Our vacation this year suffered from a few bumps and
hiccups. As you know we didn’t leave on Saturday, August 16th as we
planned. We got as far as the end of the runway at Washington Dulles and were
next in line for takeoff when the airport authorities shut down all departures!
This was because of severe thunderstorms predicted all around the airport. So we
were taken back to the terminal.
Talking with the gate agent I realized our options
weren’t great. We were going to miss our connecting flight to Jackson Hole
regardless, and Northwest Airlines flies only one flight a day to Jackson Hole.
So we elected to try again the next day. Fortunately we could get on the same
flights. It was either that or hole up for the night in Minneapolis. There
seemed no point in that. So we went home somewhat upset and tried to make the
best of it. We ordered some pizza and Rosie and I went to see the late showing
of “Freaky Friday”. But it felt weird to sleep in my own bed that night; my
body expected to be in Yellowstone.
I tried to extend our vacation a day to make up for the lost day, but Northwest Airlines said all seats were booked for the Saturday flight so we were out of luck. So we’d have four full days in Yellowstone, or about half the time we had in Hawaii.
Feeling more than a little déjà vu we headed out the next
afternoon for the airport. And sure enough we got to the end of the runway. We
sat. And sat. But then, suddenly, just when I was wondering if more
thunderstorms were heading our way, our plane decided to take off. And our
flight to Minneapolis went very well. We had mostly clear weather and first
class seats to enjoy due to our problems. The service was more like coach class
but at least the seats were comfortable. I was surprised by how easily I could
track our flight out the window. We went over Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit (I
could see Lake St. Clair), and right over Green Bay. I could figure all this out
without even having a map!
We made our connecting flight to Jackson Hole without a
problem. It was unusually hot in Minneapolis: in the nineties. We had dressed
for cooler weather. The flight to Jackson Hole was, of course, overbooked but we
weren’t bumped from the flight. We did not get first class for this flight,
but we did get the first row behind first class with plenty of legroom to enjoy.
Since invariably you will be coming in during the late afternoon or evening, don’t bother to rent a room in the park for the first night. Get something at a local hotel instead and proceed to the park the next day instead. We got in around 7 PM. It took time to get into Jackson to get our rental car, then it took time to find a place to eat dinner. It was almost dark when we headed for Yellowstone and we had more than two hours of driving on dark roads in unfamiliar territory before we could sleep.
Flying into Jackson Hole, Wyoming is a neat experience
though. Toward the west are the Grand Teton Mountains, which are a range of
truly impressive jagged mountains, with some glaciers in the midst and patches
of snow on some of the upper slopes. The airport is quaint too. You actually
have to descend down a staircase onto the tarmac. When you get into the terminal
there is no question about where to go for baggage claim. There is only one
baggage claim area and it is on your right as you enter the terminal.
Surrounding the gate is a door outlined with antlers. We weren’t in Virginia
anymore! The air was cool and the temperatures were in the 50s. It was quite a
change from the hot and humid weather we left in Virginia! It was also quite
hazy. This was partially the result of many forest fires in the vicinity. Even
with the haze the mountains and the locale were impressive.
It appears that area is called Jackson Hole, but the nearby
city is called Jackson. The airport is ten miles or so north of Jackson. We had
to go into Jackson on a car rental shuttle to get our car. Jackson is a neat
little town that is trying to shed the western image and seems to be recasting
itself as a little liberal, yuppie sort of place. Perhaps this is because there
is a lot of skiing nearby, mostly at Teton Village to the west. Still there was
some work to do in Jackson itself though: Starbucks has not yet made it to
Jackson, although I did see one later in the week at Teton Village.
For dinner we went to Bubba’s: a no pretensions Mom and Pop barbeque restaurant a couple blocks down the street from our car rental place. It was a very busy restaurant with basic wooden tables and a lot of noise, but the food was quick and good. We were hungry! It had been a long time since breakfast and airline pretzels weren’t quite what we needed. Nonetheless it was getting dark so we opted to skip dessert.
Somehow I figured we could get to Yellowstone Park before
dark, but I was wrong. All those logistics just took a lot of time. It was still
twilight though while we streamed out of Jackson heading north toward the park
on Rt. 89. Then it became totally dark. We had to drive with high beams on most
of the time. Even so I nearly missed the turnoff for Yellowstone. The park gate
was open but unstaffed, so there was no one to take our money.
I was driving and I found the experience very spooky! I can
count on one hand the number of times I turned on my bright lights in the ten
years I’ve owned a Camry. You just don’t need them where we live! Suddenly
here we were miles from nowhere. I thought the roads would be better marked but
they are not. It required a sharp eye with Terri in the shotgun seat paying
close attention to our map. I could go minutes without passing any cars. I kept
wondering if a deer or bison would suddenly appear in the road and whether I
could stop in time. Driving for so long on largely dark and empty roads felt
like something out of “The X Files”. I was sure at any moment some flying
saucer would descend and we’d be abducted. Why weren’t there more road
signs? We kept driving and driving and nothing seemed to change! I figured
Yellowstone would have lots of big and obvious signs. Were we on the wrong road?
And occasionally there would be something like fog
slithering across the road. What was that stuff? (As we learned later: nearby
thermal vents. Yellowstone mostly sits on an ancient caldera.) On the east coast
it was pushing midnight and I was tired. But I had to keep driving cautiously
and with utmost vigilance.
But eventually there were small signs to places like “Lake” and “Canyon Village” that came up quickly and required quick decisions. “Lake” sounded good since we were staying at the Lake Lodge Cabins on Lake Yellowstone. Whenever I saw “Lake” I turned in that direction. Fortunately it worked. We found the cabins at last, after a drive of more than two hours from Jackson. While the cars were few on the road that time of night the registration desk at the lodge was still staffed. At the lodge a few people sipped drinks at the bar, and some of the more daring enjoyed the starry night on wooden rockers on its grand porch.
We were given directions to our cabin. The lady at the desk
said (with a straight face): “Sometimes the bison like to wander down from the
woods. If there is a bison in your parking space you’ll have to wait until it
moves.” Fortunately our space was bison free.