Got home safe and sound last night (10:30pm) after driving for ~ 12 hrs! I was pretty exhausted, but too wired to go to bed right away. Slept until 10am this morning - felt great being in my own bed!
Trip stats:
we drove a total of 7144 miles
overall mileage was 39.5 mpg
Evan grew another 1/2 inch in height
I gained about 5 lbs, most likely all from the last 5 days of driving and snacking
casualties of the trip:
1 polycarbonate mug lost - the mug with the hot chocolate lasted for over an hour on the roof of the car going at 70 mph before it flew off surprising me and the driver behind us and giving the car a hot chocolate bath
1 plastic water bottle - fell in a stream in Zion; at least the ranger was able to get it out
1 bungee cord snapped so that one of the tent poles couldn't be held together - luckily, this didn't happen until the 3rd to the last day of the trip
tent fly waterproof seams started leaking, again not until the end of the trip during the thunderstorm in Missouri
It was quite a trip!
Monday, July 13, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
mayhem in Missouri
Evan is posting for the first time in a while!
"We had a lot of problems last night and this morning. The first of the problems was that we learned that the bungee cord in one of the tent poles had snapped! It was hard to put up the tent, and when we did, the wind billowed the sides of it all over the place. After that, it was quite hard to get to sleep inside the tent. It was, again, sweltering like when we were going west! I finally got to sleep while being boiled alive in the tent, while my mom was sleeping like a rock. However, we were both rudely awoken by a really bad thunderstorm at something like 1 am (I didn't check the exact time, but that is what I would estimate). That morning, my mom woke up with the tent nearly on top of her. the fly strings had all loosened, and the side she was on was falling on her! I was lucky. I was on the other side of the tent. However, it was still wet in there. The fly kept most of the water out, but it was (1) drenched, (2) a little leaky from having the fly pole go through it many times, and (3) touching the tent from being loosened! Apparently neither me nor my mom slept that well. We are currently taking a break and using the internet from a Sprint phone shop. Well, that's all I wanted to say, so, bye for now! See you soon, everyone!
-Evan
"We had a lot of problems last night and this morning. The first of the problems was that we learned that the bungee cord in one of the tent poles had snapped! It was hard to put up the tent, and when we did, the wind billowed the sides of it all over the place. After that, it was quite hard to get to sleep inside the tent. It was, again, sweltering like when we were going west! I finally got to sleep while being boiled alive in the tent, while my mom was sleeping like a rock. However, we were both rudely awoken by a really bad thunderstorm at something like 1 am (I didn't check the exact time, but that is what I would estimate). That morning, my mom woke up with the tent nearly on top of her. the fly strings had all loosened, and the side she was on was falling on her! I was lucky. I was on the other side of the tent. However, it was still wet in there. The fly kept most of the water out, but it was (1) drenched, (2) a little leaky from having the fly pole go through it many times, and (3) touching the tent from being loosened! Apparently neither me nor my mom slept that well. We are currently taking a break and using the internet from a Sprint phone shop. Well, that's all I wanted to say, so, bye for now! See you soon, everyone!
-Evan
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
I think we're in Kansas...
We drove across Colorado today, through the beautiful San Juan Forests in the southern Colorado Rocky Mountains. Unfortunately, the hybrid isn't that great on high mountain roads. The hybrid battery runs out of juice too quickly and the car then switches to its puny little gas engine. We drove at about 25 mph up the mountains (we did pass a car pulling a trailer, though!). At least on the way down we didn't use any gas at all - so our net mpg is 40.1 right now for the entire trip.
East of the Rockies is pretty flat, and we drove along a state road through what looked like the corporate-sized farm lands that supply most of our grocery store produce and beef. Huge farms with huge combines for miles and miles and miles and...
East of the Rockies is pretty flat, and we drove along a state road through what looked like the corporate-sized farm lands that supply most of our grocery store produce and beef. Huge farms with huge combines for miles and miles and miles and...
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Arches National Park - for 3 days!
Arches National Park was our final, official destination for our big Southwest quest! As with the others, it was stunning in its own way - and very hot, ~97F each day. We had a nice campsite with beautiful views. And, we had a full moon! This one image doesn't really capture how beautiful it was with the full moon - but it was stunning.
We saw so many cool arches. Here, Evan and I are across a giant 'bowl' of sandstone from Delicate Arch, one of the most famous in the Park. The long thin ribbon one is called Landscape Arch - a part of it fell in 1991, making it even thinner. It was also neat because I remembered a lot of the trails, from having hiked them when I was a kid (35 yrs ago!). They obviously made an impression on me then.
Now we are heading back across the country to Maine.
We saw so many cool arches. Here, Evan and I are across a giant 'bowl' of sandstone from Delicate Arch, one of the most famous in the Park. The long thin ribbon one is called Landscape Arch - a part of it fell in 1991, making it even thinner. It was also neat because I remembered a lot of the trails, from having hiked them when I was a kid (35 yrs ago!). They obviously made an impression on me then.
Now we are heading back across the country to Maine.
On our way to Arches...
There are certainly bizarre things to see across the backroads of the US - part of what makes me love this place! Anyway, here are some interesting sites along our drive from Escalante to Arches in Utah.
Instead of having hub caps lining the fence, this person has old wagon wheels along their fence - wagon wheels from wagons that haven't rotted because it is so dry out here. Next to this place was an old closed down hotel (lots of those around this part of the country) that had dinosaur sculptures made out of misc scrap metal and one made out of what looks like lobster traps!
Another strange place was this site that someone put together to 'honor' Old Giles Town where outlaws supposedly stayed. It had 'graves' covered with different colored dirt from the region as well as coffins dug out of logs. One of the coffins has a plastic skeleton in it!
Instead of having hub caps lining the fence, this person has old wagon wheels along their fence - wagon wheels from wagons that haven't rotted because it is so dry out here. Next to this place was an old closed down hotel (lots of those around this part of the country) that had dinosaur sculptures made out of misc scrap metal and one made out of what looks like lobster traps!
Another strange place was this site that someone put together to 'honor' Old Giles Town where outlaws supposedly stayed. It had 'graves' covered with different colored dirt from the region as well as coffins dug out of logs. One of the coffins has a plastic skeleton in it!
Friday, July 3, 2009
Now, we are at Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument
We are staying at the Escalante Petrified Forest State Park. Dan and I stopped by here 22 yrs ago when we moved across the country. I always wanted to return because I thought it was so beautiful. And, it still is! Plus, there is a town of Escalante that is pretty funky now, with hip cafes serving microbrews and natural foods, and having free wireless internet access!
We found a bunny in the campground, very cute.
Today we went on a 5 mile hike to a canyon in the Escalante National Monument, called Zebra Canyon. It was a slot canyon, where the walls get closer and closer, as the water carves the canyons deeper and deeper. This one wasn't too deep or narrow, but it did have some interesting holes in the sides of it.
There were two little problems, though, with the hike. First, a sudden thunderstorm came along forcing us to seek shelter under a canyon wall overhang. Luckily, we brought a book along with the food and water, so we had something to do for the hour or so besides worrying about being struck by lightning and flash floods. The second problem occured as we were hiking back to the car after the thunderstorm passed. It happened to be one of the things we were worrying about: a flash flood coming down the gulley. Luckily, we were on higher ground by that point, but it blocked our way! There is a picture below as well as a video, which gives you a sense of how loud and muddy and fast the water was flowing! We ended up having to go off the trail to find another way to get around the flooded gulley - finding lots of animal trails to follow so as not to destroy the cryptoendolithic microbial communities on the sandstone (I know, I'm such a science nerd that I'm concerned with destroying microbes! But, look at the extensive black communities in the picture below.).
We found a bunny in the campground, very cute.
Today we went on a 5 mile hike to a canyon in the Escalante National Monument, called Zebra Canyon. It was a slot canyon, where the walls get closer and closer, as the water carves the canyons deeper and deeper. This one wasn't too deep or narrow, but it did have some interesting holes in the sides of it.
There were two little problems, though, with the hike. First, a sudden thunderstorm came along forcing us to seek shelter under a canyon wall overhang. Luckily, we brought a book along with the food and water, so we had something to do for the hour or so besides worrying about being struck by lightning and flash floods. The second problem occured as we were hiking back to the car after the thunderstorm passed. It happened to be one of the things we were worrying about: a flash flood coming down the gulley. Luckily, we were on higher ground by that point, but it blocked our way! There is a picture below as well as a video, which gives you a sense of how loud and muddy and fast the water was flowing! We ended up having to go off the trail to find another way to get around the flooded gulley - finding lots of animal trails to follow so as not to destroy the cryptoendolithic microbial communities on the sandstone (I know, I'm such a science nerd that I'm concerned with destroying microbes! But, look at the extensive black communities in the picture below.).
Bryce - Evan's middle name!
This place is stunning and wasn't too hot because it was ~8000 ft! We hiked the Queen's Trail and Navaho Loop Trail. The trails start at the top of the canyon, thus we had to go up at the end of the hike. The bizarre structures are called hoodoos, formed from the sandstone eroding due to rain and wind.
There was also a place along a dry riverbed where people had made their own little hoodoos with the rocks - there were hundreds of them! So, Evan and I added our own to the others, as did almost everyone who walked by.
There was also a place along a dry riverbed where people had made their own little hoodoos with the rocks - there were hundreds of them! So, Evan and I added our own to the others, as did almost everyone who walked by.
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