Peggy Noonan, former Reagan speech writer and columnist extraordinaire for The Wall Street Journal, was invited to visit Jackson Hole by wealthy friends who own a ranch in the valley. Her column from The Patriot Post chronicles the visit of the Tenderfoot (Noonan) to God's Country.
She writes about how she's a city gal, used to crowding and noise, getting accustomed to emptiness, solitude and quiet. And, no, Peggy, we aren't lonely here. Not nearly so lonely as we would be in Manhattan or San Francisco. Perhaps she noticed how clean our air is. It is no accident the Fed comes back here every August.
Wyoming's a place where the vagaries of wind, water and weather can change your plans in an heartbeat. Returning from taking guests to their plane in Jackson (perhaps the nation's most picturesque airport), we discovered the road we'd earlier traversed along the Snake River canyon south of Jackson completely blocked by a mudslide. We had to return to Jackson and detour through Idaho to get home, hours later than planned.
I hope Noonan's hosts took her for a Billy burger at The Lift, a restaurant maybe 150 yards from the Snow King ski lift in Jackson. Served in a metal pie tin, with crisscut fries, Billy burgers are justly legendary, a once-upon-a-time favorite of Bill Clinton and of Dick Cheney's Secret Service detail.
That was in the day when Billy's was a hole-in-the-wall diner located on Jackson's town square, an offshoot of the former Cadillac Bar & Grill. The Cadillac's one-time owners now own The Lift, much grander but in summer an off-the-beaten-path location with actual parking.
