The very overdue update

We have been burning up highway like it's becoming classified as Schedule 1, and let me be the first to say that my head spins when I try to sum it all up.

Let me also be the first to sincerely and deeply apologize for the lack of updates. Here's a funny thing I didn't realize about blogging: one requires an internet connection in order to do this. Since a 3G wireless connection costs a ridiculous amount of moolah (in our situation, anyway) we turned ours off and have been at the mercy of the businesses that offer WiFi for free - and in the middle of, say, Indiana, that can be very hard to come by.

So I'll try to sum up for you exactly what we've seen since our last update, in chronological order.

• The Dakotas
• North is a little better than South as far as "flat and desolate" is concerned. I have many friends in Fargo and very much enjoyed reconnecting with them (and showing off Rich, of course!). Their hospitality remains greatly appreciated, big shout-outs to Krissy and Mitch (we were the first visitors at their 3-week-old new apartment!), Topher (ghosts and religion and bad 80's video game movies, oh my!), and Kari and Beth (thanks for the tunes and the muffins!). Fargo is very nice in the summer, and a nice place to visit if you happen to know people there - be wary if you happen to be traveling in to the city from the south around rush hour, as you will transition from Middle Of Nowhere to Busy Rush Hour Freeway in the span of approximately 500 feet. Stay very, very far away during the winter-time. Unless living at Ice Station Zebra is your idea of a dream home, that is. 
• Minnesota
• Much more densely populated, and more trees. Minneapolis is a lovely city, eclectic and energetic, with a huge arts community and excellent public transit. We did not linger in the city, despite the people that I happen to know there - instead we visited the City Inside The City, otherwise known as the Mall Of America. I like to think of it as being a little bit like the TARDIS, in that it looks a bit large from the outside but is massive beyond belief on the inside. A full-sized amusement park complete with 3 roller coasters lives in the very heart of it, there's an aquarium complete with sharks and jellyfish and plexiglass tunnels to walk through on the lower levels, there's a hotel inside the walls, a wedding chapel, and every single store you could possibly want - sometimes twice, depending on its popularity and revenue. We rode two rollercoasters (for the price of one! Toddler Tuesdays for the win, and we didn't even have a toddler with us!) and walked approximately 5 miles while never leaving the mall or having to double-back on our path. It was wonderful, towering monument to American consumerism. The parking garage alone could have its own zip code. 
• Wisconsin
• I really wanted to like Wisconsin. Lots of leafy trees and quiet country farms, and the people all were very nice to us - a person riding a four wheeler through his remote forest farm waved happily at us as we drove past him. We camped for the night in a state park that was run by the Army Corps of Engineers and was nice and private, surrounded by woods. It was inexpensive, well maintained (flushing toilets! hot showers!) The problem is that we were very near a small manmade lake which bred mosquitos - which would have been fine, there is spray for that sort of thing, except that the place was overrun by large 8-legged creatures that happen to eat mosquitos and to which I have a pretty serious emotional reaction. The 3"-diameter Daddy Long Legs which I found crawling over my thigh pretty much ruined the experience for me. (Rich, thinking that perhaps my problem was based on them crawling up my person from the ground, tried to make me feel better by insisting that it had fallen out of a tree. While I appreciated his effort, the thought that spiders fall out of trees did not, actually, ease my anxiety attack.) Due to my averse reaction to enormous spiders, I have written off Wisconsin all together. 
• Illinois
• I don't recall much of Illinois, as I was much too excited about Chicago. From what I saw of it, it's a wonderful, bustling place - probably not very green in the heart of it, but was quite treed and grassed where we ended up, right by the Lake in Hyde Park. We ordered (and were defeated by) a pizza that was like a dwarf star, very small but incredibly dense; It was like eating a be-crusted wheel of cheese with a small amount of tomato sauce on top. We managed to score a hotel room right by the water that cost a very reasonable $130 with our AAA discount- although the TV speakers were blown out, which was disappointing - and the next day paid a seemingly reasonable $20 for a few hours of parking at the Museum of Science and Industry. And what a museum! I can't say enough about the MSI. It was, without a doubt, the absolute coolest and most fun museum I have ever been in. They had many exhibits to touch and play with, a special MythBusters exhibit that both showed off some of the creations from the show and allowed you to participate in some myth busting of your own (running vs walking in the rain, how often toast really lands butter side down, how possible it is to yank a tablecloth out from underneath a set of dishes without dropping any, and a blind driving simulator just to name a few!), and several very fun and lovely exhibits that could not be touched but were just as engaging. I do recommend bringing your own food, as the food court is roughly as expensive and is the same quality as eating in an airport - but if you must eat there, grab two cups of coffee and a huge cookie from the cafe for the same price as a premade, prewrapped sandwich from the cafeteria. 
• All in all, I liked it. 
• Indiana
• We drove straight through here, didn't really stop anywhere or camp anywhere by my recollection. It exists. It is not as boring or desolate as South Dakota or Kansas. 
• Ohio
• We stopped in Toledo and, instead of scrounging up a camp site, we settled for a Budget Inn off the highway. This hotel will be the barometer by which we measure all other hotels from now on, because it was very scary. A couple of crack heads stared at us through the window as we shuffled passed. Two sets of elderly persons in adjoining rooms watched TV with their doors wide open. People picked up cans in the parking lot. There were doorknob-shaped holes in the walls behind each door. At least we could hear the TV, versus what we had dealt with in Chicago, but we definitely stripped the beds and checked for bedbugs. (We did not find any.) The local cable played a rotating selection of religious programming, assisted living community advertisements, and commercials that offered you money in exchange for your car title. We will not be back to Ohio. 
• Pennsylvania
• We clipped the upper corner of this state, and were only inside it for about 45 minutes. I don't feel qualified to speak on it. 
• New York
• Lovely New York! We drove across the widest part of the state, the highways (or should I say, toll roads) were flanked on either side by leafy trees and the occasional rocky outcropping. I can't say much for the drivers, who were terrifying to say the least - I like to refer to it as "trying to win at Traffic", in that they always have to be in front and going faster than you, regardless of the infinite number of other drivers and how fast you are actually going in relation to the speed limit. We drove straight through to Niagara Falls and I, personally, was delighted to be so close to Canada. The Falls are breathtaking, really much more spectacular than you can imagine from pictures and videos - while the town of Niagara Falls is anything but spectacular or exciting (one would think it would be pretty bustling, considering the proximity to such a major tourist attraction, but that is decidedly not the case.) However, we made the sizeable error of judgement to arrive on Labor Day Weekend.  We were lucky to get a very nice campsite not too far away, and I could have been quite happy there on any other weekend - lovely soft grass, no big trees for spiders to fall out of, well maintained and groomed, not too buggy. But seeing as how it was Labor Day weekend, we were surrounded by a huge crowd of noisy New Yorkers who were not regular campers and did not seem to understand the rules of campsite etiquette. The man on our right had been drinking beer since 7am and continued his loud, belligerent slurring until 1am, and only stopped when Rich turned him in to the campsite police who came and told him to quiet down, but then resumed drinking at 7am the very next morning. The people on our immediate left were quiet and respectful, but on the other side of them, a large family with small children rolled in around 11:30pm and insisted on hammering their tent stakes into the spongy lawn while their girls ran around and screamed. We left in a hurry. 
• Conneticut
• Once again, we drove straight through without stopping. It's very much in keeping with the trend of New England, in that there are lots of trees and all of the structures are quite old and colonial. Charming, really.
• Massachusetts
• I could really get into Massachusetts, if it weren't for all of the people who actually live in Massachusetts. (Or maybe I'm just being unfairly biased - perhaps everyone who does not drive on the MassPike is very nice.) We got a bit lost on our way to a campsite we'd seen on the map and ended up on a lovely drive of the rural, wooded town of Lee - very cute indeed, but a bit more spread out than we had anticipated. If we had not been told that the entire loop we drove on was one town, we probably would not have known. All the structures here are separated by woods and winding rural roads, versus the clear-cut crammed-togetherness that I am used to with Western and Midwestern towns. We found a grocery store and picked up some supplies (Ring Dings, off-brand Pop-Tarts, bread and peanut butter - you know, the essentials) and while in line, a couple about our age (the first such persons we had encountered on the east coast) informed us that the camp sites were very nice, but were buggy and were prone to bear attacks. We decided NOT to chance it and instead drove back down the road where we reserved a room at a deserted America's Best Inn. The friendly Indian woman there wanted $180/night with a discount, but when we headed for the door she hurriedly told us that $100 was the best she could do - we probably could have haggled her down a little bit further, but we were tired and unpracticed in the art of haggling regardless. We took the room. Which was tiny, not very well maintained (the water in the bathroom tap came out brown, and the free pamphlets by the TV were not for her hotel and were wrinkled and water damaged) and strangely built. But after the night we'd endured in Niagara Falls, we were happy to have it. 
• Rhode Island
• Rhode Island may as well just be called Providence, because there is little else in the state besides that city. But what a city it is! Hundred-year old brown brick buildings and tree-lined winding, narrow streets. Home to Brown University and it's stunning campus, as well as Rich's sister Robin - whose hospitality was greatly welcomed and appreciated. We had great fun attempting to navigate the labyrinthine streets, which, we learned, turn into rivers complete with white-water rapids when it downpours. The place has excellent eateries of all kinds, and a huge population of college students of all kinds - we mostly hobnobbed with the culinary variety, but we had come right after the start of the school year, so the place was absolutely overrun with young people who were trying very hard to not look intimidated. We did get the privilege of seeing the Providence Athenaeum, one of the oldest subscription libraries in the country - standing for over 200 years, and has some books dating back at least 100 or more that are still in circulation and available to be checked out. The card catalog still contains entries from the original librarians in her original handwriting (interestingly enough, her name was Grace.) We were given a very special private tour by one of the librarians, who took us down to the rare book room where they house their oldest treasure - a book from the 1300s. (This book is not in circulation.) Unfortunately we were not able to see this book, as the regular tour person was not on duty that day, but to make up for it she took us up to the Art Room, which was the very room in which Edgar Allen Poe wooed Sarah. I could have spent days in that wonderful place. 

And that brings us to our current location: Andover, Mass. Rich's grandparents, uncle, and cousin live here in a very lovely home, and Nanna (as she prefers to be called) has been very happy to have us. Yesterday, she took us on a whirlwind tour of Boston, on which we saw everything - literally, almost everything. Harvard Square and MIT campuses, cramped and tightly quartered but amazingly beautiful; She knows the exact place where Facebook was born, and she took us there. We saw the USS Constitution, Old Iron Sides, and got to walk on the deck and touch the ship for our selves. We got a tour of the Maparium at the Christian Science Monitor facility, which is a globe of the earth constructed of stained glass panels in the 1930's, and which is so big it has a bridge through the middle and you can walk right through it. We were treated to fresh seafood right on the water. We got to walk through the Boston Garden, which is easily the most beautiful park I have ever seen - I am only a little embarrassed to admit that I can easily envision a marriage proposal in such a setting. We even climbed all 294 steps at the Bunker Hill monument, to get a bird's-eye view of the city. 

All in all, quite a lot has happened. My brain spins trying to recall it all! It's hard to believe we've seen so much in such a short time. 

Next up on the agenda is another visit to Long Island, New York - where he and I both have family. Perhaps we will even get to see the city for ourselves. After that, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Washington DC are all on the agenda - and I am quite excited to see DC and all of its (FREE) museums. We will be doing a bit more planning so that we can finally do some CouchSurfing (and cut down on our housing costs quite a bit), and I am excited to get to meet more new people and see more historical sites. 

Hopefully the next entry will be more forthcoming, and as such will be a bit more detailed. I will do my best to not let you down. Thanks for bearing with us during the long break, friends! 

More - so much, much more - coming soon. Stay tuned!

-Grace 

Making up for lost time!

After a month and some change with family in Montana and Wyoming, we've gotten our wheels back under us and we've taken to the road again. And it feels good to be back! 

We have been seriously making up for lost time. My head spins a little when I think about it, but I'll try to encapsulate it all for you as accurately as possible. 

On Monday we embarked from Cody, WY and drive three lovely hours east into the Big Horn National Forest. Climbing sharply to almost 10,000 feet in altitude, the landscape changed from rolling prairie to dense pine forests punctuated by enormous grey-black rocky mountain peaks, and the whole thing was scattered with little clusters of weed-like aspen trees. The pine beetles are bad here, they have badly thinned the forest in some places and dead trees, both standing and fallen, are littered everywhere. 

Our first stop was Medicine Wheel, a national historic and sacred site, placed on the very top of a treeless peak. Nobody's exactly sure when its construction was completed, but it was used as a sacred holy site for the Native Americans for their four- to five-day vision quest ceremonies, probably for hundreds of years. Made of carefully placed local white stones, it is a stone circle built on the ground, about 100' in diameter, with an outer circle connected to an inner circle by straight lines. There are the remnants of five small wind-breaking round and sided structures (the very friendly and informative forest service employee had a word for them, which I have regrettably forgotten), of unknown significance - one of the structures aligns with the sun on the summer solstice, but that's all anyone can tell. It's protected by a wood and rope fence, onto which many small pieces of fabric and trinkets, each signifying an individual prayer given in reverence to The Mountain, have been tied. Native holy ceremonies are still held there occasionally. 

The site is at the top of a 1.5 mile (or 3 miles round-trip) gravel path, which is uphill both ways due to the uphill-downhill-uphill nature of the landscape. I admit it was better going down than coming up, but to get such an eagles-eye view of the lush woods surrounding us, and the stark contrast of the naturally bone-white rock, I would say it was worth every step. To be in such a place felt to me very much the same as being inside a grand cathedral; the people's reverence and respect echoes in such a place. The natural vibrations in the earth and in the plants, normally vaguely present in different forms depending on your environment and the season, was completely still - as if the place was listening to you.  Out of respect, I took no pictures of the site itself. 

After seeing the sites, we headed onward to make camp for the night. We lucked out and scored a secluded campsite at the top of a hill, a good distance from any other camp sites. At the bottom of the hill on the far sides, a lake peeked through the trees. Our first night camping started well, lots of hot chocolate and roasted marshmallows (or flambe'd marshmallows in my case, as is my preference) by a fire-pit campfire, Chef Boyardee heated to bubbling on our propane stove. We delved into our books, Rich played a few gentle tunes on the guitar by firelight. But when the sun set and the stars came out, the temperature plummeted into the low 40's; Rich insisted that it wasn't cold, but I am well-versed in feeling cold and I know it when I feel it. The first night was a classic example of trial-and-error, as we zipped our sleeping bags together and tried very hard to convince ourselves that we were comfortable on the stiff foam sleeping mats. Another important lesson we learned the hard way was to always limit ourselves to ONE cup of hot cocoa before bed, as a full bladder and a camp toilet that's 500 feet away in frigid darkness both deters one from emptying it and also from sleeping. 

It was a long night, and so the carryover fatigue has blurred Tuesday around the edges a bit. 

We were packed up and on the road with freshly-brewed coffee (which I would not be caught dead without the supplies to make) by 9:30 am, the day was bright and clear - but still cold enough to spot your breath on the air. Our first stop was the nearest K-Mart (they still exist! I have a picture to prove it!) in which we bought a set of twin-sized air mattresses and a $1 box of generic-brand Pop Tarts, the breakfast of champions. Having descended from the mountains, the air warmed quite a bit and made our drive onwards to Devil's Tower much more enjoyable. 

To say that Devil's Tower is striking would be understating things unjustly. Treeless and mountainless prairie on all sides, perhaps some low bluffs crested with some scraggly shrubs - and then, all of a sudden, the massive and looming chimney that is the Tower. As high as a mountain, but standing completely alone! It's no wonder that Speilberg says that the aliens will come pick us up there. The local Native legends say that the Tower began as a lowly tree stump, on which six sisters and their brother were playing; suddenly the brother became a bear and tried to kill them, but the Great Spirit (I'm paraphrasing that one, I think that this is perhaps not the correct deity; forgive me) spoke to the sisters and told them to take shelter atop the stump. The stump raised high into the air, and the bear clawed at the stump to get at the girls, leaving enormous grooves in the sides; the sisters were saved, and were raised up into the heavens to become the constellation Pleiades. An ancient wooden ladder used by the Native peoples can still be seen up near the summit via binoculars, but how it got there is absolutely a mystery to me. Scientific study, however, tells us that Devil's Tower is an igneous formation caused by a massive fountain of magma, spewing high into the air and creating the largest naturally-occurring vertical octagonal columns known to mankind. 

Here we took another hike that was both up and downhill several times over, but only about 1.8 miles. The tower is surrounded on all sides by pine trees, which are dwarfed in its presence. We broke the rules about staying on the pathways only long enough to perch me on some rocks for a picture, during which a very generous woman stopped and offered to take a picture of the both of us; it's the first photo we have of the two of us since the holidays, and I'm grateful to her for staying longer than she had to in order to accommodate the operation of our finicky digital camera. I had cellular service just long enough to send a text message to some family before moving onwards into the wilderness. 

We had intended to camp for the night near Devil's Tower, but seeing as how the place is completely desolate and treeless, not to mention crowded with seasonal tourists with their ugly and noisy RVs, we decided to press onwards and drive into the Black Hills National Forest. On a whim, we turned down a dirt road for what we thought would be 9 miles, but which actually ended up being closer to 20 miles. However, the drive was absolutely lovely - looking back now, I wish I'd been a little bit better rested so that I could have enjoyed it properly. It felt completely abandoned and overgrown with trees; rural farms and ranches, each with a little cluster of rectangular beehives, popped up every now and then along the side of the road. Little creeks and fresh-water marshes flowed through the open spaces, making the whole place incredibly lush. At one point, after reaching yet another sign that told us that we still had not yet reached the campsite, the thought occurred to me that I had seen that exact situation before in a cheap horror movie. But reach the campsite we did, it was blessedly empty, remote and quiet. The Black Hills is drought-ridden and run through by pine beetles, so no campfires whatsoever were allowed - which, no doubt, contributed heavily to the lack of other campers; The lack of company was fine by us. Once again we scored a lovely campsite, up at the top of a small but uninhabited campsite loop above another lake. It was not nearly as cold that night, and between the very comfortable air mattresses and the singing of the frogs in the lake, we had a wonderfully solid and refreshing night's sleep. (In individual sleeping bags. Not nearly as much cuddling can take place that way, but at least one does not have to be self-conscious about accidentally dutch-ovening their partner.) It was wonderful. I don't think I've ever slept so well. 

This morning, Wednesday, we were woken before 7:00am by some angry squirrels' shouting match. (Which, of course, stopped completely right as we resigned ourselves to being awake and got up for the day.) We braved a camp toilet which smelled badly enough to scar the inside of my sinuses for the entire morning, and were packed up and moving before 8. We made excellent time, too!

The Black Hills are a very lovely drive, I recommend it for any who might consider it. It reminded me very much of the mid-mountain forests of Colorado, except that the road was constantly flanked by a small babbling creek. Remnants of mining settlements can still be seen by the roadside, little weather-beaten and dilapidated huts and shops hiding in the trees - there are a few little mountain hamlets left, dying remnants of gold rush boom towns. Deadwood is definitely one of these, although it's also most certainly the largest of them all. Considering the history there, we had hoped that Deadwood would be like a living museum, where some historic buildings had been preserved and their history displayed; We were disappointed to discover that it was very much a tourist destination, lousy with gift shops and cheap casinos. We were back on the road by 11:45, having seen all that we had cared to. 

Mount Rushmore was reached by 1:00, and we were stunned when we were informed that we had to pay $11 in order to park our car! The monument can easily be seen from the highway in one particular spot, and in hindsight we should have pulled off and taken pictures from right there, for free. However, pay we did and we walked through the little park that surrounds the mountain. It's mostly made of concrete and expensive wooden walkways, and I would say that it would be more attractive to one who was very interested in American History. The carving is very large, yet somehow smaller than imagined from the closest public vantage point. The little park is quite sterile and politically correct, although there is a very small museum in which the final plaster casting of the concept can still be seen, in a 1":1' scale - it was quite interesting to see how the sculpture had been envisioned, and how it actually ended up. 

Again, we were in and out in about 45 minutes, having seen all that we could get out of it and a little bit soured in mood by the expense. But we pressed northeast into Rapid City, and then beyond to the Badlands National Park. 

What can I say about the Badlands, except that it's absolutely spectacular? It looks very much like the bottom of an ocean, jagged wind-carved peaks of soft sedimentary rock, vividly painted in shades of yellow, red, and taupe. Deep, deep crevasses in the landscape. I half expected to see fish swimming between the crags. Pictures couldn't possibly capture the splendor. Nor the heat - 101 degrees in the shade, according to a thermometer inside the very very tiny town of Interior, SD (population 67). Mind-numbingly hot, melting, scorching, blinding heat that actually gets worse than what we experienced. 

We left the Badlands and arrived in Wall, home of the famous Wall Drug whose approximately 4.8 million aging billboards are a staple of rural midwest roadtrips, about 6 in the evening. After a trying, hot and dusty day like we had, we couldn't possibly conceive of gambling on finding an affordable campsite, so we caved and purchased a $50 room at a locally owned motel. The rooms are small but clean and well-tended, and there is free wireless internet for me to write you this blog post before all the details are lost in the messy swamp of my memory. A shower and some air conditioning has made new people of us. We are well prepared for the 10-hour push up to Fargo tomorrow. 

I have many pictures and video to share, but alas, it is late now and I am a bit cross-eyed from forcing all of this out of my head in one go. I will update this blog post during my stay in Fargo this weekend with all of them. 

Thank you for reading with us so far, it has been quite an adventure and it's only been three days. I am full of excitement for all that there is to come, and I look forward to sharing much more with you all if you would have me. 

Stay well. 

-G

Yellowstone, Part Two

After a good night's sleep, a cup of coffee, and some chores to get my blood running, I finally sat down and uploaded all the videos I shot onto YouTube. They required a little editing and a bit of patience, but I think it's all been well worth it - except my camera shot the videos in 1080p, so they seem a bit stretched out after the upload. I haven't been able to fix that, so I'm sorry. :(

But here they all are, in chronological order:

The Dragon's Mouth, 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzoJCWVBzXA
The Dragon's Mouth, 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIoqz6Bh2VI
The Mud Volcano: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHvN3DVhreI
A boiling pool, and some Bison: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVEOWBQDzXg
A Bison scares the crap out of some tourists: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQhJPYOU-TE
OLD FAITHFUL!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihGwGN5an-M
The Artist's Paintpots, and the all-natural hot tub of doom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIu4hQqgtBk
BONUS VIDEO! What happens when Yellowstone tourists spot wildlife from the road: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ6rsJKIaQI

Enjoy, friends!

-Grace

Yellowstone!

What can I say about Yellowstone that could capture for you the sheer awe and raw splendor of it all?  Nothing. Not a damn thing. There is simply no way to encapsulate the beauty of Yellowstone, not with all the words and photos and videos that all of America combined could possible write, take, and shoot.

Yellowstone is massive beyond visual comprehension, it is active and teeming, everything is utterly alive - even the very air seems to have an energy all its own. I am a Colorado girl, my upbringing completed in the quiet serenity of the Central Plains; my parents' rural 5-acre property, though often dry and crunchy to behold, harbors a nice variety of wild fauna. I am accustomed to the sound of wind in wide-open spaces, I am comfortable surrounded by the silent guardianship of solitary pine trees and prairie shrubbery. Despite all this prior experience, I was wholly unprepared for the unadultered wilderness that is Yellowstone. I wish I could explain to you how vast, how quiet, how pure the place is.

I think I was most blown away by the active volcanic sites. As I mentioned before I am a born-and-raised American central-westerner - although my family did our fair share of traveling for the Air Force, I have never been anywhere even close to volcanic activity of any kind. So to see mud that bubbles up from the ground, and natural pools of boiling water, and caves that continuously belch a heady sulfuric steam, surrounded by a vast and unblemished landscape, was so much more than I could have possibly anticipated. A fascinating, dangerous beauty.

We arrived at the park right at 8 am as the gates opened, and drove through the park for 8 amazing hours. There was much more to see than we could have fit into the time we had at our disposal, and the summer heat and mountainous altitudes sapped us of the energy required to hike the paths to some of the most popular attractions. We did, however, see so much more than I had hoped for: Elk grazed lazily on the lawns of the quaint supply-shop towns, guarded from a safe distance by park rangers and photographed from much less-safe distances by fascinated tourists. Bison herds with their calves in tow stopped traffic in both directions to cross the street at a pace they found quite comfortable. Sparrows dove for my head as they swooped through the currents after flies. A particularly overly-warm ground squirrel laid itself out flat like a rug on the pavement underneath our rear bumper at a rest stop, trying to cool itself in the shade it cast.

We stood with the crowd and watched as the Old Faithful geyser erupted, as it has reliably every 93 minutes or so for the last 100-someodd recorded years. We climbed a very steep, very rickety walkway to the top of a small bluff to see the hot springs that reminded me of so much watercolor paint, surrounded by green grass and brilliant travertine, running along vivid orange mineral trails to bright turquoise pools of water. We kept a safe distance as wild bison took a dust bath beside a boiling mud pond no more than 500 feet away, and then laughed as it strolled down the paved walkway in the direction of some startled and quickly-backtracking tourists with nothing more on its mind than munching on some sweet summer grasses a little bit down the hill. And in between all of this excitement, the countryside - lush and treed, run through with sparkling rivers and waterfalls - scrolled past the open car windows, bringing with it birdsong and pine-scented breezes.

On our way out of the park towards Montana, we took the scenic highway and drove through the Beartooth Mountains. The road switchbacks and curves to hug the mountainsides, and Rich reports that driving on it makes you feel very much like James Bond. The place is a perfect blend of high plains dotted with fallen stones and sharp craggy peaks skirted by trees, all highlighted by snowpack that is still two feet thick in places. In the middle of a July so hot that some parts of the country have melting mailboxes and airplanes that sink into the pavement, I had to put on a sweater as we passed through the peaks.

This is not quite as detailed a post as I had hoped to give you, my faithful followers. I wish I could detail the entire day for you and capture the splendor of it all, but alas, it is all something of a blur. We began at 6 am and ended the day sometime around midnight, and we drove the whole day through - unfortunately, the details have been a bit lost on the shuffle. So, the best I have to offer you are the pictures and the video we took while we were there. It doesn't capture what it's like to be there, I highly recommend you all pay it a visit for yourself, but hopefully it will give you all a vague idea of what you're missing by not going.

Enjoy the multimedia after the jump, friends - fairly image heavy, consider yourselves fairly warned.

I will post more media from this adventure soon, there were far more videos than I could comfortably cram into this humble post. Stay tuned!

About the lag...

Sorry about the lack of fresh updates, my fellow travelers-at-heart!

We have been in Billings, MT for 5 days helping a family member in need with some chores, errands, and home modifications. It's been a busy week and we haven't had time to do any site-seeing or interesting photography, and I would hate to bore you all with stories about watching satellite and washing dishes!

I write this from our home-base in Cody, as we've come back here for a day or two to return a teenager we borrowed for some extra assistance in getting decking built, flooring installed, and acreage of property mowed and trimmed. We will be returning to Billings on Friday the 13th.

But we'll be going 8 hours out of our way to drive through Yellowstone National Park on our way up. You'd better believe that I'll be inundating you all with pictures and video - I have never been through Yellowstone, but Rich has and he knows all the best spots to show off! I am so excited, I can barely contain myself.

Look for updates from our Yellowstone trip this weekend! Until then, stay cool - it's still hot out there.

-Grace

Independence Day in Cody, WY

As far as I'm concerned, there is no better place to celebrate Independence Day than a small, sleepy Western town - the most American of all places.

July 4th brought with it unrelenting sunshine and afternoon temperatures at 9:30 in the morning, and all along Main Street, people and lawn chairs gathered two rows deep in tiny patches of shade. Rich and I, along with Rich's family who are hosting us during our stay in Cody, being a little late to the game, decided the best course of action was to plan ahead and we picked a spot of sidewalk where we predicted some shade would end up about half-way through the parade. I did my best to not feel superior to the people who had chosen Instant Gratification instead and ended up in the broiling sunshine far before the festivities were over. 

The town of Cody, WY is proud of its rich history, and rightly so. Being founded by the famous Buffalo hunter/gunman/popular showman and hero of every boy in America in the last part of the 19th century until early in the 20th century, Buffalo Bill Cody, every nook and cranny of every business in town is rife with echoes of its Wild West past. The Independence Day Parade is a yearly expose of everything the town of Cody is proud of, and every person in town turned out to enjoy it. Marching bands from the four surrounding community schools proudly played familiar patriotic and western tunes. Many floats featured local personalities in victorian-era Western dress - one float even featured a saloon setting with cancan dancers and a mock brawl between outlaw cowboys dressed in all-black. A woman from a local business which specializes in old-time-style photographs walked up and down the sidewalk promoting her business, lightheartedly dressed in a beautiful red dress which was open in the back to reveal a corset and pantaloons! I have been to very few places that are so educated about its history, and are so eager to display it to every person who travels through. It was truly a delight, and an excellent choice of holiday entertainment; I could not have asked for more. 

Seeing as how the Independence Day Parade was my first event as a new blogger, I took a shamefully low amount of pictures. I'm so sorry! I suppose you'll just have to take my word for it when I say it was quaintly pleasant, neither too over-the-top nor too understated for the crowd of locals and tourists. It was neatly balanced between the old, antique cars and WWII-era airplane flyovers, and the new, performances of all kinds by local children and proud displays by local adults and businesses. Next time, I will be sure to take more photos and video so as not to disappoint my readers! 

If one happens to be in Cody any time other than the July holiday and is interested in a display of the town's history, one must only go as far as Old Trail Town. Technically classified as a tourist attraction, Old Trail Town is a painstakingly maintained outdoor museum of the area's very first structures, as well as a huge selection of implements, tools, furniture, and household items which were used by the very first settlers of the region. This area is especially famous for not only Buffalo Bill, but also for The Hole in the Wall Gang. Featuring the outlaws made famous in the 70's by Paul Newman and Robert Redford, Butch Cassidy and his partner in crime The Sundance Kid, Old Trail Town owns and proudly displays the actual wood cabins used as hideouts, safe havens, and frequent places of business for the criminals who evaded authorities for years and captured imaginations for decades afterward. Also featured here is the homestead cabin of Buffalo Bill, a saloon with bullet holes still in the front door from a shoot out with The Hole in the Wall Gang, an original barn containing many intact horse-drawn carriages and covered wagons, and the respectfully-relocated gravesites of several colorful regional legends. But the museum is not without gravity - the curators have made sure to include information about the area's native peoples who were chased out by the white men, and there are several respectful and beautiful exhibits about who they were, and everything they lost to us. Being as fascinated by history as I am, I could have spent all day in this fascinating place, where history is carefully preserved as accurately as those who did not live it are able; I sincerely apologize that my humble photos and video could not capture how fascinating the place is to me. 

You'll be happy to know I took a much better record of this place, than I did the parade. 

The Western states are battling a crippling drought. It has been dry for years now, but this has been the hottest summer on record (and it has barely even started!) and so the entire Great Plains region is little more than a gigantic tinderbox. In light of this, many places - including my home-state of Colorado - have banned the usual fireworks displays, because a few minutes of brightly-colored exploding gunpowder is hardly worth setting the entire prairie alight. Cody was not one of these places, although many surrounding communities cancelled their displays, and so in a show of solidarity with our countrymen (especially our fellow Coloradans) who have been affected by the ruthless wildfires we decided not to support the town's fireworks display. Instead, Rich and I patronized a popular saloon (which, I believe, is classified as a bar-slash-restaurant which features entertainment), had a locally-brewed rye lager and listened to some local music while the occasional colorful explosion peeked through the front windows. 

Tomorrow we head north to Billings, MT. Whether we return to Cody for a brief period afterward, or whether we head east towards Fargo has yet to be determined - it's all part of the fun, you see, not planning every detail. Until then, however, I humbly submit for your enjoyment the photos and videos I have taken of our "adventure" in The Wild West. I apologize for the poor quality, but I assure you I have learned my lesson this week: as a blogger, always ALWAYS remember to grab The Good Camera before leaving the house. 

Watch this space for updates from Montana! Photos after the jump. 

from Cody, WY

Made it safely to Cody last night, at just about midnight. It was, in a word, a brutal 8-hour drive.

The air conditioning in the van, which Rich eagerly had recharged and was very excited to be able to give to his ailing father, stopped working before we'd even left town. Which was really unfortunate, considering it reached 106 in Denver, and we were transporting a small cat with a lot of black fur. We ended up having to wet a small towel, then wrap some popsicles in it and place it next to her in the kennel, in a desperate bid to bring down the temperature in there and stop her from panting. It worked sufficiently enough, but none of us were very pleased about the situation. Rich ended up with a two-inch sunburn on his left kneecap from the unrelenting sun, and in a small moment of logical oversight, I nearly wrecked my car by changing lanes after I'd put my reflective windscreen in my window to try to keep the sun off me. Still, we made it unscathed.

Yesterday, I learned that a cheap tarp can be worn clean through by a piece of hemp twine, if you happen to be going 85 mph and the tarp bubbles up with the wind and rubs against the twine for 8 hours. We were using the tarp to hold a spare mattress to the top of the minivan - a mattress we will need at our next stop, since the spare bed is so uncomfortable it is impossible to get a good nights' sleep on it, and we may even need it at this stop for the very same reason. But let me tell you, when you get as wound around the axle as I do, spending 8 hours waiting for a mattress to come flying at your windshield at any moment is rather nerve-wracking. Thanks to my diligence we had to stop and readjust it three times; I felt badly, but at least we stayed safe the whole way down, which more than makes up for the time we lost.

Rich's mother's house has all the comforts of family and home. I feel very comfortable here, I can putter to my heart's content. This is the perfect location for me to get over the erroneous preconceived notion I somehow developed about this trip, which is that I'll be tent camping for the next 6 months. The reality is that I'll probably be spending a large chunk of time in the comfort and luxury of people's homes, and I am certainly okay with that.

I'm getting gently teased by the Rich and his brother for "having discovered the internet" and disappearing from social activities. I suppose I should remedy that.

More updates to come, after we get out and about and I have a chance to take some photos for you. Until then, some photos from the last time we were here around Christmas. This place has a beautiful, sleepy background majesticity that I am in love with; I am excited to share more photos with you all.

And one more, from summertime last year. Apologies for it being crooked, I took this from the top of my parabola on an elementary-school playground swingset. 

The first entry: pre-trip, at home in Colorado Springs

Six days until our departure.

We are still getting things settled around the domicile - it has been too stiflingly hot to do all that much, considering it takes a good chunk of our energy just to stay cool, but there is plenty to do in the next few days. Pack up the clothes and items we are taking, pack up the remaining items for storage and then actually go out and put the things in storage,  and cancel all remaining subscriptions and services.

I am still working to find a residential home for the feline, since, not being a dog and all, she prefers a quiet house and a routine to the open road and a tent. However, I have gotten very few promising leads in this area, which makes it all the more depressing and thankless. I'm trying to stay hopeful that it will all pay off in a big way for the little lady - after all, we create our own realities every single day, and I'd really like to create her a very nice one.

It is crushingly hot here. Our apartment lacks air conditioning, and the house fans were sold in bulk at the flea market along with a majority of our belongings - even the cat can't bring herself to do anything during the day except lay around and be immobile, and the advantage we humans usually have of being able to take off our clothing brings very little relief in temperatures that reach 100. Colorado is an extremely arid climate, the prairie has gotten only 1" of rainfall in the last six months; the dryness is compounding the high temperatures and the wind, fanning the flames in Waldo Canyon and expanding the fire to around 4,000 acres. In addition to the wildfire in my backyard, there are at least four other fires raging in the state right now - none of which have been contained or controlled.

Central Colorado will always be home to me, but it definitely seems as though Mother Nature is kicking us out of the nest. I am very eager to embark on our journey.

Only six days left to wait.

-Grace