Loop 94 Dates Index
June
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Please excuse the brevity of logs for days 1 through 6. Limited access to
net equipment. Will be expounded and twiddled in July or sooner.
Left Omaha, north to South Dakota...west to the Badlands National Park where we
camped. Saw the Corn Palace in Mitchell,SD... murals made from coloured ears
of corn. Ate pasta in the cloudy grey dark of the Badlands. Scott spilled our
first batch of noodles on the ground. Took awhile to get the camperstove
revved up. Weather cool, but all is well.
Woke up to the distant cars hissing along the main-slab. Headed for the
legendary Wall, SD...home of Wall Drug. Tourist watering-hole. Ate fruit
for breakfast. 5cent coffee at Wall Drug...free bumperstickers. Still
mostly cloudy, we drove on to Mt.Rushmore. Impressive mountain driving...
Black Hills, actually. Our first real terrain of the trip. Rushmore was
obscured by clouds and rain...and when we did see it, it looked like the
presidents all had poor makeup jobs.
Hiked around at the Pactola Reservoir, by this time it was sunny. The reservoir
itself was an impressive blue. Scott had left the parking lights on in
the bus..so the battery was good and dead by the time we got back. Luckily
we had a spare battery and could jump ourselves.
Stopped in Deadwood for gas and slot-machines. Sun sun sun.
Ended up near Devil's Tower, WY parked a mile deep on some rancher's land.
Significantly obscured, we slept in the bus. Sky clear, lots of stars.
Road to the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming. Beautiful weather. Gassed up in
Sheridan,Wyoming. Bought koolaid and mailed postcards too. Picnicked in the
way-bigger-than-I-expected Bighorn mountains, down near a very cold stream.
Bees and flies all over the place. Hiked up to the Medicine Wheel later.
Camped at a "closed" campground...built a fire, set up the tent, ate hobo-
dinners.
Washed my head in the pump-well in the Bighorns, ate Ramen Noodles for
breakfast. Set out for Yellowstone on ALT.14 Hwy. Saw cows on a steep
scenic overlook, out of place and shy. Later, saw horse-riding cowboys
wrangling up a stray steed near some ranches. Stopped in Cody, WY for
gas, telephone and groceries. Got to Yellowstone late in the afternoon,
saw buffalo, hot springs and Yellowstone Lake. Camped in the way-back
of a picnic area. Scott cut a foot of his hair off.
Buffalos near our camp in the morning...and chipmunks. Supposed to meet
Chris and Jon at Old Faithful, so I called home to see if there were any
messages. None. I was then to assume things were going fine. Hiked
near the Lower Falls, slight walk. Then hiked about 10 miles near
Inspiration Point. Zow! Lots of skeeters, but a tremendous trail.
My head was getting significantly sunburned by this point. When we
got back to the bus, some guys nearby came up and asked if we had any
pot. Nope, the Grateful Dead stickers just came with the automobile.
Waited at Old Faithful for the rendezvous...no show. We camped at a
picnic area about 10 miles from the geyser in a part of the forest that
was burned by the fires of 1988. Eerie looking horizon.
More Buffalos in the morning. Took free-showers at the Old-Faithful Lodge
restrooms. Got handfuls of ketchup packets from one of the delis. Ate grilled
cheese sandwiches at the picnic area. Called home again, no word from
Jon or Chris....weird. Headed for the Tetons. Hiked a fairly steep
2.8 mile trail up to Bradley Lake. Bugs again. Headed on to Idaho...
camped at a campground just on the west/south side of the Snake River.
Woke up in Idaho, damp but mostly sunny skies. The tent drooped with the
overnight rain, some of which had leaked into the tent. The overall sense
of damp made me feel dirty and infested.
Got up, went to the glorified outhouse (the men's-side door was missing,
so I used the women's half), washed my hands under a spigot-pipe and
gathered dry-kindling on my way back to camp. The fire didn't start
quite as easily as it had the night before. When it finally conflagrated,
there was much rejoicing and we made some egg-sandwiches on keyser rolls.
After breakfast we packed up and, as we prepared to leave, spelled out
and photographed "IDAHO" with rocks on the picnic table. We plan to do
the same with ketchup (Fancy Brand) packets for Wyoming and signs for South
Dakota.
We escaped the campground without toll or punishment...tally 6 for the
Onward Crew.
The drive out and upward into Idaho was a smiling surprise...much more
to the state than I'd originally thought. Visions of River Phoenix,
rough and roadside, occurred to me as we passed through the flat shrubbed
areas. More mountains than I'd thought. More terrain. More personality.
Route 26 to Idaho Falls, then route 20 west to juncture with 26 North.
Clouds scraped earth and mountain. Spirits falling and flying. Surreal
aspect. We drove into an ambiguous horizon. Once in, snow, rain and
small hail. Sense of hidden and tempting secrecy. Lush cool green.
26 NW poured us off onto 93 North.
Stopped in Mackay for gas and postcards and cheese popcorn and a coke (with
a winning bottlecap). Scott asked the gas guy about potato fields and got
some response about growing pot in basements. We kept on north. Stopped
in Hamilton, ID, last town of any size before the Montana border. Ate our
first meal "out" at a Mexican cuisinarium called the Sundance Cafe. A
very enthusiastic Wayne Newtonoid waiter set us each up with 2 cheese
enchiladas, beans and rice. My tummy didn't quite know how to take this
influx of exotic bolus. We left satisfied. Nice clean place, priced as
expected (around $6). Several blocks down, we stopped for gas. I got
Snapple (first I'd seen on the entire trip) and went to the loo.
Condom dispensers (another first for the trip) and a restricted urinal.
Scott got two cups of ice for the cooler and some local guy wailed
good-humouredly about milk he'd spilled in his truck. Idaho Falls had
four or five Sinclairs...Hamilton had two.
93 North to Missoula, MT. I-90 west.
Dusk, we shot into the dark, making absurd jokes about mismatched duos...
Batman and Stimpy, Lone Ranger and Luke Duke, Ponch and Garfunkel,
Raggedy Anne and Clyde...etc. Perhaps funnier than it should have been.
Throughout the day, I'd been reading "Man in the High Tower" by Philip K.
Dick. [jabbering about living in a vacuum and the rewards of reading
deleted...]
West across the continental divide and time-zone line. Back into Idaho.
Listening to Poi Dog Pondering as we drove on the ultra-dark and chilly
mountain interstates. Scott thought driving was like being on the Magic
Mountain ride at Disneyworld.
* oo la la la la, oo lee la loo *
Getting tired, we stopped in Coeur D'Alene to find a campground...couldn't.
About 45 minutes of driving didn't help. We finally settled for plunging
4 miles into the Panhandle National Forest on what we presumed was a
logging road and just parking at a pull-off. Podded ourselves off into
our sleeping bags in the back of the bus. Rained during the night.
Sunny morning, woke unbothered. Tally 7.
I used mother nature's vast green loo and stretched a little before Scott
was ready to go. We skeedattled in such a rush, fearing collision with a
logging truck, that we forgot to get a picture of "campsite".
On the way back to CD'A (we camped a little north of Hayden, which is
north of CD'A), we saw a nasty 2-car wreck. A small Toyota had slammed into
and turned on its side a Bronco-ish truck. Lots of oddly striped cop-cars
around, ambulances rushing to the scene as we passed.
Got gas then ate lunch at a place called Heathcliff's...a deli/espresso
place. Moderate prices. $6 for a huge veggie sandwich and coffee.
Talked to the waitress, Cristin, a bit. She was expectedly cordial and
told us it was a shame we missed the Eagles concert in California.
Heathcliffs had a fowl motif...duckstuff everywhere....and pictures of
female softball teams. Clean and proper place...nice but stiff.
Some people pulled up in a Probe as I brushed my teeth beside the bus in
the parking lot...gave me a dirty look. Hmmph!
Headed on to Spokane. Large punky contingent downtown. We checked out a few
shops, looking for bookstores. Talked to a girl on the street and she gave
us some vaguely helpful advice. The clerk at the "Global Folk Art" store,
an older woman in her 60s, was very helpful and good to talk to. She
directed us to Aunties, a huge bookstore just down the street and told us
about how she used to live in Bellevue (near Omaha) over 30 years ago.
Aunties was two big floors of books, new and used. I picked up a copy of
the I Ching and a Max Headroom movie book. Spent my first travellers cheque
there. Also perused a copy of MONK, a travel magazine, and wasn't too
impressed.
Went to David's Pizza for a few slices. I accidentally poured sugar on
mine, thinking it was cheese. Quite an interesting taste, I wouldn't
recommend it. The end result is something like eating a tootsie roll while
playing pin-the-tail-on-the-mitochondria.
An hour outside of Spokane we stopped at a reststop called "Schag" to
stretch and so I could wash my hair. Finished up "Man in the High Tower"
while waiting at the picnic table for the reststop to reduce its population.
Consulted the I-Ching before we left the stop, we'd been feeling really nervy
about Spokane.. Scott thought it was a disappointment, I speculated it might
just be a minor dose of culture shock, coming into the city after being in the
"wilds" for a week. The casting of the coins (three pennies) turned up
the "Damage to Illumination" hexagram, dupplemented by "Tranquility" because
of a moving line. We interpretted it as, basically, "keep on keeping on".
West on I-90.
Listened to talk radio. It was dark by this time. A show out of LA about
confessions. Crackly staticked accounts of transvesticism and
simultaneous brother-dating....among other things.
Parked at a stall in a National Forest campground and set up the tent after
trying futily to build a fire. Had a little run-in with ESP as we talked
about UFOs. I was trying to think of a name and Scott, never having heard
of it or seeing the show it was from, blurted it out. The name was
"Guardian", so it wasn't too common a monicker. He doesn't know why he
said it. Creepy.
A jet flew by a few minutes later...the echoes and reverbs sounded warbly
weird.
Sleep.
This morning I was awaken to the words, "Park Ranger...I'm here to collect my
fee from last night... Good morning... You owe me $8.75."
Once I realized what was happening, I got up and recited our preformulated
excuse of why we hadn't paid, but it just came out all wrong at this early
morning hour.
"Um..we got in late last night..."
"I'm sure you did," said the ranger, waiting for his money. I handed him a
twenty and said that I didn't have any change.. yeah.. that was the real
reason I didn't leave the money in the depositor.. yeah.
He said he'd be back with my change, and I waited, wondering if he really was
the park manager, or whether he was just your average Bob Popidopilas off the
street. But he did return with my eleven twenty-five.
I fell back to sleep, and Ed woke me up with fried egg sandwiches brought to
my sleeping bag-side. I of course wondered if he was trying to seduce me.
He then tossed some catsup packets into the tent, and I knew for sure that
he was trying to seduce me.
I washed my hair under the coldest water my cranium has ever come in contact
with. It hurt it was so frigid. I went back to the van to towel and
deodorize, and caught an argument in the making. Evidently, a camping duo
had gone the wrong way on the one way campsite drive, and the park ranger
had stopped them to notify them of their error. She got on their case about
not following the rules, and morality in general. This met with cursing and
"How could you have the nerve to tell us...". Interesting conversation to
brush my teeth to.
More talk radio followed touching on economic preparation for judgement day.
God's pissed off; liquidize your assets!
At exactly 2:00pm I walked to the bathroom to purge my intestines. My path
was inersected by the park ranger driving his golf cart, reminding us that
checkout was at 2:00, and asked if we would be staying another day. Despite
their gracious hospitality, I declined and thanked him for the reminder.
Five minutes later we were on the road to Roslyn. Stopped to gas once inside
the town, tried to talk to the gas attendant, but to no avail. He only
responded with minor facial expressions, and even then, I felt like I was
imposing. We drove down the main street of Rosyln and found the cafe that
is shown on the Northern Exposure opening credit scenes. We stopped to take
photos, just for the record, and talked to a woman operating a gift shop.
The Northern Exposure crew had been to Roslyn to film all of the outside
scenes just two weeks before we got there. But nowadays they shoot all of
the indoor scenes (most of the show) in Redmond, WA. We departed, and both
regretted spending more time than was needed in a touristy locale.
Continued on along I-90 to Seattle, and found a cozy plaza parking lot in
Kirkland. Made a few phone calls to potential crash places, read, ate,
prophesized, and continued to downtown Seattle... pioneer square. We walked
around and did minimal exploration, still getting acclimated to urbania.
Stopped in Elliots bookstore and marveled at it's dark gantuanity. It was
too late to visit most places... Seattle doesn't seem like a late night city.
Since we couldn't contact any of our contacts, we decided to head towards
our friends to the North and come back to the cappucino capital of the world
another day. (We were awed by the locations that you can receive a cup
of espresso in this state. 20 minute lube... and espresso! Midcity abortion
clinic... and espresso! Washington State Penn... and espresso!) Drove
north and stopped at a Denny's north of Seattle to decide on a plan for
the night over grilled cheesefood and seasoned fries. Consulted the I-Ching
and drove to a reststop, almost to the border. Squabbled about the pre-
conceptions Canadians have about Americans, violence on television, and
drifted off to sleep... and espresso!
last updated 6-15-94
ed@sunsite.unc.edu