Day 15 - A memorable Memorial Day

It’s Memorial Day and back to Jackson Hole for one last day. Eddie and Susan are flying back to Raleigh about noon. We have now driven 3,100 miles since leaving home two weeks ago. Rather, DAVID has driven 3,100 miles.

As we leave Yellowstone, light snow is falling. Strange – snow on Memorial Day! As we’ve always left Yellowstone through different entrances, this marks the first time we’ve left through the South Entrance. We normally come in that way. Lake Lewis is still covered with ice and there is a LOT of snow on the ground. We were rewarded with the sight of a rare Trumpeter Swan taking flight from the Yellowstone River.

Chrissy almost went to “dog heaven” again! Once in awhile, we give her a small rawhide bone to chew while we’re driving. We don’t give it to her when we’re not there to watch as she sometimes gets choked. Well, she swallowed one whole end of it and began to choke. David couldn’t find a place to pull over with the truck and RV and she’s still choking! Just as I decide to “go in after it,” she coughed it up. NO MORE BONES FOR CHRISSY!

We cross back into an area where we have cell phone service and both our phones are alerting us that we have voicemail. We’ve had no cell phone service or internet service since we’ve been in Yellowstone. I check my messages first and both messages are from Stephanie. She tells us our son, Adam, has been hurt at work on FRIDAY (it’s Monday now). He caught his right hand in a conveyer belt. His fingers are attached and not broken, but seriously injured. David’s call was from Adam telling us the same thing. We got Adam on the phone and learned he’d pulled his index finger and middle finger out of socket and torn ligaments and tendons. The skin on his fingers was also damaged. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital and was taken care of promptly. His hand is bandaged and he was told to take care of the fingers as they could still be damaged further. He did say he was feeling better. Scary to learn all that!

When we get back to the Tetons, a light rain is falling and the temperature is in the 40’s. You can’t see the mountains because of cloud cover and rain. We drive on to Jackson Hole and back to the Snake River KOA. It’s right on the banks of the river and the river is swift and full.

We drop the trailer, have some lunch and head out to the park again. First stop is Schwabacker’s Landing. On my screen saver on my work computer, I have a picture of this place, but have never visited here. You drive down a winding dirt road that leads to the Snake River landing and a picnic area. Weddings are done here frequently. We saw a small trail and followed it. There had been signs warning about bears in the area, but the ranger that was there said they had not had a recent sighting of one.

I took some pictures at the lake there and it was beginning to rain, so we walked back up the trail. David stopped to talk to a man who was there in the parking lot. He had been looking at the wedding site for his daughter’s wedding. He is a professional photographer, but was not planning to photograph his daughter’s wedding. He suggested we walk on to the beaver ponds, so we went back down the trail.

We passed the small lake where I had been taking pictures, and there was a HUGE beaver pond. The water is clear and you can see round rocks and algae in the bottom. You can see where the beaver have dammed up the pond. Across the pond was another beaver dam. It began to rain lightly, and in my picture of Schwabacker’s Landing, you can see the ripples from the rain on the pond. The mountain is not clearly seen behind it, but I know it’s there!

On to Cunningham Cabin. The photographer at Yellowstone told me to try shooting here. I found it hard to believe it was really a home place for a family. The home has a sod roof, but made of wood. It has two small rooms joined by a dogtrot.

A few more stops for photos and off to the campground. It’s raining and cold, so David decides to do laundry. Second time for laundry on the road. I read and he washes laundry!

I’m reading the last of Teddy Roosevelt’s biography by McCullough. David’s almost finished The Shack. Finished watching “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.” Next up is “Through the Gates of Splendor,” the story of the five missionaries killed in Ecuador.

Up early to head out to Idaho in the morning!

See ya down the road!

Jenny :)