did.

The Virginian Party is the main activity for today, but we may still get our hike in if the weather cooperates this morning. Right now, it is foggy outside and Josie is not moving with any kind of speed to make that happen this morning, so we'll see...

Fair Results

Our first activity yesterday was to take a short drive through the Schwabacher Landing Area in the Tetons where we saw the moose last year. This year, the area looked similar to all the other areas we have seen as far as having no wildlife present. It is always a beautiful spot, even without the wildlife:

The clouds didn't help either, but we were able to get this shot of one of the few remaining wildflowers that are around at this time of the summer:

You may recall those thistles that we have taken photos of in the past. There aren't a whole lot of other flowers around at this point.

We couldn't wait to get to the Fair yesterday morning to see how our entries fared this year. My piece - The Legend - won the Best of Show again for the second time for me since 2013. Josie's entry won a blue ribbon which was a little disappointing when we saw the other entries that won better awards. These are the shots of our entries, with the first one being my winning cross stitch:

and Josie's Ostrich Egg Art entry:

Josie's entry was actually a piece that Tracy had created many years ago when she worked at the ostrich farm in Sequim, WA. It was entered in the category of "Most Unusual Craft Item".

We walked around the Fair for awhile and then went to another of our favorite eateries - Cutty's Grill - at the edge of town where we had a beer and a cheese steak sandwich for an early dinner. The rains came and we had thunderstorms the rest of the evening - nice rainbow below:

Our plan is to take a hike of some kind this morning to beat any storms that may be coming in this afternoon. Our week is flying by waayyy too fast...

Day at Yellowstone

It was our designated day to visit Yellowstone yesterday. We tried to get an early start but didn't get on the road until after 8 AM. The one thing that has been noticeable the entire visit this year is the extreme amount of traffic and visitors to the parks this year. It took us 15 minutes to get through the line at the South Entrance to Yellowstone which is a first. We never had to wait more than a few minutes on a busy day. We have heard on the news where there are record crowds this year, and we saw them first hand yesterday.

Our very good friends, Scott and Valerie Anderson, are working again at the Bridge Bay Marina and store located in Yellowstone north of the South Entrance. We stopped to pay them another visit - as we did last summer - and spent about an hour visiting with these nice folks at their fifth wheel before they had to go into work:

They have indicated that this is probably the final year they will be working in Yellowstone. They work each winter at Amazon.com - where we first met them six years ago - and the grind of the east-west travel is beginning to take a toll on them. They are good friends and we will always stay in touch.

Our hope yesterday was that we would see some wildlife. Our first encounter was with bison that were relaxing in a huge field:

Josie made the comment that it would be nice if we could get closer to these animals to get some better pictures. Sure enough, about a half mile down the road we ran into this bunch that were all over the road and very close to the vehicles - including ours:

That's about as close you ever want to get.

The crowds were unbelievable as we tried to drive through areas that we previously have been successful in seeing wildlife. There was no way that any wildlife would be close to this kind of human traffic:

It became obvious to us that any chance of seeing anything other than more bison was slim and none so we decided to bag the rest of the drive through Yellowstone and head for the West Entrance to drive back to Jackson through Idaho. That is a trip that we like anyway, so it was no big deal. It made for a really nice day though as we stopped and had a picnic lunch on the way out.

Our day ended back at Jackson at around 6 PM and we went to one of our favorite restaurants in Jackson - El Abuelito - where we had a great Mexican dinner to end the day:

It's cloudy and cool this morning and thunderstorms are in the forecast. We want to take a walk through one of our favorite locations - Schwabacher Landing - in the Park, so we will try to get that done this morning. Then, we will go to the Fair and see how our entries fared in the judging. Our fingers are crossed...

Fair Entry and Town

Our entries were submitted at the Exhibition Hall at the Fair at 11 AM yesterday so we are set to go. Every year it seems like it gets a little different and this year there seemed to be more confusion at the entry tables than in previous years. As long as it goes smoothly over the next several days, it doesn't matter, I guess.

We then took a drive on the Moose-Wilson Road that has been one of our favorite drives for spotting wildlife. We stopped at a favorite location of Josie's, where horses were almost always by the fence line. They were there yesterday:

This time though, we only saw a few does and nothing else along the drive, so we are wondering where all the game is hiding this year. We then stopped at Dornan's on the Snake River which is another favorite stop for us to inquire about scenic float trips. Since we always got gratis tickets for the whitewater rafting as employees, we thought it might be nice to do the scenic float on our own this year. The cost is probably a little too high for us - $140 for both of us - for a 2.5 hour float down the river. We haven't eliminated the possibility yet, but we are leaning toward passing on that.

While at Dornan's. we checked out the new ferry run that they started this year that is a re-creation of the Menor's Ferry that was a regular run in the late 1800's and early 1900's across the Snake River. The timing was off a little bit, but we got some good shots of the area:

We were shocked to see a formation of jets flying over the area which is something new for us in this area. They must have been from an air base in Idaho, as there are none in this part of Wyoming. Josie got a good shot of the jets:

Our next activity was a walk through town where we checked out some old favorites and did a little shopping. Of course, no stop in town is complete without taking a shot of the famous arches:

We then capped off the fun day with a few drinks at the Virginian Lodge Saloon where we met Donna, our friend that we have worked with for the three years we were here. It was terrific catching up on happenings with her and enjoying another fantastic day in Jackson.

It's off to Yellowstone today for our only visit to that park while on this trip...

Virginian Reunion

We had a relaxing morning in our room until about 9AM when we drove up to the office to say hello to all our old staff friends at the Lodge. Most of our friends were there - Judy, Jim Triplett, Jim South, Nick Coco, Benny (Maintenance) and several of the other staff members that we worked with. We had a very nice visit and talked about everything that has happened since we last saw them in October of last year. Some of our friends have moved on, and others are working new assignments and were not there yesterday. It was certainly a fun reunion and we were happy to see everybody again. We plan to stop in occasionally during the week and visit some more, but it was a great start yesterday.

We left to drive into the Teton National Park to see the changes there and we wanted to visit the main locations along the drive through the park. As soon as we reached the entrance, the majestic mountains were there to greet us;

Very close to the entrance was the Chapel of the Transconfiguration that always is a popular attraction. This is still an active church with services each Sunday and has a rich history associated with it. These shots were taken at the Chapel:

and the view of the alter with the mountains in the background. Can you imagine sitting in a service with this view to see during the services?:

We drove around all of our favorite lodges and visitors' centers to catch the views:

and also some favorite locations in between:

We saw the usual animals in the fields where we could count on viewing wildlife, but they were too far away to get good shots. There were bison and antelope herds in those fields.

We stopped at our favorite DQ on the way back to the hotel and had our usual end of the day treat. The drive through town was also familiar, and there weren't any changes to report there, but these shots will be recognizable, I'm sure:

Stay tuned for many more shots throughout the week.

Today is the day we enter our pieces for the County Fair. We will take them to the Exhibit Hall at 11 AM and formerly enter them in the Fair. Our fingers are crossed for another successful year with our entries...