The Trip West Part 2: Foolishness at Crowheart Butte

We arrived at the hotel in Jackson just as the sun fell behind the hills. The road through the Tetons had been the worst of the trip, in many places covered in a thick layer of snow. We walked up to the front desk and told them the name of the reservation. When they asked for my credit card I reached into my left front pocket and noticed a distinct absence there. I excused myself for a moment to go tear my car apart, sure that I had not been so absent-minded as to do what I thought I had. But alas, it was true, I had left my money clip on top of my car in the desolate middle of Wyoming. At Crowheart Butte, in fact.

You see, Crowheart Butte has a nice scenic pull off, and Becca and I decided it would be a nice place for a photograph. Due to the curvature of the roof of my car I decided to use my money clip to achieve the proper angle for the camera. We snapped a couple of pictures with the Butte in the background and left for Jackson, not realizing until we were 3 hours down the road, that I had failed to retrieve my valuables from the top of the vehicle.


I generally have a very good memory. For some reason, though, the roof of the car is unaffected by my good memory. I have, many times, left important and/or expensive things on the roof of my car. I have made a vow after this particular instance to no longer use the roof of my car as a shelf under any circumstance.

Contents lost:
Driver's License
Debit Card
Credit Card
Student ID
Homebrewer's Association Card (gives discounts at brewpubs)
National Parks Annual Pass
Starbucks Gift Card with ~$20 on it

The majority of the contents lost were replaceable, though not all of them. The National Park System has a strict policy about losing passes. Under no circumstance will they replace it. This one stung, as it was a brand new, unused, $80 pass. The one that is likely to cost me the most from its absence, however, is my student ID. So long, student discounts. I was looking forward to using that for many years to come. Perhaps now I have to go to grad school.

Everything turned out alright in the end, though. Fortunately, I was keeping my cash separate from my money clip, so I still had that. Additionally, I had both my check book and my passport with me, so I was still able to take out money and buy alcohol.

I will miss my student ID and my National Park Pass (at least until I buy a new one), but things could have been a lot worse. For the major fiasco of a trip, this one wasn't too bad.

Tomorrow I will post about the last couple legs of the trip, from Jackson, WY to Portland, OR.