Day 25

Day twenty-five, August 2, 2011

We wish we could say good morning, but this morning was anything but good.  I knew getting into the tent last night that it was going to be cold through the night and I thought I was prepared.  Leggings, sweatpants, two tank tops, a t-shirt, sweatshirt, two pairs of socks, a leopard print snuggy wrapped around me (thanks Steph!), and our newly purchased Walmart comforter draped over me.  I learned quickly that this did not cut it.  Between the rocks under us, the weird sounds we were hearing from outside the tent, and the freezing cold temperatures, neither Rob nor myself slept much at all.  As if this part wasn't bad enough we were also rudely awakened at 6:30 this morning by a bird call that was not Rob's rooster alarm.  When I first heard this deafening noise I had no idea what it could be.  I was still half asleep so of course the first conclusions I jumped to were that something or someone was being attacked by a bear!  After realizing that the sound was coming from a bird I calmed down a bit.  But it honestly sounded like this bird was being murdered and giving out a distress call.  At this point Rob couldn't go back to sleep but I couldn't imagine getting up yet.  So Rob decided to leave me at the campsite and go for a drive.  I don't know how but it seemed like it was even colder this morning than it had been overnight.  With Rob gone, I wrapped every blanket in sight around me like a cocoon and fell back to sleep.

When Rob got back to the campsite he woke me up and asked me to guess what the thermometer in his car was reading.  None of you are going to believe this...at 8:45 this morning it was 40 degrees!!!!  He then went on to tell me that he barely saw any animals on his early morning cruise.  In fact he only saw 3 rabbits, 1 elk, and 1 otter that ran out into the road in front of Coco.

We packed up our tent and the rest of our belongings and hit the road.  We drove through the gorgeous snow capped mountains and lakes of Grand Teton.  A couple hours into the trip we decided to make a last minute change with our route.  Originally we were going to take a detour through Idaho to have a more scenic trip.  We were also going to Salt Lake to see a National Park, but this all changed.  We decided on taking the quickest route to our hotel which was right outside of Salt Lake City.  This route still took us about 6 or 7 hours but at that point all we wanted to do was shower and be back in civilization.  More importantly the season finale of the Bachelorette was last night and it is imperative that I find out if Ashley chose J.P. or Ben!  

When we checked into the hotel we were surprisingly  pleased.  We almost felt like we were back at Embassy Suites!  The Pavilion Inn impressed us with a nicely decorated lobby, free WiFi, pool open 24 hours, and a complimentary hot continental breakfast!  We settled into the room around 5:00 and never left.  We were so tired and needed to catch up on bills, news, and shows that we stayed in all night.  Plus tomorrow is the longest drive left of the trip - 9 hours!  Wish us luck.  Peace, love, and happiness, the Nomads!