Latest Posts

Sheila giveth and Sheila taketh away

Published by

Note from Cassie: I’m posting this a few days late. The last couple days of the trip we had sketchy internet connections and I was tired of fighting my Blackberry to get things posted. Sorry for the delay! 

Old Faithful

I’m not sure if we should bless or curse the name of Sheila though. I think she’s pretty half and half right now between getting us lost and getting us where we need to go. We mapped our route in the cabin Sunday night to get to Yellowstone using Google Maps on our phones. We expected a two hour drive to get to Yellowstone but when we keyed our desination in Sheila, she told us it was going to take three hours to get there.

Lewis Lake

I was cursing the name of Sheila. We ended up on several state roads, one of which we were stuck in a 25-mile-per-hour construction zone behind a huge truck. But soon enough we realized that she was taking us through the Tetons and I was blessing the name of Sheila. I had wanted to go through the park, but we really didn’t have the time to drive through it. So we got to see the Tetons as well.

Mud Volcano

Probably ten years or more ago, some friends of the family came back from a tour of the West — including Yellowstone — disappointed. They said it wasn’t worth the trip.

I have no idea what they were talking about. Yellowstone was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.

Dragon’s Mouth

As per our usual on this trip, we only had time to hit the high points of the park. In this case, we got to see Old Faithful, pieces of lakes and rivers, the mud volcano and the sulfur springs. Bring a mask to the sulfur springs. The smell is nauseating. My only complaint is that we didn’t have enough time.
http://www.youtube.com/v/EUtblSpO1oU&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1

Just one more thing before I turn in

Published by

New Gypsy Trip TagFortunately, we get to sleep until 7 tomorrow morning, so I’m trying to catch up on some news and get an idea of what’s been going on in the world. I don’t know if anyone else is like this, but when I’m on vacation, I lose all track of time. I have to keep checking my phone to find out what day it is and I have absolutely no concept of time, except for how long it will take us to get to the next destination.

I mentioned a few days ago (before I fell off the grid) that the second of the three convicts who escaped from the Arizona penitentiary had been captured, but the third and his fiance/cousin/accessory to escaping were still roaming the country and were believed to be in Montana. I’m reading now that they are believed to be in Arkansas. Over the last few days coverage seems to have faded out, but new twists continue to evolve.

The New York Times is reporting that the incestuous escape accomplice was actually a drug mule for a white supremacist group in Arizona. She turned informant when she got caught to avoid jail time. And you thought this story couldn’t get any better.

I really can’t wait for the movie and book deal to get through. You know it’s going to happen. Everyone wants to know how these two cousins managed to fall in love, how the three devised their escape plan, how the cousins have evaded the U.S. Marshalls for this long and now how Casslyn Welch managed to smuggle heroin into a prison.

I was talking to Mom a few days ago and we decided that Tommy Lee Jones has to play the lead Marshall on the case. I can see him now, “We’re going to be on him like a cheap suit.”

Fifteen hours is too long

Published by

New Gypsy Trip TagI’ve already mentioned that we had to make a big push today to get back on track so I can get home and get back to work on time. Well, that big push just about killed us all, I think. It wasn’t enough that we were stuck in the car for 15 hours today, but we were stuck in the car for 14 of the most boring hours of the trip.

I honetly can’t even tell you exactly where we were, only that we took I-80 for a while and ended up in Idaho. We just keyed the address for the campground into Sheila and took off at seven this morning. We got to see some more mountains on our way out of California, but once we hit Nevada there wasn’t much else to see. And to make matters worse, Nevada has the noisest highways I’ve ever been on. Someone needs to show them how to cut grooves in the concrete so the tires don’t whine so much when you’re it.

I think the prettiest thing we saw today was the rainbow in Idaho about an hour from Idaho Falls. The rest of the way was farmland. And bugs. Millions and millions of bugs.

Detours and dead ends

Published by

New Gypsy Trip TagAfter the massive amount of blogging I had to do the last couple of days to get caught up from when my wireless network abandoned me and my Blackberry decided to revolt, I took about 24 hours off. I’m terribly sorry, because everything we saw yesterday in Yosemite and San Franciso should have been immediately shared.

Bridalveil Falls, Yosemite National Park

I’ve wanted to visit Yosemite National Park since I discovered Ansel Adams’s photograhy when I was a teenager. I had his photos as my desktop backgrounds for years. I finally got to visit and I was not disappointed. Of course, we had limited time and didn’t get to explore the park as much as we all wanted to, but we did get to see some breathtaking rock formations and Bridalveil Falls.

San Francisco actually turned out to be the best part of my day. Not that I was expecting to dislike the city; I knew I would enjoy it. I’m just usually more of a park kind of girl and less of a city kind of girl when it comes to visiting new places. We ended up getting to see a good portion of the city because Google Maps, not Sheila this time, led us astray.

When we got into the city we drove along The Embarcadero and got to see most of the piers. The real fun began when we tried to find Lombard Street so we could drive down the twistiest road in the city. Google maps kept having us turn off The Embarcadero and circle a few blocks and then go up The Embarcadero further and circle a few other blocks. I think we circled a four or five times before we finally tried plugging a cross street into Sheila and seeing if she could get us there.

She didn’t.

We finally gave up, but even though we didn’t find Lombard Street, we got a nice driving tour of some of the streets of San Francisco. In our search for the twisty road, we found a park on the bay under the Golden Gate Bridge and were able to get pictures of the bay, the city skyline, Alcatraz, and of course, the Golden Gate Bridge.

I could have sat on this wall forever, taking in the bay, but it was chilly outside and getting colder. Don’t forget a hoodie if you plan to go to San Francisco!

By this time it was going on 9 o’clock and we were all famished. We haven’t gotten much better about making time for meals in our travels; we’re usually just in a hurry to get to the next place! We decided to stop somewhere on our way out of the city to eat something other than a hot dog or a turkey wrap. We found Mel’s Drive-In on Lombard Street and decided to stop.

It’s kind of hard to miss this charming little silver diner with its neon signs. I ordered a charbroiled chicken sandwich with twisty fries, and I suggest you do the same. It could have just been that I’ve been deprived of decent meals for most of this trip, but that was the one of the best chicken sandwiches I’ve ever eaten.

Diversion Averted

Published by

New Gypsy Trip TagIf you had asked me 24 hours ago where I was headed today I would have told you Seattle. After we got to Russ and Charisse’s Friday night we started talking about all the other places in the area we could see. We talked about Yosemite, Redwoods, San Francisco, the Pacific coast, the Northwest. Aunt Charisse is a California girl through and through. As she spoke about different areas in California and beyond, you could see how much she loves traveling the west coast.

We originally planned for this trip to go through Washington and Oregon, but nixed it because we felt like it was too far. Imagine our excitement to realize we weren’t as far as we thought, and then our disappointment when we reality struck and we recognized that, like all good things, this trip had to come to an end.

We started mapping our route during dinner at Mel’s Diner in San Francisco last night. At first count, it was something like 13 and a half hours to reach Seattle from our hotel in San Marcos. And that wasn’t including passing through the Redwoods. Amanda’s and my wants differed slightly here because she preferred to drive straight through to Seattle to be able to see that city, while I didn’t want to be so close to the Redwoods without stopping to pay homage to their awesome hugeness.

We discussed stopping an hour or so short of Portland instead, giving us about the same amount of driving time, but allowing us to see the Redwoods and visit the coast one more time before we headed back inland.

In the end, none of it mattered. With the amount of time we hav e left on this trip we couldn’t afford to spend another day going farther north with out making some headway back east. By hitting Yosemite and doubling back to San Francisco, we spent a third night in California, leaving us four days to get from the west to east coast, putting us driving no less than 12 hours a day for the rest of the trip, not including stops for Yellowstone and Mt. Rushmore.

We began a big push to make up our lost ground this morning. We have about 265 more miles to make it to Idaho Falls tonight and then on to Yellowstone in the morning. We’ll have around 10 hours of driving to cover each day for the rest of the trip to get home Wednesday.

I have lotsa pictures and video from San Franciso that I hope to get posted fromthe cabin tonight. 🙂 it was such a beautiful city!
Cassie

We must have lost our minds

Published by

I’m pretty sure that sight of the Pacific Ocean has made us completely lose our minds. After we got to Sacramento today, Aunt Charisse started talking about all the different things we could have done, but didn’t,New Gypsy Trip Tag and all the things we could still do. And it got us thinking.

You see, waaay back when we began planning this trip, we were originally going to start out going through South Dakota, the Pacific Northwest, down through California then through the Southwest before coming home. In an attempt to keep from overdoing it on our trip, we ended up cutting out the Pacific Northwest part and gave up on it entirely. Well, we brought it back.

With just a few extra hours of driving a day, we’ll be able to see the Redwoods, the coast up to Seattle and Seattle itself, while still being able to see Yosemite, San Francisco and Yellowstone.

I’m throwing out the red binder and all my plans for the trip. And I’ve never felt better. 🙂

Capulin Volcano

Published by

New Gypsy Trip TagHere are a few pictures from Capulin Volcano and Santa Fe:

St. Francis Assisi in Santa Fe.
Cory and I in the crater of the Volcano.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Published by

New Gypsy Trip TagI’m finally getting some pictures uploaded. Here are some of my favorites from RMNP, my favorite place in the world.

Road Bathrooms

Published by

New Gypsy Trip TagThis is kind of a crude subject, but restrooms are a vital part of life. Don’t worry, I’m not getting into anything too gross here, but we’ve all been there. You’re in the middle of a long drive in the middle of nowhere and ya gotta go. You drank one bottle of water too many and things are starting to get dire. I never thought I’d be blogging about bathroom experiences, but these are some worth sharing. Here are my top six bathroom stories of the trip — and we’re only halfway through.

Fannie Anne’s Saloon

This has to be the coolest bar/restaurant I’ve ever seen. Located in Old Sacramento, Aunt Charisse said its been around forever and you can tell. The inside of the place is covered wall to wall in antique license plates, tin signs, bottle caps — really anything you can imagine. We had just finished dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack on the river, and Amanda stopped there to use the restroom. I was delayed because I couldn’t find my ID in my bag, so she went in ahead of me. I finally got inside and headed upstairs to get to the restroom, and noticed a really nice fountain on the side wall. It was right about that time Amanda burst out of the stall saying, “I think we’re in the boys bathroom!” I checked the door and sure enough right under the word “Ladies” was a hand pointing to the other bathroom. Amanda said she realized she passed a urinal on her way to the stall. We both missed reading the signs on the doors, and I didn’t realize the “fountain” was a urinal until later.

Outhouses 

Cory marvels at the endurance Amanda and I have if we can’t find satisfactory facilies. For example, we were just into Rocky Mountain National Park and we both had to go. Like 20 miles ago. We came to a rest stop on the side of the road, so happy to finally have a place to stop. While Amanda was torn between stopping to take pictures of the mountains on her way to the bathroom, I rushed in only to find to doorless stalls containing outhouse style toilets. I rushed right back out again and we ended up buying water from a lodge up the road in exchange for the use of their bathrooms.

Invasion of privacy
I definitly got walked in on in a bathroom in Navajo Nation. We stopped to get gas before we went to Monument Valley, and I wanted to make sure we didn’t have a repeat of the RMNP episode. The door didn’t lock, but there was a very clear sign on the door that said, “The does not lock. Knock first.” A couple of women who didn’t speak English completely missed the sign. Just my luck.

Beware of the stench
We passed a last chance gas station before we got into Death Valley and didn’t bother stopping. Then we got lost for almost an hour before finally making it to Zebriskie Point. We saw bathrooms and thought we were saved. Then we got out of the car and smelled them. We bypassed.

Fire in the hole
We finally made it to a cluster of stores and restaurants in Death Valley, one of the buildings being a restroom.  (This was several miles past Zebriskie Point, and probably close to two hours after we passed the last chance gas station.) Amanda got into the bathroom first, taking what turned out to be the only working toilet in the four-stall facility. I went in after her, and someone in worse shape than we were came in and decided to try to flush one of the stopped up toilets, causing it to overflow. All I know is I saw dirty water coming for my feet and heard Amanda warning me to get out fast.

 

Toils Sit 
I saved my favorite story for last. Before we got to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, we made a pit stop. The one stall I picked looked like this:

I still crack up every time I think of that toils sit.