Day 5 - Colter Bay

This is Colter Bay at Grand Tetons National Park in Wyoming. The bay is breathtaking. But, wait a minute, I left you at Walmart yesterday.

Goodmorning! This is me with George on Monday, June 15th in Riverton, Wyoming. We had a delightful night's stay at Walmart. As you can tell, we took the upgrade to the quiet side of the parking lot with the fantastic views.

I'm going to skid by much of mid-Wyoming. However, in spite of the gray, overcast day and relatively dry landscape, the colors popped. They were just in unexpected places.

I did not write much in my journal that day. The mountains were beautiful. A bird pooped on me. The battery in the camper died, so Jay went to buy a new one (and George and I hung out at Colter Bay).

George and I sat together for a long time on the dock, waiting for the others to return from finding a battery. We pointed out the pretty boats and threw small stones into the water.

We talked.

"Do you see the mountains, George? Where are the mountains?"

He looked at me.

"The mountains, George, where are the mountains?"

When was the last time we saw mountains, in the distance? You know, ones you could point at? Surely, we drive through the Appalachian Mountains frequently enough, but I don't believe he remembers seeing any mountains like the Grand Tetons. Surely, he must have seen mountains.

"Those are mountains, George. See the mountains?" I pointed.

George learned many new words on our trip. I wonder if they remember them even better when they see it for themselves, instead of in books.

Maybe. I heard him say 'yellow' for the first time too. Or, maybe he had said it before, and I finally took the time to hear it.

I did not spend a lot of time wondering about it. I just had a really nice day.

We took the boat cruise.

We took a walk.

We looked at the water.

We laughed.

We ran fast.
And, we actually stayed at a campsite.

Wyoming: Oil Wells and Parking Lots, Rainbows and Snow

One of my personal goals for our trip out West was to reset my children’s view of the ‘outside.’ If you ask a typical child in Ohio what ‘outside’ looks like, they will give you a very good description from their three-foot vantage point. They will tell you that there are cars and trees and grass and sidewalks and a road and dirt and bugs (giggle) and worms (giggle giggle) and dead worms (hee hee) and poop (bwaa ha ha ha).

They know exactly what it looks like outside their window.

Some places, like this parking lot in Wyoming, look a lot like Ohio. The children are having a 'dance break.' After the first 1500 miles, you start doing all kinds of silly things.

My children enjoy reading about the National Parks and the United States and other places, so they “know” what other places look like.

It doesn’t look the same in real life. It just doesn’t. My kids need to see very, very different places in books and THEN see them in real life. Because, truly, the pictures in a book are only hints to what a scene feels like and smells like and, well, you get the picture.

It is hard to believe that there is not much grass in India until you have been somewhere without much grass. You expect grass. You might even start thinking that grass is normal.

You might also think that it never snows in June.

You might think that you know which direction a river is flowing just by watching that river. That is, until you realize that the dam is on what you thought was the up side of the river. Trust me, watching a river flowing uphill is very jarring. I will assure you that the Powder River flows uphill – at least from the perspective of a casual observer.

Once you realize grass isn’t a given (or the flow of a river), you might even start to realize that many other expectations are just not to be expected either.

Oil wells might even appear beautiful in the right light.


Eventually, you will realize that the unexpected is sometimes even better than your original plan, if you will only stop to look.

You will also realize that sleeping in Walmart parking lots is free. I've slept at many expensive hotels around the world, except I don't remember that part because my eyes were closed.