After another late start, but managed to make it to Snowbird for an afternoon of boarding. It was a stunningly warm, bluebird day today, and it’d be a waste not to go boarding.
The drive to Snowbird was only about half an hour, and took me through some pretty hilly terrain. Most of the resort area was closed down, but a lot of the hill was still open. To get on to the hill, they have a Tram (read “big cable car”) that takes you to the top of the hill – I only sat on a chairlift once today, which is something new.
The snow wasn’t the best, but considering it’s almost May it wasn’t all that bad. Snowbird mountain looks awesome though, lots of different terrain, and everyone seemed to be having fun. Another day boarding tomorrow …
CNN - Crap News Network – Helping the nation panic!
I just switched on the TV, to see a news segment on CNN about the Swine Flu “pandemic”. They had the head of the food safety commission being interviewed by Kyra Phillips, and I don’t think I have ever seen such poor reporting.
This poor guy was on to convince the public that it is safe to eat all products, and that really the swine flu should be called H1N1 in the press to prevent undue panic, and prevent the demise of the pig farming industry in the US. NOTE: There is no known scientific evidence that says that swine flu is food-borne. But she continued to press him, “Why is it called Swine Flu then?”, and when he repeated his answer she repeated “So is it “really” safe to eat pork products?” (the guy had answered this twice already). As he finished, she sarcastically said “Well, there we have it, no links Swine Flu illness from pork products , or maybe I should call it H1N1.” She continued to report on it as “Swine Flu” for the next 30 minutes.
Personally, I think they should force feed this anchor-woman (a word I use in all the same respects as Ron Burgundy) bacon and pork chops all day so we can determine whether they are safe or not, and whatever happens we’ll end up with some nice foie grois at the end of it …
She is now asking the Transportation Secretary (TSA) whether they have thermal scanners at airports, “like they do in other countries” that detect people coming into the country if they’re sick…. Geeze!
If anybody is reading this journal, then just to let you know .. I’m a bit slow in putting together the events and photos for some of the days, and so some of the days will be posted out of order. It just means I’ll be posting the missing days sometime very soon.
Day 6: Cruising around Park City and Salt Lake City
Didn’t exactly have an early start today, so decided to just head down to Park City and look around, and maybe get to take a look at downtown Salt Lake City.
After wandering around Park City for only 5 minutes, I soon got the impression that out-of-season means everywhere shuts down. Nearly every shop, bar, restaurant and cafe were shut “for cleaning” until mid-May. The only bar that was open was O’Shucks, which is a bit of a dive bar with shelled peanuts at the bar (hence the name). I can imagine this place is a good place to go out in the winter season. I decided to stop and have some lunch and a pint (a pint here though was a schooner .. a 32oz huge goblet, that I needed to use 2 hands to drink from). The food and beer (a Polygamy Porter – Utah sense of humour!) was pretty good.
A bit of wandering around the sports shops looking for some bargains on new boarding wear (my current clothing is wrecked after 2 years), and a bit of small talk about the season with a salesman, filled up the rest of the afternoon.
I then impulsively decided to go for a drive into downtown Salt Lake City. It was a pretty quick drive, only 20 minutes down the I-80, and as I arrived it looked like a big storm was brewing. Not much really to say about Salt Lake City though it was very clean for a US city, and after a quick drive around the Mormon/LDS Temple and Temple Square, I decided there wasn’t a lot more to see.
So I headed back to Park City, where I would be able to catch the late showing of Crank : High Voltage .. Jeeze, bit of a mind fuck this movie. Have to say from a technical point of view though, the camera work, editing and direction was amazing .. very fast paced and lots of innovative stuff. I quite enjoyed it, but despite only 4 other people in the cinema with me, I heard a guy behind me say “I want my $7 back..”. Dumbass! Try and take it back from Chev Chelios’s burning, dead hand …
Travel tip of the day:
Digital cameras can have many uses - I use mine frequently for recording any information that I can’t write down. When I might need directions to a place, I look them up on Google Maps while I have a net connection, then take photo’s of the on screen maps and directions. This gives the ability to look them up later when you might not have an internet connection (it’s also possible to save a screen grab straight to the memory card, but that’s a bit of effort). Also, if you don’t want to lug a guide book around, take photos of the relevant pages. Remember to use Macro mode (the little flower setting) or the writing will likely be out of focus.
Other uses:
Bus and Train schedules – take a photo of the timetable at a bus stop, so you can find out the return time for a bus or train. (again Macro mode is probably needed)
Scanning documents – I take photos of any important documents I might need - that way I have a copy with me most of the time.
DRAFT - TO COME: Idaho Falls, Beak Lake, Pocatello, Echo & some photos!
Only 250 miles to cover today, and somehow it seemed to take all day.
Again I managed to be in 3 different states in 1 day .. Idaho, Wyoming (for all of 30 minutes) and Utah. Gas prices in Wyoming were 10c a gallon cheaper, so that was a good spot to fill up. Can’t believe it only costs about £20 to fill up the tank of the Hulk - $1.95 a gallon (32p per litre!) and they seem to think that’s expensive here. Crazy – maybe somebody should tell them we pay between $6-7 a gallon in the UK… I’m not volunteering .
I arrived in Park City just before dark, and from the approach to this place, it looks awesome. On one side are red, sandstone canyons and on the other side are steep, snow covered ski hills – everywhere! I got all excited, and goose pimply .. I am definitely coming back here for a winter.
Getting to the apartment I’d booked was pretty easy, thanks to the sweet power of Google Maps and using my camera to take a photo of the directions and map.
I pulled up to The Miners Club apartment complex at The Canyons, and it was stunning – and right next to the ski lift. Check-in was pretty simple, and on getting into my apartment, I couldn’t believe how nice it was - probably the nicest apartment I’ve been in, let alone stayed in. Set over 2 floors, with a balcony overlooking the ski hill, 3 bedrooms, big fireplace and a big 2-door Yankee style fridge. I walked around, and couldn’t find the master bedroom .. took me 10 minutes to find it .. seriously this place was that big. It really is a shame that it will just be me here – I feel lost in it. A small bonus was that they have a cinema, and they’re going to show Lost on Wednesday .. sad, I know, but the 100th episode should be great in big screen, surround sound.
It’s also a bit of a shame the mountains in Park City are shut, which I already knew, though I plan to trip over to Snowbird which is about 40 minutes drive away (or only 5 as the crow flies, damn un-passable mountains!). Read that they’ve just had 6 inches of fresh stuff at Snowbird too, and more forecast tomorrow. Time to hit the ski-hill Wednesday and Thursday, me thinks and just enough time to do some sight seeing in Park City and Salt Lake City tomorrow.
Ah, Vegas is so close I can almost hear the fruit machines ringing ..
Eating on the road can be a pain, to say the least – trying not to resort to buying pre-packaged meals, sandwiches and avoiding the impulse of one of the ridiculous number of drive-thru takeouts – I wanted to try and eat as much fresh, “picnic” food as I could. I saw this meal kit in a camping shop in Banff, and thought it was awesome. In consists of a spill-proof cup, small storage container, bowl, plate, cutting board, colander/draining board, and a serated-spork (an all-in-one spoon, fork and small serated knife). Everything fits inside the outer container, and it even floats, should you find yourself dropping it off the side of a boat. Light My Fire have some pretty cool, innovative stuff on their website. So far mine has been very well used, even after only a few days – and I’m not even camping.
Today, I managed to be in 3 different states in 1 day .. Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.
I woke up with a slight hangover (more than a few pints of Guinness has that effect), and as I opened the curtains to my room, a feeling of dread came over me. It was snowing.. heavily. On no other day in my life, would I have a problem with this, but today I had a long way to drive and hoped to visit Yellowstone Park. I wasn’t looking forward to driving in this, and thought it might be pointless visiting the park, but I pushed on and decided to do it anyway.
It was pretty rough driving to the northern entrance of the park.. heavy, freezing rain, snow and slush on the roads, though the weather thankfully started to ease off the closer I got.
Despite the snow, the drive through Yellowstone was awesome. The snow added to the drive, and would really like to come back in summer to see the contrast. Surrounded by lava rocks, steaming geysers, beautiful streams, waterfalls, wild bison and deer roaming freely and snow everywhere. Later on in the day, the snow passed and the skies cleared up.
I arrived at Old Faithful at 6pm, and luckily just got there in time for an eruption. It was freezing though, and waiting around for 10 minutes for “some old geezer to blow his load” caused my hands to freeze up. Managed to grab some photos and video, but the light was pretty bad, so didn’t come out great.
I also managed to “see” some bears - not the greatest sighting ever, due to them being very far in the distance. But still, I finally got to say I saw some. And have photos of .. well ok, it’s a couple of dark blobs, but really, and at least I know it .. a grizzly bear and 2 bear cubs! I know this thanks to clever people with binoculars.
Driving away from Yellowstone, I decided to keep driving past West Yellowstone, which was the original planned destination, and make some headway by heading straight to Idaho Falls. What a decision. The contrast between the mountains and snow in Yellowstone to the plains of Idaho, and catching them around sunset was amazing.
On the way, I kept needing to stop to take photos, such was the view. I also saw the strangest looking thing, a town called Rexburg which had a huge, lone building lit up like nothing I’ve ever seen. You can see it for miles across the plains, and I decided to go check it out. Turns out it is a huge temple for the Latter Days Saints. Well, at least we know who to blame the next energy crisis on… just send the bill to Jesus.
Arriving in Idaho Falls pretty late and very tired, I yet again caved and decide to book a motel. It was a pretty simple affair, just opened a coupon brochure I had on my seat, rang the only motel in it, and was checked-in and in my room 15 minutes later. The Best Western Driftwood motel was very nice, probably the nicest cheap motel I’ve been in. Though from some of the reviews I later read, it had only just been refurbished and previously was disgusting and infested with flies. Nice!
Travel tip of the day:
For free wifi (useful to check for hotels/accommodation), park up next to the first hotel you see and see if it’s got unsecure wifi. Most hotel chains don’t secure the internet, especially if the hotel is out of the way. I’ve done this a few times now to check rates and locations for the cheapest hotels.
Didn’t really do a lot in Bozeman, but visited a few bars, watched the footy results and played some pool (by myself). Everyone else was pretty wasted, so felt it’d be an unfair advantage :) 2 of the bars I visited are in a place called Bar-muda Triangle, 3 pubs next to each other, though if you blinked you’d miss them, as they’re off the main road. They were pretty rough, old dive bars with lots of pool tables, smokers, cheap beers and lots of students.
At this point, it occurred to me just how big this drive is .. already in 3 days I’ve covered the longest road distance in the UK - from Lands End to John O’Groats (870+ miles or 1400 km’s). And there is still a long way to go yet!
Was a pretty easy day today, stayed in the hotel until 1pm, chilling, updating website and sorting out photos. Looked around the shops - deciding to take my previous days advice - and bought a Lonely Planet USA (just in case!), and got some postcards made for back home (see tip of the day). Still trying to decide on buying a decent, SLR camera for the rest of the trip, and while looking in Best Buy, was given some great help by a fellow customer – really knew his camera stuff. Still none the wiser though!?
Hit the road by 3 and stopped for a bite to eat at a rest stop - eating pretty damn healthy at the moment – fruit, hummus, veggies, tuna and rye bread. Then cruised over some awesome plains into Butte (pronounced B–ew-t). Birthplace and home of the legend himself, Evil Knievel! Yes, this crazy dude was born here, and I can see why he was crazy. It’s a small, very hilly mining town, and all I could see was Irish pubs – everywhere! - literally one per person almost. I’ve never seen so many in one small town. After a quick follow of the Evil Knievel Loop, no idea what relevance it had, I hit the road to Bozeman.
Cruised up over the continental divide at Homestake Pass on Interstate 90, which goes up to an elevation of 6329 ft (or almost 2000m), almost 50% higher than the highest peak in the UK. Got a bit worried as I heard a random, loud bang come from the drivers side wheel of the car on the way down, but I stopped to check it out, and all seems OK. Think it’s time to get it looked at professionally before heading to the desert.
Arrived in Bozeman, and hit the Lonely Planet USA for a bed option. First one I called, Lewis & Clark Motel, the manager knocked $30 off the rate and despite the fact the receptionist sounds and acts like she’s on crack – a proper space cadet – I have to say if’s fairly nice .. old school, Vegas motel style with big screen TV and fridge and microwave. Now to shower, change and hit the town for a beer, pool and some food. It looks like a pretty cool place from what I’ve seen of downtown.
Travel tip of the day:
Cheap postcards .. Take photos yourself (or of yourself), and use the self serve machines in pharmacies to make postcards. I just made 4 for US $1.50. You can put text and funky borders, they can all be the same or different, and they should be strong enough to survive the post. Well, we’ll see about that last one.
After last nights run-in with the cops, and sleeping in the car, I didn’t feel great when I woke up.. The car had been freezing – due in part to my summer only sleeping bag - and I was parked up in a truck stop where they left the motors running all night. Plus the fear of my little car, being smashed into by a sleep-deprived Trucker during the night in his 18 wheeler, while pulling in to sleep, did nothing to help. Also decided not to pop the Melatonin pill, as I might need my wits about me. Need Caffeine!!
After cracking open a can of the Monster and a ‘nana for brekky, figured I’d get straight out on the road early, get to Glacier National Park, and get my move on. It wasn’t far to Glacier, since I’d driven most of the way out of Kalispell the night before.
The trip to Glacier was pretty - it was a bluebird day .. bright sun, no clouds and a slight chill in the air. It looks like during summer, Glacier is a very, very busy place .. all the way from Columbia Falls to the Park Entrance were the usual glut of RV Parks, restaurants, “theme parks” (these are normally a couple of slides and a pool) and cheap motels. On the way I saw a sign for Hungry Horse Dam, and thought I’d go check it out – the drive up was pretty spectacular with the trees all around having a light dusting of fresh snow, and wild fowl roaming the sides of the road – think they were wild turkeys. Not much at the actual Dam though, apart from - no surprises – a great big Dam. Think in the summer, this is a big place for watersports and fishing.
On to Glacier National Park, all I can say about this place is Wow! I thought Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu were pretty spectacular, but this place was so beautiful on the day I was there. Everything lightly dusted in snow, and the blue skies enhanced the look of Lake McDonald, the reflections in the still lake were just so calming and peaceful - I just couldn’t stop taking photos.
Made myself a bite to eat at the side of the lake, and drove around for a bit spotting a few deer roaming the roads.. unfortunately being out of season and still in Winter here, most of the roads were closed. I would have liked to check out Polebridge, and the full Going to the Sun road, but alas they were closed until snow plowing was complete – 5-8 foot of snow is not easy to shift apparently.
After spending the rest of the day driving around Flathead Lake and across an indian reservation, I eventually arrived in Missoula. Looking for a place to stay here was going to end up as a cheap motel again, I needed another proper nights sleep. I managed to get access to some “free” wifi , and get enough info to book myself into the La Quinta Inn, not exactly cheap, but I just wanted somewhere comfortable. It had been a long day!
A quick drive around Missoula before it got dark, and I really wish I had more time to spend here, it looked like a pretty cool little place, surrounded by beautiful green hills. A typical college town, with plenty of things to do and nightlife.. unfortunately I was all night-lifed out thanks to Banff.
The motel was pretty nice, with a pool, hot tub and wifi (of which I used to catch up with 24 and South Park, thanks to the amazing Hulu service), and included free brekky - of the less substantial kind .. especially since the only non-dairy thing I could eat was toast with peanut butter and jelly .. welcome to America!
Ah, another easy day tomorrow I think …
Travel tip of the day:
I don’t normally carry a travel guide, and just rock up at a place and try to sort something out.. but small towns in America have a habit of not having hostels, a dodgy array of motels, and it’s easy to get lost in the expanse, especially when driving around looking for a place to stay in the dark. So, carry a travel guide/map of some sort, just in case, and get a good nights sleep if planning to drive some way. Driving 350kms with very little sleep, is tough – thank god for the awe-inspiring views and some great tunes. Also, a pack of Monster energy drink does the trick.
Kilometres driven so far:
1004
Tunes of the day:
Phantom of the Opera - Iron Maiden.
What else could you play when driving through forests, mountains, glacial lakes, indian plains, snow, sleet, clear blue skies and bright sun .. a veritable symphony of weather and landscapes.
After a late last night in Banff, I was rudely awoken at 7am by a girl in my hostel room’s alarm clock. She’d already got up and gone to shower, leaving her alarm ringing constantly. But she was cute, and apologised. Oh well, might as well get up and get started.
After a 7am start, and finishing up all I needed to do in Banff, I finally got on the road by midday(!). It had just snowed overnight, so I was worried the BC roads would be icy, but all was good – just a few deer on the road. The mountains and forests looked amazing with a new scattering of snow, completely different to my trip up to Banff – where most of the snow had long melted away, though clear blue skies were pretty majestic too. With some stops for photos, and a quick stop off in Cranbrook for some food, I managed to make the border by 5pm. Was trying to get to Eureka by 5.30pm as I needed to pick up a snowboard part that was sent there for me. For the first time in my travelling history, US border customs were sweet as. They were really nice, asked no stupid questions and let me pass. While I was there I heard a pretty funny story about the bus that was being emptied outside. Basically, don’t cross the border with anything that look likes drugs, if you have been into contact with drugs recently. The dogs can’t tell the border guards the difference. A poor woman (and her entire bus) found out not to store weed in her handbag and later replace them with breath mints, - the dogs went nuts, the border guard thought she had pills and later had to fess up, under interrogation - though they let her through anyway.
I departed US customs, with the ring of shotguns being fired in an empty hangar.. No, it wasn’t the firing squad, they were just “playing” with there guns apparently.
Made it to Eureka, MT just in time for my parcel, and carried on to Kalispell via Whitefish. Whitefish looked pretty cool – small, cute looking town with a ski hill and downtown nightlife. The sky at sunset as I got into Kalispell was awesome, I can see why they make such a big deal about the Montana big sky – it’s pretty spectacular.
After a spot of food and window shopping, it was time to find a place to park up for the night… 1 hour of driving later, I managed to find a suitable spot .. or so I thought.
Found the first, wide-ish layby on the side of the road which I thought looked pretty safe to stop in. It was dark, a fair distance from the side of the highway and since I’d been driving forever, thought this was the best option for the night. Started setting up my sleeping bag in the back of the car, and within 10 minutes a car pulled up right behind me. Although I couldn’t see what it was due to the headlights, I had a pretty good idea.
“Is there a problem here? Mechanical problem?” said the officer.
Uh, oh. Better tell the truth. “No, I was just looking for a place to stay overnight. I’ve driven around for an hour looking for somewhere.” I replied.
“Can I see some ID?”
“Yeah, no problem” as I handed over my passport.
A few page flicks later and he’s in the car doing checks. “Stand in front of my vehicle, where I can see you” he barked. Uh,oh ..
Ten minutes passed, I was freezing cold and shivering, watching the officer staring intently at his computer screen, and flicking through every page of my passport.
He came out the car, and said “You do a lot of travelling?”.
“Yeah, I like snowboarding” I said, thinking New Zealand and Canada were pretty well known as snowboarding destinations, and I have plenty of those stamps.
“In Dubai and Hong Kong?” he replied, in a questioning tone.
We then “joked” about Dubai having an indoor ski dome and I said that they were stopovers to New Zealand. At this point, I could now see what his problem was… My passport has an Arabic stamp, nowhere does it say Dubai just UAE and a lot of arabic script. Due to me being parked up, only 300m down from the Glacier International Airport (D’oh!), I think I must of set off some sort of terrorism panic, when he saw these “terrorist hotspots” in my passport, along my dodgy passport photo :-) He’d clearly done a fairly through check, as he managed to work out I’d been to Dubai. His offer at this point of helping me find a place to stay for the night, was starting to sound like a nice, all inclusive resort on the Cuban mainland with there own bright orange dress code. Fortunately, after a few more questions, he returned my passport, told me to drive on 7 miles, and park up in a truck stop overnight. Which I duly did, with him following me pretty much all the way .. It was not a sound sleep that night.
Travel tip of the day:
If you’ve been to a middle eastern country, do not park your car with the view to sleeping in it overnight (or for any other reason for that matter) anywhere near a US airport. Seriously, Homeland Security will be all over you like shit on a stick.
Kilometres driven so far:
670
Tunes of the day:
Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs – It’s Blitz
Loving this album. Some epic, chilled out tunes - perfect for driving the BC Rockies.
.
, and get enough info to book myself into the 
After a 7am start, and finishing up all I needed to do in Banff, I finally got on the road by midday(!). It had just snowed overnight, so I was worried the BC roads would be icy, but all was good – just a few deer on the road. The mountains and forests looked amazing with a new scattering of snow, completely different to my trip up to Banff – where most of the snow had long melted away, though clear blue skies were pretty majestic too. With some stops for photos, and a quick stop off in 
