The Complainers Guide to Traveling out West

I had imagined posting as soon as I got home from our trip out to the Tetons, but that didn’t work out so well. Then I thought, well, I’ll at least throw the pictures up. Well. Not so quick with those, either. But speaking of throwing things up…

So here’s the rundown. This trip was supposed to be fun, right? Yes. But me? I was sick. So, so, sick. And puking every other day and having no appetite while camping? Not so much fun. I really did try to make the best of it. (Look! I don’t have to spend any money on food! Great!) But in the end, I was really sick for most of the trip and my optimism and sense of humor took a serious dive. I took to recreational complaining; it was the only sport I could do without any energy. And here is how it went:

Me: This is hell. Hell is in the Tetons.
Optimistic Me: Relax. It’s beautiful out here. Enjoy.
Me: Hawks keep trying to eat my dog and I haven’t been able to stomach anything solid in three days. I need a shower and a bed and a real night’s sleep.
Optimistic Me: That’s true. You do need a shower.
Me: When can we leave Hell?
Optimistic Me: Don’t be silly. If you were really in hell, you’d be in an auto parts store somewhere in Arkansas.
Me: Oh.

That is when I had the epiphany, that just like Dorothy and her ruby red slippers, I could click my heels and leave any time I wanted. And just like that, we were out of there.

So after spending a mere two nights backpacking in the Tetons, we packed up and headed out. We spent the next night in Yellowstone National Park, which I would like to say was beautiful, but… well, you know. Me with the throwing up. So we left Yellowstone after one day and spent the next night (Thank God Almighty!) in a hotel room in Cody, Wyoming. This place had a real bed and a real shower- that you did not have to pay for by the minute (ahem, Yellowstone).

And it was good. And I was happy.

We followed it up with a night in the Badlands before returning home. I hugged my bed when we got home. Because there is no place like home. No place like home. No place like home.

So that’s the gist of the trip, but some good things did come of the trip. Like these here pictures. (I like to work in "these here" sometimes. It makes me feel real country. Even though I'm not. Anyway.)




Hopefully soon I'll figure out how to post buttloads (metric buttloads, of course) of pictures, but at present, my blog does not appreciate pictures by the buttload (metric or otherwise).