Bye Wyoming and friends

Jay and I got into Rocky Mountian National Forest last night around 10pm. We drove all the way from Jackson and it was a long trip. We were supossed to get here yesterday but on the pass from Jackson to Dubois our car decided to break down. We waited three hours for the tow truck, then drove an hour and a half back to town to find that the shop was closed. This on our one year anniversary!
We were both tired and frustrated as we called Jay McClymont to come pick us up. He drove us back to the cabin of one of our other friends where everyone was eating dinner. It ended up being so great. They did awards for everyone who went up the mountain and they were hilarious. We ate good food and then everyone sang Happy Anniversary over a cake that Jay had bought on the way to pick us up. They also bought us some Gin to make some Gin and Tonics. As if that isn't enough, they gave us a card and some money to help us out with our car. I was so touched I almost cried. We got to stay at the cabin in the spare bedroom which was great!
Our car was ready at about 11:30am the next morning and we headed out of Jackson, this time making it over the pass! In Dubois we had a delicious lunch at the Cowboy Cafe- the best burgers and pies you will ever have. Then we hit up Lander to check out the NOLS store. Finally we started heading towards CO and are now in Estes Park right outside Rocky Mountian. We are going to head into Boulder today and hopefully meet up with my cousin. Jay and I are liking CO alot, loving how close the park is to cool cities but totally remote when you are there. We were also thinking it would be sweet to climb all of these mountains, now that Jay has a taste of the top.
We had a blast in WY with everyone. While Jay was on the mountian, I stayed back with Tricia and Val and the kids. I had fun hanging with them and playing with the kids. Tricia even got me into a mountian lake- String lake in Teton park. It was freezing but we swam to a rock and had a blast.
We are blessed with great friends!

13,770 ft.

This past Saturday, a team consisting of Dave Tanis, Wes Vander Ark and I climbed to the top of the Grand Teton via the Owen Spalding route - the same one used by Paul Petzoldt as a 16 year old in 1924 who climbed the Grand in cowboy boots and blue jeans. Petzoldt and a friend used a pocket knife to carve steps into the ice during the ascent. The near experience caused Petzoldt to dedicate his life to educating others about how to conduct themselves safely in the outdoors. For Dave, who had met Paul Petzoldt several times, it was walking in the footsteps of one of the greats (if the not the great) in American wilderness education. For me, it was a fantastic ascent with one of the people who mentored me as I first set out into the wilderness.

The Grand Teton is the centerpiece of Grand Teton National Park. It is the 2nd highest peak in Wyoming being only 34 ft. shorter than Gannett Peak in the Wind River Range (13,804 ft.) William Owen and Frank Spalding made the first ascent along with two others in 1898. There is some debate as to whether or not they were actually the first party to reach the top as there are earlier claims by other parties and evidence that Native Americans reached the Upper Saddle on the mountain. They are the most likely to have constructed the Enclosure, a mysterious rock structure at over 13,000 ft.

A picture is worth a thousand words, but they don't quite capture the whole experience of this climb. Perspective is lost in many of these, but to give you an idea, most of the technical climbing is done above a 6,000-7,000 ft. drop - all the way to the valley floor. While the climbing is not difficult, the exposure and the technical scrambling made for an exciting trip.

Photos for now

Everyone looking at the photos from the top. Tanis family, McClymont Family, Vander Arks and Jay!
The group hiking down from the moraine

Wes starting the rappel to the Upper Saddle

Dave sitting on the top!
Sunrise on the Middle Teton.

My foot after a few days of healing before the climb.

The Grand Teton

We saw this bear on the way down eating some berries. We walked by about 20 ft. from it, but it wasn't too concerned with us. Unfortunately, that probably means that it has become habituated to humans and the park service will either relocate it or euthanize it.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=11yjagrh.1sn2gv45&x=0&y=-53gcoh&localeid=en_US All the other photos. I changed to Ofoto so you don't need an account. Just click view slideshow!

The Waiting Is the Hardest Part

Still in beautiful (and insanely busy) Jackson right now. We've met up with a lot of friends from the Messiah/Harrisburg area. It's been great to have a large group to hang out with for a change, and the nightly dominoes games are a welcome change from mind-numbing rounds of rummy 500.

Thankfully, I was able to get a permit for the same days as my friends to climb the Grand Teton, so tomorrow I will be hiking up into the mountains to make our summit bid. The only downside is that Patti and I didn't really plan what else we were going to do while in Jackson, so we're basically killing time whiling everyone else is out whitewater rafting. It's probably for the best, though. I don't think my foot would benefit from being soaking wet all day. It is healing very nicely in the few days since my wreck. I've been able to wear shoes, and I don't think it will be anything more than an annoyance once we set out for the Grand. In a couple days I'll (hopefully) have some exciting summit pictures to share.

Hiking the Ochocos

So I figured I would write about our backpacking trip. For me, I would consider this my first real backpacking experience. Even though I have gone backpacking before, every other time I had to keep dropping weight because my shoulder kept dislocating. So I say this was my first time because it was the first time I got to go three days with the same amount of weight without my shoulder dislocating once!! Hallelujah!
Before I begin let me also say that the map we got from REI was awful. The area we were hiking in took up about 1/20th of the map making it extremely cumbersome to open and find our little area. Also, the map was void of any contour lines making it very hard to figure out where exactly we were or how to plan for the next hike. Made things interesting.
So we began our hike at one trail head, parking our car, packing up and heading out. The beginning of the trail was uphill the entire time. I felt pretty strong starting out which surprised me. My new pack was amazing and when I finally got everything properly adjusted it fit great. The forest we were hiking in was a little strange. It had dead trees and what looked like logged trees as well. It wasn't very pretty for quite some time. As we kept hiking I began to feel the pain of backpacking. It starts in your hips, where the hip belt grinds against your bones. It then moves to your lower back where you bend slightly as you walk. Then your legs and your feet in your boots. Finally your shoulders and neck get sore. Its lovely, really, I can see why people like doing this...
As we continue hiking, Jay sees something off to the right and we hike towards it. It is a Spring that has been made into three huge troughs. The area looks well camped in and we keep it in mind for water later. We continue hiking and my feet are hurting bad now. My Achilles tendon is rubbing and it feels like I am getting some blisters. I let Jay know and we stop to take care of it and put some tape on my feet. We get back up and Jay suggests we just go back to that Spring and camp there. We don't know when we will see water next. This decision was the perfect decision. Even though we had only hiked about 1 1/2 miles (uphill the whole time) we stopped and set up camp.
Another side note. This area has the largest infestation of ants I have ever seen. There were no mosquitoes, thank god, but the ants were insane. Every variety you can think of- large black, small black, red head black body, black head red body- all living in harmony with each other. Everything got covered in ants, including us, during the whole trip. They even ate through a plastic bag of ours, the thick plastic zip lock kind. Crazy.
Anyway, we camped and slept and all was well. The next day we set out hiking again, still not sure what our plan is. We figure we will hike in a ways, camp, rest for a day, then hike all the way back out to our car taking the same route. We hike along and finally start getting some really nice views. The trail we were on takes you to the summit of lookout mountain and then there are a bunch of trails you can take back down. Jay and I keep walking, hoping to make it to a spring on the map. Having no idea really how far we have gone or how far we have left, we stop for lunch. The view at lunch was amazing. We sat on a cliff overlooking the three sisters, three fingered jack and Jefferson mountain. We took a long lunch, fending off the ants, and then decided to keep going forward, waiting for that spring. So, after lunch generally is awful. You are sluggish and full and tired. Putting your pack back on is torture, and for me it was tightening the hip belt across my hips that was killer. We went really slow after lunch and a part of me was ready to call it quits. Jay was awesome. He kept encouraging me and telling me how great I was doing which definitely helped me go on. After about an hour of feeling awful, I got my energy back and started enjoying it again. We kept on hiking up, up, up. Enjoying the amazing views and now the wildflowers. As we got closer to the top the landscape turned from sage brush and dirt to lush fields of wildflowers. It was awesome.
We finally make it to the summit and feel great for having done so. We take a look at the map, our awful map, and figure we have to take this trail to get to that spring. There was a while coming up that Jay and I started to panic about the water situation. Jay especially. As we were walking up, we started to see some tiny little creeks of water crossing the trail. It was a very joyous occasion. Anyway, back to the top. We decided to keep going and try to find that spring. I was tired but also determined to make it. We trugged along, finally going downhill for awhile. We keep going and keep going and there is no spring. Crap. Now what. We see some more markers and signs, keep checking our map which is no help and decide all we can do is keep hiking. I start praying for water. Please God send us some water, anything, just so we can filter and have some for tomorrow. At this point there is no way we are going back to that first spring. We have come too far. We keep going and now the trail and landscape is gorgeous! Full fields of flowers and plants, views and we actually see some people now. We pass two on the trail and ask them how far to the trail head. They tell us about 2 miles (this is another trail head, not the one we started at.) We force ourselves to keep going. By this point, even Jay is feeling tired and ready to stop. We are both slightly panicked about the water situation but we keep it to ourselves and keep hiking.
Finally, we find a stream. A gorgeous, perfect stream. Oh the Joy!! We were so excited. We started to look for a campsite right away and I was holding out for a nice one. Jay pointed out some that would work but I kept insisting. (The last night we had spent on an incline and I didn't sleep at all, I wasn't ready to do a repeat.) So we held out and found a sweet site and got some water and settled in. It was glorious to stop and get our packs off. We ate and waited for the sun to go down so it would be ok to go to bed. I was ready to get into bed around 8pm. We slept soundly and the next day decided that instead of resting, we would hike out and then hike the road back to our car. We pack up and head out.
The hike out was alright. It was short but it hurt for sure. We get down to the trail head and are hoping for some cars to give us a ride to the car. We wait and soon enough, three people and their two dogs come from a trail and head towards their car. The start talking to us and we talk about what we did. After alot of small talk, Jay asked if they would mind taking one of us to the car. They say they can take us both and we are stoked. We load up our packs in the back of their subaru with their two large dogs. The poor dogs barely had room. Thank god they rode with the windows down too, because we were pretty ripe.
They were awesome people. They lived in Bend and the two were probably late fifties/early sixties. They had mountain biked all over, told us to take a better route in Idaho, the guy hunts for elk and deer with a bow and arrow every season. They park the RV for 30 days in the woods and he goes for it. Their daughter had worked at Denali in Alaska and all of them were pretty awesome. We never got their name but were so so thankful for the ride. The road ended up being much longer, much hillier and much rougher than we had thought.
We got to the car, said goodbye, threw our stuff in and headed towards the first showers we could find.
So overall it was a really great trip. Very eventful. I felt really good about what I was able to do and expressed with Jay that there is something really cool about backpacking. It hurts, it is hard and you wanna stop so bad some times and just quit. The cool thing is though that you get to challenge your body and mind in a way that nothing else can. You can push yourself past the point of no return just to see that your body has strength left, that your perserverence still remains. I had a blast and was glad to spend some time in the woods.
We are now heading to Jackson to meet up with the Tanis', the Vander Arks, and the McClymonts. We will write soon about that and let you know if Jay makes it up the Grand!
PS- his foot is healing really well and faster than expected. Please pray that it continues to heal and that he can climb. It would be a bummer if he was unable to do it, he has been looking forward to this for a long time. So pray people, pray!

Photos

Here are some photos from our travels so far. The full album will be linked at the end.

Enjoy!

View of Mount Hood driving east of Portland- we had it is sight for hours, it was really amazing.

Bakcpacking in the Ochocos.

More Backpacking. This plant was everywhere and looked like it belonged in the tropics- not the alpine desert. Crazy

Our crazy campsite at Craters of the Moon.

Our sweet house in Victor- Thanks to Matt and Sarah and Sarahs super generous brother!

The full album- just hit view photos- you don't have to set up an account.

http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=157211216678730844/l=400619235/g=7887130/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

Portland and Mountains and Bike Wrecks, Oh My!

It's been awhile since we've had a chance to write. I wrote a short entry in the Boise public library the other day, but time ran out and I was kicked off before I could finish it. Quite a lot has happened since we left California more than a week ago.

So here we are now.... "relaxing" in Victor, Idaho and the lovely home of my friends' brother (and brother-in-law). This is my first visit to this side of the Tetons, and it is awesome. Victor is a town of 840 people. Hiking, biking, climbing and fishing abound. The house we're staying in has views of the Tetons off of the back porch and you can even see the very top of the Grand Teton. Yesterday, after we settled into the house a little, Patti and borrowed the mountain bikes in the garage and headed downt he bike path into town. Our first and only stop was the town market, which is very similar to the market in Greenport, NY. You can do some shopping, get a great sandwhich or a smoothie... all of your small town needs in one place. The ride to town was uneventful. The ride back was a little more exciting.

After finishing our smoothies in the Victor "City" Park, Patti and I switched bikes and headed back to the house. The one I was now riding had clipless pedals that made for a small platform to pedal on, and it had disc brakes that didn't exactly work. None of this should have been a problem since the path is completely flat, but I managed to find a way to combine those things into a nice wreck.

WARNING! Gory details to follow! Faint of heart, please skip to the next paragraph. While riding, I picked up a little speed and stood up on the pedals to give it some gusto when the chain suddenly decided to change gears without my prompting. This caused my chaco wearing right foot to slip off the pedal and begin grinding on the pavement. I simultaneously fell onto the crossbar narrowly avoiding serious injury. All the while I am trying to slam on the non existent brakes. Eventually I slip off the path and do a header over the handlbars and into the brush and gravel. The first thing I notice when I pop up to survey the damage is the significant amout of blood streaming out of my right foot. Other than that there were only a few bumps and bruises, but the amount of blood was a little alarming. I initially thought that I saw some bone when I pulled aside what was left of my sandal strap to see the wound. Without many other options, Patti and finished the ride home debating whether or not this was worth a trip to the hospital with our current minimalist health insurance. Once at the house, I went inside to resurvey and decided that though gruesome, I did not need professional medical attention. The pavement had basically burned three holes into the top of my foot and worn away the middle portion of the toenail on my big toe. The fact was that there wasn't anything left to be stitched up. I set to work cleaning and dressing it while Patti graciously cleaned what was left of my chaco. Kids, this is why your mom always tells you never to wear sandals while riding your bike.

The bike wreck has put a little damper on our plans. Instead of enjoying all of the wilderness that the Teton Valley has to offer we're at the house resting and watching movies. The injury to my toenail has made it difficult to wear shoes, so I'm not sure what this means for my plans to climb the Grand in a week. It's frustrating to be shut down by a relatively minor scrape.

Let's back up for a bit...

Patti last wrote about our time in California, and since then, most our time has been spent in Oregon. After driving up the California coast we stopped for the night just inside the Oregon border at a state park on the Chetco river. Apparently, the Chetco is one of the 25 best fishing rivers in the country according to a sign at the park. The river itself had beautifully clear water with a rock bottom. Perhaps someday we'll be back when the salmon are running. From there, we drove north along the coast until turning inland towards Portland. Again camping at a state park, we met a guy from Ohio who was in Oregon with his wife interviewing for positions with Young Life. They had visited the area last summer and decided that they wanted to relocate.

The next day was spent in Portland. It is an awesome city that we were only able to see a tiny part of. We toured a few local universities picking up info for grad school and then caught a free lunchtime concert at Pioneer Courthose Square. The concerts happen every Tuesday and Thursday at noon and are just one of the many things that Portland offers its residents for free. I loved Portland, but the truth is, I just didn't see enough of it to decide for sure that I want to live and go to school here. I did decide though, that I definitely want to attend a larger school when I do go to grad school. We visited George Fox University, a Quaker school just outside the city, and I realized two things: 1) Messiah College is actually a really great school for its size, and 2) I don't want to go to grad school at a small Christian college.

Heading out of Portland we got some great views of Oregon landmarks like Multnomah Falls and Mt. Hood. We drove around a few sides of Mt. Hood as the road wrapped around towards Bend. Bend is not what we expected. It has a reputation as "the" outdoor enthusiast's place to live, and it certainly is that. But, it is also where the chic and retired Oregonians live as well. The main street was more upscale shopping and dining than outdoor town. It was also a lot larger than I knew - 75,000 people. Our one real stop was at REI to get some maps and info about hiking in the Three Sisters Wilderness (The Three Sisters are three 10,000 ft volcanic peaks just outside of town). It took a little time to find someone at REI who actually used the equipment they sold, but eventually we talked to Tom who gave us some great advice. Word on the street was that the Sisters were still under 7 or 8 feet of snow (in July!) and indescribably bug infested. He steered us to a mountain range a little lower in elevation and further east called the Ochocos. It turned out to be a great recommendation.

Patti and I spent 3 days hiking Lookout Mountain in the Ochocos. There were some great views from the top and an impressively few number of mosquitos. I think Patti will write more about how the hiking went. Thanks to a very nice family from Bend, we got a ride back to our car saving us several miles of extra hiking. This allowed us to get on the road earlier and on our way towards Idaho. Our last night in Oregon was spent on the Snake River at Farewell Bend State Park. We decided to attend the ranger program that night called Owls of Farewell Bend. It was actually really interesting, and we even got to see the park's resident great horned owl.

Leaving the next morning we headed into Idaho for what has been the most pleasant surprise of the trip so far. Idaho is an awesome state (don't tell anyone....). Thanks to Subaru guy from Bend who gave us a ride, we took a great scenic route through some really beautiful country. We stopped for lunch in Boise, which is currently sitting in the top spot as best city we've visited so far. We walked around the clean streets and through the farmers market/art fest that happens every Saturday. We saw more people on bikes there than in the supposedly most bike friendly city in the US, Portland. There were so many bikers that there were not enough bike racks in town for everyone. Every single tree and lightpost had a collection of at least 10 bikes chained to it. Boise is one of those cities for "people in the know" because everyone else says exactly what you're thinking right now and what I used to think - "Idaho?! Why would anyone ever want to move to Idaho?"

Idaho is also tied with the salt flats for the most surreal landscape so far. On the way to Victor we camped in Craters of the Moon National Preserve. It's a 52 mile long stretch of hardened lava created by a huge fissure. The park has all kinds of crazy volcanic landscape features that go on as far as the eye can see. For all of you conspiracy theorists out there, "they" definitely could have staged the moon landing here. The one campground in the park is made out of crushed volcanic boulders. You camp surrounded by craters and black sand. The pictures only begin to give you an idea.

That about brings you up to speed on the last week or so. We're meeting some friends in Jackson in a couple days to head into the Tetons. I'll let you know how that goes or doesn't go with my foot injury. Pictures coming soon...

California

We made it to Cali. We ended up staying in a hotel which at first was annoying but then heavenly. We totally vegged out the first day, enjoying being clean and cozy. On Friday, we woke up and decided to head to San Fran. Jay had never been which was cool because I got to play tour guide. We went into chinatown first and found a sweet gallary of some crazy art. Then we walked to the bay and walked along the piers. When we got to pier 39 I was all excited to show Jay the sea lions. As we got closer I couldn't hear them and I couldn't smell them either. As the docks came into sight I got my hopes up to see that, what? there aren't any! There were like 5 sea lions out of the normal 100-200. Apparently the Califronia sea lion goes down south in the summer, total bummer.

The empty piers where the sea lions usually are...

We kept walking along the bay to see the golden gate. When we got to Ghiradelli Square we were going to take the trolley but the line was ridiculous so we decided to walk. We walked by Lombard St, the crookedest street in the world, and kept walking up and down hills through the city. Finally, we got to the BART and headed home, exhausted.

The next day we met my friend Hope for lunch. It was so great to see her and for Jay to finally meet her. She told me I had done well and it meant alot. We also got to grab a movie which was nice. We saw Wall-E and we both loved it! If you haven't seen it, go! You will like it.

We said goodbye to Hope and got onto Highway 1. Jay and I both agree that this is a favorite of the trip. Highway 1 is amazing! It runs along the coast on this crazy winding road. I got pretty sick while on it but Jay was totally loving driving on it. You drive through lush Redwood forests one minute and then hud the coast line the next. It was just amazing. We took a detour to drive along Avenue of the Giants and this was so awesome. The Redwood forests have an almost spiritual presence, a hush, like it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for a fairy to cross the road or for me to see an centuar out the window. We stopped to walk around in one of the more well known groves and it was so wonderful to walk among these giants. While on Highway 1, we also got to drive our car through a tree, which was a little silly but a must do for sure.

Massive redwoods...

We stayed the night at a really cool campsite along the highway once we got into Oregon. Jay was really excited and he began pointing out everything that Oregon had that was better than any place else. Immediately the people got nicer. We stopped for gas and the attendant came over and chatted with Jay while he pumped. At the campsite, our tent neighbors invited us to play apples to apples with them. The camp host was also super friendly. It def. gets contagious too, Jay and I are way more friendly around people than normal, not that we are usually mean or anything, but lets face it, I am a New Yorker, I consider making eye contact to be pretty darn friendly. We went to the grocery store and the cashier was really chatty as well. Crazy.

The other thing about Highway 1 that I forgot to mention is that you drive through these totally awesome small towns. It makes it hard to just drive right through because they draw you in. The stores also have the best names ever. Coffee places named "the human bean" or "brewed awakenings" Craft stores named "keep it art sea" Places like this are all over.

Highway 1 along the coast.

Jay and I are now sitting in downtown Portland in the library. My time is running out but I will attach the link for the rest of the photos and we will update soon!

http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=248151216146783386/l=400466624/g=7887130/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

One more thing about Nevada

So I had spent some time on roadside america before we left PA. I had read about interesting things to see off the interstate and marked them on the map. There was one in Nevada that looked just like the strange folk art mountain in the movie Into the Wild. Nevada was so incredibly boring, so incredible the same that I found myself strongly looking forward to making this stop. Jay and I saw a huge truck in front of us and he guessed it had cattle in it, I guessed pigs (anything to make the time go faster.) Because I was right and it was pigs, we stopped in Implay, NV to see Thunder Mountain. We got off the interstate and went right instead of left, into one "town" although we couldn't believe it could be called that it was so small. We turned around, went back under the interstate and followed the signs to Thunder Mountain. It was off a dirt road and the whole thing was surrounded by no trespassing signs. Apparently it is also a historic site in NV. Jay starts to get a little creeped and I have been looking forward to it for so many broing hours that I was determined to find it utterly and completely amazing. We pull up to a really cool door and Jay asks if I really wanna see it. I say I do and get out of the car. The place is eery, weird and I can't help imaging some crazy Nevadians coming out with their shotguns and chasing us off. We struggle with the door and walk into a space that is decorated with found parts and what some would consider trash. I must say that it was pretty cool but my heart was pounding the whole time out of fear. I took some pictures and Jay kept asking if I was done yet. Anyway, it was the strangest place I have ever been to. Enjoy these photos of Thunder Mountian, A Nevada historical site...only in Nevada...

Side view

A wall with an old car it in, this was off to the side.
This is the front. There was no way to get a photo without barbed wire in it and I would have gone between it but I was afraid the wire was electrified...

Goodbye Nevada, I Hope We Never Meet Again

After covering about 3,000 miles of this country, I have come to the definitive conclusion that Nevada is the worst state...ever. That title was previously held by Nebraska because of its status as the worst state to drive through, but Nevada surpasses that ranking in every way.

When we left beautiful Rockport State Park just outside of Park City, Utah two days ago, we spent the morning in Salt Lake City. It's an awesome city with the best library I have ever seen. It's not just a library, but a community arts center, cafe, local meeting place, movie theater, and much more. It was there that we created this blog. Before leaving Salt Lake, we gave some much needed TLC to our car with an oil change at the Jiffy Lube. The mechanic there asked us if we had family in Utah when I gave him our Pennsylvania address. I said no, that we were just passing through, and his reply was, "oh, good." I'm not sure what he meant by that...

Now, there is not much of anything from on I-80 from Rawlins, Wyoming to Salt Lake City, and there is even less from Salt Lake to Reno. However, the drive through northwest Utah is incredible. Leaving Salt Lake there are views of the Great Salt Lake, and then about a 100 miles of salt flats, which are simply amazing to look at eventhough there is nothing there. There is a rest stop at the Bonneville salt flat where the World Land Speed Records are set. You can walk out onto the salt which is just a two foot thick collection of crystals on top of a giant mineral lake. It's a surreal experience to walk on it, especially when you can see the water that is underneath you. All along the highway people write messages in the salt with their tire tracks, empty bottles, rocks, pieces of tire - whatever they can find. It gives you something to look at in an otherwise desolate landscape.

Jay on the salt flats

I have become a driving machine. I no longer need food or bathroom. I eat miles - and doing so, has only made me a little crazy. Patti has done her share of driving, but since we left PA, I have pretty much been the one behind the wheel. Audiobooks have only gone so far to keep me entertained, particularly when Patti is trying to sleep. I went a little crazy in Utah when the heat radiating off the road and the salt flats made it look like a train was moving across the salt near the mountains. I swear I saw it, but Patti tells me that it wasn't there. When we got into Nevada, Patti awoke at one point to find me giving the play-by-play and color commentary to some trucks in front of us as if I was calling a horse race. I think my sanity is a small price to pay for the distance that we've covered so far.

Back to why Nevada is the worst state ever - As I said there is not much to see other than Salt Lake City between Wyoming and California. I have driven on some empty highways before, but in the 410 miles I drove across Nevada there isn't anything...and I mean anything. There are small towns, but I'm fairly certain that casinos outnumber people there. There are mines, which they decorate with casinos, too just in case a miner strikes it rich and doesn't want to travel too far to lose it all. There are 160 miles between rest stops, sometimes more between gas stations, and about 410 miles before you get to anything good. Sadly, we couldn't make it across the state in one day, so we had to spend the night. Which brings me to why I hate Nevada...

Running out of daylight near Reno, we picked the closest camping area we could find on the map - Lohatan State Park on the Lohatan reservoir. It was a few miles off of the interstate into the Nevada desert where there was more nothing than there was near the highway. It made me ask, "How much more nothing could there be? The answer is none. None more nothing." We pulled into the park after the 'office' had already closed, so we used the self pay envelope and moved on to find a campsite. As it turns out, there aren't exactly campsites like most state parks. There is a beach along the reservoir and you just pick which plot of sand you like best to set up shop. I now believe that people actually do live in Nevada; I saw them there, but I can't tell you what they are like since I didn't speak to any of them.

Patti and I drove around to a few different areas of the beach, each time finding some characters that didn't really look like they would be good neighbors for the night. There were cars, trucks and RV's parked all over the beach, so when I pulled onto an empty area of the beach I didn't think too much about it. But, I quickly realized why no one was parked there... the packed sand we had been driving on turned to deep beach sand. We sunk in just as I realized my mistake. Patti got out and gave the car a little nudge, and I got moving again, but not enough to do a three point turn to go back the way that we came. The only choice was to follow some tire tracks across the beach to try to reach another access road. I'd driven about 100 yards when the sand got deeper still and momentum came to a halt. It was about another 50 yards to the access road and hard sand. I got out of the car and started digging. Luckily, there was some packed sand underneath the loose top layer. With Patti driving, and me pushing, we managed to move.... 5 ft. More digging, more pushing.... 5 ft. We switched roles... let some air out of the tires, more digging, more pushing 10 ft. We switched back. On about the 12th try, the tires grabbed, the engine raced, I pushed, and Patti made it out. It only took about an hour to go those 50 yards, and the people partying around us, the guy walking his dog, and the people driving by couldn't be bothered to offer some help. Jay, covered in sand dust and exhausted from digging and pushing...

We set up camp next to the car in the parking area, ate some dinner and went to bed. I was already done with Nevada. Unfortunately, Nevada wasn't done with us. On the packed sand, the ground was too hard to use tent stakes, so I set up the tent weighted with rocks as best I could. The tent wasn't going to fly away, but it's nearly impossible to get the fly tight. This means that when the wind picks up off the lake, the fly flaps loudly like a giant nylon sheet. I think that I slept a total of 3 hrs. Finally, at 4 am, I woke Patti up and said it's time to leave. We packed up and got back on the highway as fast as possible.

Our "campsite", the car covered in dust from the sand, the beach we got stuck in below...

Reno is really the only city along I-80 in Nevada. It was disgusting. The air was so thick and hazy that I could barely see the casinos from the highway. At first I blamed Reno for being such a dirty city, but then I realized that the smog had a distinct campfire scent to it. All of the smoke from the California fires was making it impossible to see more than a few hundred yards down the interstate. The smoke got worse as we approached the border. Patti slept, and I got out of the state as fast as possible. Just across the border the terrain picks up as the highway climbs into the Sierra's. It was interesting to look at, although the sweeping mountain vistas were all obscured by smoke. We stopped in Auburn, California for breakfast, and it was close to impossible to breath outside of the car. The smoke- it was crazy! Outside, the air smelled like the largest campfire ever...

After breakfast, I slept while Patti drove the rest of the way to the Bay Area. We're relaxing in a hotel right now to recover from our cross country drive, but mostly to recover from Nevada.

For all of the photos, click on this link to our second album:

http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=391111215794366297/l=400363515/g=7887130/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

Indiana to Utah

We arrived in Indiana around 8pm on Sunday. Megan was waiting to greet us and let us crash on her floor. I haven't seen Megan since Oakland four years ago! We had so much to catch up on but it was as if we had just seen eachother yesterday. We took her out to dinner to thank her for letting us stay at her place. After dinner we walked around town and through the Purdue campus which is gorgeous. We then went back to her place and talked and talked until we were all too tired to stay up. Megan leaves for work at 5:45am so we said a quick goodbye and then let ourselves out after showering. Thanks Megs for letting us stay! Woo Wee America!

At around 7am we left Indiana and drove through Illinois, Iowa, and most of Nebraska. We ended up driving a total of 13 hours that day! In Iowa, I (Patti) was driving and I saw a very interesting cloud in the distance. It slowly began forming into a large spiral/circle looking shape. I drove towards it for what seemed like forever and then I began seeing lightning in this cloud. It was then that I turned on the radio to hear "severe tornado warning"- Jay woke up real fast. We both braced ourselves as we got pounded by wind and rain and I kept watching this cloud hoping I wouldn't see a funnel come out. We kept listening to the weather and the tornado warning became a thunderstorm warning and then after what seemed like forever, it was over.

The Ominous cloud from afar

We stopped for dinner on the road and at dinner decided we weren't going to make it into WY like we had wanted to. We were both done for the day. We realized that we had stopped at the right exit for a compground called "Bufallo Bills Ranch." We found it in the dark, set up our tent and slept soundly. In the morning we woke to the sounds of frogs, tons of birds and cows? I definately hear cows. Turns out, our campsite was on a creek and there was cattle all around. Not what you expect to see when you wake up but it was different for sure.
We left the campsite and headed towards Utah. Jay got to see a part of Wyoming that he had never seen before and we both decided that continuing on 80 past Rawlins isn't very fun. It was very flat and pretty boring. We made a detour to see the Flaming Gorge which was really fun. We then arrived in Utah to a beatiful campsite on a resevoir. We arrived early and enjoyed relaxing by the water. We went for a walk and then went to bed early. Right now I am sitting in the City Library in Salt Lake City. We are on our way to Nevada for the night before finding our way to CA. We will try to write soon!

Our view from our second campsite in Utah.

PS- If you would like to view all of our pictures so far, follow this link

http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=44491215619304891/l=400313096/g=7887130/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

Grandma Sue's

Jay and I began our trip in the Finger Lakes region of New York. We arrived on Tuesday to Grandma Sue's house right by Keuka Lake. For the first couple of days it was just Jay and I and our friends Peter and Kate and their new baby Lenora. We spent the first day hanging out by the lake at the "camping house" where we stayed. The camping house is a small cabin on Grandma Sues property with no running water and no electricity. It was perfect.
On Wednesday, we decided to go for a drive to Ithaca, NY. We drove through some rain and decided to go to the Ithaca Brewing Co. to wait out the rain. Jay and Peter got a FREE tasting of all 9 beers. Two ounces each, on an empty stomach, in about 15 minutes. Needless to say, they were feeling pretty happy when we left. We stopped at a park and ate some lunch before heading back to Grandma Sues.

Everyone waiting for the Parade to start

On Thursday the rest of the gang showed up. Matt and Sarah from Harrisburg and Clifton and Jamie from their new home in NH. It was great to have everyone together again. We spent the next few days swimming in the lake, going to town, eating and drinking and having a great time. We spent many nights by the campfire making smores and having great conversation. I enjoyed spending time with Lenora, who is now about 6 months old, getting my baby fill for awhile.
We left on Sunday to make the drive to Lafayette, IN. Jay and I were both really sad driving away from our friends. I think it was the first time that we realized we would be leaving alot of people behind as we head out on this great adventure. I fought back my tears and we drove in silence.

One of the views of Keuka Lake from Grandma Sues