Category: The Valley

There’s a new sign in town, right off Main St in front of the Community Center. A good sign says a thousand words so there’s nothing more for me to say here…

I would describe a vision as seeing something and then suddenly seeing something much more than what’s currently there. I had one of those yesterday as I was taking the gang back to Victor at the end of the day.

We were approaching 4000 and the boys were totally quiet. I was smiling inside as I watched the snow free ground roll by and images of my southern Arizona Spring Break with bikini-clad college girls were dancing in my brain. I suddenly remembered that this was the crossing point of the Eclipse and I looked further out to see what was around, and then I saw it, Totality City!

The 80 acre plot of barren farm land on my left suddenly transformed into a bustling mecca of neatly stacked motorhomes with out of state tourists here for the event. As I told one of the event guys in an email last night, it was like seeing Burning Man without the fire, and without the hippies I might add.

I saw a Fall River power line coming into the heart of it, a Silverstar wireless hotspot bathed it in communication, banks of porta potties lined the perimeter, with a special spot in the back for dumping motorhome shit.

Busses trolled up and down Hwy 33 taking people to Driggs and Victor for food and entertainment while tapping on my new app TetonPath for directions. Suddenly the valley turned dark at 11:35:12 on August 21 and the low rumble of human voices that had been building up as the sun and moon approached turned into a tremendous roar in Totality City as people stared at nature’s true majesty, in awe.

And a lot of folks fell in love with Teton Valley, at that moment…

I just captured this image of Fred’s Mountain with Grand Targhee off to the left and ski-lifts without snow, using a terrain mapper from Mapbox.

I was dropping a client off at the apartments on Third today when she spotted something moving over on the next block between buildings. Looks like a moose she said nonchalantly. So I drove around the block and there it was just casually moseying down the sidewalk on Second Avenue.

Wonderful news! he says facetiously, as the minus double digit bitter cold snap transitions to snow. Oh well, I brought a fine sixteen passenger bus with new Hankook snow tires up here yesterday and I’m ready for it. I have determined that life behind the wheel as a professional driver in the Rockies is just a matter of moving through it in a perpetual controlled slide, keeping your cool all the while…

You know it’s a rough winter when the dinosaur gets snow on it’s back…

It was an interesting time here in the Valley today. A major storm was dumping on us and the roads were bogging down quickly after yesterday’s rain-snow mix. Around 1000 I went on break early and jumped in my truck and drove to Broulims to stock up on food when my dispatcher called me just as I was grabbing some eggs to inform me that TRPTA was shutting down service due to the storm.

She suggested that perhaps I could get my afternoon kids in Victor early and drive them home. I told her that was not such a good idea since I just transport those kids to the Community Center in Driggs every day and I had no idea where each one lived. Venturing off into unknown sideroads in whiteout conditions was not my idea of shutting down service, and she concurred, so we just told the school to have the parents come get them. I went back to the base, secured my bus and barely made it out of the lot and back through my driveway to home.

Tonight Steph took a snow shovel to the driveway which was plowed this morning right after we left for work. I think I’ll just hunker down this weekend…

I drove up the road this morning, just because I can and sometimes have to, only to remind myself why I live here.

I was parked next to this segment of the Teton Pass Trail system today, right off the Old Jackson Highway. I realize that I live in one of the richest outdoor activity wonderlands in the country, and I just don’t seem to get out there.

Maybe it’s because I’m cheap and don’t want to spring $60 bucks for bear spray. Or, maybe I’m just waiting to buy that handgun to scare the cougars away. I know, excuses…

Now on the local front, it looks like Anika’s visiting grandfather took our advice and made the girl a path through the field from the bus stop on Ski Hill to her house. I just walked it without spray or weapons and it was pretty cool!

Steph was reading the local Sherrif’s Log yesterday and there were a couple of references to a place around here called Big Eddy (gunshots and a moose vs vehicle).

She asked if I knew where it was, and I didn’t, so I found some directions:

• From the stoplight in Driggs drive west on Bates Road toward the Big Holes.
• After you cross the Bates Bridge, drive .5 miles to the Y intersection.
• Continue driving straight west (do not follow the curve to the left/south) 1.2 miles until you come to two metal silos on your right.
• Turn right (north) on N 6000 W, just past the silos.
• Head north to W 2000 N and turn right (east, towards the Teton Mountains) and drive until you reach the Rainey Access on the Teton River at the end of the road.

We drove out there this morning and you can tag along by clicking the photo below:

Steph and I got to hang out with the rich and famous tonight over at the Huntsman Springs private membership pool. My nephew Brian has a new membership so he invited us to come along with his girlfriend Trixie, the club girl. I forgot my camera so Trixie loaned me her I-Phone for the shots below. The hot tub was great!

You can tell the type of potato being grown around here by the color of their flower.
These are Red Potatoes. (Shot today, coming back from Rexburg…)

Steph and I rode down to the Victor Parade this morning with our next door neighbor Brian. We beat the crowds, grabbed a sweet parking spot and positioned in front of Grumpy’s Goat Shack, which is on the opposite side of the street from where I normally shoot from. The crowd we were hanging with were Grumpyites so I broke tradition and it worked out well.

I took 253 photos of the parade. Normally I weed them down but each one is great so I’m giving you the entire set, in the sequence it was shot, unadulterated. What you see is what I saw, standing at the front edge of the parade line. We ended up eating at Grumpy’s so you can see that also.

Click the photo below to see the Set or go right into the Slideshow.

This is also a testament to the tools I have developed to present this blog to you. I’ve automated the process of renaming and resizing a large number of photos, uploading them to my Flickr Pro account, and then generating custom code to display them all…

I hope you enjoy! Happy Independence Day.

Steph and I got up early this morning to watch the balloon launch, and I grabbed some great shots. This has become an annual event for us since Steph provides the propane for these birds. There’s always a free ride for Suburban and Merry out of Jackson got the ride today. There are 26 more photos that you can see by clicking the one below…

Here’s a short video of Merry’s launch:

Sorry grandma, I know you want to take my picture with the fresh face painting but this old guy that I’ve never seen before, with a long beard and sunglasses, is pointing a weird camera with a handle on it at me and I don’t know what to do…