My name is Marion Vermazen. I am a traveler, hiker, reader, Sun alumnus, computer geek, YouTuber, Spanish and French language student, knitter, weaver and genealogist.
Ronni Bennett who authors the blog Time Goes By hosted a meet up for some of her readers in Portland today. I really wanted to attend so Duke and I drove up here yesterday. It was really fun to meet this interesting group of men and women. My pictures from the meet up are on Flickr here.
Northern Nevada has an amazing number of beautiful spots for exploring and camping. I often think that someone looking for adventure travel would find northern Nevada a dream come true. Exploring the outback of northern Nevada often requires driving on very bad roads, following the very thin dotted line roads on the maps, (We use Benchmark Nevada Road and Recreation Atlas), and being without cell phone coverage . The rewards are many. They include widely varied scenery, wild animals, beautiful rocks, interesting geology, and lots of solitude.
Last weekend Duke and I decided to do some Nevada adventure travel for the weekend. We wanted to collect some obsidian for our back yard and we decided to check out Blue Lake which is described in 50 Classic Hikes in Nevada as follows:
"Not only are lakes in general a scarce commodity in the Great Basin, but glacial lakes scoured out of granite basins are even more unusual, which makes the Blue Lakes particularly appealing. Cradled into a cirque below Duffer Peak and dammed by a moraine, the Blue Lakes offer hikers some incredibly unique mountain scenery."
We left Saturday afternoon and drove north east on Interstate 80 to Winnemucca where we headed north and then west. The last 18 miles were on rough gravel and then very rough dirt roads to our camping spot. There were three cars at the trail head. One left with some fishermen soon after we got there and the other two cars were apparently owned by a family camping at the lake. We had the trail head camp site to ourselves.
The meadow next to our camp site was covered in wild flowers. We enjoyed a stunning sunset and a great steak dinner. After dinner we sat around our camp fire and enjoyed finishing our wine and watching the almost full moon come up.
Sunday morning we got up and hiked the short (.75 mile) hike to Blue Lakes which were as beautiful as they were described. The fish were jumping and we sat by the lake and enjoyed watching them for a while before hiking back to the truck, packing up and heading west.
We explored some of the roads in Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge, saw wild donkeys, pronghorn antelope and collected lots of obsidian and other cool rocks before heading home to Reno.
If you would like to see all of my pictures from this weekend they are available on Flickr here.
Last Saturday night we attended Duke's fortieth high school reunion in Manchester, Iowa. One of the great things about school reunions is that all the people are your age and many are going through very similar experiences. Even though it was not my class and I only met most of these people one other time it was a lot of fun.
Sunday morning we left Manchester to head home to Reno. We decided to get a lot of miles under our belt on day one of the trip home. After the first day we wanted to take a more leisurely pace through Colorado and Utah and do some exploring. So we drove 723 miles mainly on interstate highways from Manchester, Iowa across Nebraska to Sterling Colorado on Sunday, July 4.
On Monday we drove to Denver and walked around the Colorado state capitol.
From the capitol we walked a few blocks to tour the Molly Brown house. Margaret Brown was married to JJ Brown who became wealthy in mining in Leadville Colorado in the late 1800s. Although she was active as a campaigner for women's rights and other causes and ran for the state senate in 1914, she is probably best known for her being a survivor of the Titanic. She was portrayed as the Unsinkable Molly Brown on stage and in movies.
The Molly Brown House has been beautifully restored. One of the things I liked best about the tour was how the tour guide described that Molly was committed to personal growth. When she died in 1932 she was an aspiring actress Apparently she employed tutors throughout her life and was a constant learner.
Before we left the Denver area we toured the Coors Brewery and sampled the beer. Then we headed west to Grand Junction. The Colorado National Monument which is just west of Grand Junction is one of my favorite parks and it is relatively unknown, We camped there on another road trip a few years ago and it was just as wonderful as ever. The views and scenery are stupendous and there are not a lot of other people.
Downtown Grand Junction is great for walking and we had breakfast there at La Bamba Mexican Dining before we left on Tuesday.
In north eastern Utah we explored some back roads and followed a route through Nine Mile Canyon. I read about the 70 mile route in our guide book then picked up a brochure and map at the Utah welcome center. There were interesting rock art and petroglyphs and lots of beautiful scenery.
We spent Tuesday night in the little town of Roosevelt, Utah. On Wednesday we explored the back roads in the south foothills of the Uinta Mountains and followed one of the back roads up over a 9000 ft plus pass on the edge of the great basin.
Park City, Utah is where the 2002 winter Olympics were held. Visiting a ski resort in the off season is wonderful. We stayed in the Washington School Inn where we have stayed before and had the Inn pretty much to ourselves. We explored the town and ate at some great restaurants. We hiked to the top of the chairlift and rode down. We stayed two nights, took advantage of the Inn's sauna and hot tub and had a relaxing wonderful time.
On Friday we drove the 560 miles home to Reno on interstate 80. I've written before about how Aspen trees in a front yard will spread. The aspen grove that had established itself in our front lawn while we were gone was impressive.
There are 372 pictures in my set on Flickr for this trip. You can see them here.
The primary reason for our 2010 road trip is to attend Duke's High School reunion in Manchester, Iowa this weekend. We are in Manchester now. For the last few days we set a leisurely pace. From La Crosse Wisconsin we followed the Mississippi south to McGregor Iowa. The Mississippi is so big in so many ways. When I look at how wide it, how beautiful it is, how powerful it is, I can't help think in poetic terms about how it is at the heart of this country.
The Indians must have felt that way about the Mississippi too. We stopped at Effigy Mounds National Monument where there are 31 early American Indian earthen mounds in the shape of animals. Some of these mounds are as much as 2000 years old. We took a walk with a ranger and then continued on our own seven mile hike. We have really been lucky with the weather on this trip. The weather for the hike was pleasant and not very humid. After Effigy Mounds we spent the night in McGregor and then headed for Manchester.
On the way we stopped to see Montauk the home of William Larrabee, Iowa's twelfth governor. it reminded me of a small English Country estate with beautiful gardens and bronze statues.
Next we stopped in Spillville to see the Bily Clocks. They were carved in the early 1900s by two Iowa farmers who were brothers and are quite impressive.
For lunch we stopped in Gunder and considered having one of their famous Gunder Burgers but they are a half pound of meat so we went for a smaller burger. It was wonderful! If you are ever in north eastern Iowa I would highly recommend The Irish Shanti in Gunder.
Today we went to tour Cedar Rock in Quasqueton. It is a Frank Lloyd Usonian house in beautiful condition with all the original Wright chosen and designed furnishing. There were only four of us on the tour which was very well done and I even got to play the Steinway piano.
Lunch today was at another of my favorite north eastern Iowa restaurants. Schera's restaurant In Elkader Iowa serves Algerian food as well as typical Iowan fare and the food is always wonderful. Schera's was even featured recently on the State Department website. It is a fascinating story. We sat on the patio overlooking the Turkey River and enjoyed the beautiful scenery, good food and wonderful weather.
Duke and I are really enjoying our summer road trip. We made a conscious decision that on this trip we wanted to make a point of seeing friends and family many of whom we hadn't seen in a long time. Every time I send Christmas cards I tell people that I would love to get together and then nothing happens. This year I am actually visiting a few of those people.
From Chicago we drove north to Colgate Wisconsin where we stayed with my college friend Diane and her husband Tom. It had been over 30 years since I last saw Diane and Tom. We stayed up and talked until midnight. On Friday they took us to Holy Hill Basilica. It is a beautiful church that sits on a hill overlooking all the surrounding land. You can see it from the field behind their house.
We climbed to the top of the steeple. I am not particularly afraid of heights but the wind in the open steeple made the last staircase to the top a bit scary. The view from the top made the climb very worth it. After climbing down we hiked all around the grounds.
Back at Tom and Diane's house we ate lunch on the porch and watched a pair of Sand Hill Cranes and their baby feast on a plate of corn that Diane set out in the yard.
After lunch and we hit the road again. We drove across Wisconsin to visit my Aunt Dorothy in Eau Claire for a couple of days. She took us to visit the Chippewa Valley Museum and we went for a walk along the Chippewa River which was over its banks and blocked the trail at one point
It is always fun to visit Aunt Dorothy. We hope to be back soon.
From Eau Claire we went to St Paul to tour the Minnesota state capital building. Someone told us it is the second most beautiful capitol building in the U.S. after the Utah capitol which we also visited on this trip. We got to climb up to the roof to see the gold statue and the great view. While we were waiting for the tour we walked over to see the beautiful St Paul Cathedral.
Sunday night we spent south of St Paul in Red Wing, Minnesota. We stayed at the nicest bed and breakfast that we have stayed at on this trip. Moondance Inn is located in a big old mansion. The rooms were wonderful, the hosts were friendly and the food was great. We walked downtown and had one of the best dinners of our trip at Nortons.
Monday we checked out the Red Wing Shoes factory store. We saw the biggest boot in the world and bought some shoes.
From Red Wing we drove south along the Mississippi and spent the night in La Crosse Wisconsin. Last night we walked along the water front and then had hamburgers and root beer at at Rudy's Drive-In in La Crosse. The car-hops were on roller skates and our tray hung from the window of the truck. It was an absolutely perfect end to a hot summer evening.
Marion's Blog 