Every Mile a Memory: 2012

Friday, June 8, 2012

Day 29

This morning we left around 7:30 and drove four hours to St. Louis for a short stop. Since the most notable thing to see in the city is the arch that is where we went. The place was a mad house; there were tons of people everywhere. First we had to pass through security, which was pretty strict so we felt like we were in an airport. Then we jumped in line to by tickets to go to the top of the arch. Surprisingly the tickets were cheap and we had a discount with our national park pass. We had about a half hour before our time to go up, so we walked around the museum of the western expansion. It was a well-done museum, it even had those animated life-like robots of famous people that would talk to you, which kind of creeped me out and made me think of the movie “Night at the Museum”. The museum was really big and there were walls and walls of information to read, it would have taken us all day to read, so we skimmed and glanced.

It was time for us to go to the top, so we got in line and then went through the different rooms to await going up. All of the rooms and even just the visitors center for the arch was so detailed and so well decorated, I thought that we were in line for a ride at universal studios theme park where they have all the really decorated waiting rooms, we were really impressed. We got to the last waiting room and then boarded the pod that was to take us up. It was about 4 feet tall and maybe 5 feet wide but I think it was less then that and five people sat in each one. It was small! It takes about 3 minutes to get to the top, forty people go at one time in 8 pods and then scrunch into this little hallway that is the top middle section of the arch. There are about 20 tiny rectangle windows that you can look out of if you lay your body on this wall/ledge to look over. It was really incredible to look down and see how small everything was. We did find out that on a windy day the arch will sway about 6 feet or more, I felt a little swaying but nothing like that thank God. We had one man in our pod who is afraid of heights but it was his third time to the top, he just gets off and heads straight to the other side of the arch to go down and that is exactly what he did as soon as we got out of the pod.

It was really neat to be in the arch and I am glad we stopped to do it. St. Louise seems like a really nice city and we want to go back some time but we had to get on the road to head to Indianapolis where we are staying with a friend of the Valder’s. It felt like a long drive, each one seems to feel longer and longer as our trip is winding down. We are starting to feel anxious about getting home.

We made it to “Indy” and back to our own time zone, yay! We shared some pad Thai since were getting to lazy to cook. Then we spent the evening talking with Paul and his wife in their beautiful hundred year old home. It was really nice to meet them and get to know them. Now we are updating blogs and David is checking his 300+ emails. Now were going to sleep so we can get up and head to WV our last stop and last day of our trip.

Day 28

Today we woke up and had breakfast with Bill at Sportsman’s Bar and Grill, owned by his old high-school classmate. Everyone there knows each other by name, a nice change from the hustle and bustle of strangers in Charlotte. We returned to the farm, packed up the car, and visited for a while. Kimberly Chisholm came over and said hi since we missed her the night before and we laughed at her clumsy misfortunes and talked about work and school.

Once she left, we departed for the Mall of America! We walked in under a sign with Princess Diana’s face on it, and you should have seen Katie’s face. Priceless! They had a Tribute exhibition for the late Princess, complete with her tiara, her wedding outfit, and a collection of her most famous outfits. Katie loved it all, but said the most amazing part to her was the collection of Condolences for Diana, spanning a wall-to-wall bookshelf. She even got to write her own in the book they had for visitors there. My favorite part was the handwritten rough draft, typed and hand-edited second draft, and final version of her brother’s eulogy for her. In the typed edition, you can see where one of the royal reputation officers had crossed through any controversial or offensive statement towards any royals, and a final statement thanking Dodi for making her last days on Earth her happiest.

From there we did real mall things, like walk through the 27 Acre amusement park. We walked around all four floors, not buying a single thing but stopping in the candy stores for free samples, and only missed one half of the third floor in our short three or four hour visit. We left and had dinner at the Nook in St. Paul, MN, the best burger joint in the nation (though I had a Black-bean burger). Katie got the stuffed burger, filled in the middle with melted cheese, like a jelly doughnut but better. We shared a root beer float (root beer from tap) and headed back down to Cedar Falls, Iowa, near Waterloo, where Kristie Chisholm lives, the third eldest Chisholm daughter. For such a short trip we did pretty well, seeing all the Chisholms except Katie and Kelly.

We spent the evening with Kristie and her boyfriend, Jeremy, who is awesome! Their friend Brian (name?) was really funny and cool too. After a Burger King run we watched Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, a really creative and interesting movie. Jeremy has good taste. It was a fun evening and we went to sleep to late for as early as we had to get up the next day.

Day 27

Today we drove all the way to Iowa from South Dakota. It was a long drive and once again David did all the driving, and as usual I offered but he declined every time, U have decided I should keep him around if he likes to drive so much and I don’t. This trip was similar to the last it was beautiful but very flat, except for when we drove through the South Dakota Badlands. He badlands are really cool prairies and rock structures. The drive was long and now we were listening to Treasure Planet now and knitting, well I am knitting. We stopped to eat at a picnic shelter bur the mother birds ran us out and back to the car.

We made it to Iowa in good time, actually early. We spent some time with David’s great grandmother and hung up our wet tarps, covered with dirt and yellow pollen. She told us the story about getting her teaching license. At the time, she had to take a test at the courthouse and they would mail the license to her on her 18^th birthday. She passed the test and got her certificate in the mail. That same night however, Lloyd Fox presented her with a ring, so she never taught a day in her life.

I showed Katie around the farm a little bit, we got into this building but I had a hard time getting the door back shut since the building was so old, it became a battle between me and the door, which I won by using a crow bar and hammer, but I was covered in white paint dust.

Uncle Bill got home and took us out to Pizza then to the Chisholm’s farm so Katie could meet them. They are the Fox’s lifelong friends, Monty, the father, was David’s dad’s childhood friend, and now Steve’s kids are friends with their kids. They have eight children, but only four left at home now. We returned to the Fox farm and chatted with Grandma Fox and went to bed in the old house. 94 years old, to be exact, as Grandma Fox claims because up in the attic there’s a beam that has the year 1913 written on it, the same year she was born. I hope she hasn’t been up in the attic recently though!

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Day 25 & 26

We woke up and hit the road; we had a long drive and no time to spare. It was once again a driving day so not too interesting, which is why I combined these two days. We are driving from Yellowstone to Mt.Rushmore in South Dakota, over all about a 10 hour drive, and at least and hour of that was just driving out of Yellowstone to show how big it is. We ended up driving more than 300 hundred miles just in Yellowstone Park.

So we drove all day, actually correction David drove all day, he drove the whole 10-hour trip. In my defense I offered several times and he said no, he enjoys driving and I don’t so it works out well. We have learned how to listen to audio books, so we are listening to Black Beauty. We drove through a lot of small towns, one of them was named Cody after Buffalo Bill Cody, It looked like a fun little town. Other then that our day was filled with driving many miles on long roads and past open fields. We got to the town of Custer, which is this cute little town near Mt. Rushmore where we were camping. We got to our camp ground and it was probably one of the nicest camp ground we had been to, it was run by an older gentleman and it was obvious that this little place was very important to him. That night we took it easy, cooked dinner (instant mashed potatoes and can veggies). The rest of the night we read, and sat by the fire drinking hot chocolate. We went to sleep early so we could have a full day the next day.

The next day we woke up ate some oatmeal and head straight for the national monument. We pulled up to the park thinking our park pass would cover the parking fee but it didn’t unfortunately so we paid 11$ to park, but it is a pass for the whole year so at least you can go back every day haha. As soon as you walk up the stairs from the parking garage, the four faces are right there high in the sky. I have always seen pictures of Mt.Rushmore but it is completely different in person, just mesmerizing. I just couldn’t believe how real they looked. It is a really nice monument; there is a lot to do. We walked down the walk of flags, which is a flag from every state and the date the entered into the union of the United States. We walked the president’s trail, which gives the information about each of the four presidents from the best view of the each of them on the trail. We stopped by the sculptors studio and museum to learn about the process to create the monument, Just a few facts; 90% of the monument was sculpted by dynamite, it took about 400 workers and hardly any of them were sculptors. It took around a million to make, and the sculptor died just before the last face was finished, he also sculpted the mural on Stone Mountain, GA. After we left the monument we had to decide what to do next. There is a lot to do in the black hills area. We went to Custer state park, which is the largest state park in the U.S., it was really pretty, there was some really cool rock figures, more bison, some rock tunnels to drive through and pretty drives. We spent a few hours in the park and then headed over to learn about the crazy horse monument. We decided not pay to go see it, but it is going to be the biggest stone carved monument in the world, when/if they finish it. It has been in the process of being built for some decades now, the sculptor has already died and it is not even ¼ finished. Hopefully we can see it done in the future. After that we drove around Custer to see all of the little touristy areas and then headed back to camp to have a relaxing evening,

We battled more rain so we were in and out of the tent when the rain would stop and start but the biggest issue was the wind, it felt like tornado winds it was so fast. I was afraid we were going to lose the tent, but at least it is our last night camping. Besides the weather it was a quiet night and then we went to a really nice and patriotic lighting ceremony at Mt.Rushmore. The ranger talked, then they showed a film and had a flag ceremony for the service men and women in the audience. It felt like a nice Patriotic closing for our trip to experience America.

Monday, June 4, 2012

Day 24

Today we woke up to more rain, which made us not want to get up and out in it. Luckily not too much later the rain stopped for what we hoped was the day. So we set out to see the rest of Yellowstone. We saw most of it yesterday so we headed back to the old faithful area to first check the time of the Grand Geyser which is the tallest geyser that we had missed the day before. We went to the visitor’s center, checked the times, and saw it was set to go at 2. We had some time to kill so we walked around the museum on geysers, then we went to watch Yellowstone’s version of the park film. Yellowstone wins for worst film of all the parks we have seen. It was so boring so we left early to go catch another showing of Old Faithful.

After that we ran over to look around at the old faithful inn. we were hoping to see the big fire place but unfortunately it was under construction, but every thing else was so rustic and warm, I would love to stay here one day. We were starting to get short on time to go see Grand Geyser and we wanted to get desert at the lodge, so we ran back to the car, ate pb&j, then headed in the eat some desert. David got this chocolate volcano fudge thing and I got a brownie sundae. I was going to take a picture because it looked so good, but I guess I got too excited because I forgot until after I had already ate it. By this time we were really short on time so we ran as fast as we could with full stomachs to the geyser, we thought we were going to puke. We made it to the geyser but we quickly found out that it had already erupted. This is the second time we have just missed seeing this thing, now it was getting personal. So after taking a moment to digest, we took a drive to the other valley that we didn’t go to yesterday to see and animals and beautiful land. It was a nice drive, this time around Lake Yellowstone, which is so pretty with the snow capped mountains behind it. We saw elk, a wolf and many bison. We would love to find that bumper sticker that read “stuck in a bison jam” because we were in so many. There are herds of bison everywhere so much so that they started to be as exciting as cows in a field. It more entertaining to watch people nearly kill themselves to get a picture.

So we drove and took small walks and viewed all the view areas to see animals, hot springs bubbling mud and geysers. We had a nice drive singing and looking at amazing Yellowstone. I may have mentioned this before but Yellowstone has a little bit of everything, I am glad that it was our last national park stop because it felt like a summary to all we have seen on this trip, valleys, canyons, waterfalls, rain, animals. It’s like Disney world with all the different sections like animals kingdom, magic kingdom etc. There are different sections and each is different wonderful.

After our drive around we headed back to the old faithful area to make out last attempt to see the Grand Geyser. It was 6:45 and there was a four-hour window that it could erupt from 7-11. The predicted time was 9 pm, but we were determined to see it this time, so we waited because it was early earlier. We waited with anticipation, and wouldn’t you know the geyser erupted right on time this time, but our 2 and half our wait was worth it. The grand geyser is breath taking, make sure you see it next time you’re in Yellowstone.

Tired and Cold, we headed back to camp, cooked mac n’ cheese, which we have decided that we don’t want again for at least a year and we turned in for the night.

Day 23

Day 23: Rain or Shine

We woke this morning to the sound of rolling thunder in the distance and some menacing clouds to go with it. Our neighbors, apparently med school grads on their way to begin their residencies in Seattle, gave us some leftover eggs and bacon, bringing our morning back up to neutral at least. We skedaddled before the rain arrived, praying that our tent would remain dry in our absence throughout the day. We drove North from Madison, where our campsite is, towards Norris and eventually Mammoth Hot Springs. When we got to Mammoth Hot Springs, the rain let up, so we got out to look around at the terrace hot springs. We were so close to the famous North entrance so we drove down there to see the fancy stone entrance gate. Since the weather was staying nice we continued to Yellowstone River Grand Canyon and its immense waterfalls—Lower and Upper Yellowstone Falls (very creatively named). We saw a really nice rainbow go over the canyon and waterfall. After a short hike (we’ve been slacking off for a few days on hiking), we rewarded ourselves with some crackers and Cheese Whizz, overpriced Cheese Whizz, that is. Although this is a terrible food for you it is just one of those snacks that is gross and yummy at the same time.

After taking a quick glimpse of Upper Falls, we drove a very long ways in search of Moose (Meese?). Our gas-guzzling was in vain. Though it was only a half gas-guzzling because, thank God, we have a hybrid. We returned to Canyon Village and did laundry and took showers. We sat for a long time as a storm went on and the power even went out. Then we sat there even longer because I took the change into the shower room with me so we couldn’t start drying our clothes until I was out of my (really long shower, Katie adds ) Starving, we returned to our campsite and cooked up some black beans and rice in the rain. Then the rain stopped for a little bit just as we were finishing eating. We called it a night.

Day 22

Day 22: Ol’ Faithful

We drove straight up to Yellowstone National Park, America’s first National Park, once we packed up this morning. It wasn’t too long of a drive because the Grand Tetons are neighbors to Yellowstone. We got into Yellowstone and decided to go straight to see the Park since we already had reservations and that were calling for thunderstorms. We started with the most famous part of the Park, the geysers.

We had lunch in the parking lot, taunted by a hungry crow and then ran over to make it just in time to see Old Faithful erupt. It was an amazing sight; the geysers water went up over 100 feet, which surprised us because from where we stood it did not look that tall. After we watched old faithful, we went out to walk around the 150 other geysers and hot spring pools in the area. Of course we didn’t make it to all of the different hot water areas but we made it to a lot and we were able to see a few of them go off. We barely missed the Great Geyser, which is the tallest predictable geyser in the world, but we are going to try and go back to it later. The hot springs and geyser were so beautiful and my favorite part was the colors created around the hot spring pools because of bacteria. Some of these pools looked like rainbows with the bright blue/clear water and the yellow’s, reds and greens around them. We went out to one geyser that was not on path taken very often and with all the talk of buffalo and bears we were a little worried, so we sang as loud as we could to scare any animals away, for some reason the only song I could think of was “O when the saints go marching in”. Unfortunately all that hard work in animals attacks prevention and we still missed seeing the geyser erupt.

After we left that trail we got in the car and hit each little look out and hot springs stop there was to stop at. We were lucky the bad weather seemed to be holding off on us.

After driving around and walking around all of the many small trails to see the hot water wonders we made it to our campsite in the Madison junction of the park. One of the most amazing things about Yellowstone is how big it is, it’s huge! So we made it in time to put up our tent just as the rain was starting. We made dinner and then headed back out down back towards the geysers to watch wild life and get a few minutes of cell phone reception. On our journey we saw tons and tons of buffalo. Of course the crossing of the herd caused a traffic jam that allowed us to take pictures but it was a little crazy how people get around wildlife, I cant even imagine what the buffalo must think of us. People will just pull their cars over anywhere, jump out and get close to the animals all to take a picture, it was a mad house. But the buffalo or bison we can’t really tell the two apart were so graceful and beautiful.

Just about this time the clouds cleared enough for us to see Yellowstone in evening light. The steam stacks rising from the hot water areas just glowed in the sun and it was just incredible. Evening time with the sunset, the steam and the animals had probably been one of my favorite things we have seen.

When it started to get dark we headed back to camp and settled down for the night. I finished my second book on this trip and David had yet to finish his one book that was already half way started before the trip. I think this may be because he stops to summarize every paragraph that he has just read. I know as much about his book as he does, but I love that he wants to share it with me. We hope the weather tomorrow will be the same as today and that the storms will hold off so we can enjoy this beautiful landscape.

Day 21

Today we woke up to the sun shining off of the beautiful Grand Teton Mountains. It was magically looking a sun sparkling off the of the ice and snow covered peaks. We got up bright and early ,ate some oatmeal and first headed to the visitors center. We have learned that the visitor centers are usually the best place to start because you can learn about the area and ask the rangers what the best things to would be to do in the park. We looked around the museum it was really except we had a to battle a school field trip of about 70 small kids running around everywhere. We took in the parks film about the Tetons, which was really nice but this film was a little more graphic then the other parks, it showed animal carcass, attacks and scat. The best part was after the film was over and you just have just watched all of the inspirational scenes with the music etc. The curtains open up and the screen rises to reveal a beautiful view of the Teton Range.

After the museum we had lunch at an overlook to the mountains, pb&j but with better bread and an apple. We had nice view and we think some man with a fancy camera took a picture of us eating, we also think he was from another country so I guess he wanted a picture of Americans in the natural habitat or of wildlife, we are starting too look a little ragged.

After lunch we headed to SANDS rafting. We went rafting on the Snake River with 14 other people. David was a paddler and I was roped into sitting in the very front where the water just cascades onto you, since it was my first time. It was so much fun but so cold! I was soaked and freezing by the time got off that raft. But it was nice because we also had a scenic view whenever it was calm. We saw two or three Bald Eagle nest and one of them had an eagle in it. We saw this eagle about a minute after David had said “ I want to see a bald eagle in the wild’, so it worked well. We had a lot of fun crashing into 42 degree water and we met a lot of new people. We learned that it is a small world because there were two other people on our raft from the North Carolina and our raft guide was from charlotte. White water rafting is my new favorite adventure.

After our rafting trip we were really tired but we wanted to see more of the Grand Tetons National Park so we decided to take a nice stroll around the Jenny Lake trail. This lake is one of the lakes at the very bottom of the mountain range. What makes the Grand Tetons unique is that they are really young and they look like they go right into the water at the bottom. It was really nice walking around the lake with the reflection of the mountains in the water. David was on a mission to teach me how to properly skip stones; I didn’t know that there was so much skill to it haha. The whole area around the lake was covered in these beautiful purple, blue and pearl white colored stones, it made the pathway really pretty.

After stopping at a few more scenic views we headed back to camp to eat dinner and go to bed. When we got there the stove, water bottles and a few other things that we had left on the table were gone, instead there was a note from the ranger that he had our stuff because of the bears, oops. We have actually been really respectful of the bears and their demands at all the parks but we forgot this time. So we ate dinner, relaxed a little and went to sleep

Day 20

Today we are continuing our drive to Jackson Hole, Wy. The drive was not all to interesting we finally figured out how to listen to free audio books on the iphone. We drove through a lot of small towns and made it into Idaho where on the welcome sign says “Scenic Idaho”, the only thing we saw was acres of dirt and some farms. We did get to see some wind turbine farms and it was really exciting to be close to them, they are so big! We also stopped in Idaho Falls and sat in the McDonalds parking lot to use their wifi for an hour so that we could upload the blog for the past few days. It really is not all to interesting but I still love the driving days. I love to sit back and just look at all the land that there is in the world and that makes up the Continental United States. I think coming from a big city this trip has really made me realize how big the world is and how much land there is out there.

We made it to Jackson Hole a cute little mostly tourist town now with a western flare and love for the moose. We drove past the tow to get our camp site which was right out side of the Grand Teton National Park but still had the most amazing view of the Grand Tetons. The sky was cloudy on that first night so we went into town to look around the shops and schedule our white rafting trip for the following day. It was a nice change to stroll through the little stores, there was every kind of t-shirt and knick-knack that you would find in a small tourist town. Of course we did a little shopping ourselves these stores can always get-ya. While walking around in one store, David walks over to me with a worried look on his face, I asked him what was wrong and he said “I think I ate something that I shouldn’t have”, then he pointed over to a display of a monopoly game with a bowl of popcorn sitting next to it, after he took a bite he noticed there was like red wax on some of the pieces and he was worried that this popcorn was not a sample. So we walked around trying to find out if the popcorn was sold in that store. We found popcorn and the red stuff was candy apple flavoring. We still don’t think that popcorn was for sampling, more so for looks but David got to try it.

After walking around and it being pretty far into the trip we decided to indulge in this local restaurant we found, a specialty grilled cheese café. If you know us then you know we love grilled cheese sandwiches. We were so excited, I got a grilled cheese sandwich with tomatoes, grilled onions and bacon and David got a Mac n’ cheese grilled cheese (as if we had not had enough Mac n’ cheese already). It was so yummy and we had a side salad, which was so amazing after eating weeks of vegetables from a can. We also indulge in the most amazing brownie that I have ever eaten. We took it back to our camp to eat while we spent the rest of the evening reading and hanging out. It stays light here until around 9:30 so we were able to enjoy the daylight even longer.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Day 19

Today is not going to be very exciting; it is just a driving day. We are in route to the Grand Tetons but we will be stopping for the night in Nevada. We left early this morning (8:00, not that early), destination: Northeast Nevada. Nevada is a gigantic state, we found out. We crossed the border around 10, and won’t even make it out of the state by nightfall. We got groceries in Fallon, NV. We ate at Jack in the Box in the next city, breaking the chain of healthy/boring/easy food, but it was nice to have something different than peanut butter and jelly which is what we have ate for lunch almost every day of this trip.

So basically we drove all day through the desert, just dry plain desert that goes on forever and ever. It was nice to look at the snow covered mountains way off in the distance. Our biggest challenge of the day has been the radio going in and out and we are tired of the same songs that we have on our iPods. So we entertain ourselves by making music videos with the video camera. I have also been knitting and David plans our route and tries to figure where we are staying for the nights we don’t have reservations and writes up some of the blogs. We do a lot of singing, some talking, laughing at billboards and watching the desert. We have reached about 5000 miles on this trip and we are finally heading back towards cheaper gas.

We did drive through a strange town in the middle of the desert that felt a little like being in the twilight zone. It was a really small town, almost everything was closed down or falling down and the whole town was surrounded by these weird underground bunker things as if preparing for a big explosion. It was a little eerie, so we decided not to get gas there.

We made it to our campsite in the middle of nowhere, which is never a comfortable feeling. We made a rice dinner, ate some peaches then spent the rest of the evening reading, relaxing and listening to coyotes howl not to far from us.

Although this day was not very exciting it was nice to feel like we were moving on, Yosemite although proved to be a wonderful experience at least two of the four days, it felt like we had been there forever and we were anxious to move on to the next place.

Day 18

Day 18: Waterfalls Abound!

We woke up to another beautiful, and even warmer day. We packed up camp and bid farewell to our former campsite intruders-turned-friends, and headed into a much less crowded Yosemite Valley. We went straight to Lower Yosemite Falls and parked, then took the shuttle to the trailhead for the Upper Yosemite Falls trail. We hiked up an extremely steep trail to Columbia Rock, ascending 1,000 feet in only one mile. We continued an additional half mile to a view of the Upper Falls, and then hiked down. Yosemite Falls consists of the upper, middle, and lower falls, forming a combined 2,500 feet of waterfall, making it the tallest in North America and something like the fifth tallest in the world. The water-flow isn’t very strong, however, so it is not as impressive as some of the other falls in the valley, like Vernal and Nevada Falls, where we headed to next.

If we thought the first hike was steep, I don’t know how to describe this hike. The mist trail goes up to Vernal Falls and then Nevada Falls. Half stairs, half too-steep asphalt, this trail made everybody seem out of shape. You can probably guess why it’s called the Mist Trail. If you can’t, look at the pictures.

Exhausted, we decided to put in one last effort to go see Mirror Lake… as we rounded the bend to the Lake, it was very familiar… because we had found it yesterday on that other trail we were “lost” on! In the end it was worth it, because we met our first fellow travelers from NC, a family from Rockingham. We went and took warm, FREE showers in Curry Village, bought some snacks we missed, had dinner, and passed out after a long day of hiking. Tomorrow we’ll drive halfway to the Grand Tetons and get groceries!

Day 17

May 27, 2012

This morning we woke up to a miracle, the sun. It was still freezing but we had hoped it would warm up. We cooked breakfast; we are starting to get low on food so a grocery store stop will be added to the route to the Grand Tetons.

We headed down the mountain trying to figure out the best way to see everything that we want to see and avoid the mass amounts of the crowds. As we headed back down towards the valley we were finally able to see why every one loves Yosemite so much, it is so amazing. There are huge rock faces everywhere you look, the most famous being El Capitan and Half-Dome, as well as breathtaking waterfalls around every corner. The drive through the valley seems so magical with the bright green tree’s towering on both side and a white water river running beside you. Our pure enjoyment of the scenery was short lived as we quickly hit traffic. We could not even stop at one viewpoint because there was so much craziness. All of the trailhead parking lots full, we could only park on the sides of the road. We hiked to the top of the sentinel dome which has an awesome 360 degree view of all of the rock faces and down into the valley. It was such an incredible feeling to stand on top of that huge rock and every direction you turned was a massive rock or waterfall or Sierra mountain cover in snow. It’s hard not feel small (in a good way) when looking at this landscape.

We continued to Glacier Point, which was another incredible view, but there were so many people it was hard to even get a good look at the vast scenery in front of us. As we gazed at Half Dome in the distance, we noticed a waterfall behind Half Dome. The problem was, there is no waterfall behind Half Dome! It was an avalanche!

Next, we headed down into the valley at a snail’s pace because of traffic. We got out and hiked up the small trail to see Bridalveil Falls. I love the view of a waterfall from the bottom and to be able to fell the mist falling from the water falling and crashing into rocks. Once again the trail was cramped, I have never seen so many people at one small view point, we just sat an watched all of the people, cameras, babies and dogs being passed every which way for pictures.

We headed back into traffic to go on hike to see the mirror lake. When we finally found a parking spot we still had a good walk just to get to our trailhead. It was the one of the most beautiful trails I have walked (besides the horse manure everywhere). It was a wonderful evening, the sun shone through the trees across the river and highlighted the rock face skyline. We walked a long time until we finally realized that we missed the intersecting trial to get to the mirror lake, but it was ok because we found such a pretty trail. David bounced from rock to rock and tried very hard to cross the very rapid river, he even wanted to attempt to walk on water.

We finally made it back to the car after another hour or so getting lost trying to get back to the car. We pulled out of our parking spot and sat in traffic for another hour or more barely moving a few feet every 20 minutes. We have learned our lesson never to come back to Yosemite on Memorial Day weekend. Now we’re heading back to camp, hoping it will be a little warmer tonight.

Day 15 and 16

I am putting these two days together because they were equally our most miserable days on our trip so far.

We got up early and headed to Yosemite. I really love driving through California I love seeing the rows and rows of orchards of every kind of fruit. We also see a lot of pickers and occasionally you can see the mountains on both sides of the valley through the smog. As we were driving we started to notice that the beautiful blue sky was becoming more grey and cloudy, so I looked up the weather and found out that it would be raining for two days. So not only were going to fighting the crowds for Memorial Day weekend but we will also be camping in rain, great.

We made it to Yosemite it was rainy and cold. We got there to late to try and get the campsite we wanted to try and reserve for the weekend. We went to our campsite and it was rainy pretty hard so we went to the visitor’s center to find out what hikes we should do and to find out where we could stay for Saturday and Sunday night. We had reservations for a camp that was advertised to be close to the park but it was almost 2 hours away. So we talked to the ranger who told us that there was camp that opened early for the season it was about an hour up the mountains. So we started the drive everything was foggy so we couldn’t even enjoy the views. We drove up and it was starting to snow harder. We found a spot paid and headed back down the mountain to stay at the campsite that we had down there since it would be warmer. We made dinner in the rain/ice mix and then went to see a free film about this mans journey on the high sierra trail from Sequoia national park to Mount Whitney, which is the highest peak in the continental U.S. Before the film started we were sitting and waiting in the sierra club building and a woman tripped on my chair and screamed as loud as she could, scarring me half to death. She was ok and it was funny after it all happened. The movie was a really good film and it showed some of the trails that we took while we were at Sequoia. It made me want to do that 60-mile trek but it would take a lot more hiking experience.

After the film we spent about 45 minutes on the shuttle trying to get back to our camp but at least it was warm. We made it back to camp and it was still rainy and cold so we decided to forget about the tent and we slept in the car.

The next morning we found out that the camp that we reserved a space for was closed now or at least the road to get up there was closed due to icy roads. jumped in line at camp 4 the only walk-in camp, David waited in line and I tried to get back to camp to pack up everything but kept getting lost until I ended back at camp 4. Unfortunately we were about ten people away from getting a spot. So we hurried over in all the traffic to get our name on the list for reservations cancellations. After that we went packed up camp and parked the car. We took showers, finally and one plus was that they were free. We walked around the village to kill time cause there was nothing else to do in the weather. So we walked around the shops and museum and watched the free documentary (which we both fell asleep in). At three we went to see if we got a cancellation spot. Once again we were a few spots too late, by this time we were a little worried and feeling homeless since the road was still closed. We went to the visitors center to find out what we could do and the ranger told us that they just opened the road and in the same instant we found out that they were about to close it again because of freezing. So we got to the car and tried to get to campsite before the road closed. We made it and the weather cleared we actually had a little bit of sun break though. We made it down the bumpy road just to find that someone had taken our spot. Apparently the campers beside us told them we left even though some of our stuff was there and our receipt to show this was our spot was there. So we made new friends and we shares the camp spot. They are really nice, they are from L.A and have two little girls. It turned out to be nice because we got a fire, a s’more and a fun evening talking around a fire. When it got to cold we went to sleep, but we froze all night in 19-degree temperatures.

With all of the people, the confusion, the rain and the cold, we were ready for these two days to be over. Day 14

Today we went to the Giant Forrest, named this by John Muir who is a influential figure in preserving the two of the first national parks Sequoia and Yosemite. We had a reserved spot in the same camp ground for tonight we just had to wait for the campers their now to pack up and leave. I have always been surprised how fast campers wake up, tear down their site and leave, except for this couple. They took forever to break down and we had to wait for almost two hours before we could finally pick up our tent and carry it over.

Today was the opening of the summer season for the park so the shuttles opened up. We took the shuttle to Morro rock/ Crescent Meadow because our camping neighbors told us about how amazing the view was. We took a longer hike instead off the shuttle from the meadows to Morro. We hiked to the first viewpoint on the high sierra trail., then we hiked over to Morro rock through what is called “Bear Territory”, it is the area of the park that they see the most bears. Have I known that before we hiked through I would have taken our lunch out of the backpack I was carrying; instead I walked around as human bear bait. We started up the staircase to the top of Morro rock which is a staircase of about 200 hundred straight up, steep and slim stairs. Once you get to the top the trek up is all worth it. There is such a beautiful view of the sierra’s and the other mountains. We ate our lunch up there dodging the crows and the swooping swallows that were speeding by us. Then headed back down.

Next we headed over to Giant forest, which is largest grove of sequoias, it has about 7000-8000 Giant Sequoias. We started at the museum to learn about the trees, such as the Giant sequoia is the biggest in volume but the Redwood on the coast of California is the tallest. We also learned that the sequoias need thousands of gallons of water and will evaporate about ten thousand gallons a day. When one of the Sequoias fell, water poured out. The biggest tree in the world is General Sherman. We barely could get the entire tree in the picture it is so big. We also went to visit General Grant, which is the third biggest tree. We found some of the other record-breaking trees and we had a lot of fun crawling through the holes and gaps in the trees. We hiked on the some of the trails in the giant forest and it was just amazing to stand next to these Giants, David was even afraid of them they were so big. After we hike around we went drove over to drive through the log tunnel, which is a tunnel that you can drive through that they made out of a fallen tree. We also walked through some other tunnel logs and went to see the auto log which was a popular drive way on a fallen tree until it was closed due to rotting of old age.

After our day among the Giants we headed back to camp, had another pasta dinner and David did another dance with the fire which was really good until he tripped on a piece of wood a landed in the fire, luckily the great caught so he didn’t get hurt but this furthered David’s battle with building fires. We went to bed so we can get up early to try and get a camping spot in Yosemite for the weekend, Memorial Day weekend.

Day 14

Friday, May 25, 2012

Day 13

A day in Sequoia

I am sitting here warming up by the fire that David worked so hard to build, after trying a fire started, poking it, fanning it with extreme force, rubbing alcohol and breaking the ax we brought trying to cut some logs, we finally have a nice warm fire to take the chill out of the air. Lets just say my dinner came with a show tonight, David and his fire dance. We had a great day in Sequoia national park, the national forest and Kings Canyon National Park, which are all three basically the same area. First I have to say that the day started out really nice because we were able to sleep in until 8 and we didn’t have to take the tent down. We had breakfast and then headed out to explore. We were going to start with the giant forest near our camp but since the shuttle system does not start until tomorrow we decided to go ahead and do the longer drive out the Kings Canyon. It was a beautiful drive and we mapped out which scenic views and trails we wanted to go to. We followed our path down the curvy roads. These roads probably have to be the curviest roads I have been on, I don’t get carsick and these roads were making me a little a sick. David of course was having a great time driving on them. With as windy as these roads were we next expected to be flagged down by a guy telling us that we can’t through because a wide-load tractor-trailer was stuck around a corner. As we were watching them back the truck up back and forth just enough to let the cars pass I am thinking “ Why on earth would anyone think they could get this truck up this road?”. We were finally able to pass and we continued on our way. We stopped to look at two waterfalls, the third biggest tree General Grant and we took a hike through a beautiful meadow. David was so excited to play on all the rocks he called it his “playground”, he would jump from rock to rock and even tried to scale a few which did not work out so well. It was a really nice hike with amazing surroundings. I really wish everyone could see some of the amazing sights that we have seen, I have taken a ton of pictures but it can never really capture the feeling you get of looking up to something as tall as an almost 300 foot tree. Some of our highlights for the day was getting to walk through a fallen tree, meeting our neighbors who was a really nice older couple, the waterfalls, singing in the car as we drove, and just spending some really beautiful days together. Our best highlight of the day was that we saw a bear! This was really exciting but also made me afraid that all these bear precautions, like the bear bin we have to store our food in is necessary. We have had no cell phone reception up here so we have not been able to talk to our family’s, but we wish Daniel, David’s brother, a happy 16^th birthday, we wish could be there to celebrate with him! Now we are just sitting here by our fire thankful the rain cloud we away, and looking foreword to our time in the Giant Forest tomorro

Day 12

The land of the giants.

We are in Sequoia National Park! Its beauty easily pars that of Grand Canyon and Zion. We woke up this morning to song birds in Malibu, ate grits and oatmeal, and drove North East. We found gas for the great price of $4.29 a gallon! Much better than the $4.49 down the street ($4.55 is the most expensive we saw in California yet). Later we filled up for $4.19. We drove through California’s Central Valley, where a lot, if not most of America’s produce, meats, and dairy is raised. The drive up the foothills into Sequoia was beautiful, but the forest at the top of the mountains is amazing. If you think your puny maple or oak tree is big back in NC, wait until you see a sequoia. It’s like walking through a make believe world, like Disney World in the Sierras. We set up camp, had lunch, and went on a quick hike to a beautiful waterfall surrounded by huge boulders, fallen hundreds or thousands of years ago from their homes, now cliffs towering a thousand feet above us on both sides. On the way to the falls a doe approached us on the trail and we got some great pictures. For dinner we got creative and used one of the nine (9) mac n’ cheese boxes we brought to make plain noodles and added artichoke hearts and marinara sauce to it. Unfortunately, I spilled the noodles into the fire pit on the first try, trying to drain them (we forgot a strainer), so good thing we brought so many boxes! It got down to 39 degrees Fahrenheit, so we pilled on the layers to get a good nights rest.

Day 11

Los Angeles de California.

I’m going to Hollywood! But not for American Idol. We arrived in the city of angels around noon, drove around downtown, and headed for Hollywood. The traffic there is crazy! Not in the sense that it back’s up (which it does), but the speed and lane changing everyone is doing. Every highway is 65 MPH and the merging lanes are nonexistent. Katie decided she would never live in L.A unless she was a celebrity and someone drove her around everywhere. We walked around Sid Grauman’s (spelling?) Chinese Theatre where the handprints and signatures of movie stars are in the sidewalk. Katie was finally able to take a picture with the Harry Potter hand print block after waiting for several people to walk off of it. It was a lot of fun to see so much history in one area. That was our favorite part of Hollywood. Our second favorite part was Beverly Hills; mansions and outrageously priced shopping, Go Amuhrca (for all you Al Gore fans out there). We found it funny how the celebrities with big houses put up walls and very large shrubberies to keep the tours from seeing their homes. Why did you build such a nice house if you don’t want anyone to see it? We drove all around the Hollywood area trying to get a picture of the Hollywood sign and I was on a mission to find the Hollywood Bowl, which we even though I spent a lot of time trying to follow the signs and Edna the GPS, we just happened to come across it later that day when were not even trying. Eventually we made it to our campsite at Leo Carrillo State beach off of the Pacific Coast Highway, just south of Santa Barbara. What a beautiful beach. Other people must think so as well because a movie was being shot there along with a fashion model photo session. They even have Baywatch style lifeguard towers. I don’t know why they need them though; the water is too cold to swim in. Maybe it’s better in the summer. We stayed out on a really windy but beautiful rock face to watch the sunset. We got hot showers (our first in three days), ate some mac n’ cheese, and went to bed.

Day 10

Vegas Baby!

Yo, it’s D Rock, rockin’ da blog. We left the north rim of the GC at 6:30, not bad after freezing all night. On our way to Vegas, we drove through Zion National Park in Southern Utah. I’m still not sure whether that was a smart decision or not because all it made me do was want to stay there instead of moving on with our trip. But I’m glad I did because Vegas was definitely worth it. We went straight to our campground at “Las Vegas Bay” on Lake Mead, (a national recreation area, yet another place accessible with the national park pass, thanks mom and dad!). It wasn’t really a bay, seeing as the nearest water was half a mile away. We wished it was much, much closer as we set up our tent in the 100 degree desert sun. Before painting the town, we drove to Hoover Dam, walked across it, proposed, that is, watched a proposal (Katie says Hoover Dam isn’t her idea of a romantic spot anyways), and drove into Vegas. We parked at a park and ride south of the strip and rode a bus to the main section. After a confusing and hot walk around Mandalay Bay, we went into MGM (no lions though L) and New York New York, saw the solar eclipse outside (wow) and went into Excalibur. As we left there, we realized that the Billboard Music Awards were being held in MGM’s Grand Garden Arena at that very moment, so we rushed back over there, but found no celebrities. We left, heading north to eat and see the Bellagio fountains, hoping we would see a celebrity out partying somewhere along the way. The fountains were a hit with both of us, so we watched them twice in a row. We proceeded to walk all the way down Caesar’s Palace and got to Treasure Island where we decided it was time to go back to the car and back to sleep. We waited and watched the pirate show at TI first, and it was terrible. It reminded me of a zombie musical I saw at Scarowinds. It was no longer an adventure pirate show, but scandalous sirens and pirate show. We watched the Bellagio fountains one more time and continued to the car. We road the bus back with a very loud southern woman who was yelling about moonshine, not a good representation of the south. We got back to the campsite around 12:20 (after Taco Bell…Shhhh we’re supposed to be cooking), and went to sleep for a much warmer night that the one before.