Vacations Blog

(Continued from Part One and Part Two.)

“Babe?” I said to my husband one weekend morning. Laptop at hand, I had the road atlas by my side, a Word document going that I was using to record our plans, and MapQuest queued up in my web browser.

“Yep?” He replied, absently reading the paper.

“We’re stuck in Cody, WY.”

“Hmm…” he mumbled.

“No, really, hon. We’re stuck in Cody and I don’t know where to go from there.” I rustled the edge of his paper to get his attention. Clearly, he wasn’t understanding my sense of urgency.

“Sorry, what?” He looked up from his paper and blinked at me. Because, obviously, we were sitting quite happily in our living room, and not stranded at the side of the road in some random corner of the mid-west.

“Okay,” I explained patiently, “Here’s the plan so far. Phoenix to Salt Lake City, spend the night there, then three nights in Jackson Hole. I’m going to try to get us lodging in Yellowstone itself for two nights, and from there we’re going to Cody to spend one night. After Cody… well, I don’t know which way to go to get us home.”

After I finished this little speech, my husband replied with, “Oh, I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” and went back to peacefully reading his paper. Which you might think is inconsiderate, but my husband knows I LOVE this stuff. So really I wasn’t expressing an issue so much as looking for validation of all of my hard work.

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We decided to “wing it” for the hotel in SLC, figuring we’ll just get some random room off the interstate. That out of the way, I started to research the Jackson/Jackson Hole area to figure out the lay of the land, and here’s where I discovered a valuable bit of knowledge when planning any kind of trip – check out that state’s official tourism bureau website. They’re all happy to provide area guides free of charge, so I ordered one for Wyoming. I received it in the mail in under a week (you can order on-line versions as well, but I’m one of those people who prefer to hold it in my hands rather than look at it on a screen). Once I saw just how handy it was, I then did the same for the Utah travel guide and the Colorado travel guide.

In Jackson Hole, I discovered a vacation destination in and of itself. I booked a hotel right in Teton Village – The Inn at Jackson Hole. I regularly entertain myself, now seven weeks away from our vacation, with visions of my husband and I hiking the mountain trails and riding the Aerial Tram to the top of Rendezvous Mountain. Maybe we’ll even go whitewater rafting! The timing of our visit also coincides with the Grand Teton Music Festival, and I’ve got to say it’s incredibly appealing to consider enjoying outdoor concerts in such a setting.

I suspect will find ourselves with a whopping case of, “Too Much To Do, Too Little Time To Do It”.

With the Teton Village arrangements now set, I turned my attention toward Yellowstone itself. Jackson Hole is just south of Yellowstone, so we could conceivably stay in Jackson Hole and make day trips into Yellowstone Park. Something about that didn’t sit quite right with me, though – I wanted the ENTIRE experience. I hopped on Yellowstone Park’s official reservation website, and started looking for accommodations. My heart sank as I realized that location after location was fully booked. My dream of staying in the Old Faithful Inn started to waver. In a last-ditch effort, I gave up on the on-line booking system and called them directly. I crossed my fingers as I asked the very nice reservations representative if they, perchance, had any rooms available for the timeframe I was looking for. I must say, this woman was incredibly enthusiastic as she revealed that she had JUST gotten off the line with a family that was tendering a cancellation. I was the very next call she took, and the dates I wanted were the very dates that had just been opened up.

You guys, things like that NEVER happen to me. I NEVER have that kind of luck. I booked two nights in the “Hi-Range Room” with alacrity, and accepted the offer to make a reservation in the dining room for dinner the first night. My daydreaming has now expanded to include strolls among the hot springs, high-speed photo opportunities of the Old Faithful geyser, telephoto opportunities of wolves, bears, bison, deer, and any other wildlife the area has to offer, and night skies blanketed with stars.

I miss starry skies. You just don’t get ‘em in the Phoenix metropolitan area.

At this point I found myself on the back half of the vacation planning. I figured we were on the home stretch! The rest of the arrangements should be a breeze… if I could free us from Cody, that is.

To be continued, so stay tuned!