I’d forgotten how quickly two days off can go. Thursday was a good day to clean up the Hovel, from stem to stern. Then laundry. Then some internet time to catch up with the happenings in the world outside of Yellowstone. Yeah… Well. Enough of that.
Yesterday, Friday, it was time to get some groceries and other supplies. For workers in Yellowstone, the choices are West Yellowstone MT, Gardiner MT, Cody WY, or Jackson/Jackson Hole WY. Each of these choices is a 2-hour drive or better from Grant Village, where I am living. Each of these drives is charming. Going to West Yellowstone would take me past Old Faithful and the Upper and Lower Geyser Basins. Gardiner means a drive through Hayden Valley (where most of the bear sightings are happening and where I saw the bear my first day, only a few hundred feet off the roadway) and along the Yellowstone River up through Mammoth Hot Springs. The drive to Cody takes one over the northern edge of Yellowstone Lake and over some beautiful mountain passes. This time, however, I opted for Jackson and a drive through Grand Teton National Park. No major wildlife sightings, just a few weasels and squirrels, and maybe a fox, but the scenery on the drive…
Les Grand Tetons. Named by a lonely French fur trapper, reminded of his favorite part of the female anatomy. These are a young woman’s breasts — pointy and perky — dominating the western skyline for miles, catching the early morning light on their pointiest parts, and admiring their own relfection in Lewis Lake and along the Lewis River. They occasionally played peekaboo using the Lodgepole Pines as fingers for peeking through. How horrible that I have to drive two hours for groceries.
I took my time, yesterday. When I got to Jackson, I drove around it a bit to get a feel for the place. It’s a typical mountain tourist town. Prices are higher for everything. It has charm, no question (although I prefer Silverton CO for its more rustic and less dense features). Jackson also had at least one decent taquieria: Hatch. Excellent food. I had the tacos carnitas with beans and rice. The green chile sauce (Hatch, natch) is the bomb. I had a margarita — ok, I confess, I had two.
I got hardware supplies, a haircut, and a pedicure – without polish, but a treat nonetheless for my hard working feet. They deserved a little pampering, and a rub! I got a nice lunch overlooking Broadway, the main artery through town. I got a nice walk through the shopping district and scored a warm vest in an acceptable Navy blue I can wear with my work uniform. It’s a men’s vest, but had more pockets for pens and notebooks and cameras and such AND was 50% off. I got groceries. I got gas. And I got back on the road to Yellowstone, for that perfectly horribly drive 
with the Tetons now on my left in the late afternoon sun; the sun now joining the mountains in the peekaboo through the Lodgepoles.
By the time I got home and got all the stuff put away and the dogs attended to, I had no juice left for writing or reading news. But I did make time to sit for a moment in the truck in the parking lot of the closest employee wifi source to collect my mail. A note from the kids, perhaps. A report from my favorite weatherman, who keeps me apprised of all kinds of weather through all kinds of weather (my unfair weather friend). A love note from one of my sisters in life and in spirit? I can always count on one of them. There is always a little something, or sometimes a long note filled with news for me to bring back to the Hovel to read and read again.
I hope they all know that they can always, likewise, count on me. Ain’t it good to know that you’ve got a friend?
I’m backtracking a little here, but be on the look out for real mail.