Mountains and moose

15 days until the project begins

"I think we just passed a moose."

"Are you kidding? That was a deer. They don't have moose here and that animal was too skinny to be a moose." 

"It absolutely was a moose, and they do have them in Wyoming. Didn't you see the warning signs?"

It was a rather circuitous argument about a brown blur on the side of the road going through the Teton pass. My father and I had been in the car for about sixteen hours and still had another 30 minutes before we reached our destination in Teton Village. The silver lining was that the sun did not fully set until almost 10pm.

The idea of a Yellowstone/Tetons "side trip" on the mission to get my car from San Francisco to Fayetteville was not an easy sell. Especially the decision to drive straight from San Francisco to Jackson. My father does not have an adventurous streak and is not the most outdoorsy person. He was nervous about a long day in a car that has not gone more than 300 miles in three months, let alone almost a thousand in a day.

But as we settled into the rhythm of the interstate, my dad relaxed and began to talk. The conversation meandered across various topics and petered out at natural intervals. We were both surprised to find that I-80 across Nevada is not nearly as ugly as feared; the landscape melted from one terrain to another as we passed from high desert to high steppe. We were also both surprised (and delighted) to piece together the entire USA v Portugal soccer game on a few different AM and FM radio stations.

It was also exciting to drive through Idaho. Neither of us have ever been through this state. The high sage-covered steppe melted into farmland as it hit the Snake River delta. Fields of lush alfalfa and hops shone in the late afternoon sun, which bathed the gleaming Tetons in the background. As we sped toward the mountains, the sun set in its pink-red-orange glory. Had I not been going 85 mph, I would have snapped a photo (note--my father does not operate iPhones and/or other devices with cameras).

Tomorrow is a new day and Yellowstone is on the agenda. And probably a few more moose. 

Update: After 48 hours of genteel discussions and rear-view observations of various animals inside the national parks, it was agreed the beast on the side of the road was neither moose nor deer. It was an elk.