Not All Who Wander Are Lost

Andrew took John and I to Leavinworth to do some rock climbing. It was a very unique experience! Though we have climbed outdoors a lot, climbing in Washington is a whole different story...At least with Andrew it is! (haha) So our first climb was three pitches...that means that it is three "different" climbs, all strung together into one huge climb. It was trad, so Andrew took the lead. Trad climbing means that you take these pieces of equipment and place them into the rock, and that is what you climb on. There are no bolts in the rock already. It adds to the versatility of climbing because you can (almost) climb anywhere. However this is not something John and I are accustomed too so it was a bit nerve wrecking. The weather here is testy, at home we can be picky and climb only when the weather is great, but here they climb in rain, wind, you name it. It was very cold, and windy, and we had a little rain too, but nothing too crazy. When we finished the route, it was well worth it! The sun came out, and we were so high up! We had an incredible view of the crag and the range that we were climbing near. It was incredible! After that we went to a different spot and we climbed our first crack climb. It was pretty rough, and a definitely different method of climbing, but I got the hang of it about halfway through, and I liked it! I think I'll keep practicing crack climbing! Johnny forgot our pot for cooking, so we had to catch dinner in downtown Leavinworth. Leavinworth, if you don't know, was a failing town here in Washington. Somebody had the bright idea to turn it into a tourist type place, and remodeled the ENTIRE town into this Bolivian umm...well it was Bolivian! It's kind of cute I guess. After that we set up camp at a place Andrew knew about that was free (always good!) and slept for the night. The next day Andrew suggested we do a seven pitch sport climb. Sport differs from trad because it already has the bolts in the rock, you just clip your rope in and you're ready to go. We agreed. So we hiked for about 2 hours up an extremely steep grade, it ended up not being hiking for a while there, and more like crawling (for me). So it was a bit stressful and a lot of work! We only made it up three of the seven pitches. I love climbing, and I want it to be fun, but the climbing was so different, I mean, a 2 hour approach up the side of a mountain, and then SEVEN more climbs after that??!! When I got to the top of the third pitch, I kind of lost it emotionally. So we bailed. Andrew lowered me down, and the two boys rappelled. We hiked down, hit up a different (one pitch) climb on the way down, and then headed back to Bellingham. Yesterday I hung out and did homework, my summer classes have started online already. And Drew and John went bouldering at his friends gym (bouldering is another type of rock climbing). I'm not too sure what's going on today. We might head down to the beach when the tide is low, or maybe just wander the town. Who knows? We are leaving for California tomorrow though. We are going to drive through the night to the Redwoods, where we have a reservation at a campground in Crescent City. After one night there, we are off to Ojai! I can't wait to see everyone! We should be arriving there on my birthday, and that is the BEST present I could ask for :-)

I'll try and get John to post something soon!

Love, Jx2

Yesterday we hiked about two hours, up the Pacific Northewest Trail to Oyster Dome. It is a 6.5 mile hike in the Chuckanut mountains, south of Bellingham. About halfway up is a beautiful overlook of the Puget Sound, and when you get to the top, it is amazing! You can see the Olympic mountains and the San Juan islands from the top as well. It was so incredibly beautiful. This is scenery I am not used to experiencing, despite all of my traveling. We met a few people at the top, and hung out and took pictures. It was really, really beautiful. John and Andrew have done stuff like this before, but I never have, so the reward of hiking for so far, so steep, was the amazing scenery. It really did make it all worthwhile. Hiking is nothing to sneeze at by the way...us midwestern folk can't really appreciate the value of a ridiculous trail, and I know the one we took was nothing...but for the average person living in the flat, midwest cornfields, hiking through the mountains is intense! I absolutely loved it.

After the hike we went to a barbecue at a friend of Andrews. It was a lot of fun, we had some amazing discussions about relevant issues. It was really interesting to gain such a unique perspective because we definitely have a different outlook on life, but ultimately want the same things. It was a lot of fun.

Bellingham has an amazing spirit. It is such a unique little town, filled with people with such personalities. It is a place that has a Ride Your Bike to Work Day, and everyone participates. They have a Chalk Art Festival where everyone chalks up the down town area. They have a "Peace Arch" in a park, and schools called "Peaceful Happy Place" and a Peace Learning Center. There are amazing shops, venues, local museums, and performance venues. They have their own award-winning brewery and a really cool gourmet coffee shop. It is amazing, because there are no fast food/incorporated restaurants, stores, etc throughout the town, and nobody misses it at all. There is a street a little away from the historic downtown area that has all the fast food crammed into about three blocks, but nobody seems to use it. Andrew said from the high way, they don't even mention the fast food on the sign! All of it is local restaurants. The outdoor activities are numerous. A person can hike, ski, rock climb, kayak, mountaineer, you name it, all in Bellingham's backyard. It is such a beautiful and lovely place to spend time. I really, really like it here. It is a completely different ambiance from what we have out east.

Today we are supposedly going hiking up Mount Baker. Apparently this requires skis/snowshoes or something along those lines. It should be fascinating considering I have never in my life been on a pair of skis or snowshoes. I didn't even know people still used snowshoes unless they were herding reindeer in Greenland or something...guess that shows how much I know about real winters :-) So I am definitely looking forward to it! We have the best guide, Andrew is the greatest. I mean, most people have to pay good money for his wonderful service, and we are fortunate enough to call him a friend.

I'll keep you posted and upload pictures as we make them!

-Jx2

We arrived to Bellingham safe and sound! Andrew's place is very nice, it's quite chilly but we are so excited to be here! I don't have too much news yet...we are going to go for a bike ride today around Bellingham, and then to a blues festival tonight which should be pretty sweet! I've got a camera cord now so I'm uploading pictures this very moment!!

-love Jx2

After two nights of rest in our motel, we are on the road again! There are about 11 hours left until we get to Andrew's in Bellingham, so that's what we plan on doing today. It's a long drive, but we are well rested. The car should be doing alright, and we have a free breakfast in our bellies.
At breakfast we met a retired couple who go around with a pickup hauling a huge telescope in a trailer. They drive to places to see pieces of the cosmos and enjoy the journey of course. It was cool to hear about some of the things they've experienced over the years. The lady showed us how to find the largest visible star cluster so hopefully with some binoculars we might be able to see where it is. The spectacular beauty can't be seen without a pretty expensive telescope, however. With one this cluster goes from looking like a 'messy' star to a doughnut of thousands of points of light. With a really, really good telescope it is possible to see a good fraction of the 1 million stars in the cluster.
After a day of rest yesterday Jess and I are ready to keep driving. We both got some good downtime, studying and playing some computer games and such. We ended the day with a couple games of Scrabble, which is about the only portable entertainment that we have. We're getting all packed and ready so we can drive to washington.

-Jx2

Hey everyone!! Sorry the postings have been few lately, we have been backcountry camping in Yellowstone and obviously computers are non-functional there! So an update... When we visited Mount Rushmore, we met an amazing man who was on one of the crews that BUILT it! He had a piece of the granite that was carved off during construction, and he told us all about how it was done. I'm not sure if you know, but Mount Rushmore is actually an incomplete work of art. In September or October or 1941, funding ceased towards Mount Rushmore because money was being funneled to the war... during that time, construction stopped, and the sculptor ended up passing away. The son decided that a work of art should be finished by its creator and so, they permanently ceased construction with the Mount Rushmore we know today... but if you look closely at Abe Lincoln, you can see the outline of his fingers holding his jacket collar. Initially the carvings were supposed to go down to the waist, instead of just the bust. Afterwards we decided to check out Crazy Horse. Crazy Horse was absolutely amazing. I really hope to visit again in the future, and see it completed. If you don't know, Crazy Horse is a tribute to the Native American founders of America, and is funded by private donations. Several attempts by the US government have been made to take over the funding of it, but the creator insisted that this sculpture be a creation for the people, by the people. He left explicit directions on how to complete it, and a scale model has been made for visitors to see how it will look when it is complete. It is going to be remarkable site to see!

From there, we headed to Yellowstone. We stopped the night before at a state park to camp and then woke up around 6am to drive the rest of the way. Right before the Yellowstone entrance, we turned a corner, and a HUGE male bison was grazing on the side of the road! We pulled over and expected him to run away, but he just looked at us and continued grazing. We were only about 10 feet away from him. It was so exciting. Then we continued on into Yellowstone. I'm not sure what I was expecting really, but every time we rounded a bend I was in awe of the amazing scenery that we would see. Lake Yellowstone was completely frozen over, covered in snow and ice. Geysers were spewing steam up along the road, creating a scene that reminded me of something from Jurassic Park. It was almost surreal. While we were driving, we saw a few cars pulled over and people out taking pictures. We decided to pull over too and check it out. All the fuss was over a baby black bear!! He was out rooting in the field, alone, probably digging for grubs!

Once in Yellowstone we headed straight to Old Faithful, we arrived just in time to watch the eruption which was pretty spectacular. Then we walked around the thermal area. I have never in my life imagined quite how incredible the thermal pools would be. Each one was so unique and so special. My favorite was the Chromitic Pools...they are these rainbow pools, and while reading about them, we discovered something amazing. The colors are created by microscopic organisms...they are organisms that actually LIVE in these extreme conditions, and it is their presence that causes the amazing colors that we see.

After we explored the thermal area for a few hours, we headed up to our campground in Mammoth Springs. On our way, we were stuck in a road block of Bison! There were about 20 of them, and walked right next to our car on both sides! We were only a few inches from them! It was so cool! It ended up that the campground was full, but this nice gentleman suggested backcountry camping if we had our own gear. Backcountry camping means that we would be given a permit from the park ranger, and hike waaaay out into the Yellowstone wilderness and camp along side the buffalo and elk and whatever else came our way! So we got a permit and hiked about 2 miles out to our spot. It was bear country so food had to be far away from the tent. This was my first real camping experience, and I LOVED it. We woke up early and made breakfast and explored a bit. John saw a heard of elk passing by. We decided to take an afternoon nap before heading to our next camping spot that was a lot further into the park. I was woken up by the sound of thunder, and we both decided we didn't want to deal with a muddy camping fiasco, so we packed up and hiked the two miles back to our car.

Now we are in Montana, in a neat little town called Deer Lodge. We stopped because we feared we were having car trouble (it kept overheating). We couldn't find a campground, so we haggled with a motel and ended up getting the room for $48 (it started at about $80!) and it turned out that the owner is a mechanic! So he looked at the car, and drove it for about a half hour around the high way and mountains and he determined there was nothing wrong with it, but that we were driving it wrong. Apparently we were messing up something with the gears and so the car had to work harder to get up the mountains...regardless, he showed us how to properly drive it, and all should be well!

We have met the most amazing people so far in our journey. We have been surrounded by unique and memorable characters that have made this trip worth taking. Traveling the country is more than what you can see, it is about who you can meet. These are the faces and workers of our country. These people make America what it is. When you are home, or in school, you become accustomed to the framework and daily routine that is your life. People tend to forget the vast diversity that is our country, our world. I value every single moment of this adventure, and I wouldn't trade a single second of it.

I know you guys are awaiting pictures, but I forgot my USB cord to put them on my computer! As soon as I find a place to buy one, pictures will be immediately uploaded! Here are some from my cell phone to keep you tied over :-)

Love,

Jx2

We arrived to Mount Rushmore! We came in last night, around 5:30 mountain time, and checked in at our campground. Our campground is AMAZING! We are the very first customers of the season, and we had the entire place to ourselves! We set up our tent and got our beds situated, and then headed out to see Mount Rushmore for the first time! Mount Rushmore is located in a cute little tourist town called Keystone. It is set up to look like the "Wild West" and is basically souvenir shops, ice cream shops, and pizza parlors. It was pouring rain most of the evening, so we didn't bother getting out and taking pictures. We are heading back there today to check it out though. It really was an extremely unique experience to drive around the corner of a mountain and all of a sudden, four famous faces are staring back at us! It took a moment to take it all in! We were hoping that we could catch the lighting ceremony, but unfortunately the rain caused it to be canceled. It's not a problem though. We are so happy to even be here together, that not much bothers us! Unfortunately the tourist season hasn't started yet, so not much of the town was open. We had to drive about nine miles through the mountains to a little town called Hill City to buy some charcoal and lighter fluid in order to cook dinner! We made pasta for dinner, with broccoli and covered in marinara sauce! It was very delicious! Thanks for all of the great food Eo! We are enjoying it, and haven't had to buy a single thing yet!

We are going to go back to Mount Rushmore today before we head to Yellowstone so that we can take pictures and all that fun stuff!

So far the trip has been pretty amazing. We left Champaign right after my last final, and the first place that we've 'been' since is Mt. Rushmore, which is a pretty amazing and shocking transition. It was awesome to watch the flat midwestern planes turn into rolling hills of south dakota, and then see the badlands' mountain tops pop up in our view. It was spectacular, and very different. Along the long drive yesterday we saw a roadrunner cross the road, and he looked remarkably like the cartoon. We have also seen about 15 deer thus far, and a group of four small deer was waiting for us at our campground when we arrived. We tried getting a good picture but the camera currently has a lack of zoom functionality, so instead that was a very amazing moment.

We just finished getting all packed and ready to move out to Yellowstone National Park, so we are going on our way!
Pictures soon!
There are four quotes carved at the base of Mt. Rushmore...

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

-Thomas Jefferson
Declaration of Independence
July 4, 1776


"The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people."

-George Washington
First Inaugural Address
April 30, 1789


"It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

-Abraham Lincoln
Gettysburg Address
November 19, 1863


"We, here in America, hold in our hands the hopes of the worlds, the fate of the coming years; and shame and disgrace will be ours if in our eyes the light of high resolve is dimmed, if we trail in the dust the golden hopes of men."
-Theodore Roosevelt
Address at Carnegie Hall
March 30, 1912

We have rediscovered how much we love this land! We are so fortunate to have the opportunity to see it in all of its beauty and wonder.

Love, Jx2

I'm posting from my phone! We just passed through the Wisconsin Dells so we are getting there! We has to make a pit stop last night around 11:30 and we carried on at about 4:30 this morning. We were just too exhausted after finals! So all is well with us. More updates soon!

So today's the day! We are packing our car up, checking and double checking, and we are leaving today! Our first leg is to Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota! I have never seen it, and I don't think Johnny has either, so that's exciting! It's been a long and hectic day, so I'm looking forward to finally sitting down with nothing but open road ahead, and this semester behind. It is a great feeling! Keep checking in for more updates!!!!

Jx2

We got our head lamps and grigri in the mail today! ((Thanks Drew!)) So we are adding that to our equipment...John is going to pack everything up nicely, wash the rope, and make sure we have everything we need! I can't wait! I'm about to head home here in a minute and make the big swaparoo with the car, and get everything else that we need from home. John's finishing up his finals...he's got one at 1:30 today and one at 1:30 on Friday. He's nearly finished! So that's all for now!

"Yoga is a system, scientifically proven to boost your climbing ability significantly. Why do you think you always see that Guru figure sitting on the top of the mountain? You think he/she got there by enlightenment ?"

Well we have finalized our itinerary and booked the essentials! It's getting so close! Tomorrow I'm heading home to pick up our final supplies, swap cars, and head back to get John on Friday. It looks like it is going to be 30 full days of adventures, and we changed our return route last minute to stick in the south west rather than near Salt Lake City through Denver...that way its a bit warmer and a bit cheaper! So we are basically making a giant circle around the US!

4 days until we head out!

"An intense anticipation itself transforms possibility into reality; our desires being often but precursors of the things which we are capable of performing. "-Samuel Smiles

-J (x2)

Hi Everyone!

We are finally in our last week of class! Finals are starting tomorrow, and we have a busy week ahead of us! John's got finals all week-but I'm done tomorrow...so that leaves it up to me to get everything ready! I don't mind though, organizing, planning, packing...my favorite things! The travel preparation and anticipation is almost as fun as the traveling itself!

I'm so excited to start this blog so that all of our loved one's can follow us during our adventure. It is so incredible that we are able to share our journey with you.

We leave on Friday, after John's last final. We will be heading to Keystone, SD first to see Mount Rushmore! It is about 990 miles (about 17 hours driving). A long jump, but between the two of us we will be fine! And don't worry parents-we have brand new tires, a good spare, extra oil, gas, windshield wiper fluid, you name it! We are prepared and will be safe!

We are SO excited to begin this adventure. We are planning to see a lot, and learn even more! We can't wait to keep everyone posted with how it's going!

Only 5 days until we are off!

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller
-J (x2)