Archive for July, 2010

Road Trip: Ashland

Sunday, July 4th, 2010

Today was an entire day of nothing. We went through Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, and finally here in Ashland, Wisconsin. It rained almost the entire day and there was nothing to take pictures of at all. The only real event was me slipping in the rain.

Yes, a little know fact about me (unless you know me really well) is that I am a total klutz. So

Me + Rain + Sandals + Slippery Surfaces = bad fall

We stopped at a rest area to throw away some trash and take a much-needed bathroom break. It had been pouring all morning and was still pouring out. So I slipped on my sandals and ran to the rest stop bathrooms. Just as I stopped running and took a few sure-footed steps I stepped on a slippery patch in a puddle and my crappy sandals just flew off. Next thing I know I am rolling around in a puddle in front of a rest stop full of people, probably laughing. I was so surprised I just lay there in a puddle getting soaking wet, thoroughly coating myself in mud and water. I looked over at my mom while I was laying there hoping she hadn’t seen my wipe out.

Finally I got up and limped into the rest stop. I was entirely soaked and freezing. I had busted up my hand and my butt in a major way. Next thing I know my mom comes in asking me if I was okay between her laughs. So we both start laughing at the image of me rolling around on the floor. I was okay but my hand really really hurts and I probably broke my tail bone -.-. Another reason for my utter dislike for Nebraska and Iowa. Sorry for those of you that live there, it may be for you but definitely not for me.

So right now we are in Ashland, Wisconsin on Lake Superior and watching the sunset over the lake and fireworks. Tomorrow I will finally be arriving in Michigan and I can’t wait.

Oh and HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!

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Road Trip: Boulder

Saturday, July 3rd, 2010

Today was the last day of anything really interesting at all sadly. The first interesting note of our day was some wildlife in an odd place. As we were packing the car my mom noticed a coyote walking on a running path right towards us. The coyote just strolled through the parking lot right by us, took a quick glance and nonchalantly moved onward.

We proceeded to start our day out in Colorado Springs and visited the Garden of the Gods.

It was a really beautiful landscape full of red rock mountains that you could walk around between.

After that we headed up to Boulder Colorado which my mom was very excited about. I really loved Boulder and took a look at the University of Colorado at Boulder for a while and then headed to Pearl Street to get a feel for the Boulder experience. This also included a car full of college kids, one of which is yelling out the window,

YEAH BOOTJACK! MY MOM IS FROM HANCOCK, BOOTJACK IS THE SHIT!

Very interesting indeed…

Down on Pearl Street we had lunch at the Boulder Cafe and I got an excellent veggie pita wrap. We went shopping a little and took a good look around. It was beautiful and I really loved the atmosphere and how friendly the people were. It reminded me of Santa Cruz a little because of the different street performers.

This guy dressed in a shaggy dog suit was pretty interesting. He acted just like a dog, wagging his tail, rolling over for belly rubs, and shaking hands. I thought it was strange because you are actually petting a person, plenty of people had no problem with this though and did it anyways.

From then on out we have nothing to do because we entered Nebraska. There really is nothing there.

We did have an interesting event happen at our hotel tonight. We walked into our room but it was freezing so I turned the air off. When I walk back the smoke alarm is beeping and there is smoke in the room. So my mom runs for the phone which is disconnected and does not work. So we book it out of the room thinking it is going to burn down at any second. No, we still don’t know what happened. We are safely in another room now. Tomorrow will be our last night on the road and I can’t wait to be in Michigan.

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Road Trip: Mesa Verde

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

Today was an amazing day because we spent almost the entire day checking out the different Cliff Dwellings in Mesa Verde. I have always wanted to see these ruins and finally I did, and let me tell you, it didn’t disappoint. The first ruins we visited was the Cliff Palace ruins. This dwelling is the biggest in North America and is approximately 700 to 900 years old.

After the Cliff Palace we went to the Balcony House. This was an extremely intimidating hike for me. To get to the cliff dwellings you have to go down a huge amount of stairs and from there it gets really tricky. You have to climb up a 32 foot ladder. I am not particularly afraid of heights but I got pretty freaked out by this. It was a huge ladder over an even bigger cliff. It also didn’t help that the ladder got super heated so it burned to hold onto the rungs. By the end I was ready to freak out. Can you tell by my face that I was slightly concerned?

I made it though and it was worth it. At the top we got to go through the dwellings which were significantly smaller than the Cliff Palace but still very interesting. It had an overlook over a huge canyon without any walls to separate you from the huge drop.

The big ladder was not the only difficult part of tis trek. You also have to pass through a tunnel only 18 inches wide. INCHES not feet, think about it. It was not for the faint hearted but I didn’t think it was that difficult.

It was really funny watching people trying to squeeze into the tiny space. What is interesting about this is that it was really the only way out of the cliff dwellings during the 11 hundreds and 12 hundreds besides a foot hold climb up a 150 foot wall. So that means every day to go anywhere the inhabitants had to go through this tunnel. After this there were two more 15 feet ladders for us to climb but with the idea that the inhabitants had much worse to go through it wasn’t as bad.

The last ruins we saw was the Spruce Tree House dwellings. This one was really fun because you could go right into the living spaces and felt more interactive than the other ruins.

We ended the day here in Colorado springs and we are almost done with our trip. Just a few more days until we get to Michigan. I hope to have more time soon to go back over some of these posts and make new posts with more details and more photos. Stay tuned.

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Road Trip: Monument Valley

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

Yesterday was our biggest day yet. We woke up really early to watch the sunrise on the Grand Canyon. We got the best spot, a small upraised platform of a rock that we sat on over looking Bright Angel’s Point.  It was a nice sunrise but very cold out, I spotted Waldo from up there ;).

After sunrise we said goodbye to our beautiful cabin and started our long trek across Arizona to get to Mesa Verde National Park. We made a lot of little stops along our way. The first of which was the Vermillion Cliffs. They were these magnificent red rock cliffs that were gigantic.

Right next to the cliffs were the Cliff Dweller’s houses. They were tiny little houses made out of these leaning rock sculptures. It was incredible. There were native american jewelery stands all lined up in front of it.

The next big thing we saw was Horseshoe Bend. This was beyond incredible. Also a little scary. Out in the middle f nowhere the Colorado River wraps around this huge stone pillar and creates a gooseneck. The water was so green and it was beautiful. We were incredibly high up from it and to get the full shot we had to stand on the edge of these little cliffs super high off the ground. I swear I had like three heart attacks while trying to get the picture. But I got it and it was amazing.

Sadly we didn’t get to go to Antelope Canyon where the Slot Canyons were because we didn’t have enough time. I really wanted to go but time wise it was impossible. Next in our line up was the Navajo National monument. It was an overlook at an old cliff dwelling that had been abandoned after a twenty year drought.

Monument Valley was next on our list to tackle. We headed into the tribal park and looked at all the cool rock structures like the Mittens. It was very interesting but we didn’t go deep into the park because it would take to long. We still got some good shots though.

We were going to go to four corners and take a picture of me doing a bridge into all four states but for some unknown reason it was closed. It was really disapointing, I had been looking forward to that for a long time. Even with the minor pit falls it was still incredibly fun but tiring. We made it into Mesa Verde and we will be exploring that today.

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Road Trip: Grand Canyon

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

I didn’t get to post last night due to the lack of internet connection in our wonderful, western facing room in the Grand Canyon National Park. We left the hustle and bustle of Las Vegas for the peace and tranquility of Arizona’s Grand Canyon. Don’t ask me how but my mother is a miracle worker. Some how she managed to get one of the best rooms in the entire lodge which are always book a year in advance. We had a balcony that looked right over the edge of the Grand Canyon. It was beyond gorgeous.

We didn’t waste any time relaxing in our cabin and instead set out for a hike to the point of Cape Royal. We had a lot of fun posing on the edge of rock cliffs and trying to find the best views possible. There was just so much to see.

As soon as we were done with Cape Royal we headed back to the lodge to watch the sunset from the Transept Trail. Sadly we got the time changes mixed up and showed up an hour early thinking we were right on time. The left over time we had was used well though. We became the photo-takers of the Grand Canyon view-point. Every five minutes a family would come by and we would take the picture of their whole family together. Pretty Interesting, we met some amusing characters. We did meet two really nice people, Christopher and Charity. We talked to them a long time because they too were waiting for a sunset shot of the Grand Canyon. They were really nice and became our Grand Canyon buddies. With their friendship I realized that people down here are actually really really friendly. Anyways, the sunset was gorgeous and people lined up like a flocks of sheep to come watch. It was a good and fulfilling day of travel and hiking.

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