For Lack of a Better World

Today we were in Jackson, Wyoming again. As much as I’m ready to meander through Grand Teton once more and make our way to Yellowstone, I feel no sense of urgency,

I also had some postcards to write and I thought I’d be just as well doing that in Jackson as doing it in the Tetons as it would ultimately demand all of my attention anyway.

Since we were here in Jackson, I wanted to stock up on some treats we’d found at Teton Tails, a local pet store. They’re bully strips from a brand we’ve had before. Luna has been obsessed with them. They look like oversized bacon. They’re too big for her to have a whole one but they’re hard enough to break. I close a couple inches in the truck door and bend them till they snap in two and portion them for her like that.

We visited the store first thing. They had some doggy clothes and food discounted in a few tables out front. I found a thermal-type suit in red, which I think of as her de facto signature color. I forced her to try it on for my entertainment but you have to know, Luna hates wearing clothes. I genuinely think she’d prefer to just be cold. Alas, I was able to get a couple of pictures to satisfy my craving,

Once in the store, there were a couple of shop dogs that greeted us. Zsa Zsa, Ziggy, and Bellina. I might’ve frustrated Bellina with my picture taking. She let out a disapproving bark and wound up getting out in another area. The other two dogs, Zsa Zsa and Ziggy were unphased by us.

I let Luna walk around and sniff at the various bins and bags while I asked about the nutritional information of the bully strips we’d come for. Then I had her pull a strip out of the bin ceremoniously before selecting a few for our inventory.

Afterward, we moseyed over to downtown to do some walking around — you know, get our steps in. Our first stop was a store called Wild West Designs. It’s full of furnishings and decor, much of which is made from animal hides, leather, and fur. There is also an array of taxidermied animals.

I like taking Luna into places like this. It’s a feast for her senses. She’s always well behaved and the best version of herself, even when staring into the eyes of a stuffed raccoon or beaver posed like he’s paddling in a canoe or something absurd.

This ship also had rabbit pelts for $10 and I’d been toying with the idea of getting her one. I get the sense she’d appreciate it. She always seems to be enthralled by alpaca wool anytime we’ve been in a shop that has it, running herself through any low-hanging items like shawls and scarves and occasionally teething a garment or biting at one of the little alpaca figurines made of the wool. They’re always priced out of my comfort zone though I have considered budgeting for a scarf or something.

At any rate, I figured a small, inexpensive rabbit pelt would be a good introductory item to see how she treated it before investing in something she might simply destroy. So we picked out a pelt that was in good shall and were on our way.

The name of the game in the warmer months for us is to keep the vehicle in the shade. For one, there’s nothing worse than climbing into a sun-baked vehicle after walking around in a warm day and, conversely, there’s nothing more relieving than climbing into a cool, shaded vehicle after a time spent out in a sunny day. Seemingly, I generally have some kind of food in the truck and, minimalist that I tend to be, it’s typically not kept in an ice chest or anything. So the angle I work is keeping it in the coolest part of the truck, which is actually cooler than you might think as long as the vehicle never gets that opportunity to bake.

So we moved to one of our designated shade spots. I did some postcard writing while Luna broke in her new pelt with a nice, shady nap. We enjoyed a couple of hours in that location until later afternoon, probably evening technically. I forget how late the sun stays up this time of year. It’s not setting till nearly 21:00 these days. So it was probably after 17:00 by the time the sun had pushed us out of our shade, forcing us to relocate.

We moved to a new spot and got ready for our evening excursion. I brought my tripod along to take our picture under the antler arches, which I’d been resisting the entire time we’d been in Jackson because it’s always such a crowded location and I don’t like the thought of interacting with people in that capacity, fumbling through courtesies and social cues and whatnot. But I figured if we’d been anchored in this city for this long I owed it to posterity to attempt a descent picture.

The picture was successful enough. I don’t think the arches are especially photo friendly. I mean it’s a sufficient enough feature to have a memory distinct to Jackson but it’s not necessarily proportionately or otherwise ideal. Plus it’s crowded. Plus it’s bordered by roads with lots of vehicle traffic. But we got our pictures under the arches and a couple of others that featured the stacked antlers that I was happier with.

We got in a good long set of Seek! at a little green space (a small park effectively) begging the Jackson Hole Historical Society & Museum. This is Luna’s favorite game. I hide treats similar to the way you’d hide Easter Eggs, at least the way they hid Easter Eggs when I was a kid. I don’t know what this trash they do now is about. Just be a thousand eggs strewn on mowed lawn with a bunch of kids sprinting to nab as many as they could. Insanity!

Anyway, the treats get hidden around while she sits and waits. Then I return to her and give her the command to Seek! and she tracks down the treats one by one. I think she likes the task of looking for the treats but I know she loves those freakin’ treats.

We got in a solid three rounds. Even had a lady watching her for one round. That was cool. It’s usually just Luna and myself. Rare that we have an audience unless we’re with someone we know. So I was happy to see someone else enjoy watching Luna go.

After our game of Seek! we headed back to the truck, stopping to check out some art along the way. Then it was off to Phil Baux Park to watch sunset and clean the truck out before shutting it down for the night.