Day 4: Cowley, WY to Rosalyn, WA

sleeping under the milky way was nice … beautiful, for sure … but sleeping in a real bed was brilliant. being able to stretch out … being able to adjust the layers of blanket coverage. it was brilliant. after a good night’s sleep, Jeff and I were up and gathering everything in order to head out on our last long day on the road. there began growing in me at this point, a twinge of sadness, knowing the trip that had taken so much planning and so much effort to get going was coming to an end. these feelings were enough, at this time, to overpower my desire to be back in Seattle, something i wasn’t sure what to do with at the time … but, there were still many miles between us and our final destination.

while i’d rather not include this next part because it would spare me the embarrassment, Jeff would be upset if i didn’t include it … Jeff was up and showered first and had gone upstairs to gather some things and to hang with Mike and Carol for a bit … i got up and headed to the bathroom to shower, having not had a real shower in a couple of days. i turned the water on and waited for an appropriate temperature, so as not to scald myself upon entering … the water, at this point, was still coming from the main spigot. once the temperature was satisfactory, i was ready to hop in … only, i couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out how to turn the shower head on. i scoured the tub/shower looking for the mechanism that would switch the water from the spigot to the shower head and … never found it/never figured it out, much to my chagrin/future embarrassment … i had to then, give myself a sponge bath of sorts trying my best to clean my road worn body. once i felt somewhat clean (or as clean as one could have gotten), i got dressed and headed upstairs with my things, making no mention to anyone what had just happened … only mentioning my ordeal to Jeff hours later while on the road. i am quite silly, i know.

Mike and Carol were already hard at work preparing a huge breakfast for Jeff and I. the grill was fired up, and bacon was being thrown on … each piece met the grill with a loud sizzle, reminiscent of applause, as Jim Gaffigan would remind us. Carol cut up some melon and beat some eggs to then give to Mike to prepare over the side burner of the grill, where the bacon was being cooked. once everything was complete and laid out before us, we, again, like the night before, felt incredibly indebted to our hosts and amazed by their generosity to relative strangers. over breakfast we discussed our route out of Cowley and into Yellowstone … Mike and Carol suggested a very specfic route that would take over a mountain pass by the name of Beartooth. the route would have us weave along the Wyoming/Montana border, entering and leaving each state several times before arriving at the northeast entrance of Yellowstone National Park. Mike and Carol mentioned the towns we would be passing through and if there was anything worth stopping for in each town. As we finished breakfast, we helped clean up, and began saying our thanks. we couldn’t have thanked our hosts enough. Mike and  Carol were amazing. they treated us like old friends. they said that if i ever come back across the country, to stop in again … we had made new friends in Wyoming.

Jeff and I had the car loaded and pulled out of Cowley, heading west on 789. from 789, we turned north on 310 and entered Montana …

Montana ... we've got ... mountains!

310 took us through various random small towns … i hate to say not worth mentioning, but compared to everything else … they aren’t worth mentioning. From 310, heading north and west, we turned on to Rt. 72 and headed south and west.

some scenery ...

once on 72, we passed through a town called Belfry and turned due west onto Rt. 308, which would take us through the town of Bearcreek. Bearcreek is significant because the “worst coal mining accident in the history of Montana (occurred here) killing 74 men and sealing the fate of the coal mining industry around Bear Creek. Today, the rail spur has been removed, and no active mining is done in the area” [ Wikipedia ].

Bearcreek mine remnants ...

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the pictures above show a lot of mining buildings still standing, seemingly abandoned. it was all pretty eerie …

From Bearcreek, we continued on toward the town of Red Lodge, where Mike and Carol suggested we get gas because it would be the cheapest gas we could get for a while. they also mentioned Red Lodge being a quirky little mountain town. Jeff and i drove through and snapped a couple pictures of random things …

Red Lodge

a river runs through it ...

leaving red lodge, we drove into the mountains …

into the mountains ...

i would be lying if i said i wasn’t at all nervous about driving in the mountains after our experience the day before. headed south and west on 212 back towards Wyoming. between us and Wyoming was Beartooth Pass, with an altitude of over 10,000ft. Mike and Carol spoke of the drive up the mountain being really fun … steep grades and switchback turns. this excited me. the drive back down from 10,000ft. did not. nevertheless, we pressed on into the mountains. each mile traveled brought views more scenic than the previous mile. the scenery we began to encounter reminded me of when i had been in Rocky Mountain National Park two years earlier.

Beartooth Scenic Byway

Huge tracts of land ...

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hazards of the road …

hold on ...

tighter ...

if not for the sign, i'dve driven off the mountain ...

after a series of switchbacks and steep grades, we arrived at …

The Rock Creek Vista Point

breathtaking, no?

Me

the view ...

Jeff

after many pictures and exchanging of amazed utterances … we pulled out of the vista point and to our amazement, continued to climb …

our pace was slowed not only by our ogling of the beauty all around us, but by the loose gravel of the roads, and the steep grade of the climb up to the pass. i cannot imagine that the road up here stays open very late into the fall … 10,000ft. is high for a pass. we continued climbing, encountered a bit of roadwork (surprise), and took a lot more pictures …

Beartooth

Glaciers

Ski lift?

jagged

more ...

Bear's Toof

10,947 ft.

having passed over the west summit of the peak, the dreaded descent was upon us … though it wasn’t as fierce a descent as the one conquered a day before, there was more traffic to potentially complicate our drive … motorcycles and minivans and trailers and RVs to be exact … the pace down the mountain was acceptably cautious. we crossed back into WY on the way back down, only to cross back into MT not more than 30 miles later. the winding roads of highway 212 provided driving excitment and the views out the window remained breathtaking … plus there was the possibility of wildlife around every corner …

This is Grizzly Bear Country

Down ...

Down ...

once we were back in MT, we drove through the small, touristy town of Cooke City, just outside of Yellowstone National Park’s northeast entrance.

Driving into Cooke City ...

we got to the entrance for Yellowstone. the fee was $25 for up to a week’s stay … we were just driving through, so it seemed a bit steep. the ranger at the pay station was nice enough … from MD … Havre de Grace, he said. we paid the $25, and entered the park with expectations of grizzly, wolf, elk, and moose sightings dancing in our heads, much like sugar plums dance in the heads of children at Christmastime (i think it’s time to update this saying.)

Yellowstone National Park

as we entered, stately evergreens stood tall looking over from both sides of the road … seemingly a perfect place to spot at least a deer … here is what we saw …

Bison hanging out in the woods by himself ... sad

this is funny because once we drove out of the tree-lined entrance to the park and into the valley, there were hundreds of bison grazing … for whatever reason this one was in the woods … alone.

part of the herd

the view as we drove into the valley …

Waterfall

the bison and waterfall further raised our already too-high expectations for Yellowstone … especially for us driving through … as we drove along, we encountered a lot more bison on the side of the road … jeff spotted one on the right side of the road. i drew his attention to the left side, where i spotted this …

Pronghorn Antelope! again, all alone??

i pulled over and Jeff went in with his 80-300mm telephoto lens to capture the above photo … we piled back in the car after a few more photos and after pulling some eats out from the backseat. back on the road through Yellowstone …

Yellowstone River

i’d like to skip over our next stop, but i suppose i can’t because it is something that we did … on our map of the park we saw a petrified tree monument or something to that effect. it sounded cool enough, so jeff and i decided it would be worth a stop. once we stopped and parked and walked up a paved walkway to the “tree”, we were amazed by it … not because it was so spectacular, but exactly the opposite. this is more of a product of our ridiculously high expectations. the actual tree, though not much to look at, was hundreds of years old and had survived the harsh climate and volcanic activity of those years. anyway, here it is …

Petrified Tree

after we felt we had wasted time at the Petrified Tree, he hauled ass, heading westward still in the park. Mountains, rolling hills, green meadows, waterfalls, etc. Yellowstone is a beautiful place.

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blurry, but beautiful ...

of course, the beauty of the park cannot be captured in a handful of images … even if i posted every last picture that Jeff and I took in the park as we drove through, the magnitude of the beauty wouldn’t come through. our time in the park was drawing to a close … saying our “time” was drawing to a close is a bit misleading. it was just that the road we were driving through on would soon exit the park and take us north toward I-90W. we climbed one last mountain in the park and once at the top, we were greeted with a pleasant surprise …

Badass Elk

Elk!

growing some antlers ...

the space that was full of elk was a courtyard in a little town in the park. it reminded me so much of estes park, CO, which is the  town right outside of Rocky Mountain National Park, where elk roam through the streets and gather in a park on main st. it was a good way to end our time in the park. the descent from the courtyard took us down into another valley where we exited the park, passed through the town of Gardiner, MT and headed north on Rt. 89. for some reason, we didn’t end up with many pictures from this part of the journey. this, however, is in no way an indication of lack of beauty. it was really no different than being in Yellowstone still, just higher speed limits. we encountered a touch of rain on the way up to I-90. upon further inspection, once we left the park, the next pictures are from when we filled up in Missoula, MT … weird. i guess every photographer needs a break … so Jeff took a break.

one thing i do remember from this leg of the trip is the delicious homemade conchord grape jelly (courtesy of jeff’s grandmother in law) that we had on PB&J sandwiches. so delicious. there is something about a good peanut butter and jelly sandwich …

this was our longest day in the car because of the time we took to drive through Yellowstone. we, as i said, stopped in Missoula, switched places, grabbed a little treat for ourselves, and headed out. the treat i refer to, and i am ashamed to say, was mcdonald’s. before you begin to pile on the criticism, all we got was one order of fries and two apple pies (one each). just a little treat to keep us going. jeff took the wheel, and we headed north and west on I-90 toward our destination.

The route through Montana ...

i had my fun on the roads earlier when we conquered Bear’s Tooth, and at this point in the trip, Jeff got his fun. I-90 west of Missoula and into Idaho turns into a winding speedway. The car handled wonderfully. Jeff was loving every minute of the drive and the scenery was no slouch.

Montana

Idaho

west with the sun in our faces ...

Idaho ... more than just potatoes

the bitterroot mountain range is stunning … not so craggy as the rockies, but covered almost exclusively in coniferous trees. the sun hits the trees and and creates intense patches of light and dark. it was just sad to see Idaho go some quickly … something like 63 miles … and then …

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Spokane River

Washington State

we had finally reached washington, but it was later in the day than we expected. the sun was setting and we still had 2-3 hours left of driving before we got close to the campgrounds. once we entered washington, the earth flattened out. the mountains were behind us, for now … we pushed further into washington state as the sun began to set, not only on the day, but on the trip itself.

Setting ...

this was a difficult time on the road … washington state drivers seem to be unable to grasp the concept of the left lane being the fast lane … so we’d end up behind a minivan going 65mph in a 70mph area, and of course everyone around this minivan was going 65 as well, which made passing near impossible. it was just a very frustrating stretch. on top of this, with the sun setting and darkness coming, the campground we initially had pinpointed as our stop for the night was looking to be a little bit too far off of I-90 for us … so i had go into my phone and vigorously search my nav software and google maps in order to find a more convenient campground for us … after a little research, the R & D (that is, whoever was passenger with the phone) found a couple sites closer to I-90 … but the drive was still tedious. we had about 80 or so miles to the campground, traffic had cleared up enough to where the darkness and lack of traffic started to wear on us … 4 days on the road will eventually wear you down. we were tired. we wanted to be at the campground, out of the car, enjoying some hot tea and a clove, but we still had a ways to go.

i was sad that it was dark when we crossed the Columbia River Gorge. going over the bridge at night is an interesting experience, especially when your car is buffeted by crosswinds … i am curious to see how it is to cross in the light of day.

soon after crossing the gorge, we stopped for fuel and some candy, as a little pick-me-up … the home stretch was proving a bit tedious. a little while after our stop, we were jumping off I-90 again towards the campground. after passing through the small town of Cle Elum, we were ensconced in the tall pines of central WA. it got very dark, very quickly. we saw our first sign for the campground … the distance didn’t at all agree with what google maps was telling us … this is the part of the trip where it seemed like we were in every horror movie ever … lines like these started from our lips …

“it’s just up here a bit further …”

“maybe we should stop and ask for directions …”

“huh … my cell phone just died …”

ha, it was a little creepy, to be quite honest. each little town we passed through seemed more deserted than the last. it wasn’t all that late, and yet, we saw nary a light on. the part about the cell phone isn’t completely true … it didn’t die (even if it did, i had a car charger), but instead it lost reception completely. no gps, no incoming or outgoing calls. google maps still gave us a map, but the gps was no longer following our progress. after a while, we passed the point on google maps that was supposed to be destination. we were now relying on street signs and our own sense of direction. after a little while longer, and many more jokes about being in a bad horror flick, we pulled into the campground. we promptly parked at the first site we saw. upon turning the car and lights off, we were hemmed in by the black of night; swallowed up in its darkness. it was black. can’t-see-the-hand-in-front-of-your-face dark. we had a single flashlight by which we were meant to set up and get around by. we grabbed some things from the car, plugged in the water for hot tea, scoured the site for a suitable tent location, and began setting up for the night. it wasn’t too bad, actually, but mostly because jeff is a whiz with camping gear, having camped in many settings and circumstances. props to jeff …

got settled, layered up (it was cold and getting colder … into the 40s by morning), poured ourselves some tea, and lit a clove. the day was nearly over … it was a long one.

with the evergreens of washington state towering over us on all sides and the stars, with their ancient light, suspended overhead, we slept. comfortably nestled in the belly of blackest night, we slept.

Day 3: Badlands N.P., SD to Cowley, WY

There is something to be said for traveling at night … the only visible things is what is illuminated by the headlights of your car, and the cars around you. the occasional streetlight comes along and does its best to light the way … but everything outside of the road is blanketed by the darkness of night … not to take anything away from the moon and stars … all of the direct light from headlamps and streetlamps creates some interesting shadows cast from other cars and whatever may be beyond the highway. fear of the unknown is ushered in with the darkness. there is something otherworldly about the kind of darkness that prevents one from seeing his own hand in front of his face. it seems unnatural. darkness by itself can be scary and foreboding, whereas light by itself can be harsh and blinding … but where the two meet … the interplay of light and dark is beautiful.

The sun shone sharp and bright as a knife, cutting into the thin nylon of our tent. It was 6am. having few obstacles to block its gaze, the sun peered out onto the wide open landscape of the high plains. i woke up with the sun in my eyes. jeff, who had gotten up a bit earlier, saw that i was awake, “dude, you gotta look outside.”, he said with surprising enthusiasm for such an early hour.

as i unzipped the fly of the tent, i could already see where Jeff’s enthusiasm had come from. though hidden in the black of night, our surroundings had no chance to hide from the light of day. we had come into the park with these natural structures all around us, but what we could make out of them was only enough to lend a spookiness to the night … but now, with night gone, the full beauty and splendor of the Badlands was on display.

Needs no caption

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after taking in all we could of our surroundings from our campsite, we packed it up, made some coffee and headed to the visitors center to get a park map and to look around. a ranger informed us that the route we were taking back towards I-90W would take us past places where bighorn sheep and bison have been known to roam. we left the visitor center and began our mystical journey through the Badlands. we had some time to take in the sites and to even hike around a bit, as our time in the car was shorter than the previous two days by about half.

not long after we started on the road, i was slowing down a little as jeff took a picture of the beauty all around us, when this douche bag in a minivan from michigan laid on his horn behind us. the speed limit in a national park is 45mph … we maybe slowed down to 35mph. after speeding up a little, the d-bag decides to pass in a no passing zone and speed off … i wasn’t immediately bothered by this guy, but the more i thought about it, the more pissed off i became. he’s in a national park … he is surrounded by so much natural wonder … if you are in such a hurry, take a different route, dumbass. i wanted to kick his teeth in. i all of a sudden turned into a UFC fighter. i don’t think i completely let on to jeff just how angry i was. i was sad and angry that this prick felt the need to beep at someone and pass them when there is so much to see all around. if this  jackass can’t appreciate the kind of beauty represented in the photos below, he shouldn’t be allowed outside.

anyway, not long after this incident, we pulled off, and decided to snap some shots of the rugged beauty around us …

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"Badasslands"

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like a gymnast ...

badlands national park rocks!!

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no words ...

Words fail ...

more ...

as promised by the ranger ...

as promised ...

Dogs of the Prairie

after driving through the northern section of the park, we turned to the north to head back towards I-90W and Wall, SD. unfortunately, the road that took us there, was an unpaved gravel road. being a worrywort, the road conditions bothered me more with each pebble that got thrown in the wheel well and rattled around. jeff insisted that everything would be fine. i tried to believe him, but was uneasy because of the remaining 1000 miles or so left in our trip. part of the road we took through the badlands was unpaved, but the speed limit was low enough to where i wasn’t bothered too much. the posted speed limit through the section of road headed north and out of the park was 50mph. my speed remained constant at 30mph … lucky for him, Douche Baggins from MI didn’t end up behind me. after about 10 miles or so, the road became paved and we entered the  interesting town of Wall, SD. i had heard from several different people that we had to check it out … after spending a fair amount of time in the Badlands and with the time being past noon, we decided we needed to skip Wall, and be on our way to WY.

once we had been through the Badlands, the beauty we saw gave both Jeff and myself a huge surge of adrenaline. the Badlands was just the beginning of the scenic part of the trip. so as we left the high plains behind us, and headed into the Rocky Mountains and its foothills, we were giddy. plus, it was a much shorter drive on Day 3.

every day to this point, i had to continually convince myself that this trip was actually happening … not even so much because of the difficulty i encountered trying to make it happen, but because of the new places and things i was seeing along the way … to think that just two days prior, i was still in MD, and here we were now, entering Wyoming. 1800 miles away.

August was a whirlwind of a month as far as travel was concerned. I traveled down to Asheville, NC for a cousin’s wedding, passing through VA and TN along the way. Two weeks later, my family headed up to Martha’s Vineyard, MA to visit and vacation with my aunt and uncle, passing through DE, NJ, NY, CT, RI, along the way. Since leaving MD on the 20th, we had passed through PA, OH, IN, IL, WI, MN, SD. So, in all, over a three week span, that’s 17 states … 18 counting WY … and, like i said earlier, a whole hell of a lot more to see still.

After driving through the biker town of Sturgis, SD, WY came quickly. Not much changed in the way of scenery. hills, occasional rocky outcropping, very few trees … but we were headed toward the Rocky Mountains, and we expected drastic changes …

Wyoming

passed signs for sundance … and began seeing signs for grand teton national park and yellowstone national park … the excitement in the car grew with the sight of these signs.

a lot of coal mining going on in WY … i have a feeling that a lot of pressure is being felt with all of this talk of alternative energy sources being explored … a lot of jobs are in coal …

i guess now is a good a time as any to mention (read:complain about) the ridiculous amount of road work encountered on I-90W … all through SD and WY 90 was down to one lane with the lines of cones stretching for miles and miles seemingly without reason. at times traffic from 90E would merge toward the westbound lane and create a two lane, two way highway with a speed limit of 65mph. such a situation can wreak havoc on the nerves of drivers as the chance of a high speed, head-on collision is exponentially increased. with the thoughts of a deadly collision hanging in the air, we drove miles and miles with cones seperating the eastbound and westbound traffic … when the lanes split apart, the cones remained, blocking off the left lane, and sometimes the right lane. every few miles or more, roadwork vehicles could be seen, but rarely ever was any work actually being done. so … it seemed useless to have the cones stretch for miles and miles and miles. it was a major point of frustration … the thing is, 65mph (really 70) is definitely not slow, and the stretches with one lane never really caused any sort of traffic congestion. an understanding of the roadwork in this part of the country is imparted to the drivers when you begin to see signs, accompanied by red and white arms to block the road, mentioning interstate closures. roadwork in this part of the country is not a year round job … the snows in the fall, winter, and spring make it virtually impossible to work. the snow falls furiously once the temperatures drop … therefore the workers work long days (12-15 hours) from April to September. that helps explain the reason for the cones staying up at all times during working months, but doesn’t take away the frustration.

our time on 90W would soon be over for the day, though … we stopped in Gilette, WY, fueled up and switched positions, with Jeff jumping behind the wheel to soon tackle a part of the trip that was both terrifying and amazing. while stopped, Jeff put in a call to his co-worker, Shawna (forgive me if that is spelled incorrectly) to get her parents phone number. her parents, Mike and Carol, were generous enough to open their home to two relative strangers. once we had the phone number, we left Gilette and pushed westward …

west of Gilette

WY Sky

the rockies came into view, though under a thick haze. as we got closer, the view became clearer. we exited 90W at Rt. 14. the drive on 14 up to Cowley was supposed to be the best and most fun stretch of driving of the day because it was to offer some mountain climbs and “twisties”. with my car being a manual transmission, we were supposedly at an advantage for this type of driving, as we were able to freely downshift into lower gears for the descent, rather than rely on the brakes. we started our climb …

Climb

the ears starting popping as we gained altitude quickly. after a series of steep grade straightaways and hairpin turns, there was a scenic overlook …

scenic lookout

Me, looking very approachable ...

Jeff, looking like he wants to and can rip my head off

we continued our climb …

up a mountain behind an RV ...

more mountain views ...

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the climb gradually grew steeper and that, of course, was when the roadwork started … we had to deal, once again, with gravel roads, only this time, we were climbing up a mountain.

steeper climb, still behind the RV ...

once we got to the top, the pictures become more scarce … this is because somehow on one of our shortest days on the road, i got really claustrophobic and irritable. (i guess the 75mph speed limits will do that to you when we are slowed down to a snail-like 50mph and slower … that and being behind an RV). Jeff insisted that i put the camera down and take a breather, of sorts. it was weird how i turned this way. i guess with nearly 30 hours of driving and riding in two and half days under my belt, it was finally catching up with me a bit. i suppose it was bound to happen. the near miraculous part is that my irritability did not lead to any sort of animosity between Jeff and myself. smooth sailing … i picked the camera back up and shot this …

perhaps my favorite picture that i took on the trip ...

at the top of the climb Rt. 14 split, with our route taking us on 14A. This was a section of road that Shawna had told Jeff about … the descent down the mountain into the valley where Cowley is situated. once we started our initial descent, the views were amazing, and enough to take my mind off of the fact that guard rail didn’t exist along every mile of road going down … pulled over and got these shots through a fence …

through the fence ...

between links ...

the ride down was deathly terrifying at times, but devastatingly beautiful every second. downshifting took pressure off the brakes, but hearing the car rev up above 6000rpm while going 40mph+ in first gear on a 12% down grade was hard for me to listen to without getting nervous about my car’s breaking point. everything had gone swimmingly up to this point, and part of me was still waiting for my car to go up in flames … jeff was quite adept behind the wheel as we made our way down the mountain and into the valley.

ignore the bug smudge on the windshield

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earth and sky

i don’t know that i played up just how exhilarating and scary the descent was … jeff himself mentioned to me the next day how nervous and anxious the descent made him … but it was a blast, i think we both really enjoyed the route that Shawna had directed us on …

leaving the mountains behind ... for now ...

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approaching Bighorn Lake

we crossed Bighorn Lake, which is a former river that has dried up in most areas, but has somehow held on to some water to form a long, narrow lake … more on this later …

once we crossed the lake, we drove through Lovell, and finally into Cowley … Jeff remembered directions to Mike and Carol’s house based on the landmarks that Shawna had given him over the phone … we pulled up outside what we believed to be the house. across from a cemetery, the first right turn once you enter Cowley. as we were stopped outside, a SUV pulled up along side us. here we are, two grungy looking dudes, driving in a little VW gti, MD tags, in a land full of pickup truck driving cowboys … we must have stuck out … the SUV rolled its window down and the woman in the passenger seat asked, “are you Jeff?” … we had found Mike and Carol … or, more accurately, they had found us. they invited us to park in their driveway. Jeff and I got out of the car, stretched our tired, tight legs and walked over to Mike and Carol to meet our hosts. they greeted us warmly, like old friends, only really knowing of us, namely Jeff, from their daughter Shawna, whom Jeff works with in Baltimore. we were invited in and given beer almost immediately. this is a part of the trip where i’d really like Jeff to chime in on his experience, because hearing how amazing Mike and Carol were to us from just me, won’t do their hospitality and love shown to us justice. we drank our beer while Mike and Carol talked to us and prepared dinner. I sat and took it all in as Jeff and our gracious hosts shared stories about Shawna and her dog. As dinner neared completion we were invited to sit outside on the back patio with our beers. Mike tended to the grill as Carol slowly filled the table with fruit, cheese, corn, and vegetables, soon after, Mike pulled the main course off the grill and set out 6 enormous grilled T-bone steaks. we ate and talked and laughed and just had a lovely and amazing time. we helped clear the table and clean up a bit. Mike and Carol then offered to take us down to the Bighorn Lake and Canyon … they offered to drive and we all piled in their car and were on our way. sadly, Jeff and I didn’t think to bring our camera or cell phones … this is sad because the Bighorn Canyon is one of the coolest, most ruggedly beautiful things i have ever seen in person. a 1200′ drop down to the still, smooth as glass lake … please take the time to check out Bighorn Canyon National Rec area online, or better yet, go visit. on the way out of the park, after driving around for a while and hearing about the wild horses that inhabit the area, with night falling quickly, we spot some off to the side of the road. the majestic stallions and mares grazing on the delicate grasses in the cool, arid night air … we drove back to the house, feeling satisfied … looking forward to sleeping in a real bed for the first time in several days. It had been a good day … Night fell over Cowley, WY. Day 3 was over.

Chicago, IL to Badlands National Park, SD

There is something to be said for traveling at night … the only visible things are what is illuminated by the headlights of your car, and the cars around you. the occassional streetlight comes along and does its best to light the way … but everything outside of the road is blanketed by the darkness of night … not to take anything away from the moon and stars … all of the direct light from headlamps and streetlamps creates some interesting shadows cast from other cars and whatever may be beyond the highway. fear of the unknown is ushered in with the darkness. there is something otherworldly about the kind of darkness that prevents one from seeing his own hand in front of his face. it seems unnatural. darkness by itself can be scary and foreboding, whereas light by itself can be harsh and blinding … but where the two meet … the interplay of light and dark is beautiful.

Scotty, Jeff, and I grabbed breakfast before Scott headed to work and before Jeff and I hit the road. A little place called the Sunrise Cafe, just north of the Ukranian Village. After a delicious breakfast, and yet another conversation cut short by our schedule, we drove Scotty home, and headed out. We did a bit of accidental exploring of Chicago on our way to I-90W, so we saw a bit more of thc city, but eventually were on track for our destination: the Badlands of western South Dakota.

I-90W takes you northwest out of Chicago … we left around 8:30ish in the A.M. and the traffic traveling into the city as we traveled out was incredible, nearly stretching back to O’Hare Airport. After taking a moment to be thankful that we were not caught up in the mess on the eastbound side, we pushed on. We passed through Rockford after fueling up in Belvidere and soon after we had crossed into Wisconsin.

My first time in Wisconsin … no clue what to expect, except for a land that flows with cheese and fat guys. i guess they love their food in Wisconsin …

Cheese!

Hormel

Hormel Chili

we were excited to cross the Mississippi during the day’s drive … it acted as an important landmark as we traversed these United States. Wisconsin has a shit ton of waterparks, most of them indoor … also, Wisconsin has these:

just didn’t expect to see anything like this in the middle of Wisconsin … maybe i’m naive, i don’t know. i guess that is one of the more interesting things about a cross country trek. you travel through places you’ve never been before and any preconceived idea of what that place is, is immediately thrown out … though not all the time, i suppose.

we pushed through Madison and headed west toward the mighty Mississippi and the state of Minnesota … another state i had never been to.

The Mighty Mississippi

The Land of a Shit Ton of Lakes

this is the unfortunate part about blogging retroactively. i am sure there were things that happened during this leg of the trip that are worth mentioning here, but since it has been a week since, the little things have slipped my mind. it was dreary and rain threatened when we first entered MN. Our next stop planned was in Blue Earth, a town recommended by Seattle friend Elise O. It just so happened that that worked out for us gas wise as well, though it would be close. Up to this point we were averaging around 28mpg and about 380 miles per tank. the drive to Blue Earth put us a little over the 400 mile mark for the tank. it was going to be interesting. the nearer we got, the less numerous the gas stations became, so even if we wanted to stop earlier than Blue Earth just to be safe, we couldn’t. we plugged in gas stations in the nav and it gave us the news that the closest were in Blue Earth, the mileage to go it spit out would put us over 400 miles for the tank. we pushed on, though i was quite apprehensive. i had never run out of gas before, and i didn’t want to have my time be on this trip in the middle of nowhere MN. The miles counted down on the nav … the  anxiety ran high. i think i was freaking Jeff out. i expected the car to started shaking violently at any moment as the needle passed below the E on the fuel gauge. Blue Earth was getting ever closer … the closer we got the more i became willing to accept the fact that we were going to run out of gas. i waited for it. i expected it. but it never happened. we pulled off the exit and pulled into the first gas station … we had made it …

One tank of gas yields roughly 404 miles

Tank size: 14.2 gallons ... we made it

barely.

we fueled up, swtiched drivers, drove down the road to the reason we stopped in Blue Earth in the first place …

Jolly Green Giant

Hoping he doesn't decide to pee ...

someone should buy him a pair of pants ... i'm sure a big and tall store could accommodate him

something i failed to mention … jeff and i decided to invest in a portable self-heating tea pot. we did some price checking and found one on amazon.com for around $20. the pot holds 30 or so ounces and plugs into the car’s 12V adapter and boils water in about 15 minutes. in anticipation of having this device, i pulled out the old french press and got some coffee ground for it. somewhere between chicago and blue earth we decided it was time to break it out. we stopped at a rest stop to use the facilities and grab a quick bite from our cooler. jeff readied the tea pot and measured out the ground coffee for the press. once the pot was plugged in, we hit the road, and about twelve minutes later we had piping hot water. five minutes after that:

french press on the road!

it certainly wasn’t the best french press i’ve ever had, but there is something about boiling water and making coffee at 80mph. we decided we could tweak the ratios of water to coffee and decided to let the water heat up more next time.

Maybe Mary should have fastened her safety belt ...

with caffeinc running through our veins, we used this new found energy to push us toward the Missouri River. Crossing the Missouri made me think of two things … Lewis and Clark and perhaps the best computer game of all time, Oregon Trail. both of these things conjure up thoughts of the rich history of these United States, though the history known, points to a history forgotten. the land still oozes this indescrible mystical quality … the rugged landscape and desolate beauty is wrapped up in each of the layers of sedimentary rock and flater than flat grasslands. each layer telling the story of a forgotten history. each blade of grass that blows in the wind shouts out the stories of these forgotten people, the frontiersmen who died vying for a betterlife and new opportunity, but more importantly, the ones that were ousted, and worse, killed for the happiness and comfort of these frontiersman, the Native Americans. it is hard not to think about these things while traveling through this part of the country … especially with the name Custer all around.

we crossed the Missouri River and decided to fuel up and grab a quick bite before everything closed for the night. the gas station where we stopped had an Arby’s next door, so fueled up and settled for arby’s. we chose poorly.

we grabbed our sandwiches and headed out. eating on the road already makes one feel a sense of urgency, but let me say, eating a messy, greasy arby’s roast beef sandwich covered in arby’s sauce and “horsey” sauce at 85mph, makes for an even more urgent event. arby’s 2, Brian and Jeff 0 …

Massive Fail

so with the first bad decision on the trip entering our digestive systems, we drove into the setting sun. the yellows and oranges and blues of the south dakota sunset redefined those colors for me.

darkness slowly fell like a curtain over the orangish red lit landscape … the stars came out to play …

as we pulled off of I-90W and headed towards the Badlands and our campground. it was pitch black. the only things we were able to see were the things illuminated by the headlights. we finally arrived at the campground and got our site assignment and proceeded to get settled in. i, however, was thrown into an intense coma brought on by the Milky Way overhead. i had never seen so many stars and “shooting stars” in my life. i think jeff began to get annoyed with me because my head was perpetually turned toward the sky and all of my attention was directed to the hypnotizing mix of celestial bodies. we finally got set up and familiar with our surroundings. we enjoyed a clove as we wrapped up our second day on the road.

“tonight, we sleep under the stars.”

we had no idea what we were waking up to …

Day 1: Baltimore, MD to Chicago, IL

Jeff and Me, ready to embark

Day one … the butterflies did well to flutter and keep me up most of the night. okay, not entirely true … last minute packing is what kept me up most of the night before we left. the excitement was palpable and the trip’s reality had finally sunk in. Jeff and his wife, Lynn, showed up between 8:30 and 9:00am. Props to Lynn for taking care of our road food. We had a box full of snacks and meal items packed in the backseat at the ready the minute hunger struck. After loading up Jeff’s things, Lynn took the picture above, prayed for us, said her goodbyes, and watched as Jeff and I started our cross country adventure. After filling up at a local gas station, we made our way to I-70 W, which would take us into Pennsylvania, our first foreign state along the way.

i had many concerns about this trip. initially slated to happen in mid-july, my first concern was that it wouldn’t happen at all. i was getting ready to resort to flying out again and leaving my lonely car with my parents in MD. after a month of waiting, as i explained in my last post, the cards finally fell in such a way that provided me a way back. other concerns with the trip were mainly in regards to my car. i made an appt. at the VW dealership for an 80k mile tune up and looked at it as more of an investment than a financial raping. this work i had done provided me with little comfort, however. i love my car … but too many freakish things have happened while i’ve had it to inspire much confidence in it making the entire 2500-3000 miles across the country without a problem. i figured i’d be lucky to make it to seattle with nothing more than having suffered a flat tire or overheating incident. we had very little room for error as well, as Jeff was due back at work on Wednesday morning … so if anything happened to the car or otherwise that set us back a day or two, or even by a handful of hours, it would effect Jeff’s work schedule … not to mention his wife, Lynn, who wouldn’t be happy. a lot rested on the chassis and tires of my little black 2003 VW GTi.

Ohio is for ... driving through on your way to the west coast

we pushed through Pennsylvania and into Ohio without issue. we stopped somewhere midway through Ohio for gas and to switch drivers, with Jeff taking the wheel. First tank of gas provided us with 392.5 highway eating miles. As we were gassing up, a quick downpour came through and a bit of rain dogged us for bit once we started back on the road. we were already half way through our first day on the road and i don’t know if it was the excitement or what, but time was flying by. the first 6 or so hours felt more like 2. it was amazing. and super encouraging with close to 3000 miles and over 30 hours still ahead of us in the car.

I was born in Ohio and lived there the first six years of my life. it is an incredibly boring state to drive through. flat and chock full of farms. i began to appreciate some of the older, more dilapidated farms we passed along the way. there is something that draws me in to old places. the history, the people who built these places, who worked there, who looked after them … there is something sacred about them.

Ohio soon became Indiana … if the sign were not there to let us know, we would have been none the wiser … not much change to speak of, just new towns, new farms, new miles of highway, each indistinguishable from the towns, farms and highways encountered in Ohio. i’m not having a go at these places, it is just that to the unacquainted eye, and the mind set on the Rockies, these flat landscapes and Midwestern scenes are rather uninspiring.

Indiana

Indiana didn’t last long compared to the hours we spend crossing Ohio. Passed through South Bend … would have loved to stop and see Notre Dame’s campus, but Chicago was so close … she was calling. we passed through the disappointment that is Gary, IN, and before too long, the Sears Tower was in sight on the horizon. Chicago was greeting us with no only its spectacular skyline, but also beautiful sunset.

the Chi

Our friend Scotty H. was working until 9pm, and we pulled into town around 7:30ish. i had taken note of a particular pizza place that i figured we needed to try before we left town. having the hour and half or so to kill before Scotty got off work, we plugged in the name, Lou Malnati’s, into the phone and were given several locations to choose from. I chose the first on the list and fired up the nav to direct us to our meal. after jumping on I-290W, we quickly exited the highway and found ourselves in a rather seedy part of town. after driving for a bit, our surroundings didn’t change a whole lot. when we finally pulled up outside our destination, i became rather concerned not for our safety so much as the safety of the car which had thousands of dollars worth of things packed in plain view in the backseat alone. after consulting with Jeff about perhaps trying to find a different location, we agreed to try another. back on I-290, this time headed east, we jumped off and ended up in a neighborhood that reminded me of Seattle. we parked and went in to Lou Malnati’s … carry out/pick up only … feeling foolish and defeated and with still another hour before Scotty got off work, and rumbling stomachs, we decided to order and just eat our pie curbside. while we waited for our pie to come out of the oven, we explored the neighborhood a bit, picked up some cloves at a local smoke shop, and headed back for our dinner.

the only thing missing is a tablecloth and a candle ...

Brian likey pizza

after devouring as much as we could of the pie, we heard from Scotty, and started for his apartment, which was only a five minute drive. upon arriving, we did some unpacking, some unwinding, and then we headed out to the continental bar around the corner. drinks and cloves were enjoyed while we caught up with our dear friend. one delicious gin gimlet and one too sweet old fashioned later, we were ready to call it a night after a long day on the road and a longer day starting in the morning …

Me, Scotty, and Jeff

Next up: Day Two: Chicago, IL to Badlands National Park, SD

Catalyst

i have been away for a while … true in two senses of the phrase. i obviously haven’t blogged in forever, firstly. secondly, i flew back to baltimore to visit in late june and expected to drive back in mid july after my friend john’s wedding. because of a series of letdowns, the original plan fell through. but another plan began to come together. it took another month for the plan to come to fruition. a new driving companion, a new route, a new arrival date. a generous donor provided a one way ticket from anywhere in the lower 48 to anywhere in the lower 48. with a free plane ticket to lure in prey, my friend jeff found a way to take off work and get away from MD for a 5 or so days to accompany me on my cross country trip. at the end, he would use the flight voucher to fly from seattle to baltimore. our departure date was set for Thursday, August 20th

Me and Jeff

the route:

Aug. 20: Baltimore to Chicago via I-70W/I-76W/I-80W

Aug. 21: Chicago to Badlands National Park via I-94W/I-90W

Aug. 22: Badlands National Park to Cowley, WY via I-90W/WY-14W/WY-14A W/WY- 789N

Aug. 23: Cowley, WY to Cle Elum, WA via WY-789N/WY-310/MT-72/MT-308/MT-212 (into Yellowstone)/MT-89N/I-90W

Aug. 24: Cle Elum, WA to Seattle, WA via WA-970 E/WA-97N/WA-2W/WA-522W/I-5S

i will try to take the next several days to document my journey through words and pictures.

An Open Letter to Indie Music Dancing Guy …

Hey there Indie Music Dancing Guy … remember me? chances are, you probably don’t. i was seated behind you, right balcony, row W, seat 7 last Monday at the Loney, Dear/Andrew Bird concert at the Moore here in Seattle . now, of course, were were never formally introduced, nor did we acknowledge each other’s presence, but you were hard to miss, and certainly, as i am now painfully aware, hard to forget.

first off, congratulations on really pissing off douche baggins sitting next to you, who was obviously more interested in his girlfriend than the wonderful music being presented for us. seriously, that was some fine work … that dude deserved to be sitting next to a die hard fan. second-of-ly, i have a real appreciation for someone so unaware and self-unconscious … you obviously love the music of andrew bird, and you even more obviously do not care who knows it.

while i do appreciate your unbridled enthusiasm for the music of andrew bird, specifically his song “fake plaindromes”, i have found it increasingly hard to detach my thoughts of the song from your dancing. this came to my attention today while sitting in uptown espresso in belltown. the barista on duty had started playing some andrew bird. this was a welcome change over the previous barista’s choice of neil diamond. i love listening to andrew  bird, the problem, you see, is that when his song “fake palindromes” came on, my immediate thought was not, “damn, i love this song.”, but rather mental images of you dancing.

now, please don’t take this as a knock on your dancing. i am not much of a dancer myself, and far be it from me to judge someone else’s dancing … it’s just that dancing in such a confined space really restricts one’s options for dance moves. you looked pretty ridiculous … with a person on each side of you, seats in front and behind you, your movement was limited to rocking ever so slightly, yet vigorously to the left and to the right, while carelessly moving your arms in such a way that the aforementioned douche baggins was ready to knock you out. it was quite a scene, indeed. so much of one, in fact, that it has not left my mind since. and this brings me back to the whole reason for this letter … your dancing, though entertaining at the time, has infiltrated my mind in such a way that with each listen of andrew bird, my enjoyment of his music is ruined … well, ruined is a strong word … my enjoyment of his music is tainted by the images of your dancing in my head. so … i implore you to, by all means, enjoy the shows you go to … but please, think of those around you before you begin your ridiculous dancing.

sincerely, your fellow andrew bird fan,

Brian

PS – douche baggins is guilty of bigger crimes and atrocities than you, but that is best saved for another letter.

and i can certainly appreciate one who is so unaware of his surroundings and so caught in a blissful moment

“let’s talk about the future for a moment …”

i can explain … i think all i need is one word, actually …

life.

that sums up the extent of my absence, and thus, my lack of involvement here.

apologies all around.

i miss the hot, lazy summer days as a child … the day would pass slowly into evening, lilting along with an easy current, mimicking the soft, warm breeze  july in oklahoma. i look back now and imagine myself as an oft-seen tumbleweed … blowing along the dusty earth, carried toward every wind with nary a care … as a child, the worries of being caught in the wind and scattered about were groundless … obligations were few, fun was abundant. as years have passed since i enjoyed carefree days of warmth and joy, many things have changed. obligations are many … there are important, life-altering decisions to be made … fun can still be abundant, though the time one has to have such fun, has been greatly diminished. life is a struggle … ever-constant … push/pull, light/dark, joy/pain, happiness/sorrow, life/death … but at the center of this struggle is where beauty is most defined … i hope to find myself centered more often than not in this struggle in the coming days, as i finalize plans to uproot myself from my home of more than 18 years … leaving friends, family, and most things familiar and comfortable to me. there is still much work to be done, and some things still need to fall into place, but i am trying to take in these scary and exciting days with the mindset of the child i once was … being able to enjoy the ride, more than stress about it … being able to see the beauty that is at the heart of struggle.

i was informed last week that my position at work is being cut at the end of the month. reading this, many of you (all two or three of you) would normally assume that this is an awful thing, though, not at all surprising, given all of the bad news fed to us about the economy and lessthanstellar job market. i can tell you that this news reached my ears and was met with excitement. i have felt pretty trapped at this job … dependant upon it for income, yet being completely bored with and uninspired by it. unfortunately, with many financial obligations, the money out-dueled my boredom and dreams, and so i kept on in it. every day was the same … nothing new … exciting things were coming up over the horizon, but looked dim, like the sunrise on a cloudy day … the job was the cloud-cover, teasing me … i could see the faint hints of light, but it was obstructed just enough to keep me discouraged. now that the clouds have cleared, my dreams are once again coming into focus. these are exciting times, indeed.

and to add to the excitement …

RELEVANT MAG: Let’s talk about the future for a moment. I hear you’re working on a project with Sam Beam. That sounds like a match made in heaven. Can you tell us any more about what’s to come?

ROSIE THOMAS: Sam and I are great friends. He sang at my wedding and is just such a sweet man who has his heart in the right place. I like him a lot and I like his work. For years he’s been pushing me to do a record with him and I finally took him up on it. We’re starting in February. I’m not really sure where it will go, but we have high hopes for it. It will be great just to be around him. He keeps making jokes saying, “Rosie, I really want you to just belt something out. I want to hear some real R&B from you.” It’s funny. … I didn’t set out to only do records with friends. But this stuff just keeps coming up and it’s too fun. I can’t turn it down. It’s where I’m supposed to be right now.

now that she’s been married off, maybe rosie will keep the joking about being pregnant to a minimum for this collaboration.

cheers.

sunday sunrise

going to work at 5:30am every morning (m-f) is a terrible thing. i am, by nature, a night owl. my mind is at its most productive and active state in the late evening and early morning hours. since i have had to wake up for work as early as 4:30am for the past year, i have tried to discipline myself with a bedtime. most nights i try to be in bed before 10pm. i am usually prostrate, but wide awake for at least an hour before i actually slip slowly, restlessly into a night’s slumber. the sleep is hardly ever restful or refreshing. it seemed for a while nothing good came from being up so early. however, i have more recently began cataloging, through photography, each day’s sunset. i have not gotten to the point where i shoot every day, but i hope that that day will come. in addition, it should also be noted that i haven’t always had my camera on me, so my cell phone has had to suffice. the photos presented below are all taken with my cell phone and were taken the week of dec. 29-today …

new years eve

January 2nd

january 2nd (brightness adjusted)

this morning ...

keep in mind that these have been shot with a cell phone and that to truly capture the beauty of each sunrise, (even the best camera fails) one must take them in with his/her own eyes. i would ask you to wake up for a sunrise and let the first light of day hit your eyes and illumine your soul, just as the light hits the trees. let the beauty speak to you and touch your soul.

cheers.

“turning the page of night”

soft moon glow

perhaps i will find some time to write about this later, but i wanted to get my lastest drawing up here for you …

cheers.

our endless numbered days …

my mother was in a automobile accident yesterday. she’s fine. some bastard “sneezed” and ran a red light … smacked into right side rear of the car. spun her around onehundredandeighty degrees. the car didn’t fare as well as my mother. a flat tire, a decent sized gash in the back rear quarterpanel … a partially smashed bumper i didn’t find out until i got home from work today. nearly twentyfour hours after the accident occurred.

it is jarring, suddenly realizing the fragility of life. we forget our days are numbered … whether or not he meant it this way, sam beam’s coining of “our endless numbered days” as a lyric and album title, has opened my eyes to how, though our days are numbered, we live as if we are guaranteed tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day. i live in the midst or this terrible dichotomy between what actually is (the fragility of life) and what we all hope for (safety and long, full lives).

i walked out to my car this afternoon after my dad had driven the damaged car home from the mechanic, and sat as my car warmed, staring at the damage the car sustained. i couldn’t help but weep over what easily might have been. i thank God for the grace He’s poured out.

it’s been a heavy afternoon.

while i’m still here, and on a completely different note … if you’re a vocabulary nerd like myself, or really any kind of nerd, and if you want to boost your nerd ego AND fight world hunger, may a direct you to freerice.com

cheers.