R and J in the USA

We managed to get one more little taste of Wyoming AFTER we returned from Alaska, which was our next state on the list.

We woke up in the Jackson Hole airport parking lot on October 1st after returning from Alaska the night before. It had felt pretty luxurious to land in the airport the night before, pick up our checked bags, and then walk into the parking lot to find that we were already home. No need to make the drive home or grab an Uber or meet our ride at the arrivals gate. Just walk right in the parking lot and go to bed. Pretty fancy.

We knew we would have to pay a pretty penny when we left the parking lot after leaving our van in the long term lot for 11 days, but we enjoyed getting to ignore that for one more night. Ryan was feeling just a touch under the weather, having caught a little something on the ship. Nothing severe, but enough to make him pass out and sleep like a log, even when Julie was up and at ‘em the next morning and raring to go. We were still on Alaska time, so Julie’s “early wake up” was as late as 7:00 in the morning, which is late for us. Ryan was still passed out, but the sun was shining, Wyoming was glowing, and Julie could not resist the opportunity to head back in towards the Grand Tetons, since it had been cold, rainy, and foggy when we had been there during our official Wyoming visit. 

With Ryan fast asleep in the back, Julie straightened up the van enough for it to be safe to drive and headed east to grab a little bit of the Grand Teton National Park, which we hadn’t gotten to enjoy much before Alaska.  We only had a short window in which to shoot back over to Grand Teton, since we needed to be in town for our scheduled 10:00 AM/10:30 AM-ish bike tune up appointment that we’d made before we left for Alaska. We pulled into the parking lot for Jenny Lake, and Julie was craving to run on those beautiful paved multi-use trails that ran all the way through Jackson and out into the National Park.

Julie had asked the parking lot attendant if it was safe to run on those paths. The attendant said she did it all the time. Still, Julie had read enough signs and articles that tell how bears don’t react so well to being surprised by runners, so, whether necessary or not, Julie ran with her bear spray in hand. Julie’s biggest fear is not actually a fear of being mauled by a bear (though she strongly, STRONGLY does not prefer that experience), but, rather, is to die from being an idiot. As we all know, being human is a fatal disease that gets everyone in the end, and one of the symptoms that goes with this human condition in which we all find ourselves is the tendency towards stupid behavior.

Add to this, Julie knew that she was more prone to this human weakness than some. Some who know Julie protest whenever she mentions her particular proclivity for stupidity (not all do, mind you). If you are one of those people, ask Julie how she fractured her wrist when she was a kid while swinging on a swing set. That should convince you.

By some measures, Julie can be a smart cookie. But, the two qualities are not mutually exclusive. Human intelligence has a ceiling. It is Julie’s deep and heartfelt belief that the human capacity for stupidity, however, is without bounds. So, putting all this together, Julie considers her fear a valid one. Whenever it is her time, she just wants it to be for a justifiable reason. The idea of being “that idiot tourist” that didn’t know that she put herself in a dumbass situation and then nature made her pay the price for her stupidity, that thought is just untenable. So, when in doubt, Julie goes the extra mile to try to be prepared to attempt to counteract her fundamental idiotic nature. Despite this, Julie has surrendered to the fact that, knowing her own natural capacity for flakehood, and despite her earnest attempts at preparation, there are still significant odds that stupidity will be what gets her in the end. Even if so, she was determined it wouldn’t be on this particular outing. So, whether overkill or not, Julie grabbed her bear spray and put on her jogging sneakers and hit the path with glee.

The views from the running path were spectacular. Julie enjoyed yet another pinch me moment and was grateful to have one extra little taste of Wyoming. While we didn’t make it all the way back to where the Grand Tetons themselves rose strikingly into the sky, Julie basked in the sunshine and the jagged-toothed hills rising up behind the lake as she ran through the open Wyoming expanse. 

Many thanks to the elevation and shins that, though not in rough shape like they used to be, reminded Julie that the 10 mile full speed power hike they did in Alaska was more than a little unwise for her shin care, Julie’s two mile run was short, sweet, and much harder than a two mile run had any business being. By the time she got back to the van, Ryan had emerged and was taking in the view and the air, both refreshing. We hopped in the van and Julie drove with focus to barely make it to the bike shop by our 10:30AM end of the window for our bike appointment. 

At some point years ago, Julie had ridden her bike, perhaps with sunscreen on her hands and a hot sun overhead. Julie was unaware of the effects of this activity and it had made the hoods on her handlebar permanently sticky. This meant that every single time she rode her bike, her hands would come away covered in black sticky goo, and her white handlebar tape was charcoal gray and filthy looking. When we had gotten our bikes tuned up before leaving for the trip, the bike mechanic noticed the filthy handlebar tape and replaced it with brilliant white brand new tape. He hadn’t pieced together the reason it had been so filthy, so the sticky hoods remained. It wasn’t more than two weeks into our trip that Julie’s white handlebar tape was filthy once again. Now that Julie knew the culprit, she had planned ahead to have the proper hoods ordered and was looking forward to her first bike ride in lord knows how long not having to wash sticky black gook after her ride.

We arrived at the parking lot between the bike shop and the Target where we had purchased our Alaska luggage before we left town and dropped off the bikes for their morning makeover.

We spent the morning taking care of the many logistical details that were in sore need of tending. First, we had to figure out how to deal with our newly purchased huge piece of luggage. We knew Ryan would be flying home in a week from Seattle and we had a free checked bag allowance so we considered just living with this huge hardshell in the van for one week. Not ideal, but doable. 

Then Julie wondered allowed, “I wonder if we could return it?” Both of our eyebrows raised in curiosity as we pondered the possibility. Hmmm… We wouldn’t mind getting the $160 back, and we certainly could use the space in the van. We thought it was a long shot, but Ryan went in and asked what the return policy was. If you had the bar code and receipt and the item was in relatively decent condition, it would be returnable. We looked at it. It was like new except for the amount of scuffing that the airport baggage handlers could get on it during one round trip. That is to say it was not like new at all, but also not terrible. We decided to let Target make the decision. We told them we had used it for one trip. They saw its current state and made the call. Ryan came back to the van empty-handed, other than a gift card for Target in the amount of $160! Success! 

The van was a hot mess, including the delightful smells coming from the fridge that we had only had time to partially clean out before we left for Alaska and turned the van battery off so that we would have some battery capacity available when we returned after 11 days. We returned to the van with 84% capacity in our battery and plenty of wonderfully rotting food in tupperware in our fridge.  Thank goodness for our compost bucket!

We had lots to do that morning, and it took a good two hours to finish unpacking, cleaning and tidying up the van, taking care of the bikes, returning the suitcase, and having Gilder to frame for it. We still needed to go grocery shopping and stop by the post office. 

Our 1:00 PM departure time was not looking good. Julie had also wanted to finish a few Alaska blog posts and do her monthly goal setting, both activities that were getting bumped until the drive. 

We realized Target now sells groceries and we had just come by a $160 dollar Target gift card, so, once the fridge was cleaned out, we headed back into Target to restock.

After all this, we were already past our hoped for Jackson leave time of 1:00 PM, and we still had to make it to the post office. Julie’s sister will be turning 50 in October while we are on our trip, so Julie won’t be around to celebrate with her sister on this milestone occasion. So instead, Julie decided to celebrate the 50 years of her sister with a gift for her from each of the 50 states. Having just finished our 20th state, Julie now had 10 states worth of presents to pack and mail up, which was the max we had room to store before it was time to pop them in the mail. Then there were also the birthday presents for other endeared ones and the “no particular occasion” presents for her one nephew by blood that she couldn’t help buying throughout the trip. Gift storage had long turned out to be a significant part of space management in the van, as it turns out that buying presents for people along the way is one of Julie’s favorite traveling pastimes. We were stocking up on birthday presents and early Christmas shopping for folks. As a result, in addition to the presents that needed to make it in the mail on this particular post office stop, we had a bag full of them that would wait in the van for future occasions.  Short story long, it took two hours at the post office to pack everything up for shipping. After a handful of other things that chewed up time, we didn’t actually cross the border out of Wyoming until 4:00 PM. 

We had a five hour drive in front of us to get to our first Idaho destination. Our late start would mean that we would miss places we had intended to visit along the way. Alas, that is the reality of attempting to travel all 50 states in ten short months and hoping to see as much of each state as humanly possible.

We were grateful to have gotten to steal one more little slice of Wyoming after our Alaska adventures, and, as always, we were sad to leave a state we had come to adore.