Beginnings

I resisted packing until the last minute, though I had performed a dummy run a couple of weeks ago. 

My Variavalistaphobia detailed earlier led me to load up a suitcase with everything I thought I was going to take and place it on the bathroom scales.  I actually could not look directly at the readout as if my suitcase had been on some Christmas binge and I was fearful of immediately seeing how much it now weighed.   I tried to see the display only in my peripheral vision, slowly moving my head to tease the numbers into focus.   I think it is timely that I am now on holiday as I obviously need to get out more.

As it turned out I was under the 23kg allowed.  For security reasons I did not reveal how much I had spare as I knew certain others on the trip would feel that this space belonged to them.  Moreover, I wanted to use this leverage to acquire snacks, treats and other such niceties that at that moment did not belong to me.

It didn’t turn out like that.

From the next room I heard the sounds of someone beginning to pack.  Not some practice drill where things can be slung and draped, but the real thing.  Where the very foundation of physics would be challenged and personal property dissembled into its crudest subatomic particles.  There was simpering but also there were sounds too confusing to make out.   I didn’t ask any questions.  Needless to say my spare capacity disappeared in the blinking of an eye.

Jo’s Dad took us to the airport and our flight to Newark was uneventful.  A long security clearance meant we didn’t get to our overnight in the Holiday Inn until 0130am.  

Our alarm went off at 0430am. I still cannot see properly.

We flew from Newark to Denver and from there to Riverton, Wyoming in a 19 seat Beechcraft twin prop plane.  Although the pilots were 14 years old and the inside of the plane looked like someone had cut and shut two Hillman Imps, the journey was fantastic and not in the least turbulent like one of the child pilots has warned it might be.

The flight took us north across the endless farmlands of Denver, flanked to the west by the Rocky Mountains.   We set down in Riverton and were driven in the plane directly to the door of the airport building.   We were told to collect our baggage inside and this bizarrely just involved someone lifting a case off the plane, walking 5 feet, and pushing it through an oversized catflap, where we collected it inside.

On the other side was our first brush with the nasty side of the Western USA.  The Nissan Cube.   We’re not car people.  We like to be comfortable and have an engine size to suit the roads we’re on but this car actually made us flinch when we saw it, and I’m not certain Jo didn’t actually make a gagging sound.   

She sensibly returned to the Hertz desk and we were given another far more suitable saloon car.  I wanted to take a photograph of the Nissan Cube but couldn’t quite bring myself to do it.  Please look it up and I hope you agree that it wasn’t the car for us.  Jo is utterly convinced Nissan could only every have made one and it’s thankfully still sitting in the Hertz car park at Riverton Airport.

From here, an easy one road drive to our first national park; Grand Teton.  The land became greener and lusher as we approached and soon after we saw the pine forests, the incredible Teton mountain range came into sight.  One can read accounts and look at photographs galore but you only really understand why people want be somewhere when you yourself are surrounded by it.   

We stopped briefly at a viewing point and headed on to the park entrance where we bought our Interagency Annual Pass ($80) which we can now use to get into all parks in the USA for one year.

We’re sitting here now at Jackson Lake Lodge with a glass of wine and the sun is just about to set over the Tetons.  We are watching the moose, mooseing around in the Willow flats and we can tell you the mosquitoes are very very hungry.