Bones

My whole life isn’t journalism. In fact, most of my life has never been about journalism. So I think it’s appropriate for me to post about the other thing I do, which is music.

This summer I recorded and released an album and as of today it’s on bandcamp and noisetrade. I’m hoping to get some buzz around it so this post is half self promoting and half me just wanting to show what else I can do.

If you enter your email into noisetrade you can download the album for free. Is anything better than free? All I ask in return is that you share it with someone else.

Back By Popular Demand

... and moved by J-School demands.


So I've been hearing that since my road trip ended people have been wondering if my blog ended too.

Well, yes and no.

Yes this blog will still be here and who knows I might throw up a post on it (there are more Beatle birthdays to come).

However, if you want to stay updated on my life, check my new wordpress blog. I'm required to blog for school and keep a running log of my clips as well as thoughts on what I'm learning.

here's the link for that blog.

It's all about my time at the J-School and I'd love it if you read it and read my clips. I serve mid-MO but you never know, you might find it useful too.

The Big Move: Final Day

Sioux City, IA to Columbia, MO

Well, I'm here. I actually was beginning to forget where I was even going. That is, until I got about an hour outside of Columbia and my mom had to deal with my word vomit. I know this is a good life choice for me. I am excited to start school. But somehow, just outside Mizzou all I wanted was to pull off at a rest stop and extend my trip as long as possible.


Why I would want to extend today I'll never know. It all started in Sioux City heading South down I-29. Which is flooded. So that lead us to a detour with very few signs marking it a detour. Instead of a highway it took me to the intersection of two country roads with a church on the corner. I turned onto the highway, not entirely confident in where I was going. Furthermore my gas level was lower than I was comfortable with in a two lane highway with corn as far as the eye could see on either side. However I do have a flexfuel car so I guess if push came to shove I could have tried shoving an ear of corn in my gas tank.



We crossed into Missouri. Every place we have gone I've been only one night. I've gotten used to a state a day. Each place I look around a bit and say "yeah, I can see how people could live here".

And then I leave.

Now I'm in Missouri. For two years. So when we pulled into the hotel I was bit crazy. When we went over to the campus I calmed down. This was a very long drive to a blind date. I've never been here. Never walked here. Never seen it with my own eyes. But it is beautiful and I can't wait to get to know it better.

The Big Move: Day Five

Rapid City, SD to Sioux City, IA


Well I never thought I'd say this: I'm spending the night in Iowa. For years I have heard about my moms trips to Iowa to see the family farm. Well, I'm here now.

This morning I woke up early to see Mount Rushmore. The park gates open at 8am so naturally we were there at 8:10am.

Best idea ever.

Starbucks in hand. Me, my mom, and like a handful of people walked into the pavilion. There was nobody there. I have to say that this is the highlight of the trip. I may have mentioned this, or maybe I give off that vibe, but I really love NOT being around crowds. So going into today I was worried. Mount Rushmore? Wall Drug? This is my tourism nightmare. But instead it was pleasant. We spent two hours just strolling around, taking photos, buying souveniers, watching films, and viewing exhibits with no waiting or pushing or stinky vacationer B.O.

I had to catch myself. Is it really possibly that I am sitting in a quiet, serene, empty amphitheatre in front of a national treasure? Just thinking my thoughts?

As the busloads started to pour in we headed out to our parking space right in front of the gate and left the black hills. Destination: Wall, SD. Home of free ice water at Wall Drug.

I liked Wall Drug. It was so American and so fun. We were there for about an hour to lunch, gas up, buy crap, and take photos. My favourite photo, out of a stream of tacky poses, was one of the "travelers chapel". I thought originally that it was cheesy place to get married, Vegas style, but no. It's actually a chapel for road travelers to sit in and pray. Like Mount Rushmore in the morning, it was empty. I think it says everything about tourist America that there are swarms of people around a jackalope sculpture or jammed into a leather clothing store while a church lies empty. Not that Americans are uninterested in religion. To me it just showed that "The Great American Road Trip" is all chaos, all hurry, all self-involvement. I think it's pretty incredible that in the middle of all that "Famil-E-Fun Timez" there's a little side room that is totally peaceful and totally available to pray.


The original plan today, post-Wall, was to have no plan and pull over whenever. So I jumped behind the wheel, totally recovered from my ticket the day before, and threw the hammer down on I-90. We decided that our goal of Omaha might be a little bit of a push. We left Wall at 1pm and still had a long way to go. So we set a course for Sioux City, IA. Because I had heard of it.

A ways out I had another "first". I booked my first hotel room. And it's a good one too. It's big, off the ground floor, and a local pizza place delivered to the room. Too bad travel agent is a dying career, because I'd ROCK at it.

"Big Soo" in Sioux City, IA

The big moment of today was crossing the Missouri River. From now on I'm living East of it. We head south and follow it down to Missouri. Tomorrow, for the first time, I'll see my new school.

The Big Move: Day Four

Jackon, WY to Rapid City, SD

WHY WHY WYYYYYOMING!


So before I blog anything about today, let me start with this: rural Wyoming was the place where I got my first speeding ticket.

The day was going SO well. I SAW A BUFFALO. Not just a buffalo, but a cute one, frolicking (seriously frolicking) in the Grand Teton National Park. How cool is that?

From there on it went down hill. And up hill. Up and up into the hills on a dirt road following a pilot car and going 15mph on a road with no guard rails.



We went down into the heart of Wyoming. It was here that I was pulled over for going 40mph through a town. Where was I pulled over? Like 20 feet away from a 40 mph sign. Don't believe me? Here's a picture:


"Seriously? Seriously."

When my mom (yup, pulled over with mom in the passenger seat) asked what the deal was when we were close, the cop responded that I might have hit someone crossing the street. In a town of like 100 people. Honestly if I did hit someone all I would have done was put them out of their misery. Excuse me for trying to get as far out of Wyoming as I possibly could. They should pay me for having to drive through that godforsaken wasteland.

To add irony to injury I literally got pulled over outside Hell's Half Acre. Literally.


Wyoming has the smallest population of the 50 states. It's probably not because no one lives here but because all of them are terrible at passing on the highway. One redemptive group of people was the Cottonwood Garden Club who have snacks prepared at the rest stop.


Driving into Buffalo Gap NP was the highlight of my day. Because it has a sign that says "welcome to South Dakota". Upon leaving Wyoming, home of my first ticket, I wanted to pull over and frolick like my baby buffalo in the morning. But mom was driving (since obviously I'm a highway hazard) and so I took a picture of eastern Wyoming in my rearview mirror.

"Bye-oming"

We drove into the black hills and also into a storm. Our destination was Rapid City. Two days before Sturgis. So here I am in the middle of the rhythmic hum of Harleys.

10 hours in the car really makes you crazy. So crazy in fact that when you go to order a beer at dinner you blurt out to the waitress "I got a ticket today! What's on tap?"

My mom and I explored the city and bought some sweet swag in the Coyote Claw discount outlet. Hell yeah! Four dollar shirts!

The Big Move: Day Three

Rexburg to Jackson

Today was a full day and that is probably why I'm so tired. Idaho, a slice of Montana and down into Wyoming.

We set a course straight to Yellowstone, somewhere I'd never been before. We went through the West entrance on the Montana side. Yellowstone is... incredible. It's hard to put into words but the best I can come up with it "peaceful".



That is, until you come to a point of interest. You drive in surrounded by tress and rivers and lakes and rocks and it is gorgeous. Perfect against the blue sky. Then you hit Old Faithful and it's like entering a town. It's crawling with people. Both aspects of the park have their charms.

I should be up front: I don't like people. I hate being around crowds. So National Parks at the height of the tourist season aren't exactly my kind of place.

But I can't be such a sourpuss, it was worth it. Old Faithful has become less reliable. Instead of every hour it's about 70-90 minutes. Aka "when it feels like it". So crowds and crowds of people gather around to just wait and stare at steam. For as powerful and destructive as humans are, it's pretty incredible to see steam hold people captivated. It begins to spout then stops and peeks out again in a geological striptease until finally it rockets into the sky. Or as the 5 year old in front of me said "It was being shy, then it came out".

"All the faithful at Old Faithful"

A geyser worth the wait

After Old Faithful we hit the road to Jackson Hole passing through the Grand Teton National Park. If Yellowstone was hard to put into words, the Tetons are beyond explanation. So here's one of like a million pictures I took:




When we got into Jackson I met a friend of mine, who is now a "local", at a bar. Hannah and I hadn't seen each other in two years. The last time I saw her we were leaving camp in Virginia. Now here we were having a beer as I passed through Wyoming. It's pretty incredible the places life takes you. I never thought I'd meet her here, after all, when I met her she was living in Michigan. I don't know the next time or place I'll see Hannah, but I know it won't be two years from now. It better be much shorter than that.


My mom and I had dinner in town. Jackson Hole is a little high-end. Put in a westcoast perspective its the Cannon Beach of the Tetons. Definitely different than the roadside hotels we've been in.
Jackson Hole, WY
Tomorrow is a long day. We're driving all the way across Wyoming and in to Rapid City, SD. That way we can wake up early on friday and see Mt. Rushmore.


Yellowstone... Jackson... Rushmore... I've left Canada far behind.

The Big Move: Day Two

Boise to Rexburg

We stayed in the same state today, but that doesn't mean we didn't travel.

The morning began at a hotel outside Boise with a free breakfast consisting of coffee, bagels, and cinnamon rolls. The food on display was biscuits, gravy, and sausage patties. At least I think it was, in reality it was probably silicon implants and babysick.

The doors opened to the parking lot letting in the sweet scent of manure. Welcome to Idaho.

Despite the occasional whiff of livestock effluent, I've decided that I really like Idaho and at some point I'll come back. After all, I've got family here.

Gassed and caffeinated (thanks to McDonalds and not thanks to the hotel coffee) we hit the road. We didn't stop much except for rest stops. One was more than just a rest stop, it was in fact an Oregon Trail historical site. What I'm driving is basically a reverse Oregon Trail and it brings back so many memories of elementary school "computer lab". I keep hoping I'll find the graves of such beloved characters as "Farts" and "Poohead". Oh wait, that was only on the computer. What we did see was some trail ruts on the other side of a barbed wire fence. Mmmm history. As a big history nerd I pretty much go coocoo bananas every time I see a brown sign on the highway.


After visiting our "ruts" I jumped behind the wheel only to find that the road was under construction and instead of going East on 86 I would be going East on West 86. Huh? That's right, Idaho dropped some cones down the middle and I was headed down the wrong way. It was like a scene from "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles".

"You're going the wrong way!"

Our first real stop was Idaho Falls. It was a quite little town and great place to walk along the river with a shaved ice. I took 1,000 of the same photos. I also found a button on my camera that would display a photo 16 times. Needless to say it was a well documented trip.


"Idaho Falls and Caboose ice cream stand"

Our final stop was Rexburg, where my great aunt Ethel lives. We haven't seen "Auntie Ethel" (pronounced as one word: "antiethel") in maybe... ten years? When I walked in the first thing she said was "Gawrsh Karen, you done grown up" which is funny because my Great Auntie has grown down. It was pretty cool to see her. All her kids, my mom's cousins, came over too. It was really fun to see family after two days of travel and it was wonderful to see my grandma's younger sister. It made me miss my sister and really made me miss my grandma.

My grandparents were pretty incredible. As my great aunt said, my grandpa was "a prince of a man". It was so interesting to hear the movement of all my predecessors. They were everywhere over the last 81 years: Idaho, Washington, Montana, Oregon, Texas, Iowa, California, Colorado. I guess with me you can add British Columbia and Missouri to the list. They hopped trains and drove and walked all over this country. My grandpa ended up in Tacoma because it's where the train ended. My grandma ended up here with her mom who came to Tacoma because there were jobs as riveters in the shipyards during the war. My grandpa drove a bus, my grandma was a waitress. She flicked some water in his face, then they married, kids, grandkids, and now here I was in Rexburg having dinner with my grandmas sister. It all comes around. It's all history.

Several years ago I found a picture of my grandparents taken by my auntie in Kilgore, ID. It was on the BYU Idaho archives. I've loved it ever since. So I'll share it on my blog.

"Red and Irma in the 1970s"

The Big Move: Day One

My mom at a viewpoint in eastern WA

Tacoma to Boise

It all began today, August 2nd, when my mom and I rolled out of our driveway and hit the road to Missouri.

In between my summer off and grad school is the open road. I've always envisioned my Great American Road Trip differently than this. Maybe it's because I was obsessed with Kerouac in junior high. Now I realize that instead of Dean Moriarty I got my momma. At first I was disappointed. It didn't seem like beatnik meanderings across the country was a place to take your parent, but then again, would Dean have booked all the hotel rooms? I think not.
All packed.

The hardest part of today was saying goodbye to my dog. Leaving an animal is tough because it makes you feel so selfish. I know she knows something is happening, but I can't make her understand what is happening.
She didn't want to say goodbye. Neither did I.

The other cruel part was gassing up at a gas station literally blocks from my friends house. That was rough because it's the closest I'll be until December and it made all the leaving feel real.

Once we crossed the pass I felt better. We climbed a hill up to a vista and took in the view. I haven't really taken a trip to Eastern WA since I was a kid and we used to tag along with my dad. He would make sales calls during the day while we swam in a Red Lion pool and then we would all go out for putt putt or fro-yo in the tri-cities.

Today I went further than that, crossing through Oregon and finally into Idaho where we pulled off and got the view of the Snake River Valley. It's pretty interesting to cross state lines and time zones. Each step of the way all I can think is "I can't believe it's here. I can't believe I'm really gone".

Idaho. Snake River Valley


Now I'm in Meridian, Idaho which is a pretty uninteresting town. It has the usual list of chain restaurants and clothing stores. What appeals to me most about this place is that it's a place to sleep. After 9 hours of driving that sounds pretty good.


Tomorrow is shorter. Idaho Falls and then up to Rexburg to see my Great Aunt Ethel. Life keeps rolling along.

Bug splat on the window, we're in Idaho.