Part 7: Final Destination

• Brief Stop in Portland

Our arrival into eastern Oregon threw us off a little because it looked a lot like Western Kansas.  It was a little flat and arid with no trees but the river we were following reminded us that we were going to see the green scenery eventually. We actually saw lodging named “Dodge City Motel” which made us both giggle. Once we got further West, we saw the snowy peak on Mt. Hood on the horizon. Soon after that we were treated by the Multanomah waterfall (tallest in Oregon), pine trees, hills and dramatic rock formations.

We got to our new house in the early evening. This was the first time I’ve seen it…Meg flew out here solo a few months ago to house hunt while I monitored available houses on craigslist.com.  We were lucky to get this house because it’s a real competitive neighborhood to find a house.  But, luckily, Meg made a good impression on the landlord and he picked us as his new tenants.

The house is a great fit for us, as is the neighborhood, Sellwood.  It reminds me of our old neighborhood in East Lawrence…all of the houses are different and the neighborhood has a lot of character in general.  There are a lot of cool stores and pubs right around the corner and it’s about a 5-10 minute drive to downtown.

• To the Coast!

Portland was experiencing one of its 5 hot days of the year the second day we were there so we decided to do what the locals do…hit up the coast. Before we did that, we were invited to cool off in a river with our friends John and Theresa and their 1 year old, Amelia. We went to a off-the-beaten-path river, drank a few beers in the cold water, and caught up with our friends.  Shortly after, we stopped at a picturesque winery and had a glass of red wine.  Yep, I think I’ll get used to this.

After the glass of wine, Meg and I headed to the coast to go see one of the reasons we moved here…the Oregon coast.  We made our way to Pacific City and the coast was exactly how we remembered it.  It was about 30 degrees cooler than inland and there were tall rocks in the water.  What we find great about the Oregon coast in particular, besides the scenery, is that the whole coast is public and there is very little commercialization.  You can have beach bonfires and there are even some parts where Meg and I will be able to set up our camper right on the beach. 

We had dinner at a brewery that overlooked some surfers catching some waves and then drove back to Portland.  The next day, we had our pods with most of our possessions delivered and we got officially moved into the house.  Once we got the important stuff unpacked, we got ready to make one more trip…a Fourth of July celebration up in Whidbey Island, Washington.

• Whidbey Island

We drove up to northern Washington and arrived at our friend's,  Jeremy and Alison’s house in time for a nice steak dinner and a good night’s rest before we plan to blow up a bunch of mortars the next day.  Jeremy and Alison live on a beautiful piece of land with a great house and a “man-shed”, which was more like a tall steel barn, out back.  This is where the keg and food was served and where our personal firework display took place.

Jeremy is a helicopter pilot for the Navy search and rescue squad that specializes in saving hiker misfortunes.  It’s good to know that we’re lucky enough to have this service for when we go hiking while living in these parts.  Some of Jeremy’s fellow Navy friends came over and we shot off a ton of fireworks with them and some old friends. 

A couple of the search and rescue guys were actually on call that evening and got called away in the middle of the party to go rescue a hiker who fell and had head trauma.  These guys were on it and apparently they saved the guy in something like 20 minutes…pretty impressive.

After a tour of the Navy base the next day that included an up-close look at some fighter jets and the helicopter that made the rescue the previous day, Meg and I left the great hospitality that Jeremy and Alison showed us and we headed down south back to Portland.

• Done and Done

We got back to Portland in no time at all and over the next few days, we got the rest of our stuff settled into the new house.  Meg and I also took some time to explore our new town and we both agreed that we’re going to really like it here.  There’s a lot to do here but it also maintains a small-town feel to it.

The people here are nice, there’s a lot of live music, it has the most breweries per capita in the world, and we’re within an hour of skiing on Mt. Hood, kayaking on rivers and lakes, hiking in forests, and the camping on the coast.  Plus, it’s a good place for me to fulfill one of my dreams…capturing Sasquatch and teaching him the upright bass.  I need to find a bass player here for my new jugband and I think that Sasquatch on bass would sell a lot of tickets.

The past month was one of the most exhilarating vacations Meg and I have ever been on.  I highly recommend all of the places that we stopped at and I hope to even make it back to all of them (especially the Grand Tetons).  The next plan is to get established by finding new jobs and infiltrating the local music scene.  Anyone reading this blog is more than welcome to come visit and stay in our spare bedroom.  Cheers!

 

Part 6: Glacier Park

• Spear for When the Bears Come:

After a brief overnight stop in Missoula, Montana (awesome town, by the way), we find a cool little RV park in some secluded woods in West Glacier.  Once we got camp set up, we had time to hit up a trail to do some hiking.  Meg finds a trail on the map to some waterfalls so we jump in the car and head there.

As we pull up to the trailhead, Meg notices that we almost drove over some kind of pole.  When we get out of the car, we discover that it’s a bamboo walking stick with a spike at the end.  We were the only ones around so we decide to keep it. I suddenly realize that this walking stick could also be used as a bear spear.  This makes me feel better about the hike since we didn’t buy any bear repellent (pepper spray, bear bells, firecrackers).  So, like the Drakkar Sauna song, I now have a “spear for when the bears come.”

We don’t encounter any bears along the way, but we do come across a mother deer and its baby deer.  I decided not to use the bear spear on them for training purposes.  Instead, we follow them down the path for several yards before they went back into the forest.

We made it to the falls and, as usual, they were amazing.  On our way back, I practiced my moves for a potential bear encounter with my new weapon but, luckily, we don’t encounter a bear on the way back either…my moves need a lot of work.

On our drive back to camp, we notice that one of the things we were going to do while in West Glacier was closed…the drive along the Going To The Sun Road is a popular attraction that takes you way up into the mountains along very narrow roads.  It’s closed because they’re still clearing the dozens of feet of snow that’s still on the road.  So, this forces us to change plans again, but Meg is pretty good at adjustments.   As we were driving back to camp, we pass a helicopter tour business that’s close to our campsite.  This becomes our new plan for the next day.

• Helicop-Tours:

I’m not a big fan of flying and neither one of us has ever been on a helicopter before, but the thought of flying through these mountains in a helicopter to see the glaciers from a birds-eye-view sounds too appealing to pass up.

We booked a slot and found our way to the launch pad in anticipation of our next experience.  Flying in a helicopter is a different feeling than in an airplane but it’s a lot smoother than I expected.  In no time, we were way up in the mountains getting great views of the mountains, waterfalls, lakes, and the glaciers.   This was another unexpected highlight of our trip.

Since it’s still early in the season, we found out that a lot of things were closed in West Glacier so we decided to pull up camp and head to East Glacier, where we hear there is better hiking trails.  We locate some good camping sites on the map and make our way there. 

•   Grand Tetons: Part Deux

We made our trek to the eastside of the park into the Many Glacier campgrounds.  This side of the park reminded me quite a bit of the Grand Tetons…these mountains also have very rigid peaks carved by glaciers.  We camped in a valley amongst these monsters and this was probably our best campsite in terms of scenery.  We got settled into our camp a little late in the day so we decided to take on a smaller trail before we called it a day.

• Iceberg Lake:

We awoke some time in the late morning and prepped for our longest hike thus far…a 9 mile (round-trip) hike up into the glacier and into Iceberg Lake.  Not only was this a long hike in terms of miles, but it was also a long hike in terms of elevation. 

The ascent of this hike was tiring but well-worth it.  Once we got over the hump, we were rewarded by more waterfalls and peaks.  After several hours of hiking upward and across several streams and snow, we got to the final destination…a pure, natural lake at the base of the glaciers.  Being this close really shows you how they form the mountains in these areas.  And the water was so clear that we could see the bottom of a 100 foot lagoon.

We also see some more wildlife along this route.  We saw a big horn sheep and a mountain goat, but again, luckily we didn’t see a bear even though we received reports of a mama grizzly and her cubs in the area.  This grizzly was lucky because I had become a little more advanced in my bear spear techniques.

The original plan was to go to Banff, Canada before heading back south towards Portland but, due to various minor reasons, we decided to head to Portland earlier than expected.  After we get somewhat settled in Portland, the last leg of the trip will include heading to the coast and then drive up to Whidbey Island, Washington for a 4^th of July weekend with our friend, Jeremy.

Part 5: Yellowstone in 2 Days

• Earth’s Pimple

Reluctantly, we left the Grand Tetons for some new scenery in Yellowstone Park. Since we weren’t sure when we’d actually arrive in Yellowstone when we planned this trip, we didn’t make reservations. And this time of year, you will not get a campsite without a reservation. We keep our fingers crossed that we might get lucky since it’s in the middle of the week but to no avail. Once we pull up to the park entrance, we see that all campgrounds are full. We come to realize that this hinders our plans to spend 3 or 4 days at Yellowstone…the park is too big to keep going back and forth to a campsite outside of the park without it being a major pain in the gas tank.

Instead, we hatch a plan to try and see as much as possible in 2 days so we only have to stay one night in a small town just west of the park. We get in full Clark Griswold mode and head to Old Faithful with the mentality to see as much as possible in 2 days.

Since we were going to the main tourist destination of the park, we decide to act like tourists and pull right into the “no parking” area right by Old Faithful himself. No sooner than we get done playing “clueless tourist”, we see the crowd getting excited and, right on cue, Old Faithful erupts. I have to say, there’s a good reason it’s a popular tourist destination…every 90 minutes, 365 days a year, it doesn’t miss an eruption.

Once we got our Old Faithful viewing, we decide to walk around to the other geysers around the area. These geysers are smaller, but also impressive. It’s amazing to see the ground bubble up like a hot tub and release steam. To look across the land and see smoke rising out of it is one of the most surreal horizons I’ve ever seen. Yellowstone is basically a giant Earth pimple just ready to explode. I’ve never walked across a volcano before and it was nice to do so w/out any threat of an eruption. The professionals moderate the magma activity and currently it’s static and the last eruption was 640,000 years ago. But once it starts moving around, that’s a sign that it will erupt and then look out! (especially to the East where the winds will blow)

As the sun was going down, we got our last glimpses of the smoking landscape and then headed to an rv park outside the park for the night.

• American Safari

The second day of Yellowstone couldn’t have been more diverse. Somehow, we were able to see a canyon, mud pots (mud volcano), more hot springs, and some great wildlife.

Our first stop, the canyon, was pretty spectacular and they have multiple stops to see it in different angles. One of the spots that overlooked some waterfalls created a full rainbow across the canyon. I can see now why they call it “The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.”

Our second stop was at the mud pots which were basically muddy hot springs. These were a little darker and dirtier than the geysers from the previous day. The highlight of this stop and one of my personal highlights of the whole trip was The Dragon Mouth Spring. This was a geyser in a cave that, each time it erupted, made a dragon fire breathing noise, followed by smoke billowing from the cave. I wanted to give a rock fist each time this happened.

Our third stop was Mammoth Springs which are travertine-depositing hot springs. Like the other springs, there were a lot of bubbling pools of water and steam being released but these had more diverse colors in the rock deposits than the other springs. One area looked like Jupiter, which was my personal favorite.

Throughout the second day, we encountered some great wildlife. We saw bison, elk, deer, a moose, and a wolf. The bison and deer are everywhere but we were pretty fortunate to come across a full grown moose and especially a wolf. The wolves in these parts are very elusive and we happened to see one from a distance in a grassy meadow.

After our non-stop American Safari through Yellowstone in two days, we decide we should go ahead and set camp for a few days up north. Next stop: Glacier Park.

Part 4: The GRAND TETONS!

• Nature’s Skyscrapers (by Rob)

I didn’t think any mountains could trump the Colorado Rockies, but I was wrong.  The Grand Tetons are the biggest mountains I’ve ever seen.  Meg and I were completely blown away as soon as we saw these mountains on the horizon.  Even from a hundred miles away, these mountains were impressive.  There were only two other times that I’ve been speechless from the scenery…the Grand Canyon and the Oregon coast.  This would make three.

These mountains only got better as we got closer.  Meg kept pulling over to take pictures only to realize that the next stop was an even better photo op…I think we stopped about 10 times total.  “Grand Teton” is a French term and its name is based on the female anatomy…look up the French translation if you want the exact translation.

These mountains appear much bigger than any other mountains because there aren’t any foothills.  This is because they were formed by two converging plates.  One side went straight up and the other went straight down.   These plates are actually still converging and the side that’s going down is sinking 4 times faster than the other rising side.  I can’t imagine what they’ll look like in another thousand years. During the ice age, glacier movement gave them their rigid appearance and, when they melted, created Jackson Lake at the base.  I think I said, “This is pretty hard to beat” about 50 times.

• Hike to the Hidden Falls (by Rob)

The first full day in the Tetons, we decided to hike up to see some waterfalls.  At the base of our hike, we’re greeted by dozens of marmots darting everywhere.  We were a little frightened by these things at first but quickly realized that they were harmless.  We hiked up about 3 miles into one of the Tetons and made it to the Hidden Falls.  You could pretty much see the snow melting into these falls.  The highlight of the hike was on the way down when we saw an adolescent moose eating by the lake.  This was our first wild moose encounter and we sat and watched him eat and drink for about 20 minutes.  Even for a young moose, he was huge.

 • Best Canoe Ride Ever (by Rob)

The second day at the Tetons, we decided to take a canoe out on the lake.  This may have been one of the greatest experiences of my life.  The water was calm, the weather was perfect, we had a few beers and lunch in a backpack, and we had the best backdrop ever.  

If we were fishing, we would have caught enough to feed a small village…they were practically everywhere and we almost could’ve reached in and grabbed a few.  We also saw a bald eagle fly right over us and perch himself on a branch.  If things couldn’t get any better, as we were paddling in, I noticed a green piece of paper floating towards me so I bent down and scooped it out of the lake.  It turned out to be a $20 dollar bill.  So, basically, the lake paid me to paddle around in its awesomeness.  It’s safe to say I’ll go canoeing on that lake any day, any time.

Once we finished up the best canoe ride ever, we decided it was time to head up to Yellowstone Park.  It was pretty tough to leave the Tetons, but our next destination made it easy to get over.   Geysers, here we come!

Part 3: Colorado Territory - Farewell Tour

• Shava, no? (by Rob)

After the Creede shows, we got a 3 day break before we went up to Denver for more shows. Meg found an amazing little first-come, first-serve campground on Mount Shavano during her research of this trip, so we decide to head there to do some camping and some campfire rehearsals.

En route to Mt. Shavano, we accidentally took a wrong turn and ended up going an "alternate" route through the mountains. This wasn't necessarily out of the way, but there was a better route that we could've taken on more flat highways, which was more desirable due to high gas prices. We didn't realize our mistake until about an hour into the hike so it would've been a huge waste to backtrack. So, we continued on through the steep mountains of southwest Colorado. This was a slight bummer until we hit Lake City, Colorado. That's when I see a sign that reads "Alferd Packer Massacre Site." Alferd Packer was the 1st (and possibly only) man convicted of cannibalism in the US in the late 1880s after his travel party got lost in the mountains and he did what he had to do to survive. (hack and eat up his companions after they turned on him for getting them lost in the mountains)

We recognized this story because of one of our favorite b-movie comedies of all time, Cannibal the Musical, was based on this story. This was one of the first movies created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone (of South park) http://youtube.com/watch?v=bpvQzsDB3uA

As soon as I saw the Massacre Site sign, I'm happy we went the wrong way. As we stopped to get gas, we ventured into the Alferd Packer gift shop and the lady clerk was more than happy to fill us in on details Alferd Packer's misfortunes. This is where Meg found a nice little addition to our kitchen (see photo of Meg with cutting board).

We get to Mt. Shavano and this is turns out to be a perfect campsite for what we wanted to do...be around as little civilization as possible. The campsite was mostly an Aspen grove with a beautiful, quick moving creek nearby. For 3 days, we camped and played music by the campfire and worked on new material...Dave, Chicken Dinner, and Gordo even worked out a few new songs. One tune is about the Garden of Eden and should be on Casey Casem's top 40 countdown very soon.

• From One Extreme to the Other: (by Rob)

After three days of music and solitude, it was time to move on to the big city of Denver for two more shows. One was at Appaloosa Grill and the next night was Dulcinea's 100th Monkey. We rallied the troops and made it to the Appaloosa Grill in downtown Denver as the dinner crowd was finishing up. At first, we were a little apprehensive because the clientele was on the swanky side...this isn't necessarily the target crowd for a couple of down-home bands. But, once we got started, the crowd was very supportive. Our biggest supporter turned out to be one of Meg's childhood friends from Iowa City, Pete Matheson. Pete came out the next night at Dulcinea's and helped energize us after fatigue tried to take over.

Once we survived the Denver shows, it was time to move on to the finale in another small mountain town, Leadville. This was another old mining town that survived and created a cool little community up in the peaks. The Scarlett Tavern was very welcoming and even made a big banner for us. The show was a success and just like that.....the mini-tour with the band was over, unfortunately.

The next day, we parted ways with the band and headed back up north to Fort Collins via dinner at a friend of Megs in Golden to recharge and recoup. (thanks Leslie & Kyle for the tasty fresh fajitas!-Meg)

Next stop: The Grand Tetons and Yellowstone in Wyoming.

Part 2: Colorado Territory – First Leg of tour

• Lawyer, Doctor, Banker, Labor, Mummy (by Rob)

We begin our exodus out of Lawrence on June 5th and head west in hopes of getting into Colorado before the day is done. Dave Bruchman, bass player for the Gnomes and Old Country Death Band, decides to join us for the first leg of the trip b/c he shared our interest in our first stop…The Garden of Eden in Lucas, Ks. This is a place Meg and I have always wanted to check out. This turns out to be a great decision b/c it caused us to go north to some County roads and dodge some of that classic Kansas tornadic weather that was developing along I-70. As soon as we set our course to Lucas, it was as if we were threading the storm needle…there always seemed to be a huge storm cloud directly in front or behind us but never above us.

We arrive in Lucas and we don’t have a hard time finding The Garden of Eden. Lucas is an interesting place in itself. There’s an emphasis on some really abstract and erie art, which you won’t find in many other places in small towns (and by small we mean 430 people) in the Midwest. It seems a little out of place in the plains but that’s what’s awesome about it.

The Garden of Eden http://www.garden-of-eden-lucas-kansas.com/ is the house of artist and social commentator S.P. Dinsmoor, who sculpted political and religious figures out of stone and decorated his house with them in the early 1900’s. When he died, he requested that he get placed into a glass casing to slow down the decomposing. So, basically, we saw a modern day mummy in western Kansas. He still has his beard!

• The Spice Must Flow (by Rob):

We arrive at an RV park in the middle of the night with hopes that the rest of our traveling party were as lucky as us in dodging the storms. The “rest” for the first leg of the tour consisted of Jason Gordon, aka Gordo, and Rob Stewart, aka Chicken Dinner. Luckily, they dodged the serious storms as well and met up with us first thing in the morning after driving all-night to catch up with us.

Per Meg request, that morning we headed off for the Sand Dunes http://www.nps.gov/grsa/ not far from our camp. The sand dunes are a crazy thing. They are in the far Eastern part of a Valley called the San Luis Valley. This valley used to be a huge lake. Once the lake evaporated due to climate change the left over sand was blown by the predominant SW winds up against the mountains creating “Sahara-like” dunes. These days the dunes continue to grow because of two rivers nearby that recycle the sand from the mountains onto the valley floor. These are the tallest dunes in the US, reaching 750 feet tall. We didn’t get all the way to the top…Chicken Dinner got the closest! It is no easy feet climbing up these suckers. This turned out to be a perfect way to start off our mini-tour.

• A Silver Lining (by Rob):

Once we got nicely toasted from the Sand Dunes, the next stop was Creede, Colorado for the first two shows of the tour at the Tommyknocker Tavern. Creede is an old mining town that’s turned into an art town that attracts some good live music and theater productions. It turns out, in 1966, to revive a struggling economy from the demise of mining, city officials hired Kansas University theater students to build a theater to bring in live theatrical productions. The experiment worked and the theater still brings in shows to this day. www.creederep.org/crt_history.htm.

We roll into town and head to the bar where we’re playing. The owner, Brian, couldn’t have been a better guy to book a show for. Not only did he feed us beer and food as soon as we got there, he put all of us up a couple rooms for free in a motel down the street.

I was pretty impressed by his hospitality and, at the same time, a little confused as to why he was treating us so well since we’re pretty much unproven Kansas bands that nobody has ever heard of. I eventually came to the conclusion that these small mountain towns have a hard time getting live music; traveling with a bunch of band equipment up through the mountains to play in the small towns isn’t worth it to a lot of bands. So Brian, being a smart business man, knows to treat the bands well so they’ll come back. And it worked! I’ll go back to Creede any time.

The motel we got put up into was the Snowshoe Lodge. We let Chicken Dinner and Dave check us in. As we were finding a good place to park the camper, we see Dinner and Dave burst out of the lobby w/ more of a hop than usual. They motion for us to follow them over to the rooms we’re staying in and as we catch up, we’re informed that we get to stay in the John Wayne room. It turns out that John Wayne used to stay in this particular room on a regular basis. Apparently, his horse ranch was close to the vicinity and he’ll loved to hang out in Creede. This is no lie…breakfast with the owner confirmed pictures of “The Duke” in front of rooms 101 and 102. To commemorate this special motel room, they included a special compilation 4 tape VHS set and VHS player in the room of some John Wayne classics, including “The Grit” which was “filmed in Colorado. We watched these after our shows and it was a great and hilarious way to top off each evening.


The shows went pretty well but it’s funny how things work out. At our first show, we gain a fan named Frank who, after seeing a few songs, asked us to play on the patio of the bar he worked at the next afternoon. Frank also treated us right…he fed us food and beer all afternoon as we played an unplanned afternoon patio show.

I’d have to say that the people of Creede couldn’t have been nicer or more appreciative of us they have our stamp of approval. It occurs to us that these people are so laid back and nice because of their surroundings. I guess if I woke up every day to these mountains and this town, I’d be the same way.

Next stop: 3 days of camping and jamming up on Shavano Mountain and then off to do more shows in Denver and Leadville.

Part 1: Saying Goodbye

Part 1: Saying Goodbye

• The Overall Plan (by Rob)

There’s never a perfect time to move. There’s always a reason to stay and there’s always a reason not to go. Besides the fact that we’re leaving behind a lot of family and friends, there couldn’t have been a better time to leave our beloved Lawrence. My job ran out of grant funding, Meg needed a change of scenery after living her entire life in the Midwest, we needed to upgrade our living conditions, and we got to witness a Jayhawk National Championship, one thing we both really wanted to experience while living in Lawrence…the Orange Bowl victory was a pleasant surprise as well! So, as all these factors played out, we both decided that it was time to try out another part of the country and Portland, Oregon was the logical choice for no logical reason. We don’t have any family ties or any job offers there but we’re both strangely drawn to that city and that part of the country. After several months of classic Meg researching and scheming, we hatched a plan: We’d sell the house, have a going away party; tour with my bands, The Old Country Death Band and The Gnomes in Colorado; take a month long vacation and stay in RV parks/campsites (in Wyoming, Montana, Canada, and Washington); arrive in Portland some time in July, and kind of go from there. Sounds good to me!

• The Last Party (by Rob)

The last couple of weeks in Lawrence was a complete whirlwind. We each only slept a few hours a night while trying to tie up loose ends with our house and jobs. So, what would be the smart thing to do in this situation? Pack and clean? Not us. Instead, we decide to have a going away party with live music in the backyard. Nope, this wasn’t the smart thing to do, but it was definitely the right thing to do. We set up a stage and had a bunch of our musician friends and family play some music in the comfort in our own backyard. This will probably be the thing we miss most about our life in Lawrence. The music scene is hard to beat and it’s right up our alley but we hope to spread some of that Midwest music to the Pacific NW. The party was a great success and we got to hear some of our favorite musicians perform. Somehow, we pulled off packingand cleaning after the party and we loaded up our Aliner pop-up camper and headed west.

Next stop: A brief tour of the Garden of Eden in Lucas,Kansas and then off to Colorado for the tour with the bands.