Road Trip 2010 Bog 2

Blog 2 Week 2

Went on Alpine Coaster in Park City. If you haven’t seen videos of it, you are in for a treat. We first saw the coaster in a new weekly show called “Bert the Conquerer”. You must record it! Anyway, we knew, after seeing Bert ride the Coaster, that we had to make a side trip to Park City, Utah to ride this ride. So, instead of Salt Lake City, we turned northeast and came here. It was totally worth the detour. The Coaster sits on rails just like the Matterhorn ride at Disneyland. We were told that it takes 2 minutes to get down the mountain if you don’t use the brakes. The young man at the ride assured us that the ride does not require us to brake at any time, and that we were perfectly safe going all the way without them. In fact, it would be more fun!! Now to talk Normie into agreeing! She agreed that we don’t have brake control on the Matterhorn or Space Mountain, so why not here? Yeah!!!! This ride was off the hook!! There should be one at every ski resort in the nation! The reason for the two videos, is that while turning a hairy curve, holding the camera with my right hand, my finger touched the “off” button!!! Crap!! Now I had to look at the camera, while screaming, and trying to enjoy the ride, in order to get back into video mode! Yeah, fun stuff. Succeeded, don’t know how much was missed, but didn’t want to spend another $40 so you guys could see the un-cut version. So, sorry!! Flashback to our ski lift ride in New Hampshire to see Fall colors, (camera mishap, videod in black and white!!). Suffice it to say we were still shaking as we got off the ride. . (click here for our 2 videos Alpine Coaster Videos ).

After the rides, we toured Park City, old town look and feel, but typical touristy type shops.

We did make it to the Olympic Training Center, the site of the 2002 Winter Olympics. At least we made it to the front gate. The park had closed 20 minutes earlier. We considered a “National Lampoon” moment at the gates of Wally World. Well, I considered it! But I didn’t have a BB-gun. And the Moose out front didn’t tell us!!

We left Park City to get to Yellowstone the same day. Got to an exit with a sign saying, “Jackson” to the right. Well, we have never been to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, so why not see it and the Grand Tetons first? Serendipity. Talked to a guy at the truck stop next to the exit, and he said that the road was a more beautiful drive than the 15 Fwy route we were on, but would take longer if we had the time. If we had the time? We have nothing BUT time!! He was right, it was a beautiful drive thru the pass to Jackson. Upon arriving in Jackson, we started making phone calls to RV parks to find a spot for the night. Our first call to the Virginian RV Park in town, resulted in a chuckle from the proprietor. Apparently we were unaware that this was 4^th of July week!! Well, yeah, we were unaware. Anyway, he laughed and said that he was fully booked for the week, and so was every other park in the area. I made the mistake of asking how much it would be if he DID have a spot. He said, $68 a nite!!!! Hahahahaha, joke was on him!! I would have never spent $68 a nite. Sucker!!!! He did advise us that the National Forest had campgrounds for dry camping. Since we are totally self-contained, we opted to try this choice. Headed south out of town the way we had come in, since we had already seen several campground opportunities. Got about 10 miles out of town, when the red “battery warning” light on the truck dash lit up. Oh, yeah, serendipity. What now? Well, stop in as soon as you can, because you will soon have no power to your brakes, truck and trailer. Did I mention that we are about 25,000 pounds moving down the road at 65 mph at dusk, almost dark? (Another flashback, Chicago, 2007, see blog). Serendipity or Déjà vu? OK, so we made it to a campground. Right on the Snake River. Beautiful spot! Yep, Serendipity!!!!! And only $15 a night. Hehehehe. We will deal with the truck tomorrow.

Turns out that the burning smell we smelled was not the truck in front of us. It was us! The alternator had burned up. Decided to take our chances and drive back into Jackson Hole to find a mechanic that wouldn’t try to steal our entire retirement fund out from under us. Did I mention that there is no cell phone service in the National Forest area? Couldn’t have even called for a tow truck. After a couple of calls when we got into town the next day, found a guy that answered his phone by simply saying, “Diesel”. That was music to my ears. I already knew this was going to be our mechanic. After discussing the problem, he told me to come on in and he would have a look at it. Turns out, he was only a block away. When we got there, he waved us into the garage/barn workshop. They must have had 20 vehicles needing repairs, but he put a mechanic on ours while we were sitting in the truck! Immediately they agreed it was the alternator. At that moment, the parts delivery truck pulled up with our new alternator. I was amazed. Dave, the boss, said that he ordered it when we were on the phone with him so he would be ready for us. How awesome is that??!!?! We were out of there in 45 minutes and they only charged us what we would have paid in So Cal. God Bless real, honest, red-blooded Americans! Sometimes you have to leave home to remember that there are still people out there who are not trying to take your money. If you are ever stranded in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, go to Auto & Diesel Repair, and ask for Dave. You won’t be sorry.

The Grand Tetons were aptly named. Not only do they resemble “tetons”, but they are truly grand! The first glimpse of them takes your breath away and has you reaching for your camera. Why?, Because you can’t believe that there is something as majestic as this park available for us to get to and visit! A must see if you ever get the chance. Pics will be posted for those of you living vicariously thru this blog.

There are several lakes at the foot of these mountains, and we have had the pleasure of visiting Jenny Lake so far. It is the one you see when you see ads for the park. We have had a bike ride along one shore and a hike to the far side of the lake along the other shore to see the waterfalls. Simply beautiful.

We have been on a quest to see moose for three years now. Ever since our failed attempts in New Hampshire and Maine in 2007. Well, we have seen three so far. All at a distance of at least 200 feet, but moose nonetheless. I am happy, Norma considers that too far to be satisfactory. I think she wants us to have to run from one chasing us in order to qualify as a sighting. We have heard of bear sightings, but none by us, yet. We hope to experience that too.

The week has been wonderful in spite of the minor setbacks. By the way, did I mention that we got a speeding ticket driving into town? Happy 4^th!!!! Miss you all.