Monday, September 28, 2009

Our home away from home


Well, this is it, our portable palace. Nothing like waking up to a sunrise like that. It makes the stiff back and cold toes totally worth it.

Rushmore


It really is as cool as you think it would be. Just a shame it had to be built on land we illegally stole from the Lakota. Bet they didn't teach you that in history class...

Wall, SD



Wall Drug: America's Favorite Roadside Attraction. Miles of touristy trinkets culminated in the best chocolate donuts we've ever had. Oh, yes, and the free ice water, too.

Later we stopped into a diner for a buffalo burger, and got some free veggie oil on the side.

Like nothing we'd ever seen before


South Dakota has nothing more than gimmicky tourist traps for miles on end...and then there's Badlands. Picture piles of mud, frozen in time and then sharpened by relentless prairie winds. Picture a sandcastle, parts of it carried away by hands and gusts and flows of water. The Badlands are austere and beautiful, silent and seemingly fragile. They rise out of the plains abruptly, dug into the grasslands like a long, winding creator emptied abruptly of its burning lava. One of our favorite places so far.

James plays mechanic again!


Blew a tire on I-90 in the middle of South Dakota, and we were all set to change it ourselves, when we realized that the tool we had to loosen the lug nuts was too big! We decided to hitchhike to town--20 miles away. Shaylyn managed to flag down a trucker, and it turns out that he had the tool we needed. Shaylyn chatted it up with him while James made the switcheroo. Ten minutes and we were on our way. Here's to you, Butch, our new friend! Got two new tires in town, and we were on the road again!

To the Glockenspiel!

Minnesotans take their German heritage seriously. And we were running late to see one of the largest glockenspiels in the world chiming at high noon. We sped through town looking for the tower, and finally found it, just in time to catch the last ten minutes of the wooden figurines turning round and round.

The Greasecar Community



Over in Minnesota, we met up with another greasecar driver who collects and filters his own oil. He gave us a tour of his system, and sold us some oil for $1 per gallon. It was getting late and so he offered to let us camp in his backyard. Score! He even had a fire pit for us where we roasted marshmallows and got to know his wife and daughter. Such great people.

After that we toured some of Shaylyn's mission, and we were on our way!

Hmmmm...



So on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, the local cuisine is a Cornish dish called a Pasty. Yup, a Pasty. Grandma's got 'em too, apparently!



Here's what they look like. It's a pastry with a sort of pot-pie filling. Not bad!

...To the Shores of Lake Michigan


We crossed over the bridge that spans where the Great Lakes connect, and camped on the Northern shore of Lake Michigan. When the sun was setting, we could have sworn we were in Hawaii. The campground was right on the beach, and we had the entire place to ourselves. A dream come true.

Stopping for Oil



On Craigslist we found a guy who is making his own Biodiesel in Standish, on the shore of Lake Huron. His father-in-law owns a restaurant that has a fish fry every Friday. He collects the waste oil in a huge vat and makes his own fuel for 75 cents a gallon. He sold us some oil for 30 cents a gallon. What a deal!



Later on, we had to filter it, and the rain wouldn't stop, so we camped out at a Shell station, and ran it through. Worked like a charm!

Morg and Kim's

Had a great time at Morg and Kim's! Max definitely takes the title of "husky hunk!" Got to pick up Savannah from Kindergarten -- we're going to miss those girls! We played some mean games of kick the can and had a great time staying up late chatting and catching up!














































Left Morgan and Kim's and headed north -- first stop, Ann Arbor, then on to Detroit. I don't think that people there were too fond of our import! The General Motors HQ was like a shining temple overlooking the ruined city below. A sad contrast indeed.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Pit Stop

James is earning his stripes as our on-the-fly mechanic. Here he is performing his first oil change. He did a great job! It took fifteen minutes longer than usual, though, because he had to use Herculean strength to remove a "stuck" bolt. Came off right away once he did the "righty tighty" check, though. :)



Next Stop: Palmyra. Shaylyn's first trip to the Church historic sites. Beautiful Sacred Grove at sunset. We tried to score a free campsite at "Zion's Camp" next to the Hill Cumorah, but it's reserved for RV-driving missionary couples only. A nice white-haired Elder almost let us crash, but ultimately decided that mission rules ruled. Darn White Handbook!

We camped down the road, and then were off to explore the Great Lakes.

The Big Apple


First stop: New York City. We stayed with some friends in Brooklyn and spent the day with Brennon. Here's the boys at the largest used bookstore in the world. James got a little lost in there--we had to lure him out with the promise of ice cream and chips and salsa.

We almost got out unscathed, but came back to the car to find a $115 parking ticket. 15 feet from a fire hydrant--15 feet?!? Just a typical love pat from New York. A real Big Apple sendoff. Ugh.

They Drive a Vegetable Car...



James and Shaylyn are off and running in their vegetable oil-powered car! During our last month before the Peace Corps we plan to make it cross country by refueling at restaurants all across America. We started in Boston and so far we've traveled 1,300 miles and spent only $10 on fuel! Here's a picture of our sweet ride. It's a little weighed-down with the 75 gallons of veggie oil we're hauling in the trunk!

Monday, September 7, 2009

Welcome to the family blog!

Hey family. It's time. It's time for the Garretts to start a blog. We want stories. We want memories. We want pictures. We want to know how in the heck your day went today. The purpose of this blog is for EVERYONE to contribute and to keep in touch a little better. It's also to rerun those family memories over and over again, so it feels (by proxy) that we are sitting at Sunday dinner reliving Morgan throwing a pair of scissors into James' head. We also want to relive the feeling like we were in the car with Brennon when he stole the suburban at age 14. We need you. We need your input. So welcome..... it's time.