I'm sure we've lost most of our audience by not posting for over a month, but for those dedicated (or very bored) fans who still check this stie, we'd like you to know that we--and the bus--are still alive and having a blast.
So, a "quickie" update: From the Gunks, we drove to DC to hang for a few days with my friends Tom & Alie Hoover and thier baby Alexa. From there, we drove to Charlottesville, where J gave me a tour of UVA (where she got her Master's). Then we headed west to southern West Virginia to climb at the New River Gorge. Sadly, it poured all night, making it too wet to climb, so we decided to move on.
Next stop was Columbus, OH, to visit J's brother Geoffrey and his wife Carolyn. They had literally just moved there from Philadelphia--we arrived only hours after their moving truck did. Nevertheless, they were great hosts. We stayed longer than anticipated, as we took the bus to a local mechanic to see if we could get our cracked cylinder head fixed. More on the bus later, however.
After Columbus, we headed to Ann Arbor to visit my alma mater. We spent and evening walking around campus, visited a number of old haunts (Jerusalem Gardens, Stucchi's, Ashley's), and spent the night with a friend of my sister's, Jenny Croze. The next morning we had breakfast at Zingerman's, took a sandwich for the road, and headed up to Ishpeming.
We spent an enjoyable and relaxing week and a half in my hometown. My parents threw an engagement party for us, drawing relatives from both coasts. Jacqueline's parents few in, as did my brother and sister, Aunts Bobbye and Dee, and Uncle Al. My brother did a great job cooking and bartending, ensuring that everyone was stuffed with chicken, salmon, and veggie kabobs, and sloshed on chocolate martinis, peach sangria, and mohitos, among others.
We tried to squeeze in a bit of climbing while we were there, although the U.P. is not exactly a climbing mecca. Still, we found a respectable cliff, but as we were trying to figure out what to climb (there was no guidebook), we heard thunder, and the rain followed not long afterwards.
From Ishpeming, we headed down to Madison, WI, to visit my friend Andy Lehto (who had also come up for the party). He took us along to a summer squash potluck where pretty much everything but the beer J & I brought was made from some variety of squash.
We left Madison the next day and drove up to Devil's Lake, where we finally managed to climb. We spent two days there, then decided to head westward, as we had only a few weeks before we had to be in Seattle.
Our destination was the Black Hills of South Dakota, a two-day drive. Along the way, we stopped in Austin, MN to visit the SPAM(tm) Museum (the versatile luncheon meat, not the email variety). The museum was surprisingly well done, yet we still couldn't bring ourselves to buy a can for the road.
We spent a few hours driving and walking in the Badlands, then headed to our current location, near Custer State Park, the home of the "Needles"--a climbing wonderland. We've been here for a week, and still have a couple more days of climbing before we'll be ready to move on. We've found a great , free camping spot at a trailhead that we've had completely to ourselves, except for one night when about fifteen Scottish bikers wearing kilts swooped in and had a wedding there (yes, we have pictures), and another night when an ambulance and rangers showed up to rescue someone who had collapsed on the trail (from heat exhaustion, apparently).
Today is a "rest" day, at least for me. I am spending the day at an internet cafe in Custer, working for my friend Erik. Jacqueline, never one to just chill out for a day, is doing a 10-mile hike to the top of Harney Peak, the highest peak in the Black Hills.
So why have we been so lax in posting? Laziness/procrastination is always a factor, but we have some real excuses: first and foremost being that my laptop is dead, but also, public internet access has been hard to find. And in case you've tried to call us on the cell phone, you should know that we haven't been in SprintPCS-land for ages.
Now, update on the bus' health. We now know the reason we've sounded like a regiment of lawnmowers since hitting NJ in May--we have a cracked cylinder head. It is still running well otherwise, and two trusted mechanics have said that it will probably keep running for a while, provided we avoid cold weather. So since we don't feel like spending $2000 and two weeks getting it fixed, we've decided to keep on truckin', and to keep our fingers crossed. The only other quirk is that the starter motor occasionally gets stuck in hot weather, requiring me to crawl under with a hammer and give it a little love tap while J turns the key. She finds this incredibly amusing.
The forecast for the next two weeks: Devil's Tower, Glacier Nat'l Park (or at least the parts of it that are open after the wildfires), Banff/Lake Louise (more climbing), then to Seattle by the 25th.
OK, back to work. Take care!
-b & j