051907
today we are driving from smithers, bc heading towards vancouver, which is about 13 hours away. we are hoping to get within a few hours of vancouver and then tomorrow meet up with some people from the ppk for brunch or dinner. amanda and i are both craving some good tofu scramble. and pancakes. and home fries. and good coffee.
so far in the pacific northwest we have not had good coffee. granted, the only places we have stopped at have been gas stations. i just thought every place would have good coffee. i guess i was mistaken.
i just realized as we were driving along in the rain that i could type up a post as we drive. not sure why i didnt think of this before. if i had, we would probably have been posting a lot more often and with much more detail. it is pretty weird to be in the car and riding along and typing at the same time. i keep looking up and out the front window at the rain coming down and the road zooming along at us. pretty neat this technology stuff.
right now the terrain is rolling hills and off in the distance between the fog and rain clouds i can see mountains. yesterday when we were driving down the cassiar highway coming into this area it was such a super fun road to drive on. they have been doing improvements on the road so it was freshly paved, nice and wide and it was super curvy with lots of ups and downs. it was totally a perfect road for driving and it looked like the road they make all the car commercials on.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Saturday, May 19, 2007
just trying to catch up on posts. this is from wednesday until thursday morning.
our plan was to drive the denali highway and then take the tok cutoff up to the alaska highway and stop in watson lake. didn't happen exactly like that.
the denali highway is about 137 miles long. and it is not paved. well it is paved for about 3 miles on one end and 8 or so on the other. we were at the end with 3 miles paved. i think we got about 26 miles into the road before we decded to turn around and drive back up to fairbanks and head to watson lake that way. amanda had gotten out the gps to see what the quickest route to watson lake was and the denali highway wasn't even showing up!!! it said it was quicker to just turn around and backtrack a couple hundred miles.
so we headed for paved roads!
on our way back through fairbanks we stopped at the store to get some sandwich supplies and then headed back out on the road. we crossed the canadian border with no problem and then headed to where we were planning to stay.
Destruction Bay on lake luane.
we pulled into the motel parking lot and went to the door. it was dark. we went to the restaurant part. that was dark. we drove around the building to see if there was a night entrance. nope. so we sat there for a few minutes trying to figure out what to do. do we have enough gas to make it to the next gas station or possible motel? no. would any be open on this road at this time of night anyway? probably a big no. so. we pulled over to the side of the lot and tried to get some sleep until morning. oh, did i mention that it was snowing? yeah. and we saw a wolf running around too. we, well i never got much sleep so by the time the place opened in the morning and we were able to get gas i was in no shape to drive so amanda drove us to whitehorse while i tried to sleep in the car which i never can do it seems.
we stopped in whitehorse for some coffee and grabbed lunch at a nice little indian place. we were the only people in there and he was just setting up the lunch buffet which consisted of rice, chickpeas in some sort of sauce, curried veggies (which i figured out were from the bag of mixed frozen veggies you can buy at the store! and they were so good too!), yellow curry dal and some naan. oh and he also put a cd on which was one song that lasted about 20 minutes. yep, it was an indian dance club song and it kept reminding us that 'this is the remix' in case we forgot we were listening to the same song still. it was a pretty good song. i can't really say if it was a good remix or not because i have never heard the original. which i am sure was much much shorter.
when we were heading into watson lake we saw a roadsign for the hotel we were planning to stay at. at the bottom i saw some of the best words ever.
jacuzzi suites.
exactly what we needed after that long cold night in the car.
i had never been in a jacuzzi before and man, do i want one now. my back never felt better. i slept like a log. the other nice thing about the jacuzzi suite is that it had a full kitchen so we were able to make pancakes in the morning!
our plan was to drive the denali highway and then take the tok cutoff up to the alaska highway and stop in watson lake. didn't happen exactly like that.
the denali highway is about 137 miles long. and it is not paved. well it is paved for about 3 miles on one end and 8 or so on the other. we were at the end with 3 miles paved. i think we got about 26 miles into the road before we decded to turn around and drive back up to fairbanks and head to watson lake that way. amanda had gotten out the gps to see what the quickest route to watson lake was and the denali highway wasn't even showing up!!! it said it was quicker to just turn around and backtrack a couple hundred miles.
so we headed for paved roads!
on our way back through fairbanks we stopped at the store to get some sandwich supplies and then headed back out on the road. we crossed the canadian border with no problem and then headed to where we were planning to stay.
Destruction Bay on lake luane.
we pulled into the motel parking lot and went to the door. it was dark. we went to the restaurant part. that was dark. we drove around the building to see if there was a night entrance. nope. so we sat there for a few minutes trying to figure out what to do. do we have enough gas to make it to the next gas station or possible motel? no. would any be open on this road at this time of night anyway? probably a big no. so. we pulled over to the side of the lot and tried to get some sleep until morning. oh, did i mention that it was snowing? yeah. and we saw a wolf running around too. we, well i never got much sleep so by the time the place opened in the morning and we were able to get gas i was in no shape to drive so amanda drove us to whitehorse while i tried to sleep in the car which i never can do it seems.
we stopped in whitehorse for some coffee and grabbed lunch at a nice little indian place. we were the only people in there and he was just setting up the lunch buffet which consisted of rice, chickpeas in some sort of sauce, curried veggies (which i figured out were from the bag of mixed frozen veggies you can buy at the store! and they were so good too!), yellow curry dal and some naan. oh and he also put a cd on which was one song that lasted about 20 minutes. yep, it was an indian dance club song and it kept reminding us that 'this is the remix' in case we forgot we were listening to the same song still. it was a pretty good song. i can't really say if it was a good remix or not because i have never heard the original. which i am sure was much much shorter.
when we were heading into watson lake we saw a roadsign for the hotel we were planning to stay at. at the bottom i saw some of the best words ever.
jacuzzi suites.
exactly what we needed after that long cold night in the car.
i had never been in a jacuzzi before and man, do i want one now. my back never felt better. i slept like a log. the other nice thing about the jacuzzi suite is that it had a full kitchen so we were able to make pancakes in the morning!
Friday, May 18, 2007
alaska!
we arrived there after spending a night in an amazing trailer suite, complete with possible blood stains on the ceiling and a door that almost locked. there was a doorhandle that locked and then it had a deadbolt that turned but there was no locking part to it. awesome. i woke up a few times throughout the night thinking that there was a bear sleeping on the couch but it must have been my imagination. or else the bear was just gone by the time we got up.
as you can see from amanda's post, the sun never went down. it looked the same when we got up as it did when we went to bed. very strange. it is going to be very hard to head back east and lose not only time but also daylight!
we arrived at amanda's uncle's place, our reason for the whole trip. her uncle was as cool as she said he would be. he even made us a super delicious vegan pasta dinner! so nice to have home cooked food. sure, we have been cooking food along the way but it isn't the same. still trying to figure out what the difference is though.
the next day we explored fairbanks a bit and then took a cruise down the chena river on a paddlewheel steamboat. i am very excited about this, it was one of the things i wanted to do but i wasn't sure amanda would like to do it. the chena river flows through the center of fairbanks and up until not too long ago it was one of the only ways into the city. that or by plane.
the boat ride was fun. we learned all about the property values around the city (still not sure why he was talking about that) and the different kinds of log cabins and the importance of the river being kept clean so the salmon can use it to breed. it made a few stops along the river where they had little performances set up to talk about things like bush pilots and their importance to commerce and just general travel for probably 3/4 of the state. alaska is big and not very easy to traverse. travel by car is not really an option once you leave the cities and towns and even some of those roads are barely passable. another stop was at a dogsled kennel where we met the dogs. further up the river we stopped at a "native village" which was not set up for commerce we were told a few times before we were allowed off the boat. they showed us how they dress a salmon, turn animal hide into leather using moose brains, how to hunt animals using other animal bones to kill them and other things that we didn't really want to see. subsistance living is still a major way of life in alaska, practiced by most of the people who live in the real native villages outside of the larger populated areas. it is pretty amazing to think that they are living the same way their relatives have lived for the past kajillion years.
we arrived there after spending a night in an amazing trailer suite, complete with possible blood stains on the ceiling and a door that almost locked. there was a doorhandle that locked and then it had a deadbolt that turned but there was no locking part to it. awesome. i woke up a few times throughout the night thinking that there was a bear sleeping on the couch but it must have been my imagination. or else the bear was just gone by the time we got up.
as you can see from amanda's post, the sun never went down. it looked the same when we got up as it did when we went to bed. very strange. it is going to be very hard to head back east and lose not only time but also daylight!
we arrived at amanda's uncle's place, our reason for the whole trip. her uncle was as cool as she said he would be. he even made us a super delicious vegan pasta dinner! so nice to have home cooked food. sure, we have been cooking food along the way but it isn't the same. still trying to figure out what the difference is though.
the next day we explored fairbanks a bit and then took a cruise down the chena river on a paddlewheel steamboat. i am very excited about this, it was one of the things i wanted to do but i wasn't sure amanda would like to do it. the chena river flows through the center of fairbanks and up until not too long ago it was one of the only ways into the city. that or by plane.
the boat ride was fun. we learned all about the property values around the city (still not sure why he was talking about that) and the different kinds of log cabins and the importance of the river being kept clean so the salmon can use it to breed. it made a few stops along the river where they had little performances set up to talk about things like bush pilots and their importance to commerce and just general travel for probably 3/4 of the state. alaska is big and not very easy to traverse. travel by car is not really an option once you leave the cities and towns and even some of those roads are barely passable. another stop was at a dogsled kennel where we met the dogs. further up the river we stopped at a "native village" which was not set up for commerce we were told a few times before we were allowed off the boat. they showed us how they dress a salmon, turn animal hide into leather using moose brains, how to hunt animals using other animal bones to kill them and other things that we didn't really want to see. subsistance living is still a major way of life in alaska, practiced by most of the people who live in the real native villages outside of the larger populated areas. it is pretty amazing to think that they are living the same way their relatives have lived for the past kajillion years.
Monday, May 14, 2007
we got here yesterday afternoon after staying at a skanky "motel" in beaver creek, yukon territory. we got a "suite." i think that means it had a door. barely. the cool thing about being so far up north is that the sun never goes down. i took some pictures friday night and last night. since i couldn't really get the clock and the window in the same picture, i took photos of the clock first, then outside.
friday:
last night:
last night, my mountain man uncle made us some yummy vegan food: spagetti with onions, red peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, herbs, and olive oil. after living mostly on doritos and root beer, it was nice to have some real food.
our plan for today is a cruise down the chena river. we may or may not be leaving tomorrow. we need to get my oil changed and we wanted to see the town a bit. next stop: olympia.
some more pictures:
sign post forest in watson lake:
kluane lake:
i forget the name of this lake...
Saturday, May 12, 2007
ok, so i'll pick up where michael left off.
we left drumheller wednesday morning and headed for calgary. we had a couple of hours left of driving through the plains. it all looks like this:
pretty, but empty as you can see. as were getting closer to calgary, we could see the rockies in the distance. finally! a change of scenery.
we drove through the center of town and past the olympic park. on the far side of the city, we started getting into the mountains.
we got into banff national park early in the afternoon. the town itself looks like a little swiss alpine village.
about halfway through the park, we got onto the icefieds parkway. the parkway follows the rocky mountains north to jasper national park. we got so many amazing pictures, but here's a few:
we saw some animals; elk, deer, some birds. but also, this guy and a couple of his friends.
after jasper, we headed back east a bit to see our friends jordan and dallas. they let us stay at their place in edmonton (thanks again!). they took us for some awesome breakfast at the cafe where they both work. i had just been telling michael how much i wanted some tofu scramble and the scramble at this place was great!
after edmonton, we headed back into the northwest. we got onto the alaska highway in dawson creek, BC in the early evening and spent the night in fort st. john. this morning, we got up and drove back through the rockies to watson lake. we saw a TON of animals today! deer, caribou (!), stone sheep, birds, possibly a grizzly bear (it could have been a brown black bear, we were already going by it when we saw it and we couldn't stop to take a picture, so there's no way for me to really identify it), black bear (one was up in a tree!), buffalo (with a baby!), a fox, some farm goats, and a couple of dogs.
tomorrow morning, we're going to head over to the signpost forest, which is across the street. we should get into alaska sometime tomorrow and we should be in fairbanks by sunday!!!
we left drumheller wednesday morning and headed for calgary. we had a couple of hours left of driving through the plains. it all looks like this:
pretty, but empty as you can see. as were getting closer to calgary, we could see the rockies in the distance. finally! a change of scenery.
we drove through the center of town and past the olympic park. on the far side of the city, we started getting into the mountains.
we got into banff national park early in the afternoon. the town itself looks like a little swiss alpine village.
about halfway through the park, we got onto the icefieds parkway. the parkway follows the rocky mountains north to jasper national park. we got so many amazing pictures, but here's a few:
we saw some animals; elk, deer, some birds. but also, this guy and a couple of his friends.
after jasper, we headed back east a bit to see our friends jordan and dallas. they let us stay at their place in edmonton (thanks again!). they took us for some awesome breakfast at the cafe where they both work. i had just been telling michael how much i wanted some tofu scramble and the scramble at this place was great!
after edmonton, we headed back into the northwest. we got onto the alaska highway in dawson creek, BC in the early evening and spent the night in fort st. john. this morning, we got up and drove back through the rockies to watson lake. we saw a TON of animals today! deer, caribou (!), stone sheep, birds, possibly a grizzly bear (it could have been a brown black bear, we were already going by it when we saw it and we couldn't stop to take a picture, so there's no way for me to really identify it), black bear (one was up in a tree!), buffalo (with a baby!), a fox, some farm goats, and a couple of dogs.
tomorrow morning, we're going to head over to the signpost forest, which is across the street. we should get into alaska sometime tomorrow and we should be in fairbanks by sunday!!!
Friday, May 11, 2007
we have done a lot in the past couple of days! sorry about the lack of posts and also the lack of pictures but after driving all day and then getting into the hotel at 9ish, eating something for dinner and then getting ready for bed, we are pretty much exhausted.
i thought we would be having a lot of downtime after we get into the hotel. no such luck. being on the road and crossing so many different time zones, you start to lose track of the time and days. so this is from may 8th.
so let's see, in between eating tandoori sizzler doritos and spicy heat doritos, both with A&W, we drove from Brandon, Manitoba all the way through Saskatchewan (which is pretty boring to my eyes. all flat prairie and not much else) to Drumheller, Alberta where the world's largest dinosaur lives!
when we got there, we drove straight to the dinosaur and what did we see? a giant dinosaur surrounded by construction equipment. crap!!! so we walked around, took some pictures and debated whether or not we should just drive on to calgary or stay the night in drumheller and get up early in the morning and see if the dino was going to be open.
we decided to stay. and we lucked out! we went in to the gift shop, paid, got our dinosaur hand stamp which was good for the entire day and we could go up into the dinosaur as many times as we liked until 5.30 that evening! awesome!
we walked over to the entrance to the belly of the beast( actually we were walking into his right leg) and started to climb the stairs. a few minutes before we got there, i saw a mom and two little kids going into the dinosaur. as we were climbing the 108 stairs to the gaping maw of said dino, there came the mom and two kids down the stairs. the first one had a look of terror in his eyes as he passed us and the second was covering one ear and his eyes with his arm and holding his mom's hand with the other hand. it was about that point when the recorded dinosaur roar happened right around the next turn (his right thigh).
we made it to the top without running back down scared but that was soon to be changed. once we got into the actual mouth of the beast, we could see out and started taking pictures. that's when the wind started to pick up. and when the wind picked up, i mean it started to blow really hard and constant. that is when we noticed the head we were standing in was shaking!
now, i hate heights. but i love dinosaurs. but not enough to stand in a dinosaur's head as it is being battered about by winds strong enough to shake it. so we set up my camera to take a timed photo, ran down into the open mouth and ran back up to the sturdier deck where the shaking was less. we were hoping that the wind would die down so we could enjoy the view of the Canadian Badlands but no such luck. it seemed to be be blowing faster and harder as we stood there. so we went back down.
i wanted to go back up again a couple times just because i could, but i figured that amanda would probably get annoyed and we also had to get back on the road.
next update from me will include: Calgary! Canadian Rockies! Iceland Parkway! Edmonton! Meeting Jordan and Dallas!
i thought we would be having a lot of downtime after we get into the hotel. no such luck. being on the road and crossing so many different time zones, you start to lose track of the time and days. so this is from may 8th.
so let's see, in between eating tandoori sizzler doritos and spicy heat doritos, both with A&W, we drove from Brandon, Manitoba all the way through Saskatchewan (which is pretty boring to my eyes. all flat prairie and not much else) to Drumheller, Alberta where the world's largest dinosaur lives!
when we got there, we drove straight to the dinosaur and what did we see? a giant dinosaur surrounded by construction equipment. crap!!! so we walked around, took some pictures and debated whether or not we should just drive on to calgary or stay the night in drumheller and get up early in the morning and see if the dino was going to be open.
we decided to stay. and we lucked out! we went in to the gift shop, paid, got our dinosaur hand stamp which was good for the entire day and we could go up into the dinosaur as many times as we liked until 5.30 that evening! awesome!
we walked over to the entrance to the belly of the beast( actually we were walking into his right leg) and started to climb the stairs. a few minutes before we got there, i saw a mom and two little kids going into the dinosaur. as we were climbing the 108 stairs to the gaping maw of said dino, there came the mom and two kids down the stairs. the first one had a look of terror in his eyes as he passed us and the second was covering one ear and his eyes with his arm and holding his mom's hand with the other hand. it was about that point when the recorded dinosaur roar happened right around the next turn (his right thigh).
we made it to the top without running back down scared but that was soon to be changed. once we got into the actual mouth of the beast, we could see out and started taking pictures. that's when the wind started to pick up. and when the wind picked up, i mean it started to blow really hard and constant. that is when we noticed the head we were standing in was shaking!
now, i hate heights. but i love dinosaurs. but not enough to stand in a dinosaur's head as it is being battered about by winds strong enough to shake it. so we set up my camera to take a timed photo, ran down into the open mouth and ran back up to the sturdier deck where the shaking was less. we were hoping that the wind would die down so we could enjoy the view of the Canadian Badlands but no such luck. it seemed to be be blowing faster and harder as we stood there. so we went back down.
i wanted to go back up again a couple times just because i could, but i figured that amanda would probably get annoyed and we also had to get back on the road.
next update from me will include: Calgary! Canadian Rockies! Iceland Parkway! Edmonton! Meeting Jordan and Dallas!
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Tandoori Sizzler Doritos. yum.
being vegan, which means not eating any meat dairy or basically anything derived from an animal, i have not had a Dorito in ages. Hey, just because i don't eat animals doesn't mean i don't love the junk food.
Recently, i had the luck to come across some Sweet Chili Doritos which happened to be vegan. ate the whole bag. there is no other tortilla chip that has the same crunch as a Dorito. things like that are very important in junk food. you know it's not good for you so you might as well fully enjoy it, right? right.
So the Sweet Chili were good. not saying they weren't. but last night when amanda went into the store to see if they had postcards she came back out and said 'i need my purse. they have Tandoori Doritos!' she came back out with a bag of Doritos in one hand and a bottle of A&W Root Beer in the other.
We proceeded to devour the bag and drank half the bottle of root beer. Those chips were so good we drove around and found another store and bought two more bags for the road!
A side effect we found while eating and drinking these two in combination is that it makes you burp without warning and extremely loud. it was pretty awesome.
off to take a shower now and then head out on the road to Calgary.
i keep forgetting to bring my camera cable into the hotel room so i have not had a chance to upload photos. i promise that i will bring it in tonight and start posting some pictures!
brief tally of animals we have seen:
bald eagles
deer
various hawks
a bajillion red wing blackbirds
2 magpies
a porcupine!
cows
baby cows
horses
a couple cats
a quail!
elk!
a steer with giant horns like on boss hogg's car
okay. off to shower for real.
being vegan, which means not eating any meat dairy or basically anything derived from an animal, i have not had a Dorito in ages. Hey, just because i don't eat animals doesn't mean i don't love the junk food.
Recently, i had the luck to come across some Sweet Chili Doritos which happened to be vegan. ate the whole bag. there is no other tortilla chip that has the same crunch as a Dorito. things like that are very important in junk food. you know it's not good for you so you might as well fully enjoy it, right? right.
So the Sweet Chili were good. not saying they weren't. but last night when amanda went into the store to see if they had postcards she came back out and said 'i need my purse. they have Tandoori Doritos!' she came back out with a bag of Doritos in one hand and a bottle of A&W Root Beer in the other.
We proceeded to devour the bag and drank half the bottle of root beer. Those chips were so good we drove around and found another store and bought two more bags for the road!
A side effect we found while eating and drinking these two in combination is that it makes you burp without warning and extremely loud. it was pretty awesome.
off to take a shower now and then head out on the road to Calgary.
i keep forgetting to bring my camera cable into the hotel room so i have not had a chance to upload photos. i promise that i will bring it in tonight and start posting some pictures!
brief tally of animals we have seen:
bald eagles
deer
various hawks
a bajillion red wing blackbirds
2 magpies
a porcupine!
cows
baby cows
horses
a couple cats
a quail!
elk!
a steer with giant horns like on boss hogg's car
okay. off to shower for real.
Savers! Value village!
these are some of my favorite stores. they are a chain of salvation army type stores and they are nice enough to leave out the god part of their mission to help people. basically that means they are open on sundays.
so far on the trip i have seen 1 savers store and 1 value village. without even trying!!! i thought it would be a harder job finding them but they seem to just keep popping up. sure, i have driven from providence to new jersey to canada and only have seen 2 stores but still...
these are some of my favorite stores. they are a chain of salvation army type stores and they are nice enough to leave out the god part of their mission to help people. basically that means they are open on sundays.
so far on the trip i have seen 1 savers store and 1 value village. without even trying!!! i thought it would be a harder job finding them but they seem to just keep popping up. sure, i have driven from providence to new jersey to canada and only have seen 2 stores but still...
Monday, May 07, 2007
Trying to post while you're trying to get out a hotel room as early as possible is difficult.
long story short, we're in st. cloud, minnesota. yesterday we got through the rest of illinois, wisconsin, and the beginning of minnesota. today, we're aiming for medicine hat or thereabouts.
canada is big. really big. i thought we were going to get much further, but i think i misjudged exactly how big canada can be.
anyway, we saw our first elk yesterday outside of minneapolis. that was neat. the scenery is starting to change. it's becoming slightly less flat and a little more... i don't know... rolling prairie? i'm excited to get up into the mountains. we should be there tomorrow.
we also ate our first hotel-cooked meal. brown rice with black beans and mangoes and salsa and avocado. so good. we have pictures, but we haven't uploaded them yet. one of us will do that tonight, i think.
ok, gory's getting out of the shower and i think i was supposed to be cleaning up instead of getting on the computer.
off we go!
long story short, we're in st. cloud, minnesota. yesterday we got through the rest of illinois, wisconsin, and the beginning of minnesota. today, we're aiming for medicine hat or thereabouts.
canada is big. really big. i thought we were going to get much further, but i think i misjudged exactly how big canada can be.
anyway, we saw our first elk yesterday outside of minneapolis. that was neat. the scenery is starting to change. it's becoming slightly less flat and a little more... i don't know... rolling prairie? i'm excited to get up into the mountains. we should be there tomorrow.
we also ate our first hotel-cooked meal. brown rice with black beans and mangoes and salsa and avocado. so good. we have pictures, but we haven't uploaded them yet. one of us will do that tonight, i think.
ok, gory's getting out of the shower and i think i was supposed to be cleaning up instead of getting on the computer.
off we go!
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Illinois!
we drove from new jersey to illinois yesterday. left around 8 or 8.30 and got here around 9ish. not a bad stretch for our first day on the road, eh?
i woke up this morning around 4 or 5. i need to work on sleeping in later. i think i just was too excited still! i have a whole container of rootbeer floatcake cupcakes to eat still!!!!
amanda is out of the shower now so i am going to go shower and then we are going to see my grandfather and uncle for a bit. then after that we are heading back out on the road headed towards minneapolis and points north!
when we logged on to the internet this morning, we couldn't get on using the hotel's free wireless so i searched around and found one that worked entitled 'curious cup.' the name made me curious so i googled it and found out it was a local coffee roaster/shop! yay! good coffee! and we could see the shop right from the hotel window. so i went over and got us some fancy froofroo drinks. i got a soy cappaccino and amanda got a soy vanilla peppermint latte. very tasty.
when i update next, i will post the list of birds we have seen so far on the trip. we saw a bald eagle in ohio yesterday!
okay, off we go to visit with family and then amanda wants to chase a tornado or something.
we drove from new jersey to illinois yesterday. left around 8 or 8.30 and got here around 9ish. not a bad stretch for our first day on the road, eh?
i woke up this morning around 4 or 5. i need to work on sleeping in later. i think i just was too excited still! i have a whole container of rootbeer floatcake cupcakes to eat still!!!!
amanda is out of the shower now so i am going to go shower and then we are going to see my grandfather and uncle for a bit. then after that we are heading back out on the road headed towards minneapolis and points north!
when we logged on to the internet this morning, we couldn't get on using the hotel's free wireless so i searched around and found one that worked entitled 'curious cup.' the name made me curious so i googled it and found out it was a local coffee roaster/shop! yay! good coffee! and we could see the shop right from the hotel window. so i went over and got us some fancy froofroo drinks. i got a soy cappaccino and amanda got a soy vanilla peppermint latte. very tasty.
when i update next, i will post the list of birds we have seen so far on the trip. we saw a bald eagle in ohio yesterday!
okay, off we go to visit with family and then amanda wants to chase a tornado or something.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
wow.
with all that food esme is making/has made, i better hope i have my eating hat on during this trip!
so the other day in the mail i received my new toiletry/shower bag thingy. for the past kajillion years i have been using a plastic shopping bag to tote my bathroom stuff around in and i felt that this trip deserved something more. also i figured since we would be living out of the car it would be a nice thing to have my stuff all in one place instead of rolling around in the trunk or mixed in with my dirty boxers. yeah. it's happened before. not cool.
so. back to the bag. it has little compartments for all sorts of things that i don't have or use, a mirror that i can use to shave or shine in grizzly bear eyes and a hook that i can use to hang it in the bathroom or shower or in the car or even on a stunned grizzly bear if i want.
now i just need to get more stuff to put in the silly thing.
with all that food esme is making/has made, i better hope i have my eating hat on during this trip!
so the other day in the mail i received my new toiletry/shower bag thingy. for the past kajillion years i have been using a plastic shopping bag to tote my bathroom stuff around in and i felt that this trip deserved something more. also i figured since we would be living out of the car it would be a nice thing to have my stuff all in one place instead of rolling around in the trunk or mixed in with my dirty boxers. yeah. it's happened before. not cool.
so. back to the bag. it has little compartments for all sorts of things that i don't have or use, a mirror that i can use to shave or shine in grizzly bear eyes and a hook that i can use to hang it in the bathroom or shower or in the car or even on a stunned grizzly bear if i want.
now i just need to get more stuff to put in the silly thing.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
we're getting into the single digits. 9 days to go.
mostly, i've been cooking. a lot.
this is what i've made so far:
empanadas from veganomicon
samosas from joanna with mint cilantro chutney and lolo's mango chutney
banana-date scones (also from v-con)
and thin mints from our friend lisa
i still need to make lolo's lemon cranberry muffins and picnic sandwich, cranberry orange muffins, cherry almond muffins, joanna's soft oatmeal cookies, and the eggplant muffalatta from v-con (although i think i will have to change the eggplant to zucchini for gory). and that should be it for food. oh wait. i'm also making some granola and trail mix, but i can throw that together in a couple of minutes. oh and cupcakes for gory's birthday. right. then i'll be done.
9 days to go.
ack!
mostly, i've been cooking. a lot.
this is what i've made so far:
empanadas from veganomicon
samosas from joanna with mint cilantro chutney and lolo's mango chutney
banana-date scones (also from v-con)
and thin mints from our friend lisa
i still need to make lolo's lemon cranberry muffins and picnic sandwich, cranberry orange muffins, cherry almond muffins, joanna's soft oatmeal cookies, and the eggplant muffalatta from v-con (although i think i will have to change the eggplant to zucchini for gory). and that should be it for food. oh wait. i'm also making some granola and trail mix, but i can throw that together in a couple of minutes. oh and cupcakes for gory's birthday. right. then i'll be done.
9 days to go.
ack!
Sunday, April 22, 2007
speaking of food and packing, i bought my half of the food/non-food list this weekend. i am now the proud guardian of three bags of soup, rice, newman o's, tings, a shitload of larabars, toothpaste, cereal, and oatmeal. i've decided that microwaveable rice completely freaks me out. therefore, i bought about 800 bags of the stuff. neat!
i also cleaned my car out. it really didn't even take that long. i just had to rearrange the glovebox, get rid of some random papers, and vaccuum out the pringles bits. sometime this week i need to pick up some new windshield wipers and some batteries for a couple of flashlights and i should be good to go.
a couple of new things:
we nomainated ourselves for best travel blog
(hee!). click the button over on the right and vote for us. c'mon. you know you want to. so far, we're the only vegan travel blog. if you don't vote for us, you hate veganism.
a donation button! we're poor. and i'm quitting my job to go on this trip, so i'm super poor. we would like to get home without having to get jobs at scary random truck stop bars, so, if you feel like it, drop us some cash. in order to guilt you into sending us more money, we'll give half of it to charity. we haven't decided which yet (gory mentioned something about the human fund...), but one of us will post as soon as we figure it out. it'll most likely be farm sanctuary or something similar.
keep track of us over at herbivore! you need a subscription for access to the article(s) we'll be posting, so if you don't subscribe, go do that now.
Friday, April 20, 2007
packing.
how to pack, what to pack, what not to pack. these questions have been going through my head for the past couple of weeks as the trip has been inching closer and ever closer. most of my recent packing has been for weekend visits, just a few clothes in a bag and off i go. prior to that it was a bicycle camping trip. that packing involved getting the most amount of stuff into two pannier bags and a rack attached to my bicycle. whatever i could carry on the bike i could bring, if it didn't fit, leave it at home.
packing for a month-long car trip from one side of north america to the other and back again is a whole different kind of packing. i have so much more room to bring things! books! video games! kites! my bowling ball even! i could even bring a video projector if i wanted to!
so now, with all this extra room at hand, i almost have too much space. i only own 2 or 3 pants, a couple shorts and lots of shirts. how often do i want to do laundry? how often do i do laundry now? not that often. i found a nice little packing list and it even comes with check boxes to mark off what i have packed so i don't forget anything. check boxes are very important. i tend to be in the habit of packing things i don't need and forgetting to pack things that i do need.
yo-yo's are much more important than maps anyway.
how to pack, what to pack, what not to pack. these questions have been going through my head for the past couple of weeks as the trip has been inching closer and ever closer. most of my recent packing has been for weekend visits, just a few clothes in a bag and off i go. prior to that it was a bicycle camping trip. that packing involved getting the most amount of stuff into two pannier bags and a rack attached to my bicycle. whatever i could carry on the bike i could bring, if it didn't fit, leave it at home.
packing for a month-long car trip from one side of north america to the other and back again is a whole different kind of packing. i have so much more room to bring things! books! video games! kites! my bowling ball even! i could even bring a video projector if i wanted to!
so now, with all this extra room at hand, i almost have too much space. i only own 2 or 3 pants, a couple shorts and lots of shirts. how often do i want to do laundry? how often do i do laundry now? not that often. i found a nice little packing list and it even comes with check boxes to mark off what i have packed so i don't forget anything. check boxes are very important. i tend to be in the habit of packing things i don't need and forgetting to pack things that i do need.
yo-yo's are much more important than maps anyway.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
17 days to go!
My car has been given the go-ahead for cross country travel. So if it breaks down, I’m calling the dealership and telling them to come get us. And then telling them to pay for whatever’s broken. And then making them get us a rental car so that we can finish up. Or something.
AND I got my passport. Good god. I know everyone talks about their passport picture, but seriously, this is the worst picture I have ever seen of myself. I look beyond dead. I look dead, buried, dug up and then kicked a few times. Scary.
Ok, so with only one food shopping trip left before leaving, I need to figure out what kinds of food we’re taking with us. Because we’re vegan. If we don’t bring our own food we will, in fact, starve to death. I know that I get very very cranky when I get hungry. I don’t know if Gory does, but I’m guessing yes.
Our buddies on the ppk gave us some ideas for road trip food.
So far we’ve got:
lots of fruit.
easy veggies like baby carrots.
nuts
dried fruits
trail mix
tings and other crappy stuff that we'll eat within an hour and will make us feel crappy.
pita
stuff for making hummus.
pre-made hummus since I won't have the patience to wait for homemade hummus.
lots o water.
soymilk.
tofutti cream cheese.
bagels.
crackers.
peanut butter
marshmallow fluff (yes, relax, the vegan kind)
bread.
cans of baked beans
Luna bars
granola
cereal
newman-o's
vegan marshmellows
instant coffee
clif bars
instant soup
instant oatmeal
pretzels
tortilla chips
muffins and scones
rice and quinoa mixes in a microwave bag
any kind of “pocket” food: samosas, calzone-y type things
cans of soup and chili
cans of beans
I plan on making muffins and some scones and then the pocket type food, but I don’t want to make too much. I don’t really think we’d have a hard time eating it all before it goes bad, but I worry about stuff like that.
We’re bringing my mini food processor so that we can make hummus and we have a hot plate so we can cook at night.
We got the book Apocalypse Chow by Jon Robertson. Everything in it looks good (and vegan), so hopefully we’ll use that. I’m freaked out by canned vegetables, though, so I guess we can sub some fresh veggies for canned ones.
This weekend is supposed to be beautiful in Jersey, so I’m going to be cleaning out my car. Yay!
My car has been given the go-ahead for cross country travel. So if it breaks down, I’m calling the dealership and telling them to come get us. And then telling them to pay for whatever’s broken. And then making them get us a rental car so that we can finish up. Or something.
AND I got my passport. Good god. I know everyone talks about their passport picture, but seriously, this is the worst picture I have ever seen of myself. I look beyond dead. I look dead, buried, dug up and then kicked a few times. Scary.
Ok, so with only one food shopping trip left before leaving, I need to figure out what kinds of food we’re taking with us. Because we’re vegan. If we don’t bring our own food we will, in fact, starve to death. I know that I get very very cranky when I get hungry. I don’t know if Gory does, but I’m guessing yes.
Our buddies on the ppk gave us some ideas for road trip food.
So far we’ve got:
lots of fruit.
easy veggies like baby carrots.
nuts
dried fruits
trail mix
tings and other crappy stuff that we'll eat within an hour and will make us feel crappy.
pita
stuff for making hummus.
pre-made hummus since I won't have the patience to wait for homemade hummus.
lots o water.
soymilk.
tofutti cream cheese.
bagels.
crackers.
peanut butter
marshmallow fluff (yes, relax, the vegan kind)
bread.
cans of baked beans
Luna bars
granola
cereal
newman-o's
vegan marshmellows
instant coffee
clif bars
instant soup
instant oatmeal
pretzels
tortilla chips
muffins and scones
rice and quinoa mixes in a microwave bag
any kind of “pocket” food: samosas, calzone-y type things
cans of soup and chili
cans of beans
I plan on making muffins and some scones and then the pocket type food, but I don’t want to make too much. I don’t really think we’d have a hard time eating it all before it goes bad, but I worry about stuff like that.
We’re bringing my mini food processor so that we can make hummus and we have a hot plate so we can cook at night.
We got the book Apocalypse Chow by Jon Robertson. Everything in it looks good (and vegan), so hopefully we’ll use that. I’m freaked out by canned vegetables, though, so I guess we can sub some fresh veggies for canned ones.
This weekend is supposed to be beautiful in Jersey, so I’m going to be cleaning out my car. Yay!
Sunday, April 08, 2007
26 days until we leave!
I can't believe it is coming up so fast now. getting a little nervous now, only due to the fact that I have never done anything like this before. But i am so excited more than anything else. So many new things/places/people/animals/landscapes/trees/everything to see! i can't wait.
it is going to be so wicked awesome.
I can't believe it is coming up so fast now. getting a little nervous now, only due to the fact that I have never done anything like this before. But i am so excited more than anything else. So many new things/places/people/animals/landscapes/trees/everything to see! i can't wait.
it is going to be so wicked awesome.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
gah!
5 weeks to go!
on monday i'm bringing my car in to be looked over. wish him (the car has been dubbed "black licorice", which i think he hates) luck. my mileage hit 90,000 when i was driving to work on thursday. that means i'll hit 100,000 (and i'll lose my warranty) sometime during the trip. good times.
i still haven't gotten my passport yet. the government is holding my birth certificate hostage.
we finally figured out our actual route. we think we're pretty much only going to have time to go straight north as originally planned, through north dakota. and then we're turning around in san fransisco. which is mildly disappointing because i would have liked to go back through LA and vegas. so anyway, the link over there on the right in mostly accurate. if we work up a better one, i'll replace what's there, but until then...
5 weeks to go!
on monday i'm bringing my car in to be looked over. wish him (the car has been dubbed "black licorice", which i think he hates) luck. my mileage hit 90,000 when i was driving to work on thursday. that means i'll hit 100,000 (and i'll lose my warranty) sometime during the trip. good times.
i still haven't gotten my passport yet. the government is holding my birth certificate hostage.
we finally figured out our actual route. we think we're pretty much only going to have time to go straight north as originally planned, through north dakota. and then we're turning around in san fransisco. which is mildly disappointing because i would have liked to go back through LA and vegas. so anyway, the link over there on the right in mostly accurate. if we work up a better one, i'll replace what's there, but until then...
Monday, March 26, 2007
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