Waking up in Grand Teton National Park feels like an accomplishment. After desperately charging through Yellowstone so that we could get a campsite before they were all taken (there were only 6 out of 320 remaining) we were ready to take it easy. Friends would be joining us in the afternoon and, with limited cell service, we didn't want to get too wrapped up in the wild nooks and crannies of the park and miss a call. So we scoped out the park.
I photographed the Milky Way! For a slight pedantic digression: we are in the Milky Way. So, in a way, every photograph that we take that is not done by astronomers, is pretty much guaranteed to be of the Milky Way. All the same, this is a view of the rest of the Milky Way as captured within the constraints of a single camera on Earth. It does not compare to some of the amazing photographs I've seen online. The moon was still out and overwhelms the more distant stars. But it is amazing, and I can go to sleep, happy.
I feel like some Judie Bloom high schooler when I write that today was the best day ever. But it was really awesome. After a couple days of travel, we rolled through Yellowstone to our campsite in the Grand Tetons. In the course of the day, we saw a bald eagle, buffalo, elk, and moose. The only thing left on our Yellowstone bingo card is "bear." My preference would be a black bear, but I wouldn't want to be considered "picky." There certainly is an unhinged part of me that wants to see a grizzly bear in the wild.
Oasis Bordello Museum in Wallace, Idaho is the opposite of what I anticipated. Positioned on yet another brick lined block of shops, one might expect something playing up old west iconography. Yet, while it traces its origins to early mining clientele, it continued operation into the late 1980s. Instead of corsets and feather boas, the closets are filled with polyester bathing suites and sequin dresses.
On occasion, we stop in a town for what should have been a quick stop that wasn't so quick. What was initially just a lunch stop became a stroll about town, which became a tour of a bordello, culminating in getting our growler filled.
We thought it was rain. It wasn't. The evening twisters across the farmland were not wind and dirt but small insects that now plaster Dodgy's grill. The sound as they smashed against our window shield may have sounded like rain, but the smears left by our window wipers quickly dispelled that illusion.
Great design comes with some inspiration. What is missing in other products that will be present in yours? Along with being a beautifully sophisticated pop-up truck camper, the XP Camper benefits from the love and detail that comes from a…
Not more than a half hour drive from the muddy Mosses Trail brought us to Beach 4 and some of Olympic National Park's tide pools.
Olympic National Park is remarkable for its high longitude rainforests. What is possibly even more remarkable is how much you can see in less than a mile loop that is Mosses Trail.
I had a rare moment of brilliance while provisioning: buy frozen protein for day two so that it will store better. In keeping with my ocean theme, I bought large frozen prawns for skewers, along with zucchini, mushrooms, and red onions.