Saturday Snippets

Enjoying a nice fall day up north. It's overcast, but the reds and yellows of the leaves are brightening up the landscape.

This morning I took advantage of an empty Saturday schedule and went for a 3.5 mile walk at a nearby lake/park. It was a great walk all in all - although I did get drizzled on a bit. The fresh air was great after being in an office or classroom much of the week.

I did have a situation that left me feeling a bit disheartened. I decided to use the restroom before I started walking. There is a nice building at the park, so the restrooms aren't scary or anything. However, half way around the trail I would only have an outhouse available. Anyway, back to the restroom. I went in and found myself having to wait. There are 2 stalls and both were occupied with females carrying on a conversation. One finished first and came out, looked at me, and then went to wash her hands. I went into the stall and minded my own business. Next thing I know, they are leaving the bathroom and the lights go out. I said something, but they had already left. I was getting ready to leave the stall anyway, but still. I had to find my way in complete darkness to the lightswitch and then back to the sink. Hello....did the one lady totally space that I was in there. When she looked at me was she really just looking through me? I'm guessing the one who didn't see me was the one who was trying to save energy by turning out the light, but still. Needless to say I had the feeling of being invisible to those around me. Not the best feeling in the world. Thankfully the walk around the lake was great and the people I encountered all said "hello" or "good morning". So, I am not invisible after all, just encountered a couple of self-absorbed women first thing.

I then headed to the grocery store. Had a great time there - didn't feel rushed, just enjoyed walking up and down the aisles and seeing what I might want to get. Went through the checkout lane just fine. At this particular store they have young workers (first job types) that walk the groceries out to your car for you. Today a young guy helped me with the groceries. Once we got to the car I had to tell him trunk or backseat. I said, " let's go with the back seat today, I've got too much junk in my trunk." I was super embarrassed at what I had just said. In "his generation's" language, "too much junk in my trunk" is slang for a well-endowed back-side. I thought about saying something to laugh it off, but in the end I let it go. I at least gave him conversation fodder with his buddies.

So, that is my Saturday thus far.

Only 3 to Go!

I've updated my map. The red indicates the states I've been to, the light gray are the ones I haven't.

I'm in Washington, DC this week for a conference for work. I stayed through the weekend to both experience DC and also take a side trip to Delaware and New Jersey to check those two states off my list.

DC is great - love the history and the cool old buildings. Today I started at the Library of Congress, walked by the Capitol, down the mall to the Washington Monument, toward the Lincoln Memorial and then over to the White House. The saddest part of the day was when I went and visited the White House. I just gathered where you could in front of the house. There were a number of protesters out there and it just didn't have a good vibe. Guess we'll see what happens in November!

By the way, I heard a Capitol policeman telling someone that the Capitol and the lawn in front of it is closing soon to tourists. They always close it 4 months before the inauguration to get it ready. Wow!

Well, it was a great trip to DC. We had a great conference - met some good candidates. I enjoyed hanging out with some of my colleagues and then spending a bit of time on my own. Tomorrow I head home and it's back to work and school!

By the way, I think 2009 will be the year to check off New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine!

Trip Wrap Up

I lost a little steam in blogging about the vacation. Now it's been almost a week since I've been back and work/school has made me feel the need for another vacation. I should be studying, but instead thought I'd blow off a little steam through the blog.



The western trek led us south from Whitefish, MT around Flathead Lake and down through Missoula into Idaho. Montana is gorgeous country. Lots of wheat fields, bales of hay, and cattle. More cattle than people they say.

We stayed in Rexburg, Idaho just outside of Idaho Falls. They have a Mormon temple in Rexburg and we were surprised to see the newspaper the morning after we stayed there. A man had somehow gotten onto the roof of the temple. It must have happened not long before we went by it. The other thing that we'll remember about Rexburg is this housing complex we went by several times. On the sign out front it read "Approved Housing for Young Ladies."

After Rexburg we headed east into Wyoming. We drove through the Grand Tetons and entered into Yellowstone National Park from the south. We had lunch at a great lodge looking at the mountains. Hard to beat that picturesque view! The weather on the day we did Yellowstone was absolutely gorgeous. Not a cloud in the sky.

We stopped at a visitor center about 20 miles from Old Faithful. While in the rest area my parents ran into people they knew from back home. Such a small world. Here we were thousands of miles from home and they know someone.

After the connection at the visitor's center, we headed on to Old Faithful. It was spectacular! We only had to wait about 40 minutes or so to see it go off. The picture above was at its highest peak. People just sit and wait patiently for the eruption.

After leaving Yellowstone we encountered forest fires in the next chain of mountains. Nothing we couldn't drive through, but lots of burnt forest. We ended the day in Cody, Wyoming.

The next morning we took off for Rapid City, South Dakota. We stopped in Buffalo, WY for lunch at The Occidental Hotel. The food was not that great, but the hotel itself was pretty cool. Lots of stuff to look at and we even were able to see some of the rooms. The hotel was over a hundred years old.

The drive through Wyoming was pretty boring. A few things to see here and there. We drove to Devil's Tower which was extremely cool. Some of the geology of the west is just amazing. We ended the night with a great dinner at The Corn Exchange in Rapid City.

The following day (Sunday), Steve flew back home and I went to Mt. Rushmore with the parents. They hadn't been there in 30 years and it had changed dramatically since they had been there. Well, the faces on the mountain hadn't, but the tourist area around it had. Still quite the amazing site. It was my 3rd time there and I would go back again. We didn't stay too long at Mt. Rushmore as we had 11 hours of driving ahead of us.

We stopped for lunch at Wall Drug in South Dakota. For those of you that have been through that area, you will remember all of the signs for Wall Drug that you see for miles and miles before you get to the town. It was a nice stop for lunch and then we headed out. Dad drove through most of South Dakota in sustained winds of 36 mph with gusts up to 50. He won the award for worst gas mileage for that portion of the trip. We got back to the Big H Ranch around 10:15 that evening and had driven 3800 miles for the whole trip. Not to mention the 1100 my parents had to drive to get up to our house and back. Lots of being in the car!

It was a great trip though. We all got along in a mini-van for 3800 miles. Had some good laughs, good meals, fun times - met relatives. We took well over 800 pictures combined. Gotta love digital cameras! I'll post additional ones in the next day or so.

Now it's back to reality. The reality of long work days, evening classes, and fall weather. Summer is over, but what a great trip to end it on!

This is my 100th post on this blog. :)

Day 5 of Road Trip 2008

Today marks Day 5 of the big western road trip. So far only a few minor annoyances from each other. Given that we have 4 adults in a minivan for hours on end, I think we are doing pretty well.

The trip started on Saturday with a drive up to Bemidji so I could actually see where I got a degree. We then crossed over the Mississippi near its origin. It was basically a small creek that we could have walked across. Very cool to see given our knowledge of how huge the Mississippi is further south. We ended the evening with a drive by where Steve vacationed with his family growing up. Very neat to see that! I guess we actually ended in Fargo for the night.

Sunday was a drive across North Dakota and eastern Montana. Who knew there would be so many cows on our trip. We saw lots of sunflower fields and even a few buffalo. We ended the day in Billings, MT.

Monday was the big reunion day for my Dad. That was the day he finally met his long-lost cousin whom he was named after. His cousin had moved out west 3 years before my dad was born and had never been back. It was fun to be involved in the reunion day. We went to lunch at a nearby resort with his cousin and his wife and the 3 of us. We then drove up into Beartooth Mountain. That night we had dinner with his cousin's daughter - my 2nd cousin and her family. It was a fun night of sharing pictures and stories. We hope to see them next summer in Illinois when his cousin finally returns to his roots. The day ended with the arrival of Steve for the road trip.

Tuesday we headed out to northern Montana. Many more cows in the fields and wide open spaces. It's amazing at how much land is out here. Supposedly the cows outnumber people in Montana. It wouldn't surprise me. We got to our hotel pretty early and decided to head up into Canada to use newly obtained passports of the parents. We ended up on a gravel road that has to be about the furthest north you can go in the continental United States. It then took us 55 minutes to get through the US/Canadian checkpoint. The border agent asked all sorts of questions. I think he just wanted to mess with us. We finally got the all clear at which point another border agent told us to "head north." We saw a lot of fields and cattle in Canada as well. We ended up in a small town for dinner at the local Dairy Queen. We then headed south through a different checkpoint which only took us about 2 minutes. At this point it was dark and the roads back to the hotel were pretty winding over a mountain. We saw a lot of cattle on the side of the road. Instead of watching for deer, we were on the lookout for black angus on the road. Very hard to see at night. We made it through though.

Today was the day to explore Glacier National Park. We drove back through the cattle mountain road that we were on last night. We were going to attempt to cross through Glacier at Logan Pass. Unfortunately the picture above shows the weather conditions of the day. It was cold and rainy. We got to the park to head up to the pass and found out the pass was closed today. Not sure if it was the 60 mph winds or possible snow in the mountains. Regardless, we couldn't go through. We ended up going back on the same road we'd been on twice already and headed around the southern end of Glacier National Park. The roads were much less treacherous - no steep drop offs which made many of the passengers feel better than what we would have encountered on Logan Pass. We stopped for lunch at West Glacier and now are at home for the night in Whitefish. We'll explore the area a bit, call it a night early, and head down to Idaho Falls tomorrow.

Great trip so far. Lots of great pictures and some fun conversations along the way.

Zed - A Nervous Dog

Tried to take Zed for a walk tonight at a local park. He's been to the dog park many times, but this was new. A path, a leash, other activities going on around him. Our walk sadly only lasted about 10 minutes.

First there were the 2 dogs that we passed. He wasn't fazed by them - too much. Then a bike went by - he did have to bark at that. You may recall that Zed freaks out with bikes. A few steps later another bike was coming towards us. I went to tighten up the leash when I realized that Zed's nervous stomach had taken over - several times. Thankfully I had picked up the disposal bags. Unfortunately it didn't clean up the best and it's not supposed to rain for a few days.

I decided to call it a night and head back to the car. I knew Zed wasn't going to make it much further. Nor did I want to have to use another bag! On the way back to the Jeep, Zed got a little spooked by all the activity so he wrapped the leash around my legs. I opened up the back of the Jeep and Zed attempted to jump in - unfortunately he was on a very short leash (since it was around my legs). He hit the edge of the ledge and flipped backwards off of it - he did this 2 times before I finally could get him untangled. Of course then he didn't want to jump up again. We got going for home. I just couldn't stop laughing when I thought about it.

Guess it'll be awhile before we go back to the park for a walk. :)

Garlic Fest 2008

We took a little trip to Howard Lake today to check out Garlic Fest. Yes, several hundred people or so there to experience all things garlic. There were people there wearing hats with garlic bulbs hanging off the back and of course a WIDE variety of attire was there.

We watched a local chef prepare garlic/cucumber soup. It was pretty interesting to watch it being made. Can't say that I tried it though. They also had a number of vendors selling different varietals of garlic, as well as other knick-knacks. (Lots of people feel the need to make homemade soaps and such. Maybe it's pretty easy to do and it smells good. Except for when you get a lot of it in a confined area.)

Probably 2 keys for the event for me was trying the garlic ice cream and the chocolate zuchinni cake. The garlic ice cream lived up to its name - pretty large pieces (in my opinion) of garlic throughout the ice cream. It was good, but I let Steve eat most of it.

To get rid of the garlic taste, I went into the little food stand and found a chocolate zuchinni cake to try. Now Steve is against all desserts that have vegetables as part of the name and recipe. So, I brought it over to where we were sitting and introduced it as just chocolate cake. He of course liked it and I asked him a couple of times - "So, you like it?" After his 2 affirmations that he indeed liked it, I let him know what was in it. Of course he had to feign indignation, but he still ended up taking a few more bites!

We left the festival with a few varieties of garlic bulb and a t-shirt of the event.

The drive was great - it was all out in the country and we just saw some neat farms, houses, etc. This one house was simply amazing with their landscaping. They had a little creek/pond in their front yard. They had all types of flowers and plants around their yard. It has to take them all weekend to keep up with the care of the lawn.

We also stopped at a great restaurant for lunch (before the garlic fest). I had the B.E.L.T. sandwich - bacon, egg, lettuce, and tomato. Such a summer sandwich - awesome!

All in all a great Saturday!

Ankle Blog Fodder

I know it's past my self-imposed curfew, but I meant to write last night and ran out of time. Been busy today and here we are at 10:30 - a good hour past my curfew. Oh well...

So, I went to my orthopedic surgeon yesterday to check in after 1.5 years after the break/surgery. I just wanted an opinion on whether or not I should get the hardware removed from my ankle at some point. Would it help the swelling go down? Would it be less sore? Would I stop feeling like I was hitting metal when I would bump up against the ankle?

It was odd to get to the building and realize that there are actually stairs up to the office versus the elevator. That was my first "new thing" there - checking out the stairs - with both feet!

Next up - more x-rays. My right ankle has had more radiation than....well, something with a lot of radiation (remember, it's after my curfew). I hopped up on the table to get the picture taken and the x-ray technician said "don't get too comfortable, I need you standing." What??? Stand on it for a picture? Guess when I was there for all of my other x-rays it was pre-weight bearing on the old ankle. We did a few pics and then I waited for the doctor to come in to talk.

Good news is that everything looks great he said - nice and healed. He pushed and prodded around the ankle and then repeated several times that "given my young age, it would make sense to have the hardware removed." (yes, he has won me over with constantly referring to my young age - versus a bartender tonight who carded everyone I was with but me.)

The doctor said that removing the hardware would potentially help the swelling go down and just the overall feeling of the ankle. He then looked closer at the x-ray in comparison with the before the screws/ after the break picture and did say there was maybe a little sign of arthritis in one area of the break. He said of course that is very typical with bone breaks.

I asked how the recovery time is for this type of surgery. He said that I would be in my walking boot for about a week while the incisions heal, but that's about it. He suggested doing the surgery mid-week and then being back at work the following Monday. I'm going into the busy time at work now, so I'll probably wait until January to do the surgery. Just in case I don't heal quite as quickly as he says, I want to make sure I won't be having to be on my feet alot at work.

So, I checked with Steve after the appointment to get his perspective. One of the first things he said was that he was for it as it would provide good blog fodder. I had been complaining that I didn't have anything to write about lately. Guess in January I'll be back to my critiquing of The Price is Right! :)