Maybe We're Crazy

(Just to let you know that I am working on our last installment of this part of the journey.  Don’t worry, life is a constant adventure with us and will continue to post to this blog.  I’ve just been really busy trying to get our life back in order, but have lots of notes and photos to add to this blog in the near future.  Please stay tuned.  I will delete this little blurb when completed.  I apologize for the delay, but it has paid off.  I just got word that one of my photos from Glacier National Park will be in Jan 2010 edition of Backpacker Magazine.
Oh yeah, I still have to count up the number of states we’ve traveled through.  Once again re-entry into reality is a bitch)

The States visited:  WA, OR, ID*, CA, NV, UT, WY, MT*, ND, MN, WI*, MI, SD
National Parks visited:  Mt, Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, Crater Lake, Yosemite, Kings Canyon, Mono Lake,  Sequoia, Bryce, Capital Reef, Yellowstone, Glacier, Pictured Rocks National Lake Shore, Pipestone MN, Mt. Rushmore, Badlands, SD and countless wilderness areas.

This is a place holder because I want to go in order.

I’ve got the fever.
No, we don’t need more cow bells around here, but a more ingenious way to extract gold.  I swear to the ALL MIGHTY that there’s gold in dem der hills or more like rivers.  It seems just absolutely silly that I think these small glimmering golden specs in the sand and water are gold, but what else could it be?  I collected samples to prove my point.

What a day here.  Another spectacular day of gloriousness and the next few day’s forecast look promising. After another warm and lazy float down the Merced today I felt like I was swimming around in a Goldschlager bottle, both figuratively and literally.  Despite the obvious metaphor of being ice cold, crystal clear and swirling with small flakes of gold, it seems the more that I immerse myself in this river the more I feel like I’ve done a few shots.

I brought along my mask just so I could take a peek at the large number of fish I’ve been  spying in these deep holes, as well as looking for the the mother lode of gold nuggets that I know is down there and would pay for this trip for life.  On a number of such occasion I came up nearly frozen and gasping for breath after getting lost in the sheer wonder that is hidden to the majority of us.

I know y’all are waiting for snaps, but for some reason my recently installed version of photoshop on this laptop will not recognize my raw files.  I’ll figure it out shortly I promise, because I am excited to show them.

We are about to set off into the back country wilderness for the next 8 days so if I do not get this figured about before then I’ll promise I’ll get to ASAP.  We will be hiking the high Sierra camps from Tuolumne Meadows and back to the valley floor.  Our first stop is Vogelsang High Sierra Camp, then Merced Lake, Sunrise, Clouds Rest and back down to the valley and civilization.

Tunnel View

We took one last shakedown cruise to the Ski to Sea race in Bellingham, WA with the RV this last weekend before we take off on our 3 month long road trip of the National Parks of the West June 1st, 2009 .  I’ve gone through the entire rig from top to bottom, but I haven’t found any big surprises, so with a knock on wood I think this thing is ready to roll.

We stayed with our buddy Bill’s place at his super deluxe home on Camano Island overlooking Rosario Strait. It was the night before the big race and we had a big pasta feast and multi desert over load along with a few beers and a good fire.

We woke up early and after a few initial setbacks we had a great 18 mile race down the Nooksack River.  Personally I’ve never paddled so hard for two and half hours before in my life.  I was just a little disappointed in our time given the immense effort.  The Ski to Sea race is a multiple leg race which starts at Mt. Baker ski area and ends up in Bellingham, WA. It’s a great race and I encourage anyone to learn more about it at http://www.skitosea.com/.

They had a killer party afterward, which I found to be the best part of the whole day. Bellingham is a really chill kinda town. It’s the kinda town where people stop and talk, wave to you on the street and say hello if they pass you on the side walk. I met Joe who’s family has lived in his house overlooking B’ham Bay for 3 generations. Joe invites me in to his house for a drink after yelling out “short trip” when I came back to the RV after forgetting my cell phone. We ended up hanging out for ½ hours before I made it back to a not so happy g-friend.  His place is the epitome of an American classic home with family photos covering the wood paneling, 70’s décor and shag carpeting. The big deck offers a spectacular view over looking the bay with Lummi and Orcas island in the background. Joe is a fisherman and is probably my age, but has the weather worn face that only 15 years on the Bering Sea could produce.  He is the kinda guy you would like to have as a neighbor.

Not to say that I do not love living in Seattle, but that just does not happen in Seattle. Also, I do not know if it was the huge street party afterward, but after walking back to the rig from morning’s breakfast I noticed two cars that had their keys in the ignition and most of the other cars unlocked. I remember when I went off to college I would tell people I’ve never owned a house key or ever came home to a locked house and I always would leave my keys under the front seat of my car. It was a hard transition to not think like that anymore. It’s good to see there is a town that still has that mentality. I could definitely live here.

After a good breakfast Jen and I went on a good road ride. We stumbled onto the Interurban trail which winds through town and a great way to get around on bike. We ended up on Old Sammish Rd and took that all the way out and around Lake Sammish on an old country road. We passed beautiful farm houses and tucked away hobbit like houses in the canyon. I found the old fishing cabins on Lake Sammish very rustic and charming. It’s odd not to see those old places replaced by the McMansions of Seattle. After a nice long ride we headed back to B’ham for a bite and a beer, but since it was Memorial Day we found the places near our rig closed, so we jumped back onto the Interurban again and road it into town. We ended up having H.H. at the Bellingham Bay Brewery, which makes one of my favorite beers. Then onto Casa Que Pasa which houses the tequila research institute, famous for their potato burrito. It’s one of our favorite stops when we come back from kayaking in the San Juans.
Overall, it was another great weekend in the rig.

I could really get used to this type of lifestyle…

This is the first post on our new blog about our 3 month long RV road trip to the National Parks of the West.  It is our hope that you can travel along vicariously through our posts.  I’ll be taking lots of photos, videos and notes of our experiences on life on the road.  We hope you sit back, buckle up and enjoy the ride.