Jackson Slide Area

We all have heard about the slide that occurred behind a new Walgreen's store in Jackson. It is less than a block away from the lodge and we walked there yesterday to get some close-up shots of the damage. The first shot below is taken over the lodge roof from just outside our fifth wheel where we can see the damaged home from our site:

and a closer look with the zoom:

The slide is still moving at a rate of about a half inch each day - even after the local crews made some stabilizing changes at the foot of the hill:

Walgreen's had actually been open for six weeks when the slide accelerated and created most of the damage. They are obviously closed, and word has it that they have left town and will not open anywhere else in Jackson. They packed up everything in the store and donated everything to local charities - what a nice gesture. It was a beautiful store, and one that would have probably been one of their flagship stores. These are shots of the building:

It is a sad situation for the businesses in that area, but worse for the homeowners that have homes on the top of the hill.

We spent more time at the lodge where we greeted Donna and her daughter Rachel. We have at least three days per week scheduled with Donna again this year which makes us happy. So far, we are not on the schedule with Rachel who works primarily on the night shift. There are a couple new faces, so we will reserve judgment on those until after we get to know them.

We plan to take our first trip to Yellowstone today. The target is to leave here by 8 AM so we can spend the whole day in the park. We are down to only two full days before we begin our schedule at the lodge. We are settling in for the next four months of work with some fun times thrown in...

First Tetons Visit

We were very anxious to take our first drive through the Teton National Park this year. There was rain in the forecast for later in the day, so we took a chance that we might get some good views of the mountains before the clouds rolled in. At about 8 AM we left the rig and stopped at the lodge to pick up a newspaper and to greet some of the folks we missed on Monday when we arrived. It was a chilly 40 degrees, but we continued on to the Park.

The excitement was there as we approached the entrance to the Park. The snow capped mountains were gorgeous and there wasn't a lot of traffic. It was a great morning for pictures and we'll start with these of the mountains:

Our first real stop was at the South Jenny Lake Visitor Center and Store where we wanted to get a look at the new merchandise for this year. There was still lots of snow in the area and we took these shots of each other in front of the huge snow bank in the parking lot:

It is going to be a big year for snow runoff into the Snake River which, in turn, will make for some terrific white water rafting in June.

On our way to the Jackson Lake Lodge, we pulled off the road to get this shot of the Lake with the snow capped mountains in the background, and the ice that was still present around the edge of the Jackson Lake:

The lake was lower than we have ever seen it, but will fill rapidly as the temperatures rise.

We stopped at the Jackson Lake Lodge and walked around those shops and also took a couple pictures. This first one that Josie took from inside:

and this one that I took from outside on the patio:

It is always a nice stop to make in the Park.

Our morning continued with a drive around some of our favorite locations where we spotted some animals. We first spotted this lone elk:

and a herd of elk along the main road south heading back to Jackson:

That was the same field where last year we took shots of elk, antelope and bison, all together in the same location.

Our first bison of the year were spotted a bit south of that location along the same road:

 

We spotted hundreds of bison in the usual areas along the Antelope Flats Road and along the road to Kelly.

Our first day in the Tetons was rewarding and we returned in the afternoon before the rains came.

It sure is nice to be here again and enjoy the wonders and sights of this spectacular area. We expect to pay a visit to Yellowstone - probably tomorrow - but we would like to make sure that the weather forecast will be better for the whole day. We will try to get some shots today of the slide area that is just up the road from the lodge. We have passed it several times already, and it is something to see. The city has a plan to shore up the hillside, so it should be interesting to watch the progress...

Arrival in Jackson WY

We wanted to get an early start yesterday because we were anxious to get set up in our site and contact Wayne, the RV park manager, to check out our refrigerator. The time was 7:30 AM when we got on the road, and we had a beautiful and uneventful drive to Jackson. There were lots of antelope, a few deer and very little traffic on the road we took this year. We had never traveled the route 189 from southern Wyoming through Kemmerer, Big Piney, Daniel and Bondurant, and it was a different experience. The landscape is all flat and open range where cattle roam and there is very little in the way of trees or hills until you reach the Gros Ventre range outside of Bondurant, WY. That is probably 50 miles from our destination. We drove through some light rain and arrived in Jackson at around 1:30.

We got everything set up while talking to our neighbor and co worker - Harvey - who had spent the winter staying here at the lodge, and Jim Triplett, the Administrative manager at the lodge who happened to walk by shortly after our arrival.

This is a shot of our site where we will be spending the next four and a half months:

It is the same site we had last year and is probably the best site in the park.

The main order of business was to track down Wayne to check our refrigerator problem. He - and his wife, Lynn - were off yesterday and were not around until late in the afternoon. Wayne got our message and stopped by at around 5:30 and we discussed the problem with our refrigerator. He said "wait a minute while I go around back". He took the cover off the back of the refrigerator and pressed a button that was hidden from view - the reset button. JOY TO THE WORLD! The frig came on and we are back in business. He fixed the problem in less than 5 minutes. There is nothing in our manual that describes this reset button, and it is so hidden from view, I never would have found it. Thanks, Wayne.

We will load up the frig again with the items we saved and stored in the coolers on our trip. Then, we expect to take a drive into the park (Tetons) today, and probably do Yellowstone before we begin our schedule on Saturday. There are a couple changes at the lodge and some new faces, but we'll update you along the way. Life is good...

Heber City Utah and Frig is Out

Our planned departure yesterday morning was put back for an hour. We discovered we had no refrigerator when we got up at 5:15 AM. It quit sometime after our arrival in Las Vegas and we discovered it when we went to get ice from the freezer and saw that none was made overnight and my milk was warm that I put in my cereal. We rushed to get some ice from the local mini-mart and tried to salvage as much food as we could by placing things in our coolers. This is what our temporary refrigerator looks like:

We will have to get Wayne - one half of the management team at the Virginian RV Park - to check it when we arrive today. He is a technician that does repairs in the off season where they spend winters in Buckeye, AZ. I did everything I could to try to diagnose the problem, including taking the back off the frig from outside to make sure the fuses were OK. They are. As Josie says - this all part of the adventure!

Our trip was longer than anticipated as a result of lots of road work and construction along the Interstate. We left at 7:50 AM and arrived in Heber, UT, at 3:50 PM. The time quickly changed to 4:50 PM when we adjusted our clocks for Mountain Time. We do have a very nice space here at the Deer Creek State Park and is one of the nicer places we've stayed anywhere. Here is a shot of our space:

and the view on the side away from the lake isn't bad either:

All of the surrounding mountains in this area are snow capped. In fact, it is only 42 degrees outside this morning. We will travel with warmer clothes today and will put away the shorts for awhile.

We have about 290 miles to travel today to arrive at Jackson. We plan to leave at 7:30, so we should arrive in the early afternoon, get set up, and track down Wayne to see if we get some word on our refrigerator problem...

First Night in Vegas

It was actually about 7:50 AM when we pulled out of the resort - maybe ten minutes ahead of schedule. Our neighbor (Mike) came over to say a final farewell and to remind us he would be watching our site for us over the summer.

Our drive was as anticipated, with stops in Wikieup, AZ and Boulder City, NV for potty break and stretching:

 The entire drive only took us five and a half hours which had us arriving in Vegas at 1:20 in the afternoon. We quickly set-up on our ho-hum space and sent up the satellite so we could watch the Preakness race from Baltimore. It was a terrific race and our favorite - California Chrome - won to complete the second leg of the triple crown. We would sure like to see this horse go all the way to become the first triple crown winner since Affirmed in 1978. The horse is owned by two blue collar workers and was purchased for a mere $10K when nobody else wanted the horse. The partners have since turned down a $6 million offer for a share in ownership.

As mentioned, our site is just ho-hum and we are glad we are only here for one night. The space is on the end of a row and we step out our door onto the road that is alongside the rig:

At any rate, we made a trip down the street to the nearest casino - Boulders Station - and proceeded to make a (small) donation to them before coming home to get to bed early for today's drive.

Our drive today is the longest - 400 miles - of the entire trip. The good news is that it will be interstate highway the whole way to Heber, UT where we have a reservation in a nice state park - Deer Creek State Park. Our plan is to be on the road by 7 AM which should get us there sometime around 3 PM this afternoon.

See ya from Utah tomorrow AM...

Ready to Head Out

We had a very busy schedule yesterday. The first stop was at Josie's shop where we picked up our final checks at around 10:30 AM. After we deposited those - gas money for our trip - we went to Surprise where I dropped off Josie at the Perfect Look Hair Salon to get her hair done.

The plan was for me to top off the tank in the Jeep, take it to the Meineke service center for service, drive it home and pick up the truck. That was done around 1 PM and I drove back to Surprise to top off the tank in the truck. The next stop was back at the hair salon where I got my haircut and waited for Josie to finish up. Before dropping Josie off at the salon, we had a great lunch at Red Robin that was close by. All the while, the temperature was approaching 100 + degrees. It is suppose to be over 100 again today but cool down some after we leave - of course.

We were back home by 4 PM and I gave our email and phone number to out two neighbors who are going to keep an eye on things for us while we are gone. We don't anticipate any problems, but you never know.

I opened up the sections of our fence where I allowed for the truck and fifth wheel to come in and out and hitched up the rig to the truck to make sure everything was OK on that situation. So far, it is working fine:

We should be able to pull out this morning and close up those sections again and secure them for the summer.

We hope to be ready to pull out by 8 AM and drive the 260 miles to the Thousand Trails preserve in Las Vegas tonight. It has been a terrific winter season for us, and we look forward to returning in October to enjoy another winter...

Endoscopy and Dinner

Only a few things were done for preparing for our trip in the morning yesterday. Josie had her doctor's appointment for her Endoscopy that required her to be at the clinic by 11:30 in Sun City. Fortunately, there isn't a whole lot left to do.

The Endoscopy went very well and Josie has peace of mind now about her concern over her digestive tract. There was some minor irritation discovered, but the Barrett's is still a very minor problem. The doctor took some biopsies and the results will be known in about a week.

We had a wonderful dinner with George and Cheryl at Macayo's in Surprise. It has been a while since we were there but it remains one of our favorites for Mexican food. We talked about their planned trip to visit us in Jackson this summer and it is coming together for sometime in late July or early August. Once we get to Jackson and see our schedule, we can zero in on specific dates. That should be a fun visit and a nice break for us to do a lot of the nice things that the area offers. We dropped them off at their home and headed out at about 7 PM. Have a great summer you guys. We took this parting shot of them outside their home:

Just before arriving back at the resort, we took a final shot of the sunset. This one happened to also have a couple hang gliders coming in for landings, although only one of them is visible (upper left) in this shot by the time we could pull over onto the side of the road:

Our final day today will involve a few errands and finally hitching up tonight before bedtime. We are leaving with some mixed feelings as we look forward to another great summer in Jackson, but will miss much of what we became accustomed to in this area of Arizona...