Entries Tagged 'USA' ↓

I’ve been wanting to do a Backpacking trip by myself for some time. And after Otto’s Passing, I really needed it. I wanted to do 3-5 days, enough time to get out there, let the dust settle in my brain so i had time to think, reflect, or just relax. I also needed some good exercise, different than my constant running. So off I went …

On Tuesday, June 3, I packed up, voted, then left San Francisco for the Sierra Nevada Mountains. At first I wasn’t sure where to go .. I considered Yosemite, Tahoe, .. but went for Kings Canyon. I did a day hike there in 2006, as well as a Backpacking trip near there at Jennie Wilderness with Juan and Damian in 200x, so i knew what to expect. I got there a few hours before sunset, enough time to eat, setup camp, and walk around a bit before bed.

Wednesday I got early and went to the Lodge to find trail info from some backpacking books. I took a few pics of some good hikes, then went to Roads End to get my wilderness permit. The rangers warned that there was still lots of snow .. mostly above 9,000 feet. I considered doing Paradise Valley (start of Rae Lakes Loop), but ended up picking Bubbs Creek to Junction Meadow, with a day hike option to East Lake or Charlotte Lake.

I started hiking around 10:30am Wednesday at Roads End (Elevation 5085 ft). It was 2 miles through the valley floor to my first Junction, then I crossed Bailey Bridge up Bubbs Creek, hitting switchbacks out of the valley to Sphinx Creek Campsite (6280 ft), my first rest, about 4 miles in. As soon as I took my backpack off, I brilliantly twisted my ankle. I hurt like hell at first, but turned out mostly OK .. wasn’t able to use it fully for over a week. After water refill and a snack, i continued on to Charlotte Creek. It was 4pm when I stopped, and my GPS watch said i hiked over 7 miles. I wasn’t sure if i had 3 or 5 miles more till Junction meadow (depending on if you trust books, maps, or trail signs), so I decided to camp, since 5 miles more would be too much. I setup tent, got water, cooked dinner - delicious spicy chicken with rice and vegies, and appreciated clean air and sunset. I was wiped out, and was in bed asleep around 9pm.

Thursday I woke up 6ish, got out of the tent at 7am, packed and hit the trail by 8. Charlotte Creek (7280 ft) was overflowing, and I had to crawl over wet slippery logs to cross .. my first semi-dangerous adventure. I made it to Junction meadow (8190 ft) around 10am .. so it wasn’t that far after all (about 3 miles according to GPS watch). I decided to setup camp, have brunch, and do a day hike. After some tasty oatmeal, orange and banana, I hit the trail by noon. The rangers warned that bubbs creek would be too high to cross to east lake, but i ran into another hiker (first person I met on the trail) who just came from there - he spent the night on top of snow at Lake Reflection, a few miles past east lake. On his suggestion, i went to east lake instead of Charlotte Lake - mainly cuz it was closer and I’d like to spend some time swimming and exploring the lake. Bubbs creek was super high and I ended up crossing water 4 times, mostly over fallen trees, but the last crossing involved some jumping and getting my feet wet. I ringed out my socks, put my boots back on and kept on. I climbed out of the junction valley up east creek to the most beautiful views (video). I made it to East lake (9475 ft) around 2:30, swam, ate, and sunbathed till 4pm. Happy and fully rested, I hiked back down, getting back to camp by 5:30 (crossing the rivers again without falling in this time). I could feel the elevation but felt great after the afternoon at the lake. My stove wasn’t working, so i got a fire going and boiled water for my beef stronganoff (not as good as the spicy chicken). After eating I basically played with fire till after dark, and was asleep by 10pm. There were 3 other groups at junction meadow, from 2-4 peeps each.

Friday i didn’t get out of the tent till 8ish, had a leisure breakfast and wrote in my journal till 11. I then busted out of there, thinking i had to return my bear cannister before the ranger station closed at 3pm. It took me about 3.5 hours to hike out, arrived at 3:10pm - rangers were gone but they had a drop-off for the bear cannister. I was beat. I took off my boots and it was awesome - they were still pretty new and rubbing me raw in weird places. I grabbed a beer at the lodge and hit the road back to SF around 4pm. I stopped at In-N-Out and had the most delicious burger and fries ever. I made it home by 9, and went out to Amnesia for some brasstax action. Yay.

In Summary, I hiked about 30 miles over 3 days with about 4,400 feet elevation gain. You can check out my hike info from GPS Watch (it shows just the going up part, batteries ran out at east lake). Also view the
Google map of the hike. At some point I want to do Rae Lakes Loop Hike, a 4-7 day trip. It is supposed to be so Amazing, one of the best in the Sierras. Here’s a sample itinerary.

Last of my big trips for the year - Burningman. My ninth time going, always glad i went. This year’s favs include the dust storm thursday, my boy pete hudson’s monkey-snake thing (read wired, mercury news, grist.org), the big rig, and the oil rig tower (hello? coolest fire EVER). Oh, and the glowing ping pong balls - best visuals ever. And how could i forget our very own monkey island art car. Good times, good times. Check out my flickr pics and the youtube videos.

I made it back home to San Francisco, California, U, S, and A. Hurray. My Round-The-World trip for 2007 is over. I’m glad to be home, the last few weeks i was ready - i missed my friends and miss shayna. But i loved my trip. I saw things i’ve never seen before, i had experiences that will last a lifetime, and learned a few things about myself as well. What more could you want?

First, lemme recount my adventures a bit. I’ll be brief - feel free to check out my itinerary for details of everywhere i went. Last entries were for India - i spent over 3 weeks there, mostly in the mountains doing my trek. After the trek, i headed to Srinagar, Kashmir despite warnings by lonely planet. Up till this year, the was much fighting, but now its cool - i saw a ton of army dudes hanging around. I ended up on a houseboat instead of a hotel/hostel/guesthouse, which was cool in concept, but lame in reality - family turned out to be very dodgy on details like how far it was to town, how much things cost, and always trying to make me buy something. Pissed me off - at this point of my trip i had enough of people pretending to be friendly or honest, and then end up being dishonest and only out to get you to buy something. But i did see some beautiful lakes, mountains, and gardens, and i loved that. Then i flew to Delhi, hung out there and did a day trip to Agra - home of the Taj Mahal. Wow. I decided that was the thing i liked the most from my trip. The architecture was amazing - the white marble stone, the simplicity, the grandeur, the way it impressed me from all angles, the gardens around it. And altho crowded, the people didn’t bother me like they did at Angkor Wat, Cambodia. The heat really got to me at Angkor Wat.

After India, i flew to London for one night, then to Zurich, Switzerland - home of Stephanie Hannon. I mainly wanted to just visit Steph and chill for a few days, but i ended up really loving Switzerland. Expensive, yes, but soo beautiful - I was there 4 days, one day we went to Luzern, another day i went hiking by myself to Speer - and it was amazing. Steph took me to some fancy bars and restaurants, as well as introduced me to some of her friends and coworkers. What a good host. Switzerland - It really is a land out of a fairy tale.

From Switzerland i did one more night in London before heading to New York. Lindsey Bauer was kind enough to let me crash at her place in London, and i even joined them for an impressive cirque-de-solei type show done bye nofitstate circus. Once i got to NYC, i stayed with another friend, Suzi Palmer. The western world is too expensive for me to NOT stay with friends, ya know? Greenhouse was, of course, a great host as well. She has cool friends, a happy dog, sadie, and ever rusty cat. What a great family. I also made it to Hoboken to visit Mike, Zuad, and their 2-month old boy. I’ve never seen a house so clean.  And then monday i had John’s pizza.  SOooooo Gooood.  As Jack Black says, “You can’t even order a slice.  They make you order a whole pie.  But that’s fine with me.  I wouldn’t want to eat just one slice.” NY was nice - good to do some serious chilling out before heading home.

Thats it for now - expect a RTW summary some time soon - best and worst and weirdest . . something like that. Now i’m just happy to be home - to have to go through 12,000 pieces of mail, fix my broken laptop, get new ipod, and try to figure out my life ..

cheers - chad

I’m just gonna do a quick summary of the month long trip shayna and i took across the country. We saw many beatiful natural and man-made sights, had some tastee meals, experience different cultures, talked, laughed, fought, and slept in the jetta, and thoroughly enjoyed our country. Some of my favorite sights include National Monument in Arizona, Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota, Millenium Park in Chicago, the City Museum in St. Louis, and the Cadillac Ranch in Texas. Some of my favorite moments include the touristy animals and mini-town by Zion, seeing Lyrics Born and Cut Chemist in Boulder, having a beer with Shayna in Durango, crawling through the caves in the City Museum, and singing at the top of my lungs in the car (with Shayna, of course).

If you got the time, you can read my entire journal in four parts - starting with blog part 1. You can also check out the pictures in four sets, each one naturally matching the blog, starting with flickr part 1. Or you can just check out the Best of pictures. Oh, and here’s the actual itinerary - very similar to the Itinerary plan

10/23 Mon - Left SF, Thru Yosemite to Lone Pine, CA
10/24 Tue - Death Valley, slept north of vegas on NV/AZ border
10/25 Wed - Arrive Zion , camped in the park
10/26 Thu - More Zion, then hotel in kenyata, AZ
10/27 Fri - Monument Valley, slept at Durango CO
10/28 Sat - Mesa Verde, CO, slept at Buena Vista, CO
10/29 Sun - Rockies and Boulder, CO
10/30 Mon - Drive to Moorcroft, WY
10/31 Tue - Devils Tower, Deadwood, Crazy Horse Memorial, SD
11/01 Wed - Mt. Rushmore, Badlands, slept at Carrie’s, Minneapolis, MN
11/02 Thu - Chillin’ with friends in Minneapolis
11/03 Fri - Walker museum, Minneapolis
11/04 Sat - Drive to Chicago, veggiediner
11/05 Sun - Art Institute of Chicago, Sears Tower, Deep Dish pizza
11/06 Mon - Millenium Park, Shayna does Columbia College, slept in Iowa City
11/07 Tue - Shayna tours University of Iowa in Iowa City, slept in st. louis
11/08 Wed - Budweiser Tour, St. Louis Arch, dinner in the loop
11/09 Thu - Breakfast at Tiffany’s, City Museum in St.Louis
11/10 Fri - Chad fly from St. Louis to Vegas, Shayna drive to DC
11/11 Sat - Shayna in DC
11/12 Sun - Chad flew from vegas to DC, arrived 6AM Monday
11/13 Mon - lunch in DC, drive to Jillian’s, Athens GA
11/14 Tue - Lunch with family in Atlanta, slept in Memphis
11/16 Wed - Graceland in Memphis, drive to Oklahoma
11/17 Thu - Oklahoma City Memorial, drive to Alburqueque
11/18 Fri - Acoma Indian Reservation, drive to Kingman AZ
11/19 Sat - Arrive SF

We really could not have had a better trip - the only thing was i wished we had more time - i would love to do a trip with no end in sight. We had tons of fun taking in the sights, learning about various states and cities, but we did go fast and sometimes it was hard to digest. It was definitely hard to upload pics and update my blog as i went, even tho over half the hotels we stayed in had free wifi. Of course, it never sux when your only complaint is having too much fun.

Now i’m off to Costa Rica for a little over 3 weeks, 2 weeks on my own and then Rick and Zetta’s wedding. See ya later !!!

The last week of the trip was a quick 6 days from the east coast back to California. Not super rushed, we still had time for a few stops, but the leisurely pace of the first 3 weeks was over.

Day 22, Monday 2006-11-13 Washington DC, Virginia, Carolinas, Georgia

I left Vegas late sunday on the redeye to DC. Shayna picked me up Monday at 6am, and we went back to her parents to take a little nap. Shayna had been there since late friday night - she drove 14 hours friday to DC from St. Louis, over 800 miles, the longest drive of the trip. So she had already spent some time with her parents, which is nice. After our nap we got up and went to lunch with her parents then hit the road. We wanted to be in Athens, Georgia, by monday night, and we made it around midnight. Hurray.

Day 23, Tuesday 2006-11-14 Georgia, Tennessee

Tuesday I woke up early and went to a coffee shop, then got a run in before we hit the road. Shayna was out late in Athens with her friend Jillian, who so graciously hosted us, so she slept in a bit longer than I. We jetted to Atlanta to meet up with my family - mom, dad, Leslie, Michael, and my 9 month old niece Katherine. It was a quick lunch, mainly to give Les my old windows laptop, but it was nice to see them all. I grew up in Atlanta, and i showed shayna my parents house on our way out of town. We made our way to nashville for dinner - we couldnt’ find the restaraunt we wanted so ended up eating sushi. We then drove through torrential rain to spend the night in memphis. When we arrived we had a couple drinks on Beale Street, which is similar to New Orleans Bourbon street, then we hit the cheap motels again.

Day 24, Wednesday 2006-11-15 Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma

Woke up and went to Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley. It was entertaining to see his place, but more entertaining to be part of the experience, trying to understand america’s infatuation with the king. He had a great voice, charisma, and unusual style. His house was great - each room had its own theme, like the yellow and dark blue TCB (Takin’ Care of Business) room in the basement to the jungle room with green shag carpet on the floor and ceilings. But my favorite was the converted athletics room - the racquetball court was filled with gold records and elvis outfits. It seemed to capture the elvis vibe the most.

After Graceland we had lunch at Corky’s BBQ, and it was awesome. I had the pulled pork plate, which came with side of beans and cole slaw and the table got some deliciously buttered rolls. Shayna got the pork sandwhich with fries. Once our bellies were full, we hit the road, through arkansas, stopping only once in Alma to take a picture with popeye. We made it to yet another cheap hotel in Oklahoma city

Day 25, Thursday 2006-11-16 Oklohoma, Texas

The Oklahoma City Memorial turned out to be one of the most moving sights on our tour. The bombing occured in 1995, killed 168 people including 19 children in the daycare center, damaged hundreds of buildings, many had to be destroyed, including the Murrah federal building which was the main target. The memorial was completed in 2001, just a few months before 9/11. Not sure exactly why i was so moved, i think it was feeling the courage people had when faced with tragedy, seeing and hearing people rising to the occasion. They presented a timeline of the events in different formats - mostly pictures with annotations, but also some video and a few computer rooms where you can get more interactive info. I distinctly remember getting choked up watching the video - hearing about people’s utter disbelief when they see the federal building destroyed, where only hours earlier they dropped off their children in the daycare center. They could not comprehend that their babies were not alive.

After Oklahoma City we hit the road again, stopping a few times in Texas before making it to Alburqueque. Stops included the big Texan (home of the 72oz steak), the giant cross, and my favorite thing in Texas - cadillac ranch. There were about 12 cadillacs from the 50s, all buried in the ground nose first, covered with years of tagging. And just as the lonely planet predicted, there were cans of spray paint lying around so we could tag the cars ourselves. The beauty of it was just the simplicity of it all, just a bunch of cars buried in the ground, middle of nowhere, surrounded by farmland. This was my favorite thing you could only find on a roadtrip.

Day 26, Friday 2006-11-17 New Mexico, Arizona

We saw many native american sights on this road trip, but the Acoma Sky City experience could be my favorite. Monument Valley was the most impressive natural sight, and i loved the vision and large collection of native american artifacts at the crazy horse memorial, but our Acoma guide through sky city was the more informed and most moving of all the native americans i’ve come across. He would talk with Love and profound respect about his culture and mother earth as well as with deep anger about how his ancestors were taken advantage of by the spanish. I learned that, like most native american tribes, the Acoma were a matriarhcal people - the women owned the property and made the decisions. This naturally leads to a more peaceful society, compared to some other patriarchal tribes like the navajo and apache, which were known more for fighting. Apache is not an apache term, its the acoma word for enemy. I also learned about their magic numbers 4, 7, 12, 21 and their simple philosophy of teaching their children to respect themselves and they will get respect. Once they know how to respect themselves, they are encouraged to leave the reservation and see the world. Most return.

Day 27, Saturday 2006-11-18 Arizona, Californa

Woke up in Kingman Arizona, thanks to shayna’s late night power driving. The town had a historic route 66 museum, the fourth one we saw, but this time we stopped to investigate. It was informative with many displays, from a miniature railroad to life size trail wagon. It covered the trail before route 66 that settlers took to california, and talked about how the great depressio and drought of the 1930s forced many in the midwest to seek fortune in california along this route. With the boom of the 50s came improved roads and many more towns as more and more people flocked west. The towns were mostly hotels, restaraunts, and gas stations, but all had character. The journey was a colorful experience, but eventually the interstate system and chain stores replaced the character. As they put it, speed and predictability won over adventure. On the bright side, the Historic Route 66 from chicago to LA is now a tourist destination itself, attracting enough people to sustain the older towns that were almost forgotten.

The last noteworthy event on the trip occured in arizona right before the california border - a flat tire. Lucky for us it was actually a fun experience - i quickly put on the spare tire and made it the 30 or so miles to Needles, CA, where i had the good fortune of buying 4 new tires. Apparently i had another tire that was about to go, and since they didn’t have my EXACT tire size, i was advised to buy all 4. It was good advice, and i did. This allowed us to zip on thru california at record breaking speeds to get home saturday night in time to have a drink with friends and retell our stories from the road.

That’s it - see my final blog recapping USA.

Day 11, Thursday 2006-11-02 Minnesota

Got to Minneapolis late wed night and crashed at shayna’s friends house. They have a nice 2 story just southeast of downtown, in an interesting area with old brick apt buildings scattered among the houses. They live a couple blocks from MCAD (which is nice) but also near a suspected crack house (not so nice). Thursday morning we got to sleep in - it was sooo nice. I got to catch up on some laundry, email, and picture uploading. Then i went for a run, and then shayna and i went sightseeing, driving downtown and hitting a couple interesting stores - design collective and robot love. After that we met up with Shayna’s friend Becky for a beer at her local bar, CC something. Becky was cool - she used to go to wash u. with shayna. Once Becky’s boy David showed up, we decided to eat at NYE, a polish spot which was supposed to have a polka band. No luck, but they did have awesome 50s decor and a piano with 5 drunk middle age peeps singing songs. Classic.

Day 12, Friday 2006-11-03 Minnesota

Friday was also pretty chill. Carrie wasn’t working till 5, so the 3 of us had a leisurely morning, eating breakfast at Egg and I. Then Shayna and I went downtown along the river to St. Anthony’s Falls and Stone Arch Bridge, walking along the missippi and across the xxxx bridge. Minneapolis seemed very new and clean overall, but this section definitely was reminiscent of its industrial past. When we got back to the house, Anthony joined us and the 4 of us had some tasty homemade pizza. Next on the agenda was the Walker Museum, which everybody raves about. My favorite exhibit there was Hirschhorn’s Cavemanman exhibit. He actually made a cave with brown package tape, boards and boxes, with coke cans strewn across the floor, mannekins wrapped in foil and all wired together, posters of pop music culture, papers about moral and economic philosophy - basically questioning what society is and where we’re going. The rest of the night included some bar hopping, some food, and then a big fat nap. Hurray.

Day 13, Saturday 2006-11-04 Minnesota, Illinois

Got up and drove to chicago, thru wisconsin, stopping only for cheese. Of course you need to get cheese in wisconsin. Arrived in chicago around 9pm, and we went out to diner at this amazing vegie place called veggie dinner. We also checked out smart bar, a club where Mstrkrft was playing. It was fun, good sound (bass for da house), but we were kinda tired so weren’t there very long.

Day 14, Sunday 2006-11-05 Illinois

Our first full day in chicago started off slowly just north of downtown with breakfast, then off to see the Art Institute. We hung out downtown most of the day, walking around, making it up to sears tower right after sunset, yielding some cool pictures of endless chicago at night. For dinner, we went for some traditional chicago deep dish pizza. Both lonely planet and the concierge at the W recommended malrutti’s pizza. It was good, but not mind-blowing great. Both patxis and little star pizza in SF are better. After dinner we had a drink at this cool bar called the map room. As you may guess, they have maps all over the walls and a few map books, with tons of national geographics and tons of beers from all over to pick from.

Day 15, Monday 2006-11-06 Illinois, Iowa

Monday morning Lisa and Spiral joined us on a walk around the newly built Millenium Park with this really cool giant reflective jelly bean. Yes, this silver bean was super cool. After that shayna went to tour columbia university and i ended up just walking around. I really love all the cool architecture in chicago. And the river and lake augment the natural beauty that may otherwise seem a bit bleek from the flatness of the region. I met up with shayna at cosi, then we decided to get some tasty sushi at Oysy Sushi before driving to iowa. Yes, we drove to iowa, leaving chicago around 9, getting to iowa city around 1am. That was fun.

Day 16, Tuesday 2006-11-07 Iowa

Woke up and drove shayna to her appointments with University of Iowa in Iowa City. I just went to a coffeeshop and sorted thru pics for a couple hours, then went on a nice run along the river thru town. The university is quite lovely, but the section of the river by city park was really beautiful. Once shayna finished her iowa stuff, we headed for st. louis. Once again, we rolled in at 1am, exhausted, but this time we were staying in a hotel for 3 nights, so we could sleep in and not worry about anything. Hurray.

Day 17, Wednesday 2006-11-08 Missouri

Our first full day in St. Louis started off with lunch at a great vietnamese place (name?), followed by a tour of the budweiser factory. It is the largest beer factory in the country, one of five that budweiser opens for tours. The tour was about an hour, we saw a few of the famous clydesdale horses, the original beer factory building from 1870s, now part of whole factory complex. But the best was the ending, where we got to sample budweiser beer. They had about 8 varieties on tap, including a seasonal, a porter, and the original budweiser. I must say, even though i thoroughly enjoyed my bud, it wasn’t that much better than what you get in a bottle. I’ve been to many breweries, and usually the beer on tap at the brewery is much more delicious than the bottled vesion.. We also tried a wine cooler like drink called peels, as well as little beer augmentor called spykes. Not bad, but not great.

After budweiser we checked out the St. Louis Arch, aka the Gateway Arch, aka Jefferson National Expasion Memorial. The arch was built in the 60s, and the little pod we sat in to get to the top felt like something out of a 60s james bond movie. I’m 6 feet even, and i had to hunch my head over when sitting inside of it. The top was a bit claustrophobic as well, but the view was worth it. We were lucky enough to actually watch the sun set before our eyes. Beautiful. We went down and checked out the museum part, got a picture of me with Tatanka (native american for buffalo). For dinner we went to a spot on “the loop” where shayna worked during wash u. days - Brandts. It was tasteeeeee.

Day 18, Thursday 2006-11-09 Missouri

Our last day in da Lou started with breakfast at tiffany’s. Tiffany’s is a hole in the wall diner that shayna used to goto all the time in college. It had more character than your avg diner, but the food was about the same. I can still taste all the butter and grease used in my eggs in hashbrowns.

But maybe the coolest thing we did on our trip was the City Museum. It’s not so much a museum as a jungle gym times a million. The primary reason you go there is to go crawling and walking thru tunnels and passagesways spread over 4 floors and different themes - giant whale and water to caves and dinosaurs to planes and cranes on the outside. It was exciting for me, an adult (yes, technically i am) to go into some hole and not know where it will lead. But the way they created everything is amazing - its all art - iron creatively welded in cool patterns, creatures molded in the concrete in the caves, colors and patterns painted most everywhere. And because st. louis still has not fully bounced back from its industrial past, there are lots of abandoned buildings that provide interesting materials for this museum. Like, in one of the bigger rooms they just had a giant safe - a huge metal door and a wall made of security boxes. I could go on and on about this place, and prolly should, but you really need to go there for yourself.

After the the “museum”, i packed for my vegas trip back at the hotel, then we went back to the loop for dinner and a couple beers. This time we ate at a middle eastern spot enjoying hummus, lamb, and a veggie dish that reminded me of something i would eat in morocco. Once we finished eating, we went to the famous blueberry hill for a beer. Nobody famous was playing that night, but chuck berry plays there on a regular basis (still!) and most bands that do a medium size venue would hit that place. We also checked out a hip hop spot called 609 - it was packed, and shayna and i were the only white people there - i felt like i was in atlanta. Music was provide by DJ Needles - he played old school and nu skool hip hop, some with a reggae flare. His mixing was spot on, i was quite impressed.

Day 19, Friday 2006-11-10

Taking a break from the road trip and flying to vegas for bachelor weekend.

To be continued in part 4 .. Washington DC back to California

Day 6, Saturday 2006-10-28 Colorado

Woke up in our cheap motel in Durango and got some tasty breakfast at carver’s. Before heading out to Mesa Verde, i bought a nice new travel camera bag, Lowepro Nova 2 AW, and i love it. I’ve been to Mesa Verde before, but this time it was much colder and half the stuff was closed. We still got some good pics of trees, the rockies, and the ever-cool cliff palace. I also learned about the population - the current thinking is that there were more people in the four corners region a few hundred years ago than there are today. Lots of native americans. After Mesa Verde we headed towards boulder, making it as far as buena vista, colorado.

Day 7, Sunday 2006-10-29 Colorado

We got up early and hit the road. Our drive to boulder took us thru our highest elevation point on the trip - Fremont pass at 11,318 feet. The view of the rockies was amazing for hours - snow capped mountains, passed ski resorts like copper mountain, brekenridge, keystone, than took a narrow hwy thru the canyon down to boulder. We got there in time for a run before lunch, which i totally needed. Then more delicious food and beer at the walnut brewery. After lunch we walked around the city, up the creek by the library, around the red rocks area, and up around chautauqua park. We decided to stay in boulder sunday night so we could check out Lyrics Born and Cut Chemist at the fox - i’m glad we did. Their performance was great, altho most of the crowd stood around while me and shayna had to shake it. Before the show we had some pizza and beers at the sink, and after the show we had a sub before going to bed at the Boulder hostel around the corner.

Day 8, Monday 2006-10-30 Colorado, Wyoming

We left boulder and headed north. Pretty uneventful day, just driving thru rolling hills, lots of roadkill and tumbleweeds. We decided to check out Devil’s tower before mt. rushmore, so we headed in that direction. Didn’t get there before sundown, so we spent the night in nearby moorcroft, wyoming, at a small hotel. Like most hotels this trip, it had wifi internet, but that night we got there early enough to spend time catching up on emails and posting pictures. Nothing else to do in a town of 300 peeps when its 18 degrees outside.

Day 9, Tuesday 2006-10-31 Wyoming, South Dakota

This was a big day - we hit Devils Tower in Wyoming, then Deadwood and Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota. Devils Tower was featured in the movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Ahh yes, we all remember that one. We drove around it and got out to look at it but it was like 19 degrees outside, so that lasted only 5 mins. The huge rocks launching out of the ground at monument valley seem to fit - devils tower didn’t. I like what shayna said - “I’m glad they had this in an alien movie, seems fitting”.

After Devils Tower we went to Deadwood in the Black Hills. Yes, this is the same one in the HBO series Deadwood. And HBO maintains some truth - Gold was discovered there in 1870s and brought the town some fame and fortune, including the famous Wild Bill Hickcock. However, the coolest thing in Deadwood was the Adams Museum, which covered gold rush, chinese influence, native americans, cloths, tools, guns and many other things relating to the old west. But Deadwood is also part of the injustice the whites did to the native americans. The Black Hills were sacred to the Lakota, which were driven west of Minnesota by whites in the 1700s. They drove out other native americans in the region back then, but conflicts with the ever westward moving whites forced them to sign the 1851 Treaty of Ft. Laramie (src), which made them give up most of the area in the dakotas but promised 60 million acres of the black hills (screwed again). Then they redid Ft. Laramie treaty in 1868, reducing to only 20 million acres (screwed again). Then gold was discovered, and whites basically ignored the treaty and haven’t left since. To this day, the indians technically still own the land, as the 1868 treaty has not been nullified, but they really don’t have control over it.

After Deadwood we drove to the Crazy Horse Memorial, which is close to mt. rushmore. This was also one of the best things i saw on the trip - mainly because of the inspirational nature of the project. In the 1940s native american elders asked a famous sculptor, Korczak, to build them a memorial. And he did. All by himself, in the beginning. His plan was grand - when complete, the crazy horse carving will be the largest in the world, taller than the national monument in washington DC. But they got a long way to go. Korczak died about 20 years ago, but his wife and 7 of his 10 children keep his dream alive. The facilities there were new, with lots of information and art relating to native americans. However, as shayna pointed out, they need a curator to organize it a bit better. But it was still the largest collection in the most square feet of any building i’ve ever been to.

Day 10, Wednesday 2006-11-01 South Dakota

We woke up in keystone, a tourist town right by mt. rushmore. The town was huge, but this was the last day of the season and almost everything was closed. A bit eerie, especially in the cold (still in the 220s). We drove up to Mt. Rushmore, but didn’t go in the park, since it appeared to be just a big parking lot. You could see mt. rushmore fine from where we were on the road. That was good enough for me and shayna, so we took our pics and left - it was going to be a long day of driving - needed to go 600+ miles to minneapolis.

Just east of rapid city we stopped at Wall Drug before going into Badlands. Wall Drug was prolly the best tourist spot on the planet - 2 out of every 3 signs along the hwy in south dakota were for wall drug. It’s one store, but the inside was like a mini-mall, with lots of fun statues and old west motifs. Shayna got a cowboy hat and shirt, i got a few trinket items and a buffalo burger. It wasn’t that good. Then we hopped in the car again and drove through the Badlands - which also kicked ass. We took a few pics, and spent time at the Visitor Center, which clearly had lots of money spent on it recently. After going to crazy horse, where they had great info but it was poorly organized, and then at a well done national park visitor center, you realize how important information delivery is. After that we put the petal to the metal and made it to shayna’s friends place in minneapolis by midnight.

And that ends the western half of the USA. In part 3, we’ll cover the midwest cities such as Minneapolis, Chicago, and St. Louis.

This blog will contain daily log entries of our Road Trip USA - see original itinerary and/or actual itinerary. I found it hard to decide on how i wanted to talk about the road trip, and decided on a daily just-the-facts-ma’am approach since my memory aint the worlds best. Colorful commentary will likely be sparse - road trippin’ wears you out, you don’t have much brain power left for the laptop.

Day 1, Monday 2006-10-23 - California

The journey began 1pm. I had just gotten back from Tahoe the night before, was still tired, so getting out the door was understandably stressful. But it felt great to start this trip, my biggest trip of 2006. We basically drove to Yosemite, stopped for a few pics, then busted on thru to the east side of the sierra nevada mountains. We made it to Lone Pine, Cali, near Mt. Whitney, where we slept solid our first night. Pretty uneventful.

Day 2, Tuesday 2006-10-24 - California, Nevada

We awoke with grand mountains at our doorstep. Beautiful. We hopped in the Jetta and zoomed our way towards Death Valley. Along the way we saw 3 jet fighters flying through the canyons - badass. and loud. We winded our way from valleys thru mountains and thru more valleys till we got to the entrance of Death Valley. This was my second time here, first time was in july 1995, and it was much, much hotter, like 110 or 120. This time it was only like 80 degrees. Our first stop was gas and a beer, second stop was the monument to the Borax mine from the 1880s. Then we hit up the visitor center then Badwater, the lowest point in the western hemisphere, at 282 feet below sea level. Lowest point in the world is by the dead sea, at 1312 feet below sea level. After badwater we headed out of death valley, driving thru Artist Palette and Zabriskie point. After death valley we zoomed towards zion,going right thru vegas (except to stop for some sushi - it was decent)to end up crasing in at virigin casino hotel in Mesquite, Nevada near arizona border.

Day 3, Wednesday 2006-10-25 Arizona, Utah

Woke up in Nevada, briefly crossed into Arizona before getting into Utah towards Zion. Right before, we passed a great tourist store in Virgin, Utah. The store was built like a fort, and they had 8 miniature old west buildings, along with sheep, llamas, chickens and a donkey. And yes, i got a picture of me petting the ass. That was a fun hour.

When we got to Zion National Park we hit up the visitor center, picked out a camping spot, then went on a hike to Angel’s landing. I was really jonesing for a nice big hike, and this 5 mile 1500 ft climb hit the spot. It was beautiful climb, fist slowly up, then through narrow passages in a small canyon to a beautiful view of the valley at scott’s landing, then along a narrow and treacherous path to the top of angel’s landing. After that hike we just headed back to our camping spot, grabbed some firewood and beers (polygamy porters), started up a fire and kicked it the rest of the night.

Day 4, Thursday 2006-10-26 Utah, Arizona

We woke up in our tent to freezing temperatures, shade, and strong winds. Fun. We broke camp and headed up the canyon for some more hiking.  We started with the Temple of Sinawava, which was just a short flat walk upstream, then we did weeping rock, where the water seeps out of the canyon walls. After those 2 short ones we ventured into hidden canyon, a little longer and more stenuous hike, but still pretty easy. Like angel’s landing, this one also had sections of walking along dangerously narrow paths on slippery sandstone so they had installed chains for hikers to hold onto. The hidden canyon was a sandy canyon that went on forever - eventually we just turned around and headed out. We left zion before sunset at the east entrance and made it into arizona into a small town called Kayenta.

Day 5, Friday 2006-10-27 Arizona, Colorado

It was nice to wake up in the Best Western after the cold camping experience. They had a nice continental breakfast where all 20 of the people in the room seem to be from france or germany. Also, when i was checking out, a old navajo woman came into the lobby with a basket and spoke to the navajo women working there in what i’m guessing to be the navajo language. It appeared that they were negotiating a price on the basket, with the old navajo woman walking out with $60 for her basket. The womenadded it to an already huge collection of baskets, jewelry, blankets, and other stuff.

Then we hit my favorite part of the trip so far - Monument Valley Navajo National Park. I really loved seeing the mesa’s proudly launching up out of the ground. In the park, we did this 2 hour driving tour in our car where we got to see like 10-20 monuments. My favorite was the mittens, which is the picture used by most when referring to monument valley. After the tour we had an Indian taco at the visitor center - the fry bread was a bit bigger and better than the indian tacos near burningman, but otherwise was just as delicious. The visitor center also had a nice display on the WWII Navajo Code Talkers.

After Monument Valley we drove to Four Corners, where you can be in four states at once - Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. After spending our 2 minutes there, we headed to Durango, Colorado to spend the night. Durango is part old west town, part high-end ski town, part college/beer town. We enjoyed tastey beers first at Diamond Belle Saloon, where everything - the bartender, waitress, and interior (except for the piano dude) - made you feel like you were still in 1880s. Then we hit Lady Falconburgh - which had 38 beers on tap. Mmmm…

Continued in part 2

Wassup, kids. Shayna and i got a rough plan together, and here it be. If you know any cool peeps in these cities, hook me up.

10/23 Mon - Leave SF, Arrive in Upper Yosemite (230 miles, 6hrs)
10/24 Tue - Death Valley, vegas? (35oish miles, 7hrs)
10/25 Wed - Arrive Zion (200ish miles, 4hr)
10/27 Fri - Arrive Denver (6ooish miles, 9hrs)
10/29 Sun - Arrive Mt. Rushmore (4ooish miles, 8hrs)
10/31 Tue - Arrive in Minneapolis (6ooish miles, 8hrs)
11/03 Fri - Arrive in Chicago (4ooish miles, 7hrs)
11/06 Mon - Shayna tours Columbia College of Art, then to Iowa City (220 miles, 4hrs)
11/07 Tue - Shayna tours University of Iowa (paper, book) in Iowa City
11/08 Wed - Arrive in St. Louis (320 miles, 5hrs)
11/10 Fri - Chad fly from St. Louis to Vegas, Shayna drive to DC
11/11 Sat - Shayna in DC
11/12 Sun - Chad fly to DC, arrives 6AM Monday, tour DC
11/13 Mon - Arrive Athens (jillian? 600miles, 10hrs), atlanta (chads family?)
11/14 Tue - Arrive Atlanta (70 miles, 1.5hrs), Nashville (greg, kiki? 250miles, 4 hrs)
11/16 Wed - Arrive Tulsa Oklahoma (thurs AM doctor) (613 miles, 10 hrs)
11/17 Thu - Arrive Santa fe, New Mexico (650miles, 10hrs)
11/18 Fri - Arrive Grand Canyon (480 miles, 8 hrs)
11/19 Sat - Arrive SF (800 miles, 13 hrs)

Read how it went in part 1. Also check out the actual itinerary.

It’s time to bust out my travel gear again. This time i’m going big. Here’s the plan

10/18 Wed - 10/22 Sun — Tahoe for Dusty and Laura’s wedding
10/23 Mon - 11/19 Sun — Driving Cross-Country with Shayna
11/10 Fri - 11/12 Sun — Vegas for rick (flying from chicago, back to DC)
11/19 Sun - 11/20 Mon — San Francisco !! my one pause in 2 months.
11/21 Tues - 12/13 Wed — Costa Rica (wedding 12/9)

2007 - Jan - April — Buenos Aires, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, India etc.

Updates pending …