July 14th, continued
It had taken a while at the front desk because there were a couple of women checking in and having a hard time because this girl was insisting they only had one night booked, while they had the paperwork that said they had paid for 2. The girl looked a little...vacant. She was slow to respond and didn't really give off an air of competence. She did look really young...you could have told me she was 17 and I'd believe you, but I don't think that would be legal for a 17 year old to work the night shift, so I don't know. But she didn't exude efficiency. My encounter with her asking for ice left me underwhelmed. No ice to be had, we returned to our room and I started looking into possible medical intervention, should it be necessary.
Did I mention that Pinedale is a small town in the middle of nowhere Wyoming? From what I could find online, it appears that Pinedale shares an emergency response team with Jackson and Lander, both of which are a couple of hours away. It doesn't look like they have their own ambulance, and they definitely don't have a hospital. If E broke the finger and needed to get an x-ray, we were going to be in for a LONG night....and my husband was still down with the stomach bug, so it was going to be me driving her a couple of hours to the nearest hospital in the middle of the night, while we were still all jetlagged.
I asked E how she was doing...did she need to see a doctor? But the thing about E is that she doesn't like to cause problems. She doesn't like attention focused on her. She could be impaled and have an object protruding from her abdomen and she'd probably say "I think I'll be ok. Don't worry about it. Can you get me a towel so I don't bleed on the furniture?" I know I can't necessarily trust her response because she's not going to want me to have to drive her to a hospital, because she knows I HATE driving. And she's not going to want my husband to drive her, because he's not feeling well. But, she can still move the finger, and while the very tip of her finger has a spot under the fingernail, she seems otherwise unaffected other than pain, so we decide to play it by ear. If the pain becomes unbearable, or she can't move the finger, we'll take her to the hospital in the morning....we are headed to Dubois and have to go through Jackson to get there anyway.
July 15th
We went back to the Wrangler for breakfast. One of the things my husband loves that we don't have here is a breakfast burrito. But only if it has red chili, not green. They had both here. They also had cinnamon rolls, which E and I love and can't get here. And they have pancakes and french toast, both of which are A approved foods! I also miss biscuits and gravy. It was a tough choice for me...so many things I wanted to eat!! E and I both opted for the eggs and toast, and we shared the cinnamon roll. So good, and that bacon was PERFECT. Now....don't kill me, but I am not a bacon fanatic. I like it, but I can usually take it or leave it, knowing it's not health food and it's just not always worth the calories for me. This was! It was nice and crispy without being burnt at all. That cook was part magician, I'm convinced! The cinnamon roll was warm and buttery, my husband was loving his burrito and wishing we had come here for breakfast the day before. The hotel free breakfast was not great.
You can thank E for reminding me of food pictures!
No pictures of the pancakes because....well, pancakes are pancakes, and we were already digging in.
We had some free entertainment while we ate. The Wrangler has several different dining spaces and we were in a little room in the back where they must put the people they are ashamed of. It was just a small little room with only a couple of tables, but at the other table was a group of...I want to say 8 or 9? men. They were very obviously locals. Some were wearing camouflage, most were wearing caps....3 of them were for a local shooting range. And several had American flag pins or other items identifying them as patriotic Americans. To me, this is absolutely 100% normal. But the Dutch are not known for being ostentatiously patriotic. You won't find them wearing a Dutch flag pin, or items with say, windmills or tulips on them unless it is Kings day, or they are at some festival celebrating Dutch culture. It's just not a thing here. My husband and I got married right after September 11th, and my husband was really confused by the flags everywhere and "God bless the USA" playing constantly on the radio while we were on our honeymoon. The Dutch are quietly proud of their heritage, but they wouldn't broadcast it through their clothing. Another very European thing, or maybe just Dutch, but I don't think so, is not being obviously religious. Most people who attend church here are older. When we would go to church, it was us and a bunch of elderly people. Religion isn't as large a part of the culture here as it is in the US. So here's this group of middle-aged men in hunting gear and patriotic clothing, having a Bible study in the restaurant. My family found it very amusing. I think E said "Tell me you're American without telling me you're American." It's definitely foreign to them.
We went back to check out of the hotel. There had been a shift change and daft girl was gone. I explained the chair incident from the night before. The gal immediately asked me to show her which chair, and she put it to the side so it wouldn't be used. When I told her about daft girl's response, she asked "She didn't tell you there's another ice machine on the third floor?" I repeated the girl's response that she thought they were all broken. She said she'd talk to this girl. She said she tries to be there when this girl is scheduled, because we aren't the first to experience her lack of....helpfulness.
While she was dealing with the chair, another woman came up to check out and when she heard the story of daft girl, she told me that their room door didn't even latch and daft girl had the same response....a half-hearted "Sorry". No effort to try to find a different room or someone to fix the door. This woman's party had to stay in a room all night that didn't close. I think I'd have gone to a different hotel, but it's possible there weren't any vacancies....how many hotel rooms are available in a town with only 2000 residents? In any case, that's really unacceptable. You can't make people pay for a room that doesn't even close! It's such a liability. Out-of-order laundry facilities are one thing, but broken chairs and doors that won't close are lawsuits waiting to happen. Our room seemed clean, and everything worked fine....they even had a little printout by the shower showing how to work it. So WE didn't notice anything on our end with our room, but obviously they have some issues.
We met up with Cousin Jim and Ginger to say goodbye before heading out. They were heading back to Tennessee and we were heading to Dubois. It was so good to see them, even if only for a couple of days. I was sad that the rest of the family hadn't made it out as planned, but I understood with school schedules and custody arrangements, it just didn't work out this time. Who knows, maybe in a couple of years. And I hadn't seen Rick and Sue for decades, so that was good to catch up with them. Their girls are grown and don't live there anymore, so we didn't get to see them, either, but I don't really know them well. Last time I saw them, they were like...4 and 7 or something. Just little littles. It would have been nice to see them all " growed up", but maybe some other time.
Ginger advised me to check my bill because they had tried to charge her 20 extra bucks for their 2nd night, saying they had only booked for 1 night. She was very unhappy, especially since she said the furniture in the room was old and ripped and worn out and I want to say the bedding maybe had holes in it? I guess we were really lucky with our room, and from the outside, it looks absolutely fine. It's a cute little place, nice view of the mountains, and the lobby and everything LOOKED nice. It was the stuff behind the obvious that was iffy. It looked great on the surface, but there are things that need attention and apparently aren't getting it.
We got in the car.....riiiiiiiiiip. There went my jeans. Guess we were going to have to make an unscheduled stop at Target in Jackson! I also wanted to look for a new camera battery because I only had the one, and for some reason, my charger cord was not working. I was glad I brought along the battery charger for it, not just the cord for a power bank. I could charge the battery, but only when I had access to an outlet and adaptor, not while we were out site seeing. I thought Target probably had camera batteries....they sell cameras right? They were out of batteries. It looked like a brand new store or something....half the shelves were empty. The guy in electronics said there was a camera store that might have one in the center of town. I got my jeans first thing and changed in the bathroom, tossed the ripped ones in the trash, and we grabbed some lunch. We'd be back through tomorrow and I could get my battery then. The McDonald's was closed for indoor dining due to shortages of employees, so we had to go through the drive through. On to Dubois!
Dubois is a little out of the way. If you thought that Pinedale was a little podunk town in the middle of nowhere, welcome to Dubois! Population 739. To get from Pinedale to Yellowstone, you go through Jackson, but not Dubois....Dubois is kind of on the other side of a mountain. You wouldn't normally go through Dubois on your way to Yellowstone. But remember I mentioned A LOVES sheep? Dubois is home to The National Bighorn Sheep Center. A museum solely dedicated to learning about Bighorn Sheep, and getting information on where to potentially spot them in the wild, as there is a herd in the area. We couldn't really get so close to it and NOT stop so A could get his fix.
He was in heaven. There's a video all about the local herd and the experts who track them and keep them healthy and where the best spots are to see them. And the gal at the counter gave us a map and highlighted the areas they had been spotted this day so we could go look. I remember the signage cracked me up in the bathroom....I think they had the doors marked with "rams" and "ewes" and there was something about the soap dispenser....I wish I had written it in my notes. I want to say it was a pun about sheep. Maybe E will remember. We got A a new plush to add to his sheep collection. He named him Felix.
We drove out to the road to look for Bighorn sheep. They prefer rocky terrain, where they are safe from predators who don't have hooves designed for clinging to steep inclines, and they avoid areas with thick foliage where predators could be waiting. Armed with our binoculars and our map, we were prepared to scan the rocks. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful. I thought A would be disappointed, but he knew there were herds in Yellowstone and in Custer State park, too. There would be more opportunities.
We went and checked into our room really quickly before going in search of food.
Dubois thrives on the tourist trade! There's not much here other than hotels and restaurants. Whatever industry was here before, it's been abandoned....I want to say I was told it was maybe a sawmill? In any case, there's not much here, but it's close to Yellowstone, by Wyoming standards at least. So the main source of income is tourists coming through on their way to Jackson and Yellowstone. It's another one-street town. Everything is within walking distance. This little shopping center was right across the street from our hotel and had a live ragtime piano player. It was fun.
Our hotel room overlooked a stream.
I use antlers in all of my decorating....
And I thought my magician friends would appreciate the landscaping in back
It had taken a while at the front desk because there were a couple of women checking in and having a hard time because this girl was insisting they only had one night booked, while they had the paperwork that said they had paid for 2. The girl looked a little...vacant. She was slow to respond and didn't really give off an air of competence. She did look really young...you could have told me she was 17 and I'd believe you, but I don't think that would be legal for a 17 year old to work the night shift, so I don't know. But she didn't exude efficiency. My encounter with her asking for ice left me underwhelmed. No ice to be had, we returned to our room and I started looking into possible medical intervention, should it be necessary.
Did I mention that Pinedale is a small town in the middle of nowhere Wyoming? From what I could find online, it appears that Pinedale shares an emergency response team with Jackson and Lander, both of which are a couple of hours away. It doesn't look like they have their own ambulance, and they definitely don't have a hospital. If E broke the finger and needed to get an x-ray, we were going to be in for a LONG night....and my husband was still down with the stomach bug, so it was going to be me driving her a couple of hours to the nearest hospital in the middle of the night, while we were still all jetlagged.
I asked E how she was doing...did she need to see a doctor? But the thing about E is that she doesn't like to cause problems. She doesn't like attention focused on her. She could be impaled and have an object protruding from her abdomen and she'd probably say "I think I'll be ok. Don't worry about it. Can you get me a towel so I don't bleed on the furniture?" I know I can't necessarily trust her response because she's not going to want me to have to drive her to a hospital, because she knows I HATE driving. And she's not going to want my husband to drive her, because he's not feeling well. But, she can still move the finger, and while the very tip of her finger has a spot under the fingernail, she seems otherwise unaffected other than pain, so we decide to play it by ear. If the pain becomes unbearable, or she can't move the finger, we'll take her to the hospital in the morning....we are headed to Dubois and have to go through Jackson to get there anyway.
July 15th
We went back to the Wrangler for breakfast. One of the things my husband loves that we don't have here is a breakfast burrito. But only if it has red chili, not green. They had both here. They also had cinnamon rolls, which E and I love and can't get here. And they have pancakes and french toast, both of which are A approved foods! I also miss biscuits and gravy. It was a tough choice for me...so many things I wanted to eat!! E and I both opted for the eggs and toast, and we shared the cinnamon roll. So good, and that bacon was PERFECT. Now....don't kill me, but I am not a bacon fanatic. I like it, but I can usually take it or leave it, knowing it's not health food and it's just not always worth the calories for me. This was! It was nice and crispy without being burnt at all. That cook was part magician, I'm convinced! The cinnamon roll was warm and buttery, my husband was loving his burrito and wishing we had come here for breakfast the day before. The hotel free breakfast was not great.
You can thank E for reminding me of food pictures!
No pictures of the pancakes because....well, pancakes are pancakes, and we were already digging in.
We had some free entertainment while we ate. The Wrangler has several different dining spaces and we were in a little room in the back where they must put the people they are ashamed of. It was just a small little room with only a couple of tables, but at the other table was a group of...I want to say 8 or 9? men. They were very obviously locals. Some were wearing camouflage, most were wearing caps....3 of them were for a local shooting range. And several had American flag pins or other items identifying them as patriotic Americans. To me, this is absolutely 100% normal. But the Dutch are not known for being ostentatiously patriotic. You won't find them wearing a Dutch flag pin, or items with say, windmills or tulips on them unless it is Kings day, or they are at some festival celebrating Dutch culture. It's just not a thing here. My husband and I got married right after September 11th, and my husband was really confused by the flags everywhere and "God bless the USA" playing constantly on the radio while we were on our honeymoon. The Dutch are quietly proud of their heritage, but they wouldn't broadcast it through their clothing. Another very European thing, or maybe just Dutch, but I don't think so, is not being obviously religious. Most people who attend church here are older. When we would go to church, it was us and a bunch of elderly people. Religion isn't as large a part of the culture here as it is in the US. So here's this group of middle-aged men in hunting gear and patriotic clothing, having a Bible study in the restaurant. My family found it very amusing. I think E said "Tell me you're American without telling me you're American." It's definitely foreign to them.
We went back to check out of the hotel. There had been a shift change and daft girl was gone. I explained the chair incident from the night before. The gal immediately asked me to show her which chair, and she put it to the side so it wouldn't be used. When I told her about daft girl's response, she asked "She didn't tell you there's another ice machine on the third floor?" I repeated the girl's response that she thought they were all broken. She said she'd talk to this girl. She said she tries to be there when this girl is scheduled, because we aren't the first to experience her lack of....helpfulness.
While she was dealing with the chair, another woman came up to check out and when she heard the story of daft girl, she told me that their room door didn't even latch and daft girl had the same response....a half-hearted "Sorry". No effort to try to find a different room or someone to fix the door. This woman's party had to stay in a room all night that didn't close. I think I'd have gone to a different hotel, but it's possible there weren't any vacancies....how many hotel rooms are available in a town with only 2000 residents? In any case, that's really unacceptable. You can't make people pay for a room that doesn't even close! It's such a liability. Out-of-order laundry facilities are one thing, but broken chairs and doors that won't close are lawsuits waiting to happen. Our room seemed clean, and everything worked fine....they even had a little printout by the shower showing how to work it. So WE didn't notice anything on our end with our room, but obviously they have some issues.
We met up with Cousin Jim and Ginger to say goodbye before heading out. They were heading back to Tennessee and we were heading to Dubois. It was so good to see them, even if only for a couple of days. I was sad that the rest of the family hadn't made it out as planned, but I understood with school schedules and custody arrangements, it just didn't work out this time. Who knows, maybe in a couple of years. And I hadn't seen Rick and Sue for decades, so that was good to catch up with them. Their girls are grown and don't live there anymore, so we didn't get to see them, either, but I don't really know them well. Last time I saw them, they were like...4 and 7 or something. Just little littles. It would have been nice to see them all " growed up", but maybe some other time.
Ginger advised me to check my bill because they had tried to charge her 20 extra bucks for their 2nd night, saying they had only booked for 1 night. She was very unhappy, especially since she said the furniture in the room was old and ripped and worn out and I want to say the bedding maybe had holes in it? I guess we were really lucky with our room, and from the outside, it looks absolutely fine. It's a cute little place, nice view of the mountains, and the lobby and everything LOOKED nice. It was the stuff behind the obvious that was iffy. It looked great on the surface, but there are things that need attention and apparently aren't getting it.
We got in the car.....riiiiiiiiiip. There went my jeans. Guess we were going to have to make an unscheduled stop at Target in Jackson! I also wanted to look for a new camera battery because I only had the one, and for some reason, my charger cord was not working. I was glad I brought along the battery charger for it, not just the cord for a power bank. I could charge the battery, but only when I had access to an outlet and adaptor, not while we were out site seeing. I thought Target probably had camera batteries....they sell cameras right? They were out of batteries. It looked like a brand new store or something....half the shelves were empty. The guy in electronics said there was a camera store that might have one in the center of town. I got my jeans first thing and changed in the bathroom, tossed the ripped ones in the trash, and we grabbed some lunch. We'd be back through tomorrow and I could get my battery then. The McDonald's was closed for indoor dining due to shortages of employees, so we had to go through the drive through. On to Dubois!
Dubois is a little out of the way. If you thought that Pinedale was a little podunk town in the middle of nowhere, welcome to Dubois! Population 739. To get from Pinedale to Yellowstone, you go through Jackson, but not Dubois....Dubois is kind of on the other side of a mountain. You wouldn't normally go through Dubois on your way to Yellowstone. But remember I mentioned A LOVES sheep? Dubois is home to The National Bighorn Sheep Center. A museum solely dedicated to learning about Bighorn Sheep, and getting information on where to potentially spot them in the wild, as there is a herd in the area. We couldn't really get so close to it and NOT stop so A could get his fix.
He was in heaven. There's a video all about the local herd and the experts who track them and keep them healthy and where the best spots are to see them. And the gal at the counter gave us a map and highlighted the areas they had been spotted this day so we could go look. I remember the signage cracked me up in the bathroom....I think they had the doors marked with "rams" and "ewes" and there was something about the soap dispenser....I wish I had written it in my notes. I want to say it was a pun about sheep. Maybe E will remember. We got A a new plush to add to his sheep collection. He named him Felix.
We drove out to the road to look for Bighorn sheep. They prefer rocky terrain, where they are safe from predators who don't have hooves designed for clinging to steep inclines, and they avoid areas with thick foliage where predators could be waiting. Armed with our binoculars and our map, we were prepared to scan the rocks. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful. I thought A would be disappointed, but he knew there were herds in Yellowstone and in Custer State park, too. There would be more opportunities.
We went and checked into our room really quickly before going in search of food.
Dubois thrives on the tourist trade! There's not much here other than hotels and restaurants. Whatever industry was here before, it's been abandoned....I want to say I was told it was maybe a sawmill? In any case, there's not much here, but it's close to Yellowstone, by Wyoming standards at least. So the main source of income is tourists coming through on their way to Jackson and Yellowstone. It's another one-street town. Everything is within walking distance. This little shopping center was right across the street from our hotel and had a live ragtime piano player. It was fun.
Our hotel room overlooked a stream.
I use antlers in all of my decorating....
And I thought my magician friends would appreciate the landscaping in back
