Back on the Network

Well it was a great trip out to the research station but there was very little internet there so there was very little blogging there. We're currently driving through South Dakota and relay towers are a bit more frequent than in the Teton national forest. 

There will be lots of pics to follow but just a few highlights of the trip were;

Learning to fly fish, the Tetons, Yellowstone, the Tetons, Jackson, watching Cayden and his new BFF, chef Willy, the Tetons, lake Jenny hiking, Bombus occidentalis, and most of all spending some quality time with the Dillons. 

Arrival

We made it!  After camping at 9,980 ft in the Medicine bow national forest Thursday night we drove the rest of the way into the Tetons and arrived at Jackson Lake yesterday afternoon. There's pretty much no cell service so if you need to get in touch email is probably best. 

It's beautiful up here and when we get back out of the woods onto a quicker network I'll post up pics. 

Drive Faster

When I was talking with my parents back in April about our plans to camp across the country until we hit Wyoming with a four year old and an eight year old, it went something like this:

Ann: What do people say when you tell them about this trip?
J: My students all say, "Wow! That is amazing! I wish my parents had done a trip like this when I was a kid.
Tim:  Have any parents said that?

In all honesty, I expected this to be an awesome trip, but I recognized the possibility that my kids might cry and whine for six days straight and we could end up in Wyoming filthy, smelly, mosquito bitten and bitter. We are definitely mosquito-bitten, but we are just the right amount og filthy and the kids have taken the alarming change in their routine like champs. On day two Dalton weakly lobbied to go back home, and when he realized that wasn't going to work he switched tactics: "I really think we should drive faster". Smart kid.

Starved Rock

Our first 2 days on the road have been uneventful in a good way. Sunday was a 6 hour drive to Ohio and today was one of our two long days at 8 hours. We're currently camped at Starved Rock near the Illinois river which left its banks behind 3 weeks ago according to the locals. 

Counter Assault

All the literature says that the most effective bear deterrent is this stuff. Apparently you just spray it in the air between you and the bear and the bear wants NOTHING to do with it and runs the other way. Of course all the literature also says that if you're doing the right thing you'll almost never confront the bear in the first place. 

My first instinct would have been to bring a bazooka but that's apparently frowned on in the national parks. Friggen environmentalist hippies. 

Fire Starters

I realized that we were all out of fire starters so I broke out the paraffin and lint. One of the few uses of empty egg containers. 

Mobile Blogging - Take 1

In preparation for our upcoming trip to Wyoming we're piloting the mobile app blogging lifestyle. 

Hells yeah.

Thank goodness we paid for a quality mattress for the honey badger.