Home is like a nice warm pair of socks that are still 80%
wet and 106 degrees.
Well, at this point we’ve been home for a little over a week
and life is back to normal unfortunately.
Jess is back at work and we’re getting ready for school to start back up
on Monday, we even bought books today…that was fun. Our drive home was
relatively uneventful but we had a blast and saw some really good friends on
the trip.
When we left Yellowstone we headed south through the park so
Jess could see the Tetons and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We didn’t really see a whole lot as we drove
south through the park. As we drove up on the Tetons we saw some of the most
beautiful mountains we have ever seen. We took a scenic drive through Grand
Teton National Park and enjoyed the views.
If you’ve never been to the Tetons, I highly suggest it before you kick
the proverbial bucket if you know what I’m saying. On our way out of the Tetons
we hit a lovely little traffic jam because some genius decide to go all Dukes
of Hazzard over a dried up creek bed…everybody looked like they were ok but I’m
sure it was awesome to see. We made a quick trip through Jackson Hole taking in
as many sights of the city as you can from a car. All I can say is that place
was CROWDED!!! After we made it through the metropolitan city of Jackson’s Hole
(that’s what the sign in front of the Methodist Church calls it…) we continued
on our way to Orem, UT. The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful other than
it rained on us pretty much most of the day. We didn’t end up arriving in Orem
until 23:00 hours. It was a veeerrrrrrrryyyy long day.
While in Orem for the one night that we were there we stayed
with our close family friends the Kurt and Mitzi. They made us a wonderful
roast dinner for that night and we very promptly crashed in the basement
(basements are fun). The next morning we woke up and took our time getting on
the road, we only had a short drive that next day. That morning we picked fresh
fruits and veggies in the backyard garden and had Danish apple pancakes
(ebelskivers) for breakfast, they were amazing. We hung out for a little bit
and had BLT’s for lunch. Then we hit the road to Cedar City, UT. We made it to
Cedar around 18:30 and had a tasty dinner waiting on us. We stayed with some
more family friends, the Garner’s, who used to live in Texas but unfortunately
had to move to Utah a few years ago.
Upon our speedy arrival we were greeted with open arms and a
wonderful taco dinner. It was a nice sensation to be back in the city the past
two nights. Because we were in the throes of civilization Jess decided she
wanted to watch a movie…so we did. We perused the extensive movie collection
and chose the longest film in our world’s existence…The Lord of the Ring’s: The
Fellowship of the Ring. Jess decided a while back that we needed to watch the
trilogy so we can be sufficiently prepared for when The Hobbit comes out at the
end of the year. The next day it was
stake conference so we went and enjoyed a lovely conference and a wonderful day
with the Garner’s. Two of the Garner offspring came over for dinner and we had
a great time and enjoyed catching up.
The next morning we hit the road around 10 and with a few
detours we were finally on our way to Albuquerque via the Grand Canyon. After a few hours we finally arrived at the
turn off to the north rim of the canyon another hour after that we finally got
there. We suffered through the oppressive heat and walked out to Bright-Angel
Point and took in the view. It was beautiful.
The next part of the drive was
incredibly depressing. We were driving through the Navajo Native American
reservation. This land, for the most part, was desolate and dry with little to
no resources. This once proud tribe has been forced onto these reservations and
been given these large tracts of land by the government. I really don’t want to
go on a government fueled rant so I will stop there. Our drive to Albuquerque was a long boring
one.
We finally arrived late that night and checked to our hotel with no
issues. Luckily this place was remarkably nicer than the place we stayed while
in Denver. The next morning we woke up and got on the road headed home. I will
say this to summarize the drive, most of the time we were driving through west
Texas. Fortunately we brought some rain back to Texas with us. Once we passed
through Childress it rained on us almost the entire way home. That was
definitely needed and welcomed rain as we found out. We arrived home safely and
got back into the spin of normal life. It’s been a little weird being home. I
keep walking outside thinking I’m going to see mountains and amazing wildlife
when all I see is great expanses of flatness, squirrels, skunks and the
occasional armadillo. We loved our time in Yellowstone and our great adventure
that we went on this summer. It was a great experience for us as individuals
and as a couple. We met some amazing people, got to reconnect with some old
friends and saw some wonderful scenery. Overall I would for sure say that we
had a successful summer, one we will never forget.
