Tash:
Astounding double-
Helix, blonder, patiently
Waits for the mirror
***
My line is so pure --
No not cocaine but pure rock:
Muscle rises up
***
Does she use all parts
Of the moose, like the natives
She'd love to drive out?
***
Lipstick: the difference,
Pig and/or pit bull. sorry
Excuses, my dear.
***
No more helmets, none
To protect your delicate parts.
The euro, too strong.
Nat:
Third parties’ harms are
Often not foreseeable;
All care is for naught.
***
An airplane from nowhere:
Graham’s door was unlocked, he should
Sue Tango Ridley
September 15, 2008
July 28, 2008
Day 14: July 28: the Pennsylvania is LONG edition: Ann Arbor, MI to New York, NY
Pennsylvania is LONG!
Notes from 7/28:
8:13 am: on to Toledo! Toledo. Toledo! Ohio. We had breakfast with Maureen at Fleetwood Dirty Diner. The waitress had tattoos and we all had Hippie Hash except T-Rex (tash now insists I call her this) who had a mushroom and feta omelet.
8:27 Saline, MI
8:38 Michigan trucks have too many wheels. Aparently 18 wheelers are not sufficient as we pass 20, 22, and 30 wheelers. Also we breeze through Azalia and Temperance, MI.
8:57 OHIO!
It should be said that Nat spent this entire time trying to find the White Stripes song with the above lyric about Toledo, but was entirely unsuccessful.
9:39 Lots o Cops!
Tash:
12:22pm: sign says NYC: 396mi. we're getting close!
12:29: PA! but also roadwork stoppage. poo. Not okay, PA.
Nat:
2:56 highest point on I-80 east of the Mississippi! 2280 ft! We went to Eat and park and had wonderful smiley face cookies. Eat n park has really classed it up since the old days of ski team - they now have local produce that doesn't look like rabbit food!
5:01 pm: Nat wakes up from a nap but has failed to drool. This is a first on the trip.
We cross over the Delaware Water Gap, marveling at the interesting cliffs and promising to return to climb there soon. At a gas station in Netcong, NJ, we realize we are in the East proper when there is a minor traffic jam and major road rage just getting out of the parking lot.
Near 8 o'clock we discover WNYC, our NPR for the next 3 years (93.9fm and 820AM for those scoring at home) and see the remains of alpenglow on the Manhattan skyline as we drop into the Lincoln tunnel. It's a prolonged drop as we also encounter some New York traffic.
Emerging from the tunnel, Nat hits no pedestrians as we rumble towards East 13th street and our new home. A quick double park and a burst of energy unloads the car, and then we head to Momofuku Ssam bar for celebratory beef tendon (nat) and skate wing (tash).
Our long drive is over. The Atlantic ocean sparkles not far from our apartment. A hell of a lot of even-numbered interstate stretches back towards the dying sunset.
What will happen to this blog? Who knows!
Notes from 7/28:
8:13 am: on to Toledo! Toledo. Toledo! Ohio. We had breakfast with Maureen at Fleetwood Dirty Diner. The waitress had tattoos and we all had Hippie Hash except T-Rex (tash now insists I call her this) who had a mushroom and feta omelet.
8:27 Saline, MI
8:38 Michigan trucks have too many wheels. Aparently 18 wheelers are not sufficient as we pass 20, 22, and 30 wheelers. Also we breeze through Azalia and Temperance, MI.
8:57 OHIO!
It should be said that Nat spent this entire time trying to find the White Stripes song with the above lyric about Toledo, but was entirely unsuccessful.
9:39 Lots o Cops!
Tash:
12:22pm: sign says NYC: 396mi. we're getting close!
12:29: PA! but also roadwork stoppage. poo. Not okay, PA.
Nat:
2:56 highest point on I-80 east of the Mississippi! 2280 ft! We went to Eat and park and had wonderful smiley face cookies. Eat n park has really classed it up since the old days of ski team - they now have local produce that doesn't look like rabbit food!
5:01 pm: Nat wakes up from a nap but has failed to drool. This is a first on the trip.
We cross over the Delaware Water Gap, marveling at the interesting cliffs and promising to return to climb there soon. At a gas station in Netcong, NJ, we realize we are in the East proper when there is a minor traffic jam and major road rage just getting out of the parking lot.
Near 8 o'clock we discover WNYC, our NPR for the next 3 years (93.9fm and 820AM for those scoring at home) and see the remains of alpenglow on the Manhattan skyline as we drop into the Lincoln tunnel. It's a prolonged drop as we also encounter some New York traffic.
Emerging from the tunnel, Nat hits no pedestrians as we rumble towards East 13th street and our new home. A quick double park and a burst of energy unloads the car, and then we head to Momofuku Ssam bar for celebratory beef tendon (nat) and skate wing (tash).
Our long drive is over. The Atlantic ocean sparkles not far from our apartment. A hell of a lot of even-numbered interstate stretches back towards the dying sunset.
What will happen to this blog? Who knows!
July 27, 2008
Day 13: July 27: the Midwest College Town Traverse: The Four Colon Title: Madison WI to Ann Arbor, MI
Diner breakfasts never disappoint - especially at the official pregame diner of the Wisconsin Badgers. My main observation about the Badgers is that while most college mascots try to look angry or threatening (Wolverines, Tigers, Timberwolves), evoke the history or spirit of the state (Mountaineers, Volunteers, Tarheels) or are simply goofy (Banana Slugs, Fighting Quakers), the badger, as depicted in Wisconsin publications, is simply a very serious, sweater-wearing small mammal. Anyhow, after a very large cornmeal pancake, we bid Keith farewell and hit the road.
After hearing so many stories of the horrors of Chicago traffic, we plotted a circuitous route around the belt roads of the Second City and avoided any traffic jams until Indiana. The less said about Indiana the better.
At the Michigan border, we set our clocks forward an hour and deviated from I-90 for the first time in almost a week, rocketing northeast towards Ann Arbor. My newest geographical theory is that Michigan and Ohio shouldn't be called the Midwest, but rather the West East.
My reasons are as follows: I believe that Eastcentricity of American regional naming has distorted our thinking. Michigan and Ohio, when viewed from west of the Mississippi, have more commonalities with the Northeast than differences: Climate (humid, well-treed, hillier than Indiana or Minnesota), time zone (Eastern), economy (post-industrial), speed limit (65 mph). I will be starting a campaign to reclassify these states post-haste.
We rocked up to Maureen's cute house in the late afternoon to find a grim scene in her driveway: a wooden table with one chair, a half-empty glass and one ladies shoe were arranged in a pitiable tableaux on the pavement. No explanation was given during the time were in Ann Arbor.
After a walk through the local cemetery, we headed to a middle eastern place for baba ghanoush and shawarma, followed by a tour of U Michigan and more tasty midwestern beer at the Ann Arbor Brewery. We went to bed ready for our longest drive yet in the morn.
After hearing so many stories of the horrors of Chicago traffic, we plotted a circuitous route around the belt roads of the Second City and avoided any traffic jams until Indiana. The less said about Indiana the better.
At the Michigan border, we set our clocks forward an hour and deviated from I-90 for the first time in almost a week, rocketing northeast towards Ann Arbor. My newest geographical theory is that Michigan and Ohio shouldn't be called the Midwest, but rather the West East.
My reasons are as follows: I believe that Eastcentricity of American regional naming has distorted our thinking. Michigan and Ohio, when viewed from west of the Mississippi, have more commonalities with the Northeast than differences: Climate (humid, well-treed, hillier than Indiana or Minnesota), time zone (Eastern), economy (post-industrial), speed limit (65 mph). I will be starting a campaign to reclassify these states post-haste.
We rocked up to Maureen's cute house in the late afternoon to find a grim scene in her driveway: a wooden table with one chair, a half-empty glass and one ladies shoe were arranged in a pitiable tableaux on the pavement. No explanation was given during the time were in Ann Arbor.
After a walk through the local cemetery, we headed to a middle eastern place for baba ghanoush and shawarma, followed by a tour of U Michigan and more tasty midwestern beer at the Ann Arbor Brewery. We went to bed ready for our longest drive yet in the morn.
July 26, 2008
Day 12: July 26 - Madison rest day
There's nothing like a good farmers market: it's a Saturday morning and the air is pleasantly warm but promising heat later on. All the Madisonians of a certain class are out on the capital grounds, circling the triangular Classical-revival behemoth in a counterclockwise whirl of Chacos, sundresses and baby strollers.
We get some spicy-cheesy-bread, a cinnamon roll, some cheese curds (squeaky!) and coffee and sit on the grass. In case that wasn't enough food, we hit a crepe place subsequently.
After a bit of hanging around we head for a late "lunch" at a local diner, and thence to a small party with B+ homebrew (good flavor, needs to work on carbonation and mouthfeel).
We finish up the day with a spin in the dog park for Keith's dog Maggie and a little Dosage V.
We get some spicy-cheesy-bread, a cinnamon roll, some cheese curds (squeaky!) and coffee and sit on the grass. In case that wasn't enough food, we hit a crepe place subsequently.
After a bit of hanging around we head for a late "lunch" at a local diner, and thence to a small party with B+ homebrew (good flavor, needs to work on carbonation and mouthfeel).
We finish up the day with a spin in the dog park for Keith's dog Maggie and a little Dosage V.
July 25, 2008
Day 11 - July 25, Worthington MN to Madison, WI
Minnesota has not lived up to its hype. (We invented the hype.) It is long and flat and green, with many silos. The state's lone positive feature is its NPR - we do a good 6 hours of Morning Edition, Fresh Air with Terry Sucks, and Talk of the Nation Science Friday.
At least the Mississippi river is fun - we see the first real geography in several days: impressive sandstone cliffs running down to the water.
Crossing into Wisconsin, we discover that Keith had to drive to Chicago and is stuck in epic traffic. We go to the Wisconsin Dells outlets and Tash purchases an entire outfit while Nat equivocates about whether to have ice cream, mini golf, both, or none.
The decision is made to get back on the road and we wash up in Madison around 4. Keith is still in traffic somewhere in Illinois so we shop up and down State Street, finding several more outfits for Tash and sweet $5 aviators for Nat.
As we settle in with Cosi lattes, we finally get the call from Keith that he's back in town, so we meet up for some Ethiopian food and reminiscing. We drive about Madison for several hours, taking out cat litter, visiting a lab with a freezer full of dead horses, and eventually going climbing at the Madison Gym.
A word about this last item - Keith is a routesetter so has keys for after-hours access. Climbing in the middle of the night at a gym with no one else there is an excellent thing and cannot be highly enough reccommended. Nat also learns some basic principles of routesetting and sets a sweet V3.
After a midwestern wheat ale at a local bar, we collapse on the futon at 230am. This is the latest we've been up in months.
At least the Mississippi river is fun - we see the first real geography in several days: impressive sandstone cliffs running down to the water.
Crossing into Wisconsin, we discover that Keith had to drive to Chicago and is stuck in epic traffic. We go to the Wisconsin Dells outlets and Tash purchases an entire outfit while Nat equivocates about whether to have ice cream, mini golf, both, or none.
The decision is made to get back on the road and we wash up in Madison around 4. Keith is still in traffic somewhere in Illinois so we shop up and down State Street, finding several more outfits for Tash and sweet $5 aviators for Nat.
As we settle in with Cosi lattes, we finally get the call from Keith that he's back in town, so we meet up for some Ethiopian food and reminiscing. We drive about Madison for several hours, taking out cat litter, visiting a lab with a freezer full of dead horses, and eventually going climbing at the Madison Gym.
A word about this last item - Keith is a routesetter so has keys for after-hours access. Climbing in the middle of the night at a gym with no one else there is an excellent thing and cannot be highly enough reccommended. Nat also learns some basic principles of routesetting and sets a sweet V3.
After a midwestern wheat ale at a local bar, we collapse on the futon at 230am. This is the latest we've been up in months.
July 24, 2008
Day 10, July 24 -- Custer, SD to Worthington, MN
Nat says:
Left Rocket Motel. Nat met another climber in the parking lot whilst racking up. Tash takes a long shower and tries to check the weather for the route today (she is petrified of tornados. Petrified.), but the internet refuses to cooperate. We get a fritter and muffin at the bakery: delicious! Thence to the climbing problem. Since Tash’s arm is still hurting, Nat decided to do a two-pitch .8ish/.9ish cool-looking climbing all the way to the top, then do two raps to get down. Nat started up and the climbing was really fun! Unfortunately not enough slings were brought! Nat had to back-clean a draw in order to have enough to get to the top, and still it was awkward and not optimal to set the rap. At the second rap station, all hell broke loose! Nat dropped (ED NOTE: on my end, it looked like he FLANG IT into space) his belay device, had trouble pulling the rope and felt like a total gumby. Blah. Then, once Tash hoisted up her (spare) belay device to Nat, he came down the 1st pitch on a different line, and forgot to clean his draws! What the hell. He had to toprope the first section off the anchors to reclaim them. And after that, we discovered that Nat left a locker at the top anchors by accident and also the rope bag was soaked from a puddle! At least we found the dropped (FLANG) device after a bit. BLAH. (ED NOTE: It was strange! Usually Nat does not fling his important pieces and leave expensive gear on things. However, he looked in top form for the actual climbing part, so I’ll give him some points.)
On the way out, we find that we’ve FILLED UP our 2gb card for our camera, and decide that Keystone is a dumb stupid town and we do not approve. However, there is a funny sign about dinosaurs.
Rapid City is the largest town we’ve gone through since Portland! It’s all red and Tash has trouble with all the other cars (ED NOTE: other cars! Who do they think they are!?) all in her way.
12:53pm
Back on the open road! Wall Drug, the fabled place of billions of billboards advertising ANIMATED DINOSAURS and BREAKFAST ROLLS and FREE COFFEE FOR VETS and ROOT BEER, grows near…
1:05pm
Cheyenne River
1:12pm
I CAN’T WAIT FOR WALL DRUG!!!
1:54pm
WALL DRUG IS A FUCKING HELL HOLE! GET US THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!! (ED NOTE: he is right about this. Wall Drug was definitely horrible. It was horrible. Nat was not able to enjoy anything about life until we were an hour away, going 85 on I-90. Oh, the poor world, with such Wall Drugs in it. It was like all the worst parts of Vegas, Knott’s Berry Farm, and South Dakota smashed together in one horrific plasticky parking-lotty hell.)
2:00pm
Buffalo Gap National Grassland
2:57pm
(and now Tash says...)
1880 town! And we pass a strange statue thing of a t-rex on a leash, being led around by a person. This definitely happened, in the past, Nat says.
The Afternoon, pm:
Okaton! Murdo! “Jesus Christ is Lord, not a swear word” on a truck, instead of saying what the truck is carrying! Pukwana SMELLS LIKE POO. Nat says something “runs the guh-MUT.”
Pro-Life Billboards:
We have passed a crap-ton of these in the past two days. Today’s included “Abortion: the Choice that Kills” and “Abortion Kills Babies and Hurts Women” and “Life: What a trip…and it begins at conception!” Also a sign the other day said “Your Mother Was Prolife. “ Fact: SHE IS NOT. Oh, my anger at prolife billboards has no bounds. I even go through stages: first I guffaw at the ridiculousness and pretend it doesn’t bother me on any deep level, then I become loud and indignant and yell obvious things about fetuses and back-alley abortions, then I get sad, and then the low-level righteous anger kicks in and generally lasts until the next billboard.
Here’s the thing about moving across the country: we aren’t really from anywhere except where we are RIGHT NOW. So far today, we’re from Custer. We listen to Antje Duvekot’s song about moving to NYC from the Midwest, and get thoughtful for a minute until Nat criticizes Antje for “telling not showing” and we fight about Iowa a little. (Just a little.)
Today there is roadwork ALL DAY. No one is pleased. Also, however, we are below 4000 feet for the first time in forever, and the air is nice and thick! I could probably drink a whole beer without getting wobbly down here (ESTIMATE).
PS Congrats on Website, Salmon Suede! We still have such a surprise for you. Oh, it will be sweet. Also, nice picture. Is this an acceptable way to communicate with you? Likely not, but I’m doin it.
Also today is all about DUMB MOTERCYCLES. Also moto-tricycles. I do not respect or appreciate moto-tricycles. Also, if you have so much stuff that you need a huge trailer behind your bike, maybe consider using a Car? Maybe a convertible would suit your bugs-smashed-in-the-face fancy?
We’re happily discussing camping vs motelling in Sioux Falls when Nat glances behind him and CACKLES maniacally, and says “OH-HO BLUE CAR! Now you’re going to pass me huh? Tired of living in my shadow?!?!” In a few moments Tash notices that Blue Car is still to our left and notes that they’re having trouble passing us, and Nat cackles again and says “That’s probably because I sped up a LOT.” And again with the cackling. South Dakota is doing something crazy to us.
6:45pm
We discuss being unsatisfied with tonight’s location-destination of Sioux Falls, and mandate DRIVING FURTHER! We shall PRESS ON (hey alex, if you’re reading, corigpressoniwasa…)! We shall have a cute night in a cute town, and we shall have ice cream! We shall CONTINUE EASTWARD in our never-ending quest to reverse the Oregon Trail! And not have to resort to cannibalism! (Important Note: I tried to purchase Oregon Trail last night, but it’s gone up in price from $.99 to $6 since I last checed, and I’m not sure if I’m cool with that. Also did you KNOW that there’s a new Oregon Trail 5.0 out, and it’s a great history lesson on the LDS church for the kiddies? That’s what Internet tells me.) Also we’re going to get a motel rather than camp because, let’s face it, it’s going to thunder and rain tonight and we’ve really, really already done some major camping this trip. Plus, HOW WOULD WE BLOG?
6:49
Nat estimates that our car is 4 feet wide, or maybe 6 or 8. He fantasizes about lying down on top of it, and which parts would be hanging off. We’re excited to be sleeping in Minnesota tonight, to get this strange S-Dak sense off of us. We expect Minnesota to be more normal, sober and restrained. Like a good little blonde child.
6:58pm
SO MANY ESTABLISHMENTS use Papyrus here! We speculate that no one in South Dakota had scrolled down the font list until very recently. Please, people: do not just use Papyrus for your logo. Have Hailie create a new font for you, at least.
7:05pm
Just wanted to assure you all that after the Wall Drug debacle, we decide (and it was a heart-wrenching decision) to SKIP the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. We’ve also decided to overnight in Luverne, which is 12 miles over the border into Sober Minn.
7:11pm
MINNESOTA! Verdict: The Black Hills were awesome; the rest of S-Dak we could take or leave. (Hint: leave.) We have high hopes for Minnesota.
7:14pm
We discover that we MISS CHRISTIAN FOEDEN-VENTZEL!!!!! This is upsetting and horrifying to us, but it would be a lie to say otherwise. We still hate him though, don’t get us wrong. However, S-Dak NPR news is far worse than anything Christian F-V could even think of. We’ve mostly been hearing about how a Native American singer is going to shoot a music video in South Dakota. That’s the most important thing that’s happening in the state.
7:27pm
Turns out Luverne is a little too dying and methy for us, so we’re going to PRESS ON TO WORTHINGTON! But first, crazy-cheap gas (AS I SUSPECTED, within a month, we’ve forgotten than $4/gallon is absurd, and we’re ecstatic at $3.89. Rude, gas people. Rude. Also: dumb and gullible, consumers. Dumb and gullible.)
NIGHT-TIME pm
We check into the slightly-creepy Days Inn in Worthington, which is NOT CUTE. It is a not cute town. But we get pizza, ranch garlic cheese sticks, and Cactus Cake delivered from a pizza ranch, and try HARD to watch TV that is mostly just shows about the bible and why we're going to hell. You are strange, Days Inn. We don't understand you. Your wireless network is called "Minds at Development," and we're creeped out by this. We're starting to worry that our random love for Minnesota was misplaced, but we shall certainly see. Good night! Look for pictures sometime soon....
Left Rocket Motel. Nat met another climber in the parking lot whilst racking up. Tash takes a long shower and tries to check the weather for the route today (she is petrified of tornados. Petrified.), but the internet refuses to cooperate. We get a fritter and muffin at the bakery: delicious! Thence to the climbing problem. Since Tash’s arm is still hurting, Nat decided to do a two-pitch .8ish/.9ish cool-looking climbing all the way to the top, then do two raps to get down. Nat started up and the climbing was really fun! Unfortunately not enough slings were brought! Nat had to back-clean a draw in order to have enough to get to the top, and still it was awkward and not optimal to set the rap. At the second rap station, all hell broke loose! Nat dropped (ED NOTE: on my end, it looked like he FLANG IT into space) his belay device, had trouble pulling the rope and felt like a total gumby. Blah. Then, once Tash hoisted up her (spare) belay device to Nat, he came down the 1st pitch on a different line, and forgot to clean his draws! What the hell. He had to toprope the first section off the anchors to reclaim them. And after that, we discovered that Nat left a locker at the top anchors by accident and also the rope bag was soaked from a puddle! At least we found the dropped (FLANG) device after a bit. BLAH. (ED NOTE: It was strange! Usually Nat does not fling his important pieces and leave expensive gear on things. However, he looked in top form for the actual climbing part, so I’ll give him some points.)
On the way out, we find that we’ve FILLED UP our 2gb card for our camera, and decide that Keystone is a dumb stupid town and we do not approve. However, there is a funny sign about dinosaurs.
Rapid City is the largest town we’ve gone through since Portland! It’s all red and Tash has trouble with all the other cars (ED NOTE: other cars! Who do they think they are!?) all in her way.
12:53pm
Back on the open road! Wall Drug, the fabled place of billions of billboards advertising ANIMATED DINOSAURS and BREAKFAST ROLLS and FREE COFFEE FOR VETS and ROOT BEER, grows near…
1:05pm
Cheyenne River
1:12pm
I CAN’T WAIT FOR WALL DRUG!!!
1:54pm
WALL DRUG IS A FUCKING HELL HOLE! GET US THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!! (ED NOTE: he is right about this. Wall Drug was definitely horrible. It was horrible. Nat was not able to enjoy anything about life until we were an hour away, going 85 on I-90. Oh, the poor world, with such Wall Drugs in it. It was like all the worst parts of Vegas, Knott’s Berry Farm, and South Dakota smashed together in one horrific plasticky parking-lotty hell.)
2:00pm
Buffalo Gap National Grassland
2:57pm
(and now Tash says...)
1880 town! And we pass a strange statue thing of a t-rex on a leash, being led around by a person. This definitely happened, in the past, Nat says.
The Afternoon, pm:
Okaton! Murdo! “Jesus Christ is Lord, not a swear word” on a truck, instead of saying what the truck is carrying! Pukwana SMELLS LIKE POO. Nat says something “runs the guh-MUT.”
Pro-Life Billboards:
We have passed a crap-ton of these in the past two days. Today’s included “Abortion: the Choice that Kills” and “Abortion Kills Babies and Hurts Women” and “Life: What a trip…and it begins at conception!” Also a sign the other day said “Your Mother Was Prolife. “ Fact: SHE IS NOT. Oh, my anger at prolife billboards has no bounds. I even go through stages: first I guffaw at the ridiculousness and pretend it doesn’t bother me on any deep level, then I become loud and indignant and yell obvious things about fetuses and back-alley abortions, then I get sad, and then the low-level righteous anger kicks in and generally lasts until the next billboard.
Here’s the thing about moving across the country: we aren’t really from anywhere except where we are RIGHT NOW. So far today, we’re from Custer. We listen to Antje Duvekot’s song about moving to NYC from the Midwest, and get thoughtful for a minute until Nat criticizes Antje for “telling not showing” and we fight about Iowa a little. (Just a little.)
Today there is roadwork ALL DAY. No one is pleased. Also, however, we are below 4000 feet for the first time in forever, and the air is nice and thick! I could probably drink a whole beer without getting wobbly down here (ESTIMATE).
PS Congrats on Website, Salmon Suede! We still have such a surprise for you. Oh, it will be sweet. Also, nice picture. Is this an acceptable way to communicate with you? Likely not, but I’m doin it.
Also today is all about DUMB MOTERCYCLES. Also moto-tricycles. I do not respect or appreciate moto-tricycles. Also, if you have so much stuff that you need a huge trailer behind your bike, maybe consider using a Car? Maybe a convertible would suit your bugs-smashed-in-the-face fancy?
We’re happily discussing camping vs motelling in Sioux Falls when Nat glances behind him and CACKLES maniacally, and says “OH-HO BLUE CAR! Now you’re going to pass me huh? Tired of living in my shadow?!?!” In a few moments Tash notices that Blue Car is still to our left and notes that they’re having trouble passing us, and Nat cackles again and says “That’s probably because I sped up a LOT.” And again with the cackling. South Dakota is doing something crazy to us.
6:45pm
We discuss being unsatisfied with tonight’s location-destination of Sioux Falls, and mandate DRIVING FURTHER! We shall PRESS ON (hey alex, if you’re reading, corigpressoniwasa…)! We shall have a cute night in a cute town, and we shall have ice cream! We shall CONTINUE EASTWARD in our never-ending quest to reverse the Oregon Trail! And not have to resort to cannibalism! (Important Note: I tried to purchase Oregon Trail last night, but it’s gone up in price from $.99 to $6 since I last checed, and I’m not sure if I’m cool with that. Also did you KNOW that there’s a new Oregon Trail 5.0 out, and it’s a great history lesson on the LDS church for the kiddies? That’s what Internet tells me.) Also we’re going to get a motel rather than camp because, let’s face it, it’s going to thunder and rain tonight and we’ve really, really already done some major camping this trip. Plus, HOW WOULD WE BLOG?
6:49
Nat estimates that our car is 4 feet wide, or maybe 6 or 8. He fantasizes about lying down on top of it, and which parts would be hanging off. We’re excited to be sleeping in Minnesota tonight, to get this strange S-Dak sense off of us. We expect Minnesota to be more normal, sober and restrained. Like a good little blonde child.
6:58pm
SO MANY ESTABLISHMENTS use Papyrus here! We speculate that no one in South Dakota had scrolled down the font list until very recently. Please, people: do not just use Papyrus for your logo. Have Hailie create a new font for you, at least.
7:05pm
Just wanted to assure you all that after the Wall Drug debacle, we decide (and it was a heart-wrenching decision) to SKIP the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. We’ve also decided to overnight in Luverne, which is 12 miles over the border into Sober Minn.
7:11pm
MINNESOTA! Verdict: The Black Hills were awesome; the rest of S-Dak we could take or leave. (Hint: leave.) We have high hopes for Minnesota.
7:14pm
We discover that we MISS CHRISTIAN FOEDEN-VENTZEL!!!!! This is upsetting and horrifying to us, but it would be a lie to say otherwise. We still hate him though, don’t get us wrong. However, S-Dak NPR news is far worse than anything Christian F-V could even think of. We’ve mostly been hearing about how a Native American singer is going to shoot a music video in South Dakota. That’s the most important thing that’s happening in the state.
7:27pm
Turns out Luverne is a little too dying and methy for us, so we’re going to PRESS ON TO WORTHINGTON! But first, crazy-cheap gas (AS I SUSPECTED, within a month, we’ve forgotten than $4/gallon is absurd, and we’re ecstatic at $3.89. Rude, gas people. Rude. Also: dumb and gullible, consumers. Dumb and gullible.)
NIGHT-TIME pm
We check into the slightly-creepy Days Inn in Worthington, which is NOT CUTE. It is a not cute town. But we get pizza, ranch garlic cheese sticks, and Cactus Cake delivered from a pizza ranch, and try HARD to watch TV that is mostly just shows about the bible and why we're going to hell. You are strange, Days Inn. We don't understand you. Your wireless network is called "Minds at Development," and we're creeped out by this. We're starting to worry that our random love for Minnesota was misplaced, but we shall certainly see. Good night! Look for pictures sometime soon....
July 23, 2008
July 23, Day 9 -- Lander, WY to Custer, SD
We spend the morning doing strange things: Nat has to spend over an HOUR on the phone with a doctor’s office, trying to get an appointment JUST to get his health form for NYU signed. It sounded, if I may, like a horrific time. Tash, meanwhile, takes out all the trash and starts packing the car. At this point, she notices that her right forearm is strangely sore. She ignores it and continues to pack, which is her Way but is not, maybe, Smart. We eventually head to the Maverick Diner for breakfast, and have pretty okay breakfast for under $11! Eventually, we get on the road, and drive all the way through good ol Wyoming.
12:14pm
Thermopolis hot springs are cool, but extremely commercialized and hard to get around. Everyone is mad about the rape of nature.
12:16pm
FINALLY, after many many days (including our last cross-country trip two years ago) of driving through one-lane construction zones, we hit one at the perfect time and the pilot car leads us through with expediency!
12:30pm
On the side of the road is an old swing set, with a tattered old teddy bear strapped into each swing, slowly drifting in the wind. Oh, the creepy. This as we have a slightly pretentious conversation about how life must go out here, in the middle middle of Wyoming, among the dust clouds and hills. It’s Annie Proulx country – Nat thinks it’s all morbid and hopeless, Tash thinks it’s all about sensation. We’re in weird, Wyoming-rural moods. We’re on blank Highway 789/20, heading toward Worland. The land looks as inhospitable as the South Pole.
12:36pm
The Glen Hansard version of Britney Spears' “Everytime” comes on. It’s very strangely good, but we’re embarrassed about liking it. A little.
12:39pm
We pass Wyoming Boys’ School. Nat remarks, “That must be a rough place to go to school, man.” Tash is insanely curious as to what goes on inside. Also: why does Wyoming get a logo? Most states don’t get a logo! Tash is intrigued by this spread-out tribalism that she so doesn’t understand. We chat about Heath Ledger, and experience a nagging sadness.
12:44pm
Worland – for the first time in days, a town with a population higher than its elevation! We seek out an espresso hut, but so far see only the obligatory small-town Chinese restaurant (it varies between China Gardens and Golden Dragon – this was the latter). Eventually, a Millie G.’s Coffee Hut!
1:25pm
Arrive in Ten Sleep – pop 303, elev 4206. We go over Nowood creek – although we’d just been noting that there are far more trees (and hence wood) here than we’ve seen since 11,000 feet. A sign at the end of town says “Thanks for visiting a little western town with a big western heart.”
1:27pm
Pass a house having a problem attack! Looks like it was trampled upon by a dinosaur or a meteor.
1:29pm
Pass a HUGE crazy house with a three-car garage and bright green manicured lawn – and then realize that it’d be a normal sized house in most suburbs….
1:30pm
Brokenback creek! We wonder if we’re near Brokeback Mountain, and decide that we’d like to watch the movie again, but can’t put ourselves through the wrenching sadness.
1:32pm
Some awesome-looking rambling younguns wave and gesticulate wildly from the shoulder as we pass – and though Tash has NEVER wanted to pick up a hitchhiker before, something about the landscape and their manner make her sad that we have no room for them. Good luck, little duders! We continue on the Big Cloud Skyway, Highway 16.
1:45pm
The rock along the road looks amazing, so we pull over and walk around. Turns out it’s pretty chossy, but we have a nice wander and take some pictures.
2:05pm
Pass some 3 billion year old mountains that have mostly turned into messy piles of rock. We go over a 9440 ft pass, and get accosted by tiny gray bugs.
2:45pm
Roll into Buffalo! It’s not cute. There is a China Garden.
3:00pm
Getting back on 90 East from Buffalo, there is a cattle guard on the interstate on-ramp! We decide that cows are one of the main things you don’t want on the interstate.
3:24pm
We cruise control at 80mph! We pass Dead Horse creek – Wyoming has a very troubled relationship with its creeks.
5:32pm
We’ve decided to skip Spearfish due to Tash’s strange strained forearm and Nat’s new HARD-EARNED doctor’s appointment for which we have to be in MA at a certain, soon point. We decide to take Hwy 16 to Custer for dinner, then go on to Rushmore, and camp wherever. The Markelope told us we won’t be able to camp or get a motel within 100 miles of Rushmore, without a reservation, so we’ll see… We had gas ($3.99!!! Heeeey oil country…) and hot dogs in Morcroft. On the way out of town (chasing a HUGE BLACK DRIPPING thunderstorm), we pass a swerving red sedan who flips us off as we pass! Nat is scared that he’s going to follow us into the next town with “No Good Intentions.” I’m scared because I think he’s high as hell. But now it looks like we lost them and are not roughed up at all, and everyone is glad about that.
5:38pm
Finally we get some rain from the storm we’ve been chasing for 2.5 hours! The clouds are crazy and black, with strange pockets of pretty light and puffy clouds.
5:39pm
AGH we missed the South Dakota sign (partly due to writing, partly due to Nat kind of thinking we were already in South Dakota…) and had to turn around! But picture obtained and now RAINBOW! Also, rain. Lots of rain. And it smells very strongly, of course, like rain.
5:42pm
We’re getting SLAMMED! Nat is strangely pleased, and mutters things like “good old fashioned Midwest thunderstorm” to himself. Also, Stampede street!
5:48pm
The rain is so hard it’s vibrating the windshield!
5:54pm
The highway turns into a narrow winding road, 35mph! Crazy rainy strange forest. We pass a jewel cave.
6:00pm
MARBLE SIZED HAIL! HUGE!!! OH MY GOD. It probs dented the car! Also we’re now getting Nebraska NPR.
6:10pm
ATV on the highway!
6:24pm
WE LOVE SOUTH DAKOTA. We’re really excited just about being here, and we decide to go to Rushmore now and then return to Custer for dinner and sleeping. Custer is HELL OF CUTE and we’re not embarrassed to say it. Tomorrow morning we’ll put up an .8 or .9 near Rushmore because the granite looks SO COOL. WE ARE EXCITED ABOUT LIFE! WOO! There are sweet granite towers and bluffs just everywhere, even in town. Plus, sorry Marky, tons of open campsites and motels!
6:33pm
Nat is more bubbly and giddy than I’ve ever seen him – he’s gasping and going on about Rushmore! He claims to have no idea what’s going on in his brain, and just wants to GET THERE.
6:37pm
We pass Wrinkled Rock Campground and Nat SQUEALS and WIGGLES because we enter the National Monument Area!
7;17pm
Post-Rushmore. Oh, that Rushmore. Here are the things we heard before we went. Nick Knudsen (who is specifically not interested in my life, I should note) told us that it would be very small, and kind of disappointing. My father, another 6’4” sometimes-bearded man, told us that it would be huge and impressive. Our conclusion: A BIT O BOTH! It’s small but also impressive.
Notes:
A) The parking lot attendant, Jeff, was tattooed, long-haired, old, and rambly, and we loved him.
B) The parking lot itself is gigantic – the largest manmade THING we’ve seen probably since Portland. There are cars from every state. We’re giggly, and I wear my cowboy hat and a kind of small dress, not knowing when I got dressed that we would go to a Historical Thing with lots of judgmental Midwestern ladies glaring at me.
C) Our camera ran out of batteries on the road to Rushmore, so we stop in the nearly empty Info place to charge it. To be nice, we decide to ask the ranger behind the desk before we plug in – and he says NO. We think he’s joking at first, but he is totally serious. We point to the accessible and empty outlets next to the exhibits, and he actually says “If I let you do it, everyone will want to.” I mutter a rude sound as we exit. He is drunk with power and should be REMOVED from his mighty station.
D) I charge the camera in the bathroom! People look at me a little funny, but no one gets too mad.
E) WE SEE RUSHMORE! We take several pictures and giggle a lot. There are also chipmunks and, for some reason, mountain goats in hats.
We decide that we are Experiencing The Monument on a different plane than everyone else there! We experience it on MANY levels! We list the Levels as follows:
Level #1) Actually enjoying it because it’s cool
Level #2) Ironically enjoying it because everyone else thinks it’s so cool, when really it’s just a huge insult to the environment
Level #3) Being a rock climber, and thinking about it climbingly/geologically
Level #4) Feeling superior to everyone who is only enjoying it on Level #1, including those who have no idea who is depicted in the sculptures (a dude kept insisting that Roosevelt was Monroe, and telling his small impressionable children this) and those who are wearing oversized “WYOMING” shirts and have fat children
Level #5) Feeling bad about Level #4
Level #6) Proofreading the interpretive signs with extreme prejudice and derision (we do not feel bad about Level #6)
Anyway, we had a surprisingly awesome time at the memorial (Nat is very worried about what exactly it is memorializing), and got in about 5 good pictures before our camera re-died.
7:30pm
Back to Custer for dinner in a fine restaurant (the kind where the menu is in the font Papyrus), and then to the super-sweet Rocket Motel (ironically suggested to us by our waitress), which lived up to our most excellent expectations! We chat and blog and sleep in a huge and wonderful and squishy bed in a strange little town near a strange little mountain!
A few notes Nat took whilst Tash drove in the early morn:
Picnic tables, 3 identical minivans, Ethete Road, heavy sideroad traffic, Sand Creek Massacre Trail, minivan’s antenna has vertebrae on it! BONES! Riverton skate park! China Panda restaurant in a Quonset hut. Random flame in Riverton. Riverton is not cute. Boysen State Park and Reservoir, Poison Creek. I Hate the motor tricycles. Badwater Creek, Tough Creek, 3 tunnels! So old and probably wagons went through them! They are just hollowed out from rocks with dynamite.
11:43 Really cool Wind River Canyon – huge limestone and sandstone cliffs everywhere! More people at the turnouts than on the road.
12:14pm
Thermopolis hot springs are cool, but extremely commercialized and hard to get around. Everyone is mad about the rape of nature.
12:16pm
FINALLY, after many many days (including our last cross-country trip two years ago) of driving through one-lane construction zones, we hit one at the perfect time and the pilot car leads us through with expediency!
12:30pm
On the side of the road is an old swing set, with a tattered old teddy bear strapped into each swing, slowly drifting in the wind. Oh, the creepy. This as we have a slightly pretentious conversation about how life must go out here, in the middle middle of Wyoming, among the dust clouds and hills. It’s Annie Proulx country – Nat thinks it’s all morbid and hopeless, Tash thinks it’s all about sensation. We’re in weird, Wyoming-rural moods. We’re on blank Highway 789/20, heading toward Worland. The land looks as inhospitable as the South Pole.
12:36pm
The Glen Hansard version of Britney Spears' “Everytime” comes on. It’s very strangely good, but we’re embarrassed about liking it. A little.
12:39pm
We pass Wyoming Boys’ School. Nat remarks, “That must be a rough place to go to school, man.” Tash is insanely curious as to what goes on inside. Also: why does Wyoming get a logo? Most states don’t get a logo! Tash is intrigued by this spread-out tribalism that she so doesn’t understand. We chat about Heath Ledger, and experience a nagging sadness.
12:44pm
Worland – for the first time in days, a town with a population higher than its elevation! We seek out an espresso hut, but so far see only the obligatory small-town Chinese restaurant (it varies between China Gardens and Golden Dragon – this was the latter). Eventually, a Millie G.’s Coffee Hut!
1:25pm
Arrive in Ten Sleep – pop 303, elev 4206. We go over Nowood creek – although we’d just been noting that there are far more trees (and hence wood) here than we’ve seen since 11,000 feet. A sign at the end of town says “Thanks for visiting a little western town with a big western heart.”
1:27pm
Pass a house having a problem attack! Looks like it was trampled upon by a dinosaur or a meteor.
1:29pm
Pass a HUGE crazy house with a three-car garage and bright green manicured lawn – and then realize that it’d be a normal sized house in most suburbs….
1:30pm
Brokenback creek! We wonder if we’re near Brokeback Mountain, and decide that we’d like to watch the movie again, but can’t put ourselves through the wrenching sadness.
1:32pm
Some awesome-looking rambling younguns wave and gesticulate wildly from the shoulder as we pass – and though Tash has NEVER wanted to pick up a hitchhiker before, something about the landscape and their manner make her sad that we have no room for them. Good luck, little duders! We continue on the Big Cloud Skyway, Highway 16.
1:45pm
The rock along the road looks amazing, so we pull over and walk around. Turns out it’s pretty chossy, but we have a nice wander and take some pictures.
2:05pm
Pass some 3 billion year old mountains that have mostly turned into messy piles of rock. We go over a 9440 ft pass, and get accosted by tiny gray bugs.
2:45pm
Roll into Buffalo! It’s not cute. There is a China Garden.
3:00pm
Getting back on 90 East from Buffalo, there is a cattle guard on the interstate on-ramp! We decide that cows are one of the main things you don’t want on the interstate.
3:24pm
We cruise control at 80mph! We pass Dead Horse creek – Wyoming has a very troubled relationship with its creeks.
5:32pm
We’ve decided to skip Spearfish due to Tash’s strange strained forearm and Nat’s new HARD-EARNED doctor’s appointment for which we have to be in MA at a certain, soon point. We decide to take Hwy 16 to Custer for dinner, then go on to Rushmore, and camp wherever. The Markelope told us we won’t be able to camp or get a motel within 100 miles of Rushmore, without a reservation, so we’ll see… We had gas ($3.99!!! Heeeey oil country…) and hot dogs in Morcroft. On the way out of town (chasing a HUGE BLACK DRIPPING thunderstorm), we pass a swerving red sedan who flips us off as we pass! Nat is scared that he’s going to follow us into the next town with “No Good Intentions.” I’m scared because I think he’s high as hell. But now it looks like we lost them and are not roughed up at all, and everyone is glad about that.
5:38pm
Finally we get some rain from the storm we’ve been chasing for 2.5 hours! The clouds are crazy and black, with strange pockets of pretty light and puffy clouds.
5:39pm
AGH we missed the South Dakota sign (partly due to writing, partly due to Nat kind of thinking we were already in South Dakota…) and had to turn around! But picture obtained and now RAINBOW! Also, rain. Lots of rain. And it smells very strongly, of course, like rain.
5:42pm
We’re getting SLAMMED! Nat is strangely pleased, and mutters things like “good old fashioned Midwest thunderstorm” to himself. Also, Stampede street!
5:48pm
The rain is so hard it’s vibrating the windshield!
5:54pm
The highway turns into a narrow winding road, 35mph! Crazy rainy strange forest. We pass a jewel cave.
6:00pm
MARBLE SIZED HAIL! HUGE!!! OH MY GOD. It probs dented the car! Also we’re now getting Nebraska NPR.
6:10pm
ATV on the highway!
6:24pm
WE LOVE SOUTH DAKOTA. We’re really excited just about being here, and we decide to go to Rushmore now and then return to Custer for dinner and sleeping. Custer is HELL OF CUTE and we’re not embarrassed to say it. Tomorrow morning we’ll put up an .8 or .9 near Rushmore because the granite looks SO COOL. WE ARE EXCITED ABOUT LIFE! WOO! There are sweet granite towers and bluffs just everywhere, even in town. Plus, sorry Marky, tons of open campsites and motels!
6:33pm
Nat is more bubbly and giddy than I’ve ever seen him – he’s gasping and going on about Rushmore! He claims to have no idea what’s going on in his brain, and just wants to GET THERE.
6:37pm
We pass Wrinkled Rock Campground and Nat SQUEALS and WIGGLES because we enter the National Monument Area!
7;17pm
Post-Rushmore. Oh, that Rushmore. Here are the things we heard before we went. Nick Knudsen (who is specifically not interested in my life, I should note) told us that it would be very small, and kind of disappointing. My father, another 6’4” sometimes-bearded man, told us that it would be huge and impressive. Our conclusion: A BIT O BOTH! It’s small but also impressive.
Notes:
A) The parking lot attendant, Jeff, was tattooed, long-haired, old, and rambly, and we loved him.
B) The parking lot itself is gigantic – the largest manmade THING we’ve seen probably since Portland. There are cars from every state. We’re giggly, and I wear my cowboy hat and a kind of small dress, not knowing when I got dressed that we would go to a Historical Thing with lots of judgmental Midwestern ladies glaring at me.
C) Our camera ran out of batteries on the road to Rushmore, so we stop in the nearly empty Info place to charge it. To be nice, we decide to ask the ranger behind the desk before we plug in – and he says NO. We think he’s joking at first, but he is totally serious. We point to the accessible and empty outlets next to the exhibits, and he actually says “If I let you do it, everyone will want to.” I mutter a rude sound as we exit. He is drunk with power and should be REMOVED from his mighty station.
D) I charge the camera in the bathroom! People look at me a little funny, but no one gets too mad.
E) WE SEE RUSHMORE! We take several pictures and giggle a lot. There are also chipmunks and, for some reason, mountain goats in hats.
We decide that we are Experiencing The Monument on a different plane than everyone else there! We experience it on MANY levels! We list the Levels as follows:
Level #1) Actually enjoying it because it’s cool
Level #2) Ironically enjoying it because everyone else thinks it’s so cool, when really it’s just a huge insult to the environment
Level #3) Being a rock climber, and thinking about it climbingly/geologically
Level #4) Feeling superior to everyone who is only enjoying it on Level #1, including those who have no idea who is depicted in the sculptures (a dude kept insisting that Roosevelt was Monroe, and telling his small impressionable children this) and those who are wearing oversized “WYOMING” shirts and have fat children
Level #5) Feeling bad about Level #4
Level #6) Proofreading the interpretive signs with extreme prejudice and derision (we do not feel bad about Level #6)
Anyway, we had a surprisingly awesome time at the memorial (Nat is very worried about what exactly it is memorializing), and got in about 5 good pictures before our camera re-died.
7:30pm
Back to Custer for dinner in a fine restaurant (the kind where the menu is in the font Papyrus), and then to the super-sweet Rocket Motel (ironically suggested to us by our waitress), which lived up to our most excellent expectations! We chat and blog and sleep in a huge and wonderful and squishy bed in a strange little town near a strange little mountain!
A few notes Nat took whilst Tash drove in the early morn:
Picnic tables, 3 identical minivans, Ethete Road, heavy sideroad traffic, Sand Creek Massacre Trail, minivan’s antenna has vertebrae on it! BONES! Riverton skate park! China Panda restaurant in a Quonset hut. Random flame in Riverton. Riverton is not cute. Boysen State Park and Reservoir, Poison Creek. I Hate the motor tricycles. Badwater Creek, Tough Creek, 3 tunnels! So old and probably wagons went through them! They are just hollowed out from rocks with dynamite.
11:43 Really cool Wind River Canyon – huge limestone and sandstone cliffs everywhere! More people at the turnouts than on the road.
Funny place names as of 7/23/08
Blalack Canyon, " ", Durkee, Weatherby, Lime, Devil's Elbow Road, Riggins, White Bird, Kooskia, Syringa, Tukaytespe Picnic Area, Colgate Licks Trail, Fort Fizzle, Hoback Junction.
look for more posts in a few days when we have Internet again!
look for more posts in a few days when we have Internet again!
July 22, 2008
July 22, Day 8 -- Wind Rivers to Lander, WY
7:00am
After a lovely 11.5 hour sleep (we were each up for an hour or two during the night, but overall OH DAMN was it amazing to sleep so long), during which it rained and poured and pelted our tent with various precipitations, we woke up to sunny skies! We slowly got ready, and set out toward the car at 8:30. One of the geologists camped nearby set out at the same time (with a pack and an inner tube on his back), and showed us a less horrible
way to get over the pass! We trudged along – although we all felt slightly better than in recent days! Our packs weren’t too heavy! The sky wasn’t too grey! We bounded along and didn’t even care too much about the horrible snow fields! Tash was actually very happy when Nat wore
himself out kicking steps for her in the snow – for once, he was more tired than she! He had to rest before she did! This is an important event of note. We never expect it to happen again.11:30am
THE LAKE! We get our first view of the Big Sandy Lake,
which means the car is an easy, flat, talus-less 6 miles away. We pick up the pace and book it to the car. The last hour feels pretty damn hard; our feet hurt, our backs hurt, we would like some cheese with our whine. But finally, at 2:10: THE CAR! Nat has obviously parked on the far far side of the parking meadow (yes, the parking lot is a meadow), and we are all mad. Nevertheless, it’s awesome to be back, and we strip off our hiking boots and socks, and twirl around in the nice breeze.
2:30pm
Back on the road! We retrace our steps, past the redneck campers, the random people walking on the road, and the hoola-hooping hippies (we are flashed a peace sign). We pass a Subaru with a Thule on top, going toward the campground; they are clean and fresh and look very eager. We laugh at them, because now we’re grizzled and we can
do that. We go this time toward Lander, and this road is similarly gorgeous and washboardy, but it is also far more full of COWS! They lounge, meander, and mosey across the road; we drive by
them very slowly and ask very nicely that they not charge us as we pass within three inches of them (it’s a narrow road, and they DO NOT MOVE if a car is coming). We also drive by the great red canyon, which is stunning.
4:30pm
Arrive in Lander! This is a very nostalgic town for Natty, being where his 2001 NOLS trip started and ended. We drive through downtown behind a small pickup truck carrying two potted trees, standing up in the truck bed. They wavered and brushed the traffic lights as he passed under them; we were skeptical of Dude’s packing theories. We head to the Gannett Grill, where Nat
had his first post-NOLS meal years ago. We sat in silence as we completely stuffed ourselves with burgers and, for some reason, a delicious hummus plate. Also we learned that establishments allow Tash to partake of their services even though she is SO covered in mosquito bites that it looks like she has a horrible contagious old-timey disease! Seriously, it’s not pretty. We then head to the best motel available (we guess well), which sometimes calls itself the Maverick and sometimes the Frontier Lodge. Either way, it’s dirt cheap and has internet, which is basically all we ask. We spent most of the evening showering (oh, showering!), sitting down, and, of course, blogging. We also headed out to the Exxon which has a TCBY in it (obviously!). Lander TCBY employee is A+ Grade A Superb at his job. We get delicious and 
enthusiastic blizzard-knockoffs, and scurry out of the gas station – there are the characters doing some things, there. An obviously underage dude, shaking and jittering, buys a pack of cigarettes in front of us. An old lady follows us to our car, saying goodnight. It’s pretty sweet. Also the night-sky is brilliant, and we spend a while taking pictures. They turned out very medium. As you can see. We are amazingly sore, tired, and covered in bites: bed is awesome.
July 21, 2008
Monday, July 21 - Day 7
Goal: Pingora, 11,837, Southeast Buttress, III 5.6
When the mountains are mad at you, an early start is not enough. A butt-kicking 2 hour approach with 4th class friction moves above a yawning abyss doesn't help none either.
After the aforementioned approach, we rocked up the base of the climb at about 10 am. two fun but easy pitches got us a to a small ledge before what looked to be the Money Pitch.
As Nat was bringing Tash up, another climber appeared and asked to pass, promising to simulclimb and move quickly. Nat reluctantly agreed, sad to give up our solitude on the peak but too polite to say no. The other team did move quickly, but it still took them a while to get both climbers to the top of the third pitch, all while the stringy clouds in the distance slowly turned puffy, then large, then dark and scary.
Nat got on route finally, and loved it. Great motion, steep enough to be fun, gear wherever you
wanted it, sinker jugs. However, by the time he got to the top, the clouds were moving in fast. Tash rocketed up after, but raindrops were already falling by the time she arrived at the ledge. The hail soon made the decision to bail an easy one.After some shenanigans trying to find the rap stations, we finally had the chance to reverse our 4th class moves from the way up, only now on wet rock! What fun! Well, it was a strong effort and a fun climb, and someday we will return and kick the ass of this mountain.
returning to the tent by 430 left us with little to do except rehydrate dinner, free-write in the tent and then go to bed at 7:45. If the paper with our calorie-deprived, altidude-drunk and mosquito-addled prose is ever found, it shall surely be reproduced on this page.
July 20, 2008
Sunday, July 20, Day 6
Despite an early wake up, we spend a long time packing up for the hike and get an alpine start at 10:10am. Our guidebooks and Internet directions differ on whether it’s 5.2, 5.5 or 6.0 miles to Big Sandy Lake, but since it took us 3 hours, we’ll call it 6 miles. The mountains in the distance grow closer but slowly as we plod along the dusty, horse-poop-choked trail. At the lake, we chill on an anty rock and prepare for the climb up to Jackass Pass. About this time, we get our first sprinkles of rain, though it soon clears up. Tash insists on wearing a rain jacket and sweater from here on out, because “it might rain again soon.” However she soon changes her tune while switchbacking up through a sunny meadow.
While on the subject of meadows, it should be noted that the wildflowers on this hike are OFF THE HOOK. Lupins, bluebells, Indian paintbrushes, dandelions, and blue, white and yellow flowers unnamed abound.However we are not feeling so hot. A few hundred feet of climbing (remember, we’re now at 10,000 ft) leaves us exhausted as the trail transitions from nice dirt to boulder hopping and talus fields. Our search for the shortcut climbers’ path, described as a “faint trail appearing to lead
nowhere” is made easier by a large arrow made out of stones on the ground. Unfortunately, by this time our respite from the thunderstorms that have been narrowly missing us is over. We set up our tent briefly to wait out one burst, but then hurry on. In the talus field below Arrowhead Lake, we have to huddle under a rock.My laptop battery is running out and we're at a gas station in Thermopolis, WY that has
wireless! I'll finish this later, go back for days 4-5 and put up pictures later.Woo I'm back. Basically, after the rock-huddling, which did a good job protecting us from the storm, we continued through the rough terrain and thrashing storm, finally cresting the pass at
about 630pm. Two annoying snowfields and another talus field later, we set up our tent and were met my swarming hordes of murderous mosquitoes. As we sit here in Custer, SD writing this, days later, we are both still COVERED in bites.Well Mountain Housed, we collapsed into our sleeping bags at 10 pm or so, ready for the real test the next morning.
July 19, 2008
Saturday, July 19, Day 5
We get up early -- too early, for Dillon, which apparently does not rouse until about 9:30am on a Saturday. NOTHING is open -- but finally we notice the Dillon Farmer's Market setting up in a parking lot! We wander over and peruse the fine selection of...pies, pastries, and various incarnations of beaded american flags. The only vegetables to be found are a few chives in a ziplock bag, next to a few sweet smelling rhubarb pies. Nat decides that pie for breakfast is a Man's breakfast, and we chat with a lady at length about coffee as she boils her water on a 
Coleman camp stove. It's no Portland -- but then Portland doesn't let you eat pie for breakfast at its farmer's markets.
9:15am On the road! We zip down roads and magically return to Idaho!
1:15pm We went to a crappy climbing shop in Idaho falls to replace lost slings and biners. It was too cold by far in the store (Tash had to take an overpriced down jacket off a hanger and wear it for the duration of the transaction), and they had only crappy notched biners and no double length spectra slings. We left with our medium equipment BUT found a delectable Thai restaurant! Hailie recommended that we not eat in Idaho Falls, it being "A Shithole," but secretly that Thai food was surprisingly toothsome. Not
too shabby, Idaho. We then headed east on Rt 26, where the speed limit is disappinting but Nat saves the day by pony-tailing Tash's hair for her as she drives!
1:49pm WYOMING! All hay must be quarantined.
3:34pm Pinedale! Pop 1142. Elev 7175. "Welcome to Pinedale -- All the Civilization You Need!" We head to an outstanding climbing shop and an outstanding pizza shop for calzones, hit el road.
4:30pm
Leaving Pinedale, our car smelling of calzones, our sights fixed on the snowy peaks in the
distance, we motor out onto the plain. After breezing through Boulder Wyoming
Coleman camp stove. It's no Portland -- but then Portland doesn't let you eat pie for breakfast at its farmer's markets.9:15am On the road! We zip down roads and magically return to Idaho!
1:15pm We went to a crappy climbing shop in Idaho falls to replace lost slings and biners. It was too cold by far in the store (Tash had to take an overpriced down jacket off a hanger and wear it for the duration of the transaction), and they had only crappy notched biners and no double length spectra slings. We left with our medium equipment BUT found a delectable Thai restaurant! Hailie recommended that we not eat in Idaho Falls, it being "A Shithole," but secretly that Thai food was surprisingly toothsome. Not
too shabby, Idaho. We then headed east on Rt 26, where the speed limit is disappinting but Nat saves the day by pony-tailing Tash's hair for her as she drives!
1:49pm WYOMING! All hay must be quarantined.3:34pm Pinedale! Pop 1142. Elev 7175. "Welcome to Pinedale -- All the Civilization You Need!" We head to an outstanding climbing shop and an outstanding pizza shop for calzones, hit el road.
4:30pm
Leaving Pinedale, our car smelling of calzones, our sights fixed on the snowy peaks in the
distance, we motor out onto the plain. After breezing through Before long the pavement ends and we’re navigating by GPS through a maze of branching dirt roads. The road curves so wildly that when we crest a hill we just have to trust that we’re not being led into a blind hairpin. We’re surrounded by hills dotted with huge granite boulders – all likely unclimbed because people know that such better climbing lies in the mountains. Antelopes abound on the sagebrush plain. One darts into 
the road and Tash daintily avoids it.
We climb higher, and the forest starts. Tash is confused by why the patches of forest start and 
stop. Cows are still grazing all over the place.
As we climb higher, 8 and 9000 feet, we’re confronted by a new species of wildlife: hippies! The Rainbow Family is apparently encamped out here, and we begin to see signs of their inhabitance. We pass an old couple in long dreads and tie die – they simply glare at us. Nat worries about whether we would murdered in our sleep like the victims of the 
After and hour and half of washboardy dirt roads, we pull into the Big Sandy campground, elevation 9080. After much discussion about which would be the least windy campsite, we put up our tent and prepare for an evening of relaxed camping. Tash indicates to Nat that as a matter of course, she would much prefer to arrive at a campsite before dark and have time to have a fire and play some guitar. In two years of camping in
Fire is built, and we pull out the guitar to write a song. It will be a good song – pay attention to MySpace. A group of middle aged men from 
As the mosquitoes started to buzz around us in earnest, we retired to the tent.
July 18, 2008
Day 4, July 18 -- REST DAY in Dillon, MT!
10:30am
We get up in the barely-morning and immediately decide to stay in Dillon another night -- rather than pack up our stuff and check out by 11am. We set out on the town! A coffee shop provides pretty food and great people-watching (a teenage dude wears a "tank-top" that's just the middle strip of a shirt, and obviously checks himself out in the window before coming inside; two women wear gowns and a man wears a suit, and many people in street clothes congratulate them repeatedly; there are lesbians!).
12:00pm
We wander into the Patagonia Outlet and spend an hour sorting through bins! Nat procures some emotionally-fraught boxers (they're his favorite kind and 75% off but they only have SMALLS and he will only wear a MEDIUM. In the end, it amazingly turns out to not matter one tiny bit. We are all glad.) and a shirt, I procure a sweet green corduroy jacket. Next we find ourselves at the Dillon Museum, where we pay $6 and a lady is very enthusiastic about Astoria to us. SHe is later heard exclaiming poignantly about the new Safeway -- with a STARBUCKS INSIDE -- in town! A Starbucks in DILLON MONTANA! We learn all about the west: gold rushing, murdering in saloons, saddle-making, baby-having, clothes-washing, old flutes, old
guns, old jail cell doors, and a 190lb Great Dane who was a bellboy for the Dillon Hotel. Also, in the 18th century, 8 year olds could embroider things so complicated that now only computers can recreate them! (This is an educated guess, but oh I was impressed. And a little egotistically deflated.) Then, of course, was the biiiiird exhibit, wherein many a dead bird was stuffed and preserved in an active pose. A Canada Goose was preserved as it was found, with a plastic six-pack ring stuck under its tongue and around its throat. Do you feel bad now? I hope so; you're a horrible person. However, there was also a bird called a bufflehead, which made me forget all my woes as I reveled in its fluffy (dead) cuteness.
Pictured: we discovered that the front of our car was littered with the tiny smashed bodies of suicidal bugs. I hope they had a good ride.
3:00pm
We scamper off to the HAT STORE, where Tash buys the sweetest hat a girl has ever hatted. Pictured: not the hat I ended up buying. But there was no mirror in Hat Store, so I had to take pictures in order to see what they looked like, and this is the only one that managed to not get deleted.
3:50pm
We fancily attend the Dillon premier of BATMAN! It's $5.50 and the popcorn and Sour Patch Kids are oh-so-fresh. We are quite early, and have to watch the same 7 ads cycle through over and over -- we learned all about the specials at the car wash (3 no-touch slots!), the Longhorn Saloon (horrible washed-out photos of bland food), and a realty company that said "Montana sells itself; we just make it easy" and "We have a habit of turning clients [dramatic pause] into friends." The movie is GREAT (seriously, this is a great movie. I will not review it here. But it is a great movie.), but it stops for a few minutes near the beginning and we all wait anxiously as a lady goes up to the old-timey machine upstairs and jiggers it. Then, near the end, at the MOST TENSE MOMENT POSSIBLE, the reel stops again --
only this time it gets stuck, and we all watch in horror as the frame starts to blacken, then melt completely, then burn, until all we see is a whitebackground bordered in burn marks! Fortunately, due to the power of magic and other things, we eventually pick up just seconds after we left off, and watch the rest of the (great) movie without incident. Okay job, Dillon. Better luck next time.
7:00pm
We pack our bags for our trip into the Wind River Range, and head out to Sparky's Garage Restaurant (Sparky's garage is also in town) for dinner. One of these activities is much more pleasant than the other. Bellies full of BBQ and packs full of goodies (very, very full), we have Family Reading Time and then goooo to bed.
We get up in the barely-morning and immediately decide to stay in Dillon another night -- rather than pack up our stuff and check out by 11am. We set out on the town! A coffee shop provides pretty food and great people-watching (a teenage dude wears a "tank-top" that's just the middle strip of a shirt, and obviously checks himself out in the window before coming inside; two women wear gowns and a man wears a suit, and many people in street clothes congratulate them repeatedly; there are lesbians!).
12:00pm
We wander into the Patagonia Outlet and spend an hour sorting through bins! Nat procures some emotionally-fraught boxers (they're his favorite kind and 75% off but they only have SMALLS and he will only wear a MEDIUM. In the end, it amazingly turns out to not matter one tiny bit. We are all glad.) and a shirt, I procure a sweet green corduroy jacket. Next we find ourselves at the Dillon Museum, where we pay $6 and a lady is very enthusiastic about Astoria to us. SHe is later heard exclaiming poignantly about the new Safeway -- with a STARBUCKS INSIDE -- in town! A Starbucks in DILLON MONTANA! We learn all about the west: gold rushing, murdering in saloons, saddle-making, baby-having, clothes-washing, old flutes, old
guns, old jail cell doors, and a 190lb Great Dane who was a bellboy for the Dillon Hotel. Also, in the 18th century, 8 year olds could embroider things so complicated that now only computers can recreate them! (This is an educated guess, but oh I was impressed. And a little egotistically deflated.) Then, of course, was the biiiiird exhibit, wherein many a dead bird was stuffed and preserved in an active pose. A Canada Goose was preserved as it was found, with a plastic six-pack ring stuck under its tongue and around its throat. Do you feel bad now? I hope so; you're a horrible person. However, there was also a bird called a bufflehead, which made me forget all my woes as I reveled in its fluffy (dead) cuteness. Pictured: we discovered that the front of our car was littered with the tiny smashed bodies of suicidal bugs. I hope they had a good ride.
3:00pm
We scamper off to the HAT STORE, where Tash buys the sweetest hat a girl has ever hatted. Pictured: not the hat I ended up buying. But there was no mirror in Hat Store, so I had to take pictures in order to see what they looked like, and this is the only one that managed to not get deleted.
3:50pm
We fancily attend the Dillon premier of BATMAN! It's $5.50 and the popcorn and Sour Patch Kids are oh-so-fresh. We are quite early, and have to watch the same 7 ads cycle through over and over -- we learned all about the specials at the car wash (3 no-touch slots!), the Longhorn Saloon (horrible washed-out photos of bland food), and a realty company that said "Montana sells itself; we just make it easy" and "We have a habit of turning clients [dramatic pause] into friends." The movie is GREAT (seriously, this is a great movie. I will not review it here. But it is a great movie.), but it stops for a few minutes near the beginning and we all wait anxiously as a lady goes up to the old-timey machine upstairs and jiggers it. Then, near the end, at the MOST TENSE MOMENT POSSIBLE, the reel stops again --
only this time it gets stuck, and we all watch in horror as the frame starts to blacken, then melt completely, then burn, until all we see is a whitebackground bordered in burn marks! Fortunately, due to the power of magic and other things, we eventually pick up just seconds after we left off, and watch the rest of the (great) movie without incident. Okay job, Dillon. Better luck next time.7:00pm
We pack our bags for our trip into the Wind River Range, and head out to Sparky's Garage Restaurant (Sparky's garage is also in town) for dinner. One of these activities is much more pleasant than the other. Bellies full of BBQ and packs full of goodies (very, very full), we have Family Reading Time and then goooo to bed.
July 17, 2008
Day 3, July 17: Blodgett Canyon to Dillon, MT!
Starting Mileage, Day 3: 73,656
We wake up in our semi-illegal campsite, and start packing up. We say goodbye to the Nicest Camp Host, who once again makes sure that we're going to move the car so that the Picnickers have somewhere to park. (Who are these people? The whole area is campsite-only traffic -- do they really need to drive the 100 feet from their campsites to the Picnicking No Overnight Camping Allowed area? Even I find myself to be less lazy than that.) We drive the 20 meters to the trailhead and set off into the canyon to climb the storied Blackfoot Dome, of Homeboy of the Climbing Shop fame.
The first two miles of the hike are lovely, along Blodgett creek, with birds singing and bugs buzzing. We argue about where to cross the creek, and settle on a treacherous log-crossing. (It was very treacherous, no matter what Nat may say about it.) The log is very old and dead and narrow, and the water under it is thunderous and cold. Tash is scared and Nat finds her a long pokey stick with which to prod her way. Tash tries to be brave and cross first but it just aint happening, so she retreats and Nat saves the day and crosses without incident. He drops his pack and returns to scary log for a bit o moral and a bit o physical guidance for Tash. We make it over (TREACHEROUS), and are confronted with unending talus fields, and our climb looming hundreds of feet above us.
We pick and scramble our way up, legs burning and the base of the climb seeming to grow no closer. Bugs are crazy. Honey bees LOVE us but do not sting, no matter how much we flick at them. Halfway up, we stop on a rock so Tash can have a little freakout. We chat about being stressed out from our last week in Portland (packing: it aint fun), Tash's exhaustion etc, and Nat asks that she actually state her opinions rather than just expecting him to perceive them (a novel concept!). We all feel better, but nevertheless decide to take a town rest day tomorrow.
We continue on, and the terrain becomes slick and slabby as we traverse across the steep, granite slope where hill becomes mountain. We try to stick to grass lines and kill as many plants as possible for their friction, though there are few (sorry plants). Nat is wearing sandals, and his
feet get all cut up and mud-covered. Halfway through the traverse, Tash hears a crashing and see a brown fuzzy animal run out of the valley toward which we're heading, and up over the next ridge, about 50 yards away (I have no english/metric loyalties. No apologies.). It's a wolf or a small bear or Sasquatch (or a dinosaur?) -- surprisingly hard to tell. Whatever it is, it doesn't return to eat us, and for that we are quite grateful.
Eventually, we make our way to the base of the climb. Tash is pooped. The approach has taken almost four hours (and Homeboy at the climbing shop promised it would be about an hour), over horrible terrain. We take a water break, suit up, and start climbing. Nat climbs up and up as the rope dwindles -- he climbs the ENTIRE length of the rope but manages to sling a boulder and build and anchor RIGHT as the rope ends (literally, it was taut between us!). Tash scrambles to put on her shoes and start up. The climbing, it turns out, is the worst kind of granite friction
climbing. NO hands except very occasional smooth bulges, underclings, or, to be honest, trees. Mostly it's just standing up on slabby nothing. There's a nice crack for about six feet, but besides that it is almost completely unprotectable. In the entire rope-length climb, Tash remembers cleaning two pieces of pro... (agh!) Not our favorite, and Tash is fairly panting and terrified the whole way up. Tash is also pretty dehydrated, and not doing well at all! Her muscles all feel like jelly, she can't think clearly, can't catch her breath -- we're only at 5000 feet, but Tash feels like she's on K2. Nat, of course, is doin just fine.
At the first anchor (this is supposed to be a 3-pitch climb), we briefly discuss continuing up before Tash mentions that she has to go down no matter what. The rest of the climb looks steeper and more featured and more fun, but she's really gotta go down, plus it's already 2:30 and we have to make it to Dillon tonight. So Nat honorably sacrifices a few slings and biners and we rappel off some tiny little bush/tree things that surprisingly hold our weight. We carefully walk/slide down the slab below the climb into the forest (from whence Tash saw the Sasquatch emerge hours before!), inside which we find an actual TRAIL! We lose elevation pretty quickly and efficiently, doing a bit o standing dirt glissade. Also the bees LOVE Tash and want to just hang out on her arms at all times. Not cool, very not cool. We quickly get to about 100 feet above the creek, but with a LOT of horizontal terrain to cross to get to the log. We cross one horrible, awkward talus field, and then find a game trail that leads us through dense-ass thickets of sharp dead trees. Another nearly-endless talus field, and we're finally back at the fabled log! It's taken us just over an hour (way better than the ascent, but dear lord it felt long!).
We cross the log and wander back to the car. Tash is, again/still, not doing well. Her feet and legs ache all to hell, and all she wants to do is dip her head in the creek and drink. Luckily, she avoids doing this, although we are nearly out of water. We do, however, stop to wash our hands and faces with the lovely cool water, which is near-heavenly. We get to the car, and (earlier talk of laziness aside) drive to the water pump by our quasi-campsite. Nat splashes around with the old timey pump and plays on the boulder while Tash sits on a rock and breathes for a while. It's...nice.
When we get moving, we decide we MUST HAVE
SUBWAY (sorry, eco-friendly anything...), and find one in Hamilton, MT. Delish sandwiches and we're on our way at 5:00pm.
5:37pm: A gas station, instead of advertising prices, says just "CALL TIM" on its sign.
6:41pm: On Hwy 43. Awesome. A barn says "OK" hugely across its side. Another sign says " _______ 1 Mile." We go FAST, and take pictures of the giant sky.
6:43pm: A town's welcome sign says: "Wisdom, Montana and the Big Hole Valley, Land of 10,000 Haystacks." Nat has to groan at the beauty of the mountains. 61 miles to Dillon and Tash's cowboy hat (Tash is going to buy a cowboy hat!).
6:53pm: Lupin all over the side of the road!
6:54pm: Passed a crazy bearded man in a cowboy hat on a tractor who waved to us. Tash loved him. (Still do.)
8:00pm: Roll into Dillon. We do some motel-shopping, and settle on the Best Western Paradise Inn (it has a pool and free wireless!). We take long showers, which feel Very Important. After that we obviously need ice cream, so we stumble over to the ice cream shop, which turns out to
be inside a Subway. It's an all-Subway day for us. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with this, but it's how it had to go. We buy some Moose Drool from a gas station, and spend the evening lounging, internetting, watching TV. A real bed feels lovely. Montana, so far, pretty much wins.
The first two miles of the hike are lovely, along Blodgett creek, with birds singing and bugs buzzing. We argue about where to cross the creek, and settle on a treacherous log-crossing. (It was very treacherous, no matter what Nat may say about it.) The log is very old and dead and narrow, and the water under it is thunderous and cold. Tash is scared and Nat finds her a long pokey stick with which to prod her way. Tash tries to be brave and cross first but it just aint happening, so she retreats and Nat saves the day and crosses without incident. He drops his pack and returns to scary log for a bit o moral and a bit o physical guidance for Tash. We make it over (TREACHEROUS), and are confronted with unending talus fields, and our climb looming hundreds of feet above us.
We pick and scramble our way up, legs burning and the base of the climb seeming to grow no closer. Bugs are crazy. Honey bees LOVE us but do not sting, no matter how much we flick at them. Halfway up, we stop on a rock so Tash can have a little freakout. We chat about being stressed out from our last week in Portland (packing: it aint fun), Tash's exhaustion etc, and Nat asks that she actually state her opinions rather than just expecting him to perceive them (a novel concept!). We all feel better, but nevertheless decide to take a town rest day tomorrow.
We continue on, and the terrain becomes slick and slabby as we traverse across the steep, granite slope where hill becomes mountain. We try to stick to grass lines and kill as many plants as possible for their friction, though there are few (sorry plants). Nat is wearing sandals, and his
feet get all cut up and mud-covered. Halfway through the traverse, Tash hears a crashing and see a brown fuzzy animal run out of the valley toward which we're heading, and up over the next ridge, about 50 yards away (I have no english/metric loyalties. No apologies.). It's a wolf or a small bear or Sasquatch (or a dinosaur?) -- surprisingly hard to tell. Whatever it is, it doesn't return to eat us, and for that we are quite grateful.
Eventually, we make our way to the base of the climb. Tash is pooped. The approach has taken almost four hours (and Homeboy at the climbing shop promised it would be about an hour), over horrible terrain. We take a water break, suit up, and start climbing. Nat climbs up and up as the rope dwindles -- he climbs the ENTIRE length of the rope but manages to sling a boulder and build and anchor RIGHT as the rope ends (literally, it was taut between us!). Tash scrambles to put on her shoes and start up. The climbing, it turns out, is the worst kind of granite friction
climbing. NO hands except very occasional smooth bulges, underclings, or, to be honest, trees. Mostly it's just standing up on slabby nothing. There's a nice crack for about six feet, but besides that it is almost completely unprotectable. In the entire rope-length climb, Tash remembers cleaning two pieces of pro... (agh!) Not our favorite, and Tash is fairly panting and terrified the whole way up. Tash is also pretty dehydrated, and not doing well at all! Her muscles all feel like jelly, she can't think clearly, can't catch her breath -- we're only at 5000 feet, but Tash feels like she's on K2. Nat, of course, is doin just fine.At the first anchor (this is supposed to be a 3-pitch climb), we briefly discuss continuing up before Tash mentions that she has to go down no matter what. The rest of the climb looks steeper and more featured and more fun, but she's really gotta go down, plus it's already 2:30 and we have to make it to Dillon tonight. So Nat honorably sacrifices a few slings and biners and we rappel off some tiny little bush/tree things that surprisingly hold our weight. We carefully walk/slide down the slab below the climb into the forest (from whence Tash saw the Sasquatch emerge hours before!), inside which we find an actual TRAIL! We lose elevation pretty quickly and efficiently, doing a bit o standing dirt glissade. Also the bees LOVE Tash and want to just hang out on her arms at all times. Not cool, very not cool. We quickly get to about 100 feet above the creek, but with a LOT of horizontal terrain to cross to get to the log. We cross one horrible, awkward talus field, and then find a game trail that leads us through dense-ass thickets of sharp dead trees. Another nearly-endless talus field, and we're finally back at the fabled log! It's taken us just over an hour (way better than the ascent, but dear lord it felt long!).
We cross the log and wander back to the car. Tash is, again/still, not doing well. Her feet and legs ache all to hell, and all she wants to do is dip her head in the creek and drink. Luckily, she avoids doing this, although we are nearly out of water. We do, however, stop to wash our hands and faces with the lovely cool water, which is near-heavenly. We get to the car, and (earlier talk of laziness aside) drive to the water pump by our quasi-campsite. Nat splashes around with the old timey pump and plays on the boulder while Tash sits on a rock and breathes for a while. It's...nice.
When we get moving, we decide we MUST HAVE
SUBWAY (sorry, eco-friendly anything...), and find one in Hamilton, MT. Delish sandwiches and we're on our way at 5:00pm.5:37pm: A gas station, instead of advertising prices, says just "CALL TIM" on its sign.
6:41pm: On Hwy 43. Awesome. A barn says "OK" hugely across its side. Another sign says " _______ 1 Mile." We go FAST, and take pictures of the giant sky.
6:43pm: A town's welcome sign says: "Wisdom, Montana and the Big Hole Valley, Land of 10,000 Haystacks." Nat has to groan at the beauty of the mountains. 61 miles to Dillon and Tash's cowboy hat (Tash is going to buy a cowboy hat!).
6:53pm: Lupin all over the side of the road!6:54pm: Passed a crazy bearded man in a cowboy hat on a tractor who waved to us. Tash loved him. (Still do.)
8:00pm: Roll into Dillon. We do some motel-shopping, and settle on the Best Western Paradise Inn (it has a pool and free wireless!). We take long showers, which feel Very Important. After that we obviously need ice cream, so we stumble over to the ice cream shop, which turns out to
be inside a Subway. It's an all-Subway day for us. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with this, but it's how it had to go. We buy some Moose Drool from a gas station, and spend the evening lounging, internetting, watching TV. A real bed feels lovely. Montana, so far, pretty much wins.
July 16, 2008
July 16, Day 2: Riggins, ID to Blodgett Canyon, MT
Day 2:
7:30am Tash: Wake up! River/mountains/sun=pretty! Get ready, then drive to Espresso and rafty place (ed. note: Brundage Mountain Adventures). We meet Clint, our guide. He might be 33 but seems ancient compared to the other river rats. All the guides from different companies know each other.
Rafting is FUN! just us and Clint! We did several class 2 rapids and also a few class 3. The sun refused to come out and it was a little cold, but Clint was seriously good at steering just so that we got totally drenched and he stayed dry. Very, very talented, there. Also he had a story about every single thing we passed -- the obvious favorite being the preacher who used to stand under the bridge and call all the river rats sinners while the sinners squirted him with supersoakers, and he ran off yelling about hellfire. Plus we saw 2 rattlesnakes, and an old foundation of a stone house that was "definitely not a Chinese"! Also we saw a golden eagle! and a big dinosaur lizard! and otters or maybe minks.
(photos to come when we develop our sweet disposable underwater camera!)
From Lucile, the end of the raft trip, we returned to Riggins, and Mountain Time, and had lunch at a sweet deli in a gas station. A lady making our sandwiches made fun of us for our opposite choices in sandwich dressings (ed. note: Tash doesn't like good things in her sandwiches).
11:40am (PST) Back on the road and back in Pacific Time. The time zone situation is complicated in Idaho. Nat says Sneeze and then DOESNT SNEEZE. (Ed. Note: when Nat sneezes it can be alarming so he warns Tash as a matter of course.) A barn says "Friut" on the side. We drive on! Nat's poozle plays.
12:24pm (MST) WAIT 10-15 minutes at a construction site. Nat leaves doors open and a yellowjacket joins us, but luckily it flies out the window with a little prodding.
2:56pm (PST) Dead deer at the turn out when we switched drivers! It was hollow from having its guts ate out and it was thickly tiled with flies. A large creamy poop lay nearby. We surmise bears or maybe dinosaurs. Grizzly Rex?
4:20 (MST) MONTANA! MOOSE! HUGE! it got away before I could take its picture though.
Tash: We drive past Lolo Hot Springs and awesome looking rock formations, plus Nat's new fave thing is to look at the Lochsa river and say "OOH that's a Mama rapid!" and such. Eventually we get to Missoula and drive around looking for the Pipestone shop. We get directions and photocopies of a guidebook (see below) while a sketchy guy accosts Tash and tries to get her to look at his digital camera. There's nothing in the shop we want to buy, but homeboy was so helpful that we feel compelled and so spend $50 on a stuffsack and a socks. Then we head off to REI for the very standard equipment we need for our Wind Rivers trip.
We try to go to the sushi place in Missoula, but since its the only sushi place in 1000 miles (estimate) we find it to be the only crowded place in town. Very strange. Instead, we wind up at the Dinosaur Cafe (ed. note: lots of dinosaurs this trip, huh?) for New Orleans food and BBQ.
We drive south to Hamilton and camping, watching a kickin sunset over the Bitteroot mountains.
10:00pm Blodgett Canyon Campground, Hamilton, MT --- Blodgett is very cool yet also very hard. Homeboy at Pipestone Mountaineering in Missoula gave us a wealth of beta but his driving directions were worse than the poorly translated directions for a cheap asian washing machine. In addition to directions to the canyon, we were treated to a treatise on Montana bolting ethics, grading standards, rock quality, the sweet new routes his buddy put up, Montana liquor laws, and basically everything else he could think of relating to the question "can you recommend somewhere to climb tomorrow?"
After lucky Google Earthing by Tash's Dad, we arrived at the canyon to find a FULL CAMPSITE. However the world's nicest campground host let us set up our "tee-int" in the picnic area, despite the large "NO CAMPING" signs nearby. The campground had, besides views of 2000 ft granite walls, an old timey hand pump with fresh water next to a nice boulder with a fun V0 that went in flip flops.
Tash: We put up the tent in a surprisingly happy manner.
7:30am Tash: Wake up! River/mountains/sun=pretty! Get ready, then drive to Espresso and rafty place (ed. note: Brundage Mountain Adventures). We meet Clint, our guide. He might be 33 but seems ancient compared to the other river rats. All the guides from different companies know each other.
Rafting is FUN! just us and Clint! We did several class 2 rapids and also a few class 3. The sun refused to come out and it was a little cold, but Clint was seriously good at steering just so that we got totally drenched and he stayed dry. Very, very talented, there. Also he had a story about every single thing we passed -- the obvious favorite being the preacher who used to stand under the bridge and call all the river rats sinners while the sinners squirted him with supersoakers, and he ran off yelling about hellfire. Plus we saw 2 rattlesnakes, and an old foundation of a stone house that was "definitely not a Chinese"! Also we saw a golden eagle! and a big dinosaur lizard! and otters or maybe minks.
(photos to come when we develop our sweet disposable underwater camera!)
From Lucile, the end of the raft trip, we returned to Riggins, and Mountain Time, and had lunch at a sweet deli in a gas station. A lady making our sandwiches made fun of us for our opposite choices in sandwich dressings (ed. note: Tash doesn't like good things in her sandwiches).
11:40am (PST) Back on the road and back in Pacific Time. The time zone situation is complicated in Idaho. Nat says Sneeze and then DOESNT SNEEZE. (Ed. Note: when Nat sneezes it can be alarming so he warns Tash as a matter of course.) A barn says "Friut" on the side. We drive on! Nat's poozle plays.
12:24pm (MST) WAIT 10-15 minutes at a construction site. Nat leaves doors open and a yellowjacket joins us, but luckily it flies out the window with a little prodding.
2:56pm (PST) Dead deer at the turn out when we switched drivers! It was hollow from having its guts ate out and it was thickly tiled with flies. A large creamy poop lay nearby. We surmise bears or maybe dinosaurs. Grizzly Rex?
4:20 (MST) MONTANA! MOOSE! HUGE! it got away before I could take its picture though.
Tash: We drive past Lolo Hot Springs and awesome looking rock formations, plus Nat's new fave thing is to look at the Lochsa river and say "OOH that's a Mama rapid!" and such. Eventually we get to Missoula and drive around looking for the Pipestone shop. We get directions and photocopies of a guidebook (see below) while a sketchy guy accosts Tash and tries to get her to look at his digital camera. There's nothing in the shop we want to buy, but homeboy was so helpful that we feel compelled and so spend $50 on a stuffsack and a socks. Then we head off to REI for the very standard equipment we need for our Wind Rivers trip.
We try to go to the sushi place in Missoula, but since its the only sushi place in 1000 miles (estimate) we find it to be the only crowded place in town. Very strange. Instead, we wind up at the Dinosaur Cafe (ed. note: lots of dinosaurs this trip, huh?) for New Orleans food and BBQ.
We drive south to Hamilton and camping, watching a kickin sunset over the Bitteroot mountains.
10:00pm Blodgett Canyon Campground, Hamilton, MT --- Blodgett is very cool yet also very hard. Homeboy at Pipestone Mountaineering in Missoula gave us a wealth of beta but his driving directions were worse than the poorly translated directions for a cheap asian washing machine. In addition to directions to the canyon, we were treated to a treatise on Montana bolting ethics, grading standards, rock quality, the sweet new routes his buddy put up, Montana liquor laws, and basically everything else he could think of relating to the question "can you recommend somewhere to climb tomorrow?"
After lucky Google Earthing by Tash's Dad, we arrived at the canyon to find a FULL CAMPSITE. However the world's nicest campground host let us set up our "tee-int" in the picnic area, despite the large "NO CAMPING" signs nearby. The campground had, besides views of 2000 ft granite walls, an old timey hand pump with fresh water next to a nice boulder with a fun V0 that went in flip flops.
Tash: We put up the tent in a surprisingly happy manner.
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