Whistler Mountain

After a VERY long day of traveling (I left Scott in Manhattan, KS, stopped in Kansas City, Mo, then Phoenix, AZ, and Las Vegas before landing finally), I arrived in the city of Vancouver where my gram lives. However before I could even drop my bags she had us on a bus up to the resort town of Whistler. This absolutely beautiful mountain village sits at the base of Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains. This area loaded with activities for any age as well as a multitude of shopping and eating. And even though Whistler was downright cold the first couple of days, I still loved it. Could it be that I am beginning to appreciate climates other than Florida's?
Whistler, along with Vancouver, will be the site of this winter's
2010 Olympics. The amount of construction and "improvements"
was intense. I used "improvements" because I think, and most Canadians I have heard agree, there is a serious concern over what will happen after the Olympics are gone. Many cities have experienced a serious economic downturn after they've invested so much to prepare for an Olympic Celebration in their city. Vancouver is taking a "sustainable" approach, and I keep my fingers crossed that they have made wise decisions. In any case, I saw the mountain bike track (photo), which will be used for snowboarding from what I understand, the construction of the pipes for the luge and other activities, and a great deal of housing and road construction. This town is going to be packed!!! The hotel we stayed at said that they are already 90% full with just press. Yikes!
On our way down the mountain, Gram and I rented a car instead of taking the bus. This was fantastic because we were able to stop at a couple of really spectacular waterfalls and a lookout at the Tantalus Mountain Range, which looked to have just had an avalanche. If you look closely, you can see the snow piled on itself down the mountain, such as when a spring avalanche occurs.

The bittersweet part of the summer.

There are no photos from this part of my trip. Scott and I left Bradenton on Thursday 2 July to drive to Ft. Riley, KS, where he will be stationed for the next three months. The drive was beautiful and while Scott drove, I read Bill Bryson's book, A Walk in the Woods, aloud. Really, if you have any interest in the out of doors, this book is a hoot! Backpacks and bears and the Appalacian Trail. What made it even better was that we travelled through some areas that could have been in the book at the time we were reading it. It was great. This drive took us through Chattanooga (choo-choo!), St. Louis (got to see the arch), and Kansas City. We spent the 4th of July celebrating in Junction City, KS, which advertised the biggest Independence Day celebration in Kansas. Umm, well, they did have Grand Funk Railroad as their big musical act...
We watched a pretty impressive display of fireworks (both from the festival and the parking lot of the Holiday Inn Express we were staying at-I was waiting for the boat in the parking lot to catch fire, there would've been some REAL fireworks!). Scott even took me on a tour of Ft. Riley, which is a very historical campus (I know that Scott is cringing but I don't know what else to call it!) with stone houses that the higher-ups and their families live in. We even took a tour of General Custer's old house (however the tour guide told us that they think Custer didn't even live in that house but another one down the street. Not quite sure why they couldn't keep that straight but whatever). Ft. Riley is beautiful and huge. It really does amaze me the length that the military goes to in making sure that almost everything is right on the base. But I don't think many Americans understand or are even aware of all that is expected of military service members and their families. The more I find out, I wish more of those expectations were placed on the general population. I think we would find a definite improvement in the level of pride and responsibility that our citizens take in the freedoms that they have.
So the 4th of July was also the time when I had to say goodbye to Scott as he reported in for training at Ft. Riley and I headed onto Vancouver, Canada. Yeah, I really don't need to say anything more about that.
When I left Junction City, I had travelled a total of 7,059 miles.

On the road again...

And so it began. I left Stuart on 11 June, relieved to have a break from the bureaucracy of the education system. There was a great deal of trepidation surrounding the end of the school year and I sincerely hope that the summer will help to relax everyone, including me.
I began my journey by flying to Barstow, CA to help Scott pack up his life and leave Ft. Irwin, where he had been stationed (okay, so really I mostly watched the movers, hung out by the pool, read, and asked if I could be useful while shuffling to get out of the way, so more often than not I offered moral support and beer). We began the long journey back to Bradenton, FL, which is on the west coast between Sarasota to the south, and St. Petersburg to the north. The photo on the left is us driving away from Ft. Irwin for the first (for me anyway) and last time. Or so we thought-but that's a story for another blog.
We hauled (using a GMC hybrid truck I might add) 14,000 pounds of stuff, including us. This included the GMC truck with us and a Harley Davidson in the back, pulling a U-Haul trailer and Betsy (the Jeep that doesn't like me), who was loaded to the hilt with Scott's stuff that he thought he would need. The rest of his apartment was thankfully put into storage although I had to laugh because we hauled more stuff after the movers took away the apartment stuff than I even own!!!
Alright. What you see in the photo are tree bushes. I have deemed them "tree bushes" because they are too big to be bushes but haven't grown up to be trees yet. I think deep down they aspire to be trees, but just haven't made it yet. I sent them lots of positive growing vibes. These tree bushes were everywhere. After Arizona anyway.
We took Route 40 which also happens to follow historic Route 66. I had no idea that people were so sentimental about a road but reminders of Route 66 in its heyday were everywhere. I think we may have even spotted some people who were around when the road originally came to be. We reached Flagstaff, AZ on the first day and I loved every minute of that drive. It was an absolutely beautiful state and I hope to be able to go back someday and spend more time. Day two brought us through New Mexico and almost through Texas. I would really have liked to skip Texas altogether and they are NOT kidding when they say that Texas is like its own country. I don't know who "they" are, but I'm sure "they" had something to do with the Texas flag having a single star. I think "they" are trying to tell the rest of us something. We spent the second night in Shamrock, TX, which was about the only thing to be considered a town after we left Amarillo. I ate McDonald's that night. Yeah, yeah, yeah I ate a salad, but it was McDonald's. The only saving grace was that if Paul Newman can put his face in McDonald's, I can survive one meal there (a salad of course). Shamrock was also the place where we discovered the Holiday Inn Express, which would be our hotel of choice for the rest of our travels. I think Scott even earned a free night since we stayed so much (we couldn't pass up joining the Priority Club since we were frequent fliers). So I guess Shamrock wasn't all that bad but for a place that sounds very Irish, I don't think I saw any green other than in the hotel lobby carpet. The landscape was flat and brown. Maybe they named the town Shamrock hoping for some of that emerald green from the mother land....
Alright, enough ranting about Texas. Day three brought us over the mighty Mississippi River (never seen that before!) and into Vicksburg, MS. Scott and I remembered that there had been an important Civil War battle but didn't know much about it so I pulled out the holy iPhone and searched it out. And while we drove out of Vicksburg the next morning (after of course staying at a Holiday Inn Express), I read Scott the entire account of the battle. Just a quick cliff note, the battle was in favor of the South.
We finally hit Florida on day four. We made fairly decent time considering that we had to stay below 70 mph for most of the trip or the trailer would fishtail around and you really don't want a heavy trailer like that flailing. I actually drove us for awhile through construction that felt like we were running a gauntlet with very little room on either side of the trailer. I didn't like it very much. I don't think I would make a very good truck driver. We stayed that final night in Madison, FL, east of Tallahassee, and I will just say that there isn't really much to say about Madison.
So we finally made it to Bradenton, FL, where Scott's parents live. They are now the proud guardians of a Harley Davidson (I'll bet they are nothing short of thrilled to have that thing hangin' out in their garage for the next year). Scott made mention that he was thinking of selling it before he left and of course, as any perceptive mother would, Mrs. Massmann provided ample encouragement that selling it would be the absolute best idea. It didn't work. In the end it came down to boys and their toys. And this one doesn't like to part with his. In any case, Scott's family was fabulous. They were so kind and accommodating to me and Col. Massmann even let me tag allow with the boys when they went fishing (I survived gale force...okay maybe not gale but they were darn forceful winds and waves and still out fished 'em-ha!). All and all the Massmann family and their circle of friends are wonderful and I hope to see them again soon :)
At this point, I have traveled 5,624 miles (this included a trip across the state to Stuart so I could repack for the rest of my summer). I know that I haven't included many photos of my trip across the country but there really were a lot of tree bushes and rolling hills. Also, I introduced Scott to playing the "punchbug" game (you know, the one where you punch the person next to you if you see a Volkswagen Beetle) and it turns out that he is very good at it so I kept trying to make an effort to pay attention to catch up. I wasn't very good at it.