The journey begins. Our quest is to see the White Buffalo before the sun sets. I have heard that if you look at the top of the ridges, you will see him pawing the prairie grass while his warm breath fogs the air. If you look away and look back, he will have disappeared. Was he real? Perhaps Carlos Castaneda's Don Juan has the answer.
In order to find the White Buffalo, one must pass a series of tests. The first is dropping off four dogs for boarding. No matter how much paperwork is pre-filed, it always seems to take an hour. Of course, Luc is reluctant to be boarded. Somehow he manages to claw a two inch gash in my arm clinging to me in the car. Once inside he barks incessantly at every other dog in the lobby.
Returning home, we finalize our packing. It is going to be 100 degrees in Houston, yet we remember the fireworks show last year in Jackson trying to stay warm by the fire. Jackets are required. And we can squeeze chairs into the golf travel bags for the Fourth of July picnic and concert in the "Hole".
Just before we depart for the airport we received a trip alert that our flight had a thirty minute delay. A quick check showed we would still make our connection which was good because there were no other seats on the one later flight.
By the time we were ready to check bags our plane was delayed further and we would no longer get to Denver in tome to connect. However, it looked as if our connecting flight might be delayed as it was also coming from Chicago where thunderstorms were grounding planes. After further delays our plane was almost three hours behind schedule. We boarded thinking we might drive to Jackson, or spend the night in Denver.
We received phone messages upon landing in Denver that we had been rebooked on the 7:40 PM flight which now had a Boeing 757 in place of the smaller Airbus 320 freeing up more seats. We decided to eat at the airport but we had time to walk the airport and look for some sunglasses for Cherry, who had discovered her sunglasses case was empty. Before we got very far, Cherry spotted an orange and silver bolo tie in a store window. It turns out that a Navaho Indian in New Mexico had inlaid spiny oyster shell in silver to create this beautiful bolo tie. Of course we have worn bolo ties only once or twice in our lifetimes so we had to purchase it as artwork. We found some ridiculous Loudmouth golf shorts at the PGA Tour shop that would make John Daley blush. Definitely not a bored at the airport purchase, but we filed the information away for a future fun event. The Sunglasses Hut had a good selection of Maui Jim and we purchased two pair, one for Cherry, and one to replace my cracked MJ's. Airport shopping spree done so we ate dinner and headed for the Red Carpet Club to get our seat assignments. Interesting conversation with the United employees who said the merger integration was going fine until about a month ago and now everything is crashing all the time. Sounds like it is time to short United.
Trading Babies, Couple Encounters, and Pilots:
We were finally on the plane to Jackson. Has anyone noticed that babies only come in extra large now? We had a family traveling all the way from Houston on our planes with all of our delays. They had three boys nursing through two years old and they were huge. They were also not happy campers. They were spread out on the plane so there was a lot of baby trading going on. By the way if you have a boy, ditch the pink blanket.
A young man, age 33, sat in the window seat next to Cherry. After a stint in the marines where he saw the four corners of the world, he became a NYC cop working where he grew up. He served in Iraq and is an American hero who served his country. Now he has moved to Frisco, Texas where he going to college in science and hopes to have a medical carreer. His girlfriend bought him a plane ticket for a couples retreat. He had never seen the mountains and had never ridden a horse which he hoped to do. As the plane approached Jackson from the north, the sun was setting over the Grand Tetons out his window. He was very excited and used his camera phone to take pictures. We all owe a lot to brave young men who have risked their lives before they have had a chance to fully enjoy them. Young people like him make this a great country and it adds meaning to our Independence Day celebration.
The pilot on our flight was a little different than most. He asked all the passengers to be their "eyes and ears" and report anything unusual. Our marine said that his use of eyes and ears was a dead give away that the pilot was ex-military.
One more encounter to report and that was Natalie at the Avis counter. Natalie was from the Ukraine and had been in the US for two years. Natalie studied English in school growing up and she and many other people around the world yearn to live here. Let's not forget how special this country is, something our political leaders seem to have forgotten.
So we overcame all the obstacles in our path and checked into The White Buffalo Club. There is a beautiful Linda St Clair buffalo painting hanging behind the front desk but it is definitely not white. When we entered our room we finally saw the White Buffalo, a white buffalo shaped cutting board on the kitchen counter.
We spent the rest of the evening listening to a C&W band at The Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. After a few Grand Margaritas it was time for sweet dreams.
