LOTOJA – THIS IS THE END
A FEW THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE FINISH in Jackson Hole.
- You still have a good 30 minutes circumnavigating the city, once you’re there.
- The finish is on a closed road, very straight with a slight curve in the last 1k.
- Get off you bike and into that stream, it feels amazing.
- Check the results – they had mine wrong… easily corrected in the morning.
- Nothing, and I mean nothing, tasted better than a crisp apple. A day later, I’m still craving fresh fruit and cold water.
- We stayed at the Golden Eagle Inn, an easy walk to the “downtown”.
- Lots of great food to be had in Jackson.
- Two trips to Hagen-Dazs, 1 before and 1 after pizza
- Pizzeria Caldera
- Café Genevieve – Belgian Waffles and Eggs Benedict were yummy.
- Stay a few days, I wish we had planned to do that.
ON THE WAY SOUTH, we stopped in Thayne WY to visit Susie’s cousins. For 6 generations they have owned the Preston Ranch.
Barley blows across rolling hills. Cattle wander. Everybody lives on a county road.
Introductions were made, and familial friendships rekindled.
All new to me.
Roger, started out a veterinarian in life and wound up moving back to take over the ranch. His hands are thick and strong, like shaking a marble statue. He and Bonnie, a California surfer, returned to save the ranch from inheritance taxes.
At the time, they were so poor they rented out their farm and lived on the ranch in the original 100-year-old ranch house.
The house is still there. Musty, tiny, rickety.
Bonnie told me it took 15 years of paying the government everything they made to clear the debt.
It’s homestead land, and the original ancestor starved out there for years. But, that’s how you got land back then. You lived on it, worked it, prayed you didn’t starve… to death.
Ron and Marcia were high school sweethearts. They married and lived all over the US. When it came time to retire, Thayne called them home. For a while they both worked with the Chamber of Commerce and coordinated with the LoToJa race organizer.
I can see why these good people stay here.
The air is clean.
The people are nice.
Just like LoToJa.
(dreamt of ice cream all day)
(hasn’t changed since the college road trip days)
(I’m glad we had our own photo finish, timing had me behind this black horse… FYI, the strength of timing chips varies)
(one of our stops along the Snake River)
(Cousins… Marcia, Ron, Susie, Bonnie, Roger… Preston Ranch in the background… it had been decades since Susie had seen some of these cousins… Find your family, they are interesting and will love to re-connect with you!)
