Table of Contents
Part One
Part Two
Map
The Big Trip - Part 2
Thursday July 18th, Jackson Hole, WY
After waking up late, we took a drive out of town and had breakfast at Nora's Fish Creek Inn, which our friend Molly had told us would be the best breakfast in town. Man was she right! Big, big breakfast for a big Wyoming morning. We had booked a rafting trip for later that afternoon, so we had some time to kill. We took a drive over Jackson Hole ski area and checked it out a bit. There was a lot of construction going on, so there wasn't THAT much to look at. We then decided to take a drive down one of the back roads of Teton National Park. Very beautiful. More pics:
Jackson Hole ski area. Jackson Hole, WY
Nora's Fish Creek Inn (thanks, Molly!)
After that, we headed down to Sands Whitewater Adventures for a ride down the Snake River, a class three river, which was excellent. We hit rapids like Lunch Counter and it was incredibly scenic. Our raft guide Susan was pretty knowledgeable about the area. The water was COLD, but that didn't stop Beverly from taking a plunge in the river. After rafting and paddling our butts off, we were famished. Our guide had recommended The Gunbarrel Restaurant in Jackson. Great steakhouse (and awseome Rocky Mountain Rainbow Trout). After dinner we were really pooped so we settled in at the Antler Motel and fell asleep.
Antler Motel, Jackson Hole, WY
Friday July 19th, Jackson Hole to Denver
Pretty uneventful drive from Jackson Hole to Denver, where we are staying with friends of ours. There were a few big Thunderstorms, which I liked, but otherwise it was just a 10 hour, 500+ mile drive. We did see an amazing sunset that we think was influenced by the recent fires in Colorado. Judge for yourself;
Sky heading towards Denver on Rt 25
Saturday July 20th 2002 - Denver, CO
Rick and Carrie made the most incredible waffles for breakfast this morning. I'm not usually a waffle type person, but these things ROCKED. After hearing so much about what a cool place it is, home of Mork and Mindy and all, we went to Boulder for the day. We walked around Pearl Street, which is sort of an open-air mall that reminded me a lot of Burlington, VT, if you've ever been there. Small, pretty liberal town. Rick and I went to check out a small flyfishing store to get the inside scoop on some fishing we had hoped to do tommorow. We bought some presents for people and mostly just checked it out. We were witness to a rather spectactular puppet show. Whoever the puppeteer was, he did an excellent job making the puppets dance to zydeco music. Beverly LOVED Boulder, and I did too.
That night, we headed down to an area of town called LODO (for lower downtown, I guess). Had a delicious dinner of Italian food, then walked around a bit. It seemed to be quite the happening place. Forgot to bring the camera- sorry, no pics.
Sunday July 21st 2002 - Vail, CO
Today we got up pretty early and headed for the mountains. Rick and Carrie are pretty new to Denver, and as we left they're place, it was warm and sunny, so there was no need for a jacket...yet. We should've realized it wasn't too good an idea to head into the mountains without a jacket and in the back of a jeep with the top down. As we went over the 11,000 ft pass, it sure got real cold real fast. After a quick stop at a local sporting goods store to buy sweatshirts, we arrived at Vail.
The view from the Vail access roads
Rick, perfecting his fly cast - Vail, CO
A quick, beautiful drive home and we crashed out hard. Still haven't done any laundry yet. Ugh. I suppose I can make it to Wisconsin, but I'm starting to smell bad.
Monday July 22nd, 2002 - Nebraska
Not much to say about Nebraska. Lots of corn. After eating a nice dinner in Lincoln, we stayed at an Econo Lodge in Omaha. Long day of driving. Car seems to be acting pretty sluggish, I hope nothings seriously wrong with it. Econo Lodge smells kinda funny. Incredibly enough, I did not take any pictures of Nebraska
Tuesday July 23rd, 2002 - Iowa to Wisconsin
Woke up this morning in need of 2 things: Breakfast, and an Oil Change. I just realized we've driven over 4100 miles so far this trip, so maybe that's whats wrong with the car. Stepped outside from the smelly Econo Lodge to see 2 things: 1) Denny's and right next door 2) Bob Quick Lube and Tune Up. Score one for the good guys. No, make that two. After dropping the car off at Bob's, we fueled ourselves up at Dennys. Dennys was a weird scene. There were a whole gaggle of State Troopers eating next to us whose cell phones were continually going off, everyone was smoking, and the people looked a little sad. It was weird.
Iowa was beautiful
After the oil change, the car was back to its usual self. Good news. We tore across Iowa and made it to Wisconsin ahead of schedule. About 4 hours ahead of schedule, actually. My friend Bruce, whose house we are staying in didn't fly in until about 10:30. So we decided to keep driving a bit (what's 90 more miles when you just went 500?) and check out Madison, WI. Madison was BEAUTIFUL! After a quick call to a friend about where to go, we headed down to State Street. Had a great dinner, then walked around checking out shops. A very cool little town, Madison is. I'd like to come back some day.
Our friend Bruce was getting to the house around 10:30pm, so we headed southwest toward Genoa City, WI, where Bruce has a summer lake house. This was one of our most looked-forward-to stops. Two days with nothing to do but sit around and relax and hang out. After Bruce arrived, we sat around catching up till the wee hours of the morning.
Wednesday July 24th, 2002 - Wisconsin ROCKS
We did laundry!! After over 2 weeks without doing laundry, I was feeling a bit ripe. Otherwise, we didn't do a damn thing today. Went for a ride on Bruce's pontoon boat later on in the afternoon. Sat in the sun. Read a bit. Bruce came home (he had some business in Chicago), we all poured stiff drinks and cruised around in the boat and watched the sunset. 'Twas beautiful. That night we cooked a pizza and continued the chill party.
Bruce's beautiful lake house
Nice Sunset over the lake
Another pic of the beautiful sunset
Bruce, behind his formidible bar at the lake house
Me, sporting the Old Style
Thursday July 25th, 2002 - Lake Geneva
Today Bruce gave us a tour of Lake Geneva. It was great seeing all the places that Bruce grew up, he having spent summers of his childhood in this area. Lake Geneva is a very cool place.
Friday July 26th, 2002 - Wisconsin to Chicago
We departed Wisconsin this morning bound for Chicago where we're staying with my friend Ben, and Beverly's friend Fran. Two days of chilling by the lake had made us incredibly tired, and Beverly had to take over for me driving. Ben, Eric and I went out and saw a band, Occasional Detriot, who were very weird. Interesting and original is how I would describe them, if I were being nice, which I am. VERY nice. After that, we hit the Rainbo Lounge, which was in full swing. After a quick stop at Flash Taco, we packed it in for the night.
Saturday July 27th, 2002 - Chicago, that toddlin' town
Ben showed us around Chicago today with stops including The Museum of Contemporary Art and dim sum at Chinatown. We drove all around the city, checking out various parts. Chicago seems like a great town. Very livable. I'd like to see more of it. That night, I went to a party with a bunch of Ben's friends from U of Chicago. Great party, met many interesting people. After another late-night trip to another Taco joint, we all hit the sack.
Chicago, IL
Sculpture outside of a museum in Chicago, IL
Today, after Ben made a great brunch from things he had laying around the fridge. Afterwards, Beverly and her friend Fran came down to Chicago to pick me up, and we headed up to Evanston. We stopped in for an ice cream, and then back to Fran's to hang out with her family. We went out to dinner at a great Italian restaurant, Mia Francesca, with Fran and her husband.
Monday, July 29th, 2002 - Evanston to Erie, PA
By this time, Beverly and I were getting pretty sick of being on the road, and were making serious tracks eastward. 3 and a half weeks is a long time to be displaced. When driving through Sandusky, OH we got caught in the biggest thunderstorm yet. Thanks to the Subaru's Weather Band, we knew there was severe thunderstorms in the area. We caught up with this one storm that was moving about 50 m.p.h. in a north-easterly direction. I didn't think thunderstorms could move that fast. At one point, we were right in the thick of it, with lightning crashing all around. Two bolts hit right next to the car, probably a few hundred yards away. The hair on my arm started to go up, and my mind had just enough time to register the thought - "Oh shit." when CCCCRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAACKKKKK! It sounded like the fabric of the universe ripping apart. That pretty much freaked us right out, and since Beverly nixed my grand idea of trying to outrun the storm, we got off the road and headed for the tranquil banality of T.G.I.Friday's for a beer to help us relax. After the storm passed (which was pretty much as soon as we pulled off the road), we headed for Erie, PA, where we spent the night at a Best Western.
Tuesday July 30th, 2002 - Erie, PA to Beverly, MA - The final brutal leg
We awoke on Tuesday to partly couldy skies in PA. After a lackluster breakfast, we got on the road. Our destination; Niagara Falls. After stopping on the American side of the falls, we got a quick and horrible lunch at a local eatery. Nearly no longer hungry, we hit the road again and decided that we could be within striking distance of my parent's house in Beverly, MA. It would be a long drive, but we decided to go for it. At this point, I must take a break to state that, unequivocally, Massachusetts drivers are the most hostile drivers I've ever seen, with the possible but remote exception of New Yorkers. Mass drivers are generally very skilled, and they brazenly display that skill at every opportunity. The last 80 or so miles I drove on the Mass Turnpike were among the most terrifying in our 5200+ mile journey, including the thunderstorm in Ohio. There must be some magnetic interference that prevents turn signals from working. That same magnetic field switches the passing lane from the left to the right. I saw a car do a 3 lane drift to the left with no blinkers at around 90 mph, only to drift back 4 lanes to take an exit. I am not making this up. Don't get me wrong, I'm from Massachusetts. I drove in Massachusetts for over 12 years, and I have no idea how I survived. I suppose driving in California has softend me up driving-wise, but come on. Getting to that off ramp .87 seconds quicker really doesn't make that much of a difference, except to possibly lower your life span significantly by raising your stress levels higher than that of a chihuahua who just ate an entire bottle of caffeine pills. Yeesh.
Neat picture of the sunset on the Mass Turnpike
Well, its 5,450 miles later, and we're now enjoying the New England summer. Our furniture gets to Portsmouth sometime next week, so we're staying at my parents house till then. It was an awe-inspiring trip. The U.S. is one of the most beautiful, diverse countries in the world. In the same day you can go skiing, surfing and snorkeling. There are mountains, lakes, praires, buttes, canyons, islands, waterfalls and forests that rival any place else in the world, not to mention the millions and millions of beautiful animals that inhabit those places. This is a big, big beautiful country, and I'd like to suggest you get out there and experience some of it, before we do something stupid like start drilling for oil or building subdivisions over all of it.
The Gear
Some camping gear that I (but not necessarily Beverly) found to be essential to this trip:
- Subaru Outback
- Never once failed us through searing heat, blinding rain and severe lightning storms. Unflinchingly carried us and our sometimes burdensome load on and on and on and on and on.
- Dell Inspiron 8100 Laptop
- Essential for building dorky websites in a campground in the middle of nowhere, or while speeding through Nebraska.
- Nikon CoolPix 775
- Allowed me to take over 150 pictures a day on one battery charge.
- Anything by Coleman
- Seriously. I had their campstove, cooler and 400 watt car power-inverter. The stove was handy for making coffee in the middle of nowhere and the power inverter was great for recharging the aforementioned laptop and camera while in the car. Both worked flawlessly*.
*Well, the stove worked a little too well when it set afire to the cheap-ass frying pan I purchased at the Crater Lake campground store, but I blame that on the cheap-ass frying pan, not the stove. However, I will say that the hot dogs that were cooked in the aforementioned cheap-ass frying pan remained tasty. I repeat, tasty.