Clay's parents recommended that we go up the canyon to watch the meteor shower instead of the salt flats. Mary and her orange 1982 VW Vanagon, Patience, arrived in the late afternoon. We all piled into Patience and then picked up Chris, and the four (five?) of us sped off at a strong forty miles an hour up the mountain to our viewing location.
View Larger Map
It took forever for poor Patience to make it up the hill, and the cars behind us were frequently frustrated into passing us over solid double yellow lines. So that was interesting. We passed ski lodges and kept trying to get to somewhere that was more isolated, less lights, higher location, better viewing, whatever.
Eventually we were like, "Okay, we've climbed high enough, let's park the van on this shoulder here," and then noticed a few cars ahead of us and a sign that said [P] for parking. They weren't making a lot of light, and apparently were also here to see the meteor shower. So we pulled up, taking in the last spot available, and set up shop.
Mary made us all dinner with ingredients from Patience's fridge and using Patience's stove. It involved ghetto thai peanut sauce, broccoli, and peanuts. I am not entirely sure what else was involved. (It was dark.) It got seriously cold during the night, and I put on my green peace hoodie and huddled in the front seat of the van, where the wind mostly couldn't get me, and tried to peer out from the passenger window. I could see the lower end of the sky, where the Big Dipper and Cassiopia were, but I couldn't actually see Perseus or Andromeda, so it was not an ideal viewing location. Eventually, Mary convinced me to get one of her sleeping bags from the van and huddle in that while sitting outside with her, eating our food. I pulled my boots off and instantly climbed into the sleeping bag before my feet had the chance to get cold(er). We sat there for a while and just watched the sky.
Showing posts with label people: chris. Show all posts
Showing posts with label people: chris. Show all posts
Friday, August 13, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
Trying Not to Get Lost in Utah
Unlike previous maps, this map does not exactly show the route that we took during our trip.
View Larger Map
This is because we're not entirely sure where we went. When we hit point B (Neola, UT) our map seemed to think that we would be able to go straight and continue on that road. We were confronted with a T intersection and picked the right, whereupon we got lost in the middle of the Indian Reservation, where apparently people are not inclined to include street signs or other important markers that might let us have some idea as to where we were going.
Eventually, we got lost again, ended up in Roosevelt, and made a much more reasonable journey from there. (It's sort of a straight shot down Rt. 40 to I-80.)
Driving into SLC on I-80 is pretty fun. It goes zoooooom up and then zooooom down. All the cars know what they are doing and don't want to go careening off the highway, so they're all perfectly reasonable and polite.
We were on our way to Clay and Lisa's new house. It was only a few blocks from the highway, but I got lost again and was required to call Clay. (This usually doesn't happen to me! I have my Google map directions; I don't understand why it's been happening at almost every new city we've arrived in.)
We found it eventually because you can't fail to find things in Salt Lake City due to the SLC grid system. It's amazing, while incredibly confusing to outsiders since it simply sounds like a list of numbers and cardinal directions. We marveled at the house (which has been extensively remodeled) and hung out with Clay's parents and uncle. We ate pizza and chatted and then once the adults left we took some showers and went to sleep on the side room futon.
View Larger Map
This is because we're not entirely sure where we went. When we hit point B (Neola, UT) our map seemed to think that we would be able to go straight and continue on that road. We were confronted with a T intersection and picked the right, whereupon we got lost in the middle of the Indian Reservation, where apparently people are not inclined to include street signs or other important markers that might let us have some idea as to where we were going.
Eventually, we got lost again, ended up in Roosevelt, and made a much more reasonable journey from there. (It's sort of a straight shot down Rt. 40 to I-80.)
Driving into SLC on I-80 is pretty fun. It goes zoooooom up and then zooooom down. All the cars know what they are doing and don't want to go careening off the highway, so they're all perfectly reasonable and polite.
We were on our way to Clay and Lisa's new house. It was only a few blocks from the highway, but I got lost again and was required to call Clay. (This usually doesn't happen to me! I have my Google map directions; I don't understand why it's been happening at almost every new city we've arrived in.)
We found it eventually because you can't fail to find things in Salt Lake City due to the SLC grid system. It's amazing, while incredibly confusing to outsiders since it simply sounds like a list of numbers and cardinal directions. We marveled at the house (which has been extensively remodeled) and hung out with Clay's parents and uncle. We ate pizza and chatted and then once the adults left we took some showers and went to sleep on the side room futon.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Mostly Wyoming, with a dash of Nebraska and a pinch of Utah
We woke up still in Nebraska, but only an hour or two from the Wyoming border. I was excited to get to Wyoming. Originally, we had planned to camp in Medicine Bow National Forest, but this was now only a few hours away and we could get considerably further. Rather than making a plan, we just started driving with a pretty good idea of what detours we could take along the way.
View Larger Map
Did I mention that we decided not to go to Denver, or that we were planning on it? You would think that a place with a reputation like Denver would have millions of eager couchsurfing members. However, between me and Chris, we got a dozen no's and one maybe. The maybe called me, and when I said that I would be okay with just camping in Wyoming, he texted me back a few hours later saying that he had some people who really wanted a place and he told them okay so hopefully that was fine. It was, and we probably wouldn't've even made it to Denver in anything approaching a reasonable time. So I have to see Denver some other day. I'll get over it, I promise.
We continued on Route 30 until we exited Nebraska, just because the less time spent on the highway is better (even if it takes longer). 30 basically ends at the Wyoming border, so we joined back up with I-80 while entering Wyoming.
The land had begun getting hills yesterday, but now it has things that I want to call bluffs and mesas and other landforms that I am entirely unfamiliar with. In Laramie, we turn off the highway and take Route 130 through Medicine Bow National Forest. It might've been the prettiest place I've ever been, with the many lakes and snows and random cows and green green grasses and forests and marshlands, streams and ponds.
At one point, we jumped from the car and I ran down a hill in an attempt to get to a river I could see from the top of the hill. At the bottom, I could hear it but not see it. When I tried to move across the field, I was hindered by the fact that the really tall grass was not just really tall grass, but grass in a marshy bed of squelchy mud. So I failed to actually arrive at the stream. The boys and I went walking back up the hill, whereupon we began to realize that we had not yet adjusted to altitude. Walking up a hill should not have been nearly so difficult.
And then we emerged from the national forest and zoomed across the Wyoming landscape, mountains growing in the distance and hills appearing and now there are actually trees, even if they are mostly short and stubby and in small copses.
We veered south at the beginning of Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area. This was our bridge from Wyoming to Utah. Half-way through, we entered Utah and then we got to drive over the actual Flaming Gorge dam, which was pretty awesome. At this point, we're driving along cliffs looking down into canyons and valleys constantly, slowly gaining altitude through the ups and downs.
We exited Flaming Gorge after checking out two campsites--both which required $16/night and did not appear to have much going for them--and realized that we had about an hour or two before we would be dark. So we continued down Rt. 191 towards Ashley National Forest.
We zoomed through and found a campsite, which also required $16, but at least it was a place that we could fill up our water bottles with some iron-tinged water from a hand pump outside the camp area. Then we left and drove to a random area marked "byway turnaround" or "bypass turnabout" or something like that. It was just an area where a truck could turn around, a little area unmarked but possible for parking, and a "bathroom" that did not involve any running water.
We grabbed our stuff, hiked down the trail a bit, and set our tents up as the sun went down. We went the requisite 100 paces from our campsite and made a fire so that we could cook ramen and baked potatoes. Mmmmm. And then we tried to get our stuff together to go to sleep.
View Larger Map
Did I mention that we decided not to go to Denver, or that we were planning on it? You would think that a place with a reputation like Denver would have millions of eager couchsurfing members. However, between me and Chris, we got a dozen no's and one maybe. The maybe called me, and when I said that I would be okay with just camping in Wyoming, he texted me back a few hours later saying that he had some people who really wanted a place and he told them okay so hopefully that was fine. It was, and we probably wouldn't've even made it to Denver in anything approaching a reasonable time. So I have to see Denver some other day. I'll get over it, I promise.
We continued on Route 30 until we exited Nebraska, just because the less time spent on the highway is better (even if it takes longer). 30 basically ends at the Wyoming border, so we joined back up with I-80 while entering Wyoming.
The land had begun getting hills yesterday, but now it has things that I want to call bluffs and mesas and other landforms that I am entirely unfamiliar with. In Laramie, we turn off the highway and take Route 130 through Medicine Bow National Forest. It might've been the prettiest place I've ever been, with the many lakes and snows and random cows and green green grasses and forests and marshlands, streams and ponds.
At one point, we jumped from the car and I ran down a hill in an attempt to get to a river I could see from the top of the hill. At the bottom, I could hear it but not see it. When I tried to move across the field, I was hindered by the fact that the really tall grass was not just really tall grass, but grass in a marshy bed of squelchy mud. So I failed to actually arrive at the stream. The boys and I went walking back up the hill, whereupon we began to realize that we had not yet adjusted to altitude. Walking up a hill should not have been nearly so difficult.
And then we emerged from the national forest and zoomed across the Wyoming landscape, mountains growing in the distance and hills appearing and now there are actually trees, even if they are mostly short and stubby and in small copses.
We veered south at the beginning of Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area. This was our bridge from Wyoming to Utah. Half-way through, we entered Utah and then we got to drive over the actual Flaming Gorge dam, which was pretty awesome. At this point, we're driving along cliffs looking down into canyons and valleys constantly, slowly gaining altitude through the ups and downs.
We exited Flaming Gorge after checking out two campsites--both which required $16/night and did not appear to have much going for them--and realized that we had about an hour or two before we would be dark. So we continued down Rt. 191 towards Ashley National Forest.
We zoomed through and found a campsite, which also required $16, but at least it was a place that we could fill up our water bottles with some iron-tinged water from a hand pump outside the camp area. Then we left and drove to a random area marked "byway turnaround" or "bypass turnabout" or something like that. It was just an area where a truck could turn around, a little area unmarked but possible for parking, and a "bathroom" that did not involve any running water.
We grabbed our stuff, hiked down the trail a bit, and set our tents up as the sun went down. We went the requisite 100 paces from our campsite and made a fire so that we could cook ramen and baked potatoes. Mmmmm. And then we tried to get our stuff together to go to sleep.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Unceasing Corn: The Nebraskan Odyssey
Our intended route was from Omaha to Medicine Bow National Park, Wyoming, but this is not what happened to us.
View Larger Map
Upon leaving Omaha, we were made part of a gang war with automatic weapons at a Texaco. I believe the dispute was over the grade of their meth-corn. Wait, no, that's not right. We left in usually-trusty Byzantium, but her "Check Engine!" light came on. This was alarming, because it could mean roughly four hundred things, major or minor. Luckily, right off the highway was a huge Volkswagen dealership and repair shop. We pulled in there and they ran diagnostics. The sum of the troubles is that the car is old and could use some new widgets and wiring, but still runs good. While waiting for a while, we enjoyed free wireless internet and coffee. I abused the hell out of the free infinite coffee part, let me tell y'all. Eventually we left and got back on the highway, and the next several hours are a fugue-like dream that involves nothing but corn. Nothing. Endless fields and flatlands. I thought Indiana was bad! You readers are lucky.
TOMKO: Every time I see one of those little side streets, I want to drive down it until I get to a house, knock on the door, and demand WHYYYY.
CHRIS: There is land beyond the corn.
TOMKO: What, you mean like soybeans?
The sun began to set and weariness fell upon the drivers after the exhausting sojourn through corn-based nihilism. We saw a sign on the highway for a campground, which turned out to be just a bunch of acres owned by a single guy who rents it out as a camping stopover. He only wanted twelve dollars and change for taking up a spot and pitching a tent for the night. Not a bad deal, I'd say! Especially including the fact that the place had a (questionably up-kept) putt-putt course and a merry-go-round. Also, potable water, bathrooms and hot showers. The night was not offensively cold; sleep came easily, and we broke camp and hit the road early in the morning to finish the last of our trek through one of the most boring--and deceptively expansive--states in our union.
After an indeterminate time and at an indistinguishable place, the land began to slowly elevate and rise up, continuing to gradually do so as we crossed the continental divide. I was relieved to see rocks and hills once again, which I continued to see as we made our way to Salt Lake City, Utah, sleeping a night in a national forest in the interim.
View Larger Map
Upon leaving Omaha, we were made part of a gang war with automatic weapons at a Texaco. I believe the dispute was over the grade of their meth-corn. Wait, no, that's not right. We left in usually-trusty Byzantium, but her "Check Engine!" light came on. This was alarming, because it could mean roughly four hundred things, major or minor. Luckily, right off the highway was a huge Volkswagen dealership and repair shop. We pulled in there and they ran diagnostics. The sum of the troubles is that the car is old and could use some new widgets and wiring, but still runs good. While waiting for a while, we enjoyed free wireless internet and coffee. I abused the hell out of the free infinite coffee part, let me tell y'all. Eventually we left and got back on the highway, and the next several hours are a fugue-like dream that involves nothing but corn. Nothing. Endless fields and flatlands. I thought Indiana was bad! You readers are lucky.
TOMKO: Every time I see one of those little side streets, I want to drive down it until I get to a house, knock on the door, and demand WHYYYY.
CHRIS: There is land beyond the corn.
TOMKO: What, you mean like soybeans?
The sun began to set and weariness fell upon the drivers after the exhausting sojourn through corn-based nihilism. We saw a sign on the highway for a campground, which turned out to be just a bunch of acres owned by a single guy who rents it out as a camping stopover. He only wanted twelve dollars and change for taking up a spot and pitching a tent for the night. Not a bad deal, I'd say! Especially including the fact that the place had a (questionably up-kept) putt-putt course and a merry-go-round. Also, potable water, bathrooms and hot showers. The night was not offensively cold; sleep came easily, and we broke camp and hit the road early in the morning to finish the last of our trek through one of the most boring--and deceptively expansive--states in our union.
 |
| Our surprise campsite even had WiFi! |
After an indeterminate time and at an indistinguishable place, the land began to slowly elevate and rise up, continuing to gradually do so as we crossed the continental divide. I was relieved to see rocks and hills once again, which I continued to see as we made our way to Salt Lake City, Utah, sleeping a night in a national forest in the interim.
Friday, August 6, 2010
A Day in Omaha
We spent one full day just hanging around in Omaha. J and C had to go to work, so Chris, Tomko and I were just hanging around and vegging out on the internet for a while. Eventually, Tomko and I got hungry and we went on a walking expedition to Indian place with take-out that C had recommended. The directions that C had left for us on the kitchen counter were probably entirely correct, but we somehow got lost several times and had to ask a wandering meth-head where we were going.
We ordered tasty food from an adorable south Asian girl who couldn't've been more than thirteen. She warned Tomko that his meal would be spicy. Tomko has epic spicy tolerance, so this was not concerning. (Even I could eat the resultant meal without flinching, so it couldn't be that hot.
We hung around outside the restaurant, even though it was pretty hot, because it seemed to be pretty crowded inside. Tomko brought me a mango lassi from inside the place for us to drink while we were waiting. Sure enough, shortly after I had sucked the final dregs of mango, the girl appeared again for us to give her money so she could bring us our food. We ate some food in the park, then went back to J and C's house and hung around until they got back.
We tried to watch some TV options. Hell's Kitchen was regarded quite skeptically by C and Chris, and then we put on Jurassic Park - Rifftrax Version. This was more successful, except that J found World of Warcraft more interesting than us, then C went to bed, and then Mary Tully gave me a call with the disasterous news that Patience had broken down!
Mary and I talked until well after the movie was over. The boys went to bed, and then so did I, too. There is driving to be done!
We ordered tasty food from an adorable south Asian girl who couldn't've been more than thirteen. She warned Tomko that his meal would be spicy. Tomko has epic spicy tolerance, so this was not concerning. (Even I could eat the resultant meal without flinching, so it couldn't be that hot.
We hung around outside the restaurant, even though it was pretty hot, because it seemed to be pretty crowded inside. Tomko brought me a mango lassi from inside the place for us to drink while we were waiting. Sure enough, shortly after I had sucked the final dregs of mango, the girl appeared again for us to give her money so she could bring us our food. We ate some food in the park, then went back to J and C's house and hung around until they got back.
We tried to watch some TV options. Hell's Kitchen was regarded quite skeptically by C and Chris, and then we put on Jurassic Park - Rifftrax Version. This was more successful, except that J found World of Warcraft more interesting than us, then C went to bed, and then Mary Tully gave me a call with the disasterous news that Patience had broken down!
Mary and I talked until well after the movie was over. The boys went to bed, and then so did I, too. There is driving to be done!
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Indianapolis to Omaha, with stopover in St. Louis
View Larger Map
Our next day's drive was for us to arrive in Omaha, Nebraska, where our friends J and C have been living. J was moved to the wilds of Nebraska due to his unfortunate involvement with the Air Force.
"But Kylara," you may say, "Why did you take such a silly route? It would have made much more sense to detour up to Gary, Indiana and then take I-80 West instead of curling down around with I-70 West and then having to go south up I-29 in order to reach back to Omaha."
Well, yes. You are correct geographically, but you are wrong on two, no, three counts:
This means that we picked Chris back up at the Trader Joe's and bought some food with a gift card given to Tomko by my aunt Julie about two years ago. It was like magical, free money that I found while moving out of my house. We had hummus and pita and ginger beer: This could get us through any road trip.
In the car, we discovered that the three cans of soda that Laura had given us from her house had exploded when we left them overnight in the car in Lafayette. The car was miraculously saved from being sticky-coated by the other contents of the milk crate they were in: a pair of my pants and Tomko's jacket. Tomko's black zip-up hoodie is the same one that he has always had, yes, I'm sure you've seen him wearing it before.
Unfortunately, when we went into Trader Joe's I put the wet hoodie on top of the car. I thought that Tomko would get it when we went back in the car; Tomko either didn't see it or thought that I was getting it--at any rate, Tomko's hoodie now lies sadly in the parking lot of a Trader Joe's or somewhere near it. Rest in peace, little hoodie.
Dan Hunter guided us into St. Louis by cell phone and then showed up excited to introduce us to his roommate (and their dog, who inexplicably found itself very upset at my presence but seemed to like Tomko and Chris just fine). We went to eat at a diner place, the type with a dozen jukeboxes hanging on the walls as decoration, and saw bits and pieces of St. Louis on our walk.
Then we were off for Omaha! It's a loooong, boring stretch of Missouri west to Kansas City, and then a loooong, boring but somewhat curvy stretch of the Missouri/Iowa-Nebraska border along the river. Perhaps it is the Missouri River. Rivers are so terribly named on maps and infrequently identified when they're anything bigger than a sign next to a tiny bridge labelled "Mountain Lake Stream", so I really don't know. [Mountain Lake Stream: An actual sign and location found in Virginia. True story.]
At any rate, we got into Cedar Rapids, Iowa and crossed the river into Omaha, Nebraska. Then the highway flung us north and east and back into Cedar Rapids. I turned us around and we were teleported to another location without any of the proper exits, and ended up horribly lost and had to have J direct us there.
(A note to my friends: So far, you all have been really good at giving directions. Laura gave precise driving directions down to the second telling me what hills I'm passing over and when the road forks; Hunter prevented us from actually having to pay for parking somehow, and J managed to get me from the opposite end of town to his house in a city whose layout makes positively no sense.)
At J's house, we came in and were greeted by the two cutest Maine Coon/Siamese cats and then we were all like "welll... it's midnight," and then we all fell asleep.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Frederick, MD to Indianapolis, IN
We woke up at the house of our friends, Laura and Noah, in Middletown right outside of Frederick. Being in Frederick cut at least an hour off of our day's drive, and besides we hadn't had the chance to see them for a while.
So our first day of driving didn't actually start at my parents' house, but we let late enough Tuesday evening that it seemed like we might as well stick it into this map.
View Larger Map
When we left Laura's house in Middletown, we had to backtrack a few miles east to Frederick, MD in order to pick up some prescription medication and meet up with Chris at a Rite-Aid. Chris's friends dropped him off and we wandered the store and eventually left en-route to Indianapolis!
A bit about Chris. He's a guy from the Baltimore suburbs. He responded to a post I made on Craigslist Rideshare offering a ride from Baltimore to Indianpolis, Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City, Portland, Seattle, or Vancouver Island. His plan is to get to Portland, stay there for a few weeks with some friends, and then get a ride up to Alaska, his intended final destination. He buys every third tank of gas and shares driving duties with me so that neither of us fall asleep on the road. Good deal.
Since he had friends in Frederick, he had no problem meeting up with us that morning, and we got underway.
The drive to Indianapolis was largely uneventful. It is a drive that I have taken many times before, because our end destination (in Lafayette) is the house of Penny, Tomko's mother.
On our way, we dropped Chris off at a Trader Joe's near the house of his friend Rachel and planned to meet back up there the morning of Thursday, the fifth.
It was pretty late when we arrived at Penny's house, maybe 10pm, and we crashed out asleep soon after arriving. The following day was full of missions and visitations. We saw Penny's parents and two of Tomko's four siblings, along with a niece and nephew who dropped by. We missed seeing a third sister, Maria, because we fell asleep again before she got off of work. But we did manage to see a good many people before we set off the next day.
So our first day of driving didn't actually start at my parents' house, but we let late enough Tuesday evening that it seemed like we might as well stick it into this map.
View Larger Map
When we left Laura's house in Middletown, we had to backtrack a few miles east to Frederick, MD in order to pick up some prescription medication and meet up with Chris at a Rite-Aid. Chris's friends dropped him off and we wandered the store and eventually left en-route to Indianapolis!
A bit about Chris. He's a guy from the Baltimore suburbs. He responded to a post I made on Craigslist Rideshare offering a ride from Baltimore to Indianpolis, Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City, Portland, Seattle, or Vancouver Island. His plan is to get to Portland, stay there for a few weeks with some friends, and then get a ride up to Alaska, his intended final destination. He buys every third tank of gas and shares driving duties with me so that neither of us fall asleep on the road. Good deal.
Since he had friends in Frederick, he had no problem meeting up with us that morning, and we got underway.
The drive to Indianapolis was largely uneventful. It is a drive that I have taken many times before, because our end destination (in Lafayette) is the house of Penny, Tomko's mother.
On our way, we dropped Chris off at a Trader Joe's near the house of his friend Rachel and planned to meet back up there the morning of Thursday, the fifth.
It was pretty late when we arrived at Penny's house, maybe 10pm, and we crashed out asleep soon after arriving. The following day was full of missions and visitations. We saw Penny's parents and two of Tomko's four siblings, along with a niece and nephew who dropped by. We missed seeing a third sister, Maria, because we fell asleep again before she got off of work. But we did manage to see a good many people before we set off the next day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)