We celebrated crossing the border back into the US by filling up our tank with cheap, American gas. Smell that sweet, sweet freedom! The next few weeks would be spent visiting friends and family as well as visiting some of America’s famous national parks out west. First up: Seattle.
One of Ike’s friends from Japan, Chad, and his family graciously welcomed us into their beautiful home. That night we met up with an eclectic group of friends for some sushi and then hit up the local pub next door. Thanks to Chad, Karin, Julia, Andres, and Priscilla for meeting up with us! It was great to catch up.
REUNION TOUR CONTINES
The next day we made our way down to Portland to visit Travis, a friend from high school, and his wife Kristina. We hit up a Chinese restaurant for lunch, then headed downtown to the OMSI: Oregon Museum of Science & Industry. For some reason every family with young kids was at the museum that day, but we braved the museum nonetheless. They had an impressive display about dinosaurs which proceeded to blow our minds with how much paleontology has progressed since we learned about dinos in our elementary school days. The current research indicates that many dinosaurs had feathers! My house of cards that was dino facts crumbled down around me. We spent the rest of the afternoon attempting (only sometimes successfully) brain teasers throughout the museum, building paper airplanes, and working together to re-create the St. Louis Arch (which promptly toppled about 30 seconds after we built it).[Narrowly missing the woman watching us build it] After letting our inner-child out for the afternoon, we headed over to Cascade Brewing Co. to sample two dozen sour ales. I had the brilliant idea that after our trip Ike should open a brewery in our home town. We’re accepting name suggestions. We rounded out our night in Portland with a late night stop at the Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Ike’s new favorite grocery store, and bought a fancy dinner of frozen pizza, Ben & Jerry’s, TGIFridays potato skins, and Monster energy drinks. Living the high life! [The first and last time we"ll buy those potato skins in a large bag, as Bethany MURDERED THEM]
Dem sours.
Friendship going on 2 decades
The next morning we set out on the Pacific Coast Highway heading south towards California. The traffic-y tourist towns were offset by the beautiful scenery at nearly every turn. We stopped for the night in the Redwood forest. The area where the campground was located had been logged in the 1920’s, so all that remained of the largest trees were stumps, some of them 25 feet in diameter! We resisted the temptation to pitch our tent atop one of them.
The PCH did not disappoint.
The giant redwoods made Sweetcakes look teeny tiny.
Continuing south of the Redwood forest we quickly saw the extent of California’s extreme 5-year drought. All vegetation was brown and dead: a tinder box just waiting to go up in flames. [ooooo foreshadowing!] That evening we arrived in Sonoma, where we would spend the rest of the week with my parents and some family friends touring wine country. What happens in wine country stays in wine country, but we had a blast on the party bus touring around Napa the next day, even though the bus broke down in the middle of nowhere on the way to our first stop. [The replacement bus had a stripper pole.] Later in the week we drove to Muir Woods to see more redwoods and do some hiking. Our last night in Sonoma we made plans to meet some friends for dinner in Berkeley. Seriously, f*** Bay Area traffic! The drive took nearly 2 hours and then we of course had problems finding a parking spot in Berkeley. But it was all worth it for some delicious pizza and catching up with some friends.
“Looks like we’re outta gas.” “Nope, the gauge doesn’t work.”
What happens in Sonoma stays in Sonoma.
Bay area traffic at 5am. Woof.
The next day had a rough start: we had a rough couple hours of sleep, then woke up at 2:45 to drive my mom to the airport for an early morning flight. Luckily there was no traffic in the city at 3:30am, but heading east out of the city we saw backed up traffic by 5am. I can’t imagine sitting in a traffic jam in the dark at 5 in the morning on my way to work. We planned to drive to Yosemite then find a place to take a nap in the park, but we were too tired to make it all the way there. We pulled over along some rural highway and took a nice nap in the back of Sweetcakes. The sun was just coming up as we drifted off to sleep, but a mere 1.5 hours later we woke up roasting in the car. The temperature swing from day to night in the mountains still blows my mind. We hopped back on the road and made our way to Yosemite. We were still pretty exhausted at this point, but we stopped to see Brideveil Falls (just a trickle that turned to mist before reaching the bottom of the falls), biked out to Mirror Lake (totally dried up), and gawked at El Capitan and Half Dome. We stopped at the Mariposa Giant Sequoia Grove on our way out of the park and saw the Grizzled Giant, an 1800 year old tree that was something like 96 feet in circumference and 28 feet in diameter.
The Grizzled Giant.
We were running on empty at this point, so made our way to Ike’s aunt’s beautiful mountain home just south of the park. We said hi, but then hit the shower and took a nap. Later that evening Jenn set the bar pretty high by treating us to dinner and drinks at South Gate Brewing Co., followed up by a relaxing evening in the hot tub. The next morning we checked out some classic cars at the local car show then went for a hike along an old flume. It was hot as balls, but it was an interesting hike. We didn’t bring enough water on the hike and I started to get worried that I might pass out. When we got back to the car it said it was 105 out. No wonder! We headed straight to the grocery store and each gulped down a liter of cold, refreshing water. Then followed it up by enjoying the best gelato I’ve ever had at Reimer’s Candies. We also met Roscoe, Brutus, and another kitty, Jenn’s dog and two cats, who went absolutely bonkers to have company visiting.
Ballet on the flumes. A first for everyone involved.
We headed back through Yosemite on our way out of town, stopping at Glacier Point per Jenn’s recommendation. We saw beautiful views of Half Dome and El Capitan, but were shocked to see a forest fire raging up the valley. An intentional brush fire that had been burning for awhile had gotten out of control due to shifting winds. We watched as the sky and valley continued to fill with smoke as the fire raged on. [Something like 62 hikers had to be evacuated that day] The smoke crept through the sky and followed us even as we headed into Nevada. But that didn’t prevent us from enjoying the stunning beauty of the desert.
The fire starts to get out of control.
Half dome.
We could see individual trees going up in flame.
Spreading up the mountain.
As we made our descent out of Yosemite, I noticed that the brakes were beginning fade, and our brake light [parking brake light] began to flicker. I pulled over and made sure the parking brake wasn’t engaged at all, then continued on. Eventually I pulled over as the fade increased, wanting to check the calipers, assuming they were hot. Tossing a few drops of water on them, they sizzled off immediately. Yep….brakes are hot.We were planning to boondock that night and were about to pull off in a turnout, when we came upon a rest area on the highway that had free camping. Complete with bathrooms, picnic tables, and a state trooper parked out front on the highway. We spent the rest of the evening sippin’ on margs, enjoying the beautiful sunset, and watching him bust people for speeding.
About this point that the brake light came on
The next morning our brake light indicator came on and stayed on. Thanks to the miracle of 4G and good coverage in the rural US, we looked up the possible causes. Thanks to Google, we learned that the light could be indicating low brake fluid. Running the brakes hard (like we were coming out of the mountains) can cause some of the brake fluid to burn off. We stopped at the nearest gas station and topped off our brake fluid. Bingo, the light was off and we continued down the road. [Things I learned: brake fluid boils at 401 F. Yowza.]The next day brought us to Park City, UT to visit some of Bethany’s family. We drove through the desert in pouring down rain… remnants of one of the hurricanes that recently hit the Baja Peninsula. We were hit with wind gusts of over 50 mph in pouring down rain as we entered Salt Lake City. The downpour continued once we pulled in to Linda & Greg’s place. Fun times! Luckily for us, they had a bottle of wine cracked and dinner started.
Mike & Ikes: Linda’s downfall.
The rain from the hurricane had made it’s way to Park City and so we had some wet weather during our stay there. But we managed a bike ride down to Fat Kid Pizza for a game of corn hole. I couldn’t get a bag on the board, but after Ike’s pro tips I stepped it up a notch. Adam and Linda still creamed us! Later that night Ethan joined us for dinner and we hit up El Chubs, the finest Mexican food around. Followed up by some serious games of The Great Dalmuti, in which Ike nearly had to shave his beard when he was the Great Peon. [Our planning for dinner was fun: classic, “where do you wanna go? I don’t care, where do YOU wanna go?” We kept mentioning El Chubsaso [Chubs, or El Chubs], but Bethany’s aunt Linda seemed averse to it, “No ambiance there. No music.” Then it was “No beer there for Ike!” despite me saying I didn’t want one with dinner. Eventually, we arrive and poof, there’s beer, music, salsa bar. Excellent restaurant. Pretty fishy Linda!]
Jamaica’s got a bobsled team!
Our last morning in Park City we took Lola, their golden, on a hike in Park City Ski Resort. The leaves were starting to change and the aspens looked beautiful. Our next destination was Yellowstone, but we checked the weather forecast and saw it was supposed to get down to the low 20s. Our sleeping bags are rated down to 40F. Brrrrr! We both had bad coughs at this point, so we debated whether we should abandon our Yellowstone plans and instead head south to Zion National Park and others in the area. We decided to follow our initial plan and set off through rural Wyoming.
Lola was great on our little hike.
We pulled over for the night in a national forest just south of the Grand Tetons. The next morning we headed into the park proper and set off from Jenny Lake for a bike ride. As we were unloading the bikes from Sweetcakes it started snowing! We put on some extra layers and grabbed our face masks and set out. We had a great time zipping 3 miles down the paved trail. It wasn’t until we turned around that we realized we had had a tail wind and the path sloped slightly downhill. Which meant that our return trip was uphill and we had snow blowing directly in our faces. Woohoo! [We also learned the origin of the name for Jenny Lake!]
Hard to catch, but the snow is fallin’
@ Jenny Lake.
Best nickname ever?
We loaded the bikes back up and set off for Yellowstone. At $20/car we were glad that we had invested in a national park pass back in Maine. I can’t imagine how busy Yellowstone must be during the peak season, because it was plenty busy in September. We pulled over at the first geysers we saw (like a bunch of noobs), and set off on what we thought was a short loop hike. The trail headed up a hill and with a beautiful view of the lake and the mountains in the background. We came across some small hot springs and I stuck my finger in one to see just how hot it was. Later we found out that many of the springs are extremely acidic, so I lucked out that my finger didn’t melt off!
We continued on around the interior loop and made our way to the Norris Campground. We cooked dinner that night and then settled in for a COOOOLLLDDDD night. We bundled up in our under armor long-johns, sweatpants & sweatshirt, 2 pairs of socks, gloves, face mask, and stocking cap. We crawled into the car and tried to snuggle up for warmth. We awoke the next morning and all our car windows were frosted over on the inside. Turns out it had gotten down to 15 degrees that night. Brrr. But on the positive side, the park was beautiful that morning. We hopped in the car and headed down to Old Faithful. The prairie grass was frosted over and glistened in the sun; the steam from the geysers was trapped down in the valley. We rolled in to the giant parking lot and took advantage of the 4G for 15 minutes. I finally dragged Ike out of the car and Old Faithful blew right as we were walking up. Oops! The next eruption was scheduled for an hour and a half later. We killed some time at the visitor’s center and learned all about the uniqueness of Yellowstone’s geological formations. Apparently Yellowstone has the majority of the world’s geysers. Seeing Old Faithful erupt was cool, but it definitely wasn’t the highlight of our time in Yellowstone.
BRRRRR
Old Faithful.
Official park pimp-mobile.
That poor, dumb child. “SWEET BABY JESUS IT BURNS”
We spent the rest of the day exploring all the geyser basins along the route back to Norris, learning about the thermophiles: the microorganisms that like hot climates. The different colored organisms prefer different water temperatures, so they act as a kind of visual thermostat.
“Microbes, or something.” – Bethany
Our last morning in Yellowstone we visited the Mammoth Hot Springs before heading out over the Beartooth Pass, reaching 11,000 feet.
Can you count the switchbacks?
After freezing our tushies off in Yellowstone, we treated ourselves to a night in a hotel and BBQ at Famous Dave’s in Billings, MT.
The next day we headed south back into Wyoming to drive through the Bighorn Mountains. On the way back down the pass we pulled over at one of the campgrounds. We were the only ones there besides the campground host and cow moose. [Turned out it was the last night the camp was open. We enjoyed chatting with the park host, and older man who spends his summer there.] Time to head south to Mexico, mis amigos!
The Medicine Wheel in the Bighorn Mtns.
Stunning view of the basin below.
Our next destination was Rapid City, SD to visit the Chapel in the Hills, where Bethany’s parents eloped 30 years ago. Turns out one of Ike’s great uncles lives in Rapid City, so we stopped by to chat with them for a few hours. We stopped by the Crazy Horse monument just as the sun was setting. Pretty, but not $20 pretty. So we just took pictures from the highway instead of paying the entrance fee. We learned it is a privately owned/funded monument.
Great Uncle Al & Aunt Marian.
Decent free view
We then zipped over to Mt. Rushmore as dusk set in. It was actually an awkward time to be there because it was too dark to see all the details of the monument, but the lighting ceremony wasn’t for another hour. We had a stroke of genius and decided to cook dinner while we waited for the ceremony. We asked if there was a picnic area where we could cook and were told we’d have to leave the park. Well, that’s no fun. We pulled into a corner of the parking garage and proceeded to grill our brats. Cheese it, the cops! Ike was obviously nervous when a park ranger cruised by. After inhaling our brats, we walked back to the main part of the park and watched the rest of the lighting ceremony. A giant screen displayed a video showing why each of the 4 presidents were chosen for the monument and ended with a photo montage set to America the Beautiful, while they simultaneously lit up the giant spotlights on the monument. After we all sang the national anthem, they asked all current and past veterans to come to the stage to help with the flag lowering ceremony and introduce themselves. It was probably the most patriotic moment of my life. ‘MURICA![Avery Brooks [Captain from Star Trek: Deep Space 9] did the announcing for the video too. Another contender to take the reigns from Morgan Freeman?]
Look closely and you can see the Big Dipper right over Mt. Rushmore.
Selfie with the Prezies.
We had decided earlier that afternoon to book it back to Iowa instead of killing time in the Dakotas, so even though it was long past sunset, we set off for the Badlands National Park about an hour down the road. We found that they had a primitive campground that was free, but it was 12 miles down a gravel road. Being a weekday in mid-September, we expected to be one of the only ones of the campground. When we pulled in at 11pm all the spots were taken! Oops, sorry guys. We found a place to park Sweetcakes and slept in the car.
Prairie dog city!
The next morning we awoke to a massive bison just 15 feet from our car. Oh hello, beautiful! We drove the scenic route through the rest of the park, then hopped on I90 towards God’s country. Our expectations were exceeded when we stopped at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD.
We are spending the next couple of weeks visiting family and friends and plan to cross into Mexico the 2ndweek of October.
We end on a somewhat sad note. We have decided to put our YETI out to pasture while we head south, instead upgrading to an electric cooler. Here’s a 360 degree view of how she looks after our summer in Canada. We will miss her!
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