Audrey sent me an email this morning asking if my lodging last night “had wheels”. Yes, yes it did. And it also had an awesome view of the stars through the car’s moonroof.
The beginning of the vacation was delayed for a bit when word came in that the company’s web site was crashing, and since crashes are bad I stayed at the office to help resolve the situation until about 7PM Friday night. This issue occurred while Bodybuilding was celebrating the grand opening of their new headquarters, so the joy of dealing with a site issue was enhanced by having visitors and their many children roaming the office. Once the problem was finally found I headed out to my rental car, and I won’t be writing or thinking about work again for two weeks.
Audrey is flying into Jackson Hole to meet me, so I drove down from Boise to pick her up and am currently writing this from the airport parking lot. The stops along the way were myriad – the route from Boise to Jackson is a pretty drive – but the most notable stop was at Craters of the Moon National Monument, where some improvised spelunking was done (improvised = me, a Maglite, and no idea what I was doing). There are four lava tubes open for exploration, but Boy Scout Cave was the day’s winner. The entrance to that cave is a squeeze around boulders, but the cave then opens up and extends for several hundred feet. It’s cold enough to see your breath, there are tiny crystals on the walls, and when I shut off my flashlight the darkness was so complete that eventually my brain started manufacturing flashes of light that didn’t actually exist. Starting the trip off in a cave while experiencing trippy mental mirages seems like winning strategy.
Tomorrow we’ll begin our five days in Yellowstone, so odds are that a photo of an animal or two may be forthcoming.
