Chloe escapes, joins Dillinger

Well its that time of year again, the weather is cooling off, the leaves are about to turn, and Chloe is back in St Louis.  We decided to meet Lindsay's mom in Michigan City since it seems to be about the halfway point and they have an excellent outlet mall.  The night before we were to leave I found out about the John Dillinger Museum in Hammond, Indiana, about 30 miles from Michigan City.  Lindsay said she was interested and our tour of Indiana was ready to begin.  I'd wanted to visit some other Dillinger sites for some time, ever since visiting the Biograph theater in Chicago (Where Dillinger was slain by agents from the Bureau of Investigation).  Leaving St Louis around 9 or 10 o'clock the following morning we didn't end up getting to Hammond until about three in the afternoon.  I figured museums don't close until 4 or 5 so we should have plenty of time right...wrong.  We were informed upon entering that while the welcome center is open till 5 the museum had just started its winter hours and had closed at 3.  It was 3:05 and the disappointment must have shown on my face because the lady running the museum and gift shop reopened the whole thing just for us. 

Lindsay doing her best Dillinger

This place was awesome and had everything from his baseball cleats to the pants he died in.  The museum goes through Dillinger's life in a chronological fashion.  On what was supposedly his first robbery his friend actually drove off in the get-away car without him and he ended up implicating himself in the crime when he asked if the grocery store owner was okay before knowledge of the robbery had gotten out.  His father convinced him to confess, while his friend, Ed Singleton plead not-guilty.  Dillinger ended up at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City for eight and a half years.  While in prison he met lots of like-minded individuals and when he got out he had the know-how and friends to start robbing banks.  He broke his gang out by having rifles smuggled to them in the prison.  When Dillinger needed something he took it.  If it was guns, he'd rob the local police, money, its pretty obvious where that came from.

Guns taken from Auburn and Peru Police Departments

  Dillinger robbed at least 14 banks between June of 1933 and May of 1934.  His gang killed 10 and wounded another 7 during this terror spree.  Rounded up in Tuscon in January of 1934 the entire gang was extradited to Ohio and Indiana for various crimes. Dillinger ended up at the Lake County Jail in Crown Point, Indiana.  This jail was supposed to be inescapable, they had him in a fourth floor cell with extra guards, however he did just that.  John managed to escape, using a wooden gun made out of a broom handle and some shoe polish he locked all his jailers up and made off in the sheriff's car.

wooden gun

  He relieved the police station in Warsaw, Indiana of all its weapons, picked up his friend John Hamilton, and made a run for everyone's favorite vacation spot...Sault Ste Marie, MI.  Apparently Hamilton's sister lived on West 14th St in the Sault.  The house isn't there any more (I've looked), however Lindsay's mom said she remembers her mother talking about how everyone steered clear of the Algonquin part of town while he was there.  Federal agents followed the men there and they left for Wisconsin.  Somewhere along the line, Dillinger's new gang was joined by none other than "Baby Face" Nelson.  While there, they were involved in a shootout at the Little Bohemia Lodge in Manitowish Waters and managed to escape again.  They headed first to Minnesota, where Hamilton was killed by police and then to Chicago.  Dillinger met his end on July 22nd 1934 after being turned in by the famous "lady in red."

"Death Trousers," I need these for my wall, Jason procure them.

  When we were done at the museum we headed to Michigan City.

"Its headed straight for us"

Imagine my surprise as I switched lanes and realized that there was a semi headed in the wrong direction on the highway straight toward us.  It was just one truck being towed by another but the first glance was deceiving.  Lindsay had us staying in the Red Roof Inn which apparently is the third best rated hotel in Michigan City.  I'm thinking this says something about Michigan City but I'm not sure what.  Anyways, the rooms were clean, the hotel was quiet, and they allowed pets so we were happy.  We went to dinner at Bob Evans and then went to the mall for a couple of hours.  That night I hatched my plan for the following day and the rest of our Dillinger tour.  Here's how Saturday went....

Dillinger in the morgue

Stop #1
Michigan City, Indiana

The first stop was the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City.  This is the prison that Dillinger spent eight and a half years in and where he learned to rob banks.  After his release he had rifle's smuggled into his friend's cells, allowing Harry Pierpont, Russell "Boobie" Clark, Charles Makley, Edward Shouse Jr, Harry Copeland, James Clark, John Hamilton, and Walter Dietrich all to escape and form his first gang.  Two guards were killed during the escape.  Dillinger was already back in jail in Lima, Ohio after robbing another bank.  The gang showed up there, shot and beat the sheriff, and freed John.  Getting a picture of the prison was hard.  First I drove all the way around it, then somehow I managed to lose the prison entirely.  This is hard to imagine since its humongous.  The Indiana State Prison is still a working prison so there are signs posted all around it telling you not to stop.  I did, just long enough to take these pictures out the window.  On a side note this is also the only place in Indiana where the death penalty is carried out. 

Stop #2
Crown Point, Indiana

Crown Point Courthouse

We actually had two stops planned for Crown Point.  The first which was not actually a Dillinger stop was the courthouse.  Because there was no waiting period, this was a popular place for people to get married in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s.  Ronald Reagan was married to Jane Wyman here, Michael Jackson's parents were too.  The building has been remodeled into shops and we stopped here and got Chloe some ice cream at Valentinos.  Named after Rudolph Valentino the ice cream shop actually has his marriage license and certificate on display behind the register.  After he was married in the courthouse supposedly Rudolph drove around it several times waving to his fans.  We did the same thing not because people wanted to see us but because we were lost and looking for our next stop.
The next place we visited was the Crown Point Sheriff's house and jail.  On March 3rd 1934, Dillinger supposedly escaped from using only a wooden gun to hold his jailers at bay until he could reach a real firearm.  Dillinger locked everyone up, stole Sheriff Lillian Holley's car, and left for Chicago.  (This website claims that Dillinger used a real gun and that the wooden gun was concocted by Dillinger's lawyer.  http://dillingerswomen.com/articles/crownpoint.html)  The front part of the building is where the sheriff lived while the back part (visible in the picture) is the jail.  The day we were there they were giving tours of the place however they did not take debit or credit cards.  There was an ATM somewhere nearby but since they only tour the house (not the jail) and it was pouring down rain we opted not to go looking for it.

Crown Point Jail

Stop #3
Indianapolis, Indiana

Current headstone

Original headstone

After he was shot outside the Biograph Theater he was taken back to Indiana and interred at Crown Hill Cemetery.  This is a huge old cemetery in what appears to be a rough area of Indianapolis.  Curiously the Indianapolis Museum of Art is located nearby.  There are many other famous people buried here including Benjamin Harrison (23rd president), Richard Gatling (inventor of the Gatling Gun), and Lilly Pharmaceutical's founder, Eli Lilly.  We managed to take in Dillinger, Harrison, Thomas Marshall (Vice President under Woodrow Wilson), and Booth Tarkington (author).  Dillinger's headstone was the most unassuming of the bunch, just a small marker with his name and birth/death years on it in the family plot.  We had seen the original headstone at the museum in Hammond and learned that several have had to be replaced due to people chiseling away pieces of them to take home as souvenirs.  This practice must still be popular since there was plenty of evidence of this on the current one.  I read somewhere that his father had reinforced concrete poured over top of the coffin when he was buried, they must have been worried about people walking off with more than just the headstone.  We definitely could have spent a whole day here if time allowed but we had to get back to St Louis and there was still one more stop planned.

Benjamin Harrison

Stop #4
Greencastle, Indiana
You would think that a finding what might be the only old bank building in a very tiny town wouldn't be that hard to do, but you would be wrong.  This was supposed to be our fastest and final stop, but we ended up driving around for at least an hour to find it.  On October 23rd 1933 the gang made its biggest haul by robbing the Central National Bank in Greencastle of $75,000.  The guard had just gone downstairs to stoke the furnace, the gang walked in and robbed the bank, the whole thing was over before the guard came back and no shots were fired.  I'm pretty sure that Dillinger knew where the bank was when he came to rob it, we weren't so lucky.  We drove around Greencastle in 42 different directions, finally stopping at a gas station to ask for directions.  The girl behind the counter didn't know where it was but knew it was somewhere near the court house.  She gave us directions and told us that every year on the anniversary of the robbery the town has a festival or reenactments or something commemorating it.  I thought it was kind of odd that the town would celebrate the robbery of a bank but then again, what the heck was I doing following a dead man all over Indiana.  When we finally got there it turned out that the building is still a bank and you can see remnants of the old signs on the front of it.  At one point it was the Central National Bank, then the First National Bank, and now it is an Old National Bank.  I would have liked to go in but since it was a Saturday evening it was obviously closed.  I took my pictures, got back in the car, and finally made it back to St Louis around 9PM, 36 hours after we left.  On our way back my dad informed me that Greencastle's other claim to fame is Depauw University, alma mater of Dan Quayle.

Chloe in the getaway car

Souvenirs from Colorado

Thought I would make a post of the stuff I brought back with us.  Most of what I did bring was pictures but I did manage to pick up a few souvenirs as well.  First I brought back an assortment of magnets.  The first one I got at a gas station right after we got into Kansas.  I paid 5 dollars for it which apparently is now the going rate for nice magnets.  The second has a hiking bear on it if you can't tell and says Rocky Mountain National Park.  I got this one in Estes Park. the third one has a vintage looking drawing of Estes Park and the Mountains, and the fourth one is obviously from Prairie Dog Town.  I asked about magnets at the Wonder View Tower but apparently this is the only thing they didn't have there.

Next is a history of the Stanley Hotel that was autographed by the author.  I haven't had time to read it yet but it looks like it will be fairly interesting.  I did notice this picture inside that shows the edges of a swastika that had been covered up by an aspen leaf logo on one of the fireplaces in the hotel.  Can't wait to see what that's all about.
It also has a section listing movies that have been shot there, including the last 1/4 of Dumb and Dumber, and the TV miniseries of The Shining.  According to the book, some of the famous people who have stayed there include Stephen King (duh), The Unsinkable Molly Brown (Titanic), Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Wayne Newton, Teddy Roosevelt, and what appears to be most of the cast of Dumb and Dumber.  Should be an interesting read.

 I bought this bandanna for Lindsay while we were at the gift shop on the Trail-Ridge Rd.  I thought what a great idea, a map that you can wear on your head and figured that it would come in handy if we got lost.  She never wore it on the trip, my guess is that she thinks its not fashionable.  I did ask if I could have it turned into a pillow and she told me no because she wants to wear it running.  Hopefully she doesn't need it because we are now a long way from Colorado.

This is a history of the Wonder View Tower in Genoa, also autographed by the author, Jerry Chubbuck, who happens to own the place.  Its quite a bit shorter than the one about the Stanley but looks interesting and contains quite a lengthy poem somebody wrote about the place.  Interestingly enough I was looking on ebay at postcards of the tower and noticed that on one of them the same cars were sitting out front of the place that are there today.  Now they are rusty piles filled with thousands of glass bottles.  I Should've taken a picture of that.

 








 
Finally is my piece-de-la-resistance.  This rock that looks like a slice of terd is actually a piece of coprolite.  What is coprolite you ask.  Why it is in fact a petrified dinosaur terd.  Its hard to see in my fuzzy photos but it is polished on one side so that you can see the pretty colors in it and it looks fabulous on my living room shelf.

Day 7 9/1/2010

Wonder View Tower, Genoa, CO

We got on the road around 7AM and started back for Missouri.  When I think of Colorado I automatically think of Mountains however in reality it seems like half the state is covered in Plains.  As we headed out of the mountains Jason and I spotted a huge red tower off to the side of the highway and had to stop.  It turned out that this was the "Wonder View Tower," of Genoa Colorado.  It had been a major tourist trap when it was built in the 1920s, housing a dance hall, restaurant, rattlesnake pit, and gas station.  Today the downstairs is filled with a flea market of sorts along with several animal oddities, including a stuffed 2 headed calf

2 headed calf

I don't have to go that bad!

and several animal freaks in jars.  Admission was only a dollar and well worth it.  When we went in Lindsay asked the lady who owns the place about a bathroom and was told that they had a privy outside.  Lindsay went out to use it and returned a short while later exclaiming about how I would never believe where she just had to go.  I was pretty sure I had a good idea but when she showed me a picture I had to go take a look for myself.  The men's privy had completely fallen over, while the women's was being propped up by a 2x4 and listing precariously.  Back inside, the stairway to the top of the tower is extremely steep and terminates in a trap door out onto the roof.  When we pulled up I thought I had seen people in the windows and atop the tower however these turned out to be oil drums dressed up as people.  The signs out front said that you could see 6 states from the tower and while I'm sure this is true, the real view was the stuff inside.  They had everything including the biggest collection of arrowheads I have ever seen, and parts from several woolly mammoths or maybe they were mastodons.  All of it was for sale, but mostly out of my price range.  We spent way more time here than we had ever planned and it was worth every minute.  Back on the road we had one more goal, Prairie Dog Town in Oakley, Kansas, home of the "world's largest prairie dog."  I had wanted to stop there on the way out but we didn't have enough time.  Prairie Dog Town was a little more anticlimactic than the Wonder View Tower.  While the prairie dogs were cute, and it sounds exciting to see a six legged cow, in reality many of the animals looked sick, including a bison who's ribs were very apparent, and cows with birth defects that were obviously uncomfortable and attracting massive amounts of flies.  They had coyotes, prairie chickens, foxes, and lots of other types of animals.  They also had a rattlesnake pit and stuffed two headed calf both of which are apparently required for a tourist trap in this part of the country.  The Chinese ringnecked chickens were beautiful, and the giant rabbit really was gigantic.  In the end though I felt sorry for the extra-legged cows and starved bison, and the "world's largest prairie dog" turned out to be a giant concrete statue of a prairie dog.

World's largest prairie dog

  Back on the road again, Jason set to work finding transportation back to Sault Ste Marie.  He managed to book a greyhound out of St Louis at 2:55 AM.  We made it back to the city around 12:30, unloaded the car, washed Jason's clothes, and had him downtown just in time for his 3AM departure.

Day 6 8/31/10

Sun rising over "Sky Potty Junction" near Chasm Lake

The alarm went off way to early, it was 1AM, and the Russians had kept us up all night.  We got up, grabbed our packs, and headed to the Longs Peak trailhead.  I'm not sure what I expected on this trip, but getting up to go hiking in the middle of the night was not it.  We arrived at the trail around 2:30 and were off.  The first part of this hike is entirely made up of switchbacks through the woods.  Occasionally the trail gets flat for a bit and seems easier but that disappears quickly and its back to marching uphill.  Somewhere around 10,500 feet the trees disappeared and we were back on the tundra.  This time however it was dark and hailing on us, if I was smart I would have brought a hat and gloves like Lindsay and Jason, but I wasn't.  We finally reached the place where the trail split however there was no sign  so we kept heading towards Long's Peak for a bit.  When we realized what had happened we headed back to the trail junction and attempted to find the right trail.  Interestingly enough there are pit potties near this junction on the trail way up in the mountains.  They call this "Sky Potty Junction."

Sunrise, Chasm Lake

Lindsay doing her best Kashi advertisement

I tried going into one to look at a map because I thought I would be shielded from the wind.  No luck there, these potties had no roof.  Luckily the Iphone has an app for just such an occasion and I was fortunate to have downloaded it (Parkmap with guide RMNP).  The app has downloaded maps and GPS capabilities so I was quickly able to locate us on a map of the park and find the correct trail to get to Chasm Lake.  We kept hiking and soon we were on a ridge overlooking the chasm and the lake.  At the end of the chasm is a long waterfall leading down to the lake.  It was breathtaking and only got better as we watched the sunrise from atop a boulder over the waterfall.  The sky was all different colors and there was a bank of clouds below us extending over the lake.  As the sun came up Lindsay started getting cold so we decided to get moving.  We headed back to the trail and were back down the mountain by 8:30 AM, wet and hungry we went to look for food.  We found breakfast at a place called the Aspen Lodge.  It was a neat place very close to the trailhead with great food, but it didn't appear to get much business.

Jason at the Keyhole

  There's a bed a breakfast there with 4 rooms the lady told us and a large restaurant.  There was only one other couple in the restaurant the whole time we were there.  After breakfast we took the car back to the trailhead to wait for Jason to get back down the mountain.  We were in for a long wait.  When he finally got back we found out that he had in fact made it past the keyhole and probably about 95 percent up to the summit before the winds forced him to come back down.  Dead tired and finished for the day we went back to camp again.  We had talked about leaving that evening, but we were all too tired to even think about driving.

Day 4-5 8/29-8/30 2010

On the fourth day of our adventure we scheduled whitewater rafting in Fort Collins on the Cache Le Poudre river.  We got up that morning, jumped in the car, and headed out.  Before we left town we went to Grubsteak restaurant for breakfast.  I had an omelet that was quite delicious.  Our waitress was Russian and seemed genuinely annoyed when the guy at the table next to ours asked where she was from.  We ended up getting to Fort Collins a bit early and tried to check in at the rafting place however the lady there said that we couldn't register until 1:15.  Since we had about an hour to go we decided to go see the taxidermy place across the road.  That was closed.  We went back to the rafting place and waited for a while.  I went in to see if we could check in a little early and again was told 1:15.  This lady was a nazi about the whole 1:15 thing.  Finally 1:15 rolled around and everyone and their brothers was at the counter registering for the trip.  We signed waivers saying that they would not be accountable for death, dismemberment, or any other thing that might happen.  We received our equipment (orange vests and blue helmets), and climbed onto the bus.  Once we got to the river we got our paddles and it was time to go.  Our guide was very nice and told us when and how to paddle, but the death and dismemberment thing was an overstatement.  Apparently we were rafting on the last day of the season and there was very little "whitewater" to be had.  While we were floating down the lazy river in our lifevests and helmets we were being passed by people sitting in innertubes drinking beer.  There were a few areas where there were actual rapids, and the photographer for the rafting company made sure to catch us as we crossed each of these areas.  As Jason said, "technically we can check whitewater rafting off of our lists."  I'm going to have to redo this one, and next time I'll remember to go in the spring.  Before we headed back to Estes we went to REI.  Being that this was Colorado I figured that they would have bigger REI stores than the one in St Louis.  Its funny, whenever you go to the one here in St Louis if they don't have something they say it is because they are just a "baby REI."  Well the one in Fort Collins is half the size of the one in St Louis so what does that make them.  We went back to Grubsteak that night for dinner and again had a Russian waitress (different girl).  In fact we counted at least 3 more Russian waitresses that night and found others at different restaurants in town.  For some reason there has obviously been an influx of Russian waitresses into Estes Park, CO.  That night while we were sleeping peacefully in our tent, Jason was nuzzled awake by the hot breath of a black bear in his face.

Home, no bears allowed in here

Looks scary doesn't it

I guess the bear decided he wouldn't be a good meal as Jason is still with us.  The next morning Lindsay had made reservations for horseback riding.  Cowpoke Corner Corral was excellent and its obvious that they take good care of their horses.  My steed was named Big Jake, Jason rode Rocky, and I can't remember the name of Lindsay's horse.  The two hour tour was very relaxing and we got to see great views of the mountains and the continental divide.  At one point the guide pointed out a spot where there was 3 ways that the horses could hop down from and said to just let the horse decide how to get down.  Jason's horse apparently found a forth way resulting in him almost whacking his groin on the saddle horn.  His horse also tried to leave the trail, go down a steep hill, and make a shortcut back to the stable at one point.  After horseback riding was over we decided to drive the Trail-Ridge road.

Trail Ridge Rd

  I can't believe that we almost didn't do this as it turned out to be a highlight of the whole trip.  The Trail-Ridge is the highest road in the United States and goes 13,000 feet above sea level.  The views of the mountains are incredible and at its highest elevations it encroaches on alpine-tundra.  On this trip I learned that tundra means land with no trees, and there are definitely no trees at 13,000 feet.  All that is there is mostly rocks, dirt, and wind, lots of wind.

Windy alpine tundra

  In many spots on this road there is very little separating your vehicle from a deep canyon or drop off.  Lindsay white-knuckled her way through it admirably.  Just past the highest point on the road there is a visitor's center, gift shop, and restaurant.  We stopped there for lunch and souvenirs before turning back.  Jason had shown some interest in climbing Long's Peak and luckily there was a guy there who had done it and was willing to talk with him about it.  Most of the people we had met who had done it seemed to lie (this is Colorado) and say that it was easy.  This man seemed to be honest, told him that it was doable, but also expressed the danger inherent in climbing the highest peak in the park.  In addition, he also told us about another hike which paralleled a good chunk of the hike to Long's Peak, splitting off towards the end and heading to Chasm Lake.  He said that this was a popular place to watch the sun come up in the morning.  Sounded like fun to Lindsay and I.  We headed back to camp to get to bed early since we were going to have to be on the trail by 2AM.  Unfortunately a large band of raucous Russians had taken up camp two sites up from us and were hell bent on keeping us awake with their constant yammering.  Between that and Jason's snoring I'm sure we got about an hour of sleep that night.  In fact, this was the only night we didn't seen any elk, I'm convinced that our neighbors were able to keep them at bay.

Day 3 8/28/2010

Andrew's Glacier and Tarn

Jason swimming in the tarn

Our first night in the tent was awesome.  At about 2AM we were woken by elk bugling in the field nearby.  It didn't take me long to guess what it was but it is definitely a unique sound that I can't imagine coming from anywhere else.  Jason, who had opted to sleep on the picnic table had been watching them for some time and called for us to come outside.  After watching them for a bit, Lindsay decided to go back to bed, and Jason decided that he wanted to try and get a picture of them.  Being that it was night and camera flashes don't work well when it is that dark he kept edging closer and closer to the herd which had to number close to a dozen or more.  At one point the elk were spooked and began moving across the field.  That many elk make a heck of a racket when they all stomp off at once.  I sat and watched from a rock on the edge of the meadow as Jason inched closer and closer to them.  As he moved closer I could hear someone else whispering "no...no...no...this is really stupid...really stupid".  Jason took a couple of pictures from close range, and while you can't see anything in them he says that he when the flash lit up he was face to face with a big bull elk flaring his nostrils.  I'm glad I sat far away.  We headed back to bed, Jason on the picnic table and I in the tent, and slept like babies until the sun came up.  Interestingly enough, the ranger told Jason that he had a 50/50 shot of being woken up by a licking elk in the middle of the night, I guess he wasn't lucky since that never happened.  Once the sun came up Jason was woken by large birds sitting on top of him.  Being in the tent, Lindsay and I had it a little better.  Today we were going to hike to Andrew's glacier.  I made oatmeal for everyone for breakfast, we loaded our packs and left from the Glacier Gorge trailhead.  I had read in the hiking guide I bought that this was one of the most easily accessible glaciers in the park.  I misunderstood, and thought that this was going to be an easy hike.  I was wrong.  It was about 5.5 miles each

Alberta Falls

way through beautiful country, including great views of the mountains, Alberta Falls, and Loch Vale which was gorgeous.  Andrew's glacier lies at the end of a big Canyon at the top of a huge slope of talus.  Lindsay eventually succumbed to altitude sickness in the canyon and had to stop.  Jason and I kept trudging up the slope, sometimes I had to stop what seemed like every ten feet.  On our way to the glacier we kept meeting people who told us it was just a little up the trail, or just 1/2 hour.  I learned an important lesson on this part of the trip.  People in Colorado lie.  If someone from Colorado tells you that something is nearby that must mean that its at least 10 miles away.  Even Jason got in on the lying.  As we were climbing all the talus I attempted to give up multiple times, and each time Jason would say that it was just 200 yards, or we were cresting the hill.  Not true.  Finally we made it to the glacier.  Its pretty much a pile of dirty ice and rocks at the top of a mountain.  What was beautiful was the tarn (small lake at the bottom of the glacier), and the view of the canyon from the top.

Andrew's Tarn

  The tarn was a cool green blue color and looked really cold.  I put my feet into it, I was right, it was really really cold.  I would imagine that if ice was a liquid that is what it would feel like.  I had worn my shorts up on the off chance that I felt like swimming in it.  After putting my feet in I decided that this was a bad idea.  Jason on the other hand went in, fully submersing himself in a glacial lake.  After getting out he dried off, we had a victory lemonade at the top of the canyon, and began the descent back to where we had left Lindsay.  When we finally exited the talus we passed the spot where Lindsay had been however there was someone else sitting there and Lindsay was nowhere to be found.  Jason and I double and triple checked the stands of trees where we were sure she had been and I saw some bear scat, but no trace of her.  I panicked, (Lindsay would say overreacted) and ended up calling the ranger station.  Luckily we had cellular service (rare at RMNP).  I called ranger dispatch and they quickly located her at the Bear Lake trailhead (not the same one we had started at).  Apparently Lindsay had started puking.  With her altitude sickness worsening on the mountainside she had made the decision to hike back before she couldn't get back on her own.  Jason and I began heading back.  On our way down Jason started getting sick as well and we had to move very slowly so as not to exacerbate his nausea.  We're thinking the cold swim at the glacier did him in. At one point we rounded a corner on the trail and were confronted by several elk, including a large bull.  I headed up a hill next to the trail and warned Jason.  The bull took several steps towards Jason but then decided that the female next to him was more attractive and began copulating in front of us.

Copulating elk

  When we were almost back to the trail head we saw one of the buses leaving.  It was the last one of the night and we missed it.  Again, we were lucky that the cell phone worked.  I called Lindsay who came and picked us up.  On the way back Jason had to exit the vehicle to vomit, we bundled him up in the front seat and got him back to camp.  Lindsay gave him some anti nausea medication and he was out for the rest of the night.  That night we were again awoken by the elk.  This time there was one stomping around about a foot from the tent, disturbing, but not too bad.  Then it started bugling.  Elk bugling is loud, especially when it is right next to your head.  Eventually we got some sleep.

Colorado Trip Day 1&2 8/26-8/27 2010

The expedition team: (back) Dan "Don't panic on a mountain" Conlin, Lindsay "air mattress" St Louis, and Jason "I thought the Rockies would be a bit rockier" Mcleod

Sorry I didn't actually get to post updates while on the trip, unfortunately computers require electricity and that is in short supply in Rocky Mountain National Park.  Day 1 was a blast, we loaded the car up to the gills and left at about 6:30 AM .  Yes we probably looked like the Beverly Hillbillies but at least we were prepared for pretty much everything short of a hurricane. In retrospect I can't remember not having anything we needed the entire trip, except electricity and showers.  Anyways, we pretty much drove straight through Missouri, and reached Kansas City within a few hours.  I was surprised that the sky looked so smoggy and brown because I have been there before and don't remember the pollution looking quite so bad. It has been an excessively hot summer, so maybe that's why.  On our way through Kansas we started seeing signs for the Wizard of Oz museum in Wamego, Kansas and of course we had to stop.  Wamego certainly didn't have a lot going for

Wizard of Oz Museum, Wamego, KS

it short of the museum and its neighbor Toto's Tacos.  I think I managed to capture the entire town in about 3 pictures.  Inside the museum they had a pair of Dorothy's ruby slippers, life size characters, and tons of memorabilia including posters, books, and everything else you could possibly think of related to the movie.  I have now seen 2 pairs of ruby slippers, the one at the Smithsonian, and this one.  Having exhausted all that is

Wamego, KS

Wamego we got back in the car, drove the 10 miles back to the highway and hit the road.  It wasn't long before we again saw signs beckoning us to stop.  This time it was for the Custer house at Fort Riley, KS.  Being that it is on an active military base we had to go through the obligatory checkpoint and then quickly found the house.  We walked in the door and were immediately met by either Eleanor Roosevelt or Big Bird's cousin who lost all her feathers (thank you Jason).  Funny thing, as soon as we started the tour she told us that although it is called the Custer house, Custer never actually lived there.  Instead he lived 2 houses down the road and that house is still occupied.  The house was furnished to the period of the 1870s and our guide said that she liked to think that Custer had touched the railings on the way upstairs at the house while visiting his neighbors.  I like to think Custer must have been diddling the lady of the house while he was touching those railings since there are only bedrooms up there.

Fake Custer House

Stanley Hotel

Across the street from the so called Custer house is the grave of "Chief," the last US cavalry horse, and a parade field.  Fort Riley actually has a lot of different museums and maybe on a future trip we will have to stop and see what else is there.  Again we were back on the road and finally made it to Drake, CO around 11 that night.  We had rented a cabin at the 7 Pines RV park.  When we arrived we could hear running water but weren't able to see that the Big Thompson River ran just a few feet away.  The couple who owned the place were very nice, the cabin was beautiful, and I'm sorry to say that we didn't stay there longer but we had to go.  We took our last showers and headed up the road to Estes Park.  It was still pretty early in the morning when we got there so we went to the Stanley Hotel for breakfast.  The Stanley is a beautiful turn of the century hotel and was the inspiration for The Shining by Stephen King.  Nothing spooky happened there but I did have elk benedict, and shared some of Jason's elk sausage.  Elk is yummy, tastes a lot like venison which shouldn't surprise me since they are pretty much just giant deer.  After breakfast we explored the hotel a bit and had coffee on the front porch before we left for the campground.  We got to RMNP too early to check in at Moraine Park Campground so we decided to take a 45 minute nature hike with the ranger to help Jason work on his Junior Ranger Badge.  Little did he know that a lot of work goes into getting one of these and he still doesn't have one.

Park ranger with Big Mac box full of woodland yummies

The ranger was a good sport, putting on a presentation that was obviously meant for small children to a bunch of adults.  He had us sniffing trees, and made a glacier out of a rock and his boot.  Kind of hard to explain on here.  Ask me some time and I will demonstrate.  Finally it was time to check in.  We went to the campground, set up our tent and then decided that we would go for a light hike.  We chose the Nymph, Emerald, Dream Lake hike because it was rated as a short easy hike.  However, when you are a flatlander, no hike is a short easy one.  Compared to what we did over the next few days this one was easier and offered just as much scenery.  We started at the Bear Lake Trailhead and continued first to Nymph Lake.  This one was filled with lots of lily pads and had great views of the mountains.  As we continued up the trail we found a rock (imagine that) outcropping, climbed to the top of it, and found some of the best views of the mountains that we would experience on the entire trip.  Going further up the trail we found Dream Lake, and then Emerald.  On the way Lindsay and Jason took some time off to take a dip in a small mountain stream that we passed.  I sat out on the swimming expeditions.  If you look at their faces in the pictures it looks painfully cold.  Emerald Lake at the base of Hallet Peak and Flattop Mountain was the last stop on the trail and it was beautiful.

We found this beast sunning himself on a rock at Emerald Lake

  Once we got there Jason and Lindsay decided to go swimming again.  Once they were done in the water we decided to venture around the lake to the "Pool of Jade."  We hopped across the boulders all the way to the other side of the lake however when we realized that the pool was probably another 1000 feet up the side of Hallett Peak we took a few pictures and hopped our way back to the trail.  Dehydrated and tired we headed back to camp for the night.