Posted by Sierra

Glacier National Park in Montana, our last BIG trip stop, is considered one of the major tourist destinations. It became popular because of its proximity to the railroad, and today we think of it as being in the same category as Yosemite and Yellowstone.

The first day we were there, we took the Red Bus Tour. These historic buses take you around the park. The various tours can last anywhere from 2.5-8.5 hours. We did the “Crown of the Continent” tour, which picked us up at the KOA (Kampgrounds Of America) and took us all the way up to Lake McDonald Lodge. The driver, called a “Jammer,” was very funny. He said things like, “The bears call bicyclists ‘Meals on Wheels,’” and “We call bear bells ‘dinner bells’ because they make the bear curious.”

The second day in Glacier, we took a shuttle up to Logan Pass and trekked through snow to get to Hidden Lake. We also did a ranger program called “Montana Jones and the Secrets of Red Eagle Valley” that involved a hike through a burned area of the forest.

The third day we were there was Mom’s birthday. We drove to Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada. Glacier and Waterton Lakes National Parks are the International Peace Parks. We did a strenuous 7 mile hike that took us across the border. We got to see the border line that was cut through the trees. I also had fun jumping form one country to the next (example: “I’m in Canada, I’m in the US, I’m in Canada, now I’m in the US, I’m in Canada, now …” and so on).

That night, we ate dinner at the Cattle Baron’s Supper Club in the town of Babb (back in Montana). There happened to be some kind of Corvette cross-country trip (I am not making this up) dining at the club. Seriously, there were, like, 10 Corvettes outside! The Corvette people ate up all the filet mignon and the New York Strip steaks.

Our final day in Glacier, we drove to Apgar Village. There we shopped around and had ice cream. We ended by taking a shuttle back up to Lake McDonald Lodge.

Thus ends my play-by-play of our time in Glacier National Park. So, if you’re ever planning a trip there, remember this: The number one cause of death in Glacier is drowning!

So have fun, and don’t forget to bring your life preserver!

Yellowstone National Park is the oldest national park. It is 2.2 million acres, most of which is located in Wyoming. Established March 1, 1872, Yellowstone is one of the most visited parks, up there on the list with Yosemite, Grand Canyon, and Arches National Parks. I’m here today to tell you about some of the highlights.

* Old Faithful: This is the obvious place to start. Old Faithful is the largest attraction in the park, and unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ve probably heard of it. Spewing water on a fairly predictable basis (see visitor center for predictions) the image of this geyser isn’t hard to find. Just peek into any gift shop, restaurant, or hotel. Keep in mind that, like the Mona Lisa, “Most Famous” doesn’t always mean “Best.”

* Grand Geyser: If you are willing to wait an hour and a half to have rolls “throwed” at you (see: Throwed, not Thrown), then you are probably willing to wait around for a few hours to watch a geyser erupt. Although Grand Geyser (above), the World’s Tallest Predictable Geyser, is um, predictable, there is a rather large time frame in which it might erupt. For example, when we saw it, the sign said “Eruption should be between 11:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.” It erupted at 3:00 p.m. This gets my vote for “Best Geyser.”

* Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone: Although this is not quite as big as that other Grand Canyon, it offers spectacular views. It seriously looks like a painting. And yes, it is called the Grand Canyon of THE Yellowstone, in reference to the river. The Grand Canyon of THE Yellowstone wins “Best Canyon.”

* General Stores: There is usually at least one of these in the vicinity. They sell everything from camping supplies to souvenir mugs to shirts that say, “Yellow(stone).”

* Other Hydrothermal Features: There are hot springs, geysers, fumaroles, and steam vents throughout the park. Some of the hot springs are Morning Glory Pool, Beauty Pool, and Chromatic Pool. Some of the other geysers include Spasmodic Geyser, Solitary Geyser, and Fountain Geyser.

Well, there you have it.  Yellow(stone) in a nut(shell).

Sierra will give you the words about Yellowstone National Park. A lot to see and take photos of, enough to merit a new category at Flickr . . . if we could find a good enough connection to post dozens of them. That might have to wait until August. Meanwhile here are a few chosen to illustrate the amazing range of colors throughout the park.

Posted by Stan

One reason we’ve taken a curious route through Oregon, first heading north up the coast, then over to Portland before turning south, was so we could make Crater Lake National Park our last stop before driving to Yellowstone National Park.

That’s because it snows a lot at Crater Lake, and it takes a while to get rid of all of it. They aren’t even close. We knew we wouldn’t be able to travel the Rim Drive that circles the lake or take the boat ride to Wizard Island, but we wanted to camp in the park and hike where we could. Our patience was rewarded when they opened a campground last Friday.

And at least Cleetwood Cove Trail was open. That’s the only authorized route down to the water, the one you take to board a tour boat (when they are operating). It’s steep, descending about 700 feet during a mile hike, leading to incredibly blue water.

The kids will love the hike, Matt. Take them on the boat as well.

We were in a campground in Three Rivers, California. Sierra went to take a shower in the slightly old bathroom. She picked a shower stall and was closing the door when something moved.

Sierra jumped and saw there was what she described as “a small, light-green toad.” She also described it as “Awesome.” Still, she used the other shower.

After Sierra finished her shower, which, “I had to stoop during, due to the insanely low shower head,” she trooped back to the RV and reported the toad to Mom. Then she grabbed the camera and ran back to the bathroom. She took a picture of the toad. She and Mom discussed how cute the toad was and wondered what they should name it. Mom said “Emma,” after the toad Sierra had in second grade that ran away. But what if it was a boy? They decided to name the toad Emmett. Mom also said the “toad” looked like a “frog.” Sierra reportedly frowned at this.

So then it was Mom’s turn. She headed over to the bathhouse, turned on the light timer and took a look. There hiding in the grout groove in the far corner of the shower was Emmett. “You poor thing,” she said (yes, out loud), and she tried to catch it. Not an easy task, as Emmett hopped much faster than she could react. He managed to get to another corner, outside the showers. She gave up and took her shower, then checked again; he was still in the same spot. This time she was determined and grabbed him. His slippery body wasn’t too slimy. He moved down her hand and jumped off again, but she maneuvered him out the door.

Then she turned toward the sink, and found—another one! This one, christened Emily, didn’t put up much of a fight, and out to freedom she went.

Later research revealed that the amphibians are the common Pacific Treefrogs. It is hoped they do not meet gruesome ends in the wild, but perhaps they’ll find it more interesting than hanging out in the bathhouse all day.

I’ll start by talking about the hikes we did. The first was the Mirror Lake and Tenaya Canyon hike. Mirror Lake was formed when a rockslide dammed the river. In the early morning and at sunset it’s reflective, giving it its name. The hike was partially closed due to a recent rockslide, from March. We hiked until we reached the blocked-off portion. We could see all the jumbled-up granite from the rockslide.

The other hike we did was the Nevada and Vernal Falls hike. It involved a lot of steep climbing. The best part (in my opinion) was the Mist Trail, which had stone steps and was very misty. We got SOAKED!! We saw first Vernal Fall and then Nevada Fall. They were both pretty magnificent.

We did not see a single bear while we were in Yosemite. We did, however, see bear traps. These are long, silver cylinders with a food bag at the back. When the bear bites the bag, the door swings shut, and the bear settles down and falls asleep. Occasionally a squirrel gets stuck in there.

And now for everyone’s favorite part: the funny stories. We heard these on the various ranger walks we did. The first is about a ranger—we’ll call him Ranger “Frank.” He was setting a bear trap one day, and he left his radio outside. He accidentally triggered the door and was stuck in there for several hours.

The second story is about a ranger’s nephew. She said he calls Yosemite “‘Se-mi-tee,” and thinks “Yosemite” means “Your ‘Semite,” so he calls it “My ‘Semite.” Isn’t that adorable, folks?

So that’s Yosemite. Your ‘Semite, my ‘Semite, everybody’s ‘Semite.

There are a few REALLY SCARY situations on the road. One of them is staying in a Walmart parking lot overnight.

Sure, some of the Walmarts are nice, but some of them are not. We frequently drive around trying to find a “level” place to park so the refrigerator doesn’t turn off.

The scariest thing about Walmart is the scary stories that come from those “24-Hour” parking lots. One of these stories is called:

THE GHOST DOOR
(Holds flashlight under face)

One night, in a Walmart parking lot near Niagara Falls, the innocent campers were sleeping peacefully in an RV. In the middle of the night, on of the characters—we’ll call her “Mom” for old time’s sake—woke up. “Mom” realized the door was open.

(Flashlight turns off. Is banged against wall until it turns back on.)

Where was I … oh yeah, the door was open. “Mom” first thought that her daughter—we’ll call the daughter “me”—had sleepwalked out the door. She checked “me’s” bed, but there “me” was, curled up in a corner. So there they were, alone in a dark Walmart parking lot, “Mom,” “me,” and the third character, whom we’ll call “Dad.” And what happened to this innocent, brave family? THEY WERE NEVER HEARD FROM AGAIN. Just kidding, what really happened was that “Dad” got up and closed the door and they all went back to sleep. But they COULD have disappeared.

As for “me,” she didn’t hear of the story until the morning, when she started writing a post, which didn’t get posted for—er—almost a year.

The moral of this story is that you should NEVER think that those Walmart parking lots are “harmless.” If you do, you may end up with your OWN scary story to tell.

Big Bend National Park is truly spectacular, with an amazing variety of rocks from all different geological periods in one place and more species of wildlife than any other national park. We’re spoiled—living in the Southwest, we get to see these kinds of mountains and mesas all the time—but we were still very impressed.

We had two interesting encounters at Big Bend, ones probably familiar to those who have been there before but new to us.

We went on the Boquillas Canyon hike, a short steep hike that leads down to the Rio Grande. Along the way we spotted small scorpions and walking sticks made out of beads. They were for sale along with painted rocks and chunks of pretty minerals, like calcite. The makers/sellers live across the river in Boquillas del Carmen, Mexico. They’re not allowed to cross the border to sell these items, and by buying them people are encouraging them to cross the border illegally. The park newspaper warned that if we were caught with their illegally purchased items, we could be fined. And if the vendors were caught on our side of the border, they could be sent to Presidio, the closest legal border crossing, and deported. They put the fear of God into you for even considering buying something.

We saw a vendor sitting under a ramada on the Mexican bank and saw his helper on this side checking the metal cans to see if anyone had put money in them, then heading back across the river, which was low enough to walk across. We saw another man leading a horse from one bank to the other. If someone wanted to enter the United States illegally to live here, Big Bend isn’t the ideal place to do so, since it’s a long way to any good-sized town. These people just want to make a few bucks, and who can blame them.

Adding to the scene was “Mexican Victor,” a guy who stands on the Mexican bank and serenades U.S. hikers, who are welcome to leave money in his donation can. He’s going to sing to you even if you say, “No, gracias,” and if you don’t leave him money you feel guilty. The whole situation had us discussing morality and the implications of the scene for a while. (NPR did a feature on this a few years back, which you can find here.)

When you realize how easy it is to cross the Rio Grande here, and drive along Interstate 10 as it hugs the international border, the idea of a border-long fence seems prohibitively expensive—perhaps insane. (Coincidentally, when I was writing this as we drove along I-10 near Esperanza, Texas, we passed the Border Patrol picking up an “illegal.”)

Our other encounter was of the four-legged variety. We were sitting at our Cottonwood Campground site, at the very southern tip of the park, when out of the brush trotted a whole herd of javelinas—shaggy, white-collared, black mammals that look like giant rodents (real name: collared peccary). Stan grabbed his camera and started sneaking up on them as they grazed. Sierra grabbed the video camera in case they charged Stan. Eventually, the 14 of them ate their fill and trotted back into the brush.

Then we waited for dark so we could marvel at the infinite stars. Away from light pollution, they really do twinkle. All in all, it was a remarkable couple of days.

Hooray! this is officially our 100th post! I dedicate it to all our friends and family who have let us park the RV at their house, and let us stay there.

Washington, D.C., as I’m sure you’re all aware, is our nation’s capital. It is filled with big, white, buildings and people in business suits. The crosswalks give you as long as 62 seconds to cross!

Today I’m going to be telling you about the International Spy Museum, the Senate Gallery, and the House Gallery.

International Spy Museum: Feel free to walk around with the theme from “Mission Impossible” in your head. I know I did. You start off by receiving a cover and a legend. You are given a rather short period of time to pick one and memorize it, and before long you enter a room where you see the movie “Could YOU be a Spy?” At least I think that’s what it’s called.

Anyway, next you enter this room that looks really spy-y. You test your cover, and receive your next mission. After that, you can float around, reading lots of panels and doing lots of activities, including:
* Identifying a type of threat
* Locating the familiar shapes of airplanes
* Climbing into a vent and listening to a conversation (which I think was mostly in Spanish)
* Spotting a disguised agent in a crowd.
You can also watch videos on a few subjects, such as lock picking (Note to self: Add “lock pick” to Wish List).

Next, you get to learn about the history of spying. Did you know that George Washington was a spymaster? He needed spies to help win the war. Also, Ben Franklin used his pen as a spy tool during the war: England asked Germany to fight with them against the colonies, but Franklin gave the Germans fake information and slipped pieces of paper to German soldiers promising free land if they didn’t fight with the British.

You also learn about famous people who turned out to be spies, like Julia Child. There’s a lot about spying during World War II and the Cold War. There’s some really interesting stuff about ciphers and other codes. There’s a little about torture, then you are tested on the details of your legend.

Another thing you can do at the Spy Museum is called Operation Spy. You go on a mission. I’m worried if I reveal the details of this mission, the Spy Museum people will track me down and kill me, so all I’ll tell you is that it involves a nuclear trigger. My lips are sealed.

Senate Gallery: It is no easy task to see the Senate Gallery. First, you have to go to the office of one of your senators and ask for tickets. Then, when you get to the Capitol, you have to go through security to get into the Capitol. Then you have to follow a special route to the Senate Gallery. You have to check all electronics, including car door openers. Then you have to take an elevator. You have to go through security—again— to make sure you didn’t:
A) Forget to check some electronic— I saw one woman have to go all the way back because she still had her cell phone
B) Sneak in some food from the cafeteria
C) Somehow manage to hide a firearm and plan to murder a senator

After you go through security, you go into the Senate Gallery viewing area, which is basically a few rows of seats circling the place where it looks like the ceiling should be over the Gallery. You are very specifically told where to sit. There are medical bags underneath all the seats. Mom suspects the bags include defibrillators.

At this point I would like to mention that when we were touring the Capitol the day before we went to the Senate Gallery, some EMS guys ran by us when we were in the Crypt. The guide nonchalantly said that this was typical, but that doesn’t mean I believed him.

Anyway I think it would be really funny if a senator needed one of those medical bags and someone threw it to him and, in the process, HIT ANOTHER SENATOR ON THE HEAD! Boy, that would be hilarious. “Senator knocked out by medical bag.” Too bad that didn’t happen. It would’ve made a good blog post.

On a good day in the Senate, you get to watch one of their one-person debates. See, not very many senators were there at the same time before it was time to vote, so the ones that were there pretty much spoke and left. When the time came to vote, however, they swarmed in. Some left, but most stayed. To vote, a senator would give a thumbs up or thumbs down. Mom said it was a little like an auction. You’ve gotta admit, “Mr. Betterman, Mr. Betterman, no.” sounds a teensy bit like “Going once, going twice, sold to Mr. Betterman for the very generous sum of no!” Dad said it was a little like C-SPAN Live.

Famous faces included:
* Senator Kerry
* Senator McCain
* Senator Dodd
* Senator Whitehouse
* Senator Udall (both of them)
* Senator Jones
* Senator Bingaman ***

House Gallery: Getting into the House Gallery is like getting into the Senate Gallery. You have to check electronics, go through security, etc., etc., etc. The way the House votes, however, is different. Each representative slips a little card into a machine and presses Yay or Nay. A long list tells how each representative voted and another keeps track of the name of the bill, the time left to vote, and the number of Yays and Nays.

So those are a few of the attractions in Washington, D.C. I personally think that Washington, D.C., should create a personal anthem that is similar to “The Star-Spangled Banner,” except it should end in, “And the home of the 62-second crosswalks.”

*** One of these was made up. Can you guess which one?

Posted by Stan

What a pleasant surprise today, when we stopped by the office of our congressman, newcomer Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, to pick up gallery tickets so we can view the House of Representatives in action and were invited to meet him.

He presented Sierra with three books on how the government works, asked about our ongoing adventure, chatted about FDR and made us all feel quite comfortable.

A pretty good start to our visit to Washington, D.C.