No Top Ten for me

Well the Canon Photography finalists are up and I unfortunately am not one of them. Which is okay the ones that did get submitted are amazing, even though its hard to tell since they only allow you to view thumbnail sizes, but still. so head on over and vote.

Day 34: Photo Dump Theme: Monumental

It has certainly been a while since I've posted here but I have some time on my hands and figured I would show you all some pictures from the rest of our trip. Today its all about Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.


Tears In Freedom:


The Grand Terrace:
This image was inspired by one I saw in my History of Photography class. We were discussing the rise of the snapshot. A photographer took a picture of someone taking a picture of Mount Rushmore, as a kind of comment on the snapshot. I thought of this along similar lines.

Day 26 and Day 28: Photo Dump: Nothingness?

In both Bryce and Death Valley there seems to be nothing there. But in reality there is all kinds of plants and animals living in some of the harshest environments.

Photo Facts

At this blog I have posted 25 photos via ten posts. During the trip I took a total of 6605 photos. Meaning I have only posted. 0.0037% of total photos. At my slice of Flickr I've posted 75 images from the road trip, which works out to be 0.011% of my total photos.

Over the course of the following weeks, and months. I'll be posting more and more photos from the trip. I'll never post them all, because quick frankly not all of them are good enough to be even be on the net, but there is still a lot more I'd like to share. So please do not remove that bookmark just yet; this is simply another stop in our journey.

Submitted!

This will be the first of many posts summarizing and providing conclusion for our trip.

In previous posts I have talked about the Canon National Park Photo Contest. After further review I discovered that it really is a rights grab. Which means that they are looking for the rights to use my picture without giving me credit if they desire. I thought about it for a while and decided that I'm going to submit one or two of my pictures anyways, it will at least get noticed. Otherwise it will just sit in my flickr account page just being seen by the handful of people who have already commented. So here it is: Its called Up and Away and its from the Spanish Missions National Park in Texas.

Day 28 & 29: Rocks Both Big and Red

Frist Teton picture for this trip and another of Bryce Canyon.

Day 30 Photo Dump: Hot Pools

Now that most of the pictures are said and done I'll be going back posting more and more to previous days. and Soon Alie will be posting some images as well. Here are two more pictures from Yellowstone National Park.

UPDATES on the Bounty!

Alright The day after I published the UPDATES Ahoy! post. The updates changed again. So here is the final word on them.

A. The power block arrived while we were in Virginia City. So thats excellent! I haven't used it yet but now that we are a little more stationary I'm going to unload my computers hard drive of pictures and add them to the now powered external.

B. BOA reversed the charges. Manuvering through thier phone support is annyoing and tricky but it worked. I also contected the booking agency and explianed to them the problem. They have taken notes and as far as I cal tell wil not be any more trouble.

C. We got the GPS and we returned the old one. I have yet to ask Alie if the charge disappeared but I cannot see why it wouldn't have.

So thats that. All that ends well is well or something like that. Anyways I'm very glad we got it all done and things sorted themselves without much argivation sans BOA and the booking agency.And we'eve learned a lot.

As I said in a previous post will be posting a lot more to this site to give a sense of conclusion with stuff like what we learned our favorite experiances and other fun facts like our highest price of gas and such. so pay attention there will also be a quiz later.

Hear Me Ramble on the Radio!

At this blog I tend to ramble on and on and on. Well while Alie and I were traveling from Cleveland OH to Binghamton. We were listening to NPR and we stumbled upon this local channel that had a show about travel. I thought this was a great chance to talk about Alie and I's experience, so I called up and was on the air! However I was really nervous and it came out as a stream of consciousness. So click the following link and be ready to not only read my rambles but also HEAR me ramble!

And if you want to download the show you can go here and right/option click on the mp3 links and select 'download file.' The show I'm on is from Wenesday 7-26-06 and its titled Travel Special!

Day 37, 38 and 39: I've Traveled Every Road in this Here Land!

This will be one of our last times together. The reasons we have not been posting very often is that there has not been much to tell after we left Binghamton. In Binghamton we visited our friend Patty. She was a visual art major in college and is returning to Boston to tech and be an aid for a special needs child. Her parents were gracious enough to feed us and give us a place to stay. In Binghamton we exchanged stories about the summer quoted funny times in cartoons and then saw Superman Returns and I must say that it is truly awesome! Bryan Singer has done it again; made people who might not normally enjoy Superman or a super hero movie in general and brought out the universal story that anyone can appreciate. Then the next morning we talked some more and headed to Utica, NY.

Where I am currently posting from. Here we've met many many family members helped set up the tables, decorated the reception tent and making sure everything goes well. Right now Alie is getting her nails done and then off to the rehearsal for the singers and the general wedding rehearsal. My job has been manual labor and largely staying out of the way. So much stuff is happening that I'm afraid that I'll muck things up so the best place for me right now is here in "the Den" posting and listing to the freshly bought Tom Petty album Highway Companion and of course the essential Johnny Cash rendition of I've Been Everywhere. After all the wedding mayhem is said and done Alie and I will be posting our final thoughts, share our best and worst experiences of the trip and a lot of other stuff like photo dumps and such. But for now just sit back, relax and listen to these good tunes while you read the following stats: (that include to Binghamton and to Utica)



Total visited: 60% of the USA! Rock on!
Distance: 482.7mi
Moving Average: 55.8mph
Overall Average: 48.5mph
Moving Time: 8h 38m
Stopped: 1h 18m
Total Time: 9h 57m
Wrong Turns: 1 or 2. I dunno.
Distance to go: That was fun lets do it again next year! ;)

I was totin my pack along the long dusty Winnamucka road
When along came a semi with a high canvas covered load
If your goin' to Winnamucka, Mack with me you can ride
And so I climbed into the cab and then I setteled down inside
He asked me if I'd seen a road with so much dust and sand
And I said, "Listen! I've traveled every road in this here land!"

I've been everywhere, man
I've been everywhere, man
Crossed the deserts bare, man
I've breatherd the mountain air, man
Travel - I've had my share, man
I've been everywhere...

Day 35/36: Chi Town Surprise

First off, I would like to apologize for our lack of post last night. It was a late night following a busy day, and Internet was not as convenient as it could have been. As the name suggests, however, we did indeed make it to Chicago yesterday. We got out of Rochester, MN yesterday morning and headed out, driving half of Minnesota, all of Wisconsin (complete with cheddar cheese from the gas station) and a little bit of Illinois to get to Amanda’s house and hour from Chi town.

We met up with Amanda at work and had lunch at the fabulous Mexican restaurant she works at. After lunch we let her continue working while we treated her town as another homebase and ran some errands. That was when our luck began to change. I have been having some pain in my left arm off and on since we were in Texas (I attributed it to strain from picking up my little cousins). Yesterday, however, the pain moved into my chest and became constant and sharp. To make a long story short, we ended up going to the hospital for lack of a better option. Luckily everything was fine, they did some chest x-rays and nothing major was wrong. They concluded that I probably have pleurisy, which is just a fancy way of saying chest pain with a questionable cause. So I’m healthy, just in a bit of pain. Never a dull moment…

After that, the night got much better. I felt bad about putting a damper on the evening a bit of walking around the city and had some deep dish Chicago pizza at Pizzeria Due (the second Pizzeria Uno restaurant). Things were definitely looking up.

Today we woke up in time for breakfast (for once) and had another great meal at the breakfast restaurant that Amanda works at. With our bellies full, we were ready to take on Chi town once again. We walked around Millennium Park and saw great metal sculptures (photos to come) and fountains complete with kids (and some adults) splashing around. We walked around the parks some more, saw Lake Michigan (my first Great Lake!) and then headed to Navy Pier. Navy Pier is like Fanuiel Hall in Boston, only bigger and on the water. There are tons of shops and food places, as well as a big ferris wheel and swings. It was fun to walk around and see Chicagoans in their natural habitat! We did a lot of walking and exploring! It was a great day. Chicago is a beautiful city that I would like to explore again sometime. Thanks so much to Amanda for her hospitality and for showing us around the area!!!!

Now we are on the road as I right this. We have crossed Illinois and Indiana and are now in Ohio. We had planned on getting to Pittsburgh, but plans change and due to the fact that we left later than expected, among other things, we are staying in Cleveland tonight. We will still be fine on our next to last road trip day in which we head up to New York for the wedding! I can’t believe its almost here and our trip is almost over. It will definitely be bittersweet; we have loved exploring the country, but we are ready for family and friends and the comforts of home!



Until tomorrow!
The Stats (for the past 2 days):
58% of the USA covered!
Average Speed: 50.7mph
Moving Average: 55.8mph
Total Time: 19h27min
Moving Time: 17h42min
Stopped: 1h45min
Distance Traveled: 987.3miles (woah!)
Distance Left: Eastward Ho!

Day 34: American Art

Mount Rushmore is truly a sight to be seen. Its such a common image in American culture to sell things, as spoofs or as inspiration. When I saw it and I believe, when most people see it they experience inspiration. Because of the choice of which presidents to display and the sculptor's views on American Art.

Mount Rushmore was sculpted by a Danish immigrant named Gutzon Borglum. Being an immigrant helped shaped his view of American art. He believed that American art should be just has big and monumental as the American ideals in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Thus a monument to these ideals must be just as big. It took a little over 17 years for the monument to be completed originally Borglum planned to have all the presidents except Roosevelt to be torso length. However Borglum unfortunately died before the final head, Roosevelt's was completed. He left his son to finish the heads.

The life that comes from the sculptures is as amazing as it is an engineering marvel for its time. But what struck me as the most interesting piece of the entire monument were the reasons behind, which presidents to display. Washington was chosen, because he defeated the British and upheld the values in the Declaration of Independence, thus giving birth to our nation and its ideals. Jefferson was chosen because he expanded the land of our nation with the Louisiana Purchase, Lincoln is there because he held the nation together. And Roosevelt's likeness was carved there because he developed the US into the modern marvel it was at the time. That kind of thought really was interesting to me because its a great way to summarize our history in just four faces.

The ideas behind it are really cool, though the execution is at times questionable. First being that you really do not get to explore much of the park the presidential trial goes in front and does not take you very high. You never get to see it from many other angles then you get with the grand view. Also it seems like part of it is a money grab of sorts. There are four different bookstores and gift shops, a restaurant, and two cafés. All of which have higher prices then we've seen in other parks. This frustrated us since we felt that our money's worth did not go nearly as far as it did in any of the other parks. Including Death Valley, but we are glad we went. Its just something you have to see.

After leaving the park Alie and I drove another 8 hours to Rochester MN home the famous Mayo Clinic. Actually we visited one more National Park one of the newest National Parks; The Minuet Man Missile National Historic Site. It is there as an example of the missile race with Russia and what was under the ground during the Cold War in the US. We found it when we stopped for gas. Across the way was a temporary visitor center. The site contains a missile silo and some launch control buildings unfortunately. It is only currently open Monday-Friday. So we did not get our stamp. But it does count as our 20th park! (Kind of) Hopefully we'll be able to pick up one more so we can legitimately claim all 20. Alas it is now getting late and I must head out because we are planning on leaving EARLY and its already too late for me. But first our map and stats:



Visited 50% of the USA!! Booyeah!
Distance: 621.7mi
Moving Average: 68.6mph
Overall Average: 62.6mph
Moving Time: 9h 3m
Stopped: 52m 19s
Total Time: 9h 56m
Wrong Turns: 2
Distance to go: With more days like these we might even get there on time. ;)

Day 28 & Day 30 Photo Dump: Orangy Goodness

Here are some Rock formations from Yellowstone National Park and Bryce Canyon. This part of the country has just some of the most beautiful parks around.

Day 24 Photo Dump: Beat

Here are two pictures from the City Lights shop that alie and I went to. My favorite bookshop ever and the one B&N is inspired by.

Day 33: On the Road Again

Nothing much happened today, we left Montana a little later than we wanted trying to find my car keys, but we found them and got to Mt Rushmore just fine. The 8 hour trip was easy cheese and a 4 hour drive seems like nothing nowadays. After this trip a 5 hour drive 1 way would be considered a day trip for us.

Tomorrow we hit Rushmore and get as close to Chi-Town as possible. Alie and I are very much looking forward to seeing Amanda and the city. But for now here is the map and stats.



49% of the USA!!! This is getting really exciting.
Distance: 516.6mi
Moving Average: 69.3mph
Overall Average: 66.2mph
Moving Time: 7h 27m
Stopped: 21m 22s
Total Time: 7h 48m
Wrong Turns: 0 Its much easier to navigate out here.
Distance to go: Not much at all.

Day 32: Talkin' 'bout a Ghost Town

Yesterday Alie's grandparents took us to a ghost town called Virginia City. At one time it was the capitol of Montana. That was around the 1840s or so during the gold rush era, when the town was a big deal. Now a days its a neat little side trip. Everyone who works in town has to ware period outfits that would fit their profession. The creamery guy wore a vest and a string tie. The man manning the ticket booth at the opera house wore a bowler and the woman who ran a shop in the old school house wore something that a spinster would've wore. It was pretty neat. A lot of the buildings in the town are restored, but sealed off from the outside. If you peer in the windows you see mannequins all dressed up in period cloths as well posed to do their specific jobs. Like the switch board operator at the Bell Telegraph shop was sitting and in the process of manipulating some cables.

The history of the town is pretty neat, like I said it was the capitol of Montana for a short while, but before that, there was this vigilante government. Where locals decided to clean up the town and the surrounding area and distribute justice to the outlaws. Well once they did that and there was gold discovered in the surrounding hills. They got power hungry and started becoming the oppressors. Eventually they were removed from power somehow (I never got that far.) And the town basically folded up in the mid 1940s. Today as I described above its a tourist attraction and a neat one at that.

At night we had a delicious steak dinner cooked by Alie's grandmother's nephew, Bob. Then went to a real cowboy bar called Stacy's it was great. The country band player not only country but some good classic rock tunes as well, but still had a distinctive country feel. Alie and I danced to a slow version of Rocketman and Bob sang with the band for one song. Good people, good drinks and good times. Certainly one for the memory banks.

Today we shove off and head for South Dakota an 8 hour trip! But tomorrow we hit Mt. Rushmore! I'm psyched. No stats today since we did not really travel very far and we did not have the GPS with us. ;)

Day 30: These Sulfur Fumes are Making Me Nauseous

Yellowstone the second time around was great! We decided to focus our energy on the North West side of the park. This area includes Mammoth Springs and Norris Geyser Basin. Both of which we explored thoroughly. The Norris Basin is really neat it does not have many of the famous ones. Instead those are found in the south west Yellowstone, however they are still amazing things. There are many small geysers and tons of springs thermal vents. The two that stick out the most to me is Vixen, and Steamboat. Steam boat Geyser erupts has small eruptions regularly, but every once in a while it releases a big one. That is much taller than Old Faithful and lasts about 24 hours. The problem being that every once and a while is either 4 days or 50 years from its previous eruption. The last time it went off big time was May 23 3005 so it was easy to say that we were not going to see it happen. What we did see was Vixen Geyser go up.

This geyser does not have any special story like Steamboat does, instead its a small and deep geyser that we saw erupt. It started very small with little water reaching the surface From its pit and then it got a little higher and then some more until it reached about my height and then stopped. Now this wasn't in one huge spray it was in spurts. Alie and I thought it was cool because we were the only ones around when it did it. I got some pictures and video. I will not be able to post the video but pictures for sure.

We then traveled to Mammoth springs and saw the types of geological formations called terraces. These things are limestone deposits that build up and form little terraces for a lack of a better word on the ground where the hot water runs and falls. The lime stone deposits in one place and as it grows higher the water runs around it and over it making them longer. The flows originate in these small mounds where the springs are located and runs a long way down until it reaches the valley.

This section of the park used to be much more colorful then it is now. When a lot of these were named they were beautiful natural sculptures, however now the most of the springs lie dormant leaving only the rocks behind but the color of the springs vanish with the hot water. So when one was named Minerva the Roman goddess of sculpture one can imagine how beautiful it once was.

As I said above a lot of these are dormant but not all. Our two favorites were Canary Springs and Orange Mound. I belief that Orange mound looks a lot like a mammoth. Thus the area's name but apparently not enough of one to name it so. (Picture coming soon.) This formation is amazing. The color is all orange for the small organisms in the water. The water also created these interesting ridges and mounds that give it this great texture. All day I struggled to find items that would turn up well on my digital camera and it was not until I found this mound that I was truly inspired. (Wow that was really pretentious I'm sorry)

Afterwards with our damaged GPS we made the drive to Bozeman using the classic call ahead for directions technique. Once there we were welcomed with open arms and two barking puppies.

Alie and I's recommendation for this park, go and hire a snow coach or a snowmobile guide and come in the winter or spring. There is a lot less people, many more animals, and the snow just allows these geological formations and colors to really stand out. The two major draw backs are you cannot explore it alone, trust us not a that big of a deal and some areas are closed. But you cannot get the entire park in one trip so try it in both. Overall Yellowstone ranks one of the best parks we've been to so far and I have ever been in my life.

Some stats that are a little off but only very slightly. Due to GPS testing that occured today.

Distance: 312.3mi
Moving Time: 1h 40m
Stopped: 24m 46s
Total Time: 2h 5m
Overall/Moving Average: Completely utterly inaccurate wrong but for fun I'll post them any way and you guess which ones are which. 149mhp 186mph.




Overall is the first number and moving is the second.

UPDATES Ahoy!

Welcome back. After a real short hiatus we have returned. The blackouts were due to no internet connecting in West Yellowstone and lack of an easy connection here. But thats relatively sorted now. I am terribly sorry about I'm also sorry about the out of order posting, but catching up with this and me trying to tie up loose ends with my credit card, GPS, and power block has resulted in a convoluted posting procedure.

First let me show you around the new old stuff. I've updated three previous posts with stats and/or maps. These can be found here and here and finally here.

Second we've added two days and are adding a third shortly.

Third: Updates on little odds and ends issues that have come up.

A. The power block. You may remember that my power block was left in San Fran, well the Days Inn there had it and said they will ship it to Montana with no charge, however. It will get here next week. :( I'll have to have it shipped to New Jersey and use Alie's computer for picture storage since she has mysteriously stopped taking pictures.

B. My credit card issues was that we never stayed in the room I charged to it because the company never sent any information over. So I am trying to dispute the claim. It has now posted, but the claim office was closed tonight, thus I'll have to call tomorrow.

C. The worst one of all the GPS. This is a new problem to our readers but its something we've been struggling with for a few days now. And I have good news. The problem originally was that it would either not find the satellites it needs to triangulate our position or it would find them and then loose them if we travelled any distance at all. So today while Alie was shopping for a present. I was on the phone with Garmin. And what they did was nothing short of WONDERFUL. I was on the phone with a Matt, he is a Montana native and knew of Bozeman well. I told him the issue and he said I should have no problems acquiring satellites in downtown Bozeman. Which I was.

He said our unit was in need of repair. So he was going to ship us a new unit ASAP so that we could continue our road trip with a GPS unit. The problem being that the shipping office had closed about a 1/2 an hour ago so we would get the new unit sometime Saturday. I told him that was okay but we were planning on leaving Saturday morning. He said hold let me call shipping and stop the truck to see if I can get this order out today. And he did which enabled us to get the new unit to us tomorrow (Friday).

All we had to do was give him a credit card to charge the new unit to just to make sure they aren't just giving us one and not getting something back in return. Once Garmin gets our current unit, they will remove the charge and we get to keep the brand new GPS unit. He also is going to ship us a different kind of mount so we do not have to worry about the unit falling and being damaged again. This was wonderful Matt did not have to stop the truck nor did he have to send us a different kind of mount nor allow us to keep any of our current accessories.

This has made me a lifetime buyer of Garmin products. The units themselves are easy to use, light and portable, and the costumer service is beyond compare. Thanks to Matt and Garmin for pulling us out of a major problem.

Finally Photo dumps will return shortly. Just after we get all this writing done with and I am able to go through the 600+ or photos and see which ones are worthy and which are not.

Day 29: Big Rocks

We started our day traveling 4:30 hours to Grand Teton National. Park Alie and I were here in our previous visit to Montana thus we did not feel we needed to explore the park as thoroughly as we have previous ones. The fact is Tetons is a very small park in comparison there are a few trails here and there but they are relatively longer ones and we had arrived later in the day, about 3:30. Thus we went down the road that is closed in the winter and it took us to Jenny Lake there we enjoyed a much closer view of the Tetons then we have previously seen and found it very interesting to see the park not covered entirely in snow. Alie and agreed that we preferred the snowy cliffs to the bare ones we saw today. It also helped that during the winter Tetons is much less crowded.

The real adventure started when we had to travel to West Yellowstone for our place to stay. It is only about 60 miles from Jenny Lake, but the quickest rout is via the John Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Highway. This small stretch of road connects Yellowstone and the Tetons. Once we hit Yellowstone it was rather dark and forced us to be fairly slow so we could react to wildlife crossings and such. It also did not help that through out the day the GPS mount kept falling from its perch and possibly damaging it. Through our journey through the two parks we could not get decent satellite reception for any long period of time. Alie and I are hoping that it is the geography of the parks that was preventing it and not some greater threat.

But that was a small problem compared to an RV that was a head of us for most of the park. It stopped suddenly in front of us; both Alie and I thought she was pulling over to appreciate the very last traces of lights and the coming stars in an awkward place. It did not occur to us that there was some other reason until Alie spotted a HUGE dark shape walking away from the RV. The woman driving it was going slowly but ending up smacking into a Buffalo head on. The beast survived and wandered into the wilderness, the woman was shaken, but not hurt. The RV however was a different story. The diriver side lights were all busted and broken. The hood was crumpled and leaking anti freeze. Someone follow alie and I in a black suburban went a head to call a ranger, since no one got cell service, while alie and I stayed with the woman,apparently her first time in the park, until the Ranger arrived. It was only a few minuets and then we were on our way to battle again the the GPS.

Results it did not really know where our hotel was, nor did it know where we were. Obvious not good. Nevertheless it still calculates routes even when it cannot find satellites, under s different setting, and has very detailed mpas of the entire US built in. so worse comes to worse we can use it as a portable MapQuest or such; hopefully it will not come to that. Tomorrow will see how it fairs. It its still acting up will call Garmin and see what they can do for us. Ibelieve its still under warrenty.

Due to the GPS malfunction the stats are not completely accurate but they provide data that I deem good enough. Tomorrow we do Yellowstone’s Mammoth Springs and then head to Bozeman to the see Grandparent Howards! We are very excited!!!

BEHOLD The Return of the MAP:


47% of the country!
Distance: 613.0mi
Overall Average: 78.5mph
Moving Average: 87.2mph
Moving time: 7h 1m
Stopped 45m 44s
Total: 7h 47m

Day 31: The Air Up Here

Hello all from Big Sky Country! We finally made it to Bozeman, MT to my Nonnie and Papaw's house last night where we were welcomed with loving arms. It is so nice to be back at a "home base" of sorts, and consequently we enjoyed a simple, if not mundane day of enjoying some of the comforts of home.

For starters, we were able to sleep in as long as we liked without the threat of a "housekeeping" knock at our door. And we took full advantage of it!!! Wandering out of bed at around noon, we were welcomed by bagels, doughnuts and coffee all at our disposal, and soon after good company arrived back home to chat and spend time with us. But we had a mission: to get our lives in order. We relished the moments spend "in town" doing errands. We finished our laundry, which was a very necessary. Then we gave the car a much needed wash at the local carwash. After that we went to the drugstore to pick up some things, and to a local store to pick up a birthday/thank-you gift for my grandparents. All trips were quite successful as was the complete inside renovation of the car! No more trash, and we can even find our stuff...imagine!!

Perhaps the most successful part of our day was concerning our GPS. After a day or two of trouble with our "lifeline," Matt called the Garmin dealer to report the problem. We anticipated some heartache and inconvenience, but we got the opposite. We will be shipped a brand new system tomorrow that we will get to keep with just a deposit to put down refundable when we return the broken one. This is a HUGE load of our minds! Just thinking about trying to get back without the device we have relied on for so long is unnerving,a nd is is nice to have that settled, and rather pleasantly at that!

This evening we enjoyed good food, drink and company as we had a tostada dinner outside with my Nonnie and Papaw, their nephew Bob and his wife Sue and Tom their neighbor. We had a great time talking and laughing into the evening, and it was so nice to have some company and familiar faces. Now we are ready to get another good night's sleep, and we are ready for an adventure tomorrow! We are going out to Virginia City to see a good ole western ghost town and spend some quality time with Nonnie and Papaw. For now, goodnight!

Stats: negligable, only driving was in town =)
Tomorrow: Virgina City! A real live commericalized ghost town!