FOLLOWING THE SNAKE RIVER HOME

We spent the night in Grand Teton National Park and awoke in the morning to scattered clouds and blue sky. The Snake River has it's source in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. It is dammed and fills Jackson Lake before starting it's journey through Idaho and Oregon to join the Columbia and then reach the Pacific Ocean.

We stopped several times to take in the ruggedness of these mountains that seem just to sprout from the grassy meadows.

Just outside Grand Teton is Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

There are lots of shops, mostly jewelry, sporting goods, and arts, but what we were looking for was a good breakfast. We were both craving a nice omelet which we found in a restaurant which had just opened in an old historic house on the edge of the shopping area.

As we started following the Snake River south and westward, the clouds began to build and it started to sprinkle.

It wasn't a hard rain. There was just enough to make everything cool and green.

This was going to be a long day of driving. We are getting close to home so we have been over this part of our route several times. The distance to my brother's house in Baker City turned out to be too short for breaking it into two days and too long really for one day, but we were anxious to get home so we decided on doing it in one day. That means several on the road snacks rather than stopping to make a big lunch. Marlene prepares this kind of snack while I'm on the move. She only does this when we have smooth straight stretches of road. We also can make a pot of coffee while moving.

The day goes fast when we hold a steady 55 miles per hour and listen to a book on tape. By early evening we were approaching Lookout Mountain in eastern Oregon.

Here's where we said goodbye to the Snake as it swings a little to the north to form the boarder between Oregon and Idaho.

The mountains took on a soft green glow in the fading light.

After visiting for the evening, we said goodbye to Herman and Eleanor and headed for home, 6 hours away.

Dianne and Frank Gruelle were parked just where we left them 10 weeks ago. Our house and property looked better than it did when we left thanks to their hard work and attention to detail.

Frank had mowed the lawn, painted the front porch rail and the barn windows and edged around all the garden beds. He even had cleaned the moss out of the cracks in our paving stone driveway and treated the moss on our roof.

We are so grateful to them for allowing us to be away on the road and not have to worry about what was happening back home.

It's a joy to be back, but it's a little sad to end a trip that was trouble free, exciting, awe inspiring, relaxing, and all around wonderful.