Extreme Highs............Part 1

Saturday was a beautiful 90 degree day heading towards the Grand Tetons. We headed down I-15 South from Dillon and took a little cut across road over to Rexberg Idaho. Couldn't have been a better day for a ride. Sunny, warm, no wind to speak of. We headed towards Riggs Idaho and witnessed numerous grain harvesting operations in process. Very pretty farm country and a dispersed population. As you get closer to the Tetons we saw many more new developments going in with some audacious looking houses. Definitely look like they belong in Aspen Co. not Idaho. Definitely not the locals building new homes. I guess that is like the out of state money which is coming into Montana. We are seeing the same gaudy excesses here in our state. I guess they call it progress(?).

We stopped at a pull over spot here with a long distance view of the east side of the Tetons. A guy on a new big rental Gold Wing pulled up. He was from upstate New York and was a private jet pilot for some big money real estate developer from Florida. His job is to fly the head guys around to their resort spots and then he hangs out while they play and spend more of their money. Jackson Hole, Aspen, New Mexico are a few of their destinations. He was a nice guy and was up to 250 miles on the rental bike in a few hours. Cost him around $190.00 (with insurance) for a 24 hour rental. He also had a sidecar he mounted on his older Gold Wing at home but he couldn't get it set up properly and pulled it off. Our old bike tracks good and is fairly easy to ride. I do need to increase the lean out a bit more since we are loading the rig with so much gear.

We arrived at Jackson Hole Wyoming early in the afternoon and made our way to a campground about 10 miles south of Jackson. It was a real nice spot right above the Snake River which can be seen in the background. A pair of young families were camped in front of us and we had to ride between their tents to get to our site. We ran into Jackson for a quick bite to eat and then back to the campground. Tourists were thick in Jackson. A lot of bikes on the street. Saw a couple more sidecars around town. We went to bed early to watch a DVDmovie and at about 10:30 pm 5 motorcyclists (at least three with straight pipes) roared into the site above us. They also had to ride within a foot of the other tents. Each of the young families had babies and they immediately began squalling after the bikes roared in. They kept us awake for a while until they set up. Then it was Snore and Fart time for them for the rest of the night. A real nice lullaby to fall asleep to.

We awoke to cooler temperatures Sunday morning and rain from about 5:00 am til 7:00 am. The 5 Snorer/Farters next door high tailed it out of there while the rain was falling. I heard one of them yell "Pardon Me" as his bike roared to life and he pulled out within the foot of the now unsleeping babies in the tents. With that, the kids began to cry again and I had to get up. The clouds broke so Darian and I quickly tore down the camp and hit the road by 9:00 am. We entered Grand Teton Park and took a leisurely ride around the base of the mountains. Beautiful views and clouds rolling in and out of the peaks. The temperatures were now in the 50's and 60's. Perfect cool riding weather. We toured the park and then headed towards Yellowstone from the south. Darian took some movies while riding in the sidecar in Yellowstone but I haven't figured out how to post them yet. I'll work on that....................to be continued