Woke up early and loaded everything back into the van and drove back to the service garage. I spoke with the owner and asked if he had heard from the Rental van people. He said no, so I asked him if I could use his phone again to ring them. He was cool with that and I rang them. They were having trouble arranging a tow for the van and I told him I could not wait for anything as I needed to keep moving back towards Portland and I would arrange my own transport. He told me he would repay my remaining days and also my additional payments for the accident insurance.
I then rang the local taxi service called Togwotee Taxi. The owner Jim Knudsen answered the phone and I asked for a lift to Jackson so I could pick up a rental car to continue my trip. Jim said no problems but he would be half an hour before he could pick me up. I was very happy with that because it could have been a lot longer if he was busy with another fare.
I used that half hour to arrange a car rental via Kayak.com who I usually use as a reference point. I had looked last night to my normal company I have status with is Budget and they wanted over $500 for the five days as it was a one way rental.
Checking on Kayak I found a rate of $ 19 per day with Alamo Car Rentals. I booked it online and added extra insurance cover. I was surprised at the cheap price and wondered if when I got there they would hit me up with extra for the one way rental.
Anyway with that done I waited about 10 minutes for Jim to arrive and we loaded up my luggage and I locked the van and left the keys with the mechanics.
It is a one hour thirty minutes drive to Jackson from Dubois. Jim was very helpful by answering a lot of questions I had about driving out of Jackson and alternative ways to get to Yellowstone because the closest entry was still closed due to bushfires.
Jim also was telling me about the local area and the features on the landscape. As we got closer to Jackson the haze from the bushfire smoke got thicker and at one stage he told me about the Grand Teton Mountain Range and how it is still growing due to the plates still moving. He said to look out to the right and all I could see about 400 yards away was smoke haze. Jim told me behind that smoke haze was an up to an over 10,000 foot high mountain range.
I also asked him about alternative ways to get into Yellowstone and he said the quickest way would be to drive up the west side of the park and enter via West Yellowstone in Montana. The only problem is that it would be a six hour drive at least and that would get me there just on dark and then have to find accommodation etc. Also as I would need to come out of the park the same way I would only have half a day there to keep my schedule to get back to Portland on Sunday. In the end I decided I would not go there and I would got directly to Idaho Falls which I had planned on driving to on Thursday night. So I would therefore be a day ahead of schedule.
It was a pleasure having Jim drive me to Jackson as he was very easy to talk to and we got on swell during the journey. He has had a interesting life and it was a enjoyable ride. On arriving in Jackson I picked up the car and as they did not have what I ordered in size I got an upgrade to a Hyundai Santa Fe Sports wagon. It is great to drive as well, an easier drive than the old van!
I thanked Jim for driving me there and paid for the ride. He gave me a receipt that I hope to use in my Travel insurance claim.
I checked all my maps and left Jackson heading west. I had not gone ten miles and there was a turn off to Teton Village which I had read had cable cars and ski lifts up onto the mountain side. I decided to go into the village and see about going on a cable car ride. The village is set up as a ski resort for winter and in the summer it is a hiking and water sport area, with fishing kayaking, rafting etc.
I went up to where the cable car goes from and spoke to the attendants and they said they are running but the smoke haze is making visibility very low. I lot of hikers were still going up the mountain but as I would only be going up for the scenery and not for long hikes I decided not to do it.
Therefor I went back out to the highway and drove up and over the Teton Pass and into Idaho.
Just on that side of the state border was the Grand Teton Brewing Company in Victor. I stopped and talked to the brewer and got some coasters, bottle labels and bought a glass and a t-shirt.
From there I followed the road through mountains and valleys and alongside rivers for quite a while.
I even had a helicopter fly overhead with a water bucket under it. I could see smoke and drove past some campsites that had closed signs on them and just then drove past a checkpoint that had a command post for firefighters and passed a few fire trucks. It was a local fire in the area and not from the Yellowstone fire.
From there I followed the Snake River all the way to Idaho Falls arriving about 4.30 in the afternoon.
I went to Starbucks to check the internet and to look for accommodation for the night. I ended up finding a Hilton Garden Inn right near the Starbucks so I decided to go there and book in.
I booked a room and got all my bags up into it and turned on the television and noticed there was 6 episodes of American Pickers back to back on the History channel. I started watching them and has seen the first one but the second one was one I must have missed previously. The next 4 I had seen.
I went down to the Restaurant in the hotel and had some pasta for dinner and went back to the room and watched some more television before sleeping.
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