Girls, Girls, Girls

We hit the road by 10am as we've got a lot planned for Jackson. First there's the 5pm “Meditation for Peace”, followed by three Art Exhibitions and then Relay for Life in the evening. It’s going to be busy. We did all of them and feel great for the experience. I'm really enjoying the spiritual experiences out here.

About 9.30pm we go for a walk to see the local area and come by a park full of people. It doesn’t get dark here until about 10pm. Shawn jokingly suggests we crash it and having had 2 or 3 complimentary Art Exhibition wines I wholeheartedly agree. We wander in and are immediately offered a burger by the cook. Come to discover we've crashed the local Latter Day Saints youth singles ward of 18-30 yr olds.

Shawn and I are both over 35 so chat to the somewhat older organizers for a while. They’re very welcoming and we openly ask about and discuss their faith. A nice couple from Salt Lake City (about 220 miles south) give us their info and tell us to drop by if we get to SLC. We head over to the younger group to play some “glow in the dark” frisbee. Eventually we sit down on a bench with 3 girls and chat for a while. By about 11.30pm it’s getting chilly (at least to us) and most people are gone. I unashamedly ask if they have an apartment where we can continue chatting. To our slight suprise they agree so we follow Tami and Shalese home. They happen to room together and live just near the Relay For Life site we were at earlier (already feels like we know the area).

The four of us plus the girls’ roommate Cate continue to talk (mostly about Latter Day Saints beliefs) until about 3.30am. Shawn and I are still surprised these clearly upstanding girls allowed us into their home. Maybe it’s obvious both of us are spiritual and truly only interested in hearing about their beliefs but I still suspect it’s against church rules to bring home 2 male complete strangers. Maybe we’d be considered Mission work. Neither Shawn nor I are used to being up this late so I propose if they let us stay tonight and Sat night we’d cook them a great dinner. After a brief huddle they agree. Coincidentally (the girls deny this but we all know there are no coincidences) 10 minutes later Cate’s brother Karl knocks on the door saying he’s out late and doesn’t want to ride his motorcycle home. He’s our chaperone on the living room floor – fine by us. After about 4 hours sleep Cate get up and leaves for work and we head off for a day of exploring, starting at the Farmers market. That evening we cook a great eggplant based vegetarian meal after which Shalese heads off to her room to do some work for Church. Tami and her friend Ronda hang around to play some UNO with Shawn and I for a few hours. When Cate gets home after her 14 hour day (on about 2 hours sleep – oh to be 24) we all get noisy for a while and then thankfully get to bed by 12.30am.

Shawn and I get up early to head off for a walk up the mountain behind the girls’ apartment and then after greatly enjoyed showers and breakfast we take a few goodbye photos and head off back to the Tetons. As wonderful as Jackson was, predominantly due to the people we met, the serenity and quiet of the Tetons is more relaxing. We will enjoy our traveling together and then I’m sure move on to other people and experiences when the time is right. For now, we’ll be heading to Jenny Lake about 7am Monday to try and get one of the first come, first served tent sites and do some more exploring there.