Hot Dogs and Cold Showers

Angels and Narrows

Ben and I made our way up to Utah and headed into Zion National Park via the coolest park entrance yet. The drive takes you from the top of the red rock canyon, circling around the cliffs and through tunnels until you reach the bottom of the canyon and finish the drive along the river. This was the perfect start to what became one of my favorite parks on this trip. For our first full day, we decided to take on the Angel’s Landing hike, a notoriously terrifying hike that takes you about two miles up the canyon via a series of switchbacks until you hit a flat landing. Then the final mile climbs up the spine of the ridge, with canyon drop-offs on both sides. The narrow width and steepness of the climb requires you to pull yourself up via a bolted chain that runs the length of the spine. There are certain areas where one slip can prove to be your final mistake, one that I almost made. Had I let go of the chain during my butt-slide slip on the way down, I might have gotten to the bottom a whole lot faster. It was terrifying and amazing and rewarded us with a view that can’t be matched. I hope the pics do it justice, but I’m not sure that’s possible.

We ended Zion with the Narrows hike, an outstanding hike in the bottom of the canyon, through the river. After a couple miles, you get to the area of the canyon where you have to hike in the water, as the sheer walls on both sides provide no flatland. It was a uniquely awesome hike, one I’ll definitely do again when I hopefully make it back to this magnificent place. Turns out, there’s way more to Utah than polygamists and weak beer.

August 22, 2016 0

Dead Wood and a Giant Crack

Left New Mexico for Arizona via a drive through the Petrified Forest National Park, an apocalyptic looking place containing giant deposits of petrified wood, which is basically wood that has turned completely to stone. Worth a drive through, but since there’s very little camping done here, I moved on to the Grand Canyon, where I was joined by the boyfriend Ben! It’s been a long stretch alone, and while I make great company, I was tiring of myself. We camped in the park with lots of elk and giant ravens, eventually making our way through the crowds to do a pretty intense hike down the canyon. Of course the intense part came on the way back up when the temperature had climbed to sauna level. But what an enormous crack it is, so much so that it almost looked fake. Quite an amazing thing to see, I’d love to get back for a rafting trip someday. The pictures do a better job of summing up this impressive park.

August 15, 2016 0

Do You Know the Way to Santa Fe?

Or maybe it’s San Jose, but I did find my way to Santa Fe. Finally made it to the southwest, goodbye humidity, hello heat and that is just fine with me! I camped in the Santa Fe National Forest, a great spot up a mountain. I just happened to be there during the International Folk Arts Festival, a really neat art fest that featured artists from small towns and villages all over the world. I also got a chance to spend a lot of time in Santa Fe and a bit of time in Albuquerque. The natural landscape, the people, the art, and the food made me fall in love with these two little towns. My mouth was on fire basically the whole time I was there due to hot chiles covering every morsel of food, and it was fantastic.

I really enjoyed my time in New Mexico, and a lot of that was due to the people. There is a strong focus on art and also Native American culture and history. I was able to talk to an artist at length about environmental issues that occur in on some of the reservations due mostly to mining companies that only do enough to meet the lowest level of environmental regulations and standards. Interesting to hear about, yet also frustrating.

Oh, and I took a hike up the mountain and assumed I was following the trail. It started getting so steep, I had to essentially bear crawl to make it up. After an exhausting climb, I started heading back down and eventually got to where the trail actually went. Turns out I was on some sort of rogue trail, probably made by more hardcore people than I. Oops.

August 4, 2016 0

Gettin’ My Kicks

*Note – I’m super behind on these, oops!

My next move took me to Hot Springs, Arkansas, the hometown of my freshman year dorm roomie Kim! I stayed in Hot Springs National Park, at the Gulpha Gorge campground. The site was a major step up from the previous one, it was located on a creek and had some great hiking right from the grounds. I did a hike up to Goat Rock, which gave a nice view of Hot Springs National Park. Along the way I met a retired couple who just started RVing around the country, hoping to hit every national park. We had a lot to chat about and I got some great insight from them. The major draw of Hot Springs Park, is, well, the Hot Springs! Because the water comes out at 143F, it is too hot to allow visitors in any of the natural springs, so all access to the hot springs are in bathhouses, fancy buildings located in the downtown area. I checked them out a bit, but after the steamy weather the previous week, paying to sit in hot water didn’t appeal to me. I only stayed for a night, but it was enough to check out the park and see where my old roomie grew up!

After Arkansas, it was time to hop on Route 66 (or at least on the higher speed road that follows it) and check out all the weird and wonderful sites along the way. Cadillac Ranch, the Blue Hole, and the Route 66 museum were a few of the stops. Oh, and how could I forget, the Big Texan, Amarillo’s steakhouse that offers the 72 oz. steak eating challenge. Don’t finish it all, including sides, you better be ready to cough up $72. I passed. The drive through Oklahoma and Texas would otherwise be very boring, Route 66 roadside attractions were a welcome distraction.

I scare myself in this picture

July 27, 2016 0

Nashville and Memphis, Ya’ll

The next four nights, including the 4th of July weekend, were spent in Nashville and Memphis. My time was mostly spent in honky-tonks and blues clubs, eating BBQ, and visiting Graceland! I will admit, being solo over the 4th was a little tough and left me missing my guy, my dog, my friends, and my fam over the holiday weekend! Also, my campground in Memphis, unbeknownst to me, was located next to a wastewater treatment plant and literally smelled like shit. Combine that with hot, humid temps and an insane amount of mosquitoes and its safe to say I hit a low point on my trip!

But alas, the saving grace, pun intended, was my visit to Graceland. The weird and wonderful world of Elvis was quite a sight to see, the pictures will speak for themselves. We weren’t allowed to go upstairs and I have now formed a mild obsession with finding out what resides on the second floor. Apparently, Elvis fanatics join me in this obsession and the rumor is that only Lisa Marie and the curator of Graceland are allowed up there. I imagine Elvis entombed in a glass case or something. Long live the King!

Oh! On the way from Nashville to Memphis, I couldn’t help but pull over for the signs to Loretta Lynn’s Dude Ranch; she is a favorite of mine. It’s actually her plantation house, but she no longer lives there. You couldn’t go in, but the whole ranch was weird, impressive, and worth a 15 minute stop.

July 11, 2016 0

No Lions, No Tigers, BEARS!

I arrived to Elkmont Campground on the Tennessee side of Great Smokey Mountain National Park to a strict warning from the front office, there had been bear activity in the campground that week and all food, cooking equipment, and scented items had to be kept in the car at all times or I would face an $80 fine. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t jump at every little noise for the two nights I stayed at the campground, even though I was spooning my bear spray and literally kept everything else inside my car. I survived without a bear injury, but didn’t get much sleep! The Smokies, on the other hand, were absolutely fantastic. My first hike was up to a waterfall, so awesome, and on the way back down, I actually encountered a bear! I was turning a corner on the trail when I saw the bear scurry up the mountain about 10 feet from me. The woman coming from the other direction said she saw the bear actually cross the trail path and run up; had I been 15 seconds earlier, I may have gotten a real bear hug of the unwanted variety. I have to say, it was pretty awesome, terrifying, and a great reminder that we are just visitors in these parks and the wildlife are really running the show. Another hike took me to the very top of the Smokies, which also happens to be the highest point on the Appalachian Trail. The views were outstanding, I was indeed standing in the clouds, the reason the park got its name. It really was breathtaking, literally the hike was really steep and I was totally out of breath at the top. But also, a magnificent landscape in all directions. And now I can say I hiked a portion of the Appalachian Trail and feel no need to hike the entire thing. At least not in one shot.

Elkmont was located right outside of Gatlinburg, a kitschy town with moonshine distilleries, Ripley’s Believe-It-Or-Not museums, and every type of weird putt-putt one could imagine. A little strange, but totally ‘Merican. I took the Newfound Gap drive and Blue Ridge Parkway drive to Asheville for my last night in the Smokies. The drives in the Smokies are really magnificent. Because the mountains are covered in forestation, the winding roads feel like a magical woodland jungle. Asheville itself was awesome, I only had one night there and will definitely be going back. Upon advice from my great friend Mo, I “snuck in” to the Grove Park Inn, a super fancy hotel on the side of a mountain overlooking all of Asheville and the Smokies. I hung out there for bit and enjoyed the views before leaving the fancy life and heading back to the great outdoors.

July 9, 2016 2

To the Batcave Robin!

Bourbon, bluegrass, and a giant cave system, welcome to Kentucky! The first thing I usually do when I get somewhere new is head to the campsite, set up my tent, and figure out a loose game plan for my current location. Well, when I got to the tent portion in Mammoth Cave National Park Campground, my routine came to a halt. One of my tent poles had cracked and wouldn’t stay in its designated home. I tried all my engineering skills to fix it, and actually had the whole tent up with a stick brace, until I put the last little hook on and it all came crashing down. The end of the pole had actually cracked off. Luckily, I had decided to throw my old, crappy tent into my car. I set it up and hoped any rain would lay off for the next couple nights, which it did! And, thanks to REI’s return policies, I was able to pick up a brand new tent for no charge at my next stop. Crisis averted.

Anyway, Mammoth Cave National Park, very neat. The cave system is the longest in the world, at 405 total miles. It gets its name from the humongous “rooms” within the system. You have to take one of the number of tours in order to enter the caves so I did the historic one (on recommendation from a friend, thanks Haley!). It was really quite a spectacle to see and the tour guide actually had a lot of interesting information about how the cave was formed, how it was discovered, and the activities that used to take place inside. There are extremely narrow and tight areas you have to crawl your way through and again, giant areas that seem to go on forever. Unfortunately, white nose syndrome has wiped out a majority of the once thriving bat population in the caves and the national park is taking measures to stop the spread of the fungus, but they are admittedly losing the battle. Outside of the caves, the above ground portions of the park are also beautiful, I took a few hikes both inside and out of the caves and really enjoyed both. I would definitely recommend this park for a weekend trip, or even a day trip down from Louisville.

On a side note for all you Mentor Cardinals reading this, Senor Bolton, an old Mentor High Spanish teacher, works at the national park visitor center. I recognized him right away and asked if he was the same guy. He responded that he was, said he retired, and then turned his back to me. Apparently, he’s still kind of an ass!

July 6, 2016 1

Boiler Up!

Note: I am way behind on these posts due to lack of cell service which leads to lack of internet. My bad.

Chi-town! One of my most favorite places! The trip was filled with some dear friends from Purdue, who put me up and showed me a fantastic time. I started in the burbs with my old college roomie and amazing friend Cass and her family and then moved on to the city at my equally amazing friend Matt’s house, which he shares with his lovely girlfriend Haley. All of the above people, plus some other old Purdue pals, met for dinner and shot the shit. It was great to catch up and reminisce on days spent making questionable, but hardly ever regrettable decisions. Matt and I, along with some of his buds, also saw a really awesome Phish show. One of the better ones out of the handful or so that I’ve attended. We ended the weekend with dim sum, an arts fest, and homemade pasta! Matt, your culinary skills are impressive, thanks for the lesson.

On my way out of Chicago, I had to stop at Purdue. It’s been 10 years since I’ve been, TEN YEARS. I can’t believe it. At first glance, everything seemed different. There were so many establishments I didn’t recognize, but the deeper in I went, the more familiar it felt. I guess a lot of things end up that way, different on the periphery, but the meat always stays the same. Campus looked great, Boiler Up!

Oh, almost forgot, had my best dog of the trip so far in Chicago, no surprise there!

The old house!

The old party house!

July 5, 2016 0

Believeland!

I couldn’t have picked a better time to visit the homeland than for the NBA Finals where the Cleveland Cavs finally won a well-deserved championship! Seeing the city come alive with joy, excitement, good will, and so much pride was something I’ll never forget. I capped off the celebration with 1.3 million other fans through the streets of Cleveland at the parade. I am so happy for the city, Go Cavs and Go Tribe!

Besides basketball, which took over a lot of the week at home, I also had a chance to visit Cuyahoga National Park, just south of Cleveland. My parents, Kevin, and I did a little hiking and checked out Brandywine Falls. Not too shabby. I visited a lot of old friends, spent time with the fam, and made good use of the shower, bed, and home-cooking. Also made a pit stop at Niagara Falls on the drive in, I haven’t been since our 9th grade class trip, still a pretty long drop!

Kevin’s portion of the trip has come to an end, he’ll be spending the rest of the summer with the Stalkers in Cleveland. No more smoke monsters for him! At least not this summer. Next, I’m off to Chicago to reunite with some fellow boilermakers, see a Phish show at Wrigley Field, and probably polish off a Chicago hot dog.