Day 7: Targhee National Forest
Today has been the most frustrating day of the trip, but I’m actively working on putting a positive spin on it. A long time ago, I wrote an entry in this blog about making your own luck/using your mindset to reframe how you’re thinking about the day, and today is a good opportunity for me to put that into practice.
The biggest thing I had to deal with today was replacing my phone. I’ve known my phone was in its declining stage for months now, but I was spending money on other things getting ready for this trip and I thought it would be in good enough shape to get me through to the Fall. There were two main issues with it--- the battery life was dropping off rapidly, and the charging port was very hit or miss in terms of actually receiving a charge. Both issues came to a head last night. The charging port failed completely, and the battery life went off a cliff. When I realized that it wasn’t charging, I put it in airplane mode to save battery, but overnight it still dropped down to zero.
So this morning, I had to look at a map and figure out how to get to the ATT store, which was about 45 minutes away, actually writing down the turns like some sort of peasant from 2010. I successfully navigated to the store and was second in line when they opened. The guy in front of me in line was very nice when we were chatting in front of the store, but immediately got into a huge argument with the only employee about his bill and was eventually asked to leave before security was called. So, that happened, and it was my turn. I picked out a new phone—two separate issues on a two year old phone when I absolutely had to have one later in the day in order to navigate to my campsite meant I didn’t see any point in trying to get it repaired—but needed to wait for them to charge my old phone on their wireless charger in order to transfer all of my data. This took almost two hours. I spent the time reading a book in the lobby of the ATT store and making frequent trips out the car to let Mason out for walks and water so he didn’t die in a hot car and/or so I didn’t get arrested for leaving him in a hot car. After two hours, my old phone was finally charged enough to sync all the data to the new phone. Syncing the data took another 45 minutes. Getting the phone replaced cost me three hours, plus it meant I had driven 45 minutes the wrong direction from where I needed to be this afternoon.
The good news there was all I really needed to do with the rest of the day was set up camp in the Targhee National Forest, adjacent to Grand Teton National Park. To be honest, I was under the impression that the site I had booked was in the national park, but here we all are. When I got to the site, I had about 30 minutes to enjoy the peace and quiet of nature before a group of about 25 Girl Scouts arrived and set up camp in the site next to me. For the rest of the afternoon and into the evening, I’ve been listening to them yell at each other, play with a bullhorn, and dare each other to pick up little wriggly animals down by the creek. Also, if I try to go pee behind a tree there’s a real possibility I could inadvertently commit a crime, so I have to walk down to the camp bathroom like a peasant.
But, well, let’s look at the positive. I was able to get the phone replaced, which I think shows a fair amount of both skill and luck on my part. There are a lot of other places on this trip where I wouldn’t have been able to get to a cell phone store, and a lot of other times on this trip when I won’t have over three hours to kill getting it sorted out. And a bunch of noisy Girl Scouts are not my ideal neighbors, but I know from experience that a bunch of noisy Boy Scouts would be way more unruly and disruptive. So there’s that.
And the bottom line is, I’m still camped out in a beautiful woods in a pristine wilderness. I don’t have anything specific to do tomorrow, so for the first time on this trip I’m going to stay up to watch the stars come out. I’ve got a cigar and a stack of firewood all ready to go. Tomorrow, I’m going to take Mason for a hike—since we’re in the national forest I can actually take him on trails-- and then maybe head into the national park to do the scenic drive. As always, I’m going to keep making it happen.
