Yellowstone Part Two......

It was another cold snow covered night in the turtle. I had all intentions of going to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone today but the road was closed (yeah it snowed that much). So I went to Mammoth Hot Springs instead. It turned out to be a good day for pictures. I got some ethereal shots and some interesting shots where the snow and hot springs meet. I wondered around the springs for a couple of hours.
Friday the roads weren't much better I had to wait about 2 hours for them to open the roads. I finally made it to the "Grand Canyon" around 2pm. I was spectacular. They only had 2 trails open but both of them had spectacular views. The first one was of the canyon and the second was of the lower falls. They were breathtaking. Especially because you stand on the edge of the cliff looking down with only a 3 ft tall rock wall between you and the abyss........The Norris Geyser field was on the way back to camp and I had time to kill so I stopped by. Steamboat Geyser is there and it only erupts every 4 or 5 years......when I got there it was shooting water 10ft in the air which is one of the precursors to an eruption. I hung around for 45 minutes waiting to see if it would go off. It was just teasing me...but I did meet a fellow traveler named Buck from Wisconsin. He was staying at the same campground so I invited him to have dinner. He show up with some really good beer and 2 different kinds of cheese (he is from Wisconsin)...We shared and nice meal and it was nice to have some conversation with someone besides Major......I had one more day to kill and then I took off for Seattle on Sunday......I was glad to be heading to a warmer area.

Later,

Brett

Yellowstone Part One.....

I had originally planned to drive form Boulder to Pinedale and camp at Fremont Lake but the road to the campground was snowed in. I would have been a scenic place to stay the night (see pic). Seeing no other places to stay I kept on trucking to Jackson Hole hoping to get another day of snowboarding in on Sunday. No such luck the ski resorts had closed the weekend before. All the ski areas out here are in the national forest so the resort operators have to lease the land from the Government. So when the lease is up so is ski season, snow or no snow. All the RV parks were closed for the winter forcing me to boondock it. I found a parking spot on a crowed street and hit the hay. I awoke the next morning to snow storm, which was not the kind of weather to cross Teton Pass in. Teton Pass is about 9,000 feet in elevation and has a 10% grade up and down. My provisions were running low so I found a grocery store and stocked up for the week. At the visitor center the helpful man at the counter suggested an alternate route to Yellowstone, which avoided the Teton pass and only added 40 miles to the trip. The journey through Wyoming and Idaho was as good as the trip through Kansas was bad. The roads were clear and the views were spectacular. I saw a moose and a couple of mountain goats before I even got to the park, which took about 3 hours. Once I reached the west entrance I still had 50 miles to the campground on the north end. That drive was awe-inspiring. The landscape was constantly changing from mountainous, to river basins, to high desert. My first wildlife sighting came as a group of Buffalo walked down the street right by my car….WOW!…(see pic). Next came antelope and big horn sheep. It took me over an hour to navigate to my destination because around every bend was one amazing natural wonder after another that I had to stop and admire plus the cars in front of me were gawking as well. The campsite was deserted so I had my pick of sites. After signing in and setting up camp I decided to take the rest of that day and the next to read up on Yellowstone and plan my course of action for the week. I also need to catch up on my blog. The first night was so very cold. I woke up with 4 inches of snow on the van. Needless to say I had to find another way to keep warm during the evenings. Snow was forecast for the rest of the week, so I purchased a gas heater. It is the catalytic kind so I can use it inside the van as long as I keep a window cracked. Tomorrow I am headed to see Old Faithful……….

I had all intentions of getting an early start this morning but I must have needed the sleep. I finally got to the Old Faithful visitor center around 2:30. It is amazing how big this place is. From my campground to Old Faithful is over 50 miles. Add to that the 35 mph speed limit and it took me 2 hours to get there. Along the way there were many wildlife sightings. As I walked into the visitor’s center the park ranger tells me if I hurry I can see Beehive geyser go off. So naturally I hustled over there to get a good spot. Beehive is named after the shape of the cone, which sits on top of it (see pic). While we were waiting a ranger gave us some history on Beehive, which evidently did not stick because I can’t remember any of it to pass on to you guys. It was very impressive, it reach a height of approximately 200 feet and lasted for almost 4 minutes. Old Faithful was slated to go off in about 30 minutes so I worked my way over there. The whole area has boardwalks for you to walk on so you don’t fall into the thermal features. These boardwalks were completely covered in 3 feet of snow while the ground around them was completely clear. The same ranger was there giving a talk about geysers. One interesting fact I remembered. There are only a 200 geysers in the world and 150 are in the Yellowstone geyser basin. Old Faithful went off exactly on time (I guess the call it Old Faithful for a reason). It was not as impressive as Beehive but still how many chances to you get to see a geyser. Its spray went about 150 feet and lasted for over 2 minutes. I got plenty of pictures. They can only predict the next time it will go off by the last one. If it last more then 2.5 minutes the next will be in 90 minutes plus of minus 10 minutes and if it last for less than 2 minutes the next on will be in 60 minutes plus or minus. After watching the show I walked around the area and shoot some pictures of the other thermals in the area. The rest of the basin was closed off because of the bears that were coming out of hibernation and in the area. This time of year here is very pretty with all the snow on the ground but is not the best time to visit the park because most of the attractions are closed or unreachable. Next stop will be the canyon, which they call “The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.” I hope it is not tourist hype……………..

Rocky Mountain High

Let me just say this Kansas Sucks!!!! That was the worst driving experience I have ever had. First off the winds cutting across the road made it feel like I was driving a sailboat in a wind tunnel on an ice skating rink. Then it was all up hill so the gas mileage was atrocious and to top it all off, it started snowing halfway across the state (Kansas does not plow it roads in that part of the state). Crossing the state line into to Colorado was like going to another world. The roads were plowed, the snow stopped, and the road leveled off. Shortly after crossing the state line I crested a hill and understood the meaning of “ Purple Mountain Majesty”. Off in the distance the Rockies glowed like snow-capped jewels.
After a couple of hours driving I arrived in Boulder at Kathy and Todd’s house. Kathy is and old high school friend (we have known each other since we were 14). You want to talk about a view. Their house backs up to a farm (see pic) and looking out the front windows reminded me of a beautiful landscape painting. I can understand why they moved here from Georgia. I spent a wonderful week getting to know Sage and Sterling (their kids) and getting reacquainted with Kathy & Todd, it has been too many years since we have seen each other. One thing I am coming to realize on this trip is that life is about the experiences you have and relationships you form not the things you own. Talk about experiences. The week was chock full of them. First we went snowboarding on Sunday. I have recently taken up that sport and have gotten the basics down on an icy molehill in North Carolina. It was a whole new world snowboarding on a real mountain with real snow. I felt like superman on a snowboard. It was so effortless to carve big turns that it felt like floating on air. It was also a lot softer to land on than that man made crap in NC. Now I know what snowboarding is supposed to be! After a couple of days of relaxing Todd invited me to go fishing in his new boat. He got this mack daddy drift boat for Father’s day and was itching to get it on the water. So we went to Union Reservoir to drown a few worms. The weather was a gorgeous 80 degrees and sunny but the fish weren’t cooperating, but a bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work. Later that evening I met up with my cousin Zack at the Lazy’s Dogs rooftop bar to enjoy some of the local micro brews and the Boulder nightlife. I can’t say I was disappointed. The beer was fabulous and the local women weren’t half bad either. While enjoying our beers and the scenery Zack asked if I wanted to fly fishing the next day. He is a guide and seeing as I had never tried fly-fishing before I said what the hay lets do it. Luckily Todd & Kathy are also fly fishers so he got me kitted out with all the gear I needed. Early the next morning as we were getting ready to head out Zack got called in to work so I went with his roommate Will and another buddy of theirs Brian, both of them are guides also. The weather was forecasted to be cold and snowy luckily I had all my cold weather gear with me. Off we went to the Blue River, which is reputed to be a “Gold Medal” trout stream. After an adventurous 90-minute drive up I 70 through the Eisenhower Tunnel we arrived at our destination and got geared up. Thanks to Will’s expert instruction and amazing fly rig I caught my fish Rainbow Trout after 3 or 4 casts. I was like a kid in a candy store. It was only a 12 incher but who cares (sorry no pic)? We kept fishing for a couple more hours and I hooked 6 or 7 more fish but I was not skilled enough to land them. While we took a break to rerig our lines and eat a bite the people at the Damn Dam decided to up the flows in the river and our fishing day was shot but, if you will pardon the pun, I was hooked on fly fishing. I would like to send a big thanks to Will and Brian for a great day.

Thursday was just a chill out day. I helped Todd move some furniture and picked Kathy up at the airport. Friday I decide to hang out downtown and take some photos. The weather turned warm again (If you don’t like the weather in Boulder just wait a few minutes) so I cruised the shops on Pearl Street. Not finding many photo ops I decided to head up the canyon to Boulder Falls to have lunch. In another one of those tourist misinformation things they billed it as the Old Faithful of Boulder. The falls were pretty and it was a nice place to each my lunch, but Old Faithful, come on! I will have the chance to compare the two in a couple of days. As much fun as I was having and as lovely as the company was it was time for me to move on. I got the Turtle rigged for travel and took off for Yellowstone Saturday morning.

In conclusion, Boulder is an amazing town with beautiful scenery, friendly people, and loads of recreational opportunities. The weather is all over the place but I liked the colder and dryer climate. In short this is a town I could see myself living in someday (Sorry Pops). Kathy, Todd, Sterling, and Sage thanks for everything! More giving and gracious hosts I could not have asked for. I will see you guys soon.
I am off to Yellowstone………………….Later, Brett

Boulder........WOW.....

Hey guys here are some pics from my week in Boulder......there is a new slide show up as well..I have been too busy to write much but I will catch it up in the next couple of days on my way to Yellowstone.......

Later,
Brett

Kansas City......

I headed out of St Louis around 4 pm on my way to Kansas City...not a bad drive only about 5 hours as the Turtle flies...listened to my audiobook to help pass the time. "A Tale of Two Cities" it's not bad after you get use to the vernacular. Settled in for the night at a rest stop 40 miles east of town. Tuesday morning I was going to head straight into town to see a few sights and figured I would go to the campground later in the afternoon, but the weather was turning really nasty with no sign of letting up so I went directly to the campground settled in and decided to hang there for the night and work on this blog and some photos...the campground was OK for $17 a day...hot showers and electricity.

Wednesday.......woke up to a chamber of commerce day 65 and sunny. The plan for the day was to start the day at The Country Club Plaza which was billed as this great tourist spot...I know I should learn my lesson on this shopping malls billed as tourist attractions...it turned out to be just a high end shopping district with some fancy fountains....pass. Next on the agenda was a couple of museums the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art......The Nelson sounded interesting because of these huge shuttlecocks (see pic above) in the lawn and the sculpture garden surrounding it and I was not disappointed at all. They had the aforementioned shuttlecocks and several Henry Moore pieces....it was a pleasant day and besides Major and I needed to walk at little after being couped up in the van for a whole day. Check out the slide show to see more of the art....on to the Kemper it also had several pieces of sculpture on the grounds....one thing I can say about KC it has lots of fountains and public art.....inside there were major exhibits one was some travel photos from a guy name Stephen Shore...never heard of him but is supposedly some big shot in the photography world....the exhibit was junk...looked like a bunch of tourist pics from the 70's...one picture was of his breakfast at some greasy spoon, pancakes and all....I would show you guys what I mean but the did not allow photos....next up was some modern paintings from various artist.
Most of them were pretty good but one piece looks like it was done by a 4 year old (see slide show)...don't get me wrong I like modern art and I know that art is in the eye of the beholder...but really, you have to be kidding (again admission was free and you get what you pay for)...I will let you guys judge for yourself. Enough culture I need to get some souvenirs and lunch....Union Station is the second largest train station in the US....Grand Central in NY is the biggest. See pics....not much else to say about that stop. Now for lunch. When in KC you must eat BBQ and Arthur Bryant's is the best...well I was not disappointed.....it had all the making of the perfect
restaurant....off the beaten path, simple decor and furnishings, filled with locals, and cooks with an attitude. It reminded me of a cross between the Varsity and the Double D. The sandwich was $8 (sliced beef on loafabread) and it had $8 dollars worth of meat on it (see slide show)....the sauce was different than either Uncle D's or the Carolina style that I am used to. They had two kinds the President's choice ( evidently Jimmy Carter's Favorite) and the Sweet Heet....you know I went for the sweet heet and man did it live up to it name.....that was some of the best beef I have ever had (except Uncle's State Championship Brisket)....That sandwich alone made the stop in KC worth the trip.......fat and happy I went back to the campground for the night to get some sleep..............overslept Thursday morning and had to hustle to make it to the Harley Plant for the tour....well turns out the tour center was closed for remodeling...Hey but I got this great shot of the front.......next stop Boulder CO

Later..............
Brett

St. Louis....

Friday…I got on the road around 10 am and settled in for the long haul to St. Louis. The first couple of hours were routine…got through Atlanta ok…and headed for Tennessee. That is where it turned sour and the rain started coming down in sheets. I was doing 35 mph on the freeway for almost an hour…. good thing I was not in a hurry. After the rain subsided I cruised the rest of the way at about 60mph. The Turtle seems to like that speed she cruises well in overdrive at that speed. She got really good mileage at 16 mpg (gas stop in Tenn $3.22/gal , in Ill $3.39/gal)…..I overnighted at a rest stop in Illinois about 35 miles outside of St. Louis. I didn’t sleep so well with all the strange noises and new bed etc.

Saturday…. Got up and moving around 7am local time and made the short drive in to St. Louis. You can see the Arch from miles away it is very impressive, as is the Mississippi River (that thing is wide.) First stop the Jefferson Gateway Park (the Arch silly) it is located right on the river and commemorates the western expansion of the US otherwise known as the Louisiana Purchase. They have a free museum that covers Lewis & Clark’s exploration westward….the only interesting thing about it is its location………underground below the arch…..you could also pay to see a movie or ride the tram inside the arch. Being on a budget I decided against both. The park above with the Arch is where I spent the lion share of the time taking photos and people watching. This thing is huge. For those of you who have never been each of its three sides is 57 feet wide at the base and 17 feet at the top and it stands 630 feet tall. There were all kinds of photo ops to be had with lots of interesting angles and light and shadow play….you can see my shots in the slide show over hereà
I even got the obligatory tourist shot with me standing by the arch. The funny thing is most of the people who were taking their pics next to the arch would stand right next to the widest part and snap their shot, which looked like them standing next to a stainless steel wall (they could have been anywhere…no context) but anyway enough photo snobbery. The rest of the time I sat around people watching. It was a good place for that. It was fairly crowded but from what the ranger told me it was early in the season. Next stop was neighborhood a few miles south of town called Soulard. It had two main attractions….the local farmer’s market and the Budweiser Brewery (I know you’ll are shocked that I wanted to check out the brewery). Can anybody say FREE BEER!!!!
The farmer’s market was what you would expect. A bunch of stalls with people selling fruits, veggies, and various meats. I picked up some apples, cucumbers, avocados, a pineapple, and chicken breasts. They were all very fresh and really cheap. The neighborhood had a certain bohemian quality to it. Old brick factory buildings converted to condos with trendy restaurants and hip overpriced clothing stores on the street level. Buskers strummed their guitars and violins on the street in expectation of coinage from passers by. The pedestrian traffic was brisk and the day was pleasant so the buskers did a fair business. A few blocks down the street a bastion of beer rose from the factories and industrial buildings. The Budweiser factory occupied at least half a dozen city blocks with turn of the century school buildings; opulent carriage houses come Clydesdale’s stables, and state of the art production buildings. Tour began with the horses and their accommodations…. when I die I want to come back as a Budweiser Clydesdale…. from there it moved through several different production facilities. The brew house reminded me of an opulent hotel with mission control attached to it (see the pics). After an hour and a half, of part history lesson and part brewery science, the tour ended at the hospitality room for the aforementioned FREE BEER…you were allowed two glasses of any beer they produced…. I chose the Stella Atrois…(no I am not a beer snob). …But it was free so why not get the good stuff. When you leave the hospitality room you have to make a trip through the gift shop where you can find anything you can imagine emblazoned with a Budweiser logo of some kind or another.

Next I decided to find my campground and get settled for the next couple of days. I needed a shower and a nap (that beer tour really zapped me). The campground proved a little difficult to find because they have a 10-mile section of the freeway torn up and I mean completely torn up…thank god for GPS…the campground was only 20 miles away but it took me almost 2 hours to get there. Once there I settled in, shower up, and kicked back to watch a little Final Four Bball. The generator works great and practically sips gas (6 hours on a 1 gallon tank).

Sunday……..Race Day!!! What else can I say? Gotta watch my NASCAR…. took a nap and chilled. I did discover an issue with my secondary battery system. The inverter was not charging the system. So instead of trying to repair a 25 year old inverter I decided to add a trickle charger to the system…. turns out the battery is bad. I will have to find a Wal-mart and swap it out (it is only 4 months old).

Monday…Went to an area on the west side of town called Forrest Park. This park had a golf course, history museum, fine art museum, zoo, ball fields, tennis stadium, visitor’s center, and a lake with room to spare. I wanted to check out the zoo and the art museum but, as luck would have it, only the zoo was open on Monday. Good news, it was free. bad news, you get what you pay for…. ok it wasn’t that bad but a lot of the exhibits were empty or the animals were not coming out to play…..got to watch the chimps have loads of fun with their own excrements….mmmm who’s ready for lunch? I haven’t been to a zoo since grade school, so it was interesting to see the animals again. I could have lived with out the smell though. While wondering around the elaborately constructed fake trees and rocks, I began to question whether or not it was humane to keep animals in captivity? I know some of them would have gone extinct if it were not for the zoo…but if we had not destroyed their natural habitat to begin with would they have needed saving? Are the zoos a way to assuage our guilt? Something to think about…..don’t get me wrong I am not a tree hugger by any means…but after seeing the bored affectations and confining cages decorated to look like the animals’ “habitat” I wonder if they would not be better off extinct?

Next stop “The Loop”…. billed a one of the 10 best streets in America. It was a 4-block section of Delmar Blvd filled with shops and eateries to tempt all comers. Do I sound a bit sarcastic? Lets just say it was over sold and it under delivered. It was simply like any commercial street in any major city filled with overpriced shops, panhandlers, and restaurants serving “Nuevo” cuisine. Needless to say I skipped the haute cuisine and settle for a little “New York” style pizza. Not bad considering I was in St. Louis.

Next stop KC for some more culture and hopefully some really good BBQ….what? A man has got to eat……

Later Brett

Disclaimer.....

I am not an author or a writer. So don’t expect Dickens’ colorful prose or Mark Twain’s detailed descriptive. I am college educated but my grammar and spelling can, at times, fail me (much to my father’s chagrin). I am sure he will be ever vigilant with his red pen handy to correct my errors as he has done thus far with my previous entries.

I plan on speaking my mind and telling it how I see it ….if anything I say offends you….GOOD….. there is no right against being offended (modern society may see that differently) and besides it lets you know that you are still kicking…..(Brett steps down from the soapbox). If you find some interest or enjoyment more the better….feel free to email me or leave comments here on the blog…

On the Road..............

Hey Guys just a short post to keep you up to date................I have been in St Louis for a couple of days......the drive up sucked real bad because of the rain but I got in ok.....check out the slide show from the first day at the Arch and Budweiser Plant............I will put up a full post in the next couple of days....Later Brett

Bon Voyage.............

Well the day has finally come no more planning or packing left to do..........I will hit the road in the morning headed for St. Louis. I am nervous and excited about the adventure ahead.....one last minute addition to the Turtle...........I got a 1000 watt generator today figured it will give me some more options on where I camp for the night...........got a great deal on it a Northern......$139.00. I was a steal....anyway got home tonight and fired it up and it powered everything in the van no problems....real quiet to......I will post a new update in a couple of days when I can find some Wifi access......til then Brett

The Turtle aka Beggar's Ride

After deciding to do this cross country trip thing I had several logistical things to work out. Like what the hell am I going to drive.........(especially import since I did have a car at the time)....I started look at different kinds of vans and RVs. I looked at the old hippy standby the VW Bus but it was just too small.....then I looked at a couple of Dolphin RVs(those are the little RV built on Toyota Mini trucks) but they were too expensive and hard to find....plus a little impractical for day to day driving as well......so I started looking a van conversions...not the ones with just a bed and a TV in the back but the ones with full RV capabilities........I found a couple, the best looking option was a 1983 Chevy G20 van with a Greenbriar
conversion.

It was in Alabama and only had 100,000 miles and the price was right......off to bama I go to check out this beauty.......turns out to be in pretty good shape it has some cosmetic issues, needs a muffler, and a little rust, but all in all good mechanical shape and had all the goodies I was looking for. As you can see from the pics it is set up with a full kitchen, toilet, and dining/sleeping area with another sleeping area up top that i will use for storage. It also has an air conditioner installed in one of the rear windows.

I have made a few mods to the van since I got it they include upgrading the battery on the secondary electrical system with a deep cycle marine battery, installing a TV and DVD, back up camera, and also adding a CB and a fuzz buster. Oh and of course I had to put a Citadel Sticker on the spare tire.
After a couple of short shakedown trip I have also added a awing set up for some additional shade and living space when I am in camp. There is plenty of room for 2 people with the upper sleeping area but it gets a little cramped for
storage of bags....but it will be fine for me and my dog Major on the big trip.

I also added a hitch hauler for extra gear and the moped(no elephant on a roller skate jokes). The latest modification was a snowboard rack on the inside to keep my board out of the way and safe from sticky fingers.......I will add some pics of those later.......three more days and I am outta here....

I would rather be lost in my world than stuck in yours.....Brett.