St. Paul, MN

I feel a bit discombobulated, so this post may very well reflect a bit of that.

 

Minnesota hit like a whirlwind. I stopped the first night in a town called Mankato, which smelled like chicken and had more mosquitoes than I have ever seen. They all decided to take a bite out of me. The next day I drove up to St. Paul to see my friend Beth. I had some time to kill before she got off of work, so I went to one of the local parks to play with the dog. I shot a random photo of their cathedral out of my truck window:

 

And then I quickly came down with a sinus infection. Thankfully, it all worked out. Beth had a concert to go to after work, so I just went to her house and passed out on the couch. The next day I accomplished getting a meal ready in the slow-cooker before spending the rest of the day napping and recuperating while she worked.  By the time the evening rolled around I was feeling mildly better, and a half-bottle of whiskey with some apple cider vinegar and good conversation thrown in resolved the remaining dregs of my issue.

 

Friday we went to the Minnesota history museum, where I learned all sorts of crazy things about this state. I learned about tornados, and baby boomers, wind turbines, and the fact that prince was born here. We ate some awesome italian food at a local market/restaurant, we went for a walk to shoot some graffiti pics:

 

As well as some odd little flowers:

 

We went out to a ‘Tour de Franzia’ party, with yes – boxed wine. We searched for a greek god in a bar called the BullDog, and I passed out in somebody else’s house on a couch that was about half as big as I should be able to sleep in. An entertaining evening to be sure.

 

Pancakes the next morning, and then back to the house. Lots of cooking, as we had three folks coming over for dinner and the girls had a lot of extra food in their fridge. By ‘the girls’ I refer to Beth and her fun room mate Amanda. Amanda and I got along, had coffee, took the dog for a walk, and went to the gym (which was AWESOME!!). This is Amanda and Scrappy at night:

 

Dinner was delicious, with a chicken-parmesan ish entree, served with asparagus, butternut squash, onion, mushroom, bell pepper, roasted rosemary potatoes, and baguette with homemade roasted garlic butter. Not too shabby for a white boy, and everybody seemed to enjoy it.

 

All in all it was a great trip. Got to see my good friend, and meet a few more. This is Ms. Elizabeth:

Thanks chica for putting up with an annoying sick guy for a long time.

 

Once Monday rolled around, I headed North without really having a clue of where I was going.

A random pic

My hand, and some sunlight:

And then I went to South Dakota

I parked in some little town at the edge of Wyoming, hoping to get up early and capture the morning light on Mt. Rushmore. I’d been told that Crazy Horse was also great, so figured I would hit both before continuing on.

 

I woke up before the dawn and drove through the dawn to reach my destination. The sun rose as I neared the black hills:

 

I pulled into Crazy Horse right as they opened the gates. For some reason they didn’t charge me, which was great! But wait… perhaps there was a reason, because they weren’t actually open yet. I had scuttled in with the employees, and the park wouldn’t open for another hour. I took a quick picture from the parking lot (you aren’t allowed to walk to the monument) and drove away:

 

Then it was on to Mt. Rushmore. Again, I got there before they opened, but this is monument is a little easier to peruse on your own. As such I did the tourist thing and took some photos with the pretty morning light just as I had wanted:

 

From here I drove north up into Deadwood, the backdrop for a terribly entertaining HBO show that I caught a few episodes of. A town with a sordid past, everywhere are informational plaques regaling passers-by with information on this rough and tough establishment. There are gambling halls and casinos, bars aplenty, and everywhere there is another shop selling you an authentic Deadwood t-shirt.

I walked around the town for a while, paid my three dollars to park, took some photos, and then quickly got out of what is now just another tourist town with a claim to fame.

 

From there I took a quick jaunt thru Sturgis to get gas, then proceeded down to the Badlands National Park. I’m not really sure how I got there. I know it wasn’t through the usual route that tourists take, because I spent an hour on a dirt road before I saw a sign for the park. It warned ‘FEE AREA AHEAD’, but there was no pay station.

 

I wandered into a campground, nestled within beautiful grass-covered rolling hills, and it was free. I didn’t see what was so bad about these lands. The bison were wandering nearby, and it was the closest thing to a realization of my mental image of how this country was a few hundred years ago. Then I kept driving.

 

More signs that I was in the park, more promises to make me pay a fee, and then suddenly I see what is bad. Well, more different than bad. Rolling hills of a different type:

 

Harsh hills and valleys with odd colors and minerals. Some jagged, some soft. I even saw a mountain goat poke it’s head out for the barest of moments. It was gorgeous. And with this change of scenery came the blacktop asphalt that allows all the RVs to trumble along ahead and behind me. We slowed whenever anybody wanted to stop for a picture:

 

And then suddenly, I was out. Passing the entrance, and not a single person asked me for my money. Talk about a real treat! I continued east, avoiding the interstate as much as possible. And I have to say… after the badlands, South Dakota became kind of boring. Lots of farm land, but not a whole lot else as far as scenery. Every now and then there would be an abandoned car in a soy bean field:

 

And some of the details around me were gorgeous:

 

Overall though, I was just excited to get to Minnesota, where I would get to hang out with a good friend for the weekend.

Random Pic

Quake Lake, as it turns into a river:

My house

A few people have asked about the truck and what I have in there. So here is the back of the truck in ‘driving mode’. Somehow this turned out a bit blurry, but everything is labeled if you click on it:

 

At night I shuffle some things into the front seats to give me enough room to sleep. I shave to lay diagonally, my feet by the driver’s seat and my head near the tailgate, curling around the drawers and tool box. The dog sleeps in front of the toolbox, or just as often: on top of me. Click on the pic to see the labeling:

Sweet blue/purple tiger print pillow cases, a foam pad for my hips so they don’t hurt too bad, and a blanket to keep me warm. What more could I ask for?

 

So yeah, that’s home.

Yep, I went to Yellowstone.

It was not my intention to go through the park this go round. I wanted to spend more time and be able to hike around a bit. But I was so close, how could I not just go in and take a peek? So I drove a little further south and went in the ‘West Entrance.’ I followed the trains of other vehicles and saw all the same sites as every other tourist in there. I clicked my shutter in all the same places and oohed and aahed at the appropriate times. Like when I saw a bison for the first time. About 20 feet away from me:

 

And when I saw some of the geothermal features of the park, like this acidic and alluringly blue pool:

 

I saw a managed fire as it burned through the park. I took a picture with me in it to prove I was there:

 

And I stopped at all the overpasses to see things like the yellowstone river as it passes through some yellow stone:

 

After about four hours I had to decide if I was staying in the park or not for the night. A quick check at one of the campgrounds, and the ridiculous price to stay told me what I would be doing. I headed up towards Cooke City and turned off on a dirt road a few miles outside of the park. After about thirty minutes of putzing around random dirt trails I made camp:

 

It had a pretty nice view:

 

I decided to sleep in the truck to save myself the trouble of setting up the tent. I made my first camp fire of the trip, and cooked a sweet potato next to a can of black beans in the fire. Delicious. Morning time came and it was time to leave. And boy was it smoky! I drove back into the park and watched the sun rise through a thick cloud that had settled over the entire park overnight:

 

It was pretty, as the sun through smoke can be:

 

Unfortunately, after the sunrise all the smoke did was obscure the lovely vistas. Like the ‘Grand Canyon’ of yellowstone. I saw this:

I’m sure it’s much more grand when you can see it.

 

So I decided to start skipping the big vistas, and visited another set of thermal pools. The cool morning air made it very beautiful:

 

I saw some young bison right on the walkway:

 

And then their dad got a little too close for my comfort, and started stamping his paw at me in an aggressive manner.

 

I got the hell out of there and left the park through the East entrance. I’d had enough of the tourist game, and besides; it was time to get the dog out of the truck and do some hiking. I decided to head East through Wyoming.

Max!

In Montana at last. Not sure why exactly. I’ve heard it’s pretty. I contact my friend’s brother Max, who lives in Bozeman. Max and I have hung out a few times, long ago, but haven’t talked in a long time. I was looking forward to catching up with him.

 

I rolled into Bozeman a bit late, mostly because I kept stopping to take photos:

 

I called Max, but he was in school. I went to the local brewery and drank a few beers, found a wal-mart and passed out. The next day I went for a hike while waiting for him to get out of class. I found a beautiful and easy trail called the ‘Bangtail Divide’. The views were pretty nice:

 

After the hike Max was out and we met up. Had a great time talking photography (which he’s going to school for up here in lovely Montana) and looking through some projects. Then he gave me a tour of the MSU campus, which we rode to on a tandem bicycle (a first for me):

 

After that we played some foosball, worked on his truck (I’m a sucker for doing ‘man stuff’), met a few of his friends, watched his room mate as he worked in a bakery (awesome!), and just generally had a great time. 

 

A few more beers and it was portrait time. I took one exposure test, and one ‘real’ shot. Focus? Who needs it! Proper light? It’s for the birds! Thank goodness I don’t pretend to be a pro. :)

 

The next day it was a jog, and then off to take a dip in my first hot springs. And then my plans changed a bit, as I realized just how close I was to Yellowstone National Park…

Onward, ever onward

From Washington I made a quick skip up to Idaho. The target? Coeur d’Alene. Everywhere I went, I kept hearing about this town, and so had to go up and check it out.

 

What they have is a gorgeous lake

 

They also have a ton of cutesy overpriced shops which, being on my limited budget, I avoided like the plague. I meandered around for a bit, walked the dog through some of their pretty parks, got some coffee, and picked up a few essentials at the outdoor outfitter.

 

At some point during all of this I lost my cell phone, and ended up retracing all my steps through town to no avail. I tried calling my phone, no answer. At that point I was in a bit of a foul mood. I went to a local park to have lunch, and saw the maples starting to change color:

 

This helped my mood, but I was still agitated enough that I decided to drive away and just stare at the open road for a while. I probably didn’t get the full Coeur d’Alene experience.

 

The sun went down right as I approached a historical site, so I pulled over and watched it descend near the Mission:

 

Darkness set in, and it was time to find a place to rest. I pulled into the nearest town, Kellogg, and found a parking lot. Parked the truck and went to sleep. Tomorrow, it was time for Montana!

Pullman, Washington

After the lovely wind energy farm, I pulled up to my destination: Pullman. Here to see a friend. Well, kind of. Here to see a friend of my sister’s from high school. I saw her in town over the holidays and we became ‘facebook friends’, which is always fun. So I asked if I could bum a couch from her, and she obliged. Then she showed me around her town. Which was a blast.

 

The first thing to know about Pullman is that it is a college town. Washington State University is here, and everywhere in the area is wild about college spirit. Sixty miles before I ever got to the town I started seeing ‘Go COUGS’ painted on the sides of grain silos. Seriously spirituous.

If you look carefully, the cougar icon actually spells WSU, which took me forever to figure out, because I’m not that bright sometimes.

 

Sarah gave me a tour of the WSU campus, where it was game day. EVERYBODY was wearing their Crimson and Grey (school colors, and yes I capitalized them). The school has some great old brick buildings which I love:

 

It also has a museum of dead things, where I found great pleasure in seeing the mascot dead and stuffed, in a simulacrum of vitality. According to Sarah, this is very similar to their football team:

 

And since Sarah is a vet school student, she showed me around the veterinary area, with horses and dogs and cats and cows and sheep and goats. All there for something. Here is a super bad shot of a super cute dog that Sarah would be spaying the following day:

 

And speaking of dogs, Sarah has three of her own. Which Scrappy was thrilled by. My boy fell in love with her boy. Her girl nipped my boy all through the day. Her man humped my boy to show dominance. They all seemed happy about things:

 

Sarah showed me around her town, we went to her favorite bar, her favorite ‘mexican’ joint, hung out with some of her friends. Generally, we just had a good time. It was great to be able to catch up with her, and really – get to know her since we never did that in high school. Thanks Sarah!

A picture

I’ve totally lost my schedule, so don’t know if I can actually call this a pic of the day anymore. So now it is just a picture. Of a mission, in Idaho. At sunset.

And now a random update.

I lost my phone in Coeur D’Alene Idaho. So if I had your phone number, now I don’t. If you want to call me, currently you cant. Which all works out anyway, because I was about to go over my minutes for this month anyway. Hopefully going to get something figured out in the next day or two. This is how it made me feel:

(not really, I just wanted an excuse to post an angry face)

((No, I really did lose my phone.  I wasn’t really mad. ))

(((This is getting complicated)))

I actually did get to see Mt. St. Helens

Just not from the correct side of the state. I ended up finding a wind farm with a visitor’s center. It was the Wild Horse Wind Energy Center. Why did I go there? I don’t really know. Perhaps it was the huge rainbow ‘Open’ flag on the side of a highway, that didn’t tell me what was open but promised something eye catching. Indeed, there were the requisite, and eye catching, wind turbines:

 

And if you positioned your camera carefully, you could get all artsy, and frame some lovely mountains within those turbines. This might allow you to think you are at least a mediocre photographer, until you realize how much more impactful it would be to get those wind turbines higher up in the composition:

 

Thankfully, I don’t have to worry about all that artsy stuff, because I just wanted a picture of Mt. St. Helens, which was much smaller than the postcards promised, but very pretty nonetheless:

 

I also watched the site’s presentation on wind energy and the site that they were at, the turbines they used and all that good stuff. It was interesting, but alas I still had some miles to cover.