[hrothgar]

Hi all.

For anyone who doesn't know, I'm in the middle of a road trip from Portland Oregon to Chicago. At the moment its 6:30 AM and I'm sitting and staring at the profile of George Washington carved in the side of a mountain. Its a glorious sunny morning, the woods are crawling with varmints, and I'm sitting at the camp store writing my first email of the trip. (Actually, I am cribbing off Abby's original email which begins right now...

------------
Hi there all, greetings from the great American road trip. For those of you who have been following my adventures for years you know that they have taken me to many a far flung place, but never to my back yard. Well this year I am remedying this by going to all of those places One Is Supposed To Go. I am joined on my travel;s by my faithful companion Richard. We set off Thursday and headed up the Columbia River gorge, stopping briefly in Hood River to get a t-shirt for Richard from the micro brewery there. He and I each have our quests. His is brew pub t-shirts (but only from the places with beer he likes, or really catchy slogans), mine is a bit of quilting fabric from each state to make my road trip quilt. We indulge each other in our shopping quests.

Friday found us crossing out of Idaho and into the Grand Tetons national park. Good Lord! Those are some crazy tall mountains, covered in snow, and pine trees and rain heavy clouds. By Friday night the clouds were not so heavy and our car was a little damper. We gamely set up Richards tiny designed-for-K-2 tent in the rain and then headed off for a hike. 'Cause we have one night here and we are not going to let a little thing like bad weather scare us off. Actually the rain paused for the hour and a half we were out and then started up again right as we got back to the car. That seems to be the theme of our trip. The weather gods and whimsy gods are smiling on us, and the food gods have cruelly turned their backs on us, forcing us to subside on cold tins of soup and cheerios.

Saturday we headed up to Yellowstone where the snow still lies in patches on the ground. Yellowstone is truly freaky. Old faithful is the least of it. Everywhere you look are vents of steam. No, not everywhere. There are miles where there are nothing and you forget that you are in the basin of one of the the world's largest volcanoes that is still geothermically active. Miles of forests and bison and meadows and the WHOOSH! There is a geyser right next to the road oozing out steam. Or a cliff of obsidian and a pool of sulfur water with a pH of 1 (about as acidic as stomach acid). And boiling hot springs out of nowhere. And hot bubbling geysers IN the river sending out streams of bubbles where no bubbles should be. And everywhere people. We counted 34 different state license plates, and three
provinces. And this is before the summer rush starts.

I was a little worried about our sleeping arrangements. The park ranger said it might snow and we are up over 7500 feet. Richard has this little tent that is the size of a twin bed, if you tapered the end of the bed to a almost point. It is designed for warmth. Richard has a sleeping bag designed for temperatures down to 15 degrees. I have a flannel sheet, a Mexican cotton tablecloth, and a chenille bedspread. As always I am badly packed for a trip. But my sleeping bag died in hurricane Katrina with the rest of my bedding and I haven't managed to replace any of it yet. ALL I have is a bedspread and a tablecloth (the sheet is my sister's). My theory is, if one is a smart person but was stupid enough to pack badly then one should suck it up and not complain. Richard is worried I will freeze to death. He is being very chivalrous. I don my pajama bottoms, socks, a t-shirt, a long sleeved shirt, a sweatshirt with the hood pulled up. I crawl in to my nest of sleeping things and am snug as a bug. Now if only I could sleep. I have had really bad insomnia for the last two nights and am exhausted. Sadly that doesn't seem to be enough for my poor body and I spend another night watching Richard sleep. It is not a good idea to be the sole driver on a 2400 mile road trip and not have any sleep.

Here is what we have seen so far in order of excited response by me: moose (with and without antlers), grizzly bear, short tailed weasel, bison, yellow bellied marmots, pica, golden eagle, sand hill cranes, cinnamon teals, mule deer, and prong horned antelope.

Though the bison, all two thousand ponds of it, was on the road blocking traffic with 10 of his buddies and passed two feet from my driver's side window. And it was HUGE!!!!!!

Tonight we are in the black hills and I can see Washington on Mt Rushmore from my tent flap opening. Tomorrow we will head for the Badlands and Wall Drug. Where the heck is Wall drug?

Tomorrow we hope for prairie dogs, mountain goats, big horned sheep, and black footed weasels.
I hope those flashes aren't lightening
abby
_______________________________

Those flashes WERE lightning and it might have been the most impressive storm that I have ever seen. The lightning was flying fast and furious. Bolts everywhere, with 10-15 minutes of continuous rolling thunder with nary a second of silence. BIG thunder claps, small ones, long drawn out ones, all overlapping in a real cacophony of noise. And, of course, lots of bright lights.

Today we are heading up to Rushmore once again to catch the mountain in the morning sun. Thens its off for a tor of the Badlands, with a side trip to Wall Drug. I am most excited about the giant prairie dog town that we plan to visit. We spend tomorrow caving, then visiting another prairie dog town and (finally) a rambunctious trip to somewhere in the middle of Nebraska. We spend Thursday visting Lincoln Nebraska and Thursday Night in Omaha. Come Friday AM I am hoping a plane for Chicago where I'll spend the night visting my sister and her family. Saturday AM, I start the long trip back to Boston where my beloved pet rats await me...

[jillybean]

Hi Richard,

Well I was enthralled with your encounters right up until the last sentence…must you keep vermin as pets?

jb