The Phallic Road Trip

Not the best night of sleep on an air mattress with no pillow, but I made due. Laying in Will’s basement right now; can’t tell if if it’s raining, but the forecast calls for a 90% chance of rain all day.

It’s about 9:45 and everyone else is still sleeping. The goal for today is to head over to Banff, outside of Calgary, to see the park and do a little hiking, rain or shine.

Haven’t been carrying my camera around, just been enjoying seeing Calgary through the eyes of a local. After picking up Andrea and her friend from the airport with Will yesterday morning, the six of us met at a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch.

Later in the afternoon, we went to a bar called Melrose’s, a popular sports bar near the Saddledome, where the Flames play hockey. We were planning on grabbing a few drinks there before heading over to another bigger sports hangout called Flames Central to see the basketball game, but it was reserved for a corporate function.

We headed back in the direction of Melrose’s, on 17th Avenue, where there are a lot of similar bars. We bounced around with Will and his friend Ragim, ending up back at Will’s place at around 2:30.

The consensus around here is that Wednesday nights are great nights to go out, but we’ll have to see how we’re feeling. Definitely would love to stay, but we do have another 700 miles to get to Seattle by the end of the week, with a stop in Vancouver along the way, time permitting.

For the first time since Minnesota, we’ve been able to sleep in without being concerned with a check-out time. We’re currently at my friend Will’s place in Calgary, crashing in his basement temporarily before heading towards Vancouver.

We arrived yesterday afternoon at around 5, earlier than we had planned. We were hoping to spend more of our day in Glacier yesterday, and got an early start to the day to do so. But as we were driving west to east through the one main road that cuts through the park, we found out that it was closed in the middle for road construction. We ended up going around the south end of the park, which was about 100 miles, on slow, winding roads.

We got to the entrance with the trail we were hoping to do, but by then, thunderstorms were nearing and we found out that half the trail was still covered in snow. Turns out we’re just a little too early in the season to catch some of these parks, especially Glacier. Still glad we saw it, but to really experience it, we’d have to visit sometime between July and September.

We left the park at around 12:30 and crossed the border into Alberta, stopping briefly for lunch before making our way to Calgary. Justin ambitiously petitioned that we solely listen to music by Canadian artists during our time in Canada — i.e. Avril Lavigne, Nickelback, Bryan Adams, Sum 41, Celine Dion. That lasted about 30-40 minutes before we all cried uncle.

Will was off work by the time we arrived at his place. We went out for a few drinks at a place called Earl’s, followed by some sheesha at the place he works, Narah. We finished the night at another bar, before coming back here to catch up on some sleep.

Heading out with Will in a few minutes to pick up our friend, Andrea, who is coming to Calgary from Seattle for a few nights with a friend who is here on business. The plan for now is to spend the day hanging out around here, go out tonight, then see Banff tomorrow.

Sounds like Wednesday night is a good night to go out here in Calgary, but from Banff, we will probably start making our way to Vancouver, since that’ll take about 12 hours.

We were hoping to get out this morning in jackets and shorts to hike around Glacier, but we’ll probably have to stick to jeans. It’s currently 38 in the park, with a high later this afternoon of 51.

Isolated thunderstorms are supposed to set in around 2, so we’re up early this morning. It’s 7:20 right now and John and Justin are taking turns taking showers. Hopefully, we can load the car and grab some quick breakfast in the next hour, so that we can start the drive over.

We spent the night here in Whitefish, Montana, about 25 miles from the west entrance of the park. There’s a 9-mile trail we’re hoping to do called the Iceberg Lake Trail, which seems to be “the” trail to do if you only have the chance to do one. The trail entrance is on the east side of the park, so it might take a little while to get there.

Though it’s early, we’re mostly well-rested. We got into Whitefish early yesterday and checked into a hotel at around 5 o’clock. We picked up some beer and Taco John’s — “The Fresh Taste of West-Mex” — and watched the basketball game, Talk Sex with Sue Johanson, and some coverage of the British House of Commons — surprisingly entertaining.

We were on the road for about 250 miles yesterday, winding north from Butte, through Missoula on I-90, before taking a beautiful state road past Flathead Lake to Whitefish. Yesterday was some of the most scenic driving yet. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures since I was driving — just a few of the huge lake when we pulled over.

I was going to pass my camera to John — who was riding shotgun — but his hands were full with the iPod, the GPS and his phone, which he was using to follow the Yankees game.

Not sure what time we’ll leave the park today, but we’re figuring sometime between 2 and 3, given the chance for rain. Afterwards, we’ll get back on the road, cross the border, and make our way to Calgary for the night. Might be a slow drive — another 200 miles — but we hopefully won’t get in much later than 8.

Next stop: continental breakfast. We haven’t been taking advantage of these, but will today for the first time.

The plan was to crash last night in Idaho Falls and spend the whole day today driving up to Glacier National Park. But we got through Grand Teton pretty quickly yesterday, so we drove another 200 miles and crashed here in Butte, Montana, about 240 miles from Glacier.

So we’ll get to take it easy today and run a few errands. We’re aiming to get to a hotel tonight before 7, in time to see Game 2 of the NBA Finals.

Leaving West Yellowstone yesterday, we had clear weather, but we again hit snow as we drove through the southern end of Yellowstone. As we got through Grand Teton, it started to turn to rain and eventually cleared up in patches, but was still on and off.

Seeing these parks by car hasn’t been ideal, but with a busy schedule and poor weather, we haven’t had much of a choice. There were a few trails we could’ve tried towards the end, but most of the good ones looked like they were on the north end, where the weather had still been rough.

Leaving Grand Teton and getting to Idaho Falls to get on I-15 wound us through about 90 miles of scenic mountainous backcountry, through Wyoming and eastern Idaho on a two-lane road. Though there was some static, we did listen to ESPN Radio in the car, trying to catch some coverage of the Belmont.

Once we hit the interstate, it was eerie how long and straight the highway was; with nothing for miles and miles, we could see the rain clouds we were about to hit — 25 miles away.

Today will be another quiet day, but restful, since we’ll only be on the road for about four hours. It’s good to be a little ahead of schedule, so that we aren’t exhausted by the time we hit Canada. Still fiddling around with exactly how our next couple of days will go — between Calgary, Banff and Vancouver — but for sure, we will do Glacier tomorrow.

No matter what, we have to be in Seattle on Saturday for our first game in almost two weeks.

When we first woke up today, we heard a little rain; looking at the forecast, it looks like we’ll have a mix of showers and isolated thunderstorms during our tour of Grand Teton. The high is still only supposed to be around 40, but that is a major improvement over yesterday’s snowstorm.

We got into Yellowstone early yesterday afternoon after leaving Gardiner. It was cloudy going in, and started raining once we got to the first visitor center, so instead of hitting any trails, we started driving around the park.

The ranger at the entrance told us that one of the major roads was closed due to snow, but that the rest were open. As we made our way from the north entrance into the center of the park though, we began to hit some really bad snow. The roads were still open, but at times, the visibility was 200-300 feet — if that.

It was a shame — not because it was cold, just because we couldn’t see anything. We got to a few major landmarks, but the fog blocked most views of the mountains and canyons. Along the drive though, we did see several bison herds, a few deer and a lone wolf.

As we made our way to the southwestern part of the park, towards Old Faithful along Yellowstone Lake, everything started to clear up. For about 30 minutes, we had a pretty scenic drive, but once we neared the geyser, the storm picked up again.

We got to Old Faithful and saw a large crowd huddled in jackets and under umbrellas. We parked, and as we started walking, everyone started walking back to their cars. Our timing was perfect. Unfortunately, even being within a few hundred feet of the geyser, we could barely see a thing.

Afterwards, we drove out the west entrance of the park and got a few good shots as the weather started to clear again before finding a room for the night in West Yellowstone, Wyoming. We got in early, brought some food to the room and watched TV before passing out, to get a full night of sleep.

Today, we’ll have to drive back through the southwestern part of Yellowstone this morning — about 50 miles — to leave through the southern end and make the eight miles in between to Grand Teton. From what we’ve read, Grand Teton is supposed to be smaller and more manageable for a day trip. On our way, we’ll be passing by Old Faithful again, so we might stop by for a second try.

Tonight, our plan is to make it to Idaho Falls, Idaho, from where we could begin heading north to Glacier tomorrow. Looking at the forecasts, it looks like we’ll be running into similar conditions there, but we’ll have to wait and see.

All told, in our first seven days, we’ve done more than 2,000 miles — over a quarter of our total journey. We have another busy week ahead of us, but we’ll be able to slow down once we reach California in mid-June.

So far, we’re sticking to our schedule, but we might have to adjust depending on the rain.

We got up really early yesterday to get to Mount Rushmore around when the gates opened at 8, since the forecast was showing increasing rain as the morning went on. When we got there, the monument was hidden in a heavy fog, but after we walked around the half-mile trail, it started to clear up. Though it was cloudy, we were finally able to get some clear shots of the four guys on the wall, as Justin’s father calls it.

Leaving Rapid City, we hit some really bad storms. It didn’t start clearing up until we left South Dakota, got through part of Wyoming and into Montana. We saw a lot of beautiful scenery as we crossed the state, especially as we neared the Rockies; pictures from the car couldn’t do it justice.

All told yesterday, we drove something over 500 miles, which made for a long day in the car. We arrived in Gardiner, Montana at around 7 last night, where we had booked a hotel outside of the north entrance to Yellowstone.

We drove through the very, very small town quickly to see what dinner options we had, ultimately settling on the Antler Pub & Grill across the street.

We walked in and at first felt like deer in the headlights. It was a smoky second story bar attached to a Comfort Inn, with what looked like a couple of truckers and a tourist couple sitting at the bar doing shots. We were going to awkwardly make our way out, but the bartender was so damn friendly, we couldn’t leave.

He turned on the basketball game and the couple passed along their appetizers they hadn’t eaten. The bartender only had local microbrews on tap, and gave us samples. We ultimately decided on the red ale — the Glacier Ale.

To eat, we all tried the local favorite, the Crazy Mountain Alfredo, and had a few drinks. As the game ended, we prepared to close our tab, but the bar began to get crowded and we started making friends. We switched over to the brown ale — the Moose Drool — and spent the next four hours talking with the cute bartender from Green Bay — who moved here for the summer in between semesters at the University of Wisconsin — a couple of guys from London — who could’ve been our grandfathers — and two buddies with a kid from Joliet, Illinois — who had bought a minivan and were heading west.

So much for getting to sleep early: we stayed till last call at 2. We haven’t gotten an early start to the day, but it was light until well past 9 last night, so if the rain clouds clear up, we still should be able to get a full day in Yellowstone.

Not sure where we’ll be staying tonight, but we’re taking it as it comes. We still want to see Grand Teton and Glacier, before heading up towards Calgary early next week.