A Hole Lot of Fun

Well, we have had a fun few days since the last post. After ordering the alternator we came across a wire that had severed itself from the starter and that was the initial cause for the batteries not starting. So we waited a day for the alternator only to realize a little poking around might have saved us some grief! But we got over that one quick and hit the road toward the South Entrance of Yellowstone from Gardiner, we made it 10 miles or so from the south entrance and the van wont start. :(  We poke around trying to find the cause this time and we ultimately ended up calling for a tow but the only way to do that was to get to a place where there was cell service! Adam volunteered to bike the 10 miles to a ranger station and or the south entrance so off he went and me and Andrew stayed with the van. So after about an hour and a half of being scuttled, a tow truck pulls up and a younger guy gets out and offers to poke around to find the cause and really just wanted us to start the van to humor ourselves and wouldn't you know it, the freakin thing starts! "Vapor lock," he says!


I guess, at high elevations and temperatures the gas lines in most vehicles, new and old, can collect water vapor that will stunt the spark during the engine starting process. He gave us some tips and then off we went to collect Adam and be on our way to our campsite in a little chunk of national forest land a short ways from Jackson, Wyoming. Upon reaching another gemstone of a campsite that overlooked the Teton Mountains, we were surprised in the morning by the friends Sierra and Jen, who were supposed to meet up with us the next day but snuck in during the night! :) It was a pleasant awaking never the less and so we took off toward town to see the festivities that Jackson Hole puts on for the 4th of July. We grabbed some lunch at a place just before the parade which was awesome, lots of fun locals who were very used to tourist coming to visit. The parade had lots of hot rod vehicles and old motel T trucks and just lots of cool automobiles! They tossed corn just like Adam and Sierra always spoke about. Afterwards we sped off to find a river as it is very hot here in the summer time! We found perfect access with no other tourists or swimmers or fisherman down a service road off of the long road leading to our camp. It had a small deep section of rapids and we just swam in the water and sun baked for a few hours. I went up stream to try the fishing but came up empty handed so i joined Adam, Sierra, Jen and Andrew swimming! We had our refreshing swim, took some cool under water photos, then took back off to camp to set our clothes our to dry, following that we then took off to Jackson to enjoy the music from the festivals happening in town. We got so lucky being here during this years festival because the Old Crow Medicine Show was playing that night so naturally we got upfront positions near the stage and stayed there until they came on, and man was it a trip to see them play live! Then the fireworks show which finished the night off perfectly! We had a fun 4th of July here in Jackson Hole.

We got back at midnight or so and puttered around a fire until 2 am hit us and we all hit the sack! We woke this morning to share a nice breakfast together of chocolate chip pancakes with some music and coffee, another good morning at our gemstone campsite! Sadly though we had to see Sierra and Jen off as they were going North and we were headed Southeast with two different agendas, they had 12 days to get to California and we had no schedule really so our time with them was short and sweet. We said goodbye and off we went. To keep from overheating during the day we take frequent river baths to cool our heads and thats exactly what we just got finished doing and now we are planning our trip to see Ernie's brother David, we are going to give him a call to make sure he is ready for us and then off we will go! Thats all for now. Idaho HERE WE COME!