We had a full day for sightseeing...see some of the sights for yourself in the vlog in the extended entry...
Next stop Safran Crisco...
Today we crossed into California...370 miles to San Francisco
As always - video in the extended entry...
The rock pools are interesting...the life does not seem to be as diverse as the caribbean...but green sea anenomies were a surprise to us.
We then travelled South to the place where Lewis and Clark's Corp of Discovery first stood on the shores of the Pacific Ocean...Cape Disappointment...it wasn't quite the "disappointment" that Praj said it was for them...but other than the interpretive center and the monstrously big Columbia River Mouth...it is not much to behold...of course most of the excitement was in standing on the historic site itself...
Fort Clatsop...the Corp's winter quarters on what is now the Oregon side of the Columbia river was a little mor interesting as we saw a replica of the original fort and were given a demonstration of the loading and firing of a flintlock rifle.
The Oregon coastline has a reputataion...and it is well deserved...mile upon mile upon mile of wonderful beaches broken beautifully by large rock formations jutting out into the deep blue Pacific...and we have only covered the first 50 miles of about 350 miles of coastline...I imagine that by the time we hit California, Karin will be as bored of the beautiful coast as she was of the mountains...nah, don't think so!
Once again a smattering of images is in the vlog...
Continue reading "Kalaloch, Cape Disappointment and Oregon" »
Beautiful...hopefully we captured some of it in the vlog...Next stop Kalaloch Beach...
UPDATE: My large vlog file did not upload and so I created a low res version until I can get better Internet connection...sorry for the lack of detail until then and sorry to those who accessed the page while the video was not there...
Keep writing us with your comments...
vlog in the extended entry as always...tomorrow it is on to the Olympic mountains and the first leg of our trip where the general direction is South, no longer West...
It was nice to sleep in proper beds and speak to people that are not gypsies or campground operators. We were definitely tempted to stay longer. Thanks very much to Sue and Praj for the great hospitality.
Next time - Tuscany in Canada?
Tomorrow we will try to see more of Glacier National Park before continuing our journey West...
There is desert, lava lands, green mountains, brown mountains and red mountains...there are fast flowing rapids...everywhere the rivers run really fast and there are plenty of rivers...the place is so mountainous that you are always driving next to rivers...probably because that is the only place they could easily build roads...
This is the land of the Nez Perce and the Flathead Indian tribes...the land of Chief Joseph and Sacajawea. Lewis and Clark passed through the Bitterroot mountains on their way to and from the Pacific...Idaho was a place of great difficulty for the party (mountains and starvation) as well as great relief (fast flowing rivers that the Indians had said would, and which did, lead to the ocean)...have a look at the vlog in the extended entry...
Tomorrow we move on towards Montana and Glacier National Park...
Today is also the 30th anniversary of the Soweto uprising that culminated in the downfall of the Apartheid regime with the release of Nelson Mandela and free elections on April 27, 1994...Amandla!
Continue reading "South Idaho, Craters of the Moon and in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark" »
I also used the word "Ow"...the day we arrived, after dinner we all went to bed early so we could get an early start...it was a beautiful clear evening when we turned in and were soon fast asleep...only to be woken at 1am by a loud crash as the awning was bent backwards over the top of the RV...we looked out the window to see our tent blowing across the field like tumbleweed...
it is difficult to do justice to Yellowstone with photos and video...let me know what you think of the vlog in the extended entry...
On to Idaho and the craters of the moon...
Wyoming is amazing...driving along flat land all around...and what look like (to someone who has lived in Switzerland) avalanche protction barriers...but in Switzerland these are never placed on flat ground...hmmm...they seem to be located on the West side of the roads...oh!! Winter must really SUCK here if they need to put up snow barriers along the roads...
I learnt something about dandelions in Wyoming (this one is for Jeff Terrell)...they can look great when an entire open field is covered in them and some other white and purple wild flowers...don't look so good in my lawn though...
Devil's tower is difficult to do justice to...you have to go there and see it for yourself. I tried in the vlog...spent the night camped below Devil's Tower...tomorrow Big Horn
I suppose its pretty typical because this one is a Native American...Crazy Horse...and is a private project funded entirely by the sculptor and charitable donations that they receive...
The black hills are spectacular in a subdued kind of way...large chunks of granite that stick straight up out of thick pine trees. This is tourist central...lots of touristy things to see and do...the gold rush town of Deadwood, the 1880 steam engine train, Jewel cave (the second longest in the world) etc., etc...
Tomorrow its on to Wyoming..watch the vlog in the extended entry.
And so on to Mount Rushmore and the black hills after a short stop at the "World famous" "Wall Drug"...so famous that they advertise in Kenya and China...for the video (vlog) see the extended entry...
We arrived at our campground near Mount Rushmore and...hoorah!!...WiFi Internet...no cell reception though...oh the bane of the Internet...we could download our email and see that our house sitter is bailing on us after 2 days due to an alleged allergic reaction to our cat...just what we needed...NOT!
next stop - unknown...
Day 2: after another 300 miles we reach the town of Mitchell, South Dakota. The first mildly interesting stop so far. We visited a prehistoric native american village and the corn palace (see the vlog in the extended entry)...we had a rather typical day for early spring in the Great Plains - Tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings - luckily we were a couple of miles south of the really bad weather. On the vlog you will hear what happens on your average midwest US radio station during a tornado-spawning storm...the radio station is supposed to be playing "cool music"...
Next stop the badlands and mount Rushmore...
Just when you thought it was safe to go out into the blogosphere, another term appears...vlogging...or video blogging. Its bad enough having to read what I have to say, now you have to watch me and listen to me too??? Well it will certainly help to communicate the beauty that we encounter on our trip so here it is, my first vlog...
We're getting excited! Starting on June 4, we will be going on our big adventure. We are taking 8 weeks and going on a a road trip in a rented RV.
In preparation, this weekend we went to see "RV" with Robin Williams. I laughed a lot - maybe it was nervous laughter because I knew that very soon I will have the privilege to participate in some of the very same "family-bonding" experiences myself. Or maybe it was actually really funny. I'll let you decide.
At any rate - other than when I fought with Karin - I spent the day preparing for the trip. I fixed the bikes (well I cleaned them and pumped up their tires in an attempt to determine whether there were any punctures - my tires have to be replaced. A bit embarrassing because the tread on the top of the tire is perfect but the walls have disintegrated from old age).
I researched stuff to do between Ann Arbor and South Dakota - for those of you in the know, there are two possible routes you can take...you can go through Northern Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota or you can go through Indiana, Illinois and Iowa. This represents about 850 miles to the South Dakota border and then you have to drive another 250 miles to get to anything worth seeing...sounds like we will be having a great first couple of days.
If anyone has any suggestions for anything (except Chicago because we are avoiding cities) worth seeing, please let us know.