Trip to Wyoming for UW Homecoming

Last weekend was Wyoming's Homecoming Football game with the University of Utah. Wyoming's football team is not very good, averaging 5 turnovers per conference game and 0-5 in those games (at least they won their 2 non-conference games against North Dakota State and the University of Ohio). Enough about football.

We flew Frontier Airlines, which was a little late each way, but not enough to bother us. Arriving in Denver, we rented a Chrysler 300 and drove to Laramie. The car had lots of room, as Marc and Sabrina came along, but it was gutless with the V6 at altitude, and had a rattle in the instrument panel with only 18000 miles or so on the car.

We arrived about 5 and checked into our room at the Gas Lite Motel. Rodney's brother Roger and his wife Julia were already there. Jeff was arriving about 7 PM, so we headed to Jeffrey's Bistro for dinner, then on to the Buckhorn Bar. Rodney and Roger's niece, Nichole, came down with her boyfriend for a drink, which was fun. Jeff arrived about 8 PM, and Fat Tires were enjoyed by Marc, Roger, and Rodney. Because we're old, and Saturday was expected to be later, we went home about 10:30 PM for a good night's sleep.

We got up the next morning, ate at Shari's, then watched the Homecoming Parade from 3rd and Ivinson, where we ran into Rodney and Roger's Aunt, Uncle and Cousin. From there, we bought game tickets at the Student Union, then had a beer at the Library before the game. The weather was clear, cool (43 F/7 C), and windy (25-60 mph/40-100 kph). Afterwards, we walked campus and then went to Rodney and Roger's Aunt and Uncle's for dinner. There we had a delicious meal of tacos, green chili, nachos, and other stuff with another Aunt and an additional 2 cousins that we didn't know if they would be there or not. It was fun. After a quick nap at the hotel, we went and met one of Rodney's cousins, Amanda Rae and her husband, at the Cowboy Saloon (sorry, no good link), until about midnight, then the Ranger until about 1 AM.

The next morning, we went to breakfast at Coal Creek Coffee, then walked downtown, went to the Brown and Gold to get more Wyoming stuff, then had lunch at Tommy Jack's. Roger and Julia then headed home to Salt Lake City, while Rodney, Rasila, Marc, and Sabrina went to Vedauwoo. We drove down through Cheyenne, then stopped by the land Rodney and Rasila own west of Loveland, CO. We then joined Rodney's niece, Margeaux, at Big Hoss BBQ, before making our flight just in time to make the 11:00 PM curfew at John Wayne Airport.

Moved old AOL Blog

You can find it at Old Travels of Rodney and Rasila. The pictures didn't come through, so I'll have to work on getting some in later.

Trip to Washington, Aug 6- 13, 2008

In August, we had a wedding of one of Rasila's friends in Washington to attend. We decided to make it a road trip since we had the Interagency Pass.

We left at 6:15 AM, after a quick stop at Starbucks, and promptly remembered why we wanted to leave 45 minutes earlier. We encountered slow and go traffic at LAX when we arrived about 7 AM. Luckily, it cleared up in the Westwood area, and from there we cruised at 75 MPH all the way up I-5 to Red Bluff, CA, in a short 8 hours. From there, we took CA-36 to CA-89 into the south entrance of Lassen Volcanic National Park. Lassen Peak blew its top in 1915 and erupted for the next 3 years. It is the southern most volcano in the Cascade Range. We drove through the park and took pictures and arrived at our campground at Manzanita Lake at about 6:45 PM, 12.5 hours after we started. We had time to set up camp and cook and start a fire before it got dark, so it was good timing. We'd like to go back when can stay longer as there is a fairly short and steep trail to the top of Lassen Peak from the highway and some other volcanic related mudpots and such.

The next morning, we got up, made breakfast and headed up CA-89, known as the Volcanic Heritage Highway. You can see all the cones on both sides of the highway and it is a spectacular drive, albeit pretty trafficked in logging trucks. We tried to find a forest service road to cut off past Mt. Shasta, but ended up going all the way back to I-5 and up US 97 into Oregon. Once past Mt. Shasta, the evidence of all the wildfires was clear, giving a very smoky view. We stopped just south of Klamath Falls for lunch, where we got to watch the Oregon State Police completely dismantle some poor guy's car. From there we drove into the south entrance of Crater Lake. Since it was smoky, we didn't have as clear of view, but it was still spectacular to come upon the vistor's center and view the lake. We drove around the west rim and then out the north entrace and to our campground for the night at Diamond Lake. It was a lot more buggy than Lassen, but they were gnats, not mosquitos. We had plenty of time to read, set up camp, cook dinner, and go for short walks.

The next day, we drove up US-97 to Newberry Volcanic National Monument, where we had lunch at the lava tubes. We then drove into Bend, where Rodney had to stop at the Deschutes Brewery for a beer, from there, Rasila drove us US-97 to US-26, and up past Mt. Hood. Because of the smoke, we never had a view of Mt. Bachelor, or the Three Sisters. US-26 took us into Portland, where we joined I-84 in rush hour traffic to crawl to I-205 past the Portland Airport. From there it was smooth up to the merge with I-5 in Vancouver, Washington, and we cruised into Rasila's Mom's and sister Cyrena's place in Chehalis, WA at about 6:00 PM. Rasila's brother Belden had driven down from Seattle to spend the weekend. They had plans for us to to go the Centralia city park for an outdoor concert. Rodney wasn't too sure, but we went and had fun eating a picnic lunch and listening to a Blues Brothers tribute band.

The next morning, we had a leisurely breakfast and started driving to White Pass Ski Resort for the wedding. We were staying at a "rustic" place 8 miles east called the Silver Beach Resort, mainly because they were dog friendly. The wedding was her friend Kiki and her fiance, Matt (also known as Budros?). It was a very fun affair, but we bowed out early (10:30 PM) because we were exhausted.

The next morning, we had breakfast at White Pass with the wedding party, then drove back to Chehalis, where we spent another night with Rasila's Mom, sister, and brother. We took in the 3rd Mummy pic, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, which was a fun, mindless movie, and had a wonderful curry dinner.

The next day, we got up early as we had a fairly ling drive ahead, and drove down I-5 to Grant's Pass, OR, where we then took US-199 to US-101, which is known as the Redwood Highway. It was 96 F/36 C in Grant's Pass and 56 F/13 C in Crescent City, CA, when we arrived at the 101. After a quick stop for blueberries, we took in Lady Bird Johnson's Grove and drove the 101 to CA-299 to our campground just west of Willow Creek, CA.

From there, we had ambitious plans to make it to central California. We drove back down CA-299 to US-101, stopped briefly in Eureka, then drove to the Avenue of the Giants. We took the auto tour and stopped at the vistor's center for Humboldt Redwoods State Park for lunch, then headed down US-101. There was construction that we didn't anticipate, and we ended up not making to to CA-20, just north of Ukiah, until almost 3 PM. By then, I knew it would be tight to make our campground by dark. Well, CA-20 is a beautiful drive, but there was at least 4 stretches of construction on that highway, and we rejoined the I-5 at about 5 PM. Rasila took over driving, and Rodney searched his Thomas Guide of California for campgrounds. We knew there were some outside Placerville, but were unsure if we could make it. At 6, we were in Sacramento, and Rodney identified a campground at Folsom Lake, in Folsom, famous for Johnny Cash's album at the state prison there. It was a nice campground, unused on Tuesday nights, and we kept off the skunks and slept with no rain cover on top of the sleeping bags because of the heat.

The next morning, we headed back south on I-5 and took the route to the camp spot we had originally planned. We took CA-152 to CA-156 to Hollister, CA, where we took CA-25 south. This was a spectacular drive down farm country in the valley covered by oak trees. Our campsite was at Pinnacles National Monument. It took us about 4 hours to get there from Folsom, so we had no chance of ever really making it that far. We had lunch there and then drove down CA-25 to CA-198 back to I-5 south, which took us back home.

Road Trip to Wyoming and Utah, June 27 - July 6, 2008

After the 2 trips to Europe last year, we needed cheaper vacations this year! In late June and over 4th of July, we took a road trip to Yellowstone National Park and back. Rasila had never been there and Rodney had not visited since leaving Wyoming.

We drove the first day to Salt Lake City, where we stayed overnight with Rodney's brother Roger, and his wife Julia. After a great breakfast at Finn's Cafe, we drove up through Evanston, through Afton, and then camped south of Jackson off the Snake River. The next two nights we stayed off the Chief Joseph Highway northwest of Cody, off the Beartooth Highway and the northeast entrance of Yellowstone. It was a busy 2 days driving up through Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park, but well worth the effort to see as much as we could.

The next morning, we drove south through Cody and Thermopolis to Rodney's hometown of Riverton to spend a couple nights with Rodney's parents. We had a great time playing games and taking a shower!

On July 3rd, we left early to drive over South Pass, through Rock Springs, past Flaming Gorge, then down US 197 past I-70 to UT 72 to Loa, UT, where we then drove 30 miles on an unpaved Forest Service road to Posey Lake.

Rodney's brother Roger, and his wife, Julia, selected this spot for our 4th of July weekend. It is a beautiful aspen and pine covered mountain top at about 8700 feet elevation north of Escalante and west of Boulder, UT. We hiked trails off the lake and when it was rainy and cool on the 5th, drove across the Hell's Backbone to Boulder, where we took in a latte, then on to Escalante, UT on UT 12, one of the truly very scenic highways in the US. From Escalante, we returned to our campsite.

On the 6th, we drove home by returning to Escalante, and drove UT 12 through Bryce Canyon National Park to US 89. From there, south to UT 9 through Zion National Park back to I-15. Unfortunately, being 4th of July weekend, it was bumper to bumber traffic from just north of the Nevada-California Border. After spending 2 hours to go about 40 miles, we drove across the Mojave National Preserve, past I-40 to old Route 66, down the Amboy to 29 Palms Highway and through Yucca Valley into the Palm Springs area and I-10 back the greater Los Angeles basin. I would like to make that last drive again, but in the daylight the whole way!

Switzerland last Christmas

Last Christmas was the year to spend with Rasila's family and her father Peter talked us into going to Switzerland to ski at Zermatt. It wasn't a tough sell, as you can probably guess.

We flew Delta, which reminds me of why I like to fly non-American airlines overseas. Aside from the fact that we were 45 minutes late leaving the gate in Atlanta for Zurich, we also spent 45 minutes on the runway before the 9 hour flight, in which we had the normal small cramped seats of domestic coach.


Alas, we were the last to arrive in Zurich, but hooked up with everyone easily enough. We bought a first class ticket on the Swiss Train System to Zermatt. We had an 8-minute connection to make in Visp, but made it! We stayed at the Hotel Beau Rivage. We skied 9 days at Zermatt and Cervinia, Italy.

Compared to a North American Resort, it is unimaginable huge. There are 7-100 person trams, 1-train, 1-funicular, and 11-other chairlifts, all high speed. The top to bottom is about 7000 vertical feet. Rasila unfortunately, had a spill on day 5 and separated her shoulder, giving her a ride on Air Zermatt, but no ride around the Matterhorn for our $2000. At least our insurance reimbursed $1500 of it.

The Italian lunches were outstanding, but the snow was only okay. It snowed once while were there and we got some powder on the one glacier you were allowed to ski. They are usually best in February, so next time I want to go later in the Winter to see what it's like then.

We left on January 1, 2008 back to Zurich, where we stayed the night at the Hotel Bristol. We took a walking tour of Zurich and then had dinner and hit the hay. The next morning we got up early and took the train to the airport for the 10 hour flight to Atlanta and the 5 hour flight back to Orange County.

It set us up well for the best ski year we've had as I skied 21 days and Rasila skied 15 days this winter.

Moving here from AOL

Well, AOL has decided to "sunset" their blogging and picture platforms. Rather that wait for it to die, I decided to move my blog here.

Stay tuned for the first real post....