The Trip For The Cowboy State

My mom and I left from our home in Nashville at 8:00 AM Sunday morning for our two day trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We started out with my mom driving in my 1997 Toyota Land Cruiser. We started out North on our way into Kentucky, where we found ourselves driving through endless forest, something we were very used to being from Nashville. My mom and I switched driving probably every two to three hours...Or whenever we needed to stop for gas. We drove through the boring forest of Kentucky, into the open corn and crop fields of Illinois, through the endless green fields of Missouri, into the forest and occasional fields of Iowa, and across the open plains of Nebraska. We drove through six states in our first day of driving and not one of them were pretty or really interesting to look at. We drove a consistent thirteen hours in the first day where we spent the night in a very comfy Holiday Inn Hotel. That night, my mom and I devoured a large pizza with a ton of different things on it, a salmon fillet, some corn, and a baked potato. We were starved and after a full stomach and about thirty minutes of Wedding Crashers, we were lights out and snoring. At 7:00 this morning my alarm screamed at my mom and I to wake up, but we quickly turned it off and slept for an extra seven minutes (a lot of extra sleep...). I took a shower to help wake up and my mom and I quickly headed downstairs to get her coffee and check out. We were on the road by 7:30 and I was behind the wheel. Oh, I forgot to mention that last night, I gave my mom the best massage of her life to try and bribe her in believing in making it all the way to Jackson today. Well we were on the road again switching every two or three hours like our normal routine at slug speed because the wind on these open plains was unbelievable, I have never been in anything like it. The wind tossed our car around like a rag doll and with the pedal all the way to the floor, we could barely hit 60 mph. It was some difficult driving. But finally we crossed into Wyoming. We saw our first groups of Pronghorn Antelope and endless herds of cattle. My mom and I pressed on through rain, wind, 18 wheelers, and other obstacles because we knew of the beauty that was to come. Finally, we reached the pass through the mountains going into Jackson Hole, where we were in awe of the twelve foot (at least) high snow-pack on the side of the pass; not to mention the incredible views we had coming through the mountain. Then finally, after 25 hours and 1,630 miles of driving, we reached the outskirts of Moose, Wyoming (just outside the town of JH), where we continued to go eat at one of our favorite restaurants, Nora's...My mom ordered panfried Wallie and I ordered the Trout, we both inhaled our dinners and headed to our condo in Teton Village. Believe it or not, it was about 35 degrees and spitting snow. And since our condo is on the top floor of our complex, bringing my mom's 80lb suitcase up three flights of stairs was an awesome feeling :). Now we are both so unbelievably tired from the trip out here and we are going to crash big time to get ready for tomorrow of my first day at work in Snake River Angler. Be ready for another blog of tomorrow's fun!!