Stupid Internet

Two days of driving.  Not much to say about that.

Currently staying at Rock Cabin Camping (yes, that's the name of the place) near Cave City, Kentucky.  We are staying in one of their rock cabins, which means the wifi doesn't extend to inside the cabin (well, it sort of does, if you sit on the floor right by the cabin door).  Clare has already written an entire blog for today, but it didn't save properly (thanks to said internet issues) and now she's mad at me as I beg her to rewrite it.  I think the only reason she's actually doing it, is because she's still feeling guilty about leaving me to sleep in the car last night while her and Robin slept in a nice hotel room.

Anyways, I'm mostly writing to let all my fans know I'm ok.  Tomorrow we are going to see Mammoth Caves National Park.  We are hoping to get in on a walk-up tour, and we also have an evening one already booked.  That said, its unlikely I'll convince Clare to sit outside and blog for me again after that tour, so you can safely assume that you won't hear from me tomorrow.  Hopefully the next night we'll have better internet, and she can share pictures from the caves and everything.

Whatever!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow...

We said good-bye to Colorado some time in the morning.  I don't exactly know when, as nobody was really paying attention enough to notice when we crossed into Kansas.  It's not like the mountains stop at the state line, and the prairies start (wouldn't that be cool if it did though?).  It had been pretty flat since Denver, and just kept getting flatter (if that's even possible).  What stark contrast to our week in the mountains!

Hard to see, but it was a double rainbow!

We pulled into Hayes, Kansas at what should have been 12:30, but Clare reminded us all it was actually 1:30 as we were now in Central Time.  Man, that sucks!  It worked to our advantage on the drive to Utah, but not so much on the way home.  Oh well, it didn't stop us from our visit to yet another museum (science center affiliate).

Sternberg Museum of Natural History was actually more interesting than any of us expected.  We knew it was small going in, and had estimated about 2 hours to see it.  We were done in about 1.5, but that's not because it wasn't good.  It was just small.  What drew us to this small museum, besides a chance to stretch our legs?  The rattlesnake display, of course!  Yes, Robin picked this one!

We checked out the rattlesnake exhibit first, naturally, and I'm proud to say that even Robin learned things!  I had no idea there were so many different types of rattlesnakes in North America, and they had live exhibits of every one.  It was pretty cool.

We left that area, and heard a weird grunting sound.  Robin got a big smile on her face, and led us over to an enclosed area with Spur Thigh Tortoises, one on top of the other.  A family near by were enjoying the show as the parents explained wrestling tortoises to the kids.  Weird kind of wrestling if you ask me.  Robin got pictures of it too, but Clare refuses to post any of THOSE pictures.  All I got is this one for you all.  Sorry folks.

We then made our way into the fossil area, where we learned that Kansas dinosaurs are mostly aquatic, as this land was all underwater at that time.  We saw giant sharks, and the fossils of a large fish, with a smaller fish inside (so it died shortly after eating the fish, if I've understood all this fossil stuff the last few weeks).  This display lead us up a circular ramp to the "diorama room" that was prefaced with this sign:

When we entered the room, Robin's first comment was "diorama is a bit of an understatement here" and I have to agree.  It was an amazing circular room with a dome ceiling, and life size dinosaurs, some of which were animated!  The T-Rex was a little too lifelike for my tastes, thank you very much.   

We all agreed it was well worth the stop.

Another hour or so down the road, and we came to our home for the night in the Salina KOA, although this time we upgraded to a Deluxe Cabin (all the regular cabins were taken).  We are back into temperatures in the 90s (it was 99 at the museum) AND the humidity is back.  Anyways, Clare asked for an upgrade from a tent site, and they took what they could get.  Now she's fallen in love with the deluxe cabin (instead of a room with a bed and A/C, we have our own bathroom, kitchenette, tv and everything).  Yup, might just have converted us all on this one :)

Whatever!

Good-bye Rockies

I'm not going to complain about my scribe ignoring her duties and not writing for me last night, since it was a group decision to have one last day exploring Rocky Mountain park instead of packing, which meant that the entire evening was filled with packing and making plans and booking things to see and stay on the way home.  So yeah, we had some adventures, and made plans for new adventures, instead of getting my blog written.  I think I'm ok with that.

Our first stop in the park was the Holzwarth Historical Site, an original "dude ranch" as we were told.  Some guy (probably named Holzwarth, but I'm just guessing here) saw all the people vacationing in the park after it opened in 1915, and decided to profit off it by offering cabins to sleep in, and his wife's delicious cooking.  They operated there until the 1930s when they built a more modern resort down river.  The original buildings are all there though, and that's what we went to check out.  It was a short hike from the parking lot to the cabins, and well... Clare described it best when she said it looked like a summer camp, complete with main cabin for eating, little cabins spread out in no particular arrangement and even a large campfire pit with benches in a circle around it.  There were a number of activities for kids to try out there.  I wasn't too fond of washing socks, but I think I'm a natural with a lasso.


On a side note, I have to comment about something that my old travelling companion Rissa would have called "a great story", you know the ones, those great moments that have nothing to do with your actual vacation, but are the first thing you tell everyone when you get home because they were so funny or coincidental.  Well, here's a good one for you...

On arrival at the Holzwarth parking lot, a family with three young girls got all excited about our car.  It turns out, they were playing that weird license plate game that Robin taught me as well, and they were all excited to be able to check off Ontario.  When they found out we were playing too, they were even more excited.  Turns out they needed one more US states (and they HAD seen Alaska and Hawaii).  We still need four US states (including those two elusive ones).  I guess my companions aren't the only ones who play this game after all.

As if that wasn't good enough, when we returned from visiting the cabins, we had to do the obligatory checking of all plates in the parking lot before leaving (you never know if someone has arrived since you last checked, you know).  Well, we might not have got any new plates on that round, but there were two, yes TWO other Ontario plates!  There were only 22 cars in the parking lot (I know, Clare counted).  What are the chances??  So, we did what any normal Canadian would do in that situation; we waited.  Yup, we waited.  Maybe 20 minutes.  Not sure.  Eventually, someone approached the car, and without even thinking about how silly they might sound, Robin blurted out "Ontario?"  The couple stopped, then looked at our car, and their eyes lit up.  The third Ontario car owner was with them, and suddenly everyone was hugging and wanting pictures.  I'm not totally sure about this part of the deal.  They never even asked names, just "what city?"  The other two cars were friends, all from Thornhill (part of Toronto, about an hour from our home).  With pictures taken with multiple phones, and after everyone checked their phones to make sure they were happy with the results, we all went our separate ways, not likely to ever meet again (and still not knowing names).  Strange custom to be sure!

Our final hike for this trip was to Adam's Falls, which was a very nice hike, but the falls are a bit anti-climactic when you are used to the likes of Niagara, so we hiked on a little further to the meadow that we were told was worth the extra fifteen or so minutes.  It wasn't.  Well, maybe it is if you go early in the morning, when it is apparently full of moose drinking in the pond, but at three in the afternoon, it was just a meadow surrounded by mountains.  Was it pretty?  Absolutely!  Was it worth the extra walk.  Maybe?

As I said, the rest of the night was spent planning the drive home and all that we'll see and do along the way.  There are a couple of pretty cool stops, so don't stop reading yet :).

Today we drove back through the southern pass to catch the interstate and head into Denver.  We went to the Museum of Nature and Science, and I think we can safely say its on par with the Ontario Science Center (in Toronto).  We went to the planetarium and were sent through space and time to explore the solar system.  We then spent quite a bit of time in their temporary exhibit on the five senses, with a lot of cool information about how different animals perceive things compared to us, and a really strange room that looked like the floors and walls were all curved, but were in fact flat.  It was rather surreal.

We would have loved to spend more time in this wonderful science center, but sadly it closed at five.  Still, we got in a great few hours of discovery before getting back on the road.

Tonight we are in Limon, CO.  Not much to say about Limon.  Not even sure how to pronounce it. 
Whatever!

There's Gold in Them Thar Hills

Today we headed through the mountain pass to the south of us (more crazy switchbacks) to a small town nestled in the mountains (Georgetown).  There are a number of mine tours in this area, but we chose a lesser known one that had great reviews online.  It's still an active mine with no pretense of becoming a tourist trap.  In other words, the tour did not lead you into a gift shop when you were done.  In fact there was no gift shop!  This is my kind of place :)

As luck would have it, we found the place about 10 minutes too late for the noon tour, so we checked out the historic side of their town, and returned for the 1 pm tour.  This actually worked in our favour, however, as nobody else showed up for that time, and we got a private tour.  Way fun!

Our tour started with finding a hard hat and learning how to make it fit so that if you turned your head to avoid a bump in the ceiling, it wouldn't fall off.  What a concept.  We then got to follow the cart tracks 1000 feet into the mine, while learning about the history of gold mining in the area, how they used to drill by hand, and what methods are used now.  I won't bore you with all that, but you can ask Clare or Robin if you really care.

When we reached the furthest point of the tour (an area with a large gold vein running through it), Robin got to try out a pick-axe and Clare and I got to push the 700 lb cart up the track.  Then came the best part - checking the rocks on the ground near where Robin had chipped to look for gold.  There were little flecks in most of them, but I managed to find a pretty good one (ok, Robin and the guide helped me find it).  You can't tell in the photo, but there is gold there, I promise!

This may not have been some high-end polished looking tour, but I liked it better this way.  We were in a REAL mine, looking for REAL gold.  Our tour guide was great, we learned a lot, AND... no gift shop to waste our precious time with when we were done.  It was a great trip all around :).

Whatever!

They Did It!

They actually got up at 6:45 am and were in the car by 7:30!  Of course, I never had any doubt.

Why am I always facing backwards?

The goal was to be back up the top of that crazy mountain for a 9 am guided hike about geology.  So, by 8 we were back in Rocky Mountain National Park and heading up the switchbacks until we were past the treeline again.  It didn't seem quite so scary today, which I was very glad of, let me tell you.

We all thought that the parking lot would be mostly empty since the Visitors Center up there (Alpine Visitors Center for those of you with inquiring minds) doesn't open until 10, but we were way wrong.  The parking lot was about half full, and people were off hiking in every which direction.  We met up with our park guides and one other couple from North Carolina and off we went to learn all about rocks; more about rocks than I ever really wanted to know!  However, we also learned about the plants and animals that live up on the tundra, and I have to say this little bear was pretty impressed.  Oh, and I almost forgot... there was snow!

Snowball fight!!!

Our Guides also loved to learn, and since there were only 4 of us on the hike, they asked about us.  It wasn't long before Robin was teaching the group the difference between venomous and poisonous (and that there are no poisonous snakes, only venomous ones).  Any of you who know Robin are now nodding your heads thinking "yup, that sounds like Robin,"

The hike went until about 12:30 (yup, scheduled as a 3.5-4 hr hike, but I can't say much 'hiking' was done as talking.  Once we were back at the Visitors Center, we had lunch at a cafe overlooking the valley (ok Clare says "Cirque" only because she learned that fancy word on the hike, I don't think you all care, so I'm saying valley).

After lunch we wandered the gift shop to kill time until the "Lightning" talk at 2:30.  This was not a hike at all, but a presentation done inside to try and get visitors to understand the dangers of lightning up in the mountains.  The park has 2-4 fatalities a year from lightning strikes.  That's kinda scary, if you ask me.  It was only a 20 minute presentation, but it was very eye-opening for us little people from sea level.

We spent time in the Visitors Center looking at the displays, and then back to the gift shop (seriously people, what is it with the gift shops already!).  It was nearly 5 when we finally decided to head down, and as we did, storm clouds started to roll in, and there was some discussion as to whether it was snow falling as we walked to the car.  It didn't feel cold enough outside, but we had been told snow does fall up there in the summer, so who knows.  AND, about 15 minutes later, part way down the mountain, we pulled over as hail pounded the car.  Clare and Robin both reached out their windows to catch some - weirdos!

Not far from where we pulled over, we had to stop again, this time for an elk crossing the road.  Seriously guys, I swear I saw this elk look both ways, and only when cars in both directions had stopped, did he cross.  Pretty smart elk if you ask me.  Of course, everyone was jumping out of their cars trying to get pictures.  We didn't quite get the phone out quick enough, but caught him just after he crossed. 

A few minutes later we had to stop for a moose.  No, it wasn't crossing the road, but it seems that when a large animal is spotted, every car on the road has to stop to take photos, so you might as well take pictures too.  Then, there were even more elk near the exit to the park, all munching in the field, and Robin stopped us again to get even more pictures.  I think we'd still be there watching her watch the animals, if Clare and I hadn't insisted that we were all done with elk.  Oh, and just for amusement, this whole paragraph is being added because I am waiting for all her photos to load so I can finish this and let Clare get some sleep.

Finally home, my two companions both rested their weary feet in the hot tub.  Oh yeah, did I mention there is a hot tub in their bedroom!  I haven't had the pleasure, but they've both been in it every day I think, just never for very long, something about it being too hot.. uh huh.

Whatever!

Walks and Wanderings

Thank goodness for scheduled events in the park, or I might never get to see anything around here.  Ok, not quite that bad, but we did go to a really neat 2.5 hr guided walk yesterday, and another is in the plans for tomorrow.  Woohoo!

Yesterday's walk was called "Sisters of Courage" and I'd love to do my usual thing and make fun of it all, and complain about my escorts, but truth is, it was a really fascinating story about a family that just couldn't seem to catch a decent break.  It was at a time when the government was giving away free land, if you did certain things (built a house in the first year, improved the land etc).  If you continuously lived on and improved it for five years, you could apply to acquire the deed to the land.  So this family did that somewhere in Missouri or something, and then they wanted to move west but their five years weren't up, so instead they sent their two adult daughters west to claim some land.  Together these daughters claimed the maximum they could (just over 300 acres) and built up a dairy farm there.  Long story... (it had to fill 2 hours of course), when Rocky Mountain National Park was established in 1915, these sisters found themselves surrounded by national park, and refused to sell.  Their land did not become part of the park until 1955. 

Our tour guide for this was very passionate about the story, sharing photos and excerpts from diaries as we walked through part of what used to be these sisters land.  It shouldn't have been much of a surprise, when we got far enough along in the story, to find out he was related in some way to these ladies.  He pushed for this particular presentation to be a part of the park 20 years ago.  Originally it was presented by park Rangers, but now he volunteers to present it himself once a week.  He has been telling people this incredible story every summer for 12 years now.  Pretty cool.

Once we finished there, we checked out a couple of small town shops nearby, and then finally returned to our little apartment in the sky.  I haven't explained much about our accommodations yet, but we are in a set of apartment-like buildings at the bottom of a ski hill, with ski lifts on either side of us. In the picture, its the set of white & grey buildings in the middle left.

Today was what Robin called a puttering day.  What a curious word.  If it means doing nothing for the first half of the day, and then wandering around shops for a few hours before returning home and doing more nothing, then I guess it fits perfect.

It wasn't all bad though.  We went somewhere new, and I'm always up for something new!  We drove to a very touristy town called Winter Park (which didn't look very wintery, nor very parky, but whatever... I don't name these places).  There we wandered around very touristy-like shops, bought a few things for people back home (still don't understand this process, but I'm getting used to it now), and then drove back to Granby.  The highlight for me was seated upon a great horse, but it didn't seem to go anywhere, so I got bored fast.

We were back home by 6, eating supper and packing backpacks for an early start tomorrow.  Something about leaving by 7:30 am to get to another guided tour in the park.  I'm excited, but I'll believe it when I see it!

Whatever!

Brochures and Pamphlets and Maps... Oh My!

As expected, there wasn't much to write about the last few days, but boy did we make up for that today!  Short recap: Friday was spent packing, organizing the car, and general good-byes.  Saturday was spent on the road.  We finally checked into our new home-away-from-home at about 6:30 last night, unpacked somewhat, got groceries, and crashed.  Boring!

The first thing I have to say about our new location is WAY COOLER!  When we arrived last night it was 54F (12C) compared to the 100F we had left behind in Utah.  The days still get up to about 80, but the nights are much cooler.  This little bear likes cooler :).

Little did we know... only half way up!

I was forewarned that today would also be boring, so I braced myself for the worst.  I was told it was all about laundry, paying bills, and figuring out a plan for the week, partly because those things needed to get done, and partly to adjust to the altitude (ahhh, I reminisce about Cuzco).  I had seen the piles of brochures and maps growing from all the welcome centers we stopped at yesterday, so I tried to contain my excitement and wait until it was all planned. 

Here's what happened instead...

Just after lunch: "Lets go for a walk just to get outside for a bit."
After walking to the parking lot: "I'm out of breath, lets take the car and explore Granby."
In Granby, after seeing the exit for Rocky Mountain National Park: "We have the National Park Pass, lets just go to the visitor center to help us plan our week." (drive 30 minutes to park).
After buying some hiking guides and a map, while pulling out of the parking lot: "We could just drive to the Alpine Visitor Center to check it out too."
About an hour later, after a half hour walk at 12,250 ft: "So much for our take it easy and get used to 8,000 ft day." 

Are those mountain peaks BELOW us?

May I just take a pause here to reflect upon exactly what kind of drive this was, for those who may not be familiar with this park.  May I also point out that I think you humans are completely insane to even consider building this highway, let alone the fact that millions of you make this crazy drive every year! 

Still, I don't think we really considered what exactly it meant to drive a car up about 4,000 feet.  The switchbacks to climb from Aquas Calientes to Machu Picchu only took us up 1,280 feet, which I know my old friend Rissa would want to know!  While the drive started out innocently enough, we soon found ourselves doing hairpin turns as we climbed higher and higher.  Then we passed the tree line, and we could see the highway stretched out around the bare landscape before us, still climbing!  Robin was driving, with great confidence I might add, and Clare and I often referred to the map just so that we didn't have to look at the drop beside us.  Incredible view though!


We got back in time to attend the resorts "what to see and do in Granby" presentation.  More brochures!

After dinner my escorts finally sat down to pay those bills they were so insistent had to be paid today, got laundry done, and began to plan the week.  But where to even start!

Whatever!

Flying Bears and Butterflies

I know.  It's been a few days.  Blame my scribe, not me.  It's not like I haven't been reminding her over and over again that she hasn't posted for me in the last few nights.  I tell her my fans are waiting, and maybe even worrying, but nope, she just goes along her merry way, writing for me whenever the mood moves her, and completely disregarding me the rest of the time.  Oh well, here's my update, if you haven't given up on me yet...

Tuesday we were joined by KayRena and Kes at the Museum of Natural Curiosity (I believe I commented on my last trip here about a museum of unnatural curiosity, so I won't repeat myself... oh, already did.  Sorry.).  This time our visit started with a presentation called "Melody Makers" which was geared towards toddlers, but I have to say, I saw a lot of adults there, and not all had children with them.  Robin was all excited to learn some new songs for her preschoolers back home, which I guess is a good thing.  There was lots of noise, clanging and banging of creative instruments, and even some singing.  I think it was fun??

This Melody Makers thing ended with some brightly coloured circle thing that all the kids stood around and held onto.  I was excited when KayRena unpinned me from the backpack, and went over and whispered something to the instructor about "travelling bear from Canada" and "need pictures" which I THOUGHT meant I was going to get a really good view of what the kids were doing.  The next thing I knew, I was flying high in the air, landing on this coloured thing they called a parachute, and then bouncing higher still.  I didn't know whether to feel humiliated and offended, or just go with it.  I chose to enjoy the ride... and what a ride it was!

Once my parachute ride was over we headed over to the gardens and other exhibits which I remember exploring before, so I won't bore you with more of the same (if you are truly interested, check out my entries from Nov 2016, its in there somewhere).

We spent about six hours at this wonderful museum, climbing rope bridges in the jungle, exploring Kidopolis, and learning whether or not we could have survived with the original Europeans who landed in North America in 1706 (35 of the original 100 settlers survived in reality).  Of the 4 of us, 2 died of snake bites, and the other 2 actually made it.  At the end you could check the name of your character with the actual stats, and find out if he actually did live or not.  It was kinda sad reading... so I'll move on.

Our next adventure that I wanted to share was the Butterfly Biosphere in Thanksgiving Point.  This neat museum had hands on activities and games all about bugs.  Of course, the main feature was something Clare called a greenhouse, although it didn't look very much like a house, and it wasn't green.  It was hot though!  There we got to see butterflies of all colours and sizes flying around.  It was mesmerizing.

Since then, my two escorts have been rather lazy in my mind.  They say they wanted rest days and bailed on taking me to the Timpanogos Caves (something that has been discussed on every trip to Utah and has yet to happen).  This time the excuse was 100 degree weather, and something about a 90 minute walk uphill with no shade to the entrance of the caves, at the speed of the tour guide.  I don't know why they bailed on that at all?

Not much going on tomorrow, so don't expect to hear much from me then either.  Although this time I'll hold back my desire to complain.  They will be packing up and getting the car ready for the next stage of this trip.  Saturday morning we leave for a week in Colorado.  I've heard a few words here and there about things we might do there, so here's hoping...

Whatever.

This is the Place

Finally some adventure for this bear!  It may have been to a place I've been before, but in a completely different season and context, so I'm ok with that.  *happy bear dance*

Today Robin and Clare took me up to Salt Lake City to "This is the Place Heritage Park".  I vaguely remember checking out this park on our first trip to Utah in 2010.  It was December, and they were only open in the evenings for their Christmas activities.  I thought it was cool then, so I was excited to see what it looked like in both daylight, and summer!

Slight history detour for my new readers (if you know the history of Utah, you can skip this paragraph completely.  I doubt even I can make it interesting).  Basically, the early settlers of this great state were the Mormons, who had been persecuted so much that they kept leaving their towns and relocating further and further west, until they finally settled in the Salt Lake Valley.  As they came over the mountains and saw the valley, the then president of the church declared "this is the place".  And now a monument stands in that place, and a pioneer village has been built around it, allowing guests to see what it was like to live in that age.


Ok, boring out of the way...

We started our exploration in a small cabin where we learned all about milking cows by playing with a little wooden bear on a string.  Uh huh, you figure it out :).  We tried out washing boards, watched square dancing in the street, and checked out the paintings of some early Mormon guy who got famous enough to paint inside the temples.  It was just getting good when we had to do stupid human stuff, like stop for lunch.  *sigh*

After lunch we hopped on the train to the Treasure House, where we got to pan for gold and prospect for gems.  I think this was my favourite part of the day (and not just because it was the only time they actually remembered to take pictures of me!)

We then checked out the giant teepee and watched a neat presentation on the Shoshoni people and then made beaded necklaces.  Nobody took a picture of my beautiful necklace.  I guess the lack of photos could be an indication that we were all having too much fun to think about stopping for photos.  It could also be a complete disregard for my needs and MY blog.  Sheesh.

Once we finished in that area, we got back on the train for a tour around the grounds, and then stopped for an ice cream (and to empty the water out of a backpack thanks to a leaky water bottle - I know you all just wanted to know that).  We explored an original printing press (and now have a copy of the first edition of some paper I don't care about).  Robin tried out leather stamping at table filled with Cub Scouts (no room even for me). 

Then something magical happened.  The place emptied out of all the kid groups.  All day it had been filled with groups of matching t-shirt kids from summer camps, scout groups, day cares and who knows what else.  Then, as if by magic, the place became a ghost town, except for the few other families wandering around.  Sadly, we didn't get to enjoy this quiet for very long, as Clare (ever the spoil-sport) said we needed to get on the road to beat rush hour.  She's no fun at all.  I think I'm going to fire her and hire Robin instead.  I like her better anyways :)

Whatever!

Just Parking?

What is it about you humans, that you have these great parties or events, and then you insist on needing rest days?  I sat, completely ignored, for most of yesterday AND today.  Sheesh, what does it take to get a bear some attention around here.

Yesterday, there were visitors that apparently took all the attention away from me, so much so that when Clare and Robin drove Di back to Ogden, I was left behind - AGAIN.  I'm beginning to see a pattern here, and I'm not sure I like it!

Today was equally boring, but for different reasons.  Clare and Robin decided to clean up the piles of stuff they'd spread all over the room they are staying in, get some laundry done, and then sit and watch movies with other family members for the afternoon.  *yawn*  Ok, I am supposed to point out that we are in a heat wave right now, with most afternoons hitting triple digits (whatever that means), leaving nobody really wanting to leave an air conditioned house. *sigh*

Then, to my complete surprise, at about 8pm, KayRena suddenly blurts out, "OK girls, get your shoes on if you want to go for a walk.  Come on, we're losing daylight!"  There was a mad flurry of activity, and we were out the door and into the car.  KayRena drove us north towards Mount Timpanogos, and through some pretty fancy looking housing developments.  We climbed higher up the mountain, until we passed all the houses and came out on a narrow paved road that led us even further up the mountain, to a small parking lot that overlooked the valley (Orem, Provo and Lake Utah for those interested in knowing that kind of boring detail). 

We left the car and started up one of the trails.  Robin and Kes lead the way, looking for bugs, snakes, or other critters.  As I've said before, Robin seems to have this thing for little critters, so she was quite excited to see what she might find.  I hung back with Clare and KayRena, who took the path a little slower, but enjoyed the view over the valley every hundred yards or so (at least that's what they claimed to be doing every time they stopped).

It IS a great view.  I'll give them that!

After exploring the trail for about half an hour, we headed back to the car where we found even more cars than when we'd arrived.  I found this very strange.  KayRena said they were "Parking", which made Clare and Robin laugh.  I don't get it.  Of course they are parking; I can see their cars all parked facing the lights of the valley.  What I don't get is why.  They didn't get out of their cars.  They just sat there, doing nothing.  As we headed back down the mountain, we passed at least another three or four cars heading up to do this "Parking" thing.  You humans really are a strange bunch!

Whatever!

Short and Sweet

Once again I have a very tired scribe who doesn't really want to type for me, and yet I have so much I want to say (including complaining about NOT getting to go along on the ride to pick up my best buddy Di).

Needless to say, it was a very long day, and much fun was had by all.  The highlight of my day, was literally highlighted by the sun.  How nice of them to put me in the spotlight.

I was the officiant of this interesting occasion, and I was even given a voice.  I have a British accent; who knew!

The ceremony was fun, followed by food, and dancing to strange songs about chickens, macarenas and hokey pokeys.  I can't pretend to understand what it was all about, but everyone else seemed to know all about them.  Then there was the water fight, and then throwing little plastic balls at each other.  *shakes head* I really don't understand you humans at all.

I did learn about the pans though... this is what came out of those?  Pretty cool, huh?

Sadly, I think my scribe is falling asleep at the keyboard, so I guess I better stop pestering her to write more.  Hopefully I'll have time to tell you more, and share more pictures tomorrow.

Night all,

Whatever!

Family and Friends

This family never fails to both amaze and confound me all in one go.  Between teddy bear reunions and preparations for a rather interesting version of a wedding, I'm really not sure what to think.

Yesterday I was treated to my very own house, complete with guard animals and all!  And if that wasn't enough, I was invited to a huge family reunion.  I don't remember all of their names, but I do believe the last time we were all together was Thanksgiving of 2010.  As a result of the reunion, I missed the errands that were done, but later heard they were rather boring, so I'm glad I stayed home with my cousins instead.

How are we related again?

Today had a bit more adventure in it, but not really anything related to travel, so if you're only here to read of my wonderful adventures, you can probably stop reading now.  You might even want to skip the next few days, even though they should be entertaining days in their own right.  Right now everyone seems to be focused on a wedding party that is happening Friday afternoon, so any chance of furthering my explorations will not occur until at least Saturday.

To catch up some of my more recent fans, Clare really had wanted KayRena to come to the wedding, but it just wasn't feasible.  Instead they made the decision to celebrate twice, first in Guelph with the friends and family there, and then again in Utah with the friends who we consider family.  But, as I've seen in many of my adventures here, it seems to be a more playful, child-created wedding.  I don't know what it is about them all needing to be kids whenever they get together, but who am I to judge?  It's always a good time, and I'm always up for a good time!

As a result, today was spent running around looking for supplies for this party.  I actually joined them this time.. shoulda stayed home with my cousins.  Boring!  Then I watched as they pulled out a huge box of weird shaped pans, and started stacking them in all different ways.  I'm not entirely sure what that's about either, but I guess I'll find out soon enough.

My last observation of the day is about these strange balls that are now covering the living room floor.  The pile has been growing since yesterday, and it shows no sign of slowing.  What are they?  What are they for?  I'm very curious.

Whatever!

The Bear that Time Forgot

We started our day with a trip to Dinosaur Monument, which I thought would be a giant statue of a dinosaur.  Isn't that what a monument is?  However, Dinosaur Monument appears to be a giant park, and not a monument at all.  I'm really beginning to wonder about you humans, and your ability to name things. 

Anyways, this park that is named after a statue was actually amazing, although we only saw one tiny section of it.  We went to the Visitors Center, where we got a shuttle bus to the Quarry Exhibit hall.  The exhibit was a building built around a huge wall of rock filled with dinosaur bones, in the exact position they were found when they were originally excavated.  Any doubt of the existence of real dinosaurs roaming this planet some million or so years ago, gone.

From there we headed to my favourite family in Utah, where I proceeded to be completely ignored for hours.  Nobody even asked about me.  It was not until Clare pointed out that I was sulking in the bedroom that anyone even seemed to care that I existed.  At that point, Kes jumped up and began treating me like the royalty that I am.  She found me a couch and set up a house for me and everything.

Now THAT is what I was waiting for.
Whatever!

Entering Dinosaurland

Today was a much shorter driving day (only 3.5 hours - yay!).  Do you know what that means?  That means that I sit around waiting for Clare and Robin to get their act together even longer that usual.  It's not that they weren't up early.  I believe they were both awake by 7:30.  They just didn't seem to be in any kind of rush even though I was waiting to see things.  *sigh*

We said good-bye to I-80 (or I-1 as I like to call it) at Rock Springs, and headed south on a rather lonely highway that had beautiful scenic views over mountains and a gorge.  For a good portion of it, we didn't see another vehicle!  This would have been enjoyed more by Clare, I think, if she hadn't been watching the gas gauge drop and not a sign of a building in sight, let alone a gas station.  I began giggling as I watched her get excited at any downhill areas where she could just coast.  Good news, we got to a gas station before the gas light came on in the car (although none of us are sure how close we were to that happening).

A few more miles down this scenic route (and it was called that too - Flaming Gorge Scenic Byway) and we reached the Flaming Gorge Dam, where we had a nice picnic lunch by the lake.  Another hour of twisty roads (including 9 switchbacks going down the mountain behind a huge camper with its four-ways on), we reached Dinosaurland KOA in Vernal, Utah.  Yes, I wondered why it was called that too.

To quell my curiosity, once we'd checked in and got set up in the nice Kamp Kabin (we upgraded from a tent!), we headed into town to visit the "Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum".  Sheesh, I wouldn't want to answer phones there; "Hi, welcome to the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum, how may I direct your call?"  No thanks.  But I digress.  While it may be the longest museum name I've come across, it was a fascinating place, AND I learned all about why everything seems to have "dino" in its title in this town.

I'm not going to pretend to remember all the interesting stuff we learned about how the dinosaurs lived in this area millions of years ago, and then it was water, and the dead creatures sunk into the mud which became hard, and then blah blah blah... there are now tons of dinosaur bones constantly being found within a 80 mile radius of Vernal.  I know I've learned about dinosaurs before, at some other museum in Utah, but for some reason today, it took on new meaning.  Maybe it was because we had just driven through the very rock formations that they were describing.  Maybe it was because I was seeing it again.  Maybe it was just because I actually paid attention.  I don't know really.  I just know that there was a moment when it struck me that these giant creatures actually did live on this earth at some point in time.  It isn't just something from movies.  Strange.

After a thorough investigation of the museum, we headed out for dinner, simply because Clare had seen it on a map, and both agreed they had to check it out.  Apparently, its a fast food chain, but none of us had heard of it.  Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburgers (seriously guys, what's with all the long names!).  They enjoyed both the steakburgers, and the frozen custard.  I watched.

That ends another exciting day in the life of this little bear.
Whatever!

I-80 Meanderings

Hey, everyone!  Sorry if you missed your daily dose of little bear yesterday, but the KOA campground we were at had lousy WiFi, and my poor companions could not get any of their devices online for more than 30 seconds, and eventually decided they could go a night without WiFi, even if it meant disappointing my fans.

Hey look!  I think its from Europe!

While yesterday was mostly driving, we did have a great stop, mid-day to visit the Science Center of Iowa, in Des Moines.  It wasn't very big, and we were done in about two hours, but what it lacked in size, it made up for in quality.

The "Brick by Brick" display was what Clare really wanted to see, and it was a really cool set-up of large Lego displays explaining the engineering and design that goes into real buildings, bridges etc.  Way cool!  I got to check out some buildings, try to lift Robin on a pulley system, and attempt to build a structure that could survive an earthquake (it didn't).

Why do I keep ending up in these situations?

In "What on Earth" Robin got all excited by their reptile display.  I thought this was weird, but apparently this is a thing with her, so I went along with it.  I met all kinds of snakes from the area, and a few turtles.  This guy was my favourite.  I think I'll call him Gonzo.

In yet another area we got to build paper rocket ships and try and launch them.  I really got into this one, and even wrote on the rocket so that we could pick it out of the many other paper rockets in the landing zone.  I'm proud to say that I must have done something right, because my rocket went the full distance of their netted off area (over 40 feet).  No idea if it would have gone further.  Not bad for a little bear.  Ok, maybe Clare helped... a little.

3... 2... 1...

The rest of the day was spent driving.  Very boring, I tell ya.  We finally reached our campsite at 6:30, spent some time getting frustrated with WiFi, and eventually gave up and headed into town for groceries.  Still boring.

The morning started early, even with a wet tent from rain in the night, the girls had us packed up and on the road by 8:30.  Our first stop was not far down the highway, at a place called The Archway.  This museum of the history of people travelling west is built inside a giant archway that spans over I-80 like a bridge.  Clare had read good reviews, so decided to give it a go.  We were more than impressed.  Seriously, if you are ever travelling I-80 in Nebraska, I highly recommend it.

We were greeted by this wonderful man, who welcomed us on our journey and helped us find the ticket booth, and where to get out headsets for the tour.  We then went up the escalator and enjoyed learning all about the history of what is now I-80.  Kearney, NE is where three different sets of pioneers all shared the trail (Oregon Trail, Mormon Trail, and another that went to Sacramento).  The first railway was built along a similar route, and then the first cross-country highway was added on almost the exact route of the pioneers, then called the Lincoln Highway.  Later, when the interstate system was developed, it became I-80.  This is the part I don't get.  If it was first, shouldn't it be I-1?  Is there an I-1?  I've seen a lot of Interstates in my travels, but I don't think I've ever seen an I-1.  Strange.

Three months!  I thought five days was bad!

Headset fits perfect!

We were back on the road by 10:30, and with six more hours to get behind us, I had plenty of time to think about the travels those early pioneers took over the very same landscape, and what it could have possibly looked like without a giant highway running across it.

Finally we reached our KOA home for the night and got settled in.  WiFi works - YAY!

I'm learning more about Robin as we travel, and discovering a whole different world to explore through her.  She likes critters, and plants, and well anything creepy-crawly.  Both nights she was taken by new sights and sounds, and had to take me along to get pictures.  Last night she took me to see what she called a toad buffet.  For a moment I thought she meant that toads were on the menu, but then I saw the row of toads, hanging out in the lamplight, eating all the bugs as they flew by.  Very fun.

Tonight she was all excited about the strange new landscape and plants she had never seen before.  She took me on a walk to discover all kinds of things.  We got pictures too, but sadly something is glitching and they aren't saving to the cloud, so we can't get them on the laptop for me to add to the blog. 

Wait just a second there... in the cloud?  *looks up at the sky, wondering just where all the pictures went*

Whatever!