Cozy quarters and land-trapped lakes

In the previous chapter, we ended our narrative on our way to Minnesota having wrapped up our visit to the Badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota. I (Kristy) have family in Grand Marais- a small town two hours north of Duluth on northern Lake Superior. After years of living in Bethel and hearing of similarly harsh weather reports, I was curious about this "isolated" northern locale in the Lower 48. It was high time I visited my uncle Ed, his wife Cindy and my cousin, Saffron, and it was a really relaxing and enjoyable time. Whew, a perfect hiatus after our long days on the road since Yellowstone.

To top of our visit, my Uncle Ed gave us a great tour of the town of less than 2,000. Though it's smaller than Bethel it feels way bigger and they have tons of cute restaurants, a dairy farm with raw milk, lake trout fishing, a food co-op! and best of all, the North House Folk School- a strong community program hosting traditional arts workshops. We're talking wooden boats, knitting, food preservation, blacksmithing, yurt building, oh my! I can't imagine having such a cool place in my community. Wait, I can and it makes me (and Andrew too) want to move there. Unfortunately, it gets cold in Grand Marais - Alaska style (or at least nearly), thanks to the lake. I'm sure the winter experience is very different in a town with places to hang out, but alas, onward we go towards a longer growing season and warmer weather.

Kristy and Ed (her mom's brother) by Lake Superior.

After a trip to the co-op in town, we hit the road for a short jaunt to the other side of Lake Superior in Wisconsin. We had a chance to stretch our legs again and get some healthy dirt under our fingernails on a 100 acre homestead and small organic fruit & veggie farm. Tom and Ann grow apples, peaches, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, all kinds of veggies, chickens, turkeys, and the list continues. This place definitely spoke to our souls- rustic, simple living that honors the earth combined with delicious, homegrown food, great conversation and a reunion with a favorite childhood auntie! I think Andrew and I are both looking forward to coming in to relation with the earth like this ourselves and living self-sufficiently. We'll see what opportunities unfold as we continue our journey.

Delicious, pesticide-free apples!

From Wisconsin, we made our way east through Michigan's Upper Peninsula and then down to Detroit where Andrew treated me to my first NHL hockey game. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision and so we were delighted to find just a few tickets left. Turns out, I might be able to get into hockey, though mostly I couldn't stop thinking of how I missed broomball. The Redwings swept the Avalanche 5-0 (just in case you're interested). We wrapped up a really fun evening with our second night in a Walmart parking lot, where apparently sleeping in your vehicle is not only perfectly legal, but encouraged. (I guess that's what all the underpaid sans-union employees have to do too.)

Andrew was like a kid in a candy store.

Oh and I forgot one, very important discovery on the way south towards Detroit: the sandy beaches of Lake Michigan!

Of course we had to stop for a stretch...

Black Beauty continues to impress us, though she's shy in this photo.

On our way to Rochester, New York to visit with Andrew's family, we stopped for a picnic lunch (well, we had a meat stick anyway) at the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. As you can see below, it was another beautiful day for sightseeing. Truth be told, the people watching was even better than the falls! (Did I just creep you out?) We remain incredibly grateful for the beautiful weather we've had the past 6 weeks. It only rained a couple of times- and it was no inconvenience to us. I haven't seen this much sun in the past 6 years in Bethel combined.

And so it's that time again, folks. Thanks for stopping by. We'll be mostly stationary for the next few weeks, so send us an email- we may even respond!

 Stay tuned for harrowing tales of family visits on the East Coast... :-)

One month and counting

Well we've been on the road for a whole month already. It doesn't quite feel that long but it certainly feels like we've been gone for a while. Despite chilly mornings and sleeping in confined quarters, we're feeling pretty darn good (especially after a several day Minnesota hiatus, which is where we're posting from!) And believe it or not, it's actually comfy in our truck bed, and pretty warm. My favorite part of the day is in the mornings- waking up still warm and cozy and then from under the covers, lifting the back window on the cap to the rush of crisp air and beautiful sunrise. It's nice to linger in this little bit of heaven. In southern Minnesota we opened the window for a while in the middle of the night it was so balmy.

Jewel Cave National Monument near the Black Hills of South Dakota

Of course, Andrew and I are definitely spending lots of time together- as in 24/7. We had a good time laughing to a Fleetwood Mac song on the radio a couple days ago. The lyrics are "ooooh waaaaaa I wanna be with you everywhere." I'm sure you know it- and hopefully it gets stuck in your head now all day. Well anyway, we started playfully singing, "I gotta be with you everywhere!" And it's true! This is the part that all of you probably realized months ago. Ah yes, five more months on the road. Haha. Below is a summary of our first month of travels:


Total official miles driven - 5,398.2... all the way from Anchorage to northern Minnesota and we're not even half way!

Favorite state so far- Wyoming (both of us!)

Favorite town- Grand Marais, Minnesota

Number of hot springs - 2 rustic, 2 developed

Boiling River in Yellowstone National Park.

Hot and lovely! I got a shoulder tan after 3 hours of delightful soaking.

Favorite "Lower 48" splurge- fresh artisan bread

Most common on-the-road meal- grilled cheese with avocado, tomato and soup

Minutes it takes fire man Andrew to start a fire - 3.26

Favorite road sign- (see below)

 Can you guess what this signs warns? 

Nights slept in a Walmart parking lot - 1 (so far) in Rapid City, South Dakota

Number of grizzly bears sighted - 3

Mama Grizzly and cub crossing a bridge in Yellowstone.

Number of people we met who kept a deer as a pet and drove around with it in their car - 1 (see photo of Paul & Nancy below)

Horses Kristy has rode (or touched)- zero..."horses horses everywhere, but not a one to ride" 

Number of showers - you might not let us stay with you if we told you

Favorite albums for the landscape: The Harrow & The Harvest- Gillian Welch; Gold in California- Kate Wolf;  Away We Go soundtrack- Alexie Murdoch plus; Rare Bird Alert- Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers

And now photos of said landscape for your viewing pleasure...

Yellowstone National Park

Even after 5 national parks, we were blown away by the incredibly varied landscape of Yellowstone: mountains, trees, a canyon, lakes, tons of animals and a super volcano beneath the surface.

Yellowstone caldera- a huge super volcano

We watched this coyote for 15 minutes up close

Lower Falls at Yellowstone Grand Canyon

Moonscape

Mud volcanoes, hot springs & volcanoes oh my!

And of course, what would Yellowstone be without Old Faithful?

Grand Teton National Park

We stopped by Grand Teton National Park on our drive from Yellowstone to visit with the Maddrey family in Idaho.  Our hike in the park was beautiful and, thankfully, uneventful. Just a couple of days ago, well after our time in the Tetons, we read about yet another hunter who was mauled (not fatally) by a grizzly there.  Good thing we are not hunting, just hiking... and I say lots of prayers to the bears. 

Grand Teton NP

Wyoming

 The spectacular drive across this unheralded state left me in tears. Beautiful!

We could almost picture a little place of our own here. Almost...

Rock village on a ridge top in the Bighorn National Forest

And on to the Black Hills of South Dakota...

Devil's tower- sacred land to many local tribes 

Crazy Horse Memorial with scale model in the foreground

50 years in the making already

The Badlands of South Dakota

We drove in at dusk and were immediately impressed by the hills and valleys of this stark and striking landscape. In the morning we woke before sunrise and embarked on a short hike and climb up the mud hills. (What are they called anyway?) We were shocked by how the hills were soft and susceptible to erosion- not the hard rock we expected.

And finally, hello to Paul & Nancy from Ohio who we met in Yellowstone.

Paul & Nancy from Ohio treated us to a delicious breakfast in West Yellowstone. Thank you!

And big hello and much gratitude to Susan, Smith, Wally, Owen & Lyles in Idaho- our short visit with you all was a highlight of our trip! I can't resist mentioning that I've been wearing my new hemp outfit almost every day, Susan- as you can see in the photos!

Susan is Michele's (Andrew's sister-in-law) best friend from Oregon

Cleaning Windows (Number a Hundred & 36)

Random blog post number a hundred and thirty six.  We're taking our time.  We'll post a recap of the past week later today or tomorrow.  We've received some nasty emails asking us to hurry up already and post something, anything about Yellowstone and bison and bears and the Badlands and all the annoying billboards littering South Dakota.  We have this message for you via Van Morrison: "Baby don't let it slide, I'm a workin man in my prime...cleaning windows."

PS!!! WELCOME TO THE WORLD,

MILES AUGUST RUCINSKI!!!

National Park madness

Banff National Park was breathtaking. We spent three nights in the park - one at a very chilly campsite, the next warming up at a hostel in Lake Louise and the third in the epicenter - Banff town. The first night was so chilly, in fact, that it was necessary that we air our truck bed out and dry some bedding. We had accumulated quite a bit of condensation that had frozen on the roof of the truck and on our blankets. Since then we've been experimenting with ventilation. Perhaps we had our windows cracked too much? 

It was nice to spend the night in the hostel indoors with time to read and relax, do some laundry and even take a sauna! (It was mostly weak - we sure are missing our steambath buds!!)

It's kind of strange the way Jasper and Banff both have towns inside the borders of the park. Jasper was pretty quaint (pop. 4,000) in the off season, but Banff was entirely overwhelming - even in October. The city of Banff was super upscale and in my humble opinion, way too overdeveloped. Think Paris meets wilderness. Tourism gone wild; sort of like Disneyworld. Amid all the 5-star resorts, chatteaus and palaces, we still managed to find a camp spot at least. We even took advantage of the high culture and attended a fabulous piano and cello concerto. I've been entirely enamored with the cello for the past couple of years - particularly the fiddlin' cello and of course Andrew plays the piano.  With all of our recent healing work and practice at presence, it felt wonderful to open ourselves to all the sensations of the music. Thank you, Beethoven.

Upscale 1920s style- Banff Hot Springs

I told you I had a onesie comin'.

After a day hike at Boom Lake the next day, we hit the road headed south, again right into yet another bordering national park. Crazy, huh! Kootenay NP was another variation of majestic.

Boom Lake in Banff NP

Frozen moss bubbles at Boom Lake

We stopped at some hot springs for a delicious morning soak. On the drive out we saw two wolves cross the road in front of us. Andrew swears they were coyotes but I'm holding strong on this one. :-) A huge, badass bighorn sheep barely allowed us to pass as we drove south on interstate 93.

 Very badass bighorn daddy-o.

Within no time at all, we had crossed into the States again! Well, not without a friendly border search! And I do mean that sincerely. The two border guards were downright chatty. Though they confiscated two oranges and a tomato ("fighting crime one orange at a time"), they allowed us to keep our beaver pelt, jarred caribou, salmon and tundra berry jam and dozen bags of suspicious-looking dried kale. Truth be told, they didn't see the kale! So sneaky we are! (sorry no pictures)

Montana is downright fabulous as well.  We were struck by the beauty of the mountains mingling with the plains, and the fall colors still in full display. Woo hoo! Here are some photos of our next few days in Glacier National Park:

Now we're a few hours south in the western, college town of Missoula. We stopped by the Occupy Missoula protests (hmmm) and are staying for another night with a sweet couple and their two pitbull-mix dogs. (Just like Cooper and Spencer!) Hopefully we'll catch some good ol' bluegrass music tonight before heading south towards Yellowstone tomorrow. 

Today marks 3 weeks of road trip fun! I can't say that without acknowledging that it has been difficult at times, no doubt... But we sure are a lucky bunch.

Lots of love!

Kristy

Canadian Rockies R' Us - Part II

From Liard Hot Springs the road was paved.  Just kidding.  This blog thing is great because even if you aren't laughing, I am.  Anyway, the drive was pretty spectacular, and we were lucky enough to see bison, caribou and stone sheep.

Look, Ruby & Moxy- we saw caribou on the side of the road along our drive!

Things were going great until we hit Fort Nelson - borrring.  And smelly (natural gas development).  And sad (entire swaths of forests cleared and left in burn piles).  And flat (no more majestic mountains) as we headed further south towards Dawson Creek. 

This about says it all...

The one highlight of this portion of the trip was the world's biggest beaver, in Beaver Lodge, Alberta. Jen Peeks - this is for you:

 I was happy as a clam to cross into Alberta because it was the first legitimate chance I had to expose Kristy to Bob Dylan's classic "Alberta #4" - if you don't know this song, you should!  We headed into the mountains again, this time towards Jasper National Park. 

Jasper NP is definitely amazing.  The small town has a distinct European feel which we later found out is due to the Swiss-infused architecture.  We chatted with locals, slept on the streets (in our truck) without being bothered by the mounty (yes, the mounty) and went on a few spectacular day hikes.  Kristy and I were literally so astounded on the drive in we both agreed it might be the most beautiful place we'd ever seen.

We were actually delighted to see snow!

We felt guilty forsaking the beauty of Alaska so easily, but Jasper was indeed magical. We thought its beauty was unparalleled...until we began the drive south to bordering Banff National Park.