Hello, all. So.. we lived through bison herds, bear threats, and some of the most unstable ground on earth. We spent time with family, enjoyed many natural wonders, and drove more in 2 weeks than we wish to in the next year. Now we're back in Columbus, and we're STILL GOING TO GET MARRIED! Yeah.. first test passed. We can stand being together in a car for 2 straight weeks. Yay, us. But before a wrap up of our goals and whether we achieved them, an account of our last 2 days.
We woke up at the Connor home on Sunday morning after a very long night's sleep (well, I, Kate, slept a long time - David stayed up all night drinking and reminiscing with Megan). We watched tv with Daphne and Fiona, and Mommy and Daddy made us eggs, bacon, and potatoes. Delish. We got on the road a bit after noon and headed for Milwaukee. Our friends Cynthia and Phil recently relocated there, so we got to see their apartment which is right downtown with its own community garden and cafe close by. David lived with Cynthia for 3 years, so this was also an important opportunity to reconnect with her cat that he helped raise, Apollo. He pretty much forgot us because his brain is small, but we enjoyed seeing him all the same. Our visit was too short lived, but Milwaukee looks like a great town and we know we'll need to go back soon, to try more beer if for no other reason. We headed down to Chicago where we were going to stay the night with our friends Joe and Crystal. We were expecting to be greeted by their super cool new puppy, Penny, but instead we were greeted by Penny and.... MCGIRR! David's bestie Brandon McGirr was a surprise guest - we had no idea he'd be in Chicago that night. We also invited David's sister Eileen and her man Barry over, and we all drank beer and ate pizza - good stuff. After a good night's sleep, David's first in weeks (oh, beer), we set off on the very last leg of our trip. We made a pit stop in South Bend, Indiana to a) pick up the 2010 Notre Dame shirt and more importantly, b) catch up with the Tull grandparentals. It was the day after their 57th anniversary - good timing on our part. We had another surprise visitor, David's aunt Mary, who gave me a very nice belated shower gift (getting married is great!).
We then hit the road for the last time on our trip, heading back for Columbus. It took $12.80 in tolls to take the tunrpike, but frankly, it was worth it just to avoid the pungent delights of Indianapolis. Plus by going that way, we were greeted with two more lasting memories. One was seeing a whole side of the highway shut down in Toledo while what appeared to be half the city's police force escorted an ambulance and a dozen black SUV's down the freeway. David assumed that someone hugely significant had maybe been shot or something, but it turns out that's just how Joe Biden, who was visiting Toledo that day, rolls. So we drove by his motorcade. Fun stuff. Our second memory came within a scant 4 MILES of the Stopa house in Worthington. As many of you know, we pass the time on road trips by keeping track of state license plates. For as long as we've been together, we have come close to seeing all fifty states, but never this close. Thanks to Yellowstone and Glacier, we had reached a new level of plate-spotting. Yellowstone gave us Hawaii, and Glacier gave us the District of Columbia! Plus Alaska was all over the place out there. We had seen EVERY state in the union except one- the bane of our existence, the tiny what's-it state, RHODE ISLAND, had yet to be spotted. As we neared the end of our trip, we slowly, silently resigned ourselves to relative defeat. After all, 49 out of 50 and The District to boot was a new record and not too shabby. Suddenly, however, as Route 23 turned into High Street and we entered the township of Worthington, OH, a certain state license plate appeared before us like an archangel! Yes, the Ocean State was the final surprise guest of our trip, and we had finally, at long last, seen every state in the union (and the DC) represented in license plate form on one of our road trips. We have decided this is an indisputable omen that we will be together forever, always in pursuit of a more perfect union. Just like the United States of America....? Yeah.
SO! We're all done.. time to check in on those goals we set at the top of the trip. Let's see who accomplished more:
KATE:
1) I SAW A MOOSE!
2) I was NOT gored by a bison and did not witness anyone else be gored by a bison.. although we came close enough on both counts that I DID learn why that flyer is created. So I guess 1/2 point on that one.
3) Successful avoidance of bears - the good spotting we were out of the car, but far enough away that it was ok.
4) I totally misjudged this one. The goal was not to "watch" David eat the canned salmon or bet him he couldn't eat it, but to FORCE him to eat it, which I forgot to do. So I lose. But I also win, because I didn't have to watch him eat canned salmon.
DAVID:
1) Bears = seen! Both grizzly and brown coated black bears spotted (good spotting, David). Black coated black bears, you dropped the ball. I expect wonders next time. Be advised.
2) I forgot about the "Look at the S-Car go!" joke that my grandpa has told in the past (get it? es cargot?) but there were a number of Hap gems on this trip that more than make up for it's absence. But still, Fail on my part.
3) Well, I've never seen a bison false charge a car before while being herded down a road. I've never seen wild turkeys out west before, and they were all over the place. I've never seen deer feast on apples in Aunt Mary's backyard. And the prairie dogs in the Badlands were a first as well. So a BIG win on seeing new wildlife/wildlife behavior.
4) Used the knife to cut pieces of kindling from a cardboard box. Could I have torn the pieces off by hand? Maybe. Did I use the knife anyway? I did. Game, David.
So, David won by a half point, but we all won in the end! Although we had issues with photos and videos on this blog, we have now posted all photos and videos on Kate's Facebook page. If you don't have Facebook, try using this link (although it may be protected, in which case you'll need to find a pal with Facebook!).
Photos: http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=2053314&id=27100243
Videos: http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/?of=27100243
So here are, two days after we actually finished the road trip, finally signing off, because it was that hard to let go of how awesome it was to see so much of this great country, and so many of our wonderful friends and family. Thanks for reading, and if you ever get a chance to go on an awesome road trip all over creation with someone you love, for God's sake do it! Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
Last days in Montana and Face Space Mountain
David here, catching up on days 9 and 10. Once we left the awesomitude of the Badlands, which was a mix between driving across the surface of Mars and through the foothills of Mordor, I recall very little. This is because I slept through most of South Dakota, so my experience of that day largely consisted of drifting in and out of Dick Cavett's audio book of Jean Shepherd short stories (the Bumpus' dogs stole an Easter ham, and not a Christmas turkey, well that's odd....(snore)). Thanks to Kate for covering that part (I love yooooooo... bye! ).
Day 9: Last full day in Montana
Our stay in Montana had been wonderful, and even though we had been there the longest out of all our stops it still felt all to short. It was so wonderful to catch up with so many Hollands, to share and even grow in our excitement with Uncle Jimmy about the wedding ceremony, and share Montana's wonders. Today was actually full of things that I'd never done in my trips here growing up. We started by going to the Northwest Montana Fair- shades of our Avoid the Stork trips all over the Iowa's county fair circuit over the past year and a half (www.avoidthestork.com). Our first fair event was swine showmanship- junior classes. About a dozen kids were showing their pigs by trying to keep them from fighting each other and rooting at the fence. This was all done with a little brush, a riding crop, their Sunday best, and of course, big bright smiles. They had to endure this for what felt like 15 minutes to me, and what surely felt like an eternity for them. It was strange. It was fun to watch. There was a dog agility show just outside. We met an Englishwoman who is training her Corgy for such events, and is out in Montana for some reason. The Corgy did well, except for the moment when he fled the course in pursuit of a BBQ chicken hut. Who wants to run through a huge insulation tube when there's chicken about, after all? There was a sheep who sounded like an irritated old man. We loved him. It was here that we also saw a stag beetle the size of my hand. No joke. Ironically, it was next to an insect jewelry booth, and we mused over the big guy with the booth's owner ("Maybe I can make a bracelet out of it..." "Or a broach!"). Overall, it was an impresive fair with lots of other fun animals to see, and something we'll hit up if we're able to again.
We went back to the house and had a "Hap rap," catching up with Grandpa on movies, theatre, all things cultural, making use of my ridiculous film history-addled brain. We were also all joined by my cousin Will, who is about to start studying songwriting at Berklee College of Music in Boston, and who I haven't seen since he was little tiny person, so it fantastic to catch up with him and re-meet each other as adult-types. When Matt got off work he pulled up to the house with an impressive looking speedboat, and we all said, "Well, let's put that in water and find out what happens." We took it down to Flathead Lake and tore around for a little bit, taking turns driving and basically playing Miami Vice: The Montana Years for a while. It rocked.
We closed out the night by chilling with Matt and Will in the basement while the (other?) grown ups went out. Overall, a wildly successful Montana trip- many, many memories made and some seeds for future trips planted (maybe an anniversary someday...).
Day 10: We drive across Montana and then experience a vision.
Montana is huge. Enormous. So when I say that we took a day to drive across Montana to get to our next stop, I hope you can begin to appreciate our insanity. This is the part of the drive that keeps most of you layabouts and hooligans from attempting such a thing. Well, we rocked it, so now you must bask in our bodacity (spf 35 recommended).
I'm trying to think if anything actually happened in Montana that day... we saw a bit Billings. There were some beautiful rock formations in the reservation we drove through... Oh, we drove past the battlefield at Little Big Horn! That happened... Um. Yeah. It's a long, long road, and it DID get progressively and surprisingly interesting as we approached the Black Hills of South Dakota. They're quite spooky.
We arrived at our campsite in Keystone, SD, near Rapid City, around 6:45 PM, quickly pitched our tent and went exploring in the Black Hills, evidently the sacred land of the Lakota tribe. However, as we explored we were greeted with a sight that chilled our very spines. Apparently, long, long ago, the movement of glaciers against the earth's crust carved into the living rock of these mountains four faces- four faces which must have been a mystery to those who first saw them- a strange vision that no doubt haunted the people who first inhabited this land in primitive, ancient times. It would not be until the mountain was discovered by modern Americans that the true meaning of this vision would be understood. Imagine the awe of the first settlers who saw the faces of four U.S. Presidents, Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt, towering over their new-claimed land, hewn by forces beyond human understanding into the mountainside. There could be no clearer symbol that this land was destined, manifestly even, to be settled by white people, and littered with tourist traps as far as the eye could see. We were moved by a newfound sense of national pride, and our post-modern, Seth-McFarlane-Era cynical snarkery was momentarily laid to waste. There was weeping. And gnashing of teeth.
However, this awe was short lived when we found out that the faces were not an ancient sign of divine providence but were, in fact, left over from the set of the 1959 film North by Northwest, starring Hugh Grant and Eva Green or some such people. The weeping and gnashing of teeth continued, but only through the many small children who had been dragged here by their families. Unless they had ice cream. Those youths seemed strangely unperturbed by the lies and hypocrisy that were being sneaked into their drinking water like so much fluoride. As the stone faces lit up from the glow of a hundred artificial lights, no doubt also left over from the 1959 film North by Northwest, we drove away in a stunned silence, a silence only broken by my one, pitiful attempt to regain some normalcy in the wake of our shattered faith in our forefather's divine right to settle and reforge this land in any way they saw fit-
"So...how about those Reds?" **
We returned to our camp, and found a therapeutic solace in our first completely successful attempt in building a fire. We each contributed in meaningful ways. Kate helped fix my kindling and tinder building, and I found a way to build on her success by insisting that we light larger logs as fuel, so the fire would last long enough to cook over. Our fire burned for a few hours, our franks and beans were tasty and delicious, our s'mores were smooth, and our lives were bright again. We went to bed, unsure if the world we woke up to would ever be quite the same.... after our harrowing encounter.... with History.
** Seriously, the Cincinnati Reds are in first place in their division? Now THAT shakes my faith in the established order of things. In a totally awesome way.
Day 9: Last full day in Montana
Our stay in Montana had been wonderful, and even though we had been there the longest out of all our stops it still felt all to short. It was so wonderful to catch up with so many Hollands, to share and even grow in our excitement with Uncle Jimmy about the wedding ceremony, and share Montana's wonders. Today was actually full of things that I'd never done in my trips here growing up. We started by going to the Northwest Montana Fair- shades of our Avoid the Stork trips all over the Iowa's county fair circuit over the past year and a half (www.avoidthestork.com). Our first fair event was swine showmanship- junior classes. About a dozen kids were showing their pigs by trying to keep them from fighting each other and rooting at the fence. This was all done with a little brush, a riding crop, their Sunday best, and of course, big bright smiles. They had to endure this for what felt like 15 minutes to me, and what surely felt like an eternity for them. It was strange. It was fun to watch. There was a dog agility show just outside. We met an Englishwoman who is training her Corgy for such events, and is out in Montana for some reason. The Corgy did well, except for the moment when he fled the course in pursuit of a BBQ chicken hut. Who wants to run through a huge insulation tube when there's chicken about, after all? There was a sheep who sounded like an irritated old man. We loved him. It was here that we also saw a stag beetle the size of my hand. No joke. Ironically, it was next to an insect jewelry booth, and we mused over the big guy with the booth's owner ("Maybe I can make a bracelet out of it..." "Or a broach!"). Overall, it was an impresive fair with lots of other fun animals to see, and something we'll hit up if we're able to again.
We went back to the house and had a "Hap rap," catching up with Grandpa on movies, theatre, all things cultural, making use of my ridiculous film history-addled brain. We were also all joined by my cousin Will, who is about to start studying songwriting at Berklee College of Music in Boston, and who I haven't seen since he was little tiny person, so it fantastic to catch up with him and re-meet each other as adult-types. When Matt got off work he pulled up to the house with an impressive looking speedboat, and we all said, "Well, let's put that in water and find out what happens." We took it down to Flathead Lake and tore around for a little bit, taking turns driving and basically playing Miami Vice: The Montana Years for a while. It rocked.
We closed out the night by chilling with Matt and Will in the basement while the (other?) grown ups went out. Overall, a wildly successful Montana trip- many, many memories made and some seeds for future trips planted (maybe an anniversary someday...).
Day 10: We drive across Montana and then experience a vision.
Montana is huge. Enormous. So when I say that we took a day to drive across Montana to get to our next stop, I hope you can begin to appreciate our insanity. This is the part of the drive that keeps most of you layabouts and hooligans from attempting such a thing. Well, we rocked it, so now you must bask in our bodacity (spf 35 recommended).
I'm trying to think if anything actually happened in Montana that day... we saw a bit Billings. There were some beautiful rock formations in the reservation we drove through... Oh, we drove past the battlefield at Little Big Horn! That happened... Um. Yeah. It's a long, long road, and it DID get progressively and surprisingly interesting as we approached the Black Hills of South Dakota. They're quite spooky.
We arrived at our campsite in Keystone, SD, near Rapid City, around 6:45 PM, quickly pitched our tent and went exploring in the Black Hills, evidently the sacred land of the Lakota tribe. However, as we explored we were greeted with a sight that chilled our very spines. Apparently, long, long ago, the movement of glaciers against the earth's crust carved into the living rock of these mountains four faces- four faces which must have been a mystery to those who first saw them- a strange vision that no doubt haunted the people who first inhabited this land in primitive, ancient times. It would not be until the mountain was discovered by modern Americans that the true meaning of this vision would be understood. Imagine the awe of the first settlers who saw the faces of four U.S. Presidents, Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt, towering over their new-claimed land, hewn by forces beyond human understanding into the mountainside. There could be no clearer symbol that this land was destined, manifestly even, to be settled by white people, and littered with tourist traps as far as the eye could see. We were moved by a newfound sense of national pride, and our post-modern, Seth-McFarlane-Era cynical snarkery was momentarily laid to waste. There was weeping. And gnashing of teeth.
However, this awe was short lived when we found out that the faces were not an ancient sign of divine providence but were, in fact, left over from the set of the 1959 film North by Northwest, starring Hugh Grant and Eva Green or some such people. The weeping and gnashing of teeth continued, but only through the many small children who had been dragged here by their families. Unless they had ice cream. Those youths seemed strangely unperturbed by the lies and hypocrisy that were being sneaked into their drinking water like so much fluoride. As the stone faces lit up from the glow of a hundred artificial lights, no doubt also left over from the 1959 film North by Northwest, we drove away in a stunned silence, a silence only broken by my one, pitiful attempt to regain some normalcy in the wake of our shattered faith in our forefather's divine right to settle and reforge this land in any way they saw fit-
"So...how about those Reds?" **
We returned to our camp, and found a therapeutic solace in our first completely successful attempt in building a fire. We each contributed in meaningful ways. Kate helped fix my kindling and tinder building, and I found a way to build on her success by insisting that we light larger logs as fuel, so the fire would last long enough to cook over. Our fire burned for a few hours, our franks and beans were tasty and delicious, our s'mores were smooth, and our lives were bright again. We went to bed, unsure if the world we woke up to would ever be quite the same.... after our harrowing encounter.... with History.
** Seriously, the Cincinnati Reds are in first place in their division? Now THAT shakes my faith in the established order of things. In a totally awesome way.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
South Dakota and Wisconsin
It's Kate, and I'm skipping ahead to days 11 and 12... David wants to write about the last day in Montana and our drive to Mount Rushmore. I'm going to pick up where we woke up at the campground in Keystone South Dakota. Another note - there's an issue with my computer and camera so you don't get any photos or videos til we get back to Ohio.
DAY 11
Date: Friday, August 20th
Location: Keystone, South Dakota to Boulder Junction Wisconsin
Miles: I don't even know.. 900? It was a ridiculous day.
This day was probably the longest and most agonizing of the trip, but we saw some great stuff along the way. We woke up in Kemp's Kamp in the woods behind Mount Rushmore, and thankfully we were not eaten by bears or mountain lions or rabid mountain goats. We were greeted by a nice family of wild turkeys, though. A momma and 3 babies walked right through our campsite. We hit the road and headed east for about an hour through South Dakota nothingness before arriving at one of the coolest spots we saw all trip, the Badlands.
When you get off the highway for the Badlands, you see some rock formations, but basically just wheat fields. Miles and miles of gold wheat fields. It's way freakier than endless corn or soy field due to the gold color. We drove a couple miles and took a dirt road to a part of the park that David discovered on the map - it wasn't technically part of "the loop" through the park, but it promised good views and prairie dogs. It was worth it - we saw prairie dogs EVERYWHERE which was so much fun, and we also saw the only bison in the Badlands there. We continued driving through the park and got to drive through the actual rock formations. They're not really rocks, it's more like eroded tightly packed dirt so you can't climb on most of it or it would crumble and you'd fall to your death. The only other wildlife we saw were GIANT grasshoppers and a snake. I was far more afraid of the giant grasshoppers than the snake on our path. There were signs for rattle snakes everywhere, but the snake we saw was some other thing - no rattle. We didn't see any pronghorns or mountain goats, but we had seen plenty in other parks. This is the one park I'd feel comfy doing back country hiking in - no trees so you have visibility as far as the eye can see. Rattle snakes, schmattle snakes.
Once we got back in the car we had an endless day of driving - 12 1/2 more hours after that point, and the speed limit was 75 a majority of that time. 6 more hours of South Dakota wheat fields alone. We than had to cross the width of Minnesota and go north past Minneapolis.. wheat changed to corn and the sun burned less bright making it at least a little less miserable. When we crossed into Wisconsin we weren't on major highways long - we had to go the rest of the way to northern Wisconsin in the dark on country roads (it was pitch black at 8:15.. what!?). It was terrifying and seemed like it would never end - deer in the road (we ran over a dead one), rain storms, fog.. and no light at all. We finally lived through the treacherous drive and arrived in Boulder Junction where we were greeted by John Eisner, my former boss and dear friend. He led us into the Manito-Wish Camp and walked us to their cabin. We were so happy to be there.. we chatted with John and Jen while their kids Hannah and Jake and Hannah's friend Shirley were asleep in the next room. After a glass of wine, we hit the bunks!
DAY 12
Date: Saturday, August 21
Location: Camp Manito-Wish to Madison
Miles: 3 1/2 hours south.. whatever that is (can you tell I don't have the mileage sheet with me?)
Camp Manito-Wish is a legitimate YWCA boys and girls camp and at the end of the summer they do a week of Family Camp where whole families stay in cabins and do camp together. John grew up in Madison and went to the camp as a kid, so now the whole Eisner family flies in from NYC and does Family Camp every year. We woke up to the breakfast bell and all the families head to the mess hall. Once we all had tables we said the morning grace and then someone from each table went to get the food to share. Cheese omelettes, french toast, fruit, and oatmeal. Every meal is eaten together and is reeeally good. Then all the counselors made announcements about the scheduled activities going on that morning. We chose to go on a horse trail ride (David's first ever time on a horse!) and take a canoe out on Boulder Lake. Lunch was more of the same, delicious bbq chicken, fries, and cheese biscuits, except lunch was followed by singing out of the camp music book - like real camp! We sang some songs and then retired to the cabin where we caught up with the kids. Then we took Jake to the rifle range and did some skeet shooting. David and I had never shot rifles so we didn't really hit anything, but it was so fun to learn. Jake was an old pro - he shot a rifle last year. Now that he was bigger, the kick back didn't hurt as much. After rifles, we had to say goodbye.. too short of a visit. Horses, canoes, and rifles all in one day? We've got to go back to Camp Manito-Wish!
We headed south to Madison and got to see how beautiful northern Wisconsin actually is in sunlight. We got to Madison right as the sun went down and arrived at our friend's Tommy and Megan's house. They made quesadillas and we played with their little girls Daphne and Fiona. I was wiped though, so we went to bed and slept for 10 hours. Now we're hanging out with the girls, who are pretending to be a kitty and bear, respectively. We'll be heading to Milwaukee and then Chicago in a little while!
DAY 11
Date: Friday, August 20th
Location: Keystone, South Dakota to Boulder Junction Wisconsin
Miles: I don't even know.. 900? It was a ridiculous day.
This day was probably the longest and most agonizing of the trip, but we saw some great stuff along the way. We woke up in Kemp's Kamp in the woods behind Mount Rushmore, and thankfully we were not eaten by bears or mountain lions or rabid mountain goats. We were greeted by a nice family of wild turkeys, though. A momma and 3 babies walked right through our campsite. We hit the road and headed east for about an hour through South Dakota nothingness before arriving at one of the coolest spots we saw all trip, the Badlands.
When you get off the highway for the Badlands, you see some rock formations, but basically just wheat fields. Miles and miles of gold wheat fields. It's way freakier than endless corn or soy field due to the gold color. We drove a couple miles and took a dirt road to a part of the park that David discovered on the map - it wasn't technically part of "the loop" through the park, but it promised good views and prairie dogs. It was worth it - we saw prairie dogs EVERYWHERE which was so much fun, and we also saw the only bison in the Badlands there. We continued driving through the park and got to drive through the actual rock formations. They're not really rocks, it's more like eroded tightly packed dirt so you can't climb on most of it or it would crumble and you'd fall to your death. The only other wildlife we saw were GIANT grasshoppers and a snake. I was far more afraid of the giant grasshoppers than the snake on our path. There were signs for rattle snakes everywhere, but the snake we saw was some other thing - no rattle. We didn't see any pronghorns or mountain goats, but we had seen plenty in other parks. This is the one park I'd feel comfy doing back country hiking in - no trees so you have visibility as far as the eye can see. Rattle snakes, schmattle snakes.
Once we got back in the car we had an endless day of driving - 12 1/2 more hours after that point, and the speed limit was 75 a majority of that time. 6 more hours of South Dakota wheat fields alone. We than had to cross the width of Minnesota and go north past Minneapolis.. wheat changed to corn and the sun burned less bright making it at least a little less miserable. When we crossed into Wisconsin we weren't on major highways long - we had to go the rest of the way to northern Wisconsin in the dark on country roads (it was pitch black at 8:15.. what!?). It was terrifying and seemed like it would never end - deer in the road (we ran over a dead one), rain storms, fog.. and no light at all. We finally lived through the treacherous drive and arrived in Boulder Junction where we were greeted by John Eisner, my former boss and dear friend. He led us into the Manito-Wish Camp and walked us to their cabin. We were so happy to be there.. we chatted with John and Jen while their kids Hannah and Jake and Hannah's friend Shirley were asleep in the next room. After a glass of wine, we hit the bunks!
DAY 12
Date: Saturday, August 21
Location: Camp Manito-Wish to Madison
Miles: 3 1/2 hours south.. whatever that is (can you tell I don't have the mileage sheet with me?)
Camp Manito-Wish is a legitimate YWCA boys and girls camp and at the end of the summer they do a week of Family Camp where whole families stay in cabins and do camp together. John grew up in Madison and went to the camp as a kid, so now the whole Eisner family flies in from NYC and does Family Camp every year. We woke up to the breakfast bell and all the families head to the mess hall. Once we all had tables we said the morning grace and then someone from each table went to get the food to share. Cheese omelettes, french toast, fruit, and oatmeal. Every meal is eaten together and is reeeally good. Then all the counselors made announcements about the scheduled activities going on that morning. We chose to go on a horse trail ride (David's first ever time on a horse!) and take a canoe out on Boulder Lake. Lunch was more of the same, delicious bbq chicken, fries, and cheese biscuits, except lunch was followed by singing out of the camp music book - like real camp! We sang some songs and then retired to the cabin where we caught up with the kids. Then we took Jake to the rifle range and did some skeet shooting. David and I had never shot rifles so we didn't really hit anything, but it was so fun to learn. Jake was an old pro - he shot a rifle last year. Now that he was bigger, the kick back didn't hurt as much. After rifles, we had to say goodbye.. too short of a visit. Horses, canoes, and rifles all in one day? We've got to go back to Camp Manito-Wish!
We headed south to Madison and got to see how beautiful northern Wisconsin actually is in sunlight. We got to Madison right as the sun went down and arrived at our friend's Tommy and Megan's house. They made quesadillas and we played with their little girls Daphne and Fiona. I was wiped though, so we went to bed and slept for 10 hours. Now we're hanging out with the girls, who are pretending to be a kitty and bear, respectively. We'll be heading to Milwaukee and then Chicago in a little while!
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Montana!
And now for the 4 wonderful days we've spent in Montana (without much driving!)!
DAY 5
We drove from Livingston, Montana where we stayed the night up to Kalispell. It only took 5 1/2 hours - not bad for this trip! At first when David asked me if Montana was everything I hoped it would be, I replied that it kindof looked like Wyoming. But then when we drove into the Rockies and a river was "running through it," I was satisfied. We stopped off in Missoula for a bit just to check it out, and we decided it would be amazing to be professors at the University of Montana someday.
As we continued north, we drove through the Flathead Indian Reservation and along the banks of the Flathead Lake - literally the most beautiful lake I had ever seen. Seriously, if you vacation on a different lake in the summer you were misinformed about which lake is the best lake. We arrived at David's Aunt and Uncle's house at about 3:30 and were greeted by David's cousin Matt Nelson. He took us to a great place called Nickel Charlie's where I had a Cowboy Steak Wrap (Montana!). Attached was a casino - we noticed driving through the state and in Kalispell that casinos are everywhere. Our favorite casinos are the ones attached to gas stations! We also found out that marijuana was recently legalized here. In the evening we spent time with Aunt Mary, Uncle Ray, Grandpa Holland (Hap), Matt, Aunt Beth, Uncle Michael, and their sons Drayton and Sean. We commenced watching silly home movie of David and Matt when they were kids and Drayton when he was a baby. We also got to meet the wild turkeys and the mother deer and 2 fawns who live in the Nelson's yard.
DAY 6
After a long nights sleep we went to mass with Grandpa and Aunt Mary and then to Taco Bell, a Hap Holland post-mass tradition. I had been so taken with Flathead Lake that we returned that afternoon to go swimming, even though we were warned it would be miserably cold. We drove through the Flathead cherry orchards that line the lake and arrived at a beach in a state park. The water is cold, but crystal clear and perfectly still - perfect for water sports. That evening the whole family drove out to a campground beside Lake MacDonald in Glacier National Park for a cookout. A grizzly had brutally killed someone at the same campground not too long ago - awesome (note: Bears are scary. I'm scared of bears). That aside, we had a lovely evening skipping rocks in the lake, eating hot dogs and s'mores, and sitting by the fire.
DAY 7
This was our big Glacier National Park day. On the way out we went to the famous Montana Coffee Traders for coffee and huckleberry pastries. Huckleberries are like blueberries but better, and are EVERYWHERE up here, a fact I'm very happy about. So far we have had huckleberry muffins, milkshakes, fudge, preserves, and pie and we're still going. Anyway, we left the house at 7:15 where we saw a turkey and 5 deer from the driveway. We assumed this meant we'd have a good wildlife day, and we were right. Glacier is famous for the one road that runs straight across it, the Going to the Sun Road. Since it's Glacier's centennial this year, they thankfully repaved most of the road and put up small walls in most places (apparently they used to just have you drive on the cliff like it was nothing - how did Bob Tull do it in the van all those years??). It's a spectacular drive to the top as long as everyone around you in driving safely.
At the top of the mountain where the road then begins to wind down the other side, there is a park area called Logan Pass. David didn't even mention this place as a good spot for animal spotting, he just said it was worth walking through because, hey, it's a gorgeous field on the top of a mountain. Well, right away we spotted a large group of big horn sheep, a marmot (chubby ground hog looking thing), and some mountain goats (the hairy white guys). On the way back down it was determined that the big horns were 19 males, and they just kept getting closer and closer to the path while the dumb tourists leaned closer and closer to them to get pictures - the Darwin Awards, National Parks edition. Check out this video of the big horns and dumb tourists in action:
DAY 5
We drove from Livingston, Montana where we stayed the night up to Kalispell. It only took 5 1/2 hours - not bad for this trip! At first when David asked me if Montana was everything I hoped it would be, I replied that it kindof looked like Wyoming. But then when we drove into the Rockies and a river was "running through it," I was satisfied. We stopped off in Missoula for a bit just to check it out, and we decided it would be amazing to be professors at the University of Montana someday.
As we continued north, we drove through the Flathead Indian Reservation and along the banks of the Flathead Lake - literally the most beautiful lake I had ever seen. Seriously, if you vacation on a different lake in the summer you were misinformed about which lake is the best lake. We arrived at David's Aunt and Uncle's house at about 3:30 and were greeted by David's cousin Matt Nelson. He took us to a great place called Nickel Charlie's where I had a Cowboy Steak Wrap (Montana!). Attached was a casino - we noticed driving through the state and in Kalispell that casinos are everywhere. Our favorite casinos are the ones attached to gas stations! We also found out that marijuana was recently legalized here. In the evening we spent time with Aunt Mary, Uncle Ray, Grandpa Holland (Hap), Matt, Aunt Beth, Uncle Michael, and their sons Drayton and Sean. We commenced watching silly home movie of David and Matt when they were kids and Drayton when he was a baby. We also got to meet the wild turkeys and the mother deer and 2 fawns who live in the Nelson's yard.
DAY 6
After a long nights sleep we went to mass with Grandpa and Aunt Mary and then to Taco Bell, a Hap Holland post-mass tradition. I had been so taken with Flathead Lake that we returned that afternoon to go swimming, even though we were warned it would be miserably cold. We drove through the Flathead cherry orchards that line the lake and arrived at a beach in a state park. The water is cold, but crystal clear and perfectly still - perfect for water sports. That evening the whole family drove out to a campground beside Lake MacDonald in Glacier National Park for a cookout. A grizzly had brutally killed someone at the same campground not too long ago - awesome (note: Bears are scary. I'm scared of bears). That aside, we had a lovely evening skipping rocks in the lake, eating hot dogs and s'mores, and sitting by the fire.
DAY 7
This was our big Glacier National Park day. On the way out we went to the famous Montana Coffee Traders for coffee and huckleberry pastries. Huckleberries are like blueberries but better, and are EVERYWHERE up here, a fact I'm very happy about. So far we have had huckleberry muffins, milkshakes, fudge, preserves, and pie and we're still going. Anyway, we left the house at 7:15 where we saw a turkey and 5 deer from the driveway. We assumed this meant we'd have a good wildlife day, and we were right. Glacier is famous for the one road that runs straight across it, the Going to the Sun Road. Since it's Glacier's centennial this year, they thankfully repaved most of the road and put up small walls in most places (apparently they used to just have you drive on the cliff like it was nothing - how did Bob Tull do it in the van all those years??). It's a spectacular drive to the top as long as everyone around you in driving safely.
At the top of the mountain where the road then begins to wind down the other side, there is a park area called Logan Pass. David didn't even mention this place as a good spot for animal spotting, he just said it was worth walking through because, hey, it's a gorgeous field on the top of a mountain. Well, right away we spotted a large group of big horn sheep, a marmot (chubby ground hog looking thing), and some mountain goats (the hairy white guys). On the way back down it was determined that the big horns were 19 males, and they just kept getting closer and closer to the path while the dumb tourists leaned closer and closer to them to get pictures - the Darwin Awards, National Parks edition. Check out this video of the big horns and dumb tourists in action:
When we got down the other side, we drove around to the village of Many Glacier in the eastern part of the park. The family had been at Glacier and spotted a total of 12 bears in one stretch of road (the berries are in bloom = scary for hikers). We checked out the Many Glacier lodge which is a gorgeous hotel for the affluent who don't want to rough it, but want to do Glacier. It's on a lake and you can see what's left of Glacier's glaciers from there. On the way back we did have a very pleasant bear sighting - a momma brown black bear with 2 roly poly cubs. They were close enough that we didn't need binoculars, but far enough away that we could get out of the car and not die. On the way out we saw something huge and black in the woods and I thought it was a bear, but it turned out to be 2 cows - cows roam free on Indian Reservations (bear bait!).
We drove ALL the way back over Going to the Sun (it takes forever) and took one last hike on the Trail of the Cedars, a beautiful recently renovated trail on a board walk (it doesn't prevent bear attacks, but it sure feels better!). We didn't make it back to the house til almost 7, but all was forgiven when we came with huckleberry pie.
DAY 8
Today the Blount's returned to Virginia Beach and Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Selinde arrived from British Columbia. Uncle Jimmy is the officiant for our wedding ceremony and so we were so happy to overlap with their visit. We all went to a pizza place with Hap where there was steak on our pizza (Montana!). Then David and I drove up to Whitefish, a resort town north of Kalispell. It has ski slopes and its own lake with a very yuppy downtown shopping area. They also have a theater so David really liked it. Apparently celebrities like Julia Roberts and Keifer Sutherland have houses up there. We came back for a walk with Matt and then a wonderful steak dinner with Jimmy and Selinde where we discussed plans for the wedding.
Catching up: Yellowstoning part II
David here again. SO when we last saw our intrepid heroes, we were driving through Hayden Valley buzzing off of bison adrenaline and fear of falling into the center of the earth. The day continued with many points of interest, including a ranger with a scope in Hayden Valley who showed us what were apparently the "ears of a wolf" about 600 yds away. Doesn't count as a wolf sighting in my book, but it was cool to know for sure that we were in the same area as one. After that we took a bypass to get some views of Yellowstone's Grand Canyon and the upper and lower falls of Yellowstone River. Allow me to get all Ken Burns' PBS special on you for a moment and say that the view from Artist's Point of the lower falls is truly one of the most awesome sights in this country. If you've never been to Yellowstone, it's the one thing you absolutely have to go see. It's off the loop a bit, but do not deprive yourself. See it with someone you love and you'll never forget it.
But enough with all these emotions. You want to know if we got eaten by a bear or not.
Our next stretch was boring, but significant, taking us through across the loop through a large section of the park that had been taken out by forest fires. It was a long 12 miles, but there's something undeniably spooky about all those bare trees and ash for miles and miles. As important to see as the pretty stuff, even if it's long. We stopped by Norris Geyser basin, the oldest geothermals in the park, for more walking out over unstable earthcrust fun, before working our way through some construction. You can either complain about being stuck in construction traffic, or you can enjoy a chance to be sitting in one place in Yellowstone for twenty minutes. We made sandwiches. After the traffic, we hit up the aptly named Artist's Paint Pots. Kate inspired an idea I had for an exhibit that related each of the fumaroles to part of an artist's process. I got to indulge my nerdery, Kate got to overcome some second thoughts about marrying me, it was fun! Plus we saw lots of chipmunks. We continued to work our way down to Old Faithful, stopping at Lower Geyeser basin, where a geyser was erupting, then to Grand Prismatic Spring and Excelsior Geyser Crater which are the best part of the whole earth falling apart thing at Yellowstone, in my opinion, and it is there that we saw Alan Grant's hat floating on top of a hot spring as if he had fallen in and his hat was all that remained. Picture to come. He will be missed. We also saw a geyser going off at Black Sand Basin, which was already making this a banner day for geyser eruptions. Clearly Yellowstone was pulling out all the stops to impress Kate and remind me why I love it.
And then we got to "The Show," Old Faithful and the Upper Geyser Basin. Welcome to nature's wonderland with 2,000 of your closest friends. It was a free day in the park, and this was the only part where it felt like everyone had decided to come to Yellowstone on the same day we did. Fortunately, we arrived right as Old Faithful had finished. I say fortunately because this allowed us to actually find a parking space as everyone sped off the next thing on their very, very busy agendas. (Seriously, people speeding in Yellowstone, why the rush? You're in a national park. Try to slow down and, I don't know, kind of enjoy yourself?) We spent an hour or so ambling through the basin and saw three more geyser eruptions, including a doozy from Gold Geyser which was twenty feet tall! I've never seen more than one of the other geysers going off, MAYBE, while doing the Old Faithful thing so, once again, kudos, Park. Castle Geyser loomed impressively, as always, and then it was time to get some coffee, hit up the gift shop, and arrive at the big guy 10 minutes before the next predicted time. Due to the hideously uncomfortable rainstorm (read, "light drizzle") we were able to walk past the hoards of people hiding under the Old Faithful Lodge's awning and get front row seats. Sure enough, the eruption was quite awesome! We have a video coming that you will all surely enjoy.
Soon the hideously uncomfortable rainstorm actually became hideously uncomfortable and we were of course doubling back along the Yellowstone River and through Hayden Valley to get to the road to Tower Roosevelt. We got through the rain and started traveling up from Canyon Village into the most steep and treacherous roads of the park. Kate was driving and doing an excellent job navigating the twists and turns of a mountain road that was beautiful, but harrowing. There were cars going to fast, people stopped in awkward places to look at things, and cyclists going by at crazy speeds. It's scary. Hey, guess where the Park decided Kate's first ever bear sighting should be?! We turned a sharp corner and ran smack into a bear jam. Very excitedly, I confirmed that there was a grizzly bear at the top of a nearby ridge, Kate pulled in behind a line of cars, and, being far enough behind other humans stupid enough to get close to a wild animal, we hopped out to take a look. We had five seconds to look at the bear before four cyclists hurdled around a corner without slowing down and almost crashed into everyone, swearing at Kate. A ranger came over and yelled at Kate for almost causing an accident. Resisting my urge to punch said ranger in the mouth, I politely asked the ranger where we should go. He told us to drive on. So, our first bear sighting of the trip ended as quickly and as upsetting as it began, and we drove back down the hill, Kate in distress and me silently writing a strongly worded letter to Yellowstone's management in my head. In retrospect, I've never seen too many grizzly's in Yellowstone, so to see one at all was special. Also, we got word that she had two cubs, so you tell me how much longer we should have stuck around a mother grizzly bear with two cubs and not much room to move around. It was just way too much of an adrenaline rush for both of us, and not the ideal way to see your first bear. I felt bad for Kate, so we stopped at Tower Falls for a well deserved breather and one of the parks more serene sights.
At this point, it was getting quite late, and we still had LaMarr Valley and Mammoth Hot Springs to see! We drove into LaMarr Valley, the famous Tull family bear spotting drive of choice for many years. While we didn't see any bears, we had some more impressive bison crossing encounters, much tamer than our earlier one, and a very nice time driving around looking for animals of all kinds. It was now too dark to really spot animals, so we headed out to Mammoth Springs, hoping for a little twilight to catch the terraces at least, and giving up hope on seeing an awesome animals. But Yellowstone had other plans, and soon we saw half a dozen cars pulled over next to a lake, which is the international symbol for "Moose Jam." Yes, after we had called an end to our animal spotting night, we had a last minute surprise guest fulfilling one of Kate's biggest Yellowstone wishes: a male moose wading through the lake at dusk. He was quite the majestic moose, and a worthy finish to a truly awesome day.
We then got to see Mammoth Hot Springs at night. I thought maybe they'd be illuminated like I've seen in pictures, but it was 9:30 when we got there, and well, that's pretty late for the park and it should come as no surprise that there was no light. So we hopped out, looked at the terraces, which were flowing quite well in the dark, and hopped into the car to try desperately to catch a little blue, post-sunset light for our ride out. Fortunately, the area around Mammoth Springs is perfectly charming and wonderful in the daylight, requiring the better part of a whole other day to actually see, so I'm glad we didn't try to cram it into this trip. I can't think of anything I'd like to replace it with, and now we have something special with which to start the next Yellowstone trip, because we're coming BACK to this place!
So, Dad, that thing you do when you drive all of us straight to Kalispell in the middle of the night while we sleep off a day at Yellowstone? I never appreciated how truly insane that feat is until riding for only one hour to Livingston, Montana where our hotel was north of the park. We saved a lot of money by not staying in a hotel right next to the park, but good lord it was a terrifying drive! There's no light! Plus it was a new moon, so really, no light!
Anyway, we got to Livingstone, crashed hard, caved in and bought McDonald's, then laid out on the bed to enjoy our awful food with some Rolling Rock and The Wild Bunch on TV.
Whew! Gah! That was an awesome day, and it was, what, four days ago?! Yeah, we'll keep getting you caught up, but Yellowstone left us exhausted, thrilled, awestruck and also exhausted. We proved we could experience the park in one day if necessary, but we're looking forward to going back someday with more time to spare. You know, when we're rich and stuff.
But enough with all these emotions. You want to know if we got eaten by a bear or not.
Our next stretch was boring, but significant, taking us through across the loop through a large section of the park that had been taken out by forest fires. It was a long 12 miles, but there's something undeniably spooky about all those bare trees and ash for miles and miles. As important to see as the pretty stuff, even if it's long. We stopped by Norris Geyser basin, the oldest geothermals in the park, for more walking out over unstable earthcrust fun, before working our way through some construction. You can either complain about being stuck in construction traffic, or you can enjoy a chance to be sitting in one place in Yellowstone for twenty minutes. We made sandwiches. After the traffic, we hit up the aptly named Artist's Paint Pots. Kate inspired an idea I had for an exhibit that related each of the fumaroles to part of an artist's process. I got to indulge my nerdery, Kate got to overcome some second thoughts about marrying me, it was fun! Plus we saw lots of chipmunks. We continued to work our way down to Old Faithful, stopping at Lower Geyeser basin, where a geyser was erupting, then to Grand Prismatic Spring and Excelsior Geyser Crater which are the best part of the whole earth falling apart thing at Yellowstone, in my opinion, and it is there that we saw Alan Grant's hat floating on top of a hot spring as if he had fallen in and his hat was all that remained. Picture to come. He will be missed. We also saw a geyser going off at Black Sand Basin, which was already making this a banner day for geyser eruptions. Clearly Yellowstone was pulling out all the stops to impress Kate and remind me why I love it.
And then we got to "The Show," Old Faithful and the Upper Geyser Basin. Welcome to nature's wonderland with 2,000 of your closest friends. It was a free day in the park, and this was the only part where it felt like everyone had decided to come to Yellowstone on the same day we did. Fortunately, we arrived right as Old Faithful had finished. I say fortunately because this allowed us to actually find a parking space as everyone sped off the next thing on their very, very busy agendas. (Seriously, people speeding in Yellowstone, why the rush? You're in a national park. Try to slow down and, I don't know, kind of enjoy yourself?) We spent an hour or so ambling through the basin and saw three more geyser eruptions, including a doozy from Gold Geyser which was twenty feet tall! I've never seen more than one of the other geysers going off, MAYBE, while doing the Old Faithful thing so, once again, kudos, Park. Castle Geyser loomed impressively, as always, and then it was time to get some coffee, hit up the gift shop, and arrive at the big guy 10 minutes before the next predicted time. Due to the hideously uncomfortable rainstorm (read, "light drizzle") we were able to walk past the hoards of people hiding under the Old Faithful Lodge's awning and get front row seats. Sure enough, the eruption was quite awesome! We have a video coming that you will all surely enjoy.
Soon the hideously uncomfortable rainstorm actually became hideously uncomfortable and we were of course doubling back along the Yellowstone River and through Hayden Valley to get to the road to Tower Roosevelt. We got through the rain and started traveling up from Canyon Village into the most steep and treacherous roads of the park. Kate was driving and doing an excellent job navigating the twists and turns of a mountain road that was beautiful, but harrowing. There were cars going to fast, people stopped in awkward places to look at things, and cyclists going by at crazy speeds. It's scary. Hey, guess where the Park decided Kate's first ever bear sighting should be?! We turned a sharp corner and ran smack into a bear jam. Very excitedly, I confirmed that there was a grizzly bear at the top of a nearby ridge, Kate pulled in behind a line of cars, and, being far enough behind other humans stupid enough to get close to a wild animal, we hopped out to take a look. We had five seconds to look at the bear before four cyclists hurdled around a corner without slowing down and almost crashed into everyone, swearing at Kate. A ranger came over and yelled at Kate for almost causing an accident. Resisting my urge to punch said ranger in the mouth, I politely asked the ranger where we should go. He told us to drive on. So, our first bear sighting of the trip ended as quickly and as upsetting as it began, and we drove back down the hill, Kate in distress and me silently writing a strongly worded letter to Yellowstone's management in my head. In retrospect, I've never seen too many grizzly's in Yellowstone, so to see one at all was special. Also, we got word that she had two cubs, so you tell me how much longer we should have stuck around a mother grizzly bear with two cubs and not much room to move around. It was just way too much of an adrenaline rush for both of us, and not the ideal way to see your first bear. I felt bad for Kate, so we stopped at Tower Falls for a well deserved breather and one of the parks more serene sights.
At this point, it was getting quite late, and we still had LaMarr Valley and Mammoth Hot Springs to see! We drove into LaMarr Valley, the famous Tull family bear spotting drive of choice for many years. While we didn't see any bears, we had some more impressive bison crossing encounters, much tamer than our earlier one, and a very nice time driving around looking for animals of all kinds. It was now too dark to really spot animals, so we headed out to Mammoth Springs, hoping for a little twilight to catch the terraces at least, and giving up hope on seeing an awesome animals. But Yellowstone had other plans, and soon we saw half a dozen cars pulled over next to a lake, which is the international symbol for "Moose Jam." Yes, after we had called an end to our animal spotting night, we had a last minute surprise guest fulfilling one of Kate's biggest Yellowstone wishes: a male moose wading through the lake at dusk. He was quite the majestic moose, and a worthy finish to a truly awesome day.
We then got to see Mammoth Hot Springs at night. I thought maybe they'd be illuminated like I've seen in pictures, but it was 9:30 when we got there, and well, that's pretty late for the park and it should come as no surprise that there was no light. So we hopped out, looked at the terraces, which were flowing quite well in the dark, and hopped into the car to try desperately to catch a little blue, post-sunset light for our ride out. Fortunately, the area around Mammoth Springs is perfectly charming and wonderful in the daylight, requiring the better part of a whole other day to actually see, so I'm glad we didn't try to cram it into this trip. I can't think of anything I'd like to replace it with, and now we have something special with which to start the next Yellowstone trip, because we're coming BACK to this place!
So, Dad, that thing you do when you drive all of us straight to Kalispell in the middle of the night while we sleep off a day at Yellowstone? I never appreciated how truly insane that feat is until riding for only one hour to Livingston, Montana where our hotel was north of the park. We saved a lot of money by not staying in a hotel right next to the park, but good lord it was a terrifying drive! There's no light! Plus it was a new moon, so really, no light!
Anyway, we got to Livingstone, crashed hard, caved in and bought McDonald's, then laid out on the bed to enjoy our awful food with some Rolling Rock and The Wild Bunch on TV.
Whew! Gah! That was an awesome day, and it was, what, four days ago?! Yeah, we'll keep getting you caught up, but Yellowstone left us exhausted, thrilled, awestruck and also exhausted. We proved we could experience the park in one day if necessary, but we're looking forward to going back someday with more time to spare. You know, when we're rich and stuff.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Catching up again.... Yellowstone
This is David with a rundown of our runaround in Yellowstone National Park.
DAY 4
DATE: Friday, August 13
LOCATION: Flagg Ranch to Livingstone, MT by way of Yellowstone National Park
Distance: 189 miles? (There was a considerable amount of looping around the park. It's probably closer to 300)
We woke up bright and early at 4:30 AM to strike camp and get an early start in Yellowstone. This first attempt failed, since there was absolutely no light to strike said camp, so we went back to sleep until 5, at which point there was barely enough light to get things moving. Wyoming, I thought you people got up early when you went camping? We were showered, packed, and ready to go by the time I saw any of you meandering out of your enormous campers. By that point we were on the road and in the park by 6:44 AM in order to make the most of the day and catch some prime animals-at-dawn sightings.
Kate's idea was to check out the Yellowstone River Valley in the southeast corner of the park near Hayden Valley first thing- since we had read that animals head there first thing to drink and mill about. Sure enough, right before we got the valley we had our first couple of animal sightings. After two brief elk encounters (good stuff, but nothing too exotic) we had Kate's first bison encounter... and we were still in the woods. These guys tend to be, ya know, plains dwellers, but for some reason this one guy, totally alone, seemingly separated from his herd, was plodding along next to the road, heading in the opposite direction from us. With hardly anyone in the park, we could pull a U-Turn drive alongside him, get some pictures, feel extra cool, and then U-Turn again right smack dab into what appeared to be THE REST OF HIS HERD! At least fifty bison were being corralled by a ranger's jeep along this two lane road through the woods. Some of them were running in and out of the other cars that had pulled up and were stopped by the herd's movement. We see a calf. Kate yells, "IT'S A BABY!" as she is wont to do. Mr. Bison RUNS over to investigate this loud noise, and poor Carla is soon three feet away from a curious, agitated, possibly threatened cow-beast protecting it's baby. I'm not saying it was about to be a cage match between a Kia Rio and an alpha bison (guess who has the odds in that one...) but I've never seen these guys so agitated before. Once we rolled the windows up, Big Papa backed off and we continued to enjoy one of the most amazing things I've ever seen- a herd of bison swarming around our car IN A FOREST! This was our first major animal encounter of the day, setting the bar pretty darn high and our adrenaline for the rest of the day even higher.
Jacked up on bison fear, we stopped for Kate's first geothermal feature at Yellowstone, The Mud Volcano. For those not in the know, Yellowstone is situated over an enormous area of extreme geothermal instability, resulting in many geysers, mudpots, fumaroles, and hot springs- not the kind that you can take a dip in, the kind that will melt you alive, like the old lady in Dante's Peak. So, while beautiful in a primal sort of way, many sections of the park are ready to collapse completely or maybe explode if they feel like it. That doesn't stop any of us from walking out onto boardwalks that have been built right on that ground so we can walk up to pits of bellowing death steam with names like "The Dragon's Mouth" and catch a bracing whiff of sulfites, fresh from the earth's crust. Needless to say, it takes a little getting used to, and since only I had done it before, Kate was concerned. We soldiered across the boardwalk, however, only to have bison encounter number two go down. These large fellows love the geothermal stuff, since they provide warmth. One bison was particularly bold and was suddenly crossing the boardwalk behind us. He continued to lope along, grazing as he went, and it became clear that we would have to hustle to make it through the boardwalk without getting in his way. So we hustled. We then got back in the car and continued to drive into Hayden Valley, where we saw scores of bison all over the hills and fields doing what they normally do when visitors see them: sitting. We saw many more bison just sitting that day, but our first two encounters with them always reminded us that at any moment these seemingly docile animals could murder the bejesus out of us if they really wanted to.
Time to sleep. I'll keep Yellowstoning tomorrow after our Glacier day: Going to the Sun road, Many Glacier, Avalanche Creek trail, hopefully some bear sightings if the stories we've heard are any indication.
DAY 4
DATE: Friday, August 13
LOCATION: Flagg Ranch to Livingstone, MT by way of Yellowstone National Park
Distance: 189 miles? (There was a considerable amount of looping around the park. It's probably closer to 300)
We woke up bright and early at 4:30 AM to strike camp and get an early start in Yellowstone. This first attempt failed, since there was absolutely no light to strike said camp, so we went back to sleep until 5, at which point there was barely enough light to get things moving. Wyoming, I thought you people got up early when you went camping? We were showered, packed, and ready to go by the time I saw any of you meandering out of your enormous campers. By that point we were on the road and in the park by 6:44 AM in order to make the most of the day and catch some prime animals-at-dawn sightings.
Kate's idea was to check out the Yellowstone River Valley in the southeast corner of the park near Hayden Valley first thing- since we had read that animals head there first thing to drink and mill about. Sure enough, right before we got the valley we had our first couple of animal sightings. After two brief elk encounters (good stuff, but nothing too exotic) we had Kate's first bison encounter... and we were still in the woods. These guys tend to be, ya know, plains dwellers, but for some reason this one guy, totally alone, seemingly separated from his herd, was plodding along next to the road, heading in the opposite direction from us. With hardly anyone in the park, we could pull a U-Turn drive alongside him, get some pictures, feel extra cool, and then U-Turn again right smack dab into what appeared to be THE REST OF HIS HERD! At least fifty bison were being corralled by a ranger's jeep along this two lane road through the woods. Some of them were running in and out of the other cars that had pulled up and were stopped by the herd's movement. We see a calf. Kate yells, "IT'S A BABY!" as she is wont to do. Mr. Bison RUNS over to investigate this loud noise, and poor Carla is soon three feet away from a curious, agitated, possibly threatened cow-beast protecting it's baby. I'm not saying it was about to be a cage match between a Kia Rio and an alpha bison (guess who has the odds in that one...) but I've never seen these guys so agitated before. Once we rolled the windows up, Big Papa backed off and we continued to enjoy one of the most amazing things I've ever seen- a herd of bison swarming around our car IN A FOREST! This was our first major animal encounter of the day, setting the bar pretty darn high and our adrenaline for the rest of the day even higher.
Jacked up on bison fear, we stopped for Kate's first geothermal feature at Yellowstone, The Mud Volcano. For those not in the know, Yellowstone is situated over an enormous area of extreme geothermal instability, resulting in many geysers, mudpots, fumaroles, and hot springs- not the kind that you can take a dip in, the kind that will melt you alive, like the old lady in Dante's Peak. So, while beautiful in a primal sort of way, many sections of the park are ready to collapse completely or maybe explode if they feel like it. That doesn't stop any of us from walking out onto boardwalks that have been built right on that ground so we can walk up to pits of bellowing death steam with names like "The Dragon's Mouth" and catch a bracing whiff of sulfites, fresh from the earth's crust. Needless to say, it takes a little getting used to, and since only I had done it before, Kate was concerned. We soldiered across the boardwalk, however, only to have bison encounter number two go down. These large fellows love the geothermal stuff, since they provide warmth. One bison was particularly bold and was suddenly crossing the boardwalk behind us. He continued to lope along, grazing as he went, and it became clear that we would have to hustle to make it through the boardwalk without getting in his way. So we hustled. We then got back in the car and continued to drive into Hayden Valley, where we saw scores of bison all over the hills and fields doing what they normally do when visitors see them: sitting. We saw many more bison just sitting that day, but our first two encounters with them always reminded us that at any moment these seemingly docile animals could murder the bejesus out of us if they really wanted to.
Time to sleep. I'll keep Yellowstoning tomorrow after our Glacier day: Going to the Sun road, Many Glacier, Avalanche Creek trail, hopefully some bear sightings if the stories we've heard are any indication.
Catching up... WYOMING DAY!
Time to catch up on the blog! Kate here, writing about day 3, and then David will post an entry about our 4th day.
DAY 3
DATE: Thursday, August 12
LOCATION: Denver up through Wyoming
DISTANCE: 492 miles
We thought our third day was going to be so-so - 8 hours in the car through the middle of nowhere Wyoming until we reachedour final destination, Flagg Ranch in the Grand Tetons. But, SURPRISE! it was one of the best days of the trip. If you've never driven through Wyoming, we highly recommend it. It was beautiful even if there wasn't much there... at all.
We started the day with Clarice sending us off the beaten path and we were so glad she did - we drove through the mountains of northern Colorado until we eventually crossed the border into Wyoming. When we turned around to go take a picture with the "Welcome to Wyoming" sign, we saw a prairie dog! Not a bad start for our 2 day Wyoming wildlife extravaganza.
The first major city we drove through was Laramie, which had a special meaning to us as theatre artists. The Tectonic Theater Project interviewed residents of Laramie after Matthew Shepard was brutally tortured and murdered because of his homosexuality and they then created the play "The Laramie Project." It was a desolate and oppressive factory town, and we couldn't imagine what it must have been like for a young homosexual college student to grow up there. In Laramie we got onto route 80 and headed toward the mountains. This is when we noticed the WIND! It's sooo windy! We saw signs that warned of "Gusty Crosswinds" and they were not kidding. Carla handled it though. From this point forward we also saw many herds of Pronghorn, a really cool kind of deer that looks like some kind of African antelope.
We got off 80 and headed north, and soon realized we were in a large basin between two mountain ranges that has absolutely nothing in it for about 100 miles. There were 2 towns labeled on the map, but after the first one turned out to be 2 trailers and a closed cafe, we had lost hope in finding a gas station in the second town, Muddy Gap. Luckily for us, all Muddy Gap was was a gas station. ONLY a gas station. There were some tourists on their way to Yellowstone, a group of bikers, and some British cyclists who were riding bikes across Wyoming (yikes.. and yet, rather common. lots of bikes out here). Inside you could buy t-shirts that said "WHERE THE #$%^ IS MUDDY GAP??" I was tempted, but a photo would have to do. After gassing up with 3 dollar 50 cent gas in MG, we came upon a "point of interest" as they call them out here that was Split Rock. It was a beautiful mountain pass that apparently was a stop on the Oregon Trail and the Pony Express. There was also a sign explaining that this valley was still home to wild horses - we saw tons of horses throughout the day, but the land is so vast and the ranches are so big that it's impossible to tell if a horse alongside the road is wild or owned by a rancher. So.. chances are we saw wild horses, we just don't know which of them were wild!
By the time we reached the northwest corner of the state, there began to be a lot more vegetation and the mountain range grew larger. We passed through a couple of adorable towns, both of which clearly have tourism from the Grand Teton, Yellowstone area, Lander and Dubois. We've already decided that the only way to do Yellowstone is to drive through all of Wyoming to get there (don't let the no towns and no gas fool you, it's gorgeous and worth it!), and that next time we're staying the night in Dubois and finding a place to ride horses. We hit some treacherous wind at one point - we could see a storm drifting over the mountain and the resulting wind was bending trees all the way over and sending debris across the road. Also, when we were up the mountain almost into the Grand Teton National Park, we drove through a completely unpaved pass and had to be led through by a ranger. All of this was fun, though, because Wyoming is so beautiful.
We got to the Grand Tetons and headed north toward our campground. Flagg Ranch is inbetween the Tetons and Yellowstone and I'm pretty sure it's the Four Seasons of campsites. We were near the showers and had our own firepit and picnic table, and there was a lodge not too far away where I could get coffee in the morning. It was a ton of fun to camp, even though we failed fabulously at making a fire to cook our dinner (no kindling). It is definitely in bear country, and we were warned that a grizzly had been trolling around the river bank not far from the campsite. Grizzlies are not like other wild animals - they'll seriously just attack you for no reason. Keep in mind we were in a tent surrounded by people in heated campers! Thankfully we had no incidents with bears, although it was 35 degrees that night - I was glad I remembered to pack our warm clothes and blankets and we were able to cuddle and keep plenty warm. Anyway, Flagg Ranch comes highly recommended, and if you're ever up there don't pay for a hotel - just camp!
DAY 3
DATE: Thursday, August 12
LOCATION: Denver up through Wyoming
DISTANCE: 492 miles
We thought our third day was going to be so-so - 8 hours in the car through the middle of nowhere Wyoming until we reachedour final destination, Flagg Ranch in the Grand Tetons. But, SURPRISE! it was one of the best days of the trip. If you've never driven through Wyoming, we highly recommend it. It was beautiful even if there wasn't much there... at all.
We started the day with Clarice sending us off the beaten path and we were so glad she did - we drove through the mountains of northern Colorado until we eventually crossed the border into Wyoming. When we turned around to go take a picture with the "Welcome to Wyoming" sign, we saw a prairie dog! Not a bad start for our 2 day Wyoming wildlife extravaganza.
The first major city we drove through was Laramie, which had a special meaning to us as theatre artists. The Tectonic Theater Project interviewed residents of Laramie after Matthew Shepard was brutally tortured and murdered because of his homosexuality and they then created the play "The Laramie Project." It was a desolate and oppressive factory town, and we couldn't imagine what it must have been like for a young homosexual college student to grow up there. In Laramie we got onto route 80 and headed toward the mountains. This is when we noticed the WIND! It's sooo windy! We saw signs that warned of "Gusty Crosswinds" and they were not kidding. Carla handled it though. From this point forward we also saw many herds of Pronghorn, a really cool kind of deer that looks like some kind of African antelope.
We got off 80 and headed north, and soon realized we were in a large basin between two mountain ranges that has absolutely nothing in it for about 100 miles. There were 2 towns labeled on the map, but after the first one turned out to be 2 trailers and a closed cafe, we had lost hope in finding a gas station in the second town, Muddy Gap. Luckily for us, all Muddy Gap was was a gas station. ONLY a gas station. There were some tourists on their way to Yellowstone, a group of bikers, and some British cyclists who were riding bikes across Wyoming (yikes.. and yet, rather common. lots of bikes out here). Inside you could buy t-shirts that said "WHERE THE #$%^ IS MUDDY GAP??" I was tempted, but a photo would have to do. After gassing up with 3 dollar 50 cent gas in MG, we came upon a "point of interest" as they call them out here that was Split Rock. It was a beautiful mountain pass that apparently was a stop on the Oregon Trail and the Pony Express. There was also a sign explaining that this valley was still home to wild horses - we saw tons of horses throughout the day, but the land is so vast and the ranches are so big that it's impossible to tell if a horse alongside the road is wild or owned by a rancher. So.. chances are we saw wild horses, we just don't know which of them were wild!
By the time we reached the northwest corner of the state, there began to be a lot more vegetation and the mountain range grew larger. We passed through a couple of adorable towns, both of which clearly have tourism from the Grand Teton, Yellowstone area, Lander and Dubois. We've already decided that the only way to do Yellowstone is to drive through all of Wyoming to get there (don't let the no towns and no gas fool you, it's gorgeous and worth it!), and that next time we're staying the night in Dubois and finding a place to ride horses. We hit some treacherous wind at one point - we could see a storm drifting over the mountain and the resulting wind was bending trees all the way over and sending debris across the road. Also, when we were up the mountain almost into the Grand Teton National Park, we drove through a completely unpaved pass and had to be led through by a ranger. All of this was fun, though, because Wyoming is so beautiful.
We got to the Grand Tetons and headed north toward our campground. Flagg Ranch is inbetween the Tetons and Yellowstone and I'm pretty sure it's the Four Seasons of campsites. We were near the showers and had our own firepit and picnic table, and there was a lodge not too far away where I could get coffee in the morning. It was a ton of fun to camp, even though we failed fabulously at making a fire to cook our dinner (no kindling). It is definitely in bear country, and we were warned that a grizzly had been trolling around the river bank not far from the campsite. Grizzlies are not like other wild animals - they'll seriously just attack you for no reason. Keep in mind we were in a tent surrounded by people in heated campers! Thankfully we had no incidents with bears, although it was 35 degrees that night - I was glad I remembered to pack our warm clothes and blankets and we were able to cuddle and keep plenty warm. Anyway, Flagg Ranch comes highly recommended, and if you're ever up there don't pay for a hotel - just camp!
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