All Good Things Must Come To An End

Home. It's nice to be back. My drive back on Thursday was not as long as I had expected. I drove a little more than 600 miles and it was pretty smooth sailing. This was my longest single day drive of the trip, but I really wanted to get home.

The picture at left is part of my 65 mph series. This was what much of the drive across North and South Dakota and Minnesota looks like. I am still in awe of the agricultural acreage out there. We must eat a lot.





Here is the final picture of the trip as I pulled into the driveway. After 18 days on the road, it is good to see our house again. The two things I notice are the poor light pattern of the Jeep's headlights and one of our garage lights is out. I guess I can add a couple of tasks to the things I need to correct.

For those of you that have read my other posts, I obviously enjoyed my time on the road. I was able to cross a number of things off of my life list of things to see. The mountains were fantastic, and I hope to get back there again.

I spent the morning emptying out the Jeep. There were things packed into every nook and cranny. I have many hours of cleaning and organizing ahead of me. With any luck I can get through most or all of it this weekend so I can move on with my regular life. I need to get ready to leave next Saturday to spend a week on the lake up north with the family. It's a tough life, but someone has to do it. I do actually have some work I need to start on next week. It will cut into this life of leisure, but I need to pay for all of this and put groceries on the table.

Final Lessons/Thoughts:

• In Aberdeen, SD, station KABD has a promotion going on. If they spot their station sticker in your car window, you get to spin the "Wheel of Meat". You could be a lucky winner of hamburgers or pork chops. The big winner will receive a freezer full of beef.
• Minnesota's 55 mph highway speed limit seems painfully slow after driving 65+ in other states.
• My neighbors at the camp site the past 2 nights live about 2 miles away from me and are related to someone I know. Small world.
• Little things can make you smile if you look at them the right way.
• As the trip went on, the Jeep seemed to be less full every time I packed it.

Some final numbers:

• Miles driven - 4,530
• Tent set up and taken down - 9 times
• Hay bales driven past - Tens of thousands
• Bears seen - 4
• Snicker's bars consumed - 4
• Moments of panic where I was certain I lost something of value - 7
• Strangers I had discussions with - dozens
• Pictures taken - approximately 2,500
• Moments in awe of my surroundings - countless
  
  I will end this with the final Song of The Day, heard on the drive home. It was an appropriate end to a wonderful trip:

Louie Armstrong - What a Wonderful World

Thanks for listening.

Tom

I'm ending my day similar to the way I started it. This might be the first day out here I've had 2 hot meals. I am still in Medora, but now I am at a peanut bar. Marty Robins' El Paso is playing on the radio, I just had a burger and cold beer and I am throwing peanut shells on the floor. My waitress is a young lady from Ukraine, here to work for the summer. Half a dozen locals sit at the bar, a couple of tourists at a table, and me in the corner with my laptop plugged in. Another slice of heaven. A guy can learn a lot in a place like this. A lot of it would be crap, but learning that is part of the experience.

I headed to the Theodore Roosevelt Park this morning with plans of hiking a few of the trails. I ended up spending about 7 hours in the park and hiked 9+ miles of badlands terrain. There is no shade in the badlands. I was one tired puppy after that jaunt. The only wildlife I saw in the park today were a couple of antelope and a couple bison. Oops, I forgot the wild horses. I don't have any of those pictures loaded on here yet. Use your imagination. They pretty much look like regular horses. I also got about as close to a rattle snake as I ever want to be. If it hadn't rattled I might have stepped on it. Didn't know I could still move that quickly. Sorry, I didn't stop to get a picture of that one. I don't even know what you're supposed to do if they bite you. Suck the venom out? I'm not that flexible anymore. "What did the doctor say?" "Doctor says you're gonna die." Hahaha - I love that joke.

This is likely to be my last entry from the road. My current plan is to hit the road in the morning and try to make it all of the way home. My "no interstate" rule means the drive home is about 700 miles. That is 150 miles more than the interstate, but about 4 and a half hours longer. Sometimes I am stubborn to a fault. I will see what the weather is like and how I am doing with the drive. If I get within 2 or 3 hundred miles of home, I really don't see me stopping for the night. I also lose an hour as I head back into the central time zone. It might be very late, but I think I can get home tomorrow.

I have mixed feeling about heading home. I really want to get back and am looking forward to seeing everyone again. But, I see new things out here every day. I have become comfortable with being on my own and have learned to relax a bit ( I believe). I hope I can bring my new found state back to my "real" life.

Thanks to any of you who are still reading these. I hope there was something here entertaining and worth your time. I will probably write a wrap-up or two when I return. I have a number of things to do before I get back to normal. Everything I brought with is filthy, with the Jeep leading the list. It will take me a couple days to get everything back to it's proper state. Thanks for the comments, the messages, the phone calls and the emails. It was really great to hear from someone back home when I was out in the middle of nowhere. I hope to get caught up on all the emails and messages when I return. I owe many of you responses.

Song of The Day:

I really didn't hear many songs today, and I was tempted to jump on the El Paso playing here at the peanut bar - but today's winner is

• George Benson - On Broadway

Thoughts/Lessons

• The young lady I met in Jackson Hole (Sally) stumbled upon Polebridge just as I had. We were both shocked to find it there. I looked at in wonderment, she in awe, exactly as I would have expected. Enjoy your time there Sally.
• Here's one I haven't shared. You can drop your money clip and $200 next to the Jeep when you got to watch for moose near Gros Ventres and it will still be there when you return. Yes, I'd lose my head if it weren't attached.
• I can't wait to get home.
• I wish this journey wasn't ending.
• My mother was right to warn me about rattle snakes.
• I am terrified of getting back into the chaos of the real world.
• My flip flops stink so back I won't even put them on any longer.

As usual, I can't remember 95% 0f the things I want to put in here each day. That is probably best as these get too long the way it is.

Good night,

Tom

Medora

No Hunting?! Damn, I think I could have bagged one of these.

It is Wednesday morning and I am sitting in a small cafe in Medora, ND. There are red and white checked table clothes, Skynyrd's Freebird is heard coming from the radio in the kitchen, there are 10 senior citizens, a Harley riding couple, and me. This is perfect.

I came to Medora on the way home to hike a couple trails and see the Medora musical. I went to the musical last night. The amphitheatre is built into a hillside just north of town. The musical is a good mix of country music and pride in North Dakota, Teddy Roosevelt and the U.S. The cast is made up of people from all over the country, but I felt the show was owned by a small town North Dakota 16 year old girl. She was definitely more talented than a number of the people around her.


There are thousands of these little oil pumps in the southern Canadian and the northern U.S. plains. An awful lot of resources out here are put into energy (oil, wind and biofuels) and food (everything from peas to beef). These wide open spaces are doing a lot to power and feed the rest of us. The picture isn't very clear. It's part of my 65 mph series.


Today looks questionable for weather. I am going to head out to Theodore Roosevelt National Park this morning to hike some trails. I hope the rain holds off. I am planning on staying here again this evening, but if the weather looks bad I might pack up and start heading east with the hopes of staying ahead of the weather. We'll see how it plays out.

I am camping at the Medora Campground. It has the best view of all the places I have stayed, and I can hear the Little Missouri River running just a few yards away. Oh yeah.... there are trains that run all night and the blow their horns. Other than that, it's great.


Time to run, but not before I take care of business.


Yesterday's Song of The Day:

• The Call - I still Believe

Thoughts/Leassons:

• There is a PGA in Canada, but it is the Potato Growers of Alberta.
• Apparently Bon Jovi is playing in Regina tonight and it's a big deal in all of Saskatchewan,
• Yes, Regina rhymes with Vagina. You think their sports teams get hassled?
• In the U.S., the radion station would be called Z99. In Canada it is Zed99.
• The emptiness of the plains results in a bigger sky.
• I had to buy gas in Canada in litres. I have no idea what my mpg's were up there.

That's all I have for right now. Time to hit the trails.

Tom

Good Day, eh?

It is about 10:00 pm Monday night when I am typing this. I have nothing that resembles internet access at this time. I am about 30 miles west of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. I’ll give you a run down of what happened since my last update during laundry on Sunday.

After laundry I went to the southeast corner of Glacier. Most of the roads are outside of the park. The Road to the Sun and the dirt road I took Friday are the two longest roads in the park. I would be pretty confident in saying the hiking trail mileage is much higher than roadways in Glacier. I drove down to Two Medicine and saw the lake there. I was shocked by how barren and prairie-like the land gets immediately east of the park.
I headed back to St. Mary and stopped at the general store in town and was planning on having dinner at a small café there when the Hill family rolled into that same parking lot. I knew they were staying in the area (same KOA), but I hadn’t talked with Todd in a couple days due to one or both of us having no phone signal. This was the first time in 2 weeks I saw people I know. I ended up spending the evening with the Hill family. They (as they always are) were wonderful hosts. They let me tag along with them to the Many Glaciers area of the park to watch the sunset and have dinner and a cocktail. Todd did a wonderful job entertaining the masses on the hotel deck with his wildlife guiding prowess. I think they should resurrect the Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom show and place Todd in the role once held by Marlin Perkins. I don’t know who they could get to replace Jim, the sidekick that always had to approach the dangerous animal as Marlin narrated from a safe distance. I believe what Todd was showing everyone was a grizzly bear. It was a considerable distance away and I didn’t have my good camera with me. I have a picture and when I zoom in on the object I am pretty confident that it was a grizzly.
The length of the grizzly event meant it was getting too late to find anyone open for dinner. Everything out there shuts down at 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. After several attempts at different locations we ended up back at the café where we first ran into each other. They too had just closed, but Jeannette batted her eyelids a couple times and they let us in. A little time around the fire at their cabin, and we called it a night. Thank You Hills!

This morning I decided to head to Waterton Lakes, the Canadian sister park to Glacier. I headed across the border into Alberta for the first time in my life. In the park I went to the magnificent Prince of Wales Hotel and deeper into the park to see Cameron Lake. It was another beautiful day in another beautiful park. I completely overachieved in the weather and scenery departments this trip.



When I got back to the Jeep, I knew it was time to go home. I saw everything I set out to see and more and I was mentally and emotionally spent. It was time to start the return journey.

I knew the drive back would be long and “dull” after the scenery I was leaving behind. I opted to drive across Alberta and Saskatchewan rather than going across Montana. I have now seen some of the places many of the NHL players are from. Lethbridge, Medicine Hat and Moose Jaw are all homes for a number of NHL players.

I have been asked by a few people if I drove the Jeep all the way out here from Minnesota. When I respond yes, they all assume I am going to need physical therapy of some type when I return home. Hands down, the best version of this happened in Lethbridge this afternoon. I was doing my ritual cleaning of the windshield when a pickup truck pulling a gooseneck trailer carrying a farm implement pulled up alongside me. In the best Scandinavian accent I have ever heard, the guy asked me “did you drive that all the way from Minnesota?”. I truly thought he was putting me on and giving me the accent because I was from Minnesota. I don’t know their names, but if they were anything other than Ole and Lena I would be shocked. I spoke with them for a couple minutes about the trip. I really had to listen closely as their accents were quite strong. Apparently there are Scandinavians outside of Minnesota. Who knew?

I don’t know the total, but I am sure I drove over 400 miles today. My total is approaching 3,500 miles for the trip. I am hoping to get to Medora, North Dakota on Tuesday. There is a musical they put on every summer that is a plateful of Americana and a little bit more. I saw it for the first time last August and it is different each year. I hope to catch the show and hike a trail or two in Teddy Roosevelt National Park. After that, it’s the last leg of the journey home. I might be able to do the drive home from Medora in on day. If I had the Denali and the interstate at my disposal it would be a given. If I can do it in one shot, my journey will likely end Thursday. I hope to get this entry to you Tuesday or Wednesday end then another entry or two to wrap this up.

Thanks for your patience and persistence in reading this long-winded entry.

The Goods:
Song of the Day

• Sunday – I really didn’t hear much music, so I’m going to pass
• Monday – I’m going to take the pass from Sunday and have 2 entries. There were dozens of quality choices today, and narrowing it to 2 is extremely difficult today. I am going with the following choices.
  Queen – I Want To Break Free
  Cake – Short Skirt, Long Jacket

Thoughts/Lessons

• Remember 2 weeks ago when I said my bladder was smaller than the Jeep’s gas tank? Today was the day my bladder won. It was really close and almost a horribly embarrassing moment, but I did it. Good thing I got really crappy mileage that tank.
• I think every Canadian movie I have ever seen has Tim Horton’s in it. I finally got mine. 2 Chocolate glazed donuts and coffee for lunch. Yum.
• The road signs in Canada are far more interesting than in the U.S. – I still don’t know what a couple of them were supposed to be telling me.
• Yes, there is road construction in Canada too.
• My friend Mick told me today – “if you try sometime, you just might find, you get what you need.” Mick is a wise man.
• 2 cars I got pictures of in the past couple of days. A Suzuki Samurai and a powder blue Chrysler Cordoba.
• The pictures I have can’t deliver the sounds and odors that I have experienced.
  
  Thanks again for your patience. I’ll get back to you soon.
  Tom

St. Mary

I decided to do a quick update for today while I have time. I am at the KOA at St. Mary on the east side of Glacier. I got in a good hot shower and am getting laundry done right now. I don't have a good phone signal here and there wi-fi is slow, so no pictures today.

The drive across the park was once again beautiful. At one point I just pulled over and drank my cup of coffee and looked around for a while. I have been extremely fortunate with the weather. This morning was a gain a perfect blue sky and just a tad on the cool side. I'll take that every day.

Didn't see any new wildlife yet today. After laundry is done I am going to head back into the park to look around some more. I hiked a couple of short but very steep trails this morning. I think I am done hiking for the day.

This is a good time to catch up on a few thoughts from the road.

• I think every Suzuki Samurai that is still running is in Wyoming or Montana.
• I have typically thought of driving and walking in 2 dimensions. I have learned to view it in 3 dimensions and altitude and incline have huge impact on the experience.
• My hands still look like hell from all the abuse out here, but they don't hurt anymore.
• My left elbow is a mess. I can go hours without any pain and then an hour or town were I can barely lift my arm. Have had two very bad mornings lately. It is generally at it's worst right after setting up camp (now, for example). I must have camper's elbow.
• When I am driving the mountain roads I try to find an empty pocket void of other cars. If I am right up on someone or someone is rightbehind me I pull over and wait a bit. I enjoy the drive much more when I don't have to think about what other cars are doing.

No song of the day yet. I have heard some good ones, but I am reserving judgement until all songs for today have been heard.

I have no idea what my next plans will be, but I would be surprised if I am not home by the end of the week.

Tom

Glacier at a Glance

I need to start this with a special song of the day play list:

• Orleans - Still The One
• James Taylor - How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)
• Van Morrison - Jackie Wilson Said (I'm In Heaven When You Smile)

I heard each of them today and they made me smile. Happy 23rd anniversary Darc.

I started the morning with little clue as to where I would head. I drove out of the park to fill up the Jeep and get some coffee. There are little shacks nearly everywhere I have been . They look like nice fish houses in a parking lot. They are coffee shacks. I meant to drive up to one and get a cup, but I forgot and ended up with gas station mud. I'm not too picky about my coffee. I need to hit one of these before I leave this part of the country.

When I returned to the park I decided today was the right day to drive the Road To The Sun. I had high hopes, but really didn't know what it was like. WOW. That's all I can say. I took some pictures and ran a little video with the phone on the drive up to Logan Pass, but you really have to see it. The top was down on the Jeep all day and I feel that really adds to the experience. When the top is up I feel like I am missing part of the picture. Mountains, clear and aquamarine streams, snow, wildlife and trees everywhere. This drive was one of the highlights of the trip.

When I got to Logan Pass visitor center I started heading up a trail that went from the center toward a mountain. I walked up about a mile and returned. What I didn't realize was that I didn't need to go too much further and there was an overlook a the end of the trail. At that point I wasn't about to turn around an head back up. Next time I'll see what everything is about before I randomly start walking. There was quite a bit of snow up there, but it was still quite warm. I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and I was sweating while walking on snow.

One of the things I had missed to this point was bighorn sheep. I finally got to see some as I was walking around up at Logan Pass. There were 11 of them resting and feeding not too far from where I was. I saw my first marmot today as well. They weren't on my list of things to see, but I saw one anyway. After my bighorn pictures, I started heading back down toward camp. Shortly after leaving the visitor center I saw several mountain goats near the road and was able to get some decent pictures of them as well.

I really had no plan at that point, but I passed a busy area with signs for a couple of different trails. I decided to put on the backpack and see what these were about. I ended up walking about 2.5 miles in, and it felt like nearly every step was uphill. It was an exhausting hike. When I got to Avalanche Lake I was greeted with this site. Each of the white ribbons running down the mountain is water. It was fantastic. I was completely gassed, so I just sat there for a while and took it all in. I ended up walking further in to the end of the lake, but couldn't get as close to the waterfalls as I had hoped. The walk out was much easier on the heart and lungs, but it was tough on the legs. The entire unplanned event took about four hours and after the hike at Logan I was pretty well spent for the day. It was physically exhausting, but worth it. I walked and climbed places today that I couldn't or wouldn't have a year ago. It was pretty neat.
I am going to drive the Road To The Sun again tomorrow and head to the east end of the part to spend a night there. I have no idea what I am going to do there or what I will do after that. Time will tell.

Song of the day:

• Paul Simon - Me and Julio Down By The School Yard - That one's for Ethan. Congratulations on your baseball success.

Thoughts/Lessons:

• Yes, I can do it.
• I've never tracked time by the moon, but every night I can see how long my trip has progressed. I started with a tiny sliver of a moon, and it should be full in the next night or two.
• Other changes showing to length of this adventure are my hat and my beard. The hat was new and white when I began, now it resembles white. I had no beard, now I do, and it is whiter than my hat.
• Doesn't matter what road I am on, it's under repair and there will be delays.
• I read back through a couple blogs. Damn, a lot of typos. Sorry.
• I've had far more conversations with people than I expected to. People from all over the country. It's been small talk, but interesting.
• I need to get home to watch Captain Phil's' last episode of Deadliest Catch.
• Pictures of water are pretty, but the sound it makes really needs to be experienced.
• I have some really great family and friends.

Some of the items I have found to be most useful on this trip:

• The Jeep - I can't say enough about what it has done for me.
• Window cleaner and a squeegee. Some days I use it 2 or 3 times.
• Loacable storage bin in the Jeep. Thanks Joel.
• My cameras. They are always on the passenger seat, just waiting for something neat.
• The cot. I had mixed thoughts, but it sure is better than sleeping on the ground.
• An understanding wife.

That's all I have in my tonight. Hope all is well with you.

Tom

Finally have a chance to sit down and try to update this. I don't have a very good phone signal, so I am not sure how much will get done here.

Yesterday was a very long drive from Mammoth Hot Springs to Kalispell. I hit a bad storm and spent a good piece of the night trying to find a room to stay in. It was dark and storming, I wasn't about to set up a new camp site. I ended up staying at the Aero Inn and went out to have a beer and dinner at Applebee's. I know, not very "local", but I did drink a local beer brewed in Whitefish. It was excellent.

This morning I packed up and headed to Glacier. I arrived before 9:00 and was able to get a tent spot at Sprauge something campground in the park. It is all tents there, and they are many and varied. There are a few of the one person sleeping bag size and they range to one camp that looks like they built a biosphere to hunker down for the next 2 years. It is definitely more of the tree hugger crowd at this site. We have a couple VW vans and some hybrids as well as the Corolla type cars. I started the trip wearing flip flops and after a couple days settled into my New Balance walking shoes. With the Glacier crowd I felt compelled, no.... obligated, to dig out my Danner hiking boots and wear those.




Once I had camp set, I headed for the west side of the park. There is an "unimproved" road that runs toward the northwest side of the park. I spent about 6 hours putting on 70+ miles of teeth -rattling unimproved road time today. There were times to day where I was truly in the middle of nowhere and praying I didn't have a breakdown or a chance meeting with a grizzly. about 30 miles into the drive I happened upon a place that I would call a commune rather than a town. It's called Polebridge (I assume because of the bridge there, and seems to be stuck in 1970 free love and peace world. The highlight of this peace encampment is their baked goods. I have no idea why, but they have a wonderful bakery there. I had a walnut brownie. It was delicious. Minutes after I ate it I wondered if it was a "special" brownie and maybe I should have bought a bag of Doritos. Fortunately, it was just a brownie.

I am not sure of my plans for tomorrow. I have paid for the camp site so I can spend a full day without dealing with moving camp. I may start on the west side, but I really can't wait to drive the Road to the Sun. I haven't spent much time looking at the map yet, so I will start with that in the morning and then make a plan.



Songs of the day:

• Thursday - REO Speedwagon - Ridin' the Storm Out
• Friday - The Everly Brothers - Wake Up Little Susie

Thoughts/Lessons:

• There is never a bad time for a handful of roasted peanuts.
• If a glass jar of peanuts falls from the passenger seat to the asphalt it will break into too many pieces to count.
• Make hotel reservations for the day prior to 9:00 p.m.
• The Seely/Swan Lake area of Montana is beautiful.
• About half of the Jeep Wrangler drivers on the road will acknowledge a passing Jeep with a slight wave. It generally involves the hand in the top of the steering wheel extending 2 to 4 fingers upward. Sometimes it just a head nod. Sometimes there is no communication. It's a Jeep thing.
• You can be in a nasty storm in Montana and scan the radio for information and not find a single mention of weather.

There are hundreds of things from the road that I would love to share. I could write all day. I'm getting booted out of the cafe here now so this will have to be enough for today. I'll try to add more in the next day or two.

Here is one of the payoffs of shaking my body and the Jeep for hours on end today. This is Kintla Lake. It was the end of the road and jest a few miles from the Canadian border. There are a couple of lakes like this that I visited today. The water is several shades of blue and cold. It was worth the hard drive.

Tom