Cousins in Boise and Seattle

We drove down out of the high country to Boise to visit my cousin Joan and her family. Joan and Lee showed us a great time including a meal at the over the top restaurant called Barbacoa where we took advantage of the two for one happy hour and had two martinis and appetizers for dinner. The other two nights we had to suffer through gourmet meals at their house. Sunday morning we took a hike in the hills above their house and I detect a slight bulge in my abdomen here.

Boise is full of young people...probably more young people than in the entire state of Maine. It's the biggest city for miles...600,000 people in the metro area. We went to a Saturday farmers market downtown and had Somali sambusas...then cycled out to a dam and back...more than 25 miles...my longest trip to date.

We left Monday morning after a quick exam and blood test at Lee's office. My platelets were 104,000. The doctor in charge of the clinical trial decided I should wait another week and have it re-checked before starting back on the Dasatinib. 

Boise is on the Oregon trail. We drove across the Payette River into Oregon and decided to drive state highway 26 west across eastern Oregon. This is the route taken my some settlers who had "short cut fever". Instead of following the trail north to the Columbia river they set out directly west and crossed several high passes. I guess we were anxious to finally get to the Pacific. We drove route 26 all the way to Bend, Oregon. Arrived in the late afternoon after a beautiful drive. We camped along the Deschutes river and made ratatouille with vegetables we bought at the Boise farmers market.

Gina was seriously hungry here and she managed to eat the entire pan of ratatouille....and some nice cheese which she is serious about too.

Later, we visited the Deschutes brewery and walked around town. The next morning was cold and rainy and we decided to sprint up to Seattle to visit Gina's cousin Nancy and her family. These people are clearly not very serious...

Moon cakes on the Payette River, frontal nudity

The shameless title of this post will undoubtedly increase our worldwide readership. But wait, you will be  rewarded.

We left Missoula on an extended drive on state roads from Missoula over the continental divide at Chief Joseph's pass. Despite rain showers we wanted to do a hike in the Bitterroot range. Gina found one on the Googleplex, not too far from our route...1.4 miles each way with moderate elevation gain and views into Blodgett Canyon. This was a cheater hike as the car did most of the climbing. Our legs were still recovering from the severe charlie horse we got from the hike to the glacier. The picture is a lame excuse for the real thing.

I expected Idaho to be like Montana, but it isn't. The drive down from the pass and down the Salmon River canyon is a beautiful windy road in and out of canyons. We stopped at North Fork to look at the main branch of the river and it was flowing the wrong way! It turns out the main branch of the Salmon runs north through central Idaho before veering west to eventually flow into the Columbia River. The branch we had been following down from the pass is known as the North branch and it flows south from the pass until it reaches the main branch and starts flowing north. Must have confused the hell out of Lewis and Clark.

We arrived at Stanley, Idaho after spending the night at a bed and breakfast in Challis. The views of the Sawtooth mountains from here are spectacular. It was 51 degrees so we decided it was warm enough for a spin around Redfish Lake. 

We drove on to find the fabled hot springs along the Payette River. Art and Ben LaBrecque had recommended we check them out and we made it a destination on our route towards Boise. Our first stop was a two hour soak in Kirkham springs. The pools there vary from somewhat hotter than a hot tub with no cold water to pools right on the river edge where cold water runs in creating pools where you can move from hot to cooler temperatures when you feel like it. We jumped right into the freezing cold river at one point to cool off!

Okay, you weren't expecting that bathing suit were you. Well, the second hot springs at Pine Flats has a hot waterfall that spills into a pool. It was 36 degrees when we woke up so we turned the van on, heated it up and had coffee in bed. Then we hiked down to the hot springs and soaked until the sun came up over the mountains.

I know you are thinking what a hunk, and it's true, and that I am an exhibitionist, but really it was Gina that said we have to include this in the blog. 

Yesterday was Mia's birthday so we went back for another soak in Kirkham hot spring in the evening and waited for the full moon to come up. Barb Felitti had given us a box of Chinese mooncakes and we gave some to Mia and Emily before we left with the idea that we would all eat them on Mia's birthday. Gina decided we had to see the full moon from our hot pool before we could eat the cakes...I don't know why we decided that but because we were behind the bank where the hot springs cascade down to the river, I didn't get to eat my mooncake until 10:15, almost three hours after we got into the pools. We were seriously shriveled by then.

This morning was slightly warmer at the campsite. Gina got her hot coffee served in the warm van (I am working off a serious debt in this relationship) and I made huevos rancheros with potatoes from our garden and left over refried beans from the night before.

By the way, we brought a cabbage from our garden as well as garlic and hot peppers. The peppers dried nicely sitting in a small spot near the windshield for two weeks. The one I used in the beans last night was HOT! 

We have made Leah's cabbage salad a few times and still have a hunk of cabbage left. Here's the recipe for a delicious Lebanese cabbage salad:

Slice some cabbage thin like for cole slaw

Dice a moderate or immoderate amount of garlic

Dressing is equal parts good olive oil and lemon juice

Add black pepper once it's made

Delicious!

"Ma" Coppens knitted me a hat in the car just in time for this cold weather. I've been sleeping with it the last two nights. In addition to knitting hats, Ma has learned how to play the guitar on the trip. I'm not really sure what I have accomplished during this time.  

The Badlands to our own private Idaho

One night while camping in the Badlands we decided to drive a couple miles outside the park and have a beer at the Wagon Wheel bar in Interior, SD (pop. 67). This town hasn't managed to capitalize on it's proximity to the park...we bought a pint of tequila at the store below because we felt sorry for the people there.

Back in the bar, Gina asked the bar woman if the sign outside town regarding the population was correct. Were there only 67 people in town? She pointed to the Native American guy next to us,"He's leaving so it'll be 66 now". "Yep, one girl gets pregnant and three guys have to leave town" he said.

The next day we started on our journey west. First stop was Rapid City, SD to get my blood checked. My platelets still weren't over 100 so I'm still waiting to resume taking the Dasatinib. The service at the cancer center was, well, fast! So, we had lunch in town and took a picture.

We decided we liked the area so much that we would camp in the Black Hills, not too far away. We got to the campground and, as I was talking to the volunteer camp ranger, a yellow jacket crawled under my toe and stung me (I was wearing sandals, you see). After running around for a minute or two like I had been stung I got in the car and we drove to the campsite. As soon as we got out of the car we both heard the buzzing and realized the campground was swarming with wasps. The ranger said, yes, it was true, the yellow jackets were all over the place. By this time my toe hurt so much I couldn't walk and we decided on the spot to hightail it out of the Black Hills. On the way out of the area we saw a billboard advertising the University of the Black Hills and noticed the yellow jacket is their mascot!

Back in the car we did some calculating and figured if we wanted to make it to Glacier National Park we better put some miles on. We drove until we were tired and stayed in a cheap motel right off the highway in Gilette, WY. The next day we drove into Montana and because it is a really big state we drove all day through beautiful country and we were still in Montana! Outside Glacier park the campground was packed with big-ass RVs but they had an area reserved for tents down by the lake. Our neighbors told us there was a black bear out behind the tent area...that's when Gina reminded me  how lucky we are to sleep in our van. I got up in the middle of the night to pee and something big was chowing down on the chokecherries surrounding the van and our neighbors tents. In the morning I discovered this pile of bear shit chock full of chokecherries less than twenty feet from the van. Note the artsy nature of this pile, mimicking the outline of the mountain in the distance.

That morning we got up early and drove to the Many Glaciers campground in the park and got a nice campsite there.

The first day in the park we hiked from the campground up the Swiftcurrent River Valley. The second day we took the boat from the Many Glaciers Hotel to the end of the lake, hiked to a second lake, took another boat and then climbed up to the Grinnell glacier...a round trip of 7.4 miles and 1600 foot elevation gain. I was completely devastated by the time we got back to our campground. We didn't see a grizzly but heard from another helpful volunteer ranger that a griz had used the trail the day before and many people had to go back down to the lake.

We left Glacier park and drove to Missoula where we saw the true nature of these fearsome bears. This one appears to be eating a building.

We cycled all over town and had some excellent local brew. We felt like hipsters with all these young people around. Are you still with me. Don't worry, this brings me to today.

Chicago to the Badlands of South Dakota

It was a two river day! We left Chicago and drove across the unending corn fields of Illinois. We crossed the Mississippi into Iowa near Rock Island and travelled south a little ways to Lock #14 where we saw a raft of 16 corn barges going thru the locks...it was more than 1,000 feet long!

Late in the day after the endless rolling corn fields of Iowa, we arrived at the Missouri river and camped in Lewis and Clark state park. It was almost 90 degrees and humid when we got there. We tried sleeping in our shelter but after an hour or so the bugs drove us into the van. We have screens for the windows (made  by Gina!) so there were no bugs. A cooling wind picked up and we slept well.

The next morning we took a bike ride and wanted to cross the Missouri into Nebraska but the bridge was iron grate and very long so we turned around.

We drove thru the corn of eastern South Dakota until the grasslands started and then we drove some more. We got to the Badlands National Park around 5 PM. A beautiful place where weird rock formations jut out of the grasslands.

It was time for a little music so Gina got out her travel guitar.

We took a ride along the base of the formations and then climbed up a steep pass. By the time we got to the top we were both felling squashed so we cycled back to the campsite and stayed in the shady shelter for the afternoon, reading

Chicago

We arrived in Chicago yesterday. Our friend Wayne Curley had showed us pictures of the Chicago bean in Millennium Park, so we had to see it for ourselves. Here is a picture of Gina impersonating Super Woman. Her outfit needs work but she has the flying down!

This picture and the next one are amorphous images taken within the guts of the bean. Can you find us? Look for Gina on the left side in the first one. In the second one, I'm the person at the apex of the triangle of people in the center.

We had excellent tapas at Mercat a la Planxa...reminded us of El Puerto de Santa Maria, only the food here was much better than any restaurant there. Chorizo, tortilla, queso, aceitunas y vino...claro!

The lovely lady below with a tree growing out the top of her head lives just down the block from our hotel on S. Michigan Ave.

Tomorrow we'll be driving to South Dakota with a stop in Des Moines to buy provisions for a four or five day stay at a remote campground in the Badlands. I’m looking forward to some prairie dog stew.

Two days from home

Gina has been thinking about her mother. We stayed in a house that looked like her parent's house last night and we stopped at Niagara Falls today. Her mother and father went to Niagara Falls for their honeymoon in 1946. Did you know that 20% of the world's fresh water flows over the falls? Anyway, Chuck and Margaret used to live in Maine until they moved back to their hometown of Canastota, NY four years ago. Canastota is a small town on the Erie Canal, 20 miles east of Syracuse. So I wrote to them a couple weeks ago to ask them if we could drop in. Of course they said yes and that we would have to go to Graziano's restaurant. The food was great and their 1910 vintage house really did look a lot like her parent's.

I am writing from Cleveland. This our first experience staying at a house we found through airbnb. Check it out on the web. We are both tired. This morning we took a bike ride with Chuck along the Erie Canal and he showed us around town on our bikes. Then we drove to Niagara Falls and tooled around there on the bikes. Back in the van for a three hour drive to Cleveland. When we arrived at our house (well, Amanda's house) we pulled our spaceship into her very narrow driveway and promptly hooked one of the bikes riding on the roof  onto a VERY low hanging electric service line running from the street to the neighbor's house. Oy! I had to disentangle the bike from the electric cable...it was an insulated line, but scary nevertheless. Our neighborhood here could be described as up and coming by someone.

We haven't met Amanda yet. We tried to turn on her TV to watch the US Open tennis matches but no luck. Have you tried turning on someone else's TV recently?