Auntie Blanche

We have a long time family friend who is turning 90 in October this year, our ex-next door neighbor universally known as Auntie Blanche. Blanche was one of the first people we met when we moved to Bermuda as she and her husband, Ernest (uncle Moniz to the children), lived next door and as chance would have it, had owned the property that we moved into beforehand but had recently sold it to our then current landlords. So Ernest who was a handyman of the first order knew precisely where everything was and went in our place. This was a great help as my skills do not extend that far into the handyman domain so on occasion it was massively helpful to have a fount of knowledge so close to hand. For advice and as it most often turned out, assistance to the point of my doing pretty much nothing.

Blanche and Ernest also loved our children. Indy was 7 months old when we arrived in Bermuda whilst Dee Dee was born there. They would actively encourage us to go out at weekends so that they could look after the pair of them and put them up overnight. In short they were the Bermuda grandparents that our boys would never have otherwise had.

On the occasion when Viv would go away, Blanche would ask me if I'd like her to do my laundry as I was working and looking after the boys before and after school. I would never say no and over time it became something of a bit of fun, for me at least, when Blanche asked if I wanted starch on my shirt collars. I said yes the first time but in reality had no clue what starch was and if or not it went on shirt collars. I was being polite and trying not to appear too dopey. I don't think I fooled anyone.

Blanche and the boys

When Ernest passed away, Blanche continued to live in their home. By this time we had moved away and left our beloved Anchor Down for it was getting too small as the boys got older but continued to pop around to visit Auntie Blanche who would always bring out tea, most often banana bread or on occasion other treats as she was a terrific cook, particularly baker. It was at Blanche's house that I discovered the delight that is cherry and walnut cake.

I don't know how many times Blanche has told us her recipes for shortcrust pastry, mince tarts, her famous Christmas cake and this wondrous cherry and walnut cake. It has been many. This has meant therefore that whilst Blanche would chide us for not getting it, she would come up with the goodies herself. For many years therefore one of my greatest treats was receiving one or more of Blanche's Christmas cakes and a cherry and walnut cake.

On one occasion, Blanche gave me two such cakes. One to share with the family and one just for me. Blanche understood things very well as there was much competition for the cake, not so much from the boys but from Viv and her mum, Anna, when she visited. I would try to ensure no cakes were around at times like this but clearly forgot this time. It was a time I was really busy at work so I was working very long hours and forgot about the cakes until one day I remembered and thought I'd have a piece with a cup of tea before going to bed. I took the cake out of its foil wrap and to my horror discovered the top, sides, bottom and ends all cut off with just a longish finger of cake from the middle remaining. It was too late that day, but the following day I called Blanche and told her the tragic tale. She didn't believe me. So I took the offending cake over to her house and showed her. Whilst I was distraught, Blanche started to sympathize but in the end started laughing helplessly. I don't think I've actually seen anyone laugh that much. But remaining on point for the moment, from that time on Blanche knew exactly what I had to contend with so made a point of making cakes just for me with another on the side to share.

Time has moved on, and Blanche left her family home to live in a smaller apartment next to her niece but she continues to make the occasional cake and mince tart. It is harder work these days but when we just visited Blanche showed me her latest offering: it was a beautiful cherry and walnut cake... just for me. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

You cannot know how good this cake is until you try it. So good.

We have had so many wonderful times with Blanche over the years that she has become an icon for the family. For several years, Dee Dee would go over to Auntie Blanche's house on Christmas Day to share her lunch as Blanche liked to eat early (we ate late) and then come back home for our later dinner. Indy still visits when he is in Bermuda as do we. Viv calls Blanche regularly. We'll be back for Blanche's 90th, that's for sure. Wouldn't miss it and who knows, maybe a cherry and walnut cake.....?

The Wild West Part VI -- Road Trip

Navigating by GPS is great, but realistically you have no real idea of the big picture. I could plot a course to the Million Dollar Bar in downtown Jackson just fine with my GPS, but I could not plot a 4 day road trip across the prairie to Chicago that would take in the places where we wanted to stop off and visit along the way without that old style thing... the map. I love maps, I really do. I love to see where I am and where other interesting places are that I have never visited. I also like to see where I have visited in the past as that brings back some very happy memories so have bought some big area maps for home and have started to push little pins into them marking where we have been! I know, pretty anal. Whatever. So I bought some road maps and along with Google Maps started plotting our way back to Chicago. Total distance approximately 1500 miles with stops and side tracks along the way; 4 days and 3 nights; how long in each side visit....

See. People still do do back of the envelope!

It took us to some fun places too. The further east we drove, the more cars, people and towns we encountered. The stretch across Minnesota was fairly busy. It could have been the 4th July driving weekend I suppose but that bit wasn't as enjoyable as the earlier bits. For accommodation I chose wherever I could to stay at places on the Missouri River, trying to keep a Lewis and Clarke theme if I could. It didn't work after the Little Big Horn excursion as that area is almost totally devoid of towns, the nearest being a tiny town called Hardin where things closed down at 8.30 pm which came as something of a shock when we were looking for dinner. It turned out just fine in the end though but it did make us consider that we should probably look to do things earlier in the evening for the next couple of days.



We chose Wisconsin Dells because of its proximity to Chicago (less than 3 hours on our final day) and because we wanted to try some cheese! However if you want to know what we enjoyed the most on our road trip, in no particular order they are:

The Spam Museum in Austin, Minnesota. Viv bought a can when we came back to Penang!

The sight of Viv cleaning dead bugs off the windscreen and the amount of hand soap used afterwards

The really beautiful locations

The huge country... and of course the hat.

The ever changing roads

Most of all the company

The Wild West Part V -- Custer's Last Stand

I have tracked this part fairly relentlessly with the Track My Tour app which you can follow here if you like.... Whoops. I quickly took a look at that blog and realized I missed out a whole chunk that I thought I'd mentioned which was our visit to the Little Big Horn Battlefield. Lots of bits about the prairie (which admittedly is very, very big) but nothing about that. My bad.

The location is SE Montana and nearly 7 hours drive from Jackson so we had a great drive mainly through prairies and small towns like Cody, named after Buffalo Bill which is your ultimate one horse town. Really enjoyable. I think we went through two iPlayer stories and maybe a podcast or so. This did mean that we got there late, around 4 pm, but as it is just about the lightest time of the year and pretty far north, it wouldn't get dark until well past 10 pm. It was also a beautiful clear evening.

The visitor place is interesting and gave a nice background. We sat through the video but more interestingly a native Indian ranger's talk on the events with her perspective. Both sides in fact.

I didn't know what to expect really but as we'd driven 7 hours across prairie without seeing too many people, I had started to get an idea what it may have been like 150 years ago... no roads, no towns, just prairie. No telephone or radios, just wireless but without the wires which helped not at all. So with no communications means, hindsight would say that the objective of the punitive expedition was almost certainly doomed to failure. Obviously, the actual events were unexpected but ...

1851 Treaty of Laramie that set the Sioux lands

The lands set aside for the Indians (Sioux, but this is a collective for a number of smaller tribes as well) was massive and realistically there were not very many of them in total, so a huge parcel of land. On one side, the Indians did not like being encumbered in any way and on the other settlers kept encroaching from the east. Most notably when gold was discovered in Deadwood (modern day South Dakota) which is in the Black Hills, a sacred place for the Indians. So both together made for a fraught time and it was realistically the continual and increasing encroachment which pushed things over the edge.

So many books have been written about the subject by so many different people with different perspectives that I won't add my two pennyworth, but here is Wikipedia's take on things. From what I saw and heard and subsequently read, it does seem to have been a series of errors, misunderstandings and simple cock ups combined with a lot of bad luck, rather like the Battle of Isandlwana in the South African Zulu wars and with a very similar aftermath: ultimate destruction for the victors.

The land area firstly is huge and the numbers of participants on either side were relatively few. In total some 8,000 Indians and on the US Army side, no more than 5,000 soldiers and cavalry split into two columns. The intent was to approach the Indians from two sides and deal with them that way. In practice, as soon as they split up there was no chance of subsequent coordination of any attack. Each column would have to deal with things as they came up all alone. The main body of soldiers didn't show up until 2-3 days later by which time it was all far too late and the Indians had long gone.

The tree line in the distance is the river where all the Indian tribes were encamped. Skirmishers went down from this vantage and were rapidly chased back. Surprise that had been total was now irredeemably lost.

The ridge line along which the battle was fought

Rolling ground with many gullies where Indian braves could hide and ridges from which they could shoot

History has portrayed Custer as many things ranging from doomed super hero to brainless buffoon but he was a long time serving soldier who had reached General rank in the civil war and was intent on carrying out his orders; so probably somewhere in between. It was the combination of no intelligence (as in news of what was going on), massive distances and lack of determination by support troop commanders combined with his own over eagerness and pure bad luck running into the entire Indian population on the banks of the Little Big Horn river that did it. By the time he and his men had advanced into what turned out to be the main battlefield area, it was too late to retire. Particularly after they killed their horses to provide cover.

Last stand hill

I remember history classes from my early school days, in the early 1960's, when people could remember the empire. Teachers would say that the British never lost the final battle even though they lost many along the way. Same goes for here. Even though this battle realistically was nothing more than a minor skirmish, in terms of significance it was massive. Just as at Isandlwana, news of the disaster awoke an anger and determination to finish the war and smash the Indians totally. As the president at the time was Grant, the Civil War generalissimo, there was no way that this would turn out other than badly for the Indians and so it proved.

However what cannot be gainsaid is that all those that participated in the battle were doing it for what they deemed right reasons and for the most part fought and died bravely. This memorial I think does remember that very well indeed.

In writing this, just thinking that whenever history books are written, what people remember most are the times when things go wrong. Like here. The Battle of the Little Big Horn is one of the main high points in the history of the Wild West, at least as taught to British school children like me at the time. I cannot remember a single subsequent battle that took place that went the other way. Same as in the South African conflict that I mentioned earlier. Everyone remembers Isandlwana as a total fiasco and annihilation of a British army at the hands of the Zulus and the ensuing encounter at Rorke's Drift which in reality had zero effect on the war but was an amazingly fortunate encounter that caught the public eye. Nobody remembers the rest of the war, the battles nor even the treaty that ended it. Just the fiasco. Curious that.

The Wild West Part IV -- River Deep, Mountain High

This part of the trip is covered by the Track My Tour app which you can follow here if you wish. Get app, thanks again Chris!

We hadn't really thought about it being around the 4th July that we had planned to come out to Jackson and hereabouts. Apparently two weeks ago, it was empty but this is the busiest week of the summer. Certainly traffic in the national parks was pretty brisk. Also wherever there was a significant spot (like Old Faithful) there were a lot of people. It also showed itself in our booking for accommodation. Both availability and pricing. But it did mean we'd be in a small town USA for the 4th July parade!!

Our hotel. We stayed in the little annex to the left. Ski runs all over.

The first night back in Jackson we went to the rodeo, just walking distance (we didn't as it rained) from our hotel, Snow King Resort. I'd booked a Mountain View room with the room rate reflecting that premium nature but found that the mountains rather than being over a lake away as at Jackson Lake Lodge were in fact less than 20 yards away so impossible to view with other than a cricked neck. Looking upwards that is.

The rodeo was wonderful. The heavens opened as we arrived but luckily we were under cover so rode the storm for the next hour or so until the skies brightened and became a starry, clear night again. Bronco riding, cow riding, horse racing and turning displays, cow roping and the simply wonderful sheep scramble where every child under the age of 12 went onto the ring and chased down 3 unsuspecting sheep trying to pluck something off the sheep's collars. The children kept coming and coming and coming! Tons of them. Just madness resulted.

A couple of teenagers were sitting next to us and we started chatting. They were from Texas and had driven up from Dallas a day or so before. The boy's name was 'Judd' and he was 16 years old. I asked if he had a car. He said 'Yup'. What kind, I asked. 'A truck'. He got out his phone and showed me a picture of a huge flat bed truck with cow bars front and back. Of course his name was Judd and of course he had a truck and of course he spoke in single syllables. He's from Texas! At a rodeo. What else would I expect?

It was still clear on the 4th July morning and we made it to the parade area, just down the road and this time we did walk. I'd mentioned it to Viv last night at the rodeo that I do think that the Americans have a wonderful respect for their flag, their nation and their vets. I don't know if this 100% true of course but the way the rodeo did the intro, the various flags -- town, state then stars and stripes -- and then the national anthem. It was all very rousing and inspiring. We Brits tend to be almost apologetic about it and find such outpourings of emotion to be rather cringeworthy and shy away from it all. But I was happy to cheer at the end.

Same at the parade. Huge cheers for everyone and everything and I do wonder just why all these people show up to parade, but then again why not? It is the collection of all the theys that make the community, town, state and country. The rodeo girls from last night carrying the flag, the ambulances, the fire fighters, the local organizations and of course Chewbacca on a skate board wearing the stars and stripes. Who would miss him out?

It was still clear so we jumped on the ski lift to the top of the nearest ski mountain as there was a hiking trail all around the peak. It wasn't the longest trail and definitely not the most difficult but it certainly ranks up there as one of the most picturesque. Just stunning actually.

Grand Tetons

Jackson the town and the 'Hole' further along the valley

It was so enjoyable that we decided that rather than catch the ski lift down, we'd walk. It was only 3 or so miles down the mountain in a sort of zig zag fashion. It did enable us to check out some of the ski slopes on the way down. The double black diamond one called fuzzy bear or something like that was almost vertical!

The mountain bike trails were not the ones we walked down. Those were far too wimpy for the bikers. Theirs were almost vertical like the ski slopes and followed a sort of in and out pattern through the tree line with jumps, rocks, streams.... I thought it was impossible to even walk down until I saw a group of kids skipping up the trail, probably whistling or humming.

Not the bike trail

Our hotel was only 5 minutes from downtown (did I mention that Jackson is actually a pretty small little town?) and after our exertions we felt that something cool and cleansing was required to hold us over until the fireworks planned for later that night. We chose the fabled Million Dollar Bar on the square and found it everything a modern western saloon should be!

Fine local brew!

As a result, Viv went out and bought a pair of cowboy boots (sorry another pair) while I contented myself with a hat. I know, we just have to come back out here again so we can wear this stuff. OK then.

Fireworks were fun and happily ended just before a rainstorm of epic proportions crashed down all around. The thunder and lightning actually did have the nod over the fireworks in the end.

Great visit. Too brief. Again.

The Wild West Part III -- National Parks

I tracked the tour for this segment of our road trip so if you'd like to follow it moment by moment, you can do so here. And of course, thanks Chris for the great app!

Our plan for our stay in the Jackson area was to spend a couple of days in the Grand Teton National Park, in Jackson Lake Lodge to be precise, and during that time visit Yellowstone and generally cram as much in as we could in the relatively few days we'd be there. Luckily, it was great weather so we didn't suffer too much seeing as we'd omitted to know that Jackson is 7,000 feet high with many of the places we'd be visiting substantially higher than that. with mid-summer average temperatures in the 70's, this meant it could get chilly at times. Personally I wish I'd thought of that and remembered to bring a pair of jeans rather than just the shorts and T-shirts. But you live and learn!

It wasn't long enough but the location and views were breathtaking.

One of the smaller lakes along the way. The tallest peak is something over 13,000 feet
 

View from our balcony

Our day trip to Yellowstone was great. Bus tour with a dozen random people. The area itself is underpinned by a dormant volcano with the bulk of the park's area being its caldera. That is why there are so many geothermal areas, over 10,000 at last count and increasing all the time as new hot spots suddenly emerge and burst into the open. Most are small but there are a few larger areas with larger pools. Old Faithful is but the most famous of these.

Old Faithful is the most predictable of the pools that erupt. It is about 1 hour 20 minutes plus or minus 20 minutes between eruptions. Of course we had to stay!

The park area itself is so immense that it was impossible for us to do anything other than a shortish circle and hit a few high points. People come from all over the country to spend their family vacations camping, in a RV, fishing -- trout fishing is amazing there apparently -- hiking, biking... you name it. Really a special place. I am really glad there were visionaries around to make sure it stays unspoiled.

One of the things I am impressed by are the rangers and forest management. You get the feeling from media reports these days that forest fires are all over the place due to drought conditions brought on by climate change or whatever, but many of the forest trees have evolved so that they may only produce seeds and spores once the tree has been through a fire. This is an all natural event which Mother Nature has devised ingenious ways to accommodate. Obviously some fires are more severe than others. The guide said that the last big one in the 1980's had over 10,000 fire fighters at its peak. It does help that the entire area is dotted with lakes which this year are overflowing given the amount of rain that has been happening (but thankfully not when we were there).  In the park are huge areas of dead trees from the last/recent fire but in all instances you can see small saplings pushing up to replace them. It also helps that areas like this make it easier to spot the critters that are meant to abound here. We didn't see many because traffic was so busy (it was 4th July weekend!) but did see quite a few bison, elk, brown and grizzly bears. Not Yogi though.

Great time. Sadly too short. This place is a keeper!

The Wild West Part II -- Jackson

The town is called Jackson NOT Jackson Hole. Jackson Hole is the entire valley in which Jackson is situated at the southern end, with Yellowstone National Park in the north. The Hole was in fact first 'discovered' by western fur trappers, actually one Mr. Jackson after which ... you get the idea.

The 'Hole'

When you look back at history from say a couple of hundred years perspective and get past the old history book notion that history was just a series of unconnected dates, you do realize that they are not and it all goes back to Napoleon.

Why does that guy keep sticking his nose in everywhere? Years ago I was reading a PG Wodehouse book where a not very deep conversation between a couple of airhead drones touched on old Boney whereupon one of the savants came up with the glorious comment... "whatever did that poor fish do other than getting hammered at Waterloo?" Quite a bit actually including this. Tangentially this time though.

So... the French Revolution in 1789 brought forth many changes, one of which was almost endless war with practically everyone in Europe until said occasion in 1815. Wars are expensive so by the time Boney took over and completed his looting of the countries nearest to him, Switzerland and Italy, he realized that the loot so acquired was nowhere near enough so he cast around looking for any other family silver that wasn't cutting it whereupon one of his aides named Junot came in with yet another horrendous report from Haiti. The revolution there was going really well but for the wrong people; the freed slaves. They had been fighting against the revolutionary government in France who was acting in a very non revolutionary manner ever since the Revolution began. Despite Junot's genocidal tactics, whenever the French looked the other way, something bad happened that usually included French soldiers getting massacred in hideous ways. In short it was a total mess. Now Boney, had a strategic desire to create a major port in New Orleans and use Haiti as a stepping stone to upseat the British in all their Caribbean locations but that required time, effort, money and resources .... none of which Boney had to hand. Just this bloody European war. But the American colonists were friends of theirs, weren't they? And that feller Franklin something was ambassador. He was always droning on about this or that. But it did offer a neat way out. Sell him (well the Americans) the huge Louisiana territory and raise some cash which Boney really did need and could put to use at once. That other strategic thing was a nice thought but really he had to take care of business at home first. And of course, you never go broke by taking the money.

So Boney got the money and the Americans a huge new territory about as big again as what they had already. How they financed it is another fascinating story! The Americans certainly didn't have that kind of ready money. But it was done. And now they also had a huge new tract of land to explore and do something with. I mean they bought it, right? So it must be theirs irrespective of who was actually there right now. Read about the full story here from Wikipedia.

You got a lot for your money back then. 3 cents per acre.

This all took place in 1803 and towards the end of that year, the then US President Thomas Jefferson hosted a couple of roughnecks who had a mad cap idea to head out in canoes and explore the new territory starting in St Louis and then heading north or wherever the Missouri River led to in the end. Presumably the western ocean somewhere. Their names were Lewis and Clarke.

Their story is one of the great pioneering stories and is all the better known by virtue of the fact that they kept sending back reports to GHQ. This must have kept reducing the number in their party over time and it was on just one of these side trips one of the guys (John Colter) took in 1804 was with this just in mind. However he took a wrong turning by mistake (this is all river bound and rivers do look pretty much alike I think, certainly then) and tripped over and into Yellowstone Park, kept on going south and well as they say the rest is history.

You can see how a wrong turn back then would get you to a whole new place

The history books report all of this with such veneration that it almost behooves me to not do that as I can just imagine Lewis & Clarke rushing back to the president gushing with the news that this new area is millions and millions of square miles of virgin land with forests, lakes and rivers and such just waiting for new settlers from the east and elsewhere. To which I presume TJ saying something along the lines of what did you think would be there, if not that? But I am sure he didn't. He congratulated them and gave them comfy sinecures somewhere miles away from both the new lands and also TJ himself in Washington, so there was no chance of them bumping into him and asking how the settlement program was coming along. He would have filed it all away for future generations to figure out just what on earth they do with this enormous new land they had acquired as there were no new settlers to spare from back east just then.

Settlement didn't start until the 1820's but only sporadically as the entire valley was snow bound for seven months a year which wasn't very encouraging with the technologies then available. Think Grizzly Adams and the Revenant movies. Then make it a lot worse. However this also meant that for large parts of the year, there were no Indian tribes around either. In fact across the plains, there were few permanent Indian settlements courtesy of both terrain/weather but also the migratory patterns of the critters that they preyed upon. Given the size of the country and the few numbers of mainly itinerant people around, I find it amazing that anyone could find anybody else. So for many years, there was relative peace. Into the 1850's anyway.

We visited the Little Big Horn Battlefield Monument -- its actually about 7 hours drive away in south eastern Montana -- and in the visitor centre there is a picture of the agreement of 1851 which set aside vast tracts of land for the Indian tribes. The land size was virtually all of South and North Dakota and more than one-third each of Montana and Wyoming. Given that at one of the peak gatherings of several tribes on the eve of the battle itself encompassed some 6 tribes and 8,000 people, this seems to me like a tiny number of people with a huge amount of land.

It was that battle and the events that followed it that spurred greater settlement in the Jackson region but what took Jackson to all new heights was Theodore Roosevelt and the sheriff of  Deadwood, Seth Bullock. They were big friends and TR stayed with the sheriff when he was out west and just loved to roam around Yellowstone to the point that the pair of them decided rather informally that the scenery and location was of such grandeur that it should be protected in virgin state forever. This was before development so the perfect time to do this, and of course miles and miles and miles away from any other development like say Chicago. And no trains. And no roads. So they got together a state wide agreement to set aside the land and then jointly took it to Washington for federal approval. This took place in 1872 and so Yellowstone became the first national park in the US.

Soon after, train tracks were built and tourists started arriving and where should they find to stay but that charming little western town of Jackson.

The Grand Tetons

150 years later it is still small but still charming and has expanded its ambitions to encompass the Grand Teton National Park in 1929 (huge mountain range) and discovered that for some insane reason, otherwise perfectly rational people had this massive desire to launch themselves off the top of mountains down impossible slopes in winter, by tying sticks to their feet, and in summer, by bike. Same paths, I kid you not.

There are roads now and also traffic jams...

... but not everywhere

Oh yes, and those economists also like it.

The Wild West Part I

Now I cannot remember whether this is Part 1 or whatever for this title but as it chronicles our visit to Wyoming and car trip back to Chicago across the prairies, that's what I will call it. More parts to follow.

I don't know if I've mentioned before in this blog that Viv and I have the notion to visit every one of the 50 states in the USA, so we do and this trip ticked off a lot of new ones for us. But of course that isn't the reason for wanting to do this trip, it's that Viv and I enjoy road trips and the US is so big and so diverse that it makes it really interesting, fun and easy to do. This time... and it really never occurred to me before in this way ... I really do see why the Americans love their driving, their big cars (bikes and trucks too) and not that infrequently do not feel the need to get a passport as their country is both big enough and accessible enough for anyone.

We were in Toronto after our Bermuda trip and whilst not exactly wondering what to do with ourselves, had a couple of notions of things to do whilst we were in North America. My first thought was to circumnavigate the Great Lakes. Lake Ontario is one of them so the start and end point wasn't too far away and as the lakes spread out across the continent, they take in a mass of both US states and Canadian provinces.

The Great Lakes

Then we remembered we'd have to hire a car and cross the international border at least a couple of times, if not more. And we've heard about the increased delays with all the Homeland Security stuff so thought it may be simpler to just stay in one country which meant looking for a flight west somewhere and then onwards. So Plan B (again mine) was to hire a car in Chicago and then drive out to the Rockies... and back. In a week or so. Viv said isn't that quite a distance so I looked on Google Maps and discovered that yes indeed it was a long way. About 3,000 miles there and back actually.

So onto Plan C.

Viv suggested flying out to the Rockies and then hiring a car and drive back. Now this was a better idea and of course the driving distance back would be just about half of Plan B, so much more manageable. And we'd get to spend some time way out west too instead of just driving there and turning right around.

Next question was where? Then I remembered about Jackson Hole which is in Wyoming.

Being a nerd, all I knew about Jackson Hole was that it was the home of the annual Fed jamboree, sort of like a Davos but in the USA. It takes place in August each year. This is what the Kansas City Fed website (the sponsors) say about it:

'The Jackson Hole Economic Symposium is an annual symposium, sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City since 1978, and held in Jackson Hole, Wyo., since 1981. Every year, the symposium focuses on an important economic issue that faces world economies. Participants include prominent central bankers and finance ministers, as well as academic luminaries and leading financial market players from around the world.'

Pull the other one, I say. What a load of nonsense. They could do this symposium in Cleveland or Dodge City even if they wanted to stay in Kansas, but by chance selected the most picturesque little town on the edge of the Rockies with plush resorts and 5 star dining everywhere you looked. Does the 7,000 feet high mountain air really clear the boffins' minds or is this just a total bean feast? Yeah, right.

... which of course was great for us as (a) the great and the good would not be there and (b) it sounds like a really spectacular place.

It was.

Booking flights, car, accommodation and tours was of course a breeze but before we left we went for dinner to a friend's house in Toronto and he told us that Jackson Hole was THE Mecca for skiing in North America. We didn't know this but then again he and his family are big skiers so they do know even though they've never visited. He backtracked later that same evening and said that Jackson Hole was A Mecca, rather then THE but still its reputation was pretty darned good.

So much to look forward to then. One thing that was a pain was the flight leaving Toronto to make the connection to Jackson Hole. It was at 6.30 am which meant a ridiculously early start. Why couldn't those important people complain about the ungodly hours? Oh yes, forgot. They use their private jets.

Cool airport!