Part One of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE Part Two of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE Part Three of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE Part Four of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE Part Five of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE Part Six of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE Part Seven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE Part Eight of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE Part Nine of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE Part Ten of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE Part Eleven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE Part Twelve of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE Part Thirteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
We caravan-ed out to see some sights this morning. First off Ty and Cindy led us to this spot along the Warm River. This is a branch of the Snake River and there is a spring located upriver from here that warms the water, thus it's called Warm River.
They brought some stale bread pieces and we fed the ducks that hang out here.
Then we continued northward and stopped at the Lower Mesa Falls trails.
These are some falls located on the Henry's Fork, a tributary of the Snake River.
You have to follow steep trails down to view the waterfalls....
I took this photo from high up, before walking down the steps. See that man in the bottom left of the photo? That's Ty.
So natural and wild.
Here are the Hooligans I was traveling with....Joel, Ty, Cindy, Kim and Hubs.
And Hubs and I.
So many rainbows.....
The river past the falls, rushing so fast.
Can I get another rainbow? Yep!
Some video of the falls.
After climbing all those stairs! back to the parking area we loaded back into our cars, Ty and Cindy went home(there is always work to be done on the ranch)and Kim and Joel, and me a Hubs headed on another adventure.
A nice and placid lake along the way. I don't recall the name.
Joel, being a forester with the state of Idaho spent a lot of time in these woods and also it seems over the line in Wyoming too. We took a "goat trail" that runs right in between Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park that very few people know about or use(and being a "goat trail" it's closed in the Winter for obvious reasons).
See the rocks, err, boulders in the photo above? Some of this trail was similar and I hit my head on the roof of the car on more than a few occasions on this road. It was very scenic yet painful if you weren't prepared, braced or holding onto a steering wheel!
I swear when we got back to Kim's house, the imprint of my hand on the outside of the back door of their green Subaru was still there(it was very dusty and my hand was moist from all the sweat), as I was throwing my arm out the open window to brace myself against that door the whole ride on this trail! lol
A Memorial Parkway??! I guess whomever was in charge of naming these trails aka roads didn't much care for John D. Rockefeller, Jr. lolz
And here is the photographic proof. That's the back right door of Kim's car and my handprints on it.
At this point, little did I know that this wouldn't be the ONLY attempt on my life that day!
Some scenery once I stopped banging my head on the roof.....
Ok, now we got dirt roads.....well that's better than a bed of jumbled rocks, err, boulders...
After passing more wilderness.......
We came to the "official" entrance of the Grand Teton National Park......
Kim and I showing off our "Tetons"....*snort*
And the official "normal" sign photo.....
What fabulous weather!
This is Lake Jackson
And the mountain peaks in the distance..........
Very late July and there is still snow or rather glaciers on some of the higher peak's slopes. The highest peak is Grand Teton and the range is named for it. The naming of the mountains in this range is attributed to 19th century French trappers who lived in this area plying their trade. They called these mountains "les trois tètons" . Translated to English this means "the three teats".
A selfie with the Tetons. I believe the main peaks are called Mt. Teton, Mt. Owen and Mt. Moran.
Hubs took my photo too.....
As the sign says, the Tetons are ever changing and rising. This mountain range, or rather the Teton fault is capable of producing an earthquake in the 7-7.5 range.
So beautiful!
After tooling around in Grand Teton Park we continued on into Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Originally it was called Jackson's Hole by the mountain men who frequented the area trapping beavers. A "hole" was the term these rugged men used for a valley(which is what the area was between the foot of the Tetons and the Gros Ventres ranges.
The town of Jackson(still sometimes called Jackson's Hole)was named for David Edward Jackson(called Davy), a partner in the trapping enterprise of Smith, Jackson & Sublette. Yep, that's my ancestral 1st cousin again, Bill Sublette.
As we approached the town over a flat area we saw a small plane coming into the airport there. Lots of celebrities and the rich jet into the area in this way.
Passing one of the many lodging choices in the area.......
A teepee. Not for sleeping but as a decor statement.
And there are many outfitters and tour guiding services here. Look! It's another ancestral cousin Lewis with his partner Clark from their fact finding mission to explore the West after the Louisiana Purchase on this business's sign.
A funky bus called "A Million Acts of Kindness". Lots of quirky stuff to see in this town.
A Berkshire Hathaway Real Estate office....of course. Trying to fit into the town's image but not succeeding. lol
More touristy tacky stuff...."Judge Roy Bean's Old Time Photos".
And I don't know how I feel about this "art piece" leading into the entrance of the small park in town.
It's an archway made out of elk antlers. It sure fits into the vibe here but it's tacky and thought provoking at the same time. 8-)
We parked and found this hole in the wall pizza place to eat lunch. I had a Greek salad and a slice. I noticed as we ate our slices this pizza peel above hanging on the wall.
Seems Guy Fieri visited this place back before we were there in 2017. Here's the piece of the episode from Diners, Drive-ins and Dives it appeared on.......
The thing I found "strange" at this Pinky G's Pizza was in the restroom. There was a sign with instructions on how to SIT on a toilet seat with illustrations. I didn't bring my camera into the bathroom so you'll have to take my word for it. Not so strange after talking to people. Seems many Asian visitors not familiar with American bathroom equipment try to stand on the toilet seat and relieve themselves in it for that stance. In some Asian cultures a toilet is very different from ours and some are more a floor level hole which you squat over to urinate/relieve your bowels. Seems many business got tired of replacing broken toilet seats out this way, thus they started putting up pictures for those not familiar with American toileting. lol
After lunch we wandered around town and ducked into a gift shop.....
Being the wild West there is still a thriving gun culture around here.......
I told Hubs we were NOT carting this lamp home, even if it was on a deep sale! lol
Which brings us to the infamous Jackson Hole Pedestrian Flag System.
If you've ever been here you know about it but I hadn't so I didn't. lol
That's Kim behind the flags on their holders attempting to stop traffic so we could cross the street and get back to the car.
The Wort Hotel. Part art museum and part luxury accommodations. $600 a night was not in our budget on this trip!
Another bison sighting on a roof.
So it was back out of town and a 90+ minute drive back to Ashton.
Kim took the wheel on this steep graded section of roadway coming down a mountain. Let's just say that her driving made Joel nervous(they had a manual transmission in the car and Kim is not a friend to manual cars lol). We didn't careen off the mountain so that ended well. 8-)
A very steep roadway that closes in bad weather as witnessed by this signage...
Goodbye to the Teton Range and Jackson Hole.
Little did I know at this point that we'd come close to death later on that day. But not at the hands of geysers, hot springs, bouncing around in the back of a Subaru on a goat trail or from Kim's driving. hehehe
*I'm done with food spending for August so this report is a couple of days early.*
Onward to August's Food Spending Report.....
Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for August 2023.
I have posted August's totals on the Total Grocery Savings Page located HERE and have updated the Totals there. I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in August. If you aren't interested in that much detail, just skip to the bottom for the Totals Sum. My spending includes Food, Toiletries/HBA, Cleaning Products, Paper Goods. We are a family of 2(and 2 dogs). ****************
KROGER
OOP $326.49
Qs/Gift Cards $180.63
Value $507.12
Savings 35.62%
OLLIE'S
OOP $28.02
Value $54.46
Savings 48.55%
SUPER 1 FOODS
OOP $ 1.97
Value $3.49
Savings 43.55%
WALMART
OOP $67.61
Qs/Gift Cards $44.53
Value $112.14
Savings 39.71%
******************** My best Store Savings Total was at Ollie's with a savings of 48.55%. My worse rate was at Kroger with 35.62%. Unfortunately Kroger is where I spent the bulk of my food shopping money in August. lol
I shopped at 4 different stores in AUGUST.
TOTAL Spent in August......$424.09
TOTAL Coupons/Sales/Gift Cards....$253.16
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased.....$677.21
TOTAL Savings of........37.38%
This closes out the AUGUST food/toiletries/etc. spending.
THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month....Well I did a little better staying almost within my budget. Just shopping the sales and trying not to buy unless something is reduced and I can stockpile it.
The Monthly food spending savings percentage went UP by 1.28% in August to 40.46% compared to July's 39.18% savings average.
With 8 months accounted for, I have spent a Total of $3,266.08 on groceries/HBA/paper goods/etc. in 2023.
2023 Yearly Grand Total Spent....................$3,266.08
2023 Yearly Grand Total Value of Items.....$5,485.29
2023 Grand Total Saved...............................$2,219.21
The average per month amount spent is $408.26 in 2023 at this point.
LOOKING AHEAD TO SEPTEMBER......
Not predicting what I spend but I'll be keeping tabs on the grocery bills in September.
I am going to shoot for $350 or less for September's spending.....that's not to say that I'll make that target but a girl has to dream! ;-)
Remember that I withdraw all my cash rebate monies(Ibotta, Coupons dotcom, Shopmium, Checkout 51 and other miscellaneous rebates sent to my Paypal)at the end of the year and add it back into my food budget, so at the end of the year my food spending will go down. The other savings apps like Fetch, Shop Kick, Kroger Cash Back that let us get free gift cards(or $ off your grocery total-Kroger), those are added back in when I cash those points in along the way. Alexa app gives me Amazon credit onto my account but I don't buy food on Amazon(sometimes I buy dog food there)so I really don't know how to count that.
If you have other ideas or guidelines you follow please leave a comment and share your thoughts with us all.
* How much did you spend on food/toiletries in August?
* Do you track your yearly food spending? It's really not that hard or time consuming; just have your receipts and either track it in a notebook or on a spreadsheet.
* What was your savings percentage buying on sale and/or with coupons versus buying at regular retail price last month, if you track that sort of thing?
* What are your methods for keeping your food spending in check?
* Is anyone out there up for tracking expenditures and trying to spend less but still eat well?
