OK, friends, you know the drill.
We do the 5-at-10, Mondays-through-Fridays, come rain of shine. Come vacation or sickness. Come snow days - both real and the Hamilton County version - and hangover days. (Side note: We spoke to the principal of Gardiner High School - go Bruins - in Gardiner, Mont., and you want to know how many snow days they have had in his four years there? Bagel. Yep. Blutarsky's grade-point average of Zero point Zero. They also, because of weather, attention, travel and high school kids working, go four days a week, staying a little longer - all their kids go 7:50 to 4 - and going into June.)
Anyhoo, The 5-at-10 presses on, and since we're closing in on 2,000 consecutive if these things, so it's not like we can stop now.
As most of you know the by now 5-at-10 clan is out west - we have moved on from the Grand Tetons (and no Stewwie, it has nothing to do with Bill Clinton or who he may or may not have had dinner with). We've also now moved on from the North end of the park that included a long trek around Old Faithful, a trip to the Grand Prismatic Spring, two nights in a teepee in Gardiner, Mont., and an awesome, Awesome, AWESOME white-water rafting trip in the pouring rain down the Yellowstone River. Great times.
We are in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone as this awesome trip winds down.
To the quickest mailbag ever, and thanks so much for everyone's interest and questions into our trip:
From Mike
Hey, hope you enjoy your trip. What's the best thing you've seen so far?
Mike -
Thanks for the question and for playing along.
There has been a bunch. There has been all sorts of wild animals - grizzlies, a bison about 5 yards from our rental van (yes, van, and that's story all to itself), elk bigger than cars and indifferent to all people, you name it - but we're still looking for a big-daddy moose. And wolves. (Although wolves from a distance would be A-OK, too.)
There's been amazing scenery. The thing that gets you iis the simple fact that you can go miles and miles and miles and see nothing but other cars. Literally nothing. And you don't notice it until you think, "Man, we're low on gas."
There was the shock of seeing some of our friends from Signal Mountain - and their daughter has been in Lee's class for the last few years - in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Gardiner, Mont.
There has been the realization that we all are too plugged in. The only screen time we've spent this week is connecting with you loyal folks and occasional between trips email checks - there has not been a TV anywhere to be honest - and it has been amazingly refreshing.
Still, the best thing - by far - however, has been the smiles on the lil' 5-at-10 faces. And the glow from their first whitewater rafting trip was something we'll never forget. Which leads us to...
From Steve S.
Hey Jay, hope you are well. We miss reading you on A2.
Reading your vacation blog on the 5@10 got me thinking about my family vacations and the ones we took as a kid. What was your favorite family vacation as a kid?
Thanks and hurry back to Press Row.
Steve S. -
Thanks for the kinds words. And we looking forward to get back home. (Hey, this is a great trip for sure, and we'd recommend a great deal of it to almost anyone, regardless of the "outdoorsy type" tag or not. We're far from outdoorsy and we've loved it.)
As for trips as a tot 5-at-10, mostly they were to the beach.
Well, that's not entirely true. Most of our trips in the summer were to ballparks out basketball gyms. Camps and tournaments alike.
We were all in growing up for baseball and basketball so the parental units made big sacrifices to make sure we had a chance to compete wherever and whenever the time arose. We got to the beach almost every summer, but that was scheduled around my ball-playing schedule. And we'll be forever grateful for the sacrifices the 5-at-10's parents made for that luxury.
For example, we spent our entire 15-year-old summer playing on a travel team out of Tennessee and living with family in Warren County.
One memorable trip (sporting division) was in the summer of 1985 I came back from the travel season in Tennessee and was picked up by a Babe Ruth team in Cobb County that was pretty stacked. All they let me do was pitch, and I threw a one-hitter in the state championship game to get us to the world series.
Well, on the plane trip to Florida for the world series, one of the rednecks on our team made the ultimate mistake of saying, "Well, they didn't detect the gun in my bag" and no sooner did he get the words out of his mouth than we were all escorted to security office for questioning. Two hours later - and only two hours because our head coach was a Circuit Court judge in Cobb County - and we barely make the plane.
Could you imagine what would happen to that kid today?
Lesson here as always: You can take the boy out of Smyrna, but not the Smyrna out of the boy.
From Scott C.
Man, I'm proud of you for heading out west and outside of your comfort zone. What's been the biggest surprise to you Mr. Indoors?
Scott C. -
My man. How you been brother?
Well, there have been a few.
We'll say this: Yellowstone goes to No. 1B right behind Augusta National of places we've been where you have no idea where people are from. Walk up and they could be speaking any language across the globe.
(Couple of side notes here: One, Asian folks love, Love, LOVE them some Yellowstone. And when the Mrs. 5-at-10 - who is a legit professional photographer - breaks out her camera - she becomes like Springsteen. There's a monster crowd following her around. Seriously. Or as Al Czervik "Wang, it's parking lot OK. Enough with the pictures." Also, people dress a lot of different ways, be them European and - dude or female - they embrace the less-is-more swimsuit approach or be they "Look at Me; I have all the Hiking Gear available at Northface.com" to the hats to the gray socks to all points in between. Dude, you are walking from the lodge to the car, you do not need your 12-in-1 walking stick.)
As for the biggest surprise, well, it gets easy to get locked into your daily routine, and the differences out here - in pace, in preference and sweet buckets in weather because it was 45 this morning and we had to wipe some frost off the windshield - make me smile.)
I believe this, brother: I could live in Montana. If I could afford to do it, that is.
Great job this week, friends. See you next week, back in the saddle, locked and loaded for the start of football.
You know Tuesday is Aug. 1. And kids star school the following week. It's been a great summer, but man it flew by.
This week's limited Rushmores and today's date in history
Rushmore of athletes 25-and-under: Spieth, Bryce Harper, Anthony Davis (we still believe he is the future of the league) and Mike Trout, who will be on this list for about 10 more days since he turns 26 on Aug. 7.
Rushmore of running backs: Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, Walter Peyton and Emmitt Smith (with all apologies to Eric Dickerson, Earl Campbell and the rest.)
On July 28
In 1858, the first use of finger prints as a means for ID were used.
In 1929, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was born. She died in 1994.
Bill Bradley is 74 today.
His kindred spirit Soulja Boy is 27 today. (When does the transition to Soulja Adult commence?)
Also, Garfield creator Jim Davis was born on this day in 1945.
Vida Blue (good pitcher, great name) was born on this day in 1949.
One-legged marathoner Terry Fox was born on this day in 1958.
Elizabeth Berkley, who we all remember as Jessie Spano in Saved by the Bell and who we all got to see up close and personal in Showgirls, is 45 today.
Sadly, friends, there was no hate mail this week.
Better luck next time.
Good talk.