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June 23, 2011

Green River to Jackson

In the morning, Rob and Daryl repacked the bike so that they had emergency clothing, etc. and proceeded to locate a dealer with tires for Hondas. Amazingly, the Toyota/Honda car-bike-ATV dealer in Rock Springs had exactly what we needed. So we waved good-by to the group who were taking the scenic route to Jackson Hole and headed for the dealership. We arrived at the agreed upon time to find that the guy who installed the tires had just gone to the chiropractor. We settled in the waiting room for the long wait and then someone offered coffee. We found the machine, but no cream, so they sent us off to the kitchen, a huge space with everything but cream. Our surprise find was a freezer full of packages of venison. Then we realized that the upper walls around the whole dealership were lined with heads of various animals. After that, we knew what the large saw in the kitchen was for. Three plus hours later, we left the largest collection of mounted heads we had ever seen with two new tires and headed the most direct way for Jackson Hole. Our memories of Wyoming from a 1998 motorcycle trip, when we called the state "The Big Empty", were exactly correct. The roads are straight, the towns few and far between and there are no signs of life for miles. Since we were trying to make up time, we were not looking for scenic routes or detours, so the vast "nothingness" was fine with us. We expected that Franz' group would beat us into Jackson Hole and locate a hotel. Rob had vague memories of the one they stayed in on the 2005 trip and he hoped Franz would be able to locate it. We got into Jackson Hole and drove along the main highway looking for a mall with a Radio Shack store, which is the part Rob remembered and which should be right before the hotel. We found The Virginian and were in the lobby asking if they had seen a group of Austrians, when Franz pulled up behind our bike. They had seen us go by at Hoback Junction but were preoccupied with getting the first and only ticket of the trip – Clemens and the van got a ticket for passing in a non-passing zone. We were fortunate enough to get the last 7 rooms – 5 ground floor rooms with 2 double beds and 2 upstairs king rooms. After everyone arrived and the luggage was dispersed from the van, we determined that the weather did not encourage a visit to the pool since it was cold and overcast. We eventually got as many as possible into the van and headed into the downtown area of Jackson. After a couple of hours of wandering and shopping, we headed back and ate at the restaurant at the hotel. It turned out to be one of the worst meals of the trip, but at least it was as cheap as it was bad. Our after dinner drinks in the Saloon did not take the edge off the bad dinner, so we called it quits and headed for our room.