Kelsey Travelblog

Greencard

2007-05-07T13:51:00.000-07:00

The champagne corks are popping. Edmee has received her greencard today and is no longer an illegal alien, just a regular alien.

Call her for free to congratulate her:

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Montezuma's castle

2007-01-17T20:25:00.000-08:00

Text to follow

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Blitzing through Sedona

2006-11-22T13:49:00.000-08:00

We read that Sedona is one of the most beautiful places in the United States, so it is a compulsory via point on our route. Driving past Flagstaff, we cannot imagine that the landscape can change so dramatically to make it look like the pictures we've seen from Sedona. Flagstaff is on a plateau and the land is as flat as we can see...But soon after Flagstaff we enter a narrow canyon and the road descents steeply. Not really a road designed for campers. But after the his initiation on the gnarly roads on the Northern Californian coast, Francis pilots the wagon as Schumi on a leisure drive.

Slowly the canyon opens up and we can see the stark contrast of the jagged red rock against the deep blue sky and we understand why Sedona is so special. Our feet itch to do a beautiful hike, but the tourist office has other ideas: there are no campgrounds in the near vicinity, and we also have to pay to park near the day hikes - if the parking allows campers at all. We don't really want to feel "unwanted" and it is against our principles to pay for a hike. So we decide to give Sedona a miss and to continue our journey. Maybe we will return on a romantic weekend "a deux" if ever the opportunity arises in the future.

Please click here for some pictures

Where is the petrified forest?

2006-11-21T13:29:00.000-08:00

From Santa Fe we head to Albuquerque. Our home for the night is the parking of a Casino, which we decide to give some gambling custom. But Tyler is considered to young to play the slot machines and we were politely told to come back in 15 years if we want to gamble jointly with our son. Francis gets into a friendly argument with the locals, on what the longest cable car is in the world: the Aiguille du Midi in Chamonix or Sandia Peak in Albuquerque (to our surprise the correct answer is the latter) .

In the morning we head West trough the prairies and land of native Indians. The next landmarks on our way are the "Painted Desert" and the "Petrified Forest". At the entrance of the national park we have to fill in a form declaring that we don't have any stones in our camper and that we have not entered the park to rob the country's national heritage. It is not easy to find the petrified trees and with help of binoculars and good eye sight we are able to make them out in the distance. You can imagine our surprise at seeing that we can buy a manifold of petrified wood at the park's exit and even much more in the local town. We would even go that far to claim that there is more petrified wood for sale in a 10 mile perimeter of the park than to see in the park itself. So we would not really have been robbing national heritage, just the local's livelihood....

Please click here to see the pictures

Checking ski resorts in New Mexico

2006-11-20T16:44:00.000-08:00

We take the small roads to Taos, New Mexico. Not really to check the cultural heritage and Adobe style buildings of this little town, but to see if the slope grade is sufficient for a winter visit some time. The snow cannons are blasting away and the builders and workmen are buzzing around the resort to get it ready for the winter season. After the mountain guide in our family has given the heads up for a future visit, we continue our journey towards Santa Fe, where we take pictures, browse the art galleries and have some ice cream.

Click here to see the pictures

Scrambling on red rocks in Colorado Springs

2006-11-15T15:02:00.000-08:00

It is time to continue our journey to discover the other riches that the United States has to offer. Our next stop is the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. The setting is a collection of oddly shaped red rocks against the backdrop of Pikes Peak. The boys climb up all the climbable rocks as boys do, while Edmee tries to capture their achievements on memory card.

Click here to see the pictures.

Celebrating Tyler's birthday in Denver

2006-11-11T12:20:00.000-08:00

After telling Edmee for the last 7 years about the very best pizza joint, we get the chance to taste Francis' favourite pizza at Beaujo's in Idaho Springs, where the dessert is the remaining crust of the pizza with mountain honey.

We arrive in Denver, a place we have shortlisted for its weather and outdoor possibilities. We are invited to stay at Francis' uncle and aunt's place on the outskirts of Denver and leave our four wheeled home for the first time in 2 months. We enjoy their warm hospitality and very much appreciate their effort of showing us around. We take opportunity of our stay to get some administrative things sorted, such as Edmee's greencard.

We celebrate a double birthday: Tyler's third birthday and Francis' aunt Debbie's, which falls on the same day. After practicing for 3 months, Tyler manages to blow out his three candles on the birthday cake. His biggest birthday wish is fullfilled: a miniature cable car, which will be real practical to hang up between the table and the steering wheel in the camper...

Click here to see the pictures

Trick or treating in Moab

2006-10-29T13:54:00.000-08:00

We visit Moab, still vivid in Edmee's memory as the place where she once nearly collapsed of exhaustion on the Slick Rock mountain bike trail with Francis a few years ago. Luckily the excuse comes in the form of Tyler, who is still a little too young to attack Slick Rock.

We decide to stay a little longer to enjoy the beauty of the landscape. We camp amongst the Arches in Arches national park and in Moab itself. Tyler is trained in his first "Trick or Treat" for Halloween and manages to fill up an entire shopping bag of candies dressed as a cat.

Please click here to see the pictures.

Camping in Glen Canyon

2006-10-27T21:46:00.000-07:00

From the San Raphael desert, we take the scenic byway South towards the Glen Canyon. We are tempted for a moment to include Lake Powell in our trip, but with so many things to see and places to visit, it is impossible to do everything. We drive through a burnt orange gorge, which becomes narrower and deeper as we drive on. All over sudden the gorge opens up and we are at the foot of the Colorado river at Glen Canyon. With no one in sight this is a perfect spot to camp. We open our beers with a big grin on our face while we watch the sun set behind the canyon.

Click here to see the pictures.

Warming up in the San Raphael Desert

2006-10-26T19:57:00.000-07:00

On the way to Arches we decide to go to Francis' favourite climbing place, Maple Canyon, which is next to Edmee's favourite city Ephraim, Utah. We are the only guests in the RV park, which normally is fully booked for Mormon conventions. Francis is polishing his climbing hardware and recoiling his ropes in eager anticipation of the next day's climbing. But we wake up to a winter wonderland with 3 inches of snow. Francis is very disappointed but Tyler is jumping up and down the camper asking his dad to take him out for guide training. As we are not really equipped for winter adventures, we continue on our route East. We take the scenic route through Utah's turkey farms and end up near the San Raphael Desert with the warm burnt orange colours and eroded rocks.

Click here to see the pictures

Straightlining Salt Lake City

2006-10-23T14:19:00.000-07:00

We comply to the demand of our friends who have repeatedly asked us to check out Salt Lake City as a possible location, because they could come and visit and ski like they are used to. We explore a beautiful valley on the outskirt of Salt Lake City called Cottonwood Canyon (click here to see the pictures). We are warmly welcomed in the house of Francis skiing colleague Gordy, alias Str8line and his family where we enjoy a nice dinner. The next day Gordy gives us the royal tour and shows us his 15 minutes "commute" to Alta and Snowbird - that is shorter than from our old house to the Grands Montets.

Fooling the brain in the great Salt Lake desert

2006-10-22T16:40:00.000-07:00

We climb up even higher over the Mount Rose pass. Francis skillfully combines checking out gnarly chutes on the back of Mount Rose with driving our rig. Beyond the valley of Reno, Nevada the great nothingness begins, Sally's screen is empty for miles and miles and occasionally we spot a speck of a town. We praise our RV and give her a good bubble bath in a truck wash stop before we begin our trip across the prairies...this is not the place to have a breakdown. We manage to resist to the gambling temptation which is present everywhere. There are slot machines in every restaurant, bar and gas station, often strategically placed just before entering the rest rooms.

At the Nevada/Utah border, the landscape changes dramatically. Francis gives the RV another treat by changing her oil and off we go. Only salt and sand for as far as our eyes can see. In the distance we perceive water, but know that it is a mirage. The landscape seems unreal, but maybe because our brain receives so many similar datapoints.

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Driving around Lake Tahoe

2006-10-21T19:19:00.000-07:00

From Napa Valley we start our trip East to Denver. The change in landscape is dramatic as our RV works hard to climb up to 6225 feet (1900 meter) towards Lake Tahoe. Stunning fall colours, tranquil turquoise water and snowcapped mountains are awaiting us. We picknick at the "beach" in Tahoe City, take pictures and restrain Tyler from running into the ice cold water to play. We pick up some real estate brochures and are speachless seeing the some of the prices of the homes for sale on the lake, which easily equal the GDP of a small African country.

Click here to see the pictures

No winetasting in Napa valley

2006-10-20T22:45:00.000-07:00

We were looking forward to romantic wine tasting with candle lit dinners and staring deep into each other’s eyes – or so it was presented to us in the marketing material we picked up at the Napa Valley visitors center. However when traveling with a 3 year old, the reality is quite different. Not only do the wineries not permit kids under 13, but also staring in each other’s eyes with an active 3 year old around is out of the question. So we take advantage of Tyler’s little afternoon siesta to visit the Mondavi winery. We plan to pick up a few cheap bottles for the trip, but were surprised that not only do the wineries charge for a wine tasting, but also that most of the selection over $100. Those little differences with Europe……

We spend little time in Napa Valley and plan to return one day with Tyler and his wife. We stay in a beautiful forest near Napa Valley and Francis gives the fishing another try…..by now you can guess the outcome.

Click here for the pictures

Visiting San Francisco

2006-10-19T22:23:00.000-07:00

As we get closer to San Francisco, the road gets even narrower, steeper, windier and gnarlier. We will not say more not to get our parents worried. No wonder that hardly anyone living out here - let alone commute the last 10 miles to San Francisco. But finally we see some houses and are amazed how they are perched up against the steep hills.

We visit Francis' friend Casey (aka skier666) and his wife Halle in San Francisco. We leave the camper outside of town and Casey gives us the royal sightseeing tour and we enjoy a great dinner at their downtown home. As a grand finale to our visit Casey selected the steepest streets in San Francisco to drive us home and we are just a little disappointed that Casey's driving style is unlike his skiing style and his car did not manage "to get some air".

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Swimming with seals in Northern California

2006-10-17T19:18:00.000-07:00

We pull into a little town in Northern California to get gas and behind us stops a beaten up old Volkwagen bus with a peace sign on it. On the side of the street are people with dreadlocks sitting on the side with guitars, dogs and big backpacks. Edmee thinks: "Wow, this is really where the time stood still - hippies in California as I know from the movies. This is eco loving, free spirited California", but Francis has a different opinion. We decide to continue along the coast and the road gets narrower and windier and challenges Francis' driving skills. He can easily pass a bus drivers exam by now. We stop at a very scenic campground directly on a very deserted beach and Francis takes his surfboard out. There is no one else out there so Francis is surprised to find another person swimming next to him in a wetsuit. He looks closer and discovers that a seal is following his surfing progress with great interest.
The Coastline is stunningly beautiful and quickly changes between sheer cliffs, to stretched out beaches or lagoons, to rolling meadows with cows under palm trees. There are no real towns or villages, just clusters of luxurious bed and breakfasts mixed with old and abandoned farms, a strange mix. We enjoy the beautiful sights, but know that this is not the place for us.

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Feeling small amongst the Giants

2006-10-16T12:55:00.000-07:00

Just South of the border of Oregon and California we enter into a lush forest, known as the Redwood Forest. We take the scenic byway which is called "Avenue of the Giants" and we see why: the trees are so wide that it would take at least 5 people holding hands to circle a tree. We pass on the opportunity to go through the drivethrough tree, although it would have been a nice attraction for the generations to come to see an RV stuck in a tree....

Click here to see some pictures.

Surfing in Oregon

2006-10-15T21:59:00.000-07:00

We leave our logger "friends" behind in Washington after Francis exchanged some final unfriendly hand signals with them. The North of the Oregon coast line was not quite what we expected. Instead of the wild and rugged it was built up with cheap motels. We stay in Cannon Beach and hang out at the beach. The weather is great, a local calls it 10 out of 10 for a fall Oregon day. Francis picks up a cheap second hand board in an end of season sale. He tries his luck at South Beach Oregon (not easily to be confused with its glamourous sister beach in Miami) and discovers soon that surfing is different from snowboarding. He gets useful tips from his surfing buddy Scott and particularly the "leave water without splashing when white shark arrives" may come in handy one day....

We continue along the Coast even though 2 of Edmee's friends urge her to see the campus at Eugene where they have very happy memories. We see happy whales spouting at Defoe Bay and sea lions playing and chasing each other near Florence. But the highlight is supposed to come: since the beginning of the trip Francis has been salivating over the opportunity to play golf at Pacific Dunes, one of the top rated golf course of the States. Unfortunately the weather turns and he plays the course in true Oregon conditions: wind and rain. The forecast is for more wind and rain, and we continue along the Coast line which gets more beautiful as we go South and enter Northern California.

Please click here for pictures

Logging in a National Park?

2006-10-10T16:18:00.000-07:00

We drive up to Crescent Lake and have a lovely lunch on one of the pontoons. Francis is trying to fly fish again and we are lucky that we are not in the "hunter gatherer" era any more - we would be in deep trouble. The setting could not be more idyllic until the silence is rudely disturbed by an army of speeding logging trucks. This is no coincidence. Although we are supposedly in a National Park, logging seems to be the local work and pastime here. While we continue our trip along the peninsula we gasp at the immense devastated fields, where the loggers have savaged the forest as if it was attacked by a major plague. Not a pretty sight at all, glad we did not have Idefix with us. We make a side trip to visit the Hoh rainforest and Francis fishes again - yes, with predictable outcome...

We reach the Pacific Ocean and the sights are stunning. Look at the pictures to get a feel:

Please click here for pictures.

Ferrying to the Olympic Peninsula

2006-10-09T16:16:00.000-07:00

Again, we hesitate to make a quick nip into Canada to see Vancouver and Whistler. But the weather could turn any day and therefore we decide not to go any further north. We ask our Sally to lead us to the Olympic Pensinsula and we follow her instructions blindly because we are too busy concentrating on the Seattle traffic. And before we know it, she has led us to a ferry. Ooops! But our big rig is accepted and we enjoy a fantastic boat ride to the Peninsula with views of downtown Seattle, Mount Rainier and Mount Baker. We stay the night at Salt Creek State Park and enjoy a sunset over Vancouver Island.

Please click here for pictures

Driving up to Mount Rainier

2006-10-07T16:14:00.000-07:00

After long hesitation, we decide not to follow our planned route into the Rocky Mountains of Canada. For those of you who follow our itinerary closely, you will have noticed that we have done a lot of driving. GPS Sally tells us that we have accumulated 4,000 miles already. Francis has been pressed to drive out West as soon as possible “because that’s where all the good stuff is” and “we risk to get snowed in”, whereas Edmée would not have minded to linger around longer in the Plains to fully savor the American experience and find places where the clock is turned 50 years back. But we find that there is so much to see that we have to make choices. The only way do it well is to become “full timers” and we are not quite there yet. So we take Canada off the itinerary and decide to go skiing in Whistler at the first opportunity when we are “settled” and visit Glacier National Park during a spring, when the setting should be at it’s most dramatic.

We continue to the West to our next destination: Mount Rainier National Park. Rising more than 2 miles above the surrounding landscape at 14,411 foot, Mount Rainier is an active volcano. We drive into the Park though a long canyon and enter the park at the Ohananpecosh entrance (yes, we practiced that a few times…it is Indian for “standing at the edge”). It is already late afternoon and we admire stunning fall color mixed with the intense green of the pine forests. We pass very large riverbeds with friendly turquoise streams embedded in them and just wonder how wild those rivers must be in the spring, when the average 640 inches of winter snow start to melt. The road steeply winds up the sub alpine meadows and soon we are rewarded with a stunning view of the mountain in the late sunlight. We breathe the fresh smell of the pine trees and take some pictures. We have not solved the problem of where we can sleep during the night yet. Because it is late in the season, all the campgrounds we have passed are closed. We decide to park near “reflection lake” to enable Edmée to take some pictures in the morning. We park and soon get enclosed by thick fog, which protects us from the preying eyes of the park rangers (officially no camping outside of the campgrounds). The bad news is that the thick fog is still there in the morning, so no reflections of anything. The good news is that we can sleep in a little. Mount Rainier holds up to its reputation of creating its own weather system and although the forecast for Washington state could not be better for the time of year, it slowly starts to rain a lazy rain, the type that could be there all day. So no quick running to the summit for Francis and no wildflower pictures for Edmée.

We drive towards Seattle and are surprised by the beauty of the Puget Sound and the friendliness of the people. Edmée’s friends Janneke and Rik and their 3 kids warmly welcome us in their beautiful house in Medina, close to Seattle. They recently moved to the area from the Netherlands and they seemed to have everything well sorted. They are very impressed by the attentiveness and the positive outlook of the people in their neighborhood and their commitment to a good life/work balance. We discuss over a nice glass of wine and they take away many of Edmée’s hesitations of moving to the States. We decide to add Seattle to our shortlist.

Click here for pictures.

Fly fishing in Montana

2006-10-06T16:08:00.000-07:00

We leave Jackson Hole and drive over the Teton pass to Idaho. We underestimated the grade of the pass, but luckily our new rig did really well. We can see how people ski down the pass in the winter. Coming down the Teton pass we are surprised by the intense fall colours but unfortunately there is no place to stop to take pictures - we are just hoping that the brakes are working as well as the engine did on the way up. We drive through rural Idaho and there is not much to see other than big farms. We sing along to the childrens moose and bear songs we bought in Jackson Hole "I can't wait....to hibernate".

Before we know it, we cross the State border and are in Montana. We had high expectations of Montana, expecting Brad Pitt movie type landscapes (Edmee more Brad Pitt and Francis the landscapes). But big forest fires must have taken their toll and we are a little dissappointed. But we manage to spot a rare American bald Eagle and Francis tries to remember the fly fishing skills his grandfather once taught him, without any tangible succes.

We spend the night at the very scenic lake of Coeur d'Alene (or as the locals pronounce it" Koordalynn"). Francis is fly fishing again (again without tangible success). It is calm and beautiful and we have a good night's sleep until we are woken up by gunshots at 6 am in the morning. We look out of the window and see the locals duck hunting on the lake (at least we believe it is duck) until one of the bullets hits the camper - and we leave immediately. Welcome to rural America! Click here for pictures.

Searching the Tetons

2006-10-05T16:57:00.000-07:00

The weather is turning while we are driving south to the Grand Teton National Park. It starts to rain and to our very big disappointment we cannot see the highlight of the park “the Tetons”, which are shrouded in clouds. But we see very pretty fall colors of the Aspen trees, which are bright yellow and orange. We see fly fishers in the Snake River and many horses on ranches. We are curious to see the hardcore skiing Mecca of America “Jackson Hole”, but are surprised to find that it is an area at the size covered hardly by our Brevent lifts in Chamonix. Francis inspires awe amongst the local community: when he casually mentions that he is a mountain guide in Chamonix, they drop at his feet to worship him. We see some similarities between Jackson and Chamonix: a well to do crowd that flies in for the weekend to seek off piste thrills and that buy up local real estate (only in Jackson the average “chalet” goes for about 5 million bucks). Francis plays the immaculate Arnold Palmer designed golf course, while Edmée has to fork the modest sum of 1,000 (!) bucks for an emergency dental treatment. We cannot drink a beer in the “Million dollar cowboy bar”, because our son is not allowed (how did they know that we planned to get him drunk that night?) and we pass on buying a 5,000 dollar antler lamp shade. But we eat bison and elk steak to see if they taste as good as they look on our pictures. We camp at Lake Jenny to try to get a glimpse of the Tetons, but as we jump out of the RV at 7 in the morning to see them peeking through the clouds, they quickly disappear again. We wait in vain for 3 days for the clouds to clear, and we decide that Jackson Hole is not the place where we are “going to build our nest” and continue our journey into Idaho. Please click here for pictures.

Seeing Wildlife in Yellowstone National Park

2006-10-02T16:50:00.000-07:00

We have reached the first major milestone of our trip: Yellowstone park. The drive from Devils Tower to Yellowstone through Wyoming - the cowboy state – was spectacular. Through endless prairies, over the big plateau of the Bighorn mountains, through canyons and over what T. Roosevelt called the most scenic blacktop of America: the road from Cody to the East entrance of the Yellowstone park – we agree. We arrive in Yellowstone at night and stay at the Fishing Bridge RV campground in the park. Squeezed like sardines with 300 other RVs in a small compound we do not exactly feel being in nature. But our bold plan was to use our bikes to go of the “beaten path” and see some wildlife. To our surprise there were hardly any bike trails in the park. The first of many “don’t do this” and “don’t do that’s” in the park. We understand that it is important to preserve the beauty of the park and its wildlife, however we are puzzled why gas guzzling RVs and pick-ups are accommodated on an extensive asphalt infrastructure, while a much cleaner and more unobtrusive form of transport by bicycle is not tolerated. Later on we understand: in a survey the majority of the visitors expressed that they don’t want “the motorized viewing experience disturbed by cyclists on bike paths”. There you go, entry fee dollars count more after all. But we also learn quickly that not more than 5% of the parks visitors venture more that 100 meters beyond their vehicle, so before you know it, you are off “the beaten path” already. We spent 3 days in the park and we are very lucky with the weather: mostly sunny and around 20 degrees during the day. We see bison (hard to miss, since they love to block the traffic on the road), elk, moose, squirrels and interesting birds. We are intrigued by the diversity of the landscape of the park, with the large Yellowstone Lake, the Yellowstone River with its deep canyons and large waterfall, the geysers (apparently the most geysers per square meter in the world), hot springs and other natural beauty. We take many pictures; click here to see a selection.

Admiring Devils Tower

2006-09-29T16:38:00.000-07:00

Sorry, we are running a little behind with the updating of our blog. We will need to tell you how we got from Michigan to Devil's Tower. So keep checking the site.

We just wanted to put some pictures online of this amazing stone stump, which was inaugurated as the first national monument by T. Roosevelt in 1906. But you film lovers may recognize it also from the Steven Spielberg movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". As a Pulitzer prize winner has put it:" There are things in nature that engender an awful quiet in the heart of man: Devils Tower is one of them." See the pictures and judge yourself. We went for a bike ride up to the base and then hiked around it, while Francis tried to find the climbing routes he once did in his younger days. Tyler passed a junior park ranger exam. After he had informed the park ranger that he had seen all the animals listed in his booklet plus a giraffe, he was handed a medal of honours.