Day 4: Grand Tetons to … Twin Falls, Idaho

From Grand Teton to Yellowstone

We started off our day earlier with a cup of coffee sand some of that instant oatmeal shinned up with some dried fruit.  Our goal was to make it to a random place in Nevada that was halfway between here and Yosemite. Right as we were about to enter Yellowstone, which is about 40 miles from the Tetons, our engine went all the way to hot. We pulled over to let it cool down. Then the same thing happened. I examined the car and realized that our coolant container had a leak- no not really a ranger did that but had I known where the coolant was and that it was empty and sprayed all over, I am sure I would have came to the same conclusion.

The Tow.

We ended up having the car towed to grant by a nice young man. “You’re very lucky, usually when I pick cars up it’s without people,” his opening line was. “What do you mean?” I asked. “Well there are about 8 or 9 people who don’t make it a year.” He informed us to make our situation seem much better. I am not sure how many of those people had a leaky coolant container but I am guessing the percentage was high. He later told us that they do 900 tows a year. After the 10^th fact he rolled off his tongue, I asked him where he learned all of this information. He said that they are kind of like tour guides so that people don’t feel so bad about being towed. They have a little cheat sheet but he had taken it upon himself to also stop by the road signs and read them so he could give a little extra information. This made me question his first fact about people usually dying. He needs a new opener- possibly one of his real facts.

A moose and her two babies

We got to talking about how long this fixing may take. He told us we could pop our tent in the back of the garage for the night because the campsites there weren’t open. After exchanging some basic information about ourselves we learned that he was also from Wisconsin, Steven’s point to be exact. We told him about our hike and that we had seen a Moose this morning with her young. He ALSO had seen an animal this very morning. It was a bear, a grizzly bear. He saw this grizzly bear behind his garage… the exact same spot he offered for us to camp. 

Enjoying the lake as we wait for the car.

After 2-8 hours are car was patched and ready to hit the road. One mechanic (in training) reckon'd it would make it all the way back to Minnesota while the other thought maybe we would need a more permanent fix in California. We stopped at the geysers in Yellowstone and were pleasantly impressed. We also witnessed some of the most beautiful and quickly changing Idaho skys. . . and possibly a buddying tornado. 

Well we made it all the way to Twin Falls Idaho where we treated ourselves to a dog friendly hotel... and you guessed it Applebees. A place that I haven't entered since 2006 when I gave a two week notice and left crying after being insulted by two food friendly ladies. 

So here we reenergize and get more excited about the rest of our journey!