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    N'awlins

    23 июня 2016 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    I finally make it to New Orleans (or N'awlins around here). Jo's been for a work conference and we've been trying to come for a long weekend but never made it. We're finally out of areas that were once British influenced, and instead only the French and Spanish squabbled over, and it shows. Actually it seems as the French is the over riding force, and I'm not complaining with croissants plus coffee & beignets on offer!

    We explored the French Quarter, taking in all the touristy spots that the locals wouldn't be seen dead in. The museum on Katrina and Rita was pretty horrifying but good to see things in a bit more gory detail than we got on the news back home. We ate in a grungy dive bar with acclaimed food, and have to admit the gumbo and rabbit & sausage jambalaya was pretty good. We then did a ghost tour but it was pretty lame snd it seemed every tourist in the city was on a similar tour. Even at 10pm at night it's still hot and sticky (above 30C).

    The next day we lazed around Bayou Segnette State Park as it was so damn hot, and then hit the fiercely air-conned World War 2 Museum. The yanks are amazing at putting on good museums and this place made us feel like we were in 'Band of Brothers' or 'Pacific' (if you haven't seen, watch!), and the Tom Hanks narrated film with vibrating seats and ever changing set was incredible. We had our first fancy meal out (5 weeks in) although we still did BYO, and the creole food was gorgeous. We spent the rest of the evening hitting the bars down Frenchman's Street and checking out more live music. The best was the jazz band in the street and the light bike tour - Happy Friday!    Читать далее

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    Swamp Thing

    25 июня 2016 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    We headed west from N'awlins and stayed off the big roads exploring Cajun Country. Finally found some decent signal (hate to do it but have to go back to Verizon) and had a good yatter with the family back home. Not feeling homesick but now we do feel that we have totally and properly reeelaaaaxed, and only have to think about what to do that day and where we are going next. People are really friendly round here and we are liking Texas much more than we expected we would.

    We found an amazing state park that was basically a swamp, complete with alligators, snakes and slimy things. It was cool walking around in twilight, although we did freak ourselves out a bit once the light went and we had to pick our way through the dark creepy woods home!    Читать далее

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    Houston, we have had a bit of a problem

    27 июня 2016 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    Isn't it funny how famous phrases are often not quite right, but above is what the actually said (although maybe not what Tom Hanks said).

    Although Houston itself didn't peek our interest (too many big cities over the past few weeks) the Space Centre was hard to miss out on. Again an impressive museum with massive imax theatres, and real rockets to explore. Not only did we touch an actual piece of moon rock, but also one of the capsules that hurtled back from the cosmos.

    We also jumped on a tram tour, which was basically a journey through the working space centre car park, but we did see the actual mission control room as it was in the 60s and where not only those famous words were uttered but also the first words (the eagle has landed) & last words (Houston we're coming home) from the moon were transmitted to - a pretty cool place. It was all abuzz about the next mission the current astronauts in training are preparing for - the first mission to Mars - they reckon sometime in the 2030's!    Читать далее

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    We have a problem

    28 июня 2016 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ 🌧 24 °C

    We don't have a problem... It's just that we were in Houston. Didn't mean to upload this yet - sorry if we worried anyone!

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    People Are Strange

    28 июня 2016 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C

    After a hot night in a Walmart carpark (the state park we'd driven to was closed due to flooding, and the two other RV parks looked like the set of 8 Mile), we hightailed it to Austin so we could watch the England vs Iceland match. The less said about that debacle the better... Only positive is we watched it whilst eating doughnut burgers - so wrong, but sooo right!

    We toured the state Capitol & were surprised to find out Texas was part of Spain, France, Mexico and was even an independent country for 10 years.

    Again it was melting hot (has been for weeks) so we spent the next day swimming in McKinley Falls State Park - such fun jumping in off ledges and swimming up as close as you could to the waterfalls before being swept away. We then headed to SoCo (South Congress St) to the legen(... 'wait for it'...)dary, Continental Club where local favourite Toni Price was playing - think Amy Winehouse in 20 years time. It started slowly but ended up being a surreal night once we got chatting with the locals and embraced the true Texan way...    Читать далее

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    Van Life

    29 июня 2016 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    So 6 weeks in I thought I'd write a post about how it's been going from living in a house to an extreme tiny house (i.e Elvis) - which is smaller than our ensuite bathroom. Well after we'd good willed lots of extraneous stuff, which meant every time we stopped we didn't have to shuttle a lot of crap from one place to another, the space really isn't an issue as we have the great outdoors which in the US is huge. We still could get rid of a bit more stuff but that will happen over time (and in case there's any confusion Phil has more clothes & shoe space than me - he says that's cause he's bigger...)

    The van itself is amazing. We leave the king size bed made up and the memory foam topper is a bit of luxury (our perspective of luxury has changed remarkably fast). Both front seats swivel and we have a 3rd seat that all go around a small table at the front, but we have only used that for a few quick lunches as there are always picnic tables at the camp sites. We have a truckers TV with built in DVD player for the movie nights in (actually normally Game of Thrones) and a computer for Netflix action. We rarely use the loo, but it's a godsend when you need to, and never used the indoor shower but the outdoor one has saved us a few smelly nights. Now we've been in it for a while there are hooks, hangs and attachments everywhere for all the stuff that never quite gets packed away. Phil loves the rear view camera and all the other gadgetry and wires he has hooked up!

    Driving is pretty easy (mainly as Phil is doing almost all of it- but I figure he owes me seeing as I've driven about 60000 miles to & from work over the last 3 and a half years! ) and the van is doing good on 'gas' mileage despite the 5.2l engine. Petrol is just over a quid for a GALLON, but still we have burnt through a bit in the 5,000 miles we have already done. We're keeping an expenditure and living pretty frugally whilst still enjoying ourselves and doing everything there is to do locally.

    The harder issue is staying in touch with friends, family & what is going on in the world - even writing that seems a bit ridiculous as looking back on my travels the first time (many, many moons ago) I didn't even have an email address & my parents were only allowed to worry if they hadn't heard from me for over 3 weeks. When Phil & I went travelling in 2004/2005 we only had a phone which could call & text so Internet cafes were a treat for emailing in aircon for half an hour. Now we get frustrated if we don't have a connection to search for the closest bbq/grocery/campsite/etc (in fact we've already changed mobile providers so we get better coverage....) Anyway we love being able to email, text (WhatsApp) & video chat to people which is what we can do when we have signal, but you really miss it when you don't have it.

    Another thing we've learnt is to always have a (cold) shower when you can. Although the heat we've experienced in the south means as soon as you dry yourself & try to put on suncream you start sweating again. Aircon in the van which we thought we wouldn't use is actually essential most nights - the few nights we've had to boondock (i.e no electricity) in the south have been v sweaty & a bit miserable....

    All in all no regrets so far - it's A LOT better than working! :)    Читать далее

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    Sweet Sixteen

    30 июня 2016 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    We made the short hop to Pedernales Falls State Park as it was a must see in Texas. The falls don't 'fall' very far but it doesn't stop them being impressive, and I don't think I've ever seen a river quite like this. Although it looks very placid when the water runs over the rocks, it's scarily turbulent when it cuts through a channel. We had to cycle downstream before it was safe to swim, and even then if you swam full pelt upstream you still ended up going backwards.

    The next day (30th) was our SIXTEENTH anniversary of when we first met. I'll never forget that day, and I feel blessed that Jo & I have been around the world together and are now lucky enough to spend more time traveling and exploring this amazing country. We spent the morning mountain biking, intermingled with dips in cool pools and rock sliding, and then the afternoon not catching any fish!

    Although you somewhat get used to the heat I can't wait to get into the mountains again.    Читать далее

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    Mini Uluru

    2 июля 2016 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Today's first stop was Enchanted Rock, a massive granite rock sticking out of the limestone surrounds, much like Uluru (Ayres Rock) in a lot of ways. Although it's a decent size it's a bit like an iceberg and under the surface it 4 times the size of Manhattan. What was weird was the way the rock 'exfoliated', shedding layers as it expanded/contracted (not freeze/thaw in this part of the world - see forecast photo).

    We overnighted at Lost Maples State Park, which was a little underwhelming to be honest (we're not short of maples in the north east) and not place to swim/fish (as one is accustomed).

    This weekend is a bit of a nightmare as it's Independence Day on Monday - not just that there's not a lot for a Brit to celebrate, but mainly because every man and his dog are out camping (plus we are never organised enough to know where to book months in advance). We are therefore in the arse end of nowhere (as Jo so succinctly put it) - the highlight being a replica oven - a few miles from the Mexican border. We've already been through one check point to make sure we had no stowaways... it weirdly smells of skunk.... just went past Walter White Ranch Road... all we can think about is Breaking Bad....    Читать далее

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    11

    Solid As A Rock

    3 июля 2016 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    So we may be in the middle of nowhere with nothing but a few shrubs around, but actually this place is kinda cool.

    This morning we went on the ranger walk down to the 4,500 year old petroglyphs (aka rock paintings). As always this things might be a little hard to see/comprehend but they are amazing to see the first pictures man drew. Life was hard here and they all suffered iron deficiency yet they gave up a serious amount of animal bone marrow to make paint to draw these crazy pictures on the walls. They don't know if they were stoned or trying to communicate or frighten others, but these half man half animal depictions are pretty impressive even now. On the way back we captured one of those circle of life moments with a snake swallowing a still squawking frog.

    Despite the 40C heat we took the bikes out to see some more rock art, albeit it from the top and other side of the canyon but the old Indian dudes had thought about this so drew a 10ft puma. At that point our canyon meets the Rio Grande, and the other side is the land Trump hates so much.

    After immediate cold showers the rest of the day was occupied by trying to find any tiny patch of shade we could. Even though the a/c has been on in the van for hours it's still 35c in there although weirdly that feels cool!

    So from being a mile or two from the border we now have a month to drive 1,500 miles across to the other border to get to Yellowstone in time for our booking (yes, you heard me right - we are actually organised for a change as it books solid months in advance), and they back again! One advantage of being out in the sticks is the stars are fantastic and we've seeb the milky way the past few nights. Looking forward to the mountains though...    Читать далее

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    Come Around Sundown

    5 июля 2016 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    It's only a couple of degrees cooler a mile high in the Davis Mountains, but it's a blissful difference and we slept without aircon for the first time in weeks.

    After a hearty breakfast of pancakes (from a packet - sorry mum!) we set off up the next door mountain. From the scenic lookout we had an incredible view over the plains and the ridge fencing them in. I felt like I was back in the wild west looking out for indians advancing in the distance.

    A couple more small peaks and we arrived at Fort Davis, one of the pioneer outposts protecting the gold trail running west and keeping those pesky indian/mexicans from complaining about stealing their ancestoral lands. It was an interesting little place to explore for an hour or so but the highlight of the afternoon was the massive ice cream!

    As we were looking to set off back home there was a pretty ominous crack of thunder but fortunately it held off until we were safely back in camp. I think that's the first rain for many weeks, and it only lasted half an hour or so.

    For the evening we headed further up the mountain to the McDonald Observatory where first went to a lecture about how the planets orbit the sun all on the same plane & why the 12 (well actually 13!) zodiac constellations are picked out from the 88 named constellations. We then headed out for the star party where they set up telescopes and we saw Saturn (including rings & 4 moons), Jupiter, Mars, a spiral galaxy 25 million lights years away plus many others. We even saw the hubble telescope pass over head!    Читать далее

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    12

    If Carlsberg did Caverns...

    7 июля 2016 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ 🌙 25 °C

    By way of Balmohea, a crystal clear desert spring made into a massive swimming hole by the CCC (Civilian Construction Corps during the great depression), we made our way through the sheer and barren Guadeloupe Mountains & out of Texas into New Mexico.

    We arrived at the Carlsbad Caverns National Park in time to watch the 800,000 bats spiral out from their bat cave for a night of feasting on insects. The next day we walked through the cave's natural entrance & spent hours exploring the biggest cavern in the western hemisphere 800ft below the ground, and still only saw a fraction of it.

    We went from underground wonders to outer space mysterys with a visit to the 'UFO Museum & Research Center' in Roswell - lots of silliness but quite fun and had to be done.

    Our final visit of the day was to a childhood hero of Jo's - Smokey Bear. Although originally created as just as a drawn character when the firefighters found this badly burnt baby bear hanging on to a burning tree they decided he had to be named Smokey and ended up being a living symbol of the longest running advertising campaign.

    Finally on this packed day when we camped on this small ridge surrounded by lava fields ringed by towering mountains we were treated to an awesome display of lightening storms, rainbows and incredible coloured skies. I think we must have taken a hundred photos but they don't do a fraction of justice to what we witnessed    Читать далее

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    22

    Breaking Good

    9 июля 2016 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    We started the day with an early morning run around the lava field, as you do! Then we cruised on up to Albuquerque and finally started getting out of the
    Chihuahuan desert and into the hills. After the amazing petroglyphs in Texas we had high hopes for Petroglyph National Monument, but were pretty underwhelmed by the 400-700 year old graffiti (we are now petroglyph snobs!) - if you see the photos you will understand...

    The CRAZY driving and Friday night traffic put us off a quick stop off in Albuquerque and we overnight in another really nice public campground in the edge of town which even had its own casita. In the morning we decide to drive the looooong way round to Santa Fe but 15 minutes into the drive up into the massive mountains it said the pavement (aka the road to any 'normal' people) stopped, so we thought Elvis wouldn't thank us for that we bailed and ended up on the Interstate (which we have mostly avoided up to now).

    As we were in the middle of the Texan desert for our anniversary we decided to splash out in Santa Fe and have booked into a hotel (to be honest it cost us $30 as I cashed in loyalty points, but don't tell Jo)! We spent the day meandering through the beautiful old city of Santa Fe, with its amazing adobe buildings, buying lots of native Indian jewellery, and enjoying a few cold ones on a terrace overlooking the main square. Tonight we are having a posh meal out and a night on the town.    Читать далее

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    Da Bomb!

    11 июля 2016 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    After a great meal last night, a long lie in, watching Murray win Wimbledon again, and a massive breakfast we finally got out of our lovely hotel and headed over to the apparently world-renowned Santa Fe International Folk Art Festival, not knowing quite what to expect but everyone in town buzzing about it. It was a really impressive collection of incredible craft work from as far a field as Uzbekistan, Phillipines & Brazil. The silverwork from Laos that we couldn't afford when we were there 10 years ago and it was quarter the price was difficult to to resist (but we did).

    Next stop was Bandelier National Park. We knew there were cliff dwellings but weren't prepared for the amazing homes hollowed in the rock as we descended down from the mesa plateau. The photos don't do it justice, but are still pretty impressive.

    We saw the building in Santa Fe where the men recruited to work on the top secret atomic bomb entered, unaware to what they were to work on, so we visited Los Alamos which is where they were secretly sent. This is being turned into a brand new National Park so unfortunately we couldn't see much, other than a beautiful if probably rather boring (not unlike Princeton!) town perched up in the hills.

    We then drove onto the Enchanted Circle scenic drive that starts at Taos, a small artsy town nestled in the hills. We were really tempted by an amazing painting of an Indian warrier, and know we are going to regret doing the right thing and not buying it.

    We camped on a small peninsula of mesa mountaintop between Rio Grande & Red River - another incrediblely magical place to spend a night.    Читать далее

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    23

    Dune! Sweet!

    12 июля 2016 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Headed north into Colorado (our 15th state on this trip!) to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. They are pretty impressive from afar but after we'd set up camp and we walked into them in Kate afternoon as the shadows were forming... OMG words can't describe how incredible they are. We took hundreds of photos - hopefully some do them justice. And Phil had a lot of fun throwing himself down any steep bit he could find!Читать далее

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    Peaky Blinding!

    15 июля 2016 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    As we were winding our way along the road we came across an unexpected National Park for a petrified redwood forest. A volcano send down 2 massive lahars (mud flows) that covered some ancient redwoods. The 15ft or so of tree bases slowly petrified by absorbing minerals, and when they excavated the stumps they found solid rock. Pretty impressive sight.

    After being v excited to see our first herd of elk, we camped in the lovely Mueller State Park. In the morning we scrambled to find a campsite for the following night on our way to an 2-day attempt on Pikes Peak. It might only be #31 of the 53 14ers (14,000 footers) in Colorado, but it has one of the biggest altitude changes and we didn't know quite what to expect. We grabbed the last stop in the car park and set off up the Barr Trail. It was a pretty relentless up for most of the 3,800 feet up over 6.5 miles but we made it to our overnight stop at Barr Camp nice and early. We grabbed a private mezzanine bed in the main cabin, and whiled away a few hours (re-)learning card games. About half 3 it all went dark then started 'grappling', which I assume is the verb of a new word we learnt for hard hail-like snow.

    Despite some people setting off at 5am, we were the last ones up, and after a hearty mountain pancakes breakfast then set off about 7:15 up the remaining 3,900 feet to go. It was a beautiful trail climbing up out of the valley, then through the forest, then up to the rocky summit. The patches of snow made a mistake e change from the 40+C (100+F) of the past many weeks. There were marmots popping up onto the rocks and whistling each other, and one particularly cheeky one posed for some great snaps. Despite the altitude we charged up for the 14,115 ft summit in time for some late morning freshly cooked donuts! At least there are benefits to a road and the cog railway for getting people to the top.

    As you would expect down was pretty easy going (relatively speaking!) and we swung by the camp to pick up our big rucksack and then down the full 7,700 foot back to van late afternoon. 18 miles and 10,000 elevation change is a heck of a lot, and Jo's feet were in pretty bad shape once the boots came off.

    Fortunately it wasn't far to the camp site but we were shocked that a commercial RV site doesn't have a loo block, let alone a showers. Thankfully the camp hosts were really nice and let us borrow theirs in their full size RV trailer - nice to see how the other half lives with about the same floor span as our UK home!

    The next night we ended up parked just off the road in a National Forest, as the official camp sites are full but you can camp anywhere you like unless told otherwise and we found a beautiful spot near a strong stream that cannot have contained any fish (or I really need a fishing lesson!). We had a lazy morning driving over some stupendous 11k ft mountain passes and browsing little alpine towns before ending up in Golden Gate Canyon SP, just outside Denver.    Читать далее

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    Rocky Mountain High

    20 июля 2016 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    We headed down the mountain into Boulder - a really cool town with lots of v fit looking people (lots of athletes live here including British Ironman legend Chrissy Wellington - one of my heroes). We satisfied our craving for pizza but unfortunately there was no camping in town so we headed back up the mountain to the National forest just outside of Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP).

    The next day we headed into the park - due to our complete lack of organisation we knew the campsites were fully booked but we asked on the off chance at Glacier Basin campsite & a lovely ranger found us a spot! And what a spot it was surrounded by snow capped peaks - wow. Walked up to Dream & Emerald lakes & spent the evening by the fire watching a distant lightening storm - nature at its best.

    Lucked out again the next night - the same ranger found us a spot at another campsite. After setting up did a tougher walk up Deer Mountain with gorgeous views at the top. Got down just before the thunder storms started!

    Our luck finally ran out so we drove over the 12,000 foot pass & amazing tundra to the quieter western side, taking in our first sighting of elk. The following day Phil decided he needed another big hike so he hiked the 15 miles over Thunder Pass whilst I was left to drive the van the 100 miles around.... Not content with going over the 11,000 ft pass he also felt compelled to scoot in Thunder Mountain another 1,000 ft up. I was slightly worried about meeting up but all went well & I met him bounding down about a mile up the path on the other side. We got back down to the van & eyeing us less than 100 yards away was a moose with her baby - our luck was back! That night we were treated to an incredible sunset...    Читать далее

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    Cheyenne, the final frontier...

    24 июля 2016 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    On our way up to the Badlands we hit Wyoming and there was allegedly one if the biggest/best rodeos going on in Cheyenne. We were tempted to go see Fall Out Boy thar night, but instead waited for next day and took in Frontier Days, which is a 10 day rodeo and carnival. We'd seen one rodeo before in PA and assumed it was a bit of a token effort as it was so far away from the wild west coast, but although this one was bigger and better, I'm still glad we took mum and dad to it. One thing we didn't see in PA though was the wild horse race, where a team of 3 had to saddle and ride a wild horse once around the track - it sounds easy but it was hilarious watching them get tangled up and then the horse to run in the wrong direction. The Indian Village area was pretty cool, especially the little kid strutting around in his native dancing costume.

    We left pretty late from the show and got to Guernsey State Park pretty late, which is a shame as it was a lovely camp site next to a decent sized lake. We went for a quick run and dip the next morning then spent most of the day driving through Nebraska and South Dakota on our way to the Badlands.

    We saw a herd of buffalo (same thing as bison, FYI) when we hit the national park - these things are massive and a little intimidating, then set up at Sage Creek camp ground. There was a cool ranger talk that night where we got to throw an atlatle (spear throwing thing), although only at a fake bison called Bob (a cardboard box).

    In the morning we drove through Badlands, stopping and gawping at every turn. The big multi coloured cliffs of soft stone machined into steep gorges and sharp ridges by the weather. Hard to believe this place was once bottom of a sea but they have found lots of ancient fossils of some scary looking creatures. That evening we headed back west and into the Black Hills of South Dakota. As we were nearing Wind Cave National Park, the sky went pretty black and starting hailing the size of marbles. We were held up for 15 minutes by a herd of bison dawdling in the road, and it was just as well as at the camp ground they had ice stones the size of golf balls and everyone's car ws dented plus one RV had its skylights smashed in. We silently thanked this bison later!    Читать далее

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    Take Me Back To The Black Hills...

    27 июля 2016 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    (apparently it's a song...)

    Seeing as we ended up in the Wonderful Wind Cave National Park (to avoid the $20 entry fee, $21 camping, $7.70 reservation PLUS $2 phone fee for Custer SP) we thought we might as well spend the morning exploring the cave below our feet. It was pretty different from the 2 big cave systems we have visited so far, with some incredible box formations and not really any stalagmites/tites as it was submerged then dried out.

    From there we drove the Needles Highway through the Black Hills of South Dakota, which was just incredible for the herds of bison on the road, massive big dark rock formations and road cut through tiny one-lane tunnels.

    Crazy Horse monument was just around the corner and from what we had heard from others was definitely worth a visit. Mount Rushmore is a few miles down the road and the Native Americans wanted to demonstrate that they had heroes too (and the feds refused to add to Rushmore) so wanted to build something bigger and better. Its so big they have been going at it for about 75 years and they have only just got his face done, let alone the rest of him and the horse. It was still pretty impressive so remind me to come back in another life when it's finally finished.    Читать далее

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    Go West!

    29 июля 2016 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    We camped in a small National Forest site just down the road and it was really nice to have a fun evening around the camp fire again (most places recently have had burn bans due to the risk of forest fire). In the morning we woke to wetness - think this is our first proper rain during the day for well over a month, but fortunately it started to dry up as we got to Mt Rushmore. I wasn't expecting too much from this, but we took in a really good talk from Red Cloud's great grandson on the white/red-skin relationship as the government took this land for a national monument.

    As we wound our way west over the rolling hills that started to emerge out of the enormous flat plains of Wyoming, there is suddenly a massive rock sticking out of the earth without any good reason why. As we got nearer we saw Devil's Tower is straining itself out of the earth with these unusual hexagonal blocks, a bit like Giant's Causeway. We were surprised to find a lovely little campground nestled at the bottom so we parked up early and enjoyed the gorgeous evening sun. There was a ranger programme on the night sky which was pretty interesting, and we saw a couple of shooting stars from the meteor storm. What was even more amazing was the climbers lights on the tower as they descended in the pitch black.

    The next day we drove west and climbed out of the plains very dramatically. It was so nice up on high pass that we decided to spend the night in one of the National Forest campgrounds up by Bald Mountain and watch the rest of the meteor storm.

    Saturday was a restocking day before we hit Yellowstone, so gas, petrol, food and of course beer. Lovell, a small town en-route, offered a free campground with showers so we gratefully took advantage the latter. From there we drove on to a little camp site by a brook just outside the park.

    Rather than head straight into the park we turned the opposite direction and drove a few miles of the Bear Tooth Highway which runs across the wilderness area that borders the park. We found a gorgeous little camp site next to a big lake and decided that would do us. We did a nice little (8 miles) walk up to the lakes above us. It was a lovely evening so we decided to cook a curry on the open fire - all was going well until the hail, thunder & lightening but the fire survived and it simmered away nicely whilst we hid inside waiting for it to clear. We popped down to the lake before it went dark but no sign of the resident grizzly (on the other side of the lake!). It was a chilly night dropping down to 10C, which was a bit unexpected as it's been high 20s most nights.    Читать далее

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    It Was All Yellow

    4 августа 2016 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Well we have finally made it to the one standing booking we've had for the whole trip - 5 nights in Yellowstone! The drive in was beautiful through the Lamar Valley past hundreds of bison. We were expecting the campsite to be basic so were delighted to find that there were hot showers & we got 2 free per night :) There was also an excellent laundrette so we are all squeaky clean. On further exploration we found a cafe, grill, restaurant & bar so we are definitely happy campers!

    After a breakfast of eggy bread, our first day in the park was spent climbing up to Observation Peak - beautiful wild flowers & I'm glad to say no bears. In the afternoon explored the Canyon region with stunning waterfalls & amazing colourful steep canyon sides.

    Our 2nd day in the park was spent exploring the geothermal spectaculars that Yellowstone has to offer. This place has over half the geysers in the world - most are reasonably impressive and everyone has heard of Old Faithful (except Helen apparently!) but was a little spoiled by having to share it with several thousand visitors. The highlights were a short walk to Mystic Falls, with its steaming cliffs and the mystical fog that hung over the river & the beautiful turquoise/orange (due to the thermophilic bacteria) Grand Prismatic Lake. Our journey home is interrupted by bison heading down to the river for an evening drink.

    The next morning we headed off around the northern loop, and a sudden pull off the road resulted in our first grizzly sighting! We jumped out of the car and watched at a safe distance, amazed by the people who ventured close with their small kids running around & one man who knocked himself out by running into a tree in his excitement... Then the teenage bear casually wandered towards the crowd and mad panic ensued!

    After the buzz of the bear encounter we headed up Bunsen Peak - it's not one of the big ones but it does offer pretty impressive 360 degree panoramas of the different habitats across the vast park. We continued our journey around the loop and ended up at Boiling River, which is a lot more pleasant than it sounds when you mix it with a cool mountain river. We somehow grabbed the best seats in one of the pre-made rock 'hot tubs' and spent 90 mins getting wrinkly whilst avoiding the sudden hot/freezing currents. A great day was topped off with a coyote running across the road in front of us.

    On our last day in the park we decided to head up Washburn Mountain, which was a lot more populated than Bunsen but it was still a nice couple of hours walk with great views from the firetower summit. The only new animal spot was a Pika, a large mouse type creature. We headed back on the quieter northern loop to little lunch spot by the creek, and explored a few little trails and off-road drives.

    Although it's not the most spectacular park in terms of craggy peaks, the sheer beauty and diversity is unquestionably gorgeous.    Читать далее

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    So small & humble.

    11 августа 2016 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ 🌙 12 °C

    Lizard Creek was our first stop in Grand Teton NP , a lovely little campsite in the north of the park with tantalising views of the main mountains to the south.
    We had a rainy day (not used to that!) but we drove a few miles south and managed to get into Coulter Bay Campground so were closer to the action. The next day, as we drove down to the trail head, the Teton range reared up aggressively and looked stunning in the morning sunshine. Shakira was correct - no confusing these mountains. I think Phil summed it up with his insightful comment 'wow wow wow!'

    We started our hike in the most surreal way by seeing HARRISON FORD at the trailhead. Quite a rare sight although Phil has seen him before in Hollywood! We had to Google him to make sure it was him hiding behind his scraggy beard, and we found out he is a Jackson resident (admittedly part time).

    We were more excited (& I have to admit a little scared) to find a mummy bear & 2 little cubs right on our trail going to Amphitheater Lake. After waiting for others to catch us up we all hiked through together & we were all relieved that they were black not grizzly bears. We reached the lake & had lunch surrounded by the magnificent towering Teton peaks. On our way down we encountered the bears again & watched for a long while as they were right by the path - incredible. There was one more bear sighting when we were literally 100 meters from the van at the trail head, and he meandered across the road only a few metres away.

    The next day I was promised a nice easy walk along the canyons... but we kept going a little bit further & higher until Phil argued it would be silly to go back the way we came. So we ended up going over a 10,700 pass to make it a round trip of 20 miles with 5,000 ft elevation - I was v v knackered, although it was an absolutely EPIC trek, and one of the best so far. We were good samaritans & gave a couple of lads who were the only other ones stupid enough to do the same trek (they didn't know how long it was!) a lift back to their car 4 miles away as they were more unorganised than us & had even run out of water.

    Phil made up for tricking me into a ridiculous long hike the next day with cinnamon rolls cooked on the fire for breakfast, a trip to the National Wildlife Art museum & beers in the sun in Jackson Hole :)    Читать далее

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    It's All About The Lakes, ...

    13 августа 2016 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Despite the fact we have visited some absolutely incredible places on this trip so far, the Tetons just blew me away with its jagged peaks and stunning lakes and canyons, not to mention the wildlife (and celebs!). Still, all good things must come to an end and we eventually headed out of the park. We headed north, over some 10% gradient roads which Elvis wasn't too happy about. We're liking this part of the world more and more as we found a beautiful free camp site by a large lake with hardly anyone in it, and managed a few hours fishing before watching the amazing Persides meteor storm with several shooting stars per minute.

    Elvis's driver side window has given up the ghost, and I'm amazed how warm it is this high and far north so it's driving me crazy. I have to have the air-con on whilst Jo has her window fully down. So we picked up a replacement part but annoyingly it didn't fit. Along with an oil change we lost a good couple of hours, and spent the rest of the day chewing miles as we headed north. We stopped for a quick lunch at a place called Gates of the Mountains, which is aptly named due to the narrow vertical crack running through the rock and into a gorgeous looking lake. We found another lake to camp by (again free) which allowed a quick run followed by a nice cool down (and de-smell!) before we had a camp fire on the beach.

    The next morning we continued our drive north and got close to Glacier NP. It's really popular around here so we struggled with a camp site and ended up in a parking lot next to an official site right outside the park. There was a freight train line not far away so it wasn't our best night's sleep, but that did enforce an early start which meant we got the penultimate spot in an official site in the NP :)

    As it was still early we drove up to Many Glaciers, which sounded promising. Even more impressive sounding was Iceberg Lake, but we weren't expecting too much - it is August, it's 30+C and we are only at 5,000 feet. Despite our scepticism, after a couple of hours hike we arrived at this gorgeous turquoise lake ringed by a high vertical ridge so it gets almost no sun, and yes - it was full of icebergs! They were admittedly not Titanic proportions, but were several metres across. As we were noshing down on our sandwiches this unbelievable guttural tearing noise echoed around us, and 20 odd seconds later a big slice carved off the glacier on the far side of the lake. About a minute later a mini tsunami almost pulled our bags into the water! It was such a gorgeous and unique spot that I felt compelled to swim out to one - a decision that was hastily regretted, although a experience I will never forget! Jo decided to have a nice long hot shower at the end of the day instead - what a wimp!    Читать далее

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    Full Moon Rising

    16 августа 2016 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    We woke to yet another gorgeous morning (we've been incredibly blessed with the weather) and decided a big hike was in order. We drove up the road to Logan's Pass Visitor Center but soon gave up fighting over non-existent parking spaces with 50 other people. We drove on over the Continental Divide (which way the water flows out) but didn't have any better luck and eventually headed back towards our camp site. About noon we bagged a parking spot which was close enough to our back up hike so we set off up Siyeh's Pass. It was gorgeous walk up through the pine forest and into the alpine. As we headed over the saddle we were treated to beautiful views of a small glacier below and across into Canada. On the other side of the pass was an absolutely unbelievable view of massive valleys, towering peaks and a huge, cracked, deep blue glacier gripping to a small ledge in the cliffs. The walk took us on down, down, down the valley and through more scorched forest. Luckily we ended up doing the hike the right way as we lost twice the altitude we gained. It was an absolutely incredible day, with stunning scenery drenched in sun.

    We didn't think we'd be able to top yesterday's hike and thought we should have a bit of an easier day so we headed back up to Logan's Pass (on the free shuttle this time!) for a short walk to Hidden Lake. We recognised a small unmarked trail that Marshall, our camp site neighbour, and told us about so we thought we'd get away from the crowds a bit. That certainly worked as I think we saw more mountain goats than people! The views from top of the trail blew away the busy overlook ones and we had lunch with just another goat for company. Jo amazingly agreed to push on up the Dragon's Tail, a narrow ridge with massive drop offs down to the lake far, far below. We went on until we were both getting a bit freaked out by the crumbling rock and long plummets below, before heading back to the saddle. The sun was still high so we followed a narrow goat track around the cliffs surrounding Reynolds Mountain out on a rocky promenade with jaw dropping views of the glaciers on the far side of the valley. It was an absolutely awesome view, and cemented Glacier NP as the new favourite park.

    Marshall joined us for beef stew that evening as we watched the full moon rising over the mountains behind us and we played around with his military grade night vision goggles, which was great for spying on the other campers! We'd been toying with buying binoculars for a few weeks so when Marshall offered us his pair we had to add to our collection of stuff (whilst helping him pair down his bike even more!)

    An unbelievable few days but time to move on - we're just not sure where we are going yet! You would have thought that after we've just passed our 3 month point we'd be more organised by now.    Читать далее

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    Now is the summer of our content

    21 августа 2016 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    We headed down the west side of the park into much greener climate to a glorious calm lake. We were really tempted to throw our overnight gear together and kayak over for a moonlight night on the far beach, but bizarrely there was a storm forecast. (I say bizarrely as we have grown accustomed to zero weather, other than the sun and maybe a few afternoon mountain clouds!)

    We restocked food, booze, gas(oline) & gas (propane), but frustratingly Elvis's part hadn't turned up. We headed down to Flathead Lake and grabbed a beautiful spot in the state park. Our inflatable kayak made a rare appearance and we whiled away a unusually lazy afternoon.

    From there we drove through the National Buffalo reserve and saw longhorn sheep, elk, antelope, buffalo (obviously!) with only the resident black bear avoiding us. As we were driving to a little camp spot by the river I was lucky enough to watch a bald eagle hunting overhead - he probably had more luck than I did fishing later on!

    The following day we headed northwest and spent a few hours in Sandpoint - doing the things we hadn't been able to over the past few weeks (fancy coffee, ice cream and afternoon beers in sun). We found a gorgeous camp site run by Corp of Engineers as it was by a hydroelectric damn. We whiled away the afternoon on our new floaty inner tubes - why didn't we buy these months ago?! In the morning the trail around the camp site island made a perfect running track so a few loops of that followed by a dip, a (25c!) shower and bacon & egg muffins (a special treat as we rarely cook breakfast).

    We finally got the part we needed in Spokane, and I took the door apart in the car park just to make sure! We then lucked out again by getting a cancelation spot in the state park and headed straight out to watch a free Shakespeare in a nearby park. I wasn't that familiar with Comedy of Errors but I'm pretty sure Benny Hill wasn't in the original. The Montanan students put on a hugely entertaining show, and even Richard 3rd (which was the other show on the tour) made an appearance! It was meltingly hot even in the early evening (98F), but I guess that's due to coming down from 9,000 feet to a few thousand.

    The next day it was so nice to have some decent signal and catch up with the family back home. Then we cycled the Centennial Trail along the river and across town to a brewery. It was tough work and the little 1960s mom & pop ice cream kept us fueled. We were pretty beat 3 hours later when we finally arrived but a couple of cold ones sorted us out. We headed back the easy way stopping at The Flying Goat, which is probably the best pizza we have ever had (gorgonzola, pear & bacon with a balsamic drizzle) and promptly collapsed in a heap when we got back to camp.

    We finally tackled our huge pile of laundry the next morning - it's actually a problem when everything is clean as it doesn't fit in the cupboards. Then we drove back towards the Canadian border and found great little $6 National Forest camp site with piles of free firewood, so dug out a load of old tunes from the laptop and had a little 2 man party.

    Its been a very different lazy few days back in the real world, but we've really enjoyed it after weeks in the woods.    Читать далее

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    A Little Vacation...

    26 августа 2016 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    We drove a couple more hours and stopped at another National Forest site just on the edge of Northern Cascades National Park, and headed in early the next morning. We got a gorgeous camp spot right on Diablo Lake covered in rainforesty canopy, and spent the rest of the day prepping for some more backcountry camping.

    In the morning we pumped up the kayak and loaded her up before setting off down the lake. Again we found it pretty hard going as this thing doesn't cut through the water like a hard shell and has a tendency to go sideways! Still we got to our camp spot about 90 minutes later although we had a choice of 3 beautiful spots it was a no brainer to take the one looking directly back down the flooded valley.

    The next day we were supposed to be paddling to the over side of the lake and doing a short hike but the seams on the boat were coming apart ominously so we were forced to spend the day lazying around in the sun punctuated with many short dips in the slightly chilly (Jo says freezing) lake. Although we were roughing it I'm sure we probably cooked the poshest backcountry meals in the whole park with Thai curry, pasta, bangers and mash washed down with red wine, then pancakes in the morning (which were a bit of nightmare without oil!)

    On the 3rd morning we tied up the bursting seam as best we could and set off back to Elvis. Despite the amazing weather over the past few days this morning a storm was starting to roll in and it was pretty windy. Although we were both only paddling on one side every 10 strokes or so we were turned about and had to do a couple of reverse strokes to straighten us up again. The boat was sagging a bit sadly but it wasn't too bad and with the cross wind we actually made it back much quicker than we'd gone out (fortunately - don't want to think about the wind being in the other direction!).

    Once back onshore we loaded up Elvis and in an hour we were on the western coast. We've now touched the major compass points of the country, and still have nearly 3 months before our visas run out.    Читать далее

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