After a fantastic night at the Rock Rabbit in Pinedale, WY we drove home with a cousin of our freind Susan’s to Daniel, WY wheere we head beds for the night. We rolled in and stargazed for a while and then chatted until, yawning, we retreated to our beds. Heather got up at 4am to watch the Lunar Eclipse and I’m kicking myself for not joining her – but sometimes I guess it’s good for us to get our majesty apart from one another. The next morning we hung out for as long as the clock would allow us, really falling in Love with our new friends and with their gorgeous ranch – but alas, sooner than we wished it was time to get on the road.
The wayward daughter came home sometime in the middle of the night, remembered that there was company and… in order not to wake us slept outside on the porch in a sleeping bag in the freeeezing temps. They’re a different breed out here. the beautiful mountains of Daniel, WY. We tried really, really hard to get the dog to join us for the picture, but he got there late. But he was still ready to play with Heather.
October 8th, 2014 – on the road to Yellowstone.
Let me see if I can pick up where I left off. We’ve been on a fast and furious schedule for the past week or so and I haven’t had time to think, much less write.
When last we left our heroes, I guess I was facing the awkwardness of having my pickup die back at Jives Coffee Lounge in Colorado Springs. We did fine, it was just awkward as Hell, and frankly – we actually had a marvelous show. We met a couple of marvelous dogs, and humans too – and then we hightailed it up to Fort Collins where my friend Jennie (old friend – from MICA!) Lives with her beau, working on her PhD and creating beautiful things. Much to our chagrin, we didn’t spend as much time catching up as I’d have liked because Sunday morning we had a gig at Unity of Fort Collins playing their church service.
Now – I was kind of weird about this gig heading in, but the guy who asked us to do it, Franklin Taggert, is another old, old friend – and strangely enough – an old friend of EACH of us from different quarters. He’s known Kristen since she and Franklin worked together at House of Musical Traditions many years ago. He knows me from being brought to one of my PLOJes (probably via Audrey?) and knew Heather from an OK Café (a song circle thing that Audrey used to throw pretty regularly) – so we should trust him, plus he’s a local DJ and helped us land our other gig and a radio show while we were in town…
and lotto tickets. With a jackalope logo! Now THAT’S LUCKY!!!
And he was right about the church service too – what a phenomenal group of people! For as groggy as we were in danger of being, we really had a Lovely time. Just about the most welcoming batch of people you could hope to meet, and a good service to boot. Their “minister” (they call them “spiritual leaders”, actually) was a great speaker – and during both services, Franklin mentioned to the congregation that we’d be playing another show later in the day – and for as awkward as I thought the whole “and after church, get yo ass to the bar!” concept was, there was a lot to be said for people telling their Spiritual Leader that they were coming with her to a show. After the Unity Church services, after the chili cook-off afterwards, (yum!) – we had a very, very full house at Pateros Creek Brewery in Fort Collins. Not at ALL bad for a Sunday afternoon.
And on top of everything else, Franklin let me play his guitar, so I managed to evade the whole broken pick-up thing for a little bit longer.
Monday saw us doing Franklin’s “Live @ Lunch” radio show on KFRC and having a wonderful time trying not to curse on Live community radio (actually, it was a great interview and we had a great time) and then piling into the car to be shown around some parks by Jennie. I was super-grateful that she was able to take off from work and run around with us. We can certainly be self-guided, but sometimes it’s so just SO nice to have a friend to romp with, and I hadn’t seen Jennie in SEVEN YEARS. Infuckingexcusable.
It’s kind of amazing to be reminded that cowboys DO still exist and they’re a part of Life out here. I wonder what the benefits package is like. Admiring the scenery as we first head through the Tetons and then up to Yellowstone, National Park.
Tuesday morning we got ourselves into the car and headed off for alien shores. Pinedale, WY beckoned and we got to cross another state off the “played there” list. The Rock Rabbit’s open mic was really loose but a LOT of fun with a bunch of other talented people on the list and a huge houseful of people that all knew one another. It turned out that our host in town is kind of a pretty central social figure in the area and when she said to people “come and check out this band…” well, people turned out in force. The host was thrilled, remarking there were about triple the normal number of people in the place.
Jackson, WY – the last waypoint on the way into the South Entrance of Yellowstone National Park. We dropped in for coffee and to stretch before the last push, and discovered the Antler Arches which are made from antlers found in the woods by Boy Scouts. the result of Heather saying “NO – look like you LIKE EACH OTHER!!!” just some cool owl-drawing on the walls of Jackson (possibly Hole), WY.
Pinedale’s really a sweet little place, sort of like a smaller version of Fort Collins – and it’s adding another nail to the “Heather Loves the West” coffin. I’ve always Loved it out here, ever since I was introduced to the area via family trips when I was a kid, but I must
admit to being kind of caught off-guard by Heather’s enthusiasm. By the time we’d departed the Rabbit her Love of the area is verging on mania… I think that might be all I’ve got to say for right now – we’ve got another 2.5 hours till bed tonight and it’s 10.30pm, Christina Aguilera is wailing on the radio, and Heather’s wailing on top. I think Kristen’s editing video (she’s definitely complaining about my crotch – probably a side-effect of me accidentally pressing “record” in the camera while in my pocket… I noticed it getting hot, but it takes a couple of HOURS to get hot…) and I think I’m just about done typing. It’s always less fun to simply recount – maybe I’ll feel poetic on the way to Seattle tomorrow? The moon is just waning from full over my right shoulder and a brief rest area flashes back before we’re returned to the darkness of western Montana. I’m grateful for the minivan that’s pacing us – what with signs that have warned variously of “deer”, “bison”, generic “wildlife crossing”, “Big Horn Sheep”, “falling rock”, “fallen rock”, “DUI enforcement”, simple “ice” and in one case “Night of Terror” all with a 75mph speed limit, I think I’m glad we’ve got a blocker.
Something I don’t really remember from my childhood trip – but which became a HUGE part of OUR visit to Yellowstone, were the boiling springs and geothermic phenomena – as such I was both really excited to see them, and totally unprepared for how amazing they were.
upComing and inComing? Daniel, WY. Yellowstone. And more!
Ha. I’d forgotten to make a big deal of another first. Not only was our appearance at the Rock Rabbit in Pinedale, WY an absolutely fabulous night – but it was our first time performing in Wyoming! Eleven years and we’d never played Wyoming, and never even BEEN to Nebraska. Well… that’s taken care of. It got me thinking about the List and whether or not next year’s BIG tour ought to finish it off… In the continental United States WE’VE never been to Florida, North Dakota, Michigan, Minnesota, South Dakota or Wisconsin. I’ve been through the majority of those, and Heather’s been to Florida – but not as ilyAIMY… In addition, we’ve passed through Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Montana (as of an hour ago) but never played there. We need to cross those 10 states off our list!
This trip has been so wonderful, I’m already trying to wrap my brain around getting back out to a lot of these places next year. I still really adore the travel, and Heather’s just been glowing with the Western states. Kristen seems to be more than merely tolerating it to boot. Now would NOT be the moment to ask…
Alright – in the vast Journal movement – here comes the dread (but welcome) PHOTO DUMP!!! SO much stuff didn’t fit in the original Journal! – rob 10/6/21
Jackson Lake had the beautiful human phenomena of more rock stacking (like we saw in New Orleans!) and selfies (like we saw in New Orleans!) The day was stunning, the air beautiful. On with the adventure!
One of the first things we encountered was Jackson Lake. Heather and I immediately clamboured down to the water! Alas, I’m a slave driver – and forced us to have more fun before Heather could do much rock stacking… Various warnings about what roads were closed (we’re LATE in the season), about not wandering off the trails in thermal areas, various bear tips… and of course the fact that drones are prohibited. I wonder how recently THAT rule went into effect? Just a couple of months ago I saw my first privately-operated drone in operation while Kristen and I were playing down in Wilmington, NC – but as recently as a month or three ago they were on sale for stupid-low prices online and I’d even toyed with the idea of buying one to get pics of us shooting down the highway.. Our first animal of Yellowstone – minus a dog that I photographed through some bushes before I realized what it was. Sarlacc pit or steam vent? Yellowstone contains up to 3/4 of all of the world’s geothermic surface phenomena all in one National park and it is both stunning and terrifying. Mineral deposits give different springs and hot pools distinctive colours… and a potentially nasty acidity. Exploring the boiling springs of Yellowstone National Park. I have SO many photographs of all this, the Journal’s not going to really do them justice, even with the addition of the Video Diary – I think the only way for this to really work is for YOU to come HERE and you can ply me with coffee and cookies and I’ll tell you can call me Usul and I’ll tell you of my homeworld in a vast show and tell that will go till one or the other of us is either sick of visual stimulation, my company, or cookies. An elk unhurriedly crossing the road ahead of us made for our second animal of Yellowstone. Interestingly, when we got closer we noticed some of them had radio collars on. We can only assume that the elk population was long-ago depleted, and that these were elkdroids placed here to make their loss go unfelt. Kristen didn’t do as much climbing up or down as Heather and I did. She mostly stayed below or above us and danced to try and tempt us back . Often the springs and things were after a bit of a walk, their existance only hinted at by steam on the top of the hill and ominous hissing sounds. a boiling hot spring: water heated by magma coursing just below the surface. It’s like the moon… on fire. The devestation surrounding some of these sites is spectacular, and the unending war betwixt fire and water ends with steam and colour and noise and the spindly remnants of dead trees. a boiling spring after all the warnings about how fragile the earth was around here, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that the animals still congregate here. Antelope can’t read. the Dragon’s Mouth Spring – “An unknown park visitor named this feature around 1912 perhaps due to the water that frequently surged from the cave like the lashing of a dragon’s tongue…” Or perhaps due to the fact that there’s like SMOKE coming out of this CAVE and it sounds like there’s growling coming from down there. I can’t imagine what the first people to encounter this must’ve thought – even in the day light it’s unsettling. Apparently, the first white men to come back with tales of the area were treated for delerium. Various pictures of mud volcanoes and areas where hot spots have literally burned through the parking lot. These burn-throughs are slightly terrifying when you think about it. an unmolested road takes us deeper into the park. beautiful scenic Yellowstone Grand Canyon of Yellowstone! Yeah – they don’t call it GRAND for nothing. Normally, whenever people are slowing down to look at something it’s safe to assume a cop has pulled somebody over, or there’s been an accident and everyone’s slowing down to look because we’re mundane creatures. In Yellowstone, we quickly learned that if ONE person pulls over, you’ll want to pull over too, and strain your eyes till you figure out what we’re all looking at. The moment this elk resolved out of the forest almost on top of us was BREATHTAKING. A particularly animate looking tree some beautiful slender white-barked beests. The sun going down and the full moon rising in Yellowstone National Park. The Big Dipper and the Moon. As per usual, a bunch of people were pulled over, and we pulled over, looking into the fields to try and find what we were missing – and then the moon came into view and we knew what we’d been looking for. As darkness fell, we slowly made our way through the park to the Snow Lodge and entered into a Wes Andersonish world of beautifully upkept 5190’s grandeur.
