Victor, ID behind the Grand Tetons

A quick 105 miles down to Victor, ID this morning.  Why Victor, you ask?  Because all the campgrounds in the Jackson Hole/Grand Teton area stink, at least in our opinion.  They are tight, not scenic, and so very expensive.  We found this campground here in Victor back in 1997, and it is even better now.  Nice, big full hook up sites with grass everywhere, nice views, and friendly people.

So, I have been having some issues with our tow bar the last few times we have towed.  The extending arms have been a little reluctant to extend, and a bit reluctant to compress.  Our towbar is a Blue Ox Aladdin, an all aluminum tow bar that is quite light, in fact we bought it for its weight because when we had the motorcycle lift on the back of the motorhome, we had to remove the towbar each time we wanted to ride the bike.   I called Blue Ox customer service and found out that while it was not yet unsafe our towbar has probably reached the end of its life.  After all we have towed over 65,000 miles with it!  Now since we don't have the bike any longer we can go to a different towbar, a Blue Ox Aventa LX, an all steel bar as we are no longer concerned with its weight.  Towbars are fairly expensive, but it is imperative that they work easily and securely to preclude a disaster losing your towed vehicle!  Vern and Viv many years ago lost their toad in the Badlands, miraculously nothing bad happened, but it sure made an impression on us of just how bad it could be on an interstate at speed, especially if it crossed over to the oncoming lane!  So our motto is, don't mess around with the towbar.

We're going to be in Salt Lake City day after tomorrow, so I have been online and calling around to find one.  So we are going to pick up our new towbar on Thursday, and Blue Ox is giving us a trade in allowance on our old bar so it's all good!

Smoke has been thick all day.  There are several fires in the area, we found out the elk preserve and many trails are closed around the Jackson area.  We plan to take a ride to find some moose tomorrow.  Several people have told us where they had seen moose, so we are going to give it a go.  Our moose sightings are even fewer than our grizzly and wolf sightings, so we will see.  Keep your fingers crossed for us.