Aloha all,
in my view, you can’t get much luckier than being able to take off for a month and go on a road trip. But it’s even better if you can pretend that you do it only to do your niece a favor. Unfortunately, Sandra was not able to come along, but I am very grateful that I have a job (and a wife!) that allows me to work on the road and a niece giving me an excuse to go on another road trip. Of course just to fulfill my duties as an uncle and to be fair, since Ronja got to go last year. Ronja and Linnea have a competition about whose road trip was more fun. I am tempted to call it a tie, mostly so that they have to go on more trips with me to settle the score.
We started off in Colorado again, because that’s where Homer (the RV that Bunt and Ann let us use again, mahalo!), spent the winter in his barn and because Kelly, Paul, Trevor and Cody are such nice people. While there, we got to go disc golfing, played ping pong, visited the state capitol and the historic Molly Brown House, went to the opening game of the Colorado Rapids pro soccer team and even got to play some early morning indoor Ultimate pick up. That was fun, but it also reminded me how lucky we are on Maui, where we can play frisbee outdoors all year long at any time and don’t have to get up at 7am on a Sunday, because that’s when the arena is available.
Our favorite part was the skiing. I ran out of superlatives to describe how much fun I had last year when I went skiing with Ronja for the very first time. It’s hard to describe the feeling you get from gliding down a mountain, especially when you never did that for the first 45 years of your life. Our friend Bunt describes skiing as “the closest thing to flying”, which I find ironic since as a pilot he spent over 30 years actually flying. For me, scuba diving is the closest thing to flying. Skiing to me is the closest thing to suicide without actually hurting yourself. I know that for most people, the hills I ski are totally harmless or even boring, but I feel like I a maniac, racing down the mountain at incredible speeds with no idea why I don’t crash all the time. Green and blue runs might seem super slow to experienced skiers, but I am as thrilled as any ‘real’ skier on any double black diamond run. What a rush! I am also glad that Trevor took Linnea on a black run once. That seemed to push her to her limits and after that she was really happy to stay with me on the beginner slopes again.
We spent one day skiing at Loveland, one day with Trevor at Arapahoe Basin and since we had so much fun, one more day later in the trip at Sunlight Mountain in Glenwood Springs. Since I had skied only two times before in my life, I am still amazed that I survived without any injuries, even though Linnea tricked me into going on some blue runs. The only time I crashed was when Linnea actually tried to help me to stay on the track and I didn’t believe that down that steep hill was where we were supposed to go. Instead, I found a nice flat path to nowhere, that let me safely fall into very soft snow. My favorite ski day was at Sunlight Mountain since it was the site of my greatest achievement (surviving the Sun King run) and my favorite run overall (a 4km long green run called “Ute”). Combine that with picture perfect blue skies, an incredible value and awesome view and it’s about as much fun as any person should legally be allowed to have in one day.
We had great weather overall, but on the fist day on the road, we actually hit a snowstorm. We barely saw the road a few feet in front of us. But parking on I 40 is not really an option and we had a game night to go to, so we kept going and made it to Copper Mountain safely. That game night in Copper was a spontaneous addition that I thank Facebook for. I wasn’t aware that we were so close to the new home of Allison (an Ultimate frisbee friend from Maui), let alone that she was hosting a game night that day. As most of you know, I love road trips and I love playing games, so being able to combine those two things is a real treat for me. As an extra bonus, in a bar later that night, Linnea ran into another Linnea who just happens to also play Ultimate frisbee. What are the chances? But it got even better. Now keep in mind, that Linnea is not the most common name in America. The next night, we have dinner at a random Chinese restaurant. Linnea just loves it. Just for kicks, we look up the Yelp reviews. Pretty much all of them 4 or 5 stars…until I find one single one star review. This person just hated the place…but I couldn’t stop laughing when I saw it…can you guess the name of that person? Yes, sure enough, another Linnea! Maybe better Linnea only met her fun, frisbee playing doppelgänger.
It was too cold and too expensive for us to ski at Copper Mountain, so we opted just to go tubing instead before continuing west and soon the weather improved enough that we could start our routine to finding a new disc golf course and playing a round or two pretty much every day. I want to thank all the nameless volunteers who build and maintain these free disc golf courses throughout the country, also the makers of the Udisc app who make it so easy to find them and Linnea for teaching me a thing or two about approaching and putting. She ended up winning 11-7, but not without some really close fought competitions on a variety of very scenic courses, from desert flats to snow capped hilltops, some even with the added bonus of wildlife encounters, such as deer, rabbits and a fox.
Arches was probably our favorite of all the National Parks and National Monuments we visited. Even after hearing the scientific explanation for the 10th time why there are so many arches in such a small area, I have to say: The most logical explanation, even to my agnostic mind, is that the gods must be crazy. Some of these arches seem to defy gravity, like the Landscape Arch that is super thin but almost 100 meters across! The astounding number of arches alone defies the odds. We only saw a few dozen, but there are over 2,000 of them! Well, it’s pretty enough in that neck of the desert, I don’t mind going back there some day to see the rest. We also enjoyed a long hike in Canyonlands and seeing the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde and the other archeological sites at the Navajo and Wupatki National Monuments. The Four Corners Monument is fun, but not really that impressive since it’s just a marker where 4 states meet and a bunch of gift shops, but I found it intriguing to read how the monument is exactly in the right spot, even though it’s at least 500 meters away from where the states were supposed to meet…
I never smoked a cigarette in my life. But thanks to the Marlboro commercials, Monument Valley is the quintessential landscape of the American Southwest to me. We got there in time to see a wonderful sunset. If you have been to Monument Valley, you might notice how special that is. Since you are looking east, you usually have to get up early for the sunrise to see the beautiful colors. But this just happened to be one of those 360 degree sunsets, allowing us to sleep in the next morning. We also were lucky to get a private horseback ride. Even though we paid for it, it felt like our new Navajo friend showed us his country rather than a commercial tour. Another advantage of this being on a Navajo reservation: They seem a little less concerned about being sued. There is no way anybody in the ‘regular’ United States would allow a novice like myself to trot, let alone canter or gallop. This is what I found intriguing about Marlboro country, not the smoking.
I must have been to the Grand Canyon half a dozen times now, but it does not seize to impress me. The size, the colors, the formations… Eventually, we will have to follow our friend RJ’s advice and plan a weeklong rafting trip through this amazing landscape. For now, we just walked along the rim and took a short hike into the canyon. We enjoyed finding the scariest looking spots to take pictures (that are not really dangerous), resulting in my favorite picture of this trip (see below).
On the way from the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas, we took a little detour on the historical Route 66. By far my favorite part was the semi ghost town of Oatman. The town and it’s location is pretty cute to begin with, but the free roaming wild donkeys just made it extra special. This unique town seems to attract unique people, too. By coincidence we stopped at a nearby pass that locals use as a place to party, as a memorial park to scatter the ashes of loved ones, as a pet cemetery or to get married.
If you ask Linnea about her favorite and her least favorite city on this trip, you might get the same answer: Las Vegas. I fully understand: It boggles my mind that this city not only survives, but thrives in the middle of the desert. You have to love the shear craziness of it all, but how can you not be appalled by all the fakeness? What I like least about Vegas is the fact that they make it easier for you to loose a fortune or get married while drunk than to simply cross the street! What? Do we really have to walk through another casino just to get to the other side?
But I love the shows. We watched the Blue Man Group and a Cirque de Soleil show. I can’t tell you which one, Linnea’s parents and grandparents are reading this update and I don’t what them to think I’m a bad influence on Linnea. But it was the only Cirque de Soleil show available at the half price ticket office and it was equally amazing as other Cirque shows, just with different costumes (or lack thereof). Other than that, we rode the roller coaster through fake New York, walked along the surprisingly pleasant canals of fake Venice and marveled at the water fountain shows at fake lake in front of the Bellagio. Amongst all the fake stuff in Vegas, it seemed out of place to get any real historical experience here. But we found the Titanic exhibition at the Luxor to be surprisingly informative and authentic, considering it’s housed inside a fake pyramid.
Surprisingly, one of the highlights of Las Vegas was a lunch at a sports bar. After we found out that both of the Swiss tennis stars had made it to the semi finals of Indian Wells, we started to pay attention. I wasn’t willing to drive a few hundred miles and spend a few hundred dollars just to see any tennis match. But the second Federer won his semi final and it was clear that the final was going to be an all-Swiss affair between Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka, there was no way not to go there. How often can you see the world’s best tennis player AND take your niece from Switzerland to a big tennis tournament and guarantee a Swiss victory? Getting those two tickets for the final was like hitting an actual jackpot to us and we were more than happy to get up at 5am the next morning to make it to Palm Desert in time.
The lady’s final was an all Russian affair, we thought they were really good…until Federer and Wawrinka started playing. Tennis looks so much faster in real life than on TV. When I watch them on TV, I think to myself “They are good, they would probably beat me fairly easily”. When I see them in real life, I think: “Wow, I would not get a single ball back.” Federer won, just to cement his status as the best tennis player of all times. I guess the rest of the tennis world knew that already, now I agree.
Since we skipped over a few hundred miles to get to the tennis final, we ended up with more time than expected in Los Angeles. First, we naively thought that we could go to the Hollywood sign. Now, compared to earlier years, the directions from Google and Apple Maps have gotten much better; we have used them successfully to find all the RV parks and disc golf courses, etc. Not so easy with the Hollywood sign. The neighborhoods close to the Hollywood sign have convinced Apple and Google to show the sign in the right place, but when you follow the directions, you end up on the next hill over, at the Griffith Observatory. Now lucky for us, this turned out to be just as interesting. When Linnea was on Maui, before we went to see the Movie “La La Land”, we ran into our friend Annie on the beach and she told us to watch for the split second in the movie when they walk into the “Ann Marie and Jack Wilder Hall of the Eye” that they sponsored. Seeing the sign with their name in real life was more exciting for me than seeing that Hollywood sign, so I guess: Thank you for screwing with us, Google Maps.
Another thing that is hard to find in Los Angeles is a reasonably priced RV park. The otherwise RV friendly Walmarts don’t allow overnight parking in LA either. I was ready to look for a cheap motel instead when we saw the bright lights of Bob’s Big Boy Diner. We decided to eat first. Our server was so fun and friendly that I was encouraged to ask and sure enough, they allowed us to stay overnight in their parking lot for free. With the money we saved we filled up on burgers and pancakes and bought two 2-day passes for the Universal Studios, which are just around the corner from there.
We loved the new “Wizarding World of Harry Potter” attraction at Universal. “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey” is an incredible ride that makes you feel like you really fly through Hogwarts and actually play Quiddich with Harry. Unfortunately, it also made us feel like we had to puke. Remind me to take some motion sickness pills next time I’m going on any thrill rides. Surprisingly, I also enjoyed the sweet butter beer in Hogsmeade. Other highlights at Universal were the much improved Studio Tour, the Jurassic Park boat ride, the Mummy backwards roller coaster, the animal and the stunt show as well as meeting Shrek and Homer (not our home Homer, but Homer Simpson).
With Ronja last year, we rode a tandem over the Golden Gate bridge on the last day, which was pretty cool. Of course Linnea would not let Ronja score an easy point in the road trip competition, so we rode a tandem along Venice Beach and to top it off, watched an NHL hockey game between the Anaheim Ducks and the Edmonton Oilers. Sadly, the next morning it was time to bring Linnea to the airport and continue the road trip by myself for a few more days. I was mostly trying to get Homer ready to be sold, but I was lucky to be able to squeeze in just a few more fun and interesting things:
Presidential history is one of Sandra and my favorite things, so I visited the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library im Simi Valley. It was easy to promise to go again with Sandra. Even though I spent all day there, it’s hard for us to see everything in one visit in most presidential libraries. Of course these places always make ‘their’ president appear in the best possible light. For example, even though they show Reagan’s younger years and his marriage to Nancy in detail, they never mention that he was married for nine years before he met Nancy. But (maybe compared to current events?) he seemed to have been a very decent man, husband and president. I found it ironic that they have Reagan’s quote “Mr. Gorbachev, Tear down this wall!” as prominently displayed as Trump nowadays proclaims his plan to build a wall.
Allensworth is (or was) a very unique town. It’s the only town in California that was founded and governed by African Americans, former slaves to be precise. In 1908, when it was pretty much impossible for blacks to get a fair shake anywhere else, they started this town and were very successful for a while, until a declining water table, the relocation of the train station and the untimely death of their founder brought hard times to Allensworth. Today, it’s a State Historical Park that, at least when I went there, felt like a ghost town.
The Forestiere Underground Gardens in Fresno are an unlikely attraction and unlike anything else I have seen. A citrus farmer from Sicily bought this land over 100 years ago to start an orange farm. But he quickly learnt that the ground was way too hard to plant citrus trees commercially. He was also awfully hot in the summer. Since he had worked on the New York subway tunnels, he knew it was cooler underground, so he started digging a cave on his land…and basically did not stop digging for over 40 years. I guess he really digged digging. He envisioned an underground resort and for an obviously crazy idea, he was surprisingly successful. After 20 years of digging in his spare time, he had built enough of an attraction with underground gardens, dozens of caves, rooms and hallways that he was able to quit his day job. For the next 20 years he continued digging, pretty much by himself, making a living off tours and hosting parties in the cool caves under the desert heat. The Underground Gardens are still run by the family and they offer hour long tours through this eccentric place. Got to love crazy people!
Another amazing person who just keeps doing what he likes is Noel Stookey, who is better known by his middle name Paul. If that does not ring a bell: His friends include Peter and Mary. I saw the announcement for this concert at the historic Tower Theater in Fresno and I will admit, I was mostly interested because he was part of Peter, Paul & Mary. Not sure I would have gone to a concert by just any 80 year old singer/songwriter. At first I was hoping he would play mostly the old familiar songs, but that quickly changed. What a likable, agile, talented, interesting man. Every song he sang and every story he told made me smile, laugh or think.
After three wonderful trips in Homer, our Home on the Road, it was sad to get him ready to be sold. But RVs don’t get better with age, especially if they don’t get used. So understandably, Bunt and Ann rather want to sell him. But since the competition for the best road trip between Ronja and Linnea was too close to call, I am convinced that there will be more trips in our future. Hopefully, Sandra wants to get in on the competition who has the most fun road trip ever. Going without Sandra has only one advantage: I was actually happy to come home. Oh yeah, and being back on Maui is not the worst place to be either. However, it makes me think that pretty much everybody I talked to after coming back from this trip and asked what was new and exciting answered “Not much, same same.” Now “same same” on Maui means same great weather, same nice people, same beautiful beaches, but life on the road seems a little bit fuller. That’s why my updates are so darn long. Sorry for that, but thanks for reading.
And that’s the news from Lake Linnea, where all the Swiss players are strong, all the disc golf courses are good looking and every day is more fun than average.
Aloha,
Chris
