I was having coffee with my friend Emily today when I remembered a strange dream I had when I was in Denali. In the dream, I was Michelle Pfeiffer, and I got killed in a plane crash in Anchorage and then postumously (for something I wrote after I died, as a ghost) won the Pulitzer Prize. Things like that, I just have to wonder what they mean :-)
It's rainy here, and all the people who I thought would be in town aren't so I'm pretty lonely. My family's also in Phoenix for the day to see a baseball game, so my plans for the evening are to cook an honest-to-god vegan meal for myself and maybe watch Evita on tv. Or just read, if I can find anything to hold my attention. I just finished The Wind-Up Bird Chronical by Haruki Murakami, which I loved almost to the ending, which left me feeling profoundly unsatisfied. I'm not sure if that is just because of the way the book is or because I don't read critically enough with fiction and missed some astounding connection or something, but it put a major damper over my enjoyment of the rest of the novel. I hate it when that happens.
Saturday, August 06, 2005
Thursday, August 04, 2005
a vacation in denial, pt. 2
The day after Wonder Lake, Anna and I went back to Stony Dome to catch a picture of Denali out in full sunlight and then caught a bus all the way back to the entrance. We were on a lucky bus; they had apparently seen the wolves chase a caribou and a caribou calf earlier, and while we were on the bus we saw several bears and a crapload of caribou. One bear walked right past our window as we all sat inside and took zillions of pictures, and we also saw a mother and cub, very cute. I almost got whacked on the head by an over-zealous elderly man with a very large zoom lens (we all made a lot of phallic comments about this) during the bear-by-the-window encounter. By the end of that ride, we were both so annoyed by the other people on the bus, who would make us stop for ten minutes every time we saw a caribou grazing in the distance.
At the entrance, we drove to meet Erica and co. at a pizza place, and then we all headed over to the Salmon Bake (a bar/reataurant/club thing) to see a bluegrass band from Colorado. We slept at Jeff's cabin that night, then I drove all the way back to Toklat the next day using Erica's road pass. That was exciting, mostly because it takes about 3 or 4 hours and involves some very high mountains that are a little scary. We spent most of the rest of our stay taking walks and talking to Erica, plus one well-deserved day of mostly just reading at the end before we left.
I wish in some ways that we had done more, been more adventurous with our hiking or gotten out more or something, but mostly I feel like we did what we could with our time and energy. We didn't see the wolves, which I wish we had, but it's not like wildlife just appears at your beck and call. Mostly, I just enjoyed the beauty of the place, and I am so glad that we got to experience it in a kind of behind-the-scenes sort of way, so that we could be a little more than all the people who travel there and ride a bus for 8 hours and never get out and say to their friends that they've seen Denali.
The drive back was mostly uneventful: we missed a campsite by 8 minutes one night after driving 800 miles and had to sleep in a motel, and the next night we slept in the car because it was raining and we were too tired to deal with the tent one more time. Montana is beautiful, and I think that of all the places we visited I might like it best there, in someplace like Bozeman. It's beautiful. We went to Yellowstone for a night and part of a day, and hiked a little bit and saw old faithful and some wildlife. We watched a herd of buffalo cross the road right in front of us, eventually scaring a bunch of stupid tourists who had gotten out to take pictures despite many warnings about the danger, before crossing the Yellowstone river. It was beautiful and cool, but there were too many people. There are gas stations inside the park. For some reason that really bothers me, and I feel a little more in sympathy with Edward Abbey.
But now I'm home, the adventures over and no one to tell. We found an apartment in Chicago and have already signed a lease, and we're setting out in about two weeks. I guess that's where the journey will really end, for now.
At the entrance, we drove to meet Erica and co. at a pizza place, and then we all headed over to the Salmon Bake (a bar/reataurant/club thing) to see a bluegrass band from Colorado. We slept at Jeff's cabin that night, then I drove all the way back to Toklat the next day using Erica's road pass. That was exciting, mostly because it takes about 3 or 4 hours and involves some very high mountains that are a little scary. We spent most of the rest of our stay taking walks and talking to Erica, plus one well-deserved day of mostly just reading at the end before we left.
I wish in some ways that we had done more, been more adventurous with our hiking or gotten out more or something, but mostly I feel like we did what we could with our time and energy. We didn't see the wolves, which I wish we had, but it's not like wildlife just appears at your beck and call. Mostly, I just enjoyed the beauty of the place, and I am so glad that we got to experience it in a kind of behind-the-scenes sort of way, so that we could be a little more than all the people who travel there and ride a bus for 8 hours and never get out and say to their friends that they've seen Denali.
The drive back was mostly uneventful: we missed a campsite by 8 minutes one night after driving 800 miles and had to sleep in a motel, and the next night we slept in the car because it was raining and we were too tired to deal with the tent one more time. Montana is beautiful, and I think that of all the places we visited I might like it best there, in someplace like Bozeman. It's beautiful. We went to Yellowstone for a night and part of a day, and hiked a little bit and saw old faithful and some wildlife. We watched a herd of buffalo cross the road right in front of us, eventually scaring a bunch of stupid tourists who had gotten out to take pictures despite many warnings about the danger, before crossing the Yellowstone river. It was beautiful and cool, but there were too many people. There are gas stations inside the park. For some reason that really bothers me, and I feel a little more in sympathy with Edward Abbey.
But now I'm home, the adventures over and no one to tell. We found an apartment in Chicago and have already signed a lease, and we're setting out in about two weeks. I guess that's where the journey will really end, for now.
bits and pieces
Here is Erica's advice on wildlife, delivered shortly after we got to Denali:
If you see a bear and it doesn't see you, walk around it or away. If it sees you, wave your arms over your head and say "Hey bear!" loudly. It might false rush you (!), but stand your ground. If "contact is imminent," curl up in a fetal position. Don't ever run away.
If a moose runs at you, run away. They don't false rush.
A caribou is just silly. It might hit you with a hoof or something as it tryto run away, but they aren't dangerous.
You could probably poke a dall sheep in the eye with a pencil as long as you moved slowly. They'll run away if you move like a wolf (I have no idea how to do that anyway).
I have found meat in my food three times in the past month, once in a truck stop outside of Portland (undefinable bit of something), once at a creepy roadside cafe in Canada (big chunk of sausage) and once at the Blue Willow in Tucson (ham, in the tofu scramble!). In the three years I've been a vegetarian, that's never happened to me before even once.
On the road back down from Alaska, I saw a truck full of pigs. What came out of my mouth was, "Is them pigs?" I was so shocked that that could come out of my mouth. It may be the most gramatically incorrect thing I've ever said.
If you see a bear and it doesn't see you, walk around it or away. If it sees you, wave your arms over your head and say "Hey bear!" loudly. It might false rush you (!), but stand your ground. If "contact is imminent," curl up in a fetal position. Don't ever run away.
If a moose runs at you, run away. They don't false rush.
A caribou is just silly. It might hit you with a hoof or something as it tryto run away, but they aren't dangerous.
You could probably poke a dall sheep in the eye with a pencil as long as you moved slowly. They'll run away if you move like a wolf (I have no idea how to do that anyway).
I have found meat in my food three times in the past month, once in a truck stop outside of Portland (undefinable bit of something), once at a creepy roadside cafe in Canada (big chunk of sausage) and once at the Blue Willow in Tucson (ham, in the tofu scramble!). In the three years I've been a vegetarian, that's never happened to me before even once.
On the road back down from Alaska, I saw a truck full of pigs. What came out of my mouth was, "Is them pigs?" I was so shocked that that could come out of my mouth. It may be the most gramatically incorrect thing I've ever said.
a vacation in denial, pt. 1
After five weeks and over 10,000 miles, we finally reached Arizona again. We got to Flagstaff on Sunday, went to Tucson on Monday, I spent the day there yesterday and today I drove back to Flagstaff by myself. So anyway, now I finally have a bit of time to chronical a bit more of our journies.
After our day in Vancouver, we set out north through Canada. We drove for two relatively miserable days, alternately full or road construction or overly-curvy roads or really hard rain, making only about 500 miles each night. The third day, though, was beautiful. We passed by Lake Kluane, which I swear is the most beautiful color of blue I have ever seen. The rain slowed, and we spent the night in Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon, which is actually large-ish and has a grocery store and everything! The next day, we drove through Watson Lake, which has an awesome signpost forest (http://www.explorenorth.com/articles/signpost.html) and I believe we made it all the way to Fairbanks. The next morning was chilly and grey as we set out for Denali, hoping for no good reason that we would be able to locate a way, preferably free, to find Erica out at Toklat, which is mile 53 on the park road.
Luckily, after some blundering around and ascertaining that Erica's "friend" Jeff would be driving a bus at 4, we ran directly into Erica at the entrance bookstore. I think we scared her a little, since we arrived fairly early (by a few days). We rode Jeff's bus out with her, and set up in the loft in her house.
The park is so beautiful. Even that day, with all it's rain and low clouds, it was really awesome. You can't drive, ususally, so everybody rides these big buses out to wherever and back on a windy dirt 1-and-1/2 lane road. We were really concerned about the cold, because we weren't really prepared for rain and cold. Silly us, not realizing that July is the rainy season! Anyway, the next day it began clearing up, and it was in fact beautiful and mostly-to-entirely clear for the rest of our trip.
Our second day there, we got on a bus at Toklat and rode out to "Fish Creek," which is really a branch of the Little Stony Creek but the park service thought people would get angry that they couldn't see Big Stony Creek or some such crap. Anyway, we rode out, and then got off the bus at a place called Stony Dome and hiked for a bit. Denali also has very few trails; mostly you just kind of walk around on your own and make a lot of noise so bears don't get startled by you. It was a really nice hike, tundra is so cool to walk in! It's like a big weird sponge that your feet sink into, sometimes up to the ankles, and then you kind of bloomp back out. We came back and walked until a bus picked us up. That night two more Tucson people, Patty and Pam, came into the park and we all rode in a park service van (with Erica driving!!!) to the end of the road, Wonder Lake. Beautiful, but very mosquito-y. We drank wine and picked wild blueberries and watched as Denali (the real name of Mt. McKinley) came almost out of the clouds. We started driving back at 11 in the almost-twilight that never entirely went away while we were there.
Whew! I'm tired of typing. I'll write more later. I still have the rest of Denali, the trip down, and Yellowstone.
After our day in Vancouver, we set out north through Canada. We drove for two relatively miserable days, alternately full or road construction or overly-curvy roads or really hard rain, making only about 500 miles each night. The third day, though, was beautiful. We passed by Lake Kluane, which I swear is the most beautiful color of blue I have ever seen. The rain slowed, and we spent the night in Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon, which is actually large-ish and has a grocery store and everything! The next day, we drove through Watson Lake, which has an awesome signpost forest (http://www.explorenorth.com/articles/signpost.html) and I believe we made it all the way to Fairbanks. The next morning was chilly and grey as we set out for Denali, hoping for no good reason that we would be able to locate a way, preferably free, to find Erica out at Toklat, which is mile 53 on the park road.
Luckily, after some blundering around and ascertaining that Erica's "friend" Jeff would be driving a bus at 4, we ran directly into Erica at the entrance bookstore. I think we scared her a little, since we arrived fairly early (by a few days). We rode Jeff's bus out with her, and set up in the loft in her house.
The park is so beautiful. Even that day, with all it's rain and low clouds, it was really awesome. You can't drive, ususally, so everybody rides these big buses out to wherever and back on a windy dirt 1-and-1/2 lane road. We were really concerned about the cold, because we weren't really prepared for rain and cold. Silly us, not realizing that July is the rainy season! Anyway, the next day it began clearing up, and it was in fact beautiful and mostly-to-entirely clear for the rest of our trip.
Our second day there, we got on a bus at Toklat and rode out to "Fish Creek," which is really a branch of the Little Stony Creek but the park service thought people would get angry that they couldn't see Big Stony Creek or some such crap. Anyway, we rode out, and then got off the bus at a place called Stony Dome and hiked for a bit. Denali also has very few trails; mostly you just kind of walk around on your own and make a lot of noise so bears don't get startled by you. It was a really nice hike, tundra is so cool to walk in! It's like a big weird sponge that your feet sink into, sometimes up to the ankles, and then you kind of bloomp back out. We came back and walked until a bus picked us up. That night two more Tucson people, Patty and Pam, came into the park and we all rode in a park service van (with Erica driving!!!) to the end of the road, Wonder Lake. Beautiful, but very mosquito-y. We drank wine and picked wild blueberries and watched as Denali (the real name of Mt. McKinley) came almost out of the clouds. We started driving back at 11 in the almost-twilight that never entirely went away while we were there.
Whew! I'm tired of typing. I'll write more later. I still have the rest of Denali, the trip down, and Yellowstone.
Thursday, July 28, 2005
what a long, strange trip it's been
Well, this is going to be kind of short, but I'll post a longer version later. Here's an overview of time since my last entry.
Seattle: Nice place. I think we were kind of tired by the time we got there, so we mostly drank coffee and walked around for a day and then spent an afternoon at Mt. Rainier (gorgeous and wonderful!) before we headed up. The higlight was miraculously seeing a drag king show in Kent, WA, a smallish suburb. We've been missing shows and concerts consistently by about 3 days all over, so it was nice to finally see something.
Vancouver: More walking aimlessly, drank Maple Cream Ale on Granville Island, walked in Stanley Park, ate indian food. We camped on Mt. Seymour, which doesn't technically have camping but they let us stay in the group camping spot, all by ourselves, which was right next to a creepy empty house. The best part of Vancouver: While eating in Naam's, a veggie restaurant, we saw Kathleen Hanna and Johanna Fateman from Le Tigre! More about that in a later post.
Well, I'm out of time, so Denali and Montana will come later when internet access is more extended.
Seattle: Nice place. I think we were kind of tired by the time we got there, so we mostly drank coffee and walked around for a day and then spent an afternoon at Mt. Rainier (gorgeous and wonderful!) before we headed up. The higlight was miraculously seeing a drag king show in Kent, WA, a smallish suburb. We've been missing shows and concerts consistently by about 3 days all over, so it was nice to finally see something.
Vancouver: More walking aimlessly, drank Maple Cream Ale on Granville Island, walked in Stanley Park, ate indian food. We camped on Mt. Seymour, which doesn't technically have camping but they let us stay in the group camping spot, all by ourselves, which was right next to a creepy empty house. The best part of Vancouver: While eating in Naam's, a veggie restaurant, we saw Kathleen Hanna and Johanna Fateman from Le Tigre! More about that in a later post.
Well, I'm out of time, so Denali and Montana will come later when internet access is more extended.
Friday, July 08, 2005
creepy doppelgangers
It took us forever to get to Portland (about 2 days), and when we had set up camp we went in to town to find an internet cafe. The one we found was having a gallery-opening-type party, with all sorts of trendy hipster people around. I saw people who looked just like Greta (or maybe her sister, Erin), Erica (but pregnant, very strange) and my old roommate Jean. It was totally disorienting.
Sunday, July 03, 2005
road trippin' part 1
So far, our trip has been pretty successful. We started out with two days in San Diego, sitting on the beach and attempting to visit Balboa Park, which was highly unfulfilling in terms of park-ness. We spent maybe 15 minutes driving around looking for somewhere sizeable to sit on the grass, and when we finally found one I got the crap scared out of me by a caterpiller that crawled onto the armpit of my sweater and poked me with, I suppose, its foot. Of course, this resulted in my yelping and ripping the sweater off and then nervously swatting at my armpits for the next hour every time I thought about it. Then we spent a long time trying to find an open lesbian bar (harder than it sounds) and drove through the gaslamp quarter. There were hills there that impressed me, but were trivial compared to San Francisco.
Next, we went to visit Jesse in Santa Cruz. What an awesome city! Fairly small, all hills and forest and beach. We visited the crazy-ass boardwalk (passing on the fried twinkies), went to see some redwoods, and went to a wine tasting (yummy!). Anna and I also visited Natural Bridges, a state park that could more aptly be titled Natural Bridge, since there is only one bridge there. Also, weirdly, the park supposedly has full wireless internet access, god knows why.
Yesterday we drove here, to San Francisco. We left super early, as Anna and I were attempting to get a camping site at a state park and we realized too late that it is 4th of July weekend and everybody is trying to camp at the fifteen camping sites here. Anyway, we left at about 7:45 and still didn't get a spot, at which point we drove for about 2 hours up Highway 1 to another site before deciding, just as we got there, that it was a bad idea and we should really just stay at a hostel. So we drove back. Very scenic, but totally unnecessary. Anyway, we came back to the city, visited the pirate store at 826 Valencia (arrrrrgh!!!) and Good Vibrations, then had another somewhat unsatisfying trip to Golden Gate Park (it was very cold and windy). We ate dinner at the Stinking Rose, a restaurant that "seasons its garlic with food," with two of Jesse's friends. The drive home was terrible, including me having to roll my car backwards down the biggest hill ever to be paved and a near-death experience at a very confusing intersection. Today, we saw about half of a play put on by the San Francisco Mime Troupe (www.sfmt.org) about people trying to do good but being corrupted by money. Then we walked around the Castro (rainbow flags galore) and downtown Berkeley for a while and came home. Tomorrow Jesse and his friend leave for China, Anna and I check into a budget hotel and wander the city, and parking will most likely be terrible.
Anna says I sound like I'm not having fun, but really I am. So there.
Next, we went to visit Jesse in Santa Cruz. What an awesome city! Fairly small, all hills and forest and beach. We visited the crazy-ass boardwalk (passing on the fried twinkies), went to see some redwoods, and went to a wine tasting (yummy!). Anna and I also visited Natural Bridges, a state park that could more aptly be titled Natural Bridge, since there is only one bridge there. Also, weirdly, the park supposedly has full wireless internet access, god knows why.
Yesterday we drove here, to San Francisco. We left super early, as Anna and I were attempting to get a camping site at a state park and we realized too late that it is 4th of July weekend and everybody is trying to camp at the fifteen camping sites here. Anyway, we left at about 7:45 and still didn't get a spot, at which point we drove for about 2 hours up Highway 1 to another site before deciding, just as we got there, that it was a bad idea and we should really just stay at a hostel. So we drove back. Very scenic, but totally unnecessary. Anyway, we came back to the city, visited the pirate store at 826 Valencia (arrrrrgh!!!) and Good Vibrations, then had another somewhat unsatisfying trip to Golden Gate Park (it was very cold and windy). We ate dinner at the Stinking Rose, a restaurant that "seasons its garlic with food," with two of Jesse's friends. The drive home was terrible, including me having to roll my car backwards down the biggest hill ever to be paved and a near-death experience at a very confusing intersection. Today, we saw about half of a play put on by the San Francisco Mime Troupe (www.sfmt.org) about people trying to do good but being corrupted by money. Then we walked around the Castro (rainbow flags galore) and downtown Berkeley for a while and came home. Tomorrow Jesse and his friend leave for China, Anna and I check into a budget hotel and wander the city, and parking will most likely be terrible.
Anna says I sound like I'm not having fun, but really I am. So there.
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