Archive for the ‘Wanderings’ Category

I’m sipping “Frambozen”, a Raspberry Brown Ale produced by the New Belgium Brewing Co. in Fort Collins, CO. They’re best known for Fat Tire, a long time favourite of mine. Normally we haven’t been buying things like beer, trying to live off as little money as possible, but we decided to splurge after viewing the extensive beer selection at the Bashas’ grocery in Page, AZ. This beer is quite good, I’ve not had anything like it. For those of you who have had Lindeman’s Frambose Lambic, a sweet raspberry beer, this is not anywhere near as sweet but just as raspberry. It tastes very much like beer with a strong, fruity, raspberry flavor. Joanna and I both like it.

We spent a long time dawdling yesterday, it seems. We slept in a bit, showered, and ended up getting out of the RV park around 10am. Then we drove backwards 10 miles to Page and stopped at the Walmart where we purchased film and some flannel pants for me to sleep in. We looked for some snow chains, but they didn’t have any. We then went to the grocery store and got supplies. We’ve been eating Cambell’s Select soups when we can build a fire, and cheese, crackers, summer sausage or salami when we can’t. We’ve also got some bread and peanut butter to add variety. (Either peanut butter crackers or salami sandwiches.) Fitting any amount of food in this car with the gear we’ve already got is difficult, but we’ve been managing so far.

We left Page and got to Zion NP in Utah a few hours later. After setting up the tent, we set off to go hike a trail that started near the campground and pay for the campsite. It turns out that it costs $16/night to camp here, which is stupid expensive for a campsite. Campsites are usually around $5/night, $10 in expensive national parks. Zion is expensive– the entrance fee is $20. Fortunately for us it was free, since the Kaspryzak family gave us a National Park Pass. (At $50, it’s paid for itself by now…) I think that part of the reason it’s so expensive is because of the shuttle system here. In the summer, there are only about 450 parking spaces for about 5,000 per day. As a solution they’ve set up a shuttle system. It costs nothing to ride and stops at all the trails and apparently runs often. I suspect that this is an expensive system. It sounds like it works well, but it only runs from April-October. In the winter, the park is relatively quiet. Even so, there have been more people here than anywhere we’ve been so far, except perhaps Big Bend in the middle of the weekend.

After deciding to go ahead and pay for two nights, we set off for the Watchman Trail. It was 2.7 miles round trip and climbed about 400 feet. It was a nice little trail, and we were back around sunset.

The weather forecast in the visitor center indicated that the lows last night would be in the low 20s, and boy was it cold. We had the presence of mind to put the remaining beers inside the tent so they wouldn’t freeze. Last night was the first night I was at all cold, mostly because I wasn’t wearing any socks, and a t-shirt instead of a long sleeve shirt. I wasn’t very cold, just a little bit, and only near morning. Joanna says she wasn’t cold at all, which is good, but then she sleeps in long underwear, pants, three shirts and a sweatshirt.

But, it was quite cold. If we encounter weather much colder, I don’t think we’ll be happy. Our bottle of water froze quite solidly, and there was a fair amount of frost inside the tent even though the moisture vent was open.

This morning, we drove down to the end of the canyon and followed the 2 mile path by the river into the narrower part of the canyon. If it’s warm, or you’ve got the right gear, you can hike much farther provided you don’t mind walking in up to 4 feet of water. Since Joanna picked that trail, I got to pick the next one. There are quite a few trails, and after reading the description of all of them, I decided on one that was listed as “Strenuous,” and “Not for people afraid of heights,” and so on. It’s supposedly 5 miles round trip but climbs 1500ft.

It was beautiful and exhausting. My feet and ankles are especially tender. The first mile or so was easy, but the further we went, the steeper the climb. The trail is a fairly impressive bit of engineering itself, since it appears to have been carved into a relatively unyielding rock face. It’s roughly paved which made footing easy. As we got higher, though, we worked our way around to the shaded side of the mountain and encountered what had been snow but was now hard packed ice. The first little bit was easy enough, there were clean rocks to climb on or snow that wasn’t yet fully packed. As we got further though, it started looking like a bad idea. When a slip in the wrong place could mean literally falling off the mountain, I told Joanna I thought we ought to go back. She didn’t want to and eventually convinced me to go on ahead. The climb up involved carefully planting each foot, testing it and applying weight slowly. I fell twice, fortunately not badly. Some areas were okay, others seemed entirely devoid of appropriate footing. After finally reaching what looked like the top, we realized that the trail we were on continued another half mile up a trail only recognizable by the fact that there was a chain installed. The trail looked as though it would be extremely difficult in the summer and impossible in the winter. No one else appeared crazy enough, either. We sat at the edge of a thousand foot cliff and ate lunch, then started back down. Getting down the iced sections was more difficult. In some places, the only way we managed was to slide on our butts. While actually rather fun to go sliding down the switchbacks, our bottoms got rather cold and and wet.

On the way down, we passed all sorts of people who appeared far more adept at such things than us. An older man, who looked to be well over 60, wearing spandex passed us going up as we were heading down. Shortly thereafter, he passed us going down, apparently turning around where the ice got bad. Not too long after that, he passed us AGAIN, this time headed back up the hill. He said he was doing some sort of fitness training. I think he was crazy. And he wasn’t the only one. We spotted another guy heading back up the hill who had passed us coming down on our way up. Hiking is fun and all, but this masochistic yo-yo routine is beyond me.

We probably had enough time to hike another trail, but there was no way we could manage. We also could have packed up the tent and gone to the next park, but since we already paid for 2 nights, the obvious choice of sitting and doing nothing has been a much needed change.

We’re at the Wahweap Marina, Glenn Canyon National Recreation Area on Lake Powell. It seems to have many names. The campground overlooks Lake Powell with a very nice view. Unfortunately, we’re not staying at the campground but at the RV park which has a nice view of the laundry facilities. It seems that the campground is closed for the winter, though a sign promised, “Same rates available in the RV Park.” Unfortunately, we used up just about all of the time available for driving such that there would still be enough light left to pitch the tent, which meant that we didn’t have enough time to go anywhere else. Or at least, if we went somewhere else, we’d have to do it in the dark. Fortunately, we have no immediate neighbors and aside from quite a few cars driving in and out, it seems to be a quiet RV park. The nice side is that for the $15 we had to pay to stay here, we get showers! Since we left Dave’s place in Austin, we’ve only taken one shower. We stink. Since it seems that we can take as many showers as we want, we were considering showering both tonight and tomorrow morning, but we seem to have decided against it. The other perk is the laundry facility. They’re coin operated machines, but they’re here, which means we don’t have to stop somewhere else. I’m thinking we can delay future laundering until we reach California. A side effect of the laundry facility is that I’m journaling, since it’s warm in here and there’s power and a chair available. And we have to do something while the clothes dry. Two chairs, actually. Joanna had been simply watching me journal, but she just realized that now would be a good time to write some postcards.

Our original idea for tonight was to camp at the Grand Canyon. But we realized we could get farther than that if we just skipped it. Both of us have been there, and neither of us much felt like going back. Joanna was initially excited at the opportunity to see the north rim, but then discovered it’s closed for winter. We also talked about hiking to the bottom, but it’s probably way too icy for that.

I’m beginning to think that maybe Joanna’s right about journeying through the snow in a miata and tent camping. Last night pointed out a few things. First, the tires on the miata have zero traction on snow. They’re summer tires, not even all-seasons, but I’m surprised at just how badly they behave. We managed to get briefly stuck on a few inches of snow. Second, it was cold. I’m guessing no warmer than 20F. Our bottle of lemonade froze solid. Joanna wanted to close the moisture vent on the tent last night. After waking up to a thick layer of frost INSIDE the tent, she now knows why I insist upon keeping it open. With it open, there is no moisture inside the tent at all, yet heat is maintained quite well. Some heat escapes, but it’s a small price to pay for being dry. This is the first small tent I’ve ever been in that manages to avoid condensation inside the tent all together. Instead, the moisture is vented onto the rain fly where it all condenses and runs down the underside onto the ground.

In spite of all this, we weren’t cold inside our sleeping bags. Packing up the tent proved to be a very chilling experience. We talked briefly this morning of just driving straight to California, but we’ve elected to try to stick it out for a few more parks until we get to the Arches NP in Moab, UT. We’re on the Utah border right now, so I’m not sure how much longer that will take. If we spend a day in each park, 3-4. After Moab, I’m hoping to be able to swing by Flyin’ Miata in Grand Junction, CO and have them look at the Miata. It’s making yet another noise that sounds possibly bad and that I can’t identify. I thought it was detonation, but retarding the timing didn’t help. It only does it under load between 2,500-3,000rpm. Since it turned 183,000 miles today, and it wouldn’t hurt to have an expert look it over…

After our very cold morning, we were driving through St. John’s, AZ when I announced to Joanna, “All-You-Can-Eat pancakes for 2.99.”

“Sounds good to me,” she said.

“Really, you want to?” I asked, since she never wants to eat at restaurants. But she’s got a soft spot for breakfast, so she went for it.

An older guy accosted us as we got out of our car. “Where in Texas are you from?”

“Dallas,” replied Joanna. Which is hardly true on any number of counts, but is a good enough answer.

“Dallas, that’s a little town just the other side of Fort Worth, isn’t it…” He continued, “I’ve got family there.. In fact I’ve got family in San Antonio, Abilene, Fort Stockton. . .” he went on listing cities in Texas for quite some time. He spent the next minute or two telling us about his family. We managed to get away and sat down and a friendly waiter asked us what we wanted to drink while we read over the menu.

“So, are we doing pancakes?” Joanna asked.

“No,” I told her.

“What?? That’s bait and switch!”

“No it’s not, I never told you I wanted pancakes.”

See, it’s not that I didn’t want pancakes, but pancakes all alone are pretty boring. And I was really hungry. Joanna is convinced I’m eternally trying to get us to spend money, which isn’t really true, although she is quite a bit more thrifty than I am. I think she’s quite a bit more thrifty than most anyone. We spent the next ten minutes debating, and eventually settled on the pancakes for both of us, plus an order of hash browns, and a biscuit with gravy. Actually, I’m not entirely sure if we were settled or not. We were agreed on everything but the hash browns when the waitress came over, but Joanna wouldn’t say yes or no.

The clothes are dry.

The postcards are not.

(Any smeared post cards are my fault.)

Irving, TX

We’re in Irving for the weekend. Berck picked up his boots and then immediately traded them for another size (which they fortunately had in stock). Now he’s taking care of some bank account housecleaning. We’re planning to head to Austin on Monday.

After driving a full tank of gas from West Memphis, AR to Ozark, AR, I was getting a bit sleepy. Joanna wanted to sit on the south side of the car which is quite a bit warmer than the pax seat. And she’s right, even my toes get cold on this side. Since there’s no sun shining on them on either side, I’m not sure why they don’t get so cold on the driver’s side.

Since Joanna’s driving, I get to journal now. I think she’s better at it than I am, so it’s probably fortunate she’s been doing it lately.

I tend to do most of the driving. Joanna doesn’t really care if she drives or not usually. She almost never asks to drive but is always willing. I, on the other hand, prefer to drive for several reasons. I’m a much better driver than I am a passenger. I tend to get rather uncomfortable with someone else driving. Joanna is a better driver than most people I’ve ridden with, but she still bothers me from time to time. It has something to do with the fact that she takes risks where I wouldn’t, though she’s a more cautious driver overall. Another reason I tend to drive is that the passenger seat of the miata is significantly more cramped than the driver’s seat. This situation isn’t helped by the fact that Joanna tends to nest, stashing things everywhere. Generally it’s stuff we both use, but she’s more tolerant of things in her space than I am. So we have to find a place to put it all when we switch drivers. If she’s got sunflower seeds (one of her fondest road-trip habits) then she’s sure to scatter whole seeds around the car and shells around the world.

It looks like classes just let out of Sallisaw High School. Interstate driving is generally pretty boring, but when you’re just trying to get across the southwest, or the midwest or southmidwest whatever Oklahoma is, there’s no other way that much makes sense. We’ll abandon interstates once we start heading down to Big Bend, TX, and we’ll probably avoid them for most of the rest of the trip. We’ve got a pretty good idea of what we’re going to do on the way out west and north but not on the way back. Most of the things that I think I want to do are probably a bad idea in the winter in a miata without snow tires.

I’m moving to Oklahoma. As we cross the state at 79mph the idea is just starting to settle in my head. I certainly never would have picked Oklahoma as the place to live, but hopefully it won’t be very long. I’ve wanted to go to flight school for so long now that I have a hard time believing that I’ll actually pull it off this time around. The only piece of the puzzle that strikes me as difficult at this point is how long it will take Joanna to find a job. She’s convinced that it won’t be a problem, but I’m not nearly as optimistic. Job hunting has got to be one of the worst parts of living in our society. It’s time consuming, exhausting, degrading, and often not very rewarding. The present economical situation won’t make it any easier.

I hope we’re not too terribly cold trying to camp out west. I really need some warmer clothes. Thermal underwear, more layers… A sweatshirt or something might be nice too. Boots will be important. Boots. Boots were an ordeal.

I thought I would go to REI in Atlanta and buy a pair of the boots that I wore across Europe in 2000. When we got there, we discovered that they were, surprisingly enough, still making that specific boot. Delighted, I asked for a pair in 10-1/2 Wide. They didn’t have that size. Nor did the other REI in Atlanta. Nor did REI’s mail order warehouse. They were, however, able to tell me that the boots I wanted did exist in the size I wanted in Dallas. I called the store in Dallas, and while they wouldn’t hold them for more than 3 days, they were willing to let me buy them over the phone and wait for me to pick them up. I hope they’re the right size… I tried to find out what size I ordered in 2000, and it seems that REI does actually retain this information. Unfortunately, it requires someone digging through the archives in Seattle, and that would take a couple of weeks. By which time I hope to already be in possession of the boots.

Norman, OK

We made it to Norman, Oklahoma!

But we’re leaving tomorrow.

We’re staying with some good friends of my family, the Wolfes. They’ve welcomed us into their home, fed us, and even supplied us with a copy of the Oklahoma City area Apartment Guide, today’s Oklahoman newspaper, and a map of Norman. After researching apartments tonight, we’ll visit the applicable ones tomorrow.

Then it’s off for Irving, TX (home, sweet home for Berck) tomorrow night … it’s only about a three hour drive from here.