Yesterday morning, we were at St. Ignoramus KOA in Northern Michigan. We took a family vote on return options, with the winning side choosing to drive straight through to home from there over the option of staying at the KOA in Erie, PA. We let out at 8 AM under blue skies with a visible crescent moon. It was full when we left 12 days ago.
We crossed the Mackinac Bridge (Mac 'N Cheese bridge to Gabby) and headed south towards Saginaw. That, of course, reminded me of driving with my parents as a child and teen, when they flipped the 8 track tape of the Classic Country Hits into the stereo system. "I was born, in Saginaw, Michigan. I grew up in house on Saginaw Bay." Ah, the classics.
Then, I remembered Neil Diamond! My dad had about ten 8 tracks he played over and over again in the car. They included Neil Diamond's Touching You, Touching Me, Pat Boone's greatest hits, Roger Whitaker singing "Pour Mes Amis Quebecois," Lucille Starr, and some Johnny Cash. My favorite was Maestro Diamond's album. As it happened, I had the album loaded on my iPod and commenced to torturing the unwary, captive travelers with his dulcet tones. This, I followed with some Harry Chapin, and half of the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Album. If only I had found the Terry Jacks hit, Seasons in the Sun, it would have been a perfect recreation of the drive my family took to Hearst Castle in 1974. It probably was a good thing I didn't find it, because Ray Steven's, The Streak was sure to follow, and I would have had to explain to my kids why people found it necessary to run around naked in public for a couple years in the early 70s.
By nightfall, we had entered New York. I drove unit 2 AM, then took a 20 minute nap. Feeling quite refreshed, I lasted until just before day brake when Amy took over for a couple hours. We rolled into KOA in Albion, Maine at 8:30 this morning. Today, I have that weird, post-call, buzzy feeling. I'll sleep well tonight. The sky box is off the van, and the cargo hold is empty. The only things we lost were my Tilly Hat, and the case to my small Sony camera (which contained the small, second battery).
Overall, the trip was wonderful. I learned some things about myself I hadn't appreciated before, and learned a lot about my wife and kids. If I had it to do over again, I would find a way to drive less though. At times, this trip of a lifetime felt like it lasted a lifetime.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Ode to I Love Lucy
Yesterday morning, we left the KOA just outside Duluth, MN. That KOA has been unique for this trip in that it reminded me of a a specific episode of I Love Lucy. You remember the one where they are camping and decide to stay at a small hotel in the woods? We had been fairly warned by a review online that the park was near a railway line. I compensated for that by moving our encampment to the opposite end of the park, into an isolated, cabin instead of a tent. The cost was double the tent site, and required us to sacrifice Wi-Fi access. We seemed to be having a grand time, with stories of war, gambling, and general carousing when a rumble began to shake the lanterns. It grew in intensity, like a Southern California Earthquake, until, at the crescendo of the shaking, a blast of exploding train whistle split the night causing all of us to duck and cover our ears. I felt certain the train would crash out of the woods and directly through our cabin and vehicle! The trumpeting lasted about twenty seconds. Finally, about a minute later, the tremor relented as well.
In spite of this, we were heartened by the fact that this had been the only train we had heard in several hours. It being late, and expecting an early drive out, we went to bed. Well wouldn't you know that as soon as we began drifting off to sleep, the rumbling commenced again. Our small cot, which we had drug out more to the center of the room, began shaking and dancing across the floor. The windows began to rattle, and doors to shake. This occurred every hour, on the hour all night, stopping only when we had decided to pack up at 5 AM. Truthfully, I fell asleep, and slept pretty well, in spite of this, being quite exhausted, but the children and Amy swear it was so.
Having put my packing problems regarding the behemoth stove to rest with increased efficiency, and generally lightening stores of supplies, we were out in record time from wake up time, to wheels moving on the road. Drove most of the day, across Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the upper peninsula of Michigan. The adds for the St. Ignace KOA in Michigan say it is a short walk to the beach. We arrived to find it more of a ten mile drive to the beach. At the end of the day, when we were all sitting around chatting, I decided to buy some popcorn to make on the stove. The store which is open until 10 PM, would not let me buy less then $10 worth of anything using my debit card, or credit card. They also informed me that that nearest ATM machine could be found in a restaurant some miles down the road. More like Saint Ignoramus KOA to me .
In spite of this, we were heartened by the fact that this had been the only train we had heard in several hours. It being late, and expecting an early drive out, we went to bed. Well wouldn't you know that as soon as we began drifting off to sleep, the rumbling commenced again. Our small cot, which we had drug out more to the center of the room, began shaking and dancing across the floor. The windows began to rattle, and doors to shake. This occurred every hour, on the hour all night, stopping only when we had decided to pack up at 5 AM. Truthfully, I fell asleep, and slept pretty well, in spite of this, being quite exhausted, but the children and Amy swear it was so.
Having put my packing problems regarding the behemoth stove to rest with increased efficiency, and generally lightening stores of supplies, we were out in record time from wake up time, to wheels moving on the road. Drove most of the day, across Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the upper peninsula of Michigan. The adds for the St. Ignace KOA in Michigan say it is a short walk to the beach. We arrived to find it more of a ten mile drive to the beach. At the end of the day, when we were all sitting around chatting, I decided to buy some popcorn to make on the stove. The store which is open until 10 PM, would not let me buy less then $10 worth of anything using my debit card, or credit card. They also informed me that that nearest ATM machine could be found in a restaurant some miles down the road. More like Saint Ignoramus KOA to me .
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Typing on the iphone. Please forgive punctuation. Were on the road again....today we travel to St. Ignace Michigan. Only an 8.5 hr drive, the kids said "oh that's all, well that's not bad"
We were in Duluth Minnesota last night. We heard lots of talk about a loud train at the camp ground, comments online were pretty negative," if you want to sleep don't stay there".
Well we had a very nice time. We had a fantastic chili for dinner, then we all went for a swim and soaked in the hot tub. After showering we sat in the lounge and played games, updated our i pods, watched a little tv until they closed for the night. Then we sat on the front porch of our camp. The camp was in the middle of the woods surrounded by trees, it was so peaceful and quiet. We talked and laughed with the kids, we had an awesome night. Just as we were thinking we needed to settle in, we heard a very loud rumbling noise, you could almost feel it, then the whistle started, it was so loud we couldn't hear each other talking, it was defining. We all just laughed.
Well slept fairly well, I only heard two more trains and it was over pretty quick. I would say last night was one of our best nights.
Thanks guys!!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
We were in Duluth Minnesota last night. We heard lots of talk about a loud train at the camp ground, comments online were pretty negative," if you want to sleep don't stay there".
Well we had a very nice time. We had a fantastic chili for dinner, then we all went for a swim and soaked in the hot tub. After showering we sat in the lounge and played games, updated our i pods, watched a little tv until they closed for the night. Then we sat on the front porch of our camp. The camp was in the middle of the woods surrounded by trees, it was so peaceful and quiet. We talked and laughed with the kids, we had an awesome night. Just as we were thinking we needed to settle in, we heard a very loud rumbling noise, you could almost feel it, then the whistle started, it was so loud we couldn't hear each other talking, it was defining. We all just laughed.
Well slept fairly well, I only heard two more trains and it was over pretty quick. I would say last night was one of our best nights.
Thanks guys!!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Northern Michigan
Back in the eastern time zone. Stopping for lunch
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:N Rd,Ishpeming,United States
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Bismarck, North Dakota
We left West Yellowstone before dawn, driving north along US 191 through the Targhee and Gallatin National Forests. The scenery was marvelous. Once we connected to I-90, we headed east through rolling hills, following the Yellowstone River, into canyons, then eventually returned to grasslands. We are listening to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn on the iPod.
Overall, it feels good to be on our way home. We have all learned a few things about each other, and our strengths and weaknesses when it comes to prolonged, forced confinement in small spaces.
The rest of our trip will consist of single hops each day with a new camp each night.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Yellowstone's smelly side
Unfortunately, Internet access at the KOA is dodgy at best. Using my iPhone for update later. Yesterday we did the west and southern parts of yellowstone. Lots of bubbling cauldrons of gooey mud, neon blue and yellow water pools.
Today, we are heading to the Lamar Valley, along the northern edge of the park.
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Today, we are heading to the Lamar Valley, along the northern edge of the park.
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Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Rocky Raccoon's area
Well, what a day it has been. We left Minnesota about 8 AM, having had a good night's sleep in a cabin instead of the tent. The loading up was easier too. You see, I bought a Coleman camp stove. Not one of those dinky, rectangular jobs with the tilt-up sides, but the bright red, roller and handle ones: $169 at Dick's. The smaller ones cannot hold a pot large enough to cook ragout or stew for six people. Anyway, this monstrosity of a cooktop avoids packing away like a cat in heat. Whether I put in the Sky Box, or the spacious trunk of the van, it takes up more room than one could imagine. In the box, I could get nothing to fit well around it resulting in Megan and Gabby having various parts of camp chairs poking them in the back of the head, sometimes drawing blood.
Eventually, Amy suggested I swallow my considerable pride and pack the behemoth at the bottom of the space in the back of the Conestoga Wagon for the trek across the praries, which I did. The cooler--one Tim Allen would be proud of--sat upon the gargantuan cooking implement, with some additional padding provided by two sleeping bags, a sleepy child, and an under-utilized bottle of tequila. It worked out relatively well, with the tolerable exception of the smell of last night's pork chops wafting through the cabin of the van for five hundred miles. It kept us hungry.
This hunger, however, was rapidly set aside by the smell of a 300 or so pound man who ate in the diner with us. The ladies in our group avoid vomiting by facing firmly away, enjoying, instead, the air condition, blowing smells from the nearby outhouse. The food was passable, my sole exception being a Reuben on wheat bread instead of the usual Canadian rye. There being nothing but wheat around us for six hundred miles, I took little exception to this. Fortunately, my allergies kept the stench at bay.
Once we crossed the almost imperceptible border into South Dakota, Amy who had consented to drive the horses a bit, let me know we were running low on gasoline, and that she was getting sleepy. We pulled off the highway, crossing the old US route that used to traverse the area prior to the interstate, and wandered up a dissolving road following signs that nearly yelled "Gasoline this way." We pulled up outside of a gas station with only one of four functioning pumps. The roof of the nearby gas station, also doubling as the local rock-hound shop, was held up by several scrawny, anemic tree trunks that had died some time shortly after the last ice age. As the pumps dated from the late sixties, I went inside to pay the proprietor, hoping he was still breathing. This gentleman, kindly as I later learned, swept his ponytail off his glasses and looked up from his book long enough to say, "Go ahead n pump. Pay after."
I thanked him for this courtesy, and walked outside to pump the gas. Such rattling at a station, I had not heard since filling the tank of my mini-pick up truck in 1978. This was somehow a reassuring sound.
When I went back in to pay, the gentleman explained that a nearby house was quite haunted, and the kids would surely love it. To my perplexed expression, he offered that a woman had intentionally starved herself in the home about thirty years ago, and that visitors to the house had never failed to capture omens and unexplainable "phenomenon" on film there. Well, all our cameras are digital, and having reviewed the images, I see nothing untoward, other than Gabby's frightened expression. This gentleman was unique, though, and my sole regret remains not having captured his image on film (or digital CCD for that matter) though several white blobs do appear where he was standing at the time.
After this jaunt, we continued on to Mount Rushmore. Amy and I had a mind to pleasantly surprise the kids by arriving at this illustrious monument a full day ahead of schedule. We plowed through the hilly drive intentionally evading questions about when we would arrive at the campsite. We turned a corner in the Black Hills, revealing the face of George Washington on the mountain directly in front of us and heard the rewarding sound of appreciation in the back seats. We spent 2 hours there, appreciating the history, and human sacrifice required to scrape away the unneeded stone covering the images of the four great presidents captured there in granite. It was quite an experience for all of us. I personally have been there three times now, and each time, have felt tears well up inside me. My only remaining question about this, and I would appreciate any assistance available in divining an understanding of this great mystery, is why does a 13 year old girl who posts picture after picture of herself on Facebook, in all sorts of strange and discolored poses, absolutely and adamantly refuse to be photographed by someone who loves her, and wants to show her in the best possible light.
After leaving the grounds of the palatial monument, we headed the local KOA, expecting the usual yellow-shirted staff, and sand boxes. We arrived at our destination to find a veritable resort for RVs. There are horses, pools, hot-tubs, restaurants, laundromats, water parks, hiking trails, and a lobby fit for the Ritz-Carlton here. I bid you goodnight from the confines of a snug cabin.
Eventually, Amy suggested I swallow my considerable pride and pack the behemoth at the bottom of the space in the back of the Conestoga Wagon for the trek across the praries, which I did. The cooler--one Tim Allen would be proud of--sat upon the gargantuan cooking implement, with some additional padding provided by two sleeping bags, a sleepy child, and an under-utilized bottle of tequila. It worked out relatively well, with the tolerable exception of the smell of last night's pork chops wafting through the cabin of the van for five hundred miles. It kept us hungry.
This hunger, however, was rapidly set aside by the smell of a 300 or so pound man who ate in the diner with us. The ladies in our group avoid vomiting by facing firmly away, enjoying, instead, the air condition, blowing smells from the nearby outhouse. The food was passable, my sole exception being a Reuben on wheat bread instead of the usual Canadian rye. There being nothing but wheat around us for six hundred miles, I took little exception to this. Fortunately, my allergies kept the stench at bay.
Once we crossed the almost imperceptible border into South Dakota, Amy who had consented to drive the horses a bit, let me know we were running low on gasoline, and that she was getting sleepy. We pulled off the highway, crossing the old US route that used to traverse the area prior to the interstate, and wandered up a dissolving road following signs that nearly yelled "Gasoline this way." We pulled up outside of a gas station with only one of four functioning pumps. The roof of the nearby gas station, also doubling as the local rock-hound shop, was held up by several scrawny, anemic tree trunks that had died some time shortly after the last ice age. As the pumps dated from the late sixties, I went inside to pay the proprietor, hoping he was still breathing. This gentleman, kindly as I later learned, swept his ponytail off his glasses and looked up from his book long enough to say, "Go ahead n pump. Pay after."
I thanked him for this courtesy, and walked outside to pump the gas. Such rattling at a station, I had not heard since filling the tank of my mini-pick up truck in 1978. This was somehow a reassuring sound.
When I went back in to pay, the gentleman explained that a nearby house was quite haunted, and the kids would surely love it. To my perplexed expression, he offered that a woman had intentionally starved herself in the home about thirty years ago, and that visitors to the house had never failed to capture omens and unexplainable "phenomenon" on film there. Well, all our cameras are digital, and having reviewed the images, I see nothing untoward, other than Gabby's frightened expression. This gentleman was unique, though, and my sole regret remains not having captured his image on film (or digital CCD for that matter) though several white blobs do appear where he was standing at the time.
After this jaunt, we continued on to Mount Rushmore. Amy and I had a mind to pleasantly surprise the kids by arriving at this illustrious monument a full day ahead of schedule. We plowed through the hilly drive intentionally evading questions about when we would arrive at the campsite. We turned a corner in the Black Hills, revealing the face of George Washington on the mountain directly in front of us and heard the rewarding sound of appreciation in the back seats. We spent 2 hours there, appreciating the history, and human sacrifice required to scrape away the unneeded stone covering the images of the four great presidents captured there in granite. It was quite an experience for all of us. I personally have been there three times now, and each time, have felt tears well up inside me. My only remaining question about this, and I would appreciate any assistance available in divining an understanding of this great mystery, is why does a 13 year old girl who posts picture after picture of herself on Facebook, in all sorts of strange and discolored poses, absolutely and adamantly refuse to be photographed by someone who loves her, and wants to show her in the best possible light.
After leaving the grounds of the palatial monument, we headed the local KOA, expecting the usual yellow-shirted staff, and sand boxes. We arrived at our destination to find a veritable resort for RVs. There are horses, pools, hot-tubs, restaurants, laundromats, water parks, hiking trails, and a lobby fit for the Ritz-Carlton here. I bid you goodnight from the confines of a snug cabin.
Truckstop food!
South Dakota. 4 hours to Mt. Rushmore. Great day so far. More later.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:S Main St,Plankinton,United States
Monday, August 15, 2011
hi am sagan having a great time on the trip spending 7-12 hours a day in a car with one loud 9 year old sister and two other sisters, my dad, and amy my step-mother. already went to neagra falls ( American side ) and I,m ready to go to yellow stone
three important fact
a bear can run at 30+ miles an hour
a buffalo can run faster then a bear
a nature maniac can run at 8- miles an hour and can weigh up to 250 pounds
three important fact
a bear can run at 30+ miles an hour
a buffalo can run faster then a bear
a nature maniac can run at 8- miles an hour and can weigh up to 250 pounds
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