Leaving Utah for the West Coast: We're Hungry...Let's Go Left

On Sunday morning we bid the Mayer clan adieu and headed toward Reno. The map suggested that we would be in the desert but it didn't feel like we ever quite left the mountains. Though we drove on the flat for the majority of the day we were still surrounded by craggy hills, some with snow topped peaks, all the way till our stop a Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northern California. Fuel prices soared the further left we went. We stopped at a little hole in central Nevada, lots of gambling, not so many teeth, that wanted $5.85 a gallon for diesel. We didn't fuel up there. We found some for $5.05. Glad we did too.

As we entered California we had to stop at an Agricultural Inspection Station. They we're worried that we might be smuggling oranges back into Cali. They were also more than a little concerned that we might be harboring Gypsy Moth fugitives in our camper. Apparently Maine is a breeding ground for civil and agricultural disobedience.

We wound our way through the mountains toward Lassen passing super quaint little towns with low populations (my favorite kind of town) and fueling stations with prices under $6 a gallon. We got to the park gates a tad low on fuel (I take fuel responsibility for this as I assumed that we would see another fuel station in the next day) at a scoche under a quarter tank. Wouldn't you know that we had to climb Lassen mountain to get to our camp site. By the time we parked Biesel (our beloved Dodge 2500 truck) her computer showed that we had 28 miles of fuel left. We were at least 30 miles from any town that might have a diesel pump. Not very good expedition etiquette. I now truly understand why real expedition folks carry a few jerry cans of fuel with them.

We bunked for the night and rose to take a five mile hike to Echo Lake, which was so much fun for the girls since we live right near Echo Lake in Mount Vernon. Lots of uphill, lots of dust and rocks, so many dragonflies that I thought my heart might burst with joy, incredible vistas, and lots of tinkle. The girls each have their own camel pack with water for hikes. Sara tends to drink a sip for each step or so even though she doesn't seem to really sweat any of it out. Inevitably she needs to piddle every five to ten minutes. She and her mother have the squat system all worked out. I guess we are just glad that she doesn't eat a prune for each step or so.

On the hike we encountered the rare and introverted tree dragon. We came upon her slowly and managed to convince her that she might enjoy spending some quality time with two young humans. She eventually came around to our thinking and took each of the girls for a short flight around the lake. After our hike we broke camp and cautiously and conservatively headed out of the park. Biesel's computer changed our potential mileage every few feet making the drive ever so interesting. Our only saving grace was that since we had climbed the range the day before most of our exit was to be down hill. By the time we reached the ranger station that had been rumored to have fuel (gas only as it turns out), we had a range of 17 miles. It was 17 miles to Shingletown and the nearest diesel pumps. Dun, Dun, Dun!!! Would they make it?... Would our intrepid travelers need to flag down assistance?... Would Biesel roll into town on fumes?... Would the fuel station also carry locally brewed organic beer?... Tune in next time for:Shingletown, Arcata, the Repetitive Stress Driving Course, Banana Slugs, and Really Big Stumps.

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July 3 - 11

At long last I sit down to write again. Tons have happened since the last entry and we've had a fair bit of down time, especially since we've been in Salt Lake with Shannon's dad. I just haven't been in the right frame of mind to sit down and blog. I think perhaps there has been too much to process and that the down-time forced me into some self-reflection that I've needed to do for quite a while. At any rate, if I had blogged during the last week it might not have been very pretty.

We spent the fourth of July in Fairplay CO, just south and over Hoosier Pass from Breckenridge. Breck is a town that is just a bit over the top for my taste. Lots of beautiful people, lots of money, lots of stuff. Once you go over the pass, over 10,000 feet up and twisty-turny switchbacks, you come to the most bad ass little town of Alma. We shopped at the Al-Mart. T-shirts for the girls. Pick 200 or so of the quirkiest, artsy, back-to-the-lander, sun and snow hardened folks you can imagine and those are the residents of this former mining beef raising town. They have refurbished all of the turn of the century downtown buildings and have opened the coolest bars, hair salons, art galleries, outfitters, etc. We camped in a little BLM campground called Horseshoe at about 9,000 feet up. Ali and I took a 3 mile hike up into the mountain and threw snowballs. We had to cross a fast flowing 30' wide snow-melt river to get back to camp. The BLM folks had laid some large timbers across the water but it was flowing too high to cross. So, somebody put large stepping stones every foot or so on top of the timbers. The water came over the top of many of these. Ali donned her Crocs and I went naked foot across. Man, was that water cold.

Our reason for being in the Breck area for this trip was to attend the wedding of our college buddy Laura Allen. Her folks have been heading up there from Plano, TX since the 80's and Laura is now living and teaching there. We had a great time meeting friends and family and her new husband, Bernie. The wedding, held at the home of a family friend, was beautiful. The view of the mountains was priceless and the weather held out until shortly before the reception then the cold rain came pouring in. We wish Laura and Bernie the very best.




We boondocked the night of the wedding at a rest stop in western CO. The next morning we headed to CO National Monument. What a beautiful place. Similar to Canyonlands National Park but just different enough make it a special day for us. We hiked a couple of the trails, explored a cave off the trail that we shouldn't have, and had a picnic lunch at the top of one of the canyons. We headed into Fruita, CO to check out the Dinosaur Museum. OK but not nearly as cool as the one at Dinosaur National Monument in Vernal, UT that we visited three years ago. We crashed at Highland Lake State Park in CO, a bit of an oasis in the desert with several bodies of water and lots of trees, grass, birds, and white trash. We slept fitfully through a raging wind storm and headed out first thing in the morning for UT.


Since arriving at Gary and Connie's we have slept, showered, read, relaxed, hiked, swam, eaten, cooked, caught a movie (Wanted), read some more, washed and waxed Biesel, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The girls have had an absolute blast hanging out here with the grands. In five minutes Kenny and Kristi and clan will arrive from TX and the girls are beside themselves with anticipation. We'll keep you posted.

Ali's Notes - July 3, 2008

I just bought a new iPod. I named it pPod because it is green. I have about 16 hours of songs on it, most of them are the same as the ones on Sara's iPod but I added some Beatles and Eagles. This morning we entered Iowa and at the welcome center we went on one of the balconies that overlooked the Mississippi river. That's all for now.
Ali

Sara's Notes - July 3, 2008

I don't have much to do right now cause I read all of my books that I brought already. Approximately 25oo pages so far. Most of those books are Harry Potter books. I'm done with book 6. We don't have book 7 but my dad said that we could buy it if we ran out of reading materials. Talk to you later.
Sara

July 3rd - Corn Fields

We are now in the heartland. Yesterday we hit a couple of the 'I' states. Today we are in Iowa. Boy, do they grow some corn. Lots of signs indicating that the corn is being grown to ease our fuel prices. While diesel is cheaper here, by about 30 cents a gallon, we haven't seen but one bio-diesel establishment on the entire trip. Incredibly nice folk out here. The weather has been all but perfect with sunny, breezy days in the lower 80's and nights down into the lower 60's or even upper 50's for perfect sleeping. I write this entry while seated at an outdoor gazebo at a beautiful rest area outside of Des Moines. We hope to make it well into Nebraska tonight so that we can spend the night of the 4th in Colorado. Long driving day. Need some espresso, no?

June 30th HERSHEY PARK

In honor and celebration of Ali completing her first decade, we spent the day at HERSHEY Park. They let us camper-types in an hour early in return for spending so much money on the campground entrance fee. What they didn't tell us is that only a very few select rides but all of the pay-to-play stuff (face painting, whack-a-mole, food court, etc.) is actually open at that hour. Our first ride together as a family was on the Comet, a old-school wooden roller-coaster. On the first drop I turned to see how Sara was holding up (this was her first ride on a big kid coaster) and instinctively reached out for the stop-this-train chord. She looked like she might be in cardiac arrest or at the very least that her large intestine had come unglued and was slowly corkscrewing its way out her back side. Her cherubic little face was gripped with a look of sheer joy-terror-pain-wtf, I couldn't decide if I should laugh or try to console her. She soon loosened up and enjoyed the ride that she never wants to go on again.

Ali and I went on the Claw. Can't really describe this to you. Kinda like the pirate ship on mushrooms. You know you are in for a good time when the floor drops out from under you after everyone is safely chained in. It swings, wicked high, while spinning and teetering, and such. Ali and I had an absolute blast while Sara cried in Shannon's arms, worried that Ali and I were going to get hurt or worse.

We ended our park day by taking in a show. Imagine the greatness of Blue Man Group combined with really bad broadway shtick and pseudo broadway vocals. Add Velveeta. Stir to mix. Let ferment in the afternoon sun. Yields 1 big serving of poop.

We went back to the trailer park with all or our rowdy friends for a dinner of kettle corn and cider. We turned the fan on full blast to drown out the neighborly noises and turned in for the night.