July 1, 2013: On the grid, then off the grid

July 1, 2013  On the grid, then off the grid

Today is the day Crew has to register for college.  With Rudy snuggling between our heads, it was hard to get up, but we did.  We wanted to get it over with as early as we could, so by 7:00, we headed over to the Jackson Lake Lodge to use their computers.  Ugh, they were doing road work right at our intersection.  Fortunately, there was little traffic and we were able to move on.

Crew logs on only to find that he can't start the process until 10:00 am (11:00 our time).  So back we went and I took them on my power walk.  Sheesh, I used to think Bart was slow...  I walked and would wait, walked and waited.  At least I had my protectors from the bears.  And they thought, with me so far ahead that I would be the bear bait!  After we listened to a ranger program at the visitor center, we went back, had an early lunch and headed over to the Lodge again.  Ugh, the road construction.   This time, there is LOTS of traffic.  When we get our chance to go, we see a stream of cars waiting that is at least 2 miles long! 

When we get back to the Lodge, Crew logs on... they say he can't register for another 4 weeks.  Huh?  He started making phone calls (which is impossible in the business center at the Lodge).  He gets caught in a bureaucracy of who did what, and transferred from place to place and circles back, etc.  After close to an hour of this, he calls the foster youth advocate.  She's at lunch... so we wait... 

We go upstairs to the great room which has several seating areas, couches, benches, etc.  And it has a wall of 30 foot windows overlooking the Tetons, Lake Jackson and a magnificent meadow.  There were two rangers with birds of prey; an owl, golden eagle, and a couple of different falcons.  Beautiful critters.  then we went back inside and waited...  At around 2:00 our time, they called Crew to tell him he would be able to register in about 20 minutes.  We waited...  By 3:00, the deed was done and I informed the guys of their next adventure...

On the map was a 4 wheel drive trail by the Snake River, and we were going to do it.  They were game so off we go.  We get on the trail and we crawl... and bounce... and crawl...  After about 1/2 mile, Spouse lets some air out of the tires and things got better.  We still did not go speeding down the road, but at least we weren't bouncing.  This is River Road, and it is where the locals go to fish.  A couple of miles took us to a fishing hole.  The river is swift.  Fall in here and maybe you could crawl out in Jackson 30 miles down the road!  We decided to take the road south, which is about 12 miles.  And with that, we even took an offshoot of the road which took us right on the edge of a huge escarpment. 

To our right is high desert with woody sage, and gazillions of different wildflowers.  Beyond that are the Tetons towering over us.  On our left is a valley with the Snake river, sand bars, meadows and aspen trees.  And buffalo.  Lots of buffalo.  Up above where we were, we saw evidence (scat) of bears, elk and buffalo, but for now, the buffalo were down below.  I am not sure why they would come up to the desert when they have such great feeding grounds down below.  As we left this viewing area, a few antelope ran across our path.

We continued riding the edge.  One wrong turn and we pull a Thelma and Louise!   This is a view one can only get from taking this road and it is breathtaking.   At one point, we had quite a steep climb.  Spouse turned this, and shifted that and we slowly but surely climbed the hill.  And we continued on and on.  Crew was getting concerned that we were not on the road that was on the map.  Spouse too was considering turning around.  I could not tell specifically where we were on the map, but I could tell that even if we were wrong, we couldn't get too far before we hit a main road so I reassured them.

We came upon an abandoned dude ranch that was built in the early 1900's.  It was geared to bring the city folks in for a week of ranch duty.    We then made the turn that was clearly on the map, and headed back to the main road where we saw a herd of elk in one spot, then 2 male elk in another. 

 Home we head to a bored Rudy.  It is almost 8:00 pm... he needs a little attention; which we give... because tomorrow, he gets to take a ride down to Jackson to get fixed!  I guess he is ours now...  right after we make sure nobody has an identification chip on him.

And one thing more... people always talk about women synchronizing their menstrual cycles.  I have to tell you that today, on more than one occasion, everywhere I turned, one of them was taking their dicks out and peeing.  So men have sync issues too!