The Silent "I"

Yellowstone: Fire in the Hole Adventure

We woke up at the Old Faithful Inn and looked out the window to see Old Faithful sputtering and smoking, with a smaller crowd than later in the day.  The tour buses usually pull up in the afternoon and hordes of people descend to see the famous show.  Early in the morning, it's just the people staying nearby and a few park employees passing through.  Off in the distance, we could see other geysers smoking on the rocky plain.

We've been on the road for a week, so it was time to check out the laundry facilities so we could have fresh clothes and get ride of the stinky stuff in our luggage.  The laundry is conveniently located next to the Medical Clinic, so I went to be checked out by a doctor.  My bronchial crud disease seemed to have taken hold with a vengeance, and my voice is hoarse from coughing and not very pleasant to listen to, I'm sure. 

According to the doctor/nurse/medical person with a stethoscope named Eddie, I have some kind of allergy/asthmatic condition brought on by the fact that things are blooming in Yellowstone and the high altitude.  He gave me an inhaler, said he saw no signs of infection, and $250 later, I was on my way to fold laundry, feeling no better than when I went in.  I took a few hits off the inhaler, breathed a little easier, and continued to sound Marge Simpson and Harvey Fierstein's love child.

Yellowstone: Old Faithful

Our first morning at Yellowstone, I woke up hearing someone loudly coughing and hacking and groaning.  It took me a minute to figure out that someone was me.  I woke up with some kind of bronchitis/cold/crud that wasn't helped at all by the high altitude. 

Frank was up at dawn to go out to take pictures in the morning light, and didn't return for several hours.  I was beginning to worry a little that he might have been Smokey the Bear's breakfast, but then he came bounding in and was enthusiastic about his photo excursion.  I told him I felt like crap on a stick, which I'm sure was quite a downer for him.  Just call me "Mrs. Buzzkill" henceforth.

We are staying in the historic Old Faithful Inn, built in 1904.  They've modernized it quite a bit, but the rustic beams in the four-story atrium are signs of a bygone era.  The hotel was nearly destroyed in the 1988 wildfires, but a great deal of work by firefighters saved the Inn.  It's a marvelous place, and you have to book reservations at least 6 months in advance.  The first time Frank called in February, they were booked solid, but he was persistent and got one from a cancellation on the second or third try.  We had to settle for a suite (bummer, I know), which was more than we budgeted for, but the only thing available.  The suite is a spacious, two room mini-apartment, with a fridge and complimentary soft drinks and a box of chocolates.  For this price, you can bet we will be sucking down those soft drinks with wild abandon.  My dentist will certainly not be pleased.

We ate at the all-you-can stomach buffet in the Inn, loading up on scrambled eggs, french toast and breakfast meat.  We decided to venture out to one of the other lodges for some shopping and to see the morning eruption of the Old Faithful geyser, just across from the hotel.

Jackson Hole, WY: Moon, Movies & Moose

On Friday, the fifth day of our Great American Family Roadtrip, we checked out of our hotel in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, saying goodbye to their biker clientele and excellent wifi connection.  We had breakfast for a second time at The Bunnery (it was that good), and shopped along the main street.  Alex and Frank went to the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum, while I headed to a mountaineering shop to buy some walking sticks for our next hike, and other gear for our trip to Yellowstone.

There was an Art Fair in town with a few hundred artists selling their wares in the local park.  We browsed the exhibitors' booths while Alex made fast friends with a little girl named Lori from Denver and played on the playground with her.  Frank sat down to keep an eye on Alex, and I went off to look at the inner row of exhibits.

I came to one that I particularly liked, by a fellow named Owen Mortensen from Utah, called Botanical Art. Owen's art is very simple, and uses pressed leaves and flowers to create simple designs on clean backgrounds. I really liked his aesthetic, and dragged Frank back to the booth to see a large piece with Ginko leaves that I liked.  Frank thought it was too big to fit in our space, but we agreed that one featuring small tropical leaves would work.  We ended up buying two pieces from him.  I also bought a set of handcarved salad tongs from another vendor to replace the ones I broke recently.

Jackson Hole, WY: Cowboy Disneyland

We rolled into Jackson Hole, Wyoming late Wednesday night, and couldn't see much of anything other than one big elk crossing the road on the dark mountain pass.  We woke up to find ourselves in what looked to me like Cowboy Disneyland.  The downtown is a quaint, western-themed array of high-end shops, souvenir shops, bars, and restaurants.  Instead of horse-drawn carriages or taxis, tourists ride around in mock-stage coaches. 

Idaho: When in Jerome

We woke up Wednesday morning at a Best Western in Jerome, Idaho, population 7,780, plus the three of us. We could have stayed in the booming metropolis of Twin Falls, but Frank insisted that we stay in Jerome so we would be closer to the destination for the day:  The Hagerman Fossil Beds.  Why we didn't just stay in Hagerman, I don't know.

We left Jerome with no more than a blink, and headed to nearby Hagerman to find the National Park Visitor Center to find out about the Hagerman Fossil Beds.  The Fossil Beds are a large archeological find, but you can't actually walk around there, since the land is too unstable.  The Hagerman Horses were prehistoric forerunners of modern horses, the equus simplicidens, probably the link between prehistoric and modern horses.  The Fossil Beds are famous because there were a group of about 26 horses found in one spot, but they are not sure why they were all congregated there together.  The Park Ranger said that they thought it could have been a flash flood that did in the horses, but no one knows.  Horse history is not exactly my cup of java, but Frank was intrigued by this, so we drove out to the site to take some pictures.

Nevada: Cowboys, Canyons & Sushi

We arrived around 9pm on Monday night in Elko, Nevada, after a long drive down a barren strip of road that seemed to go on forever and a day.  It was wonderful to see the lights of a city twinkling in the distance as we approached Elko, even if they were mainly casino lights.  After a long stint in the desert, we had to be reminded that this was the other thing Nevada is famous for--gambling.  We ate dinner at one of the casinos, and had to put up with endless questions from Alex about why kids could not play these games, which looked fun, and didn't cost that much (penny slots abounded).

In the morning, we packed up and headed out again, and decided to check out downtown Elko.  It's a small, western town with a few storefronts, casinos, and businesses that look faded in the white-hot sun.

We found a sushi restaurant around the corner from the Western Folklife Center and decided to try it.  It was an odd place, run by young, attractive Caucasian women who all looked more like they should be playing on the US Olympic Beach Volleyball team than serving up nigiri in a dusty cowboy town.  Frank said the sashimi was remarkably fresh, but the other food (including Alex's Kraft Macaroni and Cheese) was somewhat tepid.  The miso soup tasted like used bathwater with chunks in it.  I don't recommend it.

We made our way to the Western Folklife Center, home of the annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, and went in to look at the Buckaroo exhibit.  The exhibit was a small collection of artifacts and photos celebrating Hispanic culture and its contributions to the cowboy lifestyle in the high desert region.  The word buckaroo in an anglicization of the Spanish word vaquero which is what Spanish cowboys are called.  You live, you learn.

The museum is small, but the collection was nicely laid out, and there is a short film about cowboy life that was in a room that they must also use to store meat in, because it was so cold in there I could only sit through about five minutes without loosing feeling in my extremities.  I wandered through the old timey saloon replica and back to the gift shop and left Frank and Alex to watch the movie.  We had read about the museum in a guidebook, and it was a nice respite from driving and scenery.  The women who worked there were friendly and curious to know how we found them.  If you're ever in Elko, Nevada, I recommend a visit to the museum, but skip the sushi.

Sand Mountain: Like Iraq, Only In Nevada

We left Mono Lake after a pleasant hike and photo opportunity, and headed down the long, lonely stretch of road known as Highway 50.  This was the first transcontinental highway, named the Lincoln Highway, built in 1915.  The highway is known as "The Loneliest Road in America," and after driving for an hour without seeing another car, a house, or any sign of human activity, I knew why.  At times like these, you start to long for a glimpse of the Golden Arches, just to know that civilization as you know it exists.

Our destination was the Sand Mountain, near Fallon, Nevada.  Alex grew restless in the back seat, and kept asking whether we had arrived in the middle of nowhere yet, and Frank said, "Why yes, I think we have." 

When Alex asked how we would know when we got there, Frank said, "You can't miss it."

After several hours of desert landscape rimmed by far-off mountains, I was astonished to look up and see a big white mountain of sand rising up like a mirage in the middle of the desert.  It looked incongruous to the rest of the landscape, like some movie set from Lawrence of Arabia that had been built long ago and abandoned.  Aptly named "Sand Mountain", it was, in fact, a big mountain of find white sand.

Mono Lake: The Edge of Nowhere

We woke up at the Lake View Lodge on the second day of our Great American Family Road Trip.  Alex looked out the window and declared, “It’s really beautiful out there.  The sky is blue, there are big trees, and I think there is a lake across the street.”

That was a great description of the start of the day, in the town of Lee Vining, California, on the shores of Mono Lake.  Mono Lake is a saltwater lake that has been the center of a water rights battle for several decades.  The City of Los Angeles began diverting water from this part of California in the 1960’s, causing Owens Lake to dry up completely and Mono Lake to drop by forty feet.  A court order in 1990's stopped the lake draining, and residents have waged an ongoing battle to try to preserve the lake. 

One of the interesting by-products of the lake level lowering was the discovery of tufas, or calcium carbonate deposits that form interesting formations on the lake bed.  When the lake lowered, some of these were uncovered, and have become quite a tourist attraction for visitors to Mono Lake. Normally, these are underwater, so it is quite incredible to be able to walk among the tufa towers. We decided to go and check them out for ourselves.

Yosemite: No Falls for You

The first destination on our All-American Road Trip was Yosemite National Park.  It’s about five hours from where we live in Northern California, and somehow in the twelve years we’ve live here, we had never managed to make the trip.  Frank has been there many times, during his single-guy photographer days, and regaled us with stories along the way about the various towns and sights we’d see.  For Alex and me, it was a new adventure, but for Frank, a trip down memory lane.

We started the trip in good moods, singing along to the Cars soundtrack and making up words to old standards.  The only issue to dampen the mood was realizing that we forgot to bring Mashimoro, Alex’s favorite stuffed animal. He recovered quickly, after we promised to get a new stuffed animal friend for him just for the trip when we got to Yosemite.

We arrived in Yosemite in the late afternoon and headed for the major attractions –- El Capitan, Bridalveil Fall, and Yosemite Falls.  I have to say, I was initially unimpressed.   The entry into Yellowstone looked worn out, scarred by fire and flood over the years.  The first scenic vista we encountered looked like a spooky ghost forest, with tall, branchless trees sticking out of the ground, scarred sentinels guarding a scrubby landscape.  It was a melancholy vista, and not the lush, green forest I was expecting.  It reminded me of the opening  Longfellow's poem, Evangeline:

THIS is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,

Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,

Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,

Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.

On the Road Again

We're spending the day packing and getting organized for our family vacation.  This year, instead of setting out on a cruise of exotic ports of call or to see equally exotic wildlife, a trip to a remote island destination, or to a foreign land, we are taking an All American Family Road Trip.  We'll be heading to Yosemite, the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, before finally winding up in Denver for the Democratic National Convention.

It might seem a little crazy with gas prices what they are to drive across country, but I don't see gas prices going down anytime soon.  I figure that when gas hits $10 a gallon, we'll kick ourselves for not going when it was under $5.  So, we're off to see some of the most gorgeous scenery our country has to offer, spend time together, and try not to kill each other in the process.

Sierra Wireless generously loaned me a Sprint Compass™ 597 by Sierra Wireless mobile broadband card to use this month for the trip and the convention, so I'll be posting pictures and blogging along the way.  Frank and Alex are setting up their own blogs, so they will be updating on their point of view as well.  In Denver, I meet up with the MOMocrats and we'll be covering the convention.

See you from the road!

Photo:  Big Basin in Caifornia, taken by Glennia.

Join Me Today for a Video Chat on MyOovoo!

I'm hosting a video chat today at 3:00 PM Pacific/6 PM Eastern on Oovoo, as part of thier My oovoo Day Political Edition.  Join me!
 

My ooVoo Day Political is an eight day online video chat event joining leading political bloggers covering the entire spectrum of belief and persuasion with their communities, fans and friends - enabled by ooVoo, the leader in face-to-face multi-person video communications.

Search the list of participating bloggers and find "The Silent I" and sign up to chat or listen in.

Can't make it?  On Monday, August 4 at 6:00PM PST/9:00 PM EST join Stefania Pomponi Butler (CityMama) and Joanne Bamberger (Pundit Mom) and me for a MOMocrats video chat.

Sign up and speak out!

Sign up to download the ooVoo software then click on the preview ooVoo video for a full explanation of the event, and how it works.

Alex Meets His American Idol, Hillary Clinton

Alex, Frank and I went to a fundraiser on Thursday night for Hillary Clinton.  It was billed as a "unity event" where Obama and Clinton Silicon Valley supporters got together to help pay Clinton's debt, munch appetizers, and hear Senator Clinton speak about party unity.  It was co-hosted by two of Silicon Valley's powerhouse fundraisers, who combined their considerable donor lists to get people out to help Hillary (and the party) pay off some of her $20 million campaign debt.

Frank and I supported Edwards and Obama in the primary.  Alex, however, is a die-hard Hillary fan.  When we got the invitation, we asked him if he wanted to have the chance to meet Hillary, and he said, "Yes!"  I asked what he would say to her if he got to meet her, and he said, "I want to tell her she did a good job in the election and I wanted her to be President."

I thought that would be something she might like to hear, coming from a little boy.  He pointedly told me a few months ago, pointing out his placemat with all the President's portraits on it, "I want Hillary to win because, do you see any girls here?  NO. It's a girl's turn."

Eight

Alex: I know what I want for my birthday.
Me: What?
Alex:  Two Wii Games. One for me and one for the family.
Me:  Which games are you interested in?
Alex: Oh, I don't care.  I just want games that are rated T for Teens.
Me:  Sorry, no.
Alex:  Why not?
Me: You're turning 8, not 18.  Those games are for Teens, meaning kids 13 and older.
Alex:  I know a kid who is 9 who has all the T games.  And even one rated M (Mature)!
Me:  Doesn't matter.  You're not getting them until you're 13 or older, and only after I've checked them out first.
Alex: That is SO NOT FAIR.  Why can't I have them? Why are you so mean?
Me:  Because it's my job, as your parent, to protect you.
Alex:  Protect me from what?  You think those dudes are going to come to life and get me?  Hahaha.  I'm not a baby, Mom.  I know it's a cartoon.
Me:  No, I think they come to life in your imagination, they give you bad dreams, and they show you things that might look funny or fun and are not. 
Alex:  Like what?
Me: Like hurting people or animals, or saying unkind words to others.  If you see it in a game, you might think, "Oh, that's not so bad" and it's not something we allow.  It doesn't hurt your body, it hurts your heart.
Alex:  But that other kid has them...
Me:  He wouldn't if he lived here.
Alex:  (pout)

Next Day:

Alex:  You know that kid I told you about?  The one with all the T games?
Me:  Yes.  What about him?
Alex:  I don't think he has very good parents.  They should protect him. They should protect his heart.
Me: (giving myself a mental fist-bump):  Every family has different rules. 

 

How I Learned to Love the Michelin Man

That's me doing the braking demonstration.  I'm now ready to try jumping over Snake River Canyon, I think, or at least drive in the rain.