Westward, Ho, to Idaho

Story and Photos by Bill Brennan

My wife Kim and I have a long history of being early risers but when we woke up at five that first morning of our vacation in Victor, I wished I’d been able to sleep in. Kim has always been more cognitively aware than I when we first wake up and that morning was no different. She sat there on the couch sipping her morning coffee, telling me how great the condo was, expressing how beautiful the Teton Valley was, and dropping the ultimate early-morning shocker.

“I think that we should buy a place here.”

I kind of ignored this comment, because I was just trying to find a way to keep my eyes open.

“I’m serious,” she persisted. “It’s beautiful here and we’re not going to buy anything in Chicago, anyway.”

It didn’t matter that I was in no condition to be having this conversation or that it wasn’t the time or the place—she was on a roll. Years earlier, I had nicknamed my wife the Lady Birddog for her intensely on-point focus whenever she concentrated on something important. After she made several more attempts to enforce her idea, we arrived at a not-now moment when I asked if we could talk about it later.