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

Very tired tonight. I am in Kalispell, MT. I had not heard of it before today. I rolled into town tonight during a pretty significant storm and spent about an hour hunting down the last available room. It's after midnight and I am gassed. You'll get these pictures and that is it.

The moose was from a long distance. I couldn't go any higher zoom and I had no tripod for that one.

The other picture is a Mountain Blue Bird. They are much more blue than the blue birds we have at home. Would love to write more, but I can't keep my eyes open.

Okay, you also get a picture of a bisons calf scratching his ear.

Tom

Back to Yellowstone

I packed everything up this morning and returned to Yellowstone. The Grand Tetons are beautiful, but Yellowstone has endless surprises for me. I had not yet ventured to the northern part of the park, so I have stopped here again on the way to Glacier.

I reserved a tent sent at the Canyon campground. There are a few campgrounds you can reserve sites at and the others are first come/first serve. If you aren't there in the morning, you won't get a spot. I knew I wouldn't get this far north until afternoon so I am staying here.

Here's a brief recap of the last 24 hours:

Last night I went to the moose spotting area near camp. There were about 40 people standing out there waiting for a moose to appear. There were an additional 4 people fly fishing in the river were the moose had been the night before. I really don't think the moose were going to saunter out of the thicket to an audience this large. I moved down river a bit and waited it out. It took a while for everyone to leave, but when they did I was rewarded with a bull moose stepping out into the open and into the river. he was quite a ways away, but I tried to get some pictures. They are still on the camera so you won't get any tonight.

After the moose event I headed back to camp. Along the way, about a dozen pronghorn decided they wanted to cross the road so I stopped to let them through. During all of this I noticed the beautiful Tetons sunset and snapped a shot.

I took down camp and got myself and the Jeep ready to go by about 8:30 this morning. On my way to Yellowstone I stopped to get a cup of coffee. I saw a guy put 8 packs of sugar in his cup before he put a lid on it. I don't know, but I'm not thinking coffee is the right drink for this guy.

Once back in Yellowstone I could smell that there had been another fire in the park. I later saw fire crew trucks from Helena and a haze over Yellowstone Lake. I stopped at the Fishing Bridge RV grounds again and did a load of laundry and took a hot shower. Wow, showers are great.

It was wildlife day in Yellowstone today. In the south part of the park I saw elk, on the way to Canyon I saw hundreds of bison, and up near Tower I saw three black bears. Most of the wildlife pictures I took today were with the camera I haven't downloaded yet. The picture at left is what happens when wildlife are right next to the road. There was a backup about a half mile long here as a massive herd of bison moved across the road. I think I have some good pictures of this herd and their young. The moose and bear pictures I have will get downloaded in the next couple of days. If there are any decent shots I'll put one in a blog.

I finally got to Mammoth Hot Springs at about 6:30. It was much more than I expected. I could spend a whole day in that area. As I was about an hour from camp I headed back for dinner (at the Canyon Cafeteria) and to update this. I plan to head back to camp after this and maybe have a fire this evening.

The Canyon camp site is the one I have been waiting for. It's perfect. The tent sites are not on top of each other and all of the sites are full of pine trees. It is hand-down the best site I have been at so far. The grounds and bathrooms are well maintained. My camp site is about a mile in from the offices. I am as far away as you can get. Right on the edge of the wilderness. Right next to were the bears live. I'd make a hell of a meal for a few bears. I'm locking the tent tonight.

I hope to break camp fairly early tomorrow and head to Mammoth again. I'll do as much as I can there and then start figuring out a camp site plan for Thursday night. Finding a place and getting set up takes a couple hours. I am hoping to start heading into Montana and towards Glacier. We'll see how far I get. Mammoth looks pretty cool.

Song of the Day:

• Van Halen - Top Jimmy

That one's for you Alex. I miss you dude.

Yes, Ethan, I miss you too. Your song day will come soon.

Thoughts/Lessons from the road:

• Flip Flops - a great idea for public showers
• We are not allowed anything in the tent or outdoors that may have an odor; food, cosmetics, drinks, garbage and so on. It must be in the vehicle. If the rangers see it, they will take it. So why do they have scented soap in the campground rest room? Won't that make me smell bear pretty?
• A bison can run 35 mph. Many of the park roads are 25 mph or 35 mph. Shouldn't they be at least 36 mph speed limits?
• Geysers and hot springs are more visible and in the cooler evening or morning hours as the steam is much more prominent then.
• Thus far all of the votes have been for no shaving.
• Damn, Glacier is a long way from home...........

I have to run. I'll get back on here when I can. I have no idea what the next couple days has for me for lodging or amenities. I owe a bunch of you emails and messages. I hope for a rainy day where I have power and internet to get caught up with all of you.

Tom

Tetons II

After a long day, the Jeep and I needed a break. Seven hours of top-down sun has me back at Jackson Hole Roasters updating the blog in the shade.

The Grand Tetons is a large plain (Antelope Flats) bounded by the Tetons on the west and the Snake River on the east. There are several lakes with Jackson being the largest. This park has a dirt road running up the middle of the south half of the park. I asked about it this morning at the visitor center and the ranger highly suggested the drive. He also stated that it was for 4 wheel drive vehicles only, so it became a bit more of an adventure. I spent about 3 hours driving that road today and it was all 1st and 2nd gear. I saw a total of 7 other vehicles on the entire drive. I never needed 4 wheel drive. The Jeep has been solid. Everything I have asked it to do it has done willingly. I am about 2,000 miles into this and I knock on wood that it will remain as stable for the rest of this trip.

I didn't see much wildlife on the off-road trip, but I did catch up with this fellow. I am almost certain it is a Sage Grouse. I have never seen one before, but that would be my guess. It was MUCH larger than the grouse I have hunted in Minnesota. I saw a couple of very large bison sitting about 200 yards apart without another bison in sight. I think they were waiting for the cows to come home.

Much of the dirt (rock) road ran along the Snake River, pictured left. I can't hear the name Snake River without thinking about Evel Knievel. He, along with Johnny Cash and Steve McGarret (of Hawaii Five-O), made up the "Three Coolest Guys on the Planet" when I was a kid. As I looked at the river today, wandering harmlessly through the plains, I could almost hear it say " Evel who?", and then softly chuckle, as though the river new it knocked one of my heroes of his pedestal. I briefly wept and moved on.

There are several different groups of people out here. Nearly everyone belongs to one of these:

• Mom and dad in the family truckster with their 2.5 kids
• Mom and dad with the big rented (or owned) RV - it's easy to spot the rental drivers.
• The previously mentioned older couples in their Corvettes.
• Older couples in their Honda CRV.
• Older couples in their RV.
• Groups of motorcyclists - made up of the Harley and Honda sub-species. They don't inter-breed.
• Lots of tourists. Asians seem to be in groups, Eurpeans seem to be families or groups of a few young men (what's up with that?).

Song of the day:

• Sam Cooke - Everybody Loves to Cha Cha Cha
  

Things I learned today:

• It is comical watching a 3 year-old throw a tantrum in a different language. I have no idea what he was upset about, but he really meant it.
• I am not nearly wealthy enough or pretty enough to ever live in Jackson.
• If I want to see some of the moose hanging out near the campground I need to get there before 9:00 p.m.
• To shave or not? Well, I left the shaving cream at home. I had to clean it up a bit. I'm looking for fan input. Shave? Don't shave? Clean it up a bit? I may not honor fan preferences, but I will consider.
• I owe National Geographic a bit of an apology. I saw about 20 Pronghorn together today.
• Iced mocha - never had one before, but not too bad.
• I think I am about half-way through this journey - still don't know what I am looking for.

I'll close with one last photo of the Tetons. I am heading back to Yellowstone tomorrow for at least one more night. I need to get to the Mammoth Hot Springs area. I think I will be in Glacier by the end of the week. I don't know how long I will be there. I am assuming from there I begin my journey home, but I haven't mapped any of that out yet.

Tom

Grand Tetons

This picture is a leftover from Saturday. I just loaded it to my computer. I have been using several cameras, including my cell phone, and it is taking me a bit to get them all loaded to the laptop. I actually took this one with my cell phone. The colors are in the wrong order, but it sort of looks like the painting The Scream. I didn't intend that, its just what I see now.

I am in a coffee shop in Jackson, Wyoming and trying to get this blog updated and all of the batteries charged on my laptop, cell phone, cameras, GPS and ipod. I just spent some time talking to a young lady from D.C. that is doing a 7 week solo tour of the of the country. She is also here updating her blog. I'm not the only lone soul out here.

After my blog Sunday afternoon I finished the Grand Loop back to camp. It was a long day of driving, stopping, getting out to take a little walk and a few dozen pictures. Over and over and over. I don't know how many times I got in and out of the Jeep yesterday, but I was ready for a break from that today. I saw more geysers and hot springs north of Old Faithful. I finally got to the point where I said to myself (on the inside, of course), "are you really going to take another picture of a hot spring/geyser?". I have to be pushing 1,000 pictures taken already. If I can get it down to a few dozen that capture the trip I will be pleased. Here is a photo of one of the many road construction projects I have run into. I have been stopped by a flag man/women about 15 - 20 times in the past week. The wait has been anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 minutes. It's I good thing I am not in a hurry to get anywhere.


There was a fire in Yellowstone on Sunday about 3 miles from where I camped. I could see the smoke for many miles and as I approached camp last night there was a haze around the campground and out over the lake.


I have now met the counters to the Illinois hedonists I ran into in the Black Hills. I hate Illinois hedonists. I stopped at a park general store last night and treated myself to a hot dog at the food counter. I sat next to a couple from Illinois and we talked a bit. I must have looked in need of help, because after 3 minutes of nice casual talk the gentlemen started telling me about Jehovah and how he will be taking care of everything in the future. "Check Please!!".

It isn't too difficult to spot the wildlife out here. Anytime there are 5 - 25 cars pulled over on the shoulder in the middle of nowhere, it usually means a large animal is near. After I took this picture (along with 20 other people) I was walking back to my car and a woman driving by rolled down her window and asked "just an elk?". Really? JUST an elk? I guess we become jaded quickly out here. I wanted to reply with some smartass remark, but I didn't.

I spent the day driving the the south part of Yellowstone and then on to Grand Tetons National Park. Last week Ethan had asked me what Grand Tetons meant. In my fatherly wisdom I told him it was French for Great Teets. I'm not proud if it, but I thought it was funny. Okay, maybe a little bit proud of it. Little did I know that there may be some truth to that. Saw more beautiful scenery here and then went to get camp set up. I headed into Jackson to restock a few food items and get this updated. I am camping at Gros Ventres (I think that is what it is called) and am just a few minutes out of town. I am planning on spending tomorrow exploring Grand Tetons (THE PARK you perverts) and tomorrow night I will stay where I currently am. I am hoping to head back to the Mammoth area of Yellowstone on Wednesday, and then north to Glacier from there. That is my current plan, but that may change.


Okay, now the important stuff.


Road Trip Song of The Day:

• Sunday - Tim Curry - Sweet Transvestite (from Rocky Horror) - that will get me a response from someone. Hahahaha.
• Today - Brahams - Symphony No. 2 - on the radio, it's not on my iPod, but it was very good and timely.

What have I learned today?

• It's okay to strike up a conversation with a stranger. It might even be enlightening.
• You can drive 200 yds with a cup of coffee on the fender of the Jeep and it doesn't fall off.
• Spellcheck caught my error in Transvestite. I have never used the word transvestite in the same document more than once. Now I've used it three times!
• The people driving their Denalis sure do look comfortable.
• If you leave firewood sitting out by the fire ring while you are out exploring, someone will take it.
• The National Wildlife Art Museum is in Jackson, Wy.
• It can take 10-15 minutes to upload ONE of these pictures, but less than one second to accidentally delete it. No, there is no "undo".
• To shave or not to shave? That is the question.

As soon as I close this I will think of 10 more things I wanted to add. This is plenty long as it is. I hope to update more tomorrow or Wednesday.

Tom

Yellowstone

I don't even know where to begin with this entry. I am in Yellowstone now and have not been able to update the blog. They told me there is no internet access in the park. Well, there is if you are the park service, but not for visitors. Much of the time out here I have had no phone signal. When I do have signal, it has been in roam. Today I found a good signal so I am connecting to the internet through my phone. It seems to be working well.

I left Sheridan Friday morning and headed to Cody. The drive through the Bighorns was spectacular. I find myself using awesome and spectacular many times through out the day. I just run out of words to describe some of the things I have seen in the last week. I continued my non-interstate ways and took 14 and 14A to Cody. I found snow in the middle of July at about 9500 feet. Quite a bit of it actually.

From Cody I headed to Yellowstone. Todd Hill told me that was a nice drive. The man is right. The Shoshone river valley was a great lead-in to Yellowstone.

I am amazed at the varying terrain out here. I expected trees and mountains, but there are lakes, rivers, prairies, geysers, canyons, fire devastated areas and more. All of these areas are a unique place to me and I want to spend time in all of them.

I spent Friday evening at the Old Faithful area. My first rain of the trip hit hard about 30 seconds before the geyser spouted. I have some pictures, but not sure how good they will be.

Saturday morning I took it easy. I spent half an hour cleaning the cameras from the rain ordeal, I found a place to shower and do laundry, filled up the Jeep, and bought some ice and a cup of coffee. I then drove back to the Old Faithful area and spent the rest of the day exploring geysers and hot pools from there through West Thumb and back to camp.

Camp is at the Bridge Bay campground (yes, I am back in the tent) and I am staying there through Sunday night. It is fairly crowded, but not too chaotic. I have been very happy to set up camp and leave it there for a few nights. There is a resident bison that was hanging out in the campground Saturday morning. I can't believe how close I have been to a few elk and many bison.

This morning I drove North to the Canyon area and spent hours driving through the canyon and taking pictures. The picture at left is from Artist Point. If 1% of my pictures do justice to what is out here I will be thrilled.

I am glad to hear from those of you that are following this. I think of 100 things to write each day, but don't have the memory or the time to get them all in here. This has been a very emotional trip for me. Time alone and time out here have me all over the map. It's a good experience so far. I hope I am better for it when I return.

Songs of the day:

• Friday - Morphine - Mile High
• Saturday - Al Hirt - Java
• Sunday - Haven't heard it yet

Learnings/Thoughts:

• Every small town has one 95 year old guy that weighs 85 pounds and wears a seed cap. He drives a burgundy Buick that is 10 - 25 years old, and he drives down the road at 15 miles an hour. Where are all these old guys going? Why do they all drive burgundy Buicks?
• There are a LOT of Japanese tourists out here.
• I am taking so many pictures that the Japanese have been saying "He take rot of picture".
• I am changing the name of my cooler to "ice melter" - it is small, but melts 6-8 pounds of ice per day .
• The tent can withstand very high winds.
• The blog tool posts the times 2 hours earlier (3 hours in central zone) than I actually post them.
• Driving through a small Wyoming town with KC and the Sunshine Band playing just seems wrong. I did it, but it felt wrong.
• Deep breath......relax.

I have no idea when I will be able to update this again. I may head to Grand Teton tomorrow (or maybe I won't) and I will post another entry when opportunity allows. Thanks again for the emails and text messages.

Darcy - Thank you for this.

Tom

Not Dead. No internet in Yellowstone.

On to Wyoming

Wednesday night I made it to Mount Rushmore in time for the evening presentation and illumination of the mountain. After seeing Crazy Horse, the Rushmore sculpture does not seem spectacularly large. However, the ideals for which the sculpture stands carried a lot of weight. It was a very moving/patriotic visit for me. I couldn't believe how many people were there early. The program began at 9:00 and when I got there at 8:20 I had trouble finding a seat in the amphitheater. Where is the restaurant that was in North by Northwest? I was hoping to dine there.

I promise not to say another word about Pronghorn Antelope. A couple of days ago I saw my first, and today I saw dozens. I guess they're not that rare for anyone that has been out here. I will say that National Geographic (and others) are deceitful. On TV, I have always seen herds of Pronghorn roaming the prairie. Out here I rarely saw more than 3 together at a time, and most of them were singles. My new favorite animal of the trip is the Mountain Goat. I saw this little fellow and his mother on my way to a morning visit to Mount Rushmore. It was nice to see it last night, but I wanted to see it again in the morning light.

My next drive was up to Deadwood City. I thought I should see some of the fabled towns in the area. They have a nice little cigar shop that I had heard about so I stopped in (and bought a cigar or 5). I think slot machines are about the only thing that keep this town going. The picture at left is not my best Deadwood picture, but it is my favorite. See the couple in the picture? They were my annoying neighbors a couple nights ago at the KOA. She's a naughty girl that can't handle her liquor.

After Deadwood I drove through Spearfish Canyon to the city of Spearfish. A spectacular drive with the top down. I was out here snowmobiling about 12 years ago, but never saw this part of the hills. In Spearfish I reloaded the cooler with fruit. New grapes and raspberries. I'm good to go for a few more days. Sorry, no picture of the Safeway in Spearfish.

Next was my Richard Dreyfus moment. Every time I see Close Encounters of the Third Kind I have the urge that I must get to Devil's Tower. I finally made it there today. Very cool. I walked all the way around the tower and there was no military UFO landing pad. I was duped once again. TV and movies let me down 3 times in less than 24 hours. Don't believe everything you see on TV.

I upgraded camp tonight. The down side to taking side roads is the length of time it takes to get anywhere and the lack of amenities available. I headed north out of Gillette in hopes of finding a place to camp. I ended up in Sheridan at about 8:30. I decided camping wasn't going to happen tonight. This will be a good chance to recharge myself and all of the electronic devices I brought along. The warm shower was great and tomorrow morning there is no camp to disassemble. I feel I cheated, but I'll get over it. Back to the tent tomorrow. I promise.

Best Road Song of the Day - The Allman Brothers - Jessica

Today's learnings/thoughts/ misc.;

• You can do bullet points in the blog!
• Some days it is tough to pick just one song of the day.
• Each day I can find about 500 things I want to stop and take a picture of. There a lot of stories out here. It would have taken me a month to get this far if I had stopped at everything that looked interesting to me.
• Highway 14 between Gillette and and Sheridan has antelope and deer 10:1 over people.
• The old people with Corvettes - They are everywhere, and vanity plates are a must.

As we travel through life at 65 MPH, a lot of bugs will hit our windshield. Sometimes it's necessary to pull over and clean them off in order to improve our view of the world.

Tom

Black Hills in a Day

Wow, busy day today. Left at about 8:00 am and drove through Custer State Park and the Needles Highway. Saw more Pronghorn and a few Bison. Narrow and windy roads at heights are usually not my cup of tea, but today was great. The picture on the left is Lake Sylvan. One of the many unexpected finds on this trip. I have another 150 pictures from today. It's going to take me weeks to go through them all when I return.

I have no idea who this woman is. She was biking the Needles Highway with a couple other people and we talked briefly. She is on a 9 week trip from Seattle to Boston. I feel like a wimp. She wanted a picture of me in the Jeep as part of her story, so I needed a picture of her and her bike as part of mine. Every man needs a Jeep. Apparently chicks dig them.

Next stop was Wind Cave National Park. I took an hour plus tour of the cave. It was nice to get in a cool environment after all of the sun I can seen in the past few days. Very cool cave. I have never been in a cave this large. Lots of pictures. I hope some are good.

The afternoon drive back up to Crazy Horse was great. Another beautiful day to be on the road. Crazy Horse is massive. I have no idea when it will be completed, but probably not in my lifetime.

From Crazy Horse I drove north to Bear Country USA. Pretty cool and nice to get that close to the animals, but it doesn't compare to seeing them in the wild.

I am now at Perkins in Rapid City to get a warm meal and use their wi-fi. I have to make it quick as I want to get down to Mount Rushmore and see the daily lighting of the monument. I am really looking forward to Rushmore.

Road trip song of the day - AC/DC - Girls Got Rhythm

Learnings:

Apparently old couples buy Corvette convertibles and drive them to the Black Hills.

People are extra oblivious to the other 6 billion people on the planet when the are on vacation.

Buy gas when you have the opportunity out here.

The Illinois idiots packed camp and left this morning. That should make for a MUCH better night. It was hedonism central at camp last night. Some people need a box of discretion for their birthday.

Hahaha - my Perkins waitress is a trainee. I married one of those!!

I have to run. Need to get down to Rushmore. It feels good to be excited about things! I hope to send more when I have more time. For a guy with nothing but time I sure feel busy.

Take care all!

Tom

Day at the Badlands

Made it to the Black Hills today. I spent far more time than I had anticipated at the Badlands and far more time stuck in road construction than I anticipated. The Badlands are beautiful. If I keep moving at the pace I'm going, it will take me a month to get to all of the things I want to see.

Today would have been a great day for the sterile environment of the Denali and the Interstate. It was pushing 90 out here and the back roads were SLOW. I got to the Black Hills late and I haven't done anything here yet other than set up camp at the KOA near Mount Rushmore. This is a whole different world than where I camped last night. Hundreds of RV's, a store, pools, scout troops, shower houses, ice cream, ATV rentals, and I don't know what all else. It chaos here - and loud.

The above picture is the first attempt at a pan shot with my new little Sony point and shoot. I took about 125 pictures with it today, so I hope they turn out. The Wi-fi here is about the speed of dial-up. Very painful to add pictures to this. I'm not even going to attempt getting my email tonight. Maybe tomorrow I can find a better wi-fi source.

Things I learned today:

There are places in the middle of nowhere that have roads covered with tens or hundreds of thousands of grasshoppers (dead and alive).

I stick out like a sore thumb in a small (really small) SD town. No one else had a button shirt, cargo shorts or flip-flops.

Wall Drug is a busy place, but I couldn't find a thing I wanted to buy.

Bob Seger - Turn the Page - Best Road Song of the Day today.

I saw license plates from Alaska to Florida and everything in between.

A lesson from yesterday that I forgot to share. A green banana will ripen in about 6 hours in a Jeep.

I have been waiting 20 minutes for 2 more pictures to load. Doesn't look like you are going to get them today. Wait, they finally loaded. I'm not even going to try any more.

Have a bunch places to visit in the Black Hills. I hope to have better wi-fi access in the next day or two so I can send some photos.

I'm exhausted. Goodnight all.

Tom

Long day but I finally made camp. Drove to Pierre, SD today. I think there about 3 houses and 12 trees between Huron and Pierre. Wide open out here. Had the top down on the Jeep all day. I'm whipped. Turned on wi-fi on my phone to see if I could find a hot spot. Burgur King hit. Wouldn't have guessed that one.

Things I learned today;

You can drop $350 on the floor of MG Caribou and go back half an hour later and it will still be on the floor where you dropped it :).

There are parts of MN where wind turbines outnumber iPods 2-1.

Cruise control - must be heaven sent.

Large trucks going by you in the other direction at 70 MPH - must be from hell. I'm sure the hood of the Jeep is going fly up into the windshield before I get home.

Sunscreen - just wear it you idiot!

Some of the best scenery of the day was seen on detours of closed roads.

Hope to get to the Black Hills tomorrow. I should have some more interesting photos after that,

Goodnight all.

Tom

Lucky me. The first stop on the adventure has power and wi-fi! I made it all the way to Caribou Coffee in Maple Grove. I had a bunch of work done on the Jeep last week so it was in top shape for the trip. This morning it appears I have a small leak of some kind. It may just be residual from all the fluid changes I had done, but I want it checked out just to make sure there are no issues. I decided I needed some coffee. Hope to have more interesting updates in the near future.

Tom