Brenda and Harlan's Trip Blog

We left around 8:00am (yea!!!! another early morning start!!!) and headed to Grand Teton National Park for pictures. The sunrise was nice (if a bit overcast) and we were able to get some pictures, but the fog set in soon. We entered Yellowstone and drove about 20 miles into the park, turned around and headed back to Jackson for Harlan’s chiro appointment at 11:30. Brenda video taped the Tetons through the car window as we were driving back to Jackson. After the chiro pinched, poked and prodded Harlan we drove to a knife store that the chiro recommended to get Harlan’s pocket knife sharpened. We had a wonderful lunch at Cadillac’s in downtown Jackson. Brenda had a bowl of pumpkin bacon chowder and Harlan had turkey w/dressing and mashed potatoes. We just had to have the lemon crème brulee for dessert. Brenda told Harlan she was saving herself for ice cream store down the street, but ended up helping herself to most of the crème brulee leaving Harlan with the task of licking the cup. And of course we just HAD to experience the homemade organic ice cream parlor on the way to pick up Harlan’s sharpened knife.

We then drove to the Elk Reserve just outside of Jackson and decided to do the sleigh ride through the Elk Reserve tomorrow morning instead of today (it was SO COLD today). We then picked up more water and some Moose Drool (a wonderful local beer) at the liquor store for Harlan’s friend Tom in Austin. By this time the clouds were really coming in and it was getting colder. It looks like snow soon.

We then drove up to Teton Village just outside of Jackson to see the resort we have been reading about since we arrived. We drove up the streets beyond the resort and found some incredibly beautiful homes. One of the things that makes this area so beautiful is that most of the buildings and homes are made out of wood and stone in the log cabin style.

We got back to the motel around sunset and did laundry, packed and planned for tomorrow.

We woke up around 7:30 or 8:00 anyway, and started planning the day. Brenda learned the Post Office has messed up the mail delivery, so she worked on resolving that. Harlan called the 4 local chiropractors, and learned that 2 wanted relatively large fees for the initial visit, a third was not seeing anybody new, and the 4th was real reasonable about everything. A 2:30pm visit was scheduled. Harlan made some calls and discovered that his camera was under warranty, and would be repaired free if it was shipped to NJ and we waited a couple of weeks’ time for the work to be done. As the camera body itself was only about $100 or so, we decided it would be worth going to the only camera shop in town and looking for a replacement. Harlan headed over there while Brenda did what she likes best, organizing receipts. Harlan’s 15 minutes at the camera place probably turned into a half hour or so, as they didn’t have the same camera model. The choice was between a used $100 body, and a new body with 2 new lenses (including a 75-300mm lens) for about $600 or so. As it was becoming clear that a lens with better telephoto would be a Good Thing, and since the camera shop only had lenses that went to 200mm otherwise and even then the price of the body and the new lens would be just over $500, the new camera was purchased. Oh, the lady at the camera shop said she went out early this morning to shoot the Tetons just like we wanted to do, and just after sunrise some clouds came in and hazed over the sun just enough to mess up the light. She said it was a poor morning for the photo shoot.

Now to find a bigger camera bag… Brenda was also real unhappy with the layer of dirt on the car, so we learned the location of the car wash and headed over to it and K-Mart (to look for a camera bag). The car wash was Crowded, so we just headed over to K-Mart where a real friendly and helpful guy in their camera department showed us the bags. All of them were for digital cameras (small). We next tried Staples, which also had a poor selection. We then tried to wash the car again, but it was still way too crowded.

We saw the chiropractor, who turned out to be the first chiropractor to set up shop in Jackson. He was pretty good, and suggested that I come back again tomorrow so we could spend the entire session working on my carpal tunnel problems. Brenda really liked him.

After visiting the chiropractor we tried to get the car washed again, and the lines were still way too long. We visited a bison and elk meat and jerky store where we learned that their jerky currently uses additives that we don’t want, and most of their meats are around $50/pound. Brenda picked up some lip balm, hand salve, and facial scrub for market research purposes, and on the way back to dinner the 2nd car wash place had a tolerable wait. Our original dinner restaurant had not yet opened, and since we hadn’t eaten yet we went to Bubba’s BBQ where Brenda had OK halibut and Harlan had an OK combo platter (pulled pork, brisket, ribs, and chicken). After “dinner” we came back to the hotel and wrote up 5 days of log entries, messed with the new camera, and generally organized and relaxed. Oh, the bed in this room is really comfortable.

We had breakfast at the hotel restaurant, which had lousy oatmeal. Harlan had pancakes and eggs. It was -3F at the park entrance, and we saw 2 bald eagles in a tree. As it was a bit foggy at that place, we didn’t get great pictures of them. On the way to our first “thermal feature” stop we approached 4 old herd bulls. They were “going our way” so we had to be Careful. Things got better and worse when the oldest bull decided he had run far enough and got off the road and started eating. The remaining 3 bulls decided to stop in the road, taking positions on the left side, center, and right side of the road, and just standing there daring us to “do something”. We waited, and then a couple of snow coaches came up behind us and also waited. A little while later, 3 other snowmobiles came toward “the party” from the other direction. After another 5 minutes or so, the 3 bulls decided that since we were not going to cause any trouble we must not be any fun, so they also headed toward the old bull to eat a little something. We proceeded to an area that has all 4 of the thermal features in the park – geysers, fumaroles, (bubbly pool things), and hot springs. We wandered around there for a while and then got back on our snowmobiles and headed to Old Faithful. We got there about an hour before it was next predicted to go off, so we headed up the road to a waterfall for some pictures. We got back about 20 minutes later and watched a 10 minute (or so) movie about Yellowstone. Their projector was broken so the group in the theatre watched this on a small TV with fairly quiet audio. At least the closed-captions were on.

The parking lot filled considerably during this time, and at about 15 minutes before the next scheduled “eruption” we headed over to Old Faithful to wait it out (it usually goes of within 10 minutes’ time of the prediction). After a number of false starts, we saw a small spurt about 10 minutes’ time after the predicted eruption. For some reason, everybody stayed there a bit longer, and 5 minutes later we were rewarded with a decent blow. After 143 pictures over the 4 days, the batteries in Harlan’s digital camera ran out, and he was also down to about 6 more shots on his 35mm camera. We left, crossed the continental divide for the first of three times that day, then crossed the divide again and headed to West Thumb for lunch. We saw a ranger there who said “Old Lonesome” (an old herd bull) was down the path if we wanted to see him, and suggested that as he was both mostly deaf and mostly blind that we not surprise him, especially from the front. We wandered around the paths looking at thermal features and the nice view, and then came across Old Lonesome. He pretty much stood there grazing. We got some pictures, then headed up to lunch.

After lunch we headed south, crossing the divide for the third time. We stopped for some pictures a few more times (including another waterfall, where the 35mm camera started to act up) and then dropped off the snowmobiles and got in the van for the drive back to Jackson.

The drive was pretty, and we stopped to look at a mama moose and her “little” one. The weather was pretty clear, and we had some very nice views of the Tetons on the way. As the sun was already well in the west the lighting was all wrong for pictures, but Brenda and I decided we’d wake up early in the morning and head over to shoot some photos and video of the Tetons.

The parking lot filled considerably during this time, and at about 15 minutes before the next scheduled “eruption” we headed over to Old Faithful to wait it out (it usually goes of within 10 minutes’ time of the prediction). After a number of false starts, we saw a small spurt about 10 minutes’ time after the predicted eruption. For some reason, everybody stayed there a bit longer, and 5 minutes later we were rewarded with a decent blow. After 143 pictures over the 4 days, the batteries in Harlan’s digital camera ran out, and he was also down to about 6 more shots on his 35mm camera. We left, crossed the continental divide for the first of three times that day, then crossed the divide again and headed to West Thumb for lunch. We saw a ranger there who said “Old Lonesome” (an old herd bull) was down the path if we wanted to see him, and suggested that as he was both mostly deaf and mostly blind that we not surprise him, especially from the front. We wandered around the paths looking at thermal features and the nice view, and then came across Old Lonesome. He pretty much stood there grazing. We got some pictures, then headed up to lunch.

After lunch we headed south, crossing the divide for the third time. We stopped for some pictures a few more times (including another waterfall, where the 35mm camera started to act up) and then dropped off the snowmobiles and got in the van for the drive back to Jackson.

The drive was pretty, and we stopped to look at a mama moose and her “little” one. The weather was pretty clear, and we had some very nice views of the Tetons on the way. As the sun was already well in the west the lighting was all wrong for pictures, but Brenda and I decided we’d wake up early in the morning and head over to shoot some photos and video of the Tetons.

We got into town and dropped off 5 rolls of print film at the camera store for developing. It looks like the slide film will have to wait to get developed, as the only place in town that develops slide film has a reputation for scratching the film. We stayed at the same hotel (the 49er Inn) but got “downgraded” from a “suite” that had a king bed and a fireplace to a room with a king bed and a whirlpool tub. We like the new room better.

We finally had cell service and returned some phone calls.

For dinner we had really salty food from the Original Philly Steak place in town, because Bubba’s BBQ was closed. Harlan picked up some fresh batteries for the 35mm along with an eyeglasses repair kit.

The new batteries didn’t help the camera, so we decided there was no point in waking up early to shoot photos.

Brenda arranged for a 6am wakeup call after Harlan set the alarm for 6:30. It seemed to make sense at the time. We met everybody for breakfast, which also had good oatmeal. Brenda probably had a waffle and some eggs, Harlan probably had steak and eggs. It was cold that morning, probably close to zero F. There is an arch in Gardiner that looks like the Arch d’Triumph. The van stopped for some pictures along the way, and Harlan obliged. There is an interesting rock formation there, called something like “The Cap” but we didn’t get any pictures of it. We saw more wildlife on the drive up to the snowmobiles.

We snowmobiled thru Mammoth, Norris, and then southwest to Madison. We went a little farther south to some falls for more pictures, as that road is only open to snowmobiles from noon until evening. We turned around and headed back north to Madison and then headed West to West Yellowstone. Brenda remembers seeing various thermal features today, some small geysers. There were some large herds of (OK, like 15) bison on the roads today.

In the afternoon we visited a wildlife place that has grizzlies and grey wolves. We took pictures and saw an hour-long National Geographic documentary about the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone.

That night we stayed at the Stagecoach Inn (or something). We had dinner down the street at a place called Bullwinkle’s, where most everybody else enjoyed Moose Drool Beer. We had a taste, and liked it. Dark, but not real strong. Brenda had a full rack of baby back ribs, and Harlan had a NY Strip. For dessert we shared a piece of (very good) cheesecake.

We agreed on a 6:15 wakeup call.

We woke up around 7:30 and met everybody for breakfast about 8am. Good oatmeal. The Willox family ran out of 35mm print film, so Harlan gave them a roll from his supply. Ray (one of the group) talked about Savannah GA and Brenda wants to add that in as a place to visit. Some of the group was also familiar with New Orleans and suggested places for us to visit there, too. The weather was pretty good – not too cold. Heading back up the pass we stopped and took some pictures looking east. One of the mountains there might have been named for the way a cat looks, lying on its back. Along the way we encountered many more bison. We had a sack lunch at Fishing Bridge, and then headed to Artist Point for a little walk and more pictures. We continued west to Norris, then headed north, stopping at Obsidian Cliff before heading to Gardiner for the evening. We dropped off the snowmobiles and a van from the hotel picked us up. We saw elk, bighorn sheep, mule deer, and probably other stuff. The hotel was a Best Western, and that was one of the better hotels we stayed at. For dinner we ate at the hotel restaurant, where Brenda had king crab legs and Harlan had a steak. The appetizer was roasted garlic, which was tasty and also effective for several days’ time. The Willox’s replaced the film that evening.

Brenda says this was the best day of the trip.

We arrived at Old Faithful Snowmobile Tours at 7:00am dressed in our rented snowmobile garments ready to go. We had breakfast at the Virginian Restaurant with the other 6 members of our tour. The drive to Yellowstone took about 60 minutes. We drove through the Grand Teton National Park to get there. It was foggy part of the way so we didn’t get to see all the Tetons until we were well past them. We then got a short introduction on how to operate a snowmobile, strapped our luggage on the back and headed to the east side of the park. We saw our first buffalo close to lunch time. It was alone on the road and was still. We crossed the continental divide and stopped for a bag lunch at West Thumb. We continued north and east, crossing Sylvan Pass in the afternoon, and it was probably around there when one of the screws fell out of Harlan’s glasses and one of the lenses fell out. He drove using his “desk” glasses, which were almost useful.

That night we stayed in Pahaska, at the Pahaska Teepee motel. We got a tour of Buffalo Bill’s lodge, and Harlan got some nice sunset pictures on his digital camera. Our group was talking in the bar, but that was too smoky for us so we visited with the other group on our tour, the Willox family. While there, Mike, the motel’s caretaker came over and repaired Harlan’s glasses, and talked about some of the things he likes to do (like repair old transistor radios and some of the watches and clocks he collects). A bit later he brought over an old train conductor’s watch he found while walking along a railroad track. It was made under government contract for the railroads by the Hamilton watch company, and had 24 hours on the dial, and ran in “GCT”. Very interesting timepiece! He also told us about a lead-encased clock he picked up at an auction in Seattle that came off a decommissioned Soviet submarine. The clock was effectively silent, and was waterproof to something like 2000 feet. Just before dinner Harlan was able to take some nice sunset pictures (at least we think so) on the digital camera. Dinner that night was pretty good – Brenda had “Trout, married with almonds” in some pleasant sauce, and Harlan had tournedos of beef with mushrooms in marsala wine. For dessert Harlan had a brownie and ice cream. The group chatted a lot, and when they heard the plans of our trip Diane suggested we see Devils Tower on the way to Mt. Rushmore. The room was pretty simple – no TV or telephone, and not much in the way of lights. That night, Brenda was chilled and didn’t get much sleep. Harlan was way too hot most of the night and didn’t get much sleep, either. The shower was really good, though.

It was foggy this morning in Idaho Falls!!! The fog lifted as we headed to the Bistro (same restaurant as last night). When Brenda learned we were too late for breakfast food she said she would prefer to have pancakes and eggs instead of “lunch” food. Harlan’s hunger prevailed and we stayed there, where Brenda was subsequently very happy with the homemade chicken noodle soup and some of Harlan’s open-faced roast beef sandwich and his salad, and her “taste” of the pumpkin cream pie for desert left almost half for Harlan. We liked the tee-shirts they had, but the only remaining sizes were S & M (no jokes…), so no dice.

We then headed to Jackson, Wyoming around 1:00pm. Beautiful drive through the mountains. We arrived at Old Faithful Snowmobile Tours around 3:00 and got fitted with jackets, leggings, shoes, helmets (yes, helmets!!!!), gloves and face coverings for the 4 day snowmobile trip tomorrow. We were told to arrive tomorrow fully dressed with only a duffle bag for a ‘carryon’ on the snowmobile. We will not be taking the laptop which means no updates on this log until Jan 25th. The tour tomorrow includes all food, lodging, tour guides, our own individual snowmobile (Harlan and Brenda will NOT be on the same snowmobile!!!) Yeehaa!!! We are hoping to get great pictures of it all.

We checked into the Quality Inn in Jackson and also booked rooms here for Jan 25th and 26th.

Brenda ate leftovers from last night for dinner this evening and Harlan had a Mountain Mike’s Gyro sandwich. They also had nice tee-shirts, and we’ll probably get some when we get back in town.

We also got 2 rolls of 35mm film developled. One roll contained the last pictures from Zion and Grafton (the ghost town where they filmed Butch and Sundance), plus some from Sun Valley this trip, and the other roll contained shots from the other day when we travelled around Craters of the Moon.

The folks at the photo shop said I should only use the polarizing filter in summer, and that Kodak film is better used on the east coast, where there are more browns and yellows. Out west, they recommended Agfa, Konica, and Fuji film.

Oh, we did laundry tonight! 6am wakeup. ugh.

The front desk called at 10:15 to say the hot water would be off for an hour, so we didn’t get out of the hotel until 11:30. We finished last night’s leftovers for breakfast and Brenda consumed the rest of the amazing bread we had with dinner. We went about a mile and a half to the Fred Meyer’s so Brenda could deposit some checks she received the day we left while Harlan got more water.

We headed north from Twin Falls to Shoshone, where we headed east to drive by Craters of the Moon National Monument. Harlan was hoping to visit the Crater Butte geocache but Brenda was driving and had a brain fart at the turn in the road so we just kept on going. We continued along US 20 and turned in to the park to see if we might cross-country ski to the first of the three geocaches there. Unfortunately, the first geocache was a 7-part virtual and Harlan was still sore from yesterday’s skiing at Sun Vally. The other two caches are listed as “extreme” for summer access (they are 3 and 7 mile hikes into the hot deset with no trails over lava rocks) and just plain dangerous for winter access (as the snow can cover 3′ wide and 100′ deep chasms in the lava).

We decided to geocache Rock’n Around instead, as it was sunset and the mostly full moon looked good too, so we could take some photos as an additional excuse for getting out of the car. Let’s just say the snow turned out to be a bit deeper than we expected and we didn’t find it.

We used our first “free night stay” at the Comfort Inn in Idaho Falls, and had dinner at The Bistro Off Broadway. We got there just before they closed, and enjoyed dinner (Brenda loved the bread) and shared a great dessert. We’ll probably have lunch there tomorrow on the way to Jackson to try their Friday-special soup and perhaps a slice of pumpkin cream pie. Probably.

Gary Gerber called last evening and suggested we go to Sun Valley, Idaho since it was so close to Twin Falls. So we headed out for Sun Valley around noon today. We were supposed to leave earlier, but since Harlan likes to stay up late Brenda woke him up around 9am and then she fell asleep for a couple more hours. It was about a 2 hour drive.

The weather was the best since we departed Santa Clara. Blue skies and warm with lots of snow on the mountains. The drive up Rt. 93 & 75 to Sun Valley was beautiful. We found the Nordic Center at Sun Valley and decided to cross country ski for a couple of hours. The views were gorgeous as we weaved through the mountains on very nicely groomed trails. Harlan gave Brenda some more cross-country ski instruction, which helped her quite a bit.

We stopped by a camera shop in Sun Valley and Harlan bought an adapter for his camera. And of course we couldn’t resist the chocolate shop right next door. Had to buy some very fine dark chocolate for some very fine special occasion…like tomorrow which is Harlan’s birthday!!! We then headed back to Twin Falls to the same Holiday Inn Express that we stayed in last night, but this time got a whirlpool tub in our room. We ate dinner at a wonderful Italian restaurant next to the hotel called Johnny Corino’s and then stopped off at Best Buy to buy binoculars.

Update – the tiramisu from Johnny Corino’s was as good as the stuff I (Harlan) remember from Vaccaro’s in Baltimore (although the last couple of times I had it I thought it had changed for the worse). The other bits of the dinner made a very good late breakfast, and Brenda thinks this was the 2nd best restaurant we have been to this trip (the Cottonwood Grille being #1).

The phone in the next room rang Early, and since the room was pleasantly dark and we were apparently exhausted we slept until about 11am. We made more progress on the trip website stuff and left the hotel about 1pm. We had breakfast at Elmers, and were very impressed with it. We then went shopping for a “vest” to hold the photography stuff, and finding nothing at either an outdoor place or a fishing gear place, we headed off to the World Center for Birds of Prey where we had a surprisingly good time and took a bunch of pictures and some video. We left there at closing time (4pm) and decided it was too late to drive around the Snake River Birds of Prey Natural Area, so we headed to Twin Falls on 84 with a quick stop off at a camera shop Harlan noticed on the way to breakfast. There we found a nice camera gear vest at Idaho Camera. Harlan figured he’d use the opportunity to ask a question about one of the lenses he got with his 35mm camera, and the net result is that we bought a used 28-135mm lens, too!

We got to Twin Falls about 7pm or so, and Brenda was jonesing for a really good burger. The hotel clerk recommended Idaho Joe’s, and the food there was inexpensive and good. They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and the cashier said that she thought breakfast was their best meal. I suspect we’ll find out in the morning.