Beautiful Jackson Hole Wyoming

Day 6, Sunday August 24.

Waking up in Jackson Hole was great. because of the lower elevation and beautiful sunshine, it was actually warm when we got up. Thanks to Albertsons "bed and breakfast" we had a great night sleep and were now headed inside for the breakfast part. By the way, Albertsons is the name of the grocery store whose parking lot we slept in. We found some breakfast in the bakery section and spent some time in the store hanging out in their coffee shop where we had a chance to blog a little.

We went back out to our campsite... rather, parking lot and straightened up the truck and trailer. Just as we were nearly finished, another fellow supermarket slummer walked up to our truck and said that their van wouldn't start and asked if we could give them a jump. Being that we were now a part of the supermarket slumming community, it would be rude to refuse so I told Bambi to jump in and we headed over to lend a hand.

We decided to head to downtown Jackson Hole and see what we could see when Bambi suddenly realized that when we went over to help those people, she had kicked off her shoes in the parking lot and forgot to pick them back up. So, we drove all the way across town again - by now it had been about an hour since we'd left our "campsite" and what do you know... there they were. Someone - probably another helpful member of our supermarket community had taken Bambi's shoes and placed them in a shopping cart at the back of the parking lot. We supermarket slummers stick together!!

Anyway, back to downtown Jackson Hole. This is one cool town. It's old west meets high end boutiques and shopping. The feel of the town puts you squarely in Western Wyoming. They have a bar on the downtown square called "The Million Dollar Cowboy Bar" with saddles for bar stools and Texas longhorns above the bar. Then on the inside of the square, they have a central park (like Pella) except at each corner, they have a huge archway made up entirely of the shed antlers from the thousands of elk which inhabit the winter feeding grounds just outside of Jackson Hole. So, it has a very western feel. On the other hand, the shops and restaurants are very upscale with boutiques full of designer clothing and artists studios with expensive paintings and sculptures. All in all, a very cool town and worthy of being a vacation destination all by itself.

After an hour or two of shopping, we decided to check out the white water rafting services. We found one called Louis and Clark that offered a mid-afternoon ride down the beautiful nearby Snake River. We grabbed another PB&J in the truck in their parking lot and took off on our bus ride to the river which was about 40 minutes away.

White water rafting the Snake river was a real hoot! Bambi and I opted to ride in a "6-man" boat rather than an 8-man. The advantage of a smaller boat is that you are far more maneuverable and the guide can get you into the better rapids for a wilder ride. He asked who wanted the wettest and wildest ride of all... so I volunteered for that which put me in the very front of the boat along with another guy. Our wives sat behind us and another couple sat behind them with our guide Gavin at the very stern of the boat. The snake river is not the wildest river in North America as it has no class 5 rapids (Unlike the New river in West Virginia which Bambi and I rode a few years ago, right after the snow melt on a Memorial day weekend - now that was a wild ride.) However, the Snake is still consistent Class 3-4 rapids and our guide Gavin did a great job of steering us into the deepest holes possible every chance he got. He also made it fun by maneuvering us along an 8 man raft and starting a massive water fight. The water was very cold at about 55 degrees but the sun was shining so it really didn't feel too bad at all. The only real mishap was when John, the guy sitting next to me in the front took advantage of an opportunity to swim in a calm section of the river. He thought he'd just fall backwards out of the raft and swim along side for a little ways. He rolled backward out of the boat, but the back of his swim trunks snagged on the side of the raft and he was stuck there, hanging upside down with his legs up and his head and body under the raft (I'm actually being serious this time!!) It took us all a second to realize that he wasn't joking around and he began to struggle under the boat with his wife starting to scream and get a bit panicked. I dove to the side of the boat and luckily was able to yank his shorts lose from the boat just at the same time as Gavin was flying forward ripping the knife lose from the front holster of his life jacket, prepared to cut him lose. John came up for air but was sputtering a bit and was quite clearly a little shaken but overall none the worse for the wear thankfully.

We had a really great rest of the ride and Gavin filled us in on some of the local history and myths of the snake river and its inhabitants. We even got to watch as some of his fellow river guides climbed about 40-50 feet up a cliff and jump into the river. Gavin said that watching them do that made him believe in natural selection. I thought it looked like fun!!

After our river trip, we headed back into Jackson Hole, changed our clothes and then headed out for supper. We took the advice of our rafting bus driver and went to a place called the Snake River Brewing Company. Great food and really good microbrews with a local crowd. We finished the evening by going back downtown for some more walking and shopping through the stores and then a quick trip to McDonalds for a McFlurry to satisify Bambi's sweet tooth and it was time to call it a night again. We drove to a different part of town to "Smiths" supermarket which was really nice because there was also a laundromat next door with 24 hour service and free Wi-Fi. Bambi called it a night and I pulled out a chair and sat out front of an adjacent Dentists office (Made me think of my good friend Dr. Eric) plugged the computer into an outlet and spent the next couple of hours blogging and shooting emails under the stars. All in all, another really great day. Our only regret is that in order to see other places, we'd have to leave Jackson. But, if we get a chance, we will return... maybe by then they'll have even more supermarkets to sleep by.