Jackson, Swing the Jig Boom

September 16, 2014 Paul Scolieri Blog 0 comments
It took a 10 hour haul to get to Jackson, and we missed the landscape change on the drive by arriving after dark. Waking up in Jackson encased by the mountains was surreal. It may seem like a small thing to get excited about, but I’m not used to being surrounded by these kinds of goliath landforms. Jackson is definitely a trendy ski resort town. It has a blend of cliché old west tourist traps and hip restaurants and shops. It’s also mega expensive. The cheapest place we could find to stay was a Motel 6 in Jackson. Although this was one of the nicest motels that I’ve personally stayed in, the lowest price we could find was about $140/night. Our park ranger friend (and couchsurfing host for 2 nights), Christina, informed us later that the government owns over 90% of the land in the Jackson Hole region, limiting the amount of available space to expand the town. She informed us that Jackson is the most expensive real estate market in the country, even surpassing Manhattan. It’s so expensive in fact, that many of the people working service jobs in the city are living in camp sites temporarily as an alternative to an unaffordable Jackson apartment. Wow.A short 20 minute drive from Jackson is Grand Teton National Park. Maybe I’m acting like a little kid who has just seen snow for the first time, but the first glimpse of the Rockies was mesmerizing. The giant structures seemed to be punched up from the flat valley floor by the hand of god.

Because Jackson is so expensive, I decided to check into couch surfing on our long drive through Wyoming. After a brief search, I landed on Christina’s profile. She is 23, a Park Ranger at Grand Teton, and lives inside the park. This is perfect. Luckily she responded to my request to house us for two nights. I found out later that such quick, positive responses are rarer in the couchsurfing community. Lucky for us, this would save us the exorbitant Jackson lodging fees, and provided us a better experience staying inside the park with our own personal guide. I assumed Christina’s place would have a nice view, but I had no idea that meant, Grand Teton would smack you in the face each glance out the window. There could not have been a more ideal location.

Part of my goal for this trip is to meet as many interesting people as possible, and Jackson lived up to expectations. We shared a drink with some new friends that we met while hiking. Mary even offered up a place to crash in New Orleans once we make our way there. Leena tried to get us a discount at the pizza shop where she works by mentioning her name at the register. We paid full price for pizza, but both offers were greatly appreciated. Christina the ranger/host showed us some of her favorite hidden photo locations throughout the park. She also sent us with a map of highlighted stops in the Tetons and Yellowstone. She adored Mac (even though Mac was more concerned with Tom and I leaving him forever every single time we walked out the door).

Brandon was a fellow couch surfer staying with Christina. He had won a trip by entering a photo contest with a travel company. We shared an educational conversation about his sailboat racing league in Connecticut. There is definitely no rec-league sailboat racing where I’m from. Most of the lingo he used sailed 10,000 feet over my head, but it did remind me of the humor in sailing terms. When he declared that he gets a good workout from “trimming the spinnaker” Tom and I actually laughed out loud. I was disappointed that he didn’t get my wedding crashers reference, though. “Swing the Jig Boom” has never had a more perfect use.

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