Forty Day and Thirty-Nine Nights

We pulled in to Portsmouth, my grandmother's home, at exactly six o'clock on July 2nd.  We dined on proper Southern diner of bar-b-que, cole slaw and iced tea and slept indoors.  We spent the better part of yesterday emptying out the car, cleaning off the camping supplies and sweating.  I'm not adjusted to this heat yet. 

In all we traveled over 8400 miles, visited 19 national parks, visited 15 states, saw wildlife a plenty, met loads of interesting people and spent gobs of money with nothing much to show for it but memories and annoying anecdotes suitable for cocktail parties.  Should I ever go to a cocktail party again I guess.

I'm sure if someone pressed me enough, I could tell you what was my favorite place or what the best time was.  But honestly, the whole thing was.  The trip in and of itself was superlative, it was the experience that I will remember most and the reason, the reason for doing it all.

The worst was west Texas though.  I still hate west Texas.  If it's going to be that hot and dry and least get some cacti or mountains to look at while I drive though.  That's what the other states in the Southwest did.

So concludes this blog though.  While Liz and I will surely have many more adventures finding the means and measures to restart our stationary lives, I doubt they will make for interesting reading being so few and far between the days of staring out the window of my grandmother's house, waiting for something to happen.  So I will leave you with this picture.  It's an historic old cabin along the Appalachian Trail, surely built by some of the first people to strike out 'west' to find new lives and happy to live dirt poor up in the mountains.  I can dig that, maybe if we play our cards right we can be so lucky.

Thanks for reading this far.

Before We Wrap This Up

Let me introduce you to the third member of our adventure, Ted.

Ted and I got together in Denmark back in 2003.  I met him on the streets where he was doing performance art for small change.  He chose to come with us back to the states and has been going on adventures with Liz and me ever since.  Here are some highlights...

In the desert, looking hot

Walking out on one of the arches at Arches NP.  A no-no for humans

Admiring the ancient pueblo dwellings of Mesa Verde

At the Smokey the Bear Museum in New Mexico.  Obviously a childhood hero.

In New Orleans on Bourbon St

Getting a bev at Buc-ee's

Taking a turn at the wheel

Ah memories.

The Last State

We are now in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Odds are that we'll camp tonight in the Blue Ridge somewhere and then float into Portsmouth tomorrow evening. And just like that the trip will be over. Sometimes it feels like it just started.

We had a great time in Ashville yesterday, seeing Liz's family and the town. It was my first chance to get around downtown there and I really liked it, very bohemian. Caroline, if you're reading this, why didn't you move there instead of Raintown?

Way Down South

As any follower of this blog might be able to tell from my lack of blogging, I liked New Orleans. Too much to waste my time there writing about it anyway.

Liz and I had a great time there. It was way, way too hot and humid, but thats why they sell drive through daiquiris. We didn't do everything there was to do though. We were too late in the day when we got to go to the Tabasco factory and we didn't get to Cafe Du  Monde due to personnel issues on our end. Turns out we are getting too old to go out until all hours everyday.

We do a lot though. We saw step brass band out in the wrong part of town, had some great po' boys and gas station fried chicken, and still found time to have a few drinks. It turns out New Orleans is known for that last one. Our host Jon made us get  house daiquiris at the Green Turtle, which tasted like artificial watermelon and kerosene. The best part of them though was that they were cheep and made everything else after that taste great.

The city itself was beautiful to a couple of architects. True it was pretty rough in spots, and damn scary in more spots but that is just part of the character. Our host Jon lives in an awesome shotgun duplex in Bywater which dated back to the mid 1800's. The whole neighborhood looked like old Key West, but no mater how far you walked, you never got to the beach.

A big thanks to Sherry and David for coming all the way down there and a huge thanks to you Jon for letting us destroy your place and sleep on your floor.

Since then we drove up to Natchez. The town was famous for being right on the Mississippi and having a few dozen insanely rich white people back in the day. Those rich white people are all gone, but their massive houses are still there. While they were all quite beautiful, they were also kind of wired since a lot of them are right in the middle of town. There would be a row of stately old homes and then boom, 20,000 sf of mansion. It would be like if Bill Gates showed up and built his house at the end of your neighborhood.

Since then we've been driving up the Natchez Trace, seeing the rural deep south and spending two of the hottest nights camping ever. I mean EVER.

We hit up the Jack Daniels distillery tour today. It's a great tour if you're ever in nowhere Tennessee and even got a bottle of booze there in a dry county (it's a long story). Tonight though, we're in doors sleeping and Liz's aunt and uncle's in Ashville NC. No more sweating in my sleep.

Here's Ol' Jack.

Big River

They don't have adventures like this on the East Coast until now. We crossed the Mississippi last night and are hanging out in New Orleans. This is my kind of town, everyone just wanders around the streets drinking. I could move here if they'd just air condition the whole outside.

Look, it's the Ol' Miss.

Everything's Bigger in Texas

Including gas stations. We just stopped at Buc'ees in Lulling, TX. To give you some idea of what I'm taking about, it's got thirty gas pumps and sixty toilets in the womens room staffed by three full time attendants.

If that's not enough, they make all of their food in house, like giant tacos, pulled BBQ sandwiches and a dozen kind of jerky. Let's not forget the confections either, like the bag of Bever Nuggets. They're like Kix cereal, but about a hundred times less healthy. How is everyone in the South so fat.

Oh and check out the logo.

Onward from Texas

We're bound for San Antonio to New Orleans and heading from one hotter than hell city for a hotter one.  But before we do, a little about our time here yesterday.

We headed out yesterday first for some history and then for some fun.  We walked over to the Alamo (the only area at grade you can walk to in this city) to learn the rich history of Texas.  After all this is where the independence of Texas was won, where Bowie and Houston died and where a historic building still stands.  Lies all of them.  Now growing up in Virginia, the most we ever learned about Texas in history was they were the willing provider of troops to the War of Northern Aggression, so I may have been a little light on the facts.  Let's go through them.

First, the decisive battle of Texas independence was at the Battle of San Jacinto, which was fought after the full defeat of the Texans at the Alamo.  And the only reason that the Battle of San Jacinto was the birth of Texas independence was because the Texans captured Santa Anna and he bargained his life for quasi-nationhood. The Alamo, while a brave last stand, was a huge loss in their was for independence.

Second, the only historically significant person who died at the Alamo was Davy Crockett and his bagpipe playing friend.  It turns out he was tired of being a congressman and was looking for adventure.  Looks like he found a little too much.  Bowie was there and did die there, but he was bed ridden.

Last, most of the battle of the Alamo took place in the courtyard and outbuildings surrounding the chapel that we have all come to know at the Alamo.  Where are these places now, below the city streets of San Antonio.  In fact, the Alamo building as we know it was a roofless deserted chapel on the edge of the battle.  The historic front and roofline was added by the federal government around 1850 after Texas was annexed.

But it really does have no basement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYfjq3ZYZbA

Confidential to San Antonio

The Riverwalk is nice.  I was actually quite surprised.  Running a stagnant body of water through your downtown makes it a little more humid, but it's still a nice strolling and people watching place.  The rest of your downtown though... kind of like Little Detroit.   

Seriously the Riverwalk is pretty and full of people even on a hot Wednesday night.  Sure it's full of tourist traps and terrible chain restaurants, but we're Americans, what else would you expect.  But head up to the surface of downtown and it's like you've wondered out onto the surface after the end of the world.  Blowing trash, empty surface parking lots, boarded up buildings, the only sign of life I saw was at a bus stop where someone was getting arrested.  It was like wondering behind the scenes at Disneyland.

Pretty!  No photos were allowed above grade.

I can tell having a downtown address in San Antonio is the kiss of death for a business, and after all this is Texas the land of wide open spaces right.  Who would want to be downtown, commie.  But can't you find of excess hipsters from Austin to live in some of the upper stories of some of these great buildings overlooking the river?  It's where I'd want to live if I was forced to live here.

Two Photos of Carlsbad

I wanted to give you a couple of photos of Carlsbad, but Blogger was being a jerk the other day.  Enjoy

At the intersection of Boyd and Chapman.  Yeah, I'm kind of a big deal in New Mexico

Either the lair of Dr. No or the lunchroom at Carlsbad Caverns

Somebody Please Mess with Texas

We've been in Texas for about four hours now, about four hours too long. Something needs to be done to break up the monotony of this place, like a mountain range or moving one of the spare great lakes down here. The landscape is flat scrub broken occasionally by slightly hilly scrub.

The speed limit is eighty, which seems nuts. But if you don't do it you'll be run down by a three-quarter ton pickup with the biggest brush guard you've ever seen.

So far I haven't seen a long horn or a cowboy, but west Texas had a damn lot of oil wells surrounded by Halliburton trucks.

Seems to me, you'd have to be a little slow to give up the Ivy League life of a Boston brahman and Maine summers to move out here to pretend to be a cowboy.

On to Texas

It's going to be a long haul today.  We're leaving New Mexico, finally turning east and heading across Texas to San Antonio.  Once there, we're going to spend a day there.  No not to see the Riverwalk or the Alamo, booooring.  No, we are going to go to Six Flags tomorrow.  That's 'merica, not all of this outdoor stuff.

As for yesterday and Carlsbad, we had a good time.  I (Boyd) have been to Carlsbad, but that was twenty years ago and while we did a lot, we didn't actually go in the main cavern then but another less developed one.  The national park actually has 110 distinct caves within their boundary.  All of the outer cave tours though are held on the weekends though, so main cave it was.  I've always heard the main cavern po-pooed a bit because it's so developed.  It's built out with sidewalks, lights, elevators and even a lunchroom.  While I can't speak to the need for a lunchroom, we used those elevators to get out because at its lowest, the main cave is almost 1000' below the entrance.

The cavern was amazing.  I know, everything has been amazing but I guess it's a big country full of amazing sites.  Anyway, the main event in the cave is the 'Big Room' called such because it has a floor area of 8.2 acres.  Or as Will Rogers put it, "the Grand Canyon with a roof on it."

Unfortunately we planned a whole day at the caves and even after the two of us nerding it up, taking hundreds of photos and reading ever board in there, we still only took half a day.  Liz really wanted to watch the thousands of bats fly out of the cave at sunset, so we could either sit in the car for hours or do something else.  Else we did.  We drove another 40 miles south into Texas to see the Guadalupe Mountains NP.  It contains Texas' highest point, their own El Capitan and preserves a west Texas historical ranch.  With that little side trip that brought our total of National Parks and Monuments visited to 17.  Not bad for one trip.

For some reason, Blogger won't let me add any media today.  So instead, enjoy this ode to Texas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QltlctqfY4E

Oil Change

When in Santa Fe it's just the custom to get an oil change. Well we had to, it's been 5000 plus miles since we started, so it was due.

We took that time and our bikes and rode into the old part of town. We went and saw the San Miguel Mission dating from 1610 and toured the Governors Palace which claims to be the oldest inhabited structure in America. The caviat being that after the Pueblo Revolt of 1683 the indians made it their home and not so much the seat of Spanish colonial power in the southwest. Aside from that it was filled with very interesting relics of Santa Fe's past under three different flags.

We're heading south now to Carlsbad NP for some cool underground cave times and really bad motels. With the high, high heat, deserts, high winds (50mph plus) and a near total lack of public campgrounds we will be moteling it until we get to New Orleans. It'll cost us a few more bucks a day, but daily showers will be a nice change.

Oh and for all you west coasters, we just had some Chick Fil A. Yum! Thanks Linda.

On Trikes

If you feel you're too old to ride yer hog on you're cross country trip, don't go out and buy a trike. If you still feel the need to ride that trike across America, but you've got so much stuff that you need to tow a trailer, just give up and buy a Chrysler Seabring convertible and admit defeat, because you're not fooling anyone.

I'd guess we pass a couple on one every half hour or less while we're on the road. I never knew there were so many in the world.

Colorado

It seems like we've done a lot and not blogged about since our last post.  I guess we have, we've taken down all of southwest Colorado, left it in ruins.

Let's look back chronologically shall we.

June 16th - 17th, Mesa Verde NP: 

The Cliff Place

This was my (Boyd) third trip to Mesa Verde, and while the first two were at age 4 and 12 I remembered quite a lot about the place.  Those memories did nothing to take away from the sense of awe.  It's haunting to walk around relics (ruins don't do the preservation justice) that are 800 years old.  We toured the Cliff Place and Spruce Tree House the first day and the next day we toured the Long House and the Step House.  It's so arid there that building timbers, painted petroglyphs and even corn survives from the Pueblo's time there.

While Mesa Verde is World Heritage site, and quite a draw as National Parks go, it was kind of quiet there, especially in comparison to Arches or Yosemite which at time felt more like the work of Walt Disney and less of the work of Nature.  Tickets are required to go on the more popular dwellings, which seemed to help weed out the crowds.  Not because of the price, because they were only $3.  More likely because it required following simple instructions and reading the large posted signs.  And reading can be hard.

June 17th - 18th, Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP: 

Two Empire State Building tip-to-tip could fit in there

More canyons!!!  The West is full of canyons that 1930's America just didn't get around to filling with dams and reservoirs.  And while yes green hyrdopower and cool drinks are great, so are canyons and wild rivers.  Never heard of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP you say, well we can think good ol' Slick Willy for signing it into existence in 1999.  

We drove north from Mesa Verde into the middle of Colorado, driving over 10,000' passed and through flush spring meadows and aspen groves.  We tried to see the town of Telluride, but they were having their bluegrass festival, which judging by the road check points, endless traffic and people camped out where ever they could, is kind of a big deal.  We could tell it's not really a bluegrass festival because A: it's in the wrong mountains and B: the Decemberist were the headliners.  Bluegrass now means whiny alt-folk-rock to twenty-somethings, not hillbillies with mandolins.

The Black Canyon was again, an amazing hole in the earth.  Only a couple million years old (which is a baby in geology) and carved through tough igneous rocks, it makes a 1500' plus shear chasm in otherwise rolling hills.  We saw a bobcat and went on a ranger led night hike.  A good time had by all.  I assume it was good for the bobcat anyway. 

June 18th, Ouray to Silverton CO:


We left the Black Canyon and headed south once again, through another stretch of high mountain passes and old west towns and abandoned mines.  Our first stop was at Ouray, just north of the Red Mountain Pass (11,600') along the Million Dollar Highway.  A million dollars was a lot more money back then.  We had a nice lunch at the Ouray brewery and walked around town some.  We stopped in a liquor store to get me a new bottle of bourbon.  The guy running the counter went off about how they just got back in stock some Silverton Brewery beer after the "fire."  We told him we just finished a beer, but since we were headed that way we'd be sure to check it out.

So on to Silverton, famous for being the terminus to the Durango to Silverton narrow gauge steam railroad and frozen in time from it's mining days.  We poked around town some until we found said brewery located next to two very burned buildings, but open none the less.  We stopped in just as they were closing, which was odd since it was 4:30PM.  The owner/brewer/bartender told us they were shutting down in a bit for the Taste of Silverton and told us we had to check it out.  So we did.

Another beer, more food

Pretty much a locals thing and a reason to celebrate the melting of all the snow, a lot of the town's restaurants camp out on Blair St, serve delicious cheap grub while local musicians play to the crowd lounging on picnic tables.  It was a great, laid back affair and the kind of small town thing I didn't know existed anymore.  We were sad to leave.  Even sadder when we couldn't find a camping spot south of town and had to get a $100 tiny-ass motel room in Durango to keep from sleeping in the car.

So here we are, present time in Durango.  We're off to explore it some and then down to Santa Fe and New Mexico.  Wait, there's a New Mexico.

All 50 States

I forgot to add, we found the last two states we needed in our game to find license plates from all fifty states. Rhode Island was the last hold out. They're small and don't get out much I guess. We have also seen six Canadian provinces, Cherokee, Chaktaw, Consul plates, and even a set of Dutch plates on some RVs in California.

Now we need a new game.

On The Road Again

We are leaving Moab today, bound for Colorado and Mesa Verde.

Despite our first impression of Moab, we have had a really good time here. Our cheep camp site tucked into a small oak grove along the Colorado River on some BLM land made a huge difference over the Rustic Inn. It was quite nice falling asleep listening to the white noise of the river inside the huge walls of the canyon was very nice indeed.

Yesterday we went over to Canyonlands NP. The main part is on top of a high mesa at the confluence of the Green and Colorado rivers. There are vast views of cliffs and canyons, sun and gnats. It was very pretty, but Liz and I are getting a little cliffed and canyoned vista out since that's been all we've done and seen since Vegas. We drove out along a 4x4 road that went down the canyon face and into the lower mesa top and once we got around a couple of families over their heads and scared to death, we had a blast. The family truckster is quite the capable off road car. After that we headed back over to Arches to finally see the Delicate Arch. If you east coasters don't know what that is, it's the rock arch on Utah state plates. We were both still pretty beat from our previous days hike, but we sucked it up and did it.

And what a hike it was. While the arch was awesome, what made it even more amazing were the thunderstorms rolling across the plains to the west. They would all die out before they could ever make it to us but the rolling clouds and flashes of lighting made for a dramatic sight. Like bad western oil paintings, but made real.

Anyway, our time here at the laundromat is almost up, so here are a couple pics from our adventure at Canyonlands.

Big Day at Arches

We left the very Rustic Inn this morning and headed to Arches. We were told by our friend Ryan to ignore Canyonlands NP and spend all of our time there. He was right.

We took off on an eight mile hike through the back of the park that took us past eight arches and beautiful desert scenery. After all that though we are beat. We found ourselves a nice little campground along the Colorado River and some cold cuts for diner so I don't have to cook in this heat. Good stuff.

Q and A Time!

We've been getting a lot of questions from our loyal readers out there.  Well actually we've only ever gotten two question and that's "where the hell are you and why won't you update you're blog."

Let's take the time to answer that and many more.

First, we're in the woods.  And since we're in the woods they don't have the intertube cables to update our blog.  If it's a few days between posts, good odds are we have not been eaten by a bear or incinerated in a forest fire; no, were away from civilization and can't get to the computer.  Away from civilization, not RVs.

Next, what do you all eat.  Well, we eat a lot of peanut butter.  We don't buy ice or have a fridge so all our food needs to be stable once opened.  Peanut butter fits that bill.  For me (Boyd) it's peanut butter and honey.  For Liz, it's raisins.  We also have a proprietary blend of dried foods that cook fast since we're cooking over a camp stove.  We've got some potatoes, usually an onion, a lot of dried couscous, dried black bean flakes (we call it bean gruel and it's pretty good) and an eight-grain hot cereal mix we call hot mush (think grits).  After that, it's a rotating assortment of snack crackers, nuts, cheese, jerky, apples, bad trail mix and lot and lots of campground water.   Every now and again, we'll eat on the road but to be honest most of the West has had little we want to eat along the road.  That might be because we're in the middle of nowhere (see the first question).

Sleeping.  How do we manage it.  We bought a six man dome tent and a air mattress before we left and that makes our home most nights.  We also brought a set of sheets and light blanket so we could make a real bed out of it.  We've done that exactly zero times because it's been anywhere from fifty to thirty degrees at night.  We sleep in our sleeping bags but we do use our old pillows.  As long as we're not camped next to the bathrooms or coyotes are having a shouting match, most nights we get a great night's sleep.

Waste removal.  We've pooped in more pit toilets than I'd ever care to remember.  At least half of all campsite also don't have showers, so there are a lot of "baths" made out of a kettle of hot water, a bucket and a washcloth.  That can get you through a whole day no problem.  If we're feeling flush, we're staying in a motel and they've got all the facilities you'd ever want.  I'd still like my old bathroom back though. 

Lastly, entertainment.  No TV and no internet makes Jack a dull boy.  No TV and no internet makes Jack a dull boy.  No TV and no internet makes Jack a dull boy.  Seriously, most nights we are beat by the time the tent's up and dinner is done.  Some nights we play Yatzee or dominoes, maybe read a little.  Next thing you know it's 9:45, it's dark out and it's time to go to bed.  Next thing you know it's 5:45AM and the sun it streaming though the tent and it's telling your it's time to get up.

And now it's time to go to bed.

Moab Moan

We nearly completed our road tour of Utah today by pulling in to Moab tonight.  Before we get to that though, a little about Capital Reef National Park.

That was our half-way point in the day and right along the back roads route we were taking so we pulled in for a few hours.  The main reason Capital Reef is a park is because of its waterpocket fold cliffs.  I know you know what all those words are, but unless you are a western trained geologist, you have no idea what that means.  It's called a reef because that's what western settlers called any huge travel hindrance like a cliff line.  And a waterpocket fold is crustal fold that causes pools to form in its interior causing unique erosion elements like towers.  Basically it's a fifteen mile super cliff, all colorful and rugged.  It also was home to Butch Cassidy's hideout.  We checked that out.

Oh and it's also home to a persevered Mormon farm settlement and orchard, which basically looks like a small failed farm in a desert canyon, but they served awesome fruit pies.  Mmmmmm...

After that, there was a lot of Utah without much stuff in it other than mesas and cliffs. Until...

Moab!!!  I added those exclamation points to try to psych myself up about this town.  It's not charming.  Not charming at all.  Now all you reading this know that I (Boyd) have traveled a lot and that sometimes my standards are high.  Liz backed me up on this though, it's kind of depressing.  It's got that laid back, love-mother-earth crust that a lot of outdoorsy towns like it have, but just below that, there is chewy center of anger and disillusionment.  The locals aren't really locals, they just live here and want you to leave.  The tourists are upset that there are so many tourists and wish you weren't here.  It reminds me of Santa Cruz or maybe Florida Keys in that respect.  There are literally thousands of tourists packed in here all seeking their amazing Western outdoor adventure week  And most of those are Germans on rented motorcycles.  And those who aren't on hogs are here to go fer'byen in their lifted jeeps.  Yeah, yeah, I know I may be one of these thousands of tourists too, but at least I'm not German.

The town too is kind of not all that.  The "center" of town is about three blocks long and has the four lane main highway running though it and at each end of town are a few miles of soulless motels, RV parks and fast food restaurants.

Oh and it's expensive as all get out.  Not just unemployed expensive, real expensive.  Don't believe me, check this link.  Have you ever heard of a Motel 6 going for $80 a night?!  On a Monday night?!?!?!

Well anyway, we knew that we would be getting into town late to try to find a camping site and after a couple of days without a shower we decided to get a motel room for the night.  Now re-reference this link and let's talk about where we ended up.

Where possible we use Liz's phone to use the Trip Adviser app to find places to stay while on the road (see Mojave, Desert Inn).  The first dirtbag motel with good ratings we checked out had only two double beds and wanted $89 a night.  That was the walk-in super deal.  Yeah no thanks.  So we went to the next place, the Rustic Inn just down the road.  And for $64 a night we got a double queen efficiency with a "sealed concrete floor," in the "back building."  It's got a kitchen sink so it doesn't need a second sink in the bathroom,  how green.  And it doesn't need color when grey is a blending of all the colors.  Or is what happens when you blend all the half-price wrong blend paints at Home Depot.  Let's take a look.

Maybe there's a reason there's a vacancy.  I doubt there will be any by nightfall though.

The "back" building.  Yeah, it was an apartment originally in life.

Look, there's Liz settling in for an evening game of find the hidden camera

Well let's end this with trying to look on the bright side.  Tomorrow we are going to get up and go to Arches National Park.  We're going to look at big rocks that make arches.  It's got to be good, it's on Utah's license plates.

Monday Morning

So what are you all doing this fine Monday morning, working?  Chumps.  We woke up at sunrise to what the hoodoos of Bryce Canyon light up and just as soon as I'm done with this post, we are on are way east to Capitol Reef National Park and then on to Moab.

Bryce at Sunrise

From the outside Bryce Canyon seemed to be a park I was prepared to be underwhelmed by, but I was wrong again.  The colors and the forms of the hoodoos (the spires) are really something I have never seen before or even imagined being possible.  Photos really don't do the place justice and honestly neither does just looking over them.  You really have to walk down into them to appreciate just how amazing they are.  We took a nice day hike yesterday that ended through a section called Wall Street that is about 6' wide with sheer vertical walls of colored limestone at least 100' high.  Again, amazing.

Before we take off, here are some stat updates:

Parks Visited: 16 (including State Parks and National Monuments)
States Visited: 6
Miles Driven: 3629mi

Photos of Zion

Here are just a few of the photos we took while at Zion.  All three are taken from on top of Angels Landing, making for a view that's hard to believe.  Need a sense of scale, look at the photo of Liz and then look down in the lower right corner.  That narrow red ribbon is a two lane road.

Tired, happy, trying not to fall off.

Looking back down Zion canyon

Just as tired, still trying to not fall off

Zion Wore Us Out

We re-upped for one more night at our favorite back-of-a-motel campground so we could spend the whole day hiking all over Zion.  And hike we did, over 12 miles and up to the daunting Angels Landing. If you don't know of it, think of a narrow cracked and skewed city sidewalk on top of a 1500' ridge with only some chain in parts to keep you from certain death.  Unfortunately we're beat and too lazy to walk back to the car to get some pictures.  Until we get some up, trust us it was amazing.

We're off to Bryce Canyon tomorrow.  Wish us luck.

How Do You Spit a Mile

Spit in the Grand Canyon.  Ah, that joke was never funny, sorry.

Williams' Famous Steakhouse.  This is for you Rod

Since our last update we've come and gone from the Grand Canyon State, having seen the largest hole in the world.  We headed east across an unremarkable stretch of Arizona desert to the town of Williams.  Williams being famous of course for being where you hang a left to go to the canyon and doing whatever it takes to catch your eye to make you stop if just for a moment.

We stopped for a bite and some pie, but not at Rod's since the bikers and the size of the steaks scared us out of there.

As evening came on we arrived out the outskirts of the park and chose to stay just outside of its boundary in a National Forest campsite.  This was an excellent call since seemingly half of America is choosing to visit that park this summer and their campsites with names like "Trailer Village" were full and the rooms at the famous El Tovar were running around $300 a night.  Non-view.

Liz enjoying the view

Being the nomads we are, we only left ourselves with one full day in the park.  Since this was Liz's first time there, I decided we would do a walk I did last time I was there.  But since that was in 1991, a few things have changed.  We walked the rim of the canyon southward, which last time I was there quickly turned into a solitary venture.  Now, a paved road carries shuttle and tour buses literally feet from you, dropping of their load of rotund Americans, gruff Germans and photo-gear happy Asians every half mile or so.  Fortunately, it was a road and not a bridge and didn't effect the real view.

We saved some time for a short hike down into the canyon at the end of the day.  This is one sure fire way to get away from people.  Most see the signs that are posted every few yards warning about if you venture more than a few feet down into the canyon and you're not carrying a gallon of water and have gone through desert training with the Army Rangers, you will die.  This scares the masses away.  We knew better.

A few of the thousand steps back out

Well not really, but we did make it back out obviously.  We went down in for about an hour, which equated to about a 1000' elevation drop.  Coming back up we sounded like two steam locomotives about to blow.  The changes in the view and ways you see the canyon though make it all worth it.

Today, we've moved on from one canyon and gun crazy state to another.  We drove around the Grand Canyon, headed back west (yes the wrong direction) to Zion National Park in Utah.  We got here around 4PM to find all of the park campgrounds long filled.  And with this park not being surrounded by our stand-by option of National Forests, we were forced to fend for ourselves.  We're bedding down tonight in our first private campground of the trip.  On the plus side, it's right outside the park entrance and right behind a Quality Inn, so I can use their internet.  On the negative side, it's right behind a Quality Inn and in the space of say three acres, they've wedged in 200 campsites.  It's like being a refuge, if every refuge showed up to their tent city in a Suburban complete with travel trailer and six kids on bikes.  We explored the park some before dark though, and from what we've seen it's going to be worth the bad nights sleep.

We plan to be here all day tomorrow and then head off for Bryce Canyon and Arches National Parks.  If anyone has opinions or thoughts to add, let us know because we are both in undiscovered territory for the next week.

Oh and don't worry about dry counties Chapmans, I brought a bottle of bourbon with us.

Lastly, I'd be remissed if I didn't include this clip of the most famous thing ever filled at the Grand Canyon.

On Las Vegas

After leaving the near religious serenity of Death Valley, we headed east towards Vegas. Once out of the park and across the Nevada state line the contrast was shocking. The road houses, gas stations and third rate casinos along the highway have all the charms of a wet fart. My favorite was the truck stop we gassed up at near, well nothing. The market had almost all of its lights shut off and behind it was a honest to god brothel, brothel museum and "trucker showers" located in a double wide. We did not go in there.

As we motored down the highway towards Vegas I was bemused to see how seemingly the whole of rural Nevada seemed to survive on the larges of the federal government. I note bemusement because Nevada seemed to be a state of all tea party nuts. One of the rangers we ran across in Death Valley went on and on about how he had no choice but to home school his six kids because Nevada couldn't take care of its schools and he couldn't go on paying sixty six percent of his pay check for nothing and this government had better get all this debt figured out. The irony that he was a federal employee was seemingly lost on him.

Anyway enough politics, on to Americas Sodom and Gamora. We made our way down the strip towards the MGM where we had a room for the night, gawking all the way. I should note this was the first time to Vegas for Liz and me and the "sights" of the strip were really something to behold. Getting in to the MGM took a lot of work. In fact all of the places there seemed to hide there entraces from the street. You never seemed to head up to their front doors but into some side tentacle that passed you further into the maul of the beast.

What floored me the most about these places were the scales of them all. They were much more like huge airports than hotels. The check in desks like departure counters and all of the hallways lined with Cinnabons and crappy gift shops.

After we washed three days of dust off we headed off down the strip to see the highlights of world culture in hotel form. For niceness, we picked City Center. It was the most "minimalist" of the places there and really felt absurdly appointed throughout without being some theamed monstrosity. We had dinner there at their italian restaurant DOCG and it was great I have to admit.

As for the tackiest place, the Excalibur won hands down. Wondering through it was like wondering through a second rate mall, but everywhere sold booze, everyone was drunk and they put up a thousand slot machines where the food court should have been. A lot of Vegas felt that way. I guess we won't start saving for our next trip back anytime soon. Give me an island shack any day.

On our way out of town, we stopped by the Hoover Dam. Kind of underwhelming in person. It's not nearly as cool as the Grand Coulie Dam in Washington. We paid seven bucks for the honor to park to walk across it admit the tight security, but we weren't about to pay another sixteen bucks just to go in a visitor center. So now we're back on the road, headed towards the Grand Canyon.

I'd post some photos of it all, but you know what Vegas looks like.

Leaving California - Entering Las Vegas

Enough with the Nick Cage movie references, let's talk about Death Valley.

Death Valley was always one of those places I thought I wanted to go to, some day, if I was near it maybe and you know, had some time to kill.  I mean, I don't want to go out of my way to see a desert and all.  Well the weather in the Sierra Nevada mountains drove us out of there and left us with a desire to get warm and dry so we figured why not, let's go check it out.  We were both floored by the beauty of the place and its hugeness.  To give you an idea of how enamored we were with the place, we took over 400 photos in two days.  

 While true it is all a desert, such a varied place we have not been.  It's has high, high peaks and obviously the lowest spot in North America.  Our first day we spent in the high plains and hills of the Panamint Mountains to the west of the valley.  We explored old mining ruins, 100-plus year old charcoal kilns and the the wild flowers that were still much in bloom this late into the year. At these high elevations, heat was not an issue.  In fact at our first campsite high up on a ridge overlooking the valley at 8100 feet we woke to howling winds and a temperature of 36.  Snow still capped the surrounding peaks.  Oh, it was a free campsite, so it's not like I was gipped.

Our next and full day at the park we took advantage of all of the dirt tacks that lace the park.  We drove off to the east to two more ghost towns of which nearly a dozen dot the park.  Although the term ghost town more accurately describes a few old sheds and a lot of iron trash.  We drove back into the valley via the Titus Canyon, which was a narrow dirt wash at the bottom of a stunning rock canyon.  Next we drove far to the north to see the Ubehebe Crater (another old volcano on this trip) and the famous 'racetrack.'  A dried lake bed where rock mysteriously leave tracks in the bed.

We camped that night in Furnace Creek on the valley floor.  It is famous for being the source of a spring within the valley, home to the abandoned borax works, the worlds lowest golf course, and oh yeah the hottest temperature on record, 136 degrees.  When we were there it was a manageable 95.

The charcoal kilns used to power the borax works

Furnace Creek is also home to the most expensive gas we have yet bought on this trip, $5.45 a gallon.  Price gouging yes, but you're going to look pretty stupid running out of gas in the middle of the desert waiting to see if AAA will come to your rescue.  A quick aside, I have been amazed by how much gas prices have varied in California.  I've seen everything from $3.75 to the plus $5 in places.  In fact, when I bough the $5.45 a gallon gas, I was still stewing over paying $5.00 a gallon at something that was barley a town way up on the Northern Coast.  Oh well, what can you do.  We're not going to walk back East.

One of the many blooms

Our last day in the park, and our last day in California, we completed the Death Valley experience by driving down to Badwater, the lowest point at 282' below sea level and taking the artist canyon drive.  It loops through some of the most colorful rock formations in the park.  Colors one would be hard pressed to find in nature anywhere else in the world I'd think.

Leaving such a vast, beautiful and nearly monastic place behind, we drove on eastward towards one of the other uniquely American experiences; Las Vegas.  I'll leave those thoughts for the next post.

Overlooking Death Valley from one of the surrounding peaks, 6300' up.

Some of the unique 'desert rat' art located just outside the park in Ryolite

Stopped in Titus Canyon to admire the rocks and the scale.  This was one of the smaller spaces

One of the racetrack rocks and its wake

In the mesquite dunes, one of severals sand dune areas in the park 

Yosemite Photos

We're bedded down for the night in Mojave, CA home of Space Ship One and where old planes go to die.  Well until their pulled back out of here to be used on your budget flight to Milwaukee.  And when in Mojave, stay at the Desert Inn Motel.  It's the farthest motel from the train tracks in town.  It's a big selling point here, trust me.

Anyhoo, I promised some photos and here they are.

El Capitan - All Artsy 

Bridalveil Falls

Alone in the wilderness on our way up to Vernal and Nevada Falls.  It got better.

Nevada Falls, with less people

 

TheYosemite Valley and Merced River

 

Kolana Rock - Hetch Hetchy Valley

The Weather Wins

So it seems the Northeast weather is going to push us right out of California too. In fact the weather is better in Seattle than it has been down here. We were lucky though, we got to Yosemite on a sunny afternoon before the clouds and rain started to move in. I was prepared to be underwhelmed by the sights and overwhelmed by the traffic. While the traffic lived up to my expectations, the park was amazing.

The Yosemite Valley is quite possibly one of the most amazing places I have ever seen on earth. The place was packed though, both with fat Americans and a full UN assembly of foreigners. Oh and every other person there was trying be the heir to Ansel Adams, taking fifty photos of the same squirrel and rock with their top of the line gear. We may have been guilty of this at times too though, so call this pot black.

We had to camp outside the park in the adjacent national forest in "dispersed camping." Which means alone out in the woods off a fire road. We actually loved it because A, it was free and B, there was no one else around us. That it oddly a rarity in camping sometimes. Just don't tell our grandparents because they are convinced we are going to be eaten by a bear.

Anyway, back to the weather. More cold rain moved in on us yesterday and is supposed to stick around in the Sierras for the next two days. So we are going to skip Sequoia National Park and instead go to where it's always hot and sunny, Death Valley.

I wish I could upload some photos, but I'm making a phone update from the less scenic central valley near Fresno. We'll try to get some up soon. I hate to leave you all with no photos, so here is what we are zooming past.

Away From the Pacific

We left the coast for good yesterday.  After waking up to pouring cold rain on the Sonoma coast, we (I, Boyd) grumpily headed down the shore towards San Fransisco.  Unfortunately our friends there had plans yesterday so we couldn't meet up.  Add to that the fact that we no longer have any money, we made our stop there a brief one.  We walked half of the bridge and bummed around Golden Gate Park for a while and decided to try to get out of town before rush hour.  Which we failed at.

Since Liz and I are dead sick of waking up to rain, we decided last night was our second motel night and we hit the jackpot.  We trucked right across the San Joaquin Valley because it's some of the ugliest landscape on earth.  We drove out to the foothills to the little town of Sonora.  It's an old west town half frozen in time.  We stayed the night at the historic Gunn House Hotel, built in 1850.  Sitting out on it's upper porch and looking across the street at the old west style buildings, I keep telling Liz I need that six-shooter I've wanted to complete the scene. She disagrees.

Now we are off towards Yosemite to see what all the fuss is about.  Most likely we will find the balance of the traffic we sat in yesterday there waiting for us from what I hear.

Above: The Flower Conservatory at the Golden Gate Park.  We'll spare you the hundred or so photos of random flowers.

Below: Some fancy San Fransisco houses.