Adventure

I have been thinking the whole trip about adventure. In addition  to the adventures we are having, we have been  listening  to other travel adventures, much more risky than our own, but covering the same ground. We listened to Ken Burns' companion  to the Lewis and Clark series, drawing  from the diaries  and other documents from the westward exploration. We also listened to 7 of the 9 Laura Ingalls  Wilder books about her little houses. I am also reading Patrick  Leigh  Fermor's books about his walk across Europe just before WWII. Those were serious travel adventures. In those stories, there was novelty, but the resolution was never clear and a happy ending was far from assured.  The contrast got me thinking about 'adventure.' I remember from my master's  thesis that the word is related to luck or chance, and when I looked it up again, it also has connections to risk and daring. We think of adventure as novelty and spontaneity,  but don't generally think of it as risk and chance. The travel adventure stories we heard were dangerous. Not just inconvenience,  but death was over the next hill. Our travel adventure had a lot of novelty and spontaneity, and it had some minor frustrations. We struggled with the learning curve constantly. We were not very experienced campers, and though we travel a lot, and for 4-6 weeks at a time, we usually go a long distance and then make a home, so we are unused to constant travel. We were also constantly in a new place, trying to figure out how that place worked, and how to get what we needed from it. We were living a very physical life, filled with 5 mile hikes and loading and unloading our shelter so we were physically tired in ways we were not used to. We were adjusting to working together,  and to being a family of 4 instead of 5. All of it kept us out of our comfort zones. I don't mean to complain, I am just thinking about how unused to a real adventure we are. The problems were tiny, really just inconveniences of time when we got lost or picked an place to stay without understanding  the local geography or had a longer drive than planned, or of money if we waited too long to get a hotel reservation. They irritated us, as if they were actual problems. Compared to the problems of health and safety  or starvation and ruin that the trailblazers faced, they were not worth mentioning. Ours wasn't an adventure on the same scale of risk,  but it points up the level of comfort we are used to, so that in modern parlance, the very word has lost its connotations of risk and danger.  We thought we couldn't see the outcome, and that was where a lot of the frustrations lay -- would we find a hotel or camp? -- but after all, it was pretty clear: we would eat at least 3 meals, sleep somewhere, maybe just be a bit wet or cold, but only a little. We tend to get upset and stressed when something goes wrong, though if course our problems are really quite small, especially now, when a little extra cost or some lost time is a big deal only if we make it so. I feel like that is part of what travels teach us, if we are really traveling, as opposed to being tourists.We are very used to being in control. Here we had to let go to some extent.

I learned about work, too. This was not a vacation. We didn't  rest. Again,  I am not complaining,  just observing that our regular life is very easy, again because of the contrast with the stories as also  with the work we had to do. It took at least an hour to set up camp,  and another to organize the car, every day. Phil did a lot of it since he gets up earliest by several hours.   

We also learned a lot about ourselves as a family, and we also had to adjust as we changed from 5 to 4. We had a lot of jokes, and kept falling into patterns of behaviors, like going to bed at dusk when camping, or each falling into a particular job. Ellie specialized in tent poles. Phil organized the car. I was in charge of schedule, and also most of the dishes and keeping  Ellie clean. Jeremiah played pied piper and kept all the kids busy with football or Frisbee or jackpot. I think that this long adventure has been refreshing for sure, and good for us as a family. Isn't it funny that it was refreshing to work hard, and to live a less certain life for a few weeks?  

The last hours

After a morning at our last National  Park, Mammoth  Cave,  we started the last leg: Kentucky  to home. Mammoth  Cave was wonderful,  an end as awesome  as the beginning.  We didn't see any stalagmites or stalactites,  but saw instead the enormous caverns and tight key holes of the historic tour. I was fascinated  by the historic graffiti left by 19th century  visitors,  etched into the rock or left by candle soot held to the ceiling. The enormity of the longest cave in the world was clear to us...more than 400 miles of tunnels. We marched through for 2 hours and then had lunch and began the 10 hours  home. We decided  to do it all in one day and sleep in our own beds tonight. I am sad for the trip to end, as it has been a great experience,  but everyone is tired. Better to end before we get too cranky!

Leaving Chicago

Phil and Jeremiah went on a tour of the University of Chicago while Ellie and I tried to park. Lesson:  Good school in a cool place that I would like to visit,  but don't bring a car next time.
After that,  we drove.  We are in Bowling Green, home of some academics I would like to meet, folklorists and food historians and Honors staff,  but alas,  we at only here for tonight, and probably none are in town during summer anyway. We had lunch in the car and a nice dinner at the local gastropub, an oasis in an area where fast food seemed  to be the only other option,  and there was a 15 minute wait at 7pm on a Monday night. That signifies something.

  Tomorrow is our last national park, Mammoth Cave, and then it is 10 hours to home. Phil wants to do it in 1 day.  We will see!

Chicago II

Today was a great combination of biking and art. We parked half way between the b and b and the city. There was still free parking,  and we were near one of the city bike program  stops. We brought Ellie's bike and rented 3 more: $9.95 for 24 hours as long as each ride is less than 30 min. There was, of course, a learning  curve which led to some frustrations,  but overall  it worked  well. We biked to the Art Institute. Ellie got a free app that let her play History Heroes to save artwork  from the evil Erasers. That kept her interested for most of the 5 hours we were in the museum. We also invented a game where we split up and tried to find each other by texting picture or picture titles to each other. It was refreshing to see art  and fun to play the games.  For lunch we tried Chicago dogs which were yummy. After the museum we got on bikes and explored Navy Pier which was too crowded  with tourists for me, so we left and biked to Lincoln Park. We biked back along the river, having finally found out how to get to the lakefront  path. We then biked to Chinatown and and ate at the Three Crowns restaurant and had the best  dim sum.  Then home. Art, biking and food. How can we top that? 

Clean car

Yesterday was a driving day,  punctuated by a lunch stop to see my high school friend,  Hugh Henry, and ending at Phil's grad school friend's house for dinner and sleep. Very nice! We also stopped at Minnesota's largest candy shop to refuel the kids. This morning,  before setting of for Chicago,  we had the second oil change of the trip,  not because there was anything wrong,  but because we have done another 3000 miles of hard mountain driving since the last one,  in Boulder!  Yes,  this is a two oil change driving trip! We also finally washed Ellie's artwork off the car.  We want to look like city folks for our first AirBnB stay.

Mt Rushmore

Our time in South Dakota included several tourist spots. Phil and I differed on our feelings about them. I saw Mt Rushmore as a tourist "trap" in the sense that its purpose was to bring tourists to South Dakota. To me,  this puts it in the same category as Wall Drug or the Corn Palace. I found the Corn Palace to be more interesting as a folklorist because it is a part of a 19th century regional phenomenon. Cities built corn palaces,  which are buildings decorated with massive amounts of corn and other grains,  to show off their wealth and also attract tourists.  This one,  the only one left,  is also a basketball court and community center,  right next door to city hall. So it is used by the people in Mitchell and isn't just a tourist trap. Phil liked Mt Rushmore and didn't see it as a tourist trap,  but did not like the corn palace. 

Chicago Day 1

We got in later than planned last night, mostly because it took an extra hour to get through Chicago traffic.  Bleh.  We found our AirBnB site, which is a lovely big 1880s brownstone in Chicago's southside, so we are getting the full experience.  It is a great first AirBnB experience, and half the cost of a hotel room.  The owners are lovely, and we can use their kitchen for making breakfast (or other meals if we wanted), and they even offered us use of the washing machine.  We walked around Hyde Park briefly and stumbled on Powell's Bookstore after dinner.
Today we took the 10 minute bus ride into Chicago and stopped at the Field Museum.  Our trusty MOSH card got us a good discount, so we got access to all the special exhibits and also a 3-D movie.  What a mistake.  We ended up spending 5 hours in the museum seeing everything.  We couldn't drag the kids out of there, "No mom, we want to see the dinosaurs!  Wait, I haven't seen the flying ones!"  I was exhausted.  Then we walked outside and checked Facebook only to discover that one of our former students, Kristyn, was also in Chicago and had just been at the Bean.  We exchanged itineraries and met at the fountain.  We were surrounded by brides and (I think) Quinceanera princesses.  The Quinceanera princesses were in various bright hoop skirts of seafoam, blue, red, and lavender.
From there, we found the Bean, and Ellie and Jeremiah took a lot of pictures while Phil made snarky comments.  After that, dinner.  I found the closest excellent Chicago pizza place, Lou Malnati's, and proceeded to wait an hour outside and then 45 minutes inside, but for a truly excellent eggless quiche.  I can't quite call it a pizza, being from New Haven, the birthplace of pizza, but it was still an excellent meal.

Devil's Tower

I love Close Encounters if the Third Kind.  Star Wars was great,  of course,  and dominated my childhood,  but Close Encounters really kicked off the whole era. I am excited to watch it again. When we re-watched ET, I was startled about how much of the context I had not noticed. ..kids drinking beers,  absent parents. ...we are thinking that Close Encounters will also show us things we have forgotten. I am trying to remember why Richard Dreyfus becomes obsessed with Devil's Tower and how that relates to the aliens. Is there some kind of telepathic communication?

Wind Cave

Busy day. .we got up first thing from our campsite,  broke everything down,  and set off for Wind  Cave. Ellie's first cave,  and she seems to be a spelunker.
And another Junior Ranger badge earned.

Badlands

We arrived in the late afternoon,  checked out the visitor center,  then set up camp,  and went out after dinner,  which always seemed to be the best time of day in the parks,  between glorious sunsets and active animals.  This seemingly dead land was no exception. We saw our first bighorn sheep perched on a peak,  peering down at us. Such a strong animal.  Not really sheep like in any way except the wool...way too powerful for that comparison. And she was looking at us,  not just an oblivious sheep focused on grass.

And then there was the sunset. We stopped at the first turn out,  and were taking pictures of the striated mountains,  when suddenly everything began to change color! The sky turned pinks and oranges,  and the mountains behind us lit up in roses and ochres....it was astounding.

Wyoming

Today, we drove. It took us 2 hours to get out of the park due to the return of bear spray (17 miles each way) and the abundant wildlife jams. Then through  several state parks on winding roads through  canyons and across  mountain ranges (3, I think),  finally to this weird pimply plain studded with sheep, cattle, and what look to our Yellowstone - trained eyes, Pronghorn antelope? 11 hours later, we are in Gilette, WY, near Devil's Tower of Close Encounters of the Third Kind fame. That is tomorrow's first adventure!

The Wild West

Today we slept in a bit,  had showers,  saw a ranger program where we got some of our questions answered, and Ellie for her Yellowstone  Junior  Ranger  badge. Then we set out for the western side: the Lamar Valley, called the Serengeti of Yellowstone.  Along the way, we saw the grizzly mama and her two cubs again.  At Tower Falls, we saw a black bear. What could beat that morning? But as Jeremiah noted, it just keeps getting better. We passed into the valley and saw a herd of bison, about 20, with babies! And then we rounded a curve and saw the valley proper...with over a thousand bison. Mind blowing. They just stretched through this enormous  valley, on and on. Then we finally made it to our trailhead,  several hours  later  than we planned, thanks to all those animal stops.
 
Our trail wasn't  that long, about five miles. It was at the south end of the valley, beyond the vast herd of bison. We crossed  a river and headed through a basin to the plain beyond. Jeremiah is our great spotter. First he spotted a Uinta ground squirrel in the sagebrush,  then he found a whole herd of pronghorn antelope, including a male, a dozen females, and possibly  some young  ones. Then he found two bison. We ended up turning around at about  6:15, after being passed  by a group of horses. As we were walking back, we realized that there was a bison in our path! We decided to go up to get around him, figuring that he would be less inclined to want to charge  uphill. He watched us the whole time. We stayed 25 yards away, as monitored by our Junior Ranger. The rest of the trip back was uneventful. We stopped for a late dinner at the Roosevelt Lodge, and started with bison and elk nachos.  Yummy dinner ended with sundaes and huckleberry crisp.