Category: Personal
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Roadtrip Day 13: Glacier NP & Kalispell
…The feeling of being immersed in a fantastic setting multiplied tenfold a bit further down the road, near Logan Creek. Here, the forest crowded in on the road, blocking what remaining light filtered through the low-lying clouds. The wind died away completely. The trees grew ever more massive and tall, and hosted moss that veritably…
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Roadtrip Day 12: Bozeman & Cut Bank
…I was in no particular rush after Ryan took his leave, so I took advantage of another day of perfect weather to leisurely wander around downtown Bozeman and get some exploring in. It’s part of the human condition that we inevitably end up comparing our experiences with what we’re already familiar with, so in my…
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Roadtrip Day 11: Grand Teton & Yellowstone S-N
…It was truly the ideal landscape to trailrun! A gently rolling landscape that made you feel like a BMX racer on a track, racing the downhills to build up some speed for the slight inclines, with the urge to make little jumps at the top of each rise just to catch a little bit of…
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Roadtrip Day 10: Yellowstone E-W and Driggs, ID
…One of the most magical aspects of Yellowstone is of course its geological activity. It doesn’t really hit you that you’re traveling over an enormous caldera until you first spy an odd bit of steam coming from an unexpected spot on the landscape, or upon getting your first whiff of wet sulfurous scent blown by…
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Roadtrip Day 9: Devil’s Tower, Buffalo, Bighorn, Cody
…Joy might be fleeting, but as I was reminded over and over again on this roadtrip, there are always brand new joys ahead, just over the horizon. And it turns out that simply driving the highways of Wyoming was enough to make me fall in love over and over again with the land I traversed.…
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Roadtrip Day 8: Rushmore, Black Hills, Wind Cave, Hulett
…Mount Rushmore itself somehow seemed smaller than I expected, but also more grand, or maybe stately is a better word. It was also more apparent than I anticipated just how out of place it really is—faces of colonization literally carved into the aeons-old faces of rock, all amidst a landscape of quiet natural beauty….
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Roadtrip Day 7: Sioux Falls, Minuteman, Badlands, Wall
…Much of the day was spent on the highway and much of South Dakota was fairly flat, but I was never remotely bored. The gently rolling scenery and distantly roiling weather were constantly engrossing. There was also very little traffic and fairly high speed limits, so I turned up the volume on some Russian electronic…
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Roadtrip Day 6: Kasson, Pipestone, and Sioux Falls
…As I ate my deluxe frozen pizza lunch over some tasters of Chaotic Good brews, I finished writing for the day, and joined in with the conversations going on at the bar. At one point the conversation turned to someone a regular knew who made it big starting a business making penis-shaped bingo daubers. The…
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Roadtrip Day 5: Taliesin, Effigy Mounds, Toppling Goliath, and Rochester
…Turns out, Taliesin is Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and estate. I had never known he called Wisconsin home, as many places around the country lay claim to his influence and advertise his designs and creations. In fact, it seems he quite loved the state and even penned a letter to that effect. There’s even an…
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Roadtrip Day 4: Indiana Dunes, Pullman, Rockford, and Madison
…The trails ultimately took me to the beach, and although the park ranger at the entrance told everyone coming in “don’t go swimming as there are dangerous currents today”, I stuck with the letter of the suggestion and merely “went in”, but didn’t swim. I mean, how could I not? I’m here, right?…
