How can single days be so rich and full? It’s like over-eating at a feast day after day. I am so glad for my journal and pictures. First off, I did not ride my bike to Alabama & back yesterday, sorry to disappoint.😁 I have no idea how I managed to get my map to do that, nor how to undo it, but it looks impressive! THE GRAND TETONS. Before now, that didn’t mean much to me. I have seen pictures. Today I read the names of the individual peaks, then as I saw them on the distant horizon and rode toward them, the picture became larger and larger than life, and their majesty touched my emotions. They are individuals. They are a whole. I felt like they are living and have become a part of me. One of the things that feels so miraculous to me about this open terrain is to see a looming giant piece of landscape so far away, then ride my bike closer and closer until I am there. What seemed out of reach forever becomes close enough to touch. I had a moment like that yesterday, and went to raise my camera to capture it and all of a sudden it felt way too personal to encroach upon with a camera, so I lowered my phone and just felt that place. I realized it has happened a few other times on this trip, I just didn’t understand what was happening. Stopping to watch animals play, to soak up the sun dancing off water, to listen to the wind talking through the leaves on trees, breathe deeply the smells, really feel the weather. I think that, in the days beyond my ability to clearly remember these details, they will have entered me and changed who I am, made me more full. I’m going to let my pictures describe today, I don’t have words. 😶 My ride was about 70 miles, and I remember thinking at around 10 out that I really didn’t want this day to end! I will explain that when we arrived at Colter Bay in Grand Teton Nat’l Park, and were set to stay at the primitive hiker-biker campgrounds for that night and the next two in Yellowstone, we were told we couldn’t park our vehicle there or use our generator to charge our electronics & bikes. Both Kathy and I had called three months ago and weren’t told any of that, maybe it’s a national park thing, but at any rate we didn’t know. Everything of course is completely booked so we loaded our bikes into the trailer and drove through Yellowstone to West Yellowstone just across the MT border. Oh my goodness, that made for a quick trip through Wyoming!! We are in a KOA cabin (w/o solid Wi-Fi, I’m sitting in a hotel lobby to complete & send this). Everyone has seen Yellowstone but me and they are concerned that I get to experience it, but it’s pouring rain and frankly, we are so deeply enjoying this day off, that I think we will just sit tight. Dee had his best sleep of the trip last night, Cliff slept well too, and we will be riding in pouring freezing rain tomorrow, so I am just completely content to stay warm and to read, and hope for another day to experience Yellowstone. We had two days scheduled for seeing it, but will move on to our next stop one day early because it is crazy expensive here. That gives us a day off in Ennis as well. Snow was in the forecast off & on for Mon and Tues, but now it looks like we will miss it. I brought studded bike tires just in case, but honestly glad I won’t need to be changing them. My tires are HARD to remove!! I just want to say that I had so much fun playing in the snow today! Building a tiny little snowman, digging down to clean snow to eat then spitting out grit for the next hour anyway, running on the surface then falling through to my knees and tipping over, it was just FUN! And refreshing at the end of our long climb to the peak. Then the summit is always so rewarding. 🎉 It has been very interesting crossing and re-crossing the Continental Divide, some days multiple times, so I would like to look that up and examine it more closely, overlaying our route to understand it better. I honestly feel that if I am ever to hike one of the three major north-south routes, I would pick this over the Appalachian or Pacific Crest trails. Oh wow, I’m a jabber mouth today. How to describe indescribable things??! I love you, Terri