Sioux City, IA to Joliet, IL 9/26 - 9/28/08

Family, friends, farms, floods, and funbles have been the theme of the past three days.

We enjoyed visiting former parishioners in Fonda and Pomeroy, Iowa. Many of those who were farmers have moved to town - often the farm stands empty while a neighbor or relative farms the land.

It was especially pleasing to see the girls' former babysitter, Ann Dresback, who is now 94. It was sad to look at the vacant lot where the Pomeroy church once stood next to our former parsonage which has also been sold. Both of the towns have lost most of their businesses, but it was encouraging to see that a major windmill farm now covers the entire distance between Fonda and Pomeroy.

Beth, Ken, Lynley, and Sam all look great. Sam's Friday night football game was a good news/bad news affair. Sam scored his first touchdown of the season, but the team committed numerous fumbles which enabled the Algona, IA team to win 28 - 12. Unfortunately, this scenario repeated itself in the Iowa - Northwestern game on Saturday.
It was great to see Lynley flourishing at the University of Iowa. She is one of the coxes on the university rowing team; she may get to travel to San Diego and Massachusetts. It was a treat to go to the Amana Colonies for supper on Saturday night.

Flood damage was evident on the many closed buildings on the University of Iowa campus. This afternoon we stopped to take a hike in an Illinois state park only to find that it was closed due to flooding of the Illinois River ten days ago.

The Adventures of Super Grandpa: While in South Dakota, Grandpa experimented with some genetic engineering between rabbits and antelope. He developed a new species that is large enough to ride. Grandma (Manga) was very proud of his scientific genius and submitted his name for a MacArthur award.

Hot Springs, SD to Sioux City, IA 9/23 - 9/25/08

We have spent a lot of time in the car the past two days but did manage to revisit Mount Rushmore and the Badlands. We have enjoyed seeing a lot of wildlife - new to our list were the mountain goats we met at Mount Rushmore.

Fellow tenters are fewer and fewer; it is chiefly us and the behemoths.

After an interesting and sobering tour of the Minuteman Missile site in South Dakota, we have seen miles of Nebraska sand hills while visiting the Niobrara and Missouri scenic river sites.

The Adventures of Super Grandpa: The dinosaur Grandpa found in Odgen, UT has followed him all the way to Rapid City and Wall Drug. Grandpa has named her Freda. He has grown quite attached to her and would like to find her a good home. He knows that Beth and Ken Burrow have an extra bedroom so has thought that he could take her as far as Iowa. Manga (Grandma) is proud of Grandpa's ability to bond with dinosaurs but believes that the Burrow's lawn is too small to feed a dinosaur. She has asked Wall Drug to look after Freda but does not know if Freda will be content to stay there without Grandpa.

Brigham City, UT to Hot Springs, SD 9/17 - 9/22/08

Sorry to be so slow but we have not had access to wifi for the past two nights. The theme of these days has been mountains, fossils, trails, and trains.

We have had some real highs and real lows.

The highs include being led through a large flock of sheep by a sheepdog in northern Utah, seeing three geysers erupt in Yellowstone, picnicking on Jackson Lake with the Tetons reflected in the lake.

The lows include ice on the tent near Yellowstone, rattlesnake warnings, and a campground in Bayard, NB with no water, trees or other campers (we did not stay).
We enjoyed visiting the cabin where Butch Cassidy planned the robbery of the Red Lodge bank and the Oregon Trail landmarks, Chimney Rock and Scottsbluff.

Bill missed a turn in Wyoming and took us through Antelope Valley which lived up to its name and turned out to be the location of Bill, WY. Bill was blown away by the number of coal trains running through his town.

The Adventures of Super Grandpa: Grandpa was so impressed by the western artwork using elk horns that he started his own collection of horns to take back to Easthampton to make into furniture, door handles, etc. Grandma (Manga) was proud of his large collection of horns and delighted that he had found another medium that fit his artistic talent. However, she thought that the pointy horns would be too uncomfortable in the car so she donated them to the town of Jackson Hole, WY where they made them into arches for the town park.

Reflections on this Journey 9/18/08

Since we are enjoying a slow morning (a short day's driving and a motel - no tent to take down), we are sharing some thoughts on the trip so far.
GEOGRAPHY
We began in familiar territory, the woods and prairies of the northeast and the northern midwest, but the last three weeks we have been in the less familiar plains and mountains of the American West. We are both fascinated by this part of our country. Everything exists on a very big scale. Farmers use semis to haul their grain to market. A small city provides services for people from hundreds of miles around. And yet it is an important part of the global economy. Grain prices are at astronomical levels because of demand for fuel alternatives and for food around the world. We have traveled beside the historic Northern Pacific and Great Northern rail lines, and have watched grain go east and west, coal go east, and container trains with Chinese products head all over the United States.
We have been uplifted by the majesty of the mountains, overwhelmed by the vastness of the prairies (the world is so large and people are so small), and humbled by the sacredness of groves of towering firs, cedars, and hemlocks. Washington is not as famous as California for its great trees, but theirs are equally impressive. Bill, in particular, has a big tree fixation.
Throughout the trip we have enjoyed the cultural shifts which manifest themselves in so many ways. People in the Northwest are truly coffeeholics! Right now we are in Mormon Territory. Their aversion to caffeine and nicotine is very helpful to Judy's asthma (just as the dryness of the high desert helps her a lot). We have traced some of the best (the bravery and initiative of early explorers, traders and settlers) and some of the worst (mistreatment of Indians, internment of the Japanese-Americans, and the persecution of the Mormons) of American history. And you have noticed that we are pursuing the food shifts with great pleasure. Bill's birthday dinner was in an excellent Mexican restaurant where one jalapeno almost did him in, but he would gladly repeat the experience!
TENTING
Making this trip has been greatly enhanced by technology. Most campgrounds have WiFi although not all systems are of equal strength. Getting pictures on the blog is slow work and we still cannot get them to go where we want them to go. The GPS has saved us several times (and misled us occasionally). The cell phone has been the least useful of modern equipment, but it is still nice to hear people's voices when we can find service.
Our camping equipment has worked extremely well. The tent is so light and easy to put up and take down, the air matress is super easy to inflate and very comfortable (although we do not get up and down as easily as we once did), our stove and light are far easier to use than the equipment we had thirty years ago when we came to Yellowstone and Glacier, and the sleeping bags really do keep us warm. Cold has been a far bigger problem than rain on this trip.
US
Spending this much time together highlights personality differences. We have negotiated most of them really well. But it will remain true that Bill is right-brained and Judy is left-brained. That means we will need to keep negotiating for many years to come! It has pleased us both to hear from family and friends via blog and email. We are glad to be together and by ourselves, but our family and friends are a vital part of life. We cannot imgine a happy life without all of you. Our best to all of you. Bill and Judy

Eden, ID to Brigham City, UT 9/15 - 9/16/08

Trails, trains, and dinosaurs have been the theme of the past two days. Yesterday we switched from the Oregon Trail to the California Trail. We saw rocks with names of people headed to California recorded in axle grease over 150 years ago. We ate pioneer pudding (a lot like Indian pudding) at a western restaurant near the rocks.
One of the biggest excitements of the whole trip for Bill was seeing the spot where the Golden Spike completed the transcontinental railroad. We walked a mile of the original railbed. This was followed by a visit to the Ogden Depot today where Bill took the throttle of one of the fastest steam engines ever built. There were five tracks of trains at the depot, from a steam engine to a turbine propelled engine capable of pulling 753 cars at a time.

Continuing our pursuit of peaches - we have eaten freshly picked peaches in Michigan, Montana, and Washington, we were delighted to discover fresh peaches in Utah. We celebrated with peach pie and a peach milkshake.
The Adventures of Super Grandpa: Grandpa took a walk in the Wasatch Mountains today and found a mother and baby dinosaur. They followed him back to the campsite. Since they were in need of a home, Grandpa wanted to bring them to one of his daughters as a unique family pet. Grandma (Manga) was very proud that Grandpa had found the first living dinosaurs, but she gently explained that dinosaurs make poor pets because they are difficult to house train. She took them to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden, Utah where they are living very happily.

Aberdeen, WA to Eden, ID 9/11 - 9/14/08

A massive mountain, volcanoes, and the Oregon Trail have been the themes of the past 3 days. The area around Aberdeen, WA looks terrible because of the clear cutting of the forested mountains. It was a relief to encounter the old growth forests in Mt. Ranier National Park. We had scheduled 3 nights in motels in anticipation of rainy weather on the Olympic Peninsula but the weather has been glorious for 10 days.
From the porch of the National Park Inn, we were able to eat scones and watch the sunset over Mt. Ranier. Bill says that it was a transcendant moment.

We have been following the Oregon Trail for the past 2 days. Judy has the greatest empathy for the travails of the women on that trip. We camped at a state park where the emigrants on the Oregon Trail camped as they crossed the Blue Mountains.

Today we traveled through miles of lava fields to the Craters of the Moon National Monument. We climbed a steep quarter mile trail to the top of a crater.

Camping has been dry and chilly. The days have been very warm.

The Adventures of Super Grandpa: We happened upon the annual rodeo in Pendleton, OR. Grandpa entered and won the steer bulldogging contest for senior cowboys. Grandma (Manga) was very proud of his performance as a cowboy. She nominated him for the Pendleton Cowboy Hall of Fame.

Spokane to Aberdeen, WA 9/6 -9/10/08

Beautiful weather and scenery, too hectic a pace, a day in Seattle, and an encounter with a Forks, Washington policeman have marked the past 5 days. After driving through the Cascades, we stayed in the very county where the young man went on a recent shooting rampage (we prayed for the victims and the perpetrator in church).

Although we have had an unusual dry spell, we have had very heavy dew each morning. Mount Baker was the background for our time in this area. Seattle was a nice city but too crowded for Judy. The trip to the San Juans entailed too many races to make 3 ferries.

After one of our quietest nights (on the side of Shadow Mountain- note Bill hauling water up the mountain), we visited the Hoh River rain forest. We were close to a beautiful elk there but were unable to take his picture with our small camera.
Bill was "under-arrested" in Forks, Washington for going 42 mph in a 30 mph zone on the outskirts of the town. To complicate matters, the policeman thought that we were uninsured because Massachusetts does not issue separate car insurance cards (it is on the car registration). We have written a letter declining to pay the $550 fine for failure to have insurance.

The Adventures of Super Grandpa: Grandpa was so impressed with all the chainsaw art in the Northwest that he tried his hand at it and created a beautiful cat. Manga (Grandma) was proud of his cat and was glad that he had found an artform which suited his artistic abilities. Since the statue was too big for the car, she decided to give the cat to the city of Aberdeen.

West Glacier to Spokane - 9/3 - 9/5/08

On Wednesday we took a beautiful drive on the Going to the Sun highway in Glacier National Park. Although the scenery is still spectacular, it was sad to see that the glacier the girls played on 34 years ago behind the visitors center has receded a mile or so up the mountain.

Yesterday we visited a wonderful stand of ancient giant cedars, some were 8 feet in diameter and 175 feet tall. We also visited a waterfall and suspension bridge on the Koonetai River. Judy loved the suspension bridge but Bill has mixed feelings about swinging bridges.

Camping has been a little challenging the past 3 nights. Both the Glacier KOA and the Farragut State Park in Athol, Idaho were beautiful and clean. However, it was in the 30's both nights in Glacier and in Farragut there was no warm water in the showers. We are ready for a milder climate and some warm water.

We continued to eat a lot of huckleberries: ice cream, pie, and barbeque. Now we are entering the Washington fruit growing region so our diet will change a little.

The Adventures of Super Grandpa: In Glacier, Grandpa went birding again but this time the bird mistook Grandpa for a tasty treat. Just as the eagle was about to catch him, Grandma (Manga) hit him across the beak with a tent pole. Whew! It was a close call.

Lewistown to West Glacier, MT - 8/31 - 9/2/08

Mountains, bad weather, and two good national park sites have marked this leg of the trip. Rain accompanied us all day Sunday and it snowed on Sunday night in Helena. On Sunday we visited the C.M. Russell art museum in Great Falls. The most interesting aspect of the collection was the selection of letters to his friends which he had carefully illustrated.

Monday we enjoyed beans and peach cobbler prepared over a campfire, ranch style, at the Grant-Kohrs Ranch in Deer Lodge. We also toured the Big Hole Battlefield, one of the many sites where the US attacked the Nez Perce who would not give up their lands. It is a very sad site. Monday night Judy froze in a national forest campsite named Indian Trees; there was ice on the tent in the morning. The Indians stripped the bark of ponderosa pine to eat the inner cambium about 150 years ago.

We are now in a KOA in Glacier after spending several hours having a brake job. We ate huckleberries today, a local treat.

The Adventures of Super Grandpa: Grandpa has decided to do some archeology during this trip. On his first dig, he found the world's largest buffalo head skeleton. Manga (Grandma) was very proud of his find but decided it was too big for our condo in Easthampton so she gave it to the Montana State Museum.