October 9th, 2015

What happened…

Andrew writes: Casey, our hostess with the mostest is such an honest, to goodness nice woman. She is also quite excitable, always wants to talk, and has lots of great ideas to solve all of the world’s problems. Her mannerisms remind me a lot of my Aunt Janbro, who is also very independent, very generous, always happy to help, and eager to please. Yesterday for instance, she went to a tobacco shop to do research on my corncob pipe that I want to buy, then she went to two thrift shops looking for other pipes for me. This was all without me knowing, and because I had mentioned off-hand that I wanted to try pipe smoking. Amanda of course, is likely to kill me if I start, but I’ll sleep on that couch when I come across it.

Today, Casey took us out to Nora’s Fish Creek Diner, where the food is hot, the waitresses surly, the coffee is horrible, and the tables are always full. It was quite a happening place, truth be told. Then we headed over to the small bike shop to poke around. Lots to see, but nothing that tickles my fancy as far as buying..not unless I want to buy a fatbike.

Back at the house, we packed up our things and I helped Casey make some repairs to her mountain bike. In return, she handed me a half-dozen fresh bagels, and her face lit up with a huge smile, as did mine. Then, just as we were about to leave, she noticed that I had a flat tire. Ugh. A small wire was embedded in my tire. So 20 minutes later it was all fixed, and meanwhile we were chatting with both Casey and Lisa…then Casey’s landlord David. It was a non-stop talkathon in Wilson today! Casey arranged for a place for us to stay tonight, and said she would meet us later on for dinner, and then we were off!

By the time we finally left, to ride the 35 miles to Dubonart, it was noon. Not our latest start of all time, but with the short days upon us, and knowing that we still had to go into Jackson to buy some supplies, it would be daunting to make it by sundown. The bicycle paths in Jackson hole are pretty great, and we were able to ride the whole way in to town without touching the road. We stopped in at the local grocery store, did our shopping, and again were on bike paths for several miles south of town.

The road south of Jackson sucks because there is a lot of traffic, and there is no shoulder. Everyone is in a rush, and no one wants to wait to overtake us. C’est la vie in much of the world! It was great when we reached the Hoback Junction and started heading east on Hwy#189. Suddenly there was new pavement, and a nice wide shoulder to ride on. The road humps it’s way up and down, through and around some nice hoodoos and avalanche areas as it follows the river east. There is also a nice campground along the river that we thought about staying at. Looking at the clock, it was 5’o’clock and we estimated we still had 13 miles or so to go before we reached the town where we were going to meet Casey. Judging by our speed, and how we felt, we decided to call it a day and stay at the campground tonight, rather than risk riding in the dark and then setting up camp somewhere strange. I tried to send a message to Casey with our Yellowbrick satellite tracker. I’m not sure if she got the message, but hopefully she understands that it’s the nature of the beast when one travels at 10 miles an hour.

Amanda writes:
Have you ever typed something and forgot to copy and paste or save it somewhere? Well that is this blog post. For some reason whatever I typed didn’t save and it’s too bad because I thought it was a good one. I’ll try to emulate it again.

Casey is cool. She is one of those people that had we met under different circumstances or were living in the same area I’m sure we’d hang out. So easy going, easy to talk to and welcoming. I’m often intrigued by people who are so genuinely honest and outgoing and generous. I only wish that I could be like that. Not only did Casey open her home to us and share her food and drinks, but she did it with a smile. And Andrew mentioned it above about her ideas. Such a natural trouble shooter! And there doesn’t even need to be trouble per se for her to trouble shoot; she’s just got great ideas. We’d talk for hours about traveling and goals and she’d have a great idea for everything! Casey comes from a life of making it work and more importantly enjoying life. When chatting with her and getting to know her I learned she’s never had a resume, things just work out. I think it’s incredibly cool! So with her expertise in working in life she had so many ideas for Andrew and I to make money while we travel. It was interesting talking with her because we didn’t plan to work while traveling but she had some pretty interesting ideas that could really work.

I was almost sorry to leave but glad to be traveling. I only hope that at some point down the road Casey will join us. Good peeps in Wilson.

Today’s Photographs