Day 4: This is what we came for!

Today we took full advantage of our 4WD and had the high adventure we were after. After finding some really great coffee at a local flower shop, we headed back west on highway 50 in search of real ghost towns. We turned south on…well, we don't really know which road! The map we were working off was…fluid, at best.  :)  Basically, we turned south and headed in to the mountains.  Again, we spent the day driving through mountain passes!

The first "town" we were looking for was Hamilton. It was another community built to support silver mining in 1868.  The road was gravel and dirt, and had deep ruts in places, but was dry, except for some snow melt. The going was slow and very bumpy!  One of us was dreadfully carsick, and the other was killing it with amazing driving. :)

After several miles we were sort of stumped with our whereabouts. The roads (can you call them roads?) in front of us didn't resemble the map at all.  As we came around one corner, I happened to look back behind and saw a grave marker. Aha! We had stumbled upon the Hamilton Cemetery.

As with all old cemeteries, this one held us in a bit of reverence.   Most of the graves were overgrown, or broken, and there were very few that were marked. We poked about, inferring the stories that lay before us, and tracking a few of the families.  At 8,000 feet, the views were amazing; white grave markers, red dogwoods and white capped mountains.  At the top of this small peak, we could see nothing for miles.

Knowing we were close, we zoomed (you know, at less than 15mph) down the hill a ways to find what was left of Hamilton.  Nobody lives here anymore and we were free to walk around, explore and take pictures.

After Hamilton, we followed a park service type sign to Belmont Mine. This wasn't in our book, but I had seen it online, and it looked amazing. Getting there was…trying.  We were way past the road less traveled.  :)

Honestly, when we came around the corner (not the first corner…) we were blown away. That this mill was tucked away in the hills, unseen, was amazing.

This felt like a ghost town -- abandoned, ruined, and lots of weird noises as the wind blew.  This was what we had been looking for. Belmont was hard to find, and we reveled in standing in a place that few have stood in that last hundred years or so.  In its day, it served as the mill for the Babylon Mine, and still has part of the tram standing.

 Of course, all of these pictures were shot from outside the structures, complying with our safety first motto...  Adventure on!

We spent our entire day about an hour from our hotel, but we saw absolutely no one. We were nestled between the Pogonip Ridge and the White Pine Range, between 7,000-8,000 feet in elevation.  There were roughly seven other mines on our map in the area, but none were apparent to the naked eye. Almost 150 years later, the land has not changed that much! It was such a beautiful area, but so hard to imagine how people found veins to mine, how they traveled here and ultimately lived and worked.

Tomorrow is National Park day -- Great Basin here we come!

Day 3: The Loneliest Road in America

Today we found that the moniker for Route 50 is so true. But that comes later in the day!

We started the day just outside of Fallon at Grimes Point looking at petroglyphs.  Yesterday we spent the day living and breathing the Comstock Lode, and going back so far in time to petroglyphs was fun! There weren't real recognizable images, but it was a fun discovery none the less.

After Grimes Point, we headed just around the corner to Picnic Cave.  The full trail included hikes to Hidden Cave which is more famous, but it was SO hot, and at around 6,000 feet, so hiking for me in particular wasn't super conducive.  I packed 3 bottles of nail polish, but not my inhaler…  Nice.  I was a little bummed not to see the famous "lizard" petroglyph, but we wound back down a different trail to the car. And there it was!! This was the most recognizable petroglyph, and very easy to see (meaning it was one of the newer ones).

Next stop was Sand Springs Station and Sand Mountain. Oh, and sunburn capital of Spring Break. At this point it's unclear what is sunburn and what is heat rash…  I suppose given a few more hours it will be clear! Sand Spring Station was a Pony Express Station. Of course we are saturated in Pony Express information, and we won't bore you with all of it, but here's a quick fact I thought was interesting: horses were changed out every 12-15 miles, but riders were changed out every 75-100 miles. In the photo below, note the preferred rider!

The terrain here was…hot! Actually, that's not what I was going to say. :)  I'm just sitting here watching my skin get redder and redder!  The terrain was actually very diversified.  There was quite a bit of sand, which turned in places to salt flats.

Sand Mountain, which was in the back is this amazing 2 mile long, 600 foot tall dune, right in the middle of…nowhere!  The sand is from a dried up lake (you know, 4,000 years ago), which blows around and because of the way the wind blows and the surrounding mountains, drops right where the dune is. That is an incredibly simplified explanation, but it's close enough! The other cool thing is that it is a "singing dune". We didn't experience this phenomena, but evidently when the wind blows, the sand "sings" as it blows across the dune.

This is where the Loneliest Road comes in to play.  Driving east on 50, we saw…lots of nothing. Amazing mountains and valleys, and not a lot of people. We pulled off the road whenever there was a historical marker, and we went down random roads in search of adventure.  One of these adventures was in search of the Fairview Fault Lines. I know, who seeks out a fault line? This took us on to Naval Air Station land, across a very washed out road. I ended up driving for a large portion of this stretch. You know, driving, instead of yakking… We didn't actually get far enough to get up to Fairview Peak to see the fault, but this was high adventure -- 4 wheel drive, cows, weird military stuff…  The stuff that  Spring Breaks are made of!

In Austin, we stopped at the International Hotel. It was the "free bathroom" sign that caught my attention. I had by-passed an outhouse earlier in the trek. You know, because I have an irrational fear of something jumping out of those things. Not kidding.  The International Hotel was actually built in Virginia City in 1859 and moved to Austin a few years later. It isn't a hotel anymore, but has the best bathroom for about 100 miles, and a lovely lady who bakes a mean cookie.

After Austin there was…wildlife? I mean there was almost nothing.  The land changed over and over. We went through 9 mountain passes, made elevation changes totaling about 3,000 feet and saw a lot of animals that we didn't expect to! Lots of cows, donkeys, lizards, jackrabbits, deer, and 3 extremely large elk that were too close to the road for us! What we didn't see a lot of was…water.  Nine mountain passes, means there were quite a few valleys, but no rivers or lakes. Even driving through River Valley ( BSHSW -- we are not making that up!), there was not a river in sight.

It took the entire day, but we finally rolled in to Ely.  We are filthy, and exhausted, and loving every second of this really weird vacation we're on!!

Day 2: The Comstock Lode

We cannot believe it's only Monday! In fact, we had the best vacation experience today -- at a State Park, we couldn't come up with the date to write on our entrance fee slip, and had to really think to come up with the day of the week. If you don't write it on the board in the morning, the date just sort of slips away!  :)

We headed out of Tahoe today, north before we headed east on the Loneliest Road in America. No, that's not my snarky sense of humor -- that's what it's really called! Today was all about the Comstock Lode.  We hit Carson City first, just on a drive-through, and headed up in to the hills to Gold Canyon.  Here we were struck by the fact that mining isn't a history lesson, but something that is ongoing. We drove past a sign announcing upcoming mining blasts, and in several places were able to see 21st century equipment side by side with ruins.  The Comstock Lode may be part of history, but the Comstock Project is happening right now!

Virginia City was the destination this afternoon, and it didn't disappoint!  Back in the day, there were upwards of 15,000 residents working and living in the mining community.  The main drag had original storefronts and saloons, and was a fun walk through the past.  We opted not to eat at Bucket of Blood Saloon (shocker!), but had amazing waffle concoctions at the Roaster.  Virginia City, is unbelievably, the birth place of Mark Twain. I know, sounds wrong, but it was the first city where he used his pen name, writing for the Territorial Enterprise.

From Virginia City, we headed back down the hills, to Carson River, where we….took the road less traveled.  What's a road trip without a gravel road?  This road was part of the Pony Express Trail -- man, I love that we were driving on the same path that riders rode years before! The road wound through deserted and active ranches, hugging tight to the river.  At the time, I thought that the RBC I spotted (that's a really big cow) was the find of the day. Really -- it was huge!  But then…far off in the distance we saw some dust rising up indicating a vehicle was coming. And as it got closer (don't presume that we were actually cutting the distance) we both were stymied by what we are seeing. One thing that was true was that this thing was hauling -- moving upwards of 60 mph.  And the other thing that was true was that it was a tank!  We had stumbled upon an automative test area.  And that's all that we are cleared to say at this time.  Ha!

Then, all of a sudden, the road turned back to pavement, and up on the hill was Fort Churchill. Seeing it after this long road felt like a major discovery!  Fort Churchill was established in 1860 after an "incident" with the American Indians.  The buildings were all created using bricks and stand in various states of ruin. The awesome thing was that for the most part, we were the only ones there.  It was sunny and 70 degrees and we had fun just poking in and out of the buildings and taking amazing pictures.

We are now snuggled in to an amazing room for where we are -- Fallon.  Tomorrow we anticipate more sunshine and discovery!

Seattle to Reno to Tahoe!

Our adventure is barely 12 hours old, but already we have done so much! The real adventure came at around 7:30 (yes, AM) when we heard our names on the airport loudspeaker. Huh. How many planes are ready to leave early? You know, ready except for the two missing passengers. Yikes!  So after a quick morning jog, we boarded what is the smallest plane I have flown in outside of Alaska. I mean bigger than a Cessna or something, but seemed so small to be flying out of SeaTac. Needless to say, we were wedged in like sardines.  Thank you, thank you, thank you that our flight was short!

Arriving upon Reno is when our typical Spring Break adventure began.  We have flown in to Atlanta twice, and each time, we have gone through multiple cars before getting one that was just right.  I have many "selfies" waiting with our luggage in Atlanta while mom exchanged car after car. In Reno, we got to our car -- a giant Ford Explorer. Four wheel drive, roomy, clean…and then we started the car.  And the "check engine oil" light came on.  

ACM Break -- The Band Perry is singing….

Anyway, there was a lot of laughter as we began the process of exchanging cars in yet another airport. It's looking like a trend at this point!

From Reno, we drove up through the mountains and in to Tahoe where we are staying just across the state line in California.  Lake Tahoe is everything we had heard -- huge, clear and beautiful! We had amazing pizza for dinner -- yes pizza that rivaled Fultanos, Lahaina Pizza Co., and whatever that place in Bermuda was.  

We have mapped out tomorrow and are ready to forget what a normal Monday would hold and explore some ghost towns!!

Countdown Begins

"We live on electronic media and often spend days seeing nothing but pixels. The [National] parks remind us life should be better than that. We can be strong and independent, self-reliant and brave. They remind us that Earth was not meant to be paved, and we were not meant to be the sole inhabitants of it, that true beauty does not hang on walls, but is ever-changing, unpredictable, dangerous, and awesome."
~Nevada Barr

20 years of Spring Breaks!!!  Seriously, I think my math is correct: 4 years of college + 16 years of teaching.  O.  M.  G.  To celebrate this auspicious occasion, we are (drumroll please….) driving across Nevada! Ha, not your first guess, right? :) It's a road trip, and National Park trip -- our favorites.  We are anticipating temperatures that range across 40 degrees, ghost towns, weird stuff I can't now anticipate, food I won't eat, no real coffee to speak of and questionable hotel (hmmm….read:motel) beds.  So why did we pick this trip? Despite our suburban exteriors, we have an overwhelming sense of adventure and a love of the wild west.  And even though Charles Rawlinson didn't go to every single park in the United States, we always feel that he has walked the "long long trail" before us.  I'm pretty sure he didn't end up at the slot machines at the MGM afterward, but, you know, be your own person. Ha!!

I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait!!!  See you on the road on the April 6th!

Aloha!

When I was in high school my church youth group was invited to a Native American island in Alaska. After spending a week there, they sent us off without goodbyes, insisting that it was "see you later", leaving the door open to see one another again. I think that is the spirit of "aloha" since it expresses both hello and goodbye.  Today was our last day in Maui, and though we had a great time at the pool this morning, we had a bit of sadness towards the afternoon.  We love it here.   

So, in the spirit of a last day, here are our favorites. And don't worry, we didn't stay sad very long. We had some fruity beverages and went shopping -- that will cure any ailment! :)

Favorite Food

Ann: The mahi with the citrus rub and passionfruit sauce.

Erica: Also mahi! Mine had a yummy Thai coconut sauce. 

Favorite Beverage

Ann:  Passionfruit Smoothie

Erica: Ack! I forgot about the smoothie. I loved that. But I also loved the green flash colada.  (I drank more this week than I have in years!).

Favorite Experience

Ann:  The jeep trip on Lanai. The unknown of it made it so fun!

Erica:  Turtles at Turtle Town. Have I mentioned I love those guys?

Favorite Purchase

Ann: Croc Sandals - oceanspray in color. 

Erica: Is it cheating to say a purchase made before the trip? My grown up sunglasses were awesome.  They aren't red, retro or with flowers, but they worked great (and looked divine if I do say so myself).

Favorite Photograph

Ann:  The series of remote pictures at Shipwreck Beach. And again, I didn't bring the tripod. I mean, I brought it on the trip, but not on the mini-trip. Sigh.

Erica:  I really like the remote picture from the mile 17 stop on Haleakala.

Favorite Cookie Flavor

Ann: Pineapple Mac Nut

Erica: Lilikoi Mango

Favorite Uncontrollable Laughter

Ann: Gotta be in the jeep. Half of what happened didn't make the blog... Although the first time in the water at Kaanapali trying to put flippers on was pretty awesome. 

Erica:  Hmmm.  We laughed so much! I would agree with the jeep though.  The laughter was coupled with anxiety about not having a bathroom. That made me a little more hysterical.

It's time to pack up the computer! Thanks for traveling with us. Aloha!

Down that Red Dirt Road

We didn't pick blackberries, have a beer or wreck a car, but I was still humming that Brooks and Dunn song the whole day because we were driving down a red dirt road. Thursday was our adventure day. We took a ferry to Lanai where we rented a jeep for the day.

Now that I've been on the roads of Lanai, I'm not sure what the hoopla is for the Road to Hana.  If you've been to DisneyLand, the best way I can describe the ride was a cross between Star Tours and Indiana Jones. The road was mostly dirt, in some places was washed out, others had large boulders in the road, and a lot of it was washboard quality.  Inside the jeep we were bobbing all over the place. Mom was driving, and I was holding fiercely to the handle on the dashboard just to keep from flying around the jeep. Good thing we had a hardtop or we might have bounced right out of the car!

For the first part of our day we headed to the Garden of the Gods.  This is a strange place with rocks scattered willy nilly. They are volcanic for sure, but like nothing we have seen before on the islands.  Seen Galaxy Quest? It looks like the "Gorignak" portion was filmed here.  There were also some little plants that were trying to survive the harsh conditions, and even I was impressed with them.

From the Garden of the Gods we continued our drive to Polihua Beach. This is where the road took a turn for the worse. On the map from the jeep people, they wrote "bumpy". But on other places they had written, "caution", "closed" and "4wd" so this seemed somewhat benign.  It was a 4wd road if there ever was one!  I think the fastest we drove was about 7mph -- and that seemed fast!! I had an anti-nausea patch on, and actually had a ball! There was lots of laughter and screaming. Since I'm not really a swearer, I was making up Hawaiian words to yell, which just added to the chaos.

Polihua Beach is beautiful. We were the only ones there, so it seemed even more tropical and remote. Okay, to be honest, we were the only ones anywhere we went outside of Lanai City.  We had swimsuits in the car, but even from the shore we could tell the current was extremely strong, so we passed on swimming (safety first!).

After Polihua Beach we had a little time to venture down to Shipwreck Beach. Luckily the road was paved most of the way which was a real treat! As you might have imagined, Shipwreck Beach has been the site of many a shipwrecks. Most notably is an oil tanker from the 40s that was grounded on the reef. It's also the spot where trade winds blow through -- there is a lot of debris washed up on the beach.

This was also a site of a fun remote picture. Even though you can turn your iPhone camera around and take a picture, we love the setting up of a remote picture, the running, and general hilarity.  Mom always sets the pictures up and then dashes over to where I'm waiting. This time there was lots of rocks in the way, and 10 seconds wasn't long enough!

Also at Shipwreck beach we saw some turtles having some lunch. They were right close to the shore, munching on -- you know, whatever turtles eat.  It seemed like hard work because they would get tossed around in the surf and nearly come ashore and then be dragged out a little further and paddle back.

Lanai certainly felt like a remote destination. We both commented on what it might look like 20 years from now.  Dole (Pineapple) no longer owns it and the new owner has already lengthened the runway to allow for jets. It seems like development might be just around the corner.

We left Lanai at sunset, exhausted from the ride, and SO dirty!

Friday is definitely a pool day.