A Long Drive

Sign proclaiming the loneliest road

Just a few days of warm weather causes us to miss the cold - just a little. About the drive on the Loneliest Road. (Map this!)

After waiting six weeks for the car to be done we were hoping for a nice relaxing drive home. Hah! We just happened to pick the worst storm of the season to drive to San Francisco. After dumping nine feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada it moved straight towards us. Luckily we skirted around it but outside Idaho Falls we hit the slipperiest spot on the trip. Going 50mph was fine until I wanted to pull over to take a photo - the FJ scooted forward like a hockey puck upon the most minimal braking.

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Vista from Jackson Hole Ski Resort

Jackson becomes a second home for us, with new friends and adventures. (Map this!)

When friends buy us dinner or take us out to the movies I gladly accept their generosity since I know that sooner or later I will return the favour because friendship is a long term relationship and over the course of a friendship such things even out eventually. But the kindness of strangers is another matter altogether and is surprisingly difficult to accept.

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Contentment

Seeking a balance between the new and the old, exploring and keeping the comforts of everyday life.

We seek the new and the unfamiliar. A good friend of ours (A certain Mr. Fredrick Gault) once asked us why we wanted to start teleskiing when we were such good downhill skiers. And as we ski precariously balanced in the tele position, trying to stay away from inept skiers careening downhill on intermediate slopes, I ask myself the same thing.

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In Yellowstone National Park

A trip to Yellowstone is reminiscent of Canto thirteen of the Inferno.

This last trip to Yellowstone I couldn’t help but think of Canto thirteen, where Dante describes a walk through the wood of suicides. The souls of those who took their lives are entombed in trees without leaves which are not straight but knotty and deformed.

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Outside the classroom Teton Science School

Classes at Kelly were hard work and no play - but the surroundings were beautiful

We have been living in a monastery. Or that’s what it felt like. Get up at 5am. Study. Breakfast at 7am. Kitchen duty. Classes from 8am to 5pm. Study again till 6pm. Dinner; more study or practice sessions till 10pm. And over again. Weekends ER (Emergency Room) rotations or study. No Alcohol. Spartan accomodations in bunks. Keep your areas clean; no cycling on campus.

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