Dear Friends,
Many things have happened since I last wrote, not the least of which is that we are now volunteering on an organic farm in Northern Minnesota picking vegetables and harassing chickens. But let us not put the cart before the horse. After basking in the reflected glory of sunflower fields outside of Pierre, SD, we headed South for the Maha Music Festival in Omaha, NB. Among others, we saw The Appleseed Cast, Army Navy, G Love & Special Sauce, and Dashboard Confessional. It was Super. We spent the night at yet another rest stop just outside the city before driving into Southern Minnesota and Eastern Iowa the next day. I must confess, the sight of a strange, badly lit, smelly rest stop is becoming quite comforting. After exploring the Northern section of the Mississippi river for a few days, we made our way into the Twin Cities, taking in the Minnesota State Fair (everything you could imagine fried on a stick and, not unrelated, Garrison Keillor), some late night swing dancing, as well as various local flavours. We were welcomed onto Northern Lights Farm on September 5th and have been picking vegetables, feeding cows and chickens, repairing fences, playing badminton, making cheese, and generally raising a ruckus ever since. At least as much as the hippie Quakers we are living with will allow. This morning we saw President Obama give a speech on health care. Live. We were sitting not 20 feet away from his face. He smiled in our general direction. I think I saw him blow us a kiss out of the corner of my eye, but I can't be certain.
I hope this letter finds you all frolicking in meadows of frankincense and myrrh.
Yours,
Pickles
Mileage to date: 6152.5
Times locked out: 0 and counting...Kurt
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Day 20 - 25: Tetons to South Dakota via sunflour fields
Dear Friends,
I will not bore you with too many details this time - I am just writing to inform you of some of the highlights of our trip to date. After leaving Yellowstone National Park, we traveled South to Jackson Hole Wyoming, a town marketed on the idea that cowboys still exist and that you can be one too by buying this superb leather hat for only $59.99. Despite this we met some very nice people there: one the owner of a music shop/bistro/internet cafe who said that even though tourism has been dying off the past few years, landlords are maintaining an artificially high rent which many stores cannot afford, and are thus moving out of town. She also informed us that Jackson Hole used to be a small hippie ski town until about 5-7 years ago when the mayor and chamber of commerce decided to give the town a face-lift. Another friendly face was the owner of a hole-in-the-wall sandwich shop who was born and raised in Jackson Hole. He didn't complain about the rent, but did say that multimillionaires use Wyoming as a local Swiss bank, buying property locally and claiming it as their primary residence enabling them to take advantage of the state not collecting income tax. We made it into the Tetons for 2 days, both of us hiking up Indian Paintbrush Canyon where we set up camp. The next day Aleisha went back down that canyon while I continued on over Indian Paintbrush divide, and down the adjacent Cascade Canyon. No pictures from the return trip, but Aleisha saw a baby black bear, and I saw a moose, and a ground hog. Returning to civilization, we decided we were tired of WY, and needed to folow the Easternly winds to our next destination, Mt. Rushmore. The pictures unfortunately don't speak for themselves; this is a monument that truely needs to be seen in person to appreciate its scope. Along our route we collected some miscellaneous facts that you may find of interest: Mt. Rushmore is not completed (at least as far as the origional designer was concerned) as congress diverted its funding in 1941 due to an historical event, the designer Gutzon Borglum wanted in addition to Mt. Rushmore to sculpt a hidden cavern behind Lincolns head where all the important historical documents of the US could be stored but he failed to notify Congress of this secret plan and it was halted as soon as they got wind of it. There is still a drillbit stuck in George Washington's left eyeball. After feeling sufficiently patriotic, we continued South into the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, site of controversial shooting of F.B.I agents and arrest of Leonard Peltier. From there we went North to Badlands National Park. Pictures included. We are now safe and sound in Pierre, SD, and 2 hours in the furture compared with most of you. Don't worry, I think all of you are still alive.
All of our best,
Pickles
Current mileage: 4137.2
Times locked out: 0.00
I will not bore you with too many details this time - I am just writing to inform you of some of the highlights of our trip to date. After leaving Yellowstone National Park, we traveled South to Jackson Hole Wyoming, a town marketed on the idea that cowboys still exist and that you can be one too by buying this superb leather hat for only $59.99. Despite this we met some very nice people there: one the owner of a music shop/bistro/internet cafe who said that even though tourism has been dying off the past few years, landlords are maintaining an artificially high rent which many stores cannot afford, and are thus moving out of town. She also informed us that Jackson Hole used to be a small hippie ski town until about 5-7 years ago when the mayor and chamber of commerce decided to give the town a face-lift. Another friendly face was the owner of a hole-in-the-wall sandwich shop who was born and raised in Jackson Hole. He didn't complain about the rent, but did say that multimillionaires use Wyoming as a local Swiss bank, buying property locally and claiming it as their primary residence enabling them to take advantage of the state not collecting income tax. We made it into the Tetons for 2 days, both of us hiking up Indian Paintbrush Canyon where we set up camp. The next day Aleisha went back down that canyon while I continued on over Indian Paintbrush divide, and down the adjacent Cascade Canyon. No pictures from the return trip, but Aleisha saw a baby black bear, and I saw a moose, and a ground hog. Returning to civilization, we decided we were tired of WY, and needed to folow the Easternly winds to our next destination, Mt. Rushmore. The pictures unfortunately don't speak for themselves; this is a monument that truely needs to be seen in person to appreciate its scope. Along our route we collected some miscellaneous facts that you may find of interest: Mt. Rushmore is not completed (at least as far as the origional designer was concerned) as congress diverted its funding in 1941 due to an historical event, the designer Gutzon Borglum wanted in addition to Mt. Rushmore to sculpt a hidden cavern behind Lincolns head where all the important historical documents of the US could be stored but he failed to notify Congress of this secret plan and it was halted as soon as they got wind of it. There is still a drillbit stuck in George Washington's left eyeball. After feeling sufficiently patriotic, we continued South into the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, site of controversial shooting of F.B.I agents and arrest of Leonard Peltier. From there we went North to Badlands National Park. Pictures included. We are now safe and sound in Pierre, SD, and 2 hours in the furture compared with most of you. Don't worry, I think all of you are still alive.
All of our best,
Pickles
Current mileage: 4137.2
Times locked out: 0.00
Friday, August 21, 2009
Glacier National Park to Yellowstone
Hello Dear Friends!
We've done so much since we last posted that it's hard for me to remember where to begin.
Let's see... our last post was in Whitefish. After that, we drove to Glacier National Park and spent the night just outside of it. We saw our first sign of sun since Washington, and the brightest, fullest rainbow I've ever seen. The area around Glacier was hit by a huge forest fire not too long ago, so the whole place was a forest of charred, dead trees, but in some strange way it was actually beautiful. We cut part of my mane there, and maybe the birds that are returning will use my hair to build nests.
The next day we entered Glacier and obtained a permit to do some backpacking. We got all our stuff together and found the trailhead, which turned out to be a heavily trafficked route for horseback tours. And mind you, it's been raining for the past week. Basically, the first several miles of the trail were a trough of mud and horse poo. It was almost impossible to traverse, and by the end of it I never wanted to see another horse again. Or I did actually, but only to punch it. Our destination (Cracker Lake) was gorgeous though, so totally (mostly) worth it. The mountains reared up impossibly high behind an impossibly blue lake. It looked tropic (but felt like an iceburg). We got lucky and had some sun upon arrival, but it actually rained all night, so the next day, after trekking back through all the horse crap and rain, we decided to push on instead of going on another backpacking trip in the park.
After driving through some cities in middle Montana, forgetting Evan's debit card at Subway and going back for it, and staying the night in a few rest stops, we arrived at Yellowstone National Park. The first thing we noticed about Yellowstone is that the people who live around there and work there are really quirky. One guy we met at a rest stop (who was also travelling the country like us) was convinced that sulphur fumes are really dangerous, and y'know...maybe he was right. Maybe too much exposure makes you a little batty. Everyone was really nice though. If the people seem strange, they're nothing next to the landscape. Yellowstone is like another planet. The very ground boils and steams, and there are vibrant colors and strange shapes everywhere. We went backpacking in a canyon in the park, and we'd be hiking in full forest and come out in a clearing with blinding white soil and steam rising. You could walk next to a small hole in the ground and hear water boiling and gurgling inside. There was also so much wildlife. On this same backpacking trip we saw a grizzly bear foraging a few hundred feet from us. Driving along the road we spotted elk and bison, grazing right in full view.
Yellowstone is very touristy. To stop at any one of the "villiages" means battling crowds, eating tastless and expensive fast food, and wading through tons of souvinirs. We stopped to watch Old Faithful erupt, and we were elbow-to-elbow with families from all over the country and the world. Despite this, the backcountry was actually pretty private. Each of the camping spots were for only one party, which means we got to be alone on both the overnight trips that we took. We actually would have stayed longer in Yellowstone, because we liked it a lot, but I got sick on the last day (probably a bit of sun stroke, but i dunno), so we headed out to hang out in Jackson, Wy (where we are now) and get our energy up before heading back to Grand Teton National Park, which we are going to do today. Evan has aspirations for a 38 mile backpacking trip through those incredibly steep mountains, and we'll see if I'm up to it (actually, i'm trying to knock it down about 10-20 miles), but that's what we may be reporting to you next. We hope all is well and wonderful and maybe even sunny in Arcata, Mt Shasta and Seattle. Love to you all!
We've done so much since we last posted that it's hard for me to remember where to begin.
Let's see... our last post was in Whitefish. After that, we drove to Glacier National Park and spent the night just outside of it. We saw our first sign of sun since Washington, and the brightest, fullest rainbow I've ever seen. The area around Glacier was hit by a huge forest fire not too long ago, so the whole place was a forest of charred, dead trees, but in some strange way it was actually beautiful. We cut part of my mane there, and maybe the birds that are returning will use my hair to build nests.
The next day we entered Glacier and obtained a permit to do some backpacking. We got all our stuff together and found the trailhead, which turned out to be a heavily trafficked route for horseback tours. And mind you, it's been raining for the past week. Basically, the first several miles of the trail were a trough of mud and horse poo. It was almost impossible to traverse, and by the end of it I never wanted to see another horse again. Or I did actually, but only to punch it. Our destination (Cracker Lake) was gorgeous though, so totally (mostly) worth it. The mountains reared up impossibly high behind an impossibly blue lake. It looked tropic (but felt like an iceburg). We got lucky and had some sun upon arrival, but it actually rained all night, so the next day, after trekking back through all the horse crap and rain, we decided to push on instead of going on another backpacking trip in the park.
After driving through some cities in middle Montana, forgetting Evan's debit card at Subway and going back for it, and staying the night in a few rest stops, we arrived at Yellowstone National Park. The first thing we noticed about Yellowstone is that the people who live around there and work there are really quirky. One guy we met at a rest stop (who was also travelling the country like us) was convinced that sulphur fumes are really dangerous, and y'know...maybe he was right. Maybe too much exposure makes you a little batty. Everyone was really nice though. If the people seem strange, they're nothing next to the landscape. Yellowstone is like another planet. The very ground boils and steams, and there are vibrant colors and strange shapes everywhere. We went backpacking in a canyon in the park, and we'd be hiking in full forest and come out in a clearing with blinding white soil and steam rising. You could walk next to a small hole in the ground and hear water boiling and gurgling inside. There was also so much wildlife. On this same backpacking trip we saw a grizzly bear foraging a few hundred feet from us. Driving along the road we spotted elk and bison, grazing right in full view.
Yellowstone is very touristy. To stop at any one of the "villiages" means battling crowds, eating tastless and expensive fast food, and wading through tons of souvinirs. We stopped to watch Old Faithful erupt, and we were elbow-to-elbow with families from all over the country and the world. Despite this, the backcountry was actually pretty private. Each of the camping spots were for only one party, which means we got to be alone on both the overnight trips that we took. We actually would have stayed longer in Yellowstone, because we liked it a lot, but I got sick on the last day (probably a bit of sun stroke, but i dunno), so we headed out to hang out in Jackson, Wy (where we are now) and get our energy up before heading back to Grand Teton National Park, which we are going to do today. Evan has aspirations for a 38 mile backpacking trip through those incredibly steep mountains, and we'll see if I'm up to it (actually, i'm trying to knock it down about 10-20 miles), but that's what we may be reporting to you next. We hope all is well and wonderful and maybe even sunny in Arcata, Mt Shasta and Seattle. Love to you all!
Friday, August 14, 2009
Days 6 thru 12: Seattle to Montana Via Canada
Dear Friends,
I hope that I might remember all that has happened in these six days since writing you last so that you may better follow our travels, but I am afraid that my memory may not be up to the task. I shall endeavor to relay as best I can the events leading up to our present condition in Whitefish, Montana. Our time in Seattle was used well, spending a significant amount of time with my family and seeing a few of Seattle's sights, including Harry Potter in 3-D (well, at least twelve minutes in 3-D, including credits), as well as a butterfly exhibit at the Seattle Science Center in which one may walk through a dome filled with plants and butterflies from various locales. We were fortunate enough to see one emerge from a cocoon, but not fortunate enough to have remembered to charge the camera batteries to preserve the event for you. We had considered attending the Seattle Lindy Exchange, however the dance on Saturday night was $25 per person, a prohibitive price in our case, but we managed to entertain ourselves Monday night by going to a regularly scheduled dance at Sonny Newman's. We left Seattle on Wednesday morning on Highway 2 which took us over Stevens Pass through Wenatchee and into Leavenworth, a "Bavarian Village". I hope the pictures will accurately portray the fanciful whimsy that the Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce has so rigorously maintained despite the setback of being in the 21st century and in the United States. From there we traveled onward to Spokane and from there, Idaho. I should mention that between Leavenworth and Spokane we managed to drive through two monsoons and had the pleasure of learning the difficulties of driving a 1-ton hydroplane. None the worse for wear, we spent Wednesday night in Idaho at a location I cannot remember. We are slowly learning the intricacies of spending the night on privately owned land: finding a site out of the way enough so as not to be on a regular patrol route for the local law enforcement, but not so far off the beaten path that we might be shot for trespassing. Thursday we continued to Sandpoint, ID where we found a small coffee shop. It is here we made our first attempt to get jobs. Telling us she would call by Saturday if she was interested in some vagabonds, we left the owner to her brewing and made our way into Canada via Highway 95. Let me tell you my impressions of Canada: It costs $3.00 for an avocado. I know of no God-fearing man heartless enough to charge a starving fellow human being $3.00 for an avocado (organic of course). Until now...Canada. More of my observations about Canada include: It has clouds at all elevations, from a few hundred feet, into the stratosphere (granted I'm not entirely certain where the stratosphere begins) that form citadels of billowy, white cotton candy. Canada grows potatoes while Idaho does not (at least where South Eastern British Columbia and Northern Idaho are concerned). Canada has hot springs, but they have been dug out and used to heat chlorinated pools filled with more obnoxious tourists than anything resembling water from a natural source. But these facts are neither here nor there, and I shall move us back to the narrative, which I find much more edifying. After the aforementioned displeasure at the state of the local water resources, we obtained directions to an undeveloped hot springs, where we met a friendly Canadian Gent whose every sentence came out as a question. The springs were tiered with the highest being closest to the source and the lowest combining with a small river which was icy cold. We spent about an hour and a half chatting about this and that, later staying at a nearby campground. I can still smell the sulpher being exuded from my pores. Leaving the camp ground bright and early (around 4:30 a.m.) we eluded the Canadian Provincial Forest Rangers and found somewhere to spend the rest of the night that didn't cost $15. That brings us more or less to our present location in Montana. Whitefish is a nice town of medium size that hosts a large population of outdoor enthusiasts, a middle school that is about as big as my high school (my graduating class was over 400 strong), and at least 2 NFIB members. This weekend is a National Parks free day which we will take advantage of in Glacier National Park, and I hope you will enjoy it just as much in your part of the world. I trust that you are all well and staying out of more trouble than we are getting into.
Pickles
Current Mileage: 1836 mi.
Times locked out: 0
I hope that I might remember all that has happened in these six days since writing you last so that you may better follow our travels, but I am afraid that my memory may not be up to the task. I shall endeavor to relay as best I can the events leading up to our present condition in Whitefish, Montana. Our time in Seattle was used well, spending a significant amount of time with my family and seeing a few of Seattle's sights, including Harry Potter in 3-D (well, at least twelve minutes in 3-D, including credits), as well as a butterfly exhibit at the Seattle Science Center in which one may walk through a dome filled with plants and butterflies from various locales. We were fortunate enough to see one emerge from a cocoon, but not fortunate enough to have remembered to charge the camera batteries to preserve the event for you. We had considered attending the Seattle Lindy Exchange, however the dance on Saturday night was $25 per person, a prohibitive price in our case, but we managed to entertain ourselves Monday night by going to a regularly scheduled dance at Sonny Newman's. We left Seattle on Wednesday morning on Highway 2 which took us over Stevens Pass through Wenatchee and into Leavenworth, a "Bavarian Village". I hope the pictures will accurately portray the fanciful whimsy that the Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce has so rigorously maintained despite the setback of being in the 21st century and in the United States. From there we traveled onward to Spokane and from there, Idaho. I should mention that between Leavenworth and Spokane we managed to drive through two monsoons and had the pleasure of learning the difficulties of driving a 1-ton hydroplane. None the worse for wear, we spent Wednesday night in Idaho at a location I cannot remember. We are slowly learning the intricacies of spending the night on privately owned land: finding a site out of the way enough so as not to be on a regular patrol route for the local law enforcement, but not so far off the beaten path that we might be shot for trespassing. Thursday we continued to Sandpoint, ID where we found a small coffee shop. It is here we made our first attempt to get jobs. Telling us she would call by Saturday if she was interested in some vagabonds, we left the owner to her brewing and made our way into Canada via Highway 95. Let me tell you my impressions of Canada: It costs $3.00 for an avocado. I know of no God-fearing man heartless enough to charge a starving fellow human being $3.00 for an avocado (organic of course). Until now...Canada. More of my observations about Canada include: It has clouds at all elevations, from a few hundred feet, into the stratosphere (granted I'm not entirely certain where the stratosphere begins) that form citadels of billowy, white cotton candy. Canada grows potatoes while Idaho does not (at least where South Eastern British Columbia and Northern Idaho are concerned). Canada has hot springs, but they have been dug out and used to heat chlorinated pools filled with more obnoxious tourists than anything resembling water from a natural source. But these facts are neither here nor there, and I shall move us back to the narrative, which I find much more edifying. After the aforementioned displeasure at the state of the local water resources, we obtained directions to an undeveloped hot springs, where we met a friendly Canadian Gent whose every sentence came out as a question. The springs were tiered with the highest being closest to the source and the lowest combining with a small river which was icy cold. We spent about an hour and a half chatting about this and that, later staying at a nearby campground. I can still smell the sulpher being exuded from my pores. Leaving the camp ground bright and early (around 4:30 a.m.) we eluded the Canadian Provincial Forest Rangers and found somewhere to spend the rest of the night that didn't cost $15. That brings us more or less to our present location in Montana. Whitefish is a nice town of medium size that hosts a large population of outdoor enthusiasts, a middle school that is about as big as my high school (my graduating class was over 400 strong), and at least 2 NFIB members. This weekend is a National Parks free day which we will take advantage of in Glacier National Park, and I hope you will enjoy it just as much in your part of the world. I trust that you are all well and staying out of more trouble than we are getting into.
Pickles
Current Mileage: 1836 mi.
Times locked out: 0
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