Friday, July 8, 2011

Summer Saturday Sunshine Smiles

Saturday greetings! 'Tis another Blue Bird Day here. The wind blew like Eastern Idaho wind loves to blow yesterday, gusting to near 40 mph but today dawned delightfully for a perfect Farmers Market morning.

We had a busy "chore day" yesterday and will continue to tackle "chore boy" tasks all weekend long and Monday, too. Why so much work? Well, Roger is coming to visit at 5:15 pm Monday afternoon. That's THE Roger--Susun's brother from Mesa, Arizona. He's excited. We're excited. He's flying out of Mesa's Gateway Airport non-stop to Idaho Falls for about $200 round trip. Roger's looking forward to a week long break from the heat and we're looking forward to being tour guide hosts.

It's often said that people see more of their own tourist attractions when company comes to visit than they do any other time. Take, for example, the visit of Wes and Nancy G. the other day. We went down and had a delightful picnic under a tree overlooking The Falls. We're sitting there at the picnic table and Susun says, "Thanks, Wes and Nancy, if you weren't here, we wouldn't be picnicking at The Falls." It's true. Susun and I could go picnicking any day of the week down at The Falls. But do we? Have we? Nope. We don't and we haven't.

Now fast forward to next week some time. We're going to rent a nice new Chevy Impala four door and do The Grand Circle Tour. This tour is famous here in Eastern Idaho. We first heard about it from an EMT at a Blackfoot Memorial Hospital Open House many years ago. Here's how it works. You get up real early and zoom off north on US Hwy 20. You hot foot it to Yellowstone and see Y-stone Falls and Old Faithful. Then you zoom over to Y-stone Lake and head down the John D. Rockefeller Parkway. You drive alongside Jackson Lake and stop for a break at the majestic Jackson Lake Lodge. Then you proceed south along the old road to Jenny Lake Lodge and thence to Jenny Lake. You get out and wiggle your toes in the COLD Jenny Lake and take in the towering Tetons and then head over to Dornan's for dinner. Afterwards, you continue your tour down through Jackson Hole, the Snake River Canyon and beside Palisades Reservoir. You finish the tour by coming back onto the Snake River Plain as the sun is low on the western horizon, hopefully putting on a show similar to the incredible OMG sunset above captured (and copyright 2011) by Roger Plothow earlier this week. You arrive home tired but dazzled just about dark. As far as spectacular tours go, this one is right up there at the top of day trips. The Grand Circle Tour can only work in the middle of the summer when the days are long. The total trip length will be a whisker over 400 miles. The loop show in blue is 347 miles. We added the red spur to Y-stone Falls and that's probably a 60 mile round trip off and back from the main route. Chances are we will leave no later than 8 AM and return about Dark City at 10 pm.

Well, pistol shooting, repetitive reloading, some long recent bike rides and incessant blogging have finally caught up with my wrists. Hopefully, they are both just worn out and need a break and we're not experiencing the onset of carpal tunnel or arthritis. Deano posted up a comment about this photo. (See below). OK, yes, Deano, first you have to duct tape the camera to your face. Then you build a wooden contraption that has a vertical rod mounted over your head. When you lift up your head, the rod pushes down on the shutter. We learned it from The Rube Goldberg School of Creative Photography.

Create a great Saturday & Many Cheers, jp

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

So I just cant get how you can hold the camra with your mouth(?) and some how hit the shutter with a frowny eye brow(?) or did you have help?
Deano

Marti Spudboater said...

I am one who can attest to your hospitality and tour guide savvy. When I was at Second Chance with you and Susun you pulled out all the stops to go places you'd forgotten about or skipped for a while. Fresh eyes with other folks always reminds us of why there is almost always something good about where we live, unless we're in, say, Gary, Indiana or some hell hole like Gillette, Wyoming. But thankfully those spots are few and far between.

The Goatherder said...

So does this mean you aren't going to help me milk the goats this fall?

Shoot!