Home, Home on the Range, where the deer and the antelope play…

We thought we did OK without hook up last night. Parker and Ray got up at 6:50 to run. Preston and I snuggled lower under the covers. It is in the low 40’s. Breakfast was bacon and eggs. Yum!

We got ready to head out. The rear slide went in just fine. Yeah! But the front slide wouldn’t go in. Oh NO. Ray, Preston, and Parker went out and helped push it in. It came in OK (this should have been a clue).

Today’s plans are to go back to Jenny Lake, take the 10-min boat across, the hike .5mi up to Hidden Falls, then if I’m still OK we’ll go the remaining .4 mi up to Inspiration Point. We’ll take lunch and eat up there. Then we have reservations for a 1:30 raft trip down the Snake River.

We got to the Jenny Lake boat around 10:30am. On the drive we all noted that it looked like it snowed last night on the mountains. We took the boat trip. This boat trip cuts out a 2 mi hike to the other side of the lake. We rode over with a couple of guys that had just graduated from UNC. One guy had on an ACC Championship shirt from the UNC vs Clemson game. I asked him if he went to UNC and mentioned that my husband had gone to Clemson. Clemson had lost that game so they had a good time ragging him about that. They were on a month–long trek across the US. As we chatted on the boat the lady sitting next to them said she had gone to UNC and graduated in ’83. She was there during the Michael Jordan years. They were thrilled and wanted their picture taken with her since that made her a celebrity in their eyes. After we got across and started the hike Ray took their picture with them forming “UNC” with their arms. They lady chose to be the “C”.

It was rather a tiring hike for me but we made it to the falls where we met up with our UNC friends again. The falls were simply breathtaking. Tons of melting snow water cascading down and the cool rush of a breeze. I was doing OK so up we went to IP. It looked out over Jenny Lake. Fabulous view. Every picture we take I keep thinking Christmas card picture. We saw a yellow-bellied marmot, a golden mantle ground squirrel, and a rock bagder.

We are awed by how great our God is to give us views like this just for our delight. What an awesome God to care for us so deeply.

At the top as we were eating a quick bite we realized we better boogie down the mountain to make our 1:30pm raft trip. Back across the lake on the boat. We got to our RV right at 1:30. But the steps do something weird when we go to open the door. Ray jumps in the driver’s seat to get us going. N-O-T-H-I-N-G. Nada! No starty. Remember I said the front slide this morning should have been a clue. Yeah well. The battery appears to be dead. Hummm…. Anyone ever wonder how far the nearest Tow Truck company is from Jenny Lake? We know! Ryan appeared about an hour and a half later to jump us off. Apparently we didn’t flip some switch off that we should have after running off battery last night. Did you know we have more than one battery? And here’s a hint, if you charge the one that isn’t dead for 45 minutes the RV still won’t start. It is only after you charge the one that was dead that it will start. So $147 later we are back on our way. Obviously we missed our raft trip.

So instead of rafting we drove down to Mormon Row. It is a lovely DIRT road through a plains area with some historic dwellings. We spotted several bison and prong horn sheep from our 34-foot RV on the very straight with no turn around DIRT road. If we get stuck out here at least we know who to call!

We then went down to Gros Ventre and then up the highway to a different entrance into the park. On the way we saw more prong horn and bison, a herd of elk, and a large moose drinking from the Snake River.

Tonight we are staying at the Colter Bay RV Park – we have full hook up. A good thing.

Ray and Parker tried again for the 9:30pm ranger talk. This time they went to the auditorium. They heard a talk on “The Intimate Side of Wolves”. They got back to the RV about 10:15. Bedtime!