Here in Portland

Hello all!
Pat and I arrived in Portland! We've been enjoying visiting my family, it's a rare treat getting to visit my west coast relations and have been having so much fun with them. There has been much galavanting around the city and the surrounding area, we've got to really take advantage of the things that Portland has due to getting to stay with family. One of the best parts of traveling has of course been our visits with people close to us, and you always get the inside scoop that can sometimes take a long time to learn on your own.

 Multnomah Falls in a heavy rainstorm

Multnomah falls lies outside Portland by half an hour and is quite the tourist attraction apparently, we went during a heavy downpour day and had the place to ourselves (yet another product of our winter trip) and spent about an hour roaming around and taking pictures.

We've had delicious food at the house here, we've been working in such a small kitchen for the past month and a half that we were so excited to get to use an oven and be able to make whatever we wanted. A warm bed, no condensation dripping on your nose, you get the idea, it's nice to stay in a house and take a break from travel, and in such a cool city too. It suits both of us due to the small towns we grew up in and it's the kind of city that just dosn't feel that big, but has the benefits of a city.

A highlight for me has been taking classes at Yoga Bhoga in the South East quadrant of the city. Up on the second floor of a refurbished industrial building it offers a beautiful view of the city. It is a very fresh and colorful studio and has a very friendly atmosphere.

Some other highlights if you'd like to read about some unique Portland business's check out Rejuvenation a great company (where my uncles happens to work!)that makes reproduction vintage and also new lights and lighting. They have a really creative retail store featuring all kinds lighting, antiques and vintage items. Check out their store online.

 The Lodekka vintage clothing bus and Wanderlust camper two women who have teamed up and sell vintage items and clothing out of a double decker bus and a vintage camper!

Ristretto Roasters. I'm sure it's a big debate in Portland as to who serves the best coffee, but we've had many chances to try these folks out and all I have to say is that they are so so good.

So this is a bit of a link heavy post, but they're all worth taking a glance at. Our time here is wrapping up and we're headed for Washington in a couple of days now to hopefully meet up with some folks there as well. We've been gone for over two months now which seems so unbelievable even just writing it. We miss everyone back home. Our stay here has made us a little lonesome for the comforts of home, staying with family and all. During our whole trip I've been trying to keep a mental list of the "things we've learned" practical and otherwise. I try to keep a tally of these things anyway, even when not traveling, but I've been meaning to share them with all of you at some point soon. This is quite the trip, and it's not over yet! I was showing my little cousin some photos of our journey and we've really covered a lot of ground. I showed her a map of the United States so she could see just how far we drove I think she summed it up the best. She asked me to show her on the map where I live, and she said "All that way! That's so far!"

So hello everyone from far away!

till next time

Emma

Humor and Misadventure

Pat doing a mean door repair San Francicsco Streetside!

So all of this travel has certainly been met with a few challenges in the way of car repair or trailer repair. We can just be honest and say that it happens, and sometimes it aint pretty. The camper door flying open as we cruised the suburbs of San Francisco looking for parking was not the ideal time for a door failure but hey. It's a 1978 trailer, made of fiberglass and held together with rivits and hope, so something is going to have to pop out at some point.

There appears to be a strange creature on the top of the Scamp...The Ocean calls in the distance but our fearless repairman has consented to using the sunny day to skylight repair.

We recently watched the movie 180 Degress South when we were visiting in LA about a month ago and the famous climber and adventurer Yvon Chouinard is quoted in the movie "It's not really an adventure until something goes wrong" and we try to remember this saying when things do go "wrong" usually nothing has really gone wrong but when it feels as though all plans have been dashed something really cool is waiting on the other side. Cliche as it might sound, what a lesson it has been in rolling with the punches and remembering that it really will be all right in the end, and thanks to these mishaps we've met lovely people and had quite a few laughs, and that is always worth it.

Till next time,

Emma



Up the coast we go

Seals in Monterey sliding into the water!

Hello all, we're up in Fort Bragg California right now headed up the coast to see some more big Redwoods.

In the past weeks we have....

Made some wonderful new friends thanks to the Kirk Creek Campground in Big Sur, we can't wait to visit with you all, you know who you are! We've gotten invited over for dinner by our generous host Carol in Monterey. Visited with sea lions and dolphins. We've seen elk, and huge waves, and redwood country. Tasted delicious beer from the Russian River Brewing Company(thanks Peter and Rachel for the most excellent suggestions) and visited with friends in San Francisco. We've seen the Golden Gate bridge and had the most delicious mexican food and coffee, and seen huge alleyway murals.

Jellyfish at the Monterey Aquarium

We've met other campers and traveling musicians and the lovely wild sort. I've read way to many maps and descriptions of campgrounds that my brain hurts. We're a little more caught up on the news from some great radio stations in Fort Bragg, and a little more well fed than when we arrived. We've been to Monterey, San Francisco, Santa Rosa, and Fort Bragg. Thanks to Sierra and Tom for putting us up in San Francisco, and showing us great food and a good time, and a most fabulous driving tour and bi coastal experience. Thank you to the lovely Annette for showing us around and sharing some great city history and ice cream while we were in town as well. We're having a blast and trying to soak up all our experiences on behalf of those not on this trip with us!

Golden Gate Bridge New Years Eve

 Patrick and Emma at Point Reyes National Seashore

Just to let you all know too, if and when we have the ability, I will be adding pictures to previous posts, so check back sometime if you get the chance to old history, and there might be a little extra something from some of our previous travels. Hope you all had a great holiday time and New Years. We spent Christmas on the sunny cliffs of Big Sur, and New Years checking ou the beautiful seashore of Point Reyes.

Till next time,

Emma

Best wishes to all, and we're back from the hinterlands!

Hello all!
We hope you have all had a wonderful holiday, we've been thinking of everyone at home, and also all of the folks that we've met on the road and hope that you're all healthy and happy! I've been working on a long update post but wanted to share a little something instead of waiting to finish it! We're in San Francisco at the moment, about to experience the wonders of the city and also see some friends. We were in Kings Canyaon National Park for about a week, and then down by the coast in Big Sur! Now onward and upwards to our next adventure. We've met some of the greatest people in the past two weeks, can't wait to share. We've had no internet during this period of time, so we at least have a small excuse for not being in touch!

On a side note, my hopes for adding pictures all of the time has been really difficult to accomplish I'm afraid. Our internet connection, and those of the places where we've stopped to use external internet have made it virtually impossible to get enough umph in the speed of the computer to upload even a single photo. This is a real dissapointment for me, but I do keep trying. Just wanted to say hello and say we haven't forgotten about our little online forum for keeping track of our travels.
Till later on,
Emma

Alert Alert!

Sunset in Playa Del Rey

We made it! All the way to Los Angeles California! With a great visit to southern California underway we have had a bonfire on the beach as the planes of LAX flew overhead, walked to the Santa Monica Boardwalk, and visited with our good friends. What a relaxing and pleasant visit we have had. We went on much needed errands, watched surfers and pelicans, and ate wonderfully! Thanks so much to our friends Valen and Joe and some new friends too for making our stay so enjoyable. We're having such a good time we don't want to leave, but we are saying goodbye tomorrow and our friends are moving all the way back across the country to the Northeast again. Thanks to Joe for some pictures, and also his wonderful photography advice and expertise! Our journey from rigt coast to left coast feels as if it has just begun, and we're headed off to an un determined national park next.

Walking in the sunset

The beach in Santa Monica

Joe, Valen, Emma, and Patrick

Mountains to Desert

Right now we are sitting cozily in our faithful scamp in central Arizona at Lost Dutchmen State Park. We have had some adventures in the past week which we have been too busy having for me to write about once again. It feels somewhat inconsistent to have written so little about our adventures and does not really do them the justice that they deserve to merely summarize, but that’s what I will have to do I’m afraid. It’s much more fun to write about what we’re doing now!

We traveled through Texas and stayed at a beautiful state park with amazing views of the Davis mountain range which was a lovely morning surprise to wake up and see mountains glowing orange, and small phantoms of mist rising off of the desert. Complete with a hot spring for swimming, it is a very scenic and beautiful park.

How mountainous this whole area has been from western Texas, up into New Mexico and then over along Route 10 (if you feel like looking at a map) I have never imagined this area to be so full of mountains. We keep joking that every mountain range we see must be the Rockies, every corner we turn we say “That’s them; they’ve GOT to be the Rockies.”

We spent a day and night at the Guadalupe Mountains National Park right on the border of New Mexico which we had literally to ourselves and one other human. The camping area is right at the base of the mountains and we got some killer winds, coyote sounds, photographs and a great walk through the low lying canyon.

After over thirty five hundred our muffler sadly decided to detach itself from our car. This created an epic diesel fog in the cabin of the car, and the surrounding area! I’m laughing so hard as I write this. A mysterious rattle that could not be located resulted in this problem, so we decided not to stay another night in the Guadalupe Mountains and to head north to Roswell New Mexico to get it repaired. We arrived to sleet and an overnight snow that iced the doors shut and iced our pillows to the insides of the camper! We have zero degree sleeping bags so we were warm and fine, but if you had seen us stumbling out the good old Beatrice in the morning to find ice and snow plastered to everything, I’m sure you would have enjoyed it. Our visit included a visit to my Grandfathers grave, some family genealogy tracking, visits to the library, antique and bookstore. The most amazing car junk yard that Pat and I have ever seen lay just on the outskirts of town filled to the brim with incredible old cars in amazing condition. Everyone in Roswell seems to have a fabulous looking old truck from the fifties or sixties that isn’t rusted like our cars back east! Old car lovers we couldn’t get enough. We got a kick of driving around and looking at the southwest style holiday decorations, kids playing in the snow with no winter coats, and the absence of plows! It hasn’t rained in over a year there so this was the first precipitation they’ve seen in a long time. Our car was repaired quickly, we met some very friendly and talkative local folks and met an adventurous and kind woman in our campground (hello if you’re reading this!) who is also traveling across the country from Washington State headed toward the east coast.

Our drive from Roswell to Phoenix Arizona over the past couple of days has been very beautiful. We drove through the Mescalaro Apache Reservation which was one of the prettiest areas on our whole trip, took pictures of mountains while leaning out of car windows in the freezing cold, ate delicious Mexican pastries and marveled at the changing scenery.

Today it has changed so fast to cactus country. We have an incredible guard over our campsite this evening, a tall twenty five foot tall Saguaro cactus! There have been some along the highway that have to be taller than that, absolutely massive incredible plants.

It feels so strange that we can get to all these places on a series of roads, it feels like we should have to work a lot harder to get to these incredible sights, years ago it would have been on foot or horseback as the native peoples of this area would have thousands of years ago. We certainly appreciate the variety of places that we’ve gotten to go, it’s just a big like feeling jet lagged from a long trip. A week ago we were looking at cypress tree’s in Louisiana and now we’re accompanied by cactus and sandy desert. To walk from one place to the next you would really get to see the slow change from environment to environment. Here I am cooking up the walking idea! Watch out!

So in this land of dry earth and a thousand shades of brown, and a perpetual blue sky we spend the night. It is clear outside and stars dot the sky despite the city lights of Phoenix nearby. After following the train tracks all day and watching the relics of lost desert towns we landed here and we are glad of it. It is a strange land filled with yellow planes scanning the borders of Mexico and flying over the highways, to the perpetual barbed wire fence that seems to stretch from Tennessee to the ranches here, it is a different culture but still connected to everything that came before it. I feel like we are in a constantly moving painting stretching out in front of us to a never ending skyline and mountains that fool us into believing that we exist on the top of the world.
Tomorrow it is off to Los Angeles to see our very good friend and to meet new ones too. To the big city these to country kids go. Hopefully the crazy winds will allow us into the fair city to a barbecue at the beach that has been promised on our arrival!

Cypress Rythm

Where the alligators float in Louisiana...

A big papa cypress spared from logging long ago, one of the bigggest in the Jean Lafitte National Park

We’re leaving New Orleans Louisiana and going through central Texas now, through San Antonio. Yes we went to LA and then we went. Went and went as I say. Straight from Memphis and through the night through a dark and rainy Mississippi we drove. To land ourselves in what will remain an unnamed RV park that we passed by at twelve AM in our quest for sleep.

Cypress in the Jean Lafitte National Park

Louisiana was everything and more than we thought it might be, a landscape dotted with cypress trees and homes nestled in among the swamps and bayous. The only way out by small boats, hidden in among the moss covered trees that drip down onto the edges of the bayou banks. I regret not writing while we were there, but as usual our running was faster than typing hands could keep up with. So many new colors and sounds and birds and plants it was overwhelmingly beautiful.

We visited the magnificent French Quarter in downtown New Orleans creatively built homes inspired by Spanish, French, West Indian, and African influence. Stucco painted in every color, but muted with age. Iron railings, shutters a story tall, and old stone streets meshed with new sidewalks slowly being upturned by tree roots and old age.

The French Quarter in New Orleans

We got to pay a visit to the New Orleans favorite music hall, Preservation Hall. A small room packed with history and legendary players, literally preserved for the players that are still performing the music that was born in New Orleans. Where the confluence of so many cultures from around the world blended to create a new sound that still lives on today thanks to the musicians keeping it alive.  We got to sit on pillows on the floor to hear the Joint Chief’s of Jazz play to us, and I felt like I was a little kid sitting underneath a Christmas tree. Paintings of the people that made music famous in the city line the walls and the light moves very softly throughout the room. A block over on the infamous Bourbon Street there are long lines of bars playing modern music, and the fact that Preservation Hall is still packed on a Wednesday night shows the enduring legacy to the music played there. I wish there had been more of it!

Jean Lafitte National Park, hey everybody!

Old street history

We got a great tip from our park ranger where we were staying on a great restaurant called Coops Place. Best Ever. Two words, that’s it. We also visited the Jean Lafitte National park and walked through the Cypress swamp and marshland areas. There in the downtown our feet stood on the promenade dotted with paint from the sidewalk portrait painters. Voodoo shops with charms and beads and masks, fortune tellers with candlelit tables lined the park in the center of the city at night, and music emanates from alleyways and shop fronts and sidewalk players. Our visit lasted for three days and we really enjoyed the friendliness of the people we met, and relaxed attitude and is our favorite place we’ve visited so far. If you get to pay a visit we’d highly recommend it, and the friendly folks at Bayou Segnette state park in Westwego Louisiana. A fitting name for the journey we’re on, and today we’re doing just that, heading west again across the great big state of Texas.

Till later on,

Emma