West Yellowstone, ID to Jackson, WY

Because I had a relatively short drive today, I spent some time in the morning finalizing trip planning for my last weeks. I have two plane flights coming up - Alaska and Hawaii - which come with their own set of challenges. Anymore, flight itineraries are completely unpredictable. My AK flights have been changed twice, the last from midday flights to red-eyes, both coming and going. There is literally no other option, at least with the same airline and I don’t have the energy to start arguing about refunds and switching to another carrier. The lemonade argument goes like this: I’ll be up at those times anyway hoping to shoot northern lights, so I might as well get used to it. My HI flights have been changed four times already. The difference is not as great, but it still makes it really difficult to make plans on both ends.

I arrived in Jackson mid-day to sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-50s. Have been here before on photo workshops, but never on my own. I took advantage of the pleasant weather to walk around town and poke my head into some of the galleries. I’m staying at the Springhill Suites in town, remarkably inexpensive as this is shoulder season. However, Jackson Hole now has the dubious distinction of the most expensive ice cream scoop of the trip, out bidding Acadia. I paid $6.85 for a small cup, and apparently the other two places in town are even more expensive.

One more note.  I had directed a lot of packages to this location as I figured it would be reliable.. Apparently not so much at least for USPS. When I check in at the front desk, they had several packages for me, but two that should have arrived were missing.  Emily at the front desk let me know that there is this weird thing in Jackson that USPS does not deliver to physical addresses, only to P.O. boxes.  Just weird. I've had delivery problems before, but this is the first time I have heard of anything remotely like this.  I've become less and less enamored with USPS.  Their failure to forward every single toll-by-plate notice until a collection invoice was sent via certified mail has cost me hundreds of dollars in fees and penalties.  And the toll authorities are either impossible to reach or they are completely unmoved.   A unified national toll system is long overdue.  Oh, but we would need a functional government to make something like that happen. Well, I guess that was two more notes.

 Tomorrow I will see what I can do with Grand Teton NP.  Nothing like being out in nature to take one's mind off of mundane problems.