7/30 Thanks Len!

My journey has filled me to overflowing with gratitude -- to God and to life and to the marvelous Earth. We live in an Eden that we don't stop to see, and need to open our traveler's eyes every day to the uncountable wonders and blessings surrounding us. 

But I especially give my gratitude to Len, who not only supported and funded our "car trek," but kept our home and yard, and animals and plants, in tip top shape. He sorted mail, paid bills, and did all those many other household tasks in addition to his usual hard work at the tire store.  

Thanks for letting me commemorate my 60th year in such a special way. Hope your trip to Iceland is equally inspiring!

 

(Our home in Bangor Michigan 1976-78.) 

7/29 -- Thanks Jarad!

The best part of the entire trip West for me was sharing it with Jarad. He was so enthusiastic about everything!  The parks, the scenery, the animals, the food, the people -- and even the driving!!  

Jarad was a great travel buddy, because he encouraged me to push my limits with the hikes and swims and mule ride. And the 32 foot wooden ladder up to Balcony House at Mesa Verde!  Yet he also respected my limits when I was tired.

He was the chief baggage schlepper, gas pumper, and music meister.  Anyone who can jump out of a car at a moment's notice and play bagpipes is pretty special 

With his eagle eyes, Jarad was the one to spot details, especially wild animals. Then he took the most amazing photos!

Jarad also did more than half the driving. 

But what meant the most to me was Jarad's patience. He never rushed me to leave a beautiful scene (or fun gift shop!)

Our paces were in sync, from bedtimes to rising times to meal times. We could sit together in silence taking in our favorite views. And Jarad put up with, even joined in with, my reminiscences. 

Bless you Jarad. Thank you!  I love you!  Let's do it again sometime soon!  

7/26 Pics Part 3

Wrapping up the unblogged photos:

Jarad contemplating the infinite...

To infinity -- and beyond!

One of my favorite flower combos -- asters and Queen Anne's Lace. They line the streets in Michigan!

Lifelike Impressionism!

Final mile tally!

7/26 Pics Part 2

More pics that didn't make the blog:

I was thinking so hard at Old Faithful, my brain started to overheat!

Our mirror mascot from home...

The sunset crowd at the Grand Canyon!

California condors aren't pretty up close!

Fried ice cream as big as your head 545.

Kissing ravens!

7/25 -- Don't go away! Pics Part 1

Going to post a few pictures that didn't make it on the blog. 

In the middle of the USA Day 2!

Sunrise clouds over Badlands Day 3...

Yellowstone Lodge tourist bus Day 7...

How many hummingbirds?  At the ho'made pie restaurant outside Zion...

Clouds over red desert are pink beneath!

The burrito as big as your head!

My emergency haircut at Walmart in Paige AZ!

Day 32!!! 7/24 -- HOME

Jarad drove all the way from Sandusky Ohio to Greenfield, about ten hours straight, with one lunch, one gas, and two pit stops.  The green forested hills and Massachusetts border were -- well, a welcome sight!  

Arrived home at 9 pm. Our odometer topped out in the driveway at 8280 total miles!  Wow!!  Thank you, dear Odyssey!  Even with three big boxes sent home, we still had a lot to unpack -- mostly rocks!

This is the view I'm looking at now from my bed. Romeo has found the warmest, softest spot in the house -- my belly!  He's purring and staying close. Cats hate to admit such things, but I think he missed me!  The air is refreshingly cool tonight, and it's good to not be in motion. Home. Sweet, familiar home.  Praise be!

Things we've learned on Cartrek 2013

Here are some things we've learned on our travels, in no particular order:

If a sign says 15mph around this curve out West, believe it. 

People in Mississippi and Rhode Island don't travel far (given the fact that we had all 47 states' license plates, except for Hawaii, since the Grand Canyon... Didn't see RI until today in NY!)

Being late + hunger + fatigue = CRANKY

Nice scenery + being in the moment + 

     sugar = HAPPY

If you don't like the weather -- drive!  

Jarad starts to imitate Mickey Mouse when he gets tired. 

Elks' preferred diet is lawn grass. 

Waiting in line for 5 hours in 100 degree weather is a drag -- even if it's for your favorite rock band. 

A two and a half hour rain delay at an outdoor rock concert is also a drag. 

The book "Great Gatsby" is a lot longer than the movie -- and a lot worse!

The last mules in line get the dust.  Bring a bandanna. 

If you get a bota, rinse it out with lemon juice (unless you like the taste of plastic). 

Don't stand on a sand dune in a lightning storm. Or on an 8500' Mesa top. 

Don't depend on there to be guardrails or fences in National Parks. Watch out for slippery cliff edges, especially in Bryce, Badlands, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone...

There are many many more stars in the night sky than we can possibly see in the Northeast US. 

Sequestration stinks. The National Parks need our support -- financially and legislatively. 

 

The Curiosity Shop Part 4

Now that we are safely back in the land of flush porcelain toilets, we would like to share some words about the biggest travel peril:  public bathrooms!

Aside from the fact that sometimes there just ARE NO bathrooms, the ones you do encounter can be sketchy or even frightening. 

Take the outhouse full of 8" lizards that Jarad wandered into. Unnerving!  Keeps you on your toes!

Or when he used the outhouse with a one ton bison standing outside the door.  Or when I dodged torrential rain and bolts of lightning bolts to get to there.  

Worse, you discover various combinations of amenities, or lack thereof. No hand sanitizer?  No tp?  No doorlock? No door?

And pulleez people!  Do not place outhouses in the sun!  Unless of course there is no shade, like most of the Southwest. Or the 110 degree heat at the bottom of Glen Canyon.  Smells tend to ferment to explosive levels.  It's either pass out from the heat in there, or pass out from the gases. 

And there's your constant. Odors. A wide assortment -- and all pretty much bad.  Gotta be fast. And able to hold your breath as long as it takes. 

Somebody had to tell you the Truth. It might as well come from friends. 

 

By the way, in case your mother never told you, even with flush toilets -- please don't drink the water inside it, no matter how clean it appears -- or how thirsty you are!

The Curiosity Shop Part 3

Today we'll take a look at some oddities we've encountered in the past 31 days:

Buffalo Phil's Restaurant -- delivers food to your table via model trains!

Astronaut Deke Sampson's Space and Bicycle Museum

La Bamba Restaurant -- Burritos as big as your head!

Full Throttle Sloonshine Moonshine Whiskey

Shivers and Jitters Coffee Shop

Kleinschmidt's Bootery -- over 19,000 pairs of boots!

Billboard saying just "J C NAZ" an ad for the Jesus Christ of Nazareth Churchl

Also observed:

Western playgrounds have extensive rock climbing installations to start young!

Buffalo Biil Cody's traveling show toured enough miles to go around the world once. They even had a shows in Holyoke 

and Greenfield Mass!

Cholula Hot Sauce comes in packets right alongside mustard and mayo!

On Interstate 40 across AZ you are allowed to bicycle along the median!  We saw some hardy cyclists doing just that!

 

And sobering but effective:

Meth Neighborhood Watch signs in Mich. 

Signs along Colorado roads "In memory of (a person's name). Please drive safely"

"Weapons make sense for self defense"

And our favorite:  "Flap Jack Shack" -- Say that three times fast!

 

DAY 31!!! Michigan to Ohio...

We stayed in Grand Rapids to see the Frederick Meijer Botanical Garden today. It's rated #5 in the US (Maine's in Booth Bay is #1). But this one is foremost a sculpture garden of monumental scale.  Our intended hour long visit became an almost day long visit!

Here are the Meijers, in bronze. What a generous legacy they've left!  

Look close those are people underneath! Below Jarad is standing slightly in front. 

Meijer arranged for an unfinished DaVinci statue to finally be cast -- in 15 tons of bronze!  Then presented an identical one to DaVinci's home town of Milan!

There are more than 200 works, from Rodin to contemporary artists like Nina Akamu, who produced the horse.  Many have their own botanical "room" outside. 

"Neuron" is a model of a real brain cell. 

A mobile in a field of prairie flowers. 

Jarad taking pics under a metal freeform.

One of our favorites -- a family grouping of what we dubbed "Hopsquatch."

A huge indoor conservatory with rain forest, Victorian, cactus, and carnivorous gardens, in front of which stands "Mom." She ushers visitors into the absolute best Children's Garden anywhere!

A to-scale Great Lakes water play area!  Did you know the water in all 5 combined would cover the whole US one foot deep!

Friendly dragons, bears, beavers, and every kind of farm animal...

You get the idea. We were entranced!  The cafe even had Chihuly glass flowers in a rainbow swath adorning the ceiling!  

Then on the road 350 miles to Sandusky Ohio.  The highway of triple trailer trucks! We are staying at a special water park hotel. Spent an hour hiking up 3 flights of steps to tube down several long sinuous slides. Jarad and I went double twice -- double the weight, double the velocity!  

Tomorrow, though, we'll have to get serious about getting home...

Day 30 -- 7/22 Sleeping Bear Dunes

Had our best hotel breakfast yet -- made to order omelets, fresh fruit, cinnamon toast, and Wolfgang Puck coffee!  (Of course we did have to pay for it!)  

Then got waylaid for an hour at a super rock shop in Traverse City. Seeking Petoskey stones, fossilized ancient coral in hexagonal grey/tan clusters. Radiant when polished!  And copper, found here in rare, pure chunks.  Native Americans traded it as far afield as Louisiana!  

Finally made it 20 miles west to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. What a day of scenic play!  First at a secluded beach below the dunes in Empire. What a happy scene of many families having fun!  The air warm, water, too, and wind whipping up some lake waves!  We did restrain ourselves and obey the sign:

Those are the 450' dunes far behind me. Which is where we went next -- to their top along Pierce Stocking Drive!  Now we were gazing out at spectacular views of Lake Michigan, and down, down, down the near vertical dune face to the shore!

What appear as specks at the center of this photo are actually people, climbing back up the dune face after romping down -- a steep 2 hour ascent!  

We on the other hand took the sensible approach, climbing up a different dune face until we were spent, then bounding back down with big steps in the soft sand!  (again those "specks" are people!)

Yes finally time to seriously turn home ward. Drove through an hour of forested country side to the Interstate south. In Grand Rapids tonight, departing dear New England-like Michigan tomorrow.  

Oh, the name of the dunes comes from Native American legend. A mother bear was swimming across the lake when her 2 cubs tired and stopped, forming the nearby Manitou Islands. Their mother for ever sleeps in the dunes awaiting them.