Author: linfordfisher

Day 37 (8/4) New Orleans –> Moundville, AL –> Atlanta. (Lin) Woke up to a super muggy morning in New Orleans (even in our hotel room – air conditioned, but still damp). Got on the road and enjoyed driving across part of Lake Pontchartrain (smaller section, not the N-S long bridge). It was also fascinating to realize that the wide open terrain and roads we had enjoyed in much of Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas had completely disappeared. Instead, the highway in Mississippi and Alabama is tightly closed by trees on either side – pretty much like highways in New England. Although it felt familiar, honestly, we missed the wide open space and the never-ending view.

In Alabama, we stopped at Moundville Archaeological Park, a serene and lovely field in which a dozen or so large grass covered mounds can be viewed. The mounds date back 600 – 1,000 years ago and were built by southeastern Native nations as part of a concentrated living area / mini urban area. The mounds were usually used by royalty and religious leaders, who lived on top of them. Although the largest mound is only 60 feet high, it is still impressive to ponder the volume of dirt that had to be displaced to build it. Clusters of mounds like this exist all over the southeast, reaching up to Ohio. It was super wicked hot and humid, so only Harrison and Eden joined me in climbing the 100 stairs to the top of Chieftan’s Mound.

After a quick tour of the museum and some of the displays and artifacts on display (and some ice cream to cool down), we hit the road again. We had been hoping to stop in Tuscaloosa to see some friends, but we had to keep moving for time’s sake, which was unfortunate.

Atlanta traffic was slow, but it was slightly past the peak when we arrived. We drove to the northern section of the Atlanta, to Alpharetta, to stay with our friends the Stantons from our Gordon-Conwell days.

(Can click on pics for larger versions.)

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Day 36 ( 8/3) New Orleans. (Lin) Another lovely late start to the day. It was raining when we woke up, so we felt no rush to get out and sightsee. When the weather cleared up around 11 am, we headed outside to explore the French Quarter. Our hotel is half a block off of Bourbon Street (ahem), so the kids got a quick but tame 11 am introduction to that. We stopped at the St. Louis Cathedral at the edge of Jackson Square – which claims to be the oldest Catholic cathedral in North America (1720).

From there it was to Cafe du Monde, of course, for several orders of their amazing beignets—French rectangular donuts smothered in powdered sugar. Nom nom!

From there it was a meandering route through some touristy stores, the French Market (an amazing stretch of food places and street vendors, where we bought yummy cheese and a baguette sandwich), and the National Park Services Historical Park – dedicated to New Orleans and jazz. Harrison and Helena completed the Junior Ranger program (#10!) while we watched a live jazz group from Denver, CO, tear it up.

Having learned a bit about New Orleans and jazz, we headed to the banks of the Mississippi, which we had first seen far to the north, in Minneapolis. If you’ve been to New Orleans, you know that when you stand on the banks of the Mississippi on the French Quarter side, you expect the river to flow left to right, but in fact it flows right to left, due to some crazy bends and curves ins the river. Anyway, it is really wide here, and of course super dirty, having traversed much of the midwest before arriving here.

We left the river, walked up Canal St., and caught a trolley to the Garden District, where we spent a hot, sweaty, hour viewing some of the largest and most beautiful houses there – often with ornate vegetation and gardens. Really beautiful and lush. The kids also loved all the different kinds of lizards we kept seeing – they are everywhere! I wonder how many show up in houses.

After a trolley ride back to the French Quarter, we walked to our hotel and had a lovely relaxing evening swimming and eating poolside.

And then: date night! Woot. Put the kids to bed and headed out to Lafitte’s on Bourbon St. – the oldest continuous pub in America, supposedly. Good times.

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Day 35 (8/2) San Antonio and driving to New Orleans. (Lin) For the first time this whole trip, I believe, I didn’t set an alarm for all of us in the hotel room. Sleeping in until 8:30 was good for all of us. We eventually packed up, ate the huge breakfast at the hotel, and headed outside to explore a small section of San Antonio.

We started by going into a huge mall next to our hotel, descending a level, and entering the River Walk. Although it was super humid, Elliot loved the River Walk for all the birds he saw, and Helena was in flower heaven and went to town taking close-ups of all the many colorful varieties.

After walking a section of the River Walk, we climbed the stairs to the street level and meandered our way to the Alamo, where in 1836 the Mexican army laid siege to a group of American men and women as part of the so-called Texas Revolution. It was interesting to see how the Alamo is curated as a “shrine” – part religious and part American historical, perhaps. The kids were all like “eh” – it’s getting harder and harder to impress them. Perhaps we need to watch The Alamo on our next long drive.

After pulling out of San Antonio, we had a 8 hour drive to New Orleans. We drove through downtown Houston en route, meaning that the kids have now been in or seen (from the car) the four largest cities in the US in the past two months (NYC, LA, Chicago, and Houston). Really fun. We all agreed that Chicago has a more impressive skyline (although we are not a neutral party…).

After crossing into Louisiana, we hit several long sections where the highway is on a bridge over the bayou, with vast stretches of water broken up by trees.

We made a somewhat last minute stop in Baton Rouge to visit one of my academic buddies, Mike Pasquier–super great to hang a bit. We also got to sample some local cuisine in the form of Po’ Boys (sandwiches of a local variety), catfish pies, and fried pickles. Yummy, but greasy. I had to eat an apple to detox.

On the road again, we pulled into New Orleans around 11 pm. I’ve been here twice before for conferences, so it is great to have the family here this time. Our hotel is in the middle of the French Quarter, so we look forward to exploring the area tomorrow. Only two of our four kids had been born in 2005 when Katrina hit New Orleans, and neither of the older two remember it, so that will be part of what we talk about more tomorrow, I’m sure, even if we don’t actually get to the Ninth Ward.

It is hot here, although in an oppressive, super humid way. I have to say, the higher, dryer temps of the southwest are stronger in some ways, but so much more bearable in others ways.

(Click on the pics for larger versions of them.)

Day 34 (8/1) Santa Fe and driving to San Antonio. (Lin) Today was our longest driving day yet: 11 hours. Texas is yuuuge, yuge, I tell you. And New Mexico is not small, either.

We all had a hard time getting up this morning. Travel fatigue is definitely kicking in. Fortunately, there was nothing urgent. We finally got around to loading up and walking around downtown Santa Fe, where our hotel was located. That place is cute! Totally manufactured and carefully cultivated, of course, with the low-level mud-plaster adobe style construction everywhere. Basically, everything looks like centuries-old Spanish mission buildings. Still, super cute and touristy. We walked around the plaza, went to the old Governor’s Palace (now a history museum with an open craft market out front), and got—perhaps oddly, given that it is a place rich in Spanish history—delicious crepes and French bread at a local creperie.

We also walked a short distance to two churches. The first was the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, and I was fascinated to find a statue to Kateri Tekakwitha out front (who was a Mohawk from Montreal, died in the 17^th c., and was made a saint recently – the first such one in North America). The second church was San Miguel, which bills itself as the oldest church building in America (early 17^th c.). It was small, cute, and ornate in the inside.

We got on the road and steered our GPS to San Antonio. The original plan (in the spring, when we planned the trip) was to sleep in Dallas overnight, but so many of you suggested that we drive the extra distance to Austin or San Antonio. I’ve been to both cities, and I like San Antonio especially, so it didn’t take too much convincing to change our plans. I especially want to show the kids the Riverwalk and the Alamo.

Almost immediately after leaving behind the impressive and beautiful mountains outside of Albuquerque, the NM landscape turned pretty flat, and it stayed that way through south/central Texas. Although we had lovely blue skies for most of the day (along with some totally fun cloud formations and combinations), as we crossed into Texas we could see a huge storm cell ahead, and the wind picked up somewhat ferociously. We could even see a small dust storm on the horizon to the north. We kept an eye on the weather and radar, and ended up driving through what was really only a heavy and windy downpour. Still, for a half hour or so, we felt like we were in an episode of storm chasers, which excited the kids quite a bit.

There’s really no major highway from Santa Fe to San Antonio; 85% of our driving today was on secondary roads, but in this part of the country that means extremely straight and high quality roads that have 75 mph speed limits (except through the occasional town). We also drove through a 60 mile long wind farm, with windmills as far as you could see.

At dusk we hit the town of Eden, billed as the center of Texas. We had to stop and take a picture of our Eden in Eden!

We had an 11 hour driving day (with stops), but with the loss of one hour coming across the time zone, it meant we were in the van from 11:30 am – 11:30 pm. The kids handled it well overall. I think we all felt it was a nice change of pace after pushing so hard for the past week and a half.

Day 33 (7/31) Four Corners and Chaco Canyon. (Pickles – you know, the trusty Honda Odyssey) Okay, people. Today was the worst day yet. For 33 days straight I’ve been pretty chill about this ridiculous marathon trip my humans are taking. I’ve faithfully chugged straight up steep mountain roads, around wicked hairpin bends (and even pigtail / corkscrew turns in Custer State Park), kept my humans safe down crazy steep 10% grades in the mountains, kept them cool in 125 degree heat in Death Valley, and never once failed to start, stop, and even hit 90 mph on the open road when asked to do so. I’ve eaten more bugs, dirt, and stones than I care to remember. But today, oh, today was the worst.

It didn’t start out that bad. My humans had a nice night (I overheard) at their hotel in Cortez, Colorado, at the base of Mesa Verde (ahem, another steep and winding road I safely carried them on, thank you). We both got to get wet – they in the pool, and I in a massive thunderstorm that moved through late at night. As we were leaving, I was treated to a super cheap meal – gas for $2.07! (My humans are the budget types – they were so happy! Fortunately it didn’t taste too bad, although they always give me the low octane stuff.)

We then drove 45 minutes to Four Corners – a pretty nice and mostly flat drive. Of course, they all got out and took what I later overheard were neat pictures of each of the kid humans standing in four states: Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. Of course, did anyone ask ME if I wanted to have a wheel in all four states? Nooo. Of course not. Gah.

From there we turned southeast towards Chaco Canyon, which I’ve heard is an important historical site for Native American cultures. On the way there, we passed by Ship Rock, a really cool and huge free-standing rock formation that sticks up 1,500 feet from the earth. Thankfully my humans decided to not take the hour detour back what I’m sure would have been crappy roads to see it up close.

But: out of the frying pan and into the fire. As we neared Chaco Canyon, suddenly the nice paved road I have enjoyed for 99% of the trip disappeared. And that’s when things started going downhill. (Well, not literally, since we were at 8,000 feet and stayed there for a while.) The paved road turned into gravel road. The gravel road, while rough, soon gave way to an actual dirt road, with huge divots, hard packed ruts, and miles and miles of washboard dirt. I felt like every single bolt in my frame was going to come out. My humans were making jokes about the Cars movie, but I didn’t think it was funny. There were even cattle on the road! I greatly preferred the bison on the road in Yellowstone — much more majestic.

After 30 minutes of this torture, we arrived at the visitor’s center, where I sat in the heat while my humans got water and maps. We then drove on a long loop in the canyon floor, looking at multiple remains of great houses built by ancestral puebloan peoples. My humans got out at Pueblo Bonito, the largest great house in the valley, and spent over an hour walking around it. Apparently it was really amazing – much larger than they expected: it covered 3 acres and was 3-4 stories high originally. It was made of thousands and thousands of smaller stones put together with mortar. Each level was supported with logs that were brought from large forests up to 60 miles away (and without the benefit of a sturdy, all purpose vehicle like me, or beasts of burden like horses – all human labor). Pueblo Bonito had over 600 rooms, mostly small storage and living areas, along with several large kivas, or round ceremonial religious spaces (and some smaller kivas as well). (The father human was sort of a know-it-all here, sad to say.)

The ruins were in pretty good shape from what I could see, although in the 1940s a large part of the canyon wall (that Pueblo Bonito is up against) came crashing down and crushed part of the ruins – 30 rooms. The father human wanted to take a hike up to the top of the mesa for a better view, but not everyone else felt like it, so they all piled back in and we returned to the visitor’s center for junior ranger badges for the youngest two humans, and then we were on our way.

Oh, before we left, the father human took time to stick another half dozen stickers on the Thule car top carrier that is strapped to me. There must be 30 stickers up there now. Every time we stop at a national park or city, they are obsessed with buying another sticker and putting it on the Thule. No skin off my back, but seriously folks – I’M the one who is taking you to these places, not the stupid Thule! Then again, it would ruin my bumper image if they stuck them on me directly. So I guess we are cool.

After the visitor’s center, I had to make the 30 minute hellish ride back over the dirt, washboard, ruts, etc., sometimes crawling along at 10-15 miles per hour. And the vibrations! They never stopped. Just pave the stupid road, humans. I snuck in a selfie with the road at a bad part – check it out below.

After that, we set our course to Santa Fe. I love cities. Smooth roads, parking garages, plentiful gas stations, beautiful cars, etc. Can’t wait! The roads to Santa Fe were lovely – there is so much beauty around here. I heard my humans say today: #beautyiseverywhere. I’m sure they were talking about me. I’ve heard tomorrow will be a long driving day — but all good paved roads, supposedly. You never can tell with these clowns.

(My humans say if you click on the pictures, you’ll see larger versions of them all.)

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Day 31 (7/29) Moab, Rafting on the Colorado River, and Arches National Park. (Eden)

(This is posted late because we stayed at a hotel where there was no wifi. More on that later.)

This morning, we said goodbye to Monument Valley, which made Dad sad. He likes big rocks.

We stopped just outside the park to take the iconic Forrest Gump shot. I saw the movie for the first time last night so I understood what we were doing but my siblings weren’t entirely sure. Eventually after a lot of re-dos, we got the picture. Run, Fishers, run!

After a quick two and a half hour drive , we arrived in Moab, Utah. Dad had arranged a river rafting excursion through a local adventure company. We drove upstream along the Colorado River, put on our breath-restricting life vests, and hopped in a raft with five or so other people. Our guide paddled us downstream to a little beach, where we stopped for lunch. We plopped down and watched as the guides lay out stuff for sandwiches. It was kind of weird, just watching them as they assembled tables and cut up fruits and veggies. We ate and got back on the rafts. Mom and Harrison took a turn on the inflatable kayak.

We continued down the river, through a couple of faster rapids, and stopped to swim and jump off the rafts. At one point, Elliot was sitting on the edge of the raft when I cannon-balled off it, knocking him off with the force of my jump! It was really funny and even he came up laughing. We all had fun jumping.

Through the slower parts of the river, our guide, Jonah (perfect name for his job, right?), entertained us with stories of his extreme hiking trips. He’s a pretty serious hiker and it was really peaceful listening to him as we floated down the Colorado.

When the ride was over, we changed into dry clothes, and instantly realized how hot it was. 105 F. Ugh. We stopped for dinner at a fun local joint called Milt’s, founded in ’54, which made it the oldest restaurant in town. It had yummy burgers and decent shakes, but not as good as In-N-Out!

Next was Arches National Park. It was really pretty, despite some clouds and rapidly approaching sunset. We marveled at the landscape but were disappointed to see only a couple arches.

We hiked (although it was more of a walk) up to a giant arch—a double arch, actually—and scrambled around on the big rocks below it. We had a nice view of the setting sun. We sat around on the rocks and took pictures. (Or, Dad took pictures. And more pictures, and more pictures, and more pictures….)

Unfortunately, it got dark pretty soon after that so we headed to Moab Under Canvas, the best hotel (in my opinion) that we’ve stayed in this whole trip!! It’s essentially glamping; there’s canvas tents with a rug, a king size bed, a dresser, and a wood stove. And the kids got our own separate teepee to sleep in with four cots!! (Dad wasn’t too keen on the non-Native appropriation of teepees, but it was still fun.) We definitely didn’t need the stove because even though the sun had gone down, it was still HOT. The whole thing was awesome and adorable.

(And it was practically in the middle of nowhere, hence the lack of wifi. There was no electricity at all in the tents/teepee.)

We ate a couple s’mores at the community fire, took quick showers in the bathroom trailer, and gazed up at the stars. There were SO many and they were SO bright! As more stars appeared, it became harder to pick out. It was stunning.

And then, we crawled into our beds and cots, and went to sleep. Under Canvas.

(Click on the pictures to enlarge them or start a slideshow.)

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And some more I forgot originally:

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Day 30 (7/28) Horseshoe Bend, Antelope Canyon, and Monument Valley. (Lin) Today might have been one of our favorites yet. On the road by 7 am, with Monument valley as our final destination and several planned stops along the way. The pine forests and confined meadows of the north rim area soon gave way to sprawling, hugely open stretches of typical northern Arizona desert/tundra, almost always with large mesas and canyons looming in the distance. Our drive took us straight towards and around Vermillion Cliffs, and especially Marble Canyon on the east side. I have vivid memories of driving this section with my parents and my sister Lisa when I was 10 or so, and it did not disappoint with the early sun on it.

We stopped briefly at the Navajo interpretive center at the bridge across the Colorado River. There is a pedestrian bridge that parallels the main road bridge, which is fun. The bridge is 450 feet or so above the river.

Another 40 minutes of driving around and through mesas and canyons brought us to Horseshoe Bend, a famous lookout where the Colorado River makes a huge hairpin turn. We hiked ¾ mile up and then down a blisteringly hot, desert trail to the lookout 1,000 feet above the river, where we were rewarded with breathtaking views. It was yet another heartstopping situation where there were no fences or guardrails—just s sheer drop. And yet, to get the full view, you needed to be at the edge! So we took turns crawling on our bellies to the very edge and looking over. Amazing.

After a hot hike back again (looking for lizards, as we had seen going in), we drove 10 minutes to Antelope Canyon, just outside of Page (AZ), where we were scheduled for a 1 pm tour of the famous orange slot canyon. Somehow we (I!) got mixed up on our time zones, so we were there one hour early, but they were able to slip us into the 12 noon tour. (The time zone thing is funny – Arizona generally doesn’t observe DST, so it is on Pacific time in the summer, even though it is Mountain time. The Navajo nation does observe DST, so it is usually the same as Utah during the summer, or so I thought. Anyway, confusing.) The 3.5 mile ride to the canyon was a blast – half a dozen trucks racing across a low canyon floor. Antelope Canyon itself was astonishing. I had seen pictures of it, but to experience it in real life and get decent pics (below) was really cool. Our Navajo guide was fun, funny, and a great photographer. Amazingly, the entire slot canyon can fill up (up to 120 feet) with water from a flash flood. Thankfully, no such flood today.

From Antelope Canyon, we had a scenic two hour drive to Monument Valley, on the border of Arizona and Utah, and also within the Navajo nation. As we approached the hotel, we could begin to see giant monuments and mesas jutting up out of the ground. Our hotel—The View Hotel—is perched on the top of an overlook down into Monument Valley. Each hotel room faces the monuments, and it is just wonderful. We made last minute arrangements to take a 1.5 hour 4×4 jeep tour of the 17 mile loop around the monuments, and it was well worthwhile. Our Navajo guide gave us lots of info, gave us ample time for photos, sang for us, and even gave Jo some snakeweed for her sore throat (she and I have both had wicked sore throats over the past half week or more, and I a chesty cough, perhaps due to the dry, hot air and the higher elevation?).

After the tour (really more like 2 hours), we ate at the in-house restaurant to sample some Navajo cuisine and watch the setting sun cast gentle light on the monuments.

The next few days are just as busy, but then we hit the final leg of our trip with lots of driving, city-touring, and no national parks. It’s been one full month since we left RI! We are all looking forward to crashing for a week on the beach at the Outer Banks, starting Aug. 6.

(Note: click on pictures to see larger versions of them or to view a slideshow.)

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Day 29 (7/26) Grand Canyon, North Rim. (Everyone—joint entry) Today was a bit of a lazier day, even though we started off with a hike. We got up later than usual and hiked to Bright Angel Point, even though it was hot and generally not shaded. At the end there was an awesome view of the Grand Canyon, and at a couple of points there were drop offs on both sides of the trail (but compared to Angel’s Landing trail in Zion, this was so easy, since the path was paved and it wasn’t as scary). Dad made us take pictures again, and we took a family selfie with the GoPro again – we know exactly how to line up by now!

After Bright Angel Point, we hiked along the rim of the Roaring Spring Canyon, which is more wooded and green, even though it is still a large Canyon. The green contrasted nicely against the red rock (some of us thought the green made the rocks look moldy!). The North Rim is 1,000 feet higher than the South Rim, so it gets more rain and snow—even more snow than Anchorage, Alaska! That trail joined the Nature trail that took us away from the canyon and through a nice wooded area. It was the least populated trail we’ve been on this whole trip. We saw a few birds (Elliot is totally into birding right now – bought a binoculars, two birding books, and a little birding journal) and the Kaibab squirrel, which has a huge bushy tail with a black body, almost like a small skunk without the white stripes.

The Nature trail led to Transept Trail, where we stopped for a while at a gorgeous overlook, where we were cooled by a strong breeze. It was hot today – in the high 90s at least.

The rest of the afternoon was spent lazing around, first at the visitor’s center, then at the camp store for wireless internet, and then at the lodge to attend a ranger’s talk on condors. Condors are scavenger birds with a wingspan of 9.5 feet. They feed their babies until they are 5 or 6 years old. We learned they can store up to 4 pounds of rotting flesh in a special throat area called the crop (we think) for up to two weeks. Yum! We had seen a few of them in Zion as well, and up close. They aren’t pretty birds – featherless heads.

Harrison and Helena completed the junior ranger program here, earning them their sixth badge on this trip. We all learn a lot in the process.

In the evening, we tried to drive out to a different lookout to watch the sunset, but somehow we couldn’t find the right road, so we gave up and went back to the main North Rim lodge to watch the sunset and have dinner on the Veranda, which was nice.

(Click on the pictures for larger versions.)

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Day 28 (7/26) Bryce Canyon National Park. (Lin) Woke up to a cool morning in the Utah highlands. The view outside our hotel room reminded us of parts of Wyoming – large sweeping valleys with mountainous terrain looming in the background. Definitely not the desert here – much cooler and not as dry. We slept in a little bit, packed up, and drove the five minutes to Bryce Canyon National Park. It’s so fascinating to think about the ways in which the different parks are experienced in terms of approaches (driving). Zion we could see for half an hour away, and it was impressive from the outside. For Bryce, we drove into the park in a pine forest, and it wasn’t until we parked and walked to the overlooks that we could see the brilliantly colored amphitheaters of the hoodoos (as the bright orange and white rock formations are called).

But once we were there, the sight was stunning. A whole field of brightly colored hoodoos – mostly orange, but with some white mixed in, all against a beautiful blue sky. We decided to do the most popular combo trail – the Queen Anne’s Garden Trail and the Navajo Loop (ending with the Wall Street). The trail is amazing – takes you down into the canyon among the hoodoos and rock formations. The middle section of the trail was less exciting – slightly more wooded. Coming up the last part of the trail (Wall Street) was stunning – a narrow slot canyon that opened up to steep switchbacks up the side of the canyon. The sunlight was bright, bathing everything in brilliant orange from the reflection off of the hoodoos.

After the hike, we had a packed lunch and drove the length of the main road in Bryce (18 miles one way). A storm moved in as we drove to the very end (Rainbow Point), and the temperature dropped to 47 F – combo of the storm and the 9,000 foot elevation. And that’s when all hail broke loose. Literally – for the second time on this trip, it began to hail! (It hailed and snowed, separately, in early July in Yellowstone when we were there.) The clouds and rain made the lookout points slightly less amazing, of course.

After a stop at the visitor center, we headed south towards the Grand Canyon (North Rim). We decided that Utah might be the most topographically diverse state we’ve been in. California is a close second, in our opinion. Salt Lake City, the Great Salt Lake, the Salt Flats (all in the north), and then all the really distinct national parks in the central and south, plus highlands, desert, etc. Amazing.

Crossing into Arizona, we had to turn our clocks back yet again, since Arizona (outside of the Navajo reservation) doesn’t observe daylight saving. We stopped for dinner an hour away from the GC and arrived at the North Rim just in time for a gorgeous sunset. The North Rim is high – 8200 ft. I was here as a 10 year old, perhaps, but I totally forgot how wooded it is as you drive in. Not what you think of Arizona at all. Beautiful woods and sprawling narrow fertile valleys. And then: the Grand Canyon. We are staying in a cute little two-room cabin a stone’s throw away from the canyon edge. Looking forward to hiking and exploring tomorrow.

(You can click on individual pictures to see larger versions.)

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