Like most people 4 ½ months ago, we thought things would be mostly back to some sort of normal by now. We hoped we’d still be able to fly to London in May to see our first grandchild and fly there again for some extended daycare starting late in August.
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| Our only non-selfie of two road trips |
We thought we’d still be able to spend a week at our daughter’s mountain home in the Berkshires and take in Ringo Starr and Judy Collins at the Tanglewood Festival. And my brother Neal and I were supposed to be backpacking this week in southern Colorado. Not to mention in-person Rotary, Assistance League, and Capital Manor meetings, hosting dinner parties, going to concerts, and dining out.
Please don’t feel sorry for us, as we have it pretty damn good. Unlike so many others during this Covid
crisis, we are healthy and solvent, and so are our kids. We don't have to go to work. We are merely inconvenienced. At first, we enjoyed the novelty of it all
with new recipes, romantic dinners, binge watching, sleeping in, video calls, in-home
workouts, and books. We’ve done our part
to isolate, distance, and mask up. But that
said, every once-in-awhile, it feels so good to get out of town, or even out of
the house. Time for a socially-distancing
road trip or two!
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| Camping alone at a Harvest Host winery near the Columbia Gorge |
With self-service gas, a full trailer pantry and fridge, and self-contained toilet and shower, it was easy to maintain distances in the wide-open west. Not since we left the Peace Corps in 1980 with four months of unstructured travel through Burma, Nepal and India, have we traveled without a destination or itinerary. Very liberating! And there is something very therapeutic about the expansive horizons or the West.
The John Day Fossil Beds and Painted Hills in June
We haven’t been to this area in decades, and it was better than we remembered it. The Painted Hills are beautiful!
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| One of many colorful views |
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| Wizard Falls on the Metolius River |
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| Strawberry Lake Wilderness |
The Columbia River, Idaho Panhandle, Montana, and the Beartooth
Mountains in July
We went up through central Washington, following the Columbia River to the Canadian border. The stunning road to Grand Coulee Dam is like a mini Columbia River Gorge, but without all the heavy traffic.
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| Steamboat Rock, below the Grand Coulee Dam. We camped in the trees on the other side and climbed to the extensive top. (Photos from the top are available in the photo link below.) |
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| Driving toward the Grand Coulee Dam |
Here's a link to a few photos from the Columbia River segment.
After we got to the border in a week, we decided, “What the heck—let’s head SE.”
NE Washington and the Idaho panhandle, while beautiful, creeped us
out. Too much in-your-face flag waving
and open-carry firearms, even in the local Saturday market. (Dude, do you
really need a 45mm, large clip military pistol to sell us some organic
lettuce??)
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| Camping (Glamping) at a brewery |
Fortunately, much of Montana was less politicized and more beautiful. One night we stayed at a Harvest Host brewery outside Livingston. (Harvest Host allows self-contained RVs to stay on their farms, wineries, ranches, and breweries.) In one of our rarer encounters with humans, a local Harley rider helped us level our trailer and gave us some travel tips. As we were picking up our pizza, some other masked locals told us what roads to avoid and what we absolutely had to see. What a stroke of luck!
We changed
plans and saw the Big Hole National Battlefield and some historic sites. Our masked conversations at the brewery sadly reminded
us of what is lost in this whole Covid world—the opportunities that result from
random connections with friends, acquaintances, and strangers. And the social nature of camping has also
changed. Our Airstream has always been a
conversation magnet with fellow campers.
Now, everybody keeps to themselves.
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| SW Montana countryside. We drove the scenic byways nearly the entire trip |
The Beartooth Mountains in northern Wyoming on the border with Yellowstone were spectacular. In fact the 68-mile white-knuckle road was probably the most
beautiful drive we have ever experienced in North America. (Jasper to Banff is
now second.) The steep roads and
countless switchbacks were so worth it. And the mosquitoes thought we Oregonians
were delicious.
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| Switchbacks and the 6-8% grade on the 68-mile Beartooth Highway (not my photo) |
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| View from our campground at Island Lake |
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| Beartooth Peak in the distance |
| Here is a link to curated photos of the Montana countryside and the Beartooth Mountains. |
During long stretches of road when we weren't navigating switchbacks, we listened to the biography of
Frederick Douglass. While it waded into the weeds with too much lengthy detail, we
learned just how brutal slavery was and how the North and our churches were so
complicit with it—way more than we were ever taught in school. And the
same with the Jim Crow laws and racism. Although we have always believed that Black lives matter, this biography reinforced it big time. Plus, we learned a lot about what daily and political life was like in the 19th Century.
Note: You can see more photos and detailed commentary on my Facebook page and on Instagram @Kelemenron.
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| Hazel Hampson-Kelemen @ 4 months old |
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| Finally getting Hazel registered at Town Hall, on Shanti and Alan's 2nd anniversary at the same location |
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| Morning routine |
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| Morning selfie |
“What We Can, While We Can.”
