½ Tank #6

By the time we got to Yellowstone on Friday, Hannah and I were exhausted and knew that we still had a long ways to go before our bunking down point in Jackson Hole. We also knew that we wouldn’t have time to thoroughly explore Yellowstone like we wanted and get to Jackson before dark. We had planned to travel through Yellowstone to get to Jackson, which several people told us would take about 4 hours, but we thought that would be a faster route than driving through Idaho. When we got to the ticket booth, an awesome lady let us know that it actually would be faster to travel via Idaho, because of “all the idiots” driving through the park. Ha. While in W. Yellowstone a gas attendant from Louisiana also said that he was going to have to adopt me because I had been there so long (10 minutes).

Thanks to our wonderful informant we arrived in Jackson Hole by 6:45 p.m. and that included stopping briefly along the way. Hannah also found where she wants to live: Driggs, ID. It had logs cabins, a white Subaru for sale, AND a natural food store. She was pretty stoked. Oh, and the view of the Tetons wasn’t too bad either.

On the way through the pass from ID to WY, we think we may have been having some car problems. Hopefully Petie is doing okay tomorrow. Any prayers or good thoughts would be much appreciated.

Hannah and I were super happy when we finally made it to Jackson. We started searching for the street our hostel was on, but didn’t have any luck so I called them again. The girl was still very nice, especially as she explained that they are located in Teton Village, which we had passed. So we turned around and back tracked. It’s worth it though. TV is an adorable little place made for ski bums, although it’s the off-season now so there’s not too much going on. We checked in, moved our stuff to our room, then set off to find some food and fun. A saloon/restaurant was open, so we went to the bar and ate burgers while watching a band set up. Sidenote: what kind of name is “R U A PP Head” for a band? A dumb one. We didn’t end up listening to the band because they took too long to start performing, but if they ever get famous under that name I will be amazed.

Oh, and did I mention it was freezing when we arrived? Literally freezing. It was kind of a shock. So when we get to our room we are sad to discover that it is also freezing inside. At first we think the heater is broken, but Hannah fiddled with it and it kicked on. Unfortunately there was no instant gratification. Just that smell of a heater being turned on when it hasn’t been used in a while. So, and this is my “hilarious” story for the day, Hannah decided to turn the shower on high heat to try and create more warmth. What we didn’t expect is that using the shower would smell like sulfur. No joke -- it was AWEFUL! Luckily we found that out before either of us tried to take a shower. But the bathroom still smelled bad even after we got back from dinner.

Communications between Hannah and I are still going well, even though we have had a couple small...um, disagreements. It’s great to talk things through in the moment rather than just being annoyed with each other for a few days and then trying to pretend nothing happened. I’m still not very good at it because it’s not a method I’m used to, but I’m hoping Hannah will continue to be patient with me as I learn.

After a good night’s rest we left the hostel and headed back to Jackson Hole to look around a bit. We got some warm drinks then walked around town, only to discover that most stores were closed. Eventually we came across a touristy shop, and while Hannah was lusting after all the merchandise I struck up a conversation with the woman working as cashier. She was super nice and ended up giving Hannah a lot of advice about working and living in Jackson, which she would love to do. We talked to her for probably 10 minutes and then were on our way. We checked out another souvenir store before aimlessly walking around town, then decided we had seen enough. Or that we were cold enough, I’m not completely sure which.

We made our way north we incredible scenery all around us. Hannah discovered a crossword puzzle in one of the newspapers we grabbed, and we quickly learned how few random facts we know. We went through the Teton National Forrest and then hit Yellowstone.

While sightseeing in Yellowstone Hannah and I discussed our views on nature. I noticed that although Old Faithful is amazing, I didn’t really sense God’s glory stemming from it as easily as I do when I see mountains or the ocean. And I’m pretty sure it’s because of how much construction had occurred around it. I felt as if I were at the zoo, watching something wild by nature just sit and howl as an uncaring audience pointed and stared. To be honest, it disgusted me that mankind had built these extreme lodges right next to one of God’s amazing creations. It is such a blessing that we get to live amongst these incredibly beautiful landscapes, and then we just make a mockery of it and charge $25 to allow others to view the splendor. Who are we to mangle earth the way we do? God gave us this land to take care of it and watch over it, not to molest it to make it better for ourselves. And what’s sad, is I’m part of it. I drive a lot, even when I’m not roadtripping around the country. I eat foods that are either produced with unnatural chemicals or killed by cruel methods. Hannah knows a lot more about that stuff than I do, and she’s teaching me little by little, but I am admittedly not at a point in my life where I’m willing to change my habits. I hope that someday soonish I find a place to “settle” down in for a little while and I can work on altering my lifestyle to better respect God’s creation.

As we headed toward the east entrance of Yellowstone Hannah napped a bit to try and get her monster headache to go away. She awoke just before we exited the park, and after a few miles we passed a car that seemed to flash it’s lights at us. We weren’t sure whether they were being rude or trying to warn us about something, so I slowed down a bit anyways and as we rounded a corner we discovered it was the latter. There, on the left hand shoulder, was a gigantic buffalo. It was sooo cool. We pulled off to the side of the road, slowly and quietly, behind another onlooking vehicle, and the car on our tail followed suit. We rolled down our window and starting snapping pictures as this huge beast casually walked from the road to a grassy area. It was scary and wonderful all at the same time. On one hand here was this animal, in the wild, that I had never seen this close up who was just carrying out his business. On the other hand, if he felt threatened he could have easily turned and charged our car at any moment. Luckily that did not happen and as he walked off into the woods, we got back on the road again.

God bless, over and out.
~Marissa