I Lift My Eyes to the Mountains: Day #4

 We started the day in La Junta, CO, at an authentic small-town diner. The Copper Kitchen lived up to the Yelp reviews: friendly, efficient service, really good food, and a chat with Larry, the owner. It's the kind of place where the pictures and tchotchkes on the walls and shelves look like they were really collected over years, not selected from a catalog to look as if they were selected. A lot of the other customers were locals. Every town needs a third place. And La Junta has interesting art.

Railroads are important.

We thought this would be a shorter day. It wasn't. It may have been fewer miles overall (I didn't check the trip odometer) but we left the plains and headed up into the mountains. The twists and turns and steep climbs slowed us down. We took a detour for lunch. It was a bit further than I expected. David had no complaints because we saw a spectacular series of radial dikes. I'm not the geologist and I still thought they were pretty cool. 

Whoever named the Cuchara Yacht Club has a sense of humor. To be fair, it does overlook the water. My cocktail was delicious and my chicken salad was even better. 

Larry (remember Larry? He owns the Copper Kitchen) said we had to stop at the Wolf Pass Overlook. Larry was right. 

We spotted a waterfall from the overlook and as we were driving down the mountain David noticed a turnoff near the waterfall, and we hiked up to the base. Never mind that it was a steep climb at about 7,000 feet above sea level. Totally worth it.

Then we headed into Durango, wandered around the town for a little while, and had dinner at 636 Maine Avenue. I suspect our server is working there for the summer and I hope his career path takes him to some other line of employment. The drinks and food were delicious.

 We're now settled in for the night in our condo a bit outside of town. Tomorrow: a train ride!

So Far: Day #3

I glanced at the trip odometer this afternoon before we reached our last stop and it read about 1100 miles. So far.

Today was the last long driving day for a while. We left Kansas City this morning and we're putting our feet up in La Junta, CO tonight. We're in our seventh state and our third time zone. So far.

We've come a long way (sorry) from the first cross-country trip we did. Now we make sure to get out of the car for lunch; so far we've found good local restaurants (thanks to Yelp). We'll also have some picnics along the way. Today's was Blue Sky Brewery and Eats in Salina, KS. No pictures of the food or the beer. Sorry!

We detoured after lunch to see Monument Rocks. If you saw these picture without captions, would you think they were in Kansas? I wouldn't have. 

And of course we had a geology professor moment. 

"They're Cretaceous rocks...."

Stay tuned for more of these when we get into the Rocky Mountains.

This is more what I'd expect on the prairie.

"That's definitely not a cow."

After Monument Rocks we headed to Lamar, CO for dinner. I did get a photo of my strawberry margarita. I'm glad I ordered the smaller version.

Lamar also boasts the Petrified Wood Gas Station. At least it was a gas station when it was built in the 1930s. It's been through several other incarnations since and it's now vacant, like much of the retail space in Lamar. 

I'll close with some miscellaneous photos of things I found amusing, and then I'll call it a night. The clock says 9:20 PM. My body says either 10:20 or 11:20, and in either case I'm ready for bed.

Do you think they know?

Because half-price axe throwing with $2.00 drinks is always a good idea.

When you're too old for $2.00 drinks and axe-throwing, you strap your Boost to your Harley and you're ready to rock and roll.

Epic Road Trip: Day #2, National Park #1

 

I warned you that the first few days would be less interesting. So far we've covered over 1,000 miles of interstate.

Yesterday we drove from Allentown to Dayton, OH, where we had a lovely dinner with grad school friends. Yelp found us a lovely restaurant near Fallingwater for lunch en route. Since I drove the first shift, I indulged in this delightful concoction with my meal. 

Rosé Colored Glasses

We had such a good time at dinner that we didn't get any pictures - not even of the cocktails! Dinner was delicious Peruvian food. 

We headed west again early this morning and after a bit of a mental tussle with time zones we realized we had time to stop in St. Louis for lunch with a friend and a walk along the Mississippi River. I've driven across the Mississippi five times and have no memory of actually seeing it. So this time I wanted to be sure. When we plugged all the info into WAZE we thought we'd run late - and then we realized that WAZE gives the arrival time without taking into account the change from EDT to CDT, so we had an extra hour. We consulted Yelp again and found a deli near Gateway National Park where I got to introduce David to one of my favorite crossword people and had the best chicken salad I've had a long time. No food photos there, either. 

I did take pictures of the river and the Gateway Arch! How could I not?

The great Mississippi

This doesn't give you a sense of the scale. We could see it from about ten miles away. It's HUGE.

This was an unexpected National Park stop. Since we didn't drive into the park, we didn't have to pay an entrance fee. We'll have to wait to buy our Senior Citizen Lifetime Passes. We planned to visit four National Parks on this trip; looks like it will be at least five!

We're headed to dinner (barbecue, natch, because Kansas City) with a ParentNet friend. Trips like this remind me how rich in friendships I am, and that's more precious that gold. 

The Day Before

 

Let's see. We drove from New York to Palo Alto in August of 1982 in David's 1970s Ford Galaxie 500. Then we drove from Palo Alto back to my home in NY before our wedding in December of 1984 in David's Toyota pickup. David drove back alone in January. We drove a U-Haul from NY to CA when I finally moved out there in August of '84. That was fun. There was still a Federal speed limit of 55 mph and the U-Haul had a governor that kept us to 55 on the flat - and 35 going up any kind of grade. There are a few grades between Rye Brook and Palo Alto. Also it didn't have air conditioning. Did I mention it was August?

We drove the pickup from CA to CO in September of 1990 and then drove my Honda Civic from CO to NY and back for Christmas that year. By that time we had two large dogs in the back seat. And finally we drove the Civic from CA to PA when we moved here in 1992. I didn't mention the drives from the Bay Area to Reno or Austin, NV, when David was doing his PhD field work, or my solo drive from CO back to CA, or David's trip from CA to Ohio for a semester of work at Kent State. Anyway, we landed in PA in June of 1992 and I thought we'd gotten the cross-country drives out of our system. Once we both had full-time work, the balance flipped and we had more disposable income than extra time; when we went to California, we got airline tickets like normal people. 

The Levy-Smith trail, 1982-1992

30 years later, here we go again. We're retired, we have plenty of time, and David has finally recovered from his years of enforced camping during grad school and is ready to think about pitching a tent again. So when we started talking about a trip to Bryce and Zion with at least some camping, we decided to pack up our own camping gear and hit the road. It won't be exactly the same - we did get older and (maybe) wiser. Instead of trying to make the trip in four or five days, we're taking nearly three weeks. We're only camping in a couple of National Parks and the rest of the time we're staying with friends or in hotels or in AirBnBs. Come along for the ride! I won't promise daily updates - the first few and the last few days will not be that interesting and I doubt we'll have Internet when we're camping. There will be pretty pictures, if nothing else. And it's possible someone may log on and write about the geology of the Western US. Could happen.

The plan for this trip

We are not traveling light. 

Camping gear piled in the garage

The bare necessities

Yes, I can lift it

Not shown: computer, iPad, power supply, chargers, cables, suitcases, box of wine and other spirits, box of kitchen gear, folding chairs, and duffel bag with pillows, towels, and toiletries. 

Tomorrow we're off!

One More Day

Today is our last day in Iceland. We had dinner with a friend last night; I was too tired to write when we got back to the hotel, so here's the recap of Saturday.

We thought about taking a six-hour drive to a national park on a western peninsula, and decided that was too much, so we headed for Reykjavik and figured we'd find something to do on the way or in town after we arrived. We got a late-ish start after hunting down breakfast -we spent Friday night in a cozy cabin, not a hotel - and headed toward Reykjavik, planning a stop at (of course) a waterfall along the way. It was actually above 0 C!

David pulled off to look at something geological and I stayed in the car - until he pointed out a waterfall I hadn't noticed. Frozen waterfalls are still gorgeous.

Frozen in mid-waterfall

Iceland has a lot of signs at viewpoints along the road that tell you what you're looking at and what else is in the vicinity. David spotted a cinder cone and a marker, so we pulled off, and realized there was a hiking trail up the cone. We put on our hats and gloves and headed up.

There were stairs most of the way up. This is at the crater.

We climbed the larger cone and looked down at the smaller one.

Iceland: Where the views don't suck.

It was a bit slippery going down, because there was snow and ice between the sets of stairs. We made it safely to the bottom and back to the car. Next stop: a waterfall!

Hraunfossar is different from the other waterfalls we've seen. It flows out of lava rocks rather than over them. 

The color of the water- just gorgeous.

I also love the sound of a waterfall.

Barnafoss is just up the trail. I thought it was going to be smaller, since"Barnafoss" means "Children's Waterfall." Nope.  

There's a gruesome story about drowning that account for the name.

We ate lunch at the café near the falls and drove on to Reykjavik, where we checked in to the hotel, took a soak in the hot tub, and put our feet up for a bit before heading out to dinner with friends who happened to be in Iceland at the same time. 

Now it's Sunday morning. I'm going horseback riding and David will explore the city, and then we'll have to face the fact that it's time to go home. We have a whole list of things to do on our next trip to Iceland - sometime in the summer (not this summer. Some other year). I guess if I wanted to go home, it would mean the trip was too long, so this one must be just right. I hate to see it end.

Random Thoughts on Travel

We've come a long way - literally and figuratively - from our first trip together. In August of 1982 we drove from New York to California before we started grad school (him) and med school (me). We learned a lot about each other on that trip, starting with how long a day was going to be. David was determined to log as many miles as possible on travel days. I thought we should stop before dinner and relax in the evening. Since I'm writing this at 5:00 PM and we're about to go soak in the hot tub before we shower and change for dinner, you can see how that one worked out - eventually.

It's important to find the right rhythm when you're traveling with someone else. How many planned stops? How much extra time for the drive to allow for impromptu side trips? Souvenir shopping? Other kinds of shopping? Picnic by the roadside or lunch indoors? Sleep late? Set an alarm? It requires a lot of negotiation. Nearly 40 years on, we have a basic schedule we like - we plan a few things, and always leave room for sudden discoveries. We didn't plan either of today's stops ahead of time, unless you count 11:00 last night, when I found the waterfall we went to see. The other stop was "oh, look, that's interesting."

It feels odd to me to put on hiking boots and hiking pants to basically climb a staircase. Iceland has a lot of infrastructure in their parks and national recreation areas (or their equivalent thereof). There are stairs, boardwalks, arrows, informational signs, and ropes to keep you on the trail. Given the number of tourists we saw and knowing it's not anywhere near peak, I understand why. It still feels odd to climb up a wooden staircase when I'm dressed for the wilderness.

See what I mean? There was also some actual hiking.

English is the lingua franca in Iceland, which makes it very easy for us, but does make me feel a bit like the ugly American who expects every to speak my language. Yesterday at lunch we sat next to a couple who must have been on their first date. She was German, he was Icelandic, and we knew it was a first date because they were speaking English. The guide for our ice cave tour was Australian and the marine biologist on the whale cruise yesterday was from the UK.

I'm trying to live in the moment but I can't help thinking about the next trip. We want to come back to Iceland in the summer, and there are so many other places to go....

A Whale of a Day

First, here are some more photos of last night's aurora. The shots I posted last night were not as well-focused, and my photographer is picky.

The colors aren't all visible with the naked eye. David tells me this has something to do with the long exposure on the camera. A bit of research adds the info that the cones in our retina, which see color, require higher light levels than the rods, which see black-and-white, and so our night vision tends to be lacking some color. The camera - especially modern digital SLRs - has a much greater ability to capture light with a long exposure. It was still spectacular to watch in person, and I'm glad we have the photos as well. This is why we came to Iceland in winter.

I kept reminded myself of that when we left the hotel this morning. We had a brilliant aurora last night because it was crystal clear - no clouds. Clear weather in winter is colder weather. The car thermometer told us it was -20 C when we headed out today. We found our way to (yes) another waterfall and had a short hike in from the road. A short, COLD hike. It was worth it.

Godafoss - the waterfall of the gods

We had no other specific plans for the day except to head west toward tonight's lodgings. We stopped in Aukreyri for lunch. Aukreyri is the largest town we've seen since we left Reykjavik - they had stop lights!

Side note: Iceland stop lights and road signs are kinder than those in the US. The stop lights in Aukreyri were changed after the 2008 financial crash to make the world a happier place.

They also have the same kind of speed monitoring signs we have the US, with one difference: if you're under the limit, you get a thumbs-up or a happy face. When you leave the city limits, you see this:

When you arrive in town, you see the same thing without the red line

They also have electronic signs that tell you the weather conditions up ahead. Very handy when driving through unpopulated mountain areas.

So back to Aukreyri. We found a parking spot and figured out what they meant when they said "clocks for parking are available in banks and gas stations." Parking is free and limited to two hours. At the bank, David picked up a cardboard clock, which we set with the time we parked and left on the dashboard.

We had delicious mussels in an Asian-flavored broth for lunch (mmm) and looked out over the harbor while we ate. We noticed the whale-watching boat, and checked their website to learn that yes, there is whale-watching in winter. So we headed over there and bought tickets for a three-hour tour after I retrieved the scopolamine patch from my suitcase. You never know when you might need it.

They can't guarantee whales, of course. We got lucky - again. This gorgeous creature was feeding in the fjord and we watched him? her? for nearly an hour. David took pictures. I just watched in awe.

Humpback whale heading down for a dive.

We could hear the whale breathing.

Rolling around, just for fun.

And a waterfall on shore for good measure.

I took advantage of the insulated overalls they carry on board. That went over my leggings, turtleneck, hiking pants, rain pants, sweater, scarf, and parka. It's a wonder I could move. I also bought hand heaters for my gloves and I was toasty - except for my feet, even though I had wool socks and silk sock liners inside my boots. It was totally worth it.

We defrosted in the car on the way to our lodgings in a cabin on the hillside in Hvammstangi. Here's the view from the living room window.

David suggests that Iceland's tourist slogan should be "views that never suck."

We had yet another delicious meal with (of course) delectable homemade bread. Local lobster (tempura for David, soup for me) and lamb steak (David).

Tomorrow we head back to Reykjavik via (of course) a waterfall and whatever else catches our fancy along the way.