I’m a real sap when it comes to that Kris Kristofferson song, “Sunday Morning Coming Down.” The chorus goes: On the Sunday morning sidewalk Wishing, Lord, that I was stoned. ‘Cause there’s something in a Sunday Makes a body feel alone. There ain’t nothing short of dying Half as lonesome as the sound On the […]
Categories
Catching Up through Iowa
Even Banjo is impressed with how the Airstream looks now that we’ve washed it! Since Alaska, I’d despaired it would never come clean, but our favorite campground (because our friend Dave runs it) came through for us. We were able to wash it with clean water (no toting buckets of river water one by one […]
Camping on the Wall
“The Wall” is what campers call a dirt/gravel stretch of road near Badlands National Park in South Dakota, officially in Buffalo Gap National Grassland. The road runs along the rim of a stretch of steep canyon, with grasslands up to the rim and then far below. I don’t know what my problem was, but I […]
Home, Home on the Range
I’m backtracking a bit, because the prairies of Western Alberta and the grasslands of Montana and Wyoming, and even those of the western edge of South Dakota, have all blended into one big range the last few days. A gorgeous range. Oh, give me a home, where the buffalo roam. Where the deer and the antelope […]
Three Surveyors and Another Guy
That’s what surveyors call Mt. Rushmore, since Roosevelt was not a surveyor. Surveyors are extremely proud of the foundational role surveying has played in our country, and rightly so. (Warning for extreme grumpiness and ranting.) I gotta say, though, that I approached Mt Rushmore with a cold shoulder. I mean, nearly everyone in this country […]
Alberta into Montana: Seamless Prairies and Big Sky
Western Alberta is astoundingly beautiful. Gently rolling grassland—as far as you can see—for hours of driving. I’m sure we saw lots of cattle and horses, but the land is so vast that they seemed like only a handful scattered around. In some places, the grass was so tall when we drove through that they’d look […]
Alaska Trip Retrospective
After our summer-long trip to Alaska, we’re traveling south through British Columbia, Canada, and the climate, sunlight, ecosystems—really everything—is all changing rapidly. No more alpine or subalpine terrain, and it’s kind of shocking. I shouted out to Tracy when I saw a cow. We both said, “Hey, look at this!” when we had to use the flashlight […]
Once More in Alaska for the Bears
(I’m writing this without cell signal and can’t do even the smallest bit of research, so please forgive inaccuracies.) We decided to cross the border one final time, driving down the inside passage—along braided rivers and seemingly endless mountain ranges covered in a new, light layer of powdered snow, plus glaciers peeking out when you’re […]
Alaska’s Toll
Yesterday, I posted a photo on Facebook of Banjo’s last morning in Alaska, and two friends texted right away, enthusiastic about our trip and curious about where we’re going next. A third friend texted along the lines of, “Alaska wore you out, didn’t it.” Ha! Yes. The enthusiasm of the first two friends is warranted, […]
The Alaska State Fair
What made this fair different than what I’d expect from other states? I’ll refrain from snarky comments about such topics as what Alaskans wear to the fair (a lot of goth, and, I mean a lot), who they go hear as the headliner band (Foghat), and I’ll try to stick with the positives. Even though […]
