Summer Trip '02

5/24/02 O'Brien, FL - North Carolina-ish

The beginning. Had about three hours of sleep last night. Cara and I got up at 8:00, had some breakfast, and mom and dad took us to the bus station. The bus was about 40 min. late, so we were off be about 10:45. The Lake City bus station was pretty small, just had big parking spaces in front for the buses, but it had a strange oriental-style tiered fountain. On the bus I sat with an Australian guy who had only been in the states for a week. He was probably around 50 and had more nose hair than I had ever seen. There was also a Texan on the bus, a big guy who went to bike week in Daytona and was a rescue worker in the mountains of Colorado for a while. The bus was heading to Jacksonville, but a lot of the passengers were heading south to Orlando--no one could figure out exactly why they had been routed like that. We got to Jacksonville and saw that the vus station was really close to the Landing, so we decided to put our packs in lockers and go explore for a vit. The machines only took change, and all I had was a $10 bill, so I went to the snack bar and had to buy a pastry for $1.06 just to get change, and I didn't want the pastry, so I just didn't take it, which Cara thought was a bit wasteful. So, we got change and stowed our packs and walked over to the landing, and a guy took our picture by the St. Johns river, and we chopped a bit, and then went back to catch our bus to New York. That's where I am right now (on the bus). So far, it's been pretty mellow, except for some guy who got on the bus drugged out of his mind, got in a seat and promptly passed out, and when the other seat was needed, the driver couldn't wake him up, so he called the cops. They couldn't wake him up, either, and called an ambulance, but they checked him out and let him back on. That about brings us up to date for now.

Well, more excitement. We went for quite a while, making a few ten- or fifteen-minute stops, and exvept for dinging out that it's really hard to urinate in the bus's bathroom while going down the road at 70 mph, everything was pretty quiet. We stopped and I grabbed some Burger King, and not too long after we got going again, the guy that passed out before (who was sitting in the seat across from Cara and I) started vomiting while he was still passed out. They couldn't wake him up, and he kept throwing up, so the driver pulled over at the next exit. It turned out he had been drinking some type of purple alcoholic drink (which is of course banned on the bus), as well as taking darvocet. Anyway, they called an ambulance again, but by the time they pulled over, he was semi-conscious and went into the bathroom. The driver went back to get him, and found him smoking a cigarette (also of course banned). They got him off the bus, but not before he got vomit everywhere. Luckily there was a nurse on board who cleaned the mess up. Everyone took a smoke break while the cops and paramedics arrived, then we got back underway. It's about 10:30 now, and Cara's asleep. I've tried a few times, but without much success. I've been going for about 12 hours now, so theoretically the trip to New York is about half over. We'll see when we actually arrive tomorrow.

5/25/02 North Carolina - New York

The saga continues. We went from North Carolina to Washington only stopping twice, once to pick up the new driver, and once to get some food at a mini-mart. I didn't sleep much on that part of the trip--I listened to all of Les Mis and just stared at the darkness for a while. We got to Washington DC and had to wait for a new driver. I got off and made sure our packs were still on board. I slepy most of the way from Washington to New York, waking up in time to see us go through the tunnel. We got into the station and they unloaded the bags, and Cara got hers, but I couldn't find mine. I started to open the compartments of the bus, but a guy said I couldn't do that, and I explained the problem, and he said that I had to go to the baggage center and see if it showed up there. After wandering around for a while, I finally found the baggage center, and my pack wasn't there, so I rushed to the terminal where the bus was, but it had already left. I went to the information desk, and they said it takes a while for extra baggage to make it to the baggage area, so I should wait a bit and try again. They also said that it happens all the time that baggage doesn't arrive at the same time as passengers. I went back to the baggage area and hung out for a while, but after an hour my bag still hadn't arrived, so I decided we'd waited long enough, and went to the subway to get to the hostel. I knew we were supposed to take the 1 or 9 train north, but all I could find was a 1 train heading downtown (south). We had already paid $1.50 each for the subway tokens, but we had to go back out, get a map from the information booth, and pay another $1.50 to get back in. We then quickly found our train and made our way pretty easily to the hostel. It is in a big brick building. We walked up to the main entrance, but found that we had to enter by a side door. We checked in, and they ended up putting us in a 6-bed room. We went up to lock up our stuff, but there weren't any locks on the lockers, so we had to go down to the hostel's store and buy locks. We locked up our stuff, washed up, and headed back out. We decided to see Times Square first, so we took the subway out to the Times Square exit and had to wander around for a while before we actually found Times Square. We walked around and checked it out, found TKTS, and then walked to the Port Authority and checked to see if my bag had shown up, but it hadn't, so we decided to go see the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was on the opposite side of the hostel, but when I looked at the map I found where we could get a connecting subway. When we started riding it though, I realized that to connect to the right line, we would have to ride all the way out to the bronx, so we got off at the Central Park North exit and caught a bus to the museum. We wandered around for a while, but our feet hurt and we were really tired, so at about 6:30 we left, and after seeing a really neat statue-imitating street performer who was painted white and wrapped in a white sheet, we caught a bus to the lower corner of Central Park, but couldn't find the subway station that was supposed to be there, so I bought a hot dog and asked the guy where it was, and he pointed it out, so we got on and rode back to the hostel. We stopped at a pizza place, and Cara and I nearly ate a whole huge pizza, and we pretty much just went back, took a shower, and crashed out. I tried calling my parents before going to bed, but just got the answering machine.

5/26/02 New York

Cara and I got up at 6:00 this morning. Actually, I woke up at 5:40 and had to sneeze, and at some point in the night another couple had come in and were asleep, so I rushed outside to sneeze, and kept ducking back in to get my stuff together. There is a nice balcony on the 2nd floor right by our room where people can smoke, and I went out there and waited 'till 6:00 and went back in and got Cara up. We went down to the snack shop and I got some money from the ATM and some breakfast (bran muffin and grapefruit juice), and we left to check out Wall Street. It was all the way at the tip of Manhattan, and the subway ride took almost a half-hour. We popped out of the subway, and there were lots of large financial buildings, but we didn't know where any of the major sights were, so we just started walking towards the water (which was in sight from the subway entrance). We got to the water and could see some antique ships moored down at the pier, so we walked down to them and found the place where ground-zero tickets were given out. It didn't open until 11:00, though, and we were planning on going to TKTS at 10:00 to get tickets to a show, so we decided to come back the next day and get tickets for Tuesday morning before we left. We wandered farther down and found a good view of the brooklyn bridge, and walked by a big closed-down fish market. We then headed back to wall street and walked the other direction, and found the New York Stock Exchange and a neat little cathedral-ish church. We walked around for a while and then took the subway back uptown to go to TKTS. By the time we got there we both needed to find a restroom, so we looked around times square for a bit, but didn't find one, and went to a McDonalds, but theirs was out of order. We ended up going back underground and walking all the way to the Port Authority, and checked on my pack, which still hadn't been found, and used the restroom. The guy at the baggage claim said it would be considered lost after 48 hours. By the time we made it back to Times Square it was 10:45, so the line for TKTS was really long. We waited in line for nearly two hours, and Cara kept trying to catch a pigeon. There was a guy handing out flyers that was commenting on how fat NY pigeons are. We got tickets to Chicago at 2:00 for $45.00 a piece. There was something going on, and one lane of broadway was closed off for street vendors. I bought a gyro and cara got a spinach-feta thing, and I managed to get gyro sauce all over my pants. We walked around and looked at the stuff everyone was selling, and then went to see Chicago. It was a pretty fun musical, and afterwards Cara and I went down to Chinatown. We wandered around for a few hours, seeing all sorts of strange stuff. Their meat markets are especially interesting--everything from squid to pork bung to fried blood. Cara bought a blue chinese shirt for $20. We found an interesting little mall and checked it out, and just wandered for quite a while. We caught the subway back uptown, and decided to go see the Empire State Building during the day. I looked at the map and saw that it was part of Herald Square, so we stopped there, but looked around and didn't see it. After searching for a while we finally found it (looked up and up and up...), and caught the subway back to the hostel. We decided to eat at an indian place close to the hostel, the buffet was $8.50, and then went to our room. We were planning on going out later that night to the Empire State Building, but we had to do laundry (I only have two pairs of clothes still), and the laundry room closed at 10:00, so we did laundry and I called my parents to let them know about my pack, and was going to go to bed, but I needed to update my journal, so I went out on the smoking balcony to write, but I didn't get three sentences written when a guy out there came up and introduced himself, and we talked for quite a while. He was from Ohio, but had family in NY, so he came pretty often. He was with a class on this trip, though, and had been out to see some plays and museums. We talked until about 1:00am, at which point I went to bed.

5/27/02 New York on Memorial Day

I woke up with the headphones still playing. I was listening to some music when I went to sleep, end forgot to turn it off. It was 7:00, and Cara and I got up to go see central park and get ground zero tickets. We hiked out towards the park, but wanted to find a place to get some water and breakfast first. After walking around for a while, we found a McDonalds and I got an egg mcmuffin, and we found a pharmacy/supermarket and got some water. We then hiked out to central park, and walked along one of the roads through it until we found a path that lead up to the reservoir. We hiked along it through a lot of central park, and saw the great lawn, and finally made our way out of the park by the metropolitan museum of art. By that time we were in a hurry to get out to pier 16 to get our ground-zero tickets, so we caught a cab to the closest subway station and took the 1 all the way out to Wall Street. We hiked out to Pier 16 and found a bathroom in a mall on Pier 17, and got in line for ground-zero tickets. All the signs I saw said they would open at 11:00, but they opened early and we got our tickets by 10:45. The tickets were for 12:30, so we still had quite a bit of time to kill. We wandered down some streets, and stopped at a Staples to get some film, and ended up wandering right downt to where the viewing platform for ground zero was. We walked around and saw all of the stuff sent to the fire fighters and police officers on the walls of the church there, and by that time our feet were beginning to hurt, so we went to a starbucks and had some frapuccinos, and at about noon left and walked back, and were able to get up and see ground zero pretty quickly. We then walked out to Battery Park to get tickets to the Statue of Liberty. We saw the big statue of the bull on th way out, and saw the sphere sculpture from the World Trade Centers which had been taken to Battery Park. There were a lot of good street performers in Battery Park, including a Statue of Liberty statue-person and a contortionist. We got tickets and had to have our bags searched, and the statue itsself was closed because of threats recieved from "uncoroborated sources". We walked around Liberty Island for a while, and visited the gift shop, and then took the ferry over to Ellis Island. We checked that out, and Cara and I smashed some pennies in one of those machines, and then we took the ferry back to New York. We caught the subway up to 42nd, and got out so I could go the the Port Authority and fill out a claim form for my bag, and we just happened to walk past the theater where Rent was showing, and saw a sign for the $20 tickets for the first two rows that they give out by lottery. It was about time for the lottery, so Cara entered and I ran over to get the claim form. I got back in time for the drawing, and Cara didn't win, but she decided to buy a $35 ticket, so I decided to go and see about Les Mis, and they had $20 tickets for that, so we both went and saw a show. Les Mis was amazing. I've only seen it at the Center for the Performing Arts before, so even the bad seats I had seemed good. I got out and Cara was waiting for me, so we walked down to the Empire State Building, and after walking down the wrong block we finally found it, but when we tried to go in, they said it was closed. We walked back to Times Square, but not much was going on [besides seeing Times Square at night, which is pretty spectacular], so we took the subway back to the hostel. Cara stopped by a corner store by the hostel and got a big bottle of beer for me and a big bottle of Smirnoff Ice for herself, and we went out on the porch at the hostel and got pretty drunk. [edited for content]

5/28/02 New York - Cleveland, OH

Cara and I slept in a bit, got up at 9:30 and got our stuff together, and went downstairs and used the internet computers, bought Empire State Building tickets and checked out. We went to the Port Authority first to put our bags in a locker, but first we found out where to get our bags checked and I filled out the claim form, and called and told my dad what was going on. When we asked where we could find the lockers, though, they told us that there were none. So, we got our stuff together and went to the Empire State Building, which was really cool, and I think Cara enjoyed it, but my feet hurt and I just wanted to get the pack off my back. After that we went to a store and got a few things, then went back to the Port Authority and I got a couple of huge slices of pizza, one stuffed with vegies and the other stuffed with peperoni and sausage, and ate there and got in line for the bus. While we were waiting in line we met this cool South African guy who was traveling to Minneapolis (I think) to work at a camp, and we talked with him a bit, but as per usual I have a hard time talking with people and I never know what they think of me. Anyway, now we're going through Pennsylvania, and the scenery is beautiful. All tree-covered little mountains and granite. It's getting dark now, and I'm about caught up with this journal, so I'll quit writing for a bit.

Well, to finish off the night, nothing too exciting happened. The trip was pretty uneventful, but when we stopped in Cleveland we started talking with the South African guy again, and he introduced us to a girl who had just been to Nepal for a few months (Sara), and we met an old guy going to Yellowstone. The South African guy's name was something close to Harvey, but the first sound was more like clearing your throat, and the second part was a strong 'V' sound. After we got back on the bus Cara and I read for a bit and went to sleep.

5/29/02 Chicago / Elgin

I woke up as we were entering the outskirts of Chicago. We got into the bus station and tried to get a locker, but it only took change. We found a change machine, but when we put in money, it spit coins on a guy sleeping underneath the machine. He was nice enough about it, though. We tried to stow our packs (or pack, singular, because I don't have mine), and went out and asked a cab driver how much it was to go to the Sears Tower, but he said it was just a couple of blocks away, so we hiked over to it, but it was only 8:00 and the observation deck didn't open until 10:00. We hikead around for a while, and got some breakfast at a drug store (muffin and cheese crackers), and wandered around until we found a plaza where Cara chased pigeons, and then found a big mall with all sorts of stuff, including a bunch of government offices. They had a sculpture in there that looked exactly like a green version of the french fries at UF, and we were able to get maps of Chicago at the information desk. We went downstairs to the food court and sat down for a bit, then called matt and went back to the Sears tower and up to the observation deck. The scenery was neat, and they had a set of displays that showed what everything was that you could see. There were some Amish people up there, which was a bit strange, but whatever. We then hiked back to the bus station and got on the bus (which actually left on time) to Elgin. That's where I am right now.

We arrived in Elgin a lettle early, so I called Matt to have him pick us up, and he came and got us and we went to a Mexican resturaunt called Tequilla's, which had a really good buffet, and we got a pitcher of margaritas. Afterwards we were pretty tired, so we just rented a movie (Out Cold), and just went back to Denise's and watched it. Cara didn't make it very far into the movie before she fell asleep, and after the movie I fell asleep for a while. We woke up and went out to JB's, a sports bar, and met up with some people from a softball team that Denise played on. Denise and Matt's mom were going to go play softball, and Matt's uncle was taking him out to drink (it was his 21st birthday). Everyone went through a bunch of pitchers at JB's, and we got some pizzas, but not too long before we were going to leave a guy came around checking IDs and I got kicked out. From there we went to the Owl's club, a private club that Matt's uncle was a member of. I didn't dring there because I didn't want to get us kicked out of another place, but we hung out and played pool for a while, and the Jukebox was free, so Cara chose songs. After thatwe went to the riverboat so Matt could gamble. I didn't have anything to do (becuase I had to be 21 to get in), and so I got a vanilla cappuccino and hing out outsind for a little over an hour. I looked through the gift shop, but everything was really expensive. When Paul and Bob got out of the casino, though, they said that you could get used packs of cards really cheap, so we checked, and ended up getting 4 decks for free. After that we had to go home, because Paul and Bob both had to work early. Matt and I wanted to drink some more, though, so Bob sent us home with a care package (since all the liquor stores were already closed), consisting of a whole bunch of beer, a full bottle of Smirnoff, and a bottle of puckers. We didn't end up drinking much that night, though. We just went to bed.

5/30/02 Elgin, IL

I woke up pretty early, just because everyone else was up, and we sat around for a while before we decided to go out and get some food. We went to Spanky's, a gyro place matt liked, and got some really good gyros which really grossed Cara out. Afterwards we drove out to target to get some clothes for me. I got socks and underwear, and a green collared shirt, and some extra things that had been in my pack. Denise needed her car back by 3:00, so we just went home after that. Matt's birthday party was that night, and Denise needed a few more things, so we ran to the tore and dropped off our five rolls of film under her name so we could get her employee discount. We got the salads and stuff she wanted, and went back to her place. Everyone started showing up at about 6:00. Some girls that were friends of Matt's from when he lived with Denise came over, and there were a bunch of little kids there (Matt's little cousins). We ate and drank for a while, and the adults left pretty early, but we convinced Katie to stay and drink with Cara and us, even though she was leaving on a trip two days later and needed to pack. She called a couple of her friends, Christina and Trish, and they came over and drank for a while, and then we drove out to a pool hall and met up with some guys in a mustang, and played for a while, and when that place closed we went back to Matt's and drank some more. On the way to the pool hall we had stopped at a Mexican place, so we were all stuffed and drunk, so we just went to bed.

5/31/02 Elgin / Chicago

I woke up today with a pretty good hangover. We had to get up and get ready to got to the Cubs game, so we got ready, but Denise had been up all night throwing up (we think the chicken from the night before was bad), so she stayed home. Theresa wasn't feeling too good, either, but she took some immodium and came with us. We drove over to one of Matt's uncles' house and walked from there to the train station. It cose $8 each for a round-trip ticket to the city. We met Paul in the city and took the el out to Wrigley Field. We stopped at a little outdoor bar for a while, I got a polish sausage and Cara went to McDonalds, and we both got shakes. We headed over to Wriggley field then, but they wouldn't let us take our backpacks in, so we checked them and went in. The game was pretty slow, zero-zero until the 7th inning. Matt got drunk on $5 beers, and the Cubs lost 4-1, but we saw Sosa hit a home run. I scored most of the game with Matt showing me how. Afterwards we went to a few souvenier shops and another bar, then walked back to the el and rode it back into Chicago, but ot before Theresa started throwing up into a plastic bag (once again, we assume the chicken). We got back into the city and went to another bar and waited for the next train, and finally made it back to Paul's house. We ate pizza and fried catfish there, then went home and Cara and I did laundry and went to bed.

6/1/02 Chicago - Wisconsin

We got up early and packed our stuff, and I went with Matt and Denise to pick up the film we had dropped off. We got the film I got a couple of no-drain packs of tuna fish. A bird shit on Matt in the parking lot, so he wasn't too happy. Theresa dropped us at the train station, and Cara and I used the last punches from the train pass we bought to go to the game to get into Chicago. We hiked out towards Grant Park first, because we heard there was a blues fest going on. On the way we found a really neat glass shop which had some amazing kinetic sculptures make out of wood that moved via pulleys and gears. There were also some neat marbles, and Cara and I bought a few. We then walked over to Grant Park and found the blues fest, and found a tree to lay under and we fell asleep, but were woken up by a guy giving out papers and asking for money, and I was pretty groggy and just gave him a couple bucks to get him out of there. We walked around for a bit and waw the big fountain in Grant Park, and then decided to walk out to Navy Pier. It ended up being quite a walk, but it was right along Lake Michigan, so it was pretty cool. There was an interesting improv troop in the mall, and we walked up and saw the amusement park portion, but there wasn't all that much interesting stuff, so we caught a bus back to Union Station. I went in ant tried to call my Grandmother, but couln't get ahold of her. It was about time to put more moneyin our locker where our pack was, so we walked back out to the bus station, put more money in our locker, and walked out to Greek Town. There wasn't a whole lot there, just a few Greek resturaunts, a Walgreens with signs in english and greek, and a big bath house. From there we walked back to the center of town, planning to go to the big round mall and hang out for a bit, but it was closed, as was most of Chicago at that point, and I wanted to get some food before getting back on the bus, so we walked around and found a Subway, and used a $5 gift certificate Cara had and got a sandwich. After eating that wewalked back to Union Station and I tried calling Grandma, but still didn't get ahold of her. I called my dad and let him know what was up, and he said I should check and see if I could get a more direct bus into Missoula, so we hiked back to the bus station and I checked, but they said no, so I called dad back and let him know. So, Cara and I waited around for a while and got on the bus at 10:00. We were barely out of the station when I fell asleep, and stayed asleep the whole night.

Sidenote: a bit of the day I forgot to write about - Cara and I got to Union Station and had to walk out to the greyhound station to stow our pack, then we went to a subway entrance and asked about a day pass, but they said we had to get them in the Sears Tower, so we went there, but the only entrance we could find was the skydeck entrance, so we went in there and after asking some people and jumbing some barricades, we found the store that sold them and bought a couple, but it ended up being a waste because we only took the bus once.

6/2/02 Minnesota - Montana

So far we've just been traveling across the midwest, not much to report except I got a map of the US at a shop. Other than that, everything has been pretty mellow.

Well, we were planning on stopping aomewhere for the night, but we've been traveling across North Dakota and there hasn't been much. We stopped at a casino/resturaunt and saw the world's largest sand heron, but that was about it. The ride hasn't been bad so far, though, so I think we're just going to continue on through the night.

6/03/02 Eastern Montana - Eureka, Montana

When I woke up today the Rocky Mountains were in the distance. We stopped in Big Timber and got out and looked at them. We made our way across Montana, stopped in Butte for a while and saw the big mining operation there. Every stop we made was at a resturaunt/casino, but it was usually pretty close to a convenience store. We drove across part of the rockies, which was beautiful, and met an ex-army guy who just quit his job with AOL, and a girl who was going to Morocco to teach English. We eventually made it to Missoula, and walked around looking for a hotel. None of them were really cheap, though, so we walked back to the bus station, and after getting sprayed by some crazy sprinklers on the way, called my dadd who said it probably wouldn't be a problem to get someone to pick us up tonight instead of tomorrow, so we called grandma and she said that she and Uncle Joe would pick us up, so we caught the bus to Whitefish. The bus wasn't a greyhound line, it was Rimrock Trailways, and it was a lot nicer than the greyhounds we had been on. It had TVs and a nicer bathroom, and window shades. We met one guy on the bus that was a complete burnout, and another who was coming back from living in Key West. We went around the Flathead Lake and made it to whitefish ahead of schedule, so we waited for a while for Grandma and Uncle Joe to get there. They did, and we stopped at a pretty nice resturaunt, which had nothing on the menu for Cara, so she ended up getting a grilled cheese sandwich. We made it back to Eureka, and I gave my mom a call, who said that they had recieved a postcard saying they had found my backpack, but to call her back tomorrow and they would find out more about it. We didn't do much that night -- Cara and I were tired and just went to bed.

6/04/02 Eureka, Montana

Cara and I woke up pretty early today, and after breakfast decided we would take a walk around town. We walked down to the Tobacco River, stopped at the gift shop and the pottery shop, and got some chap stick and dandruff shampoo. The cottonwood trees were shedding little white tufts everywhere, and it looked like it was snowing. After walking around for a while we went back to Grandma's, and she showed us all the plants in her yard. It was still early, so Cara and I decided to go up to the cliffs for a bit. It was really spectacular, and Cara really liked throwing rocks off. We could see where Uncle Joe's shop was, which is right next to where his house is going to be. We hiked back to grandma's, meeting some horses on the hill we hiked over, and when we got back we had a dinner with everyone. Grandma had made lasagne, one pan wih meat and one without. Afterwards everyone was tired and went home, and Cara and Grandma and I stayed up a bit and watched some TV.

6/05/02 Eureka, Montana

Cara and I got up today and Grandma fixed us some huge omelets. We ate and decided to go out to Pinkham Falls. The road out there was terrible, but we made it down to the falls. Grandma stayed at the top of the falls, and Cara and I hiked down the little goat path to the bottom of the falls, and then down to the bottom of the lower falls. At the bottom there was a big log jam, and Cara and I hiked across it to the other side and back up to the top of the falls. When I'd been out before, there were many places you could hop from rock to rock across the river, but it is earliier in the year now, and the snow melt has made the river a lot higher. We got back to the top of the falls and waved to Grandma, but still had to find a way back across. We hiked up the river a ways, and found a log to cross. We made it back to where Grandma was, and Cara dcided to take her shoes off and put her feet in the water. I guress she didn't believe me when I said it was cold. We hung out for a while, then hiked back to the truck. On our way out, though, the truck slid into one of the deep ruts in the road and got high-centered, but Grandma was able to back the truck back out, and after fiddling with it for a while, got it into low four-wheel drive, and was able to get through the puddle. We decided to stop by Rock Lake on the way back, just long enough to have a look, and then we went up to Uncle Joe's new place. His shop is there, and the foundation for his house. The flowers were blooming there, and it has a great view of the cliffs. We just had some instant Schwan stuff for dinner, watched some TV and went to bed.

6/06/02 Eureka, Montana

Cara and I got up and grabbed some cereal for breakfast, and when Grandma got home we waited a bit and Aunt Teri came over and we wheaded out to Sunday Falls. We walked out to the falls, which were really roaring. Cara and I climbed around a bit, then we went back to the truck and had lunch, grandma had bought some sandwiches from a place in town and brought them, and then Cara and I decided to go back to the falls and hide around some more, I had seen a rock on the other side of the falls that I wanted to climb out on, so Icrossed the creek on a fallen log and fought my way through the surprisingly thick underbrush up to the falls. I climbed out on the rock and Cara got a picture. Then I hiked up river some more and found a log to cross the river on. Cara and I hiked around some more, and noticed the rib cage of some animal washed up in the middle of the river. I climbed out on a log to see if I could see what kind of animal it was, and Cara went out on the log too, and managed to fall i the water. So, we made our way back to the car. By that time it was too late to go out to see the Amish (which we had been talking about), so we drove out to the border and saw the new big border crossing they were building, and drove around a housing development looking at houses for a while. We just went home, watched some TV, and went to bed.

Note: I forgot to write that yesterday we went to the resivoir with Aunt Connie and walked around for a while, and decided that Friday we would drive up and see snow.

6/07/02 Eureka, Montana

Cara and I got up today and had some breakfast, and when Granma got home she took us to Vaun's to get a hamburger. The lady working there knwe my mom growing up (her name was Lavida), and told me to tell her hi. We then went out to Ganpa's grove (I had asked to go out to Grandpa's grave (I had asked to go out there the night before). The headstone had grandpa and grandma's names on it, which I thought was a bit morbid. They got the year that Gradpa died wrong, but Grandma said they were going to fix it. We took the flowers from his grave and the other graves because they neede to be watered. We went back to Grandma's and when Aunt Connie got off work (which was early because it was Friday) the came over and took us up Graves Creek road in Uncle Joe's Suburban to find some snow. We drove up until we hit a drift that covered most of the road. There were rite tracks going around it, but they went right to the edgge of the road, and it was a pretty sheer drop off at the edge. So, we stopped there and Cara and I climbed down to see the snow that was piled up by the creek. We jumped around in the snow, and fell through it in several places where it was just concealing holes and fallen branches. After a while we were all getting cold, so we went back to Grandma's and had some chili. Once again, Cara and I just watched some TV and went to bed.

6/08/02 Eureka, Montana

We woke up today and everyone was getting ready to leave to go to Ross Creek Cedars (we had decided we would all take a trip out there), but it was raining, and Aunt Connie already wasn't feeling well, but we talked her into going with us anyway. I had a piece of pie and some coffee and we headed out, all of us in the Suburban. We drove along the length of the resivoir, past the dam, and to Libby. I had to pee by then (too much coffee), so I got Uncle Leroy to stop in Libby at a Conoco. After that we headed for the Cedars again, but stopped not too far out of Libby at a point where we could walk out to the Kootani Falls and a swinging bridge (which Cara waas terrified of). We walked around in the rain and saw all of that, then continued on to the cedars. It wasn't too far. The cears weas a well-kept park, good walkways and lots of plaques with information. The trees were neat, mostly just really big, but the area was intersting just because it was to green. Erin said it received enough annual rainfall to be classified as a rain forrest. By the time we left we were all wet and cold, so we didnt stay too long. We went back to Libby and stopped at a 4B's, which is the Montana equivalent of a Perkin's. I got a really good french-dip sandwich, and Cara just got a bowl of tomato soup. We split a brownie a-la-mode for dessert. We went back to Granma's and everyone left. Cara and I watched some TV and crashed out.

6/09/02 Eureka, Montana

Cara and I decided to go up to the cliffs today -- it is much nicer out than yesterday. We hiked out and over the hill today. My knee has really been bothering me. It was hurting a little yesterday, but today it really hurts. We walked all the way along the cliffs, and took a bunch of pictures. We walked all the way along the cliffs, and took a bunch of pictures. We climbed out to the edge of every rock we saw, and I climbed down in the cracks in the cliff. I peed off the cliff, but I didn't let Cara take a picture. We saw some really neat flowers, too. We started to walk back to Grandma's but when we got to the fence at the bottom of the hill, the horses were there. I didn't figure they would bother us, but I didn't know, so we hiked out along the length of the cliffs to the water tower, and down to Montana Market. We stopped in and got a pop, and went back to Grandma's, stopping on the way for Cara to pick up some small rocks. We went back to Grandma's and just hung out, watched TV and started packing up our stuff. I should have started the laundry earlier, though, because it took forever to dry, and I ended up staying up until 3:00.

6/10/02 Eureka, Montana - Missoula, Montana

We got up early (about 7:00) and had a piece of pie and some coffee, and Aunt Terri and Grandma took us to the bus station. We got there really early and just waited for the bus. A guy startedtalking to me while we were waiting, a young guy who said he was a navy seal. He had some pretty crazy stories, and I didn't know whether to believe him or not. I though he was going to keep on talking to us the whole way to Missoula, but he took a seat near the front of the bus, and Cara and I sat in the back. The trip to Missoula was pretty uneventful, and we got in at about 1:00. My pack woudn't fit in the lockers there, but the girl at the front desk let me check it then, even though our bus didn't leave until 10:00. It was raining, but we had nothing else to do, so we figured out which way went into town and started walking. We hiked out until we came to a safeway, were I stopped and bought a loaf of french bread. We asked where a post office was so Cara could mail back some pictures and souveniers, and were told it was just a few blocks down, so we hiked down and found it, and Cara bought a box and mailed the stuff. It was still really early, so we walked around, looked at a neat import store, the Salvation Army store, an army/navy store, went back to the Safeway a few times, went to a neat store wich strange ingredients and lots of interesting beers, and then hiked back towards the bus station. We stopped at McDonalds and I got a chicken sandwich and a coffee, and we sat there for a long time. It was about 8:00 when we left and walked across the street to the bus terminal, but it was locked, and a sign said it didn't open again 'till 9:00, so we went to a subway right next door and each bought a coffee and waited. At 9:00 we went over and got on the bus at about 10:00. There were two busses, and we tried to get on the empty one, but they said it might be cut at Spokane, so we got on the full bus, and had to get separate seats. Both of us were sitting with older ladies who were taking up half our seats, and neigher of us could sleep leaning forward because we went around sharp corners all the time, and they would toss us out of our seats. We got rid of most of thepeople on the bus in Spokane, though, and Igot the window seat with Cara. Besides waking up every now and again with a shooting pain in my knee, I slept pretty well.

6/11/02 Seattle, Washington

I woke up coming into Seattle, just in time to see the Space Needle as we came in. We were early coming in - there were two busses, and one had taken all the passengers going to intermediate stops. We got off the bus and went to get our luggage, but we couldn't find it. It scared us for a minute, but quickly the guy said that two busses had come in, and we checked and ours was on the other bus. We got our luggage and walked outside, but we only got about a block before we realized we had no idea when we were going. So we walked back to the bus station, found a map and figured out approximately where the hostel was. We hiked out there, and walked right by Pike Street Market on the way. The hostel is only about a block away from the market, and less than a block from the waterfront. We left our packs at the hostel and were told we could check in any time after 1:00. We hiked back to the market and spent some time looking at all the seafoot, flowers, and produce stands. After wandering around for a while we decided to walk to the pooneer square historical district, so we walked around there and saw all sorts of neat shops. Cara bought a hematite ring at a rock/mineral shop whhich sold 7000 lb. geodes for $3500. We found a store that sold original 'Story People' works, and a store dedicated to cards and stationary having to do with pets. We found a camera store and bought some film, and hiked out to Safeco Field, where the Mariner's play. We found a little underground set of shops with a pottery school, but not much was open. Seattle is pretty much what everyone envisions it as - tons of coffee shops, trendy resturaunts, trendy shops, tons of private art galleries -- everything is ultra-trendy, ultra-chic. I think perhaps a bit too chic for me. Cara and I walked down to the waterfront and looked at all the piers - piers 52 to 60-something, were all little malls or tour ferry landings. After hiking around for about 7 hours, it was finally getting close to 1:00, so we decided to take one last walk through the market before checking in. Cara insisted on buying me some fish and chips, which was okay with me because I'm too poor to eat out anymore -- PB&J from here on out. So, we had some food and checked into the hostel. We went up to our room and decided to sit down for a while, write some in our journals, but I fell asleep, and woke up when a guy came in the room. He was Australian, traveling around the world with his wife. Cara and I decided to head out again. I needed to find a Bank of America so I could deposit the travellers checks I had, because the signiture on them looked nothing like the signiture on my license. I finally found one, and after having to call customer service to get my account number, I was able to deposit them. Cara and I hiked around some more, and eventually went back to the hostel becuase I forgot the map. We decided to hike out to where the map showed a metro station, so we could get information on the bus system (which was actually pretty neat - electric busses running on overhead wires, some extra long with accordian-style middles). We hiked all the way out there, past the Bank of America building (which is the tallest in Seattle), but it wasn't where the map said. We decided to hike back to the market to get some fresh veggies, but when we got there everything was closed. We hike out to the water and watched the sun go down for a while, and then walked back to the hostel. We went to the kitchen and Cara made some steamed carots, and we hung out in the commons for a bit. When we went up to the room the other couple was already in bed, so we just got some clothes, took showers, and went to bed.

6/12/02 Seattle, Washington

We woke up and the other couple in the room had already left - they had a flight out at 6:00am. I made a peanut butter and raisin sandwich, and we went down to the commons and I asked the lady at the information desk about getting to the Seattle Center (where the Space Needle is), and she told us, but also suggested going to the locks out in Ballard and to Volunteer Park, where there is a water tower at the same elevation as the top of the space needle. We decided to go out to the locks first, so we caught a bus for $1.25 out there. They were pretty neat, but only the small lock was operating at that time. We went over and saw the fish ladder, watched some ships go through the lock, and checked out the visitors center. I found information on a bus route that took us to the Seattle Center, but we ended up having to walk 15 blocks to get to a bus stop. On the way I got a real slurpee at a 7-11. We caught the bus to the Seattle Center, and got off and found a really neat fountain that looked like it was designed for people to play in. We sat and watched it for a while, then walked over to the amusement park area, with roller coasters and all sorts of fair rides, and around to the base of the space needle. There was a guy there with at Janice Joplan doll making it sing to music. We walked around a bit more, and found a big sculpture that Cara climbed into (a big red set of pipes cut at odd angles), and walked around the building and found a really neat set of whisper dishes, set up so that you could talk into one and the other person could hear you 50 yards away. We walked around a bit more, then took the monorail back into the city and caught a bus to Volunteer Park. We walked up to the top of the water tower, which gave a great view of the city, and especially of Mount Ranier -- Wow, what a big, solitary mountain. We started to take some pictures, but the camera decided to die. So we took the bus back into the city and found a camera shop in a mall. The guy there said the camera was dead, but was able to get the film out. He tried to sell us a camera, but we wanted to call Cara's mom first. We went from there to the market and got some peas, broccoli, zucchini, cherries and an apple, and went back to the hostel and dropped the stuff off. We went to the waterfront to see about the aquarium and the water taxi rides, but the aquarium was only open for another hour, and we didn't really have time to catch the taxi over and back, so we just went to the hostel and cooked up the veggies and some Ramen Noodles, and looked up info on going to Port Townsend or Port Angeles while we didn laundry. It turns out, though, that there isn't a ferry from Seattle to either Port Townsend or Port Angeles, and no Greyhound service either. So, we decided we sould go to Bellingham instead, and we took showers and went to sleep.

6/13/02 Seattle, Washington to Bellingham, Washington

We got up this morning and went to the kitchen and I made a peanut butter and raisin sandwich, and then we packed up our stuff and checked out. I asked the information desk about getting to Port Townsend, and they showed me how to take a ferran and a bus to get there, but it was too late to take it today, so we'll probably go to Bellingham anyway. We left and I talked Caraa in to going to the aquarium, so now I'm just here catching up in the journal, which I guess I just did.

Anyway, Cara came out of the aquarium, and I think she had a really good time. We went up to the big mall, and Cara got a new camera. Her mom said the old one was about $100, so she could spend that much on a new one and she would reimburse her. After that we hiked up to the greyhound station, and stood in line forever while the entire greyhound staff dealt with a couple of deaf kids. I finally got up to the counter and found out when the bus left to Bellingham. We had about two hours until we had to leave, so we hiked back to the hostel, got our packs, took some pictures of the market with the new camera, and hiked back to the greyhound station. The bus was a bit late, but it was pretty empty. It took two hours to get to Bellingham, and when we got there, as usual, we had no idea where we were, so we started hiking in the general direction of a town. We hiked to a gas station, and I bought a map and asked the lady there where to find a cheap hotel. She shoed us, but said it was a long way away. We hiked out to where she said, and it was indeed a long way. We got to walk by WWU, though, and was a bunch of students around. I didn't find out until later, but it was Thursday before the last Friday of school for them. We walked around and priced hotels, and found one for $35. I didn't think it was too bad (besides it reeking of smoke), but Cara thought it was really dirty. We turned on the TV and Shrek was on, so we watched that, then went out for a walk. We hiked out to the end of Samish Way (the road with all the hotels), and back to a big Haggen, a 24-hour grocery store. They had a really good selection of beer, but I didn't have much money, so I got Cara to buy me a 24-oz Pabst's Blue Ribbon. We went back to the motel, and I got pretty drunk and passed out on top of the covers.

-- Forgot to mention that at the market I tried a few interesting little dried fruit rolls, which were pretty good.

6/14/02 Bellingham, Washington to middle-to-lower Washington

Cara and I woke up and got ready and checked out. We crossed the street to the bus stop, but the next bus wasn't for a while, so we went to McDonalds and I got a $0.99 sandwich. We went back and caught the bus downtown. We were going to go to Blaine, a little town north of Bellingham which had a hostel, but I called Greyhound, and there didn't seem to be a stop in Blaine, so I would have had to catch a local bus back to Bellingham to leave to go to Vancouver. We hung around downtown Bellingham for a while, and finally found a library with internet access. So, we looked up greyhound routes and fares, and decided it was too expensive to go to Vancouver, and decided to take the 10:00 bus that night to Portland, and catch the 9:05am bus out to Lincoln City and down the coast. I called my dad to let him know what was going on, and he said since I was in Bellingham I should stay a night with my Uncle Frank, who is Aunt Connie's ex-husband, and who I've never met. He wasn't listed, and I called Grandma and she wasn't home, so I called my parents back and they said to give them a couple of hours, and they whould see what they could set up. So Cara and I decided to go to Western Washington University's campus and check it out. When we got there we saw a sigh announcing the end of classes, and the place was pretty deserted. We walked around the student union, and saw Red Square, thier big commons area. We hung out for a bit more, then left for the center of town again. They have a really good bus system in Bellingham. Busses run all the time, the drivers are really nice, and the fare is only $0.50. We got back to the bus station and I called dad again, and he said they found out Frank didn't have a phone. So, we decided to stick with the plan of going to Oregon. We wandered around town for a while, then went out to Samish Way again because I was getting hungry, and there were planty of fast food places out there. I got a couple of quarter-pounders at Burger King (I ate one and put one in my pack), and then went over to the Haggen and Cara looked around for a bit. We left and went to the bus stop, but Cara had to use the bathroom and wanted to look at food some more, so she went back to the Haggen. She made it back just before the bus came, and we rode it to the Greyhound station. We got off and went in, but all the ticket windows were shut down. We had to wait about two hours for the bus to come, but a cleaning guy said we could buy the tickets and check baggage with the driver. An old lady in a wheelchair with a helper dog and her grandson got on, as well as a couple of young black guys who said they were going back to Seattle after finishing a painting job. We got on the bus and an INS guy got on checking identification, I guess because the bus just came from Canada. One of the black guys wasn't a citizen, though, and didn't have his papers with him, so they detained him. We finally got under way, and I quickly crashed out. I woke up in Seattle, but crashed out again and didn't wake up 'till Portland.

6/15/02 Portland, OR to Depoe Bay, OR

We woke up and got off the bus in Portland, and Cara and I went and got a seat. We had 4 1/2 hours 'till we left, and we thought we'd wait 'till it got light outside, then have a look at Portland. A black guy and a Jewish woman started talking to us, though, and we ended up staying in the bus terminal the whole time. We got on the bus and I slept until Lincoln City, when we got off and had lunch at Wendy's ($2.00 for a side salad and baked potato). I stayed awake as we wnet down the coast, and it was so neat we decided to get off and spend a night in Newport. We got to a stop, and Cara though the guy had said Newport, so we got off. It turned out it was a little tiny town called Depot Bay about ten miles up from Newport. We hiked around, and the cheapest room we could find was $42, so we took it and dropped our packs off. We walked across the street and found a place where we could walk down to the water. The beach at the bottom was made up of round, marble-to-egg sized smooth volcanic stones. The cliff walls surrounding the little beach were made of a very soft, sandy stone. We climbed up on a large outcropping of rock and over to the other side, where there were tidal pools with sea anemonies. We played around there for a while, then climbed back up and walked around town for a bit. It was a very small town, with "the world's smallest harbor" in a little tiny bay. We walked around the back of the bay, then out of town going north, because it looked like there were other locks we could climb on. Less than a mile out of town we came to a rest stop by some cliffs, with a fence along them saying not to cross. we walked around for a bit, but couldn't help it and jumpedthe fence and climbed around on the rocks. They were really neat, very lumpy with jagged black chunks in them. We ended up climbing all over the place, and took a picture of us with the camera's timer function. We walked back, and Cara picked daisies and made a daisy chain to go around her head. We went back to the motel, and Cara and I were pretty tired, so we just stayed in and watched some TV. We went out latere and got a beer, but just went back to the room and went to sleep.

-- forgot to mention that wile we were out down at the first little beach, the tide came in a bit while we were on a rock, and had to get a bit wet to get back to shore. Also, in the center of town is a neat lava rock formation, and it is supposed to spout water at high tide, but we were only out there at low tide.

6/16/02 Depot Bay, OR - Yachats (Ya-hats), OR

Cara and I woke up and got our things together and checked out. We walked downtown and got a few postcards, and Cara got a squished penny, and we walked to the mini-mart across from the bus stop and called our dads, it being Father's Day. We hung around for a while waiting for the bus, and found a thing in the phone book describing the local towns. They had a description of a little town called Yachets which sounded neat, they listed tide-pooling, rock hunting and beach combing as activities, and said it had the highest point on the Oregon coast. The bus finally came and we told the driver we wanted to go to Yachats, and pronounced it exactly like it looks, and he laughed and said it was pronounced Ya-hats. He was a pretty cool guy, there were only Cara and I and a brittish couple on the bus, and he gave us the whole history of the area as he drove. As we got off, he was telling the other couple "Yachats, gem of the Oregon Coast --- if you have to ask how much, you can't afford it." That worried us a bit, and we walked over to the cheapest looking motel, and a room sas $60. We were about to start hitchhiking to Newport, when we noticed a sign on a nice-looking place saying rooms from $39. We walked over and asked, and even for both of us it was $39. Then, he said that for the same price, we could get the lighthousr room -- a cool room with a set of bunkbeds. We took it, and it was a really cool room. It was in a decorative lighthouse that was part of the motel, but the roof was about 20' up, and the whole thing was really nice. We put our stuff down and walked out to the beach. The sand there was made up of tiny pebbles, and there were huge tidal pools in the rocks with tons of sea anemonies. On the rocks out farther there were tons of starfish. We looked for neat rocks for a while, then went into town and bought stuff to make burritos for dinner. We went to the visitor info center, and the lady there told us about some hikes we could go on. We dropped the food at the room, and decided to go on a hike up to Cape Perpetua, the highest point on the Oregon Coast. We found out that we would have to hike about 3 miles along the highway to get to the trail, though. We decided to do it anyway. We started off, and the view along the highway was great, but the road got pretty narrow. Then, as we were going around a corner, Cara saw a sign that showed a little path into the woods and said "Oregon Coastal Trail, Cape Perpetua 1.5 miles". We hiked up it, and the trail was amazing. Lush forrests, moss and ferns and flowers, giant slugs and stumps of huge old trees. We hiked and hiked and hiked and hiked, and at about 7:45 (after hiking for over an hour and a half), decided that we would turn around at 8:00 and try to make it back before dark. At almost exactly 8:00, though, we made it to Cape Perpetua, and the view was absolutely amazing. You could see miles and miles into the pacific and down the coast. We had climbed 800 vertical feet. The sun was getting low, though, and we didn't have time to hike the trail back before dark, so we decided to walk the road back, even though it was much longer. Just as we were about to set out, though, a car pulled up, and a couple got out. I asked them how long the road to the interstate was, ant they said about 2 miles. I told them our situation, and Cara and I started hiking. A few minutes later they drove by and stopped and picked us up, and took us back to our hotel. We decided to go watch the sun set, but we sat for a while and it never had a nice sunset -- to cloudy on the horizon. So, we went back to the room and made burritos. After eating, we got matches and a flashlight and went out to the beach to have a fire. There had been some kids with a fire earlier, but it was out when we came back. As we walked down to the beach, though, we saw they were still there, so we walked down the other direction a bit. I found some pieces of driftwood, but I forgot to bring some paper to start the fire. I used a few things from my pack (an old greyhound ticket and a ferry chart), but I couldn't get it to light. We walked back to the room and I got some paper, but Cara said she was tired, so she stayed in the room. I went back to the beach, and on the way found some driftwood twigs in the rocks, and was able to start a nice little fire pretty easily. I sat there, on the Oregon Coast under the stars, thousands of miles from home, listening to the waves break on the rocks. Eventually the fire burned down, and I went back to the room. Cara was just finishing up writing in her journal, and we took showers and went to bed.

6/17/02 Yachats, OR to Bandon, OR

We woke up and it was raining. We packed up and checked out, and ran down to the laundrymat. We were out of clothes, so we were wearing our sleep pants. We did our laundry and changed, but we still had over an hour before the bus came. We went across the street and I got a chili-cheese dog, and cara had a coffee. Cara needed to get cash, so we went to the supermarket and she bought something and got cash. By that time it was about time to start watching for the bus, so I got the poncho on and left my packs with Cara under the awning of the supermarket, and stood by the side of the road to flag down the bus. It finally came, and the driver was the one who had dropped us off in Depoe Bay. We got on and headed down the coast, and got to see the storm crashing pretty big waves against the shore. We drove past the Oregon Dunes, huge sand dunes near the coast. We finally got to Bandon, but it was still raining pretty hard. We ran down to the Visitor Information Center, and grabbed some info on local motels. One was advertised as $32, and it was on the side of town the bus had come through. So we hiked all the way out there, which was a long way (we found out later it was acrually a different town), but found the place, and it was pretty nice. We left our packs there and went back towards the coast, back past where the bus dropped us and quite a ways farther, and finally made it to the beach. We had seen postcards from Bandon along the way, and they all had spectacular rocks out in the water, and as soon as we got to the beach we could see them. It was nearly high tide, and the wind was blowing pretty hard, whippping sand and rain down the beach at us. We hiked down the beach quite a ways, out to a big set of rocks/islands that jutted way out into the ocean. I climbed to the top of one of the big rocks, and the wind was strong enough that I could lean way forward and it would keep me up. We hiked around the point of rocks and found some stairs that took us off the beach. The rain had soaked us thoroughly , and the sand just about embedded itsself in our skin, so we decided to hike back to the room. It was a long, cold hike, but we finally made it back, stopping at a grocery store on the way to get something for dinner. We made mashed potatos and peanut butter sandwiches, and had hot chocolate. We were tired and went to bed pretty early.

6/18/02 Bandon, OR to Crescent City, CA

We got up today and it had quit raining. We got our stuff together, but our clothes from the day before weren't dry, so we decided to go to the laundrymat down the street and wash them. We ded that, then strapped up and hiked with all our stuff to the beach. It was a lot different in the sunlight -- yesterday everything had been gray, now we could see all the colors. We climbed all over the rocks and saw starfish and crabs and big sea anemonies. We took pictures, and went back and saw the rocks along the beach where the wind had blown the sand from around them except right behind them where there was a thin ridge of sand. We finished looking around and hiked back to the bus station, stopping at Dairy Queen to split a blizzard. When we got to the bus stop we met an English guy traveling around the world who was pretty neat, and now we're on the bus heading for Crescent City.

The bus from Bandon to Crescent City was spectacular. It's been a beautiful day, and we drove for miles right along the coast. The sea stacks were huge along the way, and the water was calm and deep blue. Most of the land between Bandon and Crescent City is completely undeveloped. We got into Crescent City at about 7:30 and stopped at a McDonalds for everyone's meal break, so we just got our packs, ate some Taco Bell (yay!), and started looking for a hotel. The ones we checked were either too expensive or really run down. We had an add for a motel with a coupon to get a room for $40, but from the mapon the coupon it looked like it was about 3 miles out of town. We were out of options, though, and were about to hike out of town, but we stopped at a gas station and asked a guy, and he said it was back the other way, right downtown. We hiked down and found it, about a block from where we got off the bus. We went to a Safeway and got some water, and went back and crashed out for the night.

6/19/02 Crescent City, CA to Redwood Hostel, CA

Cara and I woke up late and had to rush around to get out on time. We decided to hike to the visitor's info center to find out where the greyhound station was, which we did, and then hiked right across the street to the Redwood Visitor's Center and talked to a guy there who suggested stay8ing at the Redwood Hostel. There was a bus service from Crescent City to Klamath which woule take us to most of the trailheads, but we had already missed it for today and we had reservations in San Francisco tonight. We went to the library and got online, and looked at bus schedules, and realized that we (I) had booked the hostel in San Francisco the wrong night, because the bus would get us in at 5:00am. It was too late to cancel our reservations, but we decided to call the hostel anyway to let them know we wouldn't be in. We decided to call the Redwood Hostel, but they were closed from 10:00 am to 4:30 pm, so we had to wait 'till 4:30 to find out what we would be doing tonight. While we were waiting we decided to walk out to a lighthouse we had seen a sign for. It was only 12 blocks, but it seemed a lot longer with our big packs on. We got out there and there was a nice little rocky beach by it. It was a beautiful day, so we put our packs down by a rock and went out and looked at starfish and a dead octopus, and just sat in the sun. We walked up to the lighthouse, which was a functioning lighthouse with the keeper in resedence. It was a nice little place, lots of flowers and a nice view. At about 4:00 we left and walked over to the Taco Bell on the other side of town, and called the Redwood Hostel and were able to book two nights, tonight and tomorrow. We ate some Taco Bell and wandered around the Safeway for a while, then hiked over to the bus station. We waited for about an hour, then got on the bus and went about 10 minutes down the road, where they dropped us off right in front of the hostel. Right across from the hostel is a little beach, and the hostel itsself is a big old pioneer home. There was a note on the office door saying that they were at dinner and would be back at 9:00, so we set our stuff down and hung out int the commons for a bit. They opened the office up a bit after 9:00, and we checked in. I was still full from taco bell, and pretty tired, so I read for a bit and went to bed early.

5/20/02 Redwood Hostel, CA

We got up at 7:00 this morning and had a quick breakfast (peanut butter sandwiches again), and left for a hike. We wanted to see redwooks, so we took the trail North, because we was a description of the trail in the hostel, and it had said we would see redwoods about three miles into the trail. We started on the trail about 8:00. The trail went up and down several sets of switchbacks, and across fields of grass which were dewey and soaked our shoes. At about 9:45 we came across some camp sites, and after figuring out where the trail was again we continued on, and at about 10:15 we entered the redwood groves. It was really amazing. The trees were absolutely huge. As cara said, it was like being in Feival's Playland. There were huge ferns and huge clover and wild rhododendron. The trail wound around for a few miles, taking us through many valleys of redwoods. There was a heavy fog in all the valleys, and it gave everything a really surreal feeling. We finally made it to a pint where the trail crossed the highway, and we followed it across and around a ways, and finally to the branch that went to Damnation Creek. The sigh had a warning that it was a 'steep, strenuous trail', but we went down it anyway, and it was pretty much switchbacks down the side of the mountain the whole way. We finally got to the bottom and it took us out to the coast, at a point where there was a little cove with the ground comprised of fairly large rocks. [edited for content] After chilling out for a while, we got our things together and started walking back, but before we got too far, we rounded a corner and was a big black bear right in front of us. We walked back a little ways and made some noise, and when we walked back down the trail it was gone. We hiked up the trail, and about halfway up met some people who met the bear going up the trail. We finally climbed up to the top of the Damnation Creek Trail, and didn't get too far down the coastal trail before we saw the bear again, heading down the trial in the same direction we were. As soon as he eard us he ran off, but we caught sight of him a few more times, following the exact path we had come down by. We decided we didn't want to pin him between the highway and ourselves, so when we got to a point where the trail was close to the highway, we talked out to the highway and followed it down to where the trail crossed it. We were pretty tired by that point, and since breakfast all we'd had were some raisins, so we hiked back as fast as we could, which still took us better than four hours. The whole hike had taken more than 9.5 hours, and we only stopped at the coast for about 45 minutes. We made a bunch of spaghetti, which we ate ravenously, and then pretty much just went to bed.

6/21/02 Redwood Hostel, CA - San Francisco, CA

We got up early again (7:00), and got our stuff ready to check out. We had tried to do laundry the night before, but the dryer hadn't gotten our clothes dry, and we had hung them up all over our bunks, but they still weren't dry. We packed them anyway, and wnt downstairs and did some chores (they asked that we pitch in a little), and left for a hike. We left our big packs in the office (they said they would watch them for us, and even said we could come back and hand out at the hostel while we waited for the bus). We were pretty sore still, and Cara's knee was bothering her, so we walked slowly in the direction of the "Trees of Mystery', a little side-of-the-road tourist attraction that featured a walk and ski-lift ride through a grove of redwoods. We made it out there, and checked out the gift shop and Paul Bunyon and Babe, big statues of the two that moved a little, and had a person operating them who talked to everyone passing by. We went across the street to a cafe where we just had some coffee, but it was a really nice place with redwood tables [tables whose tops were made from slices of redwood trunks]. After warming up a bit there, we found the trail that went out to Hidden Beach, and walked out there. It was a pretty short walk, and the beach was nice. It was a sandy beach with a few big rocks and plenty of small rocks and big driftwood up by the tree line, and some pretty neat sea stacks out in the water. We stayed there for a while, and a few other people came and went, and then walked back out to the Trees of Mystery, and down the road to a little food store where we bought some snacks and pop. We sat there and ate, then walked back to the Trees of Mystery and back to the hostel. It was still a little before they opened up again (they shut down every day from 10:00 to 4:30, it was just a couple of petple who lived there running it), so we went out to the beach across the street and sat for a bit. After they opened up we walked back and hung out for a bit, which is what I'm doing right now. I'm catching up in this journal, and Cara is making me some Ramen Noodles. We went out to the bus stop about 25 minutes early, and it started sprinkling a little bit. We must have looked pitiful, because a couple stopped and offered us some hot chinese food. The bus finally came, and it was the same driver who dropped us off a couple days before, a bald guy with a raspy voice who wore multi-colored glasses, frames like kids wear with bright splotches all over them. I had the aisle, and it was hard to sleep because there were a lot of sharp turns on the road. I finally did fall asleep, though, and slept most of the way to San Francisco.

6/22/02 San Francisco, CA

We got into San Francisco early (about 5:30), and Cara and I found out when we could get a bus to Las Vegas (10:00pm) and stored our big packs (at $2.00 per bag per 6 hours), and started hiking. We walked towards the City Center, and found a couple of Mcdonalds, but they were still closed. It was cold out, so we walked around until the McDonalds opened, and went in and got some breakfast and read a paper. We left and hiked out towards the water, figuring most tings to see would be along the waterfront. We walked right out to the clock tower that marked Pier Zero, with odd numbered piers to the left and even to the right. We found a map on the side of a $0.25 self-cleaning public toilet, and was that we needed to walk left from there to get to most of the sights. We hadn't gone too far, though, when we noticed a big farmer's market set up, so we went over and walked around it for a while. Everyone was giving out samples, and they had some of the most amazing fruit and bread and cheese I've ever eaten, as well as lots of other foods. Cara and I went a little nuts and bought aged goat cheese, olive bread, plums, figs, and apricots, and then left to do some more walking. We hiked down to pier 39, a big shopping center, and used the bathrooms. Cara saw something about live sea lions, so we looked around, and sure enough, there were a bunch of sea lions just hanging out by the pier. An information board said they were wild, and just like to come and hang out there. From the same place where we saw the sea lions we could see Alcatraz, which excited Cara. We walked over to where they sold tickets for the ferry to Alcatraz, but they were already sold out for the day. We decided to sit by the ticket booth and have a little picnick with the food we bought, and it was all absolutely amazing. We decided to hike back to the market before it closed, so we went back, but almost everything was already sold out. We bought an "herb slab", a big piece of spiced bread, and Cara bought a brownie. We then hiked out to Ghirardhelli Square, but it saw dissapointing because they don't make chocolate there anymore - it's just a shopping center. We walked back to pier 39 and got online for a bit, and decided to head for Las Vegas, because we coulnd't find a way to get to Sequoia National Park. We had to get back to the bus station by 6:30 if we didn't want to be charged another $4 for luggage storage, so we didn't have a lot of time. We decided to walk through China Town and back to the bus station. China Town ended up being huge and really neat, though, so we decided to pay the extra money and wandered around for a while more, and found an "oriental night market", basically a big nighttime flea market, where cara bought a Spider Man shirt. After leaving China Town and wandering through the business district for a while, we finally found our way back to the greyhound station. The guy decided not to charge us the extra $4 for being late, so it was good we saw more of Chinatown. After that we pretty much got on the bus and went to sleep, and slept pretty much the whole way to LA (which was where we had to go to get to Las Vegas).

6/23/02 LA - Las Vegas

I woke up coming into LA. We stopped at the bus station and the driver told us we had come in late, and so we sould have to wait 'till 8:00 to leave because we'd missed our connection. It turned out we had to wait until 9:30, so we had about 2.5 hours to kill. We split a Sunday paper and just hung out. They searched our carry on bags when we were getting on, and told me I couldn't bring my swiss army knife, so I put it in my big pack, which I was checking.

Addendum, 4/18/07 Yorktown, VA

I'm sitting in my apartment at 115F Little Bay Avenue. It's getting pretty late, Dave and Derek have probably already turned in for the night. I've just finished typing up this journal, and unfortunately that's where it ended. I had filled up my original journal, and the account from Yachats on was jotted into a very small spiral notebook. I was just about out of room in that, and I guess I never got around to buying another notebook so I could finish the account of my trip. I guess I'll add a quick account of what I can remember of the end of that trip five years ago. We made it to Las Vegas, and spent a day in the scorching 108-degree heat, got a pretty decent hotel at a Howard Johnson, and spent the night walking around the strip checking out the sights. I remember being impressed by the fact that you could drink out on the strip, but they were pretty strict about underage drinking, so it was a pain for me to get a beer. The next day we left for El Paso, TX, where we crossed over into Mexico during the day. Juarez was a strange mix of touristy and dirty, and I spent some time haggling with people in the market over the price of the brightly-colored 'Indian Blankets' my parents always had in abundance (and which I'd seen my dad haggle for in Mexico when I was younger). We splurged and went out for dinner at the Olive Garden that night after just missing the last salad at the local Burger King -- the soup, salad and breadsticks sounded wonderful. I had a panicked moment when I realized I'd left my wallet back at the hotel because I hadn't wanted to bring it to Mexico, but remembered that I was carying emergency cash in a hidden waist belt, so it was no problem. From El Paso we went to Carlsbad, New Mexico, because I wanted to see the Carlsbad Caverns. They were a ways out of town, but I figured I could find some way out there. While we were trying to figure out how we would manage that, though, I looked at my bus pass, and realized that it expired on the 29th -- I asked at the bus station, and they said that the 28th was our last valid travel day. That gave us just enough time to head straight back to Florida, so we had to leave without seeing the caverns. Unfortunately the next bus out wasn't until later that evening, so we spent the day looking at a museum of the history of Carlsbad and eating at a Dairy Queen that served some amazing barbecue sandwiches cooked over a pit fire right there in the store. We hopped on the bus and rode the 48+ hours home, nearly losing our minds by the end of the trip. We stopped outside of Live Oak and picked up some just-released prisoners, but other than that the ride home was deadly boring.

Just as a note, I got back from my visit to Utah recently, and have accepted their offer to go to grad school there. My next trip will be to Jenny's wedding on May 5th, and then my birthday will be my last day of work at CAEE -- I'll be taking a couple of weeks to make it out to Salt Lake City, and classes start August 20th.