Livingston/Yellowstone Montana/Wyoming

The Super 8 in Livingston, MT was great. We got there and I posted a bunch of blog entries. We got a room with 2 beds this time, so Caleb got a bed to sleep in. The room was great, until I went into the bathroom and flushed the toilet. Water started pouring out of the tank like a waterfall. We told the front desk and the gave us another room, this one had 2 queen beds (instead of doubles) and a minifridge. The beds were really comfortable, which was also nice. We stayed up late (probably 1ish) trying to plan out our next few days. The plan had been to go up to Glacier NP but they were supposed to get a lot of snow. The weather generally didn’t look good anywhere close for the next few days. Caleb had a plan to stay around this area longer and try to wait out the weather so we could travel in nicer weather for the rest of our trip. The plan consisted of staying the night in Yellowstone the next night, then driving through the part of the park that was open and spending the next night in Jackson WY. From there we’d go up towards Keystone, SD (Mount Rushmore) and spend a night near there. Then spending one in the Badlands and therefore effectively letting the weather pass us by.

I just realized that a lot of that I had written in the last entry, oh well. So now on to what we did. We got subway right by the hotel but then decided that would make a good dinner so stopped at a pizza place and split a pepperoni/green pepper pizza for breakfast/lunch. It was a great pizza, and we ate the whole thing! I drove into Yellowstone and we went straight to Mammoth to make sure we could get a campsite.

We shouldn’t have worried about that. There were a couple sites taken but we had our pick for the most part. We paid and left our marker on the site saying that it was taken then headed down to Boiling River. Dan and I went in and Caleb went for a walk (he didn’t want to get his cast wet, probably a good idea). Because the water level was so high the river was spilling into the hot part a lot more than it had last time I was there. This made it really nice to sit under the hot water coming in, but every so often there were these really cold currents that came through. Even so it was pretty awesome. I like that place a lot and would highly recommend it to those going to Northern Yellowstone. Sadly the batteries on my “good” camera were dead and the others were in the car so I wasn’t able to use that one to get good pictures of the bison and mule deer that were close. It’s ok though, cuz I got plenty later.

When we were done sitting in the water (while it snowed around us) we got dressed and dried off quickly, it was cold outside! While walking back up the path we spotted Caleb coming back as well, perfect timing. This was the best walk back to the car we’ve had. The buffalo had decided to take the path that led back to the parking lot, and it wasn’t a wide one. We slowly walked behind the herd. When we got close to them they’d move down the trail a little bit. It was pretty awesome being that close to them.

From there we went up to Mammoth Hot Springs and visited the visitor center and walked around the boardwalks for the terraces. That was an interesting and snowball-filled walk. It’s funny to think that we were in the south a couple weeks ago and wearing summery clothes. At the visitor center we found out that the road we had though we could take out the northeast entrance was closed just after the park. We had planned to drive out that way this morning so were forced to change our plans again.

From Mammoth we drove out along that road that was open because we would no longer be doing it the next morning in hopes of seeing wildlife. When we first went into the park the woman at the guard station told us that was a great place to go to see animals. And see animals is exactly what we did! We drove a ways down, ate some of our Subway, then turned around and went back.

On the way out we saw many more buffalo/bison including a few groups in the road. It was funny though, they know what to do with cars. We drove slowly around them and they would get off the road. One group was walking up the road in the opposition direction and when we came to them they got in a single file line to pass us. It was great.

We found a nice pull-out near the meadows and the river to sit and see if we could see any interesting animals. We sat for awhile and saw a pronghorn (deer?). After a bit we decided to go back. I spotted a coyote, which we stopped and watched until he went into the bushes. A little ways down we saw more pronghorns. Then around a corner right next to the road there were a bunch of bighorn sheep grazing. I took a LOT of pictures of them. Our last pretty cool animal sighting were a couple elk who were also quite close to the road. Well, one was right next to the road conveniently next to a pull-out so I took his picture as well and the other was a little ways down the hill.

From our animal expedition we went on a search for firewood. For this we drove out of the park into Gardner (the town that’s right there). 2 gas stations and an RV park later we got a bag of sopping wet firewood that Dan had on his lap the whole way back to the site.

As we got back to Mammoth campground it started snowing, so we put our tents up in the snow. Then it was campfire time. I’d say a good 45 minutes and a lot of paper later we finally go the fire going. We all worked on it but I think Caleb’s perseverance with it finally is what made it work. The fire was very smoky and it was still snowing and quite cold out. We huddled around the fire drinking a couple beers for awhile, then it got too cold and it was late and my eyes were burning from the smoke. It was time for bed. Dressed in many layers we got in our tents. I had Dan for warmth (which is very helpful, cuz I was freezing!) and Caleb wore I think he said 7 layers.

This morning we woke up to a few inches of snow and still going strong. We got everything into the car and took the poles out of the tents while they were still up. Then we unstaked our tent and picked it up and shook as much snow as possible off of it. We picked up the tent, fly and footprint at once. This all got stuffed into the tent bag to take care of/dry out later. Which we’ll have to do at some point.

Now we’re driving to Rapid City via Billings and Devil’s Tower. In Billings we’re getting gas and Pita Pit for lunch (dan and caleb got pita pit the other day in Bozeman but I really wasn’t hungry, even though it’s great. So I went online at the hotel that night to see if we’d be coming across any others. I found the one in Billings, on the way!) Devil’s tower also isn’t far out of the way, and should be cool. Without stops the GPS is saying ETA of 6ish so I’d say it probably will be more like 7:30 or 8 which is pretty good for another longish day of driving! Tomorrow Mt Rushmore, Badlands and then maybe/probably driving a little ways towards Madison where we’ll catch up with Mark and Missy!

Livingston, MT

Just a quick one. We made it to Montana. This is a live post!!!! Wow Boiling River tomorrow and I'm pretty excited about that one :)

To Seattle

The drive to Seattle was nice, as well. Just a few hours through pretty countryside. When we got closer there was a lot of water. First stop was Quinn and Jenn’s house. They lived on Troll ave, a very aptly named street. Quite a few interesting things about their place. 1) it was under a bridge. Which sounds sketchy/unpleasant but it really wans’t and 2) there was a troll at the top of the street. Who I’ve seen a picture of before. Dan thinks maybe he was on Orsm.

Quinn does trail maintenance for Olympia National Park and Jenn works at a restaurant. We drove downtown and went to the Pike Place Markets famous for throwing fish (which we did see some of). They also have lot of crafty type gifts and food places (stalls and restaurants). From there we walked down to Pioneer Square home of the Underground Tour. We had a little while so we meandered our way over and hung out until 5. On a personal note when we woke up in Portland it was pretty warm so I wore capris, the rest of the day I spent being pretty cold. The tour was awesome.

So I would definitely recommend the underground tour. It really gives you a lot of good history of Seattle. The city used to be 15’ lower than it is. They had a lot of issues, so instead of filling in the tidal flats that they had built the city on they just built large retaining walls and moved the whole city up a story. While this was happening it led to some awkward times for all involved. They also had a lot of sewage problems. So there were 3 places where the tour went underground to what used to be street level of old Seattle. Our tour guide Jim was great as welllllll. (Dan just reached into the backseat and pressed keys on the keyboard and it just happened to be the whole bunch of l’s at the end of the word there) He was pretty funny, and knowledgeable. The two things you really want in a guide.

After the tour we got some Cuban sandwiches from a place Quinn really wanted us to try which were amazing. We drove by it this morning and if it had been open I would’ve gotten another to keep for lunchtime. We at the sandwiches back at their house and chatted. Before bed we went for a little walk down to see a little bit of Freemont (the area that they live in). First stop, Lenin statue. Pictures taken. Second stop, river and google building, more pictures. There were two other things that we had driven by a couple times at this point that I had really wanted pictures of that we ended up walking by as well. One was a bus stop with a stone group of people that people dress up every so often. The other was a bronze(ish) statue of two clowns. Pretty scary actually.

Back at their place we all went to bed in preparation for an early morning. Quinn had to leave at 3:30am to get to work at 7am. He goes out for 8 days at a time then is home for 6. In the morning we got up around 7:30 but then took our time packing the car and found a coffee shop that Jen had recommended nearby. Hoping they had wifi (they did, of course) we brought our computers in to try and plan our next course of action.

The original plan had been Glacier even though only a little bit was open. Unfortunately in the next few days they’re expecting a lot of snow. And rain in Flathead lake which is just south of there. We made the executive decision not to go up there… but that left us with no plan of where to go. We sat in that coffee shop for awhile trying to figure out a route. The decision, to go to Livingston, MT. Originally I was thinking Bozeman but the goal was to be able to go to Boiling River in the morning. Caleb and I went there when I visited him at Big Sky but Dan hasn’t been, and it’s an awesome place. So Livingston is about a half hour closer, and will only give us an hour drive in the morning.

Today has been an epic day of driving which, coupled with the fact that we got a late start leaves us getting to the hotel around 10 (and we’re stopping for gas and a bite to eat in Bozeman… so it’ll be even later). But that’s ok cuz we have about an hour of driving left!! Tomorrow is a new day and one I’m really looking forward to at boiling river. We’ll drive towards Rapid City and tonight I’ll have a look to see where we might want to stop (and what the weather will be like). We’re trying to avoid camping in rain/snow which, unfortunately, has us doing a lot less camping than I had originally planned on. But it’s ok because this is the vacation of a lifetime, and we’ve saved for it so we’ll be fine. Until next time….

PS Dan just pointed out that a week from tomorrow (or the next day) we’ll be in Cornwall. That’s crazy. The past couple weeks time has gone so quickly. It all blurs together as well. It’s hard to keep track of the days sometimes. Fun though. It’s pretty liberating to think that we don’t have work to go back to and that the future is wide open. Exciting indeed!

To Oregon

I had hoped to get up to Eugene to catch up with Kelly who is one of the people, originally from Minnesota, who studied with me in Lismore. Unfortunately she was working the day that we would be going through. She had some great suggestions about hot springs in that area but we had a long day of driving so unfortunately couldn’t really go that far out of our way to check them out.

The drive up through the Sierras was beautiful. We drove up 44 to 89 to 5, past Mount Shasta. The woods were beautiful and we did a lot of climbing and descending (as we have many times this trip). Even 5 was really niece. It was pretty straight but went through valleys full of evergreens. The coolest thing by far that happened is we saw a bobcat. It was running all out across the road. It was pretty awesome. Like a big really muscly house-cat.

We got to Portland around 4 and drove straight to the restaurant that we had chosen for dinner - Pok-pok. It was a Vietnamese place that had covered outdoor setaing so we sat outside. It was awesome. And nice that it was covered because it was pouring. They didn’t serve their dinner menu until 5 so we got a beer and some award-winning chicken wings which were amazing. It was interesting how they did them as well, they didn’t separate the top part from the bottom part so each wing was the entire wing. We all got different dinner dishes after 5 each of which was great.

From there we found our hotel and checked in. I had booked it on Priceline, which I had never used before. We got a good deal for the doubletree but only ended up with a queen bed (when I was booking it it said that the room was only guaranteed to sleep 2 people, so we couldn’t gotten lucky with two doubles or something, but didn’t). From the hotel we checked out the internet in the Lobby to see where Amnesia Brewery was (something that had been recommended by a few different people).

It was 2 ½ miles away on the same side of the river. It was a little bit rainy but we decided to walk it anyway. So we walked there while it was still light and got to see some of the residential parts (not the city center, officially North Portland, I think). And walked back in the dark. A pretty good walk and much longer would have been too long. The brewery was fun. It’s a big warehouse type building where they brew beer in the back and have a bar/food in front with picnic tables. The beer was great and we tried a few kinds. There was a Blazers game going on which had a bunch of people there watching it. When we got there it was really close, by the end there were only a few people left watching and they were down by a fair margin.

We walked back a different way than we walked there which turned out to be a great thing. We stopped outside a bar that had a trio playing by the front window. A girl said, “you guys can come in” which was pretty obvious I guess but was enough for us to check it out. They were awesome. They were playing folk music to a captive audience. We got a drink and sat and watched the end of their performance. The restaurant was a pizza restaurant so afterwards we grabbed a slice for the walk back to the hotel. When we got a few blocks from the hotel it really started pouring so by the time we got back to the hotel we all had soaked bottom halves (the top halves were protected by raincoats).

The next morning on our way out we went to Voodoo doughnuts thanks to Man vs Food re-run that we saw in San Simeon. The doughnuts were great but unfortunately they were out of the bacon maple which is the one we were most interested in trying. We ended up with one voodoo doughnut (shaped like a man, raspberry filled, chocolate frosted and a pretzel stuck through the heart) and an old dirt bastard (doughnut with oreo on top and peanut butter drizzle). Outside the shop there were a lot of people begging. There was a guy right in front of the door and a girl who asked to borrow one of our cell phones “to call her mom”. I’m not sure if she was going to take it, or call someone sketchy but we said sorry. There was also a woman in a bathrobe and a cane who was either yelling terrorist or having it yelled at her by the other vagrants. That’s one thing that I really don’t like about cities. I like the idea of helping people out but really really don’t like being accosted for money. I feel bad saying no. Or not saying anything at all as people have advised me to do.

Caleb had his heart set on biscuits and gravy so stop # 2 was Pine State Biscuit. Dan and I split a biscut and gravy, too. He was determined to rectify his bad first impression of them that he had gotten in Florida. Luckily it worked. Biscuits and Gravy are awesome. We chose shitake and that was definitely the right choice. Unfortunately I was pretty full already from the doughnut so only had a few mouthfuls. Later on I was wishing that we had gotten a second just to take with us for later.

Herlong, CA

Luckily Herlong is only about 45 minutes away. We called Nonna and Grandpa to let them know we’d be interested in making dinner when we got there but they already had it under control. We made a salad when we got there and warmed up the bread. The name of the game was to do as much as we could while we were there so they could take it easy. It was really great to see them, as always. It had been since the wedding but I feel like we didn’t really get to see anyone during that time. I mean we did, but it was all very brief because there were so many people to see.

Per Dan’s request here’s what Herlong is for those who don’t know. Up until the mid 80’s it was a thriving military base which employed a great many people. Since then the base has been largely decommissioned and all of the services and most of the people who used to live and work there are now gone. This leaves an interesting ghost town-esque desert town. If you go down a couple blocks to the end of their street the pavement ends and the desert begins.

We spent until Monday morning in Herlong. On Saturday Margie and Dennis came up and we had a bbq, which we started going pretty early. There were 2 racks of ribs, beef tri tip, pork tri tip, corn and potato salad. It’s interesting how much longer things take to cook at high altitude. Caleb learned that lesson the next day when we grilled again with chicken. The breasts cooked well but the thighs and other pieces took forever and weren’t done by the time we took them off, even though Nonna and I had boiled them first.

Saturday we did some chores, Dan dugs out some weeds next door and I vacuumed the house. Margie and Dennis stayed that night and until mid-afternoon the next day. Sunday we went down to the shed for a little while to check it out with Margie and Dennis. Grandpa stayed up at the other house and fixed our camping chairs for us. One of them was broken from the time we took it out of the garage and we didn’t realize until the first time we tried to use it camping in Shenandoah.

I had been planning to catch up with the journaling there but it just didn’t happen. They had wireless and everything, but I decided to spend the time visiting instead of sitting on the computer. When I was on the computer I felt pretty anti-social like I was wasting the time that we had visiting them, so here we are updating days later. Better than nothing, right?

The time up there was great and it was pretty sad to be leaving. We got to talk to Nonna a lot, I wish I had as good a memory and was as good of a storyteller as she is. To all who read this, all prayers for her are appreciated. She is battling lung cancer (she hasn’t smoked for 40 years and used to walk all the time, it isn’t fair, is it?). They were going to do surgery to take the tumour out but the day of the doctor took another look and though it wasn’t feasible. She will be starting on chemo and radiation now. Like I said, please pray for her. She’s a very strong woman but every little bit helps.

Lake Tahoe

We left their place to drive around Tahoe before going to Reno to pick Caleb up. My mom originally was going to fly out, too, but then because they didn’t end up doing Nonna’s surgery she decided not to. We drove around the lake starting from the south and stopped at Emerald Bay for a break and to admire the view and take pictures. It was all very pretty with the green trees, white snow and very blue water. Just before we got to Tahoe city Caleb called to tell us that he was getting on an earlier flight from San Francisco. We had started by going south through the more built-up portion so unfortunately instead of doing the north part of the lake we got back on major highways and got to Reno with time to spare for the flight.

After picking up Caleb we met up with Danielle. Dan and I were going to do that and then get Caleb but it worked really well that he got an earlier flight because he got to see her as well. We met her at her apartment which she shares with her boyfriend and 2 cats Pete and Al. The apartment was pretty cute and not as tiny as she insisted. I’m pretty sure it’s bigger than the one we had in Malden.

We talked about life and Coachella that she had gone to (the lineup looked amazing, it would have been pretty awesome to have been there). She had a few hours before she had to be at work and we had some time before we should leave for Herlong so we went to the nearby park and did a hike. In Reno (as in many other places) they had a letter on the hillside. In this case it was an N for Nevada. We hiked up to the N and sat down on its purple rocks for a little bit. The last few hundred feet I had to take a rest. You may find this surprising but sitting in the car for hours on end doesn’t seem to have helped my getting in shape effort. Plus the altitude… so that was nice, and there was a great view of Reno from up there. The beginning of the hike was through the park where we saw a lot of dogs. Someday……

Afterwards we drove Danielle back to her house, said our farewells and drove up to Herlong.

To Carson City

I started the drive to Carson city and Dan finished it. When I drove it was sunny and nice. Pretty soon after he took over it got cloudy and rainy. Poor Dan. We drove out over the Bay bridge which I had originally mistaken for the Golden Gate bridge. Stuart had told us that they are working to earthquake-proof the Bay bridge and a couple days later in Herlong we saw a 60 Minutes special on the project, which was pretty interesting.

We drove through a lot of farmland and then up into the mountains. In the mountains it was snowy again (they had gotten snow overnight) but the road was fine. The parts that we could see were quite pretty but between the torrential rain and clouds we weren’t able to see all that much.

Once in Carson City we went straight to Margie and Dennis’ house and soon after left for dinner. Dinner was the grill at the Casino Fandango, a nice tropical themed casino. There were tracks on the ceiling for the big robotic parrot that goes around (possibly only on weekends) squawking and dropping cash. There was also the rumbling of the volcanoes every so often.

That evening we got back in time for survivor and Dan and I learned about the good vs evil teams and saw them combine. I should let Lisa (former workmate) know, she was always wanting people to watch survivor so she could talk about it!

The next morning Dennis left for work early but we saw Margie a little bit before she had to go into Reno for Nonna’s consultation. Dan made some breakfast and I posted some older journal entries (I think) from their wireless that I figured out how to use.

Up the Coast to SFO

The morning started out in an amazing way. There was a sign for elephant seal viewing with some binoculars on it. I was thinking maybe we should take out the binoculars but first we should just check it out and see if we could see anything.
We parked and walked over to look down on the beach (you couldn't go on it, just look over it) It was amazing. There were groups of seals laying around with each other, or scooting along the sand, or playing/fighting. And these were elephant seals, so sea lion sized. We thought that was really impressive. Then we went to the boardwalk. There were more seals than I've ever seen of one animal in the same place in my life (if that makes sense). The beach was covered in them. Check it out! And as you can see, this isn't even all of them!

The drive up route 1 was windy and beautiful. And that’s full of winds (like twists), not wind. I just told Caleb and Dan that I’ve never noticed those words were the same before. It was stormy, but not rainy for too much of it. The stormy ocean was on one side while we hugged the cliffs and steep green slopes. I was excited for Big Sur thanks to Jack Kerouac. That area was pretty great. There was forest and big trees that seemed like they would be a great place to explore and hike around. It was more accessible looking than the interior of the rest of it.

The rest of the drive up to SFO was fairly uneventful. It got much more populated. We arrived outside Denise and Stuart’s house around 4:30 and had decided we’d park there and take public transportation into the city. I had checked out maps and fares back in San Simeon so we knew which line to take and where to catch it. We talked to Denise while waiting for the train and found out that they would actually be home earlier than they had though but we decided to go into the city anyways, as planned.

After some minor mishaps (not knowing where to find the F line, then taking it the wrong way for a little while) we made it to Fisherman’s wharf. We walked around the first wharf then went and got some food cuz we were both starving. We ended up sitting under a huge Foster’s poster. Of course Dan got a picture with it.

As an aside:
When we took the train too far and got out to cross the street we saw an interesting character. He was wearing his flannel pants and sheepskin slippers. We were waiting for the light to turn red so we could cross. He didn’t mind the traffic and walked out into the street. As cars came up to him he would shoot at them with his fingers and make machine gun noises. He did this all the way across the street and made it safely. When we saw Danielle she told us about another person she had seen that she called the bush man. I guess he hangs out (or at least used to) around Fisherman’s wharf behind a fake bush from where he jumps out at people.

Our trip back we went way too far on the F line (they don’t announce stops) and then not quite far enough on the N line back to their house. So we did more walking than planned. Finally got to their place around 9 and rang the doorbell. The dog that barked in response was pretty exciting. We sat and talked with everyone for a little while as Sonny sat on my lap and tried to lick my face. Sonny is a golden doodle, awesome dog, but not a lap dog. I don’t mind, of course, I love dogs. Especially goldens (or mostly goldens). After some catching up the kids went to bed and Denise set us up for the morning. We didn’t see anyone the next morning but we had keys, and our car moved into the garage and a park map for Golden Gate Park as well as some museum cards.

We got up and made coffee at ate cold pizza (we called Denise to make sure it was ok to eat) in the back garden. The housekeepers were cleaning so we tried to stay out of their way.

We had a leisurely morning and went over to golden gate park. We wandered and saw some of the gardens and just generally enjoyed it. We only saw a small part but it’s an awesome park and they only lived a couple blocks away. Unfortunately we didn’t get to try to get into any museums. We talked to Margie and she suggested that we probably wanted to leave sooner rather than later because they were getting snow in the pass.

Not long after we talked to her we left the park and San Francisco to head to Carson city.

The California Coast

The plan originally was to drive to San Luis Opispo and spend the night there. That plan changed with Hearst Castle. We decided that we’d drive up to Hearst Castle that afternoon and take a tour. The GPS had us getting there at 3:30pm and the last tour of the day was 3:20. My mom looked online and said something about a guided tour, which was ok because we’d rather do that than pay the $25 for the normal tour. We drove through a lot of rain, hills with windfarms (apparently the wind farm capitol of the US) and some beautiful scenery. Our stop for lunch was a great one. We needed gas and saw a sign for a bakery at an exit. Dan had his fingers crossed for meat pies (which he hasn’t seen in the US as of yet). We ate at this great bakery and shared a poor boy sandwich, which was huge. Alas, no pies, but… they had Bundaberg Ginger Beer!!!! Dan was pretty excited and we had one of those to accompany the sandwiches. When we got there it was sunny, by the time we left it was pouring. It poured through a lot of California until we got to the coast. Wine country is beautiful. Full of rolling hills that Dan said reminded him of the drive to Byron (and I could see it, as well).

We arrive at Hearst Castle to find that the last tour had indeed gone (no surprise) but there was no self guided tour. The only one that existed was of the gardens and only happened on weekends. Luckily the tours started at 8:20 am the next morning. Next order of business, find a hotel! San Simeon is on the water and there was a strip of “budget” hotels. We trolled around for a little while trying to steal someone’s internet so we had an idea of the rates and if one was by far better than the rest. In the end we ended up doing it the old fashioned way of going to different hotels and asking about the rate. We ended up at the Day’s Inn (the 3^rd one we asked at).

We checked in and took a walk down to the beach. It was coldish and windy but sunny. I still had my part of the leftover sandwich so we took our blanket and ate it by a river and watched the kite surfers. On the beach there were a couple of cool driftwood structures. One looked like a windbreak and the other a cool little lean-to.

Next order of business, dinner. We got some interesting beer at a little shop and then ordered food based on the guy behind the counter’s recommendation. We walked down to the Motel 6 to pick the food up and then returned to our hotel to eat, plan and above all relax. It’s amazing how tiring traveling in the car can be!

That night I woke up around 1am to the heater making some scary noises and heating full-blast. It was hot and scary. I got up and turned it waaaay down and asked a mostly asleep Dan to switch sides so he was closer to it. Sounds mean, but it was the middle of the night and I was unreasonably scared of it.

The next morning Dan went down and got breakfast waffles and chatted with an traveling elderly couple for awhile. They recommended making reservations for the castle tour. As soon as he got back and told me that I went online and looked at it. Had we known we should have made reservations the night before. The earliest tour that wasn’t sold out was the 11:20 which was way too late for us. That was disappointing, but cest la vie.

4-28-10 from Idaho

So here is where we admit that we’ve been slacking a bit on this journal. There are many things that we’ve done that haven’t been blogged about so it will be a lot at once. That being said, let’s get started.

Pictures in Blog

So we're in Herlong, CA and I am finally taking the time to put pictures in with the posts. Check them out!

Death Valley

We drove in to Furnace Creek visitor center to get a map and show them our pass for the park fee. It turns out that this past week was free national park week so we wouldn’t have had to pay anyway. It was interesting driving in. At first look everything looks very barren (which I guess it is) but the more time we spent driving around the more we appreciated it and the prettier it seemed. The first lookout was over some very interestingly eroded hills. We got there just before a tour bus so we had a quick look, took some pictures, and then left as it was being swarmed.



We chose a campground that was right there and after driving around it a couple times chose a spot. There was a ranger sitting in his truck in the shade there (shade is at a premium) and we asked if the site was taken. He said no and he’d leave as soon as he finished his break. We tried to tell him that it was fine but we went to pay for the site and by the time we got back to it he was gone. It was an awesome campsite (picture to follow) and we had a great spot for the tent under the trees. It was HOT there, so any shade was much appreciated.

First item of business, phone calls. Our cells had no reception so we opted for pay phones. No wonder they’re almost extinct, it costs $1 for 4 minutes!!! We called Josh and sang happy birthday. It was nice to talk to him, though briefly and exciting that we’ll be seeing him in a couple weeks! And he’ll be 21 so we can go out for a drink. Second phone call to Nonna and Grandpa. We called to say hi and wish Nonna luck. It was also great talking to them (also briefly) and because we’re writing on a time delay we’ll see them tomorrow!!!

We took out our map and decided on a route that looked cool and included a ghost town. On our way, however, we were thwarted by a newly tarred road. We were worried about getting tar all over the rental car, so we tried another route which was also newly tarred. Twice thwarted we decided to go to salt creek instead.

We took the turnoff to salt creek and there was a minivan stopped a little ways down in the middle of the road. We drove up hoping they’d move. As we were driving towards them, though, everyone got out and started looking at things. Dan asked what they had found and they informed us it was something very interesting. We got out of our car as well and it was really cool. There were lots of very small plants lining the roadway and on each plant there was at least one large stripey caterpillar. He said that they got together like this once a year to breed but I think he was just saying that. It looked like they were all eating and trying to get some shade. They kept crawling towards us and our car. One came towards me and I lifted up my shoe and he just sat in the shadow underneath it. Needless to say I took a lot of pictures, some are really great (if I do say so myself!)

Now for salt creek. This was a ¼ mile boardwalk along a very salty creek teeming with pupfish. This is their breeding time so we got to see them swimming around and some of the lucky guys in action. We also saw some lizards and some bitey flies which preferred me to Dan to my annoyance.

Next stop we drove down to Badwater, which is the lowest elevation in North America. It is a large salt flat that you can walk out to. Dan had the idea to take our flip flops (thongs) off to walk out to it. It was pretty nice. The ground was cool because it was all white with salt, and a little bit wet, therefore slippery. We almost went down a couple times. Again, it was HOT so we walked a ways out but then had to turn around. When they get a lot of rain this area fills up with water.

Heading back towards our campsite we stopped at the natural bridge. Another ¼ mile walk up (and ¼ mile back). It was pretty amazing. We walked up a short hill into a canyon which provided shade (very nice). After a couple twists and turns the bridge came into site. It was enormous, and looked even more enormous with someone standing underneath it. There were interesting rock formations around it as well. One place off to the side of the bridge looked like it would have been interesting to climb up to and look around, but unfortunately we didn’t have the right clothing or footwear on for that.

Last stop before heading back to the campground was the Artist’s Drive. A 9 mile (paved) scenic loop. This was pretty amazing and I would highly recommend it. First of all the scenery is hills and mountains all with interesting textures and shapes caused by erosion. The most impressive part, though, was the colors. There were some hills at the beginning which showed some unusual pinks and greens. As we drove on we came to the Artist’s palette. This doesn’t show up half as well on film (as most things, sadly) but was amazing. It really looks like someone took a paintbrush or can of paint and tossed it over the rocks. The drive from there wound in and around the hills with numerous dips which Dan drove in a fun way.

We bough beer and ice creams at the general store. Ate our ice creams on a rocking chair, then went back to the campsite to have our beers and dinner. Dinner was going to be cooked, but we didn’t feel like it and weren’t all that hungry so it was chips, salami, cheese and bread for some. And beer. Nutritious!

That evening was spent sitting in our shade on the little chairs, with Dan constantly having to fix his as it exists by being propped up with rocks. Another order of business, hopefully for Herlong, fix that chair. As it got dark the wind picked up but it didn’t really cool down. By bedtime the wind was howling outside but our tent was protected so we didn’t even get the breeze. We went to the water a couple times to wet our heads hoping that that would help. It was a very restless night sleep, I think we really only fell asleep towards morning. At least it made us get up early (Dan wouldn’t tell me what time it was) and get a good start on the day. Next stop, somewhere on the California coast…

To ???

This morning we got up and looked at the weather for Yosemite, it looks alright today but then will be raining-snowing tonight and tomorrow. We made the decision to alter our plans. Instead of 2 nights there we are going to death valley today and then San Luis Obispo tomorrow to drive up the coast to San Francisco the next day. We’re almost at Death Valley now so I’ll sign off to go enjoy myself. Hopefully we can find some nice hot springs and things to do here and just generally take it easy. I think we’re in need of some relaxation. Until later….

Jess and Dan

Las Vegas

We got to Vegas and check into the Monte Carlo. The hotel was nice. Our “strip view” room gave us a view of the back of New York, NY and the rollercoaster, which was cool but definitely not a strip view. We had showers to wash off the camping/travel grime and then set out to see what we could see. We walked the strip and got a “Yard dog” of daquiri. Dan got pina colada and something like turbo 190 (grain alcohol with citrusy stuff) with a shot of something in it and I got a combo of the 190 and hurricane. In retrospect we should have opted for a smaller size but usually things like that don’t really have alcohol in them. We walked the strip with our enormous drinks that we couldn’t even finish (well, maybe we could have but both of us would have been pretty drunk, and that wasn’t what we were looking for). We stopped at the Bellagio and saw the fountain display which is even cooler than I thought it would be. The song we saw was from Rodeo from Appalachian Spring, which is a song that I like a lot in the first place that was even cooler with a fountain performing in time to it.

We walked through a couple of the resorts and casinos. We saw the rainforest in the Mirage and tried to go see the Tigers and dolphins but had gotten there after it had closed. In our search for dinner we ended up at Hard Rock café where we had some delicious burgers. We then wandered through NYNY and headed back to the Monte Carlo. Our gambling experience consisted of two $1 plays at slot machines. The first was jaws and the second an actual one-armed bandit where you could pull the handle down (and bet less). That one was a lot more fun, needless to say we didn’t win anything.

Drive to Las Vegas

Per an idea from Caleb we went to Vegas via Zion National park. This turned out to be pretty awesome for a few reasons. Reason 1) The drive up and around the Grand Canyon was amazing. We went through some pretty high mountain passes where there was still a good amount of snow (probably about 7000 feet though they didn’t have a sign at the top). These were forested with some tall red pines. Quite windy and pretty. Then when we came out of the mountains the landscape changed dramatically. We found ourselves driving through bright orange/red mountains that were really stunning. The wound through a valley then out. I have way too many pictures of them.

The highlight of the day, thought, was Zion National Park. It is amazing. I think visually the most spectacular scenery of the trip. The park didn’t take too long to drive through (probably about half an hour) but it was amazing. The mountains and scenery there was like nothing else. You’ll have to check out my pictures to see what I mean. At every turn I was wowed. There was a shuttle bus that you could take that went further in, I believe, but unfortunately we had places to go. Someday it would be great to go back and do that as well as some hikes.

The Grand Canyon

The drive to the Grand Canyon was very nice. It wasn’t long which was already a big plus. We stopped in Flagstaff to get gas and some lunch food and ended up at a Safeway where they were matching any $$ people donated to a disability charity. Every time someone donated at a register they’d go on the loudspeaker and say “$___ donated on register ____, woo hoo!!” At first we had no idea what was going on but figured it out when we got to the checkout. We got bread, meat, cheese and a 6 pack of some interesting beer from Sedona. This became our dinner later at the campsite which was great.

Along the drive to Grand Canyon National park we saw stall after stall of Indian jewelry and trinkets. Most of them didn’t have any people or things for sale in them, I assume they are full during the summer but it’s probably too early in the sesason to be worth their while.

This week turned out to be free entry to the Grand Canyon week so even though we had the pass we wouldn’t have had to pay anyway. We started at the east entrance and made our way back to the visitor center side which turned out to be the best way we could have done it. The canyon was stunning. It really doesn’t look real at first. There is no way that the photos we took can capture the enormity and beauty of the place. We stopped at all the points along the way to get photos of different parts from different angles. I’m sure there will be some good ones in there.

At the end of it we went to our campsite and set up camp before heading off to do the rest of the things we had planned. We set up our tent and sleeping stuff in a great little site. The campground was pretty nice. Then we headed over to do a little bit of the bright angel trail. We were both surprised by how many buildings and amenities there were over by the trailhead. Lots of lodging and a train (not sure what the deal with the train was or where it went from/to) and a gift shop.

Going down the trail was amazing. We came across people who had gone down to the bottom that morning and then had come back up. We also saw people that had camped down there. There were signs warning you against doing the whole hike in the same day. We only did about half an hour down and then came back up but I was really glad that we had. Going down into the canyon, even that little bit was really cool. It gave you much more of a perspective on the hugeness of the place. The trail was very well maintained though it was a bit muddy with the melting snow. That’s something I haven’t mentioned yet. There was snow in a lot of places at the canyon, including a chunk at the beginning of our campsite. We were surprised to see it there at all, let alone in a lot of different places.

The evening we had our dinner, listening to music, made a fire with a small bundle of expensive wood and hung out with a couple beers around the fire. It was a nice relaxing day of seeing some pretty cool things.

Towards the Grand Canyon

We made a stop in Texas to get some lunch. We had been looking for some nice little place in a small town but the towns that we were going through were too small and didn’t really have anything to offer. We ended up stopping at the Big Texan in Amarillo. If you ate the 72 oz steak you got it free! I got a steak and Dan got BBQ. I liked mine a lot but I guess his was just ok. We also got a beer sampler and each tried a beer we hadn’t had before. One texas amber lager and one “light” dark beer. Both pretty tasty.

The rest of the drive was through New Mexico then Arizona. We saw more Indian rest stops than we could count all of which had the best prices and selection of products. Dan describes the landscape as roadrunner and Wile E Coyote (we just had a discussion about how to spell this and neither of us really knows). It was all very interesting and quite beautiful. There all were different textures and colors. A great thing about driving through this whole area was the speed limit on route 40 is 75mph which means that it’s commonly accepted that you can go 85 without a problem. The road was so flat and straight for the most part that sometimes you found yourself going even faster. Luckily this car doesn’t mind. I guess if it did we probably wouldn’t have gotten that fast.

We ended the day in Holbrook, AZ. An arbitrary stopping point that only put us a couple of hours away from the Grand Canyon the next day. The hotel was fine we showered and planned the next few days of accommodation for our trip (which in hindsight I kind of wish we hadn’t but more on that later). We had pizza hut because there weren’t really a lot of takeout choices and we didn’t feel like going to a restaurant. We got there to pick it up and the person had forgotten to put in our order so we got free breadsticks out of it and also a chance to go to the dollar store nearby. It was really the only store in walking distance. We got bugspray and some cans of food for our camping in the next few days.

To Arizona

At the moment we are driving through the rain in Oklahoma. This is the first rain we’ve seen. Not the best driving but I’d rather have it on a driving day than one where we’re out trying to see things. This morning we realized that we’re losing tracking of what day it is. We have also been arguing with Lee (our GPS). He is a tumultuous young GPS who doesn’t always do what he is told. It’s hard to know who to trust, TripTiks or the GPS. Yesterday there is a point that I wish I had listened to Lee but today it looks like TripTik may have had the better route (I guess that is yet to be seen). We reached a point where an exit was closed and when we went back to it from the other direction he had “ruhcalculated” to add another half hour onto our time. Enough for now 11:11 am (east coast time which computer still has). Bye!

So, we made it to Holbrook, AZ and spent the evening booking/planning the next few days. Kind of wish I had more time to plan things but we went back 2 time zones today so what it technically 10:30pm here feels like 1:30 Boston time. Anyway off to the Grand Canyon tomorrow! Hopefully in Vegas we can post some pics and more blogging

Chickasaw National Recreation Area

This day was spent in the car. As Dan put it the driving wasn’t as interesting as it had been going through Tennessee, for example. Dan went up and got some breakfast pastries, fruit and cereal for us to bring with us and we set out. The drive through Lousisiana seemed to last forever, then Texas even though we only went through the corner. Coming out of New Orleans was pretty cool. Caught a tiny bit of the commuter traffic. There were miles of bridges through bayous which gave us nice green views with lots of water.

Other than that we stopped and got a lantern and a few food products (unfortunately not grocery store). We ended up stopping at this bread place with very slim pickings and came out with bread, tortillas, “chili topping” and salsa con queso. You can probably figure out our dinner from there. The only other stops were gas and wal-mart (happened to be next to the gas station and it had a bathroom, and fruits and veggies!). Got some apples, bananas, carrots and green beans to fulfill our fruit and vegetable cravings.

Finally got to the exit for Chickasaw National Recreation Area and I was pretty excited that we were almost there. We almost stopped at an RV park just off the highway but I’m glad we didn’t. We made a split second deision to go to “the Point” camping area and for a little while I was getting worried that we had missed it (the road was a lot longer than I had anticipated). The point was on a big lake with a fishing derby going on. Every so often we’d hear a boat roar past. The lake was quite pretty and the water felt warmish.
Finally got there and chose a campsite, walked down to the lake, set up camp and paid at the front for the site. On the way back from paying we met Jeff and Tank (the very small dog). Tank came out to greet us and Jeff followed. He is the campground host. Him and his wife have been doing it for the past 3 years from March-November and they had quite the set-up. We talked to Jeff for a little while and heard about what it’s like out there, the occasional fish-fries that he hosts at his site and the impending brisket-smoking (someone had lent him a smoker that he was yet to use). He also told us about the cedars. All over the campground were piles of cedar trees. I guess a full grown cedar drinks upwards of 140 gallons of water a day and take the resources from the native trees.
We ate our dinner of tortillas with salsa con queso and chili topping, tried to make a fire out of the too-green cedar that was everywhere and retired for the evening.