After two days in the wilderness we have returned to 'civilization'. Two nights ago, around 10 pm, we rolled into an RV park 20 miles outside of Yosemite. Made a fire, cooked some chicken and squash, visited the park petting zoo, and grew envious over the pool because we didn't have enough time to take a dip.
The following morning we headed for Yosemite. Now I don't know how many of y'all have been there before, but I hadn't. The sight of those two thousand foot primeval monolithic granite walls was, frankly, pretty baller. But instead of climbing El Cap, we opted to play in and picnic by pristine rivers all day, which was actually a delightful alternative.
Last night we camped at a (my first!) KOA in a town called Midvalley. Danielle tried grilled pineapple, but still doesn't like the texture. Paige thinks the pool here was salt water - Sam and I think it's just dirty.
In a few minutes we are embarking upon the last leg of this journey, driving through the outskirts of the City of Angels on our way to Joshua Tree. There we will camp, climb, suffer through the heat, and listen to U2. You all can get a preview of that on our song of the day below.
Pictures have been updated, profiles have been uploaded, and the trip draws to its climax.
anDrude
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It's been more than a week since Igor left and we haven't updated you guys on what's been happening! Shame... As a handful of you might already know, I (Igor) flied back to Arizona yesterday. The reason was that my family is visiting from Kazakhstan. Yesterday I got to sit with some very interesting people on the plane rides over here and I had quite the swimming party when I got home since my house is now basically a day-care. I hope all is well with Sam and Danielle and I hope that Paige and Andrew have safe journeys meeting up with the Leif Crew. I hope you guys have an amazing time and I'll be waiting for you here in AZ when you get back! DISNEYLAND HERE I COME. Its kinda been intense ever since our last post. We woke up from the KOA and headed out to yellow stone. We got there in about an hour and a half, and paid the 25 dollars to get into the park. We drove around stopping at all the sites, the mud volcano (which smells terrible), sulphur caldron, various geysers before looking for a place to camp. The more time we spent in yellowstone, the more the smiles faded from our faces... Well, Toby was a great couchsurfing host, we made some awesome pizzas and he set us up on the road with a ton of pita, fresh eggs, homemade elderberry syrup (for Sam's parents), and a car-friendly scrabble game!!! Thanks, Toby. Since then we've basically been on the road driving a lot each day. The badlands were awesome (amazing rock formations and beautiful blue skies with aesthetically perfect clouds) and we would have gotten some great pictures if we had had time to stop. We stayed at a KOA that night and this last night; I'm pretty sure Sam loves KOAs. But anyways, we're about to head out to Yellowstone and hope to get a good camping spot before they're all taken. I spose its been a while since the last update..... hmmm...... Happy Fourth of July everybody, I hope your holiday will be filled with joy and fireworks. Yesterday night we stayed at a KOA campground which was surprisingly "pretty cool". The owner of the campground, Patricia AKA Patrick, was very kind and had a swell German accent; we especially enjoyed the way she said World Wide Web. In the morning we headed towards the great city of Chicago. We were welcomed to a city of skyscrapers/sky-rapers/neck-breakers and a horde of people. Our destination was the Taste of Chicago, which is a grand festival of music and mostly food. Entering the very cramped parking garage, we happened to break a couple of signs hanging from the roof of the structure with the camping gear located on the roof of the bus...we caused quite a traffic jam but everything was resolved peacefully. After purchasing our tickets we embarked on an adventure of food sampling, etc. Following the several hours of sweating and digesting, we set forth to Green Bay, Wisconsin where we had the great pleasure of staying with John, Sam's cousin. He provided us with Bratwursts for dinner and pancakes for breakfast (both were VERY filling meals). Also we had a very competitive game of Monopoly which had to be ended due to fatigue. Sam and I played Mario Kart Wii in a very well air conditioned basement. We are now going to be on our way towards Sister Bay, Wisconsin to hang out with our great friend Sam Patera! Fireworks and trouble await. Well, it's been a while....internet was not exactly easily sought out... anyways.... since it has been so long, there are a lot more pictures up in the gallery so check em out. In reality, there isn't much to say about the last few days. We had a load of fun at Jack's house and met a lot of really awesome people. He entertained us with rock climbing, lake swimming, scrabble, etc. Jack is also a pretty good cook: rhubarb pie, sourdough bread, pasta, banana chocolate pancakes, french-ish toast... Great food. We woke up to fun music every morning, too. Yesterday we did a day trip into Vermont with Jack in Leif to see the Ben & Jerry's headquarters and ended up driving through a ton of rain and playing frisbee on the ferry dock: Jack has some pretty quick reaction times, saving the frisbee from the lake on more than one occasion. Hmm.... what else..? The horn! Apparently while Igor and I were sleeping in the bus, Leif spoke for the first time since Sam adopted him! But then he hasn't said anything since. I think that's about it... we'll try to ke |
AuthorI'm not sure who will be updating the blog as the trip progresses... it probably won't be me (sam) as I am not the wordiest of people. Archives
August 2009
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