Summer Adventures

[Total miles to date: 3,996] Our place in the Adirondacks, on Upper St. Regis Lake, is called Fenacres. We learned from our neighbor, Frank Lang, that “fen” means more than a swamp (maybe half of the 16 acres on this property are swampy). It means (if I have this right) a somewhat drained wetlands, without a lot of build up of organic material. So it is different from a bog.

In any case, we’re arrived, after maddeningly slow traffic near the New Jersey/New York border. By arrangement we met Betsy’s brother, Dan, and his financé, Michelle, and our Philip, his wife Mary, and their two friends, at a popular BBQ place outside of town. Dan and Michelle went on to a special fireworks show, and we finished our 8 day saga here at Fenacres.

No new pictures – it’s dark – so I’ll throw in some from last year.

Main House

Casey on the mountain at the end of the lake

Drinking dish - cantilevered

[Total Miles to date: 3,590] Our last night on the road – and in comfortable surroundings. We’re staying at Philip and Mary’s place in Center City, Philly. They left less than an hour before we arrived, heading up to the Adirondacks ahead of us. In the morning we’ll retrieve our grandcat from a friend of Katy’s and get ourselves up to the Adirondacks (we say “Camp” colloquially) by late afternoon.

Nothing exciting to report on a drive from mid-Ohio to Philadelphia. We got to go through a small corner of West Virginia on I-70, and did an end around a big traffic bottleneck in Philly, but no big issues or excitement. We’re looking forward to getting to the North Woods, and to seeing Betsy’s brother, his fiancee, Philip, Mary, and friends of theirs.

[Total Miles to date: 3,036] The headline was on a church sign that Betsy saw today west of Indianapolis. Just before that sign she saw one that read “Our lifeguard walks on water.”

I made a big deal in yesterday’s post about the advantages of getting off the Interstates and taking smaller highways. Still true – just not in Indiana. US 36 was busier, with more towns with lights instead of just lower speeds, and not in as good a shape. So stick to Kansas and Missouri for US 36 adventures, then join the masses on I-70 before entering Indiana.

Casey in the Mississippi River

What’s the old song, “When the people beat their feet on the Mississippi mud” ? Casey had a chance to wade in the Mississippi Mud in Hannibal, during a morning stroll among the Mark Twain sights. We didn’t let him swim, for fear that he’d float to New Orleans. A survey boat crew member said they were expecting another crest in several days, and the river was pretty high already. There’s a formal flood wall in Hannibal (maybe 15 feet tall),  complete with openings for major streets that then must have huge doors/gates put in place. We could see the fittings for those gates.

Hot and muggy and occasionally interesting – not our most fascinating drive, but OK. Tomorrow we arrive in Philadelphia.

[Total miles to date: 2,575] We’re in Hannibal, MO and we’ll go look for some fences to whitewash in the morning. In fact, Thursday starts National Tom Sawyer Days and there’s a fence painting contest on Friday. We apparently dodged several flooded roads and bridges, near the Missouri River. We crossed at St. Joseph and our highway bridge was high enough to be safe. Several roads and bridges north and south of us were closed because of water.

Let me extol the virtues of driving off the Interstate. We did it early in the trip – taking US 50 instead of I-80 across Nevada and part of Utah. Today and tomorrow we’ve been on US 36, which runs parallel to and north of I-70. One of the most famous alternative routes is US Route 66 through the southwest. The speed limit is 65 instead of 70/75, and periodically little towns pop up and you have to be careful to obey the limit there. But there are fewer trucks and you get a respite from all the national chain stores/fast food places that dominate the Interstate system.

Today was flat Kansas (and Missouri) day, and actually it was not that flat – by the middle of the day we were on a gentle roller coaster of hills. In addition to the patches of corn and not-corn (soybeans) wheat was being harvested. I’m not clear on whether this was spring wheat, or summer, or what…. As we often do we got sandwiches somewhere and found the inevitable small city park to stop, eat, and let Casey out. Today’s stop had a fishing pond/lake in the park and Casey got in his first swim.

Casey sitting still - briefly

There’s an earlier generation of roadside attractions and monuments near these older roads, including this one near Lebanon, KS. It purports to be the geographic center of the United States (at least when it was constructed in 1941).

My sense is that the farming economy is doing pretty well – though of course farm ownership is tending more towards large corporations. Still, there was activity in the fields, and the local farm reports on the radio were fairly optimistic. The saddest signs are the dying downtowns. In several places we drove into the town center, looking for a diner or a park. At least half if not more of the downtown store fronts were closed. There were all the yucky, plastic chains on the outskirts. One nice exception was in Macon, KS for dinner today, where we ate at the Apple Basket Cafe, and talked to the hostess about the local repertory theater and their current production of a Patsy Cline spotlight.

Lots of water in the Colorado River at Glenwood Canyon

[Total miles to date: 1,991] Can’t beat the drive through the majestic Rockies as we headed east from Grand Junction. Vail Pass was 10,800 feet high, and before that Glenwood Canyon had an angry Colorado River running through it. A resort next to the rest area had fancy ziplines strung across the river – good for a round trip. Might be fun, maybe…

I thought we would go through the Eisenhower Tunnel in lieu of Loveland Pass, but apparently they added another bore at some point and we were in the Johnson Tunnel instead. Years ago we took the California Zephyr from the SF Bay Area to Denver, and our drive today paralleled that route. Beautiful.

If you haven’t driven in Colorado, it is always a shock to go from the mountains to the absolutely flat eastern plains of the state. By the time we approached Kansas there was more irrigation and crops, while further west the Colorado scenery was pretty bleak.

View Area off US 50

[Total miles to date: 1,498] We’re spending the night in Grand Junction, Colorado – which had both high temps and flood warnings this week. The Colorado River is, indeed, very high, though we’ve seen no real sign of bad flooding. I guess the water is due to the snow pack melting.

Gorgeous scenery – on a large scale – today. We had notes about this drive from a previous trip and it didn’t disappoint.  We started inauspiciously, with me getting a speeding ticket while leaving town this morning. And our morning travel wasn’t smooth as we ran into some construction, took a quick side hike, and watched the speedometer very carefully.

We didn’t stop this time, having visited it twice before, but if anyone takes US 50 across Nevada and Utah they should stop and see Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada. Not huge, but good scenery, with Mt. Wheeler looming over everything.

Our slow-ish start and losing an hour with the time zone change meant we got here too late to go and visit with Dan’s fiancee’s sister, who runs a cafe east of Grand Junction – in Palisade. We talked a bit on the phone and look forward to meeting her at Dan and Michelle’s wedding later in August.

[Total miles to date: 968] We had a nice, two day layover in Calistoga, with Betsy’s mom, and on Saturday I taught the opening, face-to-face, session of an 8 week online, hybrid course for Saint Mary’s College.

Today started our real drive eastward. As we’ve done a couple of times in recent years we chose U.S. Highway 50, instead of I-80. It is a two lane road, but in good condition, and the speed limit on the long straight sections is 70 mph. I always think of Tom Cruise in Top Gun when we stop in Fallon, NV – home of the Fallon Naval Air Station. And this time we waved at but didn’t stop to see the Stokes Tower in Austin, NV – built by the same Stokes family that are at Upper St. Regis. The story goes that they built the odd, stone tower as a summer retreat, tried it for one season (in the late 1800s) and decided somewhere else would be better. That somewhere else was the Adirondacks.

Casey - ready to go - doesn't want to be left behind

Casey is returning to his car ride mind set. He gets into a kind of Zen-like stupor, though he appreciates breaks and walks and water. When we get to a motel one of us goes first and spreads a sheet/cover on the bed. Casey follows, checks out the room, has a drink, and settles in. Unlike his behavior at home he rarely barks. Thank you, Casey.

We’re thinking we’ll hustle a bit across the country, in order to get to Philadelphia on Friday, July 1, and camp on Saturday the 2nd. Philip, Mary, and friends, along with Dan, Michelle and Chase will be there when we arrive.

We’re off on our Summer 2011 adventure. First stop is Betsy’s mother’s place in Calistoga – at the northern end of the Napa Valley in California. The six hour trip is very familiar to us – only the weather varies.

The drive to Calistoga was uneventful. Mt. Shasta was full of snow and majestic against the blue sky. Lake Shasta was pretty durn full – hardly any signs of a bathtub ring.  Casey loves being in Calistoga where the cook spoils him, there are squirrels and birds to chase, and a swimming pool to drink out of.