In the beginning, in a land known only as Tacoma there was rain and much wetness lay upon the land. Too, there were rivers, and they were brown and full and the trout did not tarry and made themselves scarce. And there was more rain and more rain and soon there were Extreme Telecommuters looking for warmth, comfort, a place in the sun. And there were freeways -- miles and miles of glorious asphalt! -- and some of them pointed south where the sun was reputed to dwell. And our weary Telecommuters, though well-refrigerated, were needful of a nurturing warmth. And so there came a pitched cry -- we must away to the South! To the South, we tell you!
And so we go, seeking the sun but rarely finding. Jackson Hole was a private hell for us, rebuffing our every desire with a cruel sneer. The lone exception was the Post Office, where we picked up our General Delivery mail from Tacoma with nary a hitch. Do you know about General Delivery mail? It's a really neat feature of the U.S.P.S. It's designed to accomodate folks who are moving into an area but don't have an address yet, but it works great for travellers, too. You just specify that your mail be delivered "General Delivery" to a specific zip code, and they will hold it for you at that zip code's post office. It's really pretty handy. We've been having my Extreme Parents send us a weekly mail drop at a post office along our route. It works just great.
In any case, it was a good thing the U.S.P.S. worked so well since nothing else in Jackson Hole did. No Kinko's. No Holiday Inns. No accomodating hotels. A Mailboxes, Etc. that refused to admit that if they could charge for faxes, they could probably charge me for a telephone call using my laptop modem. "We just don't do that." That's that ole Yankee know-how, right there.
At this point, the dagnabbed Acoustic Koupler's shards were littering the highway between Grand Teton and Jackson. Well, at least they oughta be. I can't talk about the Acoustic Koupler right now -- the pain is too fresh. We needed network access. We managed to rent a workstation on the internet from some company in Jackson Hole to FTP up the page a day late, but then we had to get out. Jackson was eating us alive.
So, we consulted the old Kinko's directory and found that there was an outpost in Laramie, Wyoming. Using only a sextant and some bellybutton lint, we mapped a clever route tracing the Wind River mountains down to Laramie. Extreme Fellow Traveller Jacek has waxed rhapsodic about these mountains for what must be closing in on a decade, now, so we decided to see for ourselves. I think we must have gone on the wrong side of the mountains, because what we saw was nice enough, but just a tad forgettable having just left the grandeur of the Tetons. We did get the Scenic Shot of the Day, though, en route to Dubois, Wyoming. If you can't tell from the picture, it's a moose. Moose are cool.
Coming out of the Winds, we hit some arid plains with nothing but straight roads between us and Laramie. Kristanne's eyes glazed over as she set the cruise control at 70 and set to battling the killer winds and insane squalls of the Wyoming badlands. I was in back, writing the web page, and bearing witness to an awesome confrontation between woman and the elements. Stripped down to the barest elements -- Kristanne, van, road, weather -- there was a primal urgency informing the whole drama. Kristanne is pretty much as atavistic as she wants to be, so naturally she dominated like a modernday Lynda Carter (sans cool lycra bustier, natch).
There you see her at the right, mid-ordeal, just waiting
for more gas so she can continue the struggle. It was a beautiful thing to behold in
all its rawness. I was lucky just to be there.
I was also lucky to be there when we pulled in to Applebees in Laramie. They had some lowfat options that were just to die for! Talk about your good eating!
In any case, after a late night FTP session at Kinkos and getting our email, we retired to a campground outside Laramie.
Total Miles for 6/12 = 436!!!! This is a new Odyssey record, and Kristanne drove every one of them as I worked in the back. Wow. We need to take it easy for a couple days.