Stranded in Coulter Bay

Friday we woke up early to do a long hike and the van wouldn't start!  Dave spent the day trying to figure out what the problem was.  Let's just say I got a lot of reading done and we renewed our site for the next night.  It was a Friday, so no mechanics from Jackson (43 miles away) wanted to help out.  Oh yeah, and we were 7 minutes late for the last call for kayak rides for the day, which really topped things off for us. 













We took a break to explore the immediate area and found that we were just a hop, skip, and a jump from Jackson Lake. We'd end up swimming here three times during our five days in Tetons.  

Skipping stones

We were stuck in Coulter Bay, but they had a nice visitor's center, marina, grocery store, and showers, so I was content.  Unfortunately, they didn't have any good hikes because, as you can see, the mountains were across the lake!  We didn't want to be towed to Jackson because no mechanics were working on the weekend and we didn't have a spare tent or even sleeping bags for that matter.  The Westy was our home, we didn't want it parked in a lot all weekend. 

Dave cooking.  We had an awesome meal one night to lift our spirits, fajitas!

Saturday-- Dave wanted to keep eliminating what could be wrong and needed a tool that we didn't have, so I put a sign on the van for people going around our loop to see, saying we needed a certain tool.  In comes Roger, a nice man who used to own a van, but a newer, better one.  Still, he was familiar with the engine and helped Dave narrow down what was wrong.  Dave and his dad via phone had already kind of came to the same conclusion, but it was so nice to have Roger confirm it for us.  We needed a new ignition coil!  He'd drive us to town, but we called Napa and they wouldn't have the coil until Tuesday.  We thanked Roger for his help and I only wish I knew his last name so I could send him a case of beer for helping out and lifting our spirits!

We decided to make a run for the marina and rent a kayak.  On our way, we renewed our camping for two more nights.  So we had already been stranded for a day and a half, the camp park rangers well aware of our problem, yet this was the first time someone bothered to tell us that there is a bus that goes to the good hiking area AND to Jackson!  They gave us free bus passes and I went and bugged a nice lady at the visitors center for some phone numbers.  Turns out there was a Carquest in town and they had the part we needed!  Now we had a plan.  Sunday we'd bus to town and get our part, then bus back and fix the van, leaving Monday for the hike we were dying to do!

We rented a tandem kayak and went around the bays.  We saw a Martin and some birds and really enjoyed the freedom of getting out of the campground for a bit.

It's no Victoria, but I hope Dave enjoyed the trip nonetheless.

We stopped at a little island for a break.