8/3/1991 - Saturday

John:  After breakfast in the truck, we headed for home.  In Evergreen we stopped at “our” Pizza Hut then drove home on “our” mountain, we saw “our” fox!  It’s good to be home... safe, sound & healthy!!  The total miles driven today was 155 miles.

ODOM: 32143

Summary:  After seven weeks (which wasn’t long enough!), we’ve spent a total of $4,090 cash, plus $691.00 on gas credit cards... for a grand total spent of $4,781.  The total miles driven was 8281 miles.

Karen & Kari arrive home

Susan arrives home & steps out of the truck.

John gets out of the truck after arriving at home.

8/2/1991 - Friday

John:  We had a zero miles driven day today as we walked to the pool.  We soaked for six more hours.  We ate supper at the Italian Underground.  The kids really swam their heads off yesterday and today!

ODOM:  Same as yesterday.

8/1/1991 - Thursday

John:  We coasted into the Ramada and got our room secured, then drove to the pool.  We had a nice six hour soak, had supper at Kentucky Fried Chicken and went to our room.  Drove only four miles today.

ODOM:  31988

7/31/1991 - Wednesday

John:  We started the day thinking that we would be in Glenwood Springs with lots of time to kill... but we ran into a lot of road construction along the way that really slowed us down.  Another thing that slowed us up was that somewhere in Flaming Gorge our roof carrier top blew off!!  We discovered this when we decided to stop under this nice big shady tree in a small town in Flaming Gorge... I got out of the truck and looked up and couldn't believe my eye balls!!  The whole top half of the carrier ripped off and was gone into outer space.  All our stuff inside the carrier was still sitting there nice and neat.  (The lid to the box with our bathing suits and towels blew away and the bathing suits were ready to fly off next...) so we had to re-shuffle everything and pack everything into the truck.  What a sight... I wish I would have seen that thing fly off... Guess it didn't make it all the way home like I thought it would.  The Flaming Gorge area was pretty.  We saw lots of antelope in Wyoming, Utah and Colorado...  We also saw a mother moose with a baby in the north/east corner of Utah... so close to Colorado, that I think there must be some moose in Colorado.  We saw a lot (25-30) of deer also.  Our original plan was to camp somewhere in Colorado around the White Nat’l Forest, but because it took so long to get out of Wyoming, our schedule was blown... We got to Rangley and there was nothing, to Meeker... still nothing and getting later... to Rifle, nothing... so decided to go in to Glenwood Springs.  We got a camp spot at the “Hideout” which is out by the new Pizza Hut (where we ate supper).  We drove 358 miles.

ODOM:  31984

Roof carrier lid gone!

Flaming Gorge

Flaming Gorge

Moose & Baby

7/30/1991 - Tuesday

John:  Woke up to another beautiful sunny day.  We drove to Jackson Hole and did our laundry for the last time... that took a big chunk of time.  After that we drove to Teton Village and went to some more shops.  I bought a T-Shirt from the Mangy Moose Saloon.  We ate lunch, gassed up the truck and hit the road.  We followed the Snake and Hoback Rivers.  They look like great canoeing rivers... After we drove out of this nice area, we reached the “waste lands” of Wyoming... Tons of sage brush and rabbits.  We saw some antelope at the place we’re camped at (which came up out of the sage brush like a mirage).  It’s called Fontenelle Creek Campground.  Our spot is next to the Fontenelle Reservoir... it’s pretty nice compared to visions of camping in tons of sage brush... (we’re still surrounded by sage brush, but at least there’s a reservoir here!!)  Before leaving Teton Village, we spotted a huge stick nest on top of an abandoned telephone pole.  It had three large babies in it.  We waited for a while, then saw the big mother bird fly over with a fish in her talons and fed the babies.  The babies were quite large.  Not sure what kind of birds they were, but I think they might be Osprey (gotta look in our bird book when we get home).  We drove 164 miles today... After supper I noticed the roof carrier hung different.  So I climbed up to check it and found that one of the hinges on the front was cracking off... I couldn't climb onto the roof without breaking my neck, so I tried putting duct tape all around it, but couldn't reach the badly broken part.  So with a little Yankee ingenuity and Kansan ingenuity we were able to get a rope tied around the stupid carrier and tied to the camper rack.  Hopefully this will help hold it together for a few more days.

ODOM:  31626

Stick nest

Antelope

7/29/1991 - Monday

John:  We slept in this morning and then had pancakes and bacon outside for breakfast.  We renewed our same camp spot.  We went into Jackson Hole and went to all the shops.  We ate lunch at the Cadillac Grille.  Pretty nice place and good food.  Around mid-afternoon we got some groceries and went back to our camp spot.  We decided to check out the river that runs a ways back of our spot.  The kids had fun in a very shallow off shoot of the river.  They caught tiny salamanders.  There was a nice deep spot on the river which I tried to swim in... but the current was too swift.  We caught some rays for a while, then walked back to our spot.  We ate a late supper so it was too late and weather getting too bad to have a fire.  We stashed the wood we cut up into our roof carrier for some other night’s fire.  (The roof carrier is really falling apart but I think it will make it home.)  The nights now are back to normal and that now seems a little bit strange to us.  Oh well, guess we’ll get used to it again along with getting re-acclimated to the altitude.  We only drove 27 miles today... into Jackson Hole and back. 

ODOM:  31462

Karen, Susan &                  Kari

at the Jackson Hole Town Square

Susan & Kari playing in the river.

Kari & Susan in their swimsuits in the river.

 

7/28/1991 - Sunday

John:  we took our time this morning and ate our breakfast outside.  I also caught up in our journal.  It’s kind of a bummer, as today we started our seventh week (which is our last week).  We headed out at 10:00 AM and stopped at a few more geysers on the way out of Yellowstone.  We drove south to Teton Nat’l Park and we saw an antelope... the Grand Teton Mountains are very majestic.  Before we left Yellowstone, we stopped at a visitor’s center in Grant Village and saw an excellent exhibit on bears.  We are camped just outside of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, at a campground called “Gros Venture” within Teton Nat’l Park.  As I write, our camp neighbor came over and told us there were two huge bull moose grazing where I got firewood just a couple of hours ago... soooo, I grabbed my camera and we all headed into the woods cautiously towards the spot where they were.  Then we saw one of them!  He was big, with a large velvet rack.  He was lying down in an old stream bead... so you couldn’t see him until you got right on top of him.  I got a little closer and got some more pictures of him... I didn’t know where the second moose was, so I took my last picture of the moose before he got up and before the second moose showed up... pretty exciting!!  (Sure hope the pictures come out)  There a lot of moose scat all around here... even in our camp spot.  Maybe we’ll see more moose right in our camp spot in the morning!  We drove 132 miles today.

ODOM:  31435

Geysers

More Yellowstone fire devastation

More Yellowstone fire devastation

The Grand Tetons

Susan, Kari & John at the campground

Huge bull moose

Huge bull moose