With heavy hearts we said goodbye to friends Kendra and Adam (and their dog, Jake) on Wednesday, July 8, and turned our backs toward the West coast and headed East. It's always hard to know that you have already reached your furthest point West, but thankfully we have much left to explore out here. Our first stop on the other side of the Cascades was Smith Rock, one of our country's rock climbing meccas, where we spent the afternoon climbing and hiking through the beautiful Crooked River canyon. We found a great camp spot for the night, and enjoyed cooking and socializing with the long-term campers and climbing bums at the bivouac camp ground at Smith.
Smith Rock with Mount Jefferson of the Cascade Range in the background
Sagebrush feathers the landscape along the Crooked River canyon
Smith Rock and the aptly-named Crooked River
Our camp spot overlooking Smith Rock and the desert sky
The following day, on the way to Moscow, ID, our old Idaho hometown, we stopped through Walla Walla, WA to visit two wineries, L'Ecole Nº 41 and Three Rivers Winery. It was fun to explore, albeit briefly, an area we have never spent much time in, nor associated with good wines.
L'Ecole Nº 41, our first winery stop, features beautiful architecture and decor
Coming soon: photos and updates about our three days in Moscow, ID, as well as from the Lochsa, Selway and Salmon River Regions of mountainous central Idaho, where we will be camping and hotspringing for the next week. We will be off the map now for about 8 days, but we will post updates as soon as we can - maybe we'll find some random free wifi somewhere. You never know these days!
Since this past Friday, July 3, we have been spending marvelous, long days with our dear friends, Kendra, Adam, and their dog, Jake. We arrived in Corvallis, Oregon on Friday afternoon, where Kendra and Adam currently live. Both are originally from West Virginia, but are now spending a few years in Corvallis while Kendra gets her Masters. Since they don't live in the next state over from ours anymore, it was quite a pleasure to reunite once again.
We spent the Fourth of July weekend camping along the Oregon Coast, sampling local beers (mostly Rogue brewery), eating seafood, hiking along the dunes and coastal forests, and having long coffee and chatting sessions every morning. It was a wonderful time with old, great friends.
Here is a sampling of the fun times we had:
Sadie loves digging along the sea shore. She chases rocks we throw to her, then digs them into holes and finds them again.
Sadie waits with bated breath as Adam prepares to launch a rock down the shore.
Fishery doorway in the bay of Newport, Oregon
Local beers and fresh seafood at Local Ocean Seafoods in Newport, OR after two days of camping.
Adam, Kendra, Larissa, and Ryan in Newport, OR
Sasquatch sighting in Newport! Warning: this video may contain images that will shock and awe.
Our hike near the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area south of Florence, OR. The trail started at our campground and wound through dunes, forests, the beach, and a freshwater lake.
Rough skinned newt along our hiking path
Ryan's self portrait in the Oregon coastal woods
Big Trees, Little People
Kendra, Larissa, and Sadie fly and skip down a dune leading to Three Mile Lake, just off the beach - so many diverse ecosystems on this hike.
Larissa, Ryan, and Sadie on the Oregon Coast
Kendra hiking on the trail leading to the beach
Larissa and Kendra in the dunes
The dunes encroaching upon the forest
Adam and the tidal pools along the coast
Cliffs and coves along the beautiful Pacific coast
Tomorrow's adventure: say goodbye to Kendra, Adam, and Jake, and on to Smith Rock near Redmond, OR for some climbing and camping. Then, on to Moscow, Idaho, our old hometown for a few days!
Here is just a quick video update of our recent travels. The first is of Sadie crossing the border into Idaho, her home state. The second is of us driving along the Columbia River Gorge approaching Mount Hood yesterday on our way to Corvallis.
Today we're on our way to the Oregon Coast for a few days of camping with friends. Happy Independence Day!
After two days "off the map", we are shacked up in a motel in Baker City, Oregon - a bit off course from our original plan (which was to go through Bend on our way to Corvallis, OR), but we got a little behind so we are taking the fast track to Corvallis.
Here is a sampling of all the amazing things we've seen during the past 3 days. We've covered so much ground, it's become a bit of a blur, so let's review:
The Badlands of South Dakota:
Bighorn Sheep
Picnicking in the Badlands
Ryan's self portrait near our picnic site (tilt shift lens extravaganza)
Big Horn National Forest, Wyoming:
Our campsite by Crazy Woman Creek
Don't let this serene scene fool you; we slept through extremely high winds and rain that night.
Yellowstone National Park:
West Thumb Geyser Pools in Yellowstone
Geothermal activity flowing straight into Yellowstone Lake
Teton National Park:
This was taken from our camp ground - a beautiful sunset over Jackson Lake; once again, we awoke to a thunderstorm and rain at 5 a.m.
A stop in Pocatello, ID to see our friend, Christina, her cute house, and cute dogs:
Marley and Obe keep cool in the yard
Another terrific Western storm on our way across Southern Idaho
As I stood beneath the looming shadow of the Jolly Green Giant statue in Blue Earth, Minnesota, I observed the soothing flow of traffic on I-90 several yards away, and the cars slowly pulling in and out of the Dairy Queen parking lot across from the neatly trimmed lawns of Jolly Green's domicile. After months of anticipation, I knew in that moment that we had finally reached what Ryan so aptly describes in the current intro on our website as the "space in between."
It is this liminality that makes road trips so salient to our personal experiences as individuals and as a couple. We have officially and successfully separated ourselves from the doldrums of our day-to-day, our to-do lists, appointments, and social obligations. I am not implying that our lives are hard to bear by any means. But we realize how hard it can be for us, as members of our society, to truly travel/move/flee from our daily routines. It is the space in between that one must find from time to time that speaks to and galvanizes our lives when we are living our "normal" everyday existences. And the further and longer we travel from the routine into the space in between, the more cogent the effects will be on our well-beings.
In the following photos, we narrate the voices of Americana that we have been discovering along the way - those ironic, iconic, and campy artifacts of our lives as humans in this country.
Jolly Green beholds his vast prairie empire in Blue Earth.
Always seek a different perspective.
What defines a man?
The roadways of America are a clash of kitschy tourism and vacant businesses.
"Ben Biking" greets motorists just off I-90 in Sparta, Wisconsin, the bicycle capitol of the world.
Snack time at the Love's truck stop in Wisconsin where we ran into travelers from Chambersburg, PA, a town just 30 minutes from our own...all we could say was, "Small world!"
All there is left to do now is drive off into the sunset...
Tomorrow's adventure: The Badlands of South Dakota, Wall Drug, SD, Devil's Tower in Eastern Wyoming, and camping in Bighorn National Forest in central WY!
Our trip has begun! We pulled out of our driveway at approximately 8:15 a.m. on Sunday, June 28 and drove away from our cozy abode. It felt strange to be leaving a place we always used to travel long distances to visit. Now, it is our home and (most likely) permanent dwelling place, so this time we take to the open road not to go home, but to test our mettle at traversing the open highways of our country again. We take to the open road to make sure we aren't getting too comfortable at home.
The trip yesterday was very smooth, and we were even able to make a last minute stop in Cleveland to see our friend, Kathryn, who we had not seen in 3 years. We had a nice salad lunch, ate gourmet chocolate that Kathryn gave us as a gift, and walked down to Lake Erie for a few minutes while our dog played in the whitecaps lapping the shore.
Outside of Cleveland, and headed out into the plains of the mid-West, we hit some wind gusts that sent our gas mileage plummeting. Our Honda Fit normally gets excellent mileage for a non-hybrid, but since we have a roof box the winds seemed to grab it and push us in the other direction.
We arrived safely in Chicago at my best friend, Emily's, apartment around 8 p.m. last night after a long day of driving. We had a lovely dinner with her and her boyfriend, Jon, at Hopleaf Bar (mussels, wine, craft-brewed beer, yum) - and then went straight to bed!
The open road is like a long-lost friend you forgot you had. Once you are finally with it, you realize how much you missed it. Ryan and my relationship began on the road, so when we return to it, it stirs up memories and emotions from almost a decade ago. With your dog and spouse as your only companions, and your car, packed to the hilt, containing only possessions you truly need, one can't help but feel a deep sense of satisfaction and exhilaration at what lies ahead.
It's official, folks! The trip itinerary for our Creative Highways Project 2009 has been published. It is, of course, subject to change on a whim (we may make a left turn instead of a right way out there in the desert), but we will certainly be keeping you updated on our stops and photos along the way. Here is a summary of our trip:
June 28 – depart Mercersburg, PA for Chicago, IL to stay with Larissa’s best friend, Emily Adair Peterson. Urban fun, Vespa rides, perhaps a stop at The Hideout - and dinner out.
June 29 – Chicago, IL to Kadoka, SD, the gateway to the Badlands National Park and Wall Drug, both common stops on our past trips West.
June 30 – Kadoka, SD through the Badlands, and on to Bighorn National Forest, WY. Though not yet in the “Rockies”, this recreational area rises straight out of the central Wyoming plains and offers beautiful and dramatic vistas and higher elevation relief from the heat below. We’ve camped there before and love everything from the drive up to the explorations above.
July 1 – Bighorn through Yellowstone National Park (Yellowstone in the summer is a bit much to take. We can only take the bumper to bumper traffic through a wildlife area for so long - try it in the winter, it's glorious!), and on to Grand Teton National Park for more camping. The Tetons take our breath away.
July 2 – Breakfast in trendy Jackson, WY, then a drive to Bend, OR (via Pocatello, Twin Falls, and Boise, ID). Don't know if we'll have time to stop off for some climbing at Smith Rock, but it would be sweet. We were there in the fall before, though, so it might be a bit toasty to climb there in July.
July 3 – Bend, OR to Corvallis, OR to stay with friends, Kendra and Adam. Their dog, Jake, just had knee surgery, so even though he and our dog, Sadie, love to play, we'll have to make sure they only have so much fun! Kendra and Adam moved out to Oregon last fall so that Kendra could attend Oregon State University's graduate geology program. We're excited to see where they've been shacking up for the past year.
July 4-5 – Celebrating our furthest point West and our nation’s naissance on the Oregon Coast with Kendra and Adam. Mmmm, the misty Pacific sea cliffs, a camp fire on the beach, wine, the dogs, good friends - nothing like it!
July 6-7 – Bumming around Corvallis and Vicinity - hangin' with the dogs and Kendra and Adam.
July 9 – Walla Walla, WA to Moscow, ID, our old Idaho hometown, where we lived from 2001-2003! We will spend two nights staying in downtown Moscow and visiting old haunts such as John’s Alley, the Moscow Food Coop, friends, University of Idaho (Ryan's alma mater and Larissa's former employer), etc.
July 9-11 – Moscow, ID and Vicinity
July 11-13 – Moscow to Lochsa and Selway River regions for hotspringing, camping, and general no-man’s-land-ing.
July 13-15 – Lochsa/Selway area to Riggins, ID for camping on the white sand beaches of the Salmon River, our favorite river in the world! You get a whole beach to yourself! Hope to find French Creek hot springs way up along the canyon walls where we went for Ryan’s birthday in 2003.
July 15 – Riggins, ID to the South Fork of the Payette River near Lowman, ID. More hot springs and beautiful vistas of the Sawtooth Mountain Range await! Just the drive alone is gorgeous.
July 16 – To Redfish Lake, the furthest point East that salmon swimming from the Pacific Ocean along the Colombia River travel - a gorgeous lake near Stanley, ID, nestled along the Sawtooth Mountain Range.
July 17 – Redfish Lake, through the Sawtooths, south through the Snake River plain of Idaho, and on to Provo, UT for a motel, clean-up, and gearing up for more camping.
July 18-20 – Provo to Joe’s Valley in the Manti-La Sal Mountains, and the San Rafael River - a climbing and bouldering mecca and a place we remember loving to camp – gorgeous.
July 22 – Moab to Boulder, CO in search of the Green Hornet sushi roll, which we ate there way back in 2000 (our first year together). We think we might be able to find it here. Will it taste as good now as it did then?
July 23 – Boulder to St. Louis, MO – we’re truckin’ now, haulin' home.
Sagebrush feathers the landscape along the Crooked River canyon
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