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We rarely see "Peace On Earth" alongside more traditionally revered holiday standards like "A Charlie Brown Christmas" or "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"�but we really should.

We hiked Pinnacles for our 25th anniversary on Valentine's Day. It's the perfect place for writers of fantasy and for couples in love. On our drive over we tried to list all the places we've celebrated our anniversary over the years and we remembered every single one. It's funny which ones stand out. What makes an anniversary truly special. The stand outs are lessons in good story telling, filled with surprises.

Today is my brother's birthday! We've had four birthdays in about as many weeks. Mom always baked our birthday cakes when we were little. She was one busy lady come January/February. I was always bummed because I had to wait SO LONG for my birthday in May. I remember when I was little it was torture to have to wait that long when my bros and sis had their's all in a row. But Mom had to wait too, so that made it a little better.

Happy Birthday, Mark!

Moon Over Yellowstone

Got home from Rewilding last night [by way of The Badlands, Wall Drug, Colorado Springs, Flagstaff [great restaurant–Oreganos], Meteor Crater, Arizona, and Oatman, a ghost town on Route 66] had an awesome time catching up with Joe and sharing stories. This morning we learned that Big Sur was burning. Left So Cal for Big Sur this morning to determine when and if renovation can continue this week. We are staying in Carmel tonight as The Ventana Inn has been evacuated. Joe is at the Inn as I type bringing water and supplies to firefighters and the few staff still at the Inn. Firefighters are staying at our hotel too.

Click here for the latest news.

Nepenthe Web Cam, view of fire.

Here's a few pics from our trip home.



The Badlands



More Badlands



Prairie Storm



Somewhere Over The Rainbow



New Mexico dust storm

We did it!

We journeyed from Cody, WY via The Buffalo Bill Museum to Mt. Rushmore. There were a few surprises today. Beautiful fluffy clouds–one that looked like a bison–kind people at our hotel, The Sylvan Lake Lodge, who kept the bar open for us super-late arrivals. The manager personally drove me down to the store by the lake and asked me to pick out whatever sandwiches we wanted because every store and restaurant in town were closed. As I type, Candy is at a bonfire on Lake Sylvan with some other travellers.

A bigger surprise, some say massive, is Crazy Horse.



They have been sculpting him for 50 years. And the unbelievable thing? Mt. Rushmore fits in Crazy Horse's head. When complete Crazy Horse will be bigger than the pyramids.

Now that I’m here, and I’ve made this dream come true, what does it mean to me? Does it have to mean anything? Not sure. It'll probably take a little time to sort it all out. Here’s what I’ve learned from the sculptures so far. That making progress and fueling passion are the most important parts of any undertaking, great and small. The belief in oneself can chart a powerful, daring course. And finally, no one can do anything alone.

As I slurped down a little wine, ate my turkey sandwich and visited with other travellers last night I had a secret smile as I contemplated my next dream.

by way of Boise to see L, my good friend from high school. Her hubby recommended Sawtooth Mountain, ID. Told us how to get to Stanley, ID and where to stay and eat. We went. FABULOUS. Afterwards we wound our way to The Grand Tetons via Sun Valley, ID, where we stopped at The Hemingway Memorial. I love the literary connections of this trip. And also via Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve.



Candy after a swim and picnic at Firehole River

There's a few Yellowstone must-see/dos and packing a picnic and taking a swim in the Firehole River is definitely one of them.



Bison with baby

Seen so much wildlife. Elk and bison and deer everywhere.

This guy walked right up to our car!





A view from one of the parks thermal springs.....



Another must-see/do is to stay at the historic Old Faithful Inn.



We were lucky enough to get a room with a view of Old Faithful! [Goes off every 90 minutes].



Possibly THE best score of our trip...a last minute room at this wonderful Inn with a killer view!

Planning to visit Yellowstone? Get The Yellowstone Expedition Guide. Love, love, love this book. Can't say enough of how it MADE our visit.

Need a place to stay in Cody, WY? Don't miss The Cody Hotel. Brand new and fabulous. And...if you love those cowboys, there's a rodeo every night this summer across the street so come on by and check it out.

Haven't been able to post the last three days of the Rewilding road trip because we've ventured to places that, dare I say it? Don't have [wireless] Internet! *facepalm* [Curse of the MacBook Air owner but will put up with it for the really cool Ahhhhs she gets whenever using the same] So this is the first chance I've had to post in a while....

I'm falling asleep at the keyboard and Candy fell asleep writing in her journal.....hee-hee-hee, life's good.

Best pictures of today:



Mercer Cavern’s stalactites and stalagmites
Early spelunkers tied pieces of rope to their waist and lowered themselves down into these caverns. They bit down on a wooden candleholder as they lowered themselves, all the while trying to glimpse the calcite formations around them.



Descending into Sutter’s Gold Mine
Can you say claustrophobic? Jokes about Earthquakes just aren’t funny in a mine.



Gold panning fountain at Susan’s place in Sutter’s Creek.
Great restaurant where we sampled some of the area's local wines, Zinfandel is a specialty of this region.

Can you imagine the following to-do list?

Leave family. Cross the country. Before nearly dying of thirst while crossing the desert, pay $100 for a drink of water [oh, those little 19th century enterprisers…and you thought the guys hocking water in Vegas were bad!]. Cross the Sierra Nevada. Beg borrow and steal the money to pay for a shovel, pick axe then spend 10 to 12 hours a day digging for gold because most of it had been panned already. I think they said it best at the Gold Mine when they compared the dream that was and still is California. They said that in many ways the 49ers were California’s Founding Fathers, very different than the Puritan Founding Fathers of the East. An otherwise dedicated, upstanding bunch that for the promise of gold left their lives for the wickedness of the gold mining towns which provided anonymity for them to be whoever they wanted to be. And no “hometown eyes” were upon them to judge or witness any of it.

Women were a rarity in the early days of the Gold Rush. So much so that if a man was getting married he charged money so that other men could come and take a look at his wife. In a film at the Sutter Gold Mine a lady said that it is interesting that because there were so few women around during the early days of the gold rush their role in it has been discounted. This contradicts what usually happens with a rare commodity–it’s valued.
One thing I learned about the calcite formations in Mercer cave. Once a human has touched them they stop growing. I thought that was fascinating.

The expression “Whistle While You Work” came from working in the mines. When someone is feeling the effects of nitroglycerin poisoning they feel it in their mouth first. So the miners had the guys working with the dynamite whistle while they worked.

Best breakfast in Angel’s Camp? Koffee Korner on Main Street.

Best Gold Country discovery? Murphys, CA.

Lost my camera today, post spelunking. Srsly. Blech. Got my feelers out looking for it, though.

TTFN, Candy and Laura

Today was a big day of last minute road trip scores. First score? Got to rent a Prius! We were so lucky. It's listed as one of the top ten best road trip vehicles. So far Candy and I love the Prius. So happy to have gotten one on the fly...

Second score? Made reservations at The Old Faithful Inn. Once inside the park, Internet is NOT available. Um...oh, my! No Internet? Well, if I'm not posting early next week you'll know why. Squeezed in a dinner reservation there too. YES! So, it's all about packing and resting up for the 10 hour drive tomorrow.

Most unexpected moment today? Candy and I rewilded our hair together to FLO Rida feat. T.Pain "Low" so fun. It's nice to to have "amber shimmer" colored hair. Candy freshened her blonde and ran some highlights in her hair.

Ran around all day getting ready for the trip.

The first sign that I am about to take a trip has to do with transferring all my stuff into the right purse. A total chick thing. My rewilding purse of choice? This trip is yet another chance I get to use the ultra cool Da Kine backpack I so love. It’s a backpack, but it’s teeny, so I don’t feel weighed down while exploring.

As a birthday present, Joe and I helped Candy purchase an awesome digital camera. Nice. And the folks who helped us were amazing. A local camera store, very old fashioned. Been taking cool shots all day.

Candy and I had a great discussion about journals we like to write in as we hunted for the perfect ones for the trip. Turns out we have very different ideas of the perfect journal. Mine has no lines. Candy has to have lines, and she’s pretty OCD about the spaces between them being equal on the page and that the lines have to go to the end of the page. I weighed in that when I do use a lined journal, the spaces don’t bother me nearly as much as the line weight. I hate dark lined paper–lines that scream out at me. Lines just need to fade in the background.

Scored an awesome room at Jackson Lake Lodge, another rec from my good amiga maedwen. Getting accommodations inside Yellowstone is proving a tough deal at the last minute. But…we might just pull off something amazing. Stay tuned.

Played with our cameras all night and talked about our route back to LA and if we could pull it off in time for Candy to start her job. Turns out it is possible. Yeah!

Watched a road trip movie: Pride and Prejudice. Many road trips taken in that film and it’s just so good.

Tomorrow we pick up our rental car….a Ford Escape–good name for a rewilding vehicle, dontchya think?

“Forrest, sometimes people do things that just don’t make no sense.”
--Mrs. Gump, Quote from Forrest Gump.

But, sometimes we do them anyway. Like road tripping when gas is at all time highs.

Why Mt. Rushmore, you ask? Why now? There’s a story there. When I was raising the kids there were times when I would get a little, well, overwhelmed. And I would smile at dinner and joke, "If you guys wake up one day and I'm gone, don't worry, I'm just on my way to Mt. Rushmore." Mt. Rushmore became my idea of freedom/sanity. Needless to say, I never did take that trip. [OK, insert joke about my sanity here.]

After Candy graduated from SFSU a few weeks back, she asked if I wanted to road trip to Mt. Rushmore with her. This on the heels of a good friend’s mother’s passing, just days before graduation. Today Candy is attending her friend's mom's memorial service in Los Angeles. So I guess the trip will be about more than just freedom and sanity but also a celebration of mothers and daughters. I feel so lucky that we have each other and a little time to rewild. What will we find on the road? Hmmm...stay tuned.

Yesterday, while drinking Chinese tea that Candy brought home from Hong Kong, we ooogled our TripTik [THE most powerful road trip weapon in our arsenal besides a fully loaded ipod] and talked Gold Country. We discovered that Mark Twain spent some time gaining a life time of inspiration and panning for gold here, in California Gold Country before he became a famous writer. Love the things we are discovering. We also discussed how the Coppertone Logo is sweet and somehow prolly politically incorrect in this day and age. Candy said when she grew up it creeped her out a little.

With an eye to the road:

6 ways you’re wasting gas

And, we’ll have none of these [BTW, why or why isn't an ipod on the list? Well have one of those:)]:

7 top road-trip tech gadgets

GO LAKERS!

For the past few decades, Lake Superior State University has issued an annual “List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness.” Candidates for “banished words” are nominated by the public at large, and then a committee decides on the final selection, which is released every year on New Year’s Day. The 2008 list is a typical mix of terms deemed by the committee to be clichéd, improperly used, or objectionable in some other way, with a particular emphasis on management-speak, Internet lingo, and youth slang. Of course, the LSSU list is never effective in actually banning words — in fact, some words from years past have flourished quite successfully (“online” in 1996, “9-11” in 2002, “blog” in 2005). In general, the list is most informative as a barometer of pet peeves about language: what is it that gets under people’s skin, so much so that they think words (or particularly disliked senses of words) should be removed from the lexicon forthwith?

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