Post-Trip Bombardment

Due to popular demand, I, who have as of 5 minutes ago never written in this blog, have managed to scan all the drawings I made on the trip, and therefore will now share them. If I can figure this out…

Natural Bridge, VA

Diana, Biltmore

Lakeside Cafe, AK

Arkansas border

El Alamo, San Antonio

Mission Concepcion

Hamilton Pool

Hamilton Pool

Grand Canyon (brownie points to whoever finds El)

Grand Canyon, Overlook

Grand Canyon, Bright Angel Point

KOA kampground, CO

Balcony House, North Plaza

Balcony House, South Plaza

Landscape Arch

Double 'O' Arch

Doublt 'O' Arch, looking north

NEWS!

Holy crap, y’all.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080810/ap_on_re_us/arch_collapses_2

Wall Arch in Arches National Park collapsed.

Sometime late Monday or early Tuesday.

WE WERE THERE ON SUNDAY.

(some of you have already emailed me about this omg)

We are so lucky.

And home now! Be prepared for the rest of the posts (August 6-10) forthcoming. They are all about driving.

August 4 – Idaho, Montana, and Yellowstone, Wyoming

Today we left Ogden, UT, somewhat early and drove almost all day, trying to get to Yellowstone by evening.

We spent a lot of time driving in Idaho.

And a tiny bit of time driving in Montana.

We saw a bison, just walking on the side of the road.

And we stopped for the Mountain Man Rendezvous (Public Welcome!) to ogle and shop.

Then we made it to Yellowstone! This was a crowning achievement, because we had all agreed back at Arches that although we were tired and a little out of motivation to last two more weeks, we did indeed want very much to see Yellowstone. The Grand Canyon was one thing, but it felt like the two together would be a pair of epic summer coolness.

We paused a few times on our way from the West Entrance to our campground at Grant Village.

First we stopped at Fountain Paint Pot.

(holy crap geyser!)

Then we stopped at Biscuit Basin!

And the last stop before we headed for the campground (around 4:30, predicted eruption 5:23), was Old Faithful.

We were suitably impressed.

July 30 – Canyons and Flagstaff

Wednesday morning we got up, packed the car again, and went to the lodge to stare at the canyon some more. Dad and I rode the bikes (thus making them meaningful and useful and worth bringing!) to the lodge, and the road we’d traveled in the dark two nights earlier turned out to be RIGHT on the edge of the canyon, shielded by some trees (people aren’t in danger of driving off a cliff). It was quite something. We got hot chocolate and shopped in the gift store. I got me a gigantic poster for my dorm room. Then we went and sat on the “sun porch” and looked at the canyon.

(I won’t trouble you with more pictures)

(okay, maybe one more)

Then we left, to drive back to Flagstaff to spend the night. We stopped for a brief frolic in a meadow, created by an ice age glacier.

I took pictures of flowers while Sarah chased a deer.

Maybe 50 or 60 miles back towards the main route 89 south to Flagstaff, we stopped, dad and I got the bikes out again, and rode them six or seven miles downhill. It was astounding. Just picture whizzing downhill on a bike, yellow reflective vest flapping, sun shining, rounding a corner, and seeing something like this…

It was worth the sun and wind burn.

Also we stopped at a scenic overlook and bought some pretty Navajo jewelry.

We stopped once to stare at the desert and wonder at the sky and considered the sheer enormity of the country. You don’t get this kind of sky back East.

We stopped again for lunch at Lee’s Ferry on Glen Canyon. The Colorado River flowed beneath us, and we didn’t really have perspective on the size until these boats passed. Man is the measure of all things.

We got to Flagstaff in the afternoon, found a KOA Kampground (sic) and set up for the night. Dad and I went grocery shopping, and then we tried to make turkey burgers and baked potatoes. The burgers were great, but the fire wasn’t hot enough for the potatoes, so we ate salad and were content.

July 28/29/30 – The Grand Canyon

There isn’t a whole lot to say about the Grand Canyon that really does it justice. Nor will the pictures really suffice. Every time we looked at it, it was different (probably why there are so many pictures). It became understandable why people would just show up and stare at it. We stared. We camped in a sweet, quite, well-forested little camp ground on the North Rim. A short walk down the road and bam, big hole in the ground. So we’ll take a little turn from our regularly scheduled blog post (which isn’t so regular, and hardly ever scheduled, shut up) for a gigantic slideshow.

Days 1 & 2 – Skyline Drive & Lake Norman

So we set off Tuesday, July 8th, after emptying the fridge of things that might perish (by eating them), and saying goodbye to the kitties. We packed all of our last accoutrement, clothing, pens, books, and amusement, and set off down Route 70 on our grand adventure.

Our first stop was the Washington monument outside Boonsboro, MD, in the Blue Ridge Mountains. This Washington monument was built in 1827 by the citizens of Boonsboro, in honor of George Washington, entirely out of granite found in the area. During the Civil War, the tower was used as a lookout and signalling post. From the top of the tower we could see Antietam battlefield, and we could pretend to see Pennsylvania.

The Washington Monument State Park also contains a small portion of the Appalacian Trail. We passed one through hiker who made a crack about our camper cooling off (he was right– time number two that the radiator boiled), but got pretty excited anyway about being on the trail even a little bit.

We left the Washington monument and drove on to Loft Mountain in the Shenandoah Valley State Park (with a brief detour to visit Dinosaur Land).

I spent the rest of the day enjoying all the effects of a good case of food poisoning (disguised initially as car sickness). Fortunately for the fun of the trip, I did discover it was food poisoning (boyfriend and friend we ate lunch with also sick all night). I’m just glad it was the guacamole and not the motion of the caravan– the driving will last 35 days, the guacamole only about 2.

(campsite at Loft Mountain)

In the morning we got up and ate a bit of breakfast, went for 5 minute showers at the camp store (delightfully hot and sadly short), and drove south. We saw signs for FOAM HENGE, and saw it as we drove past (yup, looks like Stone Henge, made of foam), but failed to go back to marvel and take pictures.

Instead, we went onwards to Natural Bridge, Virginia.

Natural Bridge was known by the natives before the to-be-Americans showed up. It was carved out of limestone by Cedar Creek, which is a tributary of James River, and stands at a height of 215 feet above the riverbed. The river itself is rather quiet and unassuming, but limestone is notoriously easy to carve, and well, it’s been done over a long time.

Thomas Jefferson built himself a cabin nearby the Natural Bridge to entertain guests and show this phenomenon off. George Washington carved his initials in the rock on the far side (from the walkway) of the bridge.

The walkway continues on to a saltpeter cave and “The Lost River” and Lace Falls. Still in recovery from my adventure the day before, I sat on a bench and admired Cedar Creek.

The rest of the family continued up the path to admire Lace Falls.

After Natural Bridge we made more or less a beeline for Lake Norman, North Carolina. We stopped at a grocery store to feed me Gatorade and again at a Farmers’ Market for spices and dried fruit and so on, but arrived in Lake Norman around 4:30 pm, and spent the evening socializing.

Now we are being called to dinner, consisting of chicken, grilled corn, and various incarnations of baked beans with bacon.