Fierce Asparagus

Banana Breakfast Bread

2012-02-15T20:41:00.000-08:00

I'm always searching for the right ways to tweak recipes to make them "perfect" in my eyes. I came up with this recipe recently and having just made it yesterday I can attest to how delicious it is!

Since this is a breakfast bread it's not super sweet but all of the ingredients give it a subtly complex taste. I think eating this in the morning is a great way to start the day. If you're a big breakfast person you can have something additionally on the side, like yogurt with fruit, or an egg scrambled with spinach.

Banana breakfast bread has lots of fiber making it both satisfying and healthy! I hope you enjoy it.... And remember to bake with love! :)

My breakfast: piece of Banana Breakfast Bread and a fried egg with tomato, mushrooms, and garlic. Delish!

Banana Breakfast Bread Recipe

Ingredients:
1/2 C all purpose, unbleached flour
1 C toasted oat bran
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 C packed brown sugar
1/2 C applesauce, unsweetened
2 eggs
2 large bananas, mashed
2 Tbsp unsweetened peanut butter
1/4 C chopped almonds, pecans, or walnuts (unsalted)

Preheat oven to 375 and grease a 9" springform cake pan (or whatever you have that is closest to that).
In a bowl combine, flour, oat bran, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
In a separate, large bowl combine brown sugar and applesauce; blend well.
Add eggs, blending well in between each addition.
Add mashed bananas, peanut butter, and nuts, mixing thoroughly.
Gradually add flour mixture to wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
Pour batter into cake pan and bake on middle rack for 23-25min.
Test with a toothpick in center or cake to make sure it is thoroughly cooked before turning off the oven.
Enjoy with loved ones! :)

Beach Details

2012-02-09T15:34:00.000-08:00

The other day I had a couple hours before I had to be at work so I decided to go for a walk and explore a bit. I love walking around in places that I frequent and turn on the macro setting on my camera. Sometimes you can overlook how beautiful everyday things are. These are some of the photos that I liked.

windy vine

A feather rustling in the breeze

Love the differences in color and texture on this 6in plot of beach

Gulls in flight

Horseshoe crab's shell

West Neck Beach

One thing that stood out to me was how much trash there was. You do not necessarily see it in the photos because a lot of it is small (although there was certainly a good amount of larger items like plastic bags, cigarette packs, etc) but it is there and with every high tide that garbage gets carried out to sea. I had a plastic bag in my car that I retrieved and used to pick up whatever I could. Garbage, especially plastic, is a huge problem for the inhabitants of the sea and the birds and other animals that rely upon them for sustenance. If everyone could just pick up a couple items of trash every time they go to the beach it would make a big difference. I hope this comes into your mind the next time you are in the position to make a difference! :)

The Shadow Chaser

2012-02-06T17:41:00.000-08:00

Yesterday late afternoon, just before evening set in, I was in my room trying to read but being distracted by my cat, Lulu, who was basking in the last bits of sunlight on my bed. She is so photogenic that I had to get my camera and take some pictures of her.

Lulu captured in the late afternoon sun

Lulu says, "Enough with the computer! Pay attention to me!"

As the minutes progressed, and the sun lowered in the sky, the shadows began to stretch out onto the wall at the foot of my bed, highlighted by the sunlight. The shadows were cast long, stretching the leaves and branches of the trees outside into gigantic grey proportion against the yellow backdrop.

There is a fair amount of bird activity in my back yard and Lulu was staring at the wall, mesmerized by the slightly shifting shadows and the occasional rapid movements of birds as they darted around, taking care of everything that needed to get done before the night set in. The funny thing was that every once in a while she would be overcome with an urge to hunt and she would stretch her body up the wall, batting at the shadows with her paws. I found it both interesting and amusing that she did not turn around and look out the window at the actual birds and squirrels but found it more intriguing or stimulating to face a wall and focus on their exaggerated shadows.

The shadow chaser in action

Little Beast

I love shadows. I love taking photos of shadows from different angles to see how different the same image can look depending upon how it is framed. I love long, grey shadows that distort and stretch images- dark, short shadows that hold stark contrast to their surroundings- and everything in between those two.

Lulu turned into a shadow, herself!

Happy February!

2012-02-05T17:29:00.000-08:00

Usually, this time of the year is so bleak, grey, and cold and all I want is for spring to arrive. This year, however, we have certainly not had much of a winter, unlike Europe with its record snow falls! Although I do enjoy snow I am not complaining and am just going to enjoy whatever we get.

This past Wednesday, luckily my day off from work, the temperature was actually in the low 60s! I took advantage of the spring-like weather and went for a hike in the woods at Centerport Beach with my friend Jane and her two lovely Australian Shepherd dogs, Della and Fenway. She has a great camera and always takes really nice photos. I love when pictures capture a bit of the dog's personality or quirkiness. Here is one that Jane took of Della jumping over a log that really captures her vibrant energy and highlights her gorgeous eyes:

photo by Jane Scott Cumming

Me with Della and Fenway (photo by Jane Scott Cumming)

We walked along the coast of the Long Island Sound at West Neck Beach at sunset, taking in the last few beautiful minutes of the day.

Cowboy Poetry

2012-01-28T10:55:00.000-08:00

I had to share this incredibly beautiful poem, Ruby Mountains, by Jack Walther, a rancher from Nevada. Cowboy poetry is a relatively new discovery for me but it is the genre that contains some of my all-time favorites. This is a great example. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did. The photos are all my own.

Calves at Cowhorse Ranch in Ramona, CA

Ruby Mountains by Jack Walther

I ampart of this range of waving grass,

Part ofthe evening breeze, the gentle rains that pass.

I am thehorse or range cow that moves out there so free.

Deepdown within, they seem a part of me.

I am thesnows on the mountain that cause the streams to flow,

Spreadingout on the valley, the leaves and branches of a tree,

They aremore than a thing of beauty. They are a part of me.

I am thebuttercups blooming in the springtime,

The callof the blue grouse on the hill,

The peaceand quiet of a summer night

When allthe world is still.

I am thesparkling stars on a winter night,

Or acrisp cold morning sun.

I am thegurgling protesting stream,

Beneath thewinter ice shall run.

Thecoyote that howls in the evening or the hoot owl in the wood,

I sensethem stir within my soul. Deep down it feels so good.

Withthis all a part of me, I can never be alone.

I am therichest man on earth, for all this I own.

Whenthis body that you see is stilled,

Stand notby my grave and cry.

When apart of all these things,

I willbe renewed and shall never die.

But comeout in the fresh spring grass,

See thesongbirds up in the tree,

Justrelax, spend some time.

It isthere I shall forever be.

Mother's Birthday Cake

2012-01-26T19:39:00.000-08:00

For my Mother's birthday party she requested a Pineapple Upside Down Cake. I took the recipe that she usually uses and changed a few ingredients and steps to make it my own.

Upside-down cakes cooked in cast iron skillets originated in the Middle Ages when different types of fruit were used and the whole cake was cooked over a fire.With the invention of canned pineapple in the early 1900's and the aid of anoven, Pineapple Upside Down Cake came into being!

Below is a photo of the finished product, along with my recipe. Enjoy!

Ingredients for Topping:
1-14oz can of pineapple rings
3/4 stick unsalted butter
3/4C packed brown sugar

Heavy whipping cream

Ingredients for Batter:
1 1/2C all-purpose flour (try to use unbleached if possible)
2tsp ground cardamom
2tsp baking powder
1/4tsp salt
3/4 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4C granulated sugar
2 eggs
2tsp vanilla
1Tbsp coconut rum or dark rum
1/2C unsweetened pineapple juice

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Topping:
Melt butter for topping in a well-seasoned 10in cast iron skillet.
Stir in the brown sugar, over medium heat, for about 4min. Remove from heat.
Arrange pineapple slices on top of sugar mixture, slightly overlapping the pieces.

Batter:
Mix flour, cardamom, baking powder, and salt in a medium-sized bowl.
In a large bowl (using either an electric or hand mixer) beat the butter until it is light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the granulated sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each addition. Beat in vanilla and rum. Add half of flour mixture and beat until just blended. Beat in pineapple juice and then add remaining flour mixture, beating just until blended.

Pour the batter evenly over the pineapple topping. Bake the cake in the skillet on the middle rack for about 40 min. After you remove the cake from the over, let it sit about 10 min and then invert a plate over the skillet and, holding the two together firmly, flip the skillet over so the cake is "right-side up."

Whip the heavy cream until firm peaks form and serve it with the cake. Cake is best served warm or at room temperature. Most importantly, eat with loved ones and with a smile on your face! :)

July in the Garden & Belgian Independence

2011-07-21T20:37:00.000-07:00

Ahhh July, the hottest of months... let the dog days begin! My dad decided to start a vegetable garden this spring for the first time and I was thrilled to be around to help a bit. He built raised beds, brought in some top soil to suffice until our own table scraps had composted enough to use, and planted some seeds that we ordered from FEDCO. We now have a garden full of golden chard, dill, sugar snap peas, zucchini, beets, nasturtiums, basil, chives, cucumbers, and onions!

Looking down into our beautiful Golden Chard

In the evening the other day, the light was just right for taking photos of some of the flowers that are in bloom. It's been a while since I have spent a summer in the eastern US. It's different from the west but beautiful. I love the colors of the warm months, the wafts of sweet nectar from the lilies, the buzz of bees, the feel of the wind gently caressing your skin.

Some sunflowers that my mom bought at the farmers' market

Stargazer Lilies brightening up the lovely late afternoon

Hydrangeas beginning to bloom and turn pink

Oh and in case there are any Belgians reading this... Happy Independence Day! Today marks the 180th anniversary of Belgium's independence from the Netherlands. Although this was actually declared in October of the 1830, they celebrate July 21st 1831 because that is the day their first king, Leopold I, took his oath. Considering how unethical, greedy, and corrupt a lot of kings are, if you read about them, Leopold actually seems like he was a pretty cool individual. He even tried (albeit unsuccessfully) to regulate female and child labor, which I give him props for. That is pretty progressive considering this was the late 1800's!

I am always fascinated with people who have interesting lives and Leopold's childhood intrigues me because when he was only 5 years old he was appointed a Colonel in the Russian Guard! I just cannot imagine how something like that would actually manifest itself. I mean, how much can you expect from a 5 year old? I wish there could be 100 versions of myself that lived in different time periods, in different social circumstances, in different parts of the world, so I could truly have a better understanding of other people's lives and perspectives!

A portrait of Leopold I by George Dawe

Back in NY & My First Doggy C-Section!

2011-07-13T20:41:00.000-07:00

You're going to have to give me some artistic license to change the format of how I've been writing. I would like at some point to fill in the gaps in the rest of my trip but I will do so as they come up in my exploration of other things. Sometimes life throws you curve balls and the nice outlined plan you had for yourself doesn't quite work anymore. I hope you will just take my word for it and have a little faith that I can still entertain you with my witty humor and amusing anecdotes! ;)

So, I'm back on Long Island for the foreseeable future. I'm working at Harborside Veterinary Hospital (http://harborsidevet.com/) and loving it as always. If they (and my family) would just relocate to Montana everything would be perfect and I wouldn't have to fret over where in the USA I'm going to live! I'm working on it... wish me luck, lol.

One cool thing that I have experienced since my return home this past spring was witnessing my first canine cesarean section! A long haired chihuahua was giving birth but the first puppy was breached so she had to come down so we could get the babies out of her. What an amazing experience. I have never seen a birth of any kind before and it's quite amazing to watch an animal take its first breaths of air. As soon as the puppies were out of the mother we had to cup them in our palms and swing them downward to expel all of the fluid out of their lungs and sinuses. I had to watch a few times before doing it myself because I was so afraid I was going to hurt them! They were so tiny but to get all of the fluid out of them you really have to swing with force. It's one of those things you get used to I suppose. There are a lot of things like that in this job! Luckily, I was able to document the puppies' cuteness after their airways were cleared.

They are so small!

And even more luckily a few weeks later the owner brought the puppies back for a check-up while I was working so I was able to get a follow up photo! Even though they are chihuahuas, which I do not normally love, they are pretty adorable! But man, look at that difference!

They are so much bigger just several weeks later!

Day 28: Joshua Tree NP is AMAZING

2011-01-12T15:29:00.004-08:00

We woke up at the crack of dawn in the parking lot of the hotel who last night had generously hosted us, as well as they could have without their knowledge, that is. We made a quick stop to let Hanz romp around a bit and then scurried out of 29 Palms and towards the entrance of Joshua Tree National Park.

I found this sweet artwork adorning the back of a building in 29 Palms.

I was really looking forward to visiting Joshua Tree National Park. For some reason I associated it with Ansel Adams' photography which I really enjoy, even though I don't think he took more than couple pictures there.

It was not long before we had reached the park entrance. I was thrilled to note that there was no other car or human being in sight. That has been my number one issue with visiting the National Parks- there are way too many people! I mean, I live in Montana for a reason, I don't really enjoy being around too many people while I'm doing any kind of recreation like hiking, birding, canoeing, etc. Plus there is the fact that when there are a lot of people around your chances of seeing wildlife are much slimmer. Of course, it's not a very fair complaint because the very things that draw me to the Parks are what draw the millions of other visitors. It's just really too bad that we have so little "wilderness" that we now have an expanding population having to share the little that is left of the vast wilderness that once covered this nation.

When I got out of the car to take a picture of the Welcome to Joshua Tree National Park sign I got distracted by a roadrunner running across the road! I had never seen one before and I was very impressed with how fast he scurried around. I later talked to a park ranger who was telling me how aggressive they are in conjunction with being fast and how that has caused some panic for visitor's who have been admiring a lizard only to see the roadrunner scurry over and swiftly gobble it up!

The desert is amazing to me because it seems to shift between ecosystems in a fairly rapid way. The northern part of Joshua Tree is in the Mojave Desert while the southern half is considered part of the Colorado Desert and there is a marked difference between the two. The park's namesake comes from the Joshua Tree which is only seen in the Mojave desert section of the park. The Mojave in general has more layering and variability in the height and color of its plants while the Colorado Desert tends to only have low growing and sparse vegetation. I tended to find the Mojave more visually appealing and it also seemed to have more animal life, maybe because it has more diversity. At least that is what I gathered from my experiences in the two deserts within the park.

The Mojave Desert section of Joshua Tree National Park

Me posing with a really cool cactus in the Mojave Desert section of Joshua Tree National Park

As soon as we entered the park we started seeing really interesting plants and animals. Literally every time we stopped the car and were quiet for a moment we would notice some kind of wildlife. After seeing the roadrunner we saw Gambel's quails, a jackrabbit and a couple kangaroo rats. Don't let the "rat" in this animal's name scare you off, it's not a rat or a mouse; it's in the heteromyidae family and its closest relative is the pocket gopher! Of course it was impossible for me to get any of my own photographs because everything scurries around in the desert and hides in the low-lying brush. So you will just have to visit so you can experience it for yourself!

Photo of Kangaroo Rat courtesy of the NPS/ Patrick Myers

Unfortunately we had decided to do Joshua Tree in a day so that we could get to the ranch that same night but SPOILER ALERT: we would end up going back for an overnight over a month later. :)

We barely saw any cars in the whole park, which was nice; we could take our time and not feel hurried. There is a road that takes you from the northern tip of the park all the way to the south and back into civilization, which we took. The park is a good size, being almost 800,000 acres in total with more than half of it being back-country access only. I would have liked the chance to explore the back country a bit but again, because of the sheer volume of visitors that come to the park, no dogs are allowed on trails.

Along the road we took towards the south there were interpretive signs every so often that gave more information about the plans, animals and geology of the area. We had to stop near one that was next to huge and magnificent rocks. Tyler being a bit of a compulsive climber took to them immediately. I stayed on the ground, where it was safe, and took pictures!

Tyler is the dot on top of the huge rocks in Joshua Tree NP

I have found out some fascinating information about the plant and animals in this park. One example is the park's namesake, the Joshua Tree, which got its name from a group of Mormon settlers who crossed this area in the mid-1800's. They thought its branches looked like they were reaching up to the sky to pray, much like Joshua in the bible, and so it was named.

The Joshua Tree is the main indicator for the Mojave Desert region and is actually endemic to the southwestern United States, meaning that is the only place in the whole world where it is found. It has a critical symbiotic relationship with the yucca moth which is the only pollinator of the yucca tree's blossoms. The moth collects the pollen as sustenance for her offspring and in doing so taps some into the funnel-shaped pistol. The moth lays her eggs at the base of the pistol so as her eggs hatch they can eat some of the seeds that have grown because the mother fertilized the plant. When the new moths leave the plant there are still plenty of seeds that can scatter and turn into new Joshua trees!

Nature is Brilliant.

For More Information:

Forest Service: Yucca brevifolia (Joshua Tree):

http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/yucbre/all.html

Joshua Tree National Park (NPS)

http://www.nps.gov/jotr/index.htm

NPS Kangaroo Rat Fact Sheet

http://www.nps.gov/orpi/naturescience/kangaroo-rat.htm

Explanation of Purpose and Format

2011-01-10T12:29:00.001-08:00

I wanted to post this entry to explain the format of my blog because it has experienced changes since I have arrived in New York. I started out on the journey in September, writing every day and posting almost as often. Quickly I got behind on my postings because with travelling and doing so much I didn't have enough time to post every day and I didn't have access to internet that often. I have been slowly posting the entries that I wrote every day, doing research on the areas that I visited, and selecting photographs to enrich the quality of the overall blog entries and to supplement the text.

Now that I am in New York and taking a break from travelling for over a month I have found myself wanting to write about my life at home. So I have been alternately posting journal entries from the days on the road and musings on life in New York and all the things that entertain my thoughts while I am home.

It should be fairly easy to distinguish the two types of entries:

The Travel Adventure entries include the Day number in their title. There's a journal for every day we have been away from home in Missoula, MT. (Ex- "Day 24: Alligator Rodeo, UFOs & Canoeing Down Sand Dunes:" http://fierceasparagus.blogspot.com/2010/11/day-24-alligator-rodeo-ufos-canoeing.html)

The present-day musings are more simply titled (Ex- "Merry Christmas!" http://fierceasparagus.blogspot.com/2010/12/merry-christmas.html)

I hope that has cleared up any confusion that any of you might have experienced. I hope you are all off to a good start in this new year!

The First of the Year (1/1/11)

2011-01-01T22:21:00.001-08:00

Today I had more of that marvelous toast with orange marmalade along with my morning tea. My water cup was resting on the table in the dining room, directly in the path of the sunlight that was streaming in from our south-facing window. I looked down, mid conversation with my mom and distractedly forgot what I was saying as I looked for my camera. The light was hitting the glass perfectly so as to splay the bits of orange, yellow and red glass that patterned the outside, across the table.

I have really enjoyed being quieter at moments and just looking at the world. Sometimes we overlook the absolute beauty in the simplest of things because we are used to them or maybe because we haven't ever seen them for what they really are. Shadows are, in my opinion, a spectacular example of just that. So often we look at the more solid form of something and don't even notice the shapes that shadows take on under different conditions. Once you open your eyes to the beauty in the everyday things that you overlook you see more of it. Just as I was done photographing this water glass my gaze grazed over the floor as I turned to leave the room and I realized the shadow of the stool was so brilliantly contrasted in comparison to the type of shadow and refraction involved with the glass. The colors of the light wood floor and the dark, almost opaque shadow of the dark wood stool made for beautiful composition.

I have re-discovered my love of photography this past year with a renewed passion.

After breakfast and my impromptu photo session, my parents and I went for a hike in Stony Brook at the Avalon Preserve. When we first arrived I was surprised to see the pond literally swarming with waterfowl, but with very little diversity! There were hundreds of birds but they were mostly mallards, Canada geese, and a couple dozen pigeons. People must feed them from the street-side path because that was where they were most densely gathered.

It was certainly loud with all the squawking and honking going on, especially when the Canada geese decided to take off in a large gaggle to some unknown destination.

We took the trail up to the labyrinth, which was not able to be seen because the snow had covered up the winding pathways to the center. We saw a statue though, that was built onto a boulder that was pretty cool.

The statue at the site of the labyrinth at Avalon Park and Preserve in Stony Brook.

We took a snow-covered trail that wound another 2 and a half miles through the woods before ending back up at the pond. This time, as we walked on the boardwalk we saw a miniature snowman that someone had built just off the trail. It stood at around 9 inches tall but was very nicely put together. I had to get down close and take a picture of it. I instantly liked whoever did this.

The mini snowman at Avalon Preserve.

New Year's Eve- Tasty Food, A Wintry Walk & A Man with True Grit

2011-01-01T20:42:00.004-08:00

On the eve of the new year I enjoyed some hearty bread with orange marmalade and a great cup of Irish Breakfast tea; a great way to start the day!

In the afternoon I went to Caumsett State Park in Lloyd Harbor with my dad so we could stretch our legs a bit. It was a beautiful and surprisingly mild day. I started out with a bunch of layers but before we had left our car in the parking lot I had taken a couple layers off. It was very relaxing to walk around and feel the cool air on my face, look for animal tracks in the snow, and as is always the case when I return to the island, see people I know. I love deciduous forests in the wintertime when there is snow; their bare branches contrast starkly with the sky and the snow. It is easy scenery for beautiful photographs.

This state park was originally a huge estate purchased in the early 1920's by Marshall Field III, an investment banker with family money. The land had been called Caumsett by the Matinecock Indians, which means, place by a sharp rock.

Later that night I went with my family to see True Grit. I love western films and I love the Coen brothers so I had high expectations for their newest film but I ended up being a bit disappointed. Jeff Bridges' character was great and so was Matt Damon's but the pace of the story and how it was presented just didn't really do it for me.

2010 had a bunch of great movies though, the ones I would especially recommend are:
-Green Zone
-The Millenium Trilogy films (I saw the first two, which are great- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire- but am holding off on seeing the third film, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, until I am done with the book).
-Black Swan (incredibly terrifying and disturbing but undeniably brilliant)
-Robin Hood
-Inception
-Shutter Island

Leonardo DiCaprio has always been a great actor but I feel like he just keeps getting better. I know a film with him in it will be good, just like I know one with Nicholas Cage in it is going to be terrible!

More information:
Caumsett State Park
http://nysparks.state.ny.us/parks/23/details.aspx

Marshall Field III
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Field_III

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T15:52:00.000-08:00

I think the new year is a great chance for people to feel that they can start over or better themselves in some way. I always panic a bit as it gets close to being a new year because time seems to go by so quickly. I always make myself feel better though by sitting down and making a list of all the things I have seen and done, all the friends I have made, all that I have learned in only 365 days.

The coming new year provides not just a chance to reflect on everything you have done but also for you to evaluate your life and see if you are where you want to be, if you're pushing yourself too hard or if you're maybe not pushing yourself hard enough. We are all capable of more than we can imagine if we'll only maintain the discipline that greatness requires and be true to ourselves. It sounds simple but it isn't.

I wish you all luck, peace and health for this coming year. I am hoping people, myself included, will give a little more love and compassion to this world, in how they treat others, and hopefully feel that they are receiving more compassion as well. That is my wish for this new year. God bless.

Snowed In

2010-12-30T17:01:00.000-08:00

I awoke this past Monday, on Long Island, to a true winter wonderland. I served myself a nice piece of the Cranberry Cake that I had made (it's not so sweet that it couldn't be eaten as a breakfast treat!) and a cup of tea.

Cranberry Cake from the cookbook, Cooking from Quilt Country by Marcia Adams

I was scheduled to work at Harborside Vet Hospital, the veterinary clinic where I have worked since I was 16 and where I gratefully find employment when I am visiting Huntington. However, since the snow was so deep and the roads so bad (Huntington had declared a "snow emergency!"), they ended up not needing me. I was not too upset at the prospect of being able to stay inside where it was warm for a bit longer! I sat again by the back window and watched the many birds feeding and playing in the backyard. They seemed to be enjoying themselves in the snow; there was tons of activity! I think because people weren't walking around so much and going outside the birds felt safer so more of them came out.

A male cardinal sits on the feeder while a mourning dove, junco and a sparrow forage below.

A female cardinal in flight

A blue jay with full extension in flight

Blue jay on a feeder

By the afternoon the roads had been plowed and traveled upon enough (at least by my house!) that it was not too bad that you could not drive. My dad and I shoveled for a while, ate some lunch and then decided to go see The Fighter with my mom, my aunt Lisa, and my cousin Lucie.

I love Mark Wahlberg so I was expecting to like the film but I underestimated how good it would be! I didn't realize it was based on the true life story welter-weight boxer, Mickey Ward. The fact that it was based on a true story made the film all the better. And Amy Adams is so feisty, I really liked seeing her in a role other than the typical girl in a romantic comedy. I don't want to say too much more about it because I don't want to give anything away. Just go see it! :)

The real Mickey Ward

Day 27: Ancient Ruins, A Plane Crash & 29 Palms

2010-12-29T17:50:00.011-08:00

We woke up and lounged for a little bit, enjoying the scenery and then packed everything up and left the campground. Today we planned on going further into the Grand Canyon National Park and either finding another campground that we wanted to stay at with the trailer or moving on towards Ramona, California to visit John and Stephanie at CowHorse Ranch. We are fortunate on this trip to have the flexibility and means to be able to stay in places we like for longer and leave places we don't like as quickly as we want!

Our first stop on our westward path through the park was at the Tusayan Ruins, an 800 year old Pueblo Indian site. The inhabitants of the area were given the Navajo name of Anasazi by early researchers, which mean "ancient enemies," and as you can imagine it is not appreciated by descendants of these people. The ruins site has a short loop trail along which you can walk and read interpretive signs about the Puebloans and their culture while looking at the remains of the structures their built.

What remains of the Kiva

From the site of these ruins you can see the San Francisco Peaks which include Humphreys Peak, the highest peak in Arizona, which reaches 12,633 feet in elevation. This mountain range was considered sacred to the Hopi (one of many Indian nations within the Pueblo Indian category) because they believed that the spirits (katsinas) that brought rain and other blessings resided there.

Tyler and I enjoyed driving the road that took visitors to overlooks, ruins, trail heads, etc. There were a lot of places where you could pull over and have sweeping views across the canyon and deep looks down into the canyon.

At the furthest point from South to North rim the canyon measures 18 miles wide!

If you read my entry about Avalanche Lake just outside of West Yellowstone in Montana you will already know that in 1959 there was a huge (7.5 magnitude) earthquake that dammed up the Madison River, creating Earthquake Lake and killing almost 30 people (http://fierceasparagus.blogspot.com/2010/09/day-7-part-2-very-exciting-day-indeed.html).

Evidently the 1950s was just a time in which a lot of things went wrong near National Parks! In 1956 two airliners flying over the Grand Canyon collided in mid-air, killing 128 people. At this time it was the deadliest aviation disaster on record. It was only after this tragic event that black boxes were installed on airplanes. Black boxes (which, despite their name, are orange to make it easier to find them in wreckage) contain audio recording devices that record conversations with the pilot so that if something goes wrong it is easier to analyze the problem and prevent it from happening again.

An article (a link to which is posted below this entry) written for Deseret News after a visit to the site in Juneof 2006 stated that, "In the canyon's vastness, the wreckage of TWA Flight 2 and United Airlines Flight 718 has always been a reminder of how small human endeavors are. But the wreckage endures. You can still see pieces of metal from the United plane hanging on the 800-foot cliff; you can see it from the river, when the sun glints off the metal, says Driskill, who visited the site in April. 'There are probably whole engines still embedded in the crack,' he says."

Photo courtesy of Deseret Morning News Archives.

We drove the rest of the way to Grand Canyon Village and poked around there for a little bit but being turned off by the large amount of tourists in this section of the park we decided against staying another night and instead headed towards Joshua Tree National Park.

When we crossed over the state line into California from Arizona the roads were in pretty bad condition. Since we were once again in the middle of nowhere it was a bit stressful because we did not want to have to deal with getting a flat tire but luckily it did not turn into an issue. We eventually turned on to a fun section of historic Route 66 that felt a bit like a roller coaster. I am not quite sure why the road went up and down so much considering the land around us was flat and straight but it was enjoyable so I am not complaining!

We were driving as the slightest changes occurred indicating the transition from day to night. As dusk approached we were driving in the desert with the open sky surrounding us, uncorrupted by light pollution. We barely saw anyone else on the road in this open expanse of land.

Notice the difference between the way the light hits the hills behind us as opposed to the ones in front of us!

Beautiful Desert Landscape

About an hour and a half from Joshua Tree we found a place to pull over and walk Hanz before it got too dark. I wanted to stop at this particular place because there was a long row of the most peculiar mounds of dirt. I have to try to locate on a map where we were exactly when we came across this strange sight because neither Tyler nor I could figure out how or why they were there!

The line of mysterious mounds... any ideas??

Hanz is investigating the mounds to figure out why they're here. He's a very thorough detective!

We arrived in Twenty-Nine Palms, which is just north of Joshua Tree National Park, just after sun-down. We had hoped to be able to spend the night in the park itself but it was quite a drive to a campground from the park’s entrance and we were not certain that we would be able to find a camp spot. We stopped at a gas station in Twenty-Nine Palms to ask some advice and the attendant told us the park was probably full because of the long weekend. It was too late to call an RV park and find a spot and we did not want to pay for a hotel room when we knew we would just be leaving at the crack of dawn. So we looked around for a good hotel parking lot in which we could spend the night; preferably one with several other cars so they would not know for certain that our travel trailer didn’t belong to a person who was staying at the hotel!

We quickly found something suitable; luckily there were several hotels to choose from. We settled in quickly and kept the lights off so as not to arise suspicion. We wanted to go to bed early anyways so that we could get an early start. I lay in bed for a little while, worried that the hotel would know we were inside and call the police, but I kept reassuring myself that they probably wouldn’t find out.

Just as I was drifting off to sleep a light flashed around in the window above our heads… agh! It was one of those pivoting lights on a cop car! I guess they had been more observant than we had hoped so they had sent for someone to check things out! Tyler and I lay extra still as the car drove by, did a loop in the parking lot, passed by once again and then left. I must have held my breath for a while afterwards, hoping he wouldn’t come back. After another half hour I took a deep breath and felt fairly certain he wouldn’t be back. Somehow we both fell asleep and didn’t wake up until just after sunrise the next morning.

For more information:
Jarvik, Elaine. "Vestiges of '56 Collision Still Embedded in Grand Canyon." Deseret News.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/640191166/Vestiges-of-56-collision-still-imbedded-in-Grand-Canyon.html?pg=2

National Park Service brochure on the Tusayan Ruins:
http://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/upload/Tusayan.pdf

National Park Service: Grand Canyon Guide
http://www.nps.gov/grca/parknews/upload/SRGwinter20010-11.pdf

White-Out New York (Sunday)

2010-12-27T21:27:00.001-08:00

Sunday was a great day for me. I woke up fairly early and went out with my mom to exchange some clothing and accessories that I received for Christmas that either didn't fit or didn't work for me. Going to malls stresses me out because of the artificial light and terrible air circulation but we just went to Ann Taylor Loft in downtown Huntington and I found some great things to get with the store credit! Very exciting! The sky was white and ominous looking and we had heard we were in for a big snow storm so we figured we would also stop at the grocery store to grab a few things in case the weather went all "winter of 1996" on us! We had initially planned on seeing True Grit today but it was lightly flurrying when we went into Waldbaums and positively dumping this heavy, wet snow by the time we were going back to our car. It's okay, don't worry, we had enough ice cream to last us for at least a few days if we ended up getting snowed in!

Since it was only the day after Christmas I had not had much time to simply be able to relax and enjoy being home because everything before the holidays is insane. I was fine, then, with however much snow would fall because I had a warm house, a great book (The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson!) and parents to catch up with.

I made some tea and sat by the window watching the snow fall and the birds frantically eat all the seeds they could in anticipation of the storm and the coming night. It is truly amazing how diverse the bird species are that regularly visit the bird feeders in my backyard. I saw dark-eyed juncos, black-capped chickadees, northern cardinals, tufted titmice, blue jays, a downy woodpecker, several types of sparrows, nuthatches, and mourning doves! And of course there are the squirrels, which feed on the bird seed as well as some peanuts that they happen upon in the yard. I could sit for hours and watch these creatures interact. The squirrels were cracking me up because they would jump up onto the feeders and grab some seeds and then hang upside down while they ate... maybe it's easier for them to eat while being upside down than it is for us!

A cute squirrel munching on some seeds.

My dad and I waited until there was a couple inches of snow and then we went out and shoveled. We didn't realize the wind would later nullify our efforts by blowing the snow around everywhere but it was fun for me so I didn't mind. Some time after dark the gusts of wind picked up and so did the rate of snowfall. I could see now that we were not going to get jipped on the snow end of things!

I went and sat again by the window, watching the birds flying around, taking turns on the feeders and foraging on the ground. As dusk approached it started to get darker outside but I didn't turn any lights on in my room. I wanted to be able to see outside for a bit longer and to tell when the birds would call it good and turn in for the night. Through the worsening storm the dark-eyed juncos won out as the most persistent bird in the backyard. They would scurry across the ground looking for seeds that had blown out of the feeder and when a gust of wind would blow, they would brace themselves against the force. It is amazing to me that they were able to stand without getting blown away considering how little mass they have!

Slate-colored junco

How interesting the world looked to me at that moment. The snow-covered ground was the same color as the snow-filled sky and the juncos matched perfectly with their slate-colored bodies and white breasts and beaks. I think they are beautiful.

This junco is perfectly camouflaged against the background of snow and stone.

Lulu, my crazy cat, also became interested in the life outside the window so she came over and peered outside with me.

Lulu silhouetted in the dark room against the bright snow.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T22:31:00.000-08:00

Dear Readers in the Blogosphere,

I hope you all had a wonderful and joy-filled Christmas (or if you don't celebrate Christmas, that you just had a great day)! I am on Long Island until mid-January so I got to be with all of my east coast family for the special occasion.

On Christmas Eve my cousin Lucie came over and we made a delicious Cranberry Cake with Butter Sauce. I got the recipe for it from that amazing Amish cookbook that I love called Cooking from Quilt Country. My parents, Lucie, my aunts, uncle and I went out to dinner at a restaurant in Huntington called Dao and then they all came over to my house and we had the cake for dessert. It was a great hit!

Working hard or hardly working? :)

Today, Christmas Day, after a morning of stockings, presents, pancakes that only my mom can perfect and lots of smiles and well-wishing phone calls, my parents and I headed over to my cousin Aisha's house for dinner. About fifteen of us gathered together and ate a German inspired meal of Sauerbraten, red cabbage and mashed potatoes. We used to have a more traditional American meal of turkey and ham but as of last year we have evidently been on a German kick so we are eating the meal that my uncle's German mother used to make for the holidays. Even though I am not German and I do tend to prefer a more traditional menu it is still interesting to be exposed to a dish that is so popular in another part of the world. After all, Sauerbraten is a national dish of Germany! As long as it is made with beef and not the historically traditional horse meat I am okay with it! The large amount of beef used for the dish is marinated for a few days before it is served which is fascinating to me because I don't think I have ever made anything further in advance than the day before!

My cousin Aisha with her husband, Don in the kitchen getting ready to serve dinner.

I love Christmas. And not just the day. I love the Christmas season. I love the smells of pine trees and sap. I love the crisp air on your face while your body stays warm under a nice sweater. I love Christmas music. NPR plays interesting Christmas music from all over the world; I am partial to that of the Irish.

I love sleeping under layers of blankets so I stay warm except the tip of my nose is a little chilly; it's a great excuse to burrow deeper under the covers or maybe to delay getting out of bed for a few minutes more. I love cups of hot tea that seem to warm your bones and loosen your muscles. I love white Christmas lights and tastefully displayed ones with color. I am not, however, a big fan of the huge inflatable snowmen/ Santas, sorry! To each his own! ;)

Every since I was little I have loved this angel.

I love shopping for presents as long as I start early enough that it doesn't become a chore. You have to look for long enough that you can actually find something that speaks to you for each person on your list. I don't believe in giving presents because you have to; what is the point of that? It's all about sincerity.

I recycled a Vanity Fair magazine to wrap some of my presents!

I love Christmas decorations and seeing mysterious presents of all shapes and sizes with unique wrapping jobs. I love stockings hanging in the living room. My dad still has the stocking that his mother made for him when he was very young!

I love this stocking!

I think the anticipation of Christmas is almost better than the actual day only because when it's actually December 25th I know that soon the decorations will come down. I get so excited when people open presents that I have gotten for them! Luckily we get Christmas every year so I know it's never too far away from being that time again!

My mom always does a great job making the house festive!

I think it is good to reflect a bit about the holiday season and what it means to you as an individual and what you want it to mean to your children, if you have them. Yes, it is about gifts and food and family but it is also a celebration of the birth of Christ. No matter your religious convictions I think it is fair to say that Jesus had an admirable character and I think we could all better ourselves if we applied his principles of compassion and forgiveness and generosity to our every day lives. Ironically the birth of this simple man who gave away all of his worldly possessions has spawned a holiday that has become synonymous with consumption. So even though wish lists have already been made and presents given, I think it is good to reflect on this day and to realize how much each of us already has in our possession. I have a family that loves me. I have a warm bed to sleep in. I have food in my belly. I am grateful.

Beauty in the details: the considerably large shadows cast by the small white lights.

I will continue the saga of the Fierce Asparagus adventures within the next couple days. Forgive my digital absence this past week and a half, the real world was calling!

Blessings and Peace to each and every one of you.
Over and Out!

Marisol

Day 26- Navajos & The Grand Canyon!!

2010-12-13T13:07:00.000-08:00

October 10^th 2010, Sunday

When I finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo I left it with Rayne in Steamboat Springs, CO so that she could be wowed by it, as I was. About a week ago I started The Girl Who Played with Fire and if I thought the first book in the Millenium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson was intense and gripping then with this second book I am positively obsessed. It opens with a bang, the first sentence pulling you in, and it really doesn’t let go so please do yourself a favor: if you’re going to read this book don’t do it if you can’t devote at least the next three hours of your life to it. We have been obviously moving around a lot and staying very active so I haven’t had a lot of time to devote to reading but whenever I get the chance I read a couple chapters.

In driving through the little bit of New Mexico that we go to see, and not liking it very much, we decided we did not want to pay to stay at a campground surrounded by dust and not much else so we spent the night in Farmington, NM in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart! It’s actually a very safe, *free* place to stay because they have security cameras. They actually encourage RV campers to stay the night because they’ve found that people tend to spend money in the store if they’re their overnight. Problems like, “Oops, we’re almost out of toothpaste” or “I wish I had some popcorn to eat while we watch this movie” could be simply solved by a quick trip into the store. We had planned on staying in Wal-Mart parking lots whenever possible also to cut down on costs since we’re not currently making any money.

This morning we quickly got on the road; I was shaking my head at the swarms of cars parked in the Wal-Mart lot so early in the morning. Who wakes up on a Sunday morning and forgoes lazily stretching out of bed, making a yummy breakfast and reading a newspaper with a cup of tea/coffee for a trip to Wal-Mart?! I mean, really people, come on!

Farmington, New Mexico is not really my kind of place. It is basically a city of about 45,000 people that just sprawls with big box stores and lots of traffic and confusing roads. Mining for petroleum, natural gas, and coal is huge in the surrounding areas. The Navajo Indian Reservation lands are close by so Native Americans make up a significant portion of the population.

In 2005 the US Commission on Civil Rights completed an investigation called, “The Farmington Report: Civil Rights for Native Americans 30 Years Later” (http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/122705_FarmingtonReport.pdf). This investigation was initially done in 1975, looking into the Farmington area after 3 Navajo youths were brutally murdered there in 1974 and there were complaints of discrimination and unequal treatment by the Native Americans. The three white high school boys who committed the killings were sent to reform school instead of prison. This most recent report was a follow-up, 30 years later, because there were several more instances of abuse and mistreatment http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9903E1D91331F934A2575AC0A9609C8B63.

Even after the report was published the Navajo community continued to experience acts of racial violence against their tribal members. Hopefully with the work the community is doing today these crimes will become more rare http://www.navajotimes.com/news/2008/1108/112008racial.php. Although, another incident this past April would suggest there is still work to be done http://newmexicoindependent.com/55674/swastika-branding-in-farmington-part-of-ongoing-violence-against-navajo-people.

On a happier note, Tyler and I were both very excited because today was the day we would go to the Grand Canyon. We took off, passing through Shiprock, a town named for a huge rock formation that looks like a ship emerging from the sand.

Shiprock!

Soon we crossed over the border into Arizona and Apache/ Navajo land. Arizona is kind of a funny place. It doesn’t observe day-light savings time changes but the Navajo tribal lands within the state do (however on tribal lands it is illegal to serve alcohol). To avoid frustration about the time Tyler and I took a general view of not caring what time it was exactly, made easier by the fact that we didn’t have anywhere to be at any particular time. We were headed to the Grand Canyon and we would get there when we got there!

At this point we were in the Painted Desert, known for the beautiful color variations and layers in its geologic formations. The actual desert is made up of easily erodible sediment from the Triassic Chinle Formation. The abundant iron and manganese provide the pigments for the various colors of the area (http://www.scienceviews.com/parks/painteddesert.html).

I love how boldly the colors contrast in the badlands of the Painted Desert.

The badlands of the Painted Desert are largely made up of Navajo and Hopi tribal lands. In traveling through this area I became fascinated with the history of the people who had first inhabited the area and I discovered some very interesting facts in my research. The first is that the term Navajo was actually applied to the Native Americans by the Spanish, the supposed “Navajo” actually referred to themselves as Diné, which means “the people.” The other interesting thing that I learned is that the Navajo/ Diné are traditionally a matrilocal tribe, meaning that when a man and woman get married they go and live with the wife’s family. Also, women were the only ones who could own land or livestock!

I am continually fascinated with history, but unfortunately I don’t think Native American history can be accurately discussed without it being fairly depressing. The extent to which they were crippled as a people is truly disgusting. Their children were taken away to boarding schools to be assimilated into white and modern American culture, and were punished for speaking their native tongue. Most people know about how the US government systematically killed off thousands and thousands of buffalo for the express purpose of weakening the tribes that relied upon them for food and materials, leaving the corpses to rot and waste. Something else that I just discovered was officially called the “Navajo Livestock Reduction.” In the 1930’s the US government put a livestock quota system in place. They said it was to prevent over-grazing and they went onto the Navajo reservations and killed off 80% of their livestock. To the Navajo, who view livestock as being sacred, this was absolutely devastating. I can understand the need to prevent overgrazing but the Navajo must have been specifically targeted for this enforcement because there are plenty of white Americans who overgraze their land and nobody says anything about it. This system is still in place today.

So anyways, we wound up the road that led to the Grand Canyon’s eastern entrance to the south rim. I wasn't expecting to already by winding around the canyon lands that lead up to the Grand Canyon and the views were spectacular, the colors beautifully muted pinks, browns, greens and beiges.

The amazing canyons around which we traveled to enter Grand Canyon National Park.

When we got into the park we found the first possible campground in which we could park our travel trailer. We had expected there to be a good amount of people because it is a very popular park but luckily the campground didn't have too many people set up in it yet.

After unhitching our trailer and getting slightly settled we immediately jumped back in the truck and drove to Desert View Watch Tower, an almost 80 year old structure, 70 feet high, with a platform at the base over which you could peer down into the depths of the Grand Canyon.

One of the beautiful views approaching the canyon opening.

Desert View Watch Tower

I really wish we had had the chance to look inside the watch tower! Supposedly there are murals painted inside by Fred Kabotie, a Hopi artist.

Fred Kobatie working on a Hopi mural in the Desert View Watch Tower.

The views are amazing! There's really no comparison between seeing the Grand Canyon in photos and seeing it in person. The sheer depth of the canyon is truly breath-taking. I was amazed to find that the rock at the bottom of the canyon is over 2 billion years old! I mean, I hear that and I know it's a big number but I cannot even fathom how old that is!

Tyler and Hanz checking out the view

Gorgeous view over the Grand Canyon!

It's so beautiful!

Photography Nostalgia

2010-12-09T23:58:00.000-08:00

In working on a Christmas gift, that shall not be discussed so as not to give anything away to any unsuspecting individual, I went through many old photos. In doing so I stumbled upon some old pictures that I had taken when I was in high school and when I was starting to learn how to use Photoshop. I became obsessed with the program and, I admit, still am in total awe of the realm of possibilities for photos within it.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude's installation art, The Gates, was in Central Park for over 2 weeks in 2005.

I have always loved taking photos. I love portraits, as unposed as possible because I feel looking at them can be a real study in the essence of humanity. I love the lines in people's faces. I love the little quirks that make each individual just that, an individual, a unique specimen. Especially in a society obsessed with physical (and social) conformity these unique qualities can be overlooked. I think when someone alters their appearance to such a degree that they lose what made them individual (à la Heidi Montag) it's a deeply profound loss not easily regained.

I haven't done much portraiture but I hope to remedy that in the future. It's a difficult thing to do and something that I ponder rather frequently. How do you get someone to pose for a portrait shot without really posing? If someone knows they are being watched, even if they tell themselves to relax, I think there is still a tendency to pose to a certain degree. And I am always astounded at photographers who can go to far-off places and take beautiful shots of people in their every day life. I have contemplated doing that when I have traveled but always feel like the person is going to think I'm weird if I start photographing them because something about them appeals to my aesthetics. Or else I would feel like a jerk asking some destitute individual if I could take their photo because I would feel like I was insulting them, like they were part of a zoo or circus, something to be looked at, awed at, maybe even pitied. But that isn't what draws me to them, it's those little things that I mentioned, the little quirks that make people individuals. Or sometimes it's my wanting to document everything I see, good and bad, the things that make me proud of America and the things that we as a society still need to work on. I especially love to photograph the people and things that have been forgotten or that get overlooked, both in the social justice sense as well as in the "there's beauty in the small things" sense.

I have a deep appreciation for texture. I love the details in things. I love going to the beach and finding beautiful shells and rocks and then examining the sand and finding those same shapes and colors in a micro-form. I always want to keep them because I think they are so beautiful but how does one keep track of a grain of sand? I love the patterns that you find both on large and small scales in nature. I love when you can look at a photograph and you cannot tell if it is a picture of something on a grand or tiny scale. Or when you look at something close up and you can't tell what it is until the photo is zoomed out and then it seems so obvious, you should have realized what you were looking at!

I love the colors and texture of this huge plant I saw in Hawaii.

Shells and sea glass that I found on a beach in Hawaii... so much beauty in such a small package!

The broken stalk of a star-gazer lily on Long Island in early Fall.

A milkweed pod spills out it's fairy-like seeds to be swept away by a gust of wind.

A close up of a dandelion's full seed head.

These icicles hung in front of our back door several years ago on LI.

In the spring I am obsessed with the first flowers to brave the still chilly and frosty world. They are the pioneers that lead the way for all that comes in the soon warming weeks and months. Especially living up north the winter is wonderful because it strongly marks the time of year and distinguishes it from the rest, but come February the short days and slushy roads find me weary and I find myself holding my breath, hoping for the first signs of spring. I know spring will come but it's still such a relief when it arrives, as if one year it may decide it's just too cold for any one flower to take a chance and peek above ground. When I lived on Long Island often times that flower would be a crocus. The brilliant purple/blue of the petals was made all the more devastating in contrast with the snow.

A brave crocus found outside my house on Long Island in early spring.

In Montana, where there is considerably more land in which wildflowers can grow, the pioneers of spring are more diverse. This past spring I saw the first wild flower of the year on my birthday, March 1st, when I was hiking in the woods with my boyfriend, Tyler, and our dog, Hanz. This one happened to be a buttercup which, interestingly enough, has a curious layer of starch that reflects the sunlight, giving the petals a glossy, waxy sheen.

A Ranunculus (buttercup) found in the woods outside Missoula, MT.

I felt like I must have been doing something right in my life because not only was I blessed with seeing the first wildflower of the season on my birthday last year but I also saw the first birds performing mating displays (red-shafted northern flickers) and I found a coyote's skull in the woods! Certainly a birthday to remember! :)

Day 25- New Mexico & Apache Territory

2010-12-07T12:34:00.000-08:00

October 9^th 2010 Day 25 Saturday

After enjoying the morning at Great Sand Dunes yesterday we decided to keep going. We had to make sure we would be in California for my twin uncles’ 50^th birthday celebration on October 22^nd and we still had a ways to go!

From the Mosca, Colorado area, where Great Sand Dunes is, we headed south on Hwy 285 and then cut West on Hwy 17 towards New Mexico. The only exposure I had had to the state was that my aunt and uncle have a home there and I’d seen beautiful pictures from their time there but I’d never actually been. What I pictured was dry desert landscape scattered with tumbleweeds and cacti and a hot, unending sun. I was surprised then when we started winding up into mountains of conifers and aspens as we neared the border.

The border of Colorado and New Mexico wasn't as arid as I had expected.

We finally came to the sign announcing we were entering New Mexico, “The Land of Enchantment.” Evidently it is also the land of shotguns!

Welcome to New Mexico! Land of Shotguns!

Soon after entering this 98 year old state the landscape flattened out and began to more closely resemble the land I had envisioned it being. We had initially wanted to go to Taos and Santa Fe but we wanted to be able to spend at least a week helping out at a ranch in Southern California where some family friends lived so we were constrained for time if we were going to make it to the Bay Area by October 21^st. So we kept close to the border with Colorado and drove across the northwest corner of New Mexico.

I would like the opportunity to return someday and check out Taos and Santa Fe because we did not form a very favorable view of the state with our short experience in it. The roads, at least where we were, weren't that great and it was overall a pretty desolate and lonely stretch of road. We would occasionally pass through settlements on the Jicarillo Apache Indian reservation scattered with dilapidated trailers and worn-looking people. It pains me to say that we passed a billboard boasting that something like "83% of our high school students don't drink and drive!" I did a double take. Was this a statistic to be proud of? Are you telling me that 17% of your underage high schoolers do drink and drive??

We came across a Navajo cultural exhibit that shared space with a Burger King. They had interesting examples of the dwellings that their ancestors had lived in but the irony of one of this fierce Indian tribe sharing land with a Burger King to celebrate their heritage and educate visitors did not escape me. That has been the most depressing aspect of our trip, driving through numerous reservations that all have looked run-down. I would really like the opportunity to speak with a Native American scholar because from what I have seen the state of Native Americans in the USA is extremely tragic, infuriating, and extremely complex considering the history and psychology of the issue as a whole. I have many more thoughts on the issue but before I share them I need to get some outside perspective. It's something you can count on being discussed at a later date, however.

It is a curious landscape in this part of the country. It is generally flat but there are sudden spikes of rock that jut out of the ground, some more dramatic than others.

It was generally a fairly bleak landscape but I like this photo that I took of the interesting geology.

It has been really interesting to contemplate how the world views of people might differ depending on where they are from and what kind of life they know. I feel very fortunate to have been exposed to many different lifestyles and ecosystems. For example, Tyler and I were discussing what it would be like to grow up here, so far from any "civilization" and from any life in general, and how that would affect the way you viewed the world and your place in it.

Day 24- Alligator Rodeo, UFOs & Canoeing Down Sand Dunes

2010-11-30T18:51:00.000-08:00

October 8th 2010, Friday

Yesterday when we drove from Nathrop to Great Sand Dunes we passed through many small “towns” if you can even call them that. According to Wikipedia they all had populations of around 100 people. If you blinked you literally would have missed them. There were, however, three interesting things that are worth mentioning.

The first is that we passed a huge field of photovoltaic cells. It was so weird because they covered a huge expanse of land and since they were on the ground where you’d expect crops to be it was like they were growing them! I found that it was the Alamosa Photovoltaic Plant and that it covered 83 acres of land! I guess solar power plants makes sense in a place like this where there aren’t many people who could be aesthetically offended, there’s not enough water to really be able to grow anything and there is definitely a lot of sun throughout the year.

The second sighting was of a sign for the Colorado Gators Reptile Park in Mosca, CO. It started in the late 1970s as a tilapia farm and opened to the public in 1990 as a sanctuary with ponds fueled by geothermal energy that allow alligators and many other animals to survive. It is a refuge for migrating birds as well as abused or neglected reptiles. Every August the park holds Gatorfest, the world’s first alligator rodeo and roundup! Activities include roping, riding, and barrel racing! I wish that was going on right now so that I could see it. I mean, alligator barrel racing? How would that work? And the riding?? I hope they have an ambulance at the ready! Here is their website: http://gatorfarm.com/

The third and final sighting of note was a sign for a UFO Watch Tower just outside of Hooper, CO. Now I was sure we were getting close to New Mexico! The site is run by a female rancher named Judy. If you go to Roadside America’s website you will find descriptions written by people who have visited. This is one of my favorites: “In addition to the watchtower, she has a very strange garden consisting of rocks, sticks and an incredible amount of amazingly random junk offerings, laid out around what she describes as the location of a major Interdimensional Vortex. People leave offerings to the Vortex, which range from quite valuable items down to old hubcaps and half packets of chewing gum, all displayed with equal reverence. She will also show you a small dry shrub nearby, which has magical powers. I had to agree, it was the best small dry shrub with magical powers that I have seen anywhere in the world. It didn't do anything magical while I was there, but hey, I'm not about to argue with Judy.”

God, I love travelling. The thing that makes these sightings even more awesome and definitely more random is the fact that this is literally the middle of Nowhere. I mean, Nathrop, as a ghost town, was the beginning of Nowhere so that would mean we’re right smack in the middle at this point.

But anyways, back to the awesomeness that is Great Sand Dunes National Park!

An amazing view in Great Sand Dunes National Park

Tyler liked it right off the bat because in order to get to a lot of the trails you have to drive on these crazy unpaved roads that are truly ridiculous. Tyler was in off-roading heaven in his new truck while I had one white-knuckled hand clutching the handle above the passenger door and the other trying to make sure Hanz didn’t get thrown around too much in the back seat! We got to the parking lot and the jostling came to a happy end. Hanz and I got out pretty quickly, happy to have two (or four) feet on the ground where things seemed much more stable.

I'm prepared with my Camelback! Take note of the canoe because it's about to become very relevant.

Somehow Tyler had talked me into bringing our canoe out with us with the plan being that we would hike up to the top of the biggest sand dune with it and then “canoe” back down. Well, let me tell you, don’t attempt this. Seriously, I mean, I guess it makes for a good story but it was some seriously hard work hiking that thing down this trail, across the dried up river bed and over to the dunes alone. And then you get there, realizing it’s difficult to carry something heavy and bulky in sand because with every step you sink into the sand. Then you realize that you haven’t even climbed the dune yet! That’s exactly what happened to us but we had come that far so we didn’t want to give up.

Carrying the canoe

Almost there!

We did take period breaks to sit down and groan a bit. Hanz was super excited the whole time. He didn’t know what to make of this huge pile of sand! He was almost constantly in wild puppy mode, running around at top speed with his ears back and his butt tucked under, mouth open in excitement. So on our breaks we couldn’t help but play with him a bit, as well.

Tyler playing with Hanz who is in Wild Puppy Mode.

The wind was fiercely blowing and the desert heat was intense. You couldn’t open your mouth or you would get sand in it. We finally made it up the dune, looked down and realized that the angle would be fine for us in the canoe until we got closer to the bottom where it dropped off much more sharply and we would definitely hit the ground with the nose of our canoe and topple over. Wanting to avoid this we decided to keep moving along the dune to see if the angles would work any better. This was no small feat, again because of the insane wind whipping the sand everywhere, and with exerting a lot of effort with each step because of how our feet would sink into the sand.

We eventually found something that looked like it might work. I got out my camera, prepared to film the whole thing, and Tyler and I got into the boat. I was super excited because we were finally going to do it and at least we would have a fun ride down. Tyler had his leg over the side of the boat with his foot in the sand to stabilize it so we could get situated. He put his foot back in the boat and we both push off with our arms…. I think we moved about a quarter of an inch. NOOOOO! It wasn’t going to work! I was so pissed. All this work for nothing??? And now we were going to have to carry it back down??? I don’t think so.

Not a happy camper!!

Tyler, being the very nice and level-headed person that he is was able to get over it fairly quickly and suggested that instead, I stay in the canoe and he would push me down. Aww, what a nice boyfriend! I wasn’t going to turn down an offer like that so I got back in the canoe with my camera recording away and Tyler gave me a big running push. It worked! I was going! And, oh… wait… this isn’t a good angle…. Crash. It kinda hurt but it was worth it. So now I can officially say that I have canoed down a sand dune. Thank you Tyler! And Tyler continued on his awesome spree and proceeded to carry the canoe all by himself as he ran/walked all the way back to the truck! Wow. Check that one off my bucket list.

Thumbs up!

Hanz went into wild puppy mode on the way down the dune. He was so excited and confused about my being in the canoe and then crashing and shrieking that when I finally got out he ran over to me super excited, making sure I was okay and then running around in huge circles in the sand. What a good puppy.

Me and Hanz

Hanz giving Tyler a big lick!

It rained that night as we slept in the campground. When we woke up this morning we walked around. The sand dunes looked so different because there were ripples of wet sand that shifted the dunes from a monochromatic smooth look to one of more contrast. Quite interesting indeed.

Day 23- Great Sand Dunes National Park!!!

2010-11-28T10:39:00.000-08:00

October 7th 2010, Thursday

This morning we had some extra pep in our step as we set out to check out Great Sand Dunes National Park. It’s funny but before this trip I had never even heard of this park. It was really only until we looked at the National Geographic Atlas that we’d brought with us and scanned for recreation areas near where we would be travelling that we found it.

We weren’t quite sure what to expect from a National Park we’d heard nothing about but we kept an open mind. We passed along the Sangre de Cristo (Blood of Christ) mountain range, the peaks springing up from an otherwise completely flat landscape. They constitute the southern-most part of the Rocky Mountains, which is amazing to think about because it really makes you realize how extensive the Rockies really are. I would love to read more about the various experiences people had in settling and travelling through the different parts of the Rockies.

Tyler with the Sangre de Cristo Mountains rising up in the background.

Blanca Peak is the highest peak in the Range, hitting 14,345 feet! The Navajo called it the Sacred Mountain of the East. It marked the boundary of the Dinetah, which is the traditional Navajo homeland. The granite that makes up Blanca Peak is approximated to be about 1.8 billion years old!

I forgot to mention that yesterday, before we settled into Nathrop, we drove some beautiful roads winding through the mountains, evergreen trees surrounding us. We turned a corner in the road, however, and noticed that the road started to wind down and into an incredibly flat valley. It’s always interesting coming across extremely flat landscapes at very high elevations; at this point we were around 9,000 ft. The winds are so intense at higher elevations; I definitely wouldn’t want to live in an environment like that. If it’s going to be frigidly cold at least give me mountains!! That tends to be a commonality around this part of the country; flat land with a few intense mountain ranges popping up out of nowhere. Even as we drove by the Sangre de Cristo Mountains we experienced the same effect. When I read more about Blanca Peak especially, it made sense to me that these mountains would appear to pop out of nowhere because they rise about 6,000 feet above the San Luis Valley in which we drove.

We were still in Colorado but we were getting a lot closer to New Mexico. Colorado really is an amazing and quite extensive state, certainly worth several visits.

As we neared the Park we saw the Dunes in the distance and they were quite a sight! At first glance it just seems bizarre that there would be these huge 750 foot sand dunes next to these even larger mountains, how fascinating! Suddenly I was super excited to be there already so I could explore and find out more about this natural wonder.

The Sand Dunes in the distance.

Just outside the Park!

When we got there and looked at the Visitor’s Guide I immediately fell in love with the place. There are several types of endemic species of insects and plants (meaning that this is the only place in the entire world where they exist!!) that are specially adapted to this specific micro-climate. You can read more about the endemic insects and see some photos here (The Tiger Beetle has such an amazing pattern on its back!): http://home.nps.gov/grsa/naturescience/upload/endemic_insects.pdf

Welcome to Great Sand Dunes!

The vegetation was very interesting in the area because it was low-lying and had some great colors that really popped against the mute colors of the landscape.

The gorgeous landscape in the Park.

Since we weren’t sure what the park would be like we had said we would spend the night if we wanted to but otherwise we would continue on. Needless to say we decided to spend the night. We unhitched our trailer in one of the park campgrounds and immediately headed out to explore.

There is only a general understanding of how the sand dunes formed and continue to form to this day according to the National Park Service. Basically there was formerly a lake where the valley is, and when they receded they left behind a sheet of sand that was fairly loose and susceptible to being blown around in the wind. The predominant winds blow from the southwest and pushed the sands into a gentle curve in the mountains. Wind funnels through the mountains in the opposite direction during high wind events and this force is what makes the dunes grow vertically instead of just piling up against the base of the mountains. The dunes continue to grow to this day because of two mountain creeks that carry sediment during times of high flow and then the winds pick it up and it gets added to the dunes when the creeks dry up. Scientists have loosely estimated that the dunes started forming about 440,000 years ago. It’s a very interesting phenomenon with really unique results! You don’t need to go to Asia to get crazy sand dunes; you can just go to Colorado!!

So how the heck had I not heard of this incredible place before? I could have easily spent a week there with all the hikes that start in the National Park and take you up into the beautiful mountains. What was formerly a National Monument, Great Sand Dunes became a National Park only in 2004 so that may be partially why I hadn’t heard of it before. For anyone in the Southern Colorado or Northern New Mexican area, go to Great Sand Dunes!! They have a really informative visitor’s center with a working model of the dunes formation that uses fans to simulate the effects of the wind and you can change the direction from which they blow in order to see how the sand is affected. I am so glad we didn’t by-pass this place!

Day 22- Chalk Creek

2010-11-20T17:28:00.000-08:00

October 6^th 2010 Day 22 Wednesday

We woke up this morning on the border of Pike National Forest, laughed a bit about the night before and hitched up the trailer to the truck so we could get the battery charged again. Without the battery we weren’t able to power the fridge so we hustled to get on the road so it wouldn’t go bad.

We drove only until we reached Nathrop, Colorado in the early afternoon when we decided to settle in for the night early on so we could get our affairs in order, clean a bit, read and write, etc. We found a really cute campground right on a creek called the Chalk Creek Campground. A husband and wife team ran the facility and it looked absolutely gorgeous with the aspens in full autumn colors, the leaves starting to drift down to the ground, creating a smooth blanket of yellows and oranges. Hanz was incredibly excited to once again be near some running water. When we arrived it was a beautiful, blue and sunny afternoon and for the most part it stayed that way, except a couple hours later a small storm blew by. All of a sudden it was incredibly windy and the blue sky was covered with menacingly dark storm clouds. For a brief period of time, probably about 15 minutes, it poured down with such ferocity coupled with equally intense winds that I was afraid our trailer would be pushed into the creek and float away. Of course that didn’t happen and before we knew it the sky had opened up into a cheerful blue and the winds had subsided. Were it not soaking wet outside you might have thought you had imagined the whole thing!

Our campsite on Chalk Creek

The mountains surrounding Nathrop and the few other towns close by were huge and gorgeous, as mountains often are. I doubt I could ever tire of looking at a mountain range. There are always new things to notice, even with a mountain that you're very familiar with. Thinking about how much variance there is in how mountains form starts to really make sense when you notice how different ranges can be from one another. Some, as I've talked about previously, like the Tetons, jut out from the earth, their youth made evident by their jagged peaks which have not been around long enough for weathering to dull them. Others have many foothills that look as though they were formed in the aftershock of a mountain jutting up towards the sky; they are the ripples that coursed through the earth for miles and miles.

The Mountains near Nathrop, CO

The only two annoying things about the Chalk Creek RV Park were that it was definitely overpriced for what it provided and considering that it’s the off-season right now, and the fact that the showers are coin operated! You have to pay more money just to use one of their not-so-wonderful showers!! You would step into the stall and insert your quarters and realize that they had a maximum 15 minute time limit on any showers… WHAT?! Showers at this point in the trip are not merely a place to get clean but also a place to just stand for a few quiet moments with comfortably hot water cascading all around you. This shower not only had a time limit but the shower, when activated, emitted a high pitched squeal that stayed around for the duration of your showering. Oy vey! Major points got deducted from this place after that experience, let me tell you!

Pasta with Sausage and Greens (Recipe)

2010-11-20T13:42:00.000-08:00

Recipe for: Pasta with Sausage and Greens

This is one of my favorite fall back recipes to make at home because it’s fairly simple and easy. It also does well on the road and is easy to make in the travel trailer! It is worthy to note that if you have a boyfriend/ son/ person who eats extraordinary amounts of food, it is very easy to make a lot of this! Leftovers are great, as well.

There are several variations on this but essentially to make it you boil some water for pasta, either rigatoni or penne. Cook it according to the package’s instructions.

As the water for the pasta is heating up, heat a frying pan with about a tablespoon of olive oil.

Chop up some garlic and dice some onions and throw them into the heated pan. Add a pinch of salt, ¼ tsp chili powder, and about ½ tsp each pepper and garlic powder.

When the contents of the frying pan have browned a bit I then add any sausage (one to one and a half per person) with really good flavor (Andouille, spicy Italian, etc. but nothing too sweet. Antibiotic-free meat is always a good way to go, as well!). Cook it on medium heat until it’s lightly browned on both sides.

Then I add chopped mushrooms and spinach (remember that they both cook down a lot so use more than you think you should!) and leave it covered for about 3 minutes. You can be finished here. After you strain the pasta you’d just add a little olive oil and a pinch of salt, and then put the sausage mixture on top of the pasta and top it off with a good amount of parmesan cheese.

If you want more of a sauce topping you can add a can of diced tomatoes along with some Italian spices to the sausage mixture while it’s still in the pan and reduce it a bit until it’s a desirable consistency. Adding some parmesan or shredded cheddar to the sauce helps it to thicken a bit faster.

Also, if you're on a bit of a budget, like most of the country is right now, you can make flavorful sausage go a lot further by slicing it thinner. As long as it's good sausage it will still have enough of that great flavor and it's easier to brown the thinner slices.

Day 21- Mountain Goats! & A Midnight Propane Adventure

2010-11-07T20:54:00.000-08:00

October 5^th 2010 Day 21 Tuesday

This morning Aaron had a test but he had time to get bagels with us beforehand so we could chat a bit more and then say goodbye. After that we hit the road once again, not quite sure where we would be stopping for the night but we figured since we got an early start we could cover a good amount of ground and stop whenever we got tired or whenever the daylight started to run out.

We were driving along a narrow two land highway when we realized the car in front of us had stopped short. There was another car in front of it that had stopped because a herd of some kind of animal had decided to cross the road. At first I thought they were deer because they were so big but then I realized, well, those sure look a lot like goats but… Oh my gosh they’re mountain goats!! I had no idea mountain goats were so huge! They were almost as big as adult whitetail deer! We were stopped for about a minute as about 8 of them took their time crossing, not seeming too startled by the cars. I was able to get a picture of them out the window as we passed by.

Mountain Goats just outside of Fort Collins, CO

Mountain Goats!

We unexpectedly passed through Central City on our round-about, off the interstate path. Butte, MT, known for its prolific copper mines, was known as the "richest hill on earth" while the Central City, CO area, home to several gold veins, was known as the "richest square mile on earth." I think they were a little off there though because the deposits weren't enormous and at its peak the population numbered only a little above 3,000 people, whereas Butte at it's peak had over a million people living and working.

Central City was one of the many cities created around gold veins during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush of 1858. This rush followed the California gold rush by ten years and brought over 100,000 prospectors to the area. Central City is one of the cities that has remained intact since its heyday.

Central City- a small city in the middle of nowhere filled with huge buildings and ornate sculptures.

We decided to spend the night in Pike National Forest even though Colorado is kind of annoying in that they charge you an entrance fee to hike in their forests and they charge you $12 to park your car! In the woods! Almost everywhere else in the country national forest camp spots are super cheap, entry to them is free, and you definitely don’t need a parking permit for your car! People who live in Colorado or who hike there frequently can buy a pass to save money but that didn’t make sense for us. Even knowing how crazy Colorado could sometimes be we figured that since we needed a place to stay and we wanted to be in the woods we would check out a spot in Pike and see how much it would be to spend the night. We did not realize how long of a drive, on a dirt road (with a travel trailer, ouch), it would be to get to the camp site. When we finally got there we were so relieved but then we saw that it was totally ridiculously expensive and didn’t provide any kind of hookups (and definitely no Wi-Fi!). Luckily since we were in the middle of nowhere we found a place where we could pull off on the side of the dirt road, just outside the national forest boundary, and set up our trailer so we could spend the night. It sounds a lot sketchier than it was. The trailer was positioned perfectly, far enough off the road that if a car came by we wouldn’t be in the way but also right next to a trickling creek that Hanz immediately splashed around in.

At this point we were starting to stress a little because this far north it was starting to get really cold at night. The last thing that we wanted was for our pipes to freeze and burst because that would cost somewhere around $2,000 to fix! We’d initially planned on going down the coast from Montana and then cutting up through the Southwest and Colorado on our way back. When taking winter weather into consideration it definitely made sense for us to take the coast back up north in November and December because even if it got cold it wouldn’t freeze.

After cooking dinner, using the built in fan to keep it aired and having the lights on, for some reason our battery was fried. We had so little left that Tyler repositioned his truck so he could hook it up to the trailer and use it as a generator. This didn’t work as well as it normally should have because, as we later discovered, the brake in the front of the trailer was being used for support since we were parked on a bit of an angle and that somehow drained the battery (understanding that kind of thing is Tyler’s department so for details ask him). We didn’t realize this at the time though so we just figured since we were tired we’d go to bed and figure it out in the morning.

Let me preface this story by letting you know that the propane detector in the trailer needs a least a small amount of battery life to remain on. As you know, we had very little and evidently, at some point in the night, we had none.

We woke up at some god-forsaken hour to an alarm going off. Bleary-eyed I looked around and saw that the noise was coming from our propane gas detector which was mounted about 6 inches off the ground on a pantry. I couldn’t tell if it was beeping because it had actually detected propane gas or if something was wrong, like maybe it was telling me it was turning off because the battery in the trailer was dead. Not wanting to think about it for too long in a possibly gas-filled trailer Tyler and I quickly grabbed Hanz and went outside. We were both very tired and it was uncomfortably cold out in the Colorado mountainside so we wanted to figure out what was going on and solve it as soon as humanly possible.

Tyler, in a moment of sheer half-asleep genius, decided we could tell if propane was filling the trailer by throwing a lit match onto the floor from outside. Somehow, when it’s freezing cold outside and it’s the middle of the night and you’re exhausted an idea like this sounds good because it means that if the trailer doesn’t blow up you can go back to sleep. We step about 5 feet from the trailer (great buffer zone, I know) and Tyler lights a match and chucks it inside. We both kind of cringed and then realized we weren’t dead so there probably wasn’t a propane leak but just in case Tyler tried one more time, lighting the match and throwing it on the floor. Once again, we were still standing there without any third degree burns so we figured it was a malfunction or at least nothing that posed imminent danger. And as for our problem solving technique, you all can hold on to your judgment because we figured that if there was a propane gas leak we would die from that in our sleep and the only way to tell for sure whether or not there was gas was with fire. However I will note we were very glad that there wasn’t any gas in the trailer, especially in recounting the event the next day while shaking our heads and looking a bit embarrassed.

A Follow Up on a Mysterious Language

2010-11-04T22:43:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to follow up on something that I talked about on Day 11 ("Mountain Lions and The Swiss"). If you remember my mentioning the Swiss couple that Tyler and I met at a campground in Lander, Wyoming, you also probably remember my embarrassment at being unfamiliar with the language that they spoke.

When Tyler and I were in California his uncle Bill was kind enough to identify (and spell!) the language as being Romansch. I've been told there are different spellings but that's the one I'm using until someone tells me differently! And I feel a little less like the ignorant American I thought I was after I met them because Romansch is only spoken in a very small and specific section of Switzerland, a canton called Graubünden. Despite it's few followers (not even 100,000 people) it is one of Switzerland's four official languages. The name Romansch was actually given as an umbrella term for a group of related dialects that were standardized in 1982.

So, that was your linguistics lesson for the day, I hope you all, as I do, feel a little more worldly now. :)

Buna notg! (Good Night!)

Day 20- MOOSE!!!!!! And Fort Collins

2010-10-26T21:12:00.000-07:00

October 4^th 2010 Day 20 Monday

We got back yesterday evening from Steamboat Lake and I was happy to get the time to relax by myself and write in my journal about all the crazy events of the weekend. Tyler went out with Joel for a little bit and I was going to watch the Giants football game if I could get it on a broadcast channel on our television but it didn’t work. That was alright because watching the Giants recently has just depressed me. I have faith that they can get better though!

We decided to spend Sunday night in Steamboat so we could head out early this morning. We had everything in the travel trailer pretty much together so it didn’t take long for us to be travel ready once we’d woken up. I was happy to get the chance to hike Hanz up the hill for his morning jaunt one last time. It really is so beautiful here.

Tyler and I decided it was highly necessary for us to return to Creekside one last time for a delicious breakfast before we left Steamboat. We sat in the same spot outside next to the wrought iron fence so that Hanz could lie down nearby and across from a stream that trickled softly in the background. I ordered what they described as a French toast breakfast sandwich: baguette French toast with two scrambled eggs, ham, and swiss cheese. Holy cow was that amazing! The Creekside Café (http://www.creekside-cafe.com/) in Steamboat Springs, CO is definitely in my top 5 best eateries of all time!

French toast with scrambled eggs, ham and swiss cheese from the Creekside Cafe!

Me and Tyler at the Creekside Cafe

They were hiring, which made me very excited, and for a second I was tempted to just stay in Steamboat and live for a while but that wasn’t a very practical idea and we still had a huge leg of our trip to do. Really, this is just the beginning. But I am definitely scouting as we go to see where I would consider living.

After a very filling breakfast (of course I had leftovers!) we packed everything up, hugged Rayne and Bear goodbye, thanked them for their generous hospitality and hit the road towards Fort Collins. We went over Rabbit Ears pass, which gave us a great view of Steamboat from above.

Once we passed through Walden we entered into Roosevelt National Forest, which added some much appreciated scenery to our drive.

A Gorgeous View Into Roosevelt National Forest

Along Hwy 14 I waited in anticipation for the Moose Visitor’s Center and kept my eyes open for Moose, since there was supposed to be a lot of them in this area because they love water. We traveled for miles with my head craning out the window, determined to see moose. I had only seen one moose in my whole life and that was a couple weeks ago in Ennis! We were driving down a small, two lane highway, surrounded by conifers when I looked out my window and saw 4 moose! There was a bull moose with huge antlers and 3 cows (cows are female moose for all of you in NY! <3). OMG I was so excited! About 2 miles down the road we got to the Moose Visitor’s Center. We went inside and I excitedly told the woman at the front desk what I’d seen and I got to write it on the “Moose Sightings” board! The woman was also excited because she said that there haven’t been many sightings this year. I felt so lucky! Another woman who also worked for the Colorado Parks Dept came in a few minutes later and said she had also seen them, except she had also seen a baby that had been lying on the ground! I wish I had seen that but as it was I felt so blessed I couldn’t really complain.

There was an amazing statue of a moose outside of the Visitor's Center. A local family team of wire sculpture artists (Louis, Carl and Brian Gueswel) worked over 700 hours. They used steel tubing and barbed wire as well as a rust converter to give it a lifelike color and appearance. The statue is almost 7 feet tall and is modeled after the real size of a record moose from the area! It's quite impressive in person, the detail it amazing!

Barbed Wire Sculpture at the Moose Visitor's Center in Walden, CO

Moose are such cool animals. Their sheer size is enough to wow you but then if you know anything about them it just makes them that much more amazing. Bull moose antlers can actually grow to over 6 feet in length but despite their incredible size they are really good swimmers. They can even fully submerge while swimming, usually for 30 seconds or more. On land they can run up to 35 mph. That would be a sight to see! Although it would probably also be the last sight you’d see.

When we arrived in Fort Collins we realized there wasn’t anywhere ideal for us to park for the night. Tyler’s friend Aaron said there was a parking lot behind his house where we could park. It was a small parking lot behind a building that was being converted into a women’s shelter. Aaron’s backyard butted up against the lot so it wasn’t completely sketchy but we did get some weird looks from neighbors. I think if we’d stayed for more than one night someone would have complained but it wasn’t a big deal for just one night.

Fort Collins was an alright city. It's crazy how flat it is, since it's in Colorado I assumed it would be in a valley in the mountains but that wasn't the case. I didn't really get the chance to get a good feel for life in Fort Collins because we didn't stay for very long but it seemed very sprawled and not very appealing. There didn't seem to be a real city center that was walkable and where you could spend a lot of time. I must be missing something though because this year Money magazine voted it the #6 best place to live in the country. I guess one thing that is pretty cool about Fort Collins is that it has five microbreweries!

Aaron had a midterm the next day so we hung out for a while but then he had to meet a study group for a while. Tyler and I decided to go see the new Oliver Stone film, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. It was pretty much what I had expected, entertaining but far from brilliant.

When we got back Tyler went over to Aaron’s to chill some more since it had been so long since they had seen each other. I was pretty tired since we’d gotten into the habit of going to bed early so I decided to lie in bed and read. I made the mistake of starting The Girl Who Played with Fire, the second book in Stieg Larsson’s Millenium Trilogy and was quickly sucked in. Before I knew it, it was almost 1am!

I was kind of uneasy about sleeping in the lot because I was a bit worried that at any moment the police would knock on the door and tell us to scram but that didn’t happen. The anticipation was probably more stressful than anything else but it was only for one night so it was okay. And just in case any creepers came around I had my handy Costa Rican machete by the bed!

Day 19- Duck Feathers & Bear Messes with Tyler and Joel

2010-10-25T14:52:00.000-07:00

October 3^rd 2010 Day 19 Sunday

This morning I walked Hanz again along the shores of Steamboat Lake. This time we saw a deer grazing in the large riparian area. When I got back I went out on the speedboat with Tyler, Rayne and Bear. We cruised around the lake and saw a buck and a doe grazing on the banks across the way. They were so beautiful and quiet.

Deer Grazing by Steamboat Lake

The only disconcerting thing was that we had heard gunshots yesterday from duck hunters and certain sections of the lake were strewn with feathers. Obviously somebody had hit their target. Some of the ducks had obviously landed fairly far from the shore and it's amazing to think that retriever dogs swim that whole length and back. Hanz can swim but I think it would be pushing it to send him several hundred feet from land. His head is so low in the water because he hasn't been bred to be an efficient swimmer so he ends up swallowing a lot of water. If you watch a lab or another dog bred to retrieve game they swim with their heads far above the water and their short coat makes them have less resistance while they swim. It is interesting to be in a situation where you can actually see a big difference due to selective breeding in dog species of similar size.

Aside from feeling a bit bad for the ducks who met their end in the waters surrounding our canoe we had a good time. It was chilly on the lake, especially when the boat would speed up and the breeze would rip the heat away from our bodies. Tyler, Hanz and I lounged on the front of the boat and I was happy that Hanz looked to be enjoying himself. He would tip his snout up in the wind and sniff sniff sniff. He's a very curious dog.

It's Chilly!

For breakfast we went back to Hahns Peak Café because supposedly they have the best eggs benedict. It was indeed a very delicious breakfast. I would highly recommend it to anyone who visits that area!

Hahn's Peak Cafe has delicious food and is very close to Steamboat Lake

After breakfast we crossed the street to where the remnants of the town of Hahns Peak still stood. Unfortunately the jail that normally can be toured as a museum was closed for the season. I suppose that because the summer weather ends fairly early around here, and it's not uncommon to have snow in early October, they weren't anticipating many crowds at this time of year. Oh well, I'll just put it on the list of places to which we have to return.

Hahns Peak

We got our trailer all ready and then went back out on the boat, this time it was me, Tyler, Joel, and Bear.

Joel and Tyler decided, even on this overcast day, to go tubing off the back of the speedboat. Tubing in my mind is getting in an inner tube, hopping into the river, drinking a beer and relaxing but lake tubing is obviously something quite different.

Joel and Tyler getting ready for extreme tubing!

Tyler and Joel both got onto tubes but since Bear wanted to mess with them as soon as they got far away enough from the boat he ramped up the speed until we were whipping across the water, both Tyler and Joel holding on for dear life. Bear would wait until it looked like they were starting to get a handle on things and then make an abrupt turn, throwing them over the wake and cackling at their struggles. At the same time Joel and Tyler were trying to knock each other off of the tubes. It was a crazy enough ride being on the boat so I couldn’t imagine what it was like for them out on the water! Hanz and I were sitting in the boat holding on for dear life. Or rather Hanz was staring at Tyler and I was holding on to him so he didn’t go flying out of the boat! Normally Hanz would have been terrified but he had never seen Tyler do something like this before so he was too busy staring at him the whole time to make sure he was okay to really be scared. It was only after Tyler got pulled back in and onto the boat and Hanz knew that he was okay that he started to show that he was a bit nervous. He’s such a good dog, our little adventurer.

Bear looks very happy to be throwing Tyler and Joel across the boat's wake!

Hanz making sure Tyler is alright. Notice the look of intense concentration!

When we got back to the campground we packed everything up and headed back to Steamboat for one last night.

Day 18- We Hike Hahns Peak & The Speedboat Runs Away!

2010-10-23T21:26:00.000-07:00

October 2^nd 2010 Day 18 Saturday

We woke up bright and early this morning with the sun streaming in through our window. I looked outside at the lake and in the quiet of the early morning the fog rolling across the top of the lake looked eerie and almost unreal. If you walk down to the lakeside about 30 yards below our campsite there is a really nice trail that winds around the lake and into the riparian area and woods. Hanz loved walking down there because there weren’t any other people so he didn’t feel like he had to be on guard to protect me and there were tons of new and interesting smell trails for him to follow.

After cooking up some breakfast with Bear and Rayne we headed out to hike to the top of Hahns Peak in the Elkhead Mountain Range. I discovered later that Hahns Peak would be the highest peak in the region, topping out at 10,839, but for one other peak nearby that is 8 feet higher! Ugh. But I argue that we really did hike the highest peak because at the top of the mountain there is a fire tower and we went up into it and it was definitely greater than 8 feet above the peak… so there! It is ironic but this mountain range is generally considered to be low elevation because there are so many 14,000+ mountains in Colorado.

Soon after starting the gradual but constant ascent I was miffed at how out of breath I was getting. My chest felt tight and each breath seemed like more effort than normal. Tyler was kind enough to remind me that at such a high elevation this was normal until your body has adjusted to the altitude. Above 8,000 feet is commonly when people start to experience the side effects of altitude sickness.

The view from our campground of the lovely Hahns Peak

The trail was absolutely gorgeous and again, the fall colors here are amazingly brilliant. There were several points from which the views were just incredible. We would keep thinking we’d seen an awesome view and then we’d climb higher and the next time we had a view of the lake and valley below we’d say, No, that is awesome, and so on and so forth until we got to the top. The last quarter mile or so switchbacks up a real rock scramble. I started to freak myself out by wondering how deep the rocks were piled on top of the mountain and imaging them crumbling from underneath my feet. Luckily I soon saw that you could actually see the ground beneath the layers of rock so it couldn’t be too deep. Plus, they wouldn’t have been able to build a lookout tower and have it last for so long at the top if the mountain was so unstable. Hanz was being really cute because he was so focused on where he was stepping. The top scramble definitely made him a bit nervous but he is a great adventurer: when we got to the summit he even climbed up the fire tower with us! He is so loyal. You really couldn’t ask for a better dog. One of my favorite things about summiting Hahns Peak was that in the distance you could see Steamboat Lake including our campground and even the tiny dot that constituted our travel trailer.

Beware of Lightning!

On the trail

That tiny dot is our travel trailer!

We headed back down and enjoyed the crisp weather. I love putting effort into hiking and sweating and feeling every bit of the hike because then when you go back down, especially if there’s some breeze, it’s so refreshing and just plain fun because the hard part is over. Now you just have to try not to kill your knees going downhill! When we got back to the campground by the Lake I was ready to hang out by myself for a bit since we’d been very active and social for the past week. Joel had gotten off from work so he and Tyler took off to have some guy time and I cleaned up a bit in the trailer.

Rayne had a couple friends join them for lunch and she invited me to come over to their campsite. I made some grilled cheeses on delicious sourdough bread and then sat down with them at the picnic table. After lunch they were going to take the boat out on the lake but there were four of them and a huge dog so that coupled with the fact that I really wanted nothing more than to curl up with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and finish it made me more inclined to stay behind. I went into the trailer and had just sat down when I heard Rayne remark, Where’s the boat?! Bear had taken the boat out for some early morning fishing and obviously didn’t secure it in the best way because sure enough if you looked across the lake there was the motor boat drifting across the lake and almost at the opposite shore. A minute later I saw Bear in our canoe making his way towards the boat. Crisis averted!

Day 17- Steamboat Lake and Jarvie Ranch History

2010-10-23T17:09:00.000-07:00

October 1^st 2010 Day 17 Friday

Tyler and I had decided to stay for the weekend so we could go up to Steamboat Lake and camp out with Bear, Rayne and Joel. Tyler brought our camper up there early in the day to secure a couple of choice camp grounds and Bear followed up with his RV, speedboat in tow.

I stayed in Steamboat with Rayne, helping her to pack up the RV before Bear took it to the lake. We went to a great river-side restaurant for some appetizers and cocktails before meeting the guys. The person who owns this restaurant in Steamboat is a woman who went to a gas station to buy some birthday candles for her husband’s cake and decided, for the first time in her life I might add, to buy a lottery ticket. She ended up winning some absurd amount, I think it was around $20 million and so she bought this restaurant! Some people are just super lucky I guess.

I really like talking to Rayne, especially because we are both really interested in history and western culture. She knows so much about this part of the country and has tons of fascinating books that I’ve been combing through. One of them, a BLM Utah book about Brown’s Park and the old Jarvie ranch historic site, I would love to buy but it seems you can’t get it anywhere but at that physical site! The ranch is very close to the Colorado border in Utah, not too far from where we were at Steamboat Lake but unfortunately not in the direction we were generally headed. Although we are trying to be super flexible so we can stop in all the interesting places we come across we have some limitations since we get terrible gas mileage with the travel trailer. I wish I had known how cool that site was before we came to Steamboat Springs because we could have worked it then but oh well. I’m sure we’ll be in this area again fairly soon so I’ll have the opportunity at some point to check it out.

The BLM book I mentioned is basically a compilation of many great stories from when John Jarvie was alive. Common characters in the stories are Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and many other wonderfully notorious individuals from back in the day. In such a lawless time and place everyone was pretty sketchy and questionably ethical but outlaws, Native Americans and laypeople in this particular area tended to live harmoniously. It wasn’t until the Sand Creek Massacre that relations between settlers and the victimized and understandably suspicious Native Americans started to deteriorate (For more info on that see the entry for Day 9).

There were several stories that almost had me in tears I was laughing so hard. One described Butch Cassidy, at the first formal dinner the town had put together, as being incredibly nervous having to formally serve the tea even though he was completely composed in such simple acts as robbing a train or bank. He had to be taken into the back of the dining area and taught how to pour the tea correctly but even still he was a nervous wreck. I loved reading real stories about the everyday lives of people like him who are so often shrouded in a cloud of mystery and legend. Reading about their personal quirks really humanizes them.

Rayne and I drove up to the lake in the late afternoon. I went out on the speedboat with Tyler, Joel and Joel’s friend for a quick spin around the lake once we got there. When contemplating the weekend we weren’t sure if we wanted to go up to Steamboat Lake because Tyler grew up camping here when it had not yet been decimated by the Japanese pine beetles and we were afraid it would be too depressing if it looked terribly unhealthy. Although the beetles have done a number on the pine trees out here it’s a slight consolation to see the trees growing back and we were glad to have come out. I guess the beetles aren’t fans of the young trees, which is great because it gives them some time to make a comeback.

Hanz contemplating Steamboat Lake from his bed

Tyler with the beetle-ravaged pine trees in the background

We all went out to dinner in the town of Hahns Peak at the Hahns Peak Café which wasn’t kidding with its old wooden sign stating “If you’re in a hurry you’re in the wrong place.” Hahns Peak is technically now a ghost town and it has a very small population of people that all know each other. In the time of Butch Cassidy and the wild, wild West it actually held the county seat and a large jail for housing prisoners. We spent several hours there because of course Rayne and Bear knew every single person there and they all wanted to know who we were. The food and company were both great so it wasn’t until fairly late that we got back from the restaurant/bar.

We made a fire at the campsite and sat around talking and making s’mores for dessert. I think I’ve had about as many s’mores on this trip as I have in my whole life, hahaha. I guess it’s because this trip has been super conducive to having campfires and s’mores are a natural extension of that!

Day 16- Hot Springs and Steamboat History

2010-10-15T12:35:00.000-07:00

Day 16: September 30th 2010, Thursday

Today Tyler and I checked out the nearby hot springs in the morning before it got too hot. It was the perfect time of day to go because there was still a chill in the air from the cold of night. The hot springs were developed but in the best possible way. They weren't like Lolo Hot Springs in Montana where it's basically just a pool that happens to be heated by geothermal energy. The springs in Steamboat were very extensive and stratified at different heights ranging in temperature from creek-water cold to scalding hot. The scenery was absolutely beautiful and because it was the off season and it was still early in the day there were very few people so it was peaceful and relaxing.

The water feels so nice in the early morning chill

A view of the main hot springs pools from above

Steamboat Springs got its name because early settlers thought the spring, in the middle of what would become the downtown, sounded like a steamboat. Evidently it's a world-renowned winter destination because of the quality of the ski slopes on the mountains overlooking town. Even walking around the town in the fall, I could feel that winter would be a great time in Steamboat. First of all because there is a crazy huge ski jump that you can easily see from downtown. You could be hanging out down there and watch people take the jump, one after another. Steamboat also has a really cool sounding winter event called Winter Carnival, held I believe every February, which consists of various events like dog sledding, slalom, horse-drawn children on skis, and more, all through the main street. This tradition began in 1914 as a way to bring some cheer to the residents who had to live with a very long and harsh winter. I think having the event in February is a great idea because it's after Christmas and seems like a good way to mark that spring is kind of almost on its way! An interesting fact about this event is that volunteers get snow, approximately 400 tons of it, from surrounding areas and pile it up on the main street! Also the high school marching band performs and actually marches down the street playing their instruments while on skis; that is some skill! It's interesting that skiing became so popular in towns like Steamboat Springs because it was the easiest form of transportation in the winter.

The American Indian tribe that called this area home before white settlers came along, were the Utes. They would hunt in the valley in the summer. Trappers and ranchers started moving into the area around the 1800's and soon after, in 1879, the Utes were forced off of the prime land and onto a reservation in Utah, hence the influence on the state name. The Utes were never actually a unified "tribe" but rather consisted of individual nomadic groups that associated with one another.

Day 14 & 15- Steamboat Springs

2010-10-15T12:26:00.000-07:00

Day 14: September 28th 2010, Tuesday

I woke up this morning and opened the door to take Hanz for his morning walk. When I looked outside of the travel trailer I was stunned by the incredible fall foliage. It's funny but this is the first place I've seen fall colors for a while, and it was intense. Bear and Rayne, like I said, live up on a mountain that overlooks Steamboat Springs. Nobody lives behind them so you can literally walk outside and start hiking up into the hills. I want to live somewhere I can do that on a daily basis!! Since Steamboat is so high up there are lots of pine trees (an unfortunately large percentage of which are affected by the Japanese pine beetle) and the beautiful fall colors come from the massive amount of aspen stands in the area. I have never seen so many aspens in my life! Since a group of aspens sprout above the ground from a single organism I wonder how many trees typically come from that organism?

The view from Bear and Rayne's house

A beautiful aspen stand

It's funny because we drove in at night, just after dark, so I wasn't able to see the scenery at all and even though we were quickly settled in as if it was our home (thank you Bear and Rayne!) I woke up in anticipation of actually seeing what this place looked like! I cannot rave enough about the view from B&R's property. It completely overlooks the valley that contains the small city so even at night it beautiful: you are far removed enough that you can see the incredible stars overhead but you can still look down into the valley and see the glistening lights of all the city dwellings.

Hanz loved hiking up there because the landscape was made up of the two types of trees that I told you about but more importantly (to him) there was super long grass everywhere. He does this antelope-like leaping when he's excited and in long grass. He'll catch the scent of some kind of intriguing animal and follow it while running and occasionally leaping to better see if he thinks the animal could still be around.

Rayne had invited me over for coffee in the morning, and since Tyler was still sleeping, I went over to chat with her. I really enjoy conversing with her. We had many interesting conversations throughout the course of the week we spent in Steamboat, especially in the mornings when it was just us. It's funny how you find good friends when you aren't expecting it.

Tyler and I decided to go out to breakfast at the Creekside Cafe in downtown Steamboat. This was a place that Tyler remembered going to as a child and it was his father's breakfast joint of choice. The menu at Creekside is ridiculously delicious sounding. They have many variations on the traditional eggs benedict. I got the "florentine" version which has poached eggs, ham, spinach and tomato on an english muffin, topped of course with hollandaise sauce. Oh my goodness, so delicious! After a filling meal and a pledge to return within the next few days we headed out.

We headed further into town by foot and I noted all the places I wanted to stop back in when I had more time. There were a bunch of cool statues and really sweet little shops. We went into an ice cream parlor and general store that had an old fashioned soda fountain with scoops of ice cream for only $1.00! We would have to return there at some point so I could get some ice cream when I wasn't already so full.

Oink Oink

Tyler and I ended up driving all around town so he could look at all the things he grew up seeing. Tyler hasn't been here in at least 7 years so I let him do his thing and I was content with hearing all the stories and seeing where he went to school, where he'd lived, where his friends lived, etc. We headed over to the old llama ranch that he'd grown up on which was just outside of town. It was now a horse ranch and the beautiful buck and rail fence that his dad, Neil, had meticulously put in by hand (that's a lot of work) had been ripped out in favor of metal fence. To make matters worse the man who had last owned it owed millions in taxes so now the bank had repossessed the property and was selling it. I think it was kind of disappointing for Tyler to go back to a place he had such fond memories of, especially since it was a special place for him in his childhood and it hadn't been taken care of the way he would have liked. It was interesting for me though, to see it, because Tyler has told me so many stories about growing up on the ranch, causing mischief with his brother.

Tyler's childhood residence at the Steamboat Llama Ranch

Day 15: September 29th 2010, Wednesday

After my walk I went to a great little cafe in downtown Steamboat Springs to catch up on some of my writing. The downtown is super cute, with tons of small boutiques. It's nice timing, being here in the fall because the snow fiends who fill the town in the winter have yet to arrive but the summer crowds are gone. However, once you look at the price tags you realize Steamboat is indeed a resort town, with prices to match! It is still really nice to walk around in the town because there are several blocks filled with stores that are very conducive to window shopping. Even though it's expensive it seems like a great place to live because the city puts so much of its tourist-generated revenue back into the city. There is free public transportation on buses and there is even a bus that will pick you up if you call it and take you to the nearest bus stop! That service is probably mainly meant for the elderly but it's really nice that the city makes that kind of effort. There are also extensive bike paths through town and all along the river, as well as various parks for kids and bridges connecting different parts of the city to the downtown. There are geothermal features on the river at different points downtown. There is even a place where the water comes out of the ground, further from the river, and pools into what looks like a hot tub in the ground. The water would be way too hot to sit in though.

Hot Springs in downtown Steamboat

I have been hanging low in Steamboat and giving Tyler some space so he can catch up with his friend Joel. I did meet up with him for the afternoon and we took Hanz to the Yampa river which runs through Steamboat. Hanz loves to swim so we were chucking a tennis ball into the water and letting him swim to retrieve it. I love how he looks so tiny when he is soaked and he has little chicken legs because the usually fluffy fur is slicked against his body! He is so cute.

Day 13- The First Female Dr in WY was Kinda Strange, Not Gonna Lie

2010-10-06T22:24:00.000-07:00

September 27th, Day 13

I stayed up late last night reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I had not planned on it but it was a mixture between Tyler hanging out with his new friends so I was waiting for him, the fact that it was extremely windy outside with wind sweeping through the canyon and blowing from what seemed like every possible direction, making our trailer creak and at times even shudder. The final contributing factor was that I had gotten to two really creepy parts of the book and my imagination was a bit too vivid to just put it down and say, goodnight! I should have known better because The Girl… is not exactly a bedtime story.

We had some trailer technical difficulties as well. We woke up to a ticking sound in the night and thought that meant we were out of propane so Tyler got up and disconnected it so we wouldn't die if it turned out the propane was malfunctioning in some way. First thing in the morning Tyler went to fill the propane tanks because our fridge needs propane in order to operate correctly, otherwise we'd lose our food! So it turned out that the battery had died and that the fridge needs some electricity, as well as propane, in order to function. This is just one of those things that you learn the hard way. I felt bad for Tyler because it was really annoying for him because he had to drive all around Lander trying to find somewhere to fill up the tanks, only to be told that they were full. He explained that he must have just gotten a lot stronger lately because the tanks didn't feel very heavy, lol. Gotta stay positive!

The rest of today was spent packing up, going over our route, talking to Tyler's two new friends, and finally hitting the road. As much as I liked Lander, I really did not like the roads leading to and from it. It was basically driving through an incredibly dry landscape littered only with the occasional casino and Native Americans' trailers. The way out of Lander wasn't reservation land so it wasn't depressing in that respect but it was still desolate and after 5 minutes you could fall asleep because you had just seen the whole five hour drive.

Of course, as careful as we are, we are human and we kind of forgot to fill up with gas before we left. We also kind of didn't think about it until we were about 3 hours away and not seeing any gas stations. We pulled over in some small, no tiny, I'd even say almost non-existent, town where people do who knows what to make a living. I don't even think it showed up on our map. Luckily we had two 5 gallon gas canisters that Tyler had attached to our rig so he got out to get as much gas into the truck as possible (even though the canisters are designed in such a way that you can't pour out more than half of what's inside of them because there's not enough room to tilt them all the way up- they just hit the truck and you start muttering about the lack of proper engineering, or even just common sense). Tyler managed to contrive a pseudo-funnel and get all of the gas into the tank. Well, almost all of it ended up in the tank. A good amount ended up on him, which I'm sure does wonders for his health. We proceeded on our way with the windows down to air out the gasoline smell, but not before I snapped a photo of the lone structure that still looked to be inhabited.

I got to see how truly creative I could be to pass the time as we looked for a gas station. I took pictures of various things and with my photographer's eye I noticed that Hanz's adorable mug was reflecting beautifully on Tyler's cell phone, which was sitting in the center console cup-holder! See below!

Hanz's lovely fangs reflected in Tyler's Android phone

We attempted to stop for lunch in Rawlins. Literally, the first four places we checked out were closed. We ran into a game warden and asked if he had any suggestions and he said there was, supposedly, a great Thai restaurant. I say supposedly and probably doubtfully, as well, since it's in some random place on the outskirts of Wyoming, no traditionally known for its ethnic populations. Alas we never got to find out because it was, you got it, closed.

The town's economy revolved around mining and it's obvious that in its heyday it was a bustling city but now it's just trying to keep alive the infrastructure that was built back in the 19th and 20th centuries. There were tons of old murals on the older buildings that made up the downtown and even a statue of a goat outside the courthouse! One of the creepier buildings was a huge Masonic lodge with barely any windows. What is up with the free masons???

We ended up finding a little diner with some people in it, which we took to be a good sign. Also there was nobody smoking, so already this place was like a 5 star restaurant in our hungry eyes. The only downside was the tremendous amount of dead animals covering every possible surface- beavers, coyotes, foxes, deer... Welcome to Wyoming!

It's interesting to note that this now slightly(?) depressed town of Rawlins was quite the hot spot back in the day. Rawlins was home to the first female medical doctor in the state of Wyoming, Lillian Heath, back in 1893. Rawlins was also the place where cattle rustler Big Nose George Parrott was murdered and turned into a pair of shoes! You read that right and I swear that I kid you not! You can look it up for yourself! Parrott was not exactly a saint, he murdered two officers of the law and was being held in Rawlins until he could be hung for his crimes in 1881. He tried to escape but when the patriotic people of Rawlins heard of this, 200 of them stormed the prison and dragged him out onto the streets, stringing him up on a lamp post and lynched him. Medical doctors at the time thought you could see what made someone a criminal if you just literally looked at their brain, so his skull cap was removed in order for this to happen. The sickest part of this (God, do I love history! People are so weird!) is that his skull cap was kept by Lillian Heath (at that time only an assistant because she was only 15 years old) and actually used alternately as an ash tray, door stop and pen holder! Like I said, look it up for yourself. And it does get weirder. One of the doctors, John Osborne, who later became the first Democratic Governor of the State of Wyoming had his skin removed, including his nipples and used that flesh to make shoes. Thank you very much I am ready to move on in to Colorado!

We didn't get into Steamboat Springs, CO until after dark but we had just enough light on the outskirts of the city for me to see the landscape change. Vast sage brush desert was slowly replaced with green shrubs and fuller vegetation. Cottonwoods dotted the skyline and mountains obscured the horizon. We drove a good while into Steamboat and zig-zagged up into a mountain-side neighborhood. We finally came to the house at the top of the mountain, and Tyler announced that we had arrived. We would be parking our travel trailer on the beautiful property owned by Bear and Rayne (pronounced Rain-ee), the father and step-mother of Tyler's childhood best friend, Joel.

Bear must have seen or heard us arrive because he quickly came outside and greeted us warmly. He even had a completely flat place for us to park our travel trailer in front of his RV and hook up to electricity! He invited us to come inside as we waited for Joel to arrive. Joel is working as a logger and lives further north, near Steamboat Lake, so he was still making the drive down to meet us. We stepped into their warm and cozy log house and were greeted by Rayne, who quickly recognized Tyler despite the fact that his hair was so much shorter and he was a couple feet taller than the last time she had seen him when he was 13. We sat around their kitchen table and chatted until Joel arrived. I was instantly clued into the fact that Rayne was awesome when she offered me a shower "for as long as you want!" I gratefully accepted but wanted to wait to meet Joel first, despite my probably disheveled appearance. He arrived a few minutes later and after introducing myself and chatting for a bit, I excused myself so I could once again be clean and civilized. No, there weren't any showers where we were staying in Lander!

Joel is an extremely gifted musician- he plays 3 instruments! I got to hear him play the piano while I was in the shower, the sound traveled really well! Even though Joel and Tyler were childhood best friends they lost touch when Tyler moved to St. Croix so they had not really spoken in six years! It was really great that they were able to reconnect, I was so happy for Tyler because he was so excited.

Two things I have come to seriously, seriously appreciate on this venture have been showers and concrete. There's really nothing like going from travelling on a bumpy pot-hole ridden dirt road to the sudden and silent purr of concrete beneath your tires, especially when you're pulling around a travel trailer. We have already had two flat tires, thank you very much, and we don't especially want to get anymore. We have proven (or rather Tyler has, hahaha) that we can change a tire on something that weighs almost two tons so since we already know that, no need to go testing ourselves in that capacity anymore.

Day 12- Reunion with An Old Friend & The Glories of Couch Surfing

2010-10-04T08:27:00.000-07:00

September 26th 2010, Sunday 9pm

What a great time this has turned out to be in Lander! I ended up meeting Annemarie for breakfast at the Oxbow restaurant. It was such a treat to meet up with a friend I haven’t seen in seven years! Tyler and I were commenting about how we are now getting to be old enough that it is even possible to not see a friend for such a long time but to still remember them.

After meeting Annemarie and having delicious cinnamon roll French toast (it’s literally a cinnamon roll that they slice and then make into French toast. OMG) we had about an hour to kill so we went to the public park in Lander and played with Hanz who had been patiently waiting in the car. I had wanted to check out churches on Sunday mornings in the different areas we would be visiting, but I figured it isn’t often that you run into an old acquaintance and you have to take advantage of seeing that person while you can! Plus we have many more Sundays to come so I will have other opportunities.

So now I get to an explanation of Couch Surfing before I continue with my saga. Couch surfing is based off of the free website (www.couchsurfing.com) which is a global community of people who are travelling and/or providing free lodging for “surfers.” As a member you create a profile with your interests and however much information you’re comfortable with providing and you can post pictures of yourself, things in your life, the places you’ve traveled, etc. Since Tyler and I are traveling to a lot of places that we’ve never been and we don’t always know people in those areas I use the couchsurfing website to find people who seem cool to either meet up with for coffee or a beer or to get some advice on where good places are to get food, etc. It’s a way to have an “in” in the community because you’re getting advice from a local. It can help you to avoid tourist traps or to really take advantage of all the opportunities that you might not be aware of in an area.It can be a way to make travelling less expensive because you won’t have to pay for hotels, which is really nice. It’s a way of making travelling easier for people who don’t necessarily have excess income. It’s also just a cool way to meet some interesting people who often times have done a lot of traveling and have fun and entertaining stories about their own experiences on the road. Obviously I’m sure there are some weirdos on the website but you just have to use your better judgment and check them out a bit before committing to anything.

So anyways, I am a huge fan of couchsurfing, mostly just for meeting up with people who seem to have interesting lives or who I think I would be friends with if I knew them from somewhere else. What’s that saying, something like, strangers are just friends you have yet to meet? I mean, it is funny when you think about the arbitrary things that make it acceptable for someone to talk to us and become our friend. If you saw someone who looked really cool it would be unusual for you to just flat out walk up to them and say, Let’s be friends! Wanna hang out? Because that person would look at you like, wtf, I don’t know you, why are you talking to me? There needs to be something that acts as a segueway to conversation and possibly friendship. So usually, if I am going to be in an area, that makes it socially acceptable for me to look at the profiles of people in that area and then socially acceptable for me to send someone a message. Think about it, if I just randomly clicked on someone’s profile and thought they looked cool so I sent them a message telling them so and that I wanted to be friends, it would be kind of weird because it would seem totally random. I think the psychology of that is just fascination. There are just these little things that we have to do to make connections with people that we don’t know to make an approach not seem like creeping.

So when I was looking at Lander, WY on the couchsurfing site there were a few outdoorsy people who looked cool. I figured I would shoot them a message to see if they would want to meet up or at the very least tell me a cool place to hike in the area. Due to internet problems I only ended up sending out one message to this guy Travis about meeting up. It worked out that he liked football and Tyler and I had planned on watching the Giants v Titans game (which again turned into me being a bitter Giants fan, ugh!) so we invited him to join us. Tyler was definitely like, Wtf is this couchsurfing deal? Who are these people that want to hang out with random people? Don’t they have friends of their own? He cracks me up. I definitely had to do some convincing that they’re just people who like to meet people from other places, which I totally get because I think that is awesome, but I can understand how that might not be everybody’s cup of tea. I think it’s great because in very few other circumstances could you pull up to a parking space, get out and have a complete stranger smiling at you, ready to shake your hand and introduce themselves. The other side of this meeting total strangers business is that if I see someone who looks cool, especially if they are a guy, I can’t just go up to them and be like, Hey! You look cool! Trying to just talk to them or wanting to hang out with them to better get to know them would definitely be perceived as hitting on them and then that is just awkward because it’s like, Dude, I was so not interested in you that way. And then it’s awkward and you just sound stupid if you try to explain that you really did just want to talk to them and that you didn’t want anything more than a friendship out of it.

So conclusion to a long discussion of the pros of Couchsurfing, it ended up being a really interesting experience meeting Travis. No Mom, he wasn’t a serial killer and I didn’t meet him alone or in a deserted place! He wasn’t rooting for the Giants, which didn’t work in his favor, but I forgave him once he started telling me really interesting stories about his experiences living a short while in Vietnam! I wasn’t aware of this but evidently there are many retired American GI’s who have gone back to Vietnam after fighting there to try to help bring peace to the countries and probably themselves as well. I asked him about how it was being an American in Vietnam, a country we absolutely ravaged with chemical weapons like agent orange that don’t only destroy landscapes but genetics as well. Travis told me that the Vietnamese are actually very forgiving towards the American people. One of the most touching things that he told me about was when he was going to do a motorcycle tour of the Northern part of the country and he was trying to scope out the sentiment towards Americans to see if it would be too dangerous. He spoke with an older Vietnamese man who told him not to worry and that they understood that it was a conflict “between your government and my government” and they knew it was an unpopular war in America. I have so much admiration for people who can suffer so much but still be open-minded enough to be able to distinguish between the actions of a government and the people.

However, life as a tourist in Vietnam bodes not so well for the Aussies and the Europeans who have supposedly created quite an image for themselves as rude partiers. Large amounts of males from those places will rove up and down the touristy coast, hopping from bar to bar and party to party, starting fights and arguing over the already inexpensive prices of lodging and other expenses. So in comparison, as long as it’s clear you don’t fit into that category, being an American in Vietnam is actually pretty sweet.

Travis worked at a dive shop for a while on the coast and said his boss was a French Canadian who was heavily involved in the Thai sex market. Supposedly brothels in Thailand are often fronted by barber shops, given away by the fact that a dozen scantily clad women will be walking around inside. Having just read up extensively on sex trafficking this made me slightly sick, especially when he described the guy as being extremely charming, albeit a terrible person.

Ah, the wonders of couch surfing! You never know what kinds of stories you will hear. But you will definitely learn something! An afternoon well spent I would say. Thank you Travis!

When Tyler and I went back outside after spending three hours indoors watching football and chatting we realized how hot the day had become! We drove down to the river near Sinks Canyon and dunked under the freezing cold water to get some relief. It feels SO good to do that. I never want to just plop into the water because I think it is going to be too cold but then I do it and I definitely don’t regret it.

Afterwards we went to a Best Western in Lander and sat outside where they had outlets to charge our laptops and WiFi that we could steal. It has been fun traveling to these new places but it can be difficult to spend so much time with only one person so I am really glad that we ran into so many cool people within the past 24 hours! I mean, I love Tyler but seriously, living in a 17ft trailer and having one car (his) can be taxing. Considering this is just the beginning of the trip it’s definitely important to figure out something that I can do for myself and BY myself that will keep me pleasant and sane. Writing has been a good excuse for that. By now Tyler knows that if I say I’m going to go write, and he tries to talk to me, it had better be something pretty important or else he just gets glared at! We met two guys at the Lander Bar who are moving from Washington to Denver and driving a route similar to ours. Tyler hit it off with them and it turns out they are staying at our campground so he’s over at their campsite now, getting his quality time in so that he stays sane as well! J

Day 11- Mountain Lions and The Swiss

2010-09-30T12:21:00.000-07:00

September 25th 2010

I woke up this morning around 7:45am and took Hanz for a walk to the end of the campground and onto a trail that went down to the water. It is so funny how he tries to herd rocks. For those of you who are not familiar with this, one of his many antics, he’s a herding dog and he always needs to have a job or be doing something. If you are outside with him and you stop walking for a second, he will immediately occupy this spare time with finding a rock to repeatedly pounce on, pushing it to the spot he deems right, and then pulling it back with his paws so that he can again herd it to where it “should” be. The first time anyone sees it they find it hilarious and I will admit it definitely still entertains me! When we were down at the river this morning he was hilarious because he was trying to herd these huge boulders which just would not budge. He would do his pounce-pushing and seeing it was ineffective, he would look up at me all excited with his ears up and his mouth open slightly panting, in what we call his smile. I say, Come on buddy! And he immediately trots on over to me, looking at me as if to say, Okay what’s next?! Although the prickers that are prevalent in arid areas such as this are a huge pain in the derriere there is one thing that Hanz absolutely loves about this type of ecosystem and that is the vast number of holes that are dug by burrowing animals. Maybe it has to do with how dry this area is coupled with the fact that it gets extremely harsh in the winter but it seems to me that everywhere you look there are holes that have been dug that lead to tunnels. Hanz loves to pounce on the holes and stick his head as far in as possible and ferociously sniff around for any sign of life for him to chase. Sometimes he will even start to vigorously dig at the ground, in hopes of gaining access to an unsuspecting animal below. This has not turned out to be an effective method for him though because I always tell him it’s impolite to destroy something’s home so he’d better cut it out. Chasing after a thrown stick usually satiates him.

You can still see the moon above the canyon walls in Lander, WY

Tyler and I did laundry today, which was very exciting as you can imagine. We went to the Lander Bar again; it is quickly becoming our favorite spot. When we got back to the Popo Agie Campground (pronounced Po-Poh-Zha) we hiked up along the Nature Trail that is by the main parking lot. It was a nice walk that started out across a hanging bridge that was about 100 feet long. Poor Hanz absolutely hated crossing it and he looked completely sadly pathetic creeping along it, his body super low to the ground and his nose franticly sniffing every slit between the various boards. I was extremely proud of him for making it all by himself though. Oh the things he will do because he loves us! There were many interesting interpretive signs along the way that talked about the vegetation, the differences in north- and south-facing slopes, and the wildlife in the area. This included telling us about Mountain Lions which are the greatest predator in the area. They tend to be active at night. Their hunting technique often consists of them sitting up in a tree or some obscure location and waiting for their prey, like a deer (or a human?!!), to walk by. Then they pounce on its back, making the animal lose its balance, and bite into its neck. They will eat the soft internal organs first and then drag the rest of the carcass to a secluded area, covering it with leaves and mud to hide it until they are going to eat it. Interesting indeed.

It started to get dark and in the interest of not tempting the mountain lions with a cute, furry little waffle dog like Hanz, we turned around and headed back to the campground.

Hanz in hunter mode

On the Nature Trail near the Popo Agie Campground

On our way back to our camp site we passed a couple about our age hanging out by a campfire. We bid them good evening and they had cool accents, which immediately intrigued me. I absolutely love meeting people from other countries! So long story short, we ended up hanging out with them that night. They had never had s’mores before and I felt some kind of American Ambassador urge to familiarize them with this iconic dessert. We spent the next few hours sitting around the campfire and talking, while enjoying our s’mores. Their names were (forgive the spelling, it’s probably wrong) Rolph and Clarissa and they were respectively a mechanical engineer and a graphic designer from Switzerland. They were from a willage (I LOVE the way German type of language speakers say the word village) about an hour from Zurich. They spoke a language I was mortified to be unfamiliar with (it’s one thing to say, Sorry I don’t speak that language, but quite another to say, I have no idea what is coming out of your mouth?!) but I was able to avoid feeling like an awkward American by just avoiding having to identify it at all. Oh god that’s so embarrassing! I mean, it wasn’t German and at one point Rolph identified it but it was something I had never heard of that started with an R. Oh well, sorry if any of you reading this are German Swiss and I’ve just mortally offended you.

Rolph and Clarissa spoke enough English for us to be able to communicate, although there was the obligatory gesturing that went along with a lot of our words, which made everything a bit funnier. It’s important to have a good send of humor when trying to communicate with someone who doesn’t speak much of the same language as you do. I was very impressed with them though, because they had somehow figured out how to rent an RV to drive from Denver to the northern United States, and then they, like us, were heading down south to California where they were going to fly home. Around 9pm, the moon started to creep up from behind the canyon walls surrounding us and since Tyler and I are now in the habit of going to bed early and waking up early we bid them adieu and fell asleep.

Days 9 & 10- Hiking & An Old Friend & Hanz Can Open Windows Now

2010-09-30T12:04:00.000-07:00

September 23rd, Thursday 8:40pm

Today we slept in a bit because of our hectic past couple of days. They were a lot of fun but it's pretty tiring to be packing up and moving around so often. We are definitely getting used to it but sometimes you really just don't feel like having to make everything in the travel trailer safe for the road, it can be tedious.

It's nice because we're just laying low in Cody for a couple days. I've been reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which is a great book. I also bought the second book in the trilogy to have at the ready when I'm finished with this the first one.

When we were arriving in Cody yesterday afternoon we passed by an interpretive site just to the west of the city and near a huge dam that was built in 1908. Buffalo Bill Cody was the inspiration for the name of the city in Wyoming. I didn't know this but he was a Pony Express Rider and also a buffalo hunter, hence his nickname.

The beautiful Buffalo Bill Reservoir

We went through this tunnel to get to Cody!

One cool thing that we did today was to drive up into the neighboring mountains and go for a hike. It is absolutely gorgeous out here, especially if you get a bit outside of the city to the west or the north.

Shoshone National Forest

Great view of the Shoshone NF

Open Range Wyoming, I love it

Gorgeous Scenery

September 24th, Friday

Today I woke up around 7:30am and walked Hanz for a final time in Cody. We packed everything up, ate some breakfast, took advantage of the free showers and then hit the road.

On our way out of the RV Park we passed by the campground host’s truck and it had a sticker on it which read, “’Wolves,’ Smoke a Pack a Day.” Oh Wyoming, some things I absolutely love about you but some things I just do not get at all. I mean seriously. Wyoming’s official policy is that they want to exterminate every single wolf within their state borders. It is so completely ignorant that it just baffles me. Do they not understand the vital roles that predators play in an ecosystem? And it is because of their extreme view that Federal Courts have had to say states obviously cannot be trusted to manage their wolf populations on their own so they put them back on the endangered species list. So now everybody loses. I’m going to state what I think about this very clearly: Montana should be able to manage its wolf population because it actually has more breeding pairs of wolves than the federal government says is necessary. But now the conservation and hunting communities are being polarized by extreme anti wolf groups like Lobo Watch. This particular group calls for the extermination of wolves by any means necessary, including poisons (which can kill anything that eats them, not just wolves, or does that not matter?) and this recent re-listing has just added fuel to their fire because Montana does have too many wolves. Humans have had such a huge impact on the environment that it takes longer for Mother Nature’s rules of equilibrium to kick in. If we let wolves go on being unmanaged they will continue to decimate ungulate populations in certain parts of the state, possibly to the point where those populations will be not able to recover for a long time. Of course, in nature this would solve itself because as the wolves ate all the prey they would run out of food and start to die off. Once their numbers got low the ungulate populations would be able to recover and then the wolves would recover as well and the cycle would repeat itself. This would take a very long time though because these wolf packs would just move to new areas as they killed off elk and deer and also then start preying more or livestock. When they start to enter ranchlands and kill off cattle and other livestock you are presented with a whole new set of problems. It doesn't exactly endear ranchers to wolves or other predators. This exacerbates the relationship between ranchers and wolves, neither of which can be blamed for fighting for their livelihoods.

We were planning on driving to Thermopolis (which a friend of mine says only exists in Bugs Bunny cartoons, lol) and camping there tonight but when we got there we found there was no camping in the state park and that it was a pretty undesirable place to spend more than about 30 minutes. It is absolutely rife with geothermal activity. Everywhere we saw signs advertising RV parks with hot springs, parks with hot springs, spas with hot springs! We went to the State of Wyoming Bath House which had pools both indoor and out that were fed by these natural hot springs. The outside pool was pretty cool because it was right next to these rocks where the water was coming out of the ground. Between Thermopolis and Yellowstone I’ve had enough sulfur, rotten-eggs smell to last me for a pretty long time. Oh and word to the wise, DO NOT GO INTO HOT SPRINGS WITH SILVER JEWELRY ON!!! This never happened at the natural hot springs at Jerry Johnson in Idaho but when I got into the pool in Thermopolis my silver ring instantly tarnished! I looked down at it and was like, WTF, are you kidding me?! It must have been a certain mineral or metal that was in the water, but I’m not quite sure which one.

One extremely cute development on our road trip is that Hanz has learned how to open his own window! Oh my goodness it is so funny. He’ll hop his little paws up on the side of the door, which has a little ledge with a cup holder in it and put his head up to the window, showing that he wants to stick his head out, and then he’ll pick his paws up and down, moving them around until he finds the electric button to lower the window! Tyler and I would be in the front seats talking and Hanz would be in the back and all of a sudden the wind would be rushing in as we drive down the highway and we’d look back to see Hanz’s smiling face in Tyler’s side-view mirror, eyes closed and snout sticking up to catch all of the smells.

We passed by historical signs marking the sites of the Sand Creek Massacre, which happened in 1864. This was an incredibly tragic event where basically 700 militia men from Colorado attacked, mutilated and murdered many friendly Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians, most of which were women and children. You can look it up online for more information. What a sad and terrible chapter of history.

Since we did not stop in Thermopolis we figured we would just shoot on down to Lander. Tyler was really excited to stop there because he has taken three NOLS courses which are based out of Lander and he had some great times there. The scenery is absolutely beautiful and if you are into rock-climbing you would definitely hold some appreciation for what it has to offer. I had only been there once before, a few years ago in March when it was still freezing and pretty much deserted. This time, driving down Hwy 497 the sparse, high desert, sage brush landscape dominated by the depressing Native Americans’ casinos and trailers was replaced by aspen stands and some conifers and cattle ranches. It was actually very beautiful arriving here. It was like the landscape just came alive. Once we got into Lander it was bustling with people, very different from my last experience. We soon found parking and went to the Garret Grill, a lunch place with great, locally sourced burgers and beer brewed literally next door at the Lander Brewing Company. If you like dark beer and are ever in Lander I HIGHLY recommend the Stout.

It so happens that I spent several summers at Camp Onaway, an all-girls camp in New Hampshire, when I was growing up. It was a truly great experience and one of my former counselors, Miss Annemarie, now worked for NOLS and lived in Lander. While at the restaurant, Tyler and I saw a group of people at some tables nearby whom we felt comfortable assuming were NOLS employees. I would every once in a while eye them as new people joined the group to see if Annemarie was amongst them. In a small town like this I knew they would at least know her but I was not truly expecting to just run into her. We were there for a while and I had not seen her so when we finished our food we went to leave. I was just about to walk out the door when I turn and see her out of the corner of my eye; No Way! We are planning on meeting up at some point on Sunday to catch up because it has been at least seven years since we have seen each other! It is crazy how time flies. I am hoping to go back to Camp Onaway for the Centennial celebration next summer and hopefully that will work out because every summer I have wanted to go back there but I’ve been working or interning or doing one of the many things that makes it hard to set aside a 7 week block of time.

After chatting briefly with Annemarie, Tyler and I got back into his truck and detached the trailer in Sinks Canyon. It is an incredibly beautiful site: the canyon walls loom overhead, we are surrounded by sagebrush and conifers and aspens and native grasses. A little ways down the road are numerous trails that lead to the river below. With our windows open we can hear the water rushing around and across the boulders in its path.

The beautiful river by our campground in Lander

Day 8- The Geysers Make Up for the Crazy Tourists!

2010-09-30T11:46:00.000-07:00

September 22nd 2010, Wednesday

We woke up this morning and decided that West Yellowstone was indeed too expensive for our blood (plus the fact that it isn't even "nice-expensive," it's "cheap, let's rip off tourists" expensive!) so we were going to take a trip through Yellowstone and head to Cody, Wyoming for the night. We headed out along the same path as the day before, still scowling a bit (maybe hypocritically, but whatever!) at the absurd number of tourists swarming the roads within the park. I honestly believe this is one of the most dangerous places we've driven because someone will be driving along the road, while looking out their windows hoping to see a cool bird or animal, and definitely NOT watching the road in front of them. They also would randomly and abruptly brake so you had to be sure to give the car in front of you a wide berth, even though you were only going 15 miles an hour. Luckily today we didn't see anybody trying to get within a foot of a wild animal.

We drove along, the road winding up into the mountains and through coniferous forest, and we were pleased to discover that the number of tourists significantly petered out about 25 miles into the park. I was truly shock at how big the place was! All of a sudden the landscape opened up and the trees disappeared. The ground looked like it was covered in salt and there was barely any vegetation. This was home to Yellowstone's famous geothermal activity: geysers, steaming pools of water, bubbling pots of mud, and hissing fumaroles.

Wow!

Me and Tyler in Yellowstone

The Boardwalk

Okay, this made all the craziness of yesterday worth it. I don't have accurate words to describe how amazing it was to be in this ecosystem. We parked and got out to walk on a boardwalk that looped around the various features. All around us the earth was alive, bubbly up, spurting out incredibly hot liquid that instantly vaporized and blew fiercely towards us. The air smelled strongly of rotten eggs, the famous sulfur smell. The crazy thing was how quiet it all was. You would think that such an explosive landscape would be loud but really, even when water and steam are bursting out of the ground it's more of a hissing sound like pressure is getting released than anything else.

We got to see the Fountain Paint Pot, which is a pool of mud that actually changes color depending on the types of bacteria present. It would be really cool to take a class on Yellowstone's geothermal features. I find thermophiles and really any type of extremophile to be absolutely fascinating. They are so specifically adapted to extreme environments and sometimes those methods of adaption can be mind-boggling.

Fountain Paint Pot

After this experience we decided we couldn't pass up seeing Old Faithful even though we knew it would probably be crowded. The went further down the road, not quite knowing what to expect. We followed the signs leading us to the parking area and were shocked by the hundreds of cars already there when we pulled in. It was a bit like when you go to Six Flags. Tyler made a joke about our needing to remember that we were parking in lot G, but he really wasn't too far off. Old Faithful usually goes off every 45 to 125 minutes, or something like that, quite variable really. But I guess that's just another thing about nature. There isn't some button that can be pushed for instant gratification. Sometimes if you want to try to witness a cool natural event you have to wait for when it is going to present itself. We waited for at least 30 min. The opening to the geyser sputtered a few times, fooling us into thinking the "big show" was beginning but then it would die down. After doing that a few times, each time getting a bit bigger, it finally sent a huge stream of water pulsing into the air. I saw the spectators on the other side of the viewing area running away from the water that was raining down on them. I guess I chose a good place to watch her go off! Most of the water evaporated like the geysers we had seen earlier but like a said, I think the people on the other side got their shower for the day!

We hung around for a bit after Old Faithful erupted to let the people who were in a hurry get in their cars and go and then we continued on our way through the park and towards Cody, Wyoming. If possible, when visiting Yellowstone NP, I highly recommend that you enter from the east. It is absolutely gorgeous and very remote. We barely saw anyone at all!

Day 7- Part 2- A Very Exciting Day Indeed!

2010-09-30T11:10:00.000-07:00

September 21st continued

We continued along Hwy 287 as it took us through the Gallatin National Forest towards West Yellowstone. I was very glad we took this route because we got to pass by Earthquake Lake and Hebgen Lake which is the area in which Montana's largest recorded earthquake occurred late in the night on August 17, 1959. It was also one of the largest earthquakes to hit North America. Earthquake Lake was actually created by the earthquake (hence the name) and must have been absolutely terrifying for all those camping nearby.

This 7.5 earthquake caused an 80 million ton landslide which dammed up the Madison River. It is estimated that the landslide traveled 100mph and ended up killing 28 unsuspecting campers. The thought of this just sends shivers down my spine. The rest of the people in the area had to quickly gather their wits and get the heck out of Dodge because by early morning the campgrounds in the area were completely submerged under water. Today Earthquake Lake measures about 190ft deep and 6 miles long.

Aftershocks of up to 6.5 on the Richter scale occurred for months after the event.

It was incredibly eerie to drive by this area. There were several interpretive signs on pull offs so that you could read more about the history and get a good view of the scenery. The skeletons of hundreds, probably thousands, of trees still stood in the lake. Poking out of the water as an unsettling reminder of the land that once was there and of the people who had been sleeping on ground now covered by a body of water.

We drove on towards West Yellowstone, stopping for gas along the way. I'm not going to lie, carting a 22ft travel trailer up and down mountains and across poorly maintained roadways doesn't bode well for your gas mileage! We met another traveler at the gas station, he was from somewhere in the south and luckily in talking to him we realized we needed to re-evaluate our lodging choices because RV parks were commonly charging upwards of $50 a night!! Thats absurd! AND they were charging tax, which I was like, um hello we're in Montana there's no sales tax but evidently resort towns can charge you tax anyways, to make an expensive trip even more expensive! I need to just say why this drives me crazy, especially on the border of a national park. I mean, in our history we have absolutely ravaged the lands of North America (not to mention other places) making it necessary for national parks to be formed. So people who are born later and had nothing to do with that rape of the land get totally jipped because now, if you live like most Americans you don't have much access to wild places (which I think should be a fundamental right) and then when you try to get close to them these people who run touristy resort towns are going to squeeze every possible penny out of you. It's taking advantage of a tragic situation. Then, when you make it difficult for people to access wilderness it's not as common for them to do so and then they don't form that bond with nature that makes them realize the inherent value of it. It is this connection to the land that is vital in future and present generations having any desire to protect it.

So pretty much this marked the time when the trip started to get really frustrating. I mean, as you've seen in Part I of this Day 7 journal entry, this day has been crazy amazing and totally epic. Arriving in West Yellowstone and our venture into the national park is the anti-climatic ending to what I can still say was overall a wonderful day.

We decided to try our luck in the park; maybe we could find a good camp spot there to park our travel trailer. We had bought the America the Beautiful Pass that is an annual pass allowing entry to all federal lands in the USA. We took off towards the Madison campground, amazed at the sheer number of tourists creeping along the 2 land road through the park, occasionally and erratically screeching to a halt because the drivers, who were probably concentrating on everything but driving, were trying desperately to crane their heads out of their windows in case any amazing animals suddenly appeared. I will just say that it was a wonderful practice in defensive driving!

And then, IT happened. We were crawling along on the road, enjoying the scenery but mainly trying to just figure out where we were going to spend the night. Every hundred yards or so there would be twenty cars pulled off the the side of the road (and sometimes mostly still on the road) with tourists swarming to photograph whatever it was they were seeing, deer, moose, bald eagles, etc. I was looking out the window and narrating for Tyler who, as most drivers should, was driving. I saw a deer lying on the side of a creek and these tourists, the bane of my existence, creeping close and closer and closer until they were literally about 2 feet away from the poor thing. My teeth and clenching and I am shaking my head even as I recall this. Their cameras were stretched out in front of them, and seriously, I don't think they could even capture the whole deer in the photos because they were really that close. Seriously, this is how tourists get hurt. I mean, first of all, it was a fricking deer so that is evidence to me that these people were seriously clueless. This isn't some amusement park with trained animals posing for photos. These are wild animals! No, deer do not eat meat but that doesn't mean that it couldn't beat the crap out of you if you scared it or made it feel threatened. And this comes very soon after the story about the grizzly bear in this very area attacking and killing someone at a campground. This isn't just a case of wild animals gone dangerously crazy, it is more probably the case of a photographer baiting the bear with food so as to get a good photo or of some general kind of bear country ignorance. Don't go into bear country unless you are prepared and you know not to keep food in your tent, or any of the other basic safety precautions one must take. It is very, very uncommon for an animal to just randomly attack someone, usually there is a reason. When I first heard of the grizzly attack I was immediately skeptical about the circumstances leading up to the attack, now seeing this nimrod creeping closer and closer to the deer in hopes of getting a sweet picture, my doubts were confirmed. And the sad thing is that unnecessary ignorance isn't just endangering that person's life and the lives of the campers who will come after them, if a bear attacks someone it will definitely be found and killed by forest rangers. So now some poor grizzly bear is going to lose its life because someone thought it was acceptable to be ignorant and irresponsible.

Well, I'll admit that was a bit of a rant but really, can you blame me?! I've actually been kind of dreading writing about this because I knew I was going to be pretty pissed off but I'm trying to be honest and clear about all the things we encounter on this trip. I want to discuss them and I'd love to hear other people's thoughts. I feel that writing about all these day to day experiences and talking about them more in depth really shows something about the complexity of the human spirit. Seeing that tourist interacting with the deer did initially make me angry but if I break that down and think about what I actually think about it, it just breaks my heart. This basic ignorance is absolutely tragic because it shows how deep the disconnect is between the general human population and the wilderness.

We got to the campground, finally, and we were flabbergasted because there were over 250 camping spots! I mean, usually have twenty other parties of people at a campground is a lot but 250? Holy cow. We turned around and headed back to West Yellowstone, more than a bit frustrated at this point. We had some luck back in the town when a man who ran an RV park said he had a super basic spot that he'd rent to us for the night for only $20. That's more like it. We had initially wanted to spend a week in Yellowstone but we decided one night would suffice. Tomorrow we'll explore some more and hopefully have a better experience.

Despite the touristy feel of W. Yellowstone we decided to try our luck with getting dinner out because both Tyler and I were exhausted after the long day. We ended up going to an italian restaurant not worth mentioning because the food was not that great. However, the cool part of the evening was that when we got there we got the last table because it was very crowded. A middle aged couple walked in after we'd ordered and since we were sitting at a table for four, Tyler offered them the 2 remaining seats if they didn't want to wait. I was kind of surprised when they looked excited and said okay but it turned into a great time! They were a very sweet couple named Vicky and Emmett from California and we ended up having unexpectedly good conversation with them! Also they were the founders of the Mule Deer Foundation which does work to conserve mule deer habitat... pretty cool! Overall I'd say it was a good day :)

Day 7- Part I- The Most EXCITING Day So Far

2010-09-29T16:41:00.000-07:00

September 21^st 9:30pm

Today we woke up with a familiar routine: packing up our stuff, hitching the trailer to Tyler’s truck and making sure everything was in tip-top travel shape. The water pump was off, the fridge was off, the propane was off and covered, the doors were closed; everything was put in its respective place so nothing ended up on the floor after being jostled around during the drive. You very quickly develop a routine and mental checklist of things to check on before departing because if you forget once it’s so aggravating that you do not forget again! Once we forgot to turn off the propane before we left and as Tyler put it, we were glad to not be towing a fireball behind us! Needless to say we haven’t forgotten since.

This would turn out to be an epic driving day through incredible scenic and historic lands full of thieves and gold and mountains and antiques and ghost towns. We headed down to Dillon from the Pioneers and then headed east on a small state highway.

I have driven on many many scenic roads all over the country but this was by far one of the coolest I have ever experienced. High way 287 is an unrelenting history lesson that is absolutely fascinating. We went through Sheridan, MT a tiny town with less than 700 residents but don't let that fool you because the town has actually paid to have a wireless internet network cover the entire downtown so no matter where in town you are you can go online! Pretty savvy!

We had to slam on the breaks because we almost missed the sign at Robbers Roost. Now, I grew up watching Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and being fascinated by Jesse James and other intriguing outlaws of the old west so I was beyond excited to be in a spot where similar such goings-on had occurred. See the below sign for yourself!!

Robbers Roost

This is the building referred to in the Robbers Roost sign!!!!!!! It happened right here!!

So here Tyler and I are, almost 140 years later, standing on the road where who-knows-how-many people were victimized by this gang. If we had been doing exactly what we were doing now, but in the late 1800's we could even have to fight to defend ourselves. It was such a dangerous time to live!

Soon after leaving the Robbers Roost area, my eyes still wide with excitement, we passed through Alder and the Alder Gulch area which had the richest gold placer (alluvial) deposits ever discovered! In 1863 the gold was discovered and within 3 months there were 10,000 miners filling the town in hopes of striking it rich. This area was referred to as the "fourteen mile city" and it was composed of several different towns. I know I previously said that I want to read about places before we reach them so that I can be knowledgeable but it was such a shocking and exciting surprise to be driving along and hit Nevada City. I am actually glad I didn't know it was going to be there because it made it feel like we had discovered something ourselves!

We were driving along and we saw some buildings in the distance, as we neared we realized that this highway was taking us smack through the middle of a ghost town! Although the buildings were old and partially run down they were in surprisingly good condition, especially considering what we saw at Coolidge Ghost Town. We later found out that this area is actually now used as a keeping ground for "endangered buildings," which are basically historic buildings all over the country that are no longer safe for use and that cannot be restored but that people do not want to be destroyed because of their historical significance and value.

Probably the eeriest thing that has happened on this trip so far was stepping out of the car, outside of an old music hall, and hearing the music fill the small town as if the ghosts from the past were still living there. Tyler and Hanz went off on their own to check out an old train across the street so alone, I stepped inside of the Music Hall. Outside there were a couple other tourists poking around in the many buildings but there was nobody else near the music hall. I stepped into the partially lit building and looked around in amazement. The place was absolutely full of old instruments and old-fashioned arcade games. On the right, against the wall, was a player-piano. I have never really liked player pianos because I thought they were creepy but man, if I thought they were creepy in a well-lit environment surrounded by other people it was triple the creepiness in this ghostly city. I stepped closer to it to investigate and to show myself that it was silly to be getting the heeby-jeebies and abruptly the music just stopped playing and it was completely silent. I was probably out of there in 5 seconds flat.

The Music Hall... <>

Tyler and Hanz were close by outside and we walked down the deserted streets for a little while longer. One of the things that made this unexpected stop so strange was the lack of people in any capacity. You would think that at a site like this there would be tour guides of interpretive talks or at least someone to be there to make sure no unruly teenagers had a party there but there was no human presence whatsoever (aside from the 2 other people who also stopped and looked around, bewildered).

We passed by a tree next to the sidewalk with a sign on it declaring this was the site that George Ives had been tried (a famously unfair trial) and actually hung! To make it creepier there was still something rigged up in the tree where they had hung the poor unfortunate fellow. I am continually amazed by the idea of standing in the very spot where such extraordinary history took place. To think of all the people who stood in the same spot as I did and to imagine that some pretty consequential decisions could have been made there as well, it's just flabbergasting. To think, I very well could have been standing where George Ives stood, moments before being hung, it makes me wonder what was going through his head. Being in places with such important history and where emotions ran so high it makes me feel like there must be some kind of residue, even if it's just a shiver.

We got back on the road and soon hit the remains of Virgina City, which was actually the capital of Montana for ten years. This was nowhere near as eerie as Nevada City because it had shops that were actually still functional. They sold tourist shirts and the like. We did not stop except to check out if the brewery still brewed any beer, which it unfortunately did not.

The non-functional brewery in Virgina City, MT

Driving towards Ennis, after leaving the fourteen mile city behind, I looked off to the side of the road and saw movement next to some brush and a stream. As we got closer I realized it was a bull moose! I have seen a female moose a twice in the past couple months but I had never seen a male one... so exciting! It was HUGE and its antlers were amazing. I would love to find some antlers that a moose had shed. Hopefully sometime in my life that will happen.

We arrived in Ennis and as soon as we started driving through the downtown I realized we were going to have to park because it is a really nice downtown! I wasn't expecting that in such a small town and in such a rural area. They had a couple amazing, amazing antiques stores. Tyler ended up getting a leather vest lined with sheepskin that fit him perfectly for only $5 and I got a really nice pillow that definitely wasn't an antique. I could have spent hours looking around but Tyler has considerably less of a tolerance for antiques stores than I do and we were anxious to make it to Yellowstone. Actually, after last night's frigid weather we decided to alter our course so that we'll be coming up along the coast in November and December. The weather will be considerably nicer then and this way it won't be super snowy in Colorado and Wyoming when we go through that area.

Outside of Ennis we stopped at a fishing access site on the Madison River for some lunch and to exercise Hanz. We made friends with some fly fisherman who, despite the windy day, were going to go try their luck in the water. I had such a great time fly fishing this past summer. It is definitely something that I want to keep up with. As soon as I have some extra cash (which definitely won't be any time soon!) I'm going to buy a fly rod. Even if you don't catch anything it's just relaxing to be out on the water. <3

Leaving Ennis and heading southeast

On the Madison River- Hanz found a large stick!

Day 6- We are Blown Away By the Pioneer Mountains

2010-09-29T15:01:00.000-07:00

September 20^th 2010 Day 6- Monday

Today is the first day that we are starting to venture into unknown territory. We headed south from Butte, mid-day, on I-15 to a state highway and onto a parkway that travels through the Pioneer Mountains after passing through Wise River, MT. It is super beautiful out here, aside from the tragedy of all the beetle-killed pines with their sad brown needles in place of where healthy green ones should be. I wish I knew more about this area, especially about the homesteaders in the Pioneers, so in the future I’ll have to research the areas we’re about to enter so that I can better understand them.

There were so many beautiful trailheads and overlooks and campsites that we were not sure where to stop but we eventually turned up an unpaved forest road (despite our experiences with the unpaved Skalkaho mountain pass) that led to Coolidge Ghost Town. We stopped after a mile at a campground and detached the trailer from the truck. It was pretty chilly so we put on an extra layer. We decided to check out the ghost town so we got in Tyler’s truck and chugged 4 miles up a dirt road to the former mining camp. It was about a ¼ mile walk to the first part of town where the remains of only a few buildings remained on the ground. About another ¼ of a mile further exposed the heart of this mini-city, once home to at least a thousand people. I wish there was some more interpretive materials to go along with what we were seeing (like there is for Garnet Ghost Town, for example) but it was still interesting to be in a place with such interesting history. It’s fascinating to think of all the people who toiled in the exact spot in which you are standing, all of the hard work that went into building this civilization and maintaining a livelihood through incredibly harsh winters. One thing that was different about this ghost town is that it actually had electricity! They spent close to $150,000 on setting up power lines to connect this town to the electrical grid! I want to find more info on Coolidge and get back to you with more accurate history in the near future.

At Coolidge Ghost Town

An Outhouse at Coolidge Ghost Town... Why are there 2 toilets?!

Tin Cans in a pile represent how garbage was disposed of in the early 20th Century

We returned to the campsite just before dark. It was so cold we had multiple layers on. This was the first night we had to worry about our pipes freezing because it was going to get well below freezing during the night. We turned on the hot water heater and ran hot water through our lines so they wouldn't freeze. We turned the heat on a bit to help as well.

We went for a walk before going to sleep and ran into one of the other people staying at the campground with us. He and his wife were visiting from Wisconsin. I don't often think of people from Wisconsin as having accents but my god! He pronounced Wisconsin like Wis-can-sin! After chatting for a bit we headed back into the semi-warmth of the travel trailer.

The next morning we woke up and the water in Hanz's outside bowl was frozen. Good thing we were anticipating that!

Day 5- The Giants Make Me Cry & I Finally Get a Real Shower!

2010-09-19T21:01:00.000-07:00

9/19/2010 6:28pm Day 5

Well, it’s Football Sunday so the Colts and Giants are about to face off, Manning versus Manning. The media just loves this. There have been 13,500 games or so in the NFL and this is only the second time that Eli and Peyton Manning will be facing off. Let’s go Giants!

Yesterday afternoon I spotted a patch of thimble berries on a trail by Flint Creek so this morning when I woke up to walk Hanz we brought a little basket and collected some. Yum! We hung out for a little bit to enjoy the scenery and then started to pack up to move to our next destination. Hanz saw a squirrel of some kind run over to a tree by our trailer and he chased after it. It proceeded to tease him for at least the next half hour by going down to the base of the tree, making Hanz run over to it, and then running up- just out of range for him- and loudly chattering at him. I’m not sure what kind of squirrel it was. I’ll post a picture below and if anyone knows, please tell me! It’s definitely smaller than a typical squirrel and the coloring is a bit different. It let me get really close to it. I was staring at it up in the tree and it would literally come down to about shoulder height on the tree but on the opposite side so all I could see was its bushy little tail waving back and forth. I would dart over to try to get closer to it and then it would scamper up the tree, just out of reach and then stare me straight in the face... cocky little bugger! So I guess it wasn't only Hanz that this squirrel was teasing!

The Squirrel that gave me and Hanz a headache

When we finally departed we continued along the Pintler Scenic Loop. Right before passing Georgetown Lake we saw the locally famous “heart” on the mountain. It’s basically a scree field on the side of a mountain that is perfectly shaped like a heart and surrounded by trees. There’s also a dramatic and unexpected waterfall just off the side of the highway. Tyler commented on how this is a very interesting and dangerous place to put a highway and I have to agree. Sometimes it's pretty crazy to think about all the work that goes into building the first roads through rough terrain. I remember when I was in Costa Rica a few years ago for school we talked briefly about all the lives that were lost in building the Pan-American Highway and I bet it is the same out here.

The Pintler Scenic Loop just up the road from the Flint Creek Campground

Check out the waterfall!

Georgetown Lake is where I went fly fishing with the CFWEP camp about a month ago. It’s a very beautiful area. You can see the Governor’s house overlooking the lake and supposedly a cell tower was built nearby specifically for his convenience. I checked my phone, the reception is great!

We passed through Anaconda, a town named after the company which ran the famous Butte copper mines starting in the late 19^th century. Anaconda is home to the smelter which processed a lot of the ore that came out of the Butte mines. There is still a railroad connecting Anaconda to Butte. If you do not know much about the history of mining in Butte I highly recommend looking into it because it is absolutely fascinating. There is a great book called Fire and Brimstone, which I believe I mentioned in a previous blog, which documents the events leading up to and following a huge mining disaster in 1917. It also discusses Butte’s role in American history and really, without Butte and its prolific copper mines there would not have been an industrial revolution and our world would be a very different place. Not to mention the fact that Butte was ethnically a microcosm of Europe because of all the immigrants that came over to work in the mines so it was socially a fascinating place to live in during World War I and II.

Tyler and I had planned on stopping in Butte and staying at an RV park but we opted to stop just outside in Fairmont for the night. We found a sweet little RV park with really nice owners originally from Minnesota. It’s nice to every once in a while stay at a place that gives you internet and cell reception and (gasp!) a warm shower! Allelujah! So right now I am sitting at our little dining room table typing away while the winds outside are insanely blowing. Even with the windows closed it is loud and every once in a while the travel trailer gives a nice little shudder reminding me or how exposed we are. Of course this is the one night we choose to stay in a campground that isn’t surrounded by mountains and trees. It’s not raining yet but starting at 5am it’s supposed to be thunder storms all day and into tomorrow evening. Makes for interesting traveling!

By now the Giants game is over, and not just the over that it has been since the Colts initially asserted themselves in the first quarter. It's so frustrating when they get dominated like this!! I want the 2007 team back! And Amani Toomer! And Tiki Barber!!!! Is that so much to ask for?!

Day 4- Mountain Pass Insanity & A Sweet Little Camp Spot

2010-09-19T18:12:00.000-07:00

9/18/2010 8:47pm Day 4

Tyler and Hanz panting on a boulder

Yesterday when we got back to the Como campground Tyler and I biked over to the lake while Hanz ran alongside us. It is a gorgeous area but it’s funny because there is a lot of contrast in the scenery. On one side, the direction from which we came, there’s a huge concrete dam and then another huge concrete put-in area. If you look across the lake, however, you see incredible mountains rising up into the sky. The actual color of the water is beautiful as well. I think that is just something about Montana lakes in general, because so many of them are so high up and pristine, they are absolutely beautiful. We went back to the travel trailer for some dinner after a little hike and then ended the night by watching the second half of North by Northest, further proving you can almost never go wrong with Cary Grant.

This morning I woke up and took Hanz for a long walk down an old road off to the side of the campground. It leads to a narrow trail in a beautiful coniferous forest and ends up at a creek. It was such a wonderful way to start the day. The air is already delicious in a quiet forest but in the morning it seems to be even more so. Hanz chased the ball, which I threw from a Chuck-It (he’s obsessed!), a good hundred times. When I got back we packed up our stuff and got on the road at around 10:30am. We were going to work at Homestead Organics in Hamilton, but giving that it was a Saturday and they did not do much work on the weekends we decided to just stop by the farmers market and then head on our way towards Butte. We ran into an old friend of ours, Paul Madeen and his girlfriend Terri at the market, which is always nice. Terri said she has a farm in Stevensville that she is working on and that she has goats and chickens and grows produce. Since Tyler and I are trying to find a place to stay where we can work in exchange for rent we are possibly going to help her out starting this spring with the produce and since the goats will be having kids there will be more to manage. We’ll see how it works out!

The Creek near Lake Como where Hanz and I took our morning walk

I had taken the Skalkaho Pass only once in my life and that was two years ago with 4 girlfriends in a small car heading to Butte for the National Folk Festival. I remembered the road as being beautiful and having gorgeous falls, maybe it is a bit windy as well. Well, obviously I was not the one driving and it is funny how your experience can change the way you remember something but as soon as Tyler and I started the ascent we started to get nervous. The road immediately narrowed and a sign warned of imminent “narrow mountainous winding gravel roadway.” All those descriptors on one sign… wow! Tyler glanced over at me with his brow furrowed and asked, “Are you sure this is going to be alright for my truck with this trailer?”

What followed was a who-knows-how-long period of extremely tense driving and the occasional wince as the trailer’s shocks worked overtime. We did momentarily stop at the Skalkaho Falls so catch our breath and take in some of the scenery. While we were stopped Tyler talked to another young couple who assured us that the road widened as you started to descend and that people took rigs this big up here all the time. Yeah, well it turns out the road widens alright but it also becomes a series of unending potholes that forced us to literally travel about 5 miles an hour. On the bright side we were surrounded by beautiful conifers the whole time so if you had the window down it smelled like Christmas!

At the base of the descent we turned our heads to look at a sign meant for those just beginning to take the pass from the east. It read something to the extent of: trailer attachments of no more than 20 feet advisable. Ours was 22 feet. Thanks for the warning.

We drove on a little while longer and eventually turned onto the Pintler Scenic Loop towards Anaconda. At this point we just wanted to find a place large enough to park the travel trailer for the night that would also afford us some nice scenery. We soon happened upon the entrance to the Flint Creek Campground also home to the Flint Creek Hydroelectric Project. Let me preface my initial hesitation towards stopping here by saying that I had only heard one thing about Flint Creek and it was not very great. A couple months ago I went to the Montana Audubon Society’s Annual Bird Festival where we went on birdwatching field trips and listened to all different kinds of people talk about birds and conservation and current research. One of the presenters was from the University of Montana and he had been studying mercury levels in osprey chicks. He found that Flint Creek, which passes by a gold mine, picks up mercury (a by-product of the mining process?) and is the largest contributor of mercury into the Clark Fork River when it flows into it. Since osprey eat lots of fish mercury, a heavy metal, can bio-accumulate in their blood, causing them to get sick. This is exactly what happened with DDT. So, knowing this I was not too thrilled about the prospect of camping right next to the water but I realized that it’s not the whole creek that has mercury, it’s really only after it meets up with the source, the gold mine, that it possibly gets hairy. Plus, once we drove down to the camp I saw a site that was located right on the creek with the water rushing by in the most beautiful way. So we set up camp. The water is so loud but relaxing, the perfect thing to lull you to sleep. Needless to say we did not go fishing.

Our Campsite on Flint Creek

The Traveling Trio

The hydroelectric project we read, was initiated in 1891 and generated about 1,100 kw of energy. The old carved wooden sign also informed us that it was “open to the public without discrimination.” Man, do I love some of the signs you can find out here!

Tyler grilled some delicious Italian sausages that we got from Jen at Lifeline in exchange for our work (a very tasty gift!) and put a can of beans on the embers of our campfire to cook. Baked beans have to be one of my favorite all time camp foods. That and s’mores, which we also had! We actually got the stuff in Philipsburg where we stopped to find a bar in which to watch the University of Montana Grizzlies dominate Eastern Washington University. We found a really nice bar, called the Club Bar, “the friendliest corner bar in town.” We did not actually see any other corner bars in town but they did seem to be a friendly crowd that was luckily Griz fan dominated. We weren’t sure if they would be Griz or Cat fans out here but we lucked out. We also found a sweet thrift store where I found a gorgeous leather Coach purse for a total bargain. Yes, Please!

Hanz being a Waffle

Day 3- Lake Como & Sheep on the Open Range

2010-09-17T13:21:00.000-07:00

9/17/2010 9:28am Day 3

Today I woke up at the RV park at Lake Como. Unfortunately when we left Lifeline Dairy yesterday afternoon, about 200 flies came with us. The truck and RV were both full of them, buzzing around and making Hanz snarl at the air and then snap his jaw, trying to catch them. As we headed deeper into the Bitterroot we stopped in Hamilton to get ice cream. Our favorite ice cream place is a small local joint called Out West. Well, it was called Out West a couple years ago when Tyler and I worked at Homestead Organics, a family-run produce farm also in Hamilton, MT, now it’s called something less endearing and is attached to a greasy food joint. It was formerly attached to a really cute shop that sold home goods and western wear, including cute cowgirl aprons. Luckily, the ice cream is the same so they still had my favorite flavor, Montana Moose Moss; it’s mint ice cream with fudge swirls and mini peppermint patties. Yummmm.

We took our ice cream to go and then headed towards Lake Como to set up camp in the RV section. Tyler spent the rest of the evening fixing the various things that did not work in our Springdale 179 travel trailer. He had called someone at Bretz, where we had bought it to ask about using the hot water heater and they gave him wrong instructions. It is seriously absurd how much they charge for these things, when they are made with such cheap parts. But that’s another issue. So anyways, Tyler finally figured out the hot water heater so omg we had hot water! I could take a shower! That was the worst thing about working at Lifeline, the inability to really clean up at the end of the day, so now I was super excited to be able to take a shower. Oh the wonders of modern living!

12:39pm

I’m at River Rising, a café in Hamilton, sipping on a mocha and waiting for my sandwich to arrive. We came into town to do our laundry. Evidently when you use the shower water leaks onto the floor in the travel trailer so we used all our towels to mop it up. Lake Como is a really beautiful place to camp. When I woke up this morning, around 8:30am, I took Hanz for a little hike and he loved it. He loves hikes and areas where he can run around and act like a wild dog. He especially loves new places where there are foreign smells for him to investigate vigorously with his nose. After our walk I went back to the trailer, fed Hanz and put some water on for oatmeal, the breakfast of champions!

We took a small road from Lake Como to Hamilton, bypassing Hwy 93 and opting for the beauty of the back roads. What a gorgeous road! There were signs warning that this is “Open Range” so be careful of the roaming animals, they may very well be in the road! We passed by a farm with a couple sheep just walking around, right next to the road. Instead of having fences to keep animals in the people in this area had fences around their gardens to keep animals out of them.

We passed over the Bitterroot River on a little one lane bridge and saw a fly fisherman casting in the waters below. We passed over the bridge and continued along the dirt road, rising above the valley with incredible views both of the land below as well as the mixed jagged and rounded peaks above. I learned from my visit to Wilson, WY this summer, which is just outside of Jackson Hole and almost at the very base of the Tetons, that jagged peaks are present on younger mountain ranges that haven’t been around for long enough to be very weathered. So geologically speaking, the Tetons are one of the youngest ranges in this country. There are sections of the Bitterroot Mountains that are jagged like that but not nearly to the extent of the Tetons, which are famous for it.

Passing over the Bitterroot River

We soon realized that the canoe, which was strapped to the top of Tyler’s Tundra, was not attached tightly enough to the roof so we pulled over. It is things like that, little seemingly random events, that can lead you to see or experience little pleasures that you would have otherwise missed. When I stepped out of the truck I heard Tyler remark, “Oh wow, look at the sheep!” I hurriedly scrambled around the back of the truck and looked down into the valley: hundreds of sheep were grazing not too far below. I could hear them going “bahh” back and forth and couldn’t help but smile.

Sheep Grazing Below

Tyler and I have decided to stay another night at Lake Como. We bought the “America the Beautiful” pass that allows you free access to all national parks and monuments and federal lands in general. We have yet to actually go down to the lake but I think when we are done with laundry we will explore that area with Hanz. We left him in the travel trailer to guard everything. It’s been beautiful fall weather this past week, cool and a bit damp but really nice for being outside.

The First and Second Day- Lifeline Dairy

2010-09-17T13:07:00.000-07:00

9/16/10 8:34pm Day 2

Yesterday and today have been kind of rough. Unfortunately I have a cold so when I woke up my throat really hurt. It's very difficult to get into the habit of living in a travel trailer. You would not believe the amount of stuff we are carrying with us. It's just all very compact and efficiently packed. The only problem is that I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE ANYTHING IS!!!!!!! So ideally we would have spent our first night at a campground so we could have gone through things a bit to organize them better and not be working but it is alright. We are going to go to a campground after our stay at Lifeline so we'll do it then.

I was going to meet Jen to start work at Lifeline Dairy at 8am today but we didn’t really get started until around 9am. Tyler took the travel trailer to a Les Schwab to get our flat fixed and to buy a new tire for the other flat. Oh my goodness, 2 flat tires in one day?! Seriously, what are the chances?? The first one happened when we were literally about a mile from our house. We turned a corner on a really narrow road and the tire hit the curb and popped!! So then we had to pull over and luckily we had the equipment to change the tire. We then drove to Victor but when we got to Lifeline we realized we had run over a screw, which was still stuck in the tire, and we were losing air. It was at this time 6:01pm. Literally. On the dot. Every auto store in the area was closed for the day. %#@! We went to a gas station down the road and I ran inside to get something. It just so happened that at that very same time an automotive mechanic from the shop across the street was also in the gas station and saw Tyler outside checking out our rig. He was incredibly nice and ended up helping us out. We determined the air wasn’t leaking fast enough to require immediate action so we were able to go back to Lifeline for the night as long as we fixed it the next morning. So that’s where we were before, with Tyler leaving that next morning to fix the tire and I working at the dairy.

Our first night on the farm we were able to help Jen out with some work on the dairy but spent most of our time just chatting with her in the milking parlor as she milked the cows with an automated milking machine. I have such respect for her and her family’s hard work. She was out there until 11pm milking the cows and makes just enough to get by with her family. Thankfully she was going on her annual vacation with her family on Friday so she had that to look forward to. I can imagine that it couldn’t come soon enough!

Today working at the dairy I definitely learned a lot. It was also nice to do some physical work and to feel like I was really able to help out with things. The family who runs Lifeline: Ernie, Jen and their children Liam and Belle, are incredibly sweet people. They are very willing to explain how everything in their operation works. I worked with Jen for the most part and it was really nice to learn from someone who loved their work so much. Passion is really contagious and in any learning situation I feel a passionate teacher has a much greater probability of being effective in their teaching.

Jen in the Milking Parlor

Today, Tyler and I got to help hold down calves as Jen tagged their ears with a fairly unpleasant looking device, and “castrated” the male calves, using a device that stretched a rubber band around their testicles so that in time, since the rubber band cuts off circulation to the testes, they would just eventually fall off. They also got 3 vaccines, one to protect against scour diseases, another that was Vitamin A and D, and I believe the third was a B vitamin. It was really interesting and great to witness this process, not because I feel that the cows really enjoyed it but because this was the reality of the everyday process that eventually brings milk and steak to your table. It is these little chores that just have to be done consistently to ensure a steady milk flow for customers and to keep the operation up and running.

One of the many interesting things that I learned was that calves are actually born without any immune system. They are supplied with something special in their mother’s milk that develops their immunity and ability to cope with germs and disease. It is critical that a calf get a good amount of it within the first 2 hours of being born. That’s why it’s a big problem if a calf doesn’t nurse or is rejected by its mother because if it doesn’t get those vital nutrients it will have immune system problems for the rest of its, probably not very long, life.

A cow who does not get pregnant (and therefore does not produce milk) is called an “open” cow. You “dry off” a cow who is pregnant (as in you do not milk them) starting around 7 months into the pregnancy. 5 months after a pregnancy is when the heifer’s milk production reaches its peak.

I think one of the not so great things about the whole process is when the mother has its calf taken away for the first time. The calf refuses to eat at first, choosing to wait for its mother to return, but eventually it gives in to being hungry. The mother will carry on for a couple days, mooing up a storm and searching all over the place for their baby. There was one mother in particular, a small black and white heifer, which seemed especially ornery. She kept looking like she was going to go after Liam, Jen’s young son, and Jen said it was because she thought he was a dog or some kind of predator and she wanted to keep him away. She even threatened me by lowering her head with its horns and kind of stomping towards me. I got out of there FAST.

One of the exciting things Tyler and I got to do was to bottle feed the baby calves. They were SO cute. I like them a lot because their noses are dry and they don’t slobber as much as adult cows!

A calf being bottle-fed warm milk... So cute!

Cow tongues are so strangely fascinating. I put my hand up to one of their noses so it could see I wasn’t a threat and it thought my finger was a nipple so it started trying to suck on it. Its tongue was super coarse and had a strangely powerful tip that probed around trying to figure out if it could get any milk from my hand. It quickly realized it couldn’t a looked at me like I was a very mean person, but then I made it all better by producing a bottle with a rubber nipple for it to suck from. It’s funny because some of the calves get it immediately and latch on, sucking for dear life to get some of that warm milk (it’s bad for them to get cold milk) but some of them just don’t get that this is what they are supposed to drink from… obviously this bottle is not their mother. Maybe cows are not as dumb as we think they are! It’s like they are saying, okay I’ll take the milk from this weird device because I’m really hungry but I don’t get how I’m going to get the milk because this is not my mother!

We helped to clean up one of the stockyards that had tons of equipment and metal slabs in it. Tyler put lug bolts in all the posts but unfortunately there was an electric wire running right over his head so every once in a while, while he was putting the bolt in place he would shock himself. This is not an electric fence meant to keep chickens in place, this is electric fence meant to keep thousand pound animals in check, so you can imagine what it felt like to a person. Around the fourth time that he got shocked, he happened to be holding onto something metal and he actually blacked out! He said he felt like he was having a dream that lasted for a split second and then when he came back he was disoriented and had no idea where he was. I felt so terrible! I hate it when he gets hurt. I guess that is something that you learn to be super aware of when it’s your fulltime job raising livestock. Jen said her young son had even gotten shocked when he was less than a year old!

Working on a dairy and raising cattle is definitely not a job for the squeamish. There is cow poop and urine everywhere, including all over you, which I quickly realized was just the nature of the business as I began my days work. I did not have too much of a problem with it but when I had to coil up a long extension cord that was on the ground and had to be squeezing the poop-covered cord between my hands, I grimaced a little, but carried on. Onward Ho!

Oink Oink

The morning light on fields near Lifeline

Lifeline Dairy

A Description of the Premise of the Epic Adventure

2010-09-17T12:52:00.000-07:00

Okay so let me explain what Tyler and I are doing. We left September 15th with our dog Hanz planning on travelling for three months in our Springdale 179 travel trailer. We first headed down to the Bitterroot valley to work at Lifeline Dairy in Victor, MT. We are planning on travelling all the way down to the US/ Mexico border, stopping to work on farms for food and experience, visiting all the national parks, and visiting family and friends along the way. I am aiming to write every single day on my computer but I won't have internet most of the time so I will update the blog every chance I get. Tyler and I both wanted to take this chance to explore the American southwest and meet as many different kinds of people and experience as many different types of lifestyles as possible. In every place that we stop I want to learn something about the area and hopefully get some recipes to add to my collection. We are going to stop at farmers markets and roadside stands to sample the local goods and see if a carrot tastes different in Idaho than it tastes in Montana. We also want plenty of time for reflection so we can figure out which of the many directions we want our lives to take. I have so many interests that it has been hard for me to decide what it is exactly that I want to do with my life. I am highly considering veterinary school, even though it would be a huge time commitment (7 years to be exact) so I will be shadowing different types of veterinarians along the way. In Montana I shadowed an equine vet several times, and I've worked at a small animal veterinary clinic in Halesite, NY for a long time and I am looking forward to adding a marine mammal vet to my list. This trip is not being embarked upon for any particular reason but rather for a huge collective number of reasons. Each of the blogs that I post will follow our trip along the road. I hope anyone with any questions or comments or ideas will comment on this blog or email me @ mmaddox1@gmail.com

Let the Journey Begin!

A Long Overdue Update

2010-09-09T17:25:00.000-07:00

Much has happened since I last blogged. This has been a crazy year of travel for me and my boyfriend. We went to Hawaii in April:

Shortly after we got back from Oahu we flew to Wyoming to visit with Tyler's family at his Grandfather's ranch:

The ranch is in Wilson, WY just outside of Jackson Hole. We were so busy the whole time! I could have spent a year there trying to get in all the hiking and canoeing and biking I wanted to do. At least we got to go on one hike that was an absolute treat. I have never seen such diversity and beauty in wildflowers as I did on this hike just past Wilson. See how happy I am?! :)

We also got the opportunity to go white water rafting!! I was a bit worried because I heard it would be pretty intense but not long into the rafting trip I realized it was a LOT of fun and I had a blast. We went on the Snake River which was gorgeous and wild as heck! Your life vest is supposed to be tight enough that if you fall out of the boat somebody can pick you up by it, without it slipping over your head. The picture below is of Tyler being a nice boyfriend and making sure my vest was tight enough (hahahahaha):

After about a week in Wyoming we drove back to Montana with Tyler's brother Alex and his wife Katrina.
A couple days later my parents came to visit for a week in Missoula and Western Montana in general. The below pic was taken at the National Bison Range in Charlo, MT:

Then my parents, Tyler (my bf), Hanz (my dog), and I all drove to California to visit my family!

Tyler, Hanz and I then drove back to Montana in a day and a half!!!

After a day of rest, just enough time to unpack and then re-pack, I was off to Butte to be a counselor at a fly fishing camp!!

It was such a great experience to be at the camp! I learned how to fly fish, which I had never done before and I got to see some really remote parts of Montana that I probably won't ever get to see again. I don't even think I could find some of them without help... so many dirt roads that wind around mountains and deposit you in these beautifully remote locations. We fished on the Big Hole River and the Clark Fork River. I realized that I don't believe you should kill (or hurt) any living thing unless you plan on eating it, and then you should take pains to treat it respectfully so I didn't really want to catch anything if I was going to be releasing it. Even with this belief I still had a great time. It is incredibly relaxing and meditative to stand in the water in waders (or without if it's nice out!) practicing your cast and just being still and aware. I now understand the appeal of fly fishing and now it makes sense why you will see people casting on a river when the conditions are very unfavorable (blue skies, strong sun, middle of the day, etc). I am hoping to find an inexpensive fly rod and reel for my next adventure, which I have yet to inform you of! I figure this was a good update though. I hope you enjoyed the photos!! :)

Lee "Alexander" McQueen Tribute

2010-02-13T17:27:00.000-08:00

How sad for fashion that Alexander McQueen is no longer with us. And how sad it is that he felt his only option was to kill himself. Below I've put some of my favorite Alexander McQueen designs. He was a brilliant artist and he manifested his visions magnificently. I find it amazing how someone who lives such a glamorous and enviable lifestyle can be secretly so unhappy. It is a reminder that nobody's life is perfect and that everyone should be grateful for the good things in their lives. RIP Lee