North to Alaska

In the end

Posted on September 16, 2014 by Judy

I’ve been meaning to write this one, last post for .. well, weeks. We’ve been home for 5 weeks, it’s now Spring and we’re already thinking about where we’ll travel to next (probably a camping trip to South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland in January 2015, in case you’re wondering).
Just a few stats that I found interesting – in 63 days, we visited 12 American states and 3 Canadian provinces. We camped a total of 37 nights, including 11 nights of ‘boondocking’ (free-camping). We stayed in motels for 20 nights, spent 3 nights on the ferry from Bellingham to Skagway and a couple of nights staying with friends.
We visited more Walmarts than I care to count, didn’t put any money through slot machines at Vegas and only ate out in cafes and restaurants a few times. The rest of the time we self-catered.
We discarded A LOT of stuff on the last day in LA, but when we got to the airport we still had to throw out another 8kg of stuff. Yikes!
Since we’ve been home we’ve talked a lot about our trip, of course, but especially about Alaska and Utah. I think for both of us they were the stand-out highlights. We hadn’t even thought much about spending time in Utah before we left, but the week we spent in and around the South-Eastern national parks was great.
As always, thanks for travelling and singing along with us. It’s been fun.

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Los Angeles

Posted on August 10, 2014 by Judy

So now we’re almost back where we started 9 weeks ago. We camped in Los Padres National Forest on Friday night, about 100km north of LA, and had planned to spend our last night camping somewhere on the coast near Ventura or Malibu, but the 3 campgrounds we tried were all booked out. 200+ campsites for a city the size of LA in August was really being far too optimistic.

We have just spent our last night in the US in a (yet another!) Motel 6. We’re at the throwing stuff out/packing/freaking out about how much stuff we have stage of our trip. Happens every time. We’ve put 10,000+ miles on the car and let’s just say it’s not quite in the same condition as when we got it. It needs a new battery, an oil change and a comprehensive service. That happens every time too.

It’s been a great trip – we’ve seen and done things that we hadn’t expected to do when we started out, the camping has been wonderful and the motel/hotel accommodation has ranged from excellent to very poor. I’d happily stay at the Holiday Inn place in Vegas again, some of the little motels we stayed at in out-of-the-way places were lovely, but the motel in Prince George, BC that messed up our booking and then refused to refund us may regret their actions … and if you feel like voting for our reviews of that place, here’s the link:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g154938-d1639986-Reviews-Carmel_Motor_Inn-Prince_George_British_Columbia.html#REVIEWS

Ivanpah Solar Power Facility near Primm on the California – Nevada border – 400 Megawatts

One of the few places we were actually able to get to/park at Malibu Beach

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Las Vegas

Posted on August 7, 2014 by Judy

4 nights in Las Vegas seems like the total opposite of the kind of stuff we usually do … and it is, but after 8 weeks on the road, it’s been great. We’ve been here twice before, stayed right on The Strip and did all the usual Vegas stuff – ate out, won and lost money at casinos (I should note here that we did actually win more than we lost!), saw a show (Jersey Boys – fantastic!), wandered up and down The Strip, went to ‘Downtown’ to see Fremont Street, took photos at the iconic ‘Welcome to Las Vegas’ sign and probably a few other touristy things that I’ve forgotten.

This time we’re doing it a lot more low-key. Staying one block back from The Strip at the Holiday Inn Desert Club Resort which is located on the inappropriately named Koval Lane. I’ve never seen a lane with 7 lanes of traffic before. But then, Las Vegas Boulevarde (‘The Strip’) has about 10 lanes. It’s all bigger and brighter here! So we have a very nice one-bedroom suite at the Holiday Inn. 8 squares of luxury with 2 TVs, king-size bed, great kitchen and a pool & bbqs just a few steps outside the front door. I’ve been baking, roasting and cooking to my heart’s content, and watching a lot of trashy American TV. It’s a bit sad to admit that I know the channel numbers of the Food Network and the Travel Channel of the 90+ TV channels available. Greg has spent a lot of time working on his already-fantastic tan by the pool. Being just off The Strip has worked out better for us to drive to the places we want to go to – much easier getting in and out of this place than places on The Strip with underground parking and the crazy Strip traffic.

We didn’t even venture near The Strip until we’d been here for a couple of days, and then it was to go and buy pastries for lunch from Thomas Keller’s amazing Bouchon Bakery. There are 3 Bouchon bakery shops at the Venetian Hotel, which is one of the closest hotels to us. The pastries were delicious. We bought a few, ate them and then went back to buy a few more. As we wandered along the Grand Canal shops inside The Venetian, we noticed a huge queue of people along one wall and as we got closer, we realised that they were all waiting to buy cakes and other baked goodies from Carlo’s, which is owned by Buddy Valastro who stars in Cake Boss, a TV show about him running his bakery on the East Coast. All the cakes looked un-naturally coloured and full of mock cream. Nowhere near as appealing as the Bouchon treats we’d just eaten, but that’s the power of TV, I guess.

It seems to be off-season in Vegas. Too hot for Americans and not many European tourists around. As Australians, we’re always in the minority. Weather here this week is around 35 every day, forecast for next week is 40+.

We’re off to have a look at some RVs, just to see what’s actually inside these mega-rigs we’ve driven past and parked near for the last couple of months. Greg found one on a website the other day that had a king-sized bed, 2 toilets and 2 TVs in it! We’ll be sure to report back … with photos.

Greg’s dad Ron asked for another song. I think it’s probably most appropriate to feature The King. It would have been amazing to see him perform here

Buchon Bakery Lunch

Only in the USA. A 99cent store that is a supermarket. Everything is 99cents or less.

Inside the 99 cent supermarket, with fruit and veg, and a frozen food section.

We have seen this all over the USA and Canada. Products that have an Australian connection, except there is no Australian connection, they just throw “Aussie” in the name. We have seen food, hair-care, deodorants (“Aussie Male”!), and food. Australia should copyright its name.

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A week in Utah

Posted on August 5, 2014 by Judy

We have just spent 8 nights camping in and around the national parks of Utah and just across the state border in Arizona. Our longest stretch of camping on this trip, thanks to Greg’s amazing shower tent set-up (patent pending) and the Laundromat at Moab. The 5 national parks in southern Utah – Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon and Zion – were all spectacular, all different and all well worth visiting. And then we capped our week off with a night at the north rim of Grand Canyon, which was also worth it. We had seen the much more touristy south rim a few years ago, so it was good to get a different perspective and see this amazing natural wonder without the hordes of people.

At almost 9,000 ft, the north rim is a couple of thousand feet higher than the south rim, so it’s cooler, wetter and gets more snow and fewer visitors. We camped at a campground just outside the national park and had our 17th consecutive night of thunderstorms. Yesterday was rainy and foggy, so not the best day for trying to see the canyon in all its vast splendour, but this morning it was fine, so we drove to Point Imperial and Cape Royal and did a few short walks to see down and across the canyon. Wonderful.

And now we’re in the biggest Sin City of them all … Las Vegas. Our end-of-holiday holiday – 4 nights in a suite at the Holiday Inn Desert Club Resort, a couple of blocks from The Strip, just behind The Venetian Hotel. Last time we were here, it was Easter and there were people everywhere. Seems like there are still people everywhere, although we haven’t been out exploring yet.

The Narrows canyon, Virgin River Zion National Park, about an hours walk into the canyon

The only way up the narrows in Zion is to wade up the Virgin river

HooDoos in Bryce Canyon National Park

The upper parts of the Narrows Zion National Park

The highest lookout on the Grand Canyon rim at 8,803 feet

The Colorado river snakes through the Grand Canyon 1,600 metres below North Rim

Camped at DeMotte Forest campground 40km north of North Rim, at 8,700 feet.

Looking down into Grand Canyon from North Rim, with the Colorado river, and south rim in the distance

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Thunderstorms

Posted on August 1, 2014 by greg

Thunderstorms rule our day. We are learning by experience about the strange summer weather in the USA. We have had thunderstorms every day for the last two weeks. Some days its just lightening and dark clouds in the distance, while on other days its very up close and violent. We hid in the car twice in the night during a very close thunderstorm in Sundance Wyoming. We have had thunderstorm warnings on the radio in Nebraska. A few nights ago north of Canyonlands National Park we had a thunderstorm that nearly ripped the tent from the ground despite many guys and all our pegs. It poured with rain, and we had thunder and lightening blasting above us, while almost washing another tent in the campsite away. Yet earlier in the day it was all blue sky and sun. An hour after the thunderstorm it was blue sky again.

In Escalante yesterday it was again a 15 minute violent thunderstorm pouring with rain (although not much wind this time), and again an hour later it was all over and blue sky again.

We look at campsites now differently, looking for the slightest sign that a small depression will turn into a raging torrent during a thunderstorm. We guy the tent every day, because we just don’t get much warning when a thunderstorm starts.

The warning signs are around. In Capitol Reef National Park there were warnings everywhere about the dangers of flash flooding during thunderstorms. In Bryce Canyon National Park every lookout has a warning about staying in your car during a thunderstorm. In this national park in the last 19 years 3 people have died from lightening strikes and 10 people have been injured.

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Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

Posted on July 31, 2014 by Judy

I hadn’t even known this National Park existed until a day or so ago when we were looking at the route we’ll take south. It’s a small-ish area, with lots of recent and ancient history. It features a long upthrust, the Waterpocket Fold, a warp in the earth’s crust that was created around 65 million years ago. It got its name from the white dome-shaped Navajo sandstone rocks that look like the Capitol Building in Washington DC. You can read more about it here – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_Reef_National_Park

More recently, the area was farmed by natives for several centuries until the 1200s, and there are petroglyphs (rock drawings) of animals and alien-looking people. Even more recently, in the 19th century, there were several Mormon settlements in the area, including Fruita which still has its original schoolhouse and a farmhouse which is now a general store. There is still a large orchard with peach and apple trees laden with fruit at the moment. Apparently it is possible to pick the fruit for free, but that’s a bit lost on me as I don’t like most fruit.

Crossing the Colorado River just upstream of Lake Powell

Camped at Whites Canyon near Lake Powell

Pueblo ruins that are 700+ years old

Mesa arch in Canyonlands National Park

The switchback trail down to the White Rim trail in Canyonlands National Park

The multiple guys we needed to hold the tent down when we had a severe thurnderstorm when camped north of Canyonlands National Park.

The multiple guys we needed to hold the tent down when we had a severe thunderstorm when camped north of Canyonlands National Park.

When we camped at Whites Canyon the ground was too hard for pegs, so we had to use rocks to hold the tent down during the night-time desert winds

Our en-suite shower tent. We bought a gas heated shower in Denver, and with some poly water pipe and fittings made ourselves a shower tent.

Our en-suite shower tent. We bought a gas heated shower in Denver, and with some plastic water pipe and fittings from Lowes hardware we made ourselves a shower tent.

Posted in Utah | 4 Comments

Arches and Canyonland National Parks Utah

Posted on July 30, 2014 by greg

Windows – Arches National Park Utah

Camped for 2 nights at Sand Flats recreation area Moab Utah

We are in desert now, Cactus plants near camp

Arches National Park

Landscape arch so thin and close to collapse

Double D arches in Northern Arches National Park

Private Arch

Canyonlands the view from Green River overlook

Canyonland National Park

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Denver, Colorado

Posted on July 26, 2014 by Judy

The mile-high city. 5280 feet above sea level. In the state that has 58 mountain peaks above 14,ooo feet., more than any other state.

After camping for 5 nights, we decided to spend a few days here, to do interesting stuff like eat out at food trucks and not-so-interesting stuff like wash our clothes and ourselves. We’ve seen a thunderstorm every day for the last week, so getting indoors and away from them for a while has been good too, although all the electrical action in Denver has been during the day while we’ve been here.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, there is a Food Truck gathering at Civic Center Park, near the Capitol Building, the Mint and other old and important Denver buildings. So that took care of lunch yesterday. We wanted to do some shopping in the morning, and as luck would have it, we drove past a Sonic Drive In fast food restaurant. We have wanted to go to one for years, so went there for breakfast. It’s set up like a ’50s drive-in burger joint. Car booths, each with a menu board and intercom to order, then a waitperson brings the food to the car. It is also possible to order via an intercom in the covered eating area, but there is no ‘front of house’ order counter inside the store. In some stores, the wait-people are on roller-skates, apparently. The food was cooked when we ordered it, came quickly and tasted good.

And then lunch at the food trucks, almost 30 of them parked in a paved area a block away from the Capitol Building, with lawn areas in between. Lots of variety, plenty of people ordering and a lovely atmosphere. Greg had pulled pork on a biscuit, I had deep fried soft-shell crab on brioche. We chatted with a few stall-holders, including a New Zealander who has lived in Denver for 18 years (and still has his Kiwi accent), and a guy from Maryland who has run his food truck for 3 years – it sells crab and Greek food.

This morning we actually did something that we hardly ever do – lay by the pool in the sun for an hour or so, working on our tans … ha! We found out about a combined Farmers’ Market/Food Truck event being held this evening – Friday – but it was a bit thin. No produce, a couple of food stalls and some clothes sellers. But there was a BBq stall, so we had smoked pulled pork and a beer. All good.

Back to the wilderness tomorrow – a few interesting-sounding camping spots in Utah, maybe a visit to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, and then Las Vegas!

Denver Food truck menu

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Ogallala, Nebraska

Posted on July 23, 2014 by Judy

Greg and I share a minor obsession with Lonesome Dove and Larry McMurtry. For my 50th birthday in 2011, we did a road trip across the US and visited Archer City, Mr McMurtry’s home town and the location of his used bookstore Booked Up. At the time it was spread across 4 shops, but a year or so after we were there, most of the stock was sold and the store now only takes up one shop. We stayed at the Lonesome Dove Inn, which was originally the Archer City hospital and the night we stayed there, Mr McMurtry was also a guest; we got to meet him briefly the next morning.

This is all a long introduction to explain why we went to Ogallala. It featured prominently in Lonesome Dove, and in real life in the 19th century, as one of the major towns on the way to Montana, and in the book, Gus McCrae’s great love Clara lived with her family just outside Ogallala on the Platte River.

Before we reached Ogallala, we spent a night camping at Walgren Lake State Forest campground in Nebraska , not far from the Sth Dakota border. It was a bit strange – little ‘forest’ with a lake surrounded by farmland. Popular with the locals – lots came to swim in the lake in the afternoon. When we registered, there was a sign about budget cuts , and after we had set up camp, Greg went for a walk and discovered that most of the vault toilets in the park had been nailed closed. We were lucky that we had chosen to pitch camp near a toilet that was actually open.

Next day, we headed south to Alliance, Oshkosh and Ogallala. Just north of Alliance is America’s answer to Stonehenge. This one is made out of metal. Old cars to be precise. Interesting, clever and, well, we stopped, so I guess a lot of other people do too. We stopped for a walk around the main street of Oshkosh (not where the kids’ clothing company was founded, that’s the Oshkosh in Wisconsin). Lots of empty shops, it looks like a town that has seen better days.

Fuel in Ogallala is the cheapest we’ve seen in the US, and we haven’t seen fuel prices anywhere close in Australia for close to a decade – USD $ 3.29 per gallon. Less than a dollar a litre! We went for a short walk around the business district, but the temperature was somewhere near 100F, so we headed out to camp at the Lake Ogallala state campground near Lake McConaughy. The eastern-most point of our trip. It’s all west, and mostly south, from here. We woke up to a thunderstorm, strong winds and lots of rain this morning, and as we drove towards Colorado, we heard a weather warning for a Nebraska county south of where we had been. An interesting tip that made us both go … ‘hmmm’ – ‘if you can hear thunder, you may be in danger and should get indoors as quickly as possible’. Okay, we’ll remember that next time there’s a thunderstorm and we’re in our tent.

Camped at Walgren Lake Nebraska

Carhenge Alliance Nebraska

A train we passed carrying new Boeing 737 fuselages

“The Trail Boss” statue at Boot Hill Cemetery Ogallala

Camped at Lake Ogallala

The Journey so far

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Minuteman Missile Command Centre

Posted on July 22, 2014 by greg

We visited the Minuteman command and control centre in South Dakota. This is now a national monument, but was built by the US Government in the early 1960s, as part of its response to the Cuban missle crisis. The control centre commanded ten ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles) which were Minutemen I missiles armed with 1.2 Mega tonne nuclear warheads. The support building is on the surface but we decended 10 metres into the ground to the shielded control centre. The control centre had two staff who did a 24 hour shift. The control centre was shielded against attack, with backup generators and air supplies. The two controllers could launch all ten missiles simultaneously with the turn of two keys. The missiles had no self-destruct and could not be turned back. The ten missiles were placed several kilometres away from the command centre. There were five command centres each controlling ten missiles in each “flight” in South Dakota.

The 8 tonne blast door protecting the underground control centre. The flight time of the Minuteman Missiles was 30 minutes to their targets in the Soviet Union.

Control panel of the commander showing the status of all ten missiles.

Two control seats. The seats are mounted on rails so their can absorb shock. The whole command centre is also suspended to absorb shock. Red box are the right contained the two command keys.

Delta-09, one of the ten missile controlled by the Delta control centre, which was about 10 km from the control centre.

Delta-09, one of the ten missile silos controlled by the Delta control centre, which was about 10 km from the control centre.

Minuteman missile in Silo at Delta-09

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In the end

Los Angeles

Las Vegas

A week in Utah

Thunderstorms

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

Arches and Canyonland National Parks Utah

Denver, Colorado

Ogallala, Nebraska

Minuteman Missile Command Centre

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