Recapped Road Trip: Burgers anyone?

As the trip came to a close I slowed down a bit. After getting back from Glacier Park I was sort of all pictured out. The Sunday after camping it was back to friends and food. I spent Sunday morning hanging out with some friends from college and their little girl. She's the one that had the eery big blue eyes last summer. Now's she's all grown up into this adorable little girl. What a cutie!
A trip back to Montana isn't complete without a trip to this little joint. This is a Montana legacy. The York Bar. Only thing on the menu is burgers, fries, onion rings. That's it. Maybe occasionally poppers or something else breaded and deep fry-able. Full bar and the best homemade Ceasar's in the country. The bartender makes her Clamato juice for them from scratch. That has to be the "special" touch.

So the gang gathered at our usual table at York Bar and burgers were had by all. I had several Caesar's and a mushroom swiss burger. What a great night!

Recapped Road Trip: Half Nekkid

This is Avalanche Lake. I have hiked back to the Lake on many occasions and the Gorge further down from the Lake too many times to count. But I've never hiked around the Lake all the way. The above picture is the view of the Lake when you emerge from the woods. Rachel and I took off to the right and hiked to the end of the Lake which you can barely see in this picture. Once you get there, you are probably still a good half mile or more from the waterfalls that feed the Lake.

The Lake walk is beautiful but a little tricky. On the right hand shore there is a very rocky shoreline with a lot of wobble. On the far end, a nice beach, and on the left side a narrow sandy area with berry bushes or forest on your right and a very severe drop off in the lake to your left. You get back to the mouth of the Lake where it heads downhill and you have to cross over the above log jam. To get to the log jam a very brief distance of wading is required. Maybe 10 feet wide, 10 inches deep. Talk about serious current!

I got a bit wet...Happy HNT!

Recapped Road Trip: Campin' fools

We don't need no stinkin' boys!

Rachel and I headed to Glacier National Park for three days, two nights of tent camping. We are both use to camping alone when various men in our lives have failed to be "available". So, this time we said the heck with the boys and set out on our own. Hold off on all the girl on girl, can we have pictures from the tent, etc...we heard them all before, during and after our trip!

We stopped to stock up the cooler...Kokanee and Huckleberry Soda and beer. Had hamburger, eggs, hot dogs, potatos, breakfast skillet fixin's...we were loaded. We arrived in camp and home sweet home was set up in 10 minutes. Not bad, uh? Definitely looks a little more livable than Os' tent.

AVALANCHE GORGE and LAKE: This is one of my favorite trails in the park. in fact, when I die I want my ashes buried in the rock somewhere around the Gorge. Don't scatter me, I'll end up in the Gulf of Mexico somewhere. Dig me a nice hole and leave me on the far side of the Gorge so I can listen to the water roar for eternity. I'll be happy.


This picture of Rachel is my favorite from the entire weekend. Once we got to the Lake we reconnected with ourselves a bit. She found the shoreline rock, I found a taller tabletop rock a bit further back. The Lake was like glass and only a few people around the entire shore so it was quiet and very reflective. I have tons of color photos of the park so I mixed things up a bit this time. This one turned out awesome! Like Rachel's HNT said last week...Change in Altitude, Change in Attitude. It works.


Meet the national symbol of Logan Pass...the mountain goat! These guys scamper and jump around the rocky uplands of the park with ease. And they are awful darn cute.

ST MARY'S FIRE: National forests have cycles. They go through storms, snows, wild flowers, no wild flowers, heat, cold and fire. Two year's ago the west side was lit up for weeks closing the park from all campers and hikers. This year, the east side is ablaze. It closed the highway off and on for a few days but we were able to drive over and get a good few. I took live video too but my voice was cracking up with tears as I tried to narrate. I know it's a natural process and the park will benefit from it eventually, but still the power of the fire and the speed at which it chars the forest is an eery thing to watch first hand.

SUNRIFT GORGE: Another favorite spot in the park. Ex never did get the hint that this was where I wanted him to propose to me at. Oh well! Have no clue where that water comes from. Will do that hike someday, I'm sure.
LIFE AT CAMP: While it was just the two of us at camp we had a few visitors...four legged and otherwise. The fat squirrels were everywhere, waiting for their next handout. We also had a little baby bunny and a couple robins too. A fellow Montana blogger stopped by for dinner and was impressed with my hobo dinner making skills (throw burger, potato, onion, corn in foil with as much butter as you can fit in there and slow cook over fire). There were s'mores to be had too but I'm a weird s'more eater...graham cracker and very very slowly browned and gooy marshmellows only...no chocolate and god forbid, don't char the mo-mo!

We had a bit of a photo shoot to take care of while in camp as well. Too bad that shirt wasn't very warm. Our first morning you could see your breath and the second morning wasn't much better but I got tackled back into my sleeping bag by our Saturday morning visitors so it was all good. My ex's sister, grandpa and uncle raided our camp on Saturday morning, getting me out of bed. God it was good to see them, the sister flew to Hawaii yesterday to start college at the U on a pole vault scholarship. She'll always be my "little sister".

APGAR VILLAGE: Tradition followed the two of us on the trip. For as long as I have been going to Glacier Park the last thing I do whether I stayed a week or a day is stop at Apgar Village and get a Huckleberry ice cream cone before leaving. We got our cones and stood by the Lake McDonald and enjoyed. It was a fabulous trip with great company. It provided me the time to reflect, let out a few tears, and recharge until next year. It works every time. And a hell of a lot cheaper than those professional therapists I have paid.

Recapped Road Trip: Montana...Mud pie anyone?

This little one wasn't making mud pies but she sure was adorable! Heather had to babysit so I tagged along for a trip to the Park for lunch and wading. What a cutie pie!


Now for the REAL mudpie. There is a restaurant in Helena called The Windbag...formerly known as Big Dorothy's. If you can't guess who Big Dorothy was, she was the Madame in charge. Yup, the Windbag was a roaring brothel in the gold days of Helena on Last Chance Gulch. It has been my favorite restaurant since the first time I ate there. They make THE best teriyaki burger ever. Baked potato...loaded. Great beer selection.

Heather's family introduced me to the mudpie at The Windbag. The piece is massive. Think of a pie, cut into fourths. It neccesitates a minimum of two forks. The boys bailed on us so the two of us had to eat it together. We polished off the whole thing by ourselves. Delicious!

Recapped Road Trip: Montana...I'm home

MICROBREW MONDAY: The first thing on the agenda upon arrival to Helena was Microbrew Monday with the Helena Brewers. Os and Rachel had the tickets waiting, I dropped my stuff off at Heather's and Os picked me up. My Big Skies are beautiful as ever.


We had to get a little silly. Two microbrews chugged in the first half hour helped contribute to mine goofiness. Not sure about the other two. I finished off two more, so all in all, a good night.

Recapped Road Trip: Weekend #1

On Friday, July 29th I snapped this first shot as I headed south on Hwy 52 (Speed Limit 55) to hit I-90 to begin my voyage across the country. First stop was to be Volga, SD to then hit Webster the next day for a huge family picnic.


Webster...or there abouts...is where my mom grew up. This is the big barn on the farm where she was raised. Her mom's name was Rose so when my mom's niece bought the place to keep it in the family, she had the large rose painted on the hayloft door. I like it. The barn is a bit scary on the inside though and isn't used for much these days. Too pretty to tear down though.

Every year my mom's cousin from Los Angeles comes out to spend part of the summer in South Dakota. While she's here she throws one heck of a party. Sort of an unofficial family reunion. Check out what my family does! trying to dress the boys up like girls!

The lovely lady on the left is the Grand Pupa of the party throwing...Barbara. The lady on the right is my mom. God bless her; it was 107 out that day and we were outside from 2 pm till 9 pm. What a good time we had though.

Doh! Yeah, I'm a dork! Cousin Tom was taking a nice picture of the three of us Kahl girls (yes, it's pronounced CALL) and I had taken my sun glasses off to get a nice shot. Well, the sun was really bright and it made my eyes water. Mom's laughing because she thought I was thumbing my nose at some one. The other one is my little sister. We obviously had to take a better picture but I thought this one was mroe fun to post :)

The weekend concluded with a trip to the cemetary to say hi to Grandma, a drive out to the farm and then a stop at the nursing home on the way to Mom and Dad's to visit the other Grandma. A good night's rest in my old bedroom and I was off to Montana. More to come :)

I'm home...HNT

I drove 1280 miles to post this today...it's late because I just got home. Round trip was around 4100 miles. I made it to Glacier Park though and am completely refreshed...it was even cool enough to wear a nice little night shirt around camp :) Happy HNT!

More of the trip to come over the next week!

She calls to me...

Her breath whispers past my ear,

My heart rate races, I can feel her calling me.

Her gaze is expansive and deep, it pulls me near.

My own breath catches in her wind.

Her eastern plains roll, scorched,

My heart moans as her scarred trees gaze lost.

Her own gaze becomes clouded and stale.

My tears the only moisture for her there.

But as always, her strong peaks loom ahead,

The passion grows in my heart as she calls me.

Her strength comforts me, catches my weaknesses.

My hurt disappears in the arms of her rocky berth.

She is so fragile and yet, so stoic and strong,

Her spirit captures my heart completely.

Her breath lifts up my soul and pushes me forward.

She calls me to her and heals.

Half way there

I'm half way to my destination after setting off on Friday night. Friday's trip was a fast one across I-90 from Rochester, MN to Sioux Falls, SD, then north on 1-29 to Brookings, then west on 14 to Volga.

Saturday I traveled through Laura Ingalls Wilder's homestead via DeSmet, SD then north on SD Hwy 25 to Webster, SD. Today I followed SD Hwy 12 from Webster to Isabel, SD. That's halfway.

Tomorrow I'm doing my long stretch from Isabel to Helena.

Average air temp: 105...without the heat index.
Miles driven: around 680
Max gas price: $3.04
Average speed: 70 (I had a lot of two lane state highway)
Bottles of water consumed: at least a dozen
Gatorade: 3
Bags of beef jerky: 2
Other road goodies: Half a box of Cheerios, Snickers with Almond

I'll be able to see my mountains by the time I make Billings tomorrow :) Yeah!

Destination

I'm on my way!

Bonus HNT...disgusting

I'm heading to Montana on Friday for two weeks so I'm not sure if I will be around for HNT unless Os has something crazy planned so here is a bonus feature this week...I'm She-Ra!!! 90 degrees, 70+% humidity...our three games in the C league and then, because I'm nice, three games as a last minute fill-in with an A league team. I'm hot (yup, that's boob sweat!), sandy, and sweaty but feelin' good!

Eagle River HNT

The weather didn't necessary cooperate the whole weekend but we made due anyway and ended up having a great time. This is day two on the upper chain of lakes. Yes, it was sprinkling so we had the top up. Didn't stop us from cruising around though.

The day before was much nicer with sunshine after about 2 in the afternoon. The guys tubed and got out the knee board. I only left the boat for "nature's calling"...the thought of being pulled behind a boat at 40 mph strapped to something by my knees or feet has never appealed to me. Nonetheless, I still managed to hurt myself. Foot slipped through the ladder getting in scraping up my calf. Now...look closely and you can see that my left side took a beating too. Have a strange bruise on my arm too but couldn't get a good picture of that one.

























It was all fun though. Bruises fade, scars are cool, no permanent damage. The sun, the pine tinted air, the cottage, the dogs, the guys, food...all in all, a fabulous weekend away.

Up next...Montana by Monday! YEAh!!!

Late HNT

I hate softball. It is too slow, not enough going on throughout the game. Plus, I'm not very good at it because I have never played it much. Thursday night's I play softball for a team that is short on girls and more out for fun than to win. Tonight, I had a kickass game. I hit the ball...TWICE..and with good solid contact. But the best part of the night was a kickass catch I made in mid-centerfield. Running, reaching and nearly tackled by my centerfielder who literally spun around me as I caught the ball. Sweetness!

That only made the sports week better...last night, short one player we crushed our opponent in volleyball. the 5 of us were on fire.

So for HNT...the golden arm! Happy HNT

5 things

Lime had another great meme so since I'm eating and blogging tonight (see her last list) I thought I would play along.

5 Things always in my purse:
1. Migraine meds
2. Key ring with all those discount cards
3. Gum
4. My Barnes and Noble Member Card
5. My lime green pocketbook

5 Things always in my wallet:
1. Driver's license
2. Old movie stubs
3. My Mayo High School fundraiser card
4. My debit card
5. My scrapbook store punchcard

5 Things always in my refrigerator:
1. Eggs
2. Out dated milk...I never get around to finishing a whole jug myself
3. Cheese
4. Beer
5. Something that should have been thrown out...a long time ago

5 Things always in my closet:
1. Too MANY CLOTHES!!!!
2. A belt I never wear
3. Four rubbermaid drawers
4. A tub of unmatched socks
5. Cat hair...in every corner

5 Things always in my car:
1. Road Atlas
2. Gas receipts
3. CD player with a cassette converter (my car is"pre-2000")
4. Window scraper
5. Snow boots and a blanket

5 (or more) Things always on my desk:
1. A collection of ceramic cups I made in college for "desk stuff"
2. Stack of books in my 'to read' pile
3. A printer currently out of ink in it's printheads...might just buy a new printer, there are four of them at $59 a piece!
4. A piece of glass with a skier and mountains etched on the INSIDE...cool, uh??
5. Coupons I never remember to put in my purse

5 People to tag...Yeah, you :)
1. You, in the blue shirt
2. You, the one blogging nekkid
3. You, the one eating and blogging
4. You, the one with insomnia
5. You, the one desperately searching for a blog topic

I'm melting...

No, I didn't get drenched with a bucket of water and melt into a puddle of ooze. It is just HOT here! 90+ degrees with a heat index because of the 85% humidity well over 100. If it would just RAIN! Please...

The weekend was a smashing success even though we didn't get to all of our fun plans. WICKED is phenomenal. If you have read the book, seeing the sarcastic Elphaba and the ditzy Galinda live only highlights their personalities. If you haven't read the book, it's not quite the same story so I would still wade through the big text. The music, the costumes, the make-up was all wonderful. The boy has been to a lot more Broadway shows than I have and he thought this was the funniest one he has seen.

Dinner was fabulous, the hotel great. Tickets to BODYWORLDS were another story. Didn't make it but no big deal. No same day ticket reservations on the phone, an hour to stand in line to get from the door to the desk. Forget it! It is there until September so we will have plenty of time to go see it. Instead we hung out more at the Mall of America. I have a new iPod Shuffle thanks to the Apple Genius desk (nope...they couldn't fix it either, just exchanged it). So tonight when I was sweating away in the gym I at least had my own music.

Made it home last evening and stayed in with the air cranked! Is tehre an end to this heat??

Weekend plans...

I get the boy fro a whole weekend!!! He's been gone a week and busy the week before and I 've been a stress basket from hell because of everything else going on in my own life. We have had this weekend planned for a while and it couldn't have fallen at a better time.

The first thing on the agenda? WICKED: A NEW MUSICAL. Ever wonder how one became good and the other one bad? Well, we will be in the third row at the Orpheum Theater to find out!

Yes, we are both geeks. We will not deny it. Sunday morning we will head to the Apple Store, one of our favorite stops at the Mall of America. I'm an iPod Shuffle. Mine has a case of the "green orange blink of death". Not good. The boy got it for me for my birthday in October so it is still under warranty. Hope to exchange it and have my gym music back again.

Last but not least, there is an exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota which I can't pass up. BodyWorlds is a group of partially and mostly dissected HUMAN CADAVERS! Yeah, baby. They are posed in various acts and I can't wait to see them.

HNT...Shock Absorbed!

Guys, I'm sure wearing a plastic cup over the family jewels is uncomfortable? But...the new Victoria's Secret "Shock Absorber" sports bra, well...it has to be right up there in the uncomfortable as well. Check out the before and after of this baby....

It isn't Kevlar but it damn well could be!

Yes, that is a METAL buckle on the side. Absolutely no jigglin' here!

These are about 10 minutes after it was removed, I played volleyball in it, went to bible study and ice cream and then came home. So a total of about 5 hours on. OUCH!!! BUT...It's great for jumping, running, and diving.

The things we girls do...

St John's Block party

Rochester, MN doesn't have a lot of night life. It's not so bad though because Minneapolis and LaCrosse aren't all that far away and there's plenty to do there. But check out this gig...

Ticket in advance to St John's Block Party $12
Number of drink tickets we bought $10
Friends hanging out 6
Dinner at TGIFridays $$$$$
Getting to see Soul Asylum live 2 days before their CD release AND in the second row PRICELESS!

That's right. Second row of the pit with the band live. It was awesome. Their new CD is going to be great. Check them out on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno this week.

Next weekend...Wicked at the Orpheum Theater!!!

Going home..

The reason for the long road trip this weekend was to see my mom. She went back into the hospital on Friday with a kidney infection due to a kidney tube that came loose. She had high fevers, low blood pressure, low red cell count. IV antibiotics later, fluid and 2 units of blood later she is stable. She is going home tomorrow with the decision made to NOT do any more chemo. She will get pain pills and oral antibiotics to keep infections at bay. It's the right decision but I'm scared.

Road trippin' HNT

The quality of this photo isn't all that great but it's the best I could do at 85 mph on a two lane South Dakota State Highway at 8:30 in the morning knowing I had a 600 mile drive a head of me. This is a sign of how I know I'm getting close to home.

It's not "technically" patriotic but I think it is also a symbol of a holiday weekend like the 4th of July. People going home, Midwesterners stopping long enough in the fields to gather for picnics, roadtrips, and commaderie. So Happy 4th of July! If I see ya on the road, I'll wave :)

470 miles of my trip is on interstate. Hundreds of poor souls stuck on I-90 across South Dakota with nothing to look at but hoping not to run into a highway patrolman as they fly across the prairie. But when I pull off on Highway 63 north I know I'm almost home because the instant I'm off the interstate I am greeted with this wave for the next 130 miles by nearly every car and definitely EVERY trucker.

You don't take your hand off the wheel, it's propped on the top of the steering wheel comfortably. You simply lift up your thumb, pointer and middle finger in a half wave. Sometimes you nod your head a bit too. But however it's done, it's a general "hi" to everyone you pass. It's an acknowledgement.

Now, when I took this picture there wasn't a car coming to wave at but I wanted to take the shot while I remembered and didn't want someone thinking I was really a lost out of stater with a camera if I took it when I really was meeting someone on the road. So "hi" to everyone this Fourth of July week!