I apologize for being so slow to post, but we've been really covering miles. The first pics are from a city park in Colorado Springs called the Garden of the Gods. Located on the edge of my second most favorite city, it's a microcosm of weird western landscape. One can stroll among the monoliths & cliffs on paved sidewalks & enjoy the peace of a setting seemingly far removed from the city or look off to the SW to see Pikes Peak. There's much to see there, but we were on a stiff schedule by this point & could only spend 1/2 of a day there. We were hurrying to get to Weatherford Texas by Friday, 9/28 so that we could spend the weekend with Pam's brother, Ted, & his wife, Cindy. That Sunday was a great day! Ted's 3 sons, their wife, fiancee, & girlfriend were all there. Ted's 4th son, Joel, is still in Iraq (come on December!), but his wife drove 3+ hours up to see us anyway, & Cindy's mom & dad were there along with the two of the sons' three little ones as well. It was a wonderful day ending a great weekend, & after the family left, Ted, Cindy, Pam, & I felt the let down of the next morning's impending departure. We figured the best way to handle it was a late night trip to Dairy Queen where we drowned our sorrow in ice cream. At least two of us went back for seconds. (I won't say who.) Anyway, after a departure & lo-o-ong drive the next day, Pam & I wound up in Branson, MS. I can see how that would be a fun town if your pockets are very deep, but we had purposed to see just one show. Ted had recommended Jim Stafford's show, & he was right. He's a true entertainer. He's a man with a sardonic, laid back delivery, but very funny & personable, and can that guy ever play guitar!! (Malaguena - wow!) I've got a few pics on the cell phone, & if I can figure it out I'll post them. As I write tonight we're in Nashville, IN. We've had a quite dinner & a swim in the hotel pool, & I'm about to crash. (475 miles today) Home is starting to look really good to me. Good night all.

Big Country!

I haven't posted for the last few days because we've really been making tracks. We left California a few days back passing through San Francisco and lots of mountains. CA really is a gifted place. Anyway, we progressed through central Utah via our own US 50. The landscape is bizarre, rugged, majestic, & sterile. It's easy to see why few ventured there until recent times, and I could easily see water issues or energy shortages reducing it again to its former obscurity. We stopped in Moab, UT to see the Arches National Park. It's named for the numerous arches & other weird formations found there. Pics of this park are the lighter, reddish colored ones. The 6th pic is of three columns called the Three Gossips,...can you see why? Next we moved onto Gunnison, CO to see the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. There are rock climbers in the first photo where the "wing" on the left meets the first cliff front...but you'll never be able to see them no matter how much you enlarge-just specks. Last in this post are pics of the Royal Gorge near Canyon City, CO where the country's highest suspension bridge, built in 1929, spans the gorge & the Arkansas River. It's a little unsettling to walk over it & peer down through the wooden planks of it's surface. Tonight we're in Colorado Springs. We stopped here specifically to go to the Flying W ranch for a chuck wagon dinner and cowboy concert, but the guys are out of town at (believe it or not) a chuck wagon convention! Tomorrow we'll see a few local attractions before setting our sights on Texas.

What More Could You Want?

I love Crescent City, California. OK, I may be a little prejudiced in that Pam & I honeymooned here 28 years ago. We like it so much though that we've been here five times so far. It's got a lot going for it in my book....small town, redwoods, rural surroundings, mountains just beyond the harbor, redwoods, temperate climate (30-75 degrees year round), the sea of course, and...did I mention the redwoods? In short, it is beautiful with foggy mornings, sea gulls, and even it's own light house. Maybe I'm in a especially receptive mood, but people just seem friendlier here, too. Anyway, if you want to feel smaller & humbled, just walk through a redwood forest - Stout Grove, Jedediah Smith State Park is our favorite.The first thing you see is of course the incredible size - up to 350', but soon you realize that it is eerily silent! These trees have no known enemies - woodpeckers, insects, disease, etc. With few insects, there are no birds (none!), and as a consequence, few if any other critters. It's very humbling to walk at the feet of giants who can be as old as 2,000 years. It makes you realize that as Job said our lives are but a vapor - quickly gone. Next, be humbled by the sea. The Pacific has great breakers,... generally much better than the Atlantic. It never fails to impress me with how small I am when standing on the shore watching the constant action of the waves rolling, perpetually crashing against stoic basalt boulders jutting up in what will eventually be useless resistance. The immensity of it all - since the beginning of time. Feeling full of yourself?... Come to Crescent City. (click to enlarge pics)

The Coast

I'm tired tonight, so this will be short. Yesterday Pam & I left SW Montana, crossed the neck of Idaho, went through Spokane, WA, and ended the day near Bend, OR. We left off plans to see the Olympic National Park because the weather forecast was crummy up that way. Western WA & OR are so arrid. It was amusing to see vast stretches of brown dirt/grass only broken up by occasional green patches of irrigation for vegetables, blueberries, and orchards. If it weren't for cheap energy to pump the massive quantities of well water, it would be hard to imagine anyone living there. Today was much mo' fun. The forecast sounded "iffy", but it turned into a beautiful sunny day. We saw miles of lava flows in a national forest outside Redmond, explored the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area south of Eugene to get our first look at the Pacific. The dunes are 30-40' high and go on for maybe 50 miles. After hiking some shoreline trails & getting a days fill of salt air, we moved on to the nights' KOA near Coos Bay. The ladies at the desk told us to be sure and see a nearby state park, & so we immediately headed 30 minutes down the coast to what is really a peninsula in the bay. We didn't know what to expect, but experienced several serendipitous moments. (Pam's word, not mine) What we unexpectedly saw, aside from some spectacular seashore views, was a colony(?), roost(?), gaggle(?) of about 2 dozen sea lions settling in for the night on some offshore rocks. Man are they noisy, but better still!...at a nearby viewing point we arrived at the perfect time to see perhaps dozens of whales (maybe Beleugas? or some other small species) making their way north along the coast. Each was separated from the other by about 100 yards, and they would continuously surface, exposing their heads, & spout water before submerging again for another 20 seconds. We watched for a long time....really, really neat! Click on the pics to enlarge enough to see the whale spouting & the sea lions. Tomorrow,.... what might be my favorite place in all the world.

Glacier's Mountains Majesty

We took a quick jaunt up here yesterday from West Yellowstone (460 miles) It's easy to lose perspective on distances out here when simply studying a map, but it's all on such a grand scale. Still, the drive was pleasurable. I-15 was scarcely traveled by others with my passing of other cars, or if you've ever driven behind me, more likely others passing me maybe once every 10 minutes, and otherwise no one to share the road with. The scenery heading north is so typically wonderful that I found myself repeatedly saying "I should take a picture of that", but each bend in the road continually brings another view as great or even better than the one before, and so it is that one can easily become inured to the photographic possibilities. BTW, you can click on any picture here to enlarge it. And so we tooled along drinking it in, eating little cheddar fishes, and listening to Josh Groban serenade us in Italian - not a bad way to while away the day. Finally, we stopped at our KOA in St. Mary's about 6:30 pm. As we checked in we heard a small confrontation between the management & two guests. They were both 20-something, and were apparently of eastern European origin. I assume they were touring the country. Anyway, the were being kicked out of the campground, & the sheriff had already been summoned. Apparently they had been drinking, and decided to go skinny dipping in the pool. (brrr!) I guess the "ugly American" is not unique in foreign travel. This brings to mind the type of foreign tourists we've been seeing in the parks. I recall in the '80's it was the Japanese who were so prevalent. In the '90's Germans were extremely common. Now, it's much more of a mixed bag with these nationalities present plus others - Italian, Indian, even (I think) some Chinese, & Russians! Imagine that. I must mention the stars; I thought we had a beautiful view of the heavens in our country backyard, but there must be four times as many visible in northern Montana. There is an incredible creation over our heads as well as at our feet! Anyway, onto the events of today; we crossed Glacier National Park (on the Montana-Canada border) from the east side and drove the fifty miles to the other side. Not long compared to Yellowstone, but it took most of the day because of the continuously stupendous mountain views which dictated stops about every 1/4 mile for another picture. Pam & I were here 22 years ago with my parents & the girls, but on the day we went through Glacier Pam was sick as a dog, & saw nothing but the back seat of the car, so she enjoyed it very much today. This park has without doubt the best mountain scenery in the the lower 48, or maybe in North America. It makes me think of the Alps, though I've only seen pictures, so much that I almost expected to see Julie Andrews & her brood traipsing up one of the slopes! We also were surprised by the opportunity to see mountain sheep & mountain goats up close. In the case of the momma goat, it was almost uncomfortably close as she seemed to nearly take an unwelcome interest in me! I think I may have the picture upload problem straightened out in that I opened Microsoft's "Services" menu, & turned "on" any program with the word"Network" in it. (Are you proud of me, Worm?) 'm sure you'll agree that's more than enough for now, and so I sign off with my caboose resting tonight in Missoula, Montana & our sights firmly set on Seattle. Good-night.

The Yellowstone!

Western Wyoming is so beautiful! The road into the eastern park entrance is magic. Every turn is a different canyon view for about 20 miles. I can understand why so many romanticize the cowboy. This place is huge-just like everything else in the west-bigger than life. You can easily spend the better part of an hour just driving from point A to B inside the park, so it's hard to see everything unless you take a good week or more. The park is so unique. Every mile brings a different vista, or wildlife surprises, or some of the strangest terrain anywhere with the widespread geo-thermal activity. Anyway, we spent yesterday & today touring the park. We had beautiful weather both days, & hiked enough to guarantee good sleep tonight. Our favorite setting was the Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. (picture included) I heard a really interesting explanation for its formation from a park guide. She first gave the standard "This formed over umpteen years" kind of stuff, but then offered that there was an alternative theory whereby an ice-age dam may have given way & cut the canyon out in a matter of hours! How about that?! I think this is now the dominant theory for the Skagland canyon country in the northern mountain states, & of course a similar event occurred with a small canyon formation after Mt. St. Helens blew. Anyway, do you know how hard it is to select pics from here for this blog? T'aint easy! If you want more fom this trip, we'll gladly edit for the best & make CDs when we finally get back. I'm starting to doubt that 4 weeks will be enough. Anyway, our hearts lay further west, so we're out of here tomorrow. Hasta la vista.

Sunshine at last!

Finally the sun came back & temps were up at least in the sixties. Pam started our day cooking scrambled eggs & sausage in a skillet topped with salsa. She's getting really good at one pan dinners! Then we took off for some monuments. First up was Crazy Horse monument-a work very much in progress. I first saw this thing in '66 when it still looked like a mountain. The whole project is the work of one man (now passed away) & now his elderly wife & 7 of their 10 kids. There is no government money in this, & the plan is to eventually build an Indian university & hospital here. The size is unbelievable. From base to tip it will be taller than the Washington monument; Mt. Rushmore could fit in the head/hair of Crazy Horse; the horse's nostril will be 30' across; and the space under his arm will accommodate a 10 story building - all in 3-d!
Next, we went on to Mt. Rushmore where the bust of Washington, Jefferson, T. Roosevelt, & Lincoln are carved into the mountain. The size is much smaller than Crazy Horse with Washington's head a mere 60' high. I have differing degrees of respect for each of these men, but one stands head & shoulders above the rest.(no pun intended) Washington was truly a man of irreproachable demeanor & character. He was bright, but not the smartest of the lot; talented, but not the best tactician; a communicator, but not outstanding.....but his unstinting sense of propriety in all occasions, his unmitigated honesty, his unfeigned sense of humility, his unflagging courage- in short, his character compelled men to highly regard him, & I think to follow him because they innately wanted to be more like him. It is good to know there are still modern day "Jobs" about us. A great book about the War of Independence is one titled "Angel in the Whirlwind". Anyway, about 50 more years ought to finish this project.
Last of all we drove back to our KOA via Custer State Park. It was like a automobile safari in that along the way we saw pastured long horn steers, deer, donkeys ( in the middle of the road), & buffalo crossing the road as well. Quite a day, I've blathered too long, & need to get ready for bed.