Friday

On our last day in Breckenridge, we went to The Crown cafe to work and see our one friend in town (who we met last week). It was raining when we left the trailer and during the time we were in the cafe it had started to snow pretty heavy,  then it would stop snowing and melt and everything would look normal again. By the time we left, at around 6:30, it had started snowing again and the air had gotten cold enough that it was sticking. It was the first time in our 8 months in Colorado that we had seen wet snow (let alone good rain), and there was lots of it. We had made plans with our friend to have dinner at 8:30 but first had to go back to the trailer, load my motorcycle into the back of the truck and pack everything else around it. We had expected rain, worst case scenario, but the windshield of the truck had a half an inch of heavy snow already and the drive back to the trailer was practically a white out.

I’m not sure we went inside the trailer for more than a minute when we got back. Long enough to get my motorcycle keys and useless fingerless gloves. It took just a minute to start the snow-covered bike, putting a towel on the seat and wiping off the handlebars. I was expecting to be able to ride it to the loading hill we used last time at Tiger Run, about a half a mile away – since the bike had been running pretty well. Eventually I got it to idle enough to warm up but unfortunately I had started it too early and Ross wasn’t done unloading our load from the cabin. When I finally decided to just go and wait at the hill in the cold wet snow flurry, the bike stalled.

After that, it had no intention of starting. I put in more gas, attempted to kick-start it and even had Ross push start me, but when I noticed the towel I was sitting on had somehow got soaked in gas and a rainbow puddle covered the concrete below the bike at every juncture I popped the clutch, I realized it was futile. Ross had to push the bike all the way to the hill in the snow while I ran inside and put on some jeans, my leggings and dress soaked now. The hood of my hoodie was full of snow and not realizing in the rush, I put it up and received a full pile of snow down the back of my dress. No time to change, I grit my teeth, and met him with the truck a few minutes later.

The metal ramp was so slippery that when I tried to walk the front of the bike up the now slight incline, I realized I had no footing (my pretest was a lie) and the bike was starting to tip towards me, 350lbs. I was able to step up on the tailgate and continue walking the bike somehow without being crushed. By then it was well after 7 and we still had everything else to load. Our studded tires, ladder, outdoor rug, gas, water and black water tanks, trailer cover, bike ramp, hoses and our 10+ pieces of wood for our jacks – then to somehow arrange it all to fit around the bike and not fall out on the drive. This took the longest and by the end we were both soaked and cold and had about 10 minutes to get dressed and meet our friend at the restaurant.

Saturday

We left Breckenridge at about 10am with dry roads and most the snow melted. After dinner we had done most of the inside preparations, making sure everything wouldn’t smash on the ground as soon as we left the lot, so by morning we were pretty much ready to go. The landlord decided not to come up because of the prospective weather, so we had no choice but to leave town without our deposit; Something that would come in handy in the following days.

Ross had been worried about the brake controller for the trailer for months, but a recent visit from an RV Medic seemed to do the job because they were working as they should as we approached the freeway. We had only gone west once to check out Vail, Colorado and never went back out of disappointment, so we didn’t really know what the road would be like from Frisco on.  This new truck has a “tow mode” which uses gears differently and has a sort of engine braking when going down large hills, which we thought to be a benefit till the first large hill came along. What it seemed like to me, was that the truck started engine braking faster than the trailer brakes could engage and it felt like the truck was being pushed by the trailer, and the trailer started to sway a bit – even with out anti sway hitch. It was a little unsettling and we made sure it didn’t happen again. Otherwise the trailer brakes, aside from a delay, worked OK and we didn’t rear end anyone so that’s a plus.

As soon as we got a little ways away from Summit County, where Breckenridge is and where a severe drought has been official for over a month, we saw what spring in Colorado was actually supposed to look like. Even the aspens had bright green leaves where in Summit they were still mostly dead looking. The ground was covered in green grass and wild flowers, where Summit looked like a high desert with only sparse green, and even the golf course near the cabin was struggling to stay green. I had thought it was fairly normal but it’s now clear that the area is at major risk of wild fires and water shortages for a while.

Runaway Truck Ramp up Ahead. Scary Brakes Suck.

We came to Glenwood Canyon we had an especially great view for miles. The canyon walls were high on both sides, and narrow, one area so narrow that it barely fit a railroad track, the Colorado River and the Freeway comfortably. Soon after the Canyon and another strikingly green Colorado town, Glenwood Springs, the terrain started to look more like Utah (It was from Glenwood Springs on that I had the “Green Acres” song stuck in my head…).

Glenwood Canyon

It was around this time that we started to really suffer from an overheating problem with the truck. I had gotten Ross a
Kiwi Bluetooth Android Phone Car Diagnostic Kit for Christmas because of his concerns about the truck, and he was making good use of it on this trip. There was a lot of climbing from the beginning and the truck (which was looked at for a possible head gasket issue recently) had gotten a new radiator cap that was supposed to solve the problem of “puking” coolant at times.

We had to stop at least 5 times before arriving in Springville for the night (a town south of Salt Lake) to check and replace water in the overflow tank, making much of the trip a worrisome time for both of us, but while the truck was cooling down we got a chance to check out a few Eastern Colorado and Western Utah lookouts and rest stops. Utah had really started living up to its name the deeper in we got, with towering mesas and strange volcanic looking hills.

After spending over 10 hours on the road we arrived at what can only be described as the largest and busiest Walmart I’ve ever seen. I understand it was the night before Mother’s Day but I don’t know the last time, aside from Black Friday, that I’ve ever seen a store so full of people.

We went to bed around 10, after we made a small pizza on an artisan corn meal pizza crust.

Sunday

Since our trailer running lights (side lights and tail lights) were not working, again, we could only leave as early as the sun, but wanted to get as much cool air out of the day as possible for the engine. We got up at 6am, stumbled to the Walmart bathrooms, packed up whatever was laying around and headed out. Our first goal was loosely to try and find some coolant for the truck. After we found an auto parts store, and were officially back on our way to West Yellowstone, time seemed to rush past.

The trip through Salt Lake City, a very spread out area, was surprisingly uneventful. We couldn’t see the Salt Lake or any giant Mormon churches from the highway and before we knew it, it was gone. As we got closer to Idaho, the terrain quickly went from stark to green, and I don’t think in all our travels that I have ever seen so many cows as in southern Idaho. Utah had its share, mostly hungry or lost looking things in the desert, but in Idaho there was nothing but cow and horse farms on both sides of the road all the way to Montana.

About 3/4 the way through Idaho I started to look for the Tetons, a spiky mountain range we were planning to live near when we were first looking for a cabin. We passed signs to Driggs, a town where we had even made plans to see cabins, and eventually Mack’s Inn, a tiny little place (literally an Inn in the middle of nowhere) where we had almost committed to a cabin (but its distance from everything and absolute need of 4WD to get to were drawbacks) before we decided to stay in Breckenridge. From the freeway the Tetons seems to be a 100 miles away, not even worth a photo but one day we’ll see them up close.

When we got to the Montana border at the top of a long mountain pass, it started to look like the Montana I lived in as a kid. Dense trees, lakes with rocky beaches and people in cowboy hats. Chocolate covered Huckleberries, syrups and preserves line the shelves of every gas station and coffee shop and stuffed animals, not the plush kind, on every wall in sight. From the border to West Yellowstone, we already had the feel we were in the greatest national park in the country. Passing what looked like a cracked lava field of monumental proportions, dirt roads that went off into the wilderness where no doubt Grizzlies and Eagles await, and sparkling rivers and mountains within reach again as they were in Colorado.

As long as the truck wasn’t completely overheating, we didn’t stop to top off the tank very often on this last jump. It was puking coolant as badly as the day before, but aside from getting to West Yellowstone in one piece and finding someone to work on it, there wasn’t much we could do about it.

We had possibly made our earliest arrival at a destination, getting into Hideaway RV park around 5pm with enough time to set up, talk to the park manager for a while, and walk downtown for a pizza at Wild West Pizza.

As soon as the snow started to melt I’ve wanted to leave. The cabin was our winter home where we were to have a long epic winter with deep snow, skiing, low weather/deep snow hikes and the woodstove going from dusk to dawn, so when the winter ended, so did the point of being here.

I know there is 1000 things to do here in the spring and summer but my mind has already been resigned to “winter home” and what we want out of our summer we can get somewhere else, almost anywhere else. We only really require warm enough weather so sit outside and work and beautiful places to hike (a good rv park isn’t bad either). This country has so many gorgeous places to see, hike and photograph, so many little towns to discover, so many different people from one state to the next that staying in one place seems like such a waste. A person could literally travel the US all their lives and never stop discovering, if they were actually interested in doing so. If you drive past a little town with 100 year old buildings, riddled with mining shacks and go “meh” or think that every trail looks the same, you might have a hard time traveling full time.

For me, going to the same restaurant, coffee shop or trails over and over again gets old sooner than it should, and generally I don’t feel the need to have the familiar around me, people or places, so I don’t miss anything much when I travel which I think is one thing that holds people back from doing it. Me family lived in 30 houses and I went to 12 schools by the time I was 18 so I imagine that is why, as I never know the same people for very long and always had to adapt to a new house, new environments, all the time. When I was younger I just wanted to stay in one school, have friends for more than a year and maybe settle in somewhere but as I grew older and tried settling down I found it boring and ultimately depressing (my choice of place being a big reason – Portland) and my travel anxiety was bottling up.

Now we are getting back out there, belonging to the road, living in RV parks with no “home base” (that’s a great feeling to me) and I anticipate a great Summer of showing Ross some of the places I saw or lived near as a kid, Yellowstone, Glacier, Makoshika, Libby and eventually the Badlands of South Dakota. We anticipate difficulties finding internet for work in the desolate state of Montana at times, but it will be worth it.

We left Carbondale, a surprisingly cool little Illinois town, with a somewhat set plan to make several 2 week and 1 week jumps through Missouri, Kansas, Colorado then finally Jackson. I even made a google map and planned the towns and RV parks we would probably stay at but as is our nature, a night or 2 before we left, we decided Kansas City had little to offer in Green areas (google maps state parks and national forests) and what it did have to offer had no water or sewer hookups.

We changed our plans and decided to spend the weekend driving to Dodge City, Kansas, crossing almost 2 states.
It may have been under 700 miles but it’s tough on the truck, animals and us to go that far – and who knows how Susa manages not to pee all over the truck when we make jumps like that. We have a catbox in the back of the truck but she hates the thing and just sleeps next to Chena (usually after a 20 minute meow-fest when we leave a place) and just holds it the entire time, snacking on treats here and there and sleeping in strange positions. Much of our time is lost when We have to stop every 70 miles or so for drinks, gas and to let Chena out to pee.

Somewhere in East Kansas

On the way to Dodge City, while finding out things about the town, I saw that Willie Nelson would be playing at the Dodge City amphitheater. I grew up on his voice and have over the years grown to appreciate his music, as well as many other ‘original’ country artist (like Dolly and Hank Williams), so I bought us some tickets for what would be the first live music we’ve seen in the 2 years on the road, minus the brithday party at Smokey Bear Campground in Gatlinburg for the owner, Chong, where our neighbor, a guy from the Tonuenes, and the guy who wrote the King of the Hill song played a couple sets.

Minus the concert, which was pretty great and opened by Junior Brown, a country rock master of a custom steel guitar, the first week in Dodge City was all work, warm days and cool nights. The park, Gunsmoke RV Park, was a bit of a gravel pit but had some serious southwest/high plains charm that we had missed over the last 18 months or so. Wagon wheels, cowboy cutouts, false front buildings, horses and even cactus were somewhat evenly placed around the scrubby campground. Dodge City itself overall wasn’t quite as cool but definitely was holding onto its historic roots as a town of gunslingers and lawmen like Wyatt Earp. The downtown and Boot Hill made up for the highway full of fast food, motels, and coffee shops that charge way too much for coffee and vegetables on a bagel.

Gunsmoke RV Park

We again changed our plans and decided to leave Saturday rather than spend our usual 2 weeks, partly because of the lack of nearby hiking or outdoor actifities, but also because of our rush to get to a cabin. As far as things to do in town, there is basically the Boot Hill Museum and little more. The museum is basically an entire small western town with cemetery, jail, church, school house – and a working bar and restaurant. There was almost no one else in the Museum and no guides which was great. You were just left to your own devices to wander around, poke at exhibits and artifacts, and even, yes, get a beer (piano player and all). It was 94 degrees on that last day in Dodge City and the last bit of real heat we will see for a long while.

The Long Branch Saloon in Dodge City

Ross locked up in Boothill Jail

Boot Hill

I always try to picture myself living many of the places we stay, thinking I could make the best of even the smallest and least cultureless towns, and although Dodge City wasn’t very modern, it had internet, coffee and an awesome, though short lived, history that they’re proud of  (the 1870s made it famous basically), I can imagine making an effort at helping that place into the 21st century, without it turning into some horrible place like Gatlinburg or Virginia Beach – places where any sense of culture and history has been replaced by novelty mugs and “authentic local art” (soullessly manufactured by some poor artist, strictly to appeal to tourists so they can make it through another off season).

Although Iv’e heard Kansas referred to as a “fly over state/drive by state”, I liked it. It disturbs me that nearly all of the state is privately owned by farmers and ranchers and not a single wild bison roams free anywhere where there used to be millions, but it still brought up thoughts of western films and old west history, and somehow kept me from cringing too much. Plus it reminds me of eastern Montana where I lived for a few years and my sister’s family is from. A flat golden place where the skyline goes on for miles and miles (hence the Big Sky State), the sunsets are always inspiring and the terrain will surprise you with canyons, cactus and rattle snakes.

But we left the high plains Sunday morning, and were on our way to Colorado anyway. Again I spent much of the drive looking for RV parks or campgrounds, with all the same issues lately, no running water (what?) and no sewer (not that odd), or places that were booked solid or even closed for the season already (its still 80 in Denver so that was odd). After spending more time staring at my phone screen than I like to during a drive (a time where I’d rather be staring outside and pointing at cragly trees in fields of cows and looking for antelope) I gave up on finding something near Denver and we opted for Tiger Run RV Resort in Breckenridge, a place far up in the mountains west of Denver 80 miles. Inconvenient because we wanted to look for a new truck in Denver, but convenient because of the price and its great distance from the massive amounts of people in Denver. We called ahead and got our spot, knowing it would be late when we arrived, and made our once reasonable day trip into one around 470 miles.

The truck nearly choked and died on the way up the mountains and is now leaking oil. It took a beating while climbing  upwards of 10k feet, making 6 degree descents and climbs, one for 6 miles straight – probably working harder than the truck has ever had to work. We arrived around 11pm, having seen none of our mountainous trip, worn out as ever and worried about the truck. We spent a while setting up, the weather significantly colder than Denver already, and went to bed curious about our new 2 week home.

Luckily, we woke up to this and there were no more regrets about finding a place so far from Denver and our Jackson Wyoming route (try to ignore the RV in the picture, this place has a large number of owned spots with stored RV’s and empty Chalet’s).

Tiger Run RV Resort

So here we are, and basically everywhere you look looks like this or closer (in proximity). From downtown you can see the ski runs and Breckenridge offers more to do, and more vegetarian options than any town I can remember since maybe Asheville, NC. Thank you Western U.S.!!!  So, since we like it so much.. we’ve been looking for cabins here and should have a code tomorrow to go inside one highest up on the list. We may not make it to Jackson (or probably Victor Idaho area) after all, but who cares. Apparently there is almost no cell reception for Verizon there and we have 2 verizon phones and 2 mifi units, which cost us enough every month that it would be a waste to pay for them and not be able to use them just for cheaper rent. Plus when you can take a bus to town year round, get 11mb internet (and probably higher but that’s what the cafe we go to gets)… great views..less gas costs because everything is close.. why go to East Idaho. Wish us luck that this place is awesome tomorrow.

The unpopular beaches and old bridges were the best part of the Keys for me, especially the remnants of an old rail road bridge that still ran along side parts of the main bridges. We stopped at one of many state parks along the way and walked around the beach a little but the second state park we stopped at, Long Key State Park, had far less people and a beach-side boardwalk that was missing the typical “no dogs allowed” sign you see on Florida state park trails. We walked about a quarter mile and stopped on a small deserted beach covered in shells and dead tree branches. My kind of beach. The water was cold but tolerable enough to wade in and Chena got a chance to cool off but unfortunately kept trying to drink the water.

We ate at a little cafe, too early for the lunch menu (by like 20 minutes) and had banana, pineapple, coconut covered pancakes with a side of papaya syrup. For pancakes they were great though unfortunately not that filling. To make up for it, we later tried to find a pizza place but ended up finding a raw bar and had pita sandwiches, also not so fulfilling, but the raw bar was inside a health food store and book store and luckily they had the awesome and completely satisfying Stonewall’s Jerquee bites (vegetarian jerky) for us to snack on during the drive home.

Our last goal before turning back was the 7 mile bridge, At the end we found a pull-off just where we watched the sun go down and said our goodbyes to any chance of warm sunny beaches for a long time.

The next day we left to north Florida’s St George Island State Park, where it would be down to 22 degrees the first night. After enjoying an average of 83 for the last month, this was going to be a rough change. Sure enough I was sick within the first day. I think spending 3 days in the car between the Keys and the 600+ mile trip north probably didn’t help either.

There is no electricity or water here, but with Ross’s electric setup, and new improvements, there is hardly a difference. We use a gallon of gasoline a day for the generator which, most of the time, we can barely hear, even though it’s directly below our seats while we work. Water we have to collect daily in a 6 gallon tank, of which we use about one a day, and getting rid of the water, we do every other day with our tote tank, which we tow with the truck to a dump station. We use the public bathroom that is about 30 yards away most of the time, showers are the only water usage issue we have but its worth dealing with to stay here.

Besides TV, which we never have any good channels of anyway, we don’t miss out on anything. We have internet, can watch movies, use our laptops, use all the lights and of course the fridge and stove are propane. I could do this forever and not mind it really. During the day it can get pretty hot still of course, and theres not enough power for AC. It usually in the mid 80s so we have the windows open all day and a fan in the door, but about 3pm it becomes too warm inside and we all move our work to the tent outside (the size of a bedroom with a 6 foot roof).

We have basically been alone in the park since we got here last Sunday morning with just a few tents showing up here and there. This weekend though we were a bit bombarded with huge families who talked and yelled half the night and/or blasted their stereos, counter productive to camping I thought but in general, whatever, didn’t keep me awake.

We finally got to take a look around the everglades this weekend, and Friday night had been cold and the day started out really cool, so we felt we could leave the animals for a few hours with a fan in the window.  Our goal being Flamingo, the farthest south point in the Everglades and I think mainland Florida, and on the way we stopped at every turnoff we could find. Most of them were also occupied by tourists and people from nearby in blue mustangs (and other soft top mustangs), we went on a couple 1/2 mile hikes, one really amazing one through a Mahogany Hammock (a Hammock is a small forest in the swamp basically). The landscape in the Hammock changed so completely it was like going from desert to jungle in 5 steps. There were vines and old growth, strangler figs, woodpeckers, giant mahoganies, termites, ferns and everything you would expect to see in some kind of a rain forest. Outside of the Hammocks were miles of grassland looking marshes, most of which were actually part of a huge 8 mile wide, super shallow, river, scattered in some areas of the park were bald cypress and other parts, palm trees, or like the area we are in, long pines. Randomly throughout, there are deeper rivers, lakes and ponds filled with alligators. In the most southern areas, you might even find American Crocodiles and – if your in the water, dolphins and manatees. The whole Everglades is just a phenomenal example of varying ecosystems in one area.

There were canoe rentals at a couple points but without knowing before hand, we weren’t really prepared (maybe next weekend), as both of our canoe trips have been about 4 hours each. When we finally made it to Flamingo, we saw the campsites there, fairly open and busy but still pretty cool. The visitor center was abandoned though not in too terrible shape, having closed after Katrina damage. By the time we got there we were starving, half expecting a restaurant or store but finding a small marina shop, with a pretty terrible selection of snacks and sandwiches for fishermen. We bought enough to get us home, walked around a bit and headed back to camp.

We stopped off at the end of a dirt road we saw on the way, partially flooded and gladly tourist free. It lead to a small pond that kept a couple alligators, one at least 8 feet, and as we later found out, a Water Moccasin, which as the time we did not know the identity of.. and poked with a stick because we thought it was dead. It was just shedding and busy, and probably cold, so we got lucky he was feeling nice that day.

We weren’t sure about staying here without electricity at first since a week would be our longest since last year at Slab City, but since it’s so incredibly easy and only improving, we’re staying another week. We would like to stay at Flamingo but not sure about internet, so we may just head there next Friday night and stay through Sunday night, heading to Shark Valley after that!

Cue photos:

Bald Cypress, Everglades

Swampy Plants

Seed Pods

Mahogany Hammock

Fern in the Mahogany Hammock

Post Hurricane Scrub Land

Water Moccasin

Birds at Flamingo

Water birds at our secret dirt road

The animal I really hope to see if the Florida Skunk Ape.
Sidenote:

At some point since we’ve been in Florida, Ross came across the name for the Florida Big Foot, the Skunk Ape, and last night I had a dream about something in the same family… some kind of lab created skunk ape bitten by a warewolf ‘lycanthro-foot’, if you will (lycanthropy is when a person turns into a wolf). He was 8 feet tall, redish brown and hairy all over. His wolf ears pointed straight up off his head a good 8 inches and his claws were 10 inches long and started with a base 2 inches wide, ending at a razor point meant to kill, dig, play piano, whatever was necessary.
In my dream my father had created him and only my father could control him. While my father was away, the beast escaped and roamed the city, killing as it pleased. We (me and someone else – unknown) came home to find it had returned and was waiting outside the second story apartment door where we lived. We were halfway up the stairs when we realized it had come home. We heard a grumble or snore and started to back down the stairs quietly, listening to see if it had heard us. It had, and as we ran from the building, we could see him on the stairwell looking over the railing at us. He ran down the stairs twice as fast as our fastest bolt but we made it to a mini mart next door, just about to close its doors we pushed the owner aside and pulled down the chain gate just in time. We checked all the doors as quickly as possible while the monster smashed into the gate, snarling frantically. We could still hear him digging after we closed the doors and turned out the lights. A wolf lay next to a glass door near the beast, with its face pressed against the glass, just groggily preparing for a nap just feet from the sasquatch-wolf who paid it no mind.

I can dream.

Tonight we watched about 4 hours of TV shows that we downloaded months ago, Kids in the Hall, Father Ted, Star Trek The Next Gen and Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job. Typical Friday night. Between each, playing with Chena and Susa, the most spoiled non-attention starved pets on the planet (we probably annoy them if anything).

I’d like to make it to the Zombie Walk in Fort Myers this weekend but with the plans above and Fort Myers being 40 miles away now, it doesn’t seem likely. As uneventful and unprogressive as west Florida towns have been so far I wonder what a zombie walk will be like here. I guess the fact that they are having one says something at least. Florida has proven to be really different than every other states so far. More difficult to find places to eat, but the most common grocery store, Publix, has a pretty good selection of veggie products and a health food section and there is at least one Whole foods within 30 miles. On the other hand, of all the states we’ve been to, we’ve never had a restaurant question or laugh at our non meat eating lifestyle. Even in small towns in Louisiana, Alabama and Texas, asking someone if something has meat, or making sure it doesn’t, was never met with rudeness like it was at a Japanese restaurant here. The waitress said “you know, plants are alive too”, “fish aren’t animals” and “god put cows here for us to eat” in the span of a few minutes but her naivety on the subject, and my desire to educate her a little, kept us from just walking out. Some of her confusion was cultural, religious, whatever.. not that it excuses rudeness, but I do like to educate people from time to time on things I feel strongly about.. I don’t preach and I don’t expect or try to convert anyone, but I do try to explain why people are vegan/vegetarian and maybe they could end up having at least some respect for vegan/vegetarians’ feelings on the subject (especially since it literally doesn’t hurt anyone).
I never understood why people insist that their beliefs are so right that they take it upon themselves to persecute and judge others who don’t have the same beliefs or social patterns. I know it’s like the most common injustice on the planet but seriously… mind your own damn business people. Anyway, I’m going to go poke Ross with a stick because he listens to electronic music and metal is obviously the superior. Night!

We arrived at Raccoon Mountain State Park early Saturday. It was a touristy campground with some caverns $14 to $99 to explore (depending on tour), a go cart track and one basketball hoop. The older man, the manager I suppose, was a total grump but other than that no one really bothered us, even though they had a stated “no pitbulls” rule in their pamphlet and on their website, we ignored it and had no trouble. I hold dearly my “your ignorance and fear will not affect my plans” policy.. as well as a “your stupid insurance company can go to hell” in those cases.

The first weekend we had researched a little online and got an idea of where the “things to do” were at, as well as where some of the better vegetarian options could be found. It was probably about 90 when we got in line to the Incline Railway, a really amazing train that makes its way directly up a mountain side – reaching an angle of 71% (practically up a cliff face) by the top. The seats are at an angle so you dont fall out by the time it reaches its peak angle, but even then you have to lean back and hold yourself a bit to keep from falling forward and shooting through the front window and down the mountain. It cost $12 a person, which I suppose id worth it but there arent really any perks to go along. You get taken to the top where a building containing a little shop full of tourist toys, stones and candy (and stone candy) – inside of some kind of cafeteria with some homemade fudge and coolers with a few bottled drinks. Outside in the neighbourhood, you could walk to a Civil War reenactment (which we did but did not pay to see). If you started at the top of the Mountain and therefore had a car, you could drive a little ways to Rock Mountain, which is some kind of a theme park which seemed a little kiddy oriented for us. At the bottom of the mountain, where we were parked, you can go to Ruby Falls, a huge waterfall in a cave which we also did not go to. After getting a drink and walking around a bit at the top, we rode the rail back down and headed out to find something to eat.

Incline Railway, St Elmo, Chattanooga, TN

The first place we went to eat was another Mellow Mushroom, a place we had discovered in Oxford Alabama that had vegetarian sandwiches and good pizza. It was right in downtown Chattanooga so we got to see some of that outside the car. It’s a fairly nice little area though not very old or particularly interesting. When we came back to the area later at night, searching for a cool and somewhat empty bar, we discovered downtown to be just like Austin or New Orleans to some extent, tons of drunk girls in heels stumbling around and huge lines outside overcrowded bars. We looked around online some more and found an area farther away that showed promise, everything was closed but we had now discovered an all vegan cafe, Sluggo’s, to check out the next morning.

Sluggo’s was a little expensive but had really good food and a “do it yourself” attitude which I love in a restaurant if the cashiers aren’t jerks about it.

The neigbourhood we really liked, though didnt find till a few days later, was the Northside Neighbourhood near Coolidge park, a cute little area with cafes, restaurants and shopping. Once we discovered it we repeatedly returned to Stone Cup Cafe to work, also a place that had good vegetarian sandwiches, and Aretha Frankenstein nearby which had amazing french toast and waffles, tagged the “waffles of insane greatness”.

Aretha Frankenstein has death masks

The neighbourhood also featured a dog park, a free one even! The Chattanooga Chew Chew. The last we’d seen was in New Orleans and required a paid membership to use. Unfortunately, Chena doesn’t care much about other dogs but the 5 seconds of excitement she gets from meeting one is at least some socialization for her. I feel bad that she has only a cat and two humans to play with sometimes.

Dog Park Chattanooga, Chattanooga Chew Chew

We spent most of the weekend rotating Stone Cup, Sluggo’s and Aretha Frankenstein’s, having only paid till the following Friday we were unlikely to see much more of the daytime things in the city and this was upsetting after seeing how cool Chattanooga was. We decided around Thursday to stay the weekend, unaware till we went into the office to pay, that it was Labor Day weekend and the park would be almost completely full, our space already reserved. Our only options were to leave town, move to another park in town (all of which would be equally booked), stay at a Walmart all weekend or move the trailer 60 feet to the last remaining spot. All of these options required the same amount of work preparing the trailer and truck for the move so we had some options to weigh but we ultimately and grudgingly decided to move the trailer 60 feet. When we moved to the new spot, a spot that was nearly on a hill, we parked the trailer backwards to avoid too much of a slant and ended up with out door facing another campers door and having to use the back side of the trailer as our “front yard”, hanging the lights on the slide out, no awning of course but a table and chairs for the one time we decided to BBQ some sausages. It was good enough though, since we didn’t plan to spend our weekend hanging out in the ridiculously crowded campground.

The last weekend in the area we reserved for nature. We had already decided to avoid the kid filled campground, and therefore the caves there and all other caves and touristy things in town because it was Labor Day Weekend and all would be completely full of people. On Saturday we decided to go to the Chattanooga Nature Center, a poorly advertised place which suited us, that also wasn’t very crowded. It featured a trail that lead to a great huge treehouse which in the spring-winter must have a great moat like swamp below it. Basically one of my dream houses, especially if the swamp had alligators in it. The trail went on to a rentable cabin next to the water and some rental canoes then arrived at the wildlife rehab area where they had owls, a bald eagle, a bobcat, some endangered red wolves and a crow. The birds didnt have much space and most had no company but they were there because they could not be released back into the wild, not for show exactly. I liked the crow, seeing one in a cage reminded me of my pet crow who I took home after if flew into the window of the pet store I worked at. He eventually recovered enough to release but I never knew if he made it for sure. I am pretty sure I had a crow stalker for the rest of my time in Portland, about 5 more years minus my year in Argentina.

There were some snakes back in the center building and a basic little gift shop but the best part was the drive around the grounds on a small dirt road. We barely fit in the truck as usual but the drive was great, allowing us to finally see some “untouched” Tennessee nature. There were large bunches of wildflowers, ponds, gardens and a bamboo forest, officially one of coolest forests to wander in, and some great little things to stop off and see like “Cherokee eye” – some kind of hole in a rock and our favorite, the spinning bench.  About half way thorough we were told by a woman in a Mustang that the park was closing in 15 minutes and we grudgingly headed out. The last thing we saw before the exit, the land keeper’s house with a bit of land, horses and barn. Lucky guy.

Sunday we decided to leave town completely, having gotten used to the South shutting down on Sundays – even the vegetarian restaurants, but we knew we could depend on a State Park to be open. We headed to Georgia to see the so called Canyon in Cloudless Canyon State Park. We’d taken Chena this time and hiked a small trail that over looked the town, then headed to the crowded Day Use area where the actual canyon trail was. It was ok, after seeing canyons in the southwest it didnt impress us but the hike was nice and it was a good way to spend the last day in.. or near… Chattanooga.

In this park, tree picnicks you!

The next day, we wanted to settle in, knowing we would be staying here a couple weeks, so even though there was no room for the awning to come all the way out with our parking job, we half mast carported it (I made that term up myself), which means we took the awning arms off the trailer and staked them into the ground with the awning only half rolled out. It covers about 4 feet of ground, enough for us to park the bikes and motorcycle under and hang out with the animals while they sniff around.

The park is basically a huge thick multi tree’d (deciduous, coniferous and a few tropicals) forest with 3 large lakes. The forest has very little undergrowth, which is my favorite part, because although there are trails all over, you can go whichever way you want without having to turn back.. most the time at least. Because we are somewhere that is not an inner city trailer park (for once in months), we have made it a habit to actually get out of the trailer during the work day, both taking rides on our bikes (me motorcycle and Ross, bicycle) during our lunch breaks and trying to do as much as possible before dark. We also take the animals out regularly, and Susa is getting much better on her leash now that she has somewhere to go. The last place in New Orleans was always crowded or had traffic in and out so she barely left the 10 feet in front of the trailer. Now she takes us for walks down forest trails, climbs trees and catches crickets. Chena is about the same as anywhere, old and slowish but eager to walk in whatever direction she decides will get her the farthest away from the trailer.

This last weekend, we really wanted to look around while we were able to get away from work so we got up… ahem.. early.. (no we didn’t) and went for a 2 hour hike. On the map we got at the gate, there was a trail marked “Lake Trail” just next to us by Beaver Lake. We couldn’t tell from the map but assumed because it was called Lake Trail that it went around or at least next to the lake for a while. After less than a mile the trail branched off back to the campground but there was still a trail at the lake so we continued on. After another 100 yards the trail started to get harder to walk, definitely there, but unmaintained. First large trees fallen across it, then bushes and small trees and a fairly steep hill leading down to the water – not the lake at this point but the mouth of a creek. As we did our best not to slip in the mud to our splashy demise, we realized the trail in no way followed the lake because you would have to swim across the creek to do so, but we followed whatever seemed like a trail until we were just walking through forest again. It was hot, about 95, but the forest kept us fairly cool. The humidity kept us sweating and drinking water and by the time we made it to a road, the only place the trail lead after its migration, we were ready to head back to camp, still a couple of miles away by this time.

After hiking we went to an awesome place in Birmingham called Sloss Furnaces, an old iron mill that’s been closed since the 70s. The place is open to the public and throughout the industrial wonderland are safety rails and self guided tour phone numbers to call and get info about the machinery. In the pits and drains of the plant were little concrete ponds full of turtles, frogs and minnows and every wall was covered in vines and moss or just deeply textured corrosion and erosion. It was pretty great and I got just about 40 photos with my big medium format camera (all film to be developed whenever I can find a place that does 120 film). After that we desperately wanted food and found a great little vegetarian restaurant called the Bottletree Cafe, the only one in Birmingham, which just happened to be a couple miles from Sloss Furnaces. This was a relief after living in New Orleans for months where everywhere was at least 10 miles from us, everywhere – And we were technically in town.
Birmingham isn’t bad, although its pretty small for a city. They have a Whole Foods, an Asian Market, several restaurant options and Sloss Furnace so, although I don’t want to live here, I’m glad we’re nearby. It’ll be a nice transition for our belated leap back into the travel world in our new trailer. Next time we’ll be ready to head back to small town USA. There seems to be much less of that in the east so far – it’s so densely populated here compared to the southwest where we spent most our trip pre-NOLA.

Here’s a few photos from the park and trip. Soon to come: A video of Susa’s forest adventures and many more photos!

Today is the 4th of July and although I don’t usually watch local news anywhere, I’ve been keeping my eye on Hurricane Alex (because being in a travel trailer in a hurricane is a death sentence) and of course watching news on the oil from a very up close and personal point of view here in the South. Our plans originally intended us to see as much of the country as possible and have a nice hot summer. As far as the South goes, we haven’t stayed in Florida yet, still need to see an Alligator in the wild and have only been to the beaches of Gulf Port, Mississippi for a couple hours one weekend. When we went to Gulf Port the oil leak was only a couple weeks old and hadn’t reached any marshlands or beaches yet. We swam, along with 2 wind surfers nearby, and although it was warm and overcast, there were no other swimmers on the beach. We later wondered the reason, sharks? because it certainly wasn’t oil. Either way, now the beaches have potential swimmers and open beaches but tar balls and oil are all over the beach and getting on anyone brave enough to swim. Other places like Grand Isle, Louisiana, a place we had wanted to go months ago, are completely empty of tourists. Today being a day that the island depends on its usual 20k tourists to keep the economy alive.

The news cast about Grand Isles problem reminded me of the movie Jaws which we just watched last week. In Jaws, the Mayor insisted the beach stay open because he decided the small shark they caught the day before was the man eater the were searching for – Selfishly putting lives at risk to keep the economy going. For Grand Isle that’s not even an option. The Mayor cant lie to everyone and tell the public that there’s no oil on their beaches. Unlike a man eating goliath shark, oil is something that cant be stopped, hidden or avoided.

New Orleans is still happening, Essence Festival is in town with Janet Jackson and many other top r&b artists. Downtown is pretty busy with tourists going on their little mule rides through the French Quarter and booking their Haunted Tours for this evening. Even swamp tours are still going on since the swamps nearby are far from the gulf oil invasion, but the mood is somber among some locals. The other day we worked all day in a coffee shop, overhearing conversations between locals about the oil affecting someone they know. People being forced to look for work elsewhere, moving away from family and friends to cleaner water. Businesses suffering from the lack of tourism in areas and of course the dwindling of the South’s famous seafood industry. The moods were surprisingly matter of fact and hopeful besides all the complaints. After living through something like Katrina and spending years rebuilding, although the problem is much different and will have continual environmental effects, no one really knows what else to do but be hopeful.

My fashion related statement regarding this issue is that in my very strong opinion people should NOT be buying Anti BP t-shirts from the hundreds of companies doing their best to market on this disaster; but rather give that $30 you planned to spend on the shirt to the National Parks (DONATE NOW AT WWW.NATIONALPARKS.ORG OR TEXT “PARKS” TO 90999) or the Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund, a New Orleans based organization.

Of course we all want to tell the world how much we hate BP’s irresponsibility and the whole disaster itself but think of other ways please. Handmade posters, take a marker to your own shirt for godssake.

But unless the company is giving all or most of its profits to the oil spill fund, they aren’t helping.If a company gives 100% profit donations it is a true favor to the gulf. If they only give a small % of the profit just to keep from getting a guilt trip, they should just stick to making tees with gangster bears on them and stay out of the “profiting from disaster” market.But unless the company is giving all or most of its profits to the oil spill fund, they aren’t helping.

If a company gives 100% profit donations it is a true favor to the gulf. If they only give a small % of the profit just to keep from getting a guilt trip, they should just stick to making tees with gangster bears on them and stay out of the “profiting from disaster” market.

As you can tell I feel strongly about this and I will not write about or feature any company who markets on disasters.

Here are some designers donating 100% of the sales to the Gulf:

Kenneth Cole Customized Tees - http://www.facebook.com/KennethColeProductions?v=app_10467688569&ref=ts

Etsy Stores Craftivism – http://www.etsy.com/storque/craftivism/etsians-help-clean-the-gulf-8846/

Seriously EMAIL ME if you are a company giving 100% of your profits to the Gulf Relief or know a company that is.

Thanks and have a good 4th of July!