Day 22:
Well, we did it. We made it from Twin Falls to the Bay Area in one piece. All told, the trip took 10.5 hours with two stops for gas, two meals (both drive through) and a Starbucks/Jamba Juice stop. We made it home just as the low fuel lamp turned on. Oh, and gas got cheaper while we were gone.
The start of today's journey reminded me of the early part of our trip across the Hi Line. We did over a hundred miles from Twin Falls, ID to Wells, NV on a two lane undivided road they called State Route 93. It was empty for long stretches broken only occasionally by small towns. The only difference was today's drive had a much more Nevada feel to it: rolling scrubland back-dropped by tall, equally barren mountains all obscured by the haze you only get when temperatures near 100.
After 100 miles of hair-raising passes, I had never been so happy to see a four-lane interstate. I did learn a new trick: at the right zoom level, you can use your GPS to estimate good sight lines for passing. It would have been perfect if the GPS conveyed elevation information, but I was happy with knowing when I'd see the next lazy turn to the left so I could see all the oncoming traffic.
The first city we hit along I-80 in Nevada was Elko. There we were greeted by a giant casino (complete with Starbucks, thank you) and a highway information sign warning us that that I-80 was closed in 35 miles and that we should "plan other routes."
Huh? You can't just close an interstate and not provide a detour! After I got my wits back, I looked at our maps and GPS and decided that there really wasn't much I could tell about alternate routes until I knew exactly where the highway was closed. It was quite likely that there *was* no alternate route. We were just going to have to chance it.
As we neared the area, it became apparent what was going on: more fire. All of the western lands were ablaze. Luckily the sign was slightly behind the times. The fire had burned all the way up to the eastbound side of the freeway and had been controlled by the five rigs lining the empty lanes with their flashers on. The westbound lanes seemed fine - only the other side was closed. As we drove further, we began to see columns of vehicles lead by pilot cars. So both sides were both going to be okay.
We flew past Reno and the NV/CA border in the blink of an eye putting us suddenly back in the Sacramento suburbs. I tried to play newcomer and view California with the perspective gained from my last three weeks across the country. My first impression was that California understands the business of freeways. The *small* ones are three lanes on each side. There are Botts Dots everywhere (no plows to shear them off), K-rails to keep traffic separate and landscaped medians! It's also darn crowded. It's no wonder that you need five lanes. RVs? Rare. Trucks? Sure, but not as many. Lots of cars, and lots more of them "odd." I don't think I saw a Land Rover or a Porsche Cayenne my entire time out of California.
The landscape was also an eye-opener. The hills of unbroken gold (okay, brown) can really be pretty in the same way as the even green of Idaho's rolling farmland. Compared to the Plain States, there are a lot more trees to break up the predominant gold. The trees aren't planted as occasional windbreaks in long picket lines or in protective circles around lone farmsteads. They really seem to be an integral part of the landscape whether it be hill or field.
The cities and towns, with buildings much more crowed together than the rest of the trip, also seemed to have a lot trees. Everything felt "manicured" or planned. The trees happened just so often and there were no open fields sprinkled in between the bits of civilization. You'd have long stretches of wall to wall development followed by shorter stretches of relative wild land.
To round out my state impressions:
South Dakota: Like North Dakota (flat, lots of farms, few trees) only with slight patches of brown hinting that the natural rainfall isn't quite enough to keep everything alive outside the farms. This actually started in southern Minnesota.
Wyoming: Fields of browning grass give way to more uneven land and then mountains covered with conifers
Idaho: The southern regions are what I remember from my childhood: rolling fields of green, fit for use as the WindowsXP background.
Nevada: Desert, pure and simple. More dirt than scraggly plants eeking out a living.
California: Dry, even in the mountains. Even where there are green, healthy trees, they live on a carpet of dead grass. The farmlands between Sacramento and the Bay Area could be in the Dakotas only they aren't as big and there are more trees. The Cities of the Bay Area have a lot of trees. This might be what Minnesota would look like if it had this many buildings and if you could find a vantage point that high.
Highlights:
1. Home. Live cats and a happy dog.
2. Cleaning out the van. No, really.
3. Getting back into the swing of things. While I enjoyed my time off, my time to try on new hats, I really am of this place and things are different here. The stereotypical Californian is the laid-back surfer dude, but there's a pace and and edge to life around the major commerce centers that is unmistakable.
Quirks:
1. While I'm in the act of passing you is not the time to put more weight on your lazy accelerator foot. Really.
2. For as much as I praised the freeways out here, the slow lanes in the mountains (where chains are required in winter) were probably the worst existing roads we traveled. Maybe that's why we were seeing constant roadwork in other states.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
We Didn't Start the Fire
Day 21:
The whole area around Twin Falls, Idaho is ablaze. As we traveled through southern Idaho in the 100-degree heat, we saw a handful of smoke plumes along the way. As we neared our campground in Twin Falls, I spied four small ones and two really large ones with a quick scan of the horizon. The largest one, to our right (north) as we traveled along the freeway, sported a tall thick column that looked half angry thunderhead and half nuclear fallout. My son reminded me that if it were a nuke we would have rolled quietly to a stop as the electro-magnetic pulse fried all our electronics. Lucky for you blog readers it wasn't a nuke.
The other large one was right in front of us. We joked that it might be our KOA Campground and that we would be spending the night in an air-conditioned hotel room. It wasn't the campground, but it was very close. In fact, we were forced off the freeway (luckily on the exit we needed to take) when the Idaho State Police closed it due to the fire.
I've decided that anyone growing up in California has been seriously deprived when it comes to clouds. We just don't get them. Everywhere we've been on this trip, big white fluffy clouds have been part of the sky, providing intermittent shade, the hope of some rain, and some really spectacular formations. The person who first coined the the phrase "not a cloud in the sky" didn't come from California. It's just not an interesting statement out here because it's *always* like that. Chalk one up for the rest of the nation.
We started the day by driving through Grand Tetons. We didn't stop, so all of my shots were from a moving car. I've come to realize that I love mountains the best of all natural features. I just don't think I can get enough of them. That's a good thing, too, because our driving route later took us up and down 10% (I kid you not) grades as we crossed the Teton pass. We even managed to do another pass, whose name I forget, with a measly 7% grade. For the 10% grade, I put the pedal on the floor on the way up and the van only hit 35 mph.
The big news for today is that we're headed home. Not in the "in-the-general-direction" sense, but truly driving home. The trip will be about 10.5 hours on the road and should get us home around 8pm. I can't wait to get back to unconfined spaces and a comfy couch. Hopefully the cats haven't torn up the place too much.
Highlights:
1. Some pretty cool unsettled weather. First, it was just plain hot (100 degrees), then it was hot with a wind so strong that it was pushing me off the freeway. Within a half mile, the wind turned 180 degrees and was now trying to push me off in the opposite direction.
2. The Kabin is pretty nice. Lights, air conditioning, ceiling fan and power.
3. We ate at Chilis last night. Seems like we're almost home.
Quirks
1. The Idaho State Police have mostly black cars with a swoosh of white painted on the side. I think of skunks when I see them.
The whole area around Twin Falls, Idaho is ablaze. As we traveled through southern Idaho in the 100-degree heat, we saw a handful of smoke plumes along the way. As we neared our campground in Twin Falls, I spied four small ones and two really large ones with a quick scan of the horizon. The largest one, to our right (north) as we traveled along the freeway, sported a tall thick column that looked half angry thunderhead and half nuclear fallout. My son reminded me that if it were a nuke we would have rolled quietly to a stop as the electro-magnetic pulse fried all our electronics. Lucky for you blog readers it wasn't a nuke.
The other large one was right in front of us. We joked that it might be our KOA Campground and that we would be spending the night in an air-conditioned hotel room. It wasn't the campground, but it was very close. In fact, we were forced off the freeway (luckily on the exit we needed to take) when the Idaho State Police closed it due to the fire.
I've decided that anyone growing up in California has been seriously deprived when it comes to clouds. We just don't get them. Everywhere we've been on this trip, big white fluffy clouds have been part of the sky, providing intermittent shade, the hope of some rain, and some really spectacular formations. The person who first coined the the phrase "not a cloud in the sky" didn't come from California. It's just not an interesting statement out here because it's *always* like that. Chalk one up for the rest of the nation.
We started the day by driving through Grand Tetons. We didn't stop, so all of my shots were from a moving car. I've come to realize that I love mountains the best of all natural features. I just don't think I can get enough of them. That's a good thing, too, because our driving route later took us up and down 10% (I kid you not) grades as we crossed the Teton pass. We even managed to do another pass, whose name I forget, with a measly 7% grade. For the 10% grade, I put the pedal on the floor on the way up and the van only hit 35 mph.
The big news for today is that we're headed home. Not in the "in-the-general-direction" sense, but truly driving home. The trip will be about 10.5 hours on the road and should get us home around 8pm. I can't wait to get back to unconfined spaces and a comfy couch. Hopefully the cats haven't torn up the place too much.
Highlights:
1. Some pretty cool unsettled weather. First, it was just plain hot (100 degrees), then it was hot with a wind so strong that it was pushing me off the freeway. Within a half mile, the wind turned 180 degrees and was now trying to push me off in the opposite direction.
2. The Kabin is pretty nice. Lights, air conditioning, ceiling fan and power.
3. We ate at Chilis last night. Seems like we're almost home.
Quirks
1. The Idaho State Police have mostly black cars with a swoosh of white painted on the side. I think of skunks when I see them.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Standing on Higher Ground
Day 20:
Well, we found them. All of the wildlife we had heard about but not yet seen were on the roads we traveled today. We saw many bison. First we saw the single one. We'd stop for a picture and pat ourselves on the back for the amazing close encounter with nature that we had just happened into. Then they came in small groups and we kept taking pictures like this was our last chance. Finally, we ran into the herds. That right, herds with an 's'! With babies and all roaming the plains.
We saw an entire herd of elk sitting on the grass between two of the lodges at Mammoth Hotsprings and ran over with the kids to get good pictures. Little did I know how common they were in that area. As we sat down for a picnic in the grass, three elk wandered through the building complex and across the street! Later in the day we were treated to a huge bull elk with full rack wandering through a parking lot. The only thing we didn't see were bears.
Driving was better today. We got lucky and didn't get stuck behind any belligerent rule followers so we made good time. Those times we did slow down, as much as I cursed the perpetrator for forcing us to brake so hard, I secretly thanked them for giving us an excuse to see the bison. It seemed that at every spot on the same small stretch where we saw bison, the lead car would slow to around 5 mph and take a look. Never mind the fact that this was the same car that did the same maneuver for a similar herd of bison a mile up the road. The rest of us in the line did the same, only we felt better about ourselves for not halting traffic.
The kids' Junior Ranger "ceremony" was really nice. The ranger, a young woman from Montana, checked their packets to make sure they had done the work and asked questions on the pages they filled out to make sure that the kids new their stuff. After she was convinced that everything was in order, she gave them one last reminder that this was not the end of their tasks but just that beginning and that they had signed on to continuing to learn about nature. Finally, she called for the attention of everyone in the visitor center and announced their names as new Junior Rangers. I think it really made an impression on all three of them (my two and a cousin).
Mammoth Hotsprings is a very different place from Grant Village where we are staying. Mammoth is outside of the caldera and the terrain tends much more toward open plain. The Hotsprings themselves are a reminder of the huge active volcano that is Yellowstone National Park and "caldera" is just a fancy word for "the part that will be blown to Newfoundland should this volcano get angry."
I told the kids to look around them at the six-foot tall pine trees and fix them in their minds. I had visited Yellowstone before the fire of '88 scorched one third of the two million acres but I don't remember what it was like. Almost twenty years later, the effects of the fire are still obvious. In an entire hillside of small green trees, you'll see occasional reminders of what was before; a lone remnant of a forty-foot Lodgepole Pine still standing amidst the newcomers. In another twenty years when my children visit the park with their children, the park will look very different.
We hit the road again tomorrow. Look for some new pictures on Flickr.
Highlights:
1. A good dinner and fast service
2. Stuffed animals and ice cream: the reward for collecting stickers from four of the five gift stores located at the main villages in the park.
Quirks:
1. The kids' cousin K has seen all but two state license plates. After a quick check, we've also seen all of the Canadian provinces.
2. We saw an entire leg bone (ankle to hip) of what we believed to be an elk just lying by the sidewalk.
Well, we found them. All of the wildlife we had heard about but not yet seen were on the roads we traveled today. We saw many bison. First we saw the single one. We'd stop for a picture and pat ourselves on the back for the amazing close encounter with nature that we had just happened into. Then they came in small groups and we kept taking pictures like this was our last chance. Finally, we ran into the herds. That right, herds with an 's'! With babies and all roaming the plains.
We saw an entire herd of elk sitting on the grass between two of the lodges at Mammoth Hotsprings and ran over with the kids to get good pictures. Little did I know how common they were in that area. As we sat down for a picnic in the grass, three elk wandered through the building complex and across the street! Later in the day we were treated to a huge bull elk with full rack wandering through a parking lot. The only thing we didn't see were bears.
Driving was better today. We got lucky and didn't get stuck behind any belligerent rule followers so we made good time. Those times we did slow down, as much as I cursed the perpetrator for forcing us to brake so hard, I secretly thanked them for giving us an excuse to see the bison. It seemed that at every spot on the same small stretch where we saw bison, the lead car would slow to around 5 mph and take a look. Never mind the fact that this was the same car that did the same maneuver for a similar herd of bison a mile up the road. The rest of us in the line did the same, only we felt better about ourselves for not halting traffic.
The kids' Junior Ranger "ceremony" was really nice. The ranger, a young woman from Montana, checked their packets to make sure they had done the work and asked questions on the pages they filled out to make sure that the kids new their stuff. After she was convinced that everything was in order, she gave them one last reminder that this was not the end of their tasks but just that beginning and that they had signed on to continuing to learn about nature. Finally, she called for the attention of everyone in the visitor center and announced their names as new Junior Rangers. I think it really made an impression on all three of them (my two and a cousin).
Mammoth Hotsprings is a very different place from Grant Village where we are staying. Mammoth is outside of the caldera and the terrain tends much more toward open plain. The Hotsprings themselves are a reminder of the huge active volcano that is Yellowstone National Park and "caldera" is just a fancy word for "the part that will be blown to Newfoundland should this volcano get angry."
I told the kids to look around them at the six-foot tall pine trees and fix them in their minds. I had visited Yellowstone before the fire of '88 scorched one third of the two million acres but I don't remember what it was like. Almost twenty years later, the effects of the fire are still obvious. In an entire hillside of small green trees, you'll see occasional reminders of what was before; a lone remnant of a forty-foot Lodgepole Pine still standing amidst the newcomers. In another twenty years when my children visit the park with their children, the park will look very different.
We hit the road again tomorrow. Look for some new pictures on Flickr.
Highlights:
1. A good dinner and fast service
2. Stuffed animals and ice cream: the reward for collecting stickers from four of the five gift stores located at the main villages in the park.
Quirks:
1. The kids' cousin K has seen all but two state license plates. After a quick check, we've also seen all of the Canadian provinces.
2. We saw an entire leg bone (ankle to hip) of what we believed to be an elk just lying by the sidewalk.
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
United in Our Hearts and Hopes
Day 19:
Happy 4th of July! A gold star for anyone who can name the title song without looking it up.
We spent much of the day around Old Faithful and the Upper Geyser area. Did you know that Yellowstone has more geysers than all of the rest of the world combined? For those of you who have never been here, I'm truly sorry. There is no way I can hope to capture the experience in words. There is so much to the beyond the visuals you get in pictures: the heat from the spray, the smell of sulfur dioxide, the delicate white patterns in the spray and the sheer power of nature that blasts water up to 300 feet in the air. If you have a list of things to do, you should put the geysers on it.
We of course spent time waiting at Old Faithful until it erupted. Sadly for us, we saw the spray over the tree tops as we pulled into the parking lot implying a 60-90 minute wait. We killed some time by taking in a short movie at the Visitor Center and walking through the very crowded gift shop. Once we made it outside to find ourselves a viewing spot, a lone bison decided to wander into the area and give himself a dirt bath. It was fascinating to hear the varied comments as the crowd approached the creature to take pictures. Park rules require that we maintain a 75 foot distance for safety and we were darn close to the minimum. There was an great exchange between a husband and wife where he wanted a better picture and she just wanted the heck out.
Once Old Faithful went off, it was up the 3-mile trail for a self-guided tour of the geysers, pools and vents in the area. After seeing many small geysers of various heights, we finally came upon a large group of fellow tourists waiting on benches in front of something called the Grand Geyser. Unlike Old Faithful which had an eruption window of plus or minus ten minutes, most other geysers sported windows of upwards of an hour. You have to be pretty dedicated in order to see most other geysers in action. We lucked onto the Grand Geyser at the end of its two-hour window and were treated to a 10-minute long display that we all agreed was better than that of Old Faithful.
The rest of the walk was more of the same smelly, beautiful phenomena. There were a lot of colored pools that came about because the varying water temperatures foster different bacteria that cause the colors and many patterns created by the minerals in the water. We also stopped to identify tracks as part of the kids' Junior Ranger requirements.
The farthest point in our hike was a place called the Morning Glory Pool. So called because it used to carry the deep blue color of it's namesake flower, it has been permanently damaged by people throwing coins and rocks into it thereby decreasing the temperature of the water beyond the inlet. It's just human nature and the law of large numbers, I guess.
Soon after deciding that we were all tired and that it was time to turn back, it started to rain. At first it was a welcome, cooling rain after the long walk in the blazing sunshine. It soon turned to big fat drops that really made an impression followed by small hail! This went on for about five minutes and we hid out in the shelter of some trees before heading back.
The way back was far less pretty. Instead of the serpentine boardwalk that ran between the geysers we only had a wade asphalt path that sometimes ran next to a river and would present a path to an occasional geyser. The only good part, other than it being a direct route home, was a wandering elk that stopped for a drink. And we had just been complaining about how little wildlife we had seen so far!
Highlights:
1. The geyser area
2. Both the kids finished their Junior Ranger tasks in one day.
3. A tall chocolate ice cream cone after the long hike
Quirks:
1. The sun is really intense here at 7800 feet. Temperatures in the shade are really nice, but it's very uncomfortable when the sun hits you directly. Luckily, we had a lot of cloud cover.
2. Some people adamantly drive the 35 mph speed limit. These are the people at the head of 15-car columns. They are also the ones that don't use turnouts.
3. The guy who packed out Ritz crackers, cheese whiz and summer sausage to the Grand Geyser. Seemed like a perfect place for some brie (even though I don't care for it much).
4. An old fashioned flip-number gasoline pump that I thought might run into mechanical problems because of how fast the price portion was spinning.
Happy 4th of July! A gold star for anyone who can name the title song without looking it up.
We spent much of the day around Old Faithful and the Upper Geyser area. Did you know that Yellowstone has more geysers than all of the rest of the world combined? For those of you who have never been here, I'm truly sorry. There is no way I can hope to capture the experience in words. There is so much to the beyond the visuals you get in pictures: the heat from the spray, the smell of sulfur dioxide, the delicate white patterns in the spray and the sheer power of nature that blasts water up to 300 feet in the air. If you have a list of things to do, you should put the geysers on it.
We of course spent time waiting at Old Faithful until it erupted. Sadly for us, we saw the spray over the tree tops as we pulled into the parking lot implying a 60-90 minute wait. We killed some time by taking in a short movie at the Visitor Center and walking through the very crowded gift shop. Once we made it outside to find ourselves a viewing spot, a lone bison decided to wander into the area and give himself a dirt bath. It was fascinating to hear the varied comments as the crowd approached the creature to take pictures. Park rules require that we maintain a 75 foot distance for safety and we were darn close to the minimum. There was an great exchange between a husband and wife where he wanted a better picture and she just wanted the heck out.
Once Old Faithful went off, it was up the 3-mile trail for a self-guided tour of the geysers, pools and vents in the area. After seeing many small geysers of various heights, we finally came upon a large group of fellow tourists waiting on benches in front of something called the Grand Geyser. Unlike Old Faithful which had an eruption window of plus or minus ten minutes, most other geysers sported windows of upwards of an hour. You have to be pretty dedicated in order to see most other geysers in action. We lucked onto the Grand Geyser at the end of its two-hour window and were treated to a 10-minute long display that we all agreed was better than that of Old Faithful.
The rest of the walk was more of the same smelly, beautiful phenomena. There were a lot of colored pools that came about because the varying water temperatures foster different bacteria that cause the colors and many patterns created by the minerals in the water. We also stopped to identify tracks as part of the kids' Junior Ranger requirements.
The farthest point in our hike was a place called the Morning Glory Pool. So called because it used to carry the deep blue color of it's namesake flower, it has been permanently damaged by people throwing coins and rocks into it thereby decreasing the temperature of the water beyond the inlet. It's just human nature and the law of large numbers, I guess.
Soon after deciding that we were all tired and that it was time to turn back, it started to rain. At first it was a welcome, cooling rain after the long walk in the blazing sunshine. It soon turned to big fat drops that really made an impression followed by small hail! This went on for about five minutes and we hid out in the shelter of some trees before heading back.
The way back was far less pretty. Instead of the serpentine boardwalk that ran between the geysers we only had a wade asphalt path that sometimes ran next to a river and would present a path to an occasional geyser. The only good part, other than it being a direct route home, was a wandering elk that stopped for a drink. And we had just been complaining about how little wildlife we had seen so far!
Highlights:
1. The geyser area
2. Both the kids finished their Junior Ranger tasks in one day.
3. A tall chocolate ice cream cone after the long hike
Quirks:
1. The sun is really intense here at 7800 feet. Temperatures in the shade are really nice, but it's very uncomfortable when the sun hits you directly. Luckily, we had a lot of cloud cover.
2. Some people adamantly drive the 35 mph speed limit. These are the people at the head of 15-car columns. They are also the ones that don't use turnouts.
3. The guy who packed out Ritz crackers, cheese whiz and summer sausage to the Grand Geyser. Seemed like a perfect place for some brie (even though I don't care for it much).
4. An old fashioned flip-number gasoline pump that I thought might run into mechanical problems because of how fast the price portion was spinning.
Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?
Day 18:
Today we drove through the Bighorn Mountain area and then into Yellowstone. It was our most picturesque driving day yet. We started by heading into the Bighorn Mountain area, that tantalizing close range where we could see snow from our six-thousand degree purgatory. The drive gave us beautiful views of the plains we had just left and hints of things to come. An added bonus to this drive was the fact that it was likely to be a windy one. My wife drives when we hit such conditions to stay in control of her motion sickness, so I get to do a lot of sightseeing and picture taking hanging out of car windows.
Half way through the mountains we stopped at Shell Falls. In addition to a some nice shots of the falls, I got a chance to talk to bicyclists wearing the same jerseys we saw making the arduous climb. It turns out they were from the Winnipeg area and they were had just started into their 1000-mile, twelve-day journey from Yellowstone to Winnipeg to benefit Habitat for Humanity. I've always wished I was able to do a ride like this, and I have nothing but respect for them. And they were really nice, like your stereotypical Canadians.
We also had a short chat with a woman with whom we were inadvertently traveling. It turns out that she and her husband were at Horse Thief and Dayton on the nights we spent there. They are on a three-month (!) ride from Florida that would take them to a motorcycle rally in Wyoming then through Sedona, California, up the West Coast to see her daughters in British Columbia and then back down through Wyoming to Texas and across the deep south back to Florida. I get tired just typing all that.
I just had some really bad espresso. It came from one of those drive-up kiosks so it should be no surprise. But desperate times call for desperate measures so I thought I'd give it a try. My first clue should have been when the gal at the windows asked me if "that's all, nothing in it?" followed by the fact that there were two plastic stirrers sticking out of the to-go cup looking suspiciously like straws. She drew it long so it was going to be weak, but I wasn't expecting them to use bad coffee. Lesson learned.
Yellowstone is big. Big like that Geo Metro -sized stuffed animal you win for getting that plastic ring on the red coke bottle. The ranger hosting the forest fire talk told us that it is over two MILLION acres. It took us over an hour to get from the east entrance to our hotel room on the south side of Lake Yellowstone. We have already mapped out two-hour drives (one way) to some of the more remote locations. It's a good thing we have two full days here.
The forest fire talk was fascinating. I didn't know that the forest service has a policy of allowing any naturally occurring fire to burn itself out unless there is danger to life or property. They instituted this policy in the late seventies after realizing that the previous hundred year's policy of aggressively putting out every fire was interfering natural renewal. He spoke of types of plants that only grew in the wake of a fire either because of the additional nutrients fires provide or because the heat of the fire enabled a certain process.
This will be the first of three nights in the park away from any broadband access. If I post to the blog it will be over dial-up (gasp) and I certainly won't be uploading any pictures.
p.s. I just connected at 21K. It's so slow. I think I'm going to die before anything happens
Highlights:
1. The wild flowers in bloom in the Bighorn National Forest.
2. Finally getting to a place where the ambient temperature won't melt gold. Our way out of Dayton on Highway 14 took us over a pass at 8300 feet.
3. The views of the mountains nestled in clouds those of clouds painting patterns on the scenery below
Quirks:
1. Painted cattle crossings. So who's dumber? The cattle or the people who are still using real cattle crossings?
2. A ski area in the Bighorn Forest. Sure, why not?
3. Cyclists on the windy, steep, narrow roads in the Bighorn Forest. They seem to be doing a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity.
Today we drove through the Bighorn Mountain area and then into Yellowstone. It was our most picturesque driving day yet. We started by heading into the Bighorn Mountain area, that tantalizing close range where we could see snow from our six-thousand degree purgatory. The drive gave us beautiful views of the plains we had just left and hints of things to come. An added bonus to this drive was the fact that it was likely to be a windy one. My wife drives when we hit such conditions to stay in control of her motion sickness, so I get to do a lot of sightseeing and picture taking hanging out of car windows.
Half way through the mountains we stopped at Shell Falls. In addition to a some nice shots of the falls, I got a chance to talk to bicyclists wearing the same jerseys we saw making the arduous climb. It turns out they were from the Winnipeg area and they were had just started into their 1000-mile, twelve-day journey from Yellowstone to Winnipeg to benefit Habitat for Humanity. I've always wished I was able to do a ride like this, and I have nothing but respect for them. And they were really nice, like your stereotypical Canadians.
We also had a short chat with a woman with whom we were inadvertently traveling. It turns out that she and her husband were at Horse Thief and Dayton on the nights we spent there. They are on a three-month (!) ride from Florida that would take them to a motorcycle rally in Wyoming then through Sedona, California, up the West Coast to see her daughters in British Columbia and then back down through Wyoming to Texas and across the deep south back to Florida. I get tired just typing all that.
I just had some really bad espresso. It came from one of those drive-up kiosks so it should be no surprise. But desperate times call for desperate measures so I thought I'd give it a try. My first clue should have been when the gal at the windows asked me if "that's all, nothing in it?" followed by the fact that there were two plastic stirrers sticking out of the to-go cup looking suspiciously like straws. She drew it long so it was going to be weak, but I wasn't expecting them to use bad coffee. Lesson learned.
Yellowstone is big. Big like that Geo Metro -sized stuffed animal you win for getting that plastic ring on the red coke bottle. The ranger hosting the forest fire talk told us that it is over two MILLION acres. It took us over an hour to get from the east entrance to our hotel room on the south side of Lake Yellowstone. We have already mapped out two-hour drives (one way) to some of the more remote locations. It's a good thing we have two full days here.
The forest fire talk was fascinating. I didn't know that the forest service has a policy of allowing any naturally occurring fire to burn itself out unless there is danger to life or property. They instituted this policy in the late seventies after realizing that the previous hundred year's policy of aggressively putting out every fire was interfering natural renewal. He spoke of types of plants that only grew in the wake of a fire either because of the additional nutrients fires provide or because the heat of the fire enabled a certain process.
This will be the first of three nights in the park away from any broadband access. If I post to the blog it will be over dial-up (gasp) and I certainly won't be uploading any pictures.
p.s. I just connected at 21K. It's so slow. I think I'm going to die before anything happens
Highlights:
1. The wild flowers in bloom in the Bighorn National Forest.
2. Finally getting to a place where the ambient temperature won't melt gold. Our way out of Dayton on Highway 14 took us over a pass at 8300 feet.
3. The views of the mountains nestled in clouds those of clouds painting patterns on the scenery below
Quirks:
1. Painted cattle crossings. So who's dumber? The cattle or the people who are still using real cattle crossings?
2. A ski area in the Bighorn Forest. Sure, why not?
3. Cyclists on the windy, steep, narrow roads in the Bighorn Forest. They seem to be doing a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
I Wish It Would Rain Down
Day 17:
Not a lot to report today. We basically drove all the way from our Horse Thief Campground to one in the tiny town of Dayton, WY in 100 degree heat. This time, however, we didn't have the prarie gale-force winds cooling us down. It was just brutual. One of the party had the fine suggestion of coming back into town to see the new Pixar movie, Ratatouile. It was a great idea in the heat, but it required us to get the tent set up really quickly and eat dinner really quickly. By the time we got ready to drive back to town, we were all drenched in sweat.
It was a nice older complex that had two huge theaters. I didn't recogize the sound system they advertised, it was so old. Since it was a Monday night the theater seemed pretty empty, though I'm sure there could have been a pretty decent sized crowd given the size of the place. For those who care, I enjoyed the movie.
Our one stop along the way was at Jewel Cave National Monument. Although I am always impressed by caves, I tend to forget about them when I think of the beauty of nature. This is a very extensive network of caves near (in?) the Black Hills area of South Dakota. They continue to explore and find more. It carried the added bonus of being 49 degrees during our cave tour which was very welcome given the heat we had been suffering.
Highlights:
1. Another good roadside diner: The Highway 16 Diner. Don't confuse this with the Route 16 Diner where we ate last night.
Quirks:
1. Every twenty miles or so you'll see gates and dire warnings about what will happen if you cross them when they are down. I can just imagine drifts of blowing snow ten feet deep during the winter.
2. Ashtrays on the table at the Highway 16 Diner! I can't remember the last time I saw smoking in an eating establishment.
Not a lot to report today. We basically drove all the way from our Horse Thief Campground to one in the tiny town of Dayton, WY in 100 degree heat. This time, however, we didn't have the prarie gale-force winds cooling us down. It was just brutual. One of the party had the fine suggestion of coming back into town to see the new Pixar movie, Ratatouile. It was a great idea in the heat, but it required us to get the tent set up really quickly and eat dinner really quickly. By the time we got ready to drive back to town, we were all drenched in sweat.
It was a nice older complex that had two huge theaters. I didn't recogize the sound system they advertised, it was so old. Since it was a Monday night the theater seemed pretty empty, though I'm sure there could have been a pretty decent sized crowd given the size of the place. For those who care, I enjoyed the movie.
Our one stop along the way was at Jewel Cave National Monument. Although I am always impressed by caves, I tend to forget about them when I think of the beauty of nature. This is a very extensive network of caves near (in?) the Black Hills area of South Dakota. They continue to explore and find more. It carried the added bonus of being 49 degrees during our cave tour which was very welcome given the heat we had been suffering.
Highlights:
1. Another good roadside diner: The Highway 16 Diner. Don't confuse this with the Route 16 Diner where we ate last night.
Quirks:
1. Every twenty miles or so you'll see gates and dire warnings about what will happen if you cross them when they are down. I can just imagine drifts of blowing snow ten feet deep during the winter.
2. Ashtrays on the table at the Highway 16 Diner! I can't remember the last time I saw smoking in an eating establishment.
As We Lie in Fields of Gold
Day 16:
Man the roads in the Black Hills are steep. I have a decently powered minivan. Now that you've stopped snickering, I can tell you that I've rarely had the thing kick into passing gears even when I'm actually passing. Not so here.
It was Sahara-hot again today. The bank thermometer in Hill City at the end of the day read 100 degrees. The good news is that the constant and strong wind makes it feel cooler. I guess the wind chill factor helps sometimes.
The main focus of today was a trip to the Reptile Gardens. I think their big draws had once been the komodo dragons, alligators and gallapagos turtles, but they've since expanded to local birds of prey and other locals. We spent a lot of time at the prarie dog penitentiary because of the nice shade trees.
The alligator show was very well done in a funny-yet-dangerous sort of way. It was run by a young man in jeans and a T-shirt wearing a wireless headset. He told the typical bad Disneyland Jungle Safari puns at first but then his jokes moved on to his boss and started to get quite good. All the while, we were learning about crocodiles, caymans, aligators and gariols.
The highlight of the show was the gator wrestling. He started by declaring that the louder we cheer, the stupider his tricks would get. This really got the young kids going. The croc that the audience chose was so big he couldn't get it on shore. This was where the older parts of the audience started to realize that this was serious business. He talked us through how to approach gators, where to put your hands and knees and then proceeded to demonstrate on his victim who seemed to want nothing more than to lay in the sun in peace. We learned that someone with a relatively strong grip could easily keep the jaws shut. They had about 35lbs of opening force, compared to 2000 of closing force.
It was great to have the kids see Mount Rushmore. It's one of those things that everyone should do, though there's really not much to it. Drive up, park at the massive parking structure, walk through the avenue of state flags, then take your pictures. The exposition hall and brochures did an excellent job answering all my questions. How did they do it? How long did it take? Who funded it? Apparently they've been asked everything over the years.
For dinner, we ate at the Route 16 Diner, an authentic place complete with pictures of Elvis and Marilyn and classic cars. Another diner success! This would be a pretty good way to travel arond America if you didn't die of a heart attack. Given the current state of health in the nation, maybe that's what people do.
Highlights
1. There was an ice cream shoppe on Main Street t at was closed last night and this was a crime. I dropped in today and grabbed a root beer float. The float itself was bland, but it the proprietress told me to come back if I needed more root beer and that really sold it for me. The number one issue among male root beer float drinkers ages 35-50 is the icecream/root beer balance.
Quirks:
1. Heard on the radio: You can't buy liquor in a grocery store in Montana but we did manage to find a drive up window at a bar.
Man the roads in the Black Hills are steep. I have a decently powered minivan. Now that you've stopped snickering, I can tell you that I've rarely had the thing kick into passing gears even when I'm actually passing. Not so here.
It was Sahara-hot again today. The bank thermometer in Hill City at the end of the day read 100 degrees. The good news is that the constant and strong wind makes it feel cooler. I guess the wind chill factor helps sometimes.
The main focus of today was a trip to the Reptile Gardens. I think their big draws had once been the komodo dragons, alligators and gallapagos turtles, but they've since expanded to local birds of prey and other locals. We spent a lot of time at the prarie dog penitentiary because of the nice shade trees.
The alligator show was very well done in a funny-yet-dangerous sort of way. It was run by a young man in jeans and a T-shirt wearing a wireless headset. He told the typical bad Disneyland Jungle Safari puns at first but then his jokes moved on to his boss and started to get quite good. All the while, we were learning about crocodiles, caymans, aligators and gariols.
The highlight of the show was the gator wrestling. He started by declaring that the louder we cheer, the stupider his tricks would get. This really got the young kids going. The croc that the audience chose was so big he couldn't get it on shore. This was where the older parts of the audience started to realize that this was serious business. He talked us through how to approach gators, where to put your hands and knees and then proceeded to demonstrate on his victim who seemed to want nothing more than to lay in the sun in peace. We learned that someone with a relatively strong grip could easily keep the jaws shut. They had about 35lbs of opening force, compared to 2000 of closing force.
It was great to have the kids see Mount Rushmore. It's one of those things that everyone should do, though there's really not much to it. Drive up, park at the massive parking structure, walk through the avenue of state flags, then take your pictures. The exposition hall and brochures did an excellent job answering all my questions. How did they do it? How long did it take? Who funded it? Apparently they've been asked everything over the years.
For dinner, we ate at the Route 16 Diner, an authentic place complete with pictures of Elvis and Marilyn and classic cars. Another diner success! This would be a pretty good way to travel arond America if you didn't die of a heart attack. Given the current state of health in the nation, maybe that's what people do.
Highlights
1. There was an ice cream shoppe on Main Street t at was closed last night and this was a crime. I dropped in today and grabbed a root beer float. The float itself was bland, but it the proprietress told me to come back if I needed more root beer and that really sold it for me. The number one issue among male root beer float drinkers ages 35-50 is the icecream/root beer balance.
Quirks:
1. Heard on the radio: You can't buy liquor in a grocery store in Montana but we did manage to find a drive up window at a bar.
I Can See for Miles and Miles
Day 15:
There was the buzz of anticipation that accompanies the start of any journey. Even my kids were all business as I loaded the van, helping out by collecting the stuffed animals and random toys that had seemed to blow into every corner of the cabin. We were so efficient that we even managed to find an extra charger left by a previous visitor.
We got out at 8am as planned and headed into New London for one last trip to both the coffee and pastry shops. Karen maintains that we will arrive at our destination around 5pm. She might even be right this time as the stops we need to make will be partially balanced by the westward crossing of a timezone boundary. I've always thought timezones were a cool idea. Sorta like Superman flying around the globe backwards so he can travel back in time.
It was 93 degress when we drove through Rapid City. Temperatures in the 90s are highly correlated with me not liking a place. You should take this into account as you read any comments on South Dakota. While I felt compelled to see it because of it's place in Americana, the Wall Drug Store wasn't a big hit with me. It was hot, and after our last two weeks through more sparsely populatd areas, really crowded. It was also the my first glimpse into how South Dakota views the tourist trade.
The entire drive through South Dakota was like a big tourist trap. Billboard after billboard, mile after mile we were bombarded by adds for sites hundres of miles from the billboard trying to latch onto the tourist trade to Mount Rushmore. When we got to the Black Hills area, it only got worse. It seemed like every little resort and tourist destination had it's series of huge billboards in the last thousand feet approaching the actual site. The shops themselves had the normal smattering of local wares, but what really struck me were the number of trinkets that you could find in your local Sav-On but would never actualy buy. In some cases, they even bothered to stamp the name of the location on the item. I understand that some amount of this goes on at every tourist destination. How many of us really need a shot glass that says FDNY? But this was so over the top that I found it distasteful.
I was surprised to find that Rapid City very much resembled some of the towns around the Bay Area. There were malls, office complexes, familiar chain stores and restaurants and even tract housing. I hate to come off sounding like a California bigot, but we had not yet found anything like this except for the Twin Cities in Minnesota.
In a long driving day full of nothing, I leave you with the one good thing about the trip: the grass. It was very Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music: wave after wave, blowing in the strong wind making rippling patterns in the green sea. When I brought this up after our stop, all the drivers mentioned was the effort it took to keep the car on the road.
Highlights:
1. Waves in a blowing sea of grass, and the fact that I was not in the driver's seat as we went through these areas.
2. A heard of mountain goats crossing the road in front of us
Quirks:
1. I've come to realize that food just comes quickly in California. It seems that everywhere we go, it takes forever to get served.
2. The Corn Palace. It's claim to fame is it's large murals made of different colored corn.
There was the buzz of anticipation that accompanies the start of any journey. Even my kids were all business as I loaded the van, helping out by collecting the stuffed animals and random toys that had seemed to blow into every corner of the cabin. We were so efficient that we even managed to find an extra charger left by a previous visitor.
We got out at 8am as planned and headed into New London for one last trip to both the coffee and pastry shops. Karen maintains that we will arrive at our destination around 5pm. She might even be right this time as the stops we need to make will be partially balanced by the westward crossing of a timezone boundary. I've always thought timezones were a cool idea. Sorta like Superman flying around the globe backwards so he can travel back in time.
It was 93 degress when we drove through Rapid City. Temperatures in the 90s are highly correlated with me not liking a place. You should take this into account as you read any comments on South Dakota. While I felt compelled to see it because of it's place in Americana, the Wall Drug Store wasn't a big hit with me. It was hot, and after our last two weeks through more sparsely populatd areas, really crowded. It was also the my first glimpse into how South Dakota views the tourist trade.
The entire drive through South Dakota was like a big tourist trap. Billboard after billboard, mile after mile we were bombarded by adds for sites hundres of miles from the billboard trying to latch onto the tourist trade to Mount Rushmore. When we got to the Black Hills area, it only got worse. It seemed like every little resort and tourist destination had it's series of huge billboards in the last thousand feet approaching the actual site. The shops themselves had the normal smattering of local wares, but what really struck me were the number of trinkets that you could find in your local Sav-On but would never actualy buy. In some cases, they even bothered to stamp the name of the location on the item. I understand that some amount of this goes on at every tourist destination. How many of us really need a shot glass that says FDNY? But this was so over the top that I found it distasteful.
I was surprised to find that Rapid City very much resembled some of the towns around the Bay Area. There were malls, office complexes, familiar chain stores and restaurants and even tract housing. I hate to come off sounding like a California bigot, but we had not yet found anything like this except for the Twin Cities in Minnesota.
In a long driving day full of nothing, I leave you with the one good thing about the trip: the grass. It was very Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music: wave after wave, blowing in the strong wind making rippling patterns in the green sea. When I brought this up after our stop, all the drivers mentioned was the effort it took to keep the car on the road.
Highlights:
1. Waves in a blowing sea of grass, and the fact that I was not in the driver's seat as we went through these areas.
2. A heard of mountain goats crossing the road in front of us
Quirks:
1. I've come to realize that food just comes quickly in California. It seems that everywhere we go, it takes forever to get served.
2. The Corn Palace. It's claim to fame is it's large murals made of different colored corn.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Separate Ways
Day 14:
Today marks our last day at the lodge as well as our last day in Minnesota. The half of our party that joined us in Coeur D'Alene will be leaving us for Chicago, while we embark on our longest driving day: over 500 miles to the Black Hills of South Dakota. At least we get an hour back when we cross into Mountain Time.
With this being our last day, I had my heart set on getting up early in order to find some pictures to take then head into New London to wash the van and get an espresso. I had partial success on all three fronts. The pictures weren't what I had in mind when I started out, but I'm happy with them. The van was so dirty that it came off in sheets when I hit it with water. Sadly, the grime from the road work didn't come off the front and I'm still carrying bug carcasses from who-knows-where. It must have been too early for the local coffee klatch - the place was empty when I got there.
Around 11, we took a quick trip into Willmar, a short half-hour ride to the south. We stopped at a humongous steam train on the outskirts then headed into downtown to walk around. Once there, we parked on a sparsely filled street to take a walking tour of the small downtown. We passed by the old building where the kids' great-grandfather used to work, kitty-corner from a shop with a bunch of men out front in traditional Somali attire. It had been mentioned to us earlier that Willmar HS had gone to the state finals in track because of the Somali distance runners.
We spent quite a bit of time in a gift store filled with Swedish and Norwegian keepsakes. You could get any manner of gifts with national flags, colloquialisms ("uff da") and food. My favorite was a dog dish that said "wuff da" but I managed a little self-control and walked out of the store.
Afterwards, we walked by the house where great-grandma used to live. It's currently a non-descript two-unit apartment building, but the gentleman passing by made mention that it used to be a hospital. Apparently nobody got sick back then. Either that or they just went from healthy straight to the sizeable mortuary around the corner. Next was the site of grandma's former house. I have to use words like "site" and "former" because it's now a parking lot. Aside from the gift store, there wasn't much to see there. The town really begged for a 50's style diner and soda fountain but my mother-in-law assured me there was nothing that fit the bill. Too bad.
I'll be sad to leave Minnesota. Everything here has been great - the lodge, the weather, the people.
Highlights:
1. Another item checked off my list: I had a walleye sandwich.
2. I got to see an ice-fishing house. Pretty cool.
Quirks:
1. I pulled into a Caribou Coffee drive-through after lunch. When I ordered their small espresso, the girl made sure that I knew that I would be getting *just* espresso. I thanked her for her concern but assured her that I was a trained professional and that I *had* tried this at home.
Today marks our last day at the lodge as well as our last day in Minnesota. The half of our party that joined us in Coeur D'Alene will be leaving us for Chicago, while we embark on our longest driving day: over 500 miles to the Black Hills of South Dakota. At least we get an hour back when we cross into Mountain Time.
With this being our last day, I had my heart set on getting up early in order to find some pictures to take then head into New London to wash the van and get an espresso. I had partial success on all three fronts. The pictures weren't what I had in mind when I started out, but I'm happy with them. The van was so dirty that it came off in sheets when I hit it with water. Sadly, the grime from the road work didn't come off the front and I'm still carrying bug carcasses from who-knows-where. It must have been too early for the local coffee klatch - the place was empty when I got there.
Around 11, we took a quick trip into Willmar, a short half-hour ride to the south. We stopped at a humongous steam train on the outskirts then headed into downtown to walk around. Once there, we parked on a sparsely filled street to take a walking tour of the small downtown. We passed by the old building where the kids' great-grandfather used to work, kitty-corner from a shop with a bunch of men out front in traditional Somali attire. It had been mentioned to us earlier that Willmar HS had gone to the state finals in track because of the Somali distance runners.
We spent quite a bit of time in a gift store filled with Swedish and Norwegian keepsakes. You could get any manner of gifts with national flags, colloquialisms ("uff da") and food. My favorite was a dog dish that said "wuff da" but I managed a little self-control and walked out of the store.
Afterwards, we walked by the house where great-grandma used to live. It's currently a non-descript two-unit apartment building, but the gentleman passing by made mention that it used to be a hospital. Apparently nobody got sick back then. Either that or they just went from healthy straight to the sizeable mortuary around the corner. Next was the site of grandma's former house. I have to use words like "site" and "former" because it's now a parking lot. Aside from the gift store, there wasn't much to see there. The town really begged for a 50's style diner and soda fountain but my mother-in-law assured me there was nothing that fit the bill. Too bad.
I'll be sad to leave Minnesota. Everything here has been great - the lodge, the weather, the people.
Highlights:
1. Another item checked off my list: I had a walleye sandwich.
2. I got to see an ice-fishing house. Pretty cool.
Quirks:
1. I pulled into a Caribou Coffee drive-through after lunch. When I ordered their small espresso, the girl made sure that I knew that I would be getting *just* espresso. I thanked her for her concern but assured her that I was a trained professional and that I *had* tried this at home.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Roundin' Third and Headed for Home is a Brown-Eyed Handsome Man
Day 13:
Today was a relatively simple day. A simple two hundred mile roound trip that we had just made the day before to take in a ballgame at the Metrodome between the Twins and the Blue Jays.
Watching a ballgame in the climate controlled Metrodome is very different from watching one back home. We didn't have to truck in the tradional hats and sunscreen or the blankets for after the sun went down. The goldilocks not-too-hot, not-too-sunny environment might not be traditional in a game replete with tradition but it was just fine with me. For balance, the food was a little more traditional that the Bay Area parks; there were no garlic fries or churros. There was just normal ballpark food: hot dogs, brats, barbeque and popcorn.
We came in during the top of the first, delaying our lunch in favor of getting the kids settled in the seats. We walked up the stairs to the second deck in this unfamiliar stadium only to be greeted by a kindly gentleman who asked us to wait in the tunnel until between batters. This courtesy is traditional at hockey games and I really appreciated it. As it turns out, we were released just in tiem to get to our seats (228, row 5) to see Frank Thomas hit his 500th career homerun! It took me several batters go get used to the scoreboard setup. When you've been going to the same ballparks all your life, you often take for granted the positioning of all the informational scoreboards. It's very disconcerting when you can't find things as simple as balls and strike count. Luckily, the ladies who sat in front of us were as friendly as most people I've met in Minnesota and helped out a lot. It turns out that one even had a grown son in my hometown!
We had more of my mother-in-law's friends over to visit in the evening. One of the things I've appreciated the most during this trip were the glimpses I got into the younger lives of persons who came to visit. I heard from these wonderful people, all approaching seventy, stories of de-tassling corn to make money and throwing apples at the grumpy old man whose name had long been forgotten and replaced by a nickname. They spoke of leaving on a train at the age of twenty for a place they'd never seen before with only eighty dollars and a trunk full of clothes; two friends crying on the train all the way to Montana. One told me of a car rolled over into a ditch days before she got her license and the subsequent cover-up by her boyfriend-now-husband of fifty-five years. Our parents often tell us stories like this but we do not hear them. OUR parents couldn't possibly be that interesting; the eventual retellings dulling any possible impact until all they elicit are knowing glances between the trapped listeners.
Highlights:
1. Getting out of the city center after the game was a breeze. I'd say it was easier than San Jose Arena, which I count as one of the best I've ever seen. To be fair, it was a day game that let out at 3:30.
2. No lines at the concession stands!
3. We dropped by Latte Da Espresso again. The "bikers" out front that I was trying not to look at turned out to be two of the people I met the previous visit. I got to introduce them to all the kids.
Quirks:
1. Twingo, or Twins Bingo. People bought (I presume) bingo cards with baseball scoring events in the squares. Anything you could put on a score sheet might appear on a Twingo card.
2. A lot more emphasis on saving money here. There seem to be Dollar Stores everywhere, and many of the independents are named something with "Sav", "Less", or "Valu" in their name.
Today was a relatively simple day. A simple two hundred mile roound trip that we had just made the day before to take in a ballgame at the Metrodome between the Twins and the Blue Jays.
Watching a ballgame in the climate controlled Metrodome is very different from watching one back home. We didn't have to truck in the tradional hats and sunscreen or the blankets for after the sun went down. The goldilocks not-too-hot, not-too-sunny environment might not be traditional in a game replete with tradition but it was just fine with me. For balance, the food was a little more traditional that the Bay Area parks; there were no garlic fries or churros. There was just normal ballpark food: hot dogs, brats, barbeque and popcorn.
We came in during the top of the first, delaying our lunch in favor of getting the kids settled in the seats. We walked up the stairs to the second deck in this unfamiliar stadium only to be greeted by a kindly gentleman who asked us to wait in the tunnel until between batters. This courtesy is traditional at hockey games and I really appreciated it. As it turns out, we were released just in tiem to get to our seats (228, row 5) to see Frank Thomas hit his 500th career homerun! It took me several batters go get used to the scoreboard setup. When you've been going to the same ballparks all your life, you often take for granted the positioning of all the informational scoreboards. It's very disconcerting when you can't find things as simple as balls and strike count. Luckily, the ladies who sat in front of us were as friendly as most people I've met in Minnesota and helped out a lot. It turns out that one even had a grown son in my hometown!
We had more of my mother-in-law's friends over to visit in the evening. One of the things I've appreciated the most during this trip were the glimpses I got into the younger lives of persons who came to visit. I heard from these wonderful people, all approaching seventy, stories of de-tassling corn to make money and throwing apples at the grumpy old man whose name had long been forgotten and replaced by a nickname. They spoke of leaving on a train at the age of twenty for a place they'd never seen before with only eighty dollars and a trunk full of clothes; two friends crying on the train all the way to Montana. One told me of a car rolled over into a ditch days before she got her license and the subsequent cover-up by her boyfriend-now-husband of fifty-five years. Our parents often tell us stories like this but we do not hear them. OUR parents couldn't possibly be that interesting; the eventual retellings dulling any possible impact until all they elicit are knowing glances between the trapped listeners.
Highlights:
1. Getting out of the city center after the game was a breeze. I'd say it was easier than San Jose Arena, which I count as one of the best I've ever seen. To be fair, it was a day game that let out at 3:30.
2. No lines at the concession stands!
3. We dropped by Latte Da Espresso again. The "bikers" out front that I was trying not to look at turned out to be two of the people I met the previous visit. I got to introduce them to all the kids.
Quirks:
1. Twingo, or Twins Bingo. People bought (I presume) bingo cards with baseball scoring events in the squares. Anything you could put on a score sheet might appear on a Twingo card.
2. A lot more emphasis on saving money here. There seem to be Dollar Stores everywhere, and many of the independents are named something with "Sav", "Less", or "Valu" in their name.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Nothing Ever Goes as Planned
Day 12:
This was the first time in some time that we had any time pressure. We had set times to both leave the lodge for the Mall of America (MOA) and to leave the mall for an evening engagement. I honestly don't miss the lack of scheduling.
The kids were very excited to get to the mall, so there were no issues with the usual suspects. The biggest wild card was T's sprained ankle and whether or not we'd have to wheel her around MOA in a shopping cart. She managed to limp quickly enough though, that she wasn't culled from the herd.
Looking back on the day, it's still not clear in my mind if the men or the women were more grounded about the whole MOA experience. I didn't think much of the girls' desire to shop at all the same shops that we had back home. But then again, the guys dropped a good chunk of change on a flight simulator and NASCAR simulator experience that were essentially big video games.
Going into the ACES flight simulator, I was really concerned about how my eight-year-old son K would do. He plays a game on the XBox called Heroes of the Pacific, and we would be flying the same selection of WWII planes. The trouble was that ACES had full stick/throttle/rudder controls and I wasn't sure how he would do without the familiar video game controller. He was certainly willing to give it a try.
The other three in the flight were my brother-in-laws, D & M, and myself. To make a long story short, K went from asking the tower for help with how to execute a turn to teaming up with M (a military historian AND a pilot in training) to put a 9-2 whuppin' on D and myself. As near as we can figure, he had four kills and M had five. No, we didn't go easy on him. And I'm actually very good at video games.
With the NASCAR sim, we brought in a few more of the group. G and her son K as well as D's sons E (the 14-year-old athlete) and J. Fresh off the ACES experience I wasn't expecting K to have a hard time, but he got pretty overwhelmed with scanning his ticket, starting his car, putting it in gear and finding the accelerator. It was pretty easy to forget that he was only eight when he was regularly showing up on my six and pouring lead through my cockpit. But this time, the new experience was too much and he ended up as my passenger for the second race. I'm happy to report that I regained some of my dignity here and got back into my video game stride. I'll leave the rest of the group to tell their own tales of woe and sorrow.
If you've ever done some kind of group activity like the two above, or if you're simply a guy, you'll agree that the debriefing over is as much fun as the actual event. We spent a lot of time poring over stat sheets, reviewing parts of the mission and quirks in the software, trying to get differing views of the same event, and talking about the most spectacular things you did after your plane lost it's wings and before you hit the ground.
After NASCAR, we had about an hour left to drop into Camp Snoopy, the amusement park at the center of the MOA. The rides were between carnival rides and Real Amusement Park (tm) rides, but hey, you're AT THE MALL and you get to ride a roller coaster. Whee!
To close the MOA section, I feel I need to comment on it's size. This thing is BIG. It's a big square built around Camp Snoopy (more on that later) with each side as long as a decent sized mall. Except that decent-sized malls are two stories tall and these are four. There are two Starbuck's and four Caribou Coffees in this place. In addition to the amusement park, it also has an aquarium. The Camp Snoopy area, a large terrarium is kept cool by huge vents stuck on the 24 tall structural supports for the ceiling.
Finally, a section on Karen, our GPS. I think she took revenge on us today for all those times we ignored her. Leaving the mall she gave us a series of five rapid-fire "in .3 miles, turn" directives that had us cutting people off to follow. .3 miles goes by very quickly when you're in rush hour traffic. A tip of my (virtual) hat to her, though. Her directions got us home twenty minutes (on top of two hours) faster than the route chosen by someone who grew up in the area.
Highlights:
1. Having it made clear who in my family gets to do a dogfight if a million bucks is riding on it
2. I had a coffee (that's espresso to you) after lunch. The local chain is Caribou Coffee, where you cannot get a single espresso but where the double costs $1.60.
3. Having dinner at a friend of my mother-in-law's. It was a beautiful place on a lake. There's that lake thing again - pretty common theme around here.
Quirks:
1. I've noticed a lot of VFW chapters here. I don't think I've even seen one in the Bay Area. Same, btw, goes for those self-service car washes.
2. The local police love their radar guns and they love laying in wait
3. They keep their cars longer around here. There's no lack of cars older than 10 years on the road.
New Things I've Learned:
1. Minnesota hasn't yet gotten to the point where they only do road work at night.
2. Don't upset your navigator. Even if she's the kind you leave in your glove box.
This was the first time in some time that we had any time pressure. We had set times to both leave the lodge for the Mall of America (MOA) and to leave the mall for an evening engagement. I honestly don't miss the lack of scheduling.
The kids were very excited to get to the mall, so there were no issues with the usual suspects. The biggest wild card was T's sprained ankle and whether or not we'd have to wheel her around MOA in a shopping cart. She managed to limp quickly enough though, that she wasn't culled from the herd.
Looking back on the day, it's still not clear in my mind if the men or the women were more grounded about the whole MOA experience. I didn't think much of the girls' desire to shop at all the same shops that we had back home. But then again, the guys dropped a good chunk of change on a flight simulator and NASCAR simulator experience that were essentially big video games.
Going into the ACES flight simulator, I was really concerned about how my eight-year-old son K would do. He plays a game on the XBox called Heroes of the Pacific, and we would be flying the same selection of WWII planes. The trouble was that ACES had full stick/throttle/rudder controls and I wasn't sure how he would do without the familiar video game controller. He was certainly willing to give it a try.
The other three in the flight were my brother-in-laws, D & M, and myself. To make a long story short, K went from asking the tower for help with how to execute a turn to teaming up with M (a military historian AND a pilot in training) to put a 9-2 whuppin' on D and myself. As near as we can figure, he had four kills and M had five. No, we didn't go easy on him. And I'm actually very good at video games.
With the NASCAR sim, we brought in a few more of the group. G and her son K as well as D's sons E (the 14-year-old athlete) and J. Fresh off the ACES experience I wasn't expecting K to have a hard time, but he got pretty overwhelmed with scanning his ticket, starting his car, putting it in gear and finding the accelerator. It was pretty easy to forget that he was only eight when he was regularly showing up on my six and pouring lead through my cockpit. But this time, the new experience was too much and he ended up as my passenger for the second race. I'm happy to report that I regained some of my dignity here and got back into my video game stride. I'll leave the rest of the group to tell their own tales of woe and sorrow.
If you've ever done some kind of group activity like the two above, or if you're simply a guy, you'll agree that the debriefing over
After NASCAR, we had about an hour left to drop into Camp Snoopy, the amusement park at the center of the MOA. The rides were between carnival rides and Real Amusement Park (tm) rides, but hey, you're AT THE MALL and you get to ride a roller coaster. Whee!
To close the MOA section, I feel I need to comment on it's size. This thing is BIG. It's a big square built around Camp Snoopy (more on that later) with each side as long as a decent sized mall. Except that decent-sized malls are two stories tall and these are four. There are two Starbuck's and four Caribou Coffees in this place. In addition to the amusement park, it also has an aquarium. The Camp Snoopy area, a large terrarium is kept cool by huge vents stuck on the 24 tall structural supports for the ceiling.
Finally, a section on Karen, our GPS. I think she took revenge on us today for all those times we ignored her. Leaving the mall she gave us a series of five rapid-fire "in .3 miles, turn
Highlights:
1. Having it made clear who in my family gets to do a dogfight if a million bucks is riding on it
2. I had a coffee (that's espresso to you) after lunch. The local chain is Caribou Coffee, where you cannot get a single espresso but where the double costs $1.60.
3. Having dinner at a friend of my mother-in-law's. It was a beautiful place on a lake. There's that lake thing again - pretty common theme around here.
Quirks:
1. I've noticed a lot of VFW chapters here. I don't think I've even seen one in the Bay Area. Same, btw, goes for those self-service car washes.
2. The local police love their radar guns and they love laying in wait
3. They keep their cars longer around here. There's no lack of cars older than 10 years on the road.
New Things I've Learned:
1. Minnesota hasn't yet gotten to the point where they only do road work at night.
2. Don't upset your navigator. Even if she's the kind you leave in your glove box.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
My Little Town
Day 11:
Karen pointed out a local coffee joint called Latte da Espresso so I decided to join my mother- and sister-in-law for the the four mile drive into town. New London is a small town about three streets wide and two streets deep with one of every shop you would need in a town: Auto Parts (I needed new wiper blades), Grocery Store (ATM, Coke Zero, Power Ball Lottery Ticket), car wash (the front of the van is pretty disgusting) and bank. We drove in to pick up pastries for breakfast but we managed to find excuses to hit all the aforementioned shops.
My big surprise was at Latte Da Espresso. First, you have to understand coffee in Minnesota. They drink it all day long and serve it much weaker than I'm used to. It's definitely stronger than tea, but not by a lot. The first thing I do when I walk in is scan the counter for an espresso machine. The fact that "espresso" was in the name of the establishment really made this unnecessary, but I'd wrongly assumed that any place with Coffee in the name served espresso. Who knew what else I would be wrong about? I spied the machine just as I got to the counter. Whew. The first thing the checker does when I ordered my coffee (that's how the Italians who taught refer to what we call espresso) was look up the price! My heart sank. After paying my .48 (forty eight cents!), collecting my coffee and searching for additives, one of the eight people sitting at the group of pushed-together tables invited me to sit and chat. I was there for some time while the others got the pastries. Everyone was so friendly and I had a WONDERFUL time! Add on top of that the fact that the espresso was REALLY GOOD! I may make this a habit while I'm here.
Lunch was more local flavor. I have a feeling that much of the stay in Minnesota will be this way. We went to another small town in the area called Sunburg to hit the local creamery for a Scandinavian dish called klub. It's a boiled potato dumpling filled with ham and served with a good helping of melted butter. If that's not enough, they also toss a few strips of bacon onto the your plate and serve it all with a desert called rommegrot, a custard with cinnamon sprinkled on top. I was skeptical going in, but I really enjoyed them both.
In the afternoon we went swimming at the lake in Sibley State Park which was right around the corner.
Highlights
1. More cool local eateries. I need some marks in the "plus" column after the Cottonwood Restaurant.
2. Another thing checked off my list: I bought a Power Ball Lottery ticket.
Quirks:
1. A bumper sticker at the Creamery: "Lutefisk is Legal in Sunburg, Minnesota"
2. An actual spinning barber pole in Sunburg next to the Norwegian Kultur Hus.
3. I can't seem to take a good picture in Minnesota. I just don't know how to shoot green-on-green.
New Things I've Learned:
1. People around here have winter and summer homes. Not just vacation homes - actual summer homes on the lake from which they commute to work.
2. The difference between feed corn (no rows between), sweet corn (the kind we eat), and seed corn.
3. Teenagers still make money picking strawberries. My mother-in-law used to make money de-tassling corn and thinks that kids still do.
4. There are these little zig-zag strips on the edge of roof lines. These are for melting ice/snow in the winter so you "don't create an ice dam"
Karen pointed out a local coffee joint called Latte da Espresso so I decided to join my mother- and sister-in-law for the the four mile drive into town. New London is a small town about three streets wide and two streets deep with one of every shop you would need in a town: Auto Parts (I needed new wiper blades), Grocery Store (ATM, Coke Zero, Power Ball Lottery Ticket), car wash (the front of the van is pretty disgusting) and bank. We drove in to pick up pastries for breakfast but we managed to find excuses to hit all the aforementioned shops.
My big surprise was at Latte Da Espresso. First, you have to understand coffee in Minnesota. They drink it all day long and serve it much weaker than I'm used to. It's definitely stronger than tea, but not by a lot. The first thing I do when I walk in is scan the counter for an espresso machine. The fact that "espresso" was in the name of the establishment really made this unnecessary, but I'd wrongly assumed that any place with Coffee in the name served espresso. Who knew what else I would be wrong about? I spied the machine just as I got to the counter. Whew. The first thing the checker does when I ordered my coffee (that's how the Italians who taught refer to what we call espresso) was look up the price! My heart sank. After paying my .48 (forty eight cents!), collecting my coffee and searching for additives, one of the eight people sitting at the group of pushed-together tables invited me to sit and chat. I was there for some time while the others got the pastries. Everyone was so friendly and I had a WONDERFUL time! Add on top of that the fact that the espresso was REALLY GOOD! I may make this a habit while I'm here.
Lunch was more local flavor. I have a feeling that much of the stay in Minnesota will be this way. We went to another small town in the area called Sunburg to hit the local creamery for a Scandinavian dish called klub. It's a boiled potato dumpling filled with ham and served with a good helping of melted butter. If that's not enough, they also toss a few strips of bacon onto the your plate and serve it all with a desert called rommegrot, a custard with cinnamon sprinkled on top. I was skeptical going in, but I really enjoyed them both.
In the afternoon we went swimming at the lake in Sibley State Park which was right around the corner.
Highlights
1. More cool local eateries. I need some marks in the "plus" column after the Cottonwood Restaurant.
2. Another thing checked off my list: I bought a Power Ball Lottery ticket.
Quirks:
1. A bumper sticker at the Creamery: "Lutefisk is Legal in Sunburg, Minnesota"
2. An actual spinning barber pole in Sunburg next to the Norwegian Kultur Hus.
3. I can't seem to take a good picture in Minnesota. I just don't know how to shoot green-on-green.
New Things I've Learned:
1. People around here have winter and summer homes. Not just vacation homes - actual summer homes on the lake from which they commute to work.
2. The difference between feed corn (no rows between), sweet corn (the kind we eat), and seed corn.
3. Teenagers still make money picking strawberries. My mother-in-law used to make money de-tassling corn and thinks that kids still do.
4. There are these little zig-zag strips on the edge of roof lines. These are for melting ice/snow in the winter so you "don't create an ice dam"
Long Long Way From Home
Day 10:
Day Ten finds us at Gooseberry Falls State Park on Lake Superior. This will be as far as we get away from home. It was a long day's drive so we didn't do much more than set up camp, take a short hike to the falls and then break camp. As we were setting up camp, the twenty-somethings in the next site came over to see if their music was too loud. The proper response would have been to tell them that it was okay as long as they switched to Pink Floyd at the 10pm quiet time, but all I could get out was "no, you're fine."
In the morning, we decided we'd hit the road early to try to find a local diner for breakfast. We broke camp about 9am and headed toward Duluth to start looking. After being disappointed that we flew by Betty's Pies (I had eyed this as a possible place to eat on the way in) we settled on a place called Judy's Cafe in a one-street town called Two Harbors.
Judy's wasn't that small, but we took up about half of the place after seating two adult tables and a kids table. The fare was solid diner breakfast food: eggs, toast, sausages. It was what I expected from a small town diner. At 9:30, the farmers had long gone and the remaining patrons were retirees and a table of table of seven widows near the front window and who were debriefing about the weekend. The waitress who served us had that very charming Minnesota accent.
The breakfast was a good eggs/sausage/hotcakes one, only I substituted the cakes for some local delicacy: caramel rolls topped with pecans. The sausage patties got my vote for top item and the kids all finished their meals - a good sign of good eats.
The one thing we wanted to do on the way to Duluth was to take a picture of the kids with Paul Bunyan and Babe the Big Blue Ox. We knew that it was near the lake, but took some pretty bad guesses as to where this might be located. Who'd have thought it would be a place called the Paul Bunyan Amusement Park? "Amusement Park" was a very generous given what this phrase implies in most of the country. In addition to the required pictures, we also took a short walk up the lakefront to a park where they were holding a Swedish festival. The Norwegian part of the contingent (most of it) was very big on visiting and it had everything you'd think it would from traditional dress to walleye.
The final stop was at the Maritime Center on Lake Superior. I know it has a real name, but I'm too lazy to look it up now. It was really hot, really humid and we were just killing time until lunch. From there, we had a nice view of the lift bridge and a short walk to the old lighthouse.
The kids have been traveling in the big RV with their cousins. Although I miss having them in the car to show them things as they go by, I will happily have the spend all this time with their cousins. This is the kind of thing that I did with my cousins and I think of them to this day as extra brothers and sisters. Thanks for asking, Emory. Everyone's having a wonderful time, even with the bugs and the dirt and all the making and breaking of camp.
Highlights:
1. Fireflies! I've never seen one in my life.
2. Checked something off my list: I ate at Taco John's, the Midwest equivalent of Taco Bell. The Bell has better Tacos but TJ's serves a squished tater tot contrivance that was pretty good.
3. My first caramel/pecan roll. I highly recommend these.
4. The lodge where we'll be spending the next four nights is awesome! (http://www.grandcottages.com/lodge.htm)
Quirks:
1. They're serious about their recycling here. I only had garbage to throw away but when I got there I was confronted with different bins for aluminum, metal, plastic, green glass, clear glass and brown glass.
2. There was a woman in her sixties working at Taco John's. I don't think we see this very much in the Bay Area.
3. Saw my first carts/corner stands selling walleye and cheese curds. It was 10am, unfortunately, and I wasn't in the mood to eat.
Day Ten finds us at Gooseberry Falls State Park on Lake Superior. This will be as far as we get away from home. It was a long day's drive so we didn't do much more than set up camp, take a short hike to the falls and then break camp. As we were setting up camp, the twenty-somethings in the next site came over to see if their music was too loud. The proper response would have been to tell them that it was okay as long as they switched to Pink Floyd at the 10pm quiet time, but all I could get out was "no, you're fine."
In the morning, we decided we'd hit the road early to try to find a local diner for breakfast. We broke camp about 9am and headed toward Duluth to start looking. After being disappointed that we flew by Betty's Pies (I had eyed this as a possible place to eat on the way in) we settled on a place called Judy's Cafe in a one-street town called Two Harbors.
Judy's wasn't that small, but we took up about half of the place after seating two adult tables and a kids table. The fare was solid diner breakfast food: eggs, toast, sausages. It was what I expected from a small town diner. At 9:30, the farmers had long gone and the remaining patrons were retirees and a table of table of seven widows near the front window and who were debriefing about the weekend. The waitress who served us had that very charming Minnesota accent.
The breakfast was a good eggs/sausage/hotcakes one, only I substituted the cakes for some local delicacy: caramel rolls topped with pecans. The sausage patties got my vote for top item and the kids all finished their meals - a good sign of good eats.
The one thing we wanted to do on the way to Duluth was to take a picture of the kids with Paul Bunyan and Babe the Big Blue Ox. We knew that it was near the lake, but took some pretty bad guesses as to where this might be located. Who'd have thought it would be a place called the Paul Bunyan Amusement Park? "Amusement Park" was a very generous given what this phrase implies in most of the country. In addition to the required pictures, we also took a short walk up the lakefront to a park where they were holding a Swedish festival. The Norwegian part of the contingent (most of it) was very big on visiting and it had everything you'd think it would from traditional dress to walleye.
The final stop was at the Maritime Center on Lake Superior. I know it has a real name, but I'm too lazy to look it up now. It was really hot, really humid and we were just killing time until lunch. From there, we had a nice view of the lift bridge and a short walk to the old lighthouse.
The kids have been traveling in the big RV with their cousins. Although I miss having them in the car to show them things as they go by, I will happily have the spend all this time with their cousins. This is the kind of thing that I did with my cousins and I think of them to this day as extra brothers and sisters. Thanks for asking, Emory. Everyone's having a wonderful time, even with the bugs and the dirt and all the making and breaking of camp.
Highlights:
1. Fireflies! I've never seen one in my life.
2. Checked something off my list: I ate at Taco John's, the Midwest equivalent of Taco Bell. The Bell has better Tacos but TJ's serves a squished tater tot contrivance that was pretty good.
3. My first caramel/pecan roll. I highly recommend these.
4. The lodge where we'll be spending the next four nights is awesome! (http://www.grandcottages.com/lodge.htm)
Quirks:
1. They're serious about their recycling here. I only had garbage to throw away but when I got there I was confronted with different bins for aluminum, metal, plastic, green glass, clear glass and brown glass.
2. There was a woman in her sixties working at Taco John's. I don't think we see this very much in the Bay Area.
3. Saw my first carts/corner stands selling walleye and cheese curds. It was 10am, unfortunately, and I wasn't in the mood to eat.
Monday, June 25, 2007
She's in Love with the Sound of the Summer Storm
Day 9:
Here's a general comparison of the last three states we've visited:
Montana: more open plains, public land. More cattle.
North Dakota: More green low crops (soybeans?), vast expanses of rich green carpet. Picket lines of trees in the distance and perpendicular to the freeway.
Minnesota: Lots more trees and right up to the freeway.
Our campground at Devil's Lake was a windy place. The nearest beach was on the leeward side of the lake and we were treated to wind-whipped (25 mph?) waves and water warm enough for swimming in at 9pm. As I was teaching the kids the finer points of catching waves (For you who haven't done it, btw, the key is to catch the wave near the forward trough as it's starting to break) it struck me as odd to be doing so this far away from the Pacific. Still, with my son not swimming well enough to try this in the ocean, I happily took what I could get.
The evening was a grand adventure! There must be something about Saturdays that make them memorable. Amidst the clear blue sky and the humidity the weather radio squawked a tornado warning. After a little frantic map searching, we found that we were in one of the affected counties. The two trailers raised their aerials to pick up the local TV news. We were at the south west edge of the watch, but it was enough to make a few worried and everyone prepared. Even though nobody over twelve really thought that we'd see a tornado, I made sure that all the bags were in the car and we would be ready to go at a moment's notice. At around 11:30 we were treated to lightning on the horizon all around us. My previous experience with lightning storms had been to view them from a distance. When I stepped out of the tent to view the festivities from the grassy hill next to the tent, I was catching flashes in a 180 degree arc. They were all around us!
When we had enough of the bugs, we headed back into the tent. I had a hard time going to sleep because I couldn't get out of the habit of counting until the thunder to measure the distance every time I saw a flash.
Later in the night, I woke to the sound of rain hitting the tent. This was our first real rain storm. Because I had the clothes in the van already, I was willing to just ride this one out and I'm happy to report that the tent did just fine.
Highlights:
1. A spectacular lightning storm
2. Swimming in a lake at 9:30pm.
3. A warm wind making for a very pleasant evening. I wish I could find such a place without mosquitoes.
4. Bemidji, Minnesota seemed a lot more like home. Even though it was wooded and sparse, there were strip malls, minivans, fast food and billboards about healthcare plans. It was the first time since Portland that I've felt this way.
5. I've lost track of the number of mosquito bites on my arms and legs. No, this isn't really a high;light but I don't know where else to put it.
6. The van will hit 100,000 miles today, somewhere near Duluth, Minnesota.
Quirks:
1. I haven't seen drive-up coffee places in ND and MN as I did earlier in the trip.
2. Nothing is open on Sunday? A comment over the walkie talkie was that the entire town had died of plague.
3. Karen tried to lead us into a lake today. Both of the other GPS units in the caravan agreed. I take back my earlier comment about the machines becoming self aware; I think I've upset them.
Here's a general comparison of the last three states we've visited:
Montana: more open plains, public land. More cattle.
North Dakota: More green low crops (soybeans?), vast expanses of rich green carpet. Picket lines of trees in the distance and perpendicular to the freeway.
Minnesota: Lots more trees and right up to the freeway.
Our campground at Devil's Lake was a windy place. The nearest beach was on the leeward side of the lake and we were treated to wind-whipped (25 mph?) waves and water warm enough for swimming in at 9pm. As I was teaching the kids the finer points of catching waves (For you who haven't done it, btw, the key is to catch the wave near the forward trough as it's starting to break) it struck me as odd to be doing so this far away from the Pacific. Still, with my son not swimming well enough to try this in the ocean, I happily took what I could get.
The evening was a grand adventure! There must be something about Saturdays that make them memorable. Amidst the clear blue sky and the humidity the weather radio squawked a tornado warning. After a little frantic map searching, we found that we were in one of the affected counties. The two trailers raised their aerials to pick up the local TV news. We were at the south west edge of the watch, but it was enough to make a few worried and everyone prepared. Even though nobody over twelve really thought that we'd see a tornado, I made sure that all the bags were in the car and we would be ready to go at a moment's notice. At around 11:30 we were treated to lightning on the horizon all around us. My previous experience with lightning storms had been to view them from a distance. When I stepped out of the tent to view the festivities from the grassy hill next to the tent, I was catching flashes in a 180 degree arc. They were all around us!
When we had enough of the bugs, we headed back into the tent. I had a hard time going to sleep because I couldn't get out of the habit of counting until the thunder to measure the distance every time I saw a flash.
Later in the night, I woke to the sound of rain hitting the tent. This was our first real rain storm. Because I had the clothes in the van already, I was willing to just ride this one out and I'm happy to report that the tent did just fine.
Highlights:
1. A spectacular lightning storm
2. Swimming in a lake at 9:30pm.
3. A warm wind making for a very pleasant evening. I wish I could find such a place without mosquitoes.
4. Bemidji, Minnesota seemed a lot more like home. Even though it was wooded and sparse, there were strip malls, minivans, fast food and billboards about healthcare plans. It was the first time since Portland that I've felt this way.
5. I've lost track of the number of mosquito bites on my arms and legs. No, this isn't really a high;light but I don't know where else to put it.
6. The van will hit 100,000 miles today, somewhere near Duluth, Minnesota.
Quirks:
1. I haven't seen drive-up coffee places in ND and MN as I did earlier in the trip.
2. Nothing is open on Sunday? A comment over the walkie talkie was that the entire town had died of plague.
3. Karen tried to lead us into a lake today. Both of the other GPS units in the caravan agreed. I take back my earlier comment about the machines becoming self aware; I think I've upset them.
Roll me away, won't you roll me away tonight
Day 8:
Luckily for my family, this was the first night that we would spend in an air conditioned building. It was 93 degrees and 55 percent humidity in Glasgow, Montana but we were spared the experience. The camping area wouldn't have helped: it was the motel's gravel parking lot. The other two families in our party ended up parked next to a big rig with a refrigeration unit that rumbled all night making it very difficult to sleep.
The highlight of the evening and what kept the kids going for most of the day's long drive was the hotel pool. It's a nice way to end a long hot day on the road. After a quick swim, we went to the hotel restaurant. The chicken fried steak I ordered was nothing to write home about - and I had low expectations going into it. At least I had a side of tasty onion rings to go with it.
The drive today was much the same as it was yesterday. There were long, long stretches of Montana that could have been a repetitive Hollywood background screen. Like yesterday, most of the roads were undivided, two-lane roads that were only broken up by road work. One big difference, being Saturday, was that we saw several groups of motorcycles. If this were the bay area, I'd chalk it up to the local professionals taking their toys out for a weekend ride. Out here on the northern plains, I wasn't sure what to think.
I didn't realize that we were only 30 miles from the Canadian border. We went through a small town whose biggest attraction was the large green freeway sign pointing to the left advertising a 24 hour border crossing and the route to Regina (pronounced Reg- EYE - na, not Reg-EE-na), Saskatchewan.
I caught news of the NHL draft. Pretty nifty that the Sharks went from no draft choices in the first round to TWO.
Highlights:
1. Getting to the end of our first long day on the road, a place called Devil's Lake.
2. Seeing an elk by the side of the road
3. Seeing bison!
Quirks:
1. A chain of gas station convenience stores called Kum and Go. Uh, yeah.
2. Casinos are big in Montana. It seems like every small shop advertises itself as a casino. I counted three in an attached set of six shops.
3. You see a lot more women working road construction than in California. I'd say fully half the big equipment operators are women.
4. Stores you would not see in California:
a. The Fireworks Superstore
b. The Williston Saddlery
c. Stallion Oil Field Services. There were several oil wells along the route.
d. Burger Queen. No kidding.
5. We stopped at the self-proclaimed Geographical (sic) Center of North America. The engineer in me was reeling with possibilities on how you calculate that. Weighted average by elevation? How do you account for the ice on the northern shore? What kind of accuracy do you have?
6. Our back window overlooked what I refer to as "Combine and Tractor World." We would go on to pass many such places on Route 2.
Luckily for my family, this was the first night that we would spend in an air conditioned building. It was 93 degrees and 55 percent humidity in Glasgow, Montana but we were spared the experience. The camping area wouldn't have helped: it was the motel's gravel parking lot. The other two families in our party ended up parked next to a big rig with a refrigeration unit that rumbled all night making it very difficult to sleep.
The highlight of the evening and what kept the kids going for most of the day's long drive was the hotel pool. It's a nice way to end a long hot day on the road. After a quick swim, we went to the hotel restaurant. The chicken fried steak I ordered was nothing to write home about - and I had low expectations going into it. At least I had a side of tasty onion rings to go with it.
The drive today was much the same as it was yesterday. There were long, long stretches of Montana that could have been a repetitive Hollywood background screen. Like yesterday, most of the roads were undivided, two-lane roads that were only broken up by road work. One big difference, being Saturday, was that we saw several groups of motorcycles. If this were the bay area, I'd chalk it up to the local professionals taking their toys out for a weekend ride. Out here on the northern plains, I wasn't sure what to think.
I didn't realize that we were only 30 miles from the Canadian border. We went through a small town whose biggest attraction was the large green freeway sign pointing to the left advertising a 24 hour border crossing and the route to Regina (pronounced Reg- EYE - na, not Reg-EE-na), Saskatchewan.
I caught news of the NHL draft. Pretty nifty that the Sharks went from no draft choices in the first round to TWO.
Highlights:
1. Getting to the end of our first long day on the road, a place called Devil's Lake.
2. Seeing an elk by the side of the road
3. Seeing bison!
Quirks:
1. A chain of gas station convenience stores called Kum and Go. Uh, yeah.
2. Casinos are big in Montana. It seems like every small shop advertises itself as a casino. I counted three in an attached set of six shops.
3. You see a lot more women working road construction than in California. I'd say fully half the big equipment operators are women.
4. Stores you would not see in California:
a. The Fireworks Superstore
b. The Williston Saddlery
c. Stallion Oil Field Services. There were several oil wells along the route.
d. Burger Queen. No kidding.
5. We stopped at the self-proclaimed Geographical (sic) Center of North America. The engineer in me was reeling with possibilities on how you calculate that. Weighted average by elevation? How do you account for the ice on the northern shore? What kind of accuracy do you have?
6. Our back window overlooked what I refer to as "Combine and Tractor World." We would go on to pass many such places on Route 2.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Sleep Comes Like a Drug In God's Country
Day 7: I'm happy to report that I've completely lost track of the days.
I got up earlier than the rest of camp again this morning. I figured I could head out to do some sight seeing and get back before everyone was awake. It was going to be our longest driving day yet (7.5 hours) so it was unlikely that we were going to do any sightseeing. By the time I made up my mind, my daughter was up and agreed to come with me. Cameras in hand, we hopped in the van and drove around Lake McDonald looking for good shots. It became clear very quickly that we weren't going to get to some of the higher elevations before our self-imposed half-hour deadline expired. We were able to get around lake McDonald and part way up McDonald creek before my phone started playing "Black Coffee in Bed" telling us to turn around. Although we didn't get to any elevation, we managed to find stops that allowed us spectacular views of the mountains mirrored in the glassy lake. We passed the small trailer on the way in, a sign that camp was breaking quickly this morning. Indeed, by the time we got back, the contents of the tent were already on the picnic table and I was told that we were supposed to have left 20 minutes ago. When you see the pictures, you'll agree that it was worth it.
We're currently traveling highway 2, what the locals call "The Hi Line." It's so named because the major east west routes running through the state (I-90/I-94) pass far to the south. It's the Montana version of I-5 between the Altamont and the Grapevine. It has nothing but sameness for hundreds of miles. I should have saved the Doris Lessing reference for this part of the journey. There's going to be a whole lot of nothing until we get to Minnesota. At least it's a new kind of nothing for me.
We pulled off to have lunch in the small town of Shelby. Karen the GPS led us to a small park on the edge of town where we broke out the picnic supplies and had sandwiches. Two things struck me as I was sitting in the shade working on my steak sandwich: how far across the plains this wind that was buffeting me might have come and how I could now understand why people might want to leave the place where they grew up for new experiences. As I looked across the park at the beat up Mercury Cougar sitting in front of the single-wide trailer next to the large equipment shed, I wondered what percentage of the local children simply grew up, went into a business supporting this isolated town and simply never left. My simplistic peace of a family taking care itself is apparently very limted in scope.
I got up earlier than the rest of camp again this morning. I figured I could head out to do some sight seeing and get back before everyone was awake. It was going to be our longest driving day yet (7.5 hours) so it was unlikely that we were going to do any sightseeing. By the time I made up my mind, my daughter was up and agreed to come with me. Cameras in hand, we hopped in the van and drove around Lake McDonald looking for good shots. It became clear very quickly that we weren't going to get to some of the higher elevations before our self-imposed half-hour deadline expired. We were able to get around lake McDonald and part way up McDonald creek before my phone started playing "Black Coffee in Bed" telling us to turn around. Although we didn't get to any elevation, we managed to find stops that allowed us spectacular views of the mountains mirrored in the glassy lake. We passed the small trailer on the way in, a sign that camp was breaking quickly this morning. Indeed, by the time we got back, the contents of the tent were already on the picnic table and I was told that we were supposed to have left 20 minutes ago. When you see the pictures, you'll agree that it was worth it.
We're currently traveling highway 2, what the locals call "The Hi Line." It's so named because the major east west routes running through the state (I-90/I-94) pass far to the south. It's the Montana version of I-5 between the Altamont and the Grapevine. It has nothing but sameness for hundreds of miles. I should have saved the Doris Lessing reference for this part of the journey. There's going to be a whole lot of nothing until we get to Minnesota. At least it's a new kind of nothing for me.
We pulled off to have lunch in the small town of Shelby. Karen the GPS led us to a small park on the edge of town where we broke out the picnic supplies and had sandwiches. Two things struck me as I was sitting in the shade working on my steak sandwich: how far across the plains this wind that was buffeting me might have come and how I could now understand why people might want to leave the place where they grew up for new experiences. As I looked across the park at the beat up Mercury Cougar sitting in front of the single-wide trailer next to the large equipment shed, I wondered what percentage of the local children simply grew up, went into a business supporting this isolated town and simply never left. My simplistic peace of a family taking care itself is apparently very limted in scope.
Rocky Mountain Way
Day 6: (Again?)
We had a nice steak dinner at the aptly named Wolf Lodge. It was a lone red building on a frontage road between I-90 and our freeway-side campground. Dinner was good and plentiful. The smallest cut, called the Little Cowboy was a 16oz top sirloin. They also had "steak fries" that were whole potatoes quartered the long way. Add to that the fact that my son's "child steak" was mistakenly replaced with a full 16oz cut and we had enough steak to keep us happy for several meals to come. One side that I'd never seen before was kreble, a light bread somewhere between an oven roll and a croisant. I took as many of those as I could.
Morning two of the stay at Coeur D'Alene dawned with the patten of rain on our tent. In that half-logic haze that comes with having just woken up, I managed to get myself dressed and my sleeping bag rolled up in record time only to realize that I wasn't going to get any further than that. My family was still blissfully sleeping through it. Luckily it was just a passing shower and we only got a few drops through the nylon.
Coeur D'Alene to Glacier National Park
There wasn't much to report about the journey beyond a 10 mile jaunt backwards for breakfast at the last Starbucks for 100 miles. It was the first time we travelled seperately and the first opportunity (missed in this case) we had to have a caravan of three.
This part of the trip was much more to my liking. Fast, no-nonsense, get-me-there-faster-than-possible driving with occasional stops for points of interest and bathrooms. Our big stop was at Flathead Lake in Montana. We pulled into the state park for a quick picnic lunch by the lake. No fast food, no drive-throughs, just the family hauling out the cooler with our soft drinks and left over steak from last night. Lay the table cloth on the picnic bench while the kids skipped rocks, break out some napkins for plates, lay some sandwich bread on it and we're in business. There's someting about this simple self-sufficiency that makes me feel at peace.
After lunch, we got down to the serious business of stone skipping. There was no lack of flat krugrand-sized stones on this shore line and I launched was must have been a 15-hopper (with pitter-pats at the end). I should have left well enough alone and been satisfied wiht that through because it got no better.
The drive up to and beyond Flathead lake, we marked by intermittent bursts of cell reception where we tried desperately to figure out everyone's location. It was a comical game of cell tag where we were never both in cell ranage at the same time. By the time we would pick up messages, it was too late to act on the info. Most of the calls were to voicemail - both to pick up or leave one.
Rocky Mountain Way
You know the old joke? There are three seasons in the Northwest: Summer, Winter and Road Construction. Guess which we hit? We were introduced to lose gravel and long waits for "Pilot Cars" that would lead us at an excrutiatingly slow pace through the recently applied white gravel. This seemed haunt us on and off for most of the way through Idaho and Montana.
Once beyond the lake we went through the gorgeous Flathead River Valley, a wide expanse sprinkled with lone farmsteads that evoked images of lone settler families and long wind-swept winters. I would look at these and wonder how their routine compared to mine: how far away was baseball practice? School? Where do take the family out for a nice evening after a long week at work?
We hooked up with the big trailer (30 foot 5th wheel) in the town of Kalispell, a surprisingly large town of around 30K. Kalispell is a half hour drive from the Glacier West entrance and our designaged place for supplies. It was also the new home of an old friend of the group who came up to visit our campsite.
After setting up camp in Glacier, it became clear that we wouldn't be repeating the Crater Lake version of the Donner Party. It was around 80 degrees at 6:30pm. The lows were only going to be in the 50s.
None of us rememebered that it was the first day of sumer and the longest day of the year. Where I come from, a long day means that it's not completely dark at 9pm. Here, on the western edge of the Mountain Time Zone, it was twilight until 10:30! Looking back, I wish I had taken this time to do some driving around Glacier. The light for photography is always best at dawn and dusk.
We had a nice steak dinner at the aptly named Wolf Lodge. It was a lone red building on a frontage road between I-90 and our freeway-side campground. Dinner was good and plentiful. The smallest cut, called the Little Cowboy was a 16oz top sirloin. They also had "steak fries" that were whole potatoes quartered the long way. Add to that the fact that my son's "child steak" was mistakenly replaced with a full 16oz cut and we had enough steak to keep us happy for several meals to come. One side that I'd never seen before was kreble, a light bread somewhere between an oven roll and a croisant. I took as many of those as I could.
Morning two of the stay at Coeur D'Alene dawned with the patten of rain on our tent. In that half-logic haze that comes with having just woken up, I managed to get myself dressed and my sleeping bag rolled up in record time only to realize that I wasn't going to get any further than that. My family was still blissfully sleeping through it. Luckily it was just a passing shower and we only got a few drops through the nylon.
Coeur D'Alene to Glacier National Park
There wasn't much to report about the journey beyond a 10 mile jaunt backwards for breakfast at the last Starbucks for 100 miles. It was the first time we travelled seperately and the first opportunity (missed in this case) we had to have a caravan of three.
This part of the trip was much more to my liking. Fast, no-nonsense, get-me-there-faster-than-possible driving with occasional stops for points of interest and bathrooms. Our big stop was at Flathead Lake in Montana. We pulled into the state park for a quick picnic lunch by the lake. No fast food, no drive-throughs, just the family hauling out the cooler with our soft drinks and left over steak from last night. Lay the table cloth on the picnic bench while the kids skipped rocks, break out some napkins for plates, lay some sandwich bread on it and we're in business. There's someting about this simple self-sufficiency that makes me feel at peace.
After lunch, we got down to the serious business of stone skipping. There was no lack of flat krugrand-sized stones on this shore line and I launched was must have been a 15-hopper (with pitter-pats at the end). I should have left well enough alone and been satisfied wiht that through because it got no better.
The drive up to and beyond Flathead lake, we marked by intermittent bursts of cell reception where we tried desperately to figure out everyone's location. It was a comical game of cell tag where we were never both in cell ranage at the same time. By the time we would pick up messages, it was too late to act on the info. Most of the calls were to voicemail - both to pick up or leave one.
Rocky Mountain Way
You know the old joke? There are three seasons in the Northwest: Summer, Winter and Road Construction. Guess which we hit? We were introduced to lose gravel and long waits for "Pilot Cars" that would lead us at an excrutiatingly slow pace through the recently applied white gravel. This seemed haunt us on and off for most of the way through Idaho and Montana.
Once beyond the lake we went through the gorgeous Flathead River Valley, a wide expanse sprinkled with lone farmsteads that evoked images of lone settler families and long wind-swept winters. I would look at these and wonder how their routine compared to mine: how far away was baseball practice? School? Where do take the family out for a nice evening after a long week at work?
We hooked up with the big trailer (30 foot 5th wheel) in the town of Kalispell, a surprisingly large town of around 30K. Kalispell is a half hour drive from the Glacier West entrance and our designaged place for supplies. It was also the new home of an old friend of the group who came up to visit our campsite.
After setting up camp in Glacier, it became clear that we wouldn't be repeating the Crater Lake version of the Donner Party. It was around 80 degrees at 6:30pm. The lows were only going to be in the 50s.
None of us rememebered that it was the first day of sumer and the longest day of the year. Where I come from, a long day means that it's not completely dark at 9pm. Here, on the western edge of the Mountain Time Zone, it was twilight until 10:30! Looking back, I wish I had taken this time to do some driving around Glacier. The light for photography is always best at dawn and dusk.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Hit the Ball and Touch Them All
Day 6:
We spent the entire morning at the campground relaxing. My fourteen-year-old nephew and I spent a long time sixty feet apart discussing the finer points of seams, knuckleballs, sliders, palm balls, and screwballs. "E" is a good kid. He's always been polite and helpful. I'm really happy to see him coming into his own as a young athlete. He made the baseball All-Star team and had just finished football camp. I think he's got great things in front of him. Me? I'm looking forward to a regular catch partner for the rest of vacation.
We went to the "beach" to go "swimming" today. The beach was at Coeur D'Alene City Park and the water was a tad warmer than the Pacific Ocean at Santa Cruz. Which is to say that nobody in their right mind stays in long without a wet suit. Of course the advantage to the cold water of the Pacific is that you get to surf it. Lake Coeur D'Alene? Not so much. The entire way to the beach was replete with trendy shops, resorts and basketball courts, and reminded me of Any Beach Town, California.
Living in a campground for a few days in the middle of the week gives you a unique perspective on humanity. Sprinkled among the retirees with their huge RVs towing Mercedes you get an odd mix.
1. We had a very young couple not much out of high school traveling in an old beat up sedan. My guess is that they were either cheerleaders or ice skaters.
2. At the far end of camp on our first night we had a group of four men ranging from 14-60. They'd obviously been on the road a long time and were pulling a box trailer behind a station wagon. They had a look to them that said "high school losers who never figured it out." Either that or "rock band."
3. We had a young man traveling with two children who called him "Dad." He certainly didn't look old enough to be Dad. He knew how to swing an axe, rented the camp four-wheelers for his kids and yelled at them a lot. Typical behavior for a young man who had his kids before he was ready.
Highlights:
1. Being near the water. There's nothing that satisfies the soul (my apologies to Annie Savoy) better than a large body of water.
2. Being able to pass down some pitching knowledge. I have my doubts about being able to do this to my children.
Little Quirks:
1. There's a very big awareness campaign around wearing life vests along the Columbia river. Some of the adds were pretty graphic.
2. My son now has a stuffed bass named Speedo
We spent the entire morning at the campground relaxing. My fourteen-year-old nephew and I spent a long time sixty feet apart discussing the finer points of seams, knuckleballs, sliders, palm balls, and screwballs. "E" is a good kid. He's always been polite and helpful. I'm really happy to see him coming into his own as a young athlete. He made the baseball All-Star team and had just finished football camp. I think he's got great things in front of him. Me? I'm looking forward to a regular catch partner for the rest of vacation.
We went to the "beach" to go "swimming" today. The beach was at Coeur D'Alene City Park and the water was a tad warmer than the Pacific Ocean at Santa Cruz. Which is to say that nobody in their right mind stays in long without a wet suit. Of course the advantage to the cold water of the Pacific is that you get to surf it. Lake Coeur D'Alene? Not so much. The entire way to the beach was replete with trendy shops, resorts and basketball courts, and reminded me of Any Beach Town, California.
Living in a campground for a few days in the middle of the week gives you a unique perspective on humanity. Sprinkled among the retirees with their huge RVs towing Mercedes you get an odd mix.
1. We had a very young couple not much out of high school traveling in an old beat up sedan. My guess is that they were either cheerleaders or ice skaters.
2. At the far end of camp on our first night we had a group of four men ranging from 14-60. They'd obviously been on the road a long time and were pulling a box trailer behind a station wagon. They had a look to them that said "high school losers who never figured it out." Either that or "rock band."
3. We had a young man traveling with two children who called him "Dad." He certainly didn't look old enough to be Dad. He knew how to swing an axe, rented the camp four-wheelers for his kids and yelled at them a lot. Typical behavior for a young man who had his kids before he was ready.
Highlights:
1. Being near the water. There's nothing that satisfies the soul (my apologies to Annie Savoy) better than a large body of water.
2. Being able to pass down some pitching knowledge. I have my doubts about being able to do this to my children.
Little Quirks:
1. There's a very big awareness campaign around wearing life vests along the Columbia river. Some of the adds were pretty graphic.
2. My son now has a stuffed bass named Speedo
Day 5: Boring to Coeur D'Alene
We got out later than our planned 9am start time. It was mostly due to the length of time required to take showers and break camp. On the way to I-84, we had a small rebellion and pulled into a drive-through Starbucks. The new person we got on the speaker was so confused I was afraid I was going to end up with a quadruple espresso.
Ou first stop was at the Bonneville Dam and Fish Hatcheries. I remember going through Hoover and Grand Coulee with my Dad and thinking that it was kinda neat but a little odd to stop to see a dam. Thirty-odd years later, I still think the same thing but now understand a little more where he was coming from.
We're currently driving through a place called The Dalles. The fellow at the full serve gas station pronounced this "Dayles" though I keep wanting to call it the Dulls. Aside from the Columbia River on our right, we could easily be in Nevada. Very sparse low scrub, lots of rocky clifsides and none of those wonderful trees that I was so tired of. I think this is where Oregonians send their Republicans.
Idaho has no atmosphere. Temperatures change quickly when the sun rises or sets. If you're standing next to a fire, the side of you facing the fire will toasty warm and the other half will be cold as the driven snow.
Our stop in Coeur D'Alene (prounounced Coor Da Lain for you who don't know) finds us in a fairly nice campground. Nestled against a wooded hillside, Wolfe Campground has nice rows of picnic tables and fire pits, green grass and and the sound of the ocean, er, freeway, in the background. RV parks, so I'm told, are always located next to freeways.
1. Internet Access, even if I have to pay for it
2. Meeting up with the rest of the caravan (three more cousins, their parents, and mom-in-law). We are now 13 strong and ready to conquer southern Canada.
Little Quirks:
1. Nothing to report, SIR!
Where the Streets Have No Name
Day 4:
OMSI was fantastic! It was a hands-on kids museum very much like the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Two of our party went to see the Body Works exhibit, a strange (yet surprisingly popular) show comprised of displays of human bodies stripped of their layers. Didn't know you had layers? This is Gray's Anatomy (the book, not the TV show) for real body geeks. They showed, or so they tell me, bodies in action poses and allowed you to see muscules nerves and other inner body workings. A horor movie villain will be born of this - mark my words. As one who prides himself on being able to handle anything with relative detatchment, I simply declared myself chicken and declined.
My family took in two planetarium shows. The first was a laser show. I was old enough to remember when Lazerium first started in San Francisco and how everyone thought it was such a cool thing. The show left me feeling like I was playing the 80's vector game "Battlezone" when everyone else was playing Halo 3.
The second was a Nova episode on Black Holes. Black Holes and other space phenomena have a special place in my heart, and therefore in the hearts of my two children. Think of Tom Selleck reading Sports Illustrated in Three Men and a Baby. Just replace talk of boxing with that of gravity wells and Einstein's theory of General Relativity.
The hands-on part of OMSI was a scientists and engineer's playground. There was a chemistry lab, complete with eye protection and stations that took you through experiments that changed colors. There was a physics lab with a huge van de Graff generator.
The main hall was filled with just an assortment of things that were just plain fun. The bigger children (read: over 30) gravitated towards the pressurized two-liter bottles simulating rocket launches. There was an encolsed area full of high-speed air vents, tubing and small foam balls where you were supposed to invent things to launch the balls into baskets hanging from the ceiling. I spent most of the time shooting the balls at children. All in hopes of bouncing them into the baskets, of course.
Highlights:
1. My first espresso in days. I have at least two a day and my own machine at home.
2. Night time temperatures in the 50s. As one member of our version of the Donner party put it "last night was not as death defying as the first."
3. Our first day without heavy driving, rest stops or fast food.
4. Seeing my daughter really get into the exhibits. She's not declared herself "too cool" to do things, but has been definitely shading her perferences away from science though it's one of her best subjects. Taking her out of her element seemed to allow her just be herself again.
Little Quirks:
1. Apparently the Adult Entertainment Industry is big around Portland. The stores were plentiful and some were quite large and tastefully done.
OMSI was fantastic! It was a hands-on kids museum very much like the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Two of our party went to see the Body Works exhibit, a strange (yet surprisingly popular) show comprised of displays of human bodies stripped of their layers. Didn't know you had layers? This is Gray's Anatomy (the book, not the TV show) for real body geeks. They showed, or so they tell me, bodies in action poses and allowed you to see muscules nerves and other inner body workings. A horor movie villain will be born of this - mark my words. As one who prides himself on being able to handle anything with relative detatchment, I simply declared myself chicken and declined.
My family took in two planetarium shows. The first was a laser show. I was old enough to remember when Lazerium first started in San Francisco and how everyone thought it was such a cool thing. The show left me feeling like I was playing the 80's vector game "Battlezone" when everyone else was playing Halo 3.
The second was a Nova episode on Black Holes. Black Holes and other space phenomena have a special place in my heart, and therefore in the hearts of my two children. Think of Tom Selleck reading Sports Illustrated in Three Men and a Baby. Just replace talk of boxing with that of gravity wells and Einstein's theory of General Relativity.
The hands-on part of OMSI was a scientists and engineer's playground. There was a chemistry lab, complete with eye protection and stations that took you through experiments that changed colors. There was a physics lab with a huge van de Graff generator.
The main hall was filled with just an assortment of things that were just plain fun. The bigger children (read: over 30) gravitated towards the pressurized two-liter bottles simulating rocket launches. There was an encolsed area full of high-speed air vents, tubing and small foam balls where you were supposed to invent things to launch the balls into baskets hanging from the ceiling. I spent most of the time shooting the balls at children. All in hopes of bouncing them into the baskets, of course.
Highlights:
1. My first espresso in days. I have at least two a day and my own machine at home.
2. Night time temperatures in the 50s. As one member of our version of the Donner party put it "last night was not as death defying as the first."
3. Our first day without heavy driving, rest stops or fast food.
4. Seeing my daughter really get into the exhibits. She's not declared herself "too cool" to do things, but has been definitely shading her perferences away from science though it's one of her best subjects. Taking her out of her element seemed to allow her just be herself again.
Little Quirks:
1. Apparently the Adult Entertainment Industry is big around Portland. The stores were plentiful and some were quite large and tastefully done.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
The Pros and Cons of Hitchiking
Day 3: Monday 6/18
One of the many odd things about camping is that your clock tends to be way off. It's 6:15am and I've already been up for forty five minutes. That's just wrong on so many levels. The funny thing was that my body, aided by the distance of the nearest bathroom and smoker's hack call of crow told me that IT WAS TIME TO GET UP. So I sit here now in my favorite camping chair, nestled in a part of the seemingly endless forest that is Oregon, preparing this blog for the next time that I get hooked up to the internet. In fairness to you wistfully picturing me ensconced in a pine forest (correct), serenaded by birds (correct), sitting alone while the others sleep (correct) you should also add to your mental picture the fact that I'm sitting next to the utility box commonly found in sites with "RV Hookups" charging both my mobile phone and laptop batteries. You can take the boy out of Silicon Valley...
Our destination today is the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry or OMSI. The two boys (9 and 10) are looking forward to it with the fading innocent excitemnt of their age. It's still okay to like it but they already KNOW a lot of that stuff. The twelve-year-old girls has a lot of questions. Where are we going again? What does that stand for? What does Science and Industry mean? Translation: when can we go to the gift shop and be done with this?
One of the many odd things about camping is that your clock tends to be way off. It's 6:15am and I've already been up for forty five minutes. That's just wrong on so many levels. The funny thing was that my body, aided by the distance of the nearest bathroom and smoker's hack call of crow told me that IT WAS TIME TO GET UP. So I sit here now in my favorite camping chair, nestled in a part of the seemingly endless forest that is Oregon, preparing this blog for the next time that I get hooked up to the internet. In fairness to you wistfully picturing me ensconced in a pine forest (correct), serenaded by birds (correct), sitting alone while the others sleep (correct) you should also add to your mental picture the fact that I'm sitting next to the utility box commonly found in sites with "RV Hookups" charging both my mobile phone and laptop batteries. You can take the boy out of Silicon Valley...
Our destination today is the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry or OMSI. The two boys (9 and 10) are looking forward to it with the fading innocent excitemnt of their age. It's still okay to like it but they already KNOW a lot of that stuff. The twelve-year-old girls has a lot of questions. Where are we going again? What does that stand for? What does Science and Industry mean? Translation: when can we go to the gift shop and be done with this?
Hard Day's Night
Sunday 6/17
It was cold last night. It was one degree above freezing and we were in a tent. I'm not much of an outdoorsman. My version of "roughing it" is when I'm driving in the van and we only have two 120 volt AC outlets coming off the inverter to run the family electronics (sounds like Paul Atriedes in Dune speak of the family atomics). One of the highlights of the night (well, aside from waking up frequently to make sure I heard three other people breathing) was having to get out of my barely warm sleeping bag to trek halfway across the campsite to find one of the few bathrooms they had managed to get working when they opened the park the night before. At 2:30am, more than half asleep trying to find the short cut across the campground, I had a hard time deciding whether it was okay to shine the flashlight in directions that might go into people's tents. After awhile, I finally turned off the flashlight in hopes of some divine inspiration. When I looked up to find the moon, I was treated to the most amazing sky I've ever seen in my life. Undiluted by city lights, I could see stars everywhere! I could clearly see the band of the milky way and so many other stars between the stars I was used to seeing. It was really moving. "Moving" is not a word you use lightly at 2:30 in the morning.
After an early hike along the rim trail of Annie Creek, we had a light breakfast and broke camp at 10:30. Everyone hopped in the cars and we headed for the main event: a trip to the rim of Crater Lake. This is probably the first of many times on this trip that I will cop out and simply say "words cannot adequately describe what we saw." When I get online, I'll figure out where to post my pictures and let you decide for yourself.
The highlight of that particular segment of the trip was my daughter taking pictures. I've been teaching her what I learn as I go through the journey myself, and I'm really happy to see the things that she's trying with her little camera. She asked me more than a few technical questions around framing and light that were quite impressive.
The road from Crater Lake to Boring, Oregon (jokes will be left as an exercise for the reader) was not as majestic as the drive on Day 1. We drove a highway (I'll have to consult Nicole for the details) that was classic Northern Exposure: undivided, tall trees, lots of morons. What made the drive tough (aside from the lack of a decent front-mounted photon torpedo) was the relatively slow pace of our fellow motorists. We made the most of every possible passing lane and this required really being on your toes (as well as the next car's rear) so you could hit them with speed.
The sad part about all this was that we passed many a small town with inviting local eateries run by people named Mel and Sally who served grandma Mabel's meatloaf. Of course that would mean having to pass the unwashed masses again. Maybe Mel could have mounted the photons for me.
Highlights:
1. The deep blue water of Crater Lake. It actually looked bluer without my sun glasses on.
2. A full serve gas station! Serving gas at lower prices than I'm used to paying for self-serve, no less. I'm sure they thought they were charging an arm and a leg.
3. None of my fellow motorists were accidentally bumped to the bottom of a deep gorge.
Little Quirks:
1. There's a lot more smoking going on. Maybe it's just the places where we were traveling.
2. The first Oregon rest stop we saw advertised Free Wi Fi.
3. Ole's Medium Rare Fine Food. Need I say more?
4. We blew a bike tire. Apparently, tires don't like hot exhaust directly from tail pipes. The blowout was pretty spectacular. We thought it might have been a gun shot.
It was cold last night. It was one degree above freezing and we were in a tent. I'm not much of an outdoorsman. My version of "roughing it" is when I'm driving in the van and we only have two 120 volt AC outlets coming off the inverter to run the family electronics (sounds like Paul Atriedes in Dune speak of the family atomics). One of the highlights of the night (well, aside from waking up frequently to make sure I heard three other people breathing) was having to get out of my barely warm sleeping bag to trek halfway across the campsite to find one of the few bathrooms they had managed to get working when they opened the park the night before. At 2:30am, more than half asleep trying to find the short cut across the campground, I had a hard time deciding whether it was okay to shine the flashlight in directions that might go into people's tents. After awhile, I finally turned off the flashlight in hopes of some divine inspiration. When I looked up to find the moon, I was treated to the most amazing sky I've ever seen in my life. Undiluted by city lights, I could see stars everywhere! I could clearly see the band of the milky way and so many other stars between the stars I was used to seeing. It was really moving. "Moving" is not a word you use lightly at 2:30 in the morning.
After an early hike along the rim trail of Annie Creek, we had a light breakfast and broke camp at 10:30. Everyone hopped in the cars and we headed for the main event: a trip to the rim of Crater Lake. This is probably the first of many times on this trip that I will cop out and simply say "words cannot adequately describe what we saw." When I get online, I'll figure out where to post my pictures and let you decide for yourself.
The highlight of that particular segment of the trip was my daughter taking pictures. I've been teaching her what I learn as I go through the journey myself, and I'm really happy to see the things that she's trying with her little camera. She asked me more than a few technical questions around framing and light that were quite impressive.
The road from Crater Lake to Boring, Oregon (jokes will be left as an exercise for the reader) was not as majestic as the drive on Day 1. We drove a highway (I'll have to consult Nicole for the details) that was classic Northern Exposure: undivided, tall trees, lots of morons. What made the drive tough (aside from the lack of a decent front-mounted photon torpedo) was the relatively slow pace of our fellow motorists. We made the most of every possible passing lane and this required really being on your toes (as well as the next car's rear) so you could hit them with speed.
The sad part about all this was that we passed many a small town with inviting local eateries run by people named Mel and Sally who served grandma Mabel's meatloaf. Of course that would mean having to pass the unwashed masses again. Maybe Mel could have mounted the photons for me.
Highlights:
1. The deep blue water of Crater Lake. It actually looked bluer without my sun glasses on.
2. A full serve gas station! Serving gas at lower prices than I'm used to paying for self-serve, no less. I'm sure they thought they were charging an arm and a leg.
3. None of my fellow motorists were accidentally bumped to the bottom of a deep gorge.
Little Quirks:
1. There's a lot more smoking going on. Maybe it's just the places where we were traveling.
2. The first Oregon rest stop we saw advertised Free Wi Fi.
3. Ole's Medium Rare Fine Food. Need I say more?
4. We blew a bike tire. Apparently, tires don't like hot exhaust directly from tail pipes. The blowout was pretty spectacular. We thought it might have been a gun shot.
The Long and Winding Road
Destination: Crater Lake
We only left a few minutes late this morning. A few minutes late means that you can still travel under 100 on the freeway and make up the time before you arrive at your destination . The McDonalds at Suisun in this case.
Have you tried a McGriddle yet? You know that odd maple-syrup-intrudes-on-the-rest-of-your-breakfast taste? Let's just say that I'm the person that they were thinking of when they invented maple sausages and bacon. The fine folks at Mickey D's found a way to make this into an edible-on-the-go breakfast sandwich. Who says that the country who put a man on the moon is starting to lose it's edge?
As we were driving up the very familiar stretch of 680 I started to look at things with the eyes of a visitor. I was going to be in this mode for most of the trip and I might as well have started in my own back yard. What did I find? The fog billowing over the east bay hills into the early morning sunshine of the Tri Valley.
We bought a GPS for this trip. I never quite understood the need for these things for every day driving but I've had a change of heart. I like seeing the names of the side roads as they go by. On the road, you can make much better decisions about gas stops and meal choice.
Because I can never leave well enough alone when it comes to electronics, I made some slight customizations to the GPS unit. These, unlike others I have done, require no reverse engineering or chain loading of operating systems. Our vehicle marker, instead of the standard arrow is now a tank. Yes, a tank. The kind that rolls over and crushes mere civilian vehicles that manage to survive the pounding of it's main guns. Customization number two was to choose the voice of a an Australian lady whose voice makes her sound like a cross between Nicole Kidman and a librarian.
The GPS is not without it's quirks, however. When we hit the I-505 junction, I was pleasantly told by Karen (our GPS) to merge right onto "Oy Foive Hundred Foive." As we hit approached West Rim Drive, she gleefully told me (for a librarian) to turn right on to "West Rim Doctor." So you can feel free to cross "Date when machines become self aware" off your list of worries. If that date were coming any time soon we'd be safe because they'd die of embarrassment.
Highlights of the drip from Day 1:
1. A little place in the town of Mount Shasta called the Black Bear Diner. Good portions, good food, friendly local staff, and a stunning view of Mount Shasta.
2. Hearing the kids reaction to the scenery. Kids in the My Space generation are unfazed by alien abductions of their iPods. They regularly watch cartoons where sea creatures light campfires beneath the waves. They're a tough crowd. I'm happy to report that there were lots of oohs and ahhs as we drove by Lake Shasta, Mount Shasta and Pinnacles National Monument. The kids didn't let me down here.
3. Snow! As we were driving up to Crater Lake National Park, there was snow on the mountains, snow on the ground, snow in our campsite and snow on the dogs we saw walking. Okay, I made that last one up.
Little Quirks:
1. A crop duster out in a field next to the freeway flying under the power lines.
2. I love the auto program feature of the car radio. Hit a button and it finds the strongest ten stations and sets your radio. North of Redding, it only found five. At least they were predominantly rock and roll.
We only left a few minutes late this morning. A few minutes late means that you can still travel under 100 on the freeway and make up the time before you arrive at your destination . The McDonalds at Suisun in this case.
Have you tried a McGriddle yet? You know that odd maple-syrup-intrudes-on-the-rest-of-your-breakfast taste? Let's just say that I'm the person that they were thinking of when they invented maple sausages and bacon. The fine folks at Mickey D's found a way to make this into an edible-on-the-go breakfast sandwich. Who says that the country who put a man on the moon is starting to lose it's edge?
As we were driving up the very familiar stretch of 680 I started to look at things with the eyes of a visitor. I was going to be in this mode for most of the trip and I might as well have started in my own back yard. What did I find? The fog billowing over the east bay hills into the early morning sunshine of the Tri Valley.
We bought a GPS for this trip. I never quite understood the need for these things for every day driving but I've had a change of heart. I like seeing the names of the side roads as they go by. On the road, you can make much better decisions about gas stops and meal choice.
Because I can never leave well enough alone when it comes to electronics, I made some slight customizations to the GPS unit. These, unlike others I have done, require no reverse engineering or chain loading of operating systems. Our vehicle marker, instead of the standard arrow is now a tank. Yes, a tank. The kind that rolls over and crushes mere civilian vehicles that manage to survive the pounding of it's main guns. Customization number two was to choose the voice of a an Australian lady whose voice makes her sound like a cross between Nicole Kidman and a librarian.
The GPS is not without it's quirks, however. When we hit the I-505 junction, I was pleasantly told by Karen (our GPS) to merge right onto "Oy Foive Hundred Foive." As we hit approached West Rim Drive, she gleefully told me (for a librarian) to turn right on to "West Rim Doctor." So you can feel free to cross "Date when machines become self aware" off your list of worries. If that date were coming any time soon we'd be safe because they'd die of embarrassment.
Highlights of the drip from Day 1:
1. A little place in the town of Mount Shasta called the Black Bear Diner. Good portions, good food, friendly local staff, and a stunning view of Mount Shasta.
2. Hearing the kids reaction to the scenery. Kids in the My Space generation are unfazed by alien abductions of their iPods. They regularly watch cartoons where sea creatures light campfires beneath the waves. They're a tough crowd. I'm happy to report that there were lots of oohs and ahhs as we drove by Lake Shasta, Mount Shasta and Pinnacles National Monument. The kids didn't let me down here.
3. Snow! As we were driving up to Crater Lake National Park, there was snow on the mountains, snow on the ground, snow in our campsite and snow on the dogs we saw walking. Okay, I made that last one up.
Little Quirks:
1. A crop duster out in a field next to the freeway flying under the power lines.
2. I love the auto program feature of the car radio. Hit a button and it finds the strongest ten stations and sets your radio. North of Redding, it only found five. At least they were predominantly rock and roll.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Briefing for a Descent Into Oregon
Day Zero: I'm free! (At least temporarily)
The van's all packed and we have room to spare. It's truly amazing how much some of that camping equipment weighs. Who needs string theory? I think the deceleration of the universe is probably tied directly to the creation of rubber/plastic air mattresses.
I've taken a vow not to check work email until at least Wednesday. Hopefully by then, I'll have kicked the habit and I won't want to any more. The laptop comes with me, though. We've come to rely on the internet way too much to "do it the old way" and actually find a phone book.
Tomorrow morning, we head for Crater Lake, Oregon.
The van's all packed and we have room to spare. It's truly amazing how much some of that camping equipment weighs. Who needs string theory? I think the deceleration of the universe is probably tied directly to the creation of rubber/plastic air mattresses.
I've taken a vow not to check work email until at least Wednesday. Hopefully by then, I'll have kicked the habit and I won't want to any more. The laptop comes with me, though. We've come to rely on the internet way too much to "do it the old way" and actually find a phone book.
Tomorrow morning, we head for Crater Lake, Oregon.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
In the Time Before Time
Arrggh!
What's the last thing you want when you're about to leave for a cross country bloggin' road trip? Aside from horrible boils and a bad case of the selenium poisoning, I would offer the following: a computer crash.
Normally, such a thing would be a trivial matter for I am blessed with a special kind of magic: electronic heal (that's 2d20 for you D&D geeks out there). Forget laying of hands and ritual exorcism, hardware has been known to heal itself just as I walk up to see what is wrong.
But alas, not this time. For my past transgressions, I have been relagated to that small corner of hell inhabited by screen resolutions half of what I am used to and main memory one fourth of what normally runs my machine. Yep, I have the Dreaded Loaner. I guess that'll keep me from working too much this trip.
What's the last thing you want when you're about to leave for a cross country bloggin' road trip? Aside from horrible boils and a bad case of the selenium poisoning, I would offer the following: a computer crash.
Normally, such a thing would be a trivial matter for I am blessed with a special kind of magic: electronic heal (that's 2d20 for you D&D geeks out there). Forget laying of hands and ritual exorcism, hardware has been known to heal itself just as I walk up to see what is wrong.
But alas, not this time. For my past transgressions, I have been relagated to that small corner of hell inhabited by screen resolutions half of what I am used to and main memory one fourth of what normally runs my machine. Yep, I have the Dreaded Loaner. I guess that'll keep me from working too much this trip.
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