Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Day 13 - Old Faithful, The Mangy Moose & Million Dollar Cowboys

Oh what a day! Its been a long one, but so much fun. We didn't really DO anything.....but it was cool nonetheless. We left Cody, WY this morning after visiting the Buffalo Bill Historical Museum and headed back into Yellowstone. We decided to do an abbreviated edition of the southern route, skipping one leg that hugs the lake. We saw the Upper & Lower Falls (termed the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone) and it was worth the hundreds of people there also seeing it with me.




After that, we ate lunch in the car and kept riding to try and catch Old Faithful bust loose again. We apparently were treated to one of the longest waits in 9 years for this old girl to spew, but once it happened, it was worth the wait. I think we waited 126 minutes and the park ranger near us said that is as long as she's waited in the 9 years that she's been timing it and doing short seminars on it. There were SO many people there.......from the national parks perspective, the economy is NOT so bad. Or a lot of people are traveling on credit because this place was packed. After Old Faithful did her business for us, it was similar to getting out of a small concert parking lot.



So, we were done with Yellowstone for the day and although we continued to see beautiful sights on our way out, we were excited to get to the Grand Tetons and experience all their beauty. Much taller, more jagged mountains with a significant amount of snow still on top. The only sucky part was it was pouring so my pictures are rather cloudy. It did stop raining long enough for us to grab a beer in The Mangy Moose Saloon in the Teton Village. Very cool little village and one we've already talked about coming back to when ski season starts up.





Off to Jackson, WY we go! We did pass an intersection for Wilson, WY which is where my mom's cousin, Duff (Ed) lives. He invited us to stay with them, which was so nice, but we got a room near the Town Square of Jackson so we could experience it in all its' glory. We got into town and checked into our "cabin" at The Cowboy Village Resort. Not so much a resort, but a cool cabin and village. We actually love it, as redneck as it may seem. Some of you are NOT suprised at all, I'm sure.


We went to dinner at Snake River Grill downtown and it was SO good.....I had 6 MINI MINI fish tacos (more "mini" than I was expecting) but I supplemented them with some outstanding parmesean truffle shoe-string fries. Oh yeah. David had BBQ Pork Shank which was also fabulous. Anywhooo.....we strolled over to The Million Dollar Cowboy for a couple beverages following that and were treated to a few cowboys (one was missing a tooth), a good country house band and a couple good local beers.


We're back at the Cowboy Cabin now and plan on getting some rest before tomorrow's fun begins. YeeeeHawww!

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