josh ritter homeland

I have six minutes left on the public computer so will have to tell you about the homeland of Josh Ritter later. Idaho's northern half has redeemed the state after my drive through the southern bit last year. Highway 12 is hands down the most beautiful drive I've ever taken. Moscow was full of weirdos and friendly people, the perfect town to have produced Josh Ritter. Now we're in "must-see" Coeur d'Alene and are set to explore it. We're hoping that there's more to it than the condos that meet our eyes.

For those of you who've asked: if you want to send us mail, do it quick. We'll be in Chehalis, WA on June 2nd and there for a few days. You can do it by sending mail to us at:

Stephanie and Tim Pierce
GENERAL DELIVERY
Chehalis, WA 98532

No trinkets or large things we'd have to pack. Much love to you all...it's time to deepen the Chaco tan lines on my feet.

we love bozeman

After not shower for 5 days, we pulled into Bozeman, Montana and discovered a gem we LOVE! We checked into a hotel and showered - sweet action numero uno. Then we got to see a kick ass farmers market. Then we walked around a small town with 3 awesome independent bookstores. And good restaurants. Where we got yummy local pizza and yummy beer. And they have the greatest public library known to mankind. Bikes and pedestrians line the streets. The dogs are happy and calm. A river runs through it. We love Bozeman!

mount washburn summit video

Shaky video due to wind and windedness...

yellowstone

The first thing you see coming into Yellowstone's south entrance are towering walls of rock that look like they're right out of a Lord of the Rings movie. To add to the awe we were feeling, it was the first place that our National Parks Access pass got us into. $25 for $80 and counting! It was late so we ended up having to go camping in the biggest site in Yellostone - almost 400 sites were there. I was so prepared for Yellowstone rules. I'd read a million different pamphlets, websites, and books about bear safety and the proper way to keep food smells and other odors away from you and away from the scent of bears. Consequently, we were pretty surprised as we pulled into the campsite to see people washing dishes at the water stations, throwing food and wrappers into fires, throwing food away without it being bagged first, etc. And despite the 100 yard rule people are supposed to keep from bears and wolves in the park, not to mention bison, people would get out and park across the street from these animals, edging closer and closer, to get their photo op. I think they think they're in a safe zoo, or that they imagine there's still TV glass in between them and their big adventure.


Our first night we camped across beautiful Yellowstone Lake. We figured out that if we were up early, we could get to a remote site the next day, which was one of the first things that went according to plan. As we headed for the site, we had our first bear site: a mama grizzly and two cubs. A ways down the road, we saw a black bear grubbing in the grass. We got a sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet campsite at the Tower Junction, and just kept our tent there for the next 2 nights. The rest of the time, we hiked ourselves into oblivion.

We decided to summit Mount Washburn first...our map said it was a 2.5 mile hike in and back, but it failed to account for switchbacks. We kept our GPS on and when we finally crawled back to our van, it had been a 9 mile plus hike, gaining 2,000 feet on the way up and then 2,000 feet back down. The start was beautiful. It was early spring up there, so the wildflowers were out. Blue, purple, yellow, white, pink, orange...I have never seen such amazing wildflowers. As we got further up, the vegetation faded along with our breath and stamina. The wind picked up to make up for it. By the time we were to 10,000 feet, we were walking next to snowbanks that were still 15 feet high. And by the time we made the final summit to a very lonely fire-spotter ranger living quarters, the wind felt gale force strong and our feelings of triumph were wilted a bit by the whipping the altitude gave us. Us poor little flatlanders.

The next day, we played it mild and hiked Lost Lake. Aside from a swarm of mosquitoes, it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. Alpine sage brush meadows with even more impressive wildflower displays. Waterfalls. Blue water reflecting snow covered mountains. Playing antelope. Trees twisted into strange shapes from the wind and providing such wonderful shade it seemed like they were there just for us--of course, they are there for themselves and everyone else, but it seemed like it at the time. Even though this was a fairly easy hike, we were so pooped from the day before that we fell into our tent exhausted in the afternoon. We slept so soundly, we didn't notice the spooked bison run through our campground a few feet from our tent. We were told about it later by some incredulous fellow campers who'd just arrived.


We left Yellowstone early in the morning on a weekday, so the roads were fairly quiet. That's probably why we were the first to come upon a subordinate grizzly in the road. (That's right - subordinate. It's a teenage bear who has recently been kicked out of mama's protection. For those of you haven't attended a Yellowstone ranger talk - put it on your To-Do list if you vist. We loved the ranger talks and I learned so much about bears that I now feel like I understand them a little more and fear them just a little less.) Cars started piling up on either side of us soon. The idiots starting trundling out of their cars, right next to the grizzly. We had stopped, trying to give the griz the 100 yards. But it was walking right toward us, and cars were lined up behind us, so we had no choice. It munched juicy green grass, not caring much about us at all, right up to our car and past. I could feel my stomach tighten a little bit, just because they are really intense looking creatures. It walked by us so close that if I'd been as big of an idiot as everyone else there, I could have reached out and touched him.

And I'm still alive. Maybe a little more so.

black hills

As we made our way to the Black Hills, we hit Rapid City, South Dakota. We thought that as a major entryway into a major national forest, that it would be set up for tourists and backpackers...but we were wrong. We spent forever turning around and around in the city before fleeing to the hills and spending our first night there in the aforementioned expensive campground that caused our trip meltdown.

We realized a few things that night. That we needed to figure out how to camp for free. That we needed to scale way back on the places that we were going. That we fought the most when we spent the most time in the car rather than out and about. Our first night, we fell into uneasy slumber while all of this rolled through our heads and our first Black Hills hailstorm rolled over our heads.

We woke to a sunny morning and headed straight for the ranger station, a move that has since proved to be extremely useful. We leveled with the rangers and told them we wanted to hike and camp for free, and they told us how we could do it. We headed into the Black Elk Wilderness, and plotted out a 14 mile mountain hike that would have us sleeping out on the trail for a night while the van was parked at the trailhead. The day before our hike we spent getting our bags ready and hanging out in Hill City, which really helped to improve our mental states. Hill City was what we expected Rapid City to be. There was a cool outfitter in town and some decent people watching. We slept in the van that, and another hail storm moved over us that was extremely loud on the top of the van. As the night went on, we thought the storm had lulled but when we got out the next morning, realized that a build up of hail on the top of the van had just dulled the racket. There was still an inch of pea sized hail on the ground that morning and it stayed in many spots all through the day. Figuring that we were in for a storm the night that we were going to spend in the backcountry, we headed out prepared with warm clothes and rain gear.

The morning of the hike was intensely beautiful. Mountain streams were running high, making for many stream crossings in the middle of the trail. We rambled around and scrambled up rocks to get amazing views of the forest and the mountains. We relaxed. Toward the early afternoon, just after passing some trail horse riders, we heard grumbles of thunder. We picked up the pace, but it was to no avail: the hail came early that afternoon and we got drenched. It didn't matter to us: we were surrounded by beauty and inside rain coats so the soaking wasn't too terrible, until I realized that my backpack that I had been told was waterproof wasn't actually waterproof. If we stayed out that night, I'd be in wet clothes. So we decided to take our easy 2 day hike and do it in one day.

I'm pretty proud of the fact that we made all 14 mountainous miles in good spirits even though we were starting to get pretty tired. It was about 50 degrees when we got back to our van but I wanted a shower right then and there. Tim, in all his husbandly glory, filled up his 6L water bag and hooked it up to a tree and we showered in the freezing water in the cold air. After our teeth stopped chattering, we headed into Hill City and treated ourselves to a hot meal of local buffalo (pretty much everything in Hill City has buffalo in it). We didn't even wake up for the hail storm that night.

Sorry - no pics this time. I'm done fighting with Blogger when it doesn't want to work. We'll see if Picasa or something else can help with the picture situation but it sucks up a lot of time to sit here in coffee shops and try to get it to work.

backtrack to the badlands

Before we hit the Black Hills and our trip meltdown, we hit the Badlands -- but we didn't have a chance to post any of the pictures from the Badlands on. We're resting comfortably in a hotel room in Bozeman, Montana right now, freshly showered after a 5 day shower-fast. We have a few states and about 200 pictures waiting for their chance to shine in our humble little blog. If you know your geography, you know that not only have we hit the Badlands and the Black Hills, but we've also been through Yellowstone. Stay tuned for a few posts in the next day or so before we fall offline again as we trek out to the coast. And to save you the suspense: yes, we did see bears in Yellowstone. Yes, grizzlies. Yes, more than once. No, I wasn't mauled.

It's getting late here in the mountains, so here's a few pictures of the Badlands. Tomorrow we'll post some of our saga in the Black Hills and hopefully a monster post for Yellowstone. My favorite part of the Badlands wasn't what it's reputed for. We did stop and take pictures of the stark, striated cliffs and while they were impressive and otherworldly, we really didn't linger in those parts. They're vastly inhospitable. We loved the more temperate area near Sage Creek Campground - a FREE campground out in the middle of nowhere with a great vault toilet free of stink. I could spend a week in that area just walking around the hills without ever needing to go see the scenes the Badlands is known for. Before a lighting storm right over our heads, we climbed to the top of a hill and saw a beautiful sunset and avoided the first of many bison flops. Can you spot our van and tent?
































Coming up next: the Black Hills experience after we got a meltdown under our belts.

reconfiguring

We have some pictures of some cool windmill farms in South Dakota, of us at the largest ball of twine, and a few other oddities. Perhaps some time we'll post them but for right now, we're more in the mood to figure out geocaching and do some trip planning. I think we're going to spend some time reconfiguring. The weather has matched our emotions: wild, vacillating, lots of breathtaking storms, many mornings of waking to brilliant sunshine and peaceful puffs of clouds in the sky. We're going offline for what could be quite a while...but who knows. Today we're planning a hike in Black Elk National Forest and we're going to figure out where it is that we really want to go on this trip...doing some storming and hopefully some forming after that.

A quick aside...if any of you are thinking of dropping the $80 bucks on an annual pass for the national parks, forests, and rec areas: think twice. It's a giant rip-off. It's not worth anything that we've discovered so far, and it certainly doesn't help you with camping site fees. It's stealth camping for the rest of the trip for us. RVs have turned camping into an expensive affair...most places are now charging the same rate for tenters as for RVers.

pictures from Minnesota

Unexpected and slightly creepy Franconia Sculpture Park.


















Climbing around at Interstate State Park, amidst glacial potholes ranging from 6 feet deep to vertigo-inducing deep.






























Sunset at Plum Creek, just before a lightning show and thunderstorm that would have rattled Laura Ingalls Wilder's and her family's teeth.

success!

The curtains are fully cut, sewn, and grommeted! Certified fight free! Tomorrow morning as we depart for the wilds, we will ceremoniously hang them for the first time in our MiniVan/MaxiFun as we swat away the jubilant Minnesotan mosquitoes.

And another thing: Tim is making me a love drink, introduced to us by our favorite North Oakians.

pre-dinner reflections on the last night at oriole lane

We've got some great pics forthcoming from the travels we've been on with Nicole around the Twin Cities this past week (she's more dutiful and timely than us; see here). Aside from the deranged sculpture park we stumbled upon today, my favorite place we've been is the Interstate State Park that straddles Wisconsin and Minnesota. The St. Croix river cuts in between steep cliffs that are pocked with glacial potholes. The "potholes" range from six feet deep with algae glazing the tops of the ponds left inside to massive gashes that are a little dizzying to stare down into. Unfortunately, Christopher was unable to damn the man so he had to work during this particular adventure.

We're slated to head out of their welcoming and comfortable house tomorrow. Destination: Badlands. We're still trying to finish the curtains. Nicole taught me how to use a sewing machine last night and our zig-zaggily hemmed curtains are ready for grommets that we'll use to attach them to suction cups (this stroke of genius came from dyed-in-the-wool idea gal Nicole). Tim and I haven't killed each other yet over the curtains but we have continued our pointless arguments over them and a few other oddities. I seem to have some terrible affliction in which I get completely irritated by his suggestions and then feel awful later when I've botched something up which would have been fine if I'd listened, e.g., I mismeasured a curtain so now we have to be a wee bit creative with how to hang it. Aside from the fact that arguing about something like curtains with your best friend sucks, I find it extremely frustrating that we are having such a hard time collaborating and working as a team. I *do* think that we've gotten better but that seems like a small consolation at the moment.

The crux of it is that we both want to be right, neither of us wants to make a mistake, we feel the stakes are high, and we want to be in control. Surely this shouldn't be so difficult to figure out. Har har. And yes, I know all the things that we're supposed to be concentrating on and I know what's most important, but while we ride out this tension together I think both of our hearts are feeling a little bruised.

Enough of all that...you can tell what's on my mind. The good news is that we've been cuddling up with the new cat in town at Nicole and Chris's: Marco, a sweetie pie from LA. We've been served amazing meals by our unendingly generous friends who have shown us how to do things like glass art (it's not fusing...it's something else where you get to play with torches and explosives) and sewing. We got to look at a full suit of armor every day for the last week. We got to see some sights inside and outside of the Twin Cities. We mailed 18 pounds of our stuff back to Catye's again and got rid of another huge box in the van. We laughed a whole lot in between bicker sessions. It's not all been tough. And now we're going out to a Vietnamese dinner!

A Day No Posts Would Be Posted

So, our laptop started crashing in Neenah as we were heading out of town toward Minneapolis. Today, it has returned to us after traveling back through time to June 2nd. How great would System Restore be for humans? I could go back to yesterday morning and not say a bunch of stupid stuff to Stephanie that pretty much ruined our day. It would mean I would have to resew the hole I drilled through my sock on Monday when I was cutting down my clothes box, but that's a small price to pay to have some poorly chosen words stricken from the record.

This is the point where "I can't stand blogging" goes through my head because I don't really know what to post and what not to post. I guess I'll just be honest and say the last few days have been really hard on the both of us. We've been struggling with each other through nearly every decision and indecision: It ranges from how we should pack to how we should travel and what we'll do along the way to whether we should even be going at all. On our walk this morning, we admitted to each other that we're both anxious and afraid about a lot of aspects of this trip and it's coming out in the form of a power struggle over nearly everything.

This trip isn't a vacation. There isn't a set path, destination or timeframe and we really don't know what we're risking to be out here, much less what potential reward awaits us. Are we going to return with our nest egg scrambled asking "What was all that about?" Both of us have thought seriously of turning around and going "home" and both of us are wondering what the heck we'd be doing next if we did. Right now, it's hard to say what we're doing out here. We're poised to leave our last Midwest bastion of familiarity to head out into the great plains and we're arguing to the death about how many suction cups to use on the van's curtains while someone somewhere doesn't have enough to eat or a roof over her head. But we did get to see pictures of a 2000ft string cheese in Weyauwega, Wisconsin. It's surreal, confusing and frustrating at the same time.

What I do know is that we've experienced the most incredible generosity from many of our friends and people keep telling us that what we're doing is something they'd like to be doing also. So I guess we've decided to put our nest egg and sanity on the line, betting that there is something deep down in all of us that wants to have an adventure and be free. We're wagering that this feeling wouldn't exist unless we were designed for the pursuing of it and that following these instincts might be scary but somehow worthwhile. We'll see, huh?

a weekend of brothers

It is a dark and stormy night tonight, the second in a row. We're now in Neenah, Wisconsin with my brother Carl, having said goodbye to Grafton and Steve (Tim's bro) earlier today. As we drove through some more odd Wisconsin towns on the way to see Carl today, a little warm spot for Wisconsin snuck in. Carl and I took a trip out to see Eric (our older brother) almost a decade ago when I first got my driver's license. Eric lived in Minneapolis at the time and I didn't want to drive on any freeways because I still had never driven on them and was scared about it. We took a state highway through Wisconsin as far as we could, and drove past lots of green pastures and old barns while blasting our teenage music.

Driving today to see Carl reminded me of how much I enjoyed that drive even during my years of mopey-teen-goth inability to appreciate the little things like sunny meadows. In one of the towns we drove through today, a group of about 10 people were marching down the street by themselves playing drums and bagpipes. In another, a group of people stood outside a scrappy bar, drinking beer just after noon on a Sunday and getting ready for some local band to come and play in the parking lot. Wisconsin seems to be full of weirdly interesting and generally nice people. The little towns don't feel like they're hanging on by their last nails like they do in Michigan. It's really a pleasure to see. Aside from the religiously freakish obsession with the Packers, Wisconsin ain't half bad.

Tomorrow we'll pull out of Wisconsin and if all goes well, we'll be in the Twin Cities in the afternoon. Both of our "little" brothers are leaving college and it's been great to spend a little time with them during such a tranisition oriented period in their lives. I've gotten to see Carl settling into a new routine post undergrad life. He's got an apartment with his good friend that they're keeping clean, is starting to enjoy his job, and is trying not to worry too much about anything else (which isn't too hard for him). I'm curious to see the next couple years unfold for him.

When we first pulled out of Chicago, I was a little worried that we were going to be spending the whole weekend with Steve and just this afternoon with Carl, but now that I've had a little reflecting time I'm glad that it worked out this way. Aside parkour played in a park in the dark, getting caught in thunderstorms, and seeing people that took themselves way too seriously at a Pirate Festival, the three of us spent most of the weekend in deep conversation about taking chances and getting second ones, spirituality, relationships, and change. I think this was the first time that Steve and I have really had a chance to talk like that with each other. Some of the defenses I had up I put aside, so I got to know this "new" brother much better. It was really a wonderful weekend and I'm so glad we had the time to spend there.

Thanks for hosting us, bros!

Field Museum of (un)Natural History

Barely evading museum security, we had so much childish fun that we had to make a separate post of our findings. Mom Pierce - this is especially for you, Ms. Monkey.

Feeling so evolved and metropolitan in Chicago, we were surprised to find that we bore a striking resemblance to some of the exhibit animals.



































Amidst the primates, Stephanie caught a glimpse of her arch nemesis...

Bittersweet Chicago

For 2 nights we stayed at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago, close to the "Mag Mile," as all the maps now say. Magnificent is too long to spell and just so not hip. We were both really excited to live it up in a sleek and shiny city as our kickoff to a summer spent in a van and camping. The first day we left our hotel, we were headed toward the Shedd Aquarium and found ourselves moving further away from city streets and more toward the park and greenways. After about 20 minutes of wandering, we both noticed that instead of gawking at all the buildings and the bustling sidewalks like we were "supposed" to be doing in the big ol' city, we had sought out the calm, green areas as soon as possible. More realizations like this happened over the 2 days, and we left Chicago realizing that while we had previously both thought that living in a huge metropolitan city would be a great thing, that we're no longer those people. We reflected on how much we enjoyed Grand Rapids' midsized nature...and agreed that we could go back to GR if we didn't want to live elsewhere and feel great about that decision.

We're in a bit of a rush because we want to go to the Pirate Festival that's happening here in Grafton, Wisconsin, the small town that Tim's brother Stevie is living in with some buddies for the summer. We'll post some pics from Chicago that we hope you find amusing and will hopefully find some time for a bit more substance on sleepy Sunday. But if not -- that's the nature of the road. Mwahahaha!

Chicago or bust! (sort of)

Yesterday we pulled out for Chicago - or so I thought! Tim surprised me by booking a night at the bed and breakfast we stayed in last year in Saugatuck when we got married. We stopped at the beach where we got married and did some reminiscing. It's been almost a year (June 30 it will be a year exactly) since we got married and the time has really zipped by. Starting out here for our trip really solidified in my mind that this trip is really about our lives and an amazing journey together, more so than just individual adventures.

As we were leaving the beach, we heard some crashing about in the brush. A minute later, a grizzled biker stepped out of the trees looking very puzzled. Turns out he was geocaching and couldn't find his cache. We started poking around helping him look while he explained the ins and outs to us. We found the cache hidden in a tree stump. It was full of useless baubles, but the thrill is more in the hunt than the catch, I suppose. We bid our goodbye to truckdrivers (his geocaching handle) and looked at each other gleefully: thanks to Nicole and Chris, we'll be able to do some treasure hunts soon also...as soon as we figure out how to work the GPS.

It really sunk into me as the day progressed that we were really gone, that this big adventure I've been dreaming about and planning for is really happening. It's a strange feeling of exhilaration, slight disbelief, and a little bit of anxiety. I know we're not really "cut loose" because our friends and family are amazing, but it still feels a bit that way.

This morning we're heading to Chicago for real...by way of Grand Rapids. We have to go back to the city because we both realized as we tried to get things out of the van that it's impossible. I can't even move the box of books we have. So we're going to try to go back to Catye's house where we're storing our stuff and sneak in without her noticing so we don't have the embarrassment of having to explain in person why we're there. The goal is to eliminate at least one of the huge white chair boxes that we're using as drawers. Neither of us is very excited to make this detour, but an hour and a half now will save us a lot of frustration later.

There's a lot of lessons in this, but Tim is waiting for me in the van so you'll have to come up with them on your own.

"Leavin', Leavin', Leavin' but I don't know where..."

I guess the Josh Ritter quote says it best.

We're finally packed and loaded and ready to head out on the road. Yesterday was painful, as the previous post noted, and we reluctantly rose early this morning to have a last meal with Burt. It was a bittersweet goodbye, but we're excited to be venturing out (finally, finally, finally). Future posts will be from the road. (Tim)

I'm looking out the window at the van and it looks like it's riding low. Eek. The van is so full. I anticipate mailing some things back. (Stephanie)

too much stuff

Packing wouldn't suck nearly as much if we didn't have stuff.

While the hobo-pie-makers and the futon have given us no problems, plenty of other stuff has. Tools, clothes, books, a laptop and a washer have been the biggest offenders. What emergency will we be unprepared for now that our tools are down to one box? I never thought I had many clothes until I tried to get them into one box. Is one box enough for a whole summer of books? How will I ever survive using Tim's laptop instead of my own, with all my widgets, iTunes for my pod and my bookmarks? And right now I'd rather wash my clothes in a creek rather than move this stupid washer.

All this is to say: I thought we had a minimalist life until we started packing to live in a minivan. I also never realized how much I really loved some of my stuff until I started packing it to be out of my reach for a long period of time. Count these off as trip realizations # 1 and 2.

Back to packing the stupid washer. We shove off tomorrow. I can't wait! Not only will our trip have begun, it means no more packing.