July 4: A day of leisure

July 4, 2013:  A day of leisure

 I had forgotten about sleeping with cats.  First, you try not to disturb them.  It is amazing how I can contort my body so as not to bother Rudy.  Then, I like to pet him.  And he purrs, and stretches, then turns on his back so you can rub his belly.  It is hard to believe we have only had him a week and he is so trusting.  I drift back to sleep.

Since it is a holiday and Spouse figures it will be a madhouse out and about (why, I don't know because inside the park, there are no special activities so I would expect it to  be business as usual).  Anyhow, we have been on the go, and tomorrow we start heading north so today would be a slow day.

After our morning walk (Slow and Slower walked a bit faster today), we had Crew make breakfast (a little on the painful side).  Although the food was good, the instructional part was slow.   It is amazing how things become second nature when you do them so long.  I often forget that Crew has not had to actually prepare meals so he is not adept at it.  He is getting better though.  I will still offer him for a very low price...

Our activity today is to drive to the south end of the park, and go down a back road to Teton Village.  This is the ski area (we skied there a gazillion years ago).  In summer, you can take the tram and some of the chairs up the hill and hike from there. 

 One more ride past the majestic Tetons to the back road which is narrow, but big enough for two way traffic... barely.  The road is lined with aspens and pines with streams occasionally winding through.  It is really quite beautiful.  It is about 8 miles long.  At one point, I stopped to collect a few rocks at one of the streams.  Being with a couple of non-rockhounds is problematic.  I could have stayed for an hour, but the male contingent got restless, so I took what treasures I had and got back to the truck.

Teton Village looks a lot different in the summer than in the winter.  The hiking trail status said that many of the trails still had some snow on them.   We weren't going to hike but I wouldn't mind doing it at some point in my life.  I could probably spend an entire summer here and not get the hiking done that I would like to do.  Oh well... instead, we had some ice cream and walked around the village a bit.  I noticed that the Mangy Moose restaurant was still here.  When we skied here, we were able to ski down to our condo.  And almost every day, we would ski past a moose grazing along the trail.  He would just look as we whizzed by!

 As we made our return trip, a few rain showers helped wash down the truck.  Good thing we were not in to hiking today.  Good chance we might have gotten wet.  Looks like there will be intermittent showers, making it kind of humid.  Mosquitoes ought to just love it...  Oh goody...

For now, laundry, and soon a vodka tonic and some relaxation.  Spouse has been taking Rudy out on a leash.  He prefers the 'squeaky toys' outside (chipmunks) to his mouse on a string inside (which he absolutely loves!).

 
And for those of you RV'ers...  we checked out the RV park in Yellowstone.  Spots are VERY close together.  The full hookup spots in the Grand Tetons are much nicer with trees and a little room.  And the hybrid spot we are staying in is very nice and roomy.  I would rather stay somewhere WITHOUT hookups at all than stay in the RV park in Yellowstone.  There are lots of campgrounds in both parks without hookups at all that are really quite nice.  But if you need air conditioning...  you need electricity.  If it wasn't for Crew, we would not be doing this trip at this time of year.  So if you are not coming here in the summer, you really can be quite selective.