Day 74 Jackson, Wyoming 27.06.12
I’m going to surprise you all but – it was chilly last
night! I might have felt it more because I caught the sun again yesterday.
We got ready & set off for Teton Village hoping that the
gas leak from yesterday has been fixed.
When we got there it had been sorted so we went into the
shops & bought a few gifts then went to the aerial tram to buy our tickets
for the ride up Rendezvous Mountain, which is one of the smaller peaks in the
Tetons. It cost us $52 dollars for the 2 of us, lasts 12 minutes each way &
rises 4,139 feet making the elevation over 10,000 feet. You can really feel it
as it does make catching your breath difficult, especially if you walk up
hills.
When we got to the top it was lovely & sunny & we
could see for miles, even Jackson Lake in Yellowstone & a huge cloud of
smoke from the wild fires in the distance. It was a bit chilly though when the
wind blew & there was lots of snow still around. Skiers use the mountain in
the winter (up until May / June!) & mountain bikers use the trail in the
summer.
We went into Corbett’s cabin for a hot chocolate &
waffles with nutella & sat outside to have them while looking around us at
the wonderful view.
On the way down in the tram we were able to get a good look
at the bike trail & it looked amazing, pity we haven’t got anywhere like
this for our youngsters to use up their energy in the midlands. We also found
out we could go up in the chairlift on the same ticket so did a roundtrip which
was fun.
We went back to the hotel & Roy watched the second half
of the Spain v Portugal match, then we sat by the pool reading for a couple of
hours & getting splashed by the kids jumping in!
Tonight we’ve got tickets to go to Bar J Chuckwagon a few
miles up the road for supper & entertainment cowboy style. We got there at
6 & wandered around looking at the trail around it with models of buffalo,
bears, cowboys & wigwams then watched a cowboy cooking over a fire. We were
on table B11 with a family group from Boston, Mass. who were celebrating their
twins 12th birthday. the evening started with the warm up guy asking
where people had come from & I shouted out, ‘England’, as you do, so that
started people talking to us, which was great.
Everybody had to go up for food in order of tables & it
was all very calm & civilised. We had to collect cutlery & a metal
plate divided into sections then work our way past the people dishing up. I had
chicken, beef in bbq sauce, cowboy beans, baked potato, apple sauce, biscuit
(savoury scone), spice cake & lemonade. Seconds were available on a first
come first served basis but I had more than enough food.
Believe it or not well over 600 people were served in 25
minutes! The organisation was so good. After the meal the Bar J Wrangles, a 5
piece group came on to entertain us. They started off by telling us the history
of the ranch & family who run it, it is a real ranch raising cattle, then they
were telling jokes & stories & then playing instruments & singing.
I have to say they were brilliant & got everyone in a good mood.
At $25 dollars each, all in, it was well worth the money
& a good time was had by all. It ended at about 9.30pm & we drove back
to the hotel hoping desperately to see a moose but no luck.
Day 75 Jackson to Casper 28.06.12
Moving on to Casper this morning &, after the usual
preparations, we set off. Not far into the journey we came upon road works like
we’d never seen before. There is obviously a major road being build & they
have no way to make a detour for the traffic so you just have to be escorted
through the works. They are at the stage where it’s just a very wide dirt track
with lorries & all sorts of other machinery around & we had to wait for
ages for the other side to come through then we had to follow a van. It looks
like it’s going to be 6 lanes wide altogether & I can’t ever imagine this
happening in the UK. We drove at least 5 miles over very rough, dusty tracks
before we came to the end. Can’t help feeling sorry for them trying to make a
road in these conditions as they’d have to escort vehicles day & night
otherwise they’d be going over the edge as it’s really out in the wilds!
After that we needed a milkshake & then carried on,
firstly through hills with pockets of snow, then through very flat, farm land
with lots of cattle & horses, finally through scrubland, which is ideal for
the pronghorn antelope & we saw loads of them.
Finally arrived at the best hotel room so far as regards
having everything we need, the Quality Inn in Casper. Bought some food &
relaxed in the room for the rest of the evening.
Day 76 Casper to Keystone, South Dakota 29.06.12
Got ready & had a lovely breakfast of yogurt then
scrambled eggs on toast before setting off on our journey to Keystone. The
horizon is very dusty, cloudy, it’s muggy & we can’t see very far.
Hopefully this will change soon. We drove through very dry scrubland but did
see lots of antelope until we reached Newcastle, which took us into South
Dakota & the grass got greener & there were lots of pine trees again.
On the way to the Travelodge in Keystone we decided to stop
off at Mount Rushmore to see the Presidents carved in the mountain. On the way
we saw the carving that is being done of Chief Crazy Horse but didn’t stop as
it’s nowhere near finished yet. We arrived at Mount Rushmore at 2.00pm &
paid our $11 to park the car then went in.
As usual the memorial is very well done, everywhere is
spacious & clean with lots of information around. We could have had an
audio handset but decided to go on the Ranger walk. We were really glad we did
as he was so knowledgeable & made it really interesting to us. We’ve
realised that we don’t know very much about American history & wished we’d
found out more before we came over. It’s made us determined to find out more in
the future, so that should keep the old brain cells working!
Next we went to buy tee shirts & a hat for then went for
an ice cream. I kid you not, we’ve had some big ice creams while travelling,
but these were in a class of their own, I think the girl who did mine was
trying for a world record – how much ice cream can you cram into & onto a
cone!!!
It’s been extremely hot today, 97 degrees, so the hat &
the ice cream were essentials!
After a few hours we checked into the Travelodge in keystone
& found we’d got a view of 3 of the Presidents so can look for them to be
lit up later tonight. As it’s been so hot we went into a bar & taught a
Romanian lad how to make shandy & had a lovely long chat to him about where
we’ve been, where he wants to go & many other things. Then we went for some
chicken at Peggy’s home cooking cafe then back to the hotel.
Day 77 Keystone to Oacoma, SD 30.06.12
Got ready & went for breakfast. They’d only got a 2
slice toaster for everyone to use & that was slow! After checking out we
went for a walk down the main street & it’s lovely, very touristy in a
cowboy town sort of way. It was too hot to do this last night.
Not really much to say about today, we drove 320 miles &
got to the Oasis Inn in Oacoma, then had tea at Al’s Oasis next door.
What is it about SOME
Americans? As soon as they hear an English accent they stop listening.
It’s as if you’re speaking another language! WE SPEAK ENGLISH THE SAME AS YOU!
I ended up with red wine instead of rose & a glass of
ice instead of iced water! Truthfully the red was summer red which I love &
the ice melted so I did have water in the end, but still.
The other night in McD’s we ordered coffee & ended up
with 8 creams in each, we thought they’d give us the little pots of cream but
they put it in the coffee, it was yucky!!
Rant over, I love them really. I did an hours ironing after
our meal & ruined a pair of Roy’s shorts, they stuck to the iron, oh
dear!!!
Hope you enjoy this instalment, photos coming separately.
TTFN xxx
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