Idaho Discoveries

 

So what did Hopper learn in those mountains separating Idaho from Wyoming?

First, let’s take care of some business. I read Book III of War and Peace in its entirety while there, surpassing my previous long distance record into the book set in December of 2012. Additionally, I managed to get 164 pages in to Roger Penrose’s Fashion, Faith, and Fantasy in the New Physics of the Universe before getting lost in the weeds. Some day I’ll learn about twistor theory!

From my Eco Tour I learned moose can swim. Moose can dive. Moose can dive up to 20 feet underwater to eat vegetation at the bottoms of rivers, channels, etc. Because of this, they sometimes end up on the receiving end of the food chain. I was shocked to learn the moose’s number one aquatic foe is the Orca.

Also, there has never been a recorded instance of an Orca eating a human. Or so our guide assured us.

Brain eating amoebas! Brain eating amoebas! Don’t splash water in each other’s faces if your bathing in the 80 degree hot springs in the Wyoming Elk Preserve! (Yes, we stopped by a hot spring and were warned about such creatures from the deepest depths of hell.)

I wondered if skiing is like riding a bike. This old carcass of mine hasn’t skied since Bill Clinton’s first month in office. 29 years ago. Watching my girls on the bunny slope and then the beginner and intermediate slopes, I figured I could do the same. Or at least break a leg trying. I decided to remain cheering on the sidelines.

I learned how to make a monograph. That involves mixing paint on a glass sheet to get a desired palette effect, then wiping it onto a second glass plate. On this second glass plate you’d etch your subject, only in reverse. I decided to visit Middle-earth and do Saruman’s tower of Isengard. The little ones did forests, and the Mrs. did an impressionistic image of birds flying – “Beaks in the Mist.” My Tolkien tower came out crappy. Little One’s dancing trees came out surprisingly well. But “Beaks in the Mist” took the cake.

My brother-in-law had a lefty imitation Fender Stratocaster. I learned that I could play single string riffs and power chords on it, but I had absolutely no idea how to tune it, despite giving it a try for nearly a half-hour. So I knew I’d have trouble should I ever be sucked through the glass into Mirror World.

Animals seen in the wild: Sheep, Rams, Moose, Bald Eagles, Elk. Wife caught a glimpse of either wolves but probably coyotes driving along the rode one day. Bonus: we thoroughly enjoyed our hosts’ two French Bulldogs, Pinot and Coco.

Think this was the highest I ever got above sea level, save for actual flying. Where I live now in Texas is 775 above sea level. When I skied as a lad at Gore Mountain, NY, I was around 3,600 above. My sister-in-law’s place sits at 6,800 feet. Base camp at the local ski mountain is around 7,200, and the top of that mountain (which I did not go to) is around 9,800 feet.

Altitude sickness is a thing. My sister-in-law advised us to take two Advils on the plane and drink two liters of water before landing. We did. And my brother-in-law stated that “one run down the slopes is like three back where you came from.” Similarly, walking a mile up in the mountains of Idaho is like walking three on the Texan plains. I don’t know if I experienced any of that, but I was more winded than normal walking up and down the stairs in their home.

Also, a funny thing happened Thursday afternoon. We were scheduled to leave them at 10 am the next day to drive to the airport for our plane ride home, after visiting for five days. Anyway, that afternoon, I suddenly felt funny. Claustrophobic. Stuffy. Like I was a scientist in a barometric chamber at the bottom of the ocean floor. Confined. It was weird, but it passed. Altitude sickness or a desire to get back to my comfortable existence back home? Not sure.

The girls found a two thrift shops in the local town and I scored a gnarled hardcopy of Bruce Catton’s The Army of the Potomac: Mr Lincoln’s Army. This is part one of Catton’s Civil War trilogy. I had read the third installment, A Stillness at Appomattox a long time ago. Haven’t read much Civil War since 2019 – pre-Covid pre-history. Thinking about returning to the subject this summer, when those Texas winds bring that Texas heat over those Texas plains.

Getting back to Idaho, what did I think?

Well, I enjoyed it tremendously. The landscapes were absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. The wildlife – the moose and bald eagles especially – gave me chills. The bars and grills have great personality. I ate like a king those five days. But …. It’s not my lifestyle. I’m not a skier, and I’m not into snow sports. Nor am I into snow shoveling. The weather held the five days we were there except for the middle day, where a blizzard rolled in and dumped eight inches on us. Yeah, that I can do without.

I think going forward this summer I’m going to push the wife and the girls to take a handful of long weekends and explore the sites and sounds around our neck of the woods, Dallas. Stay somewhere where it’s warm …

 

Up Next: Some pics of the week.

Spring Break 2022

 

Almost on a whim, a month or so ago, the wife decided to book a visit to her sister’s home for a mini spring break vacation for the family.

And I am exhausted.

A little background: My sister-in-law is tremendously successful in her field, and her company moved her out to Dallas about ten years ago. Ever since she’s been trying to get us out here, and the Mrs. has been doing her best to do so, but the economy and a little thing we call the Wu Flu prevented us from joining her in the Lone Star State. Well, Mo and her husband moved again ten months ago, this time to Idaho, two months before we were able to swing into Texas.

Forgive me for any geographical errors as I try to spill this out. They live on the border of Idaho and Wyoming in a north-south valley that’s adjacent to both the Grand Teton mountain range and the Targhee National Park. Yellowstone is an hour’s drive northeast of her home. There’s still plenty of snow on the ground this time of year so there’s plenty of winter activities: skiing, skating, snowboarding, sledding, and snowshoeing. Her husband’s into the extreme end of such activities, but Aunt Mo is no slouch herself. We thought it would be a perfect six day trip for my two daughters during their spring break.

We had a connecting flight outbound, so I got to visit Seattle for about 45 minutes. Then, a twin prop due east for an hour and a half. We landed in Idaho Falls and the temperature was a finger-numbing 20 degrees. It would get worse. For example, when we subsequently had to hike a hundred yards or so to find the lot that held our rental car, and then spend ten minutes hunting for it.

So after ten hours of travel we were at my sister-in-law’s place. The next morning over a hearty breakfast we planned out the week: a horse-drawn sleigh ride in the Elk National Preserve, a one-on-one with an artist friend for pottery lessons for the girls, an “Eco Tour” throughout the entire valley, a trip to see the Grand Teton in all its splendor, a day of local shopping and eating, a second one-on-one with another artist friend for lessons in printing monographs (also for the girls, though the Mrs. and me also participated).

The week was capped off with two days of skiing for the girls. Little One had skied about eight years ago with relatives on my side, but Patch has never skied. They spent the morning of the first day doing about ten runs on the bunny slope under the tutelage of Aunt Mo, then graduated to the beginner slope. Thursday they warmed up with three bunny slope runs and then hit the intermediate slopes. To say they picked it up very quick is an understatement. We all were amazed. I was tempted to ski the second day, but I feared inuring myself. It’s been just under 30 years since I graced a ski slope.

The Grand Teton mountain range, taken with my humble iPhone 8. Grand Teton is the largest peak at 13,775 feet. The two mountains to the right are the Middle Teton and South Teton, while Owen Mountain sits to its left. Or so as I understand it.

The return trip was a direct flight from Idaho Falls to Dallas Fort Worth, and only took about four hours. Yeah, we had an hour drive to the airport and a forty-five minute drive home after touchdown, so all-in-all, we only spent about six hours traveling on the return. The Mrs. planned it so we’d be back by supper Friday, which gave us the entire weekend to unwind and relax and recuperate from our vacation before the work grind resumed.

So, what did Hopper find interesting?

Turns out, a whole lot.

But that’ll be a subject for the next post.