The Proposal and three other days worth of sights

Greetings from Willow Creek, California – self-proclaimed Bigfoot capital of the United States. It’s been a wild ride since we arrived in Portland a few nights ago. Portland has always been a city that has interested Alicia and myself for its carefree and artsy persona. Last year on our road trip we realized we’re much happier camping so we intentionally only scheduled only a few city stops and Portland was one of our must-sees. Wednesday we got up to a cool and overcast Portland that would eventually warm up to the mid 70’s and get sunny – the last day of sun we’ve encountered. From the hostel we walked down to the Pearl District to Powell Books which calls itself the biggest independent bookstore in the world or the biggest English book store, according to a manager. I obviously haven’t been to every bookstore in the world, but I’m not going to refute its claim. It was three large stories tall, with a textbook annex across the street. Any subject - and probably any book, new or used, could be found there. They even have a map of the store to help you out. We spent a good hour or so wondering around the store. We didn’t buy anything because neither of us wanted to carry books around with us all day and if you’ve seen the 2^nd bedroom of our apartment you know we don’t need any more books, but it was definitely worth the visit. From there we went to lunch at Old Town Pizza – self-proclaimed best pizza in Portland. It was pretty good, but I bet I could find better pizza somewhere there. The atmosphere was what made it, though. It was in the location of a former hotel lobby and was decorated with a hodgepodge of antique and wooden furniture and was very dark and old-timey feeling. It’s located above the Shanghai tunnels. Back in the 1800’s they used to kidnap sailors who had too much to drink at the hotel and send them to Shanghai as slaves. That’s where the term being Shanghai-ed comes from. After lunch we walked around a bit, had a few drinks at Rogue Brewery, and then would up at the Chinese Gardens. Portland has a smallish Chinatown – nothing like NYC’s or what I imagine SF’s Chinatown to be like, but the gardens were a nice little oasis in the middle of a pretty big city. Rocks and plants were imported from Tai Lake, China. We had sushi for dinner at a place that sent around a toy train loaded with different rolls and what not before playing trivia at the Thirsty Lion, a place advertised at the hostel. I consider myself pretty good at trivia, but what I’ve come to realize over the years is that the bigger the town, the harder the trivia. A few weeks ago I played trivia with a couple of coworkers at the Cleveland Draft House In JoCo and we got third place with me doing most of the heavy lifting. Alicia and I got second to last place in Portland, but it was dinosaur-themed night and we didn’t know our dinosaurs, much less to bring in toy dinosaurs for bonus points. After that we went to Voodoo Doughnuts, a Portland institution. The line was out the door and around the corner. Fortunately, the doughnuts were already made so the line moved quickly. I had a maple bacon doughnut and Alicia had the Voodoo doughnut which was shaped like the stores mascot and was filled with raspberry filling. We then walked back to the hostel and crashed for the night. Our car stayed parked in the hostel lot, so we probably put about 8-10 miles on foot that day. It was an easily walkable city. Portland also has a big homeless and transient population and a lot of people who looked like they were on the Meth. Those were the ones passed out face-down in city parks, on ledges, and under bridges during daytime. Besides the usual looking homeless people there were also a lot of young transients - kids in their twenties who were “homeless” by choice. They held signs and asked for money but we hypothetically homeless but probably crashed at a friend’s apartment with eight other “homeless” people and partied all night. Outside of Voodoo doughnuts one girl held a sign that read “Too ugly to strip. Too honest to steal…etc.” She was talking with people in line and seemed normal enough, which begged the question: why not get a retail or food service job, but we realized it’s easier to party all night, chill during the day and just get by. Being transient, at least for the short term, is pretty great.

Thursday we left Portland and headed south to Crater Lake National Park. Crater Lake was wondrously beautiful – a deep, almost fake looking, blue lake in the middle of a volcano that blew up about 6,800 years ago. Jutting out of the caldera, to one side, is Wizard Island, a volcano that formed after the initial explosion. It looked burnt around the top, showing it was still active. We drove around the rim of the lake, or at least what was open. In late June, snow was still covering a good part of the park. The temperature was in the lower fifties and it was overcast. It felt more like March than June. In some pictures we took we could convince you it was January. Crater Lake gets, on average, 533 inches of snow a year. Alicia and I have done a lot of camping in our lives and neither of us has ever had to choose a campsite based on whether or not the campsite was free of snow. We found a large one that was free of snow and set up camp for the night. Of course it rained, but fortunately it was after dinner and was light enough that we could wear our ponchos and enjoy the fire. It rained in a light but steady clip all night but stopped for good about 10am allowing us to pack up in relative dryness.

From Crater Lake we headed south into California. Even though the trip is just a big loop around the US, California seems like the pinnacle, the main desire of the trip. We’re Okies and California is the promised-land. Our first stop in California was Redwood National and State Parks. Before we arrived there we pulled off at the coast so we could dip our toes in the Pacific Ocean. It was chilly and windy – nothing like NC beaches in late June, but it was cathartic. We then proceeded to drive though the Redwood forest. Oak trees get big in NC, but nothing can prepare you for seeing a 300 foot, 2000 year-old tree for the first time. I’ve never felt so tiny in my life. We camped amongst the Redwoods at Elk Prairie campground. The trees around the site were covered in moss and rather large. Not the biggest, but still massive. One tree looked like it fell but kept growing. A large portion of the trunk ran parallel to the ground before turning towards the sky again. We walked a trail to see the true giants of the area. We were basically camping on Endor. And for once it didn’t rain at night! That was really nice.

This morning we woke up and headed to Gold Bluff Beach. This is the part of the day that most of you want to hear about, I guess. We parked along the road in a small pull-off and found a nice secluded part of the beach. Right before we parked we saw an elk grazing. The other time we saw an elk was at the Grand Tetons when we were watching the sunset – the previous most relaxing and happy moment of the trip. The elk has come to be a good omen for us. On the beach, Alicia was interested in collecting rocks but I was able to rein her in a focus on being on the California coast and us in general. We started to walk down the beach when I told her I had a question to ask her before dropping to a knee and presenting her with a ring and asking her to marry me. It rained most of the day, but it hadn’t started yet. The sun was behind the clouds, but still trying to peak through. She of course said yes! Alicia has a hard time with her rights and lefts. If I’m giving her directions, it’s much easier just to point which way to turn instead of saying right or left. When I popped the question she presented both hands to me and in the moment of excitement I had to determine which hand was her left. Fortunately, I picked the right one.

We continued to walk down the beach, in the glow of the moment and stumbled across some debris from the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. There was a bottle of Japanese dish detergent that had clam barnacles as well as a light bulb that was about the size of a basketball. I’m not sure what takes a light bulb that large, perhaps a light house. The rain started at this point and continued for much of the rest of the day. We ate seafood for lunch at a seaside restaurant in Trinidad, CA before making our way to Willow Creek and the Bigfoot Motel. Tomorrow will include a tour of the Bigfoot Museum and a drive through the Avenue of the Giants redwood strand and down California 1 along the coast. It’s been a good day.

Mountains uncomparable!

Amongst the gods at Glacier National Park

Greetings from Portland! Alicia and I made it in this afternoon and have settled into our hostel for the next two nights. We’ve only been here for five hours and we already love it. I thought it would be difficult to leave the mountains but Portland has so much to explore and we’re ready to discover it tomorrow.

The last few days have been slight but monumental changes from our planned itinerary. But before I get to that I’ll finish up with the Grand Tetons. Saturday, Alicia and I did a couple of hikes: one by Christian Pond which was fairly hilly but for our out-of-shape bodies coupled with the altitude, was still a bit of a challenge. We did make it to the top of a hill and got some great views of the Tetons. The next hike we took was around the lake shore. This one was considerably less hilly and offered some amazing waterfront views. After some much needed showers (we’d been showering about every other day to this point) we hiked down to Jackson Lake, a mere quarter mile from our tent, to hang out, enjoy the views, and get a little sun. I’m darker than I’ve been in years and it’s only late June. After dinner we went back down to the lake with our tripod and took some pictures as the sun set. The pictures almost look fake, like we’re at a Grand Teton’s themed High School prom, but it absolutely did look like that. While we were hanging out that night we saw an elk and a mule deer grazing up on the hill behind us, a mere 30 feet away. We then decided we would try and see some more wildlife so we took a quick drive out to the Bridger Teton National Forest figuring the animals would be in abundance out there. Unfortunately they were not, but we did get an amazing pitch black viewing of the stars. At 6,000 feet and in utter darkness, the constellations were more bright and radiant than I’ve ever seen before. The next morning we got up and headed towards Montana, expecting to spend the night at Lost Creek State Park near Butte, Montana.

Since I began planning the trip back in November, Glacier National Park had been in my mind but time and its remote location made it seem unobtainable. Yet as the trip got closer and even once we were on the road people have been asking, “Are you going to Glacier?” and when I say, “I want to but I don’t think it’s gonna fit,” I always got, “Oh you should, it’s spectacular!” So while driving north through Idaho at 80+ miles per hour I realized that we were 160 miles away and would arrive at the state Park at 3pm. I had a feeling we would be in for a letdown after the Teton’s, so Alicia checked the GPS and we saw we could make it to Glacier in another 5 or 6 hours. So Glacier it was. And it didn’t disappoint.

We stayed at Avalanche Campground, which was on the west side of the mountains. That is important to note because our area was lush. I mean moss and ferns everywhere. Dampness permeating the air. A raging creek in earshot. Alicia said it looked like Twilight. Fortunately, Alicia made the decision to cover the tent with the tarp because it rained most of the night. By morning it was sunny. We got everything packed up and began our drive on Going to the Sun Road. The 35 mile road took us up and through and around snowcapped mountains and monoliths, we overlooked luscious valleys, and got spritzed by many, many, many waterfalls that ran down the mountains and across the roads. It would be nearly impossible to count the waterfalls. About halfway was Logan’s Pass and this had to be the highest elevation in the park. Snow was everywhere, still feet thick. Alicia and I climbed up the glacier a little bit – Alicia in her flip flops. On the other side of the mountains, it was dry, much like most of the landscape we’d seen so far and it was easy to understand why: clouds have difficulty getting over the peaks. We took many pictures of them trying.

Glacier National Park is connected to Waterton National Park, a Canadian park, but due to lack of passports, we didn’t make it up that far. On the drive back through the park we saw Big Horn sheep grazing and relaxing between twin waterfalls. We stopped and got lunch and a slice of huckleberry pie in Hungry Horse, MT, which according to USA Today, is the huckleberry capital of the world. We planned to camp near Coeur D’Alene, ID but decided to get a hotel in Spokane, WA because it was getting late. This ended up being a wonderful decision because we woke up to a steady rain and a chilly 55 degrees. It has rained two other nights on the trip but had cleared up by morning. Today it didn’t. Spokane reminded me of a smaller version of Raleigh, just with a raging river running through the middle of town.

Today we drove down Washington and across Oregon to Portland. We watched the Princess Bride at old movie theater across the street from the hostel and then had delicious Thai food at a restaurant across the street, before getting some ice cream. I had a Cherry Cheesecake I cream and Alicia got a scoop of Hibiscus sorbet on top of Lemon Lavender ice cream. Tomorrow Portland awaits!

Wild Wyoming

Happy Saturday  to you! Alicia and I just spent the night camping at beautiful Grand Teton National Park. The Grand Tetons are definitely the most gorgeous scenery we’ve seen on the trip! But to get here we had to drive all the way across Wyoming. My idea of what the states would look like and how they actually look have been pretty different. South Dakota looked about right, but I always pictured Wyoming to be green and mountainous and for the most part it looks like a desert – at least the northern part of the does. We did drive through Big Horn National Forest which was how I imagined Wyoming, but that was maybe only 50 miles or so, then it was back to desert-like scenery. Cody looks like an old west town in Arizona, but as the altitude climbs, the green pine forest returns and you drive into Yellowstone and you really feel like you’re back in the Rockies.  I made my first big blunder, or near blunder at Yellowstone. We arrived at Canyon Campgrounds where I reserved a site for two nights only to find that I wasn’t in the system. The campground clerk did a further search and discovered that I had accidentally booked the campsite for July 20^th instead of June 20^th. Even though the sign said the campground was full they were able to squeeze us in for both nights, just at two different sites. It wasn’t a big deal since we had to pack up just about everything into the car at night so the bears wouldn’t get any ideas.

Wyoming - not Arizona

We got a campfire and dinner going and were immediately bombarded with mosquitos. That was the last critter I expected to run into at 8,000 ft. There is still some snow on the ground and our campground host said that one of the areas got some snow the night before, which was why there were so many of them. Fortunately we brought bug spray. The first night at Yellowstone was absolutely freezing. I’ve been camping when it was in the 30’s but that was in January, not late June. We were prepared for the cold, but it was still a major adjustment. Thursday morning we got up and drove the lower loop around the park. We hiked down to see the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River and its rainbow-producing falls. Going down was fine, it was just the 150 or so stairs back up at an altitude of 8,000 feet that was the tricky. Alicia and I aren’t in the best shape but we’re not too bad, but man I felt sorry for the larger, older people who were heading down as we were struggling back up. Hope they made it up alive. We then drove on and saw a few sulfur and hot springs before getting stuck in traffic because the buffalos were fording the creek and crossing the road to graze on the vast plains. The buffalo tend to chill in the road for a minute before moving on, but it was a great chance to get some up close up shots. Further on the drive were amazing views of Mt. Sheridan from in front of Yellowstone Lake. It was like a postcard. The next stop was at Old Faithful.

Falls at Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River

Old Faithful was kind of neat, but not really worth the hype. It did its thing for about ten minutes but it was just water shooting out of the ground with some steam. Around Old Faithful were other geysers and springs. They didn’t shoot nearly as high as Old Faithful, but the dramatic blue and orange coloring and clearness of the water was way more impressive. It was 5pm by then and time to head back to camp. The second night wasn’t nearly as cold as the first, but it was still chilly.

Heart Spring

The thing about Yellowstone is you need weeks to explore it and really enjoy the entire park. It’s just too huge to truly appreciate it in a day or two. Alicia says it’s like a buffet with its geysers, falls, canyons, mountains, wildlife, trails, hot springs and everything else. There’s something that will make everyone excited.  We didn’t see too much wildlife there, except for the buffalos. Most of the animals come out at night and we trying hard to stay warm by that point.

To the French it's Big Boob National Park

The Grand Teton’s though - pure beauty. Driving down the John D. Rockefeller Jr. parkway and coming around the turn to see the peaks for the first time will take your breath away. The mountains come straight out of the water, like the in the Alps. They are like no other mountains in the US. We found ourselves a campsite at Signal Mountain. Our site is about 100 yards from Jackson Lake and if it weren’t for the trees, we would have a perfect view of the range. After getting settled in yesterday we took a boat cruise on the lake. We saw a bald eagle perched atop a pine and were able to see some waterfalls that only appear in the spring and summer when the snow melts. After the cruise we drove down to Jackson for dinner and a night on the town. We ate at the Snake River Brewpub. We got the sampler plate of their eight drafts which ranged from a Bud Light-esque beer to a dark, chocolately stout, with everything in between including a sour cherry beer that tasted kind of like a bad wine but it was actually good. For appetizers we had pork, elk, and spicy buffalo sausage and for dinner I had an elk burger while Alicia got a beef brisket sandwich. We then walked around the town, experiencing all the dead animals Jackson has to offer. We considered a stuffed wolf, but we figured the $5,000 could be better spent elsewhere. We then made it a furrier. The girl working convinced us to try on a few coats. I looked pimp in a reversible black mink and leather coat and Alicia tried on the most expensive coat in the store, a $40,000 sable jacket. Since there’s not much need for fur in NC, Alicia passed on the coat. They do offer layaway apparently. At dusk we headed back to the park and saw moose make there away across the road. That went along with the young elk we saw after the boat cruise. This morning we had a chipmunk and a marmot hanging around in our campsite, definitely not afraid of us humans. Today will include hiking and photography.

Greetings from Wyoming!

Hello Everyone! Day 6 is just beginning for us, I think. We’ve only been gone for a few days but I’m having trouble keeping up with what day it is and what time it is. It’s hard to believe that only a week ago I was on such a rigid schedule and now time doesn’t really matter. It’s all about sunrise and sunsets.

Since my last communication Alicia and I were at Mammoth Caves Kentucky. We’ve since snipped the southwest corner of Indiana, driven across Illinois and the Mississippi River and made a quick stop in St. Louis, Missouri. The Gateway Arch was more impressive than I ever imagined. I’ve seen it in pictures and on TV, but to see it in person its grasp its enormity. Stopping in St. Louis was fitting as it’s the gateway to the west. Many explorers left from St. Louis, including Merriweather Lewis and William Clark, so it was the perfect place to stop. After the two hour city excursion we continued west, following the Missouri River, like Lewis and Clark until we finally arrived at our destination of Wallace State Park in northwestern Missouri around sundown. While I went to the camp station to pay for the camp site, Alicia stayed back to heat up dinner. When I returned Alicia was completely freaked out. A raccoon was sneaking into the site and she had to scare it away. She spent the rest of the night worrying that critters were going to get us through the tent. We camped near the top of the hill and the wind was swirling pretty heavily. We didn’t put the rain fly on our tent that night and I spent the night worrying that it was about to rain and I would have to cover the tent in the middle of night. Fortunately there were no raccoon attacks or rain storms.

We never got the chance to really look around Wallace State Park, but what we saw was lovely and I would definitely stay there again. We left Wallace SP about 8:30am headed towards Long Pine State Recreation in north-central Nebraska. We could really start seeing the terrain of the country change. Gone were the tall, thick trees. Nebraska was surprisingly more hilly than I ever anticipated. I thought it would be completely flat with nothing but corn, but I felt like we saw more corn in Missouri. There were plenty of cattle though. Long Pine SRA is known as the Beauty Spot of Nebraska and it was very beautiful. The park was very small, mostly on a downward slope that leveled out at Pine Creek. We spent a few minutes wading in the chilly, yet comfortable waters before settling into our campsite closer to the top of hill.

The Purple and Gold Hills

Yesterday was the day that the trip really and truly began for me. We left Nebraska early and as soon as we crossed into South Dakota the temperature dropped ten degrees. Alicia is always talking about running away to Canada if things went bad in the US and we had to flee, but she decided that South Dakota would be suitable for laying low and avoiding people. I hadn’t really seen sparseness like that it a long time. As the terrain began to change and become more mountainous and rugged I began to really get excited about the trip. The colors of the formations were spectacular. In the southern part of the park the hills were striped with red and white. Further north they became purple and gold. Those colorings were obviously more stunning and beautiful. We then took the Sage Creek Rim Road, which was a dirt road out to see the wildlife. We stopped at Robert’s Prairie Dog Town which was a large grassland covered in Prairie Dog mounds. There was a hippie couple from Minnesota who let us know that the prairie dogs were very friendly today. Most of the prairie dogs sounded the alarm and scurried back into their hole when we got too close except for one prairie dog. She had a gimp front paw but would approach people without hesitation. Off the in the distance we saw our first buffalo, but they were too far away to take pictures of. We did see a grey fox or perhaps a coyote that was trying to get a prairie dog snack.

From Badlands we went into Wall, SD which is known for Wall Drug Store, the world famous tourist trap of a store. We ate buffalo burgers before exploring the many rooms of the store. From there we headed west on I-90 to Mt. Rushmore. Mt. Rushmore was of course pretty impressive. We walked on the Presidential Trail and were able to see the giant heads from some neat angles. It was now time to find a place to camp for the night. Our first plan was Custer State Park, just south of Mt. Rushmore, but we found you were supposed to make reservations in advance and there was no vacancy anyhow, so we headed south to Wind Cave National Park, where there was plenty of vacancy. While driving through Custer and Wind Cave we finally got to see buffalo up close. We watched them cross fields, climb hills, cross roads, and lick dirt on the shoulder of the road. We also saw deer, antelope, and small bunnies. After setting up camp and making dinner we noticed the sky turning black and the sound of thunder off in the distance. Last night we experienced our first thunderstorm and torrential downpour. Alicia draped one of our tarps over the tent, since there were no trees to tie it up and we listened to the rain dance on the tarp throughout much of the night. Fortunately the rain eventually stopped and we were able to get pack up and on the road without too much trouble. We were on the road by 7:30 because we had no idea what time it was. It seemed later. We stopped in Custer, SD for breakfast and while eating it began to downpour again. At the restaurant we parked next to a car with NC tags and East Carolina stickers on it! Pirates everywhere we go! Haven’t seen any UNC, NCSU, or Duke stickers… We’re currently driving through Wyoming, on our way to Yellowstone!

Wind Cave National Park

Internet, as you can imagine, is sketchy in these parts. Pictures take forever to upload. When we to a city I’ll try to put more up.

Will.

Mammoth Caves

Day 2 is just about in the bag. Alicia is already passed out in the tent, but that's nothing new for her. Yesterday was a really smooth day of traveling. We only got caught in a little bit of traffic just inside Tennessee on I-40. Nothing like what we saw later on I-75 South (we fortunately were headed north). Traffic was backed up about 5 miles.

We stopped in Glasgow, KY to get food for the weekend, only to find that Barren County, KY is dry. Fortunately our national government stepped up where a county government failed. The campsite is rather large, so at least Alicia's happy and there are all kinds of crazy animal shenanigans. Last night two deer went rampaging through the site. We didn't have a fire going so they must of thought they had free-range of the place. We found raccoon paws prints on the towel we're using to lay out dishes to dry and Alicia saw two squirrels making love up in a tree.

Today we did two cave tours. The weather so far has been pretty nice Only spotty rain and a slight breeze is keeping it pleasant, but when we approached the cave entrance, it felt like walking into glorious A/C. Once exiting the first cave (The Historic Entrance) I sweated like it was August even though it was quite pleasant.
We did a short self-guided tour first which allowed us to kill some time and really cool down (the caves never get above 60 degrees Fahrenheit). At 12:30 we went on the New Entrance Tour. The New Entrance was discovered by guy back in the 1910's, about 100 years after the Historic Entrance was established. Mammoth Caves aren't really known for their formations, but we got to see the Frozen Niagara Room, which houses most of the cave's stalagtights and mites.

It's really interesting knowing that below me right now are underground tunnels. We went down as far as 250 feet below the surface, but because the caves are so big it never felt claustophobic or like we weren't in some huge windowless room. There were some tight passages early on in the tour, but someone could live comfortably in a large portion of what we saw.

Following the cave tour we went down to the ferry and watched it cross cars across the Green River for a while before making hobo mills and settling in around the campfire. Tomorrow: Northwestern Missouri.

Will.

We Leave Tomorrow!

After seven months of planning, Alicia and I leave tomorrow on our road trip! Even though I'm 95% packed and multiple lists have been made and marked off it still doesn't feel like I'm leaving in the morning. That probably won't set in until the distance from Raleigh accumulates. But we are prepared. That's what 7 months of thinking and dreaming will do. I'm most excited about the hammacks. We saw some parachute hammocks at Great Outdoor Provision Company so we immediately rushed home and bought them off Amazon, because honestly, I'm not paying retail price for anything at Cameron Village. Alicia and I went down to the Rose Garden and tried one out. I'm coming up a plan to hang up it in my classroom next year.

I'll try to update everyday other day or so. We have three cameras so expect lots and lots of pictures.

Will.