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After stopping at the Reno Subaru dealer to get fluids changed and tires rotated, Millie and I were ready to make our long trek east all the way home along I-80. Nevada and the salt plains of western Utah were desolate with the exception of road signs here and there warning drivers to not fall asleep at the wheel (guess that is, indeed, desolate!).
Five solid weeks of sightseeing and photography had finally taken their toll, and I barely took any pictures or made any further detours to see tourist attractions the whole way home!
One thing I did notice on this trip (that I'd been oblivious to in past trips out west) were the numbers of extremely long coal trains going to and from Wyoming. Wyoming is the nation's leading coal producer shipping 446 million tons of the stuff a year to our older coal-hungry power plants. Production comes from only 21 mines, and all but one of these are surface mining operations growing at a rate of 10% a year. At that pace, I wonder how long it will be before all of Wyoming's mountains are gone.
Fortunately, I did find some glimmers of hope during the trip, and found them, surprisingly, in Wyoming as well. The largest wind farm I spotted on the entire trip was one just outside of Laramie where there were over 200 turbines humming along at the top of a ridge. This was about the size of one I saw in southern California last year. Now if we could just start filling up some of the vast Midwest wheat and corn plains with some of these turbines, we might honestly have a chance at stopping some of those hundreds of coal trains going in and out of Wyoming each day!
As I got closer to home, I began hearing news reports of the extensive flooding in Iowa. Many roads in the eastern portion of the state were closed including a section of I-80 (forcing a 110-mile detour). As I got closer, road signs kept advising motorist that the detour would start in Des Moines, however, when I finally got to Des Moines, the last sign said I-80 was now open. Thinking it might be a fluke, I stopped in town for awhile to listen to the next newscast, where they did indeed confirm that I-80 was now open. So I was able to stay on course and get home a few hours sooner than planned. Here were a few shots of what I saw that night:
As the sun set for the last time of our 6-week 8,000-mile adventure, I pulled the camera out one more time to take a shot.
What a beautiful, amazing, fun trip it had been....but Millie, the T@B, the Subaru, and I were now all completely exhausted and couldn't wait to get home and stay there for a while!
Our first week in Jackson was fun with a bit of an adventure. We figured it would take about a week for the Subaru dealer to get the needed transmission parts flown in and to get us back on our way, so we started making plans accordingly.
But at the end of the week, when I called the dealer to learn that they still had no idea when the parts would be delivered or when the car would be ready, I finally could no longer be kind and forgiving. After a morning of very frustrating calls with the dealership's service manager and general manager, and now at my wits end, I was finally given a hotline number for Subaru's national customer service center. What a breath of fresh air! Even the rank-and-file customer service rep I first made contact with was empowered to get things done-- she immediately offered to cover my expenses and escalate the service situation with their regional management. The next day, my case was escalated to their wonderful customer service manager, Jody, who promised to see the case through to the very end for me. But, try as she could, the dealer would not get the car finished for another 3 days, so we'd need to stay another weekend in Jackson.
By this time, we'd become fast friends with the staff at the KOA. Their campground was booked solid every night, mainly of people stopping for one night as they drove to or from Yellowstone. They said we were the first to stay there this summer over a week, but what a challenge it was for them! Because I only had a rental car (and no tow vehicle), we had no way of moving the T@B from the campsite we first got left at. So every few days, I would go up to the check-in desk to see Beth (apparently, she was the only one with expert knowledge of the KOA reservation software)! Beth would sometimes spend an hour or more moving reservations around so that we would be able to keep our same campsite a few more days.
While Mom and I were starting to tire of staying in the same place so long, Millie, on the other hand was having the time of her life! She would take long morning naps on the cot in the screenroom....
Then before dinner, I'd take her down to the Snake river (that ran along the back of the campground) where she had a blast riding the swift currents and trying to swim like crazy to "stay in place". While she had become quite a good lake swimmer at home, river currents were something completely new (and fun)!
Before leaving Jackson, we had to get some of the iconic shots of downtown. Here's mom in front of the famous antler arch ...
and the cowboy who drives the stagecoach around the downtown square...
Finally, one of the most famous sites in Jackson... the Cowboy Bar with it's distinctive neon sign.
For our second weekend in Wyoming, and to break the monotony of T@B camping in one spot so long, we decided to see the sights of Yellowstone and stay at a hotel in Cody, Wyoming one night so that we could also visit the night rodeo there.Cody has two main claims to fame...Buffalo Bill and rodeos. Their rodeo stadium is huge for being such a small town. In the summer, they do a rodeo every night for the tourists and it's quite a good show!
Well, I suppose there could be far worse places to be stranded for a few days than Jackson, Wyoming. While I had really wanted to photograph the new sites of Glacier and Banff, it was not so bad revisiting the Grand Tetons again...after all, they happen to be perhaps the most picturesque mountain range in the entire country!
So, we decided to make the most of it. Since the KOA had good internet and cell phone service, I continued working and postponed my vacation days a while longer, then used the weekend days to go sightseeing and shoot pictures.
The first weekend was spent exploring the Grand Tetons. Here is the familiar old Mormon barn...
and horses and mules....
bison grazing....
I had read in my photo books that a good place to spot wildlife would be at Oxbow Bend, so one early morning I drove up there to discover a bull moose preparing to go for a little swim! What an amazing sight to watch.
Colter Bay was one of our favorite stops in the park, not only for views like this one overlooking Jackson Lake, but also for their terrific food court! National Park food concessions are normally not anything remarkable, but the one at Colter Bay served outstanding fresh organic southwestern cuisine. So, we made it a point to stop there a few times for meals.
Two of my very favorite images from the Tetons:
A meadow of lupines overlooking the Teton range...
and this mountain reflection in a beaver pond...
Fortunately, I did find some glimmers of hope during the trip, and found them, surprisingly, in Wyoming as well. The largest wind farm I spotted on the entire trip was one just outside of Laramie where there were over 200 turbines humming along at the top of a ridge. This was about the size of one I saw in southern California last year. Now if we could just start filling up some of the vast Midwest wheat and corn plains with some of these turbines, we might honestly have a chance at stopping some of those hundreds of coal trains going in and out of Wyoming each day!
As the sun set for the last time of our 6-week 8,000-mile adventure, I pulled the camera out one more time to take a shot. What a beautiful, amazing, fun trip it had been....but Millie, the T@B, the Subaru, and I were now all completely exhausted and couldn't wait to get home and stay there for a while!
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