Date: 2004-07-06
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

I guess I can start writing about my return cross-country trip.   I've made everyone wait long enough.   We left Oceanside,CA on Saturday (I believe) 2 June in the afternoon.   We really didn't get a fast start. Our first night we stopped at some hot spring along the highway for a dip at sunset, perfect way to spend sunset by the way.   We came up the western side of California at first. We crossed Yosemity National Park our second day on the road. Crossed right over the middle of the park heading to San Fran and the Golden Gate Bridge.   We had some radio problems at the start. Actually we had NO radio the first 2 days. That was not fun. After a quick stop to see Teresa's friend Danny, just northeast of San Fran we had our radio working again. Although, we still had problems with the clutch and brakes that started right in the middle of San Fran with all those hills.   Teresa had to bleed the clutch right on the side of the road in town.   Danny took a look at everything while we were there and it looked fine after she bled the clutch.   Now our only problem was having to push start the bus.So we were back out on the road heading north toward Red Wood National Park.   We hit that morning number 3. Northern Cali shore line was beautiful. We stopped at Patrick's Point and took tons of pictures. Oh yeah, and we were still push starting the van!   We made it into Oregon for night number 3, we stayed in a Walmart parking lot. The next morning we needed a jump start. Well wait let me go back to the night before. Around 11:00 at night we got stuck in a parking lot of a grocery store pushing the van in circles trying to push start it. Now that is funny. 2 hikers pushing a VW bus around a parking lot almost in the middle of the night trying to start it. Yea some kid got his friends car and gave us a jump start. So now we are on our way once again heading towards Cater Lake National Park. Yea we didn't see anything. A storm was moving in and we actually were being snowed on. The lake was completely covered with clouds. I'm sure it was very pretty under all those clouds but we weren't going to get a chance to see it. So we headed north to Washington State.   Washington was beautiful.   We headed west once we hit Highway 2 I believe. We had a great view of Mt. St. Helens and we kind of got a view of Rainier.   We ended up camping along a lake near the base of Rainier. Let me tell you this road we were on had some great views. We passed by a waterfall right on the side of the mountain road we were traveling.   I made Teresa turn around and go back for pictures.   The campsite we had was awesome. Right on a lake with snow covered mountains all around.   Just perfect.Woke up and headed east to Idaho.   We were still traveling on HWY 2.   It ended up following the Lewis and Clark lost trail.   On our way out of Washington we got a perfect view of Rainier.   Not a cloud in the sky around it. Boy it would have been a great day to summit that moutain.   I got a few pictures while driving. Idaho was ok, not much to the state.   A lot more mountains then I would have guessed. Pretty drive along rivers.   We passed right through before the end of the day.So now we are in Montana.   We stayed in a state campground near Big Hole River. We found the state campground while driving in circles the night before.   It's amazing what you can find in the dark. Oh yeah and we were still push starting the van.   I think it was getting us in shape!!!   So now we were on our way down to Yellowstone National Park for a couple of days.   We started trying Micro Brews from each state we were driving through. As a beer lover I loved this idea.   I still like the Lewis and Clark Lager as one of the best. Ok maybe the Hemp Ale from Cali was THE BEST.   But I like the label on the Lewis and Clark the best.   So now we are in Yellowstone with a bunch of Micro brews in the cooler and a couple days off of the road and push starting.Teresa knew someone that lived in the area.   He came down and met us in Mammouth Campground inside the park.   The next day he gave us the grand tour of Yellowstone.   We even got him to take our picture in front of Old Faithful. I can't wait to see all these pictures.   We got to see so much. We went all over the park that entire day.   It was raining so we didn't see as much wildlife as expected but it also kept most people in their hotel rooms. We spent another day running around Yellowstone checking out all the lodges. Teresa is thinking about coming back and working at the park next year.   While doing that I got our backcountry permit for backpacking. We were going to do a 30 mile hike in a day and a half.   They made us watch a video about hiking and bears.   We, as the good hikers we were, spent most of the video making fun of the people wearing cotton socks and bear bagging a cooler in a tree.   Then there was the test afterwards. I don't think the permit office people liked our smart ass answers to the test, but they knew we knew what we were doing.   Now it was all set tomorrow we hike Shoshone Lake.   Our hike in was great. We had to ford 3 rivers and tons of snow run off. We even had about 6 feet of snow still on the ground on the western side of the lake.   We got soaked.   One field we had to walk through was flooded.   Yeah I'm real happy I hike in sneakers. My shoes dried out before our hike began the next morning.   We followed cougar and Grizzly tracks. And I believe we saw a cougar just ahead of us on the trail. There was a lot of trees in the way but it sure as hell looked like a big cat.   Our campsite was right on Shoshone Lake and all by itself no other campsites around.   My only problem was when I went down for water my camera fell out of my pocket and went swimming. Yeah no more camera!   Which really sucks since I take so many pictures and I just bought it in January.   Maybe there is a warrenty. I'll have to check.   Our night went perfect.   No problems with animals.   Slept like babies right through the night.Hiking out the next day was easier. It seems that side of the lake gets a lot of traffic.   The first half seemed like no one walked it in a while.   We saw a number of other hikers and fishermen.   We made it out to the truck early afternoon.   Then it was back on the road heading to Colorado to see the Dead at Red Rocks. Teresa is the DeadHead and I never saw them so what the hell it should be fun.   OK well it looks like I'm heading back to NJ now. I'll finish this story when I get home. Maybe I'll even get to put a few pictures online.