Being an adult means you get to stay in nice resorts and have other people pay for them.

Seriously. Jonmikel's been doing it for years, and has finally let me in on his little secret. He gave me a taste of what adulthood is like in Dubai, with the free fancy dinners and the luxurious accommodations...

So this time around, I got to head off to Jackson, WY for a meeting of NPCA's Center for State of the Parks advisory council, aka, hanging out with people who are so vastly important that it makes me feel pretty useless just reading their bios. Seriously. There's Dorothy who led the clean-up team in DC for the whole anthrax thing a few years ago and then developed and internationally used and respected theory on how to deal with bio-threats. There was Francisco, who was recently asked to be the Minister of Environmental Affairs for Venezuela. Another dude who was Bush Sr.'s personal appointee to the council on historic preservation (or a council by any other name that smells as culturally challenged). Keith, who isn't yet on the Board but who just invented some funky computer chip thing and retired a millionaire at 45. People who got out of undergraduate college and hit the ground running, starting out with way cool and important stuff as soon as the degree was printed.

Seriously. Gives me an inferiority complex.

But the views are nice. The resort is a little dated, but they have wood-burning fire places in every room that you can smell as the sun starts to rise. Good breakfast, too. Plus, our fancy dinner at 43 North was entirely paid for. The booze, too, was covered, as I discovered that in this respect, I have way more in common with wealthy important people than I do with my own colleagues: the latter group was under the strict impression that 2 bottles of wine would suffice amongst a group of 16 and the former was adament (and correctly so) that it would most definitely NOT. Jolly rich people need wine, damnit!

Some shots from my first day:

The view was definitely not to shabby...

My cabin...


The cabin next door...

The grounds of Spring Creek Ranch, where we stayed

I also should point out that my skills as someone who has, actually lived in the mountains (versus Ft. Collinsers who just THINK they live in the mountains) was utilized on this trip while driving up over Togwotee Pass to get into Grand Teton National Park. The pass is almost 10,000 ft. so of course this time of year its got some snow on it. I told them to go up through Rock Springs if they wanted the smoothest ride but the decision had been made not by me. The pass was fine, but it freaked everyone out, and when we started to get lapped by people in Subarus (we had a nice little SUV), I took the wheel. I guess when you've lived in Montana, your perspective on the outdoors changes a lot... There has to be at LEAST a foot of snow for it to be considered real snow, and you also begin to understand that if the roads are not driveable or at all dangerous, they close them liberally. I guess its a skill you learn while making the commute from Gardiner, MT to Mammoth Hot Springs, WY (or from Livingston, 50 miles away) in the winter...