Days 8/9 - GOFDV: That's a wrap.

One final day in the City by the Bay wraps up the driving portion of this Good Old-Fashioned Driving Vacation.

On Thursday, we rode on San Francisco's quintessential public transportation, the famous clankin'-and-bankin' cable cars, before heading to Ghirardelli Square to put our faces in some chocolate sundaes.

One of our recurring conversations this trip is Nate's claim (several times a day) that whatever we just noticed, he pointed out a few minutes ago but nobody listened. While we were waiting for a cable car, an odd fella walked by wearing a mask like a professional wrestler's. Someone mentioned it, then Nate of course said, "I just said that," which put us in yet another debate over who saw what, and said so, and in what order. We were all wrapped up in this endless spiral when Trevor interjected something like, "Is nobody interested in what's happening behind you??" Our masked friend chained himself to a post and was launching himself into an escape act from the chains and straightjacket. Of course he then worked the crowd for tips, but it was kind of impressive. You just never know what you're going to see. If you pay attention. And if you see it first in this family, ya gotta speak up. :)

A note about the weather. It's been spectacular for us the whole trip. Sunny and warm... but not quite as warm in the weird weather vortex that is San Francisco, where it stays a tad on the cool side. 

When I came to SF one summertime probably 30 years ago with my grandparents and cousins Kim and JJ, we weren't prepared for the cool weather here, and Grandma & Grandpa bought sweatshirts from a souvenir shop so we'd be more comfortable. I did pack a light jacket this time, but it wasn't heavy enough for the chilliness of the evenings, and I again had to buy a sweatshirt. It's like I've learned nothing. Good thing there are plenty of shops ready to take advantage of goosebumpy tourists like me.

My extra layer came in handy for one of the high points of this trip, our visit to Alcatraz. I just can't say enough how much I love visiting the Rock. I don't know what it is--the history, the mystery, just something in the vibe. The audio tour is the same one they've had for years and years, and it is excellent. Being guided around the cellblocks by the voices of former inmates and guards is haunting and really takes you to a whole different time and place. I don't know, maybe I just watched Escape from Alcatraz too many times as a kid.

Wildlife photo of the day -- there were baby gulls outside Alcatraz's rec yard! So cute!

Because the fun just never ends, we also decided to catch a midnight showing of Man of Steel on its opening night. I was super impressed with the concession counter at this theater, which had pretzel thins & hummus. When I took the container to the cashier, he had to first ask me what it was, and then have another employee show him how to ring it up. It's official-- I'm the first person to eat hummus at a movie theater. 

I was also buying a box of Sour Patch Kids for Trevor. One of the workers told us we should have bought it at the dollar store for a buck and sneaked it in, rather than paying $4 for it at the theater. Funny, that's exactly what I was thinking. It was just weird to hear it from an employee. 

So anyway, this morning we returned our rental van and boarded our Amtrak train that will deliver us home in a couple days, with any luck. We love riding the train -- I think this is our 5th time using Amtrak for at least part of a vacation, but our first time on this route that will take us back through Reno, Salt Lake City, Denver, and Omaha. It's such a throwback way to travel. 

Dennis has done most of the driving on our trip, and says he can't sleep when I'm driving, so he's happy to just ride and sleep for the next couple days.

Trevor's happy we won't be driving past any more signs for universities. 

On about day 3 he was all, "You don't have to say, 'You could go there,' every time we pass a sign for a college!"

Nate's happy we have tables in the sleeper cars for playing games. We still have two prizes left to be awarded and he's feeling confident.

I'm happy to have a reprieve from the shortcomings of both Google Maps and Apple Maps. You know what's fun? Start directions to the same place on two different phones using the two different apps, and let 'em fight it out. Make sure the voices are turned on for maximum entertainment.

I will miss using the Roadside America app to find oddball attractions. But there will most assuredly be future road trips.

So now we plan to chill, read, and play cards while riding the rails, and as such, this wraps up our Good Old-Fashioned Driving Vacation blog. Thanks for indulging me by listening along the way!

Signing off from somewhere near Sacramento. 

elevation 35 ft.

Day 7 - Getting our Golden Gate on

This morning Trevor hopped out of bed before the rest of us, going for a run. He was gone about an hour, and then burst back into the room announcing he had just run to the Golden Gate Bridge and back. He's never been in this city before, and had already bounded his way to the Bridge before any of the rest of us had even seen the light of day. Clearly we had some catching up to do.

(Yes, it kinda weirds me out to have my son out running in an unfamiliar city--especially this kid, who is notorious for being directionally-challenged. But he'll be 18 in a few months, and as such, there are a lot of things weirding me out these days. But I'm just going with it. And also praying a lot more.) 

Not a lot to say about today. We mostly knocked around the city... the Wharf, Golden Gate Bridge, Haight-Ashbury, crookedest street, Golden Gate Park (found 3 geocaches there). We moved at our own pace, and enjoyed not having to be at a different destination by nightfall. 

I hate it when I can't seem to hold my camera exactly straight. It's not that hard.

Random picture of turtles at Golden Gate Park. Aren't they cute??

Our big fun tonight was dinner (a surprise for Dennis) with our friend Manu, who was a student on our wing at Illinois Math & Science Academy when Dennis worked there 21+ years ago. After our loosely scheduled--ok, unscheduled--day, Dennis thought it was kinda weird when I picked a specific restaurant at a specific time for dinner, but it made sense when Manu walked up to our table and pulled up a chair. "YES I'm having dinner with you!" 

Love. 

And it must have been SO fun for the kids to sit there while we reminisced about the good old days at IMSA. Actually, they said they enjoyed it, too. That's how cool you are, Manu.  

I wish there was time to catch up with other friends who are here and who have been along our route over the last week. I've thought about each of you, and felt your great auras as we've passed through your towns. If only there was more time! Trevor & Nate would love to have many more dinners with people they've just met.

One more day here in San Francisco, and then we hop a boxcar back to the Midwest.

Some reflections:

-We should not even try to interact with each other when we haven't eaten for a while. This especially applies to mornings, and super-duper applies to any lighthearted teasing attempts. Everything is better when the blood-sugar levels are a little higher. Still, after a week of near-24/7 togetherness, I think we're doing remarkably well. The close quarters of Amtrak sleeping compartments will be true make-or-break time. 

-No hotel rooms have enough power outlets to charge all of the electronics used by a family of four. We should have stopped at a store early in the trip to buy a power strip, rather than deal with this issue the whole time.

Tomorrow, the destination I've been waiting for. One of my favorite places anywhere. ALCATRAZ. I've been there 5 times (I think?). This will be my first time taking the night tour. I hope I can sleep tonight. 

Day 6 - golf driving, and also more regular driving.

This morning we slept in. And by "slept in," I mean Trevor and I slept until 10 a.m., while Dennis and Nate got up at 5:30 to go golfing at a nearby course. They were in withdrawal, since it had been a whole week since they last hit the links. (I don't know why I use phrases like that when I don't really understand what they mean.) They had a good morning, and were most happy with their rental clubs, which were brand-new TaylorMade RocketBallz. I don't know what that means either, but they seemed to.

Before getting back on the road, we had one oddball stop to make in San Luis Obispo, at Bubble Gum Alley. Totally disgusting. Totally fun. But mostly disgusting. We rummaged up some gum from the car, so we could contribute too.

My favorite moment from the gum alley... (background info first) We've been each trying to find unique places to photograph the letters in our names, or shapes that resemble the letters, so we can print and frame them later. (Tip of the hat to Sarah Haines for that idea.) So anyway, we're looking at these gag-inducing walls of nastiness when Dennis yells, "YES! I finally found a good 'S'!" Some people haven't been satisfied to squoosh their blobs of gum on the walls; they've spelled things with their stretched-out Bubblicious. Oh, it's quite a sight.

Back on Highway 1, we were headed up the coast again. This is such a gorgeous, dramatic drive. But how did the girl who doesn't like heights end up behind the wheel for a drive along seaside cliffs?? I'm glad we were driving north so I could be on the inside lane, hugging the hills instead of grazing the guardrails. I had butterflies in my stomach most of the time. 

Eventually we were driving through Carmel, and Dennis & Nate wanted to sneak a peek at Pebble Beach Golf Course. We got close enough to see it across the bay, but that turned into wanting to move in for a closer look. Which turned into deciding to go ahead and visit the pro shop. Which turned into looking at the 1st hole. And also the 18th hole. And shopping for souvenirs. I'm surprised they're not still there, playing in the sand bunkers.  

We tried geocache hunting in a few places today, but couldn't find the first two we searched for. Finally, success on the third attempt. 1 for 3 on the day, not our best. 

Here's something I did find. A falafel sandwich on the menu at a Subway outside of San José! Score! I'm moving here. They'll never bring falafel to Subway menus in Iowa. 

We always seem to arrive at our destination city late in the day, and it was no different tonight, rolling into San Francisco after sundown. Good part, we got to see the new lights on the Bay Bridge (impressive!), but everything else can wait until tomorrow. 

Today's mileage (our final driving day!): 285. Total mileage: 2565.

Good night from Fisherman's Wharf, City by the Bay, sea level. 

more or less. 

ok, probably not less.

Day 5 - GOFDV takes a right turn

There aren't many things in life better than waking up by the ocean, especially when your home base is in a landlocked state. This morning Trevor & I answered the early alarm call and got outside when the air was still crisp. He was going for a run, but I headed for a leisurely stroll on the beach. I haven't been to Santa Monica before, so I'm surprised at what a thick hunk of beach it is -- quite a walk across the sand to get to the water. A workout in its own right.

There weren't many others out on the beach. A lady doing yoga. Some homeless people still sleeping. A couple other walkers. And a guy flying a remote-control, military-looking helicopterish thing. I was mesmerized by this odd UFO whirring around, and I watched him maneuver it for a little while. When it got closer, I got out my phone to take a picture.

 

I wonder if my rapt attention may have caused him to lose focus, because about 3 seconds after I took this photo, the odd airborne creature crash-landed and several propellers flew off. Good, because it was freaking me out a little. 

OK. Time to get our City-of-Angels Monday on. We knew our time here was going to be limited, so, much like our Arches National Park visit, we were only going to see 3 things out of about 2000. We picked a Warner Brothers Studio tour as one of them.

It's pretty cool to see sets and costumes used in movies and TV shows. Trevor really grooved on things from the Dark Knight movies... costumes and the Batcars and all. (Yes, Batmobiles. I know.) Nate--really, all of us--loved seeing the set of Big Bang Theory, although it's on hiatus from filming right now. Oh. And then there's this retired set. Recognize it? Oh my gosh I love it. 

After the WB tour, we planned to go to Grauman's Chinese Theater, or whatever it's called now, but it was all blocked off for construction/repairs/something. Traffic was horrendous. Abort! We headed for the Griffith Park Observatory for a great view of the city as well as the iconic Hollywood sign. (And a quick geocache find. These things are everywhere.)

Time for one more stop, and it was Trevor's pick. He wanted to see the former site of Sound City Studios, where many musical greats recorded albums... Fleetwood Mac, Johnny Cash, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Nirvana (we listened to their Nevermind album on the drive there to set the mood). The studio was in a warehouse-y area of Van Nuys, definitely not on any tourist maps, and Trevor was thrilled to just be in the parking lot. 

Soon on our way again, and this time we're heading a different direction -- north. Or north-ish, on the Pacific Coast Highway. One of the great drives of the U.S. Or of the world. So pretty. 

We were going to head straight to San Luis Obispo, until Nate spotted the "Golf & Stuff" minigolf off the PCH in Ventura, and thought a rematch from yesterday was in order. Sure enough, he had his mojo back today, and demolished us all handily. He's in a much better mood now.  

By sundown, we landed at our digs for the night, the darling Apple Farm Inn in San Luis Obispo. Grabbed one more geocache right next to our hotel, incidentally, at the site of the first "motor hotel" ("motel") in America. So that's fitting. 

From here on out, the pace slows down a bit. We'll head to San Fran tomorrow and stay there a few nights before hopping a train home. 

Today's mileage: 280. Total mileage: 2280.

Good night from SLO, elevation 300ft. 

-------------

p.s. Here's something weird. We've (unintentionally, even) seen THREE Mystery Machines on our trip. The real one used in the movie (pictured below) at WB Studios, plus two knockoffs. One in Utah and the other in CA. I have no explanation for this.

Day 4 - California or Bust

Beginning our drive from Vegas to L.A., I was berated for my theme-song selection of Katy Perry's "Waking Up in Vegas," one of three KPerry songs I can tolerate. The peanut gallery had their own suggestions, but I didn't have "Viva Las Vegas" on my iPhone (to my own dismay), and "Leaving Las Vegas" had been deleted from my library ages ago, being the only Sheryl Crow song I absolutely cannot stand. I did have "Pretty Vegas" by INXS 2.0, which Dennis surprisingly suggested. Good pick, and good thing I take requests.

We hadn't made a geocache find in Nevada yet (and Nate's been collecting geocaching.com state badges the way I've been collecting parks passport stamps, albeit more successfully), so we hunted down a geocache out in the middle of nowhere, Nevada (i.e. not far off the interstate). Dennis found a loose tumbleweed and tried to surprise me by throwing it (to make it tumble), but his aim was off and it hit me in the back of the head. I was surprised.

Traffic was heavy on our drive to L.A., and the drive took longer than we had hoped, but we eventually rolled into Anaheim and our planned stop at Camelot Golfland, which was named on some illustrious minigolf website as one of the best courses in the U.S.  Tournament time. Dennis squeaked out a one-stroke win over Nate on the front nine, and was cruising to victory on the back nine as well, until a tricky anthill on the 18th hole left an opening for Trevor to mount an impressive come-from-behind takedown. Nate sulked for the next hour, listing the many faults and injustices of Camelot Golfland during the drive to our destination for the night, Santa Monica.

After checking in at the charming Georgian Hotel on Santa Monica Beach, we spent the rest of the evening walking on the beach and at the Santa Monica Pier. Good family time, and great people-watching. I can't believe we're all still getting along with each other. 

We're not staying long in L.A.  Monday morning we'll hit some sites in the area and then start our drive up the coast. 

Today's mileage: 310. Total mileage: 2000. OK, that's kinda weird. I know I've been rounding to the nearest 5, but exactly 2000 miles logged from home to the Pacific Ocean? I may have to go back and audit.

-----------

Geocaching in Nevada:

Santa Monica Beach:

Santa Monica Pier:

Day 3 - STILL driving West

The trek West continues. After some initial confusion about which direction was actually west, we were back on the highway continuing our journey.

Utah has really wowed us with its incredible rock formations. We had a few hours driving through them today, in which we philosophized much about what it would have been like for the early explorers and settlers. Glad it wasn’t me. Although our own exploring today did take us off the beaten path. We were headed for two ghost towns!

The first one, Frisco, was an old silver mining town from the late 1800s. Getting to old Frisco was 45 miles off the interstate, to a place not even on the map. Cool. Back in the day, it was a real Wild West town, with 6000 people, 20+ saloons, and murders & gun fights a daily occurrence, according the accounts we read (yes, over the PA system. Still loving it). Let me tell you what I’ve learned about actual ghost towns. They’re not like on the Brady Bunch. This one was more like scattered remnants, and the buildings left were in ruins. But we did find mining equipment, a large cemetery, and these cool “beehive kilns” where they would burn charcoal to go in the silver smelter. Frisco was abandoned in 1920 when the mining was no longer successful.

I didn't learn any of these things from plaques at the town. There are none. Thank you Internet.

The other ghost town we visited, Grafton, has several buildings that have been preserved. It was abandoned apparently for two reasons – flooding, and its inhabitants were afraid of getting killed by Indians. (I know, Native Americans, but one of the gravestones said “Killed by Indians,” so I’m going for authenticity here.) 

I think, all in all, we were a little disappointed in our ghost towns. One of them was too much in ruins, and the other one was, you know, preserved, taking away from its authenticity. There's no pleasing us. I blame Hollywood. 

Grafton was very close to Zion National Park, so we popped in for a visit. By this time the boys were kinda done with breathtakingly spectacular colored rocks, and massive, unbelievable sheer cliffs, so we paid our admission, said hello, and stopped in the visitor center to get a stamp in my parks passport. Damn straight.

I liked Utah. The only thing I regret not seeing was a tumbleweed blowing across the road in one of the ghost towns. That would have been nice. We did see a cattle drive, but the cattle seemed to be following the cowboy rather than being pushed by him, so that was weird. 

We picked up two geocaches today, one in a cemetery in the little corner of Arizona we cut through. Trevor pointed out that this is the 4^th cemetery we’ve visited on our trip. So that’s weird too.

Hoover Dam -- yeah, we skipped that. #wearingdown

A word about our road-trip music. I'm normally a channel-hopper, but Spectrum XM has been our best friend these past few days… Dave Matthews Band, Avett Brothers, Beatles, Traveling Wilburys, Van Morrison… it’s been perfection. We’ve stayed with it the entire time, except for interludes of Matt Hires’s “State Lines,” played at the appropriate milestones. Love that song.

We made it to Vegas (elevation 2100 ft) and checked in at one of my favorite hotels anywhere, Aria. There could not be a more stark contrast between this and our lodging at the Robbers Roost the night before. Trevor and Nate greatly prefer the luxury and high-tech gadgets of Aria. Nate could have stayed in the room all evening, controlling everything in the room from his bedside touchpad, but we did the obligatory walk down the Strip, with all of its own weirdness. The Bellagio dancing fountains are good every time. The show we saw was choreographed to "Billie Jean," and the best one I've ever seen. 

But, 99 degrees at 10pm?? Really, Vegas??

OK, that's more than enough about Saturday. On to California Sunday!

Miles driven today: 550. Total: 1690.

Utah

"beehive" charcoal kilns at Frisco:

headstone in Grafton cemetery:

The best ghost town we visited might have been this fake one in Virgin, Utah:

Love this

GOFDV Day 2

Day two started with a campus visit to University of Colorado-Denver, which has Music Business and Recording Arts programs Trevor is interested in. The visit confirmed that UCD is a real possibility for Fall 2014. It's an urban campus but still with plenty of green space and personality. The visit was a good one, notwithstanding our student tour guide, Angel, and his penchant for excruciating detail. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to know that a certain building has an elevator that goes from the basement up to all four floors. I probably wouldn't have thought to ask about that kind of thing. 

So, the tour went a little longer than expected, but by midday we were hitting I-70 West to begin our drive through the spectacular Rockies, and the canyons that followed. Awesomeness.

 

Tip of the hat to the arsenal of apps we have at our fingertips. One of my new favorites is Altimeter, which allowed me to fixate on our elevation readings today. Very excited when we hit 11,000 feet!

My other new favorite, which I can't even begin to tell you how much I love, is Megaphone. I connect my iPhone to the van's sound system, talk into the phone mic, and my voice is amplified through the stereo system. Just like a tour guide on a bus!! No more excuses from the back seats that they can't hear me. I've been sharing geography and historical notes over my "PA" system, and while the kids haven't exactly said so, I think they must be enjoying it almost as much as I am.

Today we mostly enjoyed the great scenery, but also made time for one geocache, and a hike to Doc Holliday's grave which sits above Glenwood Springs, CO. A brief biography of Doc's life, including the infamous shootout at the OK Corral, and his death at a young age due to TB, was given over our minivan PA system prior to the stop. 

Enough dawdling-- we needed to make it to Arches National Park before the sun set! With no time to waste, we followed the Colorado River valley to Arches, but the sun was dipping. Initial frustration at not being welcomed by a multitude of arches, and we saw they were going to make us work for it. It is said that there are some 2,000 natural arches in the park. We saw 3. We drove more and looked hard for the other 1,997, but, alas, the sunlight drained out of the sky. Bust. Also, the visitor center was already closed, so I didn't get a stamp in my National Parks Passport. Double bust. 

I think our most enduring memory of Arches will be, after walking back to the parking lot from a viewpoint, when Dennis got into the wrong car... it was unlocked, so he made it all the way into the driver's seat, and spent a surprising amount of time looking for the start button. We watched and laughed.

OK, wrapping up the day... the boys climbed up a gigantic sand hill in the dark, we ate ice cream for dinner, and then finally found our way to the Robbers Roost Motel (I'm not kidding) in Green River, UT. (elevation 4070 ft, btw)  

Today's mileage: 440. Total mileage: 1140

Tomorrow: ghost towns (because I've always wanted to visit one since the Brady Bunch's Western trip), Zion National Park, Hoover Dam, and Vegas, baby! 

Thanks for listening. More to come.

------------

Rockies

Colorado River

Solar power juicing the iPad!

GOFDV Day 1

Road trip day one... we had planned to push off by 7 a.m., but thought we'd try to get an earlier start if possible, hinging on the hopes that we could get up early and get our packing finished. The day started at 5:30 a.m. with Trevor asking from outside our bedroom door, "WHY am I the only one up?!? Our lack of initiative in leaving early is upsetting."

A half hour later, we were all awake and getting our stuff together when there was a boom outside and our power went out. OK. Showers by candlelight, we can do that. Not a big deal otherwise, except for throwing off the rhythm of the morning. Trevor thought we should in no way be affected by the outage but was nervous anyway. "I hope the placebo effect of this doesn't make us more late." 

We pulled out at 7:12 a.m. Not bad.

Because of the logistics of the trip, we were to rent a van in Omaha, a couple hours into our trip, and leave our car at the train station there, awaiting our return by Amtrak in 10 days. When we arrived at the Hertz rental counter, the rep was all, "Hmmm. Well. [clicking on keyboard] We actually don't have a minivan here." I reminded him that I had a reservation for a minivan, and nearly launched into the Seinfeld sequence about the importance of HOLDING the reservation. (Anybody can just take a reservation!) I love that scene. I should've let it rip. We started shopping other options with the neighboring rental counter, when lo and behold, a minivan was miraculously returned to Hertz, and we were once again on our way. 

And on our way we were! Did you know the speed limit in Nebraska is 75 mph?? THANK YOU Nebraska!  And you know the rule of thumb that you can go 10 mph over the speed limit without getting pulled over? NOT true. Thanks also go to Officer Obrien for letting me off with a warning.

Nate kept us entertained by directing us to interesting roadside attractions. We enjoyed a coffee pot water tower, a mobile chapel in a converted semi trailer, a two-headed calf from the 1940s (taxidermied), a weird sculpture in the middle of a rest area pond, another weird sculpture of a dream-granting monkey (?), and some geocaches. The Buffalo Bill Trading Post (home of the 2-headed calf) also featured eclectic shopping. Nate bought a jackalope figurine, and Trevor bought a ninja throwing star, over my objections. He dropped it once, almost impaling his own foot.

Things we found today: 

a driver's license of Sandra Olsen, left in our rental van glovebox; raffle tickets belonging to Cathy Kloch in a rest area bathroom (sorry Cathy, it's not your lucky day); 2 geocaches; and an extra hour! We thought we were crunched for time until we realized the time change refunded us an hour. Awesome. Even had time to stop and see Dennis's Aunt Carole in Greeley, CO. 

One day, 700 miles, +4300 ft in elevation, and we're in Denver for the night. In the morning we visit a college here before heading across the mountains and into Utah. Stay tuned. 

-----------------

Coffee pot tower:

mobile chapel:

rest area competition. I didn't notice the background PDA couple until much later. C'mon people!

oh, believe it.

I don't know either.

Cathy, it's too bad you took the time to sign all of these, only to leave them in a rest area bathroom. Wait, why did you take them into a rest area bathroom??