heading back east

So most of you already know Chris managed to find a job teaching in Ohio this semester. I will start on the 15th, so that means we need to stop in Ohio, find an apartment, get back to albany, pick up some stuff, and drive back to Ohio to start the new job. That has put a bit of a rush on the whole trip, but we did manage to spend a few days exploring.

Since we last posted, we have rendezvoused with both sides of the family. We met with Chris' parents, sister, and niece in San Francisco, and drove up to Eureka California, where we explored the ocean cliffs and redwood forests. Then we headed east at last, and spent three nights in Yellowstone with Beth's parents, where we saw black bears, grizzly bears, antelope, Bison, a marten, elk, golden mantled ground squirrels, and mule deer. And of course Geysers, hot springs, mud pots and other smelly geological oddities.

Since then we have been driving non-stop east. I hope to post more pictures, but we have little time for computers, and not much access to wi-fi or even electrical outlets. Be prepared for a deluge of photos after the trip is over and we've had time to do a bit of editing. We have passed through some spectacular scenery, and have taken many pictures. But for now a map will have to do.

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Greetings again vicarious travelers!
The good news is we found the memory card reader, so pictures will be included. Here is one from the top of Moro Rock in Sequoia National Park, with the sierra nevada mountains in the background.

After spending two nights at the desert view campground in Grand Canyon National Park, we headed for the pacific, and went ocean kayaking at Huntington Beach California, thus making our cross country trip complete! We paddled among enormous yachts with macho names like “aggressor”, and little pleasure boats with clever names like “Current Occupant”

From there we headed north, to Sequoia national forest (not to be confused with Sequoia National Park). The map showed a short drive, but no indication of the 5000 foot elevation gain, with towering cliffs on one side and a sheer drop into whitewater rapids on the other side. A sign mentioned that 167 people had died on this road since 1970, but apparently that was not enough motivation for the park service to install a guard-rail. But we made it alive and stayed in a spectacular little campground called “sandy flats” a boulder strewn canyon bottom shaded with trees, the tent sites perched on terraces carved into the rock slopes.

From there we headed to the actual Sequoia National Park, where once again, we got campsites in the park, against all odds. We stayed at the lodgepole campground for two nights, only feet from a raging white water river, which we were warned repeatedly not to swim in. The rivers in this area are swollen from record snowfall this past winter, and while we were in Sequoia, three people were swept over the edge of Vernal Falls in Yosemite

The following is a list of wildlife we saw during our stay in Sequoia: 1 lynx, 7 mule deer, 5 black bears, and a very obese ground squirrel who the man in the next campsite kept feeding.

Yesterday we visited Yosemite, but for the first time on our trip had to stay outside the park. But we are only a short drive away, so we were able to spend the day sightseeing. We would have liked to spend more time there, but time is running short, and we have many other places to go, and less time than we thought to visit them. I don’t want to jump the gun, but it seems I have a very strong job lead in Ohio, which would start the Aug 15th. So we have only about two weeks left on our trip, so we’d rather spend it somewhere less crowded than Yosemite, which is more like a nature theme park than a wilderness area (unless you have the time to spend a day hiking, which we don’t).

Next? On to San Francisco, the redwoods, and northern California, before heading east to the Dakotas, Yellowstone, and home.



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Where is that darn card reader?

Greetings from the Grand Canyon Public Library. As you may have guessed from the title, we'll have to wait until we relocate our memory card reader to post pictures, but we've got some good ones!!
In the meantime, here is a map

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When we last posted, we were about to head into the Great Smoky Mountains. We spent a full day there, to unwind and do some hiking, and it was a nice break from driving. Very nice campgrounds and a nice little hike to a waterfall.

After Great Smoky Mountains we headed west, through a heat wave with daytime temps of 105, and nighttime temps in the 80's, with very high humidity. This heat lasted through Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, which we sped through in three long days. Finally, in New Mexico, the heat relented as we started to climb into the high desert.

There is a great range of quality in Campgrounds. One campground in Oachita National Forest was nearly abandoned, except for a single van with tinted windows, and the "campground host", a park employee who lives in an RV at each NF campground and maintains the facility. We were both got a creepy vibe, and Beth proceeded to recount all the horrible stories about murdered campers she had heard on Oprah over the years. The fear of death at the hands of Arkansas hillbillies, combined with the muggy stagnant air, made this the worst night of the trip. But we were not murdered.

Other campgrounds have been excellent, including our current campground, the desert view campground at the south rim of the grand canyon, literally a five minute walk to the rim. Also excellent was a little campground northeast of flagstaff, at Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. We have stayed at a few private campgrounds (KOA), and the ones outside of cities have all been fine, but clearly geared more towards the RV crowd.

There will be pictures, We promise.

Epic Fiasco day

It is a fine line between adventure and misadventure. One problem with roadtripping in a Hyundai Accent is that finding anything becomes a major chore, even when the car is well organized, and if the car is a mess, it becomes a fiasco.

Somewhere an hour and a half after leaving this mornings camp, we realized a set of keys and a cell phone were missing. So we stopped, called the campground, and asked them to look around (they found nothing), while we searched the car, to no avail. So we found a Verizon store (literally across the street) and had the phone deactivated. We then continued, and stopped once more at a rest area, and did some more detailed searching, and found the keys, and kept driving.

By this point, we were about 3 hours behind schedule, so we stopped at an exit and crashed at a hotel, and after emptying the car of every item, we found the cell phone, which now needs to be charged and reactivated.

To celebrate our first full blown "fiasco day" and the happy resolution thereof, we made the best of our altered plans, and explored the town of greeneville TN, which was the home of Andrew Johnson, who is best remembered for being the only president other than Bill Clinton to be impeached. If you need to fall asleep quickly tonight, you can take the same cell phone guided tour at 423 278 5555.

Tomorrow we will hike and camp in the Great Smokey Mountains, our last day of low mileage before our sprint west to the Grand Canyon area. The good news is that we are only an hour away, so we can get an early start, find a site, and spend the rest of the day exploring.

Today we went river rafting, and much extreme fun was had. We are in Oak hill WV, which lies on the New River, which is actually the second oldest river in the world, after the nile. The rafting route travels past many abandoned coal mines, and most of the ruins seem to be named after tragic accidents that befell miners or river rafters.

West Virginia is beautiful, but it is an odd combination of hospitality and pricklyness. The campers we have met have been great. One fellow lent us his electric mattress pump (we have a hand pump), and the rafting guides are nice (but then, they are paid to be). But we were also warned of the speed traps, which apparently target out of staters, such as ourselves. I feel conspicuously yankeeish. From here we head to Chattahoochie National Forest, then west, to memphis.

Scouting the way in Portland OR

-Chris
This weekend I'm at a conference of the American Society of Mammalogists in Portland OR. This leaves most of the hard work of packing up the old apartment into the storage unit to Beth (sorry Beth!).

Meanwhile, I get to spend five days in what is now my new favorite city, looking at slide shows of adorable furry things. Scientists are not supposed to admit that they study mammals largely because they are adorable. I mean sure, they are ecologically important and all, but they're also super cute.

The following story may tell you about all you need to know about Portland.

I arrived at the airport around midnight, and hopped on the commuter train into town. I thought I had the whole thing all planned out, with printed train maps and schedules. But apparently my schedule was out of date, because I ended up in the middle of East Portland, on the wrong side of the river, around 1:00am, at which point the trains had stopped running, leaving me stranded. So I asked for directions of a passing pedestrian.

Portland is known for it's hipsters, and I had found perhaps the most quintessential, and friendliest hipster in the city. He was slightly drunk, but was heading in the same direction, and was more than happy to lead the way to the Portland State University campus, where I was headed. And so for 45 minutes, I followed a very talkative, inebriated hipster on a guided tour of the city, before finally arriving at the dorm where the conference attendees are staying. So thank you anonymous hipster, with your vintage tweed jacket.

Shenanigans await!

-Chris

About three weeks remain until we launch our little silver Hyundai on the road to adventure! We'll be updating this blog as often as we can, so you can follow our trip.

In a nutshell, the trip will take us down the Appalachians, across the midwest to the grand canyon area, up to northern the pacific northwest, and back east through the Dakotas and northern plains. We plan to hit the most scenic spots along the way.

You can follow the fun by following our blog. We'll be linking to the blog on facebook, or you can subscribe using any RSS feed.