More fun with fungi

Fungi are one of the more frustrating things to try to identify. I thought bugs were bad, but at least BugGuide is pretty dang inclusive. No such comprehensive reference exists for mushrooms, so far as I know.

You'd think this sweet little cup-type would be easy to identify. I was thinking, well it looks like a bird's nest fungus, only without the "eggs". But I can't seem to find any reference to anything like that, not to one that isn't "densely hairy" anyway. Maybe its hairs are all repressed, what with the drought...?

Sometimes it helps to just google what something looks like. (The top search term that finds this blog has been "yellow fuzzy caterpillar" for over 2 years now.)
But trying to find "yellow sandwich fungus" didn't do me much good.

I do believe it's the same fungus as this one, which he calls Stacka hydnum (which you'd think would be the scientific name, but isn't). But other pictures of Climacodon septentrionalis (the real scientific name) look completely different to me.
Then there's this black stuff.

If you look at this site, you'd be pretty convinced that it's Diatrype stigma, common tarcrust.

But if you went by this image, or this one, you might not.

And is this even the same black stuff? It seemed thin and crusty, whereas the others were thicker and sort of... puffed.
I do think, after looking at several images for common tarcrust, that it's what I've been seeing when it seems like there are several old burned branches in an area with no other signs of fire.

Short Bike Ride

Sunny and about 30 degrees, figured a good day for first ride on the studded tires this season. Parked at the Wabash Trace Trailhead. Trail looked good along ISD and out from the trailhead. The trail had been plowed. Trail surface was sections of snow-pack, ice, wet, and dry.

At the bus barn, rode the street to Mosquito Creek bridge. Was planning to ride the Lake Manawa trail. Unfortunately, that trail has not been plowed. (see photo) A little bit too heavy to ride through.

The bike computer was not registering. Saw that the wheel (and therefore tire) was mounted backward. Was going to ride anyway, except for the trail conditions.

I had selected gloves a little too thin for the weather. Decided to head to the bike shop instead of finding a different place to ride (trails past Lewis Central we also not plowed.

Recently, I have been riding my road bike. Sure is different (more work) riding the hardtail with studded tires!

Replacement bike rack for the car was in and ready - Zach exchanged the racks.

Weather is forecast to turn cold the next few days. Hope we get more "normal" weather yet this year.

Spring Bittern

Spotted this fellow the other night while driving around the backroads of Grand Portage. I consider myself lucky for spotting this guy as we drove by this meadow, as these birds are NOT easy to see when they are standing in the tall grass like this!

Bringing the Phaeton Home

Wednesday, June 30

Two more hours and we’ll be in San Francisco.  A connecting flight from there will take us to Portland, Oregon where the Phaeton has been in storage since mid-May.

Family and friends have been calling this trip a vacation.  I wish it were.  The purpose of our cross-country flight is to pick up the Phaeton and drive it back to Virginia.  Why can’t the maiden voyage of the coach be a vacation you might ask?  Vacations are supposed to be filled with exploration and adventure.  Unfortunately we don’t have time for that this time.

The flight has been uneventful thus far — that’s the best kind of flight, isn’t it?  Hoping to get better seats, we arrived at Dulles International early.  (The seats we pre-selected mysteriously disappeared from our reservation.)  Our strategy worked; sort of.  We upgraded to Economy Plus (E+) seats — exit row no less — for the San Fran leg; but we weren’t able to do any better for the Portland leg than the last row aisle seats I’d had to settle for during online check-in.  Oh well; it’s just a short flight, so we’ll survive.

It turns out that this Airbus 320 will take us all the way to Portland.

With our new seat assignments in hand, we headed off to get a late lunch.  Strolling up and down terminals C and D — stretching our legs before a nearly 6-hour flight seemed like a good idea — we checked out the various eateries before settling on Gordon Biersch.  My crab cake burger was quite tasty; Mui seemed happy enough with his half turkey sandwich and cup of chicken noodle soup.  A post-lunch stroll; a short wait at the gate.  Before we knew it, we were aboard United Flight 915 for an on-time departure at 4:00p.

The $59/person E+ upgrade has been worth its weight in gold!  Our exit row seats on this A320 have even better legroom than the first class seats we passed on the way to the economy cabin.

No complaints about the legroom on this leg of our flight.

After we reached flight altitude, we placed our bags on the floor to use as foot rests and settled down to watch The Ghost Writer (starring Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, and Kim Cattral).  The movie was full of suspense and kept our attention, but the plot was a bit convoluted for in-flight entertainment.

This flight’s scheduled to cover 2,419 miles [3,870 km] in 5 hours and 46 minutes. It will take us considerably longer than that to make the return trip in the Phaeton.  Not complaining mind you; we’re looking forward to our maiden voyage.

More later …

Later … aboard UA 544 to Portland

Call it what you want … a demotion … a downgrade … whatever.  From the exit row with extra legroom to the very last row of the economy cabin.  To add salt to the wound, the aircraft that is taking us to Portland is the same one that brought us to San Fran.  And the same crew as well.  Too bad we couldn’t have just stayed aboard and retained our seats.  Oh well; at least we’re on the aisle and not stuck in middle seats.  Besides, flight time is less than two hours, so we’ll survive.  Especially since we have 40-feet [12 m] of legroom to look forward to on our return trip (wink, wink).

UA 915 landed in San Fran about 6:15p, 30 minutes ahead of schedule.  After checking the departures board for our next gate assignment (surprise; it was the same one at which we deplaned), we headed to the food court for a quick bite to eat.  Nothing fancy —  a bit of Chinese food to share; a scoop of ice cream for dessert.  By the time we were at the gate for UA 544 to Portland, it was almost time to board the aircraft.

airplanes flying inside San Francisco Airport?
not really, they’re just for decoration.

chocolate or vanilla?

Boarding was the usual chaos times three, with announcements from three adjacent gates mixing and mingling in the already noisy terminal.  Our at-capacity flight pushed back on time and was wheels up at 8:20p.  No movie this time; just some TV programming.  I opted to blog instead.

We’re already on descent into Portland, so more later …

Later … Red Lion hotel, Portland airport

UA 544 was on the ground ten minutes ahead of schedule.  We were the last to deplane; except for the crew, that is.  We wasted no time locating the shuttle for the Red Lion and making our way to the hotel.  Check-in was swift and soon we were in room 263A.

The room is nice enough — clean and it has all the amenities one might want for an overnight stay.  We could use a couple of stepstools to climb into bed, though.

The Red Lion is convenient to the Portland Airport.

Where’s the stepstool?

Anyway, that wraps up our travel day.  Our body clocks are three hours behind Portland time; bedtime is at hand.  Tomorrow we pick up the Phaeton from storage and begin a new chapter in our travel adventures.

Next Up … Maiden Voyage: Day 1 on the Road

Manawa "Trail Day"

Yesterday, I was thinking of a pavement ride - to get some miles. A bunch of the Bike Masters and THOR folks were planning at "Trail Day". Goal of The "Trail Day" was the ride in the new trail and offer comments.

The photo above is the group that started off on the ride. A few others joined the ride.

There is a little over than 3 miles flagged on the East side of the parking lot. Dale R rode with me for a while. I was able to ride about 2 miles before it was enough for me.

Some spots of the trail is very soft. Other sports have sand, dropped by the flood. The best section I rode was the newest section where Fast Track used to be. This section of trail seems to flow better. Just a couple spots where the flow is interrupted.

Previously, I had commented on the first section. There are some very tight spots in this section of the trail. A couple inches on each side of the handlebars. While some of the riders (and the TL) want it tight, I do not think it would be good for racing. Not good for my kind of riding, either.

Speaking of racing, there is a race scheduled of this new trail on August 11th. LOTS of work needed before then.

After the ride, we had a trail-side cookout. Brats, burgers, chips, ribs, and beverages. Thanks to Dave P for manning the grill: TL for the meat: THOR for the chips, papers, condiments. Was a nice way to end the day.

Milky Way over Cascade River

The other night while we were photographing the Northern Lights, we looked to the south and were treated to another incredible view, the lights of the Milky Way Galaxy stretching up over the river. I'm not sure which was more impressive... the dancing lights of the Aurora to the north, or the glowing ribbon of the Milky Way to the south. Either way, it made for one spectacular sky!

RAGBRAI Riders Have Left Council Bluffs & Lost Riders

The traveling party called RAGBRAI (Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa) left Council Bluffs today. Next stop, Harlan. Word was that traffic was blocked along the route from MAC Center through town. This basically split the city in half. About the only way to get across town was on South 9th.

I heard about this at coffee at Panera Bread. Luckily, I did not have to get close to the route.

After noon, I figured it was safe to drive into town to run errands. At Quick, I saw two guys on bicycles, looking lost. I asked if they were "OK". The one said there were OK, then after a pause said "But I think we are lost".

I guess they were! The had missed the turn toward Underwood about 1- miles back down the road. Besides being lost, they did not have a map. I moved the car to get it out of the roadway and grabbed a Iowa highway map.

Showed them where they were and how to get back on the route. They asked if there was a route that is somewhat "flat". I told them there is no "flat" road out here. Showed him how to get them to Underwood and back on the RAGBRAI route.

Just about that time, another rider came South - he was on his way back to CB from Minden. He suggested the same route, and conformed for them that there was not flat roads out here.

They were from out East (DC or such). The one doing most of the talking said his wife had called and wondered where they were. He told here "In Iowa - We did not go the wrong was to Missouri".

I felt good - that I had done my good deed for the day. The talker said what he liked about Iowa was that everyone was so helpful and friendly. Left them to heard North on L52 toward Underwood. I should have took their photo - but was already down the road toward town.

Made a good story when I stopped in at the bike shop (Xtreme Wheels).

Easter

I have to admit, I feel a little frustrated right now. While seemingly every other blog I read raved about wonderful things they did over Easter, I spent most of it clearing out accumulated clutter from my apartment. That isn't to say it was totally unproductive, just that I wasn't doing my planned bike tour on the Granite Belt. I did, however, manage to get a couple of very nice rides in (albeit shorter and more localised than I would have liked).
~ Friday
Friday morning was an all too brief escape to Springbrook in the hinterland. I "officially" ended up with 91km, but in truth I probably did a little more -- during the early part of the ride my computer was still set for the wheel diameter of the MTB that I used briefly last week. The noticeable thing on the early part of this ride was the fact that we are now firmly entrenched in wildflower season.

Springbrook seems to be one of those places where you'll always find something, even if the thought of returning to the rat race afterward is a little disappointing. Somehow I never quite manage to spend as much time up there as I would like. That said, it didn't stop me going mad with the camera (again).




~ Sunday
To think that I didn't even ride at all on Saturday, and Sunday very nearly became a non-event. After a late phone call the evening before, I agreed to meet Martin for a ride through Currumbin Valley. Of course, it wasn't long (i.e. after the "hill" at West Burleigh) that he was egging me on to throw in Tallebudgera Valley as well. Those who know me will realise that I was never going to be able to resist that challenge. In the end, heading for Tallebudgera Valley wasn't such a bad idea.


There are a couple of ways that one can link Tallebudgera and Currumbin Valleys. My personal favourite is to ride over the small climb of Ducats road, and the screaming descent of Trees Road before linking up on connection road.


This ride turned out to be particularly pleasant. I think it may just be the overcast conditions and the relief they provide from the relentless heat of this part of the world. For once we did without the "needles in the skin" feeling that comes with the Queensland sun. Of course, on a ride like this, the scenery helps too.

~ Monday
I found a few free hours last night, so I decided on the old Glow worm ride. The main reason for this was to take one final night ride on Urliup Road before a big chunk of the dirt road is sealed. I was having some problems with my light generator early on, that I managed to trace to a really loose front wheel. I'd had the headset on my bike replaced last week, and evidently the mechanics at the LBS didn't tighten everything as they should have. Admittedly, this is the first such mistake they've made in the eight years I've been using them, but it's something I'll check more closely in future just the same.
Riding down a narrow, winding, dirt road through a rainforest on a dark, moonless night is an almost spiritual experience. In truth, any night riding is pretty special, but somewhere like Urliup really seems to heighten the experience. There is a kind of liberating isolation that just doesn't seem to come with any other activity in life. Unfortunately, it had to end eventually, but there was some compensation in the form of a stunning moonrise that was seen shortly after I returned to the seal near Bilambil.

For some reason I seemed to fade quite badly in the closing stages of that ride. Perhaps it's just a function of the seemingly unrelenting stress of the last couple of weeks -- although there now appears to be some light at the end of that particular tunnel. If that light is half as bright as my E6, there will be plenty of reason to rejoice.

Chickadee nest

Carolina chickadees (Poecile carolinensis) have made a nest in one of our bluebird boxes. It's apparently not an agreeable spot for bluebirds -- none have nested there in three years -- so I'm glad the chickadees found it.

I was surprised at the amount of cedar tips cushioning the nest.
There's a little blue feather on the lower right of the first picture, and I wonder where it came from. Did bluebirds start the nest, and the chickadees just finished it? Or maybe a bluebird stuck his head in to see what was going on, and left a calling card.
The chickadees could have just picked up a pretty soft blue thing as building material. We see swallows picking up duck feathers all the time, so I know some birds "feather their nest" with other species' feathers.
One of the first birdsongs I learned was the Carolina Chickadee's. A friend and I chased all over her property for a frustrating hour before we finally pinpointed the bird who sounded exactly like a rusty porch swing. You can listen to him here.
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Friday Ark is up!

Going Home

“It is England we love, we Americans,” she had said to her father. “What could be more natural? We belong to it—it belongs to us. I could never be convinced that the old tie of blood does not count. All nationalities have come to us since we became a nation, but most of us in the beginning came from England. We are touching about it, too. We trifle with France and labour with Germany, we sentimentalise over Italy and ecstacise over Spain—but England we love. How it moves us when we go to it, how we gush if we are simple and effusive, how we are stirred

imaginatively if we are of the perceptive class. I have heard the commonest little half-educated woman say the prettiest, clumsy, emotional things about what she has seen there. A New England school ma’am, who has made a Cook’s tour, will almost have tears in her voice as she wanders on with her commonplaces about hawthorn hedges and thatched cottages and white or red farms. Why are we not unconsciously pathetic about German cottages and Italian villas? Because we have not, in centuries past, had the habit of being born in them. It is only an English cottage and an English lane, whether white with hawthorn blossoms or bare with winter, that wakes in us that little yearning, grovelling tenderness that is so sweet. It is only nature calling us home.”Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Shuttle
Have you ever gone to a place and immediately felt like you were home? I have felt that way in England and Scotland. You don't even have to go there, though, to feel that resonance. You can read a book set in a certain place and feel the same way. I found this quote by the author of The Secret Garden, Little Lord Fauntleroy, and The Little Princess that describes this feeling. I think there's something in our genetic code that makes us feel at home in certain places. Too many people have described this happening for it not to be true.
Is it just a coincidence that most of my ancestors come from England, Ireland, and Scotland? I've never been to Ireland, but I bet I'll feel the same way there. I love the music; absolutely love it. Whenever I hear Celtic music, I feel it down to the core of my being. It draws me, it says, "Come home." I want to. Someday I hope to live somewhere in the British Isles for a month or two. I wonder if I'd miss the US if I did that? I'd love the chance to find out!

Correction

You find a pristine bit of wall. Excellent! You select an eye-catching turquoise can of spray paint and set to work. The lines of the bricks help to keep the letters straight, but all the same you're distracted a few times, looking round at the sound of footsteps on the path over at the edge of the park. You finish with a bit of a flourish - that final 'D' is heading upwards away from the line. You stand back and admire your work. Oh ****! Insert 'the'.
Today I'm Skywatching over at Slow Growing in Scotland.

Where Have All the Hours Gone?

Wednesday morning Bob headed to work from Camping World. I got up and started writing my blog for the past couple of days.

I had no idea when they intended to start the kitchen faucet repairs. As I was writing, someone opened the door of the 5er without knocking. It was one of the service writers looking for the repairman. I jumped up from the table and said, "Hello!" She was taken aback that someone was in here. The cats, of course, had to see who it was. I had to make sure they didn't escape.

She apologized for just walking in. No problem, just don't let the cats out.

At that point, I gathered up the cats and we went in the car. I also had the temporary kitty litter box which was still in from yesterday. That was 10:30 a.m. Make note of that, it's important.

Yesterday afternoon the refrigerator repairman reset the motherboard. They put a digital thermometer in the refrigerator to see if it was cooling. By this morning, the thermometer was down to 37 degrees. Yay!

The remaining repair was to replace the leaking kitchen faucet. It was so bad they told us we needed a new one.

The cats and I went to Naegelin's bakery where I purchased awesome pastries for Bob and I. The cats were in their carriers, but were protesting. We headed back to Camping World's parking lot where I let them out of their carriers to roam the car. Both of them wanted to be in my lap ... at the same time. Sunnie parked himself on my shoulder and Bowie curled up in my lap. We waited.

The first entertainment of the day was to watch the United Rentals guy put a scissor lift on the semi flat bed trailer.

He took it this far.

Then he used a lift already on his trailer to pull up the little one.

Bowie finally settling down.

At 1:00 p.m. I wanted to see how the repairs were progressing so we drove to where the 5er was parked. No one was working in our rig, but the kitchen faucet had been removed. So, no good to go back in the 5er yet.

The kitty crew and I headed down the road to Whataburger (it's really close) where I bought a hamburger for lunch. Then we went back to the Camping World parking lot. We waited. (You see how my day is going?)

Weather-wise we had massive thunderheads and black sky to the east. I could sit in the parking lot and watch the storms roll in. Three or four times today we sat in the car and watched downpours outside. That was more of our entertainment for the day.

One of the thunderstorms (taken through the wet windshield).

All the black clouds and rain meant the day was not hot. Between storms I could crack the car windows and let the kitties sniff. When the sun did come out for a little bit, the A/C cooled us down quickly.

[Something we learned yesterday: The Camping World in New Braunfels, Texas, has the busiest RV service department in the United States. We can sure believe it. This place is a buzzing beehive of activity. Wow!]

At 2:00 p.m., I started calling the service center for updates. The repair would be covered by our Good Sam Extended Service Plan; however, the kitchen faucet for our unit was obsolete. That meant they had to find something similar. The first faucet they put in was too tall and hit our spice rack. Nope, that wouldn't work.

At 3:00, I drove back over to the 5er to see what progress was being made. I just happened to wander up when the repairman was telling a go-fer that he needed to find a faucet that swiveled and had a sprayer on it. They told me they should be able to find one.

"Could we return to the 5er and wait?" I asked. He said we could but the water to the rig was turned off so they could work on the faucet. The kitties hadn't had any water or food all day. I grabbed a bowl and we headed back to the customer parking lot. I left the windows cracked and went in to get water from the drinking fountain for the kitties. Back in the car, we waited. The rain pounded on the roof of the car and I finally took a nap, as did the cats. I slept about 45 minutes.

At 4:00 p.m., I called the Service Desk to talk to our agent about when we could go back in the 5er. The cats and I were bored and stir crazy. We had been in the car for 5½ hours at that point. I was told they found the part, but had to drive to San Antonio to get it. They were installing it as we spoke and the 5er should be ready in (at most) ½ hour. The Service Desk closed, technically, at 5:00 p.m. Bob called at 4:15 p.m. to say he was on his way from work to provide moral support and to hook up the 5th wheel when it was finished.

At 4:30 p.m. I was back at the 5er and saw the technician. He told me the faucet was installed and he was checking for leaks. The cats and I waited in the car.

At 4:50 p.m., I went to the Service Desk to pay. Thankfully, our Extended Service Plan covered the faucet and install. Because we had the work done at Camping World, our deductible was $50. There was no charge for resetting the motherboard. So our total cost for parts and labor was $50 (plus our drive time, gas, and my time sitting around waiting). We were at Camping World from 2:30 p.m. Tuesday to 5:15 p.m. Wednesday. Today, the cats and I spent 6½ hours in the car. Ugh! I don't want to do that again.

As soon as the paperwork was taken care of, Bob hooked up the 5er and we made our way back to Traveler's World in San Antonio.

Tonight, we went to dinner at Zio's Italian Kitchen, I wrote my blogs, and next I am going to get some sleep. All that waiting and time in the car with the cats wore me out! P.S. The cats are worn out too. They didn't wake us up at all last night and ever since we've been home tonight they're zonked out. I doubt they'll wake us up tonight either.

Travel Bug saying, "Nighty night."

Midsummer Storm at the Spirit Tree

Yesterday throughout the day and all through last night we experienced one incredible thunderstorm after another. Some particulars from the weather warnings throughout the day: 70 MPH winds, possible golf-ball size hail, heavy rainfall and flood advisories. To top it off the power was out for most of the night as well. We ended up with anywhere from 2 to 4 inches of rain, depending on where the measurement was taken. The Pigeon River in Grand Portage State Park went from a discharge rate of roughly 4,000 gallons per second yesterday morning to about 28,000 gallons per second today. The storms also produced the best lightning show that we've seen so far this year.

As day turned to night I couldn't resist the light show that was going on all over in the sky. I ended up spending about two and a half hours standing on the Lake Superior shoreline trying to capture photos of the lightning. I went down to the Spirit Tree, which is not far from my home. I've always wanted to capture a "knock your socks off" photo of lightning behind the tree (similar to a shot that my dad captured on slide film years ago), but the photo I dream of still eludes me. I am getting closer, however. Last night's storms yielded my best results yet at photographing lightningbehind the tree. The photo you see here is the result of two hours of standing in the rain trying to capture the perfect bolt of lightning while thunder rumbled all around me. It was definitely one of the most uncomfortable periods of time I've ever spent outside with my camera, but an effort that I consider worthwhile when I view this image.

Myrtle Beach

Well, I have settled into the Hampton Inn - Harborgate in Myrtle Beach, SC. The hotel name is significant because of the problems our group has had. While the room air conditioning is good, the hotel air conditioners for halls and public areas (breakfast area, meeting rooms, etc) are not working. It has not been working for over 2 1/2 weeks (per those working at the hotel)!
One of our reunion organizers called Hampton Inn headquarters. Word is that the air conditioning is getting fixed this morning.
Backing back a little, I ended up taking the "scenic" route from Augusta. Road signs direct me (I think) a older route on 2-lane roads. Should have taken the divided highway.
Monday evening was spent visiting. Tuesday morning I was out of the hotel for my bike ride.
Today's photo is of the Super T on the beach yesterday. Rode from the hotel, to the beach. Rode the streets along the beach to get the lay of the land, and stop in the Visitor Center. Wanted to pick up a bicycle map of the area.
Disappointed that several of the regulars are not able to attend. One of my buddies from Nam is supposed to come here Thursday. (See if he makes it -- have not seen him since the early 70s).
Most reunion weeks, there have been suggested sight-seeing places, some planned tours, etc. This year, those of us here for the first couple days are being left us to fend for ourselves - plan our own sight-seeing.
I guess one group went down to Charleston -I heard it last night. Was thinking of making the trip down there but its over 100 miles, over 2 hour drive, and not looking forward to that drive by myself.

National Park Time Machine

"This could be fun", I thought, when Pam/Digging suggested we bloggers post their memories of National Parks. Drizzly days are perfect for turning the pages of dozens of photo albums, are great weather for finding and scanning decades of time-faded prints, then seeing them expand on a screen. I've also allowed the category to expand from National Parks to other places with that National designation.
Kentucky's Mammoth Cave National Park and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park were the first on our life-lists, one-day stops along the route when moving from Illinois to South Carolina in the late 1960's. We took a tour of Mammoth Cave and got into a traffic jam in the beautiful Smokies, returning in later years with babies in tow to see more of each park. The only photos that showed up were a couple of fading b/w Polaroid Swinger prints but I think a few minutes of the Smokies exist somewhere on an 8mm reel. Philo disagrees. To find out who's right we'll have to finally get those home movies into digital format!
Roll down to the map in this Wikipedia article about the National Park System.... what's the first thing you notice? Pretty empty in the middle isn't it? Visiting National Parks west of the Mississippi would mean long rides in non-airconditioned vehicles in July - the only month Philo's company allowed vacations.
By the mid-1970's Philo thought we could handle it, and he planned a road trip from Chicagoland to Wyoming with stops along the way, including Badlands National Park above. The kids loved Dinosaur Park in Rapid City - it isn't a National Park, but it's on the National Register of Historic Places. We took our first look at Mount Rushmore, a National Memorial and saw the Crazy Horse monument when Korczak Ziokowski was still alive and the rocks barely hinted there would ever be a face.
We met Devil's Tower, a National Monument, shortly before the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind was released. With no connections to extra-terrestrials to color our experience, we camped nearby, walked around the base, felt the power and fell in love with this wonderful place.
After a stop to play in summer snow in the Bighorn Mountains, we enjoyed the rock stores and Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, Wyoming, spent a terrifying night in a tent during a wind storm, and at last passed flower-covered cliffs to arrive at one of the most beautiful places we've ever seen, the Grand Tetons National Park.
Free of the car we found our waiting cabin and spent days breathing the fresh air, watching the lodgepole pines sway, playing on the shore and trying to catch glimpses of the marmots Pikas*.
Then on to Yellowstone National Park - where geysers blew, mud pots sputtered and panther tracks could be found in the dry soil around our cabin. The beer can collecting fad was in full swing - we wanted our kids to look at the wonders of the park but they wanted to find rare labels. Riding horses along switchback trails kept them out of the trash cans!
After Yellowstone we moved on to a rough camp in the partially finished Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area. When we hit a launderette in a mining town in Utah, signs on the machines warned customers not to wash clothes soiled with gilsonite, a natural asphalt mined in the area. We knew the next stop would be a treat for our dinosaur-crazy kids.... Dinosaur National Monument with its wall of real fossils exposed to view.
Philo revised the the route for a return trip in the 1980's - we aimed straight west through Nebraska and eastern Wyoming. Getting to the Tetons was a long hot, tense trip with dashboard gauges warning us how much our vehicle disliked the steep hills and heat of Wyoming.Once again the Grand Teton Park welcomed us with its beauty. I signed up with a guide and went on a Good Medicine Plant Walk with a guide while everyone went hiking. We rode on Teton trails this time - Lily's horse was named "Frank".
Before shifting from the Tetons to Yellowstone we all went rowing on Coulter Bay The Grand Canyon - no not that Grand Canyon - the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
The Rustic Cabins at Roosevelt Lodge in Yellowstone National Park let us pretend to be pioneers or cowboys. I bought bear bells to notify wildlife a human was around and refused to set foot outside without them secured to my shoes. Philo said the park was so crowded the wildlife had retreated and the bells were unnecessary
We moved on to Mammoth Springs Lodge for more exploring. One afternoon three of us stayed in the room while Philo & our oldest went hiking. They had more excitement than they'd planned, catching glimpses of wildlife (this seems to be a female moose).Without bear bells to signal their approach, the guys had to run for it when they surprised a grizzly bear! It came after them as they sprinted through tall grass to the branches of a tall tree. Luckily the bear didn't follow them up the trunk, but it didn't leave right away. Eventually they were able to descend and report to the ranger. I wonder if a grizzly will be featured when the new quarters are minted? Yellowstone is in the first group of National Parks Quarters scheduled for ..
Individual renditions of the five iconic notes of the Close Encounters' theme filled the car as we came near Devils Tower, but the potent atmosphere of this natural wonder overcame us once again and respect for its history kept us quiet as we walked.
Beer can collecting may have been passé by the eighties, but checking off license plates of all the United States & Canadian provinces in the Mount Rushmore parking lot never goes out of style and neither does the studio of Rushmore's sculptor Gutzon Borglum. We checked in at the Crazy Horse Memorial, too - the enormous face hadn't changed a great deal, but the campus had expanded.
More from the eighties: When returning from the ocean we stopped at Mammoth Cave National Park, spending the night in a simple and secluded cabin on the park grounds. Who needs TV when Lily is around? She invented a game called Guess the Relative, making us figure out identities as she impersonated members of our large extended family.
Also from the 1980's - a visit to family in St Louis and the Gateway Arch and Museum of Western Expansion...a National Memorial. I liked the museum but preferred the Shaw Gardens!
Now we've moved into the 1990's - the Empire Builder took us from Chicago to Seattle for a whirl of visiting and touring - my husband's childhood dream of visiting a volcano finally came true. We joined the lines of people climbing Windy Ridge to see Mount St Helen's National Volcanic Monument.
Signs of regeneration were visible when we saw the area, a dozen years after the devastating eruption.
We climbed the meadows at Mt Rainier National Park but took few photos in the drizzle and mist. There are so many places you can get to in a couple of hours when you're centered in Seattle! We saw beautiful state parks, took a ferry up to Butchard Gardens, and were amazed to walk in the Temperate Rainforest of Olympic National Park
I've never seen anything quite like these ancient, gigantic trees.
We learned that when one tree fell it gradually composted in place, providing a medium for seedlings, thus becoming a "nurse tree".
The Pioneer took us back along a different route - we arrived at the train station in Chicago exhausted - but satisfied we'd crammed in as much as possible!
Sometimes the corny stuff works when a family heads to a National Park... mini-golf and wax museums can be fun, and kids like goofy statues like this one near Mammoth Cave.
The park around Mammoth Cave is beautiful, too - in 1993 we were delighted to see Pileated Woodpeckers. Both cave and park have a long human history - on this visit we walked through an old cemetery within the park boundaries. Early caver Stephen Bishop is buried there.
We'd enjoyed the two-day train ride, but decided to fly to Seattle a few years later. We found Mount Rainier National Park buried in snow reaching up to the tops of wooden picnic tables.

Clouds and mist hung over Mt Rainier again that July. Some prankster taped a photograph of the mountain on the viewing window of the visitor center to show what we were missing.
In the late 1990's Philo's job took him to El Paso for weeks at a time and weekends gave him a chance to add more parks to his list: Guadalupe Mountains National Park, The City of Rocks National Historical Reserve, White Sands National Monument and the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument below:He made it to Carlsbad Caverns National Park, too - here's the amphitheatre:
We had a unexpected chance to return to the Black Hills in the late 1990's but had to put the trip together in a couple of days. With a rented Windstar, credit cards and better cameras we headed off, stopping to see touristy things we'd avoided before, like the Corn Palace, Reptile Gardens and even Wall Drugs. The Badlands hadn't changed much but this time we were able to see the Prairie Dog village
We figured out why we'd seen so many motorcycles - our timing had landed us in the middle of the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally! Motels and parking places were hard to find but what fun to be close to the action!
Bandanna'd guys took turns taking each other's photos riding through tunnels or posing at the Mount Rushmore Memorial. More bikers rode to the Crazy Horse Memorial - and we were amazed at the progress that had been made - the face of Crazy Horse was awe-inspiring!
Instead of a basic motel we blew the budget and landed near Custer Mountain in a house away from other buildings and lights, with the most beautiful and star-filled sky we'd ever seen overhead. We added another park to our life-list, touring Wind Cave National Park, buying sweatshirts but taking no photos.
Devil's Tower had never seemed more beautiful - just writing this post makes me want to be there again. Will that ever happen? If we still lived in Chicago we'd have driven back already, but we're in Texas, now. Big Bend National Park is in Texas, too, but that means little with the park entrance nearly 500 miles from Austin. We set out to see it in ...
Beautiful roads, spectacular hikes and walks were everywhere, with views like this reflection of the Rio Grande at Santa Elena Canyon
Fantastic night skies and the desert in bloom were the reward for going in March. We stopped at Caverns of Sonoma on the way back - truly one of the most beautiful caves we've ever seen and a National Natural Landmark.
Even the most intrepid travelers can't drive to the next National Park - we flew to the big island of Hawaii a few years ago and walked through a tumble of green at the Thurston Lava Tube in Hawaii's Volcanoes National Park.
The paths and terrain change as the flows do - when we were there a half-mile walk across the rock took the visitors to where the lava flowed
Philo had seen what a volcano had done at Mt St Helen's - now he saw one still at work.

A few years ago our family gathered once again at Mount Rainier National Park - we were shocked to find no mist, no rain, no impaired view.... just the full glory of the Mountain.
No one will need to hunt and scan old prints in future - the cameras in the family finally outnumber the family members.
The title of this post was suggested by character Don Draper's assertion {YouTube Link) in the Mad Men episode "The Wheel" that the Kodak Slide Carousel is not a spaceship... it is a Time Machine.
*ED: This post by Tabor made me realize the animals in the Tetons were Pikas - we saw the Marmots at Hurricane Ridge in WA.