The Big Easy and the Great Swing Back

Bring on the Tesh!!

In Denver now, and preparing for the Cannonball part of the trip.

Strangely, it never got better.  

From Redwood to Telluride was close to 18 hours, with a quick pit to complete the "Folsom Prison Blues" circuit:  from Folsom, Ca we stopped in Reno, NV that day to gamble at the Boomtown.

He had wiles, and then some.

Hillary's first blackjack experience left her up $100, and ready to fly across the akali flats of Nevada.  With a quick stop over in Wendover, NV - i.e, one of the minor armpits of the universe - we reached Telluride on Monday night.

Had a good time catching up with the Huff's and Gumbles, and eye-balled the strange paradox of small town resort high in the San Gabriel mountains.  Telluride, a reconstructed mining town, swapped its one industry reliance in the seventies to the ski resort on its northern edge, but has not surrendered their right to easy partying.
From Telluride we went over the top to Denver and landed with Hillary's friends Megan and Clint, one of a brood of expectant mothers - everyone, we've learned, likes to get pregnant simultaneously.  We hung out with Alex and Keely Moffitt last night - big ups to Keely in surrendering her pink privy to us for the night -

The backs of my retina ache. 

and are planning the end stretch:
  From Denver, 22 hours over two days to New Orleans, thru the heart of Rangers country.
  Three days in the Big Easy, and the last partying of the trip
  And twenty hours more lands us in Philly on Thursday night.

We'll touch base with you guys before then, but heads up to all Saturday night October 30, the big birthday celebrash for 3-0 for Kevin, happening (tentatively) at Tierney's in Montclair.  Any suggestions or heads up for New Orleans, let us know and we'll drink a hurricane for ya.....

Redwood

I want my $5 back.

Driving south from Portland, we entered California from the North, amid a minor freakout at the agricultural stop.

I have nothing to declare

Previously slated for Sequoia National Forest, we stayed an extra day in the Redwoods.  It is difficult to sum the experience without being there; a part of the thrill of the enormous trees is knowing how close they came to being logged into extinction.  The so-called Big Tree was slated to become a dance floor before being rescued by the outraged citizenry.

From the school of extreme understatement

Thankfully the park had a number of concerned stewards who were able to save it from destruction.

I am to redwoods what Jackie O. is to Grand Central.

More on this to come, having to run out.....Making a run for Colorado today.

We are still alive

"YOYOYOYOYOGIRLFRIEND!!!!!!"
- Traditional Aunt Burn Birthday Greeting

The Gates of Yellowstone

Apparently the CBS Sunday morning show aired a segment on grizzly bear related deaths last week leading to mass hysteria in the poconos.  It's ok kids, we're still alive.  We didn't even see a single grizzly bear or black bear.  We did see mountain goats, bison, elk, bison, mule deer, bison, lots of bear scat and bison.
We spent an amazing four days in Yellowstone where we walked through the geysers, hot springs and mud pots.  For those of you who haven't been to Yellowstone, you might be interested to know that Old Faithful is neither the most regular or biggest geyser.  As far as we can tell it was just the easiest to make a tourist attraction.   It's still pretty cool but it doesn't compare to some of the other features in the park.  It does often feel like you're on the surface of another planet when you walk through some areas of the park. We also hiked to the top of Mt. Washburn and its observation tower which has a one room apt. for the poor ranger who spends each May-September at the top of the mountain all by his lonesome looking for fires.


Kevin and Hillary's "Double Rainbow Moment" at Yellowstone's Grand canyon: 

From Yellowstone we went to Glacier National Park straddling the US-Canada border in Montana.  There seemed never to be a sight line short a gorgeous view and a night without a whipping wind.  The highpoint was our hike to Grinnel Glacier, a rapidly disappearing cap of ice churning into an enormous pond of glacial water at elevation.

Its estimated by 2030 the glacier will no longer exist.

We celebrated Hillary's birthday with a trip into Canada, my first visit though not first attempt.  Unaware that it was Canadian Thanksgiving - they eat turkey as well - and that little would be open, we celebrated in style at the bar of the Queen's Hotel, an indigent hotel in Fort Macleod, Alberta.

The excitement of Canadian Thanksgiving

We drove out to Seattle last night, and we're pushing on toward Sequoia today.....suffice to say running out of time in all senses.  We could spend a day trying to sum the beauty of Glacier and Yellowstone, but it would never do it justice.  No camera has the capacity to capture them without being there.

And the Badlands Start Treating Us Good...

And the camping begins.
We drove through Wisconsin (cheese curds are good!) and Minnesota where we learned that the speed limit is 75 but if you say that you're on your honeymoon when you get pulled over, you'll get off with a warning.  Minnesota is currently leading the race for the state with the friendliest occupants and not just because of the nice cop.
After driving through six hours of cornfields we crossed the Missouri and entered a entirely different landscape.

Six hours of this...

Then KABAM!

We made it to the badlands just as the sun was setting.  A lot of people told us about the Badlands and how incredible it is.  We had been looking at pictures for weeks as we planned the trip but nothing compared to seeing them in person.  As soon as we pulled into the park, we stopped at the first overlook and then just stood there and didn't speak.
We set up camp in the less rustic of the two camping areas on the first night.  We left the rain flap off the tent which led to a pretty cold night (42) but amazing views of the stars.
Hiking options are limited because of the bison and because of the damage hikers do the peaks of Badlands.  They look so strong but when you start to climb up them, you realize how fragile they are.  We hiked three trails (ok, two trails and one ridiculous boardwalk loop with "recreations" of fossils found in the park).

Kevin climbing the ladder on our first hike of the day.

The view from the top

We headed to the infamous Wall Drug for a milkshake as a reward for hikes and then to a local establishment for a couple of cold ones - where we saw a man eat a potato chip sandwich.  We then drove back to the park and made the 12 mile drive back a dirt road to the more primitive camping area.  The previous days camping host told us only the hearty and the crazy camped back there.  We will let you judge in what category we belong.  We passed a couple of bison on the way in and were quite excited.  After a quick cold dinner, we hit the tent for another cold, windy night where we both had dreams of the bison coming into camp.  It turns out we weren't too far off because we woke up to a fresh buffalo patty right next to our campsite and four of the beasts about 50 yards off grazing in the prairie.  We got some good picks and decided it was amazing to be that close to the bison and headed off to Mt. Rushmore.
Until...we hit a little roadblock.

We sat for about ten minutes until they decided they'd had enough of us and ambled off.

We survived our first night in the thirties and are now off to Yellowstone and Glacier with a stop to get Kevin some long underoos.  They are calling for lows in the twenties and snow so send lots of warm thoughts our way!

We'll talk to you soon.
h + k