At Bear Lake State Park.
Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Sunday, September 16, 2018
Monday, September 3, 2018
Utah Bound
No not sure if anyone is still out there, but tomorrow Frances and I depart for Utah. This is about all the planning that we've done, but Utah is such an outdoor Playland, it's hard to go wrong. We have a few stops along the way, Columbia, TN, St Louis, Denver, and perhaps Durango, CO. We'll be taking off road bikes this time around. We plan to be back by Frances' birthday on the 28th.
Wednesday, September 6, 2017
Iowa and Michigan
There is no avoiding the fact that our travels are now coming to and end, for this trip at least. A few final words and photos from the road.
Leaving Wyoming after the eclipse, we found ourselves on the interstate highway, in heavy traffic, starting to sense the fun was over. Impulsively, I pulled of the highway and onto a rural road in Iowa, that ironically took us to Madison, Iowa. In Madison, we visited the Nisha Heritage Center. We spent two hours captivated by the collection of this local museum. Clearly they had a gifted curator who spent decades collecting objects that spoke to life on the farm in Iowa. I don't have many photos, frankly because I was too engaged in the experience to break away from our guide and take them. A lovely woman, probably in her 80s, spent two hours telling us how the exhibit of the town's doctor was obtained and how made the doctor was to come to work one day and find his door broken. Someone had entered the office forcefully overnight, perhaps in the 1930s, and damaged the door. The damaged door, his medical school degree, and various other tools of the trade were now housed in the Nisha Heritage Center. The list of common everyday items is too long to list but there was a butcher shop, a blacksmith shop, a collection of wedding dresses, a collection of 2000 buttons, locally found fossils including a molar from a Columbian mammoth, the old post office service window, goods from the old general store, on and on and on. The lady who became our guide had a story to tell about almost every item we saw, who it belonged to, how it was obtained, etc. This stop reminded us of the importance of looking closely in out of the way places for such hidden treasures.
We found that Iowa had a small museum in almost every town we drove through. We ended up stumbling into the town where John Wayne was born, Winterset, and just by accident drove past a sign to the Roseman Covered bridge, one of the famous bridges of Madison County. All three of these surprises happened in one day, at the end of which, we were back on track and our travels were once again an adventure.
Earlier, we had been invited by Cecil Goettsch, a fellow rider on our Coast to Coast bicycle trip, to visit him in Des Moines, IA. At the time, we planned to travel through Minnesota and we told him that we would not be able to make the visit. Readers of this blog know what happened to our plans regarding Minnesota. However, once we found ourselves leaving Wyoming, we were clearly en route to Iowa. We ran into Cecil in downtown Des Moines at their Framers' Market. He was calling trying to see where we were, and it turned out we were standing about 50 feet apart in the middle of a crowd of 1000s, visiting the market. We managed to get in a bike ride with Cecil on the High Trestle Trail, and spent time catching up with him at his home. Cecil has crossed the US about 6 times on his bicycle, and is now working on a route to retrace the famous route 66. Cecil sings a Capella, and and and was kind enough to offer us a spare CD that he just happened to have lying around.
A town I would highly recommend anyone visit is Pella, IA. We visited since my father in law was a dealer for Vermeer Equipment, which is headquartered there. The town has a very interesting, Dutch, heritage. There is a working windmill that grinds meal that you can visit. It was a marvel of design and craftsmanship. There are two amazing bakeries in town and a historic village. We also toured the Vermeer museum and scored some merchandise at the Vermeer dealer discount rate. It was emotional to think that we were perhaps viewing things that Wayne and Sue and viewed on one of their trips to Pella when he was still running his business. Apparently, their tulip festival is a big thing.
After Iowa we traversed Wisconsin. While staying in Waupaca, we enjoyed one of the most beautiful bicycle rides I have ever taken. I downloaded the route from Ride with GPS and we traveled on great roads that were almost free of traffic. In 50+ miles, other than a short one-half mile on a busy road, we had about 10 cars overtake us. We saw sand hill cranes, dairies, turkeys and beautiful farms and forests.
After Wisconsin we landed in Bay Furnace campground in the town of Christmas, MI. We visited the Pictured Rocks seashore on Lake Superior. I cannot overstate how beautiful the lake is in this area. The water was crystal clear and the lake bed littered with smooth beautiful agate. You could spend hours wading in the chilly water picking up stones and never grow tired of the colors and patterns you would find. The sandstone cliffs along the lake are very surprising, and the blue/turquoise water is evocative of the Gulf of Mexico or the Mediterranean Sea. Kayaks toured the shoreline, offering the best view of the cliffs.
After leaving the UP, we crossed the Mackinac Bridge, and make our way down to Grand Rapids, where I sit now. Last night we were visited by Craig Anderson, who was in Peace Corps with me. Craig stayed on in Africa and work for US AID. After the AID mission lost funding, Craig joined the Foreign Service working at US Embassies around the world, serving as Charge d' Affairs and multiple sites. He now owns a farm in RSA, just across the border from Lesotho, where we both served. This was the 3rd former PCV that I was able to reconnect with on this trip.
Today, I plan to visit with a former work colleague, Peter Cherry, in Ann Arbor. Then we are off to Gambier to see Maggie. We should be home next weekend.
Some photos of the places we say along this segment. BTW, we discovered White Pelicans. We had no idea that fresh water pelicans were a thing, but we saw them in the Dakotas and again in Iowa.
Leaving Wyoming after the eclipse, we found ourselves on the interstate highway, in heavy traffic, starting to sense the fun was over. Impulsively, I pulled of the highway and onto a rural road in Iowa, that ironically took us to Madison, Iowa. In Madison, we visited the Nisha Heritage Center. We spent two hours captivated by the collection of this local museum. Clearly they had a gifted curator who spent decades collecting objects that spoke to life on the farm in Iowa. I don't have many photos, frankly because I was too engaged in the experience to break away from our guide and take them. A lovely woman, probably in her 80s, spent two hours telling us how the exhibit of the town's doctor was obtained and how made the doctor was to come to work one day and find his door broken. Someone had entered the office forcefully overnight, perhaps in the 1930s, and damaged the door. The damaged door, his medical school degree, and various other tools of the trade were now housed in the Nisha Heritage Center. The list of common everyday items is too long to list but there was a butcher shop, a blacksmith shop, a collection of wedding dresses, a collection of 2000 buttons, locally found fossils including a molar from a Columbian mammoth, the old post office service window, goods from the old general store, on and on and on. The lady who became our guide had a story to tell about almost every item we saw, who it belonged to, how it was obtained, etc. This stop reminded us of the importance of looking closely in out of the way places for such hidden treasures.
We found that Iowa had a small museum in almost every town we drove through. We ended up stumbling into the town where John Wayne was born, Winterset, and just by accident drove past a sign to the Roseman Covered bridge, one of the famous bridges of Madison County. All three of these surprises happened in one day, at the end of which, we were back on track and our travels were once again an adventure.
Earlier, we had been invited by Cecil Goettsch, a fellow rider on our Coast to Coast bicycle trip, to visit him in Des Moines, IA. At the time, we planned to travel through Minnesota and we told him that we would not be able to make the visit. Readers of this blog know what happened to our plans regarding Minnesota. However, once we found ourselves leaving Wyoming, we were clearly en route to Iowa. We ran into Cecil in downtown Des Moines at their Framers' Market. He was calling trying to see where we were, and it turned out we were standing about 50 feet apart in the middle of a crowd of 1000s, visiting the market. We managed to get in a bike ride with Cecil on the High Trestle Trail, and spent time catching up with him at his home. Cecil has crossed the US about 6 times on his bicycle, and is now working on a route to retrace the famous route 66. Cecil sings a Capella, and and and was kind enough to offer us a spare CD that he just happened to have lying around.
A town I would highly recommend anyone visit is Pella, IA. We visited since my father in law was a dealer for Vermeer Equipment, which is headquartered there. The town has a very interesting, Dutch, heritage. There is a working windmill that grinds meal that you can visit. It was a marvel of design and craftsmanship. There are two amazing bakeries in town and a historic village. We also toured the Vermeer museum and scored some merchandise at the Vermeer dealer discount rate. It was emotional to think that we were perhaps viewing things that Wayne and Sue and viewed on one of their trips to Pella when he was still running his business. Apparently, their tulip festival is a big thing.
After Iowa we traversed Wisconsin. While staying in Waupaca, we enjoyed one of the most beautiful bicycle rides I have ever taken. I downloaded the route from Ride with GPS and we traveled on great roads that were almost free of traffic. In 50+ miles, other than a short one-half mile on a busy road, we had about 10 cars overtake us. We saw sand hill cranes, dairies, turkeys and beautiful farms and forests.
After Wisconsin we landed in Bay Furnace campground in the town of Christmas, MI. We visited the Pictured Rocks seashore on Lake Superior. I cannot overstate how beautiful the lake is in this area. The water was crystal clear and the lake bed littered with smooth beautiful agate. You could spend hours wading in the chilly water picking up stones and never grow tired of the colors and patterns you would find. The sandstone cliffs along the lake are very surprising, and the blue/turquoise water is evocative of the Gulf of Mexico or the Mediterranean Sea. Kayaks toured the shoreline, offering the best view of the cliffs.
After leaving the UP, we crossed the Mackinac Bridge, and make our way down to Grand Rapids, where I sit now. Last night we were visited by Craig Anderson, who was in Peace Corps with me. Craig stayed on in Africa and work for US AID. After the AID mission lost funding, Craig joined the Foreign Service working at US Embassies around the world, serving as Charge d' Affairs and multiple sites. He now owns a farm in RSA, just across the border from Lesotho, where we both served. This was the 3rd former PCV that I was able to reconnect with on this trip.
Today, I plan to visit with a former work colleague, Peter Cherry, in Ann Arbor. Then we are off to Gambier to see Maggie. We should be home next weekend.
Some photos of the places we say along this segment. BTW, we discovered White Pelicans. We had no idea that fresh water pelicans were a thing, but we saw them in the Dakotas and again in Iowa.
Monday, August 28, 2017
Omaha and the End of the West
I can't imagine a better place to view the eclipse than we had, but how we got there was due to a rash decision and a bit of luck and some experience at selecting camping sites....
After we left Denver, we traveled through Wyoming (Gurnsey State Park/Ft Laramie) and Nebraska. We really enjoyed the Agate Fossil beds and Fort Robinson. Fort Robinson has a lot of frontier history. It was the site of the murder of Crazy Horse who had come to camp to talk to the Colonel. Later the Army repurposed the fort a couple of times before giving it to the state of Nebraska to run as a state park. The university of Nebraska has a very nice museum at the fort that has a pair of fossilized Columbian Mammoths who died during a battle. The entire struggled remains fossilized, complete with tusks interlocked.
From Ft Robinson we went into Custer State Park in South Dakota. We arrived during the week of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. The park is very nice, but the constant rumble of thousands of motorcycles did not contribute to our enjoyment. It would have been a beautiful bicycling spot, but since the motorcycles were occasionally running into each other, we kept our bikes off the road. We saw three separate accidents with cars/motorcycles during our stay. We visited Mount Rushmore and Rapid City. Rapid City has a pretty nice downtown, and we enjoyed walking around. They have a statute of each American president placed on the street corners of their downtown. I got a shot of Frances with the Jimmy Carter statue.
From South Dakota we went on to North Dakota. We had intended to camp at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, south unit, but it was full. This was only the second time that we encountered a national park with full campgrounds. Glacier was the other. There is a tourist trap of a town, Medora, at the South Unit. Think of it as a western version of Gatlinburg. We spent one night at a local campground, Sully Creek, and then moved on to the North Unit. This national park has two, non-contiguous sections. The North Unit was very nice. We had a bison herd roam through the campground. We got a great hike in, and had fun walking through the badlands. Petrified wood could be found with ease.
After rolling out of the North Unit we headed east toward Minnesota, encountering heavy rain as we drove through the oil fields where fracking is on going in the Bakken shale. The activity was not quite as intense as what we saw in the Permian basin of New Mexico, but it was intense. We decided, for the first time on the trip, to stop in to a hotel due to weather. We got a room at a Hampton Inn in Bismarck. Over dinner in Bismark, Frances seemed a bit subdued. I ask her what was up. She said, "I don't want to go to Minnesota!" (Think of Seinfeld's line, "I don't want to be a pirate". Due to our flexible plans, we decided on the spot to head back west, eventually landing at Friend Park campground near Douglas, WY.
To to get Friend Park, you have to travel 50 miles from Douglas, into the Medicine Bow National Forest. 38 of these miles are on dirt roads. We were originally heading to Esterbrook Campground, but despite the fact that we arrived on Thursday before the eclipse, the campground was full. Dispersed camping was available, but a forest service employee recommended Friend Park. At first, I was opposed to driving 22 extra miles on dirt roads, but something in her description made me realize that it was a special place. We pulled into the campground and got the last available space. We would end up staying 5 days here, meaning that Wyoming became one of the states where we spent the most nights. I think only California had a longer stay.
We were a five mile hike from Laramie Peak, and were able to put in a nice hike to the peak right out of our campsite. Everyone in the camp was excited about the eclipse, and hundreds more people showed up and camped outside of the camp in dispersed camping areas of the national forest. This was a very special place and stay. One of the high points was an impromptu jam session of about 8 musicians. We were literally sitting around a campfire, under the stars in Wyoming, singing Cowboy and country music. One local young lady, Diana, played violin, mandolin, ukulele, banjo and guitar. Don entertained us with the humorous Snaggletooth Jackalope, a song poking fun at Wyoming tourists. One of the players, Carl Purne played a concertina that he bought from Homewood Music in Birmingham, AL. I bought a guitar from that same shop.
The big day was the eclipse, and were were delighted that Karl Hubble and friends, Andrew, Vicus and Issac showed up on Sunday to join us in camp and for the eclipse. They drove up from Denver and were a great addition to our stay.
We have a great view and weather for the eclipse. See photos.
After that, we departed, landing in North Platte, NE. We didn't visit, but Buffalo Bill Cody has a ranch in town. We were back on the Interstate and then headed into Omaha, NE. I think Omaha has more to offer than steaks, but after our car is serviced, we are heading on to Iowa. We need a bit of a reset of expectations now that we are out of the west. We know that we won't have to open spaces and low population density that we have enjoyed for most of the trip, but we still have a few weeks of vacation and don't want to waste it.
We will swing by Gambier, and visit Maggie for a day or so. She has now started her senior year as of today.
Here are some pictures.
Friday, July 28, 2017
Left the Mountains for the First Time Since Lone Pine, CA
Frances made me aware that when we exited Wyoming and entered Nebraska, we were out of the mountains for the first time in months. While the elevation is still high in western NE, we found ourselves on the plains. Even here in Denver, we are only at the base of the eastern edge of the Rockies.
It is nice to be with our niece, Sarah and her husband Karl. They have two delightful kids, and we are eagerly anticipating the arrival of Maggie. Unfortunately, her flight into Denver today was cancelled. We had an interesting phone call as to why the current economic model for airline travel just doesn't work very well. Dealing with an airline is like dealing with the phone company or some other supplier who seems to put your needs and concerns last. The barrier to entry is too high for any new blood to get into the game, and our desire to consume a lot of low-cost travel, instead of a pleasant travel experience has landed, ha ha, us here. Capitalism generally does a great job of delivering commodities, technology, and many other goods and services. It doesn't delivery good campsites, although private camping does offer better toileting options if that is your main interest in selecting a camping spot. Frankly, airline travel was better when the airlines were regulated, although it was far more expensive. It is still amazing that so many people get moved so far, so fast each day. The only folks who enjoy it are those flying private jets, at least I suspect they are enjoying it.
Today I'm trying to re-connect with Ken Talkington, a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer from my 1982-1984 stint in Lesotho. I haven't seen Ken since our Completion of Service (COS) ceremony in 1984, so we should have a thing or two to talk about.
In Denver I decided to pick up some new camera gear. I was growing frustrated with my lack of telephoto lens capability, so I got a new body and a 18-300 mm lens. The next photos should be from that set up. Still sorting through the 500 page user manual.
Here are a few more shots from my trusty Nikon D-80 which served me for over a decade. They were taken in Medicine Bow National Forest, near Centennial, WY. The citing of the bull moose was pretty exciting. My inability to get a close in shot was the limitation that led me to get the new gear.
It is nice to be with our niece, Sarah and her husband Karl. They have two delightful kids, and we are eagerly anticipating the arrival of Maggie. Unfortunately, her flight into Denver today was cancelled. We had an interesting phone call as to why the current economic model for airline travel just doesn't work very well. Dealing with an airline is like dealing with the phone company or some other supplier who seems to put your needs and concerns last. The barrier to entry is too high for any new blood to get into the game, and our desire to consume a lot of low-cost travel, instead of a pleasant travel experience has landed, ha ha, us here. Capitalism generally does a great job of delivering commodities, technology, and many other goods and services. It doesn't delivery good campsites, although private camping does offer better toileting options if that is your main interest in selecting a camping spot. Frankly, airline travel was better when the airlines were regulated, although it was far more expensive. It is still amazing that so many people get moved so far, so fast each day. The only folks who enjoy it are those flying private jets, at least I suspect they are enjoying it.
Today I'm trying to re-connect with Ken Talkington, a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer from my 1982-1984 stint in Lesotho. I haven't seen Ken since our Completion of Service (COS) ceremony in 1984, so we should have a thing or two to talk about.
In Denver I decided to pick up some new camera gear. I was growing frustrated with my lack of telephoto lens capability, so I got a new body and a 18-300 mm lens. The next photos should be from that set up. Still sorting through the 500 page user manual.
Here are a few more shots from my trusty Nikon D-80 which served me for over a decade. They were taken in Medicine Bow National Forest, near Centennial, WY. The citing of the bull moose was pretty exciting. My inability to get a close in shot was the limitation that led me to get the new gear.
Saturday, July 22, 2017
Back in the USA, Glacier NP, Lewis and Clark, Stanley, ID, Wendell, ID, Alpine & Lander Wyoming
Thanks to Steve, my tethering capability has been restored. AT&T moved me back to my old plan, which is more or less the new plan that I moved from, with tethering restored. I'll spare the details.
After leaving Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada, we crossed into the US near Chief Mountain. There were two cars crossing over and it took about 5 minutes. It was one of the easiest border crossings I ever experienced. We drove until we reached the Eastern Entrance to Glacier National Park, but did not enter the park. We were still towing the teardrop, which cannot make the trip up to Logan Pass, and we were told that there were no available campsites on the eastern side of the pass. We stopped to reconsider our plans when we received a text from Monica Martin. Monica rode in our Coast to Coast bicycle trip in 2015. Monica is a Canadian, but has a vacation cabin in Whitefish, Montana. She offered to put us up in her guest cabin, and we said yes. We caught up with Monica and shared stories from our 8 week bike trip. She was a very accommodating hostess and we enjoyed Whitefish.
After a night of rest we returned to the Western entrance of the park, without the teardrop. We drove to Packer's Roost, and hiked about 6 miles up to the granite chalet. The views were stunning. See for your self. We then hiked back down, spent another night with Monica, and moved on. While the views in Glacier as spectacular, I told Frances, I take vacations to get AWAY from crowds like that. According to Monica, the last couple of years have seen an explosion in visitation to the park. We did try one other campsite, Two Medicine on the east side of the park. It was a beautiful site, with a full, and so-so campground.
We headed toward Missoula on Rt 93, stopping south of Hamilton near where Lewis and Clark crossed the Bitterroot Mountains. There were lots of sings a la "Lewis and Clark _________ here", and it was cool to be retracing their footsteps. We entered Idaho and stopped in Salmon at the Sacajawea Museum there. Not much to see, but she was born near the area, a member of the Shoshone tribe.
South of Salmon we stopped and "boon docked" (free camping on public land, also known as dispersed camping) along the Salmon River. An eagle had a nest on the cliffs above us. We saw two eaglets and one mature bald eagle. Early in the AM, I saw and Elk high up on the hills.
We left our free site, and the car inexplicably ended up in one of my favorite places on earth, Stanley, ID. We camped on the Yankee Fork of the salmon river, a stream that was trashed by gold mining a few miles upstream of where we camped. Miles of the stream are strewn with the tailings of the Yankee dredge which was used in the gold mining process. We had a beautiful campsite at the Hidden Creek campground, which has 5 campsites. We met fishermen from Georgia, were given 4, stream-fresh rainbow trout from a fisherman from Phoenix, and had a great chat with a couple from Minnesota who, unbelievably, took their first camping trip in Monte Sano State Park, 5 miles from our house. One more data point for the "small world" thesis.
As hard as it was to leave Stanley, we were excited to see another member of our cross country bike team, Alan Young. Alan lives in Wendell, ID. We had an exciting adventure in Mexico with Alan looking for Tecate, and we also helped him observe his first 'gator in the wild, when we reached Florida. Alan took us to Shoshone Falls, near Twin Falls, ID. We also saw Evel Knievel's ramp from when he tried to "jump" the Snake River Canyon. Alan then cooked us Cornish game hens for dinner and we talked over old times with a bottle or two of wine. We were glad to meet his wife, Peggy, and hope that she is feeling 100% after being a bit under the weather during our visit.
We visited Soda Springs, ID on our way to Wyoming. A timer allows an eruption every hour, otherwise the geyser would spew a100-150 foot plume 24/7, 365.
Idaho is an amazingly beautiful state.
We entered Wyoming and camped along the Snake River near Alpine. It was basically a rest day. The river is beautiful there, but the campground was basic roadside camping in bear country. We then went through a beautiful town of Pinedale, near the Bridger Wilderness Area. We passed by, but I'm reading of a spot, Cirque de Towers which is almost universally rated as a back country area of stunning beauty. It would take a backpacking trip to get back there, and we didn't have time for that this week. (We have to be in Denver next Friday to see Maggie and other family).
Based on suggestions by the folks from Minnesota, we made our way to Canyon Sinks near Lander WY, which is where I sit and type. A nice area, very big with ATV riders. Once you get off the paved route, you find dispersed camping all over the place. I had a nice bike ride up the switchbacks to the end of the pavement this morning. We are now in town for some WiFi and other stuff.
We will talk this afternoon about the next few days as we make our way to Denver. We may drop in with Rose and Murph, staff members of the Coast to Coast tours.
We are both stunned that our six month trip only has about six weeks left to go. Too short! We may have to ask for an extension.
Some photos of the trip segment.
After leaving Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada, we crossed into the US near Chief Mountain. There were two cars crossing over and it took about 5 minutes. It was one of the easiest border crossings I ever experienced. We drove until we reached the Eastern Entrance to Glacier National Park, but did not enter the park. We were still towing the teardrop, which cannot make the trip up to Logan Pass, and we were told that there were no available campsites on the eastern side of the pass. We stopped to reconsider our plans when we received a text from Monica Martin. Monica rode in our Coast to Coast bicycle trip in 2015. Monica is a Canadian, but has a vacation cabin in Whitefish, Montana. She offered to put us up in her guest cabin, and we said yes. We caught up with Monica and shared stories from our 8 week bike trip. She was a very accommodating hostess and we enjoyed Whitefish.
After a night of rest we returned to the Western entrance of the park, without the teardrop. We drove to Packer's Roost, and hiked about 6 miles up to the granite chalet. The views were stunning. See for your self. We then hiked back down, spent another night with Monica, and moved on. While the views in Glacier as spectacular, I told Frances, I take vacations to get AWAY from crowds like that. According to Monica, the last couple of years have seen an explosion in visitation to the park. We did try one other campsite, Two Medicine on the east side of the park. It was a beautiful site, with a full, and so-so campground.
We headed toward Missoula on Rt 93, stopping south of Hamilton near where Lewis and Clark crossed the Bitterroot Mountains. There were lots of sings a la "Lewis and Clark _________ here", and it was cool to be retracing their footsteps. We entered Idaho and stopped in Salmon at the Sacajawea Museum there. Not much to see, but she was born near the area, a member of the Shoshone tribe.
South of Salmon we stopped and "boon docked" (free camping on public land, also known as dispersed camping) along the Salmon River. An eagle had a nest on the cliffs above us. We saw two eaglets and one mature bald eagle. Early in the AM, I saw and Elk high up on the hills.
We left our free site, and the car inexplicably ended up in one of my favorite places on earth, Stanley, ID. We camped on the Yankee Fork of the salmon river, a stream that was trashed by gold mining a few miles upstream of where we camped. Miles of the stream are strewn with the tailings of the Yankee dredge which was used in the gold mining process. We had a beautiful campsite at the Hidden Creek campground, which has 5 campsites. We met fishermen from Georgia, were given 4, stream-fresh rainbow trout from a fisherman from Phoenix, and had a great chat with a couple from Minnesota who, unbelievably, took their first camping trip in Monte Sano State Park, 5 miles from our house. One more data point for the "small world" thesis.
As hard as it was to leave Stanley, we were excited to see another member of our cross country bike team, Alan Young. Alan lives in Wendell, ID. We had an exciting adventure in Mexico with Alan looking for Tecate, and we also helped him observe his first 'gator in the wild, when we reached Florida. Alan took us to Shoshone Falls, near Twin Falls, ID. We also saw Evel Knievel's ramp from when he tried to "jump" the Snake River Canyon. Alan then cooked us Cornish game hens for dinner and we talked over old times with a bottle or two of wine. We were glad to meet his wife, Peggy, and hope that she is feeling 100% after being a bit under the weather during our visit.
We visited Soda Springs, ID on our way to Wyoming. A timer allows an eruption every hour, otherwise the geyser would spew a100-150 foot plume 24/7, 365.
Idaho is an amazingly beautiful state.
We entered Wyoming and camped along the Snake River near Alpine. It was basically a rest day. The river is beautiful there, but the campground was basic roadside camping in bear country. We then went through a beautiful town of Pinedale, near the Bridger Wilderness Area. We passed by, but I'm reading of a spot, Cirque de Towers which is almost universally rated as a back country area of stunning beauty. It would take a backpacking trip to get back there, and we didn't have time for that this week. (We have to be in Denver next Friday to see Maggie and other family).
Based on suggestions by the folks from Minnesota, we made our way to Canyon Sinks near Lander WY, which is where I sit and type. A nice area, very big with ATV riders. Once you get off the paved route, you find dispersed camping all over the place. I had a nice bike ride up the switchbacks to the end of the pavement this morning. We are now in town for some WiFi and other stuff.
We will talk this afternoon about the next few days as we make our way to Denver. We may drop in with Rose and Murph, staff members of the Coast to Coast tours.
We are both stunned that our six month trip only has about six weeks left to go. Too short! We may have to ask for an extension.
Some photos of the trip segment.
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