We camped by the Colorado River near Arches National Park.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
We had lunch with Liv on the roof of the Denver Post.
The above pictured farmer's market is where we bought the below mentioned delicious jerky.
Then we went to Roxborough State Park.
Also, we sweat and sweat and soaked and soaked in underground caves at Indian Springs.
We got all floppy.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Errata.
Everyone that we met in Indiana had a gold cross around his neck, a moustache, and an enormous can of Red Bull or Monster energy drink.
We read "World War Z" out loud in the car as we went from Pennsylvania to Indiana.
Now reading book 5 of the Dark Tower, "Wolves of the Calla". Allison's first time through, would be my second.
Misanthropy seems to be a condition caused mostly by isolation from the anthropes, which is problematic. The more people we talk to on the road here the better I like humans in general.
Good jerky :
www.oregontrailjerky.com
Yum.
We read "World War Z" out loud in the car as we went from Pennsylvania to Indiana.
Now reading book 5 of the Dark Tower, "Wolves of the Calla". Allison's first time through, would be my second.
Misanthropy seems to be a condition caused mostly by isolation from the anthropes, which is problematic. The more people we talk to on the road here the better I like humans in general.
Good jerky :
www.oregontrailjerky.com
Yum.
Day 8:
Mount Sunflower: highest point in Kansas.
Photos.
A Point of Interest.
Then we got to Liv!!! Yay! We made peach cobbler out of the peaches we had left from Evan's farm (thank you Evan). We had it for breakfast on days 9 and 10.
Mount Sunflower: highest point in Kansas.
Photos.
A Point of Interest.
Then we got to Liv!!! Yay! We made peach cobbler out of the peaches we had left from Evan's farm (thank you Evan). We had it for breakfast on days 9 and 10.
Day Seven. . . Middle America . . .
We left Jess' place early as she had an engagement with an equine friend of hers, then pulled off the road to:
Historic Blackwater, Missouri: breakfast at Back Roads, the only place to eat in the extremely small town.
We went to a shop modeled after a late 19th century trading post and bought an excellent wide brimmed hat and some stuff to keep mosquitoes away.
Then:
We left Jess' place early as she had an engagement with an equine friend of hers, then pulled off the road to:
Historic Blackwater, Missouri: breakfast at Back Roads, the only place to eat in the extremely small town.
We went to a shop modeled after a late 19th century trading post and bought an excellent wide brimmed hat and some stuff to keep mosquitoes away.
Then:
KANSAS
We were warned that driving through Kansas would be "mind numbing," "extremely boring," "flat," "featureless..." The old guy in the shop in Blackwater said "there's one good way to go through Kansas; at 11pm at 30,000 feet." Well, it was flat. But really. It wasn't so bad. I'd describe it as peaceful and serene. There was virtually no traffic, the speed limit was 75 mph, the sky was huge and every now and again there were enormous fields of sunflowers. Unlike New Jersey or Delaware, the highway takes you through beautiful fields with delapidated farmhouses, not ugly, smelly industrial buildings. It was nice. We liked it. Also, there was a wind farm you could see from 12 miles away.
The little black specks you can barely see in the grass are cows, to give you an idea of how huge these turbines are.
We pulled off at Abiline just to check it out. Only in America can the descendants of murderous rot-gut whores get to live so well. There was a lovely park with a swimming pool and skateboard ramps, some historic mansions, and a Purina dog food plant.
At around 7:30pm we saw a huge storm cloud and were warned of a dangerous thunderstorm with potential for golf ball sized hail that would be directly in our path until around 11:30. Having been driving since 9am in a different time zone, we decided it was high time to pull into a motel. So we did. The next morning we had a complimentary breakfast of biscuits and gravy and eggs. Mmmmm.
The little black specks you can barely see in the grass are cows, to give you an idea of how huge these turbines are.
We pulled off at Abiline just to check it out. Only in America can the descendants of murderous rot-gut whores get to live so well. There was a lovely park with a swimming pool and skateboard ramps, some historic mansions, and a Purina dog food plant.
At around 7:30pm we saw a huge storm cloud and were warned of a dangerous thunderstorm with potential for golf ball sized hail that would be directly in our path until around 11:30. Having been driving since 9am in a different time zone, we decided it was high time to pull into a motel. So we did. The next morning we had a complimentary breakfast of biscuits and gravy and eggs. Mmmmm.
On I-70 West through Western Ohio at about 10 pm, we hit some truly horrible traffic...
Road construction had closed the right lane and just where that happened, in the left lane a tractor trailer had died. It took us about 2 hours to go 7 miles. The car started to rattle and overheat, so we stopped and slept in Englewood, Ohio. No pictures.
The next day (#5) we made it as far as Richmond, Indiana before we decided to take the car to a mechanic.
We stayed at the Holiday Inn while he replaced the water pump. We drove the rest of Sunday (Day 6) and got to Columbia Missouri, where we visited Jess Bowers. Fun is fun.
Road construction had closed the right lane and just where that happened, in the left lane a tractor trailer had died. It took us about 2 hours to go 7 miles. The car started to rattle and overheat, so we stopped and slept in Englewood, Ohio. No pictures.
The next day (#5) we made it as far as Richmond, Indiana before we decided to take the car to a mechanic.
We stayed at the Holiday Inn while he replaced the water pump. We drove the rest of Sunday (Day 6) and got to Columbia Missouri, where we visited Jess Bowers. Fun is fun.
We passed a house on a county road in Ohio where several trailers were set up like billboards. The family living there is enraged at their neighbors and Judge Ward because of human waste being dumped in their freshwater pond, and the inaction of the county judiciary in regards to said dumping. . . Three trailers with their broadsides covered in angry lettering, detailing the grievances, and this artistic capstone:
Even without seeing the proof I am inclined to believe that they are in the right and that Judge Ward should indeed go to hell but ah, we are merely passing travellers.
Even without seeing the proof I am inclined to believe that they are in the right and that Judge Ward should indeed go to hell but ah, we are merely passing travellers.
Yay. This is the fellow who fed us our dinner on Day 4 of the trip. He is the owner and curator of Etta's Lunchbox Cafe in New Plymouth, Ohio. This is an exceptionally friendly person with a heavily canonized narrative version of his autobiography. I suspect that if you go there, you will hear many of the exact sentences that we heard. We liked him. I played his dulcimer. The food was tasty and the jalepenos were grown in his garden.
He has goats, llamas, a donkey, and chickens in the yard. Dogs and cats. . . He also had a lot of art back there that he had done... all of which was extremely weird and creepy considering his demeanor in person. I asked him if that was what he saw... he replied that it was what he experienced, and that without an outlet for the dark impulses lurking inside of him, well, who knows.
Allison took this picture of his llamas, and it came out looking exactly like one of the pencil drawings on the shelf in the museum, minus the ghostly undead image of Jim standing behind the llama on the left.
Our blood ran cold.
He has goats, llamas, a donkey, and chickens in the yard. Dogs and cats. . . He also had a lot of art back there that he had done... all of which was extremely weird and creepy considering his demeanor in person. I asked him if that was what he saw... he replied that it was what he experienced, and that without an outlet for the dark impulses lurking inside of him, well, who knows.
Allison took this picture of his llamas, and it came out looking exactly like one of the pencil drawings on the shelf in the museum, minus the ghostly undead image of Jim standing behind the llama on the left.
Our blood ran cold.
Day 4:
We drove from New Vrindaban to a county road in Ohio, where we put on our boots and headed down an old train track searching for the ghost town of Moonville Ohio. The enormous train tunnel gave us a clue that it might be nearby...
The train tracks had run across several tressels that crossed a snaky river. We searched for signs of dead Moonville with no luck. The closest we came to finding the town was a couple of skeletons off to the side of the trail next to a flashlight that was still lit. There was an odd smell of turpentine and lilacs. Suddenly, they were upon us:
Clearly the reanimated bodies of the two dead ghost hunters. They claimed they too were looking for the town and cemetary that they had seen advertised on a 'ghost town site' on the Internet. This is when we realized that there was no such place as the ghost town of Moonville, and that the web site was part of an elaborate plot to lure tourists into the woods and devour their souls. The ghosts leapt out of "Norah" and "Chris" and into our bodies. They ripped the flesh and organs from our skeletons, leaving the bones steaming in the water, and assumed our identities for the remainder of the trip.
We drove from New Vrindaban to a county road in Ohio, where we put on our boots and headed down an old train track searching for the ghost town of Moonville Ohio. The enormous train tunnel gave us a clue that it might be nearby...
The train tracks had run across several tressels that crossed a snaky river. We searched for signs of dead Moonville with no luck. The closest we came to finding the town was a couple of skeletons off to the side of the trail next to a flashlight that was still lit. There was an odd smell of turpentine and lilacs. Suddenly, they were upon us:
Clearly the reanimated bodies of the two dead ghost hunters. They claimed they too were looking for the town and cemetary that they had seen advertised on a 'ghost town site' on the Internet. This is when we realized that there was no such place as the ghost town of Moonville, and that the web site was part of an elaborate plot to lure tourists into the woods and devour their souls. The ghosts leapt out of "Norah" and "Chris" and into our bodies. They ripped the flesh and organs from our skeletons, leaving the bones steaming in the water, and assumed our identities for the remainder of the trip.
Day 3: New Vrindaban, West Virginia.
After fixing us an incredibly delicious breakfast, Evan suggested we check out this golden palace in the middle of nowhere in West Virginia. It was built by a bunch of guys in their twenties with no building experience to honor their teacher. Evan knew the guy who manages their farm and told us we should try to meet him.
After a tour of the palace, we arrived at the farm just before they were going to have a community meeting about the farm's ability to support the community and an Indian man spoke about village farming in India. We were interested in hearing about this as we wish to have a community farm of our own some day. They invited us to stay for dinner. It was delicious! We had so much fun eating and talking and being in this beautiful place that time slipped away from us. We were invited to stay the night so we pitched our tent in their gated garden. The next morning we joined them for breakfast. Such hospitality and so many smiles! I don't know if I've ever encountered so many happy, relaxed, generous people. And unlike my preconceptions about Hari Krishnas, they seemed just like regular folk. Except maybe happier and friendlier.
We walked around their magnificent rose garden and lotus covered pond one more time, said goodbye to some tame peacocks who wander freely, and headed to Ohio.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Day 2: Morgantown, West Virginia: Visiting Evan!!!
Pleased to report that Evan seems to be doing well. He is working on West Virginia University's Soil Sciences farm, tending a garden and greenhouse for the purposes of science.
He took the day off and we went to Cooper's Rock state park and hiked around the Rock City. Insects kept dying right before I found them so I could go "oooo! pretty!" at them. I took a dead butterfly with me.
Photos.
Pleased to report that Evan seems to be doing well. He is working on West Virginia University's Soil Sciences farm, tending a garden and greenhouse for the purposes of science.
He took the day off and we went to Cooper's Rock state park and hiked around the Rock City. Insects kept dying right before I found them so I could go "oooo! pretty!" at them. I took a dead butterfly with me.
Photos.
Day 1: New York City. Objective: obtain fire poi from Dube. Mission successful.
Photo: traffic enforcement van parked in left turn lane, making left turn virtually impossible.
Later: Centralia, PA. Photo: "the end of the road" - defunct road overgrown with plants. Mysteriously the camera froze (completely unresponsive) after this picture, lens still extended. At the diner, the camera worked again and we viewed the picture. Interpret the floating orb beside me as you will.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
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