Category Archives: family

engineering, family, roadtrip, travel, USA, vehicles

Hoover Dam (again) & Route 66

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A slow start to the day had us out at Hoover Dam in the late morning. Since I was there last, the bypass highway has been completed (all the through traffic no longer has to drive down the winding road to & over the dam – quite a bottleneck). I enjoyed walking out on the large arch bridge that was still being constructed two years ago – I saw it just before they completed the arch. We did the same tour as I did last time – so nothing new to report there. Lake Mead didn’t seem much higher to me, but hopefully all the snowmelt boosts it a bit. Another warm, beautiful day – I still enjoyed seeing one of the engineering marvels of the world.

Crossing the new bridge into Arizona, we drove through the desert for quite a while before finding a late lunch. It was dry, barren, hot & windy country – not a lot to look at, but still with its own beauty. I just wouldn’t want to have to live there. At Kingman we both got on I-40 & then promptly off it to drive part of Route 66 (eighty-odd miles). We got back in the land of the massive train, with our favourite train company, BNSF, hurtling alongside us many times. Strangest sights of the day were the huge trains carrying only semi-trailers; a good way of keeping trucks off the roads I suppose. This was somewhat explained by soon passing many DHL jets on the tarmac at the local airport – although a small town in the middle of nowhere, Kingman is obviously some sort of freight hub.

This particular section of Route 66, I thought, was a bit of a disappointment. Sure, there were many derelict gas stations, stores & hotels – but it all looked a little sad. The environment did not get much more welcoming. Just before we got back on I-40, we did stop at a little town that was trying just a little bit to get into the Americana of America’s Main St. Incongruously, there was an old right-hand drive Beardmore London black cab sitting slowly going to seed amongst all the American west stuff. Back on the freeway, we climbed up to 2100m in to some beautiful forest before arriving at our motel on Route 66 in Flagstaff – I do hope the historic Route 66 is done much better here.

These two pictures are especially for Grandad

bikes, family, GPS, MTB, roadtrip, travel, USA

Tastes – first Fruita ride & many fruit wines

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There weren’t quite enough clouds to dissuade me from dragging us fifteen miles down the freeway to Fruita to check out the Kokopelli trails this morning.  However, there were enough to get us significantly wet after an hour.  The plan was for me to take Valerie around the beginner Rustler Loop & then go off & attack some of the more well-known trails.  The loop started off with a nice long (for a beginner trail) climb & then proceeded to go around the outside the top of a small mesa above the Colorado.  Near the trailhead was a bit of private land – these people have their house in the side of a big rock!

The trail was mostly nice, but there were some interesting switchback & short sharp rises that induced a bit of walking on Valerie’s part. There some quite tricky little features in the rocks that had me thinking too, but at least I managed to clear the whole trail – that would have been a dent to my confidence, not making it around a beginners’ trail. Posted around the trail were lots of little signs with riding tips – I stopped to read these while waiting, I also looked at the river a lot & pondered just how close & dark the clouds were getting. Half way around it started drizzling & slowly the rain set in – we made it back to the car quite wet. I deliberated for sometime & then decided to come back another day soon when it wasn’t so wet & the trails wouldn’t be that awful red mud.

I’m not sure Valerie appreciates that she is mountain-biking in Fruita, Colorado & the significance of that!

The original idea with the Palisade wineries was to bike between them in the sun one afternoon, lack of sunshine meant we went for the driving option. The area, as well as having many vineyards, is also a very strong fruit growing area. Consequently, many of the wines we tasted were fruit flavoured – they were great. Being mid-week before the summer break it was pretty quiet & we spent a good few hours chatting aimlessly with friendly Coloradans over many small glasses of wine & mead. It was the most time we’ve tracked out the “she’s my aunt from Australia, I’m from New Zealand & have just finished living in Canada near Banff for a year & we’re doing a three-month roadtrip” story in a row. It was a delightful afternoon – somehow Valerie couldn’t resist six bottles of wine, I’m not too sure how they are going to survive the back of the car with two bikes (“,the greyhounds…”). I resisted the wine, but not getting Kristy another fridge magnet – wine-touring in France is starting to sound like a good idea.

I may have mentioned before that quite a few of the towns we’ve been through have many statues & sculptures lining their main streets – Grand Junction has plenty. The much smaller Palisade has this beauty, from a distance it just looked like a lot of fire plugs (incidentally many of the plugs around GJ are not red but blue & yellow or green & yellow) on a stand.

Appropriately named Rusty was made entirely of bolts

family, friends, history, roadtrip, travel, USA

Family Stories

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Another unseasonably rainy day here in Montana, a good opportunity to do some laundry & get a haircut while the car is being checked out – got to love those Check Engine lights. Apparently a Check “Check Engine Light” Light would have been redundant, as for some reason the engine is misfiring a little. No big deal, at least I hope so, & I suppose if the car had to be in the shop for a day it’s good that it happened here in Billings where we can get chores done.

I was surprised to see a oil refinery in the middle of fields beside I-90 last night, apparently Montana is one of the bigger oil producing states in the country. Also, we saw three big fuselages (I assume of 737s en route to/from Seattle) on railcars last night as we pulled in to town. That’s something I’ve never seen before.

So with the gloomy weather & uncertainty while waiting for the car verdict, I was pleased to see a very sweet post from Megan this morning. She even managed to get a nice picture of Finn & me the morning we left.

I think I’d be hassled if I didn’t also mention the amusing photo of me & her early one morning twenty-five odd years ago. But if you want to see that you’ll have to go to Megan’s page & read the entry – she takes better photos than me & writes a whole lot less wordily.

Update – after occupying ourselves in Billings all day, we got the car back.  It was just a timing issue – so with new plugs & leads the engine is firing as it should.  Also took the opportunity to patch a small hole in the exhaust & replace a CV boot – car is now much quieter.  Nice to get all this out of the way on another very rainy day.  JR’s was a great workshop, a self-proclaimed Subaru guru (that rhymes nicely) & JR did everything possible to get us back on the road that day & gave us tips as to where to stay next along the I-90.

The persistent rain continued as we travelled south-east towards Wyoming.  Pleasingly, the battle site of Little Bighorn (somewhere I never thought I’d ever go) was a short hop from the interstate.  We managed to get there just before the Visitor Center closed & had a look around before braving the wind & rain to look over the area of Custer’s Last Stand.  I think that battle sites are best viewed when the weather is so bleak – it doesn’t come close to the horrors that must have happened there, but it does turn it in to something less than a walk in the park.

I was surprised to learn that the battle was in June 1876, for some reason I expected it to be earlier than that.  The Lakota & Cheyenne managed to comprehensively win this famous battle, but lost the war.  As we continued towards our overnight stop of Sheridan, the miles & miles of beautiful rolling countryside continued – we began to understand why the local tribes fought so hard to keep their nomadic way of life, it really is a spectacular area – even if it was raining a lot.

Already, this short distance in to Wyoming everything is much more western – the main street looks fantastic, we shall have to explore it in the morning before heading to South Dakota.

family, national park, roadtrip, snow, travel, USA

Yellowstone & Inescapable Winter

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Our last two days have been spent in Yellowstone National Park.  The drive up the Yellowstone River valley from the interstate to the park was quite interesting with plenty of snowy mountains to look at on the edge of a wide valley floor with still more irrigation.  As the valley narrowed closer to the park there were some interesting, sheer rock faces.  We got our annual park pass, which is a steal at $80 when one considers how many parks we are going to visit in the next three months.

With the weather forecasters warning of a lot of snow to fall (about a foot), we were pleased with just a little light drizzle in Mammoth Hot Springs (near the northern entrance).  There was a little geothermal activity here, so we pottered around the boardwalks for an hour.  Having spent so much time in Rotorua (NZ), I wasn’t overly impressed by most of it – but there were some pretty cool little features.

At least the slight whiffs of hydrogen sulphide reminded me of home.  This was the best of the area.

After noon we took the drive east towards the northeast entrance, as that was supposed to be the best route to take for spotting wildlife.  Bison (buffalo – same thing, with bison being the more scientific name apparently) were exceedingly easy to find.  With their big shaggy coats & rather small horns, Valerie seems to have decided that they look cuddly.  I’m not so sure about that – they can run pretty fast, jump higher than you’d expect & have been known to gore humans that aggravate them.

Still, we saw a lot of them.  Elk weren’t quite as plentiful, but having lived in Canmore I wasn’t so fussed (same goes for the bighorn sheep).  Best sighting of the afternoon was three wolves around a carcass – we watched for quite some time as two of them fought the other, the howls were impressive & intriguing to hear close up.  After crossing the river, they proceeded to walk along the other side of the road – so we continued to get a good look at them.  We saw a few grizzlies as we got further up the valley.  The first pair we got a good look at from about a hundred metres away as they meandered their way to the valley floor eating as they went.  We never quite made it to the NE gate, because as we climbed it got snowier & snowier & there was less chance of spotting any animals.

We took a different route to the park today, this time driving up the Gallatin River valley to West Yellowstone.  This valley was a lot closer in than yesterday’s, with more traffic coming from somewhere.  It was a beautiful drive, despite (or perhaps, because of) the cloud & drizzle.  Entering the park, we headed straight for Old Faithful.  About halfway there, the rain started to turn to snain (snow-rain) & then it was puking snow on us – big, wet heavy flakes.  This continued as we went in to the comprehensive & grand new Visitor Center & then quickly went back outside to the wet as Old Faithful was due to go off again in ten minutes.  We waited patiently, getting snowed on more & more, & finally the geyser blew.

Perhaps it was the general gloom of the day, but it didn’t seem overly impressive – I’d back Pohutu in Rotorua in a fight.  Still, it was neat to see it & it’s quite incredible that it is such a regular occurrence.  I would have like to stayed up that way a bit longer to wander around some of other activity, but the snow & icy walkways were prohibitive.  We did manage to lunch opposite another small, but still interesting, geyser a little way from the masses.  Dropping altitude, we left the snow behind & went & walked around the Norris Geyser Basin.  Although we had to climb over a lot of snow where the boardwalks were too far from the warm ground, it was nice to stretch the legs.  Some of the pools were brilliant colours & this little detour was well worthwhile.

Heading east & then south we made for Yellowstone Lake.  As we climbed & went through various meadows beside the river, it was astonishing how much snow there still was.  I though it was pretty bad around the Canadian Rockies, but this was something else.  It’ll be well in to the summer before this all melts.   The highlight of this little bit was seeing two otters playing in the river & then in the snow on the bank – they were frolicking around & having a great time.  The lake is much bigger than I expected – one big white blanket.

Returning towards Canyon Village, we snuck a quick look at the Lower Falls – these & the soft looking rock on the side of the canyon (running out of adjectives now – how can I keep this up for three months?) were also impressive (what a cop out).

Some of the canyon wall crumbled while we watched & fell in to the river (which I suppose is better than having your castle walls burning down & falling in to a swamp).

Distance travelled: 1100 km (two days – 419 + 681)
Best road sign (caution):  ROUGH SPOT AHEAD (now road signs give life prophecies?)