I'll be honest that there's not too much to say about my last day. It was pretty anti-climatic. There really wasn't much to see along the way as it was entirely about getting the miles in to pass through four states and arrive in Pittsburgh at a reasonable hour. The only real excitement was around lunch time where I got into such a groove driving that I put off stopping for lunch. Of course, this also meant that I put off stopping for gas too without thinking about it. It was a close call, but it worked. In the end, I rolled through the green hills to arrive in Pittsburgh in the late evening, which was about perfect.
In total, the trip was definitely one I'll remember for the rest of my life. There were just so many amazing things to experience across this gigantic continent. I managed to see a lot, but there's still so much I had to let pass by. It would have been easy to stretch out the adventure for a few weeks or even months more, but alas, we can't always wander forever.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Friday, August 17, 2007
Day 14 - The Archetypical Architecture City
Today was all about exploring downtown Chicago. I started off at the new Millennium Park which had some very interesting monuments. There's the Crown Fountain which is two big blocks facing each other and people's moving faces projected onto them. After some blinking and smiling, the person forms their mouth into an "O" and out pops a stream of water that splashes onto the pavement. There's also the Cloud Gate, more affectionately known by the locals as the Giant Bean, that's a huge polished bean shaped hunk of steel that creates some interesting effects like a reflection of the Chicago skyline. There's also a Gehry outdoor auditorium, which, well, I can't describe in words. You'll have to look at the picture.
After touring the Millenium Park, I walked through downtown towards the Field Museum. It was close enough to lunch that I stopped at a bakery along the way and bought a loaf of sourdough bread to eat. Suffice it to say, it was filling :-). I didn't have too much time at the Field Museum since I had a ticket for an architecture cruise later in the day, but I managed to get through the Egyptian and Natural Earth exhibits. I really wish I had more time since there was so much to see there, but you can't do everything I suppose.
After getting out of the Field Museum, I bolted to the docks for the tour and got there with only about 2 min to spare. The tour itself was excellent. It cruised up the Chicago river around the downtown core while the guide pointed out the salient points of every building including usually some of the history. It was quite interesting. I'd have to say that my favorite building is Marina City which looks like a corncob. The weirdest thing about it is the parking. All through the bottom floors is a spiral parking structure where you have to very carefully back into your spot, making sure not to go too far and drive off the building. It makes an interesting visual effect with all the car backs popping out of the building. The tour guide also pointed out that the condo units provide an interesting interior decorating challenge because the floor plan is shaped like a pie wedge. Also, during the tour, we got the added bonus of watching the Blue Angels practicing for the air show that was going to happen on the weekend. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay to see it :-(
After the tour, I walked up the Magnificent Mile to see what it was about. Basically, it's just the shopping/fashion district so it wasn't too interesting for me. So, I hopped on the train and made my way back to Jenn's place to meet her, Kim and Jenn's family for dinner. It was Kim and Jenn's sister's birthday so everybody was having dinner at the Italian restaurant in Jenn's building and they graciously invited me too. The food was superb and very filling.
After dinner, Jenn, Kim and I went upstairs to open a bottle of sparkling shiraz, which we all enjoyed, and then went out to get some drinks and meet up with Marcello. It was fun evening catching up with folks from Cornell and seeing a couple of new bars. We even ended up at the Green Mill, which is one of the original jazz clubs. It had a great atmosphere and some good live music into the wee hours of the night. By the time the night was over, it was quite late. Ok, it was only late for me. It was really only about 2am, but I was used to being asleep by 10 or 11 and I had to get up relatively early the next day to drive all the way to Pittsburgh. So, even though it was fun times, they had to end, placing a beautiful cap on my trip.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Day 13 - Welcome to Wrigley
I woke up early and set off walking towards Wrigley Field. I had tickets for the game, which didn't start until 1pm, so my plan was to find a cafe along the way and relax for a little bit. It's weird, but walking down Clark St, a major commercial street, it took forever to find a cafe. I was expecting to be able to come across one right away, but they just weren't on the path I took. Anyway, I eventually found one and sat down to have some tea and read a book.
After a while, I set off again. I arrived at Wrigley a little early, so I picked up my tickets and moved on to explore the area. Right around Wrigley, the aptly named Wrigleyville district, it reminded me of Landsdown street right around Fenway; it was basically filled with bars and souvenir shops.
A little further down the street, I ended up in North Hampstead, the gay district. If the rainbow pillars hadn't given it away, all the gay sex shops definitely did! It was pretty quiet, but that wasn't too surprising for late morning on a Thursday.
I also managed to wander into two food stores and found a couple of gems. The first was the liquor/wine store. I was curious if they'd have any sparkling shirazes since I'd had to leave my last bottle in San Francisco with Sarah, Jim and Jeff. Going to the champagne aisle, I discovered to my amazement that not only did they have two brands of the shiraz, but one of them was the exact same one I had to leave behind! The second gem I found at a Whole Foods. I just went in looking for lunch/snack because I didn't want to pay ballpark prices and lo and behold, they had fresh figs! It was one of those things in California that I fell in love with because they're so good and I wasn't expecting to see them again until I got back to the west coast, but here they were in Chicago. Now, I couldn't buy either the wine or the figs before the game because they'd be confiscated going in, but after the game, I came back and bought some of each, partially for my own uses and to give to Jenn for letting me crash at her place.
Finally, it was getting close enough to game time that I went back to Wrigley. The park was gorgeous. It was just so classic. The only ads in the whole place were on the two doors in the outfield, the scoreboard was done by hand and the ivy was a beautiful emerald green. In contrast to Fenway, it was a very symmetric park so there wasn't much in the way of nooks and crannies. However, like Fenway and its Monster Seats, Wrigley has come up with a novel way to add more seats as the fan base has grown. I have to say I like the Wrigley solution more, just because it's so funny. There are seats on the roofs of all the buildings across the road from the park. I'd known about this before and that at one point the Cubs were upset that people were capitalizing on the entertainment they were providing so they were talking about putting up opaque nets. However, they apparently reached a rev share deal with the building owners so that everybody's happy and Wrigley gets some of the most interesting stands in baseball. Out of curiosity, I looked into the price for a seat on one of the buildings well beyond the outfield fence. They're all catered seats and you basically have to buy a large portion of the roof to go, but they come out to well over $100 a seat. Kind of crazy methinks.
Anyway, the game was a lot of fun too, largely because the fans were so into it and the guy beside me was a big ball fan so I got to shoot the shit with him for most of the game. It started off as a fast game as the Cubs plated 4 runs in the bottom of the first, but in the next half inning, the Reds game roaring back to tie the game. The game stayed pretty close until the late innings, when the cubs blew the game open and ended up winning 12-4.
After the game was over, I picked up the wine and figs and headed back to Jenn's place. We went on a 6 mile run along the lakeshore, known to all serious runners as THE place to run in Chicago. It deserves its title, but unfortunately, my leg really wasn't healed yet so I ended up aggravating it. Stupid injuries.
For dinner we went to a contemporary Korean restaurant. Their concept is to introduce the North American diner to Korean cuisine by making sure the wait staff spoke English well, setting up the decor like a normal contemporary restaurant and making the menu easy to understand. The food was excellent and I got to try soju for the first time. It's the main Korean distilled liquor and it's made primarily from potatoes. It was excellent. So incredibly smooth that it put any of the vodka I've ever had to shame. Of course it wouldn't surprise me if we were actually drinking really good soju, but even still, I was impressed.
After a while, I set off again. I arrived at Wrigley a little early, so I picked up my tickets and moved on to explore the area. Right around Wrigley, the aptly named Wrigleyville district, it reminded me of Landsdown street right around Fenway; it was basically filled with bars and souvenir shops.
A little further down the street, I ended up in North Hampstead, the gay district. If the rainbow pillars hadn't given it away, all the gay sex shops definitely did! It was pretty quiet, but that wasn't too surprising for late morning on a Thursday.
I also managed to wander into two food stores and found a couple of gems. The first was the liquor/wine store. I was curious if they'd have any sparkling shirazes since I'd had to leave my last bottle in San Francisco with Sarah, Jim and Jeff. Going to the champagne aisle, I discovered to my amazement that not only did they have two brands of the shiraz, but one of them was the exact same one I had to leave behind! The second gem I found at a Whole Foods. I just went in looking for lunch/snack because I didn't want to pay ballpark prices and lo and behold, they had fresh figs! It was one of those things in California that I fell in love with because they're so good and I wasn't expecting to see them again until I got back to the west coast, but here they were in Chicago. Now, I couldn't buy either the wine or the figs before the game because they'd be confiscated going in, but after the game, I came back and bought some of each, partially for my own uses and to give to Jenn for letting me crash at her place.
Finally, it was getting close enough to game time that I went back to Wrigley. The park was gorgeous. It was just so classic. The only ads in the whole place were on the two doors in the outfield, the scoreboard was done by hand and the ivy was a beautiful emerald green. In contrast to Fenway, it was a very symmetric park so there wasn't much in the way of nooks and crannies. However, like Fenway and its Monster Seats, Wrigley has come up with a novel way to add more seats as the fan base has grown. I have to say I like the Wrigley solution more, just because it's so funny. There are seats on the roofs of all the buildings across the road from the park. I'd known about this before and that at one point the Cubs were upset that people were capitalizing on the entertainment they were providing so they were talking about putting up opaque nets. However, they apparently reached a rev share deal with the building owners so that everybody's happy and Wrigley gets some of the most interesting stands in baseball. Out of curiosity, I looked into the price for a seat on one of the buildings well beyond the outfield fence. They're all catered seats and you basically have to buy a large portion of the roof to go, but they come out to well over $100 a seat. Kind of crazy methinks.
Anyway, the game was a lot of fun too, largely because the fans were so into it and the guy beside me was a big ball fan so I got to shoot the shit with him for most of the game. It started off as a fast game as the Cubs plated 4 runs in the bottom of the first, but in the next half inning, the Reds game roaring back to tie the game. The game stayed pretty close until the late innings, when the cubs blew the game open and ended up winning 12-4.
After the game was over, I picked up the wine and figs and headed back to Jenn's place. We went on a 6 mile run along the lakeshore, known to all serious runners as THE place to run in Chicago. It deserves its title, but unfortunately, my leg really wasn't healed yet so I ended up aggravating it. Stupid injuries.
For dinner we went to a contemporary Korean restaurant. Their concept is to introduce the North American diner to Korean cuisine by making sure the wait staff spoke English well, setting up the decor like a normal contemporary restaurant and making the menu easy to understand. The food was excellent and I got to try soju for the first time. It's the main Korean distilled liquor and it's made primarily from potatoes. It was excellent. So incredibly smooth that it put any of the vodka I've ever had to shame. Of course it wouldn't surprise me if we were actually drinking really good soju, but even still, I was impressed.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Day 12 - Winding Into the Windy City
There wasn't too much planned for today, just a short drive into Chicago to meet up with Jenn who I hadn't seen since leaving Cornell. Since she wouldn't be off of work until late afternoon, I took my time getting out of bed and packing up. However, I dallied a little too long and didn't account for traffic so I didn't actually end up getting to Chicago until about 5pm. Also, coming into Chicago, I was amazed at how horn happy the cabbies were. I was getting honked at all the times for not moving fast enough at the light. Now yes, sometimes it was deserved since I was doing the "I don't know where I am so I'm looking around" stuff, but other times, they'd lay on the horn the second the light turned green even though my foot was already off the brake.
It wasn't too big a deal though. She made dinner, which was some ricotta stuffed ravioli with sauteed vegetables. It was excellent. After dinner and some catching up, we went out to Evanston to meet up with one of her friends for drinks. Jenn had all her pictures from her trip to Manchu Picchu to show us. It definitely looked like an amazing trip and a very unique place. Her timing also turned out to be very good considering that when I was in Chicago, Peru had just been hit by an earthquake and Jenn had just gotten back a week before.
It wasn't too big a deal though. She made dinner, which was some ricotta stuffed ravioli with sauteed vegetables. It was excellent. After dinner and some catching up, we went out to Evanston to meet up with one of her friends for drinks. Jenn had all her pictures from her trip to Manchu Picchu to show us. It definitely looked like an amazing trip and a very unique place. Her timing also turned out to be very good considering that when I was in Chicago, Peru had just been hit by an earthquake and Jenn had just gotten back a week before.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Day 11 - Swimming Through St. Louis
The day got off to a slow start since I only had four hours of driving to get across Missouri to St. Louis. Of course I did want to see some of the city in the evening so I didn't lallygag too much.
In St. Louis, I was staying at Babler State Park, which was about 45 min out of downtown. It was little tricky to find the place since there weren't really any road signs, but I managed. When I stepped out of my car to set up up camp, I felt like I was swimming through the air. It was so muggy! Oh how I miss the perfect weather in San Fran.
After my tent was up, I went downtown to explore. I wandered around the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (aka where the Arch is), took some pictures and walked through the museum there about how the west was opened up. It was interesting, especially considering that I had just seen a good portion of the country it was talking about.
After the memorial, I walked up the mall taking pictures of interesting buildings or just good shots given that the light was starting to fail. I also stopped by Busch Stadium, but alas, it was quiet. If there was a game playing, you know I'd have been in there, but there was no way to see a Cards game with my schedule.
I ended up having dinner in the restaurant district of downtown at a nice french restaurant. There was a restaurant week promotion going on where a lot of downtown restaurants were offering a prix fixe menu for a very reasonable price so I took advantage of it. I had the walnut grape salad, flank steak served over mashed potatoes with a red wine reduction sauce and a glass of Rosenblum Shiraz. Desert was a slice of decadent chocolate cake.
Now that I was full and it was dark, I got in the car to head back to the campsite. On the way, I realized that I hadn't been paying attention to my gas gauge when the alarm went off. Of course, not knowing where the next gas station would be off the freeway, I started freaking. Air conditioning off. Slow down to 55. Limp along hoping that I'd find some gas soon. Fortunately, it wasn't too far away so I was able to get there, but I was almost running on fumes.
When I got back to the site, I was greeted by a cacophony of sounds from the forest. It was mostly insets and they were loud! Normally you except a few peeps from the odd cricket, but here, in the muggy midwest, it was deafening.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Day 10 - Late for the Royal Barbecue
It was definitely a day to get up early. Not only did I have to get to the garage when it opened at 7 to avoid getting my car towed, but I had to make to Kansas City by the end of the day to see the Jays play the Royals.
There's not too much to say about the drive. I was entering the midwest which is pretty much just flat and boring. Maybe not as flat as I was expecting based on Saskatchewan, but pretty dull nonetheless. I noticed a couple of interesting signs along the way. First, it was obvious I was in evangelican country since the interstate was littered with pro-life propaganda billboards. "Thank You Mom for Choosing Life" and so on. Also, entering Kansas, there was a sign saying "Welcome to Kansas, the Wheat State". However, I didn't see one wheat field the whole drive, lots of corn though. Another sign of how the idiotic ethanol energy policy is only succeeding in using up our food.
When I finally got to KC, I went to the hotel and checked in. I was planning on trying to get some barbecue but I forgot to consider that I had just switched time zones and so I lost an hour. As it turned out, I just had enough time to get to the ballpark for the first pitch so I had to wait for dinner. I was told there was a good BBQ place at a casino and I figured they'd be open late catering to all the adicts so I could go there after the game.
I was pleasantly surprised with Kauffman Stadium. It had a lot of concrete reminiscent of parks pre-Camden Yards, but it didn't look like a monstrosity, it actually had some character to it. There were the waterfalls in right-center field, some fun spiraling ramps to get into the park, and the funny looking scoreboard framed by the Royals' logo. Also, it was pretty much symmetric except for a couple of small details including the fact that the vistor's bullpen was significantly smaller than the home team's. Home field advantage :-)
The game itself was pretty disappointing. Well it started off well, but way too quickly the Jays just fell asleep and started making errors, that would eventually cost them the game. A couple of bobbled balls and a dropped popup just set the tone for the evening.
There was also hardly anybody at the park. This made it feel somewhat impersonal, but I was at least able to sit right behind the Jays dugout. Ernie Whitt was in the dugout so I tried to get his attention, but he ignored me, which wasn't too surprising. There's got to be a lot of crazy fans they need to ignore during the game.
After the game, I tried going to the casino to get some food. By now it was 11pm, but it turns out the restaurants do actually close so I wasn't able to get any Kansas City BBQ and ended up having to settle for the only thing open: Burger King. Bleck.
There's not too much to say about the drive. I was entering the midwest which is pretty much just flat and boring. Maybe not as flat as I was expecting based on Saskatchewan, but pretty dull nonetheless. I noticed a couple of interesting signs along the way. First, it was obvious I was in evangelican country since the interstate was littered with pro-life propaganda billboards. "Thank You Mom for Choosing Life" and so on. Also, entering Kansas, there was a sign saying "Welcome to Kansas, the Wheat State". However, I didn't see one wheat field the whole drive, lots of corn though. Another sign of how the idiotic ethanol energy policy is only succeeding in using up our food.
When I finally got to KC, I went to the hotel and checked in. I was planning on trying to get some barbecue but I forgot to consider that I had just switched time zones and so I lost an hour. As it turned out, I just had enough time to get to the ballpark for the first pitch so I had to wait for dinner. I was told there was a good BBQ place at a casino and I figured they'd be open late catering to all the adicts so I could go there after the game.
I was pleasantly surprised with Kauffman Stadium. It had a lot of concrete reminiscent of parks pre-Camden Yards, but it didn't look like a monstrosity, it actually had some character to it. There were the waterfalls in right-center field, some fun spiraling ramps to get into the park, and the funny looking scoreboard framed by the Royals' logo. Also, it was pretty much symmetric except for a couple of small details including the fact that the vistor's bullpen was significantly smaller than the home team's. Home field advantage :-)
The game itself was pretty disappointing. Well it started off well, but way too quickly the Jays just fell asleep and started making errors, that would eventually cost them the game. A couple of bobbled balls and a dropped popup just set the tone for the evening.
There was also hardly anybody at the park. This made it feel somewhat impersonal, but I was at least able to sit right behind the Jays dugout. Ernie Whitt was in the dugout so I tried to get his attention, but he ignored me, which wasn't too surprising. There's got to be a lot of crazy fans they need to ignore during the game.
After the game, I tried going to the casino to get some food. By now it was 11pm, but it turns out the restaurants do actually close so I wasn't able to get any Kansas City BBQ and ended up having to settle for the only thing open: Burger King. Bleck.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Day 9 - The Beginning Of Baseball Season
I decided that I'd drive along Trail Ridge Road to get over the mountains to get to Denver. After glimpsing the other side of the park yesterday, I wanted to see as much of it as possible, but I knew I had to move quickly because the baseball game started in Coors Field at 1pm.
After packing up camp, I made my way up to the visitor's center again before continuing down the other side of the mountains. The construction wasn't a problem at all so it wasn't long until I made it out of the park with a battery well overcharged by all the coasting down the hill.
The way to Denver passed through Boulder and it being one of those iconic university towns, I wanted to stop quickly and see it. I figured it would be a good opportunity for breakfast too. The breakfast joint I found was great fun and was reminiscent of Haight St. All sorts of random decor, people wearing hippie clothes and a menu that would give Sam a run for his money. I ended up having a Faggedabouit crepe which was almost like an eggplant parm in crepe form. Quite good.
I would have stayed longer, but I had a game to see, so I hopped back in the car and headed for the city. I didn't want to park near the ballpark because it would be expensive and it would make more sense to park between the park and my hostel so that I wouldn't have to move the car. I found a garage on the edge of downtown and even though it was pretty empty, I didn't think too much about it since it was the weekend.
Since it would be much faster riding my bike to the game, I packed up everything I needed to watch the game into a bag and then unloaded my bike and set off. Going to the bottom of the garage, I started breaking SCREEEECH. I had forgotten about all the dirt caked onto my bike from the drive. As soon as I hit my brakes, they dug into the dirt and rocks which cause my rims to get a ripped up. Crap! Back at the car, I pulled out some water and paper towels and started to asses the damage. It didn't look good, but the bike was ridable, so after cleaning it up, I took off for the game.
The game itself was pretty enjoyable. The Cubbies were in town so there were a bunch of Cubs fans but even with that support, the Rockies won 6-3. I know this may seem weird given that it's a newer style park, but I really wasn't too impressed with it. Sure, it had a nice view of the mountains and a purple row of seats in the upper deck marking the mile high line, but it just didn't seem to have much in the way of character. It was just too similar to all these new ballparks and didn't have much to make it stand out. Sure, it's definitely better than all the 60's monstrosities that used to be around the major leagues, but it just didn't speak to me.
After the game, I made my way back to the car to get my stuff for the night. When I got to the garage, the gate was down and all the doors were locked. Ummm ok. Looking around it seems that the garage wasn't supposed to be open today but they probably had it open when I drove in because they were doing open houses for the condos in the adjoining building. So, I couldn't get anything for the night, although I was sure that my car would be safe :-)
I figured there wasn't much I could do so I just went to the hostel. It was by far the worst hostel I've ever been in. It was a dive! Most of the mattresses were just air mattresses, everything was dirty, the water was barely running in the shower. It was bad, but I was just crashing there for the night so it was manageable.
I wanted to get the dirt off my bike so I went to the store and bought some WD-40 and started cleaning away using the WD-40 as a solvent. After about an hour and half of work, my bike was much cleaner although my chain lube was packed away so I couldn't lube up the drive train properly. It's good for now.
For dinner, I found a nice mexican place and enjoyed some hominy soup a sandwich and some Fat Tire beer. I thought it would be my last chance to enjoy the great beer that sponsors the Tour De Fat and all forms of cycling. Of course, I found some later in Chicago, but that's a story for later.
After dinner, I took a nice walk through the park. The sky was clear, but it was so hazy, hardly anything was visible. So different than the mountains!
After packing up camp, I made my way up to the visitor's center again before continuing down the other side of the mountains. The construction wasn't a problem at all so it wasn't long until I made it out of the park with a battery well overcharged by all the coasting down the hill.
The way to Denver passed through Boulder and it being one of those iconic university towns, I wanted to stop quickly and see it. I figured it would be a good opportunity for breakfast too. The breakfast joint I found was great fun and was reminiscent of Haight St. All sorts of random decor, people wearing hippie clothes and a menu that would give Sam a run for his money. I ended up having a Faggedabouit crepe which was almost like an eggplant parm in crepe form. Quite good.
I would have stayed longer, but I had a game to see, so I hopped back in the car and headed for the city. I didn't want to park near the ballpark because it would be expensive and it would make more sense to park between the park and my hostel so that I wouldn't have to move the car. I found a garage on the edge of downtown and even though it was pretty empty, I didn't think too much about it since it was the weekend.
Since it would be much faster riding my bike to the game, I packed up everything I needed to watch the game into a bag and then unloaded my bike and set off. Going to the bottom of the garage, I started breaking SCREEEECH. I had forgotten about all the dirt caked onto my bike from the drive. As soon as I hit my brakes, they dug into the dirt and rocks which cause my rims to get a ripped up. Crap! Back at the car, I pulled out some water and paper towels and started to asses the damage. It didn't look good, but the bike was ridable, so after cleaning it up, I took off for the game.
The game itself was pretty enjoyable. The Cubbies were in town so there were a bunch of Cubs fans but even with that support, the Rockies won 6-3. I know this may seem weird given that it's a newer style park, but I really wasn't too impressed with it. Sure, it had a nice view of the mountains and a purple row of seats in the upper deck marking the mile high line, but it just didn't seem to have much in the way of character. It was just too similar to all these new ballparks and didn't have much to make it stand out. Sure, it's definitely better than all the 60's monstrosities that used to be around the major leagues, but it just didn't speak to me.
After the game, I made my way back to the car to get my stuff for the night. When I got to the garage, the gate was down and all the doors were locked. Ummm ok. Looking around it seems that the garage wasn't supposed to be open today but they probably had it open when I drove in because they were doing open houses for the condos in the adjoining building. So, I couldn't get anything for the night, although I was sure that my car would be safe :-)
I figured there wasn't much I could do so I just went to the hostel. It was by far the worst hostel I've ever been in. It was a dive! Most of the mattresses were just air mattresses, everything was dirty, the water was barely running in the shower. It was bad, but I was just crashing there for the night so it was manageable.
I wanted to get the dirt off my bike so I went to the store and bought some WD-40 and started cleaning away using the WD-40 as a solvent. After about an hour and half of work, my bike was much cleaner although my chain lube was packed away so I couldn't lube up the drive train properly. It's good for now.
For dinner, I found a nice mexican place and enjoyed some hominy soup a sandwich and some Fat Tire beer. I thought it would be my last chance to enjoy the great beer that sponsors the Tour De Fat and all forms of cycling. Of course, I found some later in Chicago, but that's a story for later.
After dinner, I took a nice walk through the park. The sky was clear, but it was so hazy, hardly anything was visible. So different than the mountains!
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Day 8 - To the Head of the Colorado
Overnight, I received a major shock. It was bloody cold in those mountains! I needed four layers to stay warm. Here I was thinking that I'd be overheated on this trip, but instead I get to freeze. I can see why they call the mountains the Neversummer Mountains.
Once I finally got up, I got to preparing for the focus of the day: hiking to the head of the Colorado River. I figured I had seen it in the Grand Canyon and it's such a vital part of the Southwest that it was only appropriate to see where it trickles out of the mountains.
Since it was going to be a nice long hike, I took my time to make some hearty oatmeal for breakfast and then headed to the trail. On the trail, there were plenty of sights to see. Mostly I had an opportunity to experiment with macro photography of all the colourful wildflowers and funky fungi dotting the landscape. While hunting for flowers to photograph, I stumbled across some delicious wild raspberries. It reminded me of when I was a wee lad hiking around Charleston Lake eating wild blueberries. So much flavour in something so small!
The trail continued up past Lulu City, an old abandoned frontier town. There were a few ruins still visible but mostly, it was just the Colorado River meandering through a tranquil meadow. As I rose out of the meadow, I headed towards Yellowstone Canyon. What's with these places that name themselves after other natural wonders? In Yellowstone, there was the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and here, in Rocky Mountain, there's Yellowstone canyon. It's so weird!
Anyway, I went up to the canyon enjoying the scenery, had some food and headed back towards the trailhead. Unfortunately, at this point, my leg was starting to flare up even though the total hike was only going to be 9 miles. I really couldn't do much except grit through it since I wasn't thinking and didn't bring my IBProufen with me. At least the way back was eventful. I managed to see a marmot, a female moose and a gorgeous elk bull.
After the hike, I went up to the Alpine Visitor Center since I hadn't decided yet if I was going to take the road through the park tomorrow to get to Denver or just drive down to I-70. I was undecided because there was supposed to be construction on the road with delays up to an hour and I didn't know if could afford the time, so I wanted to make sure that I was at least able to see the peaks and the highest paved road in North America at just over 12k feet.
The visitor center was just closed, but the view was spectacular, just like so much on this trip. I was able to walk up a small hill to get even a better view and took some stunning pictures, that really couldn't capture the beauty seen by the naked eye. I was amazed not only by the natural scenery, but also the number of people up there who had come from the eastern side of the park. Well, maybe I wasn't too surprised, it was nothing like Yellowstone which was a zoo. Anyway, before getting to Rocky, I figured that I would try the western side since it was a weekend and there'd be a better chance of getting a site seeing as how the park is so close to Boulder and Denver. Looking out on the masses of cars trying to get down the mountain at the end of the day, I was really happy with my decision. I was able to enjoy the park relatively undisturbed.
On my way down the mountain, I stopped off at a pull out to get some pictures of the sun setting over the Neversummer mountains. I know I've probably overused this adjective on this trip, but really, it was spectacular!
After eating dinner, I tried to stargaze again. I lasted longer than I did yesterday, but it was cloudier so it was harder to see the stars through the gaps. Even still, it's at these times when I'm reminded of why I think space is so amazing and how I want to make it my career. It's too bad though that the meteors were just getting started by the time I was too sleepy and had to leave for another cold night.
Once I finally got up, I got to preparing for the focus of the day: hiking to the head of the Colorado River. I figured I had seen it in the Grand Canyon and it's such a vital part of the Southwest that it was only appropriate to see where it trickles out of the mountains.
Since it was going to be a nice long hike, I took my time to make some hearty oatmeal for breakfast and then headed to the trail. On the trail, there were plenty of sights to see. Mostly I had an opportunity to experiment with macro photography of all the colourful wildflowers and funky fungi dotting the landscape. While hunting for flowers to photograph, I stumbled across some delicious wild raspberries. It reminded me of when I was a wee lad hiking around Charleston Lake eating wild blueberries. So much flavour in something so small!
The trail continued up past Lulu City, an old abandoned frontier town. There were a few ruins still visible but mostly, it was just the Colorado River meandering through a tranquil meadow. As I rose out of the meadow, I headed towards Yellowstone Canyon. What's with these places that name themselves after other natural wonders? In Yellowstone, there was the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and here, in Rocky Mountain, there's Yellowstone canyon. It's so weird!
Anyway, I went up to the canyon enjoying the scenery, had some food and headed back towards the trailhead. Unfortunately, at this point, my leg was starting to flare up even though the total hike was only going to be 9 miles. I really couldn't do much except grit through it since I wasn't thinking and didn't bring my IBProufen with me. At least the way back was eventful. I managed to see a marmot, a female moose and a gorgeous elk bull.
After the hike, I went up to the Alpine Visitor Center since I hadn't decided yet if I was going to take the road through the park tomorrow to get to Denver or just drive down to I-70. I was undecided because there was supposed to be construction on the road with delays up to an hour and I didn't know if could afford the time, so I wanted to make sure that I was at least able to see the peaks and the highest paved road in North America at just over 12k feet.
The visitor center was just closed, but the view was spectacular, just like so much on this trip. I was able to walk up a small hill to get even a better view and took some stunning pictures, that really couldn't capture the beauty seen by the naked eye. I was amazed not only by the natural scenery, but also the number of people up there who had come from the eastern side of the park. Well, maybe I wasn't too surprised, it was nothing like Yellowstone which was a zoo. Anyway, before getting to Rocky, I figured that I would try the western side since it was a weekend and there'd be a better chance of getting a site seeing as how the park is so close to Boulder and Denver. Looking out on the masses of cars trying to get down the mountain at the end of the day, I was really happy with my decision. I was able to enjoy the park relatively undisturbed.
On my way down the mountain, I stopped off at a pull out to get some pictures of the sun setting over the Neversummer mountains. I know I've probably overused this adjective on this trip, but really, it was spectacular!
After eating dinner, I tried to stargaze again. I lasted longer than I did yesterday, but it was cloudier so it was harder to see the stars through the gaps. Even still, it's at these times when I'm reminded of why I think space is so amazing and how I want to make it my career. It's too bad though that the meteors were just getting started by the time I was too sleepy and had to leave for another cold night.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Day 7 - Hiking Through the Beetle Infested Rockies
Getting up, I figured that I'd find a place to eat on my way out of Laramie (that wasn't McDonalds). Unfortunately, it turned out that I was far enough on the outskirts of town that I didn't see any restaurants heading out. So, I shelved my hunger until the first opportunity, which turned out to be in Walden, CO over an hour away. I ate at the Moose Cafe, but, of course, by the time I got there, they had stopped serving breakfast. So, I enjoyed some french dip and the sight of folks wandering around the touristy little town.
From Walden, I headed south so that I could enter Rocky Mountain National Park from the western side. This meant going through a nice forested pass. Well, it would have been nice except that the hills looked like it was autumn, and these were pine! It was astounding all the damage that the pine beetle was doing to the area. They figure that it's mostly caused by the warmer temperatures recently from global warming, which mean that in the winter, there isn't a harsh freeze so the beetle is surviving the winter to proliferate during the summer months.
Anyway, once out of the pass, I stopped in Granby for some gas and there was a farmer's market. So, I got some sweet juicy peaches, peppery elk jerky and a gooey cinnamon bun. Yum!
After that little stop, I made a beeline for the park and the campground therein. By the time I was done setting up my tent, it was late afternoon. Plenty of time for a quick hike which I was itching to do. Just as Yellowstone is all about driving from one weird scene to the next, Rocky Mountain is all about getting on your feet and walking through the wilderness to discover nature's hidden secrets. So, I decided to hike the Green Meadow loop which was a 7 mile hike up to a large meadow nestled in a ridge in the hills.
I got really lucky on the walk. Not only was it invigorating breathing the crisp fresh air, but I ran into some wildlife. First, in the meadow, there was a gorgeous bull moose chomping away on the grass, completely oblivious to all the people watching it. Then, when I was nearing the end of the hike. I came across a family of deer. Oddly, I didn't notice them until I was about 30ft away and they moved slightly. We stood there staring at each other for a few minutes until I decided it was time to jet and headed off.
When I got back to camp, it was almost dark and I didn't feel like cooking, so I just used one of the MREs and waited for the program to start at the amphitheater across the road. It was just a nice little show about various hard to find species that are present in the park.
After that, it was pitch dark and since the Perseid meteor shower was on, I figured I'd try to do some star gazing. I drove down the road away from the lights in the campground and lay out to stare at the breathtaking bejeweled sky. It was one of those nights where it's hard to find the constellations because they are drowned in a sea of sparkling diamonds. Unfortunately, I was only able to see a handful of meteors. I think I was just out too early in the night (around 10:30pm). I would've stayed out longer, but I was having problems keeping my eyes open, so I went back to my tent while I was still able to find my way there.
From Walden, I headed south so that I could enter Rocky Mountain National Park from the western side. This meant going through a nice forested pass. Well, it would have been nice except that the hills looked like it was autumn, and these were pine! It was astounding all the damage that the pine beetle was doing to the area. They figure that it's mostly caused by the warmer temperatures recently from global warming, which mean that in the winter, there isn't a harsh freeze so the beetle is surviving the winter to proliferate during the summer months.
Anyway, once out of the pass, I stopped in Granby for some gas and there was a farmer's market. So, I got some sweet juicy peaches, peppery elk jerky and a gooey cinnamon bun. Yum!
After that little stop, I made a beeline for the park and the campground therein. By the time I was done setting up my tent, it was late afternoon. Plenty of time for a quick hike which I was itching to do. Just as Yellowstone is all about driving from one weird scene to the next, Rocky Mountain is all about getting on your feet and walking through the wilderness to discover nature's hidden secrets. So, I decided to hike the Green Meadow loop which was a 7 mile hike up to a large meadow nestled in a ridge in the hills.
I got really lucky on the walk. Not only was it invigorating breathing the crisp fresh air, but I ran into some wildlife. First, in the meadow, there was a gorgeous bull moose chomping away on the grass, completely oblivious to all the people watching it. Then, when I was nearing the end of the hike. I came across a family of deer. Oddly, I didn't notice them until I was about 30ft away and they moved slightly. We stood there staring at each other for a few minutes until I decided it was time to jet and headed off.
When I got back to camp, it was almost dark and I didn't feel like cooking, so I just used one of the MREs and waited for the program to start at the amphitheater across the road. It was just a nice little show about various hard to find species that are present in the park.
After that, it was pitch dark and since the Perseid meteor shower was on, I figured I'd try to do some star gazing. I drove down the road away from the lights in the campground and lay out to stare at the breathtaking bejeweled sky. It was one of those nights where it's hard to find the constellations because they are drowned in a sea of sparkling diamonds. Unfortunately, I was only able to see a handful of meteors. I think I was just out too early in the night (around 10:30pm). I would've stayed out longer, but I was having problems keeping my eyes open, so I went back to my tent while I was still able to find my way there.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Day 6 - Tromping Through the Tetons
It was going to be a long day so I got into the car as quickly as possible to head out the south end of Yellowstone into Grand Tetons National Park. Since I wanted to get to Colorado by the end of the day, I just drove down Teton Park Road and pulled over anywhere I thought I could get some good pictures. Of course, there were way to many spots to snap some spectacular shots of the Teton Range so I ended up spending more time going through the park than I was thinking of.
One of my first stops was right after cross the Jackson Lake Damn. Going across the damn, I looked out the window to the right and was completely floored by the mountain range reflected in the mirror smooth surface of Jackson Lake. Thanks to some interpretive signs, I also picked up a few little tidbits of information about the geology of the area. At the top of Mount Moran, it was possible to see a solid black column sticking out of the mountain. This was an old volcano vent where the lava solidified and then the mountain eroded away around it, leaving the lava plug sticking out into the sky. Also, the road I was driving on was on a very flat rocky plain with only scrub for vegetation. It turns out that the valley floor is filled with glacial till that's just so rocky, it's hard for vegetation to get a hold. However, looking at the mountains, it got a lot greener. Moving up from the base of the peaks, it was easy to see other bands of vegetation from lush forest and then thinning into alpine tundra.
I left the park out of the east side to drive along Highway 287. Originally, I was going to leave from the south end and get to the interstate more quickly, but there was a sign promising long construction delays so I figured I'd take the road less traveled that cut diagonally across Wyoming. Of course, it turns out that that road too had a lot of construction, but the way was beautiful. There was even a sign going into the first construction site that read "Construction Delays. Beautiful Scenery."
The road wound its way out of the volcanic Yellowstone area into the edges of the badlands where the hills were carved away revealing stripes of vibrant colours from deep red to bright purple. Slowly, the hills receeded behind me and the land opened up into a giant, desolate plateau that is the Wind River Indian Reserve. Those native people definitely got shafted, forced to move away from their ancient lands into this desolate wilderness where not much exists except from dusty scrub.
I had a late lunch in Lander at a local sub shop where it was painfully obvious that I was a tourist, but it was a really kind family running the place and definitely beat the McDonalds that was sitting across the road.
The rest of the drive down to Rawlins was fairly uneventful. Mostly because for the hours I was on those roads I hardly saw anybody. So, I spent most of the time zoning out listenting to Bill Buford's Heat, which is the tale of how he quit his job as a New York writer to become a whipping boy at Mario Batali's Babo restaurant. It's an incredibly entertaining tale and of course, being a foodie, I got sucked into it even more. As the miles went by, more and more ideas coalesced into my head about what I wanted to make. Fresh tortellini stuffed with a beef paste spice with, among other things, nutmeg. Braised lamb shanks cured with a mint, tomato rub. Tuscan beef slow cooked for days in a strong Chianti wine served with fresh crusty bread. The list goes on.
Anyway, eventually I reached Rawlins in the early evening and after passing an imposing prison, set about trying to find a place to sleep for the night. I stopped into the Holiday Inn Express, but they were all booked up. However, they let me use their internet to find a room. Unfortunately, for some reason, there were no rooms for a reasonable price in Rawlins at all, so I had to search a little wider. I finally managed to get something off in Laramie, the next significant town on the interstate, but of course, it was and hour and a half away and wouldn't save me any time in the morning going in to Colorado. Oh well.
I drove to Laramie as the sun was setting and darkness crept onto the land. It was the only night driving I ended up doing on the whole trip, but it was definitely worth it because in the distance, I could see the outlines of the Rocky Mountains buffeted by lighting spewing clouds. It was a great show.
One of my first stops was right after cross the Jackson Lake Damn. Going across the damn, I looked out the window to the right and was completely floored by the mountain range reflected in the mirror smooth surface of Jackson Lake. Thanks to some interpretive signs, I also picked up a few little tidbits of information about the geology of the area. At the top of Mount Moran, it was possible to see a solid black column sticking out of the mountain. This was an old volcano vent where the lava solidified and then the mountain eroded away around it, leaving the lava plug sticking out into the sky. Also, the road I was driving on was on a very flat rocky plain with only scrub for vegetation. It turns out that the valley floor is filled with glacial till that's just so rocky, it's hard for vegetation to get a hold. However, looking at the mountains, it got a lot greener. Moving up from the base of the peaks, it was easy to see other bands of vegetation from lush forest and then thinning into alpine tundra.
I left the park out of the east side to drive along Highway 287. Originally, I was going to leave from the south end and get to the interstate more quickly, but there was a sign promising long construction delays so I figured I'd take the road less traveled that cut diagonally across Wyoming. Of course, it turns out that that road too had a lot of construction, but the way was beautiful. There was even a sign going into the first construction site that read "Construction Delays. Beautiful Scenery."
The road wound its way out of the volcanic Yellowstone area into the edges of the badlands where the hills were carved away revealing stripes of vibrant colours from deep red to bright purple. Slowly, the hills receeded behind me and the land opened up into a giant, desolate plateau that is the Wind River Indian Reserve. Those native people definitely got shafted, forced to move away from their ancient lands into this desolate wilderness where not much exists except from dusty scrub.
I had a late lunch in Lander at a local sub shop where it was painfully obvious that I was a tourist, but it was a really kind family running the place and definitely beat the McDonalds that was sitting across the road.
The rest of the drive down to Rawlins was fairly uneventful. Mostly because for the hours I was on those roads I hardly saw anybody. So, I spent most of the time zoning out listenting to Bill Buford's Heat, which is the tale of how he quit his job as a New York writer to become a whipping boy at Mario Batali's Babo restaurant. It's an incredibly entertaining tale and of course, being a foodie, I got sucked into it even more. As the miles went by, more and more ideas coalesced into my head about what I wanted to make. Fresh tortellini stuffed with a beef paste spice with, among other things, nutmeg. Braised lamb shanks cured with a mint, tomato rub. Tuscan beef slow cooked for days in a strong Chianti wine served with fresh crusty bread. The list goes on.
Anyway, eventually I reached Rawlins in the early evening and after passing an imposing prison, set about trying to find a place to sleep for the night. I stopped into the Holiday Inn Express, but they were all booked up. However, they let me use their internet to find a room. Unfortunately, for some reason, there were no rooms for a reasonable price in Rawlins at all, so I had to search a little wider. I finally managed to get something off in Laramie, the next significant town on the interstate, but of course, it was and hour and a half away and wouldn't save me any time in the morning going in to Colorado. Oh well.
I drove to Laramie as the sun was setting and darkness crept onto the land. It was the only night driving I ended up doing on the whole trip, but it was definitely worth it because in the distance, I could see the outlines of the Rocky Mountains buffeted by lighting spewing clouds. It was a great show.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Day 5 - Blasting Off Faithfully
Waking up early, I had a pleasant surprise when I poked my head out of my tent. About 50ft from my tent was a calm furry Bison happily munching away on some grass. I tried to take a picture, but by the time I got my camera out, I realized that my batter was dead and I couldn't find the spare before the shot was ruined.
After a hearty breakfast of scouter's oatmeal (man I love that stuff), I hopped in the car to go to the Artists' Paint Pots, which I had wanted to see the day before, but I was rushing to get a site. Getting there, the parking lot was very full but the half mile loop was worth it. On the lower level, there was a geyser splashing away, while at the top of the loop, on a ridge, was the paint pot. It was really cool! The thick, bubbling clay really did look like an artists' oil paint.
From the paint pots, I took a detour along the firehole canyon road. It was a nice little drive through a small picturesque canyon complete with a small cascading waterfall. There were even a bunch of people swimming in the river just upstream of the falls.
From there, I continued heading south, stopping at the Fountain Paint Pot trail, mostly because I could see a geyser sputtering away from the road. It was a small, boardwalk covered loop with a couple of more paint pots. Only these ones were much redder because of the extra iron in the rock in the area. Coming around the back of the trail, Spasm Geyser was still sputtering away happily. It was the first geyser I had seen that was doing more than just bubbling so I spent a good time simply mesmerized by the spurts coming out of the ground.
Finally, I decided to move on to the Grand Prismatic Spring, which is the biggest hot spring in Yellowstone. I definitely wanted to stop there because the pictures just looked amazing, especially the colours.
Pulling into the parking lot, right by the trail was a bike rack! I
thought, "Awesome! They cater to people who are bike touring". If I had my bike with me (it was at the campsite locked to a tree), then I would have locked it up on the rack since it looked soo lonely. Of course, I found out later in the day that the rack was there because it was really close to the Old Faithful area where you could rent bikes. Still great though.
Anyway, on my way up to the Grand Prismatic Spring, I passed Excelsior Geyser. I don't know if I can imagine that pool being a Geyser since it was sooo huge! But it was still a beautful cerulean pool. Coming around to the grad spring, I noticed some wayward hats sitting in the bacterial mat just out of reach of the boardwalk. I took off my hat so that it too wouldn't succumb to the wind god's fancy. The spring itself was just another breathtaking sight. The colours! It made the spring almost look like one of those false colour elevation maps of Mars.
Finally, it was time to head to Old Faithful. Getting there, I couldn't beleive how built up it is. The parking lot is huge and the crowds were swarming like bees. I guess you have to when you're going to get a significant number of people who just come to the park to see that geyser and will miss all the other wonders the park has to offer.
I checked in at the Ranger's station and they figured Old Faithful would go off in about 40 min or so. It goes off roughly every 90 minutes. Even then, there were throngs of people near the visitor's center, so, I figured that in the meantime, I'd try to get away and find a better spot for pictures at some other point on the boardwalk surrounding the geyser. I managed to find a spot with nobody else and even had a little tree that could provide some foreground for the picture. Since I knew my camera could take a series of still shots in succession, I sat down trying to figure out how to get it to work. Unfortunately, I misunderstood how the camera was going to work. I could take a series of pictures, but it would only keep the last five pictures once you let go of the button. So, I naively held down the button all through the best part of the eruption, only to remove my finger later on. I had lost the best pictures. Oh well.
After the eruption finished up, it was still only mid-afternoon so I had plenty of time to explore the rest of the geysers in the area. There are dozens of them, but they are all much more sporadic than Old Faithful. Actually, there are plenty of geysers that are much more spectacular than Old Faithful, it's just the most popular because people can rely on being able to see it. It makes a big difference having a 10 minute eruption window instead of a 2 hour or more window for the other ones (if they're even predictable).
Of the geysers on my little jaunt, I'd have to say I liked Grotto Geyser the best. It was just sputtering when I got there, but the calcite formation was just so cool. They figure that the geyser broke out under a long gone tree, whose roots provided the template for the knobby formation we can see today. The walk also included the crystal clear Morning Glory Pool and an erupting sawmill geyser that was going strongly for well beyond the 30min I was sitting there watching it.
By this time, I was pretty geysered out, but I figured since I wouldn't be coming back for a long time, I still needed to see as much as possible. So, I stopped off at the Black Sand Basin trail. I have to admit, that I probably wouldn't have stopped if it weren't for the name the reminded me of the beautiful Black Sand Beach in Hawaii, but, like everything else in Yellowstone, it was worth it. There were two more pools in the area. Their colours were a little more muted, but it made a great opportunity to get some more pictures.
On the drive home, there was another couple of traffic jams. So, I stopped and managed to watch a gorgeous bull elk grazing away and a herd of deer being painted by an artist. How serene!
After a hearty breakfast of scouter's oatmeal (man I love that stuff), I hopped in the car to go to the Artists' Paint Pots, which I had wanted to see the day before, but I was rushing to get a site. Getting there, the parking lot was very full but the half mile loop was worth it. On the lower level, there was a geyser splashing away, while at the top of the loop, on a ridge, was the paint pot. It was really cool! The thick, bubbling clay really did look like an artists' oil paint.
From the paint pots, I took a detour along the firehole canyon road. It was a nice little drive through a small picturesque canyon complete with a small cascading waterfall. There were even a bunch of people swimming in the river just upstream of the falls.
From there, I continued heading south, stopping at the Fountain Paint Pot trail, mostly because I could see a geyser sputtering away from the road. It was a small, boardwalk covered loop with a couple of more paint pots. Only these ones were much redder because of the extra iron in the rock in the area. Coming around the back of the trail, Spasm Geyser was still sputtering away happily. It was the first geyser I had seen that was doing more than just bubbling so I spent a good time simply mesmerized by the spurts coming out of the ground.
Finally, I decided to move on to the Grand Prismatic Spring, which is the biggest hot spring in Yellowstone. I definitely wanted to stop there because the pictures just looked amazing, especially the colours.
Pulling into the parking lot, right by the trail was a bike rack! I
thought, "Awesome! They cater to people who are bike touring". If I had my bike with me (it was at the campsite locked to a tree), then I would have locked it up on the rack since it looked soo lonely. Of course, I found out later in the day that the rack was there because it was really close to the Old Faithful area where you could rent bikes. Still great though.
Anyway, on my way up to the Grand Prismatic Spring, I passed Excelsior Geyser. I don't know if I can imagine that pool being a Geyser since it was sooo huge! But it was still a beautful cerulean pool. Coming around to the grad spring, I noticed some wayward hats sitting in the bacterial mat just out of reach of the boardwalk. I took off my hat so that it too wouldn't succumb to the wind god's fancy. The spring itself was just another breathtaking sight. The colours! It made the spring almost look like one of those false colour elevation maps of Mars.
Finally, it was time to head to Old Faithful. Getting there, I couldn't beleive how built up it is. The parking lot is huge and the crowds were swarming like bees. I guess you have to when you're going to get a significant number of people who just come to the park to see that geyser and will miss all the other wonders the park has to offer.
I checked in at the Ranger's station and they figured Old Faithful would go off in about 40 min or so. It goes off roughly every 90 minutes. Even then, there were throngs of people near the visitor's center, so, I figured that in the meantime, I'd try to get away and find a better spot for pictures at some other point on the boardwalk surrounding the geyser. I managed to find a spot with nobody else and even had a little tree that could provide some foreground for the picture. Since I knew my camera could take a series of still shots in succession, I sat down trying to figure out how to get it to work. Unfortunately, I misunderstood how the camera was going to work. I could take a series of pictures, but it would only keep the last five pictures once you let go of the button. So, I naively held down the button all through the best part of the eruption, only to remove my finger later on. I had lost the best pictures. Oh well.
After the eruption finished up, it was still only mid-afternoon so I had plenty of time to explore the rest of the geysers in the area. There are dozens of them, but they are all much more sporadic than Old Faithful. Actually, there are plenty of geysers that are much more spectacular than Old Faithful, it's just the most popular because people can rely on being able to see it. It makes a big difference having a 10 minute eruption window instead of a 2 hour or more window for the other ones (if they're even predictable).
Of the geysers on my little jaunt, I'd have to say I liked Grotto Geyser the best. It was just sputtering when I got there, but the calcite formation was just so cool. They figure that the geyser broke out under a long gone tree, whose roots provided the template for the knobby formation we can see today. The walk also included the crystal clear Morning Glory Pool and an erupting sawmill geyser that was going strongly for well beyond the 30min I was sitting there watching it.
By this time, I was pretty geysered out, but I figured since I wouldn't be coming back for a long time, I still needed to see as much as possible. So, I stopped off at the Black Sand Basin trail. I have to admit, that I probably wouldn't have stopped if it weren't for the name the reminded me of the beautiful Black Sand Beach in Hawaii, but, like everything else in Yellowstone, it was worth it. There were two more pools in the area. Their colours were a little more muted, but it made a great opportunity to get some more pictures.
On the drive home, there was another couple of traffic jams. So, I stopped and managed to watch a gorgeous bull elk grazing away and a herd of deer being painted by an artist. How serene!
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Day 4 - Squeaking Into A Site
I woke up very early because I had read that during the summer, campsites in Yellowstone are gone by 10am and I wanted one since Yellowstone is so big that camping outside of the park would have been a pain. As quickly as I could, I made my way to West Yellowstone only to find a large, slow moving line to get through the park gates. It was the first sign of all the cars I was going to see over the next couple of days clogging the Yellowstone "wilderness".
After finally getting through the gate, it was later than I was hoping so I wanted to just book it straight to the campgrounds. However, a few miles in, I ran into a traffic jam including a ton of cars pulled off to the side of the road. Now, having learned what this means growing up near Algonquin, I knew I had to pull over and see what kind of wildlife was drawing all the attention. To my delight, across a river was a brown bear digging into a fallen log looking for grubs. I would have stayed longer, but I really wanted that site, so after taking a few pictures, I hopped back in the car and started heading deeper into Yellowstone.
The first campground I came across (Madison Junction), was full, so I kept going crossing all my fingers and toes. I wasn't paying too much attention to the beauty around me, but I figured I'd definitely be going along these roads again a few times while I was there. Coming up to the Noris campground, the sign said that there were vacancies. Sweet! Pulling in to the parking lot by the gate, many people were running up to the board to mark down the empty sites and then running off quickly to their cars. I didn't have much time. So, I went straight for the walk-in tent sites figuring that they'd be the last ones to go. When I got there, what luck! There was one left. I quickly threw my tent down and started setting it up. Not five minutes later, a guy and his son drove up looking to see if there were any sites available. While they were debating what to do, I realized that there was plenty of room in my site to share so I offered them the option so that at least they didn't have to camp way outside the park. It didn't take them long to take me up on the offer, so they started to set up their tent beside mine. The father, Roger, and his son Mitch were from Olympia, WA and they were taking the trip to show Mitch Yellowstone. Roger had been there before, back in the late 80's during the big forest fire that had burnt so many of the hillsides in the area.
By the time I was set up, it was getting close to noon, so I took off to do some sightseeing. The first stop was Mammoth Hot Springs, which was crawling with people. There were a lot of different features which looked, well, alien. Places like the Minerva Terraces, which were a series of calcite terraces created from the mineral rich spring water. I'd have to say my favourite part was Canary Spring just because of all the colour and how the calcite has enveloped the trees. After walking along the lower terraces, I decided to walk the upper terrace loop. Yeah, technically you're supposed to drive around it, but I was itching to stretch my legs out after being cooped up in the car for most of the last 4 days. Unfortunately, there was not spot on the springs where you could actually sit in the warm water. It makes sense I know especially given all the traffic, but it still would've been fun. There was a spot on the upper loop where people used to soak but it just did too much damage so they stopped allowing it in the 70's.
After visiting the hot springs, I took the road across to Tower-Roosevelt. I wanted to see the petrified trees which were supposed to be fully standing stone trees. On that leg, they were doing construction, so they told me it could be slow going, I figured it would be better than looping around the long way and it turned out that the construction didn't really have much of an effect.
On the way, I had to stop to at one point because some wildlife was crossing. Not just any wildlife, a coyote! It was amazingly used to the road. When I saw it, it was waiting patiently at the side of the road until traffic cleared. I stopped to let it pass in front of the car and it even waited until it was very clear that I was going to let it cross. After it crossed, I managed to get a quick picture of it, but it was a bad, blurry picture as I was driving along beside it and trying to snap the photo.
Unfortunately, I missed the petrified trees because I didn't see any signs, but I stopped off near Tower Falls to look at the Yellowstone River running through the canyon. More absolutely spectacular scenery. Also, on the far side of the canyon it was really easy to see a layer hard hexagonal columns ihe rock above the rest of the sedimentary rock. It turns out that it was caused by a gigantic ancient lava flow. To top of this stop, I managed to spot a bald eagle lazily circling in the thermals.
It was starting to get a little late so I drove down to the final stop for the day: The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. I was thinking "yeah it should be interesting, but I've been to the real Grand Canyon so how great could it be?". Well, how surprised I was! Yeah, the canyon's not that big, especially compared to the one in Arizona, but it was gorgeous, mostly because of the colours in the rock. Since it's an active volcanic area, there's a lot of sulphur in the rock which adds a lot of yellow and orange to the canyon walls making it beautiful. Also, I got there at the right time of day, in the perfect weather. The sun was low enough that the shadows were long enough to highlight some interesting releif in the canyon. Plus, it was scattered clouds, so, the clouds' shadows creating some amazing lighting upon the winding terrain. I know the pictures don't quite capture the majesty of the place, but here's a glimpse.
On the way back to my site for the evening, I got to make one impromptu stop as there was a bison grazing by the side of the road. I stopped to take some pictures, then headed back to camp for another one pot energy filled dinner. It was time to sleep.
After finally getting through the gate, it was later than I was hoping so I wanted to just book it straight to the campgrounds. However, a few miles in, I ran into a traffic jam including a ton of cars pulled off to the side of the road. Now, having learned what this means growing up near Algonquin, I knew I had to pull over and see what kind of wildlife was drawing all the attention. To my delight, across a river was a brown bear digging into a fallen log looking for grubs. I would have stayed longer, but I really wanted that site, so after taking a few pictures, I hopped back in the car and started heading deeper into Yellowstone.
The first campground I came across (Madison Junction), was full, so I kept going crossing all my fingers and toes. I wasn't paying too much attention to the beauty around me, but I figured I'd definitely be going along these roads again a few times while I was there. Coming up to the Noris campground, the sign said that there were vacancies. Sweet! Pulling in to the parking lot by the gate, many people were running up to the board to mark down the empty sites and then running off quickly to their cars. I didn't have much time. So, I went straight for the walk-in tent sites figuring that they'd be the last ones to go. When I got there, what luck! There was one left. I quickly threw my tent down and started setting it up. Not five minutes later, a guy and his son drove up looking to see if there were any sites available. While they were debating what to do, I realized that there was plenty of room in my site to share so I offered them the option so that at least they didn't have to camp way outside the park. It didn't take them long to take me up on the offer, so they started to set up their tent beside mine. The father, Roger, and his son Mitch were from Olympia, WA and they were taking the trip to show Mitch Yellowstone. Roger had been there before, back in the late 80's during the big forest fire that had burnt so many of the hillsides in the area.
By the time I was set up, it was getting close to noon, so I took off to do some sightseeing. The first stop was Mammoth Hot Springs, which was crawling with people. There were a lot of different features which looked, well, alien. Places like the Minerva Terraces, which were a series of calcite terraces created from the mineral rich spring water. I'd have to say my favourite part was Canary Spring just because of all the colour and how the calcite has enveloped the trees. After walking along the lower terraces, I decided to walk the upper terrace loop. Yeah, technically you're supposed to drive around it, but I was itching to stretch my legs out after being cooped up in the car for most of the last 4 days. Unfortunately, there was not spot on the springs where you could actually sit in the warm water. It makes sense I know especially given all the traffic, but it still would've been fun. There was a spot on the upper loop where people used to soak but it just did too much damage so they stopped allowing it in the 70's.
After visiting the hot springs, I took the road across to Tower-Roosevelt. I wanted to see the petrified trees which were supposed to be fully standing stone trees. On that leg, they were doing construction, so they told me it could be slow going, I figured it would be better than looping around the long way and it turned out that the construction didn't really have much of an effect.
On the way, I had to stop to at one point because some wildlife was crossing. Not just any wildlife, a coyote! It was amazingly used to the road. When I saw it, it was waiting patiently at the side of the road until traffic cleared. I stopped to let it pass in front of the car and it even waited until it was very clear that I was going to let it cross. After it crossed, I managed to get a quick picture of it, but it was a bad, blurry picture as I was driving along beside it and trying to snap the photo.
Unfortunately, I missed the petrified trees because I didn't see any signs, but I stopped off near Tower Falls to look at the Yellowstone River running through the canyon. More absolutely spectacular scenery. Also, on the far side of the canyon it was really easy to see a layer hard hexagonal columns ihe rock above the rest of the sedimentary rock. It turns out that it was caused by a gigantic ancient lava flow. To top of this stop, I managed to spot a bald eagle lazily circling in the thermals.
It was starting to get a little late so I drove down to the final stop for the day: The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. I was thinking "yeah it should be interesting, but I've been to the real Grand Canyon so how great could it be?". Well, how surprised I was! Yeah, the canyon's not that big, especially compared to the one in Arizona, but it was gorgeous, mostly because of the colours in the rock. Since it's an active volcanic area, there's a lot of sulphur in the rock which adds a lot of yellow and orange to the canyon walls making it beautiful. Also, I got there at the right time of day, in the perfect weather. The sun was low enough that the shadows were long enough to highlight some interesting releif in the canyon. Plus, it was scattered clouds, so, the clouds' shadows creating some amazing lighting upon the winding terrain. I know the pictures don't quite capture the majesty of the place, but here's a glimpse.
On the way back to my site for the evening, I got to make one impromptu stop as there was a bison grazing by the side of the road. I stopped to take some pictures, then headed back to camp for another one pot energy filled dinner. It was time to sleep.
Monday, August 6, 2007
Day 3 - To Yellowstone. The Long Way
After having breakfast and packing up, I headed out of the park. Craters of the Moon National Monument wasn't too far away so I figured I'd head up there. One catch. I was running low on gas. After passing through two intersections with silos that my map claimed were cities, I figured I'd have to turn back towards the interstate or risk running the car dry in the middle of nowhere. So, scratch the idea of seeing the old lava plain. Oh well. Maybe I'll get back when doing tests for some rovers in grad school.....
After filling up, I made my way along the interstate to Idaho Falls where I wanted to check in with the ranger station to check on campsites for the night. I did that and they convinced me to buy some bear repellent. It's ridiculously expensive! $50 for a can. It's just a bunch of pressurized capcacin. Anyway, I also had lunch there at an all day breakfast place which was serving sourdough pancakes. They were great! A little chewy, which was different, but had a great tangy flavour to them. I'll have to figure out how to make them.
Heading out of Idaho Falls, I took I-15 N and drove for about 70 miles until I hit a sign saying that I'm entering Montana. Montana? Wait! Montana?!? I'm not supposed to get to Montana without seeing a sign for Yellowstone. Where the hell am I? After pulling off the road and consulting my map, I realized that I was supposed to take Highway 20 out of Idaho Falls and I want to be almost exactly east of where I am now. So, is there a way to get there because unfortunately, there's a mountain range in the way? The map says there's one obvious road, but upon closer inspection, I realize it's supposed to be dirt road for 3o miles. No way! There's another road listed on the map that it says is paved and means I don't need to go all the way back to Idaho Falls. So, I take that. Heading off into no man's land where all I can see is fenced in scrub, I drove along towards Yellowstone. Of course, about halfway along this road, there's a sign saying rough road ahead for the next 15 miles. Guh?!? It's not just rough, it's dirt. Crap, my low riding, brand new, pretty car is going to get beat up. Oh well. After seeing a nice cloud of dust behind me for a while, I finally got to paved road again and made my way to highway 20 and a campground in the national forest just outside yellowstone. After setting up camp and making another one pot meal for dinner, I hit the sack so I could get up early and get a site inside Yellowstone.
*Disclaimer* This post was written over a month after the trip, I figured it just makes sense to put a different post for each day
After filling up, I made my way along the interstate to Idaho Falls where I wanted to check in with the ranger station to check on campsites for the night. I did that and they convinced me to buy some bear repellent. It's ridiculously expensive! $50 for a can. It's just a bunch of pressurized capcacin. Anyway, I also had lunch there at an all day breakfast place which was serving sourdough pancakes. They were great! A little chewy, which was different, but had a great tangy flavour to them. I'll have to figure out how to make them.
Heading out of Idaho Falls, I took I-15 N and drove for about 70 miles until I hit a sign saying that I'm entering Montana. Montana? Wait! Montana?!? I'm not supposed to get to Montana without seeing a sign for Yellowstone. Where the hell am I? After pulling off the road and consulting my map, I realized that I was supposed to take Highway 20 out of Idaho Falls and I want to be almost exactly east of where I am now. So, is there a way to get there because unfortunately, there's a mountain range in the way? The map says there's one obvious road, but upon closer inspection, I realize it's supposed to be dirt road for 3o miles. No way! There's another road listed on the map that it says is paved and means I don't need to go all the way back to Idaho Falls. So, I take that. Heading off into no man's land where all I can see is fenced in scrub, I drove along towards Yellowstone. Of course, about halfway along this road, there's a sign saying rough road ahead for the next 15 miles. Guh?!? It's not just rough, it's dirt. Crap, my low riding, brand new, pretty car is going to get beat up. Oh well. After seeing a nice cloud of dust behind me for a while, I finally got to paved road again and made my way to highway 20 and a campground in the national forest just outside yellowstone. After setting up camp and making another one pot meal for dinner, I hit the sack so I could get up early and get a site inside Yellowstone.
*Disclaimer* This post was written over a month after the trip, I figured it just makes sense to put a different post for each day
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Day 2 - Driving Through the Desert
I got up reasonably early because I wanted to make it as close to Yellowstone as possible by the end of the day. Going through the desert was fairly uneventful listening to my audiobook lectures. I did manage to drive through a dust devil though. Coming out of a tunnel, there was a tumbleweed spiraling up into the sky and before it registered, I was in the vortex and my car got shifted a little bit.
Partway through the day, I stopped in Winnemucca to get some gas and there was a hot road show going on in the town. Some beutiful old cars, some local but others looked like they were on tour. There were even some canadian cars.
I had a late lunch just as I was turning off of the Interstate in Wells, NV. This random little truck stop had some of the best mexican food I've ever eaten. Delicious! While there, I did notice that on the side of the hill, there was a gigantic white W. I had seen them all day and realized that there was one for each town with the first letter of the town's name emblazoned onto the closest hill. Weird desert folks.
After lunch, I made my way to Twin Falls, Idaho, while the vegetation slowly got denser and greener. I stopped in Twin Falls to get groceries and then, on the road out of town, I saw a sign that read "point of natural interest". I had been seeing these every once in a while, so I decided to turn off. What a great idea! Cutting through this plateau as far as the eye could see was a beautiful canyon cut out by Snake River.
It was getting late so I got back on the road relatively quickly and headed for Lake Walcott State Park to find a spot to throw up a tent and crash for the night. When I arrived, it was a picturesque little place beside a lake, however it looked a little out of place. It was too green compared to the rest of the area I had been driving through. Reading the signs at the gate, I discovered the reason. They have to use sprinklers. The sprinklers go off in the middle of the day and they warn people about it so that they aren't surprised when they get wet. It's kind of crazy that you need to water your natural parks, but at least it made the ground soft enough to easily pitch a tent.
I made some spaghetti for myself and when I was almost finished, I discovered I had no utensils. So, I used the casing for a couple of pens and used them like chopsticks. *shrug* it worked. Packing up for the night, I wasn't thinking and didn't bother to put away my dirty dishes. I guess I figured there were no bears and they needed to water the grass, so there couldn't be much wildlife right? WRONG! I was woken up in the middle of the night to some snuffing sounds. Pulling out my flashlight and opening my tent I saw a couple pairs of beady reflective eyes looking at me. Racoons. I yelled at them and got out of the tent to discover that the two I could see were just the tip of the iceberg. There were 6 of them milling about my site! I scared them into the trees, but they weren't going too far, they still looked at me from their perches in the foliage. I figured if I packed everything up and moved my tent it might be enough to discourage them, so I did that and went back to sleep. They didn't bug me for the rest of the night.
*Disclaimer* This post was written over a month after the trip, I figured it just makes sense to put a different post for each day
Partway through the day, I stopped in Winnemucca to get some gas and there was a hot road show going on in the town. Some beutiful old cars, some local but others looked like they were on tour. There were even some canadian cars.
I had a late lunch just as I was turning off of the Interstate in Wells, NV. This random little truck stop had some of the best mexican food I've ever eaten. Delicious! While there, I did notice that on the side of the hill, there was a gigantic white W. I had seen them all day and realized that there was one for each town with the first letter of the town's name emblazoned onto the closest hill. Weird desert folks.
After lunch, I made my way to Twin Falls, Idaho, while the vegetation slowly got denser and greener. I stopped in Twin Falls to get groceries and then, on the road out of town, I saw a sign that read "point of natural interest". I had been seeing these every once in a while, so I decided to turn off. What a great idea! Cutting through this plateau as far as the eye could see was a beautiful canyon cut out by Snake River.
It was getting late so I got back on the road relatively quickly and headed for Lake Walcott State Park to find a spot to throw up a tent and crash for the night. When I arrived, it was a picturesque little place beside a lake, however it looked a little out of place. It was too green compared to the rest of the area I had been driving through. Reading the signs at the gate, I discovered the reason. They have to use sprinklers. The sprinklers go off in the middle of the day and they warn people about it so that they aren't surprised when they get wet. It's kind of crazy that you need to water your natural parks, but at least it made the ground soft enough to easily pitch a tent.
I made some spaghetti for myself and when I was almost finished, I discovered I had no utensils. So, I used the casing for a couple of pens and used them like chopsticks. *shrug* it worked. Packing up for the night, I wasn't thinking and didn't bother to put away my dirty dishes. I guess I figured there were no bears and they needed to water the grass, so there couldn't be much wildlife right? WRONG! I was woken up in the middle of the night to some snuffing sounds. Pulling out my flashlight and opening my tent I saw a couple pairs of beady reflective eyes looking at me. Racoons. I yelled at them and got out of the tent to discover that the two I could see were just the tip of the iceberg. There were 6 of them milling about my site! I scared them into the trees, but they weren't going too far, they still looked at me from their perches in the foliage. I figured if I packed everything up and moved my tent it might be enough to discourage them, so I did that and went back to sleep. They didn't bug me for the rest of the night.
*Disclaimer* This post was written over a month after the trip, I figured it just makes sense to put a different post for each day
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Day 1 - Goodbye Golden Gate
I didn't get much sleep before heading out because I spent most of the night packing. That, and the fact that around 3am Dano showed up with some friends and started snorting coke. I'm definitely glad to be away from him!
Anyway, I got up and packed up the car with help from Jeff, Jim and Sarah. By around 10:30, most of it was done and it was time to head over to Crepes on Cole for a farewell breakfast with K-Stars. It was all I could hope for. Sam was serving huevos rancheros, which were delicious as always, and was exactly what I was looking for. Most everybody was there including all the people who did so much to help me finish the marathon the week before, so I definitely had to say goodbye. Overall though, it was a relaxing breakfast and Mike tasked me to gamble at the casino when I got to Reno. Everybody at the table gave me $1 and told me a number and my goal was to put down their bet at the roulette table. I figured, why not. I don't like to gamble really, but it would be fun.
After the tearless farewell that included promises that I'd come back (I will, don't worry), the Google gang headed back to my place to finish loading the car so I could take off. I said goodbye to them, Maia, and Vanessa (my two awesome roommates) and hit the road just after noon to head over the Bay Bridge along I-80 to Reno, NV.
There was a lot of traffic getting out of the city for some reason, which was frustrating, not because it took so long, but because I couldn't use cruise control and so my leg was starting to cramp up. The joys of a marathon the week before :-). I made one stop in the middle of the central valley to have some In-N-Out burgers for the last time. Yeah, it was a hard choice between that or the truck stop in Colfax, but the timing was such that I had to stop in the valley. Getting out of the car, I was hit with an awful wall of heat that had been hidden beyond the clear windows of my air conditioned shelter. I know, I have to get used to it since I'm no longer in San Francisco where the weather is perfect year round.
Anyway, on my way up the mountains, I realized, while passing all the slow trucks, that my car was doing a lot of work lugging all my crap up the hill. Now, since my car was well under 1000 miles at that point and wasn't broken in, I slowed down to pace the trucks. I don't want my car to fall apart early and I wasn't in that much of a rush. I also noticed that when using cruise control to go up the hills, the electric engine wasn't used very much. So, going up the hills I took off the cruise control and manually throttled the car to use up the battery so that it could charge up on the way down the hill. It looks like another sign that the hybrid system in the Civic isn't well integrated. Oh well.
After crossing the mountains, blooming with lush forests around Lake Tahoe, I descended into the Nevada desert. I drove in to the Grand Sierra hotel and casino where I had a priceline reservation for the night. Since I didn't want to leave my bike unguarded in the parking lot, I took it in with me to check in and go to my room. Suffice it to say, I got some interesting looks. But then again, most of the people there had more crap than they could carry and were going to spend a vacation sitting in front of blinking lights giving money away.
After throwing my stuff in the room, I went searching for food. There were a bunch of restaurants in the hotel from the all-you-can-eat buffet to the fancy seafood place to the wine bar, there was a good selection. After a lot of hemming and hawing, I decided that the pumpkin ravioli couldn't be ignored so I took up a spot at the bar and ordered some wine with the pasta. I eneded up talking to the guy beside me, who it turns out is an exec at a small start up company in the area called Altairnano. They have a process to create batteries that can charge in 10 minutes and have virtually no thermal stress. He explained the basics of the process is that the anode, which is normally a graphite sheet, gets diffused in the lithium so that the electricity doesn't need to work its way through the layers of graphite to charge the cell. It sounded really intriguing and could be good for cars. He sent me to documents about the company, but unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to go over them yet.
It was getting late and I was still tasked to gamble so I had to say goodnight and hit the casino floor. After watching a few games to make sure I knew what was going on, I sat down to play. On the first spin, I placed everybody's bets and, lo and behold, Jeff won. After playing a few more spins, including one win, I called it a night, up $35 including Jeff's win. It really made me see how people can blow tons of money in those places. The chips just abstract you away from the fact that you're betting real money so each play, you can throw down a lot of money when it feels like you're just randomly putting chips down.
*Disclaimer* This post was written over a month after the trip, I figured it just makes sense to put a different post for each day
Anyway, I got up and packed up the car with help from Jeff, Jim and Sarah. By around 10:30, most of it was done and it was time to head over to Crepes on Cole for a farewell breakfast with K-Stars. It was all I could hope for. Sam was serving huevos rancheros, which were delicious as always, and was exactly what I was looking for. Most everybody was there including all the people who did so much to help me finish the marathon the week before, so I definitely had to say goodbye. Overall though, it was a relaxing breakfast and Mike tasked me to gamble at the casino when I got to Reno. Everybody at the table gave me $1 and told me a number and my goal was to put down their bet at the roulette table. I figured, why not. I don't like to gamble really, but it would be fun.
After the tearless farewell that included promises that I'd come back (I will, don't worry), the Google gang headed back to my place to finish loading the car so I could take off. I said goodbye to them, Maia, and Vanessa (my two awesome roommates) and hit the road just after noon to head over the Bay Bridge along I-80 to Reno, NV.
There was a lot of traffic getting out of the city for some reason, which was frustrating, not because it took so long, but because I couldn't use cruise control and so my leg was starting to cramp up. The joys of a marathon the week before :-). I made one stop in the middle of the central valley to have some In-N-Out burgers for the last time. Yeah, it was a hard choice between that or the truck stop in Colfax, but the timing was such that I had to stop in the valley. Getting out of the car, I was hit with an awful wall of heat that had been hidden beyond the clear windows of my air conditioned shelter. I know, I have to get used to it since I'm no longer in San Francisco where the weather is perfect year round.
Anyway, on my way up the mountains, I realized, while passing all the slow trucks, that my car was doing a lot of work lugging all my crap up the hill. Now, since my car was well under 1000 miles at that point and wasn't broken in, I slowed down to pace the trucks. I don't want my car to fall apart early and I wasn't in that much of a rush. I also noticed that when using cruise control to go up the hills, the electric engine wasn't used very much. So, going up the hills I took off the cruise control and manually throttled the car to use up the battery so that it could charge up on the way down the hill. It looks like another sign that the hybrid system in the Civic isn't well integrated. Oh well.
After crossing the mountains, blooming with lush forests around Lake Tahoe, I descended into the Nevada desert. I drove in to the Grand Sierra hotel and casino where I had a priceline reservation for the night. Since I didn't want to leave my bike unguarded in the parking lot, I took it in with me to check in and go to my room. Suffice it to say, I got some interesting looks. But then again, most of the people there had more crap than they could carry and were going to spend a vacation sitting in front of blinking lights giving money away.
After throwing my stuff in the room, I went searching for food. There were a bunch of restaurants in the hotel from the all-you-can-eat buffet to the fancy seafood place to the wine bar, there was a good selection. After a lot of hemming and hawing, I decided that the pumpkin ravioli couldn't be ignored so I took up a spot at the bar and ordered some wine with the pasta. I eneded up talking to the guy beside me, who it turns out is an exec at a small start up company in the area called Altairnano. They have a process to create batteries that can charge in 10 minutes and have virtually no thermal stress. He explained the basics of the process is that the anode, which is normally a graphite sheet, gets diffused in the lithium so that the electricity doesn't need to work its way through the layers of graphite to charge the cell. It sounded really intriguing and could be good for cars. He sent me to documents about the company, but unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to go over them yet.
It was getting late and I was still tasked to gamble so I had to say goodnight and hit the casino floor. After watching a few games to make sure I knew what was going on, I sat down to play. On the first spin, I placed everybody's bets and, lo and behold, Jeff won. After playing a few more spins, including one win, I called it a night, up $35 including Jeff's win. It really made me see how people can blow tons of money in those places. The chips just abstract you away from the fact that you're betting real money so each play, you can throw down a lot of money when it feels like you're just randomly putting chips down.
*Disclaimer* This post was written over a month after the trip, I figured it just makes sense to put a different post for each day
Wandering Under the Big Blue Sky From San Francisco to Pittsburgh
I know this has taken me longer to write than I would've liked, but this is the log of how I made my way from San Francisco to Pittsburgh, trying to see as much as possible along the way. I made the trip with only a rough plan about what I wanted to see and a couple of fixed dates (like being in Denver for the Rockies' game on Aug 12). I wanted to be flexible to see things that might pique my interest along the way.
The entire trip took 15 days and was way too short. The country is just too big with too much to see in order to be satisfied with a whirlwind tour like this. But, it was fun and definitely worth it. The long solo hours of driving were filled with audiobooks that sometimes were pure entertainment, but other times, more illuminating. I have to say, that along the trip, I learned a lot about the European renaissance, the events around 9/11 (both from the 9/11 Commission Report and Al Gore's Assault on Reason) and about Italian cooking. By the way, for any foodie out there, Bill Buford's Heat is an excellent book.
The log itself was actually written up over a month after the trip, but I've backdated all the entries to be from the day they happened on. I hope you enjoy my chronicle and observations along the way, but realistically, I don't expect you to read all of it. Even though technically I'm broadcasting this to the whole world, I think it's ridiculous that people will care about all minutiae of each other's lives so it's not the point of this log. The point is to write down my thoughts so that I can look back later and remember. Of course, if you enjoy them, great!
The entire trip took 15 days and was way too short. The country is just too big with too much to see in order to be satisfied with a whirlwind tour like this. But, it was fun and definitely worth it. The long solo hours of driving were filled with audiobooks that sometimes were pure entertainment, but other times, more illuminating. I have to say, that along the trip, I learned a lot about the European renaissance, the events around 9/11 (both from the 9/11 Commission Report and Al Gore's Assault on Reason) and about Italian cooking. By the way, for any foodie out there, Bill Buford's Heat is an excellent book.
The log itself was actually written up over a month after the trip, but I've backdated all the entries to be from the day they happened on. I hope you enjoy my chronicle and observations along the way, but realistically, I don't expect you to read all of it. Even though technically I'm broadcasting this to the whole world, I think it's ridiculous that people will care about all minutiae of each other's lives so it's not the point of this log. The point is to write down my thoughts so that I can look back later and remember. Of course, if you enjoy them, great!
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