Mississippi River Trip: Map

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Mississippi River Trip: Home - For a moment

IT'S TIME TO SAY: GOODBYE!

Being home didn't last.  We decided that we had to take the kids to the beach for one last weekend of camping, so we headed to Kiptopeke State Park outside of Norfolk.  The kids used the weekend to help Larisa celebrate her birthday (again - for somebody who claims she didn't want a birthday Larisa has managed to get three celebrations out of it).  We spent the day down at the beach, first swimming and relaxing, then catching crabs for the pot.  We wound up with half a dozen blues, which Larisa ate for lunch.  That evening we went to the pier and did a little fishing - I wound up bringing in a good size croaker, which Larisa ate for dinner grilled.   It rained in the night, but our tent stayed dry (the kids' didn't - heh) and we packed up the next morning after a breakfast of blueberry pancakes. 

 Nice weekend, and a great bookend to our trip across the country. 

BLUE CRAB: Callinectes Sapidus COMING FOR DINNER

For Larisa, it's back to work.  For me, it's back to hunting jobs after a brief fishing trip to Tofino on Vancouver Island.  For both of us, it was the trip of a lifetime.

THANK YOU ALL FOR READING! WE WILL COME BACK WITH NEW ADVENTURE SOON.

ADIÓS, ДО СВИДАНИЯ, Довиждане, ДО ПОБАЧЕННЯ, 작별, paalam

goodbye 

Mississippi River Trip: Knoxville - Again!!

We made Knoxville in time to grab a couple of pizzas and treat Annie, Bob, Johanna, and Asa to dinner as a "thank you" for storing the canoe.  We hadn't met Bob the first time around, so it was pleasant to talk with him.  Turns out he's an author (we've got your book on order Bob!) and an interesting fellow to talk to.  After we were fed and had drunk the local beer Bob provided, Larisa and I loaded up Tsssh and headed back to Elk Rock State Park to camp for the night.

Though a little more crowded this time around, we managed to grab the same campsite we'd taken when we came down here from Minnesota, refugees from a frightening experience.  After we set up camp I sat on the picnic table under the stars and reflected on our trip.  Knoxville, of all places, seemed to be the right place to do this.  After all, it was here that we decided to abandon the Mississippi and head west, here where we made new friends and stored to canoe, and here we returned to at the tail end of our journey.

It wasn't the trip we'd planned, but in the end it was an amazing trip to have taken.  We drove thousands of miles among scenery that most people only see on postcards - and then camped there.  We saw some of the Mississippi River up close (and one part, too close), walked with bison in the Badlands, got stranded in the Black Hills (making another friend in the process), touched the sky in the Rocky Mountains, walked great sand dunes, saw great canyons from the inside (and in Larisa's case, the air), strolled among artwork carved ten thousand years ago in the rocks, and then went and touched the Pacific ocean. And we still barely scratched the surface.

The river trip was what we thought we wanted, but in end we got what we needed instead. 

El Rancho somewere in Route 66

Tomorrow we will continue deadheading home, ending the trip about five days early.  Fine by us, we're ready to be back home.

OUR LAST CAMP ON THIS TRIP

Mississippi River Trip: Deadheading

THIS POST IS 2 WEEKS OLD....WE ARE HOME ALREADY...SWEET HOME!

That's what we're doing now.  Just putting miles under the wheels and heading back to Iowa as fast as we can go.  Day one was San Diego to Holbrook, AZ, where we decided to skip Petrified National Forest in the interest of moving along as fast as we could.  Day two took  us through New Mexico and Texas.  We stopped for dinner at the Bar H Steakhouse in Dalhart, TX. 

The steak house decorated in the typical western steak house style - branding irons, saddles, and farm tool dot the walls along with photographs of cowboys working the range.  We stopped for an early dinner, and were surprised at how crowded the restaurant was.  I, of course, ordered a steak.  Larisa, being a vegetarian, ordered the soup and salad bar.  She asked the waitress what the soup of the day:

"Hamburger Stew."

Larisa looked at her for a moment, then asked, "Is it possible to substitute something for the soup.  I'm a vegetarian."....................................................................................

The waitress paused for a moment and gave Larisa a strange look.  The five or six tables nearest to us did the same thing.  I guess it is a tad bit incongruous to be a vegetarian at a steakhouse.  The waitress's look slowly changed from strange to suspicious, and I could almost hear the gears in her head whirring.  Was this lady with the foreign accent one of those PETA folks?  She studied Larisa closely, and I imagined that the waitress was committing Larisa's details to memory, just in case there was an animal rights related terrorist incident or something.  She finally decided that vegetarians don't get any special treatment, and declined to let Larisa get some steamed vegetables instead of soup. 
 

After dealing with the terrorist couple at table three, the waitress moved on and promptly forgot about us so hard that she delivered my food to the wrong table, then couldn't figure out where it was supposed to go until I finally flagged her down for more iced tea.  Oh yes, the special (12 oz. NY strip, medium rare with baked potato) goes to the terrorist at table three.  We ate and left, and were both immensely amused at the reception Larisa's statement got.  I understood it though - Dalhart is a cattle town.  Period.  Nothing to see, no tourist attractions, nothing but acres and acres of grazing ground as far as the eye can see.  A vegetarian in a place that relies on carnivores for survival probably doesn't see vegetarians very often.  We're happy that we made their day a little more surreal.

We camped at the Pratt County Lake in Pratt, KS.  Nice place.  Five bucks gets you your own little peninsula that juts into the lake so that you're camping surrounded by water on three sides.  Quite a change from paying $25-30 at a crammed full commercial campground.

Mississippi River Trip: Happy Birthday to my wonderful wife!!

I greeted Larisa with these words when she woke up this morning.  As a girl she collected pins from places she'd been or seen, so over the course of our trip I did the same, secretly.  I got her pins from all of the National Parks we'd been to, and attached them to her hat in the middle of the night while she was sleeping.  When we into the car after showering and figuring out where we were going for breakfast it was the first thing she saw, and she loved it. 

Collecting the pins had been tough - Larisa likes to do the visitor's center withsomeone, not alone.  So the entire trip I found myself making excuses to go to the bathroom, send her to the car for something (usually her notebook so that she could get a "passport" stamp from each visitor's center) or generally disappeared for a couple of minutes.  It looks like I managed fool her because she claims that the pins were a complete surprise.

After breakfast we decided to walk around the Gaslight District.  Basically it's a collection of high end restaurants and tourist shops - nice for window shopping.  We got Larisa some ice cream from the Ghirardelli  shop, and then wandered on, taking in a large outdoor mall on the way and snapping pictures together.  Since all of our clothes were camping clothes (meaning stained and old) Larisa kept her eye open for a dress to wear for her birthday dinner, and found one at a little shop near where we'd parked the car.  She agonized over the price until I pointed to a sign in the shop window that read "Your husband called and said you can have anything you want!"  I told her to get the dress (she looked fantastically sexy in it) as well as the wrap that went with it.  How often do you celebrate your "29th" birthday, after all?





 After the Gaslight District we headed to the harbor to look at the ships, including the HMS Surprise replica ship used in the movie Master and Commander, the USS Midway, and others.  Mainly we took pictures from the outside, because we thought the admission price for the Midway was too high.  We walked, talked, and snapped more pictures, then decided to move on so that we could get ready for dinner. 

Russian ''Turisto'' asking for water...

 A couple of hot showers later we were headed back downtown to visit Royal India, named Best Indian Food for several years in a row.  Before heading inside we found some good light and I took a bunch of pictures of Larisa in her new dress.  I, of course, was still dressed like a camper who's been on the read too long, but she looked great. 

 
 The food was very good, but I can honestly say that I've had better here in Fairfax (at Jaipur on Lee Highway).  We walked a bit more, but were tired and full and decided to grab some sleep, since we plan to head back first thing in the morning.

Mississippi River Trip: Lazy Beach Day

Since we'd spent the previous day walking around in the heat, we decided that today should be a lazy beach day.  After a leisurely breakfast we went down to a beach we wound up calling Mexico Beach - we were two of about a dozen non-Hispanic people at the beach.  We spent the day reading, walking, swimming, and resting.  It was just what we needed, though Larisa wound up getting a sunburn over most of her body after taking a two hour wander towards the National Refuge that starts just south of the beach.  Then it was time for dinner and sleep - both of which were fantastic.

Mississippi River Trip: Balboa Park - -Sushi

We woke up early and grabbed breakfast at the famous Hob Nob Hill, using the time to update a few posts and having a great breakfast in the mean time.  Then we headed off to Balboa Park - 17 museums and just as many gardens - it was just the kind of place that we could spend an entire day.

We parked at the edge of the park and took a trolley bus in, getting a reasonable overview of what the park held as we went.  Our first stop was the botanical garden, which houses a variety of hothouse flowers and plants, most of which were in beautiful bloom for us.  After an hour or so I tired of picture taking and settled down by the Koi pond to watch the fish and the people.  By the time Larisa found me I was so relaxed that I was a breath or two from snoring.  We wandered on, stopping by the photography museum (closed on Monday, alas) and hitting the rose garden and succulents gardens next.  The roses were in bloom and amazing in their color and variety, and the succulent garden took up a lot of my time - I just like cacti and their cousins.

We then strolled over to the Spanish Village Art Center.  The village consists of a couple hundred artists working in just about any medium you can imagine.  They create and sell their artwork, and it makes a fine thing to see if you're a tourist who is just wandering around.  We were.  Some of the art was visually fantastic, especially the sculpture and photography.  Other art was the kind of stuff you get when folks stop thinking.  There was much more of the former though, and all in all we had a wonderful time chatting up the artists and shooting the occasional picture.

Tired after a day of walking around, I decided to take Larisa to Harney Sushi in Old Town San Diego.  Set up cafe style, with a sushi bar inside and a small patio outside, it was billed as the best of the best for fresh fish, so how I could not take Larisa there?  The service was downright bad, but Larisa says that her sushi was fantastic, and I'll say without reservation that the chicken teriayki was the best I've ever had, anywhere.  The real bummer was that the sushi bar and kitchen didn't communicate, so my food came out about 15 minutes before Larisa's, so that I was almost done eating when she was just starting.  Larisa griped at the waitress, who was so poor at her job that she didn't actually understand the problem - she thought Larisa was upset about having to wait for her food, not because we had come to eat together and weren't able to do so - and seemed prepared to argue about it.  In the end, though, she offered us free dessert.  We got chocolate lava cake that came out warm and fresh baked with some sort of foamed fruit cream.  The cake was great, the cream stuff tasted weird but was actually very complementary to the cake.  So in the end, great food but horrible service made for an okay dining experience.

I'll admit that there is a part of me that still wants another crack at the chicken teriayki before we leave.