Hello Everyone!
After falling off the grid for a week or so, were back in civilization, and blogging once again (Hurrah!) Since we last talked with you the public, we have been in the states of Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Washington, and are currently stopping briefly in Canada so that Chris can mingle with his people before heading back down to the US (you know how whales and dolphins have to come up for air every once in a while because they can't breathe underwater? Its similar with Canadians. They have to resurface up to Canada every so often or else they drown in the United States. Its more about heat reduction in this case though.)
Our first major stop after the last blog post was Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. It was our first trip into the Rocky Mountains, and it was spectacular. Yellowstone is known for its geologic activity, and the geysers were incredible. Truly unlike anything I have ever seen. We took a couple of great hikes to see great views of the geysers and all of Yellowstone.
However, the single greatest thing that we saw in Yellowstone, and maybe on the whole trip so far occured on our first morning in the park. After getting up before 7 o clock (When youre camping you go to sleep basically when it gets dark out because theres really little to see after that other than stars and its too dark to do anything, so our days started quite early), we decided to drive up and see Old Faithful. On the way there we saw a turn off that led to a small side road. On a whim, I turned to Chris, and said "You want to turn right here?", and he responded "Yeah, why not?" Best nonchalant agreement hes ever made in his whole life right there.
Once we turned, we drove for about a mile through mist covered fields before we broke through some of the fog. Once we could see a little bit, we were astonished to see about 50 buffalo surrounding the road on both sides. We pulled off the road and got out to take some camera footage, and it was incredible. They were less than ten feet away in some cases and were just grazing along the road. For someone whose sole goal on this trip was to see just one buffalo, this was more than a dream come true. To wake up and just end up in the middle of a mist covered field full of buffalo was absolutely legendary. I mean, probably on 75% of the days of my whole life, i'd still be asleep at that time and maybe dreaming this was happening, but instead, due to a fortuitous turn, I was truly experiencing it. Imagine if Chris had said, "Nah, lets just go to Old Faithful" instead of "Yeah, Why Not?" My life would probably be very different today.
After a couple of nights in Yellowstone with the geysers and the buffalo, in order to satisfy Chris' insatiable desire for breasts, we travelled to Large Breasts National Park (sometimes known as Grand Tetons, its French translation), just south of Yellowstone. We stayed at Jenny Lake, which my mom had gone to when she was younger and absolutely loved. It was an idylic location right on a glacial lake surrounded by gigantic peaks (Grand Tetons). We spent a couple of days there hiking through the mountains and relaxing by the lake.
After we left Grand Tetons, we had been camping for over a week, and we were very ready for a warm bed and some good old social contact. So we hightailed it to Seattle (and by hightail it I mean spent an excruciating amount of time in Montana and Idaho before finally getting to Seattle), where we were among the people yet again. We hung out one night with my cousin Courtney's friend from Ireland, who showed us a good time downtown despite having to wake up for work at 430 am the next day (I know, that is absurdly early, although my dad somehow wakes up that early by choice everyday) Courtney has now aided us greatly in two cities so far despite living on the opposite coast, so id like to give her a shout out for that, and shes also coming to meet us in LA in a couple weeks, so will also be contributing to the blog.
On our second day in Seattle, we had another, small world, only can happen while travelling moment. After spending the day walking around downtown, we ended up chilling be the waterfront after one of the museums we were at closed unexpectedly early. There were a bunch of people going for runs, and one guy looked exactly like a buddy of ours from college, but he was from the east coast and there was no way he could be running along the waterfront in Seattle. Lo and behold however, it was him. After buzzing for like an hour about how truly random the meeting was, (He had moved to Seattle less than a week ago, and what were the odds in such a big city that hed literally just happen to run into us) he took us out for a great night in Seattle. Its just so completely random that I still cant get over it. What craziness will this road trip bestow on us next? Stay tuned....
Keep it real
Nick
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Camping, Deer and Flats
Note: Today we have two entries. Scroll down for Nick's post about Minneapolis. Read it first for correct chronological order.
We are in Sheridan Wyoming, at the public library. The gentleman sitting next to me is buying a Gibson guitar from Canada. He is also giving off a terrible odor. And this is coming from someone who hasn't showered in 3 days. Now he is singing along to the death metal on his headphones.
We've been camping ever since we left Minneapolis. Neither of us are much of woodsmen (Nick's only other camping outing was to buy Red Sox tickets) but we're learning as we go. We had a bit of an incident two nights ago involving a pocket knife can opener and a can of beans. Neither of us was really aware (and believe me we still aren't) of the proper method for using the tool. After a half hour of jabbing and stabbing and prying and bending, we decided that the can had won and resorted to peanut butter and peperoni sandwiches.
A friend of Nick's Grandfather in Chicago told us "You haven't seen space until you've been to South Dakota." Yup. The eastern half of south Dakota consists of vast expanses of fields and corn and flat. The western half consists of vast expanses of prairies. And then you get to the Bandlands. Half Prairie, Half Moon. Jagged ridges, canyons, rock formations and cliffs intermingled with prairie land. It's awesome. It's so good to be out of cities. I spend most of time in them and as unique as each one is they can really feel start to feel like the same thing one after the other. But the plains, the great plains, it finally feels like we've actually hit that freedom focused spirit of the road trip. You know? The goal of the whole shabang. No beds and comfy and easy. Just two guys a chevy and a tent that is just a wee bit too small. Yup ruffing it in these national park campsites with legions of RVs surrounding us. If we were a little more competent campers I'd want to do some backcountry.
We have been and intend to continue doing a bunch of hiking. We warmed up with a good 8 miles or so in Badlands. Some of the national park marked hikes are surprisingly badass. We took one up a rope ladder and out along some pretty thin ledges over looking some pretty deep drops out to some pretty amazing views. Another hike took us out through that prairie moonscape and apparently into the heart of deer country. We must have spotted 5 different groups of single mothers and two babies and one seven or eight large heard. We got some great shots and got within about 15 feet of one of the mother-kid groupings. This put the mother a little on edge and into an aggressive defensive stance. We shimmied along the edge of the trail as far as possible so as not to upset mama dear. I wanna see a mountain goat Nick wants to see a buffalo and both of us are tired of seeing cows.
After Badlands we set out to that All-American icon of South Dakota (it's on all the license plates) Mount Rushmore. It's funny after seeing it in so many movies and whatnot it feels like you've already been there. I mean it's so far away from the viewing deck it looks like a picture. But the intricate details (did you ever notice Roosevelt has his specs on?) carved into the rock are pretty awe-inspiring in real life. I got a great shot of Jefferson's nostrils. They forgot or ommitted Washington's.
After Rushmore we drove to Devil's Tower which is a gigantic rock plateau that crops out of the ground, is America's first national monument and was used in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. We walked around it and got a campsite in view of it. What a jaw-dropping natural specimen. Google image it. Or wait for our pictures.
Oh ya, earlier that day we blew a tire on the Highway. Luckily AAA was there to rescue us and the local mechanic (In Sturgiss SD) was the nicest guy on the face of the planet. He was a large man. It was 90 degress in the sun. He specified that this WAS NOT big man weather. The layover took maybe two hours. We met some locals: a girl about our age working the desk at the air conditioned gas station who enlightened us about the Kanye West Taylor Swift incident at some music awards and an older gentleman who showed me a magazine from the mid eighties purporting to be about the annual Sturgiss motorcycle event but mostly focusing on dirty pictures of women on harleys. Seriously every page I turned to.
And that brings us to Wyoming. We will be in the wild for the next five days split between yellowstone and grand teton national parks. We would also like to apologize about our malfunctioning comments section. Our Technical service department is working round the clock to fix these problems. Please be patient.
Don't keep it too real,
Chris
We are in Sheridan Wyoming, at the public library. The gentleman sitting next to me is buying a Gibson guitar from Canada. He is also giving off a terrible odor. And this is coming from someone who hasn't showered in 3 days. Now he is singing along to the death metal on his headphones.
We've been camping ever since we left Minneapolis. Neither of us are much of woodsmen (Nick's only other camping outing was to buy Red Sox tickets) but we're learning as we go. We had a bit of an incident two nights ago involving a pocket knife can opener and a can of beans. Neither of us was really aware (and believe me we still aren't) of the proper method for using the tool. After a half hour of jabbing and stabbing and prying and bending, we decided that the can had won and resorted to peanut butter and peperoni sandwiches.
A friend of Nick's Grandfather in Chicago told us "You haven't seen space until you've been to South Dakota." Yup. The eastern half of south Dakota consists of vast expanses of fields and corn and flat. The western half consists of vast expanses of prairies. And then you get to the Bandlands. Half Prairie, Half Moon. Jagged ridges, canyons, rock formations and cliffs intermingled with prairie land. It's awesome. It's so good to be out of cities. I spend most of time in them and as unique as each one is they can really feel start to feel like the same thing one after the other. But the plains, the great plains, it finally feels like we've actually hit that freedom focused spirit of the road trip. You know? The goal of the whole shabang. No beds and comfy and easy. Just two guys a chevy and a tent that is just a wee bit too small. Yup ruffing it in these national park campsites with legions of RVs surrounding us. If we were a little more competent campers I'd want to do some backcountry.
We have been and intend to continue doing a bunch of hiking. We warmed up with a good 8 miles or so in Badlands. Some of the national park marked hikes are surprisingly badass. We took one up a rope ladder and out along some pretty thin ledges over looking some pretty deep drops out to some pretty amazing views. Another hike took us out through that prairie moonscape and apparently into the heart of deer country. We must have spotted 5 different groups of single mothers and two babies and one seven or eight large heard. We got some great shots and got within about 15 feet of one of the mother-kid groupings. This put the mother a little on edge and into an aggressive defensive stance. We shimmied along the edge of the trail as far as possible so as not to upset mama dear. I wanna see a mountain goat Nick wants to see a buffalo and both of us are tired of seeing cows.
After Badlands we set out to that All-American icon of South Dakota (it's on all the license plates) Mount Rushmore. It's funny after seeing it in so many movies and whatnot it feels like you've already been there. I mean it's so far away from the viewing deck it looks like a picture. But the intricate details (did you ever notice Roosevelt has his specs on?) carved into the rock are pretty awe-inspiring in real life. I got a great shot of Jefferson's nostrils. They forgot or ommitted Washington's.
After Rushmore we drove to Devil's Tower which is a gigantic rock plateau that crops out of the ground, is America's first national monument and was used in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. We walked around it and got a campsite in view of it. What a jaw-dropping natural specimen. Google image it. Or wait for our pictures.
Oh ya, earlier that day we blew a tire on the Highway. Luckily AAA was there to rescue us and the local mechanic (In Sturgiss SD) was the nicest guy on the face of the planet. He was a large man. It was 90 degress in the sun. He specified that this WAS NOT big man weather. The layover took maybe two hours. We met some locals: a girl about our age working the desk at the air conditioned gas station who enlightened us about the Kanye West Taylor Swift incident at some music awards and an older gentleman who showed me a magazine from the mid eighties purporting to be about the annual Sturgiss motorcycle event but mostly focusing on dirty pictures of women on harleys. Seriously every page I turned to.
And that brings us to Wyoming. We will be in the wild for the next five days split between yellowstone and grand teton national parks. We would also like to apologize about our malfunctioning comments section. Our Technical service department is working round the clock to fix these problems. Please be patient.
Don't keep it too real,
Chris
Lesson #1: Always Watch the Local News
Hello Everyone!
I am writing this from the Great State of Wyoming, home of Yellowstone National Park, and very few people. However, as we have not had the internet for a few days, I will be writing about our experiences in Minneapolis, while Chris will be filling in everything after that.
First, I want to say that when Chris described my awe at small town America in the last post, he was not exaggerating. I have been completely in awe of every little bit of rural and small town life that we have experienced. After living in the biggest city in the country for most of my life, it is amazing to see smallness, and space (soo much space!). So when I saw the Mississippi River for the first time, it was completely breathtaking. Its like a lake that travels the entire distance of the United States from north to south. It was something I had read about my whole life, whether in Mark Twain books or in history class, and it was incredible just to see it in person. It reminded me why I started this trip in the first place, to just see my own country after years of seeing other countries.
In Minneapolis, we got to walk along the river and skip rocks from the shore, just like Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer did, although they were much further south. This was one of my favorite experiences so far, not only for the sheer novelty of skipping rocks on the Mississippi, but also because I was able to make fun of Chris for his utter and complete lack of throwing ability (seriously cannot throw at all. At one point he almost hit me with a throw from the shore and I was standing next to him. It gives literal meaning to the phrase "couldn't hit water if he was standing in a boat. Truly hilarious)
We also went to the Mall of America, which might be the most soul-sucking location in the whole world. Ive never been so exhausted in my whole life than after spending the day there.
However, the highlight of our whole trip began on Thursday night, what was supposed to be our last night in Minneapolis. After watching the Steelers eke out a victory over the Titans, we were waiting for Conan to come on, and we decided to watch the local news just for kicks. This was the best decision weve made so far, for the headline story was the impending visit of President Obama to speak at a rally on Saturday in Minneapolis!! If we hadn't been watching the local news, we would have missed him completely and driven off to South Dakota blissfully unaware of what we could have seen.
But we were watching that local news, so after another excruciating day wasting time at the Mall of America, we woke up bright and early at 530 am on Saturday morning and waited in line for four hours to see my President, and some dude that Chris really wanted to see speak, address the Minnesotans on health care reform. And while I have been disappointed so far with the President on this issue, theres just something electrifying about seeing him in person and hearing him address the issues directly to you. Chris and I left the rally completely fired up and ready to go! Which is good because we have 2 weeks of camping in the national parks ahead of us!!
Keep it real
Nick
I am writing this from the Great State of Wyoming, home of Yellowstone National Park, and very few people. However, as we have not had the internet for a few days, I will be writing about our experiences in Minneapolis, while Chris will be filling in everything after that.
First, I want to say that when Chris described my awe at small town America in the last post, he was not exaggerating. I have been completely in awe of every little bit of rural and small town life that we have experienced. After living in the biggest city in the country for most of my life, it is amazing to see smallness, and space (soo much space!). So when I saw the Mississippi River for the first time, it was completely breathtaking. Its like a lake that travels the entire distance of the United States from north to south. It was something I had read about my whole life, whether in Mark Twain books or in history class, and it was incredible just to see it in person. It reminded me why I started this trip in the first place, to just see my own country after years of seeing other countries.
In Minneapolis, we got to walk along the river and skip rocks from the shore, just like Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer did, although they were much further south. This was one of my favorite experiences so far, not only for the sheer novelty of skipping rocks on the Mississippi, but also because I was able to make fun of Chris for his utter and complete lack of throwing ability (seriously cannot throw at all. At one point he almost hit me with a throw from the shore and I was standing next to him. It gives literal meaning to the phrase "couldn't hit water if he was standing in a boat. Truly hilarious)
We also went to the Mall of America, which might be the most soul-sucking location in the whole world. Ive never been so exhausted in my whole life than after spending the day there.
However, the highlight of our whole trip began on Thursday night, what was supposed to be our last night in Minneapolis. After watching the Steelers eke out a victory over the Titans, we were waiting for Conan to come on, and we decided to watch the local news just for kicks. This was the best decision weve made so far, for the headline story was the impending visit of President Obama to speak at a rally on Saturday in Minneapolis!! If we hadn't been watching the local news, we would have missed him completely and driven off to South Dakota blissfully unaware of what we could have seen.
But we were watching that local news, so after another excruciating day wasting time at the Mall of America, we woke up bright and early at 530 am on Saturday morning and waited in line for four hours to see my President, and some dude that Chris really wanted to see speak, address the Minnesotans on health care reform. And while I have been disappointed so far with the President on this issue, theres just something electrifying about seeing him in person and hearing him address the issues directly to you. Chris and I left the rally completely fired up and ready to go! Which is good because we have 2 weeks of camping in the national parks ahead of us!!
Keep it real
Nick
Thursday, September 10, 2009
This post brought to you by the Mall of America
Yep, Im in the mall. THE MALL............OF MURCA!
This place is the most disgusting/awesome bastion of consumerism I've ever experienced. I swear I just walked like a full blown mile from our parking spot to the apple store. This mall is a glorious behemoth that makes you want to puke and explode with happiness at the same time.
SO we haven't posted in a while. I guess it's been like a week so we'll have to rewind to the beginning of last weekend when I had my first encounter with that truly American ritual, the friday night lights. Nick's grandpa, a former high school athletic director, football coach, basketball coach and all round ideal role model took us to see a high school football game featuring his former team the York Dukes. Coming from Canada, the notion of supporting public school athletics both financially and emotionally is a bit of a foreign concept to me. So the whole thousand plus people at a high school football game was a real eye opener. It was awesome. And apparently it was a poor turnout as the away games are nowhere near as crazy as York's home games. York mustered a pretty convincing win with the only blemish being a few suspect snaps. Nick and I have decided we're going to try and make this a weekly thing, trying to catch the local high school football team wherever we are on a friday night. It's a great way to get a feel for a community and is a ton of fun to watch.
Chicago itself was amazing. Like truly incredible. It smelt good, the people were nice, there was always a cool wind coming off the lake and the selection of truly bad-for-you/delicious-for-you street treats was unbelievable. We walked around millenium and grant park, checked out a blues band at the beautiful outdoor amphitheatre (nicest I've ever seen) and caught a couple of shows at the Chicago jazz fest (great but not a candle to the flame of montreal's). We got some serious italian beef at Mr. beef, a Jay Leno fav. Mounds of thin beef piled on a bun dipped in gravy. Who needs dinner? We went up to wrigleyville, the bar scene outside historic wrigley field, got some beers watched some football, met a couple of new friends (and old, what up emily ross), and did some serious bro watching. Chicago seems like a place I could really live. The cleanliness the midwestern friendliness (everybody says hello) and the ammenities. I just don't know if I could get into the sports craziness that rules the city. I just don't know. Don't know.
Sunday we checked out a white sox red sox game. My man J-Bay (CANADA) got an RBI in the 6-1 win. Kind of funny to go to a Sox/Sox game. When the people start chanting, and the fan numbers are equal all you hear is go RHETE SOX GO! or was it GO WIRED SOX GO! ANd then some guy shouted SOX more like SUX and noone really knew what was going on.
Hey Nick remember that time we went to the city with quite possibly the most beautiful architecture in North America? And remember when we went on the architecture boat tour with the most idyllic cityscape views I've ever seen? Ya and remember when we left the camera in the car both days? Oops. So uh no pics of chicago. Only mental images.
We made our way to milwaukee on Monday, where the miller brewery, our only reason for going, was closed for labour day. LAME. Labour day is huge in Mil-city, parades, and people in masks, and everything closed. The city actually has a great waterfront with a beautiful (from the outside) art museum that looks like a ship.
We then hopped over to madison wisconsin to visit nick's cousin jimmy at the university of wisconsin. A 60000 person school known to have the best party scene in America. Unfortunately we were there early in the week after a long weekend so the partying was not in full swing. But we went out low-key both nights. Who can argue with some delicious 1 dollar wisconsin taps? Spotted cow is an incredible beer.
Yesterday we headed to the twin cities via the historic Great river road along the mississippi, which at most places looks more like a lake than a river. We passed through a bunch of sub 2000 people towns and got ourselves a lunch at a nice little bar and grill in Alma wisconsin. Going through small towns with a big city kid who has never seen the country is hilarious.
Man, this is America. This is it Chris. This is like where real people like really actually live. I wonder what they think about? Do they like it here? OHMAGAWD it's an old chevy pickup driving onto a farm! NOWAY! SMALL TOWN AMERICA IS REAL!
The novelty of small town america is certainly not lost on nick.
K, I gotsta go buy some stuff in this bigole mall, check out the city and eat some WALLEYE (state fish o Minnesota).
Don't keep it too real,
Chris
P.S. a big thank you to our hosts on this leg of the trip. BeBe, Papa, addy and seven (this cat smelled that I was allergic and rubbed up against me the whole time I was there, great animal though) showed us some true midwestern hospitality in elmhurst. And Jimmy and his roommates who showed us a fun time in Madison.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Midwestin' It
Hello Everyone!
I am writing this from Chicago, Illinois, as is now indicated on the map. (you have to zoom out to see the full map, were working through some kinks in the program.) Chris is going to write a more detailed post about Chi-town, but im here now to bring you up to date on our post-Pittsburgh road trippin.
After checking out an incredible view overlooking Pittsburgh, we headed to Athens, Ohio, home of the Bobcats and my cousin Logan. We got off the interstate for the first time on the way there and drove through some sweet old main streets in small-town Ohio. For a big city boy, this stuff was really cool. Athens is a cool little college town, and Logan showed us this great little lake near the town that we hiked around a little.
We headed to Cincinnati the next day to see cousins from my mom's side that I hadnt seen in years. They showed me all around Cincinnati, and we sampled some real Cincinnati Chili.
Now we're staying with my grandparents in Chicago, where BB and Papa are showing me great hospitality.
When I was planning out the trip, I was so busy getting excited about the places that I havent seen, the different sites, the national parks, that I looked past the first segment of the trip, the family segment. Ive had an amazing time seeing cousins and relatives that I haven't seen in years. After being in school for so long and not really doing a good job keeping in touch with everybody, I forgot how much fun I have with my large extended family. Now that Im back in the country, I realize how important family is to me. When we were in Cincinnati, we pulled out these old videos of the family when I was between six and ten years old. It was just such a surreal experience to watch myself and my family way back in the day. It was hilarious watching how ridiculously energetic we all were back then, and how similar we are to our fifteen years ago selves.
I apologize if this entry was a little boring, Its hard to describe the fun of hanging out with family for a week.
Also, for all you visual readers out there (I see you Shaunee!), were working on getting pictures up. Weve run into some camera issues, but once they get fixed, its picture city! and youre invited.
Keep it real!
Nick
I am writing this from Chicago, Illinois, as is now indicated on the map. (you have to zoom out to see the full map, were working through some kinks in the program.) Chris is going to write a more detailed post about Chi-town, but im here now to bring you up to date on our post-Pittsburgh road trippin.
After checking out an incredible view overlooking Pittsburgh, we headed to Athens, Ohio, home of the Bobcats and my cousin Logan. We got off the interstate for the first time on the way there and drove through some sweet old main streets in small-town Ohio. For a big city boy, this stuff was really cool. Athens is a cool little college town, and Logan showed us this great little lake near the town that we hiked around a little.
We headed to Cincinnati the next day to see cousins from my mom's side that I hadnt seen in years. They showed me all around Cincinnati, and we sampled some real Cincinnati Chili.
Now we're staying with my grandparents in Chicago, where BB and Papa are showing me great hospitality.
When I was planning out the trip, I was so busy getting excited about the places that I havent seen, the different sites, the national parks, that I looked past the first segment of the trip, the family segment. Ive had an amazing time seeing cousins and relatives that I haven't seen in years. After being in school for so long and not really doing a good job keeping in touch with everybody, I forgot how much fun I have with my large extended family. Now that Im back in the country, I realize how important family is to me. When we were in Cincinnati, we pulled out these old videos of the family when I was between six and ten years old. It was just such a surreal experience to watch myself and my family way back in the day. It was hilarious watching how ridiculously energetic we all were back then, and how similar we are to our fifteen years ago selves.
I apologize if this entry was a little boring, Its hard to describe the fun of hanging out with family for a week.
Also, for all you visual readers out there (I see you Shaunee!), were working on getting pictures up. Weve run into some camera issues, but once they get fixed, its picture city! and youre invited.
Keep it real!
Nick
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