Irene Update

Irene missed us. There was some wind and a little rain, but not much different than your average storm. Power was out for about an hour, plus lots of little flickers. Time to go to the beach!

Maine Coast & Destination: Irene

We drove down the Maine coast along US-1. Our road atlas said it would take the same amount of time to drive the coast as it would to drive back up to the highway and along 95. It was wrong. Ah well, we stopped and got lobster rolls and lobster stew. Later we stopped at a little market run by a grandma and bought some hurricane groceries and a blueberry pie. Also, the Maine coast is quite touristy, probably more so than the Oregon coast.

We stopped in Portland to visit the Urban Farm Fermentory. Unfortunately it was closed. There was another guy in the parking lot hoping it would magically open, so in theory we just hit an odd day. Instead we drove a little further and found the Maine Mead Works. The mead was good, though not great. The two guys running it are still young though and I think they'll do good things. We picked up a bottle of the hopped mead. After mead we found Allagash Brewing. Their most cool-sounding beers were either sold out or not yet released, so we tasted their year-round stuff. The trippel was pretty good, though we weren't big fans of their Cabernet beer. Too bad we'll be in South America when the fun beers arrive in the stores.

Portland looked like a nice town, though the grocery store we hit for the last of the hurricane food was a little frightening. Perhaps we'll save Maine for the vacations. After leaving Portland we drove straight down to Cape Cod through the rain. We're staying at Mel & Eli's to ride out Irene. Looks like it will mostly miss us here; we're thinking of going to the bar down the street for their hurricane party this afternoon. It is a tad windy though.

Acadia

Acadia was a park we visited in college and one we were excited about seeing again after being out west. This time it was a lot more crowded than during our visit in August of '02 or '03. We parked near Cadillac Mountain and hiked down into the gorge and up Dorr Mountain, clambering over the wet and slippery rocks along the way. We came away with some scrapes and bruises. After hiking back up to Cadillac, we stopped at Sand Beach to play in the water. Then we felt the water. Hilary went in; Aaron got to about 8" deep and gave up. Brrr! We drove around some more amongst the other tourists and went back to our campground for a bit.

We stopped in at Bar Harbor Winery for a tasting. They had some really great stuff including local cranberry and blueberry wines. After wine, we found the local brewery down the road: Atlantic Brewing. We got a blueberry ale (of course) and a bragget [sic]. Mead in Maine! After a little drinking, we were compelled to order a bbq sampler plate (Mainely Meat is strategically located in the same building) and another beer (their IPA). The bbq was great, and we came away with a bottle of their sauce too. Back at the tent, it didn't rain overnight. We left pretty early and started the drive down to Cape Cod for a visit with Hurricane Irene.

Vermont to Maine

We drove through resort land along Lake George and Lake Champlain toward Burlington. Had a bit of delay due to a bridge being out, but at least we got a free ferry across. Arrived at Meg's place to a delicious dinner. In the morning we walked around Burlington and had breakfast at a local place. Burlington was a much smaller town than we had expected. The view across the lakes into the Adirondacks was very nice though. The choice of park art was, however, a little suspect. We'll let you decide what the image below is.

After breakfast and our walking tour of downtown, we drove toward Maine. We stopped at Cabot for the third and probably last installment of our tour of US cheddar. Pretty good stuff, though again we liked the older stuff better. Picked up a block of very reasonably priced 2-year cheddar for the road. Overall we liked the WI cheddar the best, though that is likely due to the fact that 12-year cheddar was easily available. The 2-year versions of VT and WI cheddars were quite similar, WI just had the older stuff on the shelf too. Mmmm, old cheese.

After leaving Vermont, we drove along US-2 through NH and into Maine. We hit a lot of rain along the way, which was disheartening since we'd planned on finding a campground at the end of the day. By the time we got to the Acadia area it was near dark and thunderstorms were rolling through. We decided against pitching a tent in the rain and dark and found a crappy motel north of the island.

Alma Mater and the Finger Lakes

The next day we drove down the lake. We stopped at Taughannock Falls, a place we occasionally visited during our college days. We also stopped at Bellwether Cider along the way. At the bottom of the lake sat Ithaca, where we parked our car on Seneca Street across from our college apartment. We walked through the Commons, up a gorge, and across campus. It was great to walk around Cornell again; it made us feel like going back to college.  Hil had fun wandering around her old building hunting up professors she worked with.

Next we visited Ithaca Beer Co. To be honest, we didn't really like Ithaca beer when we were in college. However, we were also beer idiots. Ithaca gets lots of good press for its beer, so we went. It was great! We liked most of the beers (their apricot beer was probably the least offensive apricot beer we've tasted to date, so I guess that is praise too). We bought a 750 ml of their sour beer Brute to take back to camp with us.

On the way back to camp we drove up the east coast of Seneca Lake. We stopped at Silver Springs winery--awesome! There were several good red wines, reminiscent of European or Californian wines, a pleasant surprise. We hit one more winery on the way up, though it was closer to the regional style (sweet wine) and not all that good.  Of course we had to stop and try for good pizza one more time before giving up our NY dream, and this time we did hit a great place... it was glorious.  You poor shmucks on the west coast don't know what you're missing.

The next day we drove east through the Finger Lakes along US-20. We drove through lots of cute little towns, and eventually wound up in Cooperstown. No, we didn't go to the Baseball Hall of Fame. We went to Ommegang! The brewery is in a beautiful setting looking out over the rolling hills. We got a sampler and really enjoyed the Bret & Fruit beer. After leaving the Finger Lakes, we made our way north to Vermont.

Drive Drive Drive!

After leaving WI, we had the pleasure of driving ourselves to the east coast. We love driving.

After the trip around Chicago, we had a short stay in Indiana before entering Michigan. We stopped in Kalamazoo at Bell's for a beer and snacks. We really enjoyed their sour mash wheat beer, and we liked the "Wild One" sour brown but thought it was too acetic to drink a lot of. Back on the road, we ran into some insane construction traffic where we sat in one spot for about an hour, just 2 miles from our exit. Good times. Eventually we got to our campground at Sugarloaf Lake in Waterloo Recreation Area, though it was after dark it was at least dry. We got a site 50 yards from any other tent or RV; unfortunately the folks nearby had a habit of walking along the road, stopping at our tent, and holding loud (sometimes drunken) conversations well into the night. Thumbs down for Michigan!

We left Michigan via I-94 just north of Detroit and entered Canada (again!). We pretty much drove straight across and arrived in Niagara Falls. We stopped on the Canadian side and wandered around for a bit to take a break from the car. After a wonderfully brief border crossing, we hit New York. We hit the Finger Lakes and decided to get a pizza now that we were in NY where they know how to make real pizza. Boy we hit a dud. Turns out what we thought was a little corner pizza shop is a local chain, Mark's. Worst pizza ever. :( Got a campsite at the top of Cayuga Lake at the local state park.

Week of Wisconsin

We made it to the half-way mark! It's been 6 weeks on the road as of today. Sometimes it feels like no time at all, sometimes it feels like forever.

Spent the week in Wisconsin with family, and did some visiting with friends while we were here. On Tuesday we went to New Glarus to see the new brewery that they recently opened. It's quite shiny and was obviously built with wandering patrons in mind--everything was walled off from the walking track you could "tour" along. Not as fun as the tours where you get to step over puddles of fermenting beer. Had lunch at a Swiss restaurant (New Glarus is a very Swiss town) where we got a giant cheese & salumi plate, a huge sausage, Swiss meatballs, and enough cheesy potatoes to last us all week. Also featured was the giant urinal.

Visited Chicago on Wednesday after lunch with Grandma. Saw the giant steel bean, I guess it's supposed to be a cloud. The sculptor must not have taken a step back to ask what it really looked like. It is very shiny though. Had dinner & beer with Ben and Chris at a brewpub, rode the L through the cute neighborhoods of brick buildings, and generally enjoyed Chicago except for the whole humidity thing. They told us it was a good day... There was also the incident with the underground walkway: it took us 20 minutes and directions from a cop to cross the street. Should have just gone to the light, but we did get to see two underground train stations, an underground mall, and some other fun under-the-highway type places.

Had lunch with Nate and Jill on Friday in Tosa. On the way we drove past Aaron's childhood home and other assorted landmarks. Today the family came to visit for dinner. In the next few weeks several of us are leaving the country (temporarily) so it was a good time to get together. There were brats of course, and they were served on pretzel buns! What a great idea, the pretzel bun. Got a CD burned of 30,000 Pounds of Bananas for the rest of the road trip, and tomorrow we're back on the road. We might need to run to the east coast to burn off the extra food we've eaten in the last week, but it was totally worth it.

Map Link.

Friends & Family Tour: Midwest

Time for the Friends & Family Tour! We've met up with folks along the way, but now we're in to the intense visiting portion of the trip. Pictures of mountains will be scarce for awhile. ;)

We started off by driving 700 miles from the Black Hills to Minneapolis. That's a lot of corn & soy to look at. We skipped the Corn Palace this time around (saw it on the way west in '04) to save time. I think we also missed out on the giant ball of twine and some other odd big things. We did see a big Paul Bunyan somewhere, but that was accidental. In Minneapolis we visited Lori & Matt. It was a great time! We ran through the park, hung out with Lucy the dog, watched a movie, made dinner & played cards.

Next we drove to Wisconsin. We tried to stop in Black River Falls at the park, but it rained on us (surprise!). So we made a quick lunch in the car and just kept going. Got to Aaron's parents' place mid-afternoon and hung out. Friday is fish fry day in WI, so we got ourselves some fish and potato pancakes. Yum! Had a low-key Saturday; went to the market, made dinner, played the chicken-shooting game on the Wii. Today we went to downtown Milwaukee for part 2 of the US Cheddar Tour. Got a sampler plate with 0, 2, 5, and 12-year cheddar. Gotta love the really old cheddar. We also had some samples from the cold case; we liked the bandage-wrapped 2-year cheddar. Got a beer sampler while we were at it.

Plans for this week include a visit to New Glarus, a possible day trip to Chicago, a family shindig, and some time scrubbing the bugs of the car.

Black Hills & Badlands

Drove into the Black Hills after our quick run across Wyoming. Did you know it was Sturgis Rally Week? Neither did we, though the legions of motorcycles made us suspicious. Never seen so many bikes in our lives. Good thing we weren't looking for a motel in the Black Hills, apparently they were going for $300/night.

We hit some thunderstorms; more storms is probably appropriate. It had been raining on us since the hail storm in Calgary. Stopped in Jewel Cave for a short tour underground, where it was not raining. Next we went to Wind Cave NP, where we checked out the campsite and decided it was the best one we'd ever seen. Signed up for two nights and pitched a tent in the weird grassland/pine forest combo. Deer ranged through the campground periodically, and voice-cracking coyotes sang to us at night (we assume they were teenagers?).

The next day we drove to the Badlands. We took a fun dirt road across the Lakota territory and visited the south unit of the park. We drove along the "primitive road" which took us to the end of Sheep Mountain Table. The road was two deep ruts, not often along the same level and sometimes full of water. It was a fun ride, though a little scary when the car was tilted at a 10º angle. Logically that's not enough to tip the car, but boy does it feel like you're going to roll. The road ended at a cliff. We had lunch looking out over the cool water-eroded landscape.

We drove across the bottom of the north unit and then onto the road along the Wall. Stopped often for views. 3,000 motorcycles accompanied us. After we left the park we went to Wall Drug to see their new dinosaur. On the way back to Wind Cave we took the Needles Highway through Custer State Park. At first we were miffed by the $15 fee to drive along a road. But then we saw the awesomeness and weren't sad anymore. In fact, we decided to drive it again the next day since we liked it so much. The Black Hills are cool.

Packed up a slightly wet tent the next morning, drove along Needles again on the way to the highway, then headed for Kadoka. In 2004 we ate at the truck stop there and it was awesome. This time, not so much. They had gotten rid of the restaurant and turned it into a t-shirt store. They did have a biker bar out front, but Coors at 10:30 am wasn't really a good substitute for biscuits & gravy. So we went to a diner down the road instead.

Last of the Mountain Parks

We finished off our visit to the mountain parks in Canada with some low-key walks. We visited some waterfalls and lakes in Yoho. It rained on us in Banff which kept us from doing much walking around, not to mention that Banff was much more touristy than Glacier or Yoho so parking at the trailheads was rather difficult.

We stopped in Calgary for a visit with Alan. We went to a local pub and tried to order food. Unfortunately it had started hailing. Really hailing. We went out to watch, along with the entire population of the bar (previously encamped on the rooftop patio), as ~2 cm diameter hailstones fell from the sky for ten or more minutes. It eventually deteriorated into some rain, but by then the roof of the pub kitchen was leaking and they were bailing the water out the back door. They said the food outlook was not so good, so once the sky stopped dropping rocks on our heads (poor Alan's car was dimpled), we went to find a place that was more structurally sound. Got some food & beer, went back to Alan's for more food and beer (this time from Yukon), and crashed for the night in the mead room. [I love the sound of airlocks burbling!] Thanks Alan!

Drove south from Calgary and stopped briefly in Waterton Lakes NP. Very beautiful, but also very crowded around the town at the center of the park. Passed back into the US at a deserted checkpoint--3 Canadian and 3 US border guards and only our car to inspect. Best border crossing ever, it took us only 5 minutes to get through. Stopped again briefly in Glacier NP in Montana. Would have liked to walk around more, but it was getting toward dark and we needed to get to Helena for our motel (no way we're pitching a tent after driving 500 miles!). Hit some insane bug action as we crossed over and over again the Missouri River. We actually had to stop the car at one point and take a wet towel to the windshield after the wipers refused to remove the bug sludge. Got to Helena at 10 pm or so. In the morning we left and drove southeast; now we're in Buffalo, WY. A bit rainy here again, which kept us out of the Bighorns for the night. We'll drive to the Black Hills tomorrow and look for a campsite near the Badlands.

The carwash didn't quite get it all, we'll have to try again soon.

4 Week Summary

Can't believe it's been 4 weeks on the road already! Some quick stats:

Miles driven: 4916.2
States/provinces visited: 7
National Parks visited: 9
Number of border crossings: 4

Map Link.

O Canada!

Left Idaho and entered Canada. The scenery markedly improved after our interminable 2 hour wait to pass the border. Did you know they shave the border?

Drove along beautiful rivers through the beautiful mountains. Arrived at Kinbasket Lake, where we pitched a tent near the start of the Columbia River. Kind of weird to think that we watched it empty into the Pacific a few weeks ago and now here it is at the start. The next couple days we spent in Glacier National Park. What a magnificent park! We stopped in the info station for a trail map and some recommendations, then set of for Asulkan Valley. The trail was "moderately difficult" with a 13 km round trip and 940 m of climb. About 600 of those meters came in the last km or so, where we were practically climbing up the gravel switchbacks. Totally worth it; probably the best hike of our lives. Every view was more spectacular than the last. We finally wound up at the base of the Asulkan Glacier and watched it melt in a trickle that picked up water falling off the mountain as we descended. Technically it was a "brook", though by the bottom you'd be hard-pressed to call it anything other than a river.

The next day we were a bit on the sore side, so we chose a less steep trail that led to the bottom of the Illecillewaet Glacier. The trail ended at a stream not quite high up enough for the spectacular views, but it was still a good hike. We moved the tent to Golden, right between Glacier and Yoho parks. Last night we had some local beer at a pub down the street (don't ask what kind, we'd never heard of these beers before). Today we took a walk in Yoho near Takakkaw Falls. Yoho is more beautiful than Glacier, though Glacier is more magnificent. Having a chill afternoon now, and tomorrow we'll be back in Yoho for a longer walk.