day 3 - Hailey, Idaho to Dubois, Wyoming
 

 

'don't mind me. just fillin' up my airplane at the local texaco!'

Just outside Idaho Falls, Idaho, Day 3

you can't see it behind the tree, but the name of this shop is 'c u next storm'. obviously poking fun at their customers for waiting until AFTER the snow falls to fix that old snow blower. got to love a business with a sense of sarcasm (my preferred form of humor - thanks mom and dad)

i was here because jim needed a tool to pull something off his engine and they had one. just loaned it to him. such nice people in the middle of the US.

there were a lot of bikes that needed work at the end of day 3. it was a veritable scooter garage outside the front of the hotel but with scooter shops closed on mondays, everyone was waiting for parts to arrive on day 4.

 

above you will see 2 pictures, taken from the side of road, on the outskirts of the 'craters of the moon' national monument. it was hella cool and i spent too much time there (today was the day i drove over the grand tetons and thought surely i would die). i mean, you are driving along and everything looks like the sage brush in the foreground. then suddenly, poof! craters of the moon!

there was lots to learn at the visitor center. like scientists expect a catastrophic earthquake in yellowstone, which will destroy the western US, in the next million years! get your earthquake ready folks!

.

(sorry about the reflection. i am not so hot with a camera and patrick was in the race...see when we go on holiday, i point out the shot and patrick takes the picture)

(though i will say that i didn't take the picture crooked. the posters were slightly askew)

- i realize that my interest, nee, obsession with shoes, strikes some people as odd, but i find magma monitoring as strange a chosen career as dental hygienist. of course, like my dental hygienist, i am glad that someone is so inclined to do because it needs to be done and i don't want to do it.

they take their ozone very seriously at the 'craters of the moon' national park. though i am not sure, exactly, what ozone and the craters have in common. perhaps it is a national park ploy to get people to read about ozone...show then something cool, the craters, then throw the ozone stuff at them? makes sense to me. marketeers do it with product every day.

the recipe is a bit funny.

perhaps you don't understand the seismograph? (dude these people are all over the place) they have a poster for that too...
this was a shot from right outside the visitors center. i got a lot of weird looks from the other tourists. i am guessing it was the hair... (you can click on the picture to see a bigger version. you should do it. it is really an amazing looking place. you'll be able to see the picnic area in the top third, center of the picture too)
as i drove away from the visitors center, (after waiting 15 min for my turn. they were repaving 10 miles of highway alongside the national park) there was a spot to pull off. it is where i got the pictures above. there was a small sign, i assume, for those who didn't stop at the visitors center. (again, you can click on the picture for a larger version, allowing you to read the text - oh come on, i am paying for the bandwidth, you might as well check it out)
hey look! it's a cannonballer! ( i think that is earl on his kymco 'bet and win'!)

'nuff said

(seen just outside idaho falls, idaho - thanks to bobo for stopping to take the picture - i was moving fast enough i couldn't believe what i thought i saw so i kept on going)

 

the next set of pictures i have for you are of the jackson visitors center. but before i could get to the visitors center, i had to go over the grand tetons. i thought i was going to die. we are talking 7% and 10% grades, up AND down. this being the US, i was in the lane on the outside. you know, the one where you are mere millimeters from the sheer cliff edge and gruesome death? i never wished i were on a scooter so badly in all my life. on a scooter i could hug the center lane something fierce.

needless to say there are no pictures of the grand tetons cause i just wanted off.

when i got to jackson, wyoming (jackson hole is actually the name of the area and ski resort, not the town) i stopped at a gas station to ask how i would get to the airport. i was meeting rob downs and michael garrett there because they had picked up a rental car in hailey but couldn't drop it off in dubois (cause, yep, it was too small of a town to have a car rental office!). why were they in a car? because they were awaiting parts and the support vehicles were full. anyhow, back to the gas station. there were 2 distinctly kevin-smith-movie characters manning the cash register. when i asked how to get to the airport, they argued about where it was. very amusing. (they did finally consult a map and the more dante like character was correct)

- hey look! it's my trusty mazda 5 minivan! when patrick and i got out to the car at the airport in portland, and realized they had given us a minivan (well they gave us the oklamhoma car which happened to be a minivan, instead of an oregon one, since we weren't returning it), i ran back inside and thanked the hertz girl profusely. it was so much easier and more comfortable with the bigger car (and hatchback). she even saved us $150 by asking if we had a AAA card (patrick had his).

they have all sorts of wild animal statues hanging around the visitors center. they also have signs warning you to keep your food stored in a special bear proof container. i'd rather give the food to the bear than deal with him (or her) pissed off when they can't get at the food. is the container smell proof too?

there was a nice lady inside the visitors center who sold me my postcards and validated how to get to the airport (i stopped at DQ for a dipped ice cream first). she also asked me how i got my hair so pink. i explained how it was done and she said she really liked it. she also commented that she had always wanted to ask someone how they got their hair blue or pink or whatever not natural colour, but she was afraid you weren't suppose to ask. she was concerned the individual may take offense at the question. i responded that if they did, they were being absurd. i mean it's pink (or blue or green or purple) so of course people are going to notice and wonder about it. she seemed relieved.
this is a picture of the poor innocent, handicapped buffalo that rob downs verbally abused when it got in our way crossing the road. poor gimpy buffalo... (honest to god, there were about 5 buffalo moseying across the road between jackson and dubois. it was pretty spectacular)

 

i didn't get into dubois until really late. like 7 pm or so. not the nicest hotel (as i have been writing this, i have realized that i should have taken pictures of every hotel i stayed at. just to prove that i can 'rough' it like the best of them!), but the people were super nice (again). they gave us a free drink token for the nice restaurant next door (as opposed to the bar/pub next door).

we had dinner with a big group and i got to talk to ashrat. she was one of the 3 women on the race (besides racer-heather and sara). she is a retired grocery store checker who races motor cross in the amateur class (though i think that only has something to do with insurance and i hear she kicks ass). she was one second person to go down (day 5 i think...i'll get to that when i get to the appropriate day) but finished the day (much to our surprise). i also made a comment, that was well remembered, about rob and mike. at dinner they fussed like a gay couple, rob obviously being the more feminine of the couple. i thought it was cute. apparently the comment was a bit strong to some people. sorry.

we came in 1st in our class and 13th overall. yawn. kicking ass left and right. think about it people. the grand tetons on a 133cc scooter?! patrick said he did a little creative driving over the mountains. he knew if he stopped the bike he wouldn't be able to get moving again, because of the grade, so i went around on the shoulder a few times to keep moving. like myself, there were a number of creeped out drivers going sort of slow. next day is the big day, 532 miles...