[at-l] Earthworm Report

[hiker 317]

It is so wonderful that she is doing this trip.....it's really amazing
to think that one can drive across the continent at leisure, and have
fun, when not that far back in time it was a dangerous adventure. I
guess that it could still be a dangerous adventure if one hopped a
freight-train, or flew an ultralight....

On 5/27/09, Jan Lite <liteshoe at gmail.com> wrote:
> Is this stuff getting out here?
> I'm envious...
>
> Day 1 - Mon. May 18
> Drove from Tallahassee, FL to New Orleans, LA (aka NOLA).  Got a late start
> from home, but crossed into the Central Time Zone, which made up an hour and
> got me to New Orleans in time for dinner.  The very first awesome view of
> the trip was my first view of Lake Ponchartrain.  It’s so huge I swear it’s
> not a lake, it’s an ocean!  Stayed with Sandpiper and Yakpack (Amy and
> Treacy Stone) in their gorgeous home.  Their house is long and narrow, with
> rooms arranged down a ‘shotgun’ hallway.  They have done a really marvelous
> job of decorating their home, and I’m awed by their various artistic skills.
>  We went to ‘Squeals’ for dinner.  I had BBQ ribs, cole slaw and potato
> salad.  Sounds mundane, but it was the most delicious food I’ve ever eaten.
>  Food for the gods, it was.
>
> Day 2  - Tue. May 19
> Amy and I had breakfast at P.J.’s coffee house before I packed up and said
> goodbye.  Then I went off to explore New Orleans, starting with the Maple
> Street Bookstore.  This was a hangout of my friend Waterfall (Nina Baxley)
> during her college days in New Orleans.  It no longer has the owners it had
> in her time, but I suspect it looks pretty much the same.  The people
> working there were very friendly and gave me a free postcard of the shop to
> give to Nina.  After that I went to St. Charles St. and parked my car near
> the end of the St. Charles trolley line and hopped on the next trolley
> headed for downtown.  Enjoyed the lovely large homes along St. Charles in
> the Garden District.  When I got to Canal Street, I turned off onto Royal
> Street and walked to Jackson Square.  There I took the obligatory photo of
> the Cathedral, watched a mime and an accordion player, walked along the row
> of horse-drawn carriages waiting for customers, and then turned onto Decatur
> Street and went to Central Grocery where I ate a quarter of a muffuletta
> sandwich (they’re huge!) and bought a take-home jar of the sandwich’s
> topping, called ‘olive salad.’  Treacy Stone met me there for lunch and he
> ate the other three quarters of the muffuletta.  Then we strolled over to
> Café du Monde where I bought some beignets before Treacy drove me to the
> trolley stop for my return trip down St. Charles Street.  Back at my car, I
> regretfully left good friends and heavenly food and headed north to
> Batesville, Mississipi where I spent the night in a motel.
>
> Day 3 - Wed. May 20
> Drove from Batesville, Miss. to Overland Park, Kansas (suburb of Kansas
> City).  Pretty uneventful drive west through Missouri to Kansas City and to
> Overland Park, southwest of the city.  Modnadnock Dee and Walkabout (Dee and
> Ken Landau) graciously took me out to eat Greek food (!) and then they went
> off to their son Jordan’s high school graduation while I caught up on email
> and downloaded photos.  When they got home we watched the finale of American
> Idol and shed a tear when Adam didn’t win.  Off to bed for some deep sleep.
>
> Day 4 - Thur. May 21
> Took a ‘zero’ day at Dee and Ken’s.  In the evening they gave me a tour of
> the city, its fountains, and restored Union Station.  We ate at a very good
> vegetarian restaurant in downtown Kansas City--Eden Alley Café.  Had another
> great  night’s sleep.
>
> Day 5 - Fri. May 22
> Said goodbye to Dee and Ken and headed for Colorado.  A friend who used to
> live in the west said to me that she’d rather remove her appendix with her
> teeth than drive through Kansas again, but since this was my first time
> driving it, I found it interesting because it was all new to me.  And it’s
> not exactly perfectly flat--there are some little hills and gullies to look
> at. :-)  And I saw my very first wind turbines in western Kansas.  Entered a
> new time zone--Mountain Time--just before getting to Colorado.  I got so
> wound up in looking at all the new territory that I forgot to look at my gas
> gauge, and was running on empty for no telling how long before I finally
> found a gas station.  Then when I got out to pump gas I was startled by the
> strong, cold wind.  Inside the car, I hadn’t noticed the change in elevation
> and temperature.  As I went on, the Rockies finally appeared on the horizon,
> and they were immense and exciting.  They had been hidden behind storm
> clouds and rain as I approached Denver.  Then the clouds lifted and there
> they were!  I immediately decided that all the work to prepare for this trip
> had been very much worth the effort.  Got to the perimeter road and circled
> south of Denver and down to Castle Rock and out into the countryside to the
> home of an old friend, Mikel Schoelen.  Mike was the leader of a group of
> five on my first-ever (and laughingly disastrous) backpacking trip, when
> everything went wrong for me but I loved it nonetheless.  Mike has just
> bought his first home, on seven acres with chickens in a pen and lilac
> bushes (and their heavenly scent) everywhere.
>
>
> Day 6 - Sat. May 23
> Rocky Mountain National Park.  This should be one of the seven wonders of
> the natural world.  What a jaw-dropping experience.  I drove north through
> Boulder and then through St. Vrain Canyon (gorgeous rock formations) to
> Estes Park, former home of Kinnickinic (Sawnie Robertson).  The entrance to
> the Park is just to the west.  The Trail Ridge Road was open (yes!) for the
> season (barring further snowfall), so I got to see the best of the Park.
>  Well…most of the best.  The highest part was in the clouds, and I drove for
> miles with visibility ranging from 25 to 100 feet.  The snow was still deep
> in much of the upper reaches of the Park, and the snowbanks along the road
> were way over my head in places.  I got out and put on my boots and high
> gaiters and plunged around in the snow in places.  Even threw a snowball at
> someone taking my picture--missing on purpose.  Went over Milner Pass
> (10,758 ft.) on the Continental Divide, and over the highest point on Trail
> Ridge Rd. at 12,183 feet.  Coming down the western side of the Park, I
> stopped and got out at a point near the Colorado River.  I walked across a
> tawny-grassed meadow between two groups of elk, and dipped my hand into the
> Colorado.  The river was about 10 feet across in that area and was winding
> in meanders through the meadow, with mountains in the background.  Truly
> lovely.  On the way back to Mike’s, on the south side of the Park, I drove
> through Berthoud Pass at 11,307 ft.
>
> Day 7 - Sun. May 24
> A ‘zero’ day at Mike’s.  Did laundry and made trip plans for the next few
> days.  We went to Applebee’s in Castle Rock and had steak dinners.  Yum!
>  Used the library’s wi-fi for some computer chores.  Another great night’s
> sleep with temperature in the 40’s.
>
> Day 8 - Mon. May 25
> 55 degrees in the morning.  Said goodbye to Mike and left his paradise,
> headed for western Colorado.  After passing through Colorado Springs, I
> turned west.  At Canon City I made a detour through Royal Gorge park and
> drove over the world’s highest suspension bridge--1,053 feet above the
> Arkansas River.  Not a place for those terrified of heights, for sure.
>  After driving over, I walked back with the rest of the tourists (it was
> Memorial Day) and took pictures looking down into the gorge.  Made my knees
> a little weak.  Further on, past the gorge, I drove over Monarch Pass at
> 11,312 feet.  There was snow all around, and it was 41 degrees and very
> windy.  After 8 hours of driving, I arrived at Montrose, CO and checked into
> a motel.  My room was on the back of the building with nothing much beyond,
> so I took advantage of a window that actually opened.  Slept great.
>
> Day 9 - Tue. May 26
> San Juan Skyway.  Today I drove this 236-mile loop in a counterclockwise
> direction around the San Juan National Forest, passing through Ridgway,
> Placerville, Rico, Dolores, Cortez, Mancos, Durango, Hermosa, Silverton,
> Ouray, and back to Ridgway.  A lot of it was white-knuckle driving around
> one ten-mile-per-hour hairpin curve after another, with drops of thousands
> of feet just beside my car.  But a very small price to pay for mile after
> mile of gorgeous views.
> Thankfully, the clouds were mostly above the snow-covered peaks, so they
> were visible today.   Some of the high passes (with snow!): Lizard Head
> (10,222 ft.), Coal Bank (10,640), Molas (10,910) and Red Mountain (11,075).
>  I think one of the prettiest sights were the vivid red-colored peaks of
> un-prettily-named Red Mountain No. 1, No.2, and No. 3.  Silverton,
> approaching it from above, reminded me of a tiny Swiss village nestled in
> the Alps.  The absolute highlight of the day was finding out that hiker Ke
> Kaahawe (Mike Henderson, also known as Cake and K.K.Harvey) is Chief
> Financial Officer at Osprey Packs in Cortez.  We met for a brief lunch at
> Once Upon a Sandwich before he had to rush off to a meeting.  I tarried over
> an ice cream cone (mocha almond fudge) before getting back on the road.
>  Tonight, I’m back at the Comfort Inn in Montrose.
>
> --
> "The Ordinary Adventurer"
> A new backpacking adventure book
> http://www.FunFreedom.com
>