We have seen so much in the last few weeks that we are feeling quite exhausted and overwhelmed with it all. So we decided to have a couple of quiet days. We went to a small university town called Rexburg where we could visit a bookshop (Tris bought 4 books, 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' and sequels, and has read them all already) and went to see a film, '9', in the cinema (which was actually quite scary in places!) The only other thing of any significance that happened that day was our saving a snake in a car park! We parked the van in a new road that had been built for a new housing development and slept through a hugely windy and cold night.
In the morning we drove westwards with snow capped mountains appearing in the distance. Snow came beating down on us as we drove higher and higher and then along a high, dry, windswept glacial plain between the mountains. We visited Craters of the Moon National Park where there is a lava field about 50 miles by 50 miles across. It is a place where lava erupts about every 2000 years (the last time about 2000 years ago!) and is connected to the same system that Yellowstone is on. The Earth's crust has slowly been moving Westward here whilst the system stays still so there are many old craters spread over 100s of miles. There is a fault line under the Craters of the Moon park so in this one place several eruptions have taken place and the ground looks like nowhere else. There are large craters, lava tubes and splatter cones (where the last little bits of lava splutter out of the ground and fall to the ground building up a cone around the exit point). It is a desolate place with new life just trying to get a hold, on the ash and pumice like rock, and only sometimes succeeding. Lichen is the first to take a foot hold and then it can break down the rocks and allow other plants to take a hold, but sometimes the ash gets its own back as you can see from the photos. After the snow the whole place smelt a bit like a wet fireplace, it was beautiful and awesome but also a bit spooky (especially inside the huge lava tunnel that we explored by torchlight).
Now we are in a campground in a town called Mountain Home. The sun came out as we drove here but we are told it is going to be another cold one tonight! And we thought we were going to be following the sun...
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Monday, 28 September 2009
Thermopolis, Tetons and Yellowstone 26-28 Sept
A long lie in was followed by a hot shower, hot tea and hot croissants. Then we were on the road again on Highway 16 West through the Bighorn Mountains and the Cloud Forest Mountains, the tallest mountains in the range had snow on their peaks and the road wound its way up and down past amazing scenery (will the wonders ever end!!!!!!!) The highest point was 9666 feet and we were nearly blown off our feet. There were several alpine plants which I attempted to take photos of for Katie, but I haven't a clue what they were and they seemed a bit dried up and past it to me!
You'll have to look at the photos (again) to try and get an idea of all the fantastic scenery.
A lake in a valley near the high pass gave us an opportunity for a short walk before we wend our way down the other side through a path cut by a river, with 180 degree turns. We had intended to whizz to Thermopolis; home of the largest hot springs in the world; but the views were so breathtaking that the 100 miles took us more than 41/2 hours. Finally we arrived at Hot Springs National Park and we went into the pool. So sulphurous and really hot in places; up to 104 F.... I need to find out what that is in C.... but too hot for me to get into! We soaked and swam for nearly 2 hours and then went out to walk up and find the source of the waters. The sun was bright red in the sky but still fairly high at 5pm; I've never seen anything like it before. Amazingly, the hot spring is just an opening about 5m squared but it pumps out 3,600,000 gallons a day apparently AND WHAT A STINK.... I couldn't stay next to it for long. The water flows through pools that over thousands of years have deposited salts and made a beautiful cliff face over which the water tumbles down into the Wind River (we are going to follow its course tomorrow) that contains huge fish; some 2ft long that we could see.
Having not eaten since breakfast we were starving and have stopped in a little restaurant in the town. There is only one waiter when there are usually 3 so the poor guy is rushed off his feet as the place seems to be really popular. So far we have had home made bread and soup which was great and our steaks are on their way!!
Food was excellent and we found that the restaurant was full of people who had been forced to come this way because of a forest fire in Yellowstone that has blocked off one route, the alternative has roadworks that have completely blocked that way too, so instead of being able to get out of the park south anyone who came in from the North were forced out east and into Thermopolis. Hopefully by the time we get there in 2 days the fire will have been got under control so that we can see all we want to. We are going in by the South which, if the fire is still blocking the road, means we will have to leave West without seeing the North end of the park. At least Old Faithful is on the route we will be able to see.
Sunday.. after a night on the back streets of Thermopolis we refueled with both gas (petrol) and gas (propane) and headed off along the Wind River Canyon, South, then West, then North. A beautifully clear river which tumbles over the rocks and was full of fly fishermen. We followed the river for over 140 miles and rose up through Boyeen State Park where there is a huge reservoir that just goes on and on for over 15 miles, the Shoshone National Forest which peaks at around 9658 feet and is the point at which a divide in the watershed is formed so that instead of following the Wind River any further up its course we now followed the Pacific Creek downstream on the other side of the mountains. We drove about 60 miles along a really high plain that was basically desert, really dry but with all sorts of shades of grey, yellow, orange and brown, the trees up there were also turning to their autumn colours so again more breathtaking views with the Teton mountains in the distance. We just can't get anywhere fast at the moment because we have to keep on stopping to admire the views.
Finally we reached the borders of the Grand Teton State Park (which joins on to the Southern end of Yellowstone), we were lucky enough to get the last spot (more people here who have been sent the wrong way by the Yellowstone fire and giving us mixed messages about the state of the road) in a campsite right next to Jackson Lake (another huge reservoir, that looks bigger than the Boyeen one on the map but we will have to see tomorrow when we drive on past). We are near the dam end so Tris and Celso went to the river below to fish while I cooked chicken stew in the van! They didn't catch anything but had a few bites whilst people around them were bagging huge trout with fly fishing gear!
After a really cold night we were back down at the river again to have our hot tea and hot croissants by the water then on Northwards towards Yellowstone. The Tetons are an incredible range of mountains. There was a fault running North South through Wyoming that was ruptured through an earthquake. The Western side went up and the Eastern side sank (about 4 times as far as the West had gone up). Over the years the risen side has weathered leaving striking towering mountains (complete with snow capped peaks).
And you all know about Yellowstone, woods and plains, the caldera with its towering sides, and of course the Geysers. We had some really close encounters with male, female and young elk, a grouse, chipmunks and squirrels, we watched Old Faithful blast steam into the sky and were steamed by several other Geysers. We wondered at waterfalls and bubbling rivers with crystal clear waters, knobbly trees, the smoke from the fire that prevented our route North (now covering more than 90,000 acres and being allowed to burn except for in built up areas; apparently it started by a lightening strike), the new growth trees amongst the tall dead firs from a fire in 1988, the brown and yellows of the grasslands and the colours of the algae and bacterial growths around the hot springs.
Although we only passed about 40 miles through Yellowstone we took the whole day to do it and arrived in West Yellowstone (a small town on the edge of the park in Montana (another state to add to our tally) after dark to hook up in a little camping park with Wifi, electric and water (our first of any of those for 4 days), so it's time for showers and bit of relaxing to try to sort out all the things we have seen.
You'll have to look at the photos (again) to try and get an idea of all the fantastic scenery.
A lake in a valley near the high pass gave us an opportunity for a short walk before we wend our way down the other side through a path cut by a river, with 180 degree turns. We had intended to whizz to Thermopolis; home of the largest hot springs in the world; but the views were so breathtaking that the 100 miles took us more than 41/2 hours. Finally we arrived at Hot Springs National Park and we went into the pool. So sulphurous and really hot in places; up to 104 F.... I need to find out what that is in C.... but too hot for me to get into! We soaked and swam for nearly 2 hours and then went out to walk up and find the source of the waters. The sun was bright red in the sky but still fairly high at 5pm; I've never seen anything like it before. Amazingly, the hot spring is just an opening about 5m squared but it pumps out 3,600,000 gallons a day apparently AND WHAT A STINK.... I couldn't stay next to it for long. The water flows through pools that over thousands of years have deposited salts and made a beautiful cliff face over which the water tumbles down into the Wind River (we are going to follow its course tomorrow) that contains huge fish; some 2ft long that we could see.
Having not eaten since breakfast we were starving and have stopped in a little restaurant in the town. There is only one waiter when there are usually 3 so the poor guy is rushed off his feet as the place seems to be really popular. So far we have had home made bread and soup which was great and our steaks are on their way!!
Food was excellent and we found that the restaurant was full of people who had been forced to come this way because of a forest fire in Yellowstone that has blocked off one route, the alternative has roadworks that have completely blocked that way too, so instead of being able to get out of the park south anyone who came in from the North were forced out east and into Thermopolis. Hopefully by the time we get there in 2 days the fire will have been got under control so that we can see all we want to. We are going in by the South which, if the fire is still blocking the road, means we will have to leave West without seeing the North end of the park. At least Old Faithful is on the route we will be able to see.
Sunday.. after a night on the back streets of Thermopolis we refueled with both gas (petrol) and gas (propane) and headed off along the Wind River Canyon, South, then West, then North. A beautifully clear river which tumbles over the rocks and was full of fly fishermen. We followed the river for over 140 miles and rose up through Boyeen State Park where there is a huge reservoir that just goes on and on for over 15 miles, the Shoshone National Forest which peaks at around 9658 feet and is the point at which a divide in the watershed is formed so that instead of following the Wind River any further up its course we now followed the Pacific Creek downstream on the other side of the mountains. We drove about 60 miles along a really high plain that was basically desert, really dry but with all sorts of shades of grey, yellow, orange and brown, the trees up there were also turning to their autumn colours so again more breathtaking views with the Teton mountains in the distance. We just can't get anywhere fast at the moment because we have to keep on stopping to admire the views.
Finally we reached the borders of the Grand Teton State Park (which joins on to the Southern end of Yellowstone), we were lucky enough to get the last spot (more people here who have been sent the wrong way by the Yellowstone fire and giving us mixed messages about the state of the road) in a campsite right next to Jackson Lake (another huge reservoir, that looks bigger than the Boyeen one on the map but we will have to see tomorrow when we drive on past). We are near the dam end so Tris and Celso went to the river below to fish while I cooked chicken stew in the van! They didn't catch anything but had a few bites whilst people around them were bagging huge trout with fly fishing gear!
After a really cold night we were back down at the river again to have our hot tea and hot croissants by the water then on Northwards towards Yellowstone. The Tetons are an incredible range of mountains. There was a fault running North South through Wyoming that was ruptured through an earthquake. The Western side went up and the Eastern side sank (about 4 times as far as the West had gone up). Over the years the risen side has weathered leaving striking towering mountains (complete with snow capped peaks).
And you all know about Yellowstone, woods and plains, the caldera with its towering sides, and of course the Geysers. We had some really close encounters with male, female and young elk, a grouse, chipmunks and squirrels, we watched Old Faithful blast steam into the sky and were steamed by several other Geysers. We wondered at waterfalls and bubbling rivers with crystal clear waters, knobbly trees, the smoke from the fire that prevented our route North (now covering more than 90,000 acres and being allowed to burn except for in built up areas; apparently it started by a lightening strike), the new growth trees amongst the tall dead firs from a fire in 1988, the brown and yellows of the grasslands and the colours of the algae and bacterial growths around the hot springs.
Although we only passed about 40 miles through Yellowstone we took the whole day to do it and arrived in West Yellowstone (a small town on the edge of the park in Montana (another state to add to our tally) after dark to hook up in a little camping park with Wifi, electric and water (our first of any of those for 4 days), so it's time for showers and bit of relaxing to try to sort out all the things we have seen.
Friday, 25 September 2009
Mount Rushmore and Devil's Tower 24 & 25 Sept
We had set our alarms for 7am to be up and at Rushmore in the morning light. What a treat, it was nearly empty and the Presidents stared down over us. It's difficult to imagine (until you are there) just how enormous they are; for example, Washington's nose is 21 foot long; and that in fact the sculpture is not finished (nor do they intend to do so), as all work ceased in 1946 when Borglum (the sculptor) died. It was intended to continue down to the waist of Washington and Lincoln, the shoulders of Jefferson, but Roosevelt was going to always be 'just' a head. A half mile walk around the base of the rocks had notices with basic facts about each of the presidents. Did you know that neither Washington nor Lincoln had any formal education at all? There were also fantastic old photos of the workers who hung precariously over the side of the cliff face to do the carving. 450,000 tons of rock were removed, 90% by dynamite, the rest by electric drills run by pneumatic generators at the foot of the rock. At one stage during construction they called in an engineer to find out why they were losing power; it turned out that the smithy had cut some holes in the pneumatic pipes to blow air over him as he worked, so they gave him a fan! And also, that on Mondays, most of the women in Keystone did their laundry and their was a huge surge in electricity use, so they brought in a generator to make up the shortfall on washday! Did you know that behind the heads their is a huge vault cut into the rock into which have been sealed a sort of time capsule about the 20th century with information of the state of affairs in the world and also a record of how the carvings were made? Whilst we were there 2 wild mountain goats came trotting casually down the rocks to eat some of the tended grass around the monument (one also bleated rather a lot!), as goats are one of Celso's favourites you will find a large gallery of pictures of the pair!
After about an hour and a half at the site we wend our way amongst the magnificent hills again (with a brief 40 minute stop at a lake for Celso to throw in a line (one bite, no catches)), to make our way to the Crazy Horse monument which is a new statue being carved into the rocks of the Black Hills about 20 miles from Rushmore. This is a work in progress with only the head completed so far in any detail, the arm and hair are there in outline. It will be a statue of Crazy Horse on a horse at full gallop with his hair streaming out behind him. The four faces at Rushmore would fit into Crazy Horse's hair, it's going to be enormous, but they reckon it will be finished in 35 years or so! We simply did a drive by as it turned out they were asking for more than we were willing to pay to park and take a good look, maybe we'll come back and pay $27 in 20 years or so!
And so we made our way North through more fabulous scenery to Spearfish Canyon where we stopped to take a short walk along the edge of a beautifully clear mountain stream / river and also to wonder at a beautiful waterfall that seemed to appear out of nowhere up above us. After this the hills got smaller but no less glorious, slowly rolling back into grassland but with red sandstone mounds that appeared to have been smoothed off at the top with a knife (they were all so flat and all so exactly the same height at the top), perhaps the work of a glacier.. I don't know. And then suddenly the great lump of rock called Devil's Tower appeared and got larger and larger as we neared. Now we are camped at its base (in Wyoming, another state to add to our tally). The story goes that there were 8 Indian children of a chief all playing, 7 girls and one boy. The boy suddenly was struck dumb; he started to grow claws and fur and turned into a bear. His sisters were terrified as he began to chase them. The stump of an old tree told the girls to climb onto it and it rose up into the sky as the bear clawed frantically at its base. The girls became the 7 stars in the Big Dipper (plough) and the scratch marks from the bear can still be seen on the tree stump that turned to stone.
The Western version is that there was an extrusion of magma up towards the surface of the land through the sandstone that solidified and cracked into columns as it cooled; the surrounding sandstone was then eroded away over millions of years leaving this tower of rock.
We are sitting in the sun at its base drinking tea and eating hot croissants, marvelling at its enormity and gearing ourselves up for a three mile hike around its base. (Of course we have no Internet connection here so I am writing this in Word to be cut and pasted next time we have a chance; so much happens that if we don't get this written each day we lose the details. We can't believe that we have been in the van 3 weeks now.... so much done, time going too fast.)
Our hike around the tower was amazing, and hot, and tiring, and exhilarating. From the base it is 264m high and it just appears to go up vertically out of the surrounding hill, its top has the area of a football field. Fantastic views from the base back over the plains, the 6 or 7 sided columns of igneous rock that have broken off the tower are scattered amongst the trees at its base. We have far too many pictures of it but on our little computer we can't decide which ones to keep and which to discard (you probably won't believe it but today's haul of photos was 260 and we managed to get that down to 140!) On both the way up and the way down we passed through a prairie dog town and we have yet more cute photos.
A bit hot and sweaty we set of westwards again across endless plains of dried grasses, lots of cattle and herds of deer (especially where the grasses had been watered) and have made it to Buffalo in the centre of Wyoming at the foot of the Cloud Peak Wilderness Area that we will tackle tomorrow to take us over near to The Grand Tetons and Yellowstone.
After about an hour and a half at the site we wend our way amongst the magnificent hills again (with a brief 40 minute stop at a lake for Celso to throw in a line (one bite, no catches)), to make our way to the Crazy Horse monument which is a new statue being carved into the rocks of the Black Hills about 20 miles from Rushmore. This is a work in progress with only the head completed so far in any detail, the arm and hair are there in outline. It will be a statue of Crazy Horse on a horse at full gallop with his hair streaming out behind him. The four faces at Rushmore would fit into Crazy Horse's hair, it's going to be enormous, but they reckon it will be finished in 35 years or so! We simply did a drive by as it turned out they were asking for more than we were willing to pay to park and take a good look, maybe we'll come back and pay $27 in 20 years or so!
And so we made our way North through more fabulous scenery to Spearfish Canyon where we stopped to take a short walk along the edge of a beautifully clear mountain stream / river and also to wonder at a beautiful waterfall that seemed to appear out of nowhere up above us. After this the hills got smaller but no less glorious, slowly rolling back into grassland but with red sandstone mounds that appeared to have been smoothed off at the top with a knife (they were all so flat and all so exactly the same height at the top), perhaps the work of a glacier.. I don't know. And then suddenly the great lump of rock called Devil's Tower appeared and got larger and larger as we neared. Now we are camped at its base (in Wyoming, another state to add to our tally). The story goes that there were 8 Indian children of a chief all playing, 7 girls and one boy. The boy suddenly was struck dumb; he started to grow claws and fur and turned into a bear. His sisters were terrified as he began to chase them. The stump of an old tree told the girls to climb onto it and it rose up into the sky as the bear clawed frantically at its base. The girls became the 7 stars in the Big Dipper (plough) and the scratch marks from the bear can still be seen on the tree stump that turned to stone.
The Western version is that there was an extrusion of magma up towards the surface of the land through the sandstone that solidified and cracked into columns as it cooled; the surrounding sandstone was then eroded away over millions of years leaving this tower of rock.
We are sitting in the sun at its base drinking tea and eating hot croissants, marvelling at its enormity and gearing ourselves up for a three mile hike around its base. (Of course we have no Internet connection here so I am writing this in Word to be cut and pasted next time we have a chance; so much happens that if we don't get this written each day we lose the details. We can't believe that we have been in the van 3 weeks now.... so much done, time going too fast.)
Our hike around the tower was amazing, and hot, and tiring, and exhilarating. From the base it is 264m high and it just appears to go up vertically out of the surrounding hill, its top has the area of a football field. Fantastic views from the base back over the plains, the 6 or 7 sided columns of igneous rock that have broken off the tower are scattered amongst the trees at its base. We have far too many pictures of it but on our little computer we can't decide which ones to keep and which to discard (you probably won't believe it but today's haul of photos was 260 and we managed to get that down to 140!) On both the way up and the way down we passed through a prairie dog town and we have yet more cute photos.
A bit hot and sweaty we set of westwards again across endless plains of dried grasses, lots of cattle and herds of deer (especially where the grasses had been watered) and have made it to Buffalo in the centre of Wyoming at the foot of the Cloud Peak Wilderness Area that we will tackle tomorrow to take us over near to The Grand Tetons and Yellowstone.
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
The Black Hills 22-23 Sept
It was cold again as we got up but as we drove towards Hot Springs (that is the name of a town at the South end of the Black Hills in South Dakota) the sun came out, the clouds rolled away and we were left with a beautiful day; not hot, just right. The Black Hills were formed when there was an upwelling of magma that pushed the top sedimentary layers up but never erupted. They are now covered in Ponderosa pine which makes them look black from afar. After the grey, yellow and light greens of the prairies they are quite a dramatic, looming feature on the horizon. Hot Springs is so called because of the 87F spring water that erupts from the hillside and that was trapped in the early 1900s to make a pool. It is not sulphurous but clear water, so quite unusual for a hot spring. We were thinking of going in but it was full of teenagers so we gave it a miss!
We visited an archaeological site where up to 64 (so far) mammoth skeletons have been found. There appears to have once been a cave system under that part of the hills that then collapsed to form a sink hole that slowly filled with the warm waters. Because of the temperature of the water the small lake that formed always had good grasses growing around its shores even in the depths of winter. This seemed to attract the mammoths who then fell in; or at least could not get out again; and so they have remained. Eventually the sink hole silted up, there is evidence that once muddy it was still used as a wallow because there are footprints in the layers. Then the land around the sinkhole started to erode away but the silted area didn't because it was so compact, and so what was once a hollow became a hill. In 1980-something a land developer decided to flatten the hill but as the digger cut into it they found lots of bones and so stopped and called in the archaeologists. Since then they have gone down about 30 feet, but test drilling show that there is at least another 60ft of sinkhole to uncover and that there are bones all the way down. They reckon it will take at least another 35 years to get down that far! The site is great, the whole sinkhole is now inside a building and the dig continues in front of you. Lots of the bones have been left in situ so that you can see what is going on.
Amazingly every single mammoth that has been found so far (3 woolly and the rest non-woolly) have been male, but of all different ages. They have also found a short faced giant bear, American lions, some deer, and many small mammals such as mice and mink. Did you know (I didn't) that, like elephants, mammoths only have four teeth, but that they have 6 sets (of 4) in their lifetimes. The sets don't grow up out of the gum like ours but sort of move in from the back, like on a conveyor belt, and as they move forward they push the old teeth out the front!
Our fill of bones, we decided to head North through the hills to Wind Cave National Park. This was the first ever state park designated to protect a cave and was the 7th state park in the US. It now has reintroduced wild Bison (called buffalo locally) which we were fortunate enough to see really close up, and we also stopped to watch another Prairie dog community (they are soooooo cute). Wind Cave is currently the 4th largest cave in the world (it was the 8th only 10 years ago but they keep on finding more and more tunnels, one estimate is that they have only found 5% of it so far!) So far they have mapped 134 miles of tunnels (and are adding about 3 miles each year), 90% of what they have found so far is situated within a 1 square mile area on the surface! It is called Wind Cave because the one entrance that has been found so far has amazing winds either coming out or going into the cave. Top speed so far recorded is 80mph; all driven by the difference in pressure between the air pressure within the cave and outside the cave; so if there is a low pressure system over the cave (like when we visited) then the wind blows out of the cave; if there is a high, then the wind will blow back into the cave. The natural entrance is only about a foot square and for a few years in the 1890s visitors used to go in and out through there until the people that owned the land saw the opportunity for a tourist attraction and they blasted a door sized entrance through the rock. By 1903 it was realised that the cave was being damaged and so the National Park was made to protect it. The first person to do the most exploring was a 16 year old boy who used to go down with a candle and a piece of rope. Only this year some people trying to map the cave came upon a new tunnel (or so they thought), but at the far end of it they found candle stubs and the boys name written across the ceiling... a 19th century vandal!
Our guide told us how the surveying was done and that 90% of leads (those are entrances to tunnels that have been discovered but not yet explored) are awaiting mapping. The last time one of these leads was explored it lead to 60ft of main tunnel with 23 new leads! The rangers are convinced that when and if they map it all then it will be the longest cave system in the world. We only did 2 hours of exploring but we were amazed at the number of tunnels leading off the passageway we passed along. The cave also has 90% of the world's known samples of Box Work, a type of Calcite (CaCO3) formation a bit like a dessert rose, plus popcorn and geode crystals.
Leaving the cave we drove to Custer through Custer state park which has amazing rock formations amongst the trees. We were treated to a fabulous sunset but will be going back tomorrow to the see the rocks in the daylight... so beautiful.
We decided to treat ourselves to a steak in a restaurant and then parked up our van on a back street and went to sleep at around 8:30pm absolutely exhausted.
In the morning the sun awoke us around 7.30am and we decided we should get up before the town got really busy. I went out of the van with my cup of tea to sit in the sun and immediately opposite our parking spot was a huge sign that said 'Camping not permitted'! Ah well, what is done is done.
We returned along the road that we had come along at sunset the day before and were stopped again and again by breathtaking views of trees and rocks and shadows and light. We spent about 4 hours wending our way through the hills, we were treated to real close up encounters with deer, buffalo (bison), prairie dogs and wild donkeys who stuck their heads in through our windows and a distant (30m or so) viewing of an eagle.
Eventually we reached Keystone in the middle of the Black Hills and about 2 miles from Mount Rushmore. We wandered through old curiosity shops. There were fantastic signs outside nearly each building telling its history. Most were built in the 1890's during the Gold Rush time and have changed very little since then. We went to the Big Thunder Gold mine for a tour. Our guide was an old guy called Jim, slow and full of really interesting anecdotes. We had taken so many photos through the park that we ran out of batteries for the camera so only managed one photo in the entrance to the mine. (we have 2 batteries but one was charging and then the second also ran out!) The Big Thunder mine was a claim of 2 German immigrants who started digging in the late 1880's when they were in their 30s. They chose the spot because it was between two already successful mines. They had no money so had to give away 50% of their future finds in order to secure money to live and to start the mining process. 34 years later they hit a rock of nearly pure iron ore which stopped their progress past 300m into the hill, they couldn't mine to the left as the neighbouring mine was only about 5ft through the rock, and to the right they cut away about 4 metres but then were too close to the neighbouring mine on that side too. Total find in their mine in the 34 years was $200.00. So after the 50% share to their benefactors at the Bismark mine they made the grand sum of $50 each over the 34 years! They were in their 70's and then only one is known of after that as he had 10 children to tell his story. It turns out that he died a rich man after winning several mines (including the Bismark) in Poker games!
The mine had examples of all the old equipment and we were shown how the drilling and blasting was done, shown an example of a very early port-a-potty that was taken down into some of the deeper mines, shown how the equipment worked that crushed and sorted the rock pulled out of the mine and then Tristan did some panning in the grit from the bottom of the stream where all the old mines used to send their water after processing their rock. We now have a small (tiny.. maybe a cm tall) bottle of rose quartz, garnets and gold that Tris found during his panning.
We are now ensconced in a rather posh campsite just past Mount Rushmore, we drove past the monument to get here and got our first glimpse of the carvings.. very impressive.. but we will return in the morning when the light is from the East and will be shining on them rather than from behind them.
We visited an archaeological site where up to 64 (so far) mammoth skeletons have been found. There appears to have once been a cave system under that part of the hills that then collapsed to form a sink hole that slowly filled with the warm waters. Because of the temperature of the water the small lake that formed always had good grasses growing around its shores even in the depths of winter. This seemed to attract the mammoths who then fell in; or at least could not get out again; and so they have remained. Eventually the sink hole silted up, there is evidence that once muddy it was still used as a wallow because there are footprints in the layers. Then the land around the sinkhole started to erode away but the silted area didn't because it was so compact, and so what was once a hollow became a hill. In 1980-something a land developer decided to flatten the hill but as the digger cut into it they found lots of bones and so stopped and called in the archaeologists. Since then they have gone down about 30 feet, but test drilling show that there is at least another 60ft of sinkhole to uncover and that there are bones all the way down. They reckon it will take at least another 35 years to get down that far! The site is great, the whole sinkhole is now inside a building and the dig continues in front of you. Lots of the bones have been left in situ so that you can see what is going on.
Amazingly every single mammoth that has been found so far (3 woolly and the rest non-woolly) have been male, but of all different ages. They have also found a short faced giant bear, American lions, some deer, and many small mammals such as mice and mink. Did you know (I didn't) that, like elephants, mammoths only have four teeth, but that they have 6 sets (of 4) in their lifetimes. The sets don't grow up out of the gum like ours but sort of move in from the back, like on a conveyor belt, and as they move forward they push the old teeth out the front!
Our fill of bones, we decided to head North through the hills to Wind Cave National Park. This was the first ever state park designated to protect a cave and was the 7th state park in the US. It now has reintroduced wild Bison (called buffalo locally) which we were fortunate enough to see really close up, and we also stopped to watch another Prairie dog community (they are soooooo cute). Wind Cave is currently the 4th largest cave in the world (it was the 8th only 10 years ago but they keep on finding more and more tunnels, one estimate is that they have only found 5% of it so far!) So far they have mapped 134 miles of tunnels (and are adding about 3 miles each year), 90% of what they have found so far is situated within a 1 square mile area on the surface! It is called Wind Cave because the one entrance that has been found so far has amazing winds either coming out or going into the cave. Top speed so far recorded is 80mph; all driven by the difference in pressure between the air pressure within the cave and outside the cave; so if there is a low pressure system over the cave (like when we visited) then the wind blows out of the cave; if there is a high, then the wind will blow back into the cave. The natural entrance is only about a foot square and for a few years in the 1890s visitors used to go in and out through there until the people that owned the land saw the opportunity for a tourist attraction and they blasted a door sized entrance through the rock. By 1903 it was realised that the cave was being damaged and so the National Park was made to protect it. The first person to do the most exploring was a 16 year old boy who used to go down with a candle and a piece of rope. Only this year some people trying to map the cave came upon a new tunnel (or so they thought), but at the far end of it they found candle stubs and the boys name written across the ceiling... a 19th century vandal!
Our guide told us how the surveying was done and that 90% of leads (those are entrances to tunnels that have been discovered but not yet explored) are awaiting mapping. The last time one of these leads was explored it lead to 60ft of main tunnel with 23 new leads! The rangers are convinced that when and if they map it all then it will be the longest cave system in the world. We only did 2 hours of exploring but we were amazed at the number of tunnels leading off the passageway we passed along. The cave also has 90% of the world's known samples of Box Work, a type of Calcite (CaCO3) formation a bit like a dessert rose, plus popcorn and geode crystals.
Leaving the cave we drove to Custer through Custer state park which has amazing rock formations amongst the trees. We were treated to a fabulous sunset but will be going back tomorrow to the see the rocks in the daylight... so beautiful.
We decided to treat ourselves to a steak in a restaurant and then parked up our van on a back street and went to sleep at around 8:30pm absolutely exhausted.
In the morning the sun awoke us around 7.30am and we decided we should get up before the town got really busy. I went out of the van with my cup of tea to sit in the sun and immediately opposite our parking spot was a huge sign that said 'Camping not permitted'! Ah well, what is done is done.
We returned along the road that we had come along at sunset the day before and were stopped again and again by breathtaking views of trees and rocks and shadows and light. We spent about 4 hours wending our way through the hills, we were treated to real close up encounters with deer, buffalo (bison), prairie dogs and wild donkeys who stuck their heads in through our windows and a distant (30m or so) viewing of an eagle.
Eventually we reached Keystone in the middle of the Black Hills and about 2 miles from Mount Rushmore. We wandered through old curiosity shops. There were fantastic signs outside nearly each building telling its history. Most were built in the 1890's during the Gold Rush time and have changed very little since then. We went to the Big Thunder Gold mine for a tour. Our guide was an old guy called Jim, slow and full of really interesting anecdotes. We had taken so many photos through the park that we ran out of batteries for the camera so only managed one photo in the entrance to the mine. (we have 2 batteries but one was charging and then the second also ran out!) The Big Thunder mine was a claim of 2 German immigrants who started digging in the late 1880's when they were in their 30s. They chose the spot because it was between two already successful mines. They had no money so had to give away 50% of their future finds in order to secure money to live and to start the mining process. 34 years later they hit a rock of nearly pure iron ore which stopped their progress past 300m into the hill, they couldn't mine to the left as the neighbouring mine was only about 5ft through the rock, and to the right they cut away about 4 metres but then were too close to the neighbouring mine on that side too. Total find in their mine in the 34 years was $200.00. So after the 50% share to their benefactors at the Bismark mine they made the grand sum of $50 each over the 34 years! They were in their 70's and then only one is known of after that as he had 10 children to tell his story. It turns out that he died a rich man after winning several mines (including the Bismark) in Poker games!
The mine had examples of all the old equipment and we were shown how the drilling and blasting was done, shown an example of a very early port-a-potty that was taken down into some of the deeper mines, shown how the equipment worked that crushed and sorted the rock pulled out of the mine and then Tristan did some panning in the grit from the bottom of the stream where all the old mines used to send their water after processing their rock. We now have a small (tiny.. maybe a cm tall) bottle of rose quartz, garnets and gold that Tris found during his panning.
We are now ensconced in a rather posh campsite just past Mount Rushmore, we drove past the monument to get here and got our first glimpse of the carvings.. very impressive.. but we will return in the morning when the light is from the East and will be shining on them rather than from behind them.
Monday, 21 September 2009
To The Badlands 19-21 Sept
We have passed through Minnesota and nearly all of South Dakota in the last 3 days. Miles upon miles upon miles of flat, flat, flat farmland and grassland with an incredible wind that one day went South to North and the next went North to South. It pushed the van across the road so that it was really quite hairy especially when a big lorry went past. We had made a sort of agreement with ourselves to take 20 days to get to Mount Rushmore, another 20 to the West Coast, another 20 down to the South and through all of California and the final 20 back East to Texas. We thought that if we didn't set ourselves some deadlines then we would end up missing out a whole load of stuff nearer the end of our trip. So to keep to that and to give ourselves time to see all that we want to in South Dakota we had a couple of days of just driving, eating and sleeping. So there isn't much to write about on the 19th and 20th of September. The only thing we did apart from driving was to stop to see some incredible views along the way, such as suddenly coming on the Misouri river and stopping to see the 'Corn Palace' in Mitchell. The corn palace was holding a Polka festival and their were a whole load of 'oldies' strutting their stuff out on a basketball court dancehall. It is called the corn palace because it has murals made from different coloured corn cobs on all the walls, and the outside of the building also has all the flowers stuck on the walls inbetween the murals. Apparently new murals are made every year. Then more monotonous and wind blown driving until the sun was too low in the sky to continue further West. But on the 21st - well that was far from monotonous. The Badlands... windswept, awesome, dramatic. The weather changed from one minute to the next, sunny, cloudy, showers, but always (ALWAYS) windy. The area was under water for millions of years which has laid down many sedimentary layers, and now the wind and water is slowly eroding the area (at about an inch a year) leaving an every changing landscape. Hard to describe but so amazing to see; the photos can't do it justice. The prairie dogs were so gorgeous, they wiggle their little black tails and do silly little jumps; they were being bothered by an eagle that kept swooping past so they were in and out of their burrows and squeeling like guinea pigs. After more than 3 hours on the 31 mile road through the badlands, endless stops and walks into the gulches, and feeling very windswept (you'll hear the wind on the videos) we reached Wall and decided to go and visit the 'drug store'. It is a shop that has been open since the 1890's but has been added to and added to. It had a load of old photos of both Indians and settlers, old musical instruments, a load of stuffed animals and a whole load of tat! It was fun looking around, trying on cowboy hats and just watching people. We have moved back yet another hour so now it is only 8pm but for us 9pm and with the load of driving that we have done I'm ready to sleep. Tomorrow we head a little further West to the Black Hills, Custer State Park, Wind Cave Park etc. 3 days left to make our 20 day deadline at Rushmore, and still so much to see and do! Tragic!
Friday, 18 September 2009
Up the Missisippi and into Iowa 16-18th Sept
We left our campsite in Geneseo to take a drive up the Mississippi river that forms the border between Illinois and Iowa (our 6th state I think, NY, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa). We crossed into Iowa and headed North. It is a huge river with enormous barges carrying tons of coal. We stopped in a little hick town called Camanche and drove to the waters edge over the dead straight railway tracks that followed the river North South. We found a place where lots of boats were moored and took a stroll along the pontoon to take a look. Celso found a fisherman and had a chat about what bait to use to catch which kind of fish and then we were on our way again further North and then back over into Illinois again on a long road bridge parallel to a mechano type railway bridge. The sky was a dramatic blue and the water was sparkling in the sun, so everything was looking very dramatic.
We drove North on the Illinois side until we saw a sign for a windmill and decided to go and take a look.
Fulton is a very Dutch town, many families from the Netherlands settled here in the 1800s and a windmill made in Holland was brought over and erected here to grind corn. 3 old timers were getting ready to do some grinding; they battled to move the blades round into the wind and to change gears to work a pulley system that build up bags of grain from the basement; but the blades were only passing 20 times a minute and they needed 40 to do some grinding so they gave up! Tristan insisted that Celso and I had our pictures taken as Dutch immigrants!
From the windmill we were advised to visit Heritage Canyon. This was set in the site of a quarry that closed in 1954 and was bought by a couple in 1963 who wanted a place to try to maintain the history of the area. They collected 19th Century buildings that were being dismantled from around the area and rebuilt them in the quarry. They filled the buildings with artifacts from the time and then allowed people to wander around and view them. The couple have passed away and now the town of Fulton maintains the buildings, but it is still a self guided, no payment required fascinating visit.
Nature has reclaimed the quarry beautifully, the rocks in the walls of the quarry make a dramatic backdrop to the woods and the old houses. There was a church, a one room schoolhouse, a doctors, a dentists, an undertaker, a bank, an office for the telegraph which had a fantastic sign in the window; 'Wanted, young boys under 20, lanky, good horsemen, prepared to face danger every day. Ride for the Express mail, 14 days to California, Orphans preferred.' !!! Also a log cabin, a 2 storey house from the 1860's, a printshop, a shoe repair shop, a dress makers, an old mill complete with waterwheel, a blacksmiths, a toyshop, a general store, one of those old covered wooden bridges and a few privies. As yo will see in the photos Celso and I were again invited to have our photo taken as 18?0's gentlefolk!
Again we headed North up the river until we saw a sign for a dam. Again we headed off the main road to investigate. What a site, the river was at least twice as wide above the dam and lock system, the drop through the lock being about 10 foot. There is a huge marshy area to one side with an enormous number of lily pads, ducks, heron and egrets. The dam was not very impressive but the river certainly was. On the downstream side of the dam was an area of sandy and rocky shoreline with an enormous number of high jumping, tiny frogs. Of course Celso had to fish... so Tris and I sat and did some maths for an hour whilst he experimented with different weights and baits. Celso was 'treated' (?) with the sighting of a water snake and many more frogs. During this time a couple of enormous barges went through the lock that must be at least as big as a hockey pitch, and also a remocked river steamer with a large number of oldies on board and some very load country music entertainment. As Tristan and I were insisting that we go, Celso caught his first fish, a silver Perch (also called a mooneye). It wasn't very big; only about 10inches; but it had swallowed the hook so deep that it had to be killed.. (and Celso ate it for supper with onion, tomatoe and garlic, cooked in a bag made from silver foil.) Celso insisted that he gut the fish there and then so he went back to the van to get the sharp knife, meanwhile I cast the line a couple of times. When Celso returned he was dismayed by my casting and by the fact that the line appeared to have caught on something on the bottom. He wrestled with it for a while and it turned out that I had caught a very strong clam!
We then drove a little further north and found a state park campground outside Thompson Illinois on an island in the Missisippi that has been connected to the mainland by a levee. There are a huge number of deer in the park but we weren't quick enough to catch any on film, but we were treated to a fantastic sunset over the river.
In the morning we lay in bed, with the blinds up, watching the comings and goings of the Canada geese, the herons, ducks and egrets on the river. There was a fantastic symphony of honks (geese), quacks, cricks (cicadas), croaks and hicks (frogs), squeaks (chipmunks) and scamperings from squirrels up the bark of the trees. Strangely there was very little birdsong! Later as we stood by the waters edge drinking tea a kingfisher appeared from nowhere, dived into the water and surfaced with a small silver fish in its beak, hovered for a moment to lose the water from its wings, and disappeared again. It was a perfect film moment only about 3 metres from where we stood.
We headed North from our campsite about 15 miles to Savanna, where we could once again cross the river into Iowa. The bridge was another mechano affair and VERY narrow. If a truck (lorry) had come in the other direction I don't think we could have passed but, since the bridge was a hunchback affair and probably close to a quarter of a mile long, there was no way of seeing what was coming in the other direction before you got onto it. At the western end we were stopped by roadworks and then had to squeeze along the narrowest bit that we have been through in the van yet. The passenger wing mirror clipped the top of the roadwork flashing lights; it was a VERY scary moment. Once we had passed through we stopped to assess if there was any damage to find that we could easily have pulled in both wing mirrors that stick out about a foot beyond the side of the van on either side ..... lesson learnt! (And there was no damage.)
On the Iowa side of the river another tiny hick town greeted us, I think it was built mainly on reclaimed land from the swampy / marshy edge of the river as on one side was the river and on the other a series of lakes with raised levees passing straight through for the roads to sit on. We crossed on one of these roads and found; half way across; a little park (also on reclaimed land I suppose). We stopped under the trees in the park and watched fish jumping and splashing in the lake... of course Celso had to throw in a line and Tris and I sat and watched, read a book and just relaxed for an hour. No luck on the fishing Celso was happy to leave after an hour and we drove about 20 miles West to Maquoketa (the only place with that name in the World; we were proudly told by a guy in our campsite later that evening!), an Indian word for a type of tree. We had seen a picture of a natural land bridge on a small leaflet we had got from the windmill in Fulton, it said it was of Maquoketa state park; so after a few wrong turns and a few skid turns from very short notice, tiny signposts, we made it to the park. It was worth all the hassle though, the most enormous and long (about 400m) cave system with a river running through it, plus lots of other smaller caves dotted around a deciduous woodland, the natural bridge is the remainder of a cave that has collapsed and it now stands about 50ft above Raccoon Creek. We spent over 2 hours exploring and then decided to camp in the park campground too. It was an honour system where you put your money in an envelope in a little box by the entrance ... walking up to do this was how we met the guy who told us about Maquoketa.... he had a little MG parked outside his camper so we had to stop and have a look. It turned out to be a VW kit car in the style of a 52 MG that he had got from a lady in return for doing up her 2nd storey extension over her garage!
Tristan then had a lesson on the relationship between particles, states of matter and energy and then we supped on wood grilled steak with baked potatoes cooked in the embers of the fire, corn, brocolli and carrots and are feeling rather pleased with our days discoveries!
18th Sept we woke, showered and then did another of those heads down, don't look too carefully at the map nor ask anyone what we were missing and just headed West. We are now in a campsite in the middle of Indiana called Marshaltown in a park just on the edge of town. Celso has gone off fishing at a dam a 15 minute walk from the campsite and Tris and I walked into town and have found a sports bar with Wifi access. The only thing of real interest that we saw today was a wasp carrying a spider about 20m across our campsite. She dropped the spider at one point; to go and check the direction to the little hole she was planning to place it and lay her eggs; and then managed to return the 10m or so to the exact spot she had dropped it to continue her hauling job through the grass. Fascinating to watch the effort she put in, and considering that the spider was probably twice her weight, it was amazing that it only took her about 10 minutes to complete her journey.
Thanks to all at work who have written to me with all the gossip. Can Josla please tell us who you are... we have been trying to figure out who is following our blog and we don't know you!!!!!
We drove North on the Illinois side until we saw a sign for a windmill and decided to go and take a look.
Fulton is a very Dutch town, many families from the Netherlands settled here in the 1800s and a windmill made in Holland was brought over and erected here to grind corn. 3 old timers were getting ready to do some grinding; they battled to move the blades round into the wind and to change gears to work a pulley system that build up bags of grain from the basement; but the blades were only passing 20 times a minute and they needed 40 to do some grinding so they gave up! Tristan insisted that Celso and I had our pictures taken as Dutch immigrants!
From the windmill we were advised to visit Heritage Canyon. This was set in the site of a quarry that closed in 1954 and was bought by a couple in 1963 who wanted a place to try to maintain the history of the area. They collected 19th Century buildings that were being dismantled from around the area and rebuilt them in the quarry. They filled the buildings with artifacts from the time and then allowed people to wander around and view them. The couple have passed away and now the town of Fulton maintains the buildings, but it is still a self guided, no payment required fascinating visit.
Nature has reclaimed the quarry beautifully, the rocks in the walls of the quarry make a dramatic backdrop to the woods and the old houses. There was a church, a one room schoolhouse, a doctors, a dentists, an undertaker, a bank, an office for the telegraph which had a fantastic sign in the window; 'Wanted, young boys under 20, lanky, good horsemen, prepared to face danger every day. Ride for the Express mail, 14 days to California, Orphans preferred.' !!! Also a log cabin, a 2 storey house from the 1860's, a printshop, a shoe repair shop, a dress makers, an old mill complete with waterwheel, a blacksmiths, a toyshop, a general store, one of those old covered wooden bridges and a few privies. As yo will see in the photos Celso and I were again invited to have our photo taken as 18?0's gentlefolk!
Again we headed North up the river until we saw a sign for a dam. Again we headed off the main road to investigate. What a site, the river was at least twice as wide above the dam and lock system, the drop through the lock being about 10 foot. There is a huge marshy area to one side with an enormous number of lily pads, ducks, heron and egrets. The dam was not very impressive but the river certainly was. On the downstream side of the dam was an area of sandy and rocky shoreline with an enormous number of high jumping, tiny frogs. Of course Celso had to fish... so Tris and I sat and did some maths for an hour whilst he experimented with different weights and baits. Celso was 'treated' (?) with the sighting of a water snake and many more frogs. During this time a couple of enormous barges went through the lock that must be at least as big as a hockey pitch, and also a remocked river steamer with a large number of oldies on board and some very load country music entertainment. As Tristan and I were insisting that we go, Celso caught his first fish, a silver Perch (also called a mooneye). It wasn't very big; only about 10inches; but it had swallowed the hook so deep that it had to be killed.. (and Celso ate it for supper with onion, tomatoe and garlic, cooked in a bag made from silver foil.) Celso insisted that he gut the fish there and then so he went back to the van to get the sharp knife, meanwhile I cast the line a couple of times. When Celso returned he was dismayed by my casting and by the fact that the line appeared to have caught on something on the bottom. He wrestled with it for a while and it turned out that I had caught a very strong clam!
We then drove a little further north and found a state park campground outside Thompson Illinois on an island in the Missisippi that has been connected to the mainland by a levee. There are a huge number of deer in the park but we weren't quick enough to catch any on film, but we were treated to a fantastic sunset over the river.
In the morning we lay in bed, with the blinds up, watching the comings and goings of the Canada geese, the herons, ducks and egrets on the river. There was a fantastic symphony of honks (geese), quacks, cricks (cicadas), croaks and hicks (frogs), squeaks (chipmunks) and scamperings from squirrels up the bark of the trees. Strangely there was very little birdsong! Later as we stood by the waters edge drinking tea a kingfisher appeared from nowhere, dived into the water and surfaced with a small silver fish in its beak, hovered for a moment to lose the water from its wings, and disappeared again. It was a perfect film moment only about 3 metres from where we stood.
We headed North from our campsite about 15 miles to Savanna, where we could once again cross the river into Iowa. The bridge was another mechano affair and VERY narrow. If a truck (lorry) had come in the other direction I don't think we could have passed but, since the bridge was a hunchback affair and probably close to a quarter of a mile long, there was no way of seeing what was coming in the other direction before you got onto it. At the western end we were stopped by roadworks and then had to squeeze along the narrowest bit that we have been through in the van yet. The passenger wing mirror clipped the top of the roadwork flashing lights; it was a VERY scary moment. Once we had passed through we stopped to assess if there was any damage to find that we could easily have pulled in both wing mirrors that stick out about a foot beyond the side of the van on either side ..... lesson learnt! (And there was no damage.)
On the Iowa side of the river another tiny hick town greeted us, I think it was built mainly on reclaimed land from the swampy / marshy edge of the river as on one side was the river and on the other a series of lakes with raised levees passing straight through for the roads to sit on. We crossed on one of these roads and found; half way across; a little park (also on reclaimed land I suppose). We stopped under the trees in the park and watched fish jumping and splashing in the lake... of course Celso had to throw in a line and Tris and I sat and watched, read a book and just relaxed for an hour. No luck on the fishing Celso was happy to leave after an hour and we drove about 20 miles West to Maquoketa (the only place with that name in the World; we were proudly told by a guy in our campsite later that evening!), an Indian word for a type of tree. We had seen a picture of a natural land bridge on a small leaflet we had got from the windmill in Fulton, it said it was of Maquoketa state park; so after a few wrong turns and a few skid turns from very short notice, tiny signposts, we made it to the park. It was worth all the hassle though, the most enormous and long (about 400m) cave system with a river running through it, plus lots of other smaller caves dotted around a deciduous woodland, the natural bridge is the remainder of a cave that has collapsed and it now stands about 50ft above Raccoon Creek. We spent over 2 hours exploring and then decided to camp in the park campground too. It was an honour system where you put your money in an envelope in a little box by the entrance ... walking up to do this was how we met the guy who told us about Maquoketa.... he had a little MG parked outside his camper so we had to stop and have a look. It turned out to be a VW kit car in the style of a 52 MG that he had got from a lady in return for doing up her 2nd storey extension over her garage!
Tristan then had a lesson on the relationship between particles, states of matter and energy and then we supped on wood grilled steak with baked potatoes cooked in the embers of the fire, corn, brocolli and carrots and are feeling rather pleased with our days discoveries!
18th Sept we woke, showered and then did another of those heads down, don't look too carefully at the map nor ask anyone what we were missing and just headed West. We are now in a campsite in the middle of Indiana called Marshaltown in a park just on the edge of town. Celso has gone off fishing at a dam a 15 minute walk from the campsite and Tris and I walked into town and have found a sports bar with Wifi access. The only thing of real interest that we saw today was a wasp carrying a spider about 20m across our campsite. She dropped the spider at one point; to go and check the direction to the little hole she was planning to place it and lay her eggs; and then managed to return the 10m or so to the exact spot she had dropped it to continue her hauling job through the grass. Fascinating to watch the effort she put in, and considering that the spider was probably twice her weight, it was amazing that it only took her about 10 minutes to complete her journey.
Thanks to all at work who have written to me with all the gossip. Can Josla please tell us who you are... we have been trying to figure out who is following our blog and we don't know you!!!!!
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
to Illinois 13-15th Sept
We awoke to the view of the lake on our camper doorstep (as we had the pitch closest to the lake), it was glorious; we had arrived at dusk so had not really appreciated it last night. But no time to dally.. I had an Internet connection last night so wrote a few emails, checked bank accounts etc and id a bit of research on the local area (Napanee, Indiana). It turns out that there is a large Amish population around here. In fact they were here before other settlers as they always bought up really cheap land before it had been settled in any way and did all the work to clear and drain the land. So we decided to go and visit an Amish homestead that is now open to the public. The last Amish occupier died in 1968 and now a few other Amish buildings have been moved on to the land and you can walk around in small groups with a guide who explains all the Amish traditions and beliefs.
The Amish are a Christian sect that got fed up with the Catholic church and all its riches in the middle ages. They wanted to return to a life like Christ, where the first are last and the last first, a simple life with no possessions (like Jesus) and a love and tolerance for others. They were persecuted for ages in Germany, Switzerland and Holland so when the chance came to emigrate some did. The homestead we visited was the first Amish homestead in Indiana in 1870 something. A few years later when a railroad was built within a mile of the homestead the town of Napanee grew up and even more Amish moved here.
The homestead is about 80 acres, the original house still stands (but was extended in the early 1800's to add a new kitchen, prayer room and bedroom. There is a second small (grandparents) house that was built when the original owner got old and his son took over the farm, a smoke house where all the meat was cured, an outside oven made of brick that once heated in the morning retained its heat so that baking could be done all day, a barn, a coach house, an outhouse (privy) and a cool room dug into the ground. Added from around the district to preserve buildings that would otherwise have been destroyed are a bakery, a meat and cheese store, a general store with original marble soda fountain (like a big drinks cabinet but for ice cream and fizzy drinks (made fizzy with phosphates apparently), an Amish school house with the original Amish school bus cart (painted in yellow like the regular US school buses) and a smithy's workshop with all the original tools, the fire with the bellows etc.
The house had lots of original furniture, beds and tables, sideboards and chairs all beautifully hand carved, old irons, pots and pans and, of course, the beautiful quilts that can take up to 800 hours to complete. There were some of the old clothes, the adults will not wear visible buttons because they were a symbol of the military and they were conscientious objectors, the women pin themselves into their dresses each morning using normal sewing pins (I'm sure they must get dislodged in the day whilst they are working and it must be very painful), we have seen them walking around and I had assumed that they were big tacking stitches. Men are clean shaven until they are married and then they grow a beard (and depending on their sect they may never shave it again), but they never have a moustache. The young men have pudding bowl haircuts and all wear blue shirts and braces, they can wear a Tom Sawyer style straw hat. The older men wear black hats with white shirts and braces. The women all cover their hair with a white prayer cap that is apparently the first thing they put on in the morning and the last thing taken off at night. Children can have buttons and are not baptised, they have not yet 'taken' the faith so are not blamed for their actions, however, when at 18 or older, they decide to get baptised then they must follow the rules of their sect, if they don't then they can be shunned for a time that is determined by the priest. (The priest is a man elected by the sect, he has no training but his word is the law.) From the age of 16 to 18 children are encouraged to go and live like the 'English' (that is what they call anyone who is not Amish), they can go to movies, wear any clothes they like, travel etc. Then they can decide to leave the sect but once they are baptised then the rules must be followed. After 21 then they can marry, it used to be that the man chose a wife and then the priest decided if that was ok, the woman had no say in the matter, but now it is by mutual consent and with the priests consent too.
It is a patriarchal society, children only go to school until they are 14/15 (they successfully challenged the state that tried to get the kids into the state school system on the grounds of religious freedom), they speak a mixture of Dutch and English (but this is not a written language) but all their bibles and religious meetings are held in High German (a mixture of German and Dutch). They now have running water and indoor toilets but still no phones, electricity or motorised vehicles. They are very business wise though. If the weather has been too bad to get in a normal harvest then they will pay a neighbour to use his motorised vehicles to get it in. They will hire 'English' and rent a building for them to work in with phones and electricity to run websites and telephone orders for their goods.
It was a fascinating day, and then we drove West until we saw a campsite sign on the edge of the road near Gary outside Chicago. It wasn't the nicest campsite but we cooked and ate and watched a DVD and slept. On the way in it said 'No enter' and Tristan commented that the owner must be Chinese, well there was no one in the office just a note to say they were out and to pay in the morning.. and guess what they were Chinese... we had to giggle.
14th Sept we whizzed past Chicago on the Interstate, we've decided that there isn't really anything that we want to do in Chicago so we're not!! The road was really busy, full of huge trucks and with loads of roadworks making the lanes really small, so it was a hairy scary time.
We are now happily ensconced by the Illinois River (at least 100m from bank to bank) in Illini State Park Campground just outside Marseilles, Illinois (our 5th state), Celso caught a big catfish on his first cast with a spinner (so he's happy). Tristan has learnt all about perimeters and areas of quadrilaterals, and areas of triangles, using algebra and numbers! And now the fire is set, the corn is ready to be cooked and the sun is shining. Happy times.
On the 15th we woke and had showers and then went for a long walk in the park and found some weird mushrooms (toadstools?) and a tree that had huge spines (we suppose as protection against animals eating its fruit). We wondered why there was no one around but then realised that we had crossed into a different time zone and that we should have put our clocks back an hour! On our way back to the van we spotted a huge groundhog out eating acorns but he was too fast for us so we couldn't get a photo. He was brownish grey (not like Punxsatawney Phil who was grey), and about two foot long, big and fat ready for hibernation I suppose.
We headed further west, today is day 10 of our drive and we had to do some laundry and boring cleaning so we headed for a campsite that boasted excellent facilities and found exactly what was claimed! So now we are clean, the beds are clean, the van is clean, Tristan has learnt all about energy, we have been for a long walk along the Hennepin canal in the blazing sun at 5.30pm - I got sunburnt on my shoulders and also bitten by mosquitoes! (How can it be so hot at 5.30pm at this latitude?) The canal is quite interesting because it was the first one ever to be made with concrete and had lots of experiments done on it, then all the technology was used to build the Panama canal. Unfortunately the canal is no longer in use, it only has one working lock but it is a haven for wildlife, we saw herons, frogs, beautiful dragonflies that look like they have pinned some butterfly wings to their backs (see photo) and lots of fish. Apparently there are loads of terrapins too but we didn't see any. They call them turtles here, but Celso and Tristan informed me that turtles are only found in the sea and have flippers.. terrapins have claws and live in fresh water --- so now you know too!
The Amish are a Christian sect that got fed up with the Catholic church and all its riches in the middle ages. They wanted to return to a life like Christ, where the first are last and the last first, a simple life with no possessions (like Jesus) and a love and tolerance for others. They were persecuted for ages in Germany, Switzerland and Holland so when the chance came to emigrate some did. The homestead we visited was the first Amish homestead in Indiana in 1870 something. A few years later when a railroad was built within a mile of the homestead the town of Napanee grew up and even more Amish moved here.
The homestead is about 80 acres, the original house still stands (but was extended in the early 1800's to add a new kitchen, prayer room and bedroom. There is a second small (grandparents) house that was built when the original owner got old and his son took over the farm, a smoke house where all the meat was cured, an outside oven made of brick that once heated in the morning retained its heat so that baking could be done all day, a barn, a coach house, an outhouse (privy) and a cool room dug into the ground. Added from around the district to preserve buildings that would otherwise have been destroyed are a bakery, a meat and cheese store, a general store with original marble soda fountain (like a big drinks cabinet but for ice cream and fizzy drinks (made fizzy with phosphates apparently), an Amish school house with the original Amish school bus cart (painted in yellow like the regular US school buses) and a smithy's workshop with all the original tools, the fire with the bellows etc.
The house had lots of original furniture, beds and tables, sideboards and chairs all beautifully hand carved, old irons, pots and pans and, of course, the beautiful quilts that can take up to 800 hours to complete. There were some of the old clothes, the adults will not wear visible buttons because they were a symbol of the military and they were conscientious objectors, the women pin themselves into their dresses each morning using normal sewing pins (I'm sure they must get dislodged in the day whilst they are working and it must be very painful), we have seen them walking around and I had assumed that they were big tacking stitches. Men are clean shaven until they are married and then they grow a beard (and depending on their sect they may never shave it again), but they never have a moustache. The young men have pudding bowl haircuts and all wear blue shirts and braces, they can wear a Tom Sawyer style straw hat. The older men wear black hats with white shirts and braces. The women all cover their hair with a white prayer cap that is apparently the first thing they put on in the morning and the last thing taken off at night. Children can have buttons and are not baptised, they have not yet 'taken' the faith so are not blamed for their actions, however, when at 18 or older, they decide to get baptised then they must follow the rules of their sect, if they don't then they can be shunned for a time that is determined by the priest. (The priest is a man elected by the sect, he has no training but his word is the law.) From the age of 16 to 18 children are encouraged to go and live like the 'English' (that is what they call anyone who is not Amish), they can go to movies, wear any clothes they like, travel etc. Then they can decide to leave the sect but once they are baptised then the rules must be followed. After 21 then they can marry, it used to be that the man chose a wife and then the priest decided if that was ok, the woman had no say in the matter, but now it is by mutual consent and with the priests consent too.
It is a patriarchal society, children only go to school until they are 14/15 (they successfully challenged the state that tried to get the kids into the state school system on the grounds of religious freedom), they speak a mixture of Dutch and English (but this is not a written language) but all their bibles and religious meetings are held in High German (a mixture of German and Dutch). They now have running water and indoor toilets but still no phones, electricity or motorised vehicles. They are very business wise though. If the weather has been too bad to get in a normal harvest then they will pay a neighbour to use his motorised vehicles to get it in. They will hire 'English' and rent a building for them to work in with phones and electricity to run websites and telephone orders for their goods.
It was a fascinating day, and then we drove West until we saw a campsite sign on the edge of the road near Gary outside Chicago. It wasn't the nicest campsite but we cooked and ate and watched a DVD and slept. On the way in it said 'No enter' and Tristan commented that the owner must be Chinese, well there was no one in the office just a note to say they were out and to pay in the morning.. and guess what they were Chinese... we had to giggle.
14th Sept we whizzed past Chicago on the Interstate, we've decided that there isn't really anything that we want to do in Chicago so we're not!! The road was really busy, full of huge trucks and with loads of roadworks making the lanes really small, so it was a hairy scary time.
We are now happily ensconced by the Illinois River (at least 100m from bank to bank) in Illini State Park Campground just outside Marseilles, Illinois (our 5th state), Celso caught a big catfish on his first cast with a spinner (so he's happy). Tristan has learnt all about perimeters and areas of quadrilaterals, and areas of triangles, using algebra and numbers! And now the fire is set, the corn is ready to be cooked and the sun is shining. Happy times.
On the 15th we woke and had showers and then went for a long walk in the park and found some weird mushrooms (toadstools?) and a tree that had huge spines (we suppose as protection against animals eating its fruit). We wondered why there was no one around but then realised that we had crossed into a different time zone and that we should have put our clocks back an hour! On our way back to the van we spotted a huge groundhog out eating acorns but he was too fast for us so we couldn't get a photo. He was brownish grey (not like Punxsatawney Phil who was grey), and about two foot long, big and fat ready for hibernation I suppose.
We headed further west, today is day 10 of our drive and we had to do some laundry and boring cleaning so we headed for a campsite that boasted excellent facilities and found exactly what was claimed! So now we are clean, the beds are clean, the van is clean, Tristan has learnt all about energy, we have been for a long walk along the Hennepin canal in the blazing sun at 5.30pm - I got sunburnt on my shoulders and also bitten by mosquitoes! (How can it be so hot at 5.30pm at this latitude?) The canal is quite interesting because it was the first one ever to be made with concrete and had lots of experiments done on it, then all the technology was used to build the Panama canal. Unfortunately the canal is no longer in use, it only has one working lock but it is a haven for wildlife, we saw herons, frogs, beautiful dragonflies that look like they have pinned some butterfly wings to their backs (see photo) and lots of fish. Apparently there are loads of terrapins too but we didn't see any. They call them turtles here, but Celso and Tristan informed me that turtles are only found in the sea and have flippers.. terrapins have claws and live in fresh water --- so now you know too!
Saturday, 12 September 2009
Go West! 11th and 12th Sept
Two days of basically trying to get a bit further west.
We had had the van for 5 days and had hardly gone anywhere. We get distracted by the smallest river, pond, lake or wood! So bit between our teeth; and trying desperately not to look too carefully at the map at what we were missing; we got onto an Interstate and covered 150 miles or so before we started to look for a campsite. We filled up the van with gas (petrol in UK) for the first time and stopped when we got to $80 because we couldn't quite believe it, but it was only 3/4 full! Our campsite near Tiffin in Ohio (our 3rd state) was on a really muddy and slow moving river that smelt of silage, but we soon got used to it and then couldn't smell a thing! The tap water was very sulphurous due to a local hot spring and we had to resort to using our stored water for everything (lucky we'd filled up a bit at the last campsite). There was a great little pond; in which Tris caught a young Rock Bass; with lots of Bull Frogs. Celso managed to grab one after dark and he kindly agreed to allow us to take photos in his ballet pose! It was 9/11 but we only saw one person with a memorial tshirt on, perhaps Ohio didn't feel the effects so much. We wore our blue memorial badges that we got from the Trade Centre site in NY but didn't see any more people wearing them.
A couple of people have commented in emails that we hadn't posted since 1st Sept... but I kept adding to the same post in NY for all 4 days so that post is from 1st to 4th Sept.
12th Sept we again decided to make a bit of ground and at least make it to Indiana (our 4th state), however we got a bit side tracked:- first we had to visit Walmart again to get another blanket as it was sooo cold last night. Secondly, as we returned to the van in the Walmart car park, we were dive bombed by a small green rocket that turned out to be a Praying Mantis.... well, we couldn't leave him to be squashed by a passing car so we rescued him, named him Walmart, and drove off to try to find him a new home. We soon came upon Hancock Park and, after first being foiled in our attempts to go walking due to hunting season having started, found one trail that was open to walkers. This is were Walmart now lives and we hope he has a happy few weeks before it gets too cold or he gets eaten by a mate!
On we trundled until we got to a little hick town called Ottawa that was having what they called a Pioneer Fair (an annual event the first weekend after Labour day), so this was our third side track as we stopped to have a look. Basically it was a huge craft fair but it was all very 'kitch' and then there were cars that people had restored lovingly or completely ruined with new parts! It was a fun hour to walk round and watch the people at their play, and we did see some great old vehicles (veee-hickels!).
We reached a campsite on a beautiful lake just before sundown at a place called Warsaw in Indiana (the first state that has had a 'Welcome' sign that we have seen). We have just eaten wood barbecued, medium rare steak and baked potatoes cooked in the ashes of the fire, with cabbage and gravy... YUM ... and Celso tried some fishing but it was really too late ... so I think he is planning an early start tomorrow!
It is about 4:30am in UK now - Goodnight all!
We had had the van for 5 days and had hardly gone anywhere. We get distracted by the smallest river, pond, lake or wood! So bit between our teeth; and trying desperately not to look too carefully at the map at what we were missing; we got onto an Interstate and covered 150 miles or so before we started to look for a campsite. We filled up the van with gas (petrol in UK) for the first time and stopped when we got to $80 because we couldn't quite believe it, but it was only 3/4 full! Our campsite near Tiffin in Ohio (our 3rd state) was on a really muddy and slow moving river that smelt of silage, but we soon got used to it and then couldn't smell a thing! The tap water was very sulphurous due to a local hot spring and we had to resort to using our stored water for everything (lucky we'd filled up a bit at the last campsite). There was a great little pond; in which Tris caught a young Rock Bass; with lots of Bull Frogs. Celso managed to grab one after dark and he kindly agreed to allow us to take photos in his ballet pose! It was 9/11 but we only saw one person with a memorial tshirt on, perhaps Ohio didn't feel the effects so much. We wore our blue memorial badges that we got from the Trade Centre site in NY but didn't see any more people wearing them.
A couple of people have commented in emails that we hadn't posted since 1st Sept... but I kept adding to the same post in NY for all 4 days so that post is from 1st to 4th Sept.
12th Sept we again decided to make a bit of ground and at least make it to Indiana (our 4th state), however we got a bit side tracked:- first we had to visit Walmart again to get another blanket as it was sooo cold last night. Secondly, as we returned to the van in the Walmart car park, we were dive bombed by a small green rocket that turned out to be a Praying Mantis.... well, we couldn't leave him to be squashed by a passing car so we rescued him, named him Walmart, and drove off to try to find him a new home. We soon came upon Hancock Park and, after first being foiled in our attempts to go walking due to hunting season having started, found one trail that was open to walkers. This is were Walmart now lives and we hope he has a happy few weeks before it gets too cold or he gets eaten by a mate!
On we trundled until we got to a little hick town called Ottawa that was having what they called a Pioneer Fair (an annual event the first weekend after Labour day), so this was our third side track as we stopped to have a look. Basically it was a huge craft fair but it was all very 'kitch' and then there were cars that people had restored lovingly or completely ruined with new parts! It was a fun hour to walk round and watch the people at their play, and we did see some great old vehicles (veee-hickels!).
We reached a campsite on a beautiful lake just before sundown at a place called Warsaw in Indiana (the first state that has had a 'Welcome' sign that we have seen). We have just eaten wood barbecued, medium rare steak and baked potatoes cooked in the ashes of the fire, with cabbage and gravy... YUM ... and Celso tried some fishing but it was really too late ... so I think he is planning an early start tomorrow!
It is about 4:30am in UK now - Goodnight all!
Thursday, 10 September 2009
Leaving NY state and into Pennsylvania
We left Letchworth having checked out a dam that was used to prevent damage down river after each (approximately) 7 year flood. It is only closed at these times and can then back up about 25m of water. Diggers were mad at work removing up to 15m of sediment deposited on the upstream side after the last flood. We had breakfast in a truck stop as a bit of a treat and then made our way southwestwards to Allegheny State Park that we were told was beautiful.
We decided to travel part way along one of the bigger roads to make some good time, it had 2 lanes in each direction which were amazingly far apart and very empty (see photos). Allegheny was full of deciduous trees that were turning red and orange and yellow and all the shades inbetween. We stopped at another State Park Campsite and got a plot next to a lovely bubbling stream; perfect for looking for more crayfish. Tris had bought himself a sling shot so we spent some time trying to hit a beer can. Celso was most annoyed not to have hit it before he went off fishing, yet Tris and I were getting quite good at it. Whilst Celso was fishing Tristan and I had a maths and a science lesson! Celso returned insisting that he caught a Crappie and a Wide Mouthed Bass but I reckon that it's just fisherman's tales as he had the camera but chose not to use it!
As I was watching more corn on the cob in its leaves cooking on our fire two racoons started having an arguement only about 6 foot from me; right at the door to the camper; but they ran off as Tris came to look. Their eyes shone brightly in the lights of our torches (and that is the only picture we managed to get... yet... I'm sure we will be visited by others during our journey).
In the morning Celso set his alarm for 5:30am and got up to go fishing; again he says he caught fish.. 6 this time.. yeah yeah, again no photo evidence!
We drove on through the park and stopped at a lake for a bit of fishing but only managed to catch crayfish. We passed a beaver lodge but didn't manage to see the inhabitants, then we made our way to route 66 and headed south.
We decided to stop in another State Park campsite as they are about 1/3 to 1/2 the price, this time it is Cook State Park in Pennsylvania (the 2nd state we have visited so far). This park has more conifers and has an amazing variety of fungi - see photos, we have been visited by another Raccoon and were hoping to get pictures but again failed.
Tris had another maths lesson (algebra!) and we managed to get some washing done - a bit of a relief! In the morning we looked at the map and saw that we were not far from Punxsutawney and so we just had to go and visit the seer of seers, the wise weatherman groundhog whose predictions are even noted in congress (apparently). Phil himself was just a bundle of snoozing grey fur so we are still not entirely sure what a groundhog looks like, but the town is very fond of him. Apparently he has been alive since the late 1800's, fed a secret elixir (that doesn't work on humans). We took photos of the info signs at Gobbler's knob which are great fun to read if you can.
We then whizzed along highway 80 for about 30 miles and then chose an exit with a camping sign and are holed up in a pleasant spot with a pool, but not much to look at. Tomorrow further westwards!
We decided to travel part way along one of the bigger roads to make some good time, it had 2 lanes in each direction which were amazingly far apart and very empty (see photos). Allegheny was full of deciduous trees that were turning red and orange and yellow and all the shades inbetween. We stopped at another State Park Campsite and got a plot next to a lovely bubbling stream; perfect for looking for more crayfish. Tris had bought himself a sling shot so we spent some time trying to hit a beer can. Celso was most annoyed not to have hit it before he went off fishing, yet Tris and I were getting quite good at it. Whilst Celso was fishing Tristan and I had a maths and a science lesson! Celso returned insisting that he caught a Crappie and a Wide Mouthed Bass but I reckon that it's just fisherman's tales as he had the camera but chose not to use it!
As I was watching more corn on the cob in its leaves cooking on our fire two racoons started having an arguement only about 6 foot from me; right at the door to the camper; but they ran off as Tris came to look. Their eyes shone brightly in the lights of our torches (and that is the only picture we managed to get... yet... I'm sure we will be visited by others during our journey).
In the morning Celso set his alarm for 5:30am and got up to go fishing; again he says he caught fish.. 6 this time.. yeah yeah, again no photo evidence!
We drove on through the park and stopped at a lake for a bit of fishing but only managed to catch crayfish. We passed a beaver lodge but didn't manage to see the inhabitants, then we made our way to route 66 and headed south.
We decided to stop in another State Park campsite as they are about 1/3 to 1/2 the price, this time it is Cook State Park in Pennsylvania (the 2nd state we have visited so far). This park has more conifers and has an amazing variety of fungi - see photos, we have been visited by another Raccoon and were hoping to get pictures but again failed.
Tris had another maths lesson (algebra!) and we managed to get some washing done - a bit of a relief! In the morning we looked at the map and saw that we were not far from Punxsutawney and so we just had to go and visit the seer of seers, the wise weatherman groundhog whose predictions are even noted in congress (apparently). Phil himself was just a bundle of snoozing grey fur so we are still not entirely sure what a groundhog looks like, but the town is very fond of him. Apparently he has been alive since the late 1800's, fed a secret elixir (that doesn't work on humans). We took photos of the info signs at Gobbler's knob which are great fun to read if you can.
We then whizzed along highway 80 for about 30 miles and then chose an exit with a camping sign and are holed up in a pleasant spot with a pool, but not much to look at. Tomorrow further westwards!
Tuesday, 8 September 2009
to the van 5-7th Sept
We said goodbye to Marios and his small but very well appointed flat and made our way via the subway system to Penn Station. We got there much quicker than anticipated ... where is the NY rush hour?.. and had over an hour to wait for our train. The train was fully booked and unfortunately by the time we got on the train their were no foursome seats left. We tried to get an Indian couple to move out of a foursome to a twosome seat but they refused even though the guard was telling them that families had priority for the seats.. they insisted that they were a family too! The journey was long, nearly 8 hours, but it was fascinating to watch the scenery go by. NY state must be as long North South as England (I suppose), since that is about the same time as a train from London up to Scotland, or maybe a bit more. We followed the Hudson River North for over 2 hours; it is very nearly straight and on its West bank has a towering cliff but on the East side (where we were) it was really flat. After Albany there was so much countryside; but not like UKs country side with fields etc; just wild woods and swamps. At Rochester we left the train and got a taxi to a motel, ate and slept.
Saturday morning we went to pick up our camper van. Our booking form said we could pick up at 9am so we got their nice and early, only to be told that they normally gave out pick ups in the afternoon; however, since we were the only customers that day, they put a rush on and within the hour our van was ready. It was a great size, about 5 years old, and had all that we required; the forms were signed all the ts crossed and the is dotted when we saw that there was a 15cm crack in the windscreen. So the guy found another equivalent van for us, but this time it had a plasma screen TV, a DVD, microwave and was only 11/2 years old with 20 hours on the generator and 30k on the clock - also we were given a rebate for our trouble plus a free picnic table and chairs - bargain.
We decided to head south (don't know why) and we stopped at a supermarket to fill up the fridge and then at a 'dollar mart' to buy some nice pillows. Celso did his first driving of a left hand drive and his first drive of anything larger than a car; a bit hairy at times especially when he tried to drive on the left when we were turning onto a new road, but it will be great if he can do some of the driving and I can ponder on the scenery (I did all the driving in Canada because it was ridiculously expensive to put an extra driver on our rental). After exactly 100miles we were in our first campsite and trying to learn how to set up everything. I went and played the pathetic English tourist with our neighbours; it worked perfectly; who came and showed us how to do everything; connect to the electricity and water; empty waste (even though we didn't need to), tune the TV in to watch our 'HOW TO' DVD of the van.
So here we are in Bath, our backpacks are unpacked for the first time and the bags are stored away under the sofa seats. We had a home cooked chicken soup and are feeling quite pleased with ourselves.
It was a bit cold last night; we didn't expect that; but we still slept well and for a very long time. We didn't watch the 'How To' DVD in the end as we chatted to the neighbours who helped us out for a while and then Tristan and Celso went for a night walk to see what they could find in the big pond. Tristan grabbed a huge Bullfrog and made swipes at many other frogs but they slipped (literally) away.
A breakfast of boiled eggs and toast was followed by another chat to our neighbours and a tour around their enormous camper (Third Wheel - one that fits onto the back of a pick up truck). We exchanged email addresses and then we were on our way by 1pm. Tristan chose that we turn left out of the campsite and then right and we ended up on a fantastic road over the hills with amazing views away across wooded valleys. When we finally reached a town we decided that we had to do some shopping to get some more blankets and Celso wanted to get more fishing gear ... so into Walmart (kind of like a large, glorified Woolworths) we went and stocked up on everything!
We found a campsite on the map and headed towards it, on the way we found the entrance to a State Park and stopped to have a look at the info board with amazing pictures of a huge gorge; we vowed to visit tomorrow.
At the campsite we bought some firewood and started a fire. We had bought a big circular grill that fitted above the fire pits (I think they are made out of lorry tyres) and we cooked Corn on the Cob in its leaves on the top to accompany our sausage, mash and cabbage (a little reminder of home!).
We now feel quite proficient at hooking up the camper. The electricity plugs in; the water is connected via a hose; the sewage is emptied followed by the grey water (the water that goes down the sinks) to clean out the hose; the chocks go under the wheels to level out the van; the water heater can be put on; the ipod plugged in; the electric toothbrush and the battery for the camera charged..... all mod cons... not really camping at all!
We were camping down in a valley by a small river in which we skimmed stones and looked for wildlife but didn't see much; but again after dusk the boys went out with torches and were treated to bats flying by; several 2 or 3 inch crayfish; long thin fish and loads of 2cm salamander.
Since we were hooked up to the sewage we had hot showers in the van before bed.
Monday 7th (Labour day.. like a bank holiday) we returned to Letchworth State Park and spent a fabulous 4 hours following the river along the gorge; both up on the cliff and down by the river. We had close encounters with Garter snakes and could see buzzards circling on the air currants way overhead, but oddly enough very little other wildlife. You will have to look at the photos to see what fabulous views we were treated to. Some of the trees are starting to turn red showing that autumn (fall) is close upon us in this part of the world and we even had a little light rain - poor us (I wonder what the UK weather is like!)
Mr Letchworth was a man before his time.. in the late 1800s he bought up over 1400 acres of land along the river because he was sick of seeing all the logging, he replanted and restored the land, and on his death in 1909 he bequethed all the to the State.
We are now in a campsite in the State Park (about half the price of the 2 private ones we have stayed in) and have eaten more fire cooked corn on the cob and played poker until it was too dark to see even by the light of the fire.
Saturday morning we went to pick up our camper van. Our booking form said we could pick up at 9am so we got their nice and early, only to be told that they normally gave out pick ups in the afternoon; however, since we were the only customers that day, they put a rush on and within the hour our van was ready. It was a great size, about 5 years old, and had all that we required; the forms were signed all the ts crossed and the is dotted when we saw that there was a 15cm crack in the windscreen. So the guy found another equivalent van for us, but this time it had a plasma screen TV, a DVD, microwave and was only 11/2 years old with 20 hours on the generator and 30k on the clock - also we were given a rebate for our trouble plus a free picnic table and chairs - bargain.
We decided to head south (don't know why) and we stopped at a supermarket to fill up the fridge and then at a 'dollar mart' to buy some nice pillows. Celso did his first driving of a left hand drive and his first drive of anything larger than a car; a bit hairy at times especially when he tried to drive on the left when we were turning onto a new road, but it will be great if he can do some of the driving and I can ponder on the scenery (I did all the driving in Canada because it was ridiculously expensive to put an extra driver on our rental). After exactly 100miles we were in our first campsite and trying to learn how to set up everything. I went and played the pathetic English tourist with our neighbours; it worked perfectly; who came and showed us how to do everything; connect to the electricity and water; empty waste (even though we didn't need to), tune the TV in to watch our 'HOW TO' DVD of the van.
So here we are in Bath, our backpacks are unpacked for the first time and the bags are stored away under the sofa seats. We had a home cooked chicken soup and are feeling quite pleased with ourselves.
It was a bit cold last night; we didn't expect that; but we still slept well and for a very long time. We didn't watch the 'How To' DVD in the end as we chatted to the neighbours who helped us out for a while and then Tristan and Celso went for a night walk to see what they could find in the big pond. Tristan grabbed a huge Bullfrog and made swipes at many other frogs but they slipped (literally) away.
A breakfast of boiled eggs and toast was followed by another chat to our neighbours and a tour around their enormous camper (Third Wheel - one that fits onto the back of a pick up truck). We exchanged email addresses and then we were on our way by 1pm. Tristan chose that we turn left out of the campsite and then right and we ended up on a fantastic road over the hills with amazing views away across wooded valleys. When we finally reached a town we decided that we had to do some shopping to get some more blankets and Celso wanted to get more fishing gear ... so into Walmart (kind of like a large, glorified Woolworths) we went and stocked up on everything!
We found a campsite on the map and headed towards it, on the way we found the entrance to a State Park and stopped to have a look at the info board with amazing pictures of a huge gorge; we vowed to visit tomorrow.
At the campsite we bought some firewood and started a fire. We had bought a big circular grill that fitted above the fire pits (I think they are made out of lorry tyres) and we cooked Corn on the Cob in its leaves on the top to accompany our sausage, mash and cabbage (a little reminder of home!).
We now feel quite proficient at hooking up the camper. The electricity plugs in; the water is connected via a hose; the sewage is emptied followed by the grey water (the water that goes down the sinks) to clean out the hose; the chocks go under the wheels to level out the van; the water heater can be put on; the ipod plugged in; the electric toothbrush and the battery for the camera charged..... all mod cons... not really camping at all!
We were camping down in a valley by a small river in which we skimmed stones and looked for wildlife but didn't see much; but again after dusk the boys went out with torches and were treated to bats flying by; several 2 or 3 inch crayfish; long thin fish and loads of 2cm salamander.
Since we were hooked up to the sewage we had hot showers in the van before bed.
Monday 7th (Labour day.. like a bank holiday) we returned to Letchworth State Park and spent a fabulous 4 hours following the river along the gorge; both up on the cliff and down by the river. We had close encounters with Garter snakes and could see buzzards circling on the air currants way overhead, but oddly enough very little other wildlife. You will have to look at the photos to see what fabulous views we were treated to. Some of the trees are starting to turn red showing that autumn (fall) is close upon us in this part of the world and we even had a little light rain - poor us (I wonder what the UK weather is like!)
Mr Letchworth was a man before his time.. in the late 1800s he bought up over 1400 acres of land along the river because he was sick of seeing all the logging, he replanted and restored the land, and on his death in 1909 he bequethed all the to the State.
We are now in a campsite in the State Park (about half the price of the 2 private ones we have stayed in) and have eaten more fire cooked corn on the cob and played poker until it was too dark to see even by the light of the fire.
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
NY, NY
Awful start to our trip .... no wake up call at 6.30am, but luckily I was awake, problems with the automatic ticketing machine, the failure of our ticket agent to give us the correct forms so once we reached immigration; you went through US immigration whilst still in Toronto airport; we had to turn round and go back out again to get the right paperwork and my carelessness at leaving a camping gadget (pen knifey type thingummy jig) in our hand luggage that didn't make it through security... but then we got onto our little jet plane; only 3 seats wide and 15 rows long; like a private jet plane and relaxed.
The trip downtown was easy from Marios' instructions but we were unable to contact him due to his new US cell phone playing up, so we ended up leaving our bags with a dress hire company that looked after bags on the side and went for a wander up 6th Avenue and into Central Park. We had a great afternoon looking around, watching a softball game, from the bleachers, between 2 very serious middle aged teams with lots of whooping and calling from the other spectators, and much hand slapping and punching the air from the players.
We finally met up with Marios at about 6.30pm and we went to his flat to dump our bags. He was meant to be moving in to his flat on 1st Sept but there are delays (for one, the toilet is not connected and two the workmen will be in early in the morning to finish fitting the kitchen), so we couldn't stay there so after a Mexican dinner we went to Marios' hotel and snuck in. He has a little apartment really with kitchenette, sitting, bed and bathrooms. Tris, Celso and I slept in the double bed and Marios took the pull out couch in the bed... so pretty comfy really and for free!
For those of you who don't know Marios and I worked together at Courtmoor School until July and he is now out here to work in a school run by the United Nations. Any kids from the families of people working in the UN are guaranteed a place there, but on what basis Marios does not know.
Now I'm knackered because we spent another whole day sightseeing, starting at the Empire State Building from about 8.30am. (Marios had to go to work at 7, so we got up and out of his hotel room before the cleaners came round). So you will just have to look at the photos for now and I will fill in the gaps later. Rather a lot of photos (especially from the top of the Empire State Building... I need to put on them what can be seen..... later) which I need to sort through a bit.
What a great but exhausting day though, culminating in a beer out on 3rd Avenue.
Tuesday ... today we visited the Statue of Liberty (actually her real name is Liberty and Enlightenment) and Ellis Island (the immigration centre from 1892 to 195?). We took a ferry from Battery Park and again took far too many photos which I will have to sort out later when I have more time. We learnt some amazing things about the statue but I won't tell you about them all because you can go and look them up if you are 'that' interested... so here are the ones that we found the most fascinating.
1. The statue is hollow and its walls are only as thick as 2 pennies.
2. As you know it is a symbol of freedom and equality for all... yet no women were allowed to attend the opening ceremony so the suffragettes swarmed around the island in boats and tried to splash all the visitors.
3. Liberty's finger nails are as long as your forearm.
Then we went on to Ellis Island in another ferry, again masses of facts but I'll just tell you our favourites.
1. The island was considered too small so it was made larger and since that time (nearly 100 years) New Jersey and New York have been fighting over who it belongs to. Recently the Supreme Court made a judgement that the building and the original land of the island belong to New York but that the man-made bit of the island belongs to New Jersey. Now New York have put in an appeal because the man-made bit was made with soil excavated from the NY subway system, they are saying they want their soil back!
2. The largest number of people that were processed in one day was over 100,000.
3. As immigrants arrived they were made to walk up some stairs, doctors watched them as they climbed to spot anyone who was lame or suffered from respiratory diseases!
4. Anyone who appeared confused (who wouldn't be after 2 weeks in steerage class, foreign languages and customs etc) was marked with an X and had to go for IQ testing which consisted of doing a puzzle.
5. Woman were not allowed to immigrate unaccompanied, they either had to come with a male family member, be met by a male family member, or be a photo bride; they had their passage paid for by a man with whom they had exchanged a photo and he paid the fare and she agreed to marry him on arrival; the weddings took place in the chapel on Ellis Island!
On our return to Battery Park we were lucky to see a 7 man busking troop (1 drummer and 6 dancers) doing break dancing and rapping in the park; they were in Spandex Union Jack costume and were fab and funny.
Then we wandered along to the World Trade Centre Site and spent time in the Visitor Centre were there were all the tributes and lots of recordings of peoples memories of the day... a really gut wrenching and emotional experience. 2981.
As we walked back to Marios' new flat (which was now ready for us to stay in) we passed his local fire station and even there they had plaques for 7 of their team that had died. The photo of the fire engine shows their names on the front of the engine and a pair of boots with trousers round its ankles ready for a quick put on.
We spent the evening putting together some of Marios' new furniture and eating a packet meal of Chicken Teryaki with rice left over from out trip to Algonquin.. very nice!
Wednesday.. we had a bit of a lie in and then finished making Marios' sofa bed. We couldn't do it last night because it needed hammering and we didn't want to alienate Marios' new neighbours. Then we headed up to the posh bit of town; 5th and Madison Avenues; to see how the other half live. We started at the Rockefeller Centre and passed all sorts of posh shops Gucci, Tiffany's etc, all with intricate carvings or paintings around the entrances. We also went to sit in a beautiful church ... will have to write about it later though because again I'm too tired and I have to pack ready for our train ride up to Rochester tomorrow.
The trip downtown was easy from Marios' instructions but we were unable to contact him due to his new US cell phone playing up, so we ended up leaving our bags with a dress hire company that looked after bags on the side and went for a wander up 6th Avenue and into Central Park. We had a great afternoon looking around, watching a softball game, from the bleachers, between 2 very serious middle aged teams with lots of whooping and calling from the other spectators, and much hand slapping and punching the air from the players.
We finally met up with Marios at about 6.30pm and we went to his flat to dump our bags. He was meant to be moving in to his flat on 1st Sept but there are delays (for one, the toilet is not connected and two the workmen will be in early in the morning to finish fitting the kitchen), so we couldn't stay there so after a Mexican dinner we went to Marios' hotel and snuck in. He has a little apartment really with kitchenette, sitting, bed and bathrooms. Tris, Celso and I slept in the double bed and Marios took the pull out couch in the bed... so pretty comfy really and for free!
For those of you who don't know Marios and I worked together at Courtmoor School until July and he is now out here to work in a school run by the United Nations. Any kids from the families of people working in the UN are guaranteed a place there, but on what basis Marios does not know.
Now I'm knackered because we spent another whole day sightseeing, starting at the Empire State Building from about 8.30am. (Marios had to go to work at 7, so we got up and out of his hotel room before the cleaners came round). So you will just have to look at the photos for now and I will fill in the gaps later. Rather a lot of photos (especially from the top of the Empire State Building... I need to put on them what can be seen..... later) which I need to sort through a bit.
What a great but exhausting day though, culminating in a beer out on 3rd Avenue.
Tuesday ... today we visited the Statue of Liberty (actually her real name is Liberty and Enlightenment) and Ellis Island (the immigration centre from 1892 to 195?). We took a ferry from Battery Park and again took far too many photos which I will have to sort out later when I have more time. We learnt some amazing things about the statue but I won't tell you about them all because you can go and look them up if you are 'that' interested... so here are the ones that we found the most fascinating.
1. The statue is hollow and its walls are only as thick as 2 pennies.
2. As you know it is a symbol of freedom and equality for all... yet no women were allowed to attend the opening ceremony so the suffragettes swarmed around the island in boats and tried to splash all the visitors.
3. Liberty's finger nails are as long as your forearm.
Then we went on to Ellis Island in another ferry, again masses of facts but I'll just tell you our favourites.
1. The island was considered too small so it was made larger and since that time (nearly 100 years) New Jersey and New York have been fighting over who it belongs to. Recently the Supreme Court made a judgement that the building and the original land of the island belong to New York but that the man-made bit of the island belongs to New Jersey. Now New York have put in an appeal because the man-made bit was made with soil excavated from the NY subway system, they are saying they want their soil back!
2. The largest number of people that were processed in one day was over 100,000.
3. As immigrants arrived they were made to walk up some stairs, doctors watched them as they climbed to spot anyone who was lame or suffered from respiratory diseases!
4. Anyone who appeared confused (who wouldn't be after 2 weeks in steerage class, foreign languages and customs etc) was marked with an X and had to go for IQ testing which consisted of doing a puzzle.
5. Woman were not allowed to immigrate unaccompanied, they either had to come with a male family member, be met by a male family member, or be a photo bride; they had their passage paid for by a man with whom they had exchanged a photo and he paid the fare and she agreed to marry him on arrival; the weddings took place in the chapel on Ellis Island!
On our return to Battery Park we were lucky to see a 7 man busking troop (1 drummer and 6 dancers) doing break dancing and rapping in the park; they were in Spandex Union Jack costume and were fab and funny.
Then we wandered along to the World Trade Centre Site and spent time in the Visitor Centre were there were all the tributes and lots of recordings of peoples memories of the day... a really gut wrenching and emotional experience. 2981.
As we walked back to Marios' new flat (which was now ready for us to stay in) we passed his local fire station and even there they had plaques for 7 of their team that had died. The photo of the fire engine shows their names on the front of the engine and a pair of boots with trousers round its ankles ready for a quick put on.
We spent the evening putting together some of Marios' new furniture and eating a packet meal of Chicken Teryaki with rice left over from out trip to Algonquin.. very nice!
Wednesday.. we had a bit of a lie in and then finished making Marios' sofa bed. We couldn't do it last night because it needed hammering and we didn't want to alienate Marios' new neighbours. Then we headed up to the posh bit of town; 5th and Madison Avenues; to see how the other half live. We started at the Rockefeller Centre and passed all sorts of posh shops Gucci, Tiffany's etc, all with intricate carvings or paintings around the entrances. We also went to sit in a beautiful church ... will have to write about it later though because again I'm too tired and I have to pack ready for our train ride up to Rochester tomorrow.
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