April Weekend Update

April 11-13
In mid April of 2014, we had some great weekends. April 11th, 12th, 13th weekend my parents came to town. Abby made a meat sauce for pasta because we were carbo-loading for our big race the next morning. Abby, Dad, and I were signed up for the Carmel Half Marathon while Megan and Mom were signed up for the 8K. Zach was refusing to run and signed up for nothing but let me tell you, he was really into the carbo-loading part of the weekend. His plate of spaghetti was massive and then amazingly he said he felt terrible after he ate the whole thing.

Saturday morning we piled into Obo's Car and made our way to Carmel for the race. The weather was a tad chilly but considering the winter we had, it felt great. It was going to be a great day for running. The half-marathon started first so Abby, Dad, and I found our way to the start line as Mom and Megan took our clothes back to the car. We all ran well and finished better than our "goal" times. I beat my goal time by a whopping 1 second, 1:39:59!

After the race, we received giant medals and some of us decided to donate them back to the race to be used for something else. Who really knows. They also were giving away pizza slices for runners, that was a first and I enjoyed chowing down on a slice of cold pizza. Mom and Megan were giving me a hard time for eating the pizza off of the ground. Ground Pizza is delicious.

We left Carmel and drove back to the Village (Broad Ripple Village) to hopefully meet Zach after his bike ride for breakfast. We went to Cafe Patachou and all devoured our breakfasts or lunches as some people are crazy and love lunch food for breakfast. Now that we had worked out and were full, it was nap time. I took Sophie to the park to tire her out and then found my way to the basement for a beautiful midday nap.

After nap time, it was errand time. The gentlemen went to the hardware store to acquire supplies for the floating dock we were going to make later in the week. The women folk went to multiple stores to find food supplies for that evenings event, tailgating at the inaugural Indy Eleven soccer game.

We drove downtown and met up with Kylee, Aaron, Kevin, and Gaylena for the tailgate. They had commandeered a wonderful spot and we quickly unloaded the grill, coolers, chips, and other goodies. We had two solid hours of tailgating before the game and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. It was warm and the sun was shining. We had all sorts of visitors to our tailgate, Laurie & Jeff, Kyle & Katie, Dave & Mandy, and we made friends with our neighbor tailgaters as well.

The Indy Eleven Crew

During the Game

The game was a blast as we were situated in the Brickyard Battalion behind one of the goals. It ended in a 1-1 draw but the crowd was into it and alive. Everyone seemed to agree that we should do it again.

The next morning, we woke up and decided to have breakfast at Three Sisters Cafe in the Village. Megan and I rode our bikes to meet the rest of the family there. I've heard good things but had never been. We split the corn pancakes as a table and I enjoyed the breakfast burrito. It was also a great day to sit on their patio and enjoy the morning.

April 17-20
The following week, Zach and I got together on Thursday night to construct a floating dock to be used in the pond at the Farm. Zach was the architect and main contractor as well.

Framing the Dock

Giving the Dock Support

Framed and Supported

The following day we loaded this behemoth of a dock onto a trailer borrowed from Jeff. It took some serious finagling to get it to fit but in the end we were able to load all of our camping gear on the trailer as well. We drove to Columbus and made it to Paul and Bev's house just before 10 p.m.  They had some burgers and beers waiting for us which was amazing and my parents arrived within 5 minutes of our arrival.

The Trailer Filled Up

The next morning we left Paul and Bev's early and made our way towards Lancaster, Ohio and the Farm. We stopped at Starbucks for some coffee and Home Depot to get deck screws and some other last minute things. We made it to the farm by about 9 a.m. and unloaded the cars and started to set up camp. We didn't get far as we were anxious to finish our work on the dock and other small tasks. We drove the dock down to the pond and found that the wood we had been told was there wasn't going to suffice.

Zach and Dad then drove back to town to get deck planks as we started to clear out the spillway of any debris. When they returned with the wood it was quick work laying the planks and screwing them in. Within no time we had a floating dock worthy of any pond.

Finished Floating Dock

And it floats!!

After we got the dock in the water, the real fun started. We had a few little projects to finish up like restacking the brick firepit and removing some brush from the overflow spillway around the dam. We got those knocked out straight away and were focusing on food, drink, and enjoying the beautiful spring day.

Zach did a little fishing.

For lunch we were all about hot dogs, tomato soup, and pizza hobo pies. Hobo pies are probably not the politically correct name for them but they are essentially camping panini sandwich makers. And they are about 75 years old so all that extra flavorings are grilled into the cast iron molds. We have experimented with sandwiches, desserts, and now pizzas. Pizzas are pretty amazing. We use crescent rolls for the dough, some pizza sauce, some shredded cheese, and some pepperonis.

Creating the Hobo Pies

Add Some Pepperonis

Cooking Lunch

Now That's a Good Looking Dog

While we were restacking the firepit we came across some bricks with Grandad's initials.

RPB Co.

After shooting some guns, setting up tents, fishing, utilizing the new floating dock, we were again hungry for some food. For dinner, we had steaks and potatoes plus we reheated some leftover tomato soup.

Massive Steaks

Baked / Fire Roasted Potatoes

Dusk at the Farm

Roaring Fire, Toasting Smores

We all slept pretty well and only Sophie was really frightened by the dog/coyote/werewolf that we heard howling in the middle of the night. The temperature got down to the mid-40s which was essentially perfect sleeping weather when you have nice sleeping bags which we do. We woke up on Sunday morning and made some coffee and hot chocolate and took a little walk down to the pond before cleaning up camp and leaving to find some breakfast at Bob Evan's.

April 23 - 27
The following week, I had an interview day at Hendrick's County Fairgrounds in which I interviewed with Carmel, Lawrence Township, Washington Township, Greenwood, and Westfield. I was feeling very excited and hopeful that one of these would turn into a full time position. Then on Thursday morning at 0-dark-hundred I had to be at the airport because I was headed to BWI to run from Gettysburg to Washington DC. My flight was easy and I got lots of application work and reading done on my flight. At BWI, I again had a lengthy wait for the rest of the team to arrive and again, BWI has wonderful free wifi which I utilized to complete some applications for teaching positions. I also was reading the incredibly heart-breaking book, Fault in Our Stars by John Green.

The rest of the team arrived a few hours later and we were on our way to renting 15 passenger vans and finding the route to Gettysburg. Our team was called The Killer Angels which is a group of soldiers from the Civil War. Our team was comprised mostly of my dad's running group and a few others. We made it to Gettysburg in time for a Subway sandwich before our tour of the battlefield. The tour guide, John, got in the van with us and talked and talked and talked. He talked for 3 hours as we drove around the town of Gettysburg and toured the battlefields.

Touring the Battlefields

The High Ground of Little Round Top

After the tour, we quickly checked into the hotel, changed clothes, and headed out for dinner. After dinner, our team captain had to attend a meeting, and we all went to Wal-mart to stock up on supplies. Our van had experienced relay runners and we only got a small amount of supplies because you realize that in 24 hours you don't eat all that much especially when you still have time to eat dinner and some of the exchange areas have food.

Stocking Up on Essentials

The next morning, we started the race at 11:15 with about 130 of the 140 teams starting before us. This is how I like it! There are lots of "kills" available out on the course which I love doing, passing slower people. Because we had one of our runners back out at the last minute, our van had to split up one of the legs. I ran 2 miles of fairly flat terrain but then had to run my normal leg right after. So my first official run started about 3 p.m. and it was 4.5 miles. I felt pretty strong and about half way through it started pouring. I love a good adversity like bad weather and was chasing someone down that was a good distance in front of me. I ran 6.59 pace for 4.5 miles which I thought was pretty stellar. Unfortunately, soaking wet I started to feel like crap. I pounded some Emergen-C, an orange, and some tylenol in hopes that I would feel better. I also took a little nap which did help a little. We found dinner in a little town called Smithsburg, Maryland and we picked up our last runner here. He had taken a $225 cab ride from DC to the middle of nowhere. It was great to see Dillon, who I ran cross country and track with at SFHS.

The Killer Angels at the Start

Covered Bridge at an Exchange Zone

Some Hills in Southern Pennsylvania

My next run was at 11:15 p.m. and I ran my 4 mile route in 7:27 pace. It was an out and back that also included runners from 3 different legs, which meant there were a ton of runners on the course at the same time. I got to kill 12 people which was awesome to continually be running down someone in front of you. Immediately after my run, I had a hot dog from the high school concession and fell asleep. I needed the nap because I still wasn't feeling great. I slept for almost 4 hours which is an eternity during a relay. When I woke back up we were leaving to start our third and final runs. We started out onto the course and quickly realized we had left one of our runners in the bathroom.

Sunrise on the Potomac

The last runs are always the hardest because your legs are sore and tired but you know that when you finish, it's all over. Most of the time, you struggle through the last run and just keep your feet shuffling forward. This time was no different for me. Unfortunately, I had an 8 miler to finish up with. I started a few minutes after sunrise and I was running along the Potomac. I used the first couple miles to warm up my legs and started churning out what felt like some good miles in the middle. When I turned off of the river trail I thought I had 1 mile left. My route got a little hilly with just some rolling stuff. I only saw 3 people for the first 7 miles on the trail but then on the road there were hoards of people. I passed 8 more on the rolling hills but the last mile felt like 3. I struggled to the exchange zone but was very relieved to be done and I was able to do 8 mile in 8.14 pace. The rest of the day was showers at Dillon's place in DC, food at the finish line, a quick walk over to the Mall, and sitting in the sun drinking free beer along the waterfront in DC.

My New Hat

After our team finished, we checked into the hotel in DuPont Circle. We then showered and napped before drinks in the hotel and then dinner at an Italian place near DuPont Circle. We all quickly fell asleep after dinner and all we did in the morning was head back to the airport.

The Killer Angels at the Finish Line

RoadTrip: Yellowstone

We made it to Yellowstone via the South Entrance and stopped off to find some lunch at the West Thumb Visitor Center.  There we saw something that we had been looking for since we left Naperville 30 plus days earlier.

As I believe I mentioned in a previous post, we were playing the License Plate Game, where you keep track of all the different states and Canadian provinces that we come across.  We started the game very early in the trip when we were driving through Iowa on day 1.  We were now almost completely done with our 7 week trip and we had spotted 49 states and 6 provinces.  The entire trip we hadn't seen a North Dakota license plate.  It was excruciating that it came down to North Dakota, my least favorite state.



Finally a North Dakota License Plate



Growing up when my family would go on our summer roadtrip vacations we would take different routes out West and at least once we drove through North Dakota.  I immediately disliked the state for having a boring looking state capitol building.  Then at my previous job I was put in charge of North Dakota, which included a few trips up to the state including one lovely trip when the temperature never reached above -15.



When we hopped out of the car to find some lunch and maybe a Walking Stick Medallion or a stamp for our National Park Passport, I spotted the elusive license plate.  We jumped up and down.  We high-fived.  We hugged.  We took pictures.  It was a beautiful moment but we were hungry and people were starting to stare, so we found our way inside.


After our sit down lunch we found our way to a boardwalk that took us by a bunch of mud pots and hot springs at the West Thumb area of Yellowstone Lake.  It was a great day to be outside and the pervasive stench of sulfur was relatively tolerable as we walked along the boardwalk avoiding the throngs of Asian tourists.  This was just the beginning of all the mud pots and geysers which we would see many more in the next day as Yellowstone is famous for its very thin crust of Earth allowing the bowels of our planet to spew out on a regular basis.


Blue and Orange Hot Spring

Orange Bacteria Draining into Yellowstone Lake

Hot Springs at West Thumb

We were heading towards our reserved campsite in Canyon Village which is on the Northeast corner of the giant loop of a road through Yellowstone.  On our drive up there we stopped at a few places along Yellowstone Lake to dip our toes in and enjoy the views.  At one stop along a river, we found some salmon just starting to run up river for spawning.  It was pretty cool to watch them hang out just beneath the rapids before trying to swim upstream.  We stopped at a few more hot springs as well where we happened to walk up right behind a giant buffalo.  He was just chilling near a mud pot and luckily didn't seem to mind that we were only a few feet away from him.  Some other tourists were brave enough to take some pictures with him so Megan and I did the same although I was scared he was going to attack at any moment.

This Buffalo Didn't Even Look Up When We Walked By



Driving Around Yellowstone Lake

We kept driving and before long there was a crowd of people parking and standing along the side of the road, we weren't going to miss whatever they were looking at so we swerved off of the road and joined in.  It didn't take long to figure out whatever everyone was looking at was very far away but the guy with the telescope let us look through and spot the Grizzly Bear trudging through a meadow about a mile away from us.

Grizzly Bear from a Distance



The Bear is on that hill. We were a safe distance away.



Megan has pretty much as long as I've known her complained that her mom has seen a bear but she hasn't.  I on the other hand have been quite content to have never crossed paths with a bear except for the stuffed one at the Field Museum in Chicago.  Bears are one of those few animals that might actually be higher than me on the food chain and I don't want to give them any ideas.  I quickly decided that from a mile away looking through my camera zoomed in at 12 times magnified I was OK seeing a bear.  Plus, Megan was immensely excited about her bear sighting and quickly claimed that this and the princess comment was a tie for top moment of the trip.



After our bear encounter, we stopped off at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone which includes the Upper and Lower Yellowstone Falls.  We first stopped at the Upper Falls which is a powerful sight to see.  We hiked around a little bit to get closer before moving on to the more well known Lower Falls.  The Lower Falls is huge, standing three times taller than the Upper Falls, at over 300 feet.  Also, from the Lower Falls lookout point you have incredible views of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and to be honest a great visualization of why it is called "Yellow" stone.  We noticed from where we were standing that there seemed to be a little platform directly next to the falls, which we then learned was "Brink of Lower Falls" and we knew we had to reach that point.  After some deliberation we decided to set up camp and then come back to the falls around sunset.


The Upper Falls - Powerful at 110 ft Tall



Lower Falls - Even from a distance is massive, standing 310 ft tall



Lots of Yellow stone in The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

After setting up camp which included some showers, we decided to cook some dinner before returning to watch the sunset.  We picked up some noodles and pasta sauce from the store and had spaghetti for dinner.  After cleaning up, we stopped at the store one more time to pick up a few gifts most of them having bears on them as we were still feeling the adrenline of the bear sighting.  We also ordered a pair of ice cream cones to complete the great summer day.  We made our way back to the Lower Falls spot hoping to catch the sunsetting over the canyon.  We waited for awhile and we were the only ones there, which should have been a sign.  We couldn't see the sunset from out location as the high ground on the other side of the canyon blocked all the pretty colors.

Disappointed in our sunset mistake we went back to camp and decided that we would attend the speaker talking at the outdoor theater.  It was an elderly man that talked about how Yellowstone was great because it wasn't commericialized and hopefully never would be.  He also told a great story about a bear.

There was a priest hiking through the park one day when he came across a bear.  The bear and the man both stood still for a moment and knowing that bears have been known to eat humans the priest quickly knelt to the ground and began to pray to the Lord for protection from the bear.  However, the Lord didn't answer his pray and the bear began to run at the man.  The priest jumped to his feet and took off running as well.  The man kept saying his prayers asking for help to make it out alive from this bear chase yet the bear kept gaining on the priest, until finally the bear was right on the heels of the man and the priest was shouting at the Lord for protection.  Just when it seemed that the bear was going to catching the priest and eat him, the bear stopped.  The priest overwhelmed with joy thanked the Lord but stopped because he heard someone else saying a pray.  He turned to see that the bear had knelt down and was praying as well.  The priest asked the bear why he was praying and the bear responded, "I'm not sure why you are praying but I'm saying grace."

We chuckled all the way back to camp with that one and quickly fell asleep in our tent.  The next morning was really our last day on this trip as we weren't planning on doing much other than driving all the way back to Chicago.  We woke up and decided we would shower in the afternoon, so we were washed up in the camp bathroom near our tent.  After I was done, I was doing something in the back of the car when a lady approached me.  She said, "my son just wanted to ask you something."  He shyly came up from behind her and said "Are you Thor?" Bam! Just like that I had my new favorite kid in the entire world plus maybe the single greatest moment of my life.

I don't even remember if there was anything else to say.

Oh yes, we were planning on driving over to Old Faithful in the afternoon as we had dinner reservations at the Old Faithful Inn. We had some time to kill and decided to drive up to Mammoth and check out the hot springs there.  After looking at the map, we found a few other places we wanted to stop on our drive up to Mammoth as well as when we were to be driving to Old Faithful.  Not long after we started driving we spotted a park ranger directing traffic around a spot where a bunch of people were out of their cars.  As we drove by the ranger said there was a black bear and her cub just down the hill, so we practically jumped out of our car while it was still rolling and ran over to see the bears.  The little cub was so cute and looked like a teddy bear and this time they were close enough that you could see them with a naked eye.


Black Bear and Her Cub; from much closer than the Grizzly Bear


We watched the bears play around for a few minutes before moving on to see a couple more sights before reaching Mammoth Hot Springs.  We did the basic boardwalk hike around the hot springs which included a few sections that looked like we were on a different planet.  We lunched at the cafeteria where we enjoyed a giant chili cheese bison dog, a delicious, fresh cheese burger with some chili cheese fries which were all amazing.  We drove back towards camp and stopped at Brink of the Lower Falls, which after a steep climb down put you right next to the behemoth of Lower Yellowstone Falls.  The views were great as we looked down Yellowstone Canyon with the mist of the falls creating a rainbow and the roar of the falls drowning out any other human sounds.

Mammoth Hot Springs - This could be on a different planet.



Mammoth Hot Springs



Looking Over the Brink of Lower Falls

 

Brink of Lower Falls - Wow



We made our way back up from the Brink, passing a bunch of people along the way, as our legs were strong from all the hikes we had done on our trip.  We decided to shower and bring nice dinner clothes with us but wear hiking clothes as we were still hoping to stop off at a few more places before dinner at Old Faithful.  We stopped at the Geyser Basins along the road which includes Lower, Midway, and Upper basin.  At these stops we saw many different geysers and hot springs, some shooting up, some bubbling clear water, some gurgling mud, some were bright blue or bright green, others were bright orange, and others still were so clear it seemed as if you could see down in to the Earth.



We spotted this Elk with a huge rack along the road as well.



Plus this Bambi Scene



Hot Springs Running into a river

This doesn't look natural

More Colorful Hot Springs

We finally reached Old Faithful and of course had just missed a spewing so we had about 90 minutes to spare which was fine because our dinner reservation wasn't for another 90 minutes or so.  We wandered around a few other geysers before securing a spot on a bench to watch Old Faithful blow.  As she started to go, the geyser sputtered and stopped a few times and the little boy next to us was very disappointed thinking she was done.  But then Old Faithful surprised the little boy as the water shot up 75 feet into the air added to the steam was quite a scene.

Old Faithful - There she blows!

Our dinner was a delight as we enjoyed prime rib, salad bar, tomato bisque, and a shrimp pasta.  The Old Faithful Inn is a giant lodge has exposed logs everywhere and is very impressive.  We explored the lobby a bit before realizing we had almost an hour drive back to our camp site and we didn't want to make the drive at night when all the animals come out to play.  On our drive home, there was another group of people standing by the road which could only mean one thing, another bear. However, by the time we got there the bear had just walked around a hill so all we saw was his butt as he disappeared.  Just a few minutes down the road we spotted an animal running along the pavement as we pulled even with it we realized it was a wolf.  He looked over at us with his scary eyes and kept trotting along before he turned away from the road.

Dinner at Old Faithful Inn

We were planning on attempting to drive the 1400 miles the next day to make it all the way back to Naperville, so we were hoping to get to bed at a decent time.  We made it back to camp stopping to get some red bulls in case I got tired while driving the next day.  Upon arriving, Megan quickly fell sound asleep but I was stuck laying wide awake.