Day 19 - Off to Jackson's Hole

Sad to report I was distinctly unwell this morning.  Doubtless altitude and a mouthful of the water at the Steaming River – there were signs telling people not to immerse themselves – but alcohol was the main factor.  Fortunately my Australian co-travellers are far more savvy to this sort of thing and dosed me up with electrolytes and stuff which staved off the headache.  To add to the misery it had started raining heavily so the tents had to be packed up wet.

Without me being particularly aware of it we soon arrived at Jenny Lake in the Grand Tetons.  The mountains seemed to rise sheer from a flat valley floor with no gradual build up.  Continuing south we reached the valley of the Snake River which I realised has been with me for several years on one of the computer’s screen savers.  Our KOA site was a little way out of Jackson and set right by the river.  Most of it consisted of little wooden cabins and spaces for trailers and RVs (Recreational Vehicles).  The tents were tucked away in a corner on a piece of scrap land.  However, facilities were well up to standard and, opting out of the Bubba’s BBQ option, I managed to do my laundry and catch up on the blog.

One feature of life on the road here is the high number of motor cyclists, many on Harley Davidsons.  There were two I met in the laundry.  The first was a Canadian who having ridden all day in the same rain as us, had a massive drying out operation under way.  He seemed to have loads of coupons as well as traveller’s cheques that were in danger of disintegration.  Plastic seems a much better option.  The second, Tom, was from West Virginia and he’d made it in just five days.  An engineer with twenty years at a Nestle plant, he had just been made redundant when the plant was closed.  He was taking a fortnight out to get his mind straight and was on his own because his wife didn’t like bikes.  Tom seemed of the opinion that the country was going to the dogs, that quality jobs were hard to find and that it would be tough for the young as most of them are going to college to get worthless paper qualifications.  Sound familiar???