Badlands

Photos from June 16-17: Bozeman and beyond

Buildings in downtown Bozeman

A (recently shaven) alpaca at the farmer's market.

Sky and mountains

Rain

Yes, it's real!

Bozeman, Badlands, and the World's Smallest Biker Bar

Most of last week was wonderful, and the part that was less than wonderful was not nearly as bad as it could have been. Tuesday (June 16) found us still in Bozeman - we had decided to take an extra day there to look around and recover from the drive on Monday. We spent some time catching up with email and making sure that everything was charged up for the next day, and then we went out to explore the town a bit. We really liked Bozeman - there's a terrific community co-op grocery store with a nice coffee shop upstairs - and the downtown area was especially nice. Lots of old brick buildings with interesting businesses, lots of bookstores and restaurants, lots of people walking around or eating on the restaurants' patios and obviously enjoying themselves and the beautiful summer afternoon. We had dinner at MacKenzie River Pizza Co. which is a Montana chain and is very very good with many interesting choices. Afterwards, we followed signs and small children wearing balloon hats to the farmer's market, which was more like a street fair since it was very early in the season  for produce. There were food stalls, crafts and prepared food, a climbing wall, and...alpacas! The place was packed and there were children running around everywhere, it really seemed like the whole town had come out to see friends and check out what was offered for sale.

The next day was, to be honest, not quite what we were expecting. We got out of Bozeman at a reasonable time and we were planning to camp at Custer National Forest  which we figured was about 4 hours away, leaving us plenty of time to explore the area. We got to the forest just fine, but the campground we were planning on staying at didn't have water and we would have had to go back to the last town and through a 30 minute wait for road work to get supplies. And it was starting to rain, and we are wimps. So we pushed on. There were lots of RV parks but no campgrounds as such...on we went...into Wyoming and South Dakota...more road work...and so on. We had pretty much decided to get to Rapid City, SD and look for a hotel there but when we got there all the hotels were full of realtors since there was a convention in town. I think it was about 7 by now and we hadn't really had anything resembling lunch so we were getting a little tweaky. 11 miles east of Rapid City is the lovely hamlet of New Underwood, and the exit sign for New Underwood has a bed on it next to the knife and fork sign, so I said 'WE'RE STOPPING NOW' and lo and behold, there was the motel right off the highway. Next to the "World's Smallest Biker Bar". We were too tired and hungry to care and, to be honest, the motel could have been MUCH worse - we did get a good night's sleep (mostly because the bar wasn't open that night) and all the lights and water faucets worked the way they were supposed to. Still, we were up and out of there by 7 the next morning, which is a record for me.

We went on eastwards and very shortly came to the turnoff for the Badlands. This is a place I've been wanting to visit for a long time and I was incredibly pleased to be there. After you enter the park there are several overlooks off the main road where you can park and get out to look at the scenery, and the first one we stopped at made me want to just stay there all day and watch the light move along the peaks and crevices. We stopped at a few more overlooks and then went on to the campground where we were able to set up our tent right away, and one of the rangers stopped by to give us some information about the various hikes and trails in the park. The hike we ended up doing was long and it was hot and extremely dry, but there were hardly any other people around and the landscape was...stunning. We have a lot of pictures and I'm planning to put a few of those up in the next post. One of the highlights of that day - after the mountains and the frogs and the views and the sunset and everything else - was sitting in the tent watching a lightning storm move by several miles south of us. I can't wait to go back and we're already planning to spend a week there sometime and really explore in depth.

Friday morning, we reluctantly packed up and headed for Minneapolis. We were really glad to finally get out of South Dakota but as soon as we got out of the car at the first Minnesota rest stop, we remembered that the Midwest is humid this time of year. I had phoned the person we were staying with but had cleverly forgotten to account for the time change into Central; even with that we arrived in good time and Michele (who I hadn't seen in 11 years!) met us with margaritas and dinner. We had a terrific time conversing and catching up, and we were just thinking that we might settle in for the night with a good book, when I checked my email and found out that this was the first night of the Young Irish Musicians' Weekend. Faced with such a dilemma, we did the obvious thing: dug out the instruments and headed for the pub. We met several fine musicians from the area and also got to play with Daithi Sproule, Liz and Yvonne Kane, and Eliot Grasso. It was a great night of music and we got to bed around 1:30 am - just the thing after a long day of driving!

We're currently in Madison, WI, staying with William's brother Pete, and we've had a wonderful and VERY warm week here. Details soon...

June 17-20

The very kind people who have let us stay with them

Michael Jones and Miriam Kaplan, San Carlos, CA.

Steve Lin, Cupertino, CA. We didn't get a picture of him when we were there so this is from his website.

Lynn and Richard Ferry, Greeley Hill, CA

Cyndy Brannvall, Berkeley, CA

Anton and Katie Emery, Portland, OR

Michele Campbell, Minneapolis, MN. She has a blog too!

Four states in one day

Monday, June 15th, was going to be a long day of driving - we knew that already. Google Maps said that it would take 11 hours to get from Portland to Bozeman, MT but considering that there are several mountain ranges in between, we thought it might take even longer. We got an early start and left Portland on 84 going east, thankfully against the flow of morning rush hour traffic. 84 goes along the Columbia River and the first hour or so was a pleasant combination of wide river, low clouds, and enormous evergreen trees. All that ended fairly soon as we made the transition to eastern Oregon: the river narrowed and the trees practically vanished, to be replaced by rolling brown hills. We left 84 and angled up into Washington state, crossing the river and heading for Spokane. This are is known as the Palouse - we didn't stop to take photographs but I would like to bring these photos to your attention if you want to know what it looks like. Gorgeous stuff...much better than anything we could have produced! We stopped at a rest area to eat lunch and neglected to weigh down the cover to the container of curry that we had brought with us, the result being that it flew through the air directly at me and I ended up with bits of curry all over my shirt. 

Forging ahead bravely, we made it through Spokane and into Idaho where the scenery changed again and we spent a good bit of time going straight up and down mountains and past large lakes. Just after entering Montana, we changed drivers (I had been insisting on driving in all four states and had just about had enough at that point) and headed straight down the east side of the Bitterroot Mountains. There are large signs everywhere warning truckers to take care on the steep grade and this proved to be important information, because about 2 miles into Montana we came around a corner and slammed on the brakes...cars and trucks were lined up as far ahead as we could see and they were NOT moving at all. We were surrounded by 18-wheelers and as it became apparent that we weren't going anywhere for a while, the truckers started getting out of their cabs to walk around a bit and check on their rigs. The man next to us (on the right, we were in the left lane) got out just as I was rolling down my window and I asked him if he knew what was going on. He said, "There's a parking lot on fire up ahead, we're not going anywhere soon". Well, this sounded serious...

So we settled in. The trucker ahead of us had noticed something on the rear of his truck and went back to ask the man behind us to come up and take a look at it. A man on a bicycle rode by, presumably gathering information to bring back to people farther back in the line. People walked around, cars and trucks whizzed past going west on the other side of the divider. William got out with the camera and recorder, evidence of which you can see/hear elsewhere on this blog. The trucker on the right came back - he seemed to be a bit of a gloomy sort, as he was climbing back into his cab, he said "Hope nobody crashes into the back of this line". He had his windows down and we could hear his CB radio now and then: they seemed to be talking about a car hauler that was having problems, which was puzzling until a glimmer of an idea crossed my mind which I later confirmed online. Briefly, 'parking lot' is trucker slang for a multi-car carrier, which was still a problem if it was on fire, but it wasn't nearly the scope of problem that I was expecting. Eventually the CB reported that the fire was out, that the firemen were hosing off the road, and that they were ready to open up the left lane. This was confirmed by other truckers getting back in and starting up the engines (deafening...) and we got ready to set off carefully. Our gloomy friend leaned out the window just before the person in front of us started moving and warned us to be careful in case there were people still walking around on the road. 

We started off slowly and in about a mile we saw the truck on the side of the road. I believe I remember hearing over the CB that the brakes had caught fire, and what we saw was the cab and the front half of the carrier (which was fine, so the driver was okay) a few feet in front of the back half of the carrier, which had about 3 badly charred cars and was covered in foam. In a very short time we had moved beyond the traffic and gotten back to full speed...but it was about 6 by now...and we were now in the Mountain time zone so it was actually 7...and it was still a LONG way to Bozeman. We had hotel reservations, thankfully, and I phoned up and made sure they knew we would be late. The rest of the day was a combination of desperately wanting to be done with the drive and going into raptures over the scenery and the mountains and, eventually, the sunset. We regretfully bypassed Missoula, got snarled in road construction in Butte, crossed the Continental Divide, and glided gracefully into Bozeman while there was still a bit of light in the sky. Which isn't saying much: it was 10:30 pm. We are sincerely hoping that there won't be any more long days like that but crossing the Divide at sunset almost made up for it - ALMOST. 

Photos from June 15-16: Washington and Montana

Rest stop at Sprague Lake, WA, in the Palouse area.

Just into Montana, we suddenly came to a halt...

Stopped on I-90, surrounded by trucks.

The line of stopped traffic.

Lots of people got out and walked around.

After we got going again

Montana hills.

Sunset in Montana.

It was hard to drive and not look at the clouds.

Taken just a few miles west of the Continental Divide.

June 16, in Bozeman

Magpie on the deck at the Bozeman Co-op.

(p.s. William took all the photos in this post)

Photos from Dimond-O and Carlon Day Use Area, Yosemite

Berkeley to Portland

 Thursday night we had the pleasure of staying in Berkeley at C's house and we took advantage of every outlet and appliance we could find. Laundry was done, food was cooked, dishes were washed, and computers, batteries, and iPods were charged. I wish we could have stayed longer but I'm sure we'll go back to Berkeley sometime, probably before the end of the year. Friday morning we loaded up the car (we've just about got the system down now) and headed north to Portland. It is a LONG way, even starting in the East Bay instead of the South Bay like we usually do, and while there was plenty of scenery and other oddities to look at we were both ready to get out of the car long before Portland. We decided to stop in Eugene, OR at Wandering Goat Coffee and as luck would have it, our friends K and K were able to get a break from work and come meet us there. However, even though we've been there several times before, we got completely lost and had to call them three times for directions. When we finally found the place, we were ceremoniously presented with a street map of Eugene and a map of the Western US. Friends are nice.

We staggered into Portland about 8:30 and got some dinner at Tsunami Thai with our friends A and K. Even though we were both exhausted, we felt like we should really get all we could out of our visit so when A announced his intention to check out the "Potato Cart", we didn't feel like we should argue. I'm glad we went, even if we didn't get out of the car to experience the full glory of the street corner...crepes, pies, burritos, anything and everything you could want to eat in the middle of the night. The pommes frites were some of the best I've ever tasted, and in true European style, they came with mayonnaise. Lots of people hanging out, music playing, cars parked haphazardly but always leaving enough space for other to get through...if you're in Portland looking for a place to hang out at night, check out 12th and Hawthorne.

That's how our weekend began, and pretty much how it continued..."where are we gonna eat next?" was a constant refrain. On Saturday we slept in, went to Powell's (of course), got some lunch at Blossoming Lotus, and headed off to the Saturday Market. As we walked through the crowds, the groove of the one man band playing Elvis faded gently into the bongos-and-buckets percussionists (with a belly dancer for good measure) and that, in turn, merged seamlessly with the bagpiper. Never a dull moment in this town. We ran some more errands, did some computer stuff, and had dinner at Mudai which was just as good as we remembered it from last summer. That night, yet another K came over and we played tunes until 11 or so when we decided we had best pack it in before the neighbors complained.

Sunday we had every intention of NOT going out to eat but A offered to buy us breakfast and we couldn't refuse. We ended up at Francis where our table had everything from country-fried steak to the vegan burger. Excellent stuff. We went to the farmer's market to get ingredients for the Thai curry which would get us to our next stop (and which I have just polished off during the writing of this post), stopped at a few other places, and finally rounded off the day by going to the Irish session at Kells (free food and drinks for musicians!!). The bar was crowded and there were a lot of people playing but we managed to get a few good tunes in before heading home to prepare for Monday's drive.

We're currently in Bozeman, MT...details of that drive (including spending an hour at a dead stop on I-90 just after crossing into Montana!) coming soon.

June 15

Photos from the car

Sunset, on the way to San Francisco.

Black Butte, just off I-5 near Weed, CA

Mt. Shasta...it was too cloudy to see the entire mountain...

Somewhere in NoCal

The State of Jefferson.

Logging at 6 am and other stories

From Thursday June 4th to Thursday June 11th there was only one night that we didn't spend in a tent - Monday, I think. We became intimately familiar with every angle and bump of the place where our tent was set up at Kowana Valley; although it was almost flat there was a slight incline downhill which meant that if William went to bed before me, I would come back and find that he had slid down towards my side of the tent. The good news about this was that we were able to get almost all of the water out from under our tent that had accumulated on the groundcover tarp during the rain - we got a long stick and lifted up the floor of the tent until the water came out on the downhill side. Also, we learned to set up the tarp properly instead of just throwing it down and plopping the tent on top of it. Very useful information. When we got to Dimond-O, we found that they had level tent pads built into each campsite, and we set up our tent with a sigh of relief. I'm still fairly convinced that there was a slight incline which put our heads about a centimeter lower than our feet, but I could have been imagining it.

So, the campground was quiet on Tuesday night, with everyone near us keeping well to themselves and no loud music or partying that we could hear. I woke up in the middle of the night convinced that I was hearing a bear, but further listening assured me that it was the gentleman sleeping in the site next to us because I don't think bears snort in such a rhythmic fashion. And then dawn...and the loggers...arrived. Evergreen Lodge is apparently building new cabins, and the trees are apparently in the way, and what better time to cut down trees than at 6 am? We could hear trucks, chainsaws, the falling trees, and an occasional exuberant whooping sound from the loggers, and as it was still too cold to get up, we enjoyed the aleatory reverberations until about 8 when everything stopped and presumably the loggers went home for the day. Nice work if you can get it...

We spent 2 nights at Dimond-O and it was cold at night (low 40s) but pleasant during the day. We decided not to go into Yosemite as we didn't feel like we would spend enough time there to justify the park entrance fee, and we've already been into the main area of the valley so our plan is to come back sometime and spend a week or so exploring. We walked down to the creek near the campsite on Tuesday afternoon after we got set up and took a nap, and on Wednesday after the previous blog post we went to the Carlon Day Use Area to attempt to find a waterfall. We didn't find it - turns out we were on the wrong side of the river - but we did see lots of wildflowers and a lovely scrap metal heap in the middle of the woods. That night we made a fire (after many attempts) and played tunes and contemplated the marvelous thought that this would be our last night in a tent for a while.

Thursday we went back to the Bay Area to run some errands and have our last cup of Barefoot Coffee for a while. We spent the night in Berkeley and drove to Portland on Friday. I think I'll save the details of those two days for the next post.

June 4 - 12

Hull creek, which runs through Dimond "O" Campground

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