Sunday, July 04, 2004
July 4 - Jackson WY
Hello blog-followers. Sorry we’ve been out of touch for a few days.
On Friday we drove across more of Idaho, with the highlight being the Experimental Breeder Reactor (first site of nuclear generated electricity), and the Idaho Potato Expo - where you learned everything there is to learn about potatoes. When Lenny asked the rather large woman at the museum how the low-carb craze had impacted the potato industry, she stared blankly at him, then recommended a good potato recipe book.
Although we had our trip thoroughly planned (as you all knew I would), we have also wanted to be flexible to change our plans as the situation required. Well, yesterday we had one such situation. We arrived at the pre-selected RV park to find that there was no coin-operated laundry. Indeed, there was no laundry facility whatsoever. Since we were in desperate need of laundry machines, we decided to chose this moment to be one of those flexible moments. In my indispensable camping book, I saw there was one other RV park in the area, with a coin laundry. So, after a wrong turn, we found our way there, and settled in. While the site at first looked charming (in RV-talk, this means it had a few trees), it turned out to be the worst one yet. It was a dump. But it was a dump with a coin-operated laundry. And so I spent my anniversary doing laundry and cooking dinner in a dumpy RV park (ladies and gentlemen, rest assured that our anniversary next year will be in Paris).
Incidentally, I’ve started to detect a hierarchy of RV parks. The best ones (our first night) have great showers, clean bathrooms, privacy, a picnic table in one piece, and a fire pit. As you subtract various items, you move down the scale. Just to give you an idea of how much of a dump the laundry-RV park was, it didn’t even have a picnic table!
Yesterday morning was great fun. We went through the Yellowstone Bear World where the cars (and RVs and Japanese tour group buses) drive through the park, and the bears mill around. In fact, they come right up close and personal (you are required to keep your windows shut, which we only violated once when Lenny simply had to get the 30th photo of the bears). We also saw the feisty bear cubs, cuddled with deer, and Grace managed to pet a hog. Marina tried to feed a peacock but the peacock was not terribly interested.
Then a wonderful ride through spectacular scenery into Wyoming … and we’re now in Jackson. Last night we treated ourselves to going out to dinner (a first), and then a wild west show, a somewhat changed rendition of Cat Ballou.
Our RV park here is quite cramped, but its best feature is that it is walking distance from town (and, of course, we have a picnic table). Its most unusual feature is that we are situated right next to a power plant. So we fell asleep to the gentle buzz of the high voltage electric wires.
-- Donna
On Friday we drove across more of Idaho, with the highlight being the Experimental Breeder Reactor (first site of nuclear generated electricity), and the Idaho Potato Expo - where you learned everything there is to learn about potatoes. When Lenny asked the rather large woman at the museum how the low-carb craze had impacted the potato industry, she stared blankly at him, then recommended a good potato recipe book.
Although we had our trip thoroughly planned (as you all knew I would), we have also wanted to be flexible to change our plans as the situation required. Well, yesterday we had one such situation. We arrived at the pre-selected RV park to find that there was no coin-operated laundry. Indeed, there was no laundry facility whatsoever. Since we were in desperate need of laundry machines, we decided to chose this moment to be one of those flexible moments. In my indispensable camping book, I saw there was one other RV park in the area, with a coin laundry. So, after a wrong turn, we found our way there, and settled in. While the site at first looked charming (in RV-talk, this means it had a few trees), it turned out to be the worst one yet. It was a dump. But it was a dump with a coin-operated laundry. And so I spent my anniversary doing laundry and cooking dinner in a dumpy RV park (ladies and gentlemen, rest assured that our anniversary next year will be in Paris).
Incidentally, I’ve started to detect a hierarchy of RV parks. The best ones (our first night) have great showers, clean bathrooms, privacy, a picnic table in one piece, and a fire pit. As you subtract various items, you move down the scale. Just to give you an idea of how much of a dump the laundry-RV park was, it didn’t even have a picnic table!
Yesterday morning was great fun. We went through the Yellowstone Bear World where the cars (and RVs and Japanese tour group buses) drive through the park, and the bears mill around. In fact, they come right up close and personal (you are required to keep your windows shut, which we only violated once when Lenny simply had to get the 30th photo of the bears). We also saw the feisty bear cubs, cuddled with deer, and Grace managed to pet a hog. Marina tried to feed a peacock but the peacock was not terribly interested.
Then a wonderful ride through spectacular scenery into Wyoming … and we’re now in Jackson. Last night we treated ourselves to going out to dinner (a first), and then a wild west show, a somewhat changed rendition of Cat Ballou.
Our RV park here is quite cramped, but its best feature is that it is walking distance from town (and, of course, we have a picnic table). Its most unusual feature is that we are situated right next to a power plant. So we fell asleep to the gentle buzz of the high voltage electric wires.
-- Donna
# posted by Double D @ 6:59 AM 
