Glacier National Park

Hi again! Since the last time we posted to the blog, we were just leaving Yellowstone NP. Now we are in Glacier NP. We arrived about 3 days ago from the Apgar entrance, in the southwest part of the park. In that section, there are some primitive campgrounds next to a row of beautiful mountain lakes between the ridge lines. We have most of our new pictures up on flickr, but this has been our view for the past three days:



We have mainly been hanging around Bowman Lake and the little town of Polebridge. Bowman lake is so nice, with a little campground right next to it. The first night we slept there, and the next morning we took a hike over a mountain ridge from Bowman Lake to Lower Quartz Lake. The lake was also beautiful and sooooo clear! You could see the bottom even though the lake was maybe 20 feet deep. The middle of the lakes were much much deeper, who knows how deep. We swam at Quartz Lake, and saw a lot of fish. We had lunch there too. Then on the way back, the hike was so steep that our legs were giving up on us! We got back to Bowman Lake, swam some more, and then left to go back into civilization. We parked by Coal Creek in the National Forest next to the park and slept there. There was a crazy thunderdtorm that came through that night. The lightening was so bright, it blinded you even with your eyes closed!!

At the creek, we met a guy staying at the Polebridge Hostel, and he told us that they rented kanoes there for cheap. So the next morning, we were at the hostel renting out a small red kanoe. We took it back to Bowman Lake and kanoed about half way up the long finger-like lake. We got some amazing pictures! You can see them at www.flickr.com/photos/jennromyphotos. We took our lunch with, so were were on the water for about 5 or 6 hours. On the way back, the wind picked up and we were, of course, trying to paddle against the wind!!! We made it back eventually, but we were so hot from paddling so hard, we just jumped in the lake to cool off!




There is a tiny saloon at Polebridge and since it was Friday night, there were a lot of people gathering with live music. They had local microbreweries on tap, like Moose Drool, IPA, and Porter Organic beer. We tried them all, and even some in bottles, like Cold Smoke and others I can't remember. It was pizza night, so we got some good veggie pizza too. Good thing we were camping close by, because I could hardly walk. :-)

Today we woke up and had some coffee and sweet rolls at the same little town. We're so soar from paddling and hiking that today we're going to take it easy and finally drive on the Going-to-the-Sun Road!

Recent Pictures

Go see our pictures at our flickr picture website:


www.flickr.com/photos/jennromyphotos

Yellowstone

We just spent the last three days in Yellowstone NP. We fixed the oil leak (at least its not leaking any oil anymore since Romy replaced the crankshaft seal). Okay, well since the last post, we were in Iowa. After that, we drove into Omaha NE, and we found a small VW parts place where we got a few parts plus the seal. Since the oil leak wasn't too bad, we kept driving into South Dakota where we stopped for the night near Mitchell, where the famous Corn Palace is. Then we woke up early and started driving towards Wall, and had lunch at Wall Drug. Next, we visited Mt. Rushmore and drove through the Black Hills. As we entered Wyoming, it got really really hot out, under the sun it was about 105F!!!! Well, the engine was gtting hot too, so we had to drive only 45mph to keep it cool. We made it to the Bighorn Mountains, where we slept somewhere by a stream in the Bighorn National Forest in the moun tains. We saw two moose. They were big!
The next morning, we drove out of the mountains, and towards Yellowstone through some of the weirdest desert landscape! We felt like in a different world. It was also scorching hot, probably over 100F, and we drove slowly into the NP.
Yellowstone was very nice, but there were so many people there we couldn't get a campsite the first night. We saw Old Faithful, Mammoth Springs, Yellowstone Lake, and we biked to a small geyser, which didn't erupt while we were there. The mountain valleys in the park were nice! We saw buffalo, moose, Mule Deer, and even a glimpse of a GRIZZLY BEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We will post some pics when we have a better internet signal. Now we are headed towards Glacier NP. Everything is okay so far with the VW.

Iowa Rest Stops Are Cool

Even though Iowa has been covered in endless corn fields, it is way ahead of its time (at least the rest stops). Every 30-35 miles there is a nice rest stop with a picknik area, and wireless internet. In fact, I am posting to my blog from the inside of the VW now, on the laptop getting wireless internet from the rest stop building just past Des Moines. We are having a little oil leak, and now trying to figure out what exactly it is. We suspect the front main seal. Maybe we put a little too much oil in the engine? Maybe the seal wasn't in right to begin with?

Bon Voyage!

We're finally leaving, one week behind schedule! Oh well, the bus runs good, we are all packed, and everything is okay so far. We are heading out west today, probably through Iowa.

Painted VW Hubcaps

Today I finished painting the VW symbol on the hubcaps of the bus. I used masking tape to cover the parts I didn't want to paint orange, and them I spray-painted them with the left over paint from when we touched up some body rust. They are really really shiney! Here are some pics:

This is a close up. You can see me in the reflection :-)

Bike Pannier Bags

I finally completed the pannier bags for Romy's mountain bike. These are some pictures:



They will be used for some long-distance cycling camping trips, or when the VW breaks down. If we are in Alaska and the VW breaks down in the middle of nowhere, at least we can pack a day's worth of food and water and other supplies and bike to the nearest town and get help!!! They don't touch the back wheel because of a rack which is holding everything in place. The bags have a wooden backing plate which is attached to the rack.