Greetings from Moab, Utah

The road trip is finally finding a groove. With the early calamities behind us, we’ve successfully reached the west and all of the splendors it has to offer. And we’re ahead of schedule. Right now I’m sitting in my hammock at an RV park in Moab, Utah watching the sun set over the red rock mountains.  Here’s what’s happened since last time.

Wednesday morning we got up and left Wichita early so that we could make it to Dodge City in time to see the high noon Wild West shootout spectacular. Basically some high school kids and local community theater actors reenact what a typical day in Dodge City was like, where in the end everyone dies in a violent shootout. It was fun and plus we got an autographed cast glossy! We then got the Hell out of Dodge and drove west over the vast, windy wasteland that is Kansas/Eastern Colorado. We passed cows, corn, and wheat, cows, corn and wheat, cows, corn, and wheat until off in the distance, some ways into Colorado, we could make out mountains in the distance. Two hours later we reached those mountains and then drove further until off in the distance we saw a 30 square mile pile of sand.  We had arrived: Great Sand Dunes National Park! The Great Sand Dunes are, well, a 30 square mile pile of sand abutted against the Sangre De Cristo range on one side and open, flat for forever nothingness on the other. When we arrived at the campsite a storm was trying to make its way over said mountains. The wind was blowing, but not as nearly as hard as in Kansas and the temperature dropped from 100 degrees down 60. We quickly set up our campsite and storm-proofed it, but of course the mountains broke up the storm and we were left with a perfectly tarped tent and no rain. With improving weather and cool temperatures we settled in for the night.

Wednesday night was a chilly night. When we got up the next morning at seven, the temperature in my car read 43 degrees, a near 60 degree drop from the previous afternoon. Alicia and I walked down to the sand dunes from our campsite to take pictures as the sun rose for the day. The low sun helped create dark contrasting shadows on the dunes, perfect (we hope) for some black and white pictures. We walked back and Alicia began to make breakfast while I was sent on a mission to bring back some ice. I brought back some ice as well as a sand sled. So now our morning was planned: struggle up the dunes and slide back down on a waxed sled. The sliding down part was fun: gliding down a 40 foot slope that was at a 70 degree angle is exhilarating. The struggling up part was a struggle. In some parts the sand was soft, so soft that it filled up my shoes as I worked my way up the dunes. The dunes are the tallest in the US, with the highest peak reaching over 750 feet. At 8000 feet above sea level, the sun scorches everything, even with it being only 80 degrees. By eleven  in the morning the sand was too hot to walk on comfortably without shoes, so that meant splashing around in Medano Creek for a bit and then lunch, and then a drive through the vast nothingness leading up to the dunes for an hour and seeing absolutely nothing. When we got back to our site there were three mule deer snacking and laying under the tree that our hammocks hung on. We took a billion pictures and hours of video of the deer because, hey, why not.  Besides, one was really big and they were so close. We later went back down to the dunes to fry in the sun and splash around the creek before eating dinner and then going for a sunset hike up the Medano Primitive Road.

Friday morning we packed everything up and made our way north to Rocky Mountain National Park, trading the vast nothingness for alpine passes. Up the mountains, down the mountains, around the mountains, through the mountains on our way to Boulder (to stock up) and back into the mountains and finally to the Park, itself.  Then we had to drive up a ridgeline road with snowcapped peak after snowcapped peak visible to the left, glimmering in the late afternoon sun. Man, it was awful. We set up camp and then went for a drive in the intense, lowering sun to look for wildlife and take pictures. We saw deer, elk, birds, prairie dogs, chipmunks. We have chipmunks around our apartment yet we still try to take pictures of them when we see them at a park. It’s amazing how quickly priorities change when you’re on the road. We had our first campfire of the trip that night and roasted some marshmallows and drank some beer and then settled in for a chilly Rocky Mountain night.

Saturday morning we arose, broke down camp and went to the range where Alicia’s cousin lost his life while rock climbing last summer. After that we began our drive through the National Park, enjoying stunning vistas of snowcapped mountains and forested valleys, rising above the snowline where feet of snow still lined the road and the tops of mountains. It was very reminiscent of a Coors Light can. We reached the alpine tundra where no trees grow and saw marmots scurrying about the rocky terrain before reaching the Alpine visitor center for lunch and a hike up steps to the top of the mountains. The altitude was marked there at 12,005 feet. It even flurried briefly. We then made our way down the mountain and the back side of the park and reached where we had planned to camp at 2:00 and deciding that we weren’t ready to camp decided to head on. Well we had to make sure we got past some intense-looking storms forming over the mountains, so we kept driving, through Glenwood Canyon to the town of Glenwood. We checked out a campsite but deemed it too close to the interstate with too much sun and not enough to do, so we decided to trek on to Grand Junction, Colorado and get a motel. After having a little difficulty finding a cheap motel because of a local country music festival we finally found a room at a Super 8, ordered a pizza, and got some good rest.

But seeing how we drove five hours further than we had planned, we now basically had a free day since Grand Junction and Moab are only an hour and a half a part. So we decided to drive down to Mesa Verde National Park and see the cliff dwellings. But before we did that we went to Colorado National Monument, which is right outside of Grand Junction. Colorado National Monument is a beautiful land of canyons and rock pillars that is best scene from the Rim Drive. There were plenty of bicyclists riding through the park but car traffic was light and it helped make for a leisurely morning. Following the Colorado NM we drove down the four hours to Mesa Verde National Park, where we had a few hours to see what we could see. After a twenty mile winding drive up the green mesas we arrived at Spruce Tree House which is the iconic cliff dwellings that you see whenever you see pictures from Mesa Verde. We hiked down to the dwellings and explored what we were allowed to explore. I must say, the Puebloans picked a nice spot to build a village. They were protected from bad weather and enemies and the animals must have been abundant, munching on the lush vegetation. We then drove the Mesa Loop to view other cliff dwellings from the other side of the canyon. We then drove to Moab and set up camp. Tomorrow is Arches National Park, followed by Canyonlands on Tuesday.

Greetings from Wichita

Well, this year’s road trip has gotten off to a bit of an auspicious start with a sliced finger and a cracked windshield, all in just the first two days. Sunday started out overcast, but we soon found some sunshine as we headed towards Mt. Mitchell, the highest point east of the Mississippi River. We had some great views on the Blue Ridge Parkway heading up the mountain, but once at the top found it to be mostly overcast, which is typical of the area. Only about 25% of the 360 degree vista was clear, but it was nice none-the-less. After that we continued on the Blue Ridge Parkway to the Craggy Gardens which offered a commanding view of the mountains. The sun was shining beautifully on the mountains. Around five we made it to the entrance of Great Smoky Mountains National Park and were greeted with a few drops on the windshield, but as we crossed the mountains and entered Tennessee the rain picked up some, just enough to be annoying. Around seven we made it to our campsite at Cade’s Cove and began to set up in the drizzle. We bought a pop-up shelter for this trip and had an opportunity to use it the first night. It worked like a champ keeping our tent dry throughout the night. Alicia is very paranoid about the tent with “rain seeping through” being her number one fear. She was able to sleep well knowing the tent would be dry when we got up.

Craggy Gardens on Blue Ridge Parkway

But before we went to sleep, just as we were about to sit down to eat Alicia’s delicious anniversary steak dinner, I decided to (stupidly) open the bottle of champagne with my pocket knife. I got myself pretty good on the top of my left pointer finger. Alicia bound it up tight and the bleeding stopped, but I’ll be wearing a bandage for a few days. Fortunately it doesn’t hurt and seems to be healing properly. I think a Great Smoky Mountains curse may have been put on me. Last year, Alicia, Nicolle and I went camping at Cataloochee and while splitting kindling with a hatchet, I hit my left thumb nail, which eventually led to half the nail falling off. I was lucky I got the nail…If I ever go to the Smokies again, I will not be using anything sharp. I’d like to keep my middle finger.

Day two started off a little better as we made our way across Tennessee on our way to the Land Between the Lakes, a National Recreation area between two lakes (go figure) on the Tennessee/Kentucky boarder. Less than hour out from LBL we were a car behind a logging truck. We were at an intersection and up ahead the road added another lane. About five seconds after Alicia commented that we could finally pass the track there was a loud pop and my windshield had a spider web crack about sick inches in diameter. Talks about the trip being cursed began but we headed on to LBL and made the best of the rest of the day.

The Land Between the Lakes is a beautiful piece of land with hard forests, its on planetarium, and a Bison and Elk reserve. So of course we got there at three in the afternoon, during Bison and Elk naptime. While driving through the 700 acre reserve we did manage to see four elk grazing in the distance, as well as some wild turkeys and a raccoon, but no bison (though we did see some off in the distance in a smaller reserve) but it was fun to be on the hunt. The trip began to feel like an adventure again. After that we left the area and made a change to our plans. The first and definitely not the last. We originally planned to camp near Van Buren, MO and tube down the Current River this morning, but decided that even though the crack in the windshield wasn’t spreading, it would probably be best to get it fixed, and it also might not be a good idea for me to submerge my finger in a river. So instead we set up an appointment in Springfield, MO to get the windshield replaced and drove until ten o’clock at night to get there.

At least we saw an Elk

Today we got the windshield fixed and it only took an hour. Since we were three hours closer to today’s destination we decided to visit the George Washington Carver National Monument in nearby Diamond, MO. The park is a beautiful chunk of forest and prairie on the site where Carver was born. It’s basically a giant field trip opportunity for southwestern Missouri schools but Alicia was impressed with how well the exhibits worked for both children and adults.

We left from there around two, heading to Fall River State Park in Kansas. The trip there was fortunately mishap free. Fall River State Park is set on a beautiful prairie with gorgeous hardwoods lining a lake. It was also incredibly windy. Incredibly, incredibly windy. But then again it is Kansas and now Alicia understands why Dorothy didn’t take the threat of tornados too seriously. So we set up the tent and thus began another episode of Alicia being paranoid about the tent. She’s convinced it would either unstake itself from the ground or simply rip apart in the wind. After getting the bedding situated and realizing we wouldn’t be able to get the stove lit and that we would nothing to do besides take a hike or sit in the wind we decided to take a hike (rim shot) and get a hotel in Wichita. So we did and there’s significantly less wind in the hotel room. Tomorrow, getting the Hell out of Dodge and Great Sand Dune National Park in Colorado.

Too windy?

Two Weeks Out

It's hard to believe that in two weeks, Alicia and I will celebrate our 1st anniversary together and embark on another summer-long road trip together, driving all the way to Alaska and back. This trip has been in the making since January of 2013 when one Saturday afternoon we decided, what the hell, we'll drive to Alaska next summer. The first road trip was such an amazing success and it still lingers in my thoughts on a near daily basis. It doesn't hurt to have taken pictures, posters, maps, postcards, etc from that trip and covered an entire wall of our living room.

Last summer, we had an incredible time in Costa Rica and Panama, but while there, we both made the comment that we missed being on the road. We missed having our own vehicle and leaving when we wanted to. We missed sleeping outside, watching the landscape change, and seeing mountains larger and more grandiose than I could've ever imagined. Another year has passed and we're counting down the days.

It was a little harder to build excitement leading up to the trip this time around. The winter weather threatened to put a kink in our plans, and it wasn't until recently that we worked everything out, but we're managing to leave when we intended to. Who needs teacher work days at the end of the year any way? And come on, three and a half weeks before departure my car gets totaled. Fortunately, I wasn't injured and fortunately it happened far enough out that I was able to jump through the insurance hoops and get another vehicle in time. Plus it's three years younger and has 63,000 less miles on it!

The plan is to head west, visit Colorado, Utah, Idaho, and Washington before driving through British Columbia and catching a ferry through the Inside Passage of Alaska's southeastern peninsula. From there we drive through the Yukon Territory. That should take around three weeks. We'll spend two weeks in Alaska, visiting three National Parks and taking a tour up to the Arctic Circle. After that we'll use another three weeks to visit the Canadian Rockies before entering the US again through Montana. We head back to NC through North Dakota the Great Lake states, and down through Virginia. In all, well be gone for 8 weeks, from June 15th until August 9th. We expect to put at least 15,000 miles on the vehicle. We'll be visiting about 15 US National Parks and around 8 or so in Canada. I'll have visited 43 out of 50 states (Hawaii and all of New England will be left) when all is said and done.

Here's to hoping the last two weeks of school go quickly and smoothly.