July 1, 2014 Rawlins to Rock Springs to Jackson Hole to
Yellowstone National Park
Points: Sam, the mechanic at Kilburn Tire Company- He was amazing.
Favorite Sayings of the Day: Joe-Nicholas when we finally arrived in Jackson, "Do they speak English here?".
Weird things we saw along the way: Snowmobile/bicycle lane, most intense
mosquitos
Christopher:
Kayden:
Benjamin:
Joe-Nicholas:
Jennifer's story/Amazing Adventure of Big Doggie, Little Doggie, and Combat Wombat: Captain’s
log-The Atkins Clan continued their “Grizzwald’s-Go-West-trip-of-2014” from
Rawlins, WY to Headwaters Lodge, Yellowstone, WY. I got up very early to have our minivan at
the car shop when they opened at 8:00. I
called the mechanic in Knoxville to let him know what was going on with my car
to get his opinion about what it could be and what I might expect. I had just had my car serviced and check
before I left, but unexpected issues should be expected on a 4,000 mile
trip. He gave me his advice and hoped that the fluid may be the issue,
although I had a feeling he was trying to keep my hopes up. I walked outside and it was only 48 degrees
this morning and I was not dressed for such cool weather! I pulled into the little garage only to find
I was fourth in line already at 7:45am.
Gonna be a long day…
The nicest folks in the world worked at this garage! Sam, the owner of Kilburn Tire Factory http://www.tirefactory.com/rawlins was pleasant and friendly and
announced to the waiting room that business would not begin until the coffee
was done. He poured his coffee and
offered some to all the customers. Then,
he and another young mechanic began processing various customer needs…two
travelers with flat tires, a young geologist working on a local job site who
needed his tire replaced, and then me…in need of a miracle from the
transmission gods way out here in Wyoming.
As I sat in the lobby, I had a great conversation with the front desk
clerk about her town and how it was very transient…the railroad, the wind
farms, the natural gas and the oil refinery bring in tons of temporary workers
including scientist, geologists, environmental types, and engineers who stay a
few weeks or a few months. Sam’s wife is the HR directory at the state
penitentiary and has to conduct job fairs all over the northwest trying to
recruit workers ..she is short about 100 positions typically. The young geologist sitting next to me asked
me about being a teacher (saw my “I love my job shirt) and talked to me about
growing up in Idaho and going to college in northern Idaho and how he is about
to apply for grad school at the end of this job. These folks were so interesting and were
willing to entertain a distressed traveler.
After only 20 minutes, Sam returned
to the lobby with a long sigh and a “Well…”.
I said, “I don’t like how that “well” sounded.” Sam told me that the transmission fuel was
burnt and that I was going to need work done.
He told me that here in Rawlins, USA, parts are not easy to find and it
might take two weeks or more to get things delivered. He suggested I try to make it to Red Springs where
they had more resources and three rental car services (instead of the used car
lot across the street from him) and gave me the number and address of the Honda
dealership there. He also had the sweet
lady at the desk write down the tow truck driver’s number for me just in case
because there was only a few gas stations between Rawlins and Rock Springs so I
might need his help. Again, this is gonna
be a looonnnggg Day…
I traveled back to the hotel with no issues and quickly
loaded up the gang. Of course, we stayed
at the hotel long enough for the free breakfast. Oh my goodness, Holiday Inn
Express has the best breakfast: pancake station, unbelievable cinnamon rolls,
bacon, eggs, biscuits, cereal, and other fruit and continental breakfast
items. After stuffing the kids, we
loaded up and with fingers crossed, headed to Rock Springs, WY in search of the Honda Dealership. As we drove along the highway, we saw a
antelope and possibly 3 wild horses. We
found the town of Rock City, and as its name implies, it was mostly barren
landscape with red and brown rock formations for miles. I stopped and called the first mechanic that
had very favorable reviews online and talked to him about my situation. He said he didn’t want to waste my time since
I was traveling through because he wouldn’t have time to even look at it for a
week. I contacted the Honda dealership,
and they were only a few blocks away.
Now, when I imagine a Honda dealership, I think of a giant parking lot
full of shiny new Hondas and a beautiful blue service building. This is NOT the type of dealership we came
across. Everything, but the land itself,
is small in Wyoming…the towns, the number of business hours in a day, the Honda
dealerships. We pulled into a
Honda/Toyota/Four Wheelers/motorcycles/Yamahas/generators/snow blowers/apparent
taxidermy Dealership. I found my way to
Steve in Service through the motorcycle apparel shop and discussed the
car. He didn’t give me much hope…He said
that in general, people don’t fix the transmissions…they either rebuild or
replace them entirely or they scrap the cars.
Good times. Anyway, he agreed to
look at it. Meanwhile, back in the lobby
of the Honda/Toyota/Four Wheelers/motorcycles/Yamahas/generators/snow blowers/apparent
taxidermy Dealership, mom was trying to entertain the kids a much as possible
(she is a saint by the way!) After
several trips to the snack machine, a couple of rounds of Mother May I?, and a
dozen tours around shop discussing the various and plentiful dead animals
hanging on the wall, Steve’s assistant, a young tattooed man with pegs the size of Wyoming in his ears, finally came out to talk with me. With a straight face and less than sympathetic voice, he told me that the
transmission was toast and that with parts and labor, they could have me out
the door for $7,000.00. Oh, and also,
my engine light was on and I need a new catalytic converter. Really.
As much as I love the Earth and all, how much pollution my broken down
van was putting into the Wyoming’s atmosphere was the least of my concerns at
this time. He said my options were to
fix it, sign it over to the dealership so that they could scrap it, or I could
scrap it myself. Well, ain’t that a fun
list of things you can do on a random Tuesday on the trip of a lifetime! ( I am
constantly trying not to think about Jackson Hole and the Grand Tetons that I
am supposed to be arriving at any moment had my car not died.)
So…another few phone calls and frantic internet searches…I
decide to drive my car to the Rock Springs Regional Airport, leave my van, rent
a car and continue my vacation until we could figure something out. The Atkins clan arrived at the tiny airport
(Powell Airport is only slightly smaller) and went inside to pick up our
internet reserved minivan. Once I got
inside, the two young clerks informed me that they didn’t have a minivan…did I
want a car instead? Well, I need seating
for 7 because I am supposed to be a Jackson Airport at 8:00 PM to pick up Chris
to join the Adventure. Because of the
issues with their website, they agreed to upgrade me to a Suburban for the same
fee. Great! We quickly grabbed our ton and ½ of gear,
unloaded the cargo hold on top and left it on my van, and thank goodness, had a
hitch to hook up our rack on the back for our food and cooler for our upcoming
three day stay in the National Parks. I
couldn’t get the back seat completely folded up, but I figured Chris could put
it up for me once we picked him up. 6
seats were perfect and the two DVD players installed in the Suburban were a
huge plus. So rental car secured, the
clan headed out towards Jackson Hole.
We still had
a three-hour drive ahead of us, but we were finally on our way to
Yellowstone! The drive to Jackson was
again an amazing sight.
I know I keep
using that word, but it truly was an awe-inspiring sight. We drove through lush valleys and towards
snow capped mountains. The High Cold
Desert is beautiful in its own way with the small bushes and varied wild
flowers. There were more houses and
small towns along this path and each community had its own sign with population
and elevation. The smallest town had 10
members. We made one quick restroom stop
and were almost completely devoured by some type of man-eating mosquitoes. Terrifying little creatures.
Relief
completely washed over me as we finally reached the adorable resort town of
Jackson. We learned that Jackson is the
town and Jackson Hole is the name used to refer to the whole valley. It was like a high-end Gatlinburg. Jackson is
tucked into the mountains and has rows of specialty shops, historic inns,
mercantiles and other souvenir shops, art galleries, and western-themed
saloons. Of course the park in the
center of town with its Elk Antler Arches is the most famous spot, so we headed
there first. 
Amazingly, parking is FREE
in Jackson. We found a spot and walked
towards the park. We spotted a crowd of
people and heard some commotion coming from the street and that sounded like a
perfect place to start our Jackson adventure.
We walked down a row of adorable shops to the corner of the two main
streets in town that had been shut down.
In the middle of the intersection, the Jackson Playhouse actors (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLu3mX86npw) were
just beginning their gunfight show in front of an excited crowd. They were dressed in period clothing and the
characters included two ranchers/gold miners, a lady sheriff, some saloon
girls, and of course some bad guys. They
group did a 5 to 10 minutes street fight that included gold being stolen,
people getting shot (even on the balcony), and the gold being returned to their
rightful owner…the boys were THRILLED with the actual gunpowder being used…very
loud with a real puff of smoke. (http://www.jacksonholewy.net/events/town_square_shootout.php) The kids
were loving Jackson so far.
Amazingly, parking is FREE
in Jackson. We found a spot and walked
towards the park. We spotted a crowd of
people and heard some commotion coming from the street and that sounded like a
perfect place to start our Jackson adventure.
We walked down a row of adorable shops to the corner of the two main
streets in town that had been shut down.
In the middle of the intersection, the Jackson Playhouse actors (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLu3mX86npw) were
just beginning their gunfight show in front of an excited crowd. They were dressed in period clothing and the
characters included two ranchers/gold miners, a lady sheriff, some saloon
girls, and of course some bad guys. They
group did a 5 to 10 minutes street fight that included gold being stolen,
people getting shot (even on the balcony), and the gold being returned to their
rightful owner…the boys were THRILLED with the actual gunpowder being used…very
loud with a real puff of smoke. (http://www.jacksonholewy.net/events/town_square_shootout.php) The kids
were loving Jackson so far. 
After the
show, we walked to the park to have our pictures made underneath the antler
arches. We continued to walk around the
town and shopped in the cute souvenir shops where Kayden and Joe-Nicholas
found their goodies that Nana bought for them.
Joe-Nicholas got a wolf he named Jackson and Kayden bought a Beatles/Abby
Road inspired t-shirt with bears crossing the street and said The Bears. We stepped inside the Wort Inn (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FUCv2Afz2E) to see the counter top made all of silver dollars, and peeked our heads into the Cowboy bar
with its saddle bar stools. You had to
be 21 to actually go in, so we just looked through the doors. This was a fun day of strolling in a resort town.
Chris’s plane got delayed again, so we
decided to just hang out in Jackson until his flight got there instead of going
an hour to our hotel, and coming back in an hour. We shopped for groceries for our 3 day stay inside the park at Albertson's grocery, which was a great place to shop. We got breakfast, lunch, picnic, and grilling items that we would eat throughout the week. Next, we found a city park with a great playground
structure and beautiful picnic facilities.
The boys got some much needed stretch time and played and ran and
screamed for about an hour. We had a PB
& J picnic while we watched the kids.
It was getting dark, so we loaded up to find the airport. As we crossed into the Grand Teton Park, Mom
and I stopped to get pictures of the kids at the National Park sign. The mountains were already so
beautiful…cannot imagine what scenery we have in store for us the next 3
days!
We parked at the airport and waited about an hour for Chris
as the boys watched a movie in the car.
When he landed, we drove by to pick him up and were very excited to see
him. It was almost dark by this time, so our view watching would have to wait
until morning. We drove north through
the park about an hour until we found our ranch, Headwaters Cabins at Flagg
Ranch (http://www.gtlc.com/headwaters-lodge.aspx) just outside of Yellowstone Park.
On the way up, we saw one lone deer on the side of the road.
We found our cabin and camping cabin in the pitch black and
finally got to bed well after midnight! So, it was kind of a long day, but it ended on such a great note...the car thing is only a small hiccup.
Good Night, Yellowstone!
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