Trips and flights of fancy.
To celebrate the 4th of July, I decided to immerse myself in the history of my home town. I hiked around the Chickamauga and Chattanooga NMP today, and wound up at Point Park. This was a nice visit, as I don’t think I’d ever visited here when I lived in Chattanooga.
This image is an iconic view of Moccasin Bend as seen from the cannons atop Signal Mountain.
It’s been a while since I’ve made a big drive like today’s. Fifteen hours of driving, and I found myself back home. How’s that — two sentences covering 900 miles of driving. Truth is, the drive was pretty uneventful, aside from mega construction going on in Kansas City. That was horrid, and gives me a pretty good reason to avoid KC for a while.
I’d been talking with Becky about her departure to the lake tonight, and we decided to leave the Berners at the house since we’d miss each other by only an hour or so. When I walked downstairs, I got all kinds of “puppy barks” from both of them. Just crazy heartwarming to know that they missed me.
So how would I rate the trip? Well, pretty dang good. It was great to be on the road, and having several days of just drifting about in Colorado was glorious. I saw some things that I wanted to see, and I got to hike and photograph. Nothing better than that.
After several days of acclimating to the higher altitude, I decided it was time to drive up to Rocky Mountain National Park. It’d been several years since my first visit to RMNP, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.
I got to the park pretty early, and discovered that the entrance at Grand Lake was under construction, making for a free entry into the park. Sweet! I talked with a ranger at the Kawuneeche Visitor Center, and learned that the paths down to Bear Lake were pretty snow packed still, so I decided just to trek up to the Alpine Visitor Center. Last time I was at the park, I’d done the same thing, but had come from Estes Park, so this was completely new territory for me.
While Trail Ridge Road was clear (although closing nightly at 8pm due to freezing and erosion), there was a bunch of construction going on. Both on the way up and the way down, I ended up stuck in construction traffic. Man, is there a lot of roadwork up there!
I stopped at the Coyote Valley Trailhead, and took a little hike next to a creek. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any megafauna, but I did see a couple of geese. Of course, I coulda seen those in Da Lou! Still, it was a nice hike.
Once again, I was surprised at how much snow there was as I drove up to the Alpine Visitor Center. By the time I’d gotten there, I was driving next to snow that was 6-8′ high. In fact, the park folks were using heavy equipment to clear the snow from the site. It was even cold enough to be sleeting on me while I was there. Pretty dang impressive. It really is like being at the top of the world.
I finished looking around up there, and headed back down toward Fraser to get some lunch. I finally got to Timberline Thai, which did not disappoint. I had some amazing Pad Thai Woon Sen (with shrimp) that rivaled the dishes I get in St. Charles. I’m really surprised to find Thai food as good as that in such a small place!
So, a successful day today. I think I’m gonna head back to Da Lou tomorrow though. Beck’s off to the lake, and I’ve been on the road a week. It’s time to get back on the long drive, and head home.
With a quiet condo, I thought I would sleep late this morning. Obviously, my body had other plans, as I was up before 6am. There’s something wrong with that! 🙂
After a little breakfast, I got my gear together — including my trike! — and headed toward Devils Thumb, thinking I’d spend a couple of hours up there, and maybe get some Thai food for lunch. I hit the “county roads”, and climbed my way up the hill to the trailhead. With the earlier start today, I had much better light than yesterday, and was able to make some great images, especially of the rushing waters.
My mother has told me that you could blindfold me in my own backyard, spin me around, take the blindfold off, and I wouldn’t be able to find my way home. As it ends up, she’s probably right. I kinda proved that on the trail today. I decided to walk a little ways into the forest along the trail. The forest was beautiful, and much less dense than I was expecting. When it was time to return to the trailhead, somehow I took a wrong turn, and I got turned around in the forest. The good thing was that I was next to the raging torrent of water, and knew if I followed it, I’d find myself at the trailhead. What a doof!
After leaving the trailhead, I decided to wander around on the county roads, and climbed all over the place on roads that none of my three GPS devices had in their brains. I never knew where I was, and eventually decided to start for home, and figured that if downhill was good enough for the water, it was probably the way to head for home. It was the right path, and I ended up near Tabernash, and pointed the Big Green Box toward Fraser. As it ends up, I retraced most of the steps that Warren and I had taken on Friday. The dirt roads were no better today, and I walked the Jeep down really wet, rutted roads, with plenty of significant rocks showing. The Jeep did real, real well. The driver wasn’t too bad either. 🙂
The Thai lunch idea morphed to thinking about a Thai dinner. Unfortunately, my target restaurant was closed for the day, which left me thinking about Chinese instead. I found a Chinese restaurant that claimed their food was amazing. One order of cashew chicken later, and I’d have to agree. That was some really good grub!
Tomorrow, I think I’m headed toward the Grand Lakes area, and on up into the west end of Rocky Mountain National Park. From what I’ve been reading on Twitter, they’ve had a tough time keeping the Ridge Road open, so I’m only expecting to get into this end of the park. If I get farther, that’s great, but if not, so be it.
The Colorado Days left for another engagement today, leaving me alone in the condo. There’s a kind of quiet that I’m simply not used to. Even when Becky leaves for an event for a week or so, there’s still three canine companions to make some level of noise. Here, it’s quiet, except for the occasional train rolling down the track.
I decided to make today a resting day, with only a trip up the hill to the Devils Thumb trailhead planned. Warren had taken me up there on Friday, and I liked what I saw, but had no camera with me to capture anything, so I figured that’d be a nice quick trip today.
Driving there brought me through stunning vistas of vast river valleys and tall pine forests. It was wonderful. I walked around at the trailhead — once I finally found it! — and captured images of pinecones and needles, in and around the fresh ice and old snow. And with all the cycles of freezing and thawing, the water was raging down the hill. It was remarkable to see that much water flowing like that, all from the winter’s snow beginning to melt.
Unfortunately, I didn’t take my tripod — why, I have no idea — and didn’t get a lot of usable images. Guess that means a trip back up there tomorrow!
After two days of driving, I was pretty doggone tired. However, not wanting to let a day get away from me, I went hiking with my host family, the Colorado Days.
We traveled out to Monarch Lake, taking a picnic lunch with us, and planning for many hours of fun in the forest. As it ends up, it was a bit of a trudge for me — about three hours of hiking near 8500′ just about did me in! It was fun, but man did my joints hurt. Those Colorado Days really know how to climb!
The Grand Lakes area (of which Monarch Lake is one) is simply beautiful. The water is stunningly blue, and seems to be a favorite fishing spot for folks — there were scores of folks drowning bait in the water. There were loads of watercraft out there, too. This is definitely on my list of places to meander about with my camera later this week.
One of the things that has surprised me about this part of the world is the number of dirt roads that are considered “county highways.” I guess that’s why I see so many 4WD vehicles out here. It seems like going to almost anyplace here involves a dirt road. Glad I like my Jeep dirty!
After a pretty mundane night in Colby, today was the push to Fraser. The drive was pretty uneventful, but it contained my first view of the Rockies!
I stopped at a rest area — somewhere — and could see them peeking at me. And the closer I got to Denver, the bigger they got. While driving through Denver was a mess, the promise of the Rockies spurred me on.
And when I made the break off I-70 to cut toward Fraser, I finally got to see the splendor of the Rockies, close up. And oddly enough, as I was climbing toward the pass, I was passed by a black Tahoe that started honking at me. It was Warren! He’d been making the drive to their condo, and found me along the road. Pretty cool.
I got to the condo, got settled in, and went four wheeling with Warren for a couple of hours. Pretty cool, and gave me some real ideas about places to go shooting.
I think I’m gonna like me stay up here!
“Kansas?” Yep, Kansas.
I’ve been running myself a little ragged at work, and haven’t had a good restful time off in a while, so I decided I needed to get away for a while. I’ve had an itch to scratch, something to look for, and travel is the medicine I need. Becky was able to broker an opportunity to stay at her brother’s condo in Fraser CO for a week of fun at Rocky Mountain National Park. Today was the first leg of that journey, and the first “big trip” I’ve taken solo in well over four years.
I opted for a long drive today, thinking that having a shorter drive as I make the crossing through/over the Rockies would be smart. They kicked my butt last year when we went to Moab, and I’m bound and determined not to let that happen again. And a shorter drive means that I can take some “smell the roses” opportunities in the mountains on my way to Fraser.
The drive out was pretty uneventful, as it always is. There’s just no way to go west from St. Louis without having to eat hundreds and hundreds of miles of somewhat uninteresting terrain, slowly climbing in elevation through the day. Today, I climbed from almost 600 feet to just over 3000 feet here in Colby. Within three or four hours of leaving here tomorrow, I’ll find myself at the Eisenhower Pass, just over 11,000 feet in elevation. Tomorrow will be a big day.
I just get all kinds of goofy when I start heading west. I love the feel and aura, mystery and romance of the western part of this great country. I can’t help but be drawn to it. In my adult life, I’ve always been a bit of a nomad, and this stint of fifteen years in St. Louis is the longest I’ve stayed anywhere since I left the nest — longest by a great, great big amount. That kind of sitting still leads to big, hard to scratch itches to roam around. And that leads to my big road trips.
Tomorrow, I will begin to see the mountains, and I’ll start to feel my heart pounding with anticipation. I cannot wait until I return to the mountains, and start exploring.
After the excitement of our tour of the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory yesterday, we decided we needed another dose. Actually, we remembered that one of Becky’s girlfriends needed a customized bat for her birthday, so that drove us back to Museum Row.
We got to the museum just as it was opening, expecting to be in and out, given the speed the Slugger folks turned out my bat yesterday. However, they were having computer problems today, and that meant we were delayed for an unknown amount of time. We’d been reading out the museums on Museum Row, and decided to visit the 21C Museum and Hotel.
The museum is billed as preserving the best of 21st century art. Given that we’re only nine years into the century, I’d say they’ve got a pretty good shot at that goal. I guess my roots are a bit more traditional. There were photos and sculptures of what appeared to be naked people of various ages — that doesn’t do much for me. There was a significant amount of space dedicated to experimental photography treatments. Those were sometimes enjoyable to look at, but didn’t really inspire me to go out and do anything really different. There was one interesting treatment that I saw, comprised of a traditional photograph, along with another print of the photo on translucent fabric stretched across the front of the frame. It gave a real dimensional quality to the image that I really liked.
They had a couple of interactive exhibits. One was a well placed camera that allowed you to be the art. Another was a series of videos (a la JibJab) that were political, humorous, and probably not in the best of tastes. In all though, the visit to the museum was quite fun. Beck and I have decided that we might stay there should we visit Louisville again… assuming they’re not crazy expensive!
We walked around the museum area, snapping photos of the area, and headed back to the Louisville Slugger folks to see if the bat was ready. It was, we said our farewells to the city, and pointed the Jeep home, satisfied with ending our vacation on a high note.
So what were the stats on the trip? We drove 3315 miles this time, and shot just a shade over 5000 images. On the first eight days of the trip (home, west, and back again), we had long drives six of those days, I was sick three of the nights, Beck was sick two of the nights, and we didn’t accomplish much of what we’d set out to do. However, adding on the trip to Louisville put a nice shine on the trip. And the trek west wasn’t a total loss. We learned some things about how to do that trip in the future, and we learned about the area, and will feel pretty comfortable back in the four corners area in the future.
With a couple of days of rest behind us, and a bit of wanderlust still in our veins, we decided to extend our roadtrip a bit, and add another unplanned stop on the trip: Louisville KY.
Why Louisville? Bats.
For years, I’ve wanted to go to the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory. I’m a baseball junkie, and have been since I was a kid. As I told Beck, there are three baseball meccas for me: Cooperstown, Field of Dreams and the Louisville Slugger site. This was the attainment of one of my baseball dreams.
Louisville is a quick drive from The Lou, and seemed like a easy place to add to our roadtrip. We left early, and hit the road — this time, eastward.
The drive across Illinois and Indiana was really uneventful. There’s not much to see, and few places to stop with much civilization. We decided to stop for lunch just west of Louisville, and that was the most entertaining stop of any we’d had on any part of the trip. Just across the parking lot from our lunch spot was an incredibly decked out van towing an old VW bug.
We parked the Jeep, and took a look at this weird combination of vehicles. They were touring from Art Car Agency in promotion of a film called Automorphosis. The California Fantasy Van had almost any kind of brass object you could imagine, along with about $15,000 of change riveted to the body. It was definitely eye-catching! The VW that was in tow, named Pico de Gallo, was musically themed and had all kinds of musical instruments and contraptions attached to it. There was even a stage atop the bug.
We watched a dozen or more people stopping to look at this strange configuration of vehicles while we were there. A few people were photographing them too, but most people just swung by for a look, shook their heads, and drove on. For me though, there was so much to photograph. I think you could spend weeks photographing the widgets on the California Fantasy Van alone.
Eventually, we hit the road again, and continued on to the Louisville Slugger site. The building is an old-style looking brick building in Louisville’s museum row, and has a gigantic Louisville Slugger bat leaning against the building. There’s no missing that. In fact, if you look on Google Maps and zoom in close, you can see the bat:
We went inside the building, and bought our tickets for the factory tour. While we were waiting for our tour to start, we looked around the museum a bit. I looked at a bat from Babe Ruth, which was amazing to see. But the biggest thrill was getting to hold a Mickey Mantle bat. There’s a special section where you can don some white cloth gloves, and hold a game-used bat from one of a few major leaguers. I had to go with Mantle’s bat, and it was awesome to hold a piece of history like that in my hands.
Our tour was pretty cool. They wouldn’t let us photograph inside the factory, but we got to see the whole process, including the carving of bats, both retail/minor league bats (about 30 seconds each) and major league bats (about 40 seconds each). We watched the application of signatures to some major league bats, and learned about the different wood and finishes authorized by Major League Baseball. It was a great tour, and taught you just about everything you’d need to know about baseball bats.
We ended our day with a stroll through the gift shop, where I arranged for my own bats! If you look through the photos from the trip, you can see one of them as it is processed and engraved. The other bat will come in a couple of weeks. That one’s a signature bat, and apparently it takes them a little while to get my signature on it. Can’t wait for it to show up!
The visit to the museum and factory was wonderful — I learned a bunch, and was in awe of the sense of history in the place. Definitely worth the drive!