Day Fourteen: Over the Mountains and Through the Snow

When  I wake on day 14, Louie already had his leash on and finished his K&B breakfast. He knew we were by that park and had been dreaming of chasing geese all night. It was cold; so I break out the over sized Nantucket sweatshirt and put on the earmuffs; don the tennis shoes and we are off.

We start out at church. Then end up with a rush.

And as if Idaho Falls could not get any better there is oatmeal on the continental breakfast bar!

We scurry out to see more of Idaho...

...in route to today's destination.

We have mapped out a route to avoid Colorado because there is a storm dumping 2 feet of snow on them.  Our goal today is to get to Cheyenne, Wyoming by way of the Grand Tetons...

...which is by no means a straight shot.

When in the park, a ranger makes a dramatic entrance and pulls me over. At my car window he says he 'clocked me going a little fast'. As I sit scouting for moose while he writes up my warning, I wonder what the speed limit actually is. When he returns he tells me that the speed limit fluctuates throughout Teton County but it never goes over 55. He doesn't ever tell me what my speed was in what zone; which makes me think he has no idea what the speed limit is in this stretch either. 

I find myself elevating and though there are Beware of Wild Animal signs everywhere this park is not nearly as generous with the game as Yellowstone was. Before I know it, it is construction time again.

Once I can go SLOW, I notice the guard rails disappear and the edge of the mountain is in my throat. I feel my body heat rise, my hands are sweating on the wheel, and I am imagining the worst. 

Louie will accidentally open his door and plummet to the bottom of the Tetons; I will get distracted by a bear sighting and send us rolling end over end to the gloomy perspective that no one will come and get us silly tourists. Or worse yet, it is a Suicide Driver in the pilot car. The pavement disappears and it is just big truck full of dirt after big truck passing me on one side, and literally, the edge of the world on the other. I want to replace the Dixie Chicks with Chris Tomlin so I can feel God closer; but there is no way I am veering from 10 and 2. My hands start to cramp. 

Eventually it ends. 

Only to begin again. 

I don't realize until I hit the pillow in Cheyenne that this was only the second and third worse part of the drive. The best of the worst was yet to come.

Eventually, I release the death grips and enjoy some more of Wyoming.

Highway 287 gets me to Rawlins which eventually gets me to Laramie then all hell breaks loose. I have been lonely in the dark for a couple of hours now and have no idea what the landscape is like outside the scope of my headlights. There is a moment, almost instant, where I am in complete fog and have lost the taillights in front of me. Panic braking sets in and Louie senses danger and puts his paw in its place on my shoulder. I desperately want to pull off to the side and try to get my bearings but I remember the mountain with no shoulder and since I can't see 10 feet in front of me I just continue dash by dash. There are crosswinds that shake us from side to side as we pathetically scoot forward. 

As quickly as we happened upon this; the fog lifts and wind subsides; only to begin again and again and the pattern doesn't fool me twice. 

It feels like 14 days but I finally reach my exit. As I take my place at the light at the bottom of the hill this is what I see to my right:

So much for avoiding the snow storm. I mourn Colorado. 

I feel like my harrowing day deserves a glass of wine so I search convenient store after convenient store only to conclude the worst; surly to God this is not a dry town. Then I spot a sign reading Lounge and Package Liquor Store. When I go in there is a strong smell of downtown Athens Saturday night ally stench in the air. There are people hooking up in the Lounge and chicken wire and bars on the liquor in the Package. 

I opt for a brown bag size bottle of bourbon and the girl I thought was hooking up with a boy in a University of Wyoming sweatshirt comes to unlock the elixir. I am confused by the whole scenario. 

Louie and I slip and slide into our hotel room and my one shot of bourbon sends me dreaming of the great Midwest moments of my life. 

Recipes: Who can eat on a day like this!

Roadtrips: On the news tonight a trucker was being interviewed and he stated that the stretch from Laramie to Cheyenne is the worst and can really test even the most experienced drivers. No shit!

Renovations: I can conquer the edge of the mountain and the thick fog after all.