Monday, June 30, 2008

June 30th 2008

We've been in Tennessee for a couple of weeks now and we are leaving tomorrow morning.

We couldn't muster the energy to do very much - I could muster the energy to get up around noon and sit in the shade by the pool all day, that was about it. Jenn did a similar thing - except she usually got up earlier and sat in the sun. But what are you going to do when you have Tivo with movies on demand and an unlimited rentals membership at the local video store? Me and that is like a yin and yang. And on top of that it was the Euros. (I should have put money on my pre-tournament Spain to beat Germany prediction). I did get some golf practice though - Leslie and Rich have a large back yard with a couple of flags at either end. I also played my first ever actual round of 18 holes. (I should have put money on my prediction for that too - only I'm not sure you're allowed to back yourself to lose)

We did leave the house to go to Nashville and the local civil war battlefield at Stones River which were both swelteringly hot - a reminder of why we were indoors in the first place. We looked for some western shirts but they were all a bit fancy and the cowboy boots were a bit to expensive - even the used ones.

There were lots of thunderstorms, but no real tornadoes, although there was one warning which resulted in a flash flood which resulted in some girls panicking which in turn resulted in us turning back and abandoning that plan for the day. We didn't see anything touch down but there was some localised damage to trees which suggested a twister had briefly. Either that or the lightning had struck them which is highly possible and does make trees explode, it super heats the sap which expands or something. There were also some less spectacular lightning bugs, crepuscular beetles (that's right, look it up - I did) that flash in the twilight. We didn't get to see the rare event where the beetles synchronise their flashes so you see hundreds of them flash on and off together - which would have been spectacular.

Off to see if the President is at home, then through to New York.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Alex stuck up an arch.

Aaaaaaah

Jenn under an arch

Arches NP

"Bryce Canyon's not a canyon it's an amphitheatre! Phew!

Bryce Canyon

Inviting but... Freezing! I might have proved time travel by getting out before I got in.

One of the hidden Emerald pools in Zion backcountry it looked nice so I thought 'what would Lauren do?'

Told you they are kooky

The Narrows @ Zion

Canyoneering is one of Zion's cool activities. That's hiking up and down rivers. Particularly in The Narrows. Problem with these steep-sided narrow canyons is that they get about 2 hours sun so of course we set off in the afternoon and froze our way a little way up stream before some very wet and cold Japanese tourists very easily persuaded us to try it another time. We'll try again one day.

If you want to signify 'kooky' to all visitors to your town just have a shoe tree on the road in like the people of Springdale at the gateway to Zion NP. Apparently the shoes are taken from the bodies of all the climbers who have died in the park. That's why they hang them from this dead tree. I prefer a good old head-on-a-spike personally.

June 9th 2008

"It's pretty mountainous around here - I suppose it is the Rockies"

We're in Denver about to do the thing you do in Denver when you don't want to be dead: eat. All we have in the van is some stale bread, homemade peach jam (for me), peanut butter (for Jenn) (which we had for lunch), cereal (which we had for dinner last night) and some tins of soup (which is fine when you can have a BBQ, but we can't just pull over and start a fire on the pavement (sidewalk) in the middle of Denver. They don't like that sort of thing.) So we are doing what any budget dissin' travellers would do and disrespecting our budget.

Luckily we've chosen an Italian restaurant where you are served endless bread! I don't think we'll be putting that claim to the test.

It's a luxury but it shouldn't put too much strain on our budget if we share an entrée. Our budget: it may be the prevailing memory from this trip if we aren't careful. (Actually it'll be this podcast - The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe - that we've been catching up with the back catalogue of. The Skeptic's Guide... It's like they saw me coming!)

Jenn is very good at keeping track of exactly what we spend (to the cent), if not so good at heeding her regimented calculations and staying in the black. I'm the opposite: unorganized and tight (I think the term for that is a Yorkshireman). So we have the best of both worlds: no organization and no money! Nooo, Jenn keeps track and I try to keep the spending in check. That way when the check bounces... There's a joke there somewhere but it's not worth the effort.

This is our 21st day and we will finish exactly on budget... If we don't leave a tip :) While I'm on the subject why does the percentage we tip rise over time when percentages aren't subject to inflation?

Anyway, that's all, please leave comments; I get a notification each time, and it's nice to get email that isn't from Abubakar Usman, president of the bank of Zaire.

Ps. Zion NP is amazing. If we'd known how much better than the other Utah sites it was we'd have gone there last not first. The others don't compare. The next time we have guests in CA we want to take you there (or for you to take us there).

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Whatever

Old Faithful Lodge

Old Faithful

Grand Tetons

June 4th 2008

Morning

I'm sat outside the showers at Grand Teton NP waiting for Jenn; in these major tourist attractions you have to pay extra for everything, including showers. $3.50 each (which admittedly is only about 50p or something - but we are on a tight budget). I wouldn't mind as much if it was even vaguely warmer than me, but getting up cold and getting into a colder shower is, well, camping I suppose.

It's the only thing that is camping as I remember it though. As a kid camping was about slow days, swimming in rivers, singing around a campfire (not that there was ever a campfire but I still remember it that way) - maybe a walk to the pub where we could play cards and other games. If being good at pool and darts (and modest too) was a sign of a wasted youth it doesn't feel like it.

Camping now in America is so different. We mostly arrive late after all the hermits have disappeared into their RVs. And there're only so many (should I say no many) card games you can play with two people. Most nights we spend gathering firewood so we can cook a baked potato wrapped in foil or stick a tin of soup in the embers. If everyone else wasn't already cosied up in their RVs, they might think, "those guys know what they're doing". We don't though; we always use our wood up too early and have to go to bed and run the engine to keep warm.

Evening

Teton is very picturesque which means you see lots of postcards that put your own photos to shame; but you can't look at mountains all day and although we saw some cool animals (elk, moose & calf, bison/buffalo & calves and a bald eagle) the really cool ones (bears, wolves, bull-moose) only came out for the show-offs who don't quit about how they saw a mother and baby bear have a picnic with a pack of black wolves. Why do they only come out for annoying people?

So we headed up to Yellowstone - they are pretty much the same place. I was hoping we'd have to pay a eparate fee though so we'd be getting an even better bargain with our pass but apparently it's a joint fee
for both parks.

After Grand Teton, it's a pretty underwhelmingy unspectacular park for the most part. But it has the geysers which made up for it. However it's forecast to snow tonight so we decided that instead of getting grumpy (could you tell?) because of all this horrible weather that we are so unprepared for, we'd head south towards Mormon capital, Utah.


We just stopped for a drink at Taco Bell. It was a bathroom break really, and I only got a coke so it doesn't break the fast-food fast. The girl gave me it for free - must be the accent, I better be careful, we all know how that ended last time, and in Utah I don't think the fact that I'm already married would stop em. After that we
spotted an RV park behind a motel so I went in and that woman let us park up for the night for nowt too! Isn't this how cults draw you in, being super nice? Scary.

Tomorrow we're going to the salt flats where all the land speed records were achieved. If I was a kid from the 50s that'd mean something to me. It should be cool though. Apparently it creates an optical illusion because it's so perfectly aligned with the curvature of the earth.

Idaho Falls

Lava tunnels

Lava caves

Craters o't'moon

At Craters of the Moon NP

Hell's Canyon

An historic log cabin, for my mum, in La Grande, OR

Mount Hood