Jim comes back from a ride hankering to tweak the bike fix. He tries a few things, including a spare cable he has in his toolbox but, no dice, the cable is too short. It should be noted that my bike is working better than it has since I had a new crank and front derailleur installed many years ago, but that’s my bro, a perfectionist.
Deb joins the party with dogs. I can’t really believe Deb and Jim live in their camper with Casey and Kip. Those dogs are incredible! Can you imagine Sammy living with Pam and I for 17 days? You’ve never met Sammy? He’s a good boy and we love him but his foot odor is worse than mine, if that’s even fathomable.
Erin shows herself from the creekside campground. Taylor wakes up when erin tells him, “it’s 2:30 you’re going to miss your flight!”.
After packing up and driving down to the pump to grab some nice fresh Hyalite Canyon spring water we say bye to Jim, Deb and the pooches. Waaaah!
Into Bozeman and Erin’s apartment for a short visit to check on Madelaine and then into town for lunch at the Nova Cafe.
Shopping for a magazine for taylor then off to the airport
3:45 outta town destination: grand tetons
We see a bear on the way to Jenny Lake. It’s surrounded by tourists (I edited myself here).
We see a bunch of deer
Stop at Jenny Lake for foot dip and pics. See a deer at the visitor center
Fumbling around looking for gros ventre campground while an incredible sunset goes down over the Tetons. Turns out we’re reading the map totally wrong. We finally figure it out and get oriented. While driving away from the Tetons on Antelope Flats Road we end up driving through a large herd of bison complete with Moms and babies. YIKES! We’re waaay too close, all the things they tell you not to do, but the herd stands between us and the campground and I’ll take full responsibility for the lapse of safe piloting. I didn’t come between a mother and her child. I was VERY careful not to do that!
Campground at 10-ish
The small ledge behind Langhor Campground
Hangin’ in the morning sun
Getting the breakfast fire ready
Sinttin and grinnin
The girls!
JUMP…off the stage at the Emerson’s outdoor park
Short stop in Yellowstone
Yellowstone 2
Yellowstone 3
Jackson Lake from 287/191/89
Grand Tetons from turnout near Jenny Lake
My lovely wife taking photos
Then she was gone
The Eurovan back on the road headed East…waaaaaaah!
Up at 7.
Bike ride with Jim out 287 towards route 90. It’s flat and the pavement is rough but there’s a nice big shoulder when we start out. Shortly after we cross 90 we start to climb a bit and to our left we notice an odd looking herd of horses on the hill across from us. They’re not moving but they look real. As we get closer we see it’s a herd of horse statues! We climb over the top of the hill and the road narrows. At the first road that comes in from the right, we turn around. It’s no fun riding on a flat, straight road with no shoulder and cars traveling by at 70-75 miles an hour. On the way back by the horses we stop to take some pics. We stop at Wheat Montana Farms on the way back and get some coffee and a few different types of cinnamon buns.
Back at the campsite we commence the gutbomb fest of cinnamon buns and coffee.
We all pack up and stop at Wheat Montana Farms to pickup some sandwiches for lunch. We’re all all headed to hyalite canyon. First stop is WalMart in Bozeman for supplies. The caravan starts out from the bakery but uncle Jim heads in the wrong direction on 90. Oh well, he’ll catch up. Deb texts the shopping list to us and we hitail it to wally world. It’s getting dang hot BTW.
The shopping spree is relatively painless as far as shopping in rediculously large, stupidly overstocked and unusually crowded stores goes. Once back in the lot, Uncle Jim decides to shop for a new hose when he finally arrive. Uncle Jimmy wants to head out and he also wants to make sure he knows where he’s going when he had to fly out of Bozeman so I give him directions and he takes off. Jim comes out of Wally World with an “as seen on TV” wind up hose…I don’t have a TV so I’ve never seen it but he’s pretty pumped!
The ride to Hyalite is cool except for my wrong turn out of WalMart. I didn’t do that to make my brother feel better by the way. I just fucked up. So we pull a U turn and get the campers rollin’ in the right direction. Taylor chows a bit of a sandwich while we roll to keep his energy happening. When we pull onto the Hylalite Canyon road, it looks a little rural but within a mile or two, we’re riding alongside Hyalite Creek and it’s looking really sweet. Taylor perks up because it looks like we’ll be next to moving water…his favorite subject as of late!
We pull in to the Langhor Campground and drive to the back corner. Pam, Deb and Beth reserved campsites in a row. The one that Deb reserved turns out to be huge and very close to the water. So we put the “Enterprise” – Jim and Deb’s Camper – and the “Pamdemonium” – Pammie & my camper – together awning to awning so we can have some shade.
Erin and Taylor pull out the tents and look for a spot up by the creek. After a little searching they find a great spot with their tents right next to each other. Taylor and Pam rig up a beer bag in the stream to keep the brews nice and chilly. Taylor and I take a dip in the stream and I just about have a heart attack! The water waaay colder than the Atlantic Ocean. Damn!!
Once we’re all setup and everyone is settled, Jamey starts working on my bike. We put it on the rack on the back of the Eurovan which is setup with it’s back to the entrance to campsite so it’s the most accessible. He does both derailleurs and it’s quite a treat to watch him work and work with him a bit ’cause he’s my bro AND he’s a PRO! My bike has never felt soooo good.
Jimmy starts a fire and everyone starts working on dinner. Veggies, potatoes, burgers from the coop with BACON and cheese in them! WHAT! All cooked on the campfire. Yeeeha. Jimmy and I man the fire and the food comes out damn good if we do say so ourselves.
Alex shows up just after dinner but there’s plenty of food left over. We all hang around the camp fire as the sun sets and it’s a cool, quiet night in the Canyon. Perfect for sleeping!!
