Happy Fourth!

For all the little boys out there reading the blog... you know who you are. Fred says hi from clifton park ny, last day before we arrive home in CT. Wishing you all a happy 4th and enjoying some more fireworks.

Mt Rush

There is really not to much to see, and the $10 parking fee is not worth it. They have built up the visitor area to the point where the Mt. no longer looks spectacular. In fact the heads seem much smaller, but this could also be a result of my having grown since last I saw them. I remember a path that sort of went around the base of the mountain, but it was no longer there. It is one big viewing terrace. Which is beautiful, I can give them that much, but really takes away from the Mt itself.

We kept driving, and dropped by Crazy Horse, Which cost $10 a person. Kept Driving...

The Badlands were so beautiful at sunset... and we kept driving...

In fact Driving was what we did the rest of the trip.

Frosty morning

Thursday morning we woke up bitterly cold and decided to head out, without reception our phones were off and we didn't know what time it was until we were in the car. 5:30am, fitting that we arrived and left the park at the exact sametime just two days later.
The plan was to drive to Rushmore and find a place to stay...but...

Old FaithfullThis

This trustworthy attraction was a lot of fun to watch. The enjoyment was increased all the more when we had the pleasure of meeting some neighboring viewers. The was a youngman next to Bev who was on a road trip of his own, coming from ohio and heading to the california coast. We found common ground when we realized for the first time on our similar but somewhat oppisite trips, our phones had reception. After turning them on the merry ding, ding, ding multiplied times ten told us we indeed were loved and missed. The joy of voicemail and text messages.
The even younger fellow on my left was traveling from OK and while he wasn't as talkitive as the ohio man he did get real close to myside. His mom informed me "he really likes girls", oh dear they might have some trouble in a few years.
The show was worth it and on the way out we passed our friend from ohio who had pulled over just outside the exhibit to make those last few phone calls before the park cut off his reception again.

Finding a camp site

So this blog is a tribute to campgrounds everywhere, but will focus in on yellowstone.
This is the truth about finding a campsite without a reservation. It is not easy, unless you pick up on the swing of the camping scene.
Things to know:
Campgrounds that except reservations are not worth your time if you didn't make one, or if you are in an area that is touristy.
Look for first come first serve sites, if you want to be free of reservations.
Double check and make sure they are really first come first serve, before you set up the tent.
Get there early, people who are road trippers usually head out early, so the sites are open before the checkout time... other people will be all over the sites so you have to be just as aggressive.

The yellowstone story.
We got in super early, and went to the campgrounds that said there were opensites. Mistake one: I forgot to check and see if it was a first come first serve grounds. Hey, it was really early and we were both exhuasted. Second mistake, we found an empty site as the late arrivals instructions stated... and set up the tent. It wasn't until later that I figured out that by late arrivals they were thinking of people getting in at night and leaving when we had arrived. The end result we had to take the tent back down because the site we had found empty was acctually reserved for that night. It was still early when we discovered this and redirected to a real first come first serve site we were able to find a great spot, which was free the first night. This was not a fantastic gimic of the park to draw in campers, they just had no water at the site. We didn't complain, two full days and two nights at yellowstone for $6. Well that and the annual pass. With the site found we were able to enjoy all the beauty of the park.

One more suggestion, while it is a little out of the way the site we stayed at was the Lewis Lake site. It is in the southern part of the park, and if you get there later it seemed to fill up slower then the others.

Yellowstone

We just pulled into Yellowstone Park, at 4am. Watched a little sunrise and saw a family of buffalo. Now we passed a few elk. Fun, off to find a campsite.

The redwoods are giant, and the ocean is cold. We are driving to Yellowstone! More details later.

In Cherry Valley CA

I just finished spending a week with my family in CA. It was a lot of fun, and included another family dinner. Don't misinterpret, I have really loved all the family dinners this month and I guess last month too. I can't think of anything better than family, they love you no matter what and always find ways to cheer you up.
Best parts of this visit:

• Grams and Mom being there when we arrived, like our own private welcome committee. I really felt like a part of the family, and I think Bev does too. :)
• Playing games with Joshua, although I really hope he is feeling better now.
• Meeting a friend of Bevs', Ben.
  
• Then making a new friend, Diana.
• Going to a late late movie, and being unable to finish a whole popcorn by myself (at least that night, I totally saved it and eat it all later. $8 popcorn need I say more)
• Meeting and visiting with cousins.
  
• Watching the Lakers loss, and better still win big.
  
• Climbing Rocks at Joshua Tree, I got pretty high.
  

So now we are on the road again, off to the redwoods... and having a little trouble finding camp sites.
We have seen so many Campgrounds Full signs today, we finally had to give up and get a hotel in Santa Cruz.

Road Trip Knowledge:
Be prepared to get a hotel, ever night if need be... and the need might just be.

Grand Canyon

The view is amazing.
We went to a sunset Ranger Talk, and she said "pictures don't do it justice, you have to come and see it for yourself, whatever the reason it is worth seeing for yourself".
The talk was a little on the morbid side, involving Mishaps and Mistakes made by visitors of the canyon. She also told the story of the Spanish Mexican explorer who first traveled to the canyon. If I wasn't so bad with names I would have remembered his name when I was telling Bev about him a day earlier at the Ruins in New Mexico... However I am really bad with names and having heard his name again at this talk still can't seem to remember it. The best part of the story is not his name (that would just make it easier to find out more), the beat part is the Natives. He was on a quest, as most of the explorers of his time were, to find a City of Gold, who knew there could be so many supposed cities of gold. When he arrived at the Bandiler Ruins there was no Gold and the Natives, being wise and a lot intimidated, told them the City of gold was father north west. They did this possibly for more reasons then just trying to make the Spanish leave them in peace. There was another Native people out there and they almost thought of the same thing when confronted with these wild gold hunters. However, they decided to be creative and told him a story about a river that would in fact connect to the ocean. Not exactly gold but just about worth it's wait in his mind. This time he didn't leave the city right away, he sent out some scouts and they did indeed find that river.
The stories were a ton of fun, even if some of them did not end so well.

The camping was a little rough, high winds on the Canyon made it hard to sleep. I felt terrible because Bevs' side of the tent was literally filling with sand. We did some adjusting and the wind wasn't as strong the next night, but it was still rough.

We got to go on a lazy walk along the canyon rim, after being in the car for so long and a night of rough sleeping it was hard to commit to a hike down into the canyon. Bev plans to return someday and hike to the bottom. I am not so sure, but I think my husband would love to come see it so I will probably at least come back to it someday.

Other Ruins

We got to the Aztec Ruins just before they closed, 20min. The lady at the counter said it was possible to see it all in that amount of time, however we might have to skip some of the small door ways and read about it all afterward. We decided to give it a try and booked it through the entire city. We even made it through the little doors, and we discovered she really meant they were little.

From there we continued on finding that the Four Corners monument was only an hour or so away, we thought why not check it out and then find a place to stay.
Problem one, the Monument was closed...
Problem two, there is no where to stay anywhere near where that monument is...

The good news was...
We meet some college grads that were also traveling from NY. Even more surprising then that they had left from/graduated from RPI right in our very own Troy area. It is always a joy to meet people on the road, but sweeter still to meet people with whom you share a common starting point. they had also made their very own four corners and shared the fun.

Someday when I have a better computer I will try and post pictures of all this, but right now that is just not working out. The computer freezes when I open the photo files, sorry.

Bandelier National Monument

This was a beautiful walk. The loop around is not long and takes you straight through the dwellings. The area was formed due to a volcanic eruption, and the natives carved rooms into the rock face. The volcanic rock has many holes and is somewhat soft compared to other rocks, but it was still a lot of work. We climbed inside a few of the rooms that were carved into the mountain.

It was amazing how much cooler it was in the shade, and inside the dwellings. The sun can be brutal.

I'll have to add pictures another time the internet is much to slow.

White Sands NM

We got to White Sands National Monument at 7:30 in the morning and it was beautiful.

The sand is incredibly white and soft.

Texas

Opps!!
We decided to drive straight through Texas. Don't worry we are still alive, and it really wasn't that exhuasting. There just wasn't much to see there, or at least not much that seemed exciting. A lot of the exciting stuff is stuff we have in NY and CT too. We are on a quest for new and different. Sorry Texas. We did stop at an I-Hop for dinner and got to see a bunch of guys in straw hats.

Swamp Tour

It was a ton of fun, but no big gators just little ones.




Well I tried to upload a video, but it is taking more time then I have. I will try again the next time we have internet available.

New Orleans

This is really a neat and very unique city. The buildings remain beautiful, even after all the years of weather troubles. walking through the french quarter is like walking through another world. Although I would advise anyone with an innocent mind to stay far from Bourbon St. Yes there is a lot of music and culture, however mixed in with that there is a lot of things I myself would have loved to avoid seeing.
We took a ride in a carriage and got a very entertaining history lesson. My favorite story had to be the one about the balls. You see the upper class ladies would have great balls, but never invited the hmm.. Jezebels. Finally the Jez girls started throwing there own much more exiting balls (better music). The Ladies from up town decided to sneak in since the all wore masks to these parties they didn't think anyone would notice. The Jezebels found out and had the law raid the party, turns out you had a special piece of paper that basically held you to your part of town if you were a Jezebel. Those upper girls didn't have the papers and were all arrested for being there... how embarrassing. It was all because of the Jazz those girls were playing.

Fun Fact
Did you know the word Jazz came from Jezebel.

Day 8

I discovered this morning that the Mobile posting doesn't work well for anything longer than a sentence.
I will start with a quick blurb about Nashville, which was really a beautiful city. There is literally music in the streets, all country of course. It really is a city with a rhythm. There is a whole street full of Karaoke Bars, where wanna-be singers and musicians come to "make it big". The doors hang open and the music pours out into the streets.
We decided to splurge a little and payed for a trolley tour. It was worth it, $12 and we got to see most of the city without getting a bad sunburn or over heating. The high for the day was around 95*+ in the sun. This is the Parthenon (replica) it is the only full scale one around today. They filmed that J. C Percy and the Olympiads movie here.
Our first camp site brought to light the long standing issues of ordering things on-line, what you can't see and touch you can't be sure of. This site was about the size of the car, not so bad, but then add in that it was on the side of a hill and well half of it was a picnic table, and you're left wondering where do I put up a tent. We were able to get it switched for an extra $4, which made the total for the night $14. The bonus of the move, not only could we now put up the tent we were also much closer to the bathroom :) .


Today was a long day of driving, and a big change from the original plan.

Plan was:
Drive to Memphis and check out the city, then drive a little more and crash for the night wherever we can find a place.

What really happened:
Drove to Memphis and wow! There really isn't anything to see. Everything is hidden away or costs money, even the Museums. There are a lot of Museums. Memphis has truly fallen on my list of interesting places, but I am less surprised that there are no places to stay near there.
We decided to keep on driving to New Orleans and stop when we felt like stopping.

Road Trip info:
Stopping at Welcome Centers can be very beneficial. We stopped at the welcome center in Mississippi and felt very welcome. Two lovely ladies welcomed us to the state and offered whatever knowledge they had about camping along the I55. Sadly the places to camp are either RV parks, or state parks which require reservations.

The Silent City

Arriving at Knoxville, before 8am on a holiday we were able to witness a city of near complete silence. The sound of rain, and an occasional birds wings fluttering were all the noises to be heard. It is a strange thing to be able to park in the middle of a city street and roll down the window to take a picture of the graffiti on the wall of near by building. Cities are often seen as bustling and hurried, but this one morning this city was at peace.

Day 6

Well we left last Wednesday, but the really trip begins today. We got up at 2:30 this morning, pleasantly surprised to actually feel awake. The GPS had a different idea then the google maps as to the best way to get from Rock Hill SC to Knoxville TN, but I am confident we will get there. I am also sure it will be a wonderful time even if it is rainy (just means we get to get a little wet).

Road Trip Facts:
Always take the opportunity to fill the gas tank, there are no guarantees there will be a gas station around that next corner.
There is little to no traffic at 3am, makes for great driving and makes up for tired swerving (jk).
Blogging on a cell phone is useful but easier the smaller your fingers are.

Todays plan:
Wait do we have a plan? not today, just visiting a good friend.

What I learned:
I have heard a lot about water moccasins, which as it turns out will fall from a tree right into a fishing boat if they are frightened. They are also just a nasty poisonous snake. Yuck!


I learned that during world war two an Atom boom was being built in Oakridge. The government came in and bought farms from the farmers at pour prices, and then up went the walls. Pretty soon there were trains bringing in tons of different materials, but no one in the surrounding towns could tell what was going on. Best of all nothing ever seemed to come out from behind the walls, so people finally made up their own stories about what was in there. Maybe they were working on a special paint so the submarines wouldn't be able to see surface boats anymore? What story would you tell if you saw all this going on? What would you think was being made?



We learned that there are several dams north of Knoxville called TVA Dams, which were built to bring power to the people living in the more rural areas. The people doing the building would make small towns and when it was done they moved on and the towns remained even today.



That was our morning, after which we slept, relaxed, and then the evening came and we were ready for more...