America, Sweet America

El Rancho At Last!

2006-06-09T03:53:00Z

We survived the lightning and made it to Gallup New Mexico! Now we needed a place to stay fast! The first place we saw happened to be the El Rancho Hotel featuring the "Charm of the Past and Convenience of Tomorrow". The sign alone sold us. And it turns out El Rancho is the coolest place we've stayed yet on our trip. I guess the deal is that the man who built it in like the 1930s managed to convince a ton of Hollywood actors to come shoot their westerns in Gallup and stay at his hotel. Each of the rooms has a celebrity name on the door and the whole lobby is full of 8x10 glossys of the stars of yesteryear. We stayed in Alan Ladd's room. Who the heck is Alan Ladd?

Small moves, Ellie, small moves

2006-06-08T22:30:00Z

the exit on the freeway said "VERY LARGE ARRAY" in caps. It was almost like a warning; something we should watch out for. Don't want to crash into any very large arrays now.. Actually the Very Large Array (VLA) is the worlds largest radio telescope, and it is used to make pictures of far away galaxies and other space things. The really cool part is that it is open to the public. The VLA is out in the middle of nowhere, in a totally isolated valley. The Array is 27 gigantic satellite dishes, each measuring 82 feet across. Parts of the movie Contact were shot there. When we arrived shortly before sunset, the place was completely empty. hardly any cars around, and the visitors center was closed. We wandered around for a while looking at the strange science equipment and taking pictures. Eventually someone in a truck pulled up and we asked him if we could see the visitors center. He told us that he had just locked up, but if we wanted he would unlock it for us. He did this, but then he just said "Make sure you lock the door when you leave" and took off. Alright! set loose in a government funded, space research complex, we learned about all sorts of neat things, like how they keep the receivers in the antennas at 15 degrees kelvin (-258 degrees F) to slow down the electrons and reduce noise. When we had gotten our fill of Science, we locked the door behind us and left as some menacing thunderclouds started to form.

nuclear war!

2006-06-08T20:27:00Z

on our way to the VLA we passed by the trinity site, first of the world's first atomic explosion. we stopped for pix. this was shortly after we passed by the world famous texas embassy.

the truth is here

2006-06-08T17:42:00Z

roswell was not quite the crass hub of alien merchandise that we thought it might be. though the lampposts that lined the main street did have alien eyes on them, the mcdonalds was shaped like a UFO and there were several alien-themed gift shops downtown. we stopped into the UFO museum and took the tour. plenty of old photographs and news paper clippings accompanied by alien artwork and x-files posters, not exactly a credible museum but interesting none the less. had we been about 14 i think we would have been in paradise. we again neglected to purchase souvenirs. not even one alien pencil topper or XXL t-shirt. being as we were UFO country it occurred to us that that huge array of radio telescopes that resides in new mexico might be nearby. nearby it was not, but close enough and on our way enough it was. so we got back on highway 70 and headed towards socorro new mexico to find the very large array of radio telescopes made famous by the movie contact.

off road in new mexico

2006-06-08T15:59:00Z

a little ways into new mexico and the stores and gas stations dried up pretty fast. after about 30 miles and a few mad libs I found myself in need of a restroom that was not there. so we pulled off on a dirt road in search of a restroom. after answering natures call skot GPSed our location and i google mapped it on my phone and we found out exactly which dirt road we were on and how we could stay on it a little ways longer and then meet back up with highway 70 to roswell. down the road a ways we saw a couple jack rabbits, abandoned oil derricks and hanging on a barbed wire fence, a couple of coyotes.

all hail west texas!

2006-06-08T13:31:00Z

from cadillac ranch we decided to head towards roswell new mexico to check out the famed UFO crash site. to get to roswell we have to head to south eastern new mexico so we decided to go a bit further south and then through west texas to maximize our time in the lone star state. we took smaller roads through texas and passed through hereford which is apparently the beef capitol of the world. not only is it the beef capitol of the world it has also got to be the worst smelling town thus far on our trip. on to roswell!

cadillac ranching!

2006-06-08T13:11:00Z

cadillac ranch is pretty incredible. skot had heard that is used to be located somewhere else nearby, but that urban sprawl was closing in on it and it had to be moved. regardless we found it, we parked and we checked it out. it sure seems like the hip thing to do is tag your name on it or some message about god or whatnot. it has been spray painted over a million times and the layers of paint are flaking off. skot and i thought it might be cool to come in the night and give it all a completely new paint job, each car in two-tone color. I think originally all the cadillacs were pink. at the rear of the sculpture is a small makeshift hole that someone had dug and in it were the remains of many of the spray cans used to color the sculpture over the years. we neglected to photograph the gigantic [myspace] tags on several of the cars.

la kiva es mas fina!

2006-06-08T05:01:00Z

from oklahoma city we headed west to amarillo, home to cadillac ranch. we arrived in town at about 12:30 far too late to see any of the action amarillo has to offer. we cruised through the empty downtown and then checked prices at a few hotels and settled on the glorious la kiva hotel. it had obviously been a glory hotel from the 70s or 80s that had been unused for sometime and recently reopened as la kiva.

the lobby and central area was so large it was unreasonable to believe that all the rooms could ever be rented, considering the abundance of chain motels in the surrounding area. after we checked in skot and I went out in search of some food and a couple beers. we stopped in the local toot 'n totum where the older woman behind the counter informed us that in texas they stop selling alcohol at midnight. she went onto explain how she used to work at the holiday inn and that we shouldn't have chosen to stay at la kiva because they have bugs. wonderful. she went on to inform skot that soon she was going to be manager of her very own toot 'n totum! we went back to the hotel room to check for bugs and drink a scotch to ease our newly acquired fear of bugs.

in the morning we went into the vast lobby of la kiva for a hot breakfast of eggs, toast and hash browns. as we checked out we paused to admire the grandiose murals that adorn the walls of la kiva lobby. there we learned just how the west was won; with mustaches.

oklahoma city memorial

2006-06-08T00:01:00Z

well we've been just flying though the bible belt for a bit, few stops means fewer posts. but we want to get to amarillo tonight so we can check out cadillac ranch and then head north to four corners and onto zion, the grand canyon and finally the hoover damn and saturday night in vegas. but to do that we've taken to the freeway for today.
the one place along the way I did want to stop was at the oklahoma bombing memorial in oklahoma city. we pulled into okc tried to find out way to the city center where we assumed the memorial would be. we found ourselves on 23rd street which was obviously not the nice part of town. plenty of run down store fronts, jesus billboards and liquor stores. we found out way to the city center and walked around the memorial, which consists of two huge doorways on opposite sides of a reflecting pool. opposite the reflecting pool are 168 bronze chairs representing all those who lost their lives in the bombing. on our way out of town we passed by more run down buildings and bad parts of town and we left wondering if the memorial and accompanying museum might actually be bringing people and money into oklahoma city.

rollaback girl

2006-06-07T15:42:00Z

this one goes out to pete h. -->ghostridin' in rolla

i'm sure jesus would have wanted it this way.

Back across the MIssissippi

2006-06-07T13:00:00Z

Tollef was just asking me how big the St. Louis Arch was (i had no idea) when we saw it appear on the horizon. It's very big and very archy. Lit up very nicely at night, the arch is one of those sculptures that everyone is sure to be impressed by. It's really really big and really shiny. We drove around Downtown St. Louis looking for some street parking so we could avoid the $5 official Arch parking lot.

Once we had satisfied our arch desires, we set off in search of our gracious host for the night, Danielle. We made it over to Danielle's house and hung out with her and her friend Sarah for a while before passing out on the worlds most comfortable fold out bed. When the alarm went off at 8am this morning I summoned all of my will power to resist the snooze button. Once up, we cruised We cruised with Danielle and Sarah to the incredibly cheap and awesomely named Buttery Restaurant.

After the 4 of us ate for $12 we said goodbye to our hosts and got back on the road.. Oklahoma here we come!

Land o' Lincoln

2006-06-07T00:15:00Z

The are quite a few Springfields across the US, but it just happens that the one in Illinois is the proud home of Abe Lincoln. And nobody knows that more than Springfield. They have signs leading you to a number of lincoln related tourist attractions, and not by coincidence that route happens to lead you past every single gift shop, tourist trap and overpriced diner the city has to offer. Down Historic Route 66, past a bunch of old gas stations with old road signs, we made it to Lincoln's home. It was in a park that occupied a few blocks of the city. Everything had apparently been left just like it was.. boardwalk sidewalks, hitching posts and a bunch of old houses. we wandered around for a while seeing the houses of Lincoln's neighbors, friends and enemies. Finally we found Honest Abe's house. it was closed.

Next up was the tomb of Abe in the town cemetery. The gates were closed and the cemetery was closed up for the night, but just like our hero Abe, we persevered in the face of opposition and hopped the fence. Past the rather large gravestones of Illinois mayors, senators and other important people, we found the massive tomb of Abe. It was really pretty awesome. lots of glorious statuary depicting civil war things. We snapped a couple of underexposed pictures and said goodbye to our country's most awesome president.

On the way back to the car there were a number of fireflies, which for us California kids is a new experience. Back on the road we were treated to an amazing lightning storm on the horizon. Saint Louis; 94 miles.

Leaving Chicago

2006-06-06T20:30:00Z

Chicago is fading behind us as we roll out of town on Interstate 55. Unfortunately the pounding in my head and the uneasy stomach isn't fading quite as fast. Last night, our last in Chicago, Me, Tollef and Emmett met up with Ryan and Alif for some serious debauchery. The night started innocently enough at Jerry's Brickhouse, a cool restaurant in South Port. Things made a turn however when the Long Island Iced teas arrived at the table and they were extra-mega-supersized. After two rounds at the dinner table, we headed down the street to a bar with a photo booth called Shubas. Photobooth madness ensued and we eased ourselves into certain inebriation.

Next up was a bar called Lincoln's Tap Room. There were only a couple people in the bar, and for some reason the bartenders kept pouring us free drinks. I think we played a partial game of pool, emmett got locked in a supply closet, and as the bar closed and they kicked us out, we formed a dogpile on the sidewalk in front.

Things got a bit blurry for me about then, but I know we walked back to Ryans apartment where most of us promptly fell asleep. The morning came about 6 hours too early, and it wasn't a pretty sight. Tollef reminded me that we were parked in a tow away zone across town, we had lost the iPod adapter we just bought, Emmett had to be at work in a few minutes and he had lost his jacket. Saying goodbye to Ryan and stumbled out into the menacing new day, looking for a cab. After wandering around for a while Alif found her bike and rode home. Me Tollef and Emmett finally found a cab, and we dropped him off at work while Tollef and I went back to Emmetts apartment for a few more hours of sleep. Some sort of towing god must have been looking over us, because our glorious new Sebring rental car had not been towed after all. After some sleep we felt a little better and packed up and headed out on the long journey home.

status update

2006-06-05T22:35:00Z

now that we are in chicago there is quite a bit less time for us to post our adventures. since we have been here there has been on nonstop crazy action so time has been hard to come by. as for an update all we have is this.

morning in chicago!

2006-06-05T15:24:00Z

alright, we've been here a couple of nights it's time for an update. As soon as we arrived Emmett greeted us with a glorious package that had been mailed here to meet us by the wonderful lindsay eyink. the package was overflowing with glorious road bounty! bursting with glory! It had everything we need to refuel and chicago and to keep our spirits high on the trek back to california! a best of the band chicago cd! swedish fish! madlibs! canadian trivia! sunflower seeds! pictorial guidebook! window markers! and best of all tiny bottles of glenfiddich scotch! only the finest single malts for the road! thank you so much! and for all those of you out there dying to send us glory care packages you are more than welcome to send them c/o the post office in cities we will soon be passing into! we will be more than happy to take the detour to the post office to pick them up.

here skot can be seen enjoying some tasty swedish snacks!

glorious arrival

2006-06-04T01:31:00Z

rolled into chicago about 9:30, mr.jez greeted us on the street and we brought all our gear up to his monumental apartment. glory attained.

getting hot

2006-06-04T01:05:00Z

maybe alex shouldn't have had that spicy V8.

toll road folly

2006-06-03T22:48:00Z

safely across the mississippi we were now in the land of lincoln and quickly approaching a toll road! without the proper change! we took the nearest exit to find bathrooms and change! our plot was foiled as there was even a toll required to exit the freeway! we looked oh no west coast as we fumbled around in the PT digging in the seats for change and tossing pennies at the toll basket. we had about 47� and needed 60�. our saviour came in my desperate attempt to find change that had been left by inadvertently discarded by previous toll goers. Outside the car on the road was a lone quarter! batter and bruised from being runover countless times this quarter saved us a nasty fine or lengthy call to the illinois department of transportation. we overpaid the toll and headed for the nearest gas station.

this post graciously sponsored by select brand baby powder. for those longer drives (with a hot powerbook on your lap).

crossing the mississippi

2006-06-03T21:45:00Z

the mississippi river was fast approaching and we were ready for her! eagerly anticipating crossing the great liquid divide into the first blue state yet on our trip! poised for a glorious entrance into the great state of illinois, home to abraham lincoln, ronald reagan and elwood blues; we entered the town of clinton iowa and headed for the bridge across the mississippi! But as we entered the town the horror was quickly revealed!

with the only bridge through town closed, we had but a few options:

ice cream and worms

2006-06-03T18:54:00Z

Not too much further down highway 30 we came across the small town of Tama, Iowa where we stopped in a 2nd hand store with a large compelling sign. didn't find to much inside other than a bunch of religious collectors plates and a self-inking sequentially numbering stamp that alex couldn't resist purchasing for one dollar. the proprietors of the 2nd hand shop gave skot a hot tip on another junk store just down the road. we headed off in search of more bargains but we're side-tracked by another sign:

in the center of Tama we stopped in for some ice cream at the local ice ream depot where alex indulged his true american side and ordered a large "razzle"� that would be ice cream mixed with peanut butter cups for all you none iowans. but it didn't stop there.. alex's swelling patriotism got the best of him as he also ordered and consumed an entire foot long hotdog. what? you guy's don't have four footers? pfft!

lawn etiquette

2006-06-03T17:55:00Z

Iowa is lawn mowing country. we have never seen so many freshly mowed lawns, they must have an amazing mowing ethic here. we decided to take what we thought was highway 30 east from ames all the way to the mississippi so that we can cross in a more remote area, hopefully it will be more exciting than some corporate bridge in davenport. only one problem with the road we thought was high way 30:

with a bit of crafty driving and some off-roading we were able to cut over to the real highway 30, back on track to chicago with an ETA of about 9pm.

drew m

2006-06-03T05:50:00Z

everyday on the road we estimate how far we will drive that day. this has proved to be an incredibly hard thing to do. factoring all the detours, random points of interest along the way. there are pit stops, truck stops and piss stops. old signs, humorous signs, confusing signs about robots. old towns, down towns and ghost towns. back roads, back country and back yards.

once we guesstimate where we will end up, we jump onto couchsurfing.com and look for potential places to stay in the area of our designation. we usually find people willing to host us, but we also don't end up rolling into town till after midnight or we don't even make it to our destination.

yesterday we shot for ames iowa, which is just 25 miles north of des moines. after using the internet to find a tasty, late night pizza place in des moines, we headed north to ames, the home of iowa state university. 27 minutes after midnight, looking for motels along the side of the freeway, we receive a note on couchsurfing from a drew m. in his note he offers up his two couches and living room so we give him a call. with the help of google maps, we are soon pulling into his driveway.

drew, a tall liberal lad greets us outside. he scampers back in to courteously vacuums the living room floor! he then shows us our sleeping accommodations, two couches and a place for our blowup mattress, and offers up the contents of his fridge. with that he declared that he was going to sleep since he had to leave for work at seven in the morning for the democratic party office in des moines and that we were welcome to stay after he had left. we settled in for the night and his two cats keep us company.

drew was obviously an awesome guy. we didn't get to really know him through hanging out with him, but from the objects that we noticed around his house. we noticed such things as beer brewing equipment, computer parts, political posters, a large garden in the back, kegerator, and good vibes all around.

thanks drew for letting three strangers crash your place at one in the morning.

tollef tollefson

2006-06-02T20:05:00Z

at about 3:49 we turned off for elk point south dakota, the town that my grandmother grew up in and the town in which my norwegian ancestors first settled when they came to america. we were there in seach of tollef tollefson, my great-great-great grandfather and the man after whom i am named. he rests here in the richland cemetery and today i will visit him. as we got into elk point my mother phoned and informed us of another site to see in elk point, the house that my great-great-grandfather, ed tollefson built.
we headed for that first and found it at 511 pickney st. the current owener diane larsen was nice enough to show up around. a huge house it is, basement, 2 storeys and a huge attic in which ed tollefson had written a message in pencil on the walls: this house was built in the summer of 1915 by the owner. i was the first guy to sleep in this garret the night of august 29, 1915. pretty cool. from there we headed north to visit oris holden my grandmothers next door neighbor growing up. he offered use cokes and oreos and we stayed to talk with him. he told us about his time in the army and about being born and currently living in the same house. he also drew us a map to richland cemetery where i would find tollef tollefson. the cemetery is a couple is a couple miles north of elk point and to get there we took dirt roads through early corn fields. richland cemetary is amazingly well kept, it was as if the grass had been mowed just prior to our arrival. i parked the car and we walked into the cemetary.
after a hot tip from my grandmother i headed straight for one of two enormous lilac bushes growing in the cemetary and on the second guess i found my great-great-great-grandfather and his wife, anne at peace inside a giant lilac bush in rural south dakota.

gigglebees!

2006-06-02T17:06:00Z

still cruising along interstate 90, we were on the lookout for sioux falls, the largest city in south dakota. i think we were all expecting to see some tall buildings from the freeway, because we managed to miss the exit completely. after backtracking for a while we exited on the highway to sioux falls. once again i think we were incorrectly assuming we'd see some buildings on the plains, because we drove right past it. on the third attempt we made our approach cautiously, and with the map in hand we made our way into downtown sioux falls. it is a pretty cool old town actually. a bunch of old brick buildings and sculptures everywhere. we stopped for lunch where tollef and alex ordered some colossal fried chicken, mashed potato wraps, and i ordered ria's favorite; a grilled cheese with tomatoes.

after food we made our way to fewick park, home to one of the few existing replicas of michaelangelo's david. it was big. on our way out of town we got some gas at the wonderful price $2.71, and wished we had an ethanol car ($2.20/gal). the robots and pizza buffet at gigglebees were also tempting.

alex seems to be a bit tired, but we're confident he will be fine in a day or two. next up is elk point, south dakotaa to see the grave of tollef's great-great-great grandfather, tollef tollefson.

corn palace

2006-06-02T15:42:00Z

friday morning we find ourselves part time cruising across the south dakotan plains on our way to sioux falls. we came to the bustling small town of mitchell, as most americans know, is the home of the corn palace. this cultural center is lined with amazing corn art which adorned the outside of the building. after spending the good part of three minutes admiring this feat of american architecture we headed over and had a good talk with zeke.

mr. nice army man

2006-06-02T05:45:00Z

Getting a little sleepy, we decided to pull into a non-descript town along I-90 called Presho (I think..) Alex spotted a whole caravan of military vehicles stacked up on trucks parked next to a bar. In retrospect this doesn't sound like a very wise idea, but at the time it seemed fine... Anyways, alex was photographing the tanks to show to you, our faithful readers, when out of nowhere comes "Mr. Nice Army Man". Such a courteous young fellow, he barked "What are you doing!?".

Despite it being pretty obvious, Alex replied "I'm taking photos".

"Why!?" demanded Mr. Nice Army Man..

This also being obvious, Alex replied, "Because, uh, they look cool?"

It turns out that Mr. Nice Army Man, was actually an asshole and just stood there and tried to be intimidating. Alex hopped back in the PT and we tore off with the not-so-nice Army Man standing there with the dirt parking lot in glorious Presho all to himself.

In the next town of Oacoma, thanks to Tollef's bargaining skills, it looks like we are going to be staying at the Holiday Inn!

Kids Bored? Wall Drug!

2006-06-02T01:40:00Z

OMG. WTF is Wall Drug? Ideas were running back and forth between the somewhat cramped interior of the PT Cruiser. Is it a hoax? A Fake? Who could pull of such a thing? How did they get soo many billboards?? Traveling down Interstate 95 in central South Dakota there isn't much. let me rephrase that.. there isn't ANYTHING. all you have is Wall Drug. the signs are every hundred feet, and there are HUNDREDS of them. Claiming everything from 9ft rabbits, to T-Rex, to homemade ice cream, and back to Western wear. Sign after sign, every single billboard is owned by Wall Drug. Being the connected kids that we are, we decided to bring this question to our good friend wikipedia. Turns out that Wall Drug is real, and that they just happen to be in a town called Wall off I-95 in South Dakota. The other interesting tidbit is that they spend over $400,000 a year on advertising.

After cruising past a number of amazingly interesting infinite fields of grass we finally arrived at Wall. Wall Drug was closed, but we cruised through the town and snapped some pictures. Through the windows it looked like Wall Drug was a giant variety store that bet almost half a million dollars that they could pique our curiosity enough to stop in. They were right, now they just need to extend their hours a bit.

mount rushmore

2006-06-01T22:08:00Z

Mount Rushmore is home to the freedom fighting team known as Team America. Their headquarters are located inside of the mountain. When duty calls and the team has to leave for a mission Roosevelt's mouth opens up and they are able to fly their airplane out of the mountain. When they are not out defending American freedom throughout the world they can be found relaxing at the private bar located within their headquarters. Despite the widely known nature of this information about Mount Rushmore it seems to have been greatly overlooked throughout the entire Rushmore exhibit hall, gift shop and museum. What the Rushmore gift shop did not lack however was Rushmore kitsch, schwag, paraphernalia and assorted other crass souvenirs of American greatness. This was truly an American monument at it's best. In terms of the quantity and quality of the gimmickery Yellowstone pales in comparison to Rushmore. We had to resist the urge to purchase pewter replicas, ball caps and thermometer plaques of this fine monument.

the tower of the devil

2006-06-01T19:00:00Z

The devil himself has created a tower in Wyoming. In order to trick the still living, the devil himself created this tower out of hard indigneous rock. It was orginally formed under ground, but over time the devil planned it so that the loose topsoil around it would wash away forming an impressive tower 867ft high. (a small calculation error in the planning caused it to miss the intended height of 666ft). The devil's plan was then to have this tower be so impressive that the US government would declare it the country's first national monument. This whole evil plot was so well formulated that the unsuspecting US government would collect entrance fees from unaware tourists from all over the world for 100 years. The money from this was laundered through the innocent seeming US National Parks Service, into a devil-run think tank with the intent of developing more traps to lure us all into hell. Next up we are visiting Mount Rushmore.

The US Parks Department now offers Camping, Picnicking and Wi-Fi

the true midwest

2006-06-01T14:50:00Z

Rolling down interstate 25 in Wyoming, we were instantly persuaded to make a detour when we saw the sign for town called "Midwest". Always assuming that the Midwest was a vast geographical region, the promise of seeing it all in one single town was too much to ignore. Exiting the freeway onto the small highway two-fifty-something, we were in the middle of a forrest of power lines and oil derricks. Those things are pretty neat actually. I love how they are all randomly placed and seem to be working away on some mystery job. And then there is the derricks that have been forgotten and they only exist as an explosion diagram of parts laying in a oily pile. We arrived at the town of Midwest, a sleepy company town of 400. The only buildings that weren't identical decrepit houses, were the middle school and the town hall. As we cruised through, gawking at things like water towers and motorhomes on blocks, the locals did the same at our California license plates. After we realized that the sign directing us to the "City Center" was leading us to a place more a measurement than a social center, we got back on the highway two-fifty-something and continued the progress to South Dakota.

casper!

2006-06-01T11:28:00Z

the open road is just so open. we made pretty good time thanks to the pace car driving 95mph in front of us. can't say there is a whole lot going on out in these parts. we rolled into casper to look for wi-fi in hopes of ending our posting draught. special thanks to integrated imaging co. for providing us with a trusty linksys network. gotta love those. we parked in the shade for a couple hours and got our shit together and posted our backlog of posts.

making haste

2006-06-01T08:31:00Z

eating road across wyoming at dust. riding into the sunrise.

it's getting late

2006-06-01T06:15:00Z

got out of yellowstone without hitting any elk but we we're getting mighty weary as soon as we left the park, not to mention low on gasolina. with just enough gas to make it to the gas station in the opposite direction, just outside jackson hole passed the town of moose. the station was out of all grades of gas except premium, lucky us. we found solace in the fact that the gas station attendant hadn't slept either. skot purchased a novelty energy beverage by the name of bomba, which provided no energy whatsoever as it was quickly time for alex to drive.

old faithful

2006-06-01T02:29:00Z

glory! old faithful at last! so old! so faithful! we arrived at about 10:17 about 10 minutes before it's next expected eruption. we waited with baited breath for the glorious moment of hot steamy old faithful love! all in all we were surprised at the general lack of neon signs, yogi bear paraphernalia, cotton candy vendors and other park schwag. all in all yellowstone seems to be a pretty tasteful national park unlike all those those low-brow national parks. after the eruption we stopped in the yellowstone lodge to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to save a few nickels. damn hippie peanut butter that separates and you have to stir it forever and it gets all over the place. after that we had to get out of the park if we wanted to sleep somewhere. it was either that or trek on!

oh yeah, and we apologize for the delay in these posts, you'd think that a national park would be have complete wi-max coverage entrance to entrance if not wi-fi or at the very least EDGE, NO! not even measly old GPRS so we had some major internet downtime. hang in there!

yellowstone national park

2006-05-31T23:49:00Z

the road from bear tooth pass lead us quickly towards yellowstone national park; the world's very first national park. not to be out done by yellowstone or anything, but before we even got there we saw a straight up moose! just chilling in the woods. how many more of those are we gonna see in yellowstone? at the entrance to yellowstone we paid the $25 for a one week pass and moved on in search of wild animals and the illusive old faithful.

the first glorious animal to cross out path was tatanka! bison! let me tell you they are fast-paced action packed creatures of excitement. I had no idea that yellowstone was such a safari. there were cars pulled over every which way with their binoculars out look up at hills. who knows what they were looking at all we could see without binos' were the bison right outside of the car.
we continued on until came upon a waterfall. we got out of the car and walked the one and a half football fields towards the waterall we had to be care there were so many rare weeds, or plants rather, luckily they were clearly marked.
after the falls we headed towards old faithful.

beartooth pass! ho!

2006-05-31T21:10:00Z

finally rolled up on beartooth pass at about 11,000 things were getting pretty snowy. beautiful snow covered mountains abound. we pulled over to the side of the road and trekked out into the snow to leave our mark for fellow travelers on their own quests for glory. skot managed to fall about three feet into the snow on several occasions and was suffering from hypothermia of the foot but he finished the letters in the end and retreated to the car for warm cocoa and clean socks.

after our snow-based graffiti session we headed to the top of the mountain to pass into glorious wyoming! according to our brief internet search it was revealed that wyoming was one of only seven US states that still allows passengers to drink alcohol while the driving! so needless to say at the wyoming border we cracked a cold one for a quick taste of the rockies.

revisiting the atlas bar

2006-05-31T19:27:00Z

visiting old friends and making new ones.

where are we?

2006-05-31T19:19:00Z

roadkill cafe: mcleod, mt

2006-05-31T17:31:00Z

after a brief stop in big timber, montana we found route 298 and drove south 16 miles to the mcleod bar and roadkill cafe! it's was skot and I's first stop into the roadkill cafe, but alex had been to this very place 14 years ago when he was just a wee lad. the moose and elk taxidermy covering the walls brought nostalgic tears to his weary eyes. three elk burgers and three pints of moose drool later and we were ready to hit the road to wyoming via bear tooth pass!

liberal mountain town

2006-05-31T15:39:00Z

woke up this morning and rolled around bozeman for a minute stopped in the natural food co-op and stocked up on peanut butter, potato chips, juice, and whatever else looked good. from our brief time in bozeman it seems like a decent little mountain college town. but we had out food and needed to hit the lewis and clark trail towards the roadkill cafe!

cell coverage is getting a bit spotty out here in the sticks. put we will prevail! lewis and clark took this route with out cellphones, i'm sure that we can make it with only limited gprs coverage.

the plan

2006-05-31T06:50:00Z

we found a place to stay in bozeman. the most triumphant: bozeman inn. equipped with microwave, refrigerator, television, table, chair and dueling full beds. over scotch and chocolate we mapped out our plan.
mcleod for lunch at the roadkill cafe and on to yellowstone while the sun is still high and sheridan by nightfall.

california love in yellowstone

2006-05-31T02:56:00Z

rolled into west yellowstone only to find a bunch of resort lodges packed full of yellowstone tourists! nearly every room in town was booked up and overpriced. we parked outside a best western and checked myspace and couchsurfing for local kids, but the closest they were was bozeman, montana we figured we might as well head there, another 60 miles north. we thought about stopping in at the rustlers roost before we left, for a quick drink but bailed on that idea and just blasted california love at the conoco station while we refueled...

we proceeded to listen to california love on loop while hitting the road to bozeman!

idaho barley!

2006-05-30T23:58:00Z

on our way out of idaho falls we passed by what looked like a gigantic six pack of budweiser! looks like someone had taken to covering their grain silos with a large budweiser banner, this required a closer look! we pulled off onto river road and drove around behind the silos, parked the car, hopped the rusty barb wire and ran towards the silos.
looks like it is a budweiser grain storage facility, we ran through crops of some sort (barley?) and then got up close and personal with some serious silos. we heard a train coming and ran towards the tracks in hopes of snapping some pix and squashing some pennies on the tracks. to our surprise the train started to slow down and then stop and a couple of people got off it and started coming towards us! naturally we ran the opposite direction. turned out however that it was just a couple of train car operators linking up to some train cars full of budweiser grain. the man asked if we were done running around the trains because he had to link them up now. guess kids around these parts don't really get too much thrill from running around grain silos. as we headed to the car another man passed asked what we were doing. we told him we were on a roadtrip from california and he wished us on our way.

a drink in idaho falls

2006-05-30T22:51:00Z

from the side of the road we saw a sign! the biggest army surplus store in idaho! we had to go!!
quite a large selection of confederate flags, bumper stickers, camouflage, ammo boxes and metal gears, sadly nothing with needed at this moment.
idaho falls was just a few miles from the surplus store and boasting a population of over fifty thousand we couldn't pass up the chance! we cruised down into their "cultural district" and drove past the museum of idaho and into the rustic downtown. things were pretty dead, the downtown area seems like yet another causality of wal-mart and the likes, about the only thing going was the frosty gator, "best tail in town". we stopped in and saw people drinking pitchers of beer with oranges, so promptly ordered one up and took a seat. from the menu we ordered some typical? idaho faire friend cheese curds, onion rings, taco salad and of course gator tail. all in all not too bad, but they started passing out ash trays just before eight so we had to skip town! wyoming here we come!

potato country!

2006-05-30T21:17:00Z

rolled into blackfoot home of the idaho potato expo! looks like we wasted too much time at the flying j's wi-fi hookup that we missed our chance for potato-based souvenirs. but we didn't miss our chance at posing with the gigantic baked potato

took a photo, looked at their display of potato varieties (non of which were currently growing) and got back in the car in search of idaho falls!

internet truck stop

2006-05-30T20:28:00Z

needed a real internet pit stop so we stopped in at the flying j's truck stop the premiere internet destination of long distance truckers, and had we wanted to lay down $39.99 we coulda got a little more than just internet.
the king james earl jones version of the bible on compact disc! only 62 discs! we could prolly listen to that for the rest of the trip!
the internet detour took a lot longer than we thought but we got our main page updated, rearranged some funds in my back account, send some couchsurfing messages and checked myspace. and we were back on the road to idaho!

brigham young in the hizzy!

2006-05-30T15:57:00Z

climbed out the motel room window to avoid the multiple occupancy fee and hopped in the PT. a quick look at the SLC map revealed that the gravestone of brigham young was downtown slc! a surefire tourist hotspot! should we brave the lines? is it worth the wait? no doubt! rolled over to b.y. and read the story of mormon on the plaque there, looks like they lost about 6000 people on the trip to slc, had they just waited a few years for that last golden spike to be laid on the transcontinental railroad, things might not of been so bad. we posed with the bronze statue of brigham then we off in search of breakfast. ended up eating a completely average and totally unremarkable meal at jb's restaurant on temple square and then got the hell out of utah, heading towards the untold potato glory of idaho!

you in utah, ho!

2006-05-30T15:04:00Z

we wipe a drop of sweat from our brow as we leave the state that features a prison in Independence Valley and pass into the land of menlove in wendover, and mormons.

Dugway Proving Grounds

2006-05-30T07:51:00Z

pulled off the interstate to take a leak and ended up next to the creepiest mouse-infested abandoned building yet on this trip. cruised down the road a little further towards the skull valley indian reservation and promptly came to a sign stating "high level nuclear waste prohibited, except by permit". kinda worries me that this was so much of a problem that this sign became necessary. but also good to know for future reference that the dumping of low level nuclear waste is not prohibited. a look at the atlas told us that we were about 30 miles from the famed dugway proving ground home to america's chemical and biological open-air testing ground of the 1970s. time to get the hell out of here. on to salt lake!!

got to salt lake at about 4am, exhausted we found free wi-fi outside a muffler shop lobby and found a motel for the night. alex ordered a single room and we snuck in through the back door and passed out on the powerbook.

the feast

2006-05-30T03:00:00Z

the sun sets over the dry valleys of northern nevada. our stealth like pt cruiser streaks across the desert like a silver bullet shot across the horizon of imagination. like the creatures of the desert released into the night, we come alive as darkness descends with the calls of the wild.

inside the beast of the pt cruiser we hunger for the spoils of the hunt to come. eating up road like a wolf feeds on it's prey we make our way to our destinies. the wind carries the sent of dinner as we arrive to unfamiliar hunting grounds. we are thirsty for blood. we target our prey and descend upon it like lions in for the kill.
the egg salad sandwiches had no chance as we torn them limb from limb. from the grotesque scene that ensued, one might think we enjoyed the act of slaying our prey more so than eating it.

winnemucca represent!

2006-05-29T23:20:00Z

we have made it about 400 miles and the front of our stylin' pt cruiser has a thick coating of bugs. winnemucca is the excitement epicenter of nevada, as they posses a true $1.00 store... it's not one of these, "everything is a dollar, except for things that aren't" kinda stores. this was a $1.00, period store.

we picked up 3 extra-amazing orange hats, 1 roll of double-sided tape and 360 green army men and twizzlers�basically we just got the necessities.

as winnemucca faded, we entered a land of land of grey rolling hills, that repeat on like a low end video game.

truth in nevada

2006-05-29T22:59:00Z

after hours of traversing the wild roads of nevada, looking for a sign. finally our prayers were answered.

sparks, nv

2006-05-29T21:28:00Z

stopped in sparks, nevada; for a sparks.

summit!!

2006-05-29T20:33:00Z

finally we reached the summit! and without eating each other at that. stopped at the snow rest, found some relief and trekked out onto the snow for a quick snowball fight and some downhill sliding. tollef found a log bridge to an ice floe and promptly fell through some deep snow into the subzero water below! he was airlifted back to the pt cruiser for new socks and shoes. all the while skot invented a new olympic sport! Check out the highlights film.

disco napping

2006-05-29T19:16:00Z

Awake again!, took a disco nap through Sacramento to catch up on lost sleep last night, Alex drove and took this lovely photo. Lots of trees and skot informs me our heading is .01�H. Excellent!

Go East!

2006-05-28T12:31:00Z

Finally left town! A few hours too late, but we are on the road in a glorious silver PT Cruiser which achieves an unprecedented 27.3 miles per gallon. If all goes well in about 809 miles we should be in Idaho couchsurfing at Steve's place!