Driving

I have my first drivers lesson with my grandpa's standard car. We drove in fist gear around in a circle at the campsite. The hardest thing for me so far is letting the clutch out slow enough, but even in that short time I could tell I improved a little when the stones didn't get kicked up. He said for my first lesson I did good and apparently better than my dad's first lesson.

The Salt Lake

On our way from Yosemite to Yellowstone, we stopped midway in Syracuse, Utah at the Antelope Federal Park. It looked like no one knew it was there, just like another federal park we’ve stayed at a few times in Maryland called Asetique Island. The town of Syracuse, Utah got it’s name because Syracuse, New York was a huge salt producer city and when they started producing the salt there, they named it after that. So we went from Hannibal and Syracuse in different states. Our campsite was a short bike ride up from the “beach” where there’s an entrance to the Salt Lake. The reason I say “beach” is because no one lays out there in the sun or even stays down there too long. There’s billions of microscopic shrimp in the lake, therefore the smell is unbearable in some spots. Grandpa says it’s the smell of life…then life stinks. When we went down I noticed no one had towels or anything in their hand that were headed down there. I decided not to bring my towel and book because we forgot sunscreen so I couldn’t lie out there anyways. The sand looked like it got darker the farther out, and it did unfortunately. The shrimp flies swarm the area because they eat the tiny shrimp. They are blown around because they’re so small and you walk through a layer of them while the others are going around the rest of your body. If you ever go down there run to it water and back, but keep your mouth shut so they don’t fly into it. I’m the one that is afraid of bugs, but Amelia was freaking out about it. I found it funny that we had no idea this is a regular thing here. As soon as you stand still or set anything down they cover it. Once we got in the water they thinned out, and even more when we splashed around. Despite how disgusting the flies are, it is worth it to go in the water. Someone asked us if we were on inner tubes because everyone floats. It’s indescribable and an experience that a lot of people wont have, so if you ever get the chance take it. To top it all off we met the parents of an editor to the new show on MTV called “16 and Pregnant”. Their son’s name is Rob Hales.

Our camper wouldn’t start along with many other issues we’ve been having with it like the AC breaking. So when the smell came in last night, and my bed being the couch near the two biggest windows, I couldn’t shut the windows because it was too hot. I tried sleeping on the floor, spraying perfume on my pillow, and putting blankets over my head. Nothing worked and then I heard footsteps near the camper and a man talking. It freaked me out so much that I woke up my grandparents. My grandpa went to check it out and there were two tenters having a conversation at 2:00am near us. The footstep noise was actually the awning shaking from the smelly breeze. The breeze died down shortly and we took the binoculars outside to look at the stars. The big dipper and the cancer formations were so clear. I saw two shooting stars and wished for the camper to start the next morning on both stars. And sure enough the mechanic came and solved the problem. One of the fuses was blown. The AC still doesn’t work, but we don’t need it where we are now. We’re staying in Idaho about forty minutes away from Montana, and then from there twenty minutes away from Yellowstone.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Yosemite

When we got to our campsite in Oakhurst near Yosemite, we went down to a stream with some waterfalls. I found a rope with a bar that swings over a little waterfall into a deep spot. We have one like that at our camp, but it has a platform built below it. To get to this one you have to climb up a series of rocks, then across a tiny waterfall (while avoiding a pricker-bush), and then you get on a larger rock and jump off. Amelia convinced me to go first and I ended up getting an audience from the other kids swimming there. Once I jumped everyone was lining up to take their turn jumping. Later on we went to the new Harry Potter movie while my grandpa was doing something for work. The movie was good in my opinion, but the ending was disappointing.

The next day we had a late start to Yosemite. I never thought a national park would have traffic jams. The roads are no where’s near as bad as they were in the Sequoias. We saw the Half Dome and various waterfalls. There are a lot of spots you can climb on rocks and soak your feet in the water. Bridalveil was my favorite waterfall because it looked like it was in slow motion. It looks like it doesn't turn to water until it hits the rocks. The next morning we went back to Yosemite, but we left much earlier than the day before. This time we looked at a set up of an old town that was there a long time ago and a hotel that looks like a miniature version of the one from the movie "Somewhere in Time". Later on we went to see the Upper and Lower Falls. You can't see the Upper Falls when you get to the viewing spot because it's so tall. Pictures can't give you the same experience because you don't feel the mist, hear the thundering water, or smell the forest.

Our air-conditioner is broken which is death in the Dakota Bad Lands. So we went to a little town to get it fixed, but the parts weren't going to come in for another five days. We did finally find a car wash though. That car was covered in dirt from towing it all this way. Unfortunately my grandpa drove over the bump and it started spraying the car, but we were trying to get out of it because we didn't have five dollars in quarters. So he went into the store very upset and gave the man a five-dollar bill. The man looked at him and said, "I cannot teach you, maybe some other time." That was not very smart because my grandpa was already in a bad mood from all the problems with the camper. The man ended up directing us through the car wash.

We found a campsite near by that was only an hour away from San Francisco. We mainly went to Chinatown. If I ever go back there I will know three things: (1) Don't go to Chinatown with a full wallet- it's too addicting (2) never buy something at the first shop because chances are the shop down the street has the same item for half the price (3) dress warmly. We thought oh everyone is so high class there, let's wear our sun dresses. Bad move. It was a whopping 58 degrees and only warmed up to 62 by the end of the day. Mark Twain once said, "The coldest winter of my life was the summer I spent in San Francisco." The fog covers it so much that it blocks the sun. We went on the cable car despite the cold (it's all open and receives lots of wind going down those hilly streets). It was worth just saying you road on one though. We also went to a pretty fancy Chinese restaurant. We order the Sizzling Soup because it's so rare. If you ever see it get it because you'll probably not find it again.

Right now we're making our way through the normal California traffic on six-lane road. We're headed for Salt Lake City for a day. It's just a side stop on the way to the Montana entrance to Yellow Stone. This is my part of the trip because I've wanted to see Montana for a few years now just because of how open it is.

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From the Red Wood Moutains....

We went to the Sequoia Red Woods National Park Friday and Saturday. They are GIANT! My grandpa said that if God was a living thing he'd be a Sequoia. So far this is my favorite national park because it's such a colorful mountain. The downside is the high elevation and humidity. The air gets really thin at 7,000 feet above sea level. The sights were just incredible and once again the pictures don't do it justice. But the winding road is probably We went to Crystal Cave on a flash light tour. After seeing one cave you have not seen them all. This one was completely different from the Mark Twain caves. It was a shorter tour, but the only lights were a flash light per group. There was big open rooms all over so in one we turned off all the lights and "experienced total darkness". The walk to get to the cave had sights on its own. There were a few paths that lead down to a waterfall. My grandpa got across it on the side of a rock to take some pictures. When getting down he slid into the water. But he caught himself and was more worried about losing his hat. The cameras in his pocket got wet, but they're drying up and working now. We went to see some more of the main Sequoia land marks after. There was a huge group of French people trying to get a picture by one of the trees. My grandma told me to go offer to take it, so I did. The group was just fun to watch because of their enthusiasm. Then my grandma took my camera (the only one working) and told me to get in the picture with them. I went over to the side and they said "No, come in the middle you are the star!" That stuff doesn't happen every day.

It's a giant anthill, but it has a great view.

Tuesday was a beach day. That's the first time I got a little burned the whole trip and the first time in the Pacific Ocean. The waves were really strong, but it was warm enough to swim in. I was the first one in then Amelia was finally convinced it was fun to jump into the waves. Then we went on a bike ride from Santa Monica Pier to Venice Beach. We were about to buy some popsicles, but the man was told to leave because he didn't have a license to sell anything. For dinner we ate at Bubba Gump's. If you've seen Forest Gump you'd love this place. Amelia and I watch that movie all the time so we loved the signs, picture from the movie, and quotes all over. We bought a bumper sticker for the camper from there, that's another collection we've started besides postcards.

Yesterday we went to the Getty Villa. It's a huge mansion that is a museum to hold a collection of things that date back to 300 B.C. There were a lot of statue replicas from Pompeii. Venus was in so many different views, but she definitely had the most statues there. My favorite goddess is Aphrodites, but I didn't see any of her. The building is set up like a Villa in that time period. Later on we went to La Brea Tar Pit. Even though some spots are bubbling it's cool not boiling. You can watch the workers in some areas and they act like they don't notice you. I assume they get used to people watching them all the time. They were gossiping away about some guy's love life. Pretty laid back job, I wouldn't mind living in California and digging through tar or cleaning bones. The tar preserved the bones from the time of mammoths. A horse would get stuck in the tar hen yell for help, but it would only attract predators who also got stuck. Then other animal would get stuck trying to eat the decaying bodies. The whole food chain would be preserved in the tar and it's in the middle of Los Angeles. We explored L.A. for while then decided to drive through Beverly Hills. I tried to get some pictures, but I ended up sticking the camera out the window and taking snap shots (some of them are a little crooked). Trying to find the Hollywood sign isn't easy. We kept missing our exits or getting on a side road on accident. It got too late so we went back and ate some chocolate pie. Then we discovered the ants. They were all over right below the ceiling on the wall and they still are. We have experience in this area because in South Carolina we killed "No-see-ms", little mosquitoes, with Windex. It worked quite well, but we didn't have any this time so we used diluted bleach. It worked at the time, but they're all back now. Management doesn't give you a proper warning of this so my grandma wrote a "Ants" on a piece of duck tape and stuck it to the electrical box.

By the way traffic in California is insane. First of all there's not many places to change your direction and there's a lot of one way turns. The people zigzag around and go way too fast.