My plan had been to spend two days in Jackson before heading up to the Park to camp, but this morning, I decide to spend an extra day. It's the weather...cold and rainy. When I step outside the hotel for a morning smoke, it's in the 30's with a steady drizzle. At this point, I'm thinking about skipping the "camping part" and heading for home...we'll see what tomorrow is like.
Feeling "Shakespearean" this morning, I decide to "Get Thee to a Bunnery" and head into town for lunch at "The Bunnery". Any place that makes the Food & Wine magazine's list of "Top 10 Places for Dessert in America" can not be missed. It does not disappoint...a great Chef's Salad is followed by a spectacular piece of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Tart...excellent!
After lunch, I wander around town in search of a few souvenirs...a ball cap, a sweatshirt, a bumper sticker and a few pins. All of that shopping makes me thirsty, so I head back to Snake River Brewing Company for a few pints of Kolsch beer...by now, the temperature is in the 70's and the skies have cleared, so a beer tastes pretty good about now.
Back at the hotel, they've posted tomorrow's weather forecast...sunny. So that decides it...tomorrow, I'll be camping. Before dinner, I get things ready for tomorrow...lay out clothes, load up the coolers with ice, and purchase "provisions"...a piece, of filet (it is, after all, "beef country" here), a pork chop, some fresh corn and some nice looking asparagus...who says you can't eat well while camping!
For dinner, I decide to head back to the Snake River Grill...I want another "Steak Tartare Pizza". Sitting at the bar, I meet a couple from Chicago, Rick and Valerie. Pretty soon, Rick's trying a piece of my pizza, and I'm trying one of their roasted figs with almonds and blue cheese...excellent! We spend a lot of time talking about all of the great restaurants in Chicago, and I invite them to next year's Summer Picnic...I'm betting that they make it.
After dinner, I step out for a cigarette and meet Rachel from New York City. She's excited because she's in the process of moving to Jackson. But, she adds, her friends are all against it. Why, I ask, would anybody be against moving out here? And her reply is that "there aren't many people out here that look like me". This always sensitive door now having been opened, I raise something that's been on my mind for some time. Throughout all of my visit out West, and my stays at Glacier and Yellowstone, I do not recall seeing a single African American..."why is that", I ask? Her answer is short and direct..."They're afraid". While the cities here are pretty sophisticated, there are plenty of pockets of "red-necks" out "on the range"...so to speak. I remember and mention an HBO movie that I saw..."The Laramie Project", which we agree kind of sums it all up. All in all, a sobering (and sad) conversation.
Back inside for dessert, I see that they have one of my favorite after-dinner drinks, Banyuls (a Port-like fortified wine from Southern France). Rick, Valerie and I knock a few of those back before I head back over to Snake River Brewing. Several Kolsch and a few Alt beers later...time for bed. A free bus ride back to the hotel, and I'm asleep in minutes...gotta be up early tomorrow to get a camping site at Jenny Lake.
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