More about Day Six

Yesterday - Day Six - began in Lusk, WY and ended in Alpine. The motel that we stayed in - The Townhouse Motel had been bought by the owners of the Best Western Motel, just a few doors down the street. Since the breakfast facilities at Best Western were way better than at Townhouse, its patrons are sent to Best Western for breakfast. And indeed, the breakfast was excellent. We were met outside by the owners, who were offering custom-made omelettes: you filled a bowl with the ingrediants you wanted in the omelette and they made it up. You could also avail yourself of a large breakfast buffet inside. We did that, but ate outside in the Western-themed area, even though it was quite breezy.

The outdoorBest Western breakfast area. The trip across Wyoming was quite lovely, as usual, and uneventful until the end. We csme through Douglas, Casper and Riverton, and then to Dubois, over the pass and down to Moran Junction, into Grand Teton National Park and down into Jackson. We made a short side trip outside Moran Junction to check out Buffalo Valley Ranch, which we later learned is the oldest Dude Ranch in the U.S., dating back to 1880! It was hopping with people - no sign of a pandemic there! Jackson was hopping even more. We had planned to get ice cream at Moo's -a favorite stop - but it was impossible to find a parking place, so we gave up. We went instead to the Whole Foods south of town where we got soup and cornbread - good parking there. So far, so good. But when we entered the Snake River Canyon down to Alpine, the traffic slowed to a stop. We learned there had been an accident up ahead. We crawled and stopped and crawled and stopped - and what would have been a half-hour drive to Paul's ended up taking over two hours. We never saw a crash site, so they must have cleaned it up well. We learned after we got to the house that Jenny, who travels the same road home from work, was stuck in traffic ahead of us. But it was great to finally be "home," and we were grateful.

Photos above: (1) Crowheart Butte in Fremont County, (2) a first glimpse of the Tetons, (3) teepees for rent as lodging at Buffalo Valley Ranch, (4) The long line of traffic in the Canyon; and (5) a beautiful sunset just as we arrived in Alpine. We got lots of hugs from Max and even more barks from their new dog - Rollie - who has a hard time with strangers! We stayed up pretty late talking, But the bedroom was fresh and cool when we went up to bed and we slept pretty well.