Days 33 & 34: Grand Teton NP to Home!

Idaho

Day 33: 08/02/12 Grand Teton NP to Three Island Crossing Campground, ID

7:53am - 5:40pm / Distance 354 mi
Min Alt 5322 ft / Max 9572 ft

Stopped in Jackson for some fancy donuts (not review worthy) and then headed for the EBR-1 Nuclear Museum! Arrived about 1:30 and had a terrific tour.

Drove past Craters of the Moon NM and then on to Three Island Crossing. It is so nice to drive the back roads when we can. Arrived at the campground and by 6:15 Lynn was giving the tent trailer a good thorough cleaning.

We enjoyed a quiet evening and a spectacular moonrise while imagining the travelers along the Oregon Trail. We had a great night of sleep.

Oregon

Day 34: 08/02/12 Three Island Crossing, ID to Eugene!

8:30am - 5:40pm / Distance 354 mi

Gained an hour. Phew. Stopped at the Starlite Cafe in Vale, OR for breakfast treats and had Thai food at the Elk Horn Cafe in Burns. Oh so good.

What a wonderful trip this has been. So many things learned, people met, and miles traveled.

Days 31 & 32: 7/30 & 7/31/12 Grand Teton NP

7/30/12 Lizard Creek Campground, Grand Teton National Park

We had a nicely busy day today. Lynn served Therese a breakfast of scrambled eggs and potatoes in the tent trailer and then we took a drive down to the bike path where rode our bikes 16 miles on the Teton Park bike path to Jenny Lake. After our ride, we went to the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center and took a hike on the Murie Ranch Trail.

7/31/12 Lizard Creek Campground, Grand Teton National Park

Today we drove over to Coulter Bay and hiked around on the Lakeshore Trail.

Day 30: 7/29/12 Laramie, WY to Grand Teton, NP

9:30am - 4:15pm / Distance 368 mi

Lizard Creek Campground, Grand Teton National Park

Had another easy morning and then off to our favorite little campground in Grand Teton. Arrived just in the later afternoon and took advantage of a ranger talk about moose at the campground and Therese enjoyed reading her book in bed.

Running, biking and hiking for the next couple days! This may be Therese’s new fave National Park!

Day 29: 7/28/12 Wellfleet, NE to Laramie, WY

Wyoming

10:45am - 5:55pm / Distance 297 mi

Days Inn, Laramie

It's always a long drive across Wyoming. This time, we decided to take our time in the morning and enjoy our earthen lodge. We made our way to a hotel in Laramie for the night.

Day 28: 07/27/12 New Franklin, MO to Wellfleet, NE

Kansas & Nebraska

9:23am - 6:58pm / Distance 563.1 mi
Min Alt 577 ft / Max 2972 ft

Dancing Leaf Earthen Lodge, Wellfleet, NE

Our big stop of the day was the Rans Bicycle Factory Tour in Hays, KS! We got there just in time for Therese to run in and get a tour. Then it was off to our lodging for the night, the Dancing Leaf Earthen Lodge complete with a buffalo dinner and evening tour (payable by cash or personal check $60/night +10/person for dinner = $80 + tax).

It was a really interesting place to stay, but it was hot inside of the earthen lodge and we slept on deer hides. Our host gave us an excellent talk about the medicine wheel that he had created on his site and we enjoyed a very tasty dinner.

 

Day 27: 07/26/12 Fort Marion, IL to New Franklin, MO

Missouri

9:33am - 6:17pm / Distance 331 mi

Min Alt 406 ft / Max Alt 912 ft

Katy Roundhouse Campground

Sometimes it feels weird to stay in a hotel, but when you have a long day ahead, it is nice to wake up knowing that you don’t have to break camp.

Pancakes made on demand by a fancy machine at the hotel before 8 and we arrived at our first stop of the day: Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site —it is also a world heritage site(!). My archaeology teacher at LCC did a lot of work at this site and she would go on and on about it. So I figured that I had better get there someday and today was the day! Fortunately for us, there was an archaeological project going on when we were there, so we ended up getting a little talk about it.

Therese has dreams of riding the Katy Trail one day, so when she saw that we would be driving near it, she suggested that we camp at one of the bicycle campgrounds. So we camped at the Katy Roundhouse campground, which is right on the Katy Trail. There wasn’t anyone else camping there, but we had a good time and even took our bikes for a ride around 8:15pm or so.