Bing Bing Bing Bong Bong

Does anyone recognise this place then? There's a clue in the title?

In America it's known as 'Devils Tower' - North East Wyoming - but the film buffs will recognise it better as the place where the aliens landed in the film 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'

If you have seen the film you'll remember everyone making the shape of the tower out of mashed potato, plastercine etc and at the end the space ship landed at the top and the door opened and out came the aliens - well not real aliens, just madgets in rubber suits stinking of cabbage - if you look at the third picture you'll see what I mean!!

What an amazing thing to see though - it truly is unique in its shape and size and has something to do with the core of a volcano solidifying and then, through time the surrounding rock was eroded leaving this wierd shape. See - nothing to do with Madgets after all!!

We left Devils Tower and headed for Yellowstone park, which is, as they say - Another story all together!

Recognise anyone?

After leaving The Rockies we made our way through Wyoming, into Nebraska and onto South Dakota. We were keen to see a few of the famous sights. The first photo (click on the picture and look closely) is the Crazy Horse Memorial. It's the worlds largest monument (though not yet finished) in honour of the famed Sioux leader 'Crazy Horse'. It's mainly the face at the minute but should be finished in about 10-15 yrs and will show Crazy Horse astride his horse and will be 560ft high, 640ft long. (We know all of this as Jim, an elderly guy working in the information centre gave us the full run down. He also insisted on letting us have a piece of the rock from the blast. I did have to explain that we were back packing and a piece of rock the size of a brick would prove a little cumbersome. He gladly exchanged it for us!)

We then drove through the Black Hills of Dakota where much to Keith's horror I sang the Calamity Jane song all the way, in fact I'm singing whilst having my picture taken! The area of the 'hills' is huge and called 'black' for all the dark Ponderosa pines that are there.

Our next port of call was the famous 'Mount Rushmore'. The sculpture took about 14 years and is of four famous American presidents: Washington, Roosevelt, Jefferson and Lincoln. Whilst there there was another addition, does anyone recognise the fifth president, the one far left!!

Hiking in the Rockies

Well it's been another lovely day in the Rockies. We've completed our first hike today, about 8 miles and up to an elevation of about 9500ft. A loop trail taking in 5 lakes and a waterfall. Just a couple of photos, the first is 'Nymph Lake' and the second 'Dream Lake'. Although the third shot looks staged it isn't! Chip monks are running all over, we managed to get really close to this one and it just about posed for us. Keith is in 'photography heaven' at the minute with a stunning array of mountain peaks, forests of spruce, crystal clear lakes, lacey waterfalls... need I go on!
This afternoon we decided to go to visit the historic 'Stanley Hotel' in Estes Park, famous for inspiring Stephen King to write 'The Shining'. Of course before we went we decided we had better shower, the first in 5 days (of course don't be forgetting the wonder of ya wet wipe and the 'strip wash')! Anyway this involved going into town and paying $4 each for the privilege at 'Dad's laundry outlet'! Mind you we got our moneys worth and washed all our smalls at the same time! The forth photo is taken outside of the hotel (I think we scrubbed up ok, don't you). It's quite spectacular inside too with gleaming wooden floors and a real luxury feel. We enjoyed drinks on the porch and enjoyed the view (the hotel overlooks part of the Rockies too).
The plans for the next couple of day include more hiking and some lazy afternoons. There are also a couple of drives that will take you to more than 12,000ft. The Old Fall River Road is an old gravel road that leads one-way up a steep, narrow canyon and is above the tree line, it's where you can see the arctic-like tundra (I've heard it's a sight to see and I'm pleased that Keith is driving!)
Just one for the girls, it's good to know old habits die hard and as the 'Take Back Queen' I have already made 4 returns and a price adjustment in Walmart - I am now on first name terms with the customer service staff!
Before I go, sending birthday wishes to our sister in law Nicola Elves and Noah Hawe who both celebrate their birthday on the 14th. Happy Birthday you two!
That's it for now, look out for a new blog from the next new place!

Pictures from The Rockies

We've managed to find a way to plug our camera into the library computer, so here are a few pictures after leaving Denver and heading for the Rockies. The first picture is from highway 72 - as you drive through Denver the traffic is awful, then you take the 72 West and that is what happens - it all goes quiet and the road goes straight into the mountains - one of the best drives I've ever done - it helped that I was driving the Hodge Dodge Durango too.

The next three pictures are setting up camp the first time at Camp Dick (still can't believe that name, it's like a British 'Carry on Film' - no further comments about that though as I have been told to 'keep it clean' from Mrs Elves (Suzanne's Mam) - she said the aunties are starting to read the blog). The last 2 pictures are from Lake Brainard and Lefthand Reservoir (don't ask me why it's called that) . If you're wondering what that is in our hands - it's real snow! At 8,000 feet up the snow lasts a long time round these there parts cowboy.

Elvis is on another computer in the library at the same time - hopefully we don't get cross blogged - can you get tablets for that?

Rocky mountain high oooh Colorado (C -John Denver)

We're are now in the cowboy country - mid-west. We left Bob and Jen on Thursday 5th from Bangor airport (it was very sad to leave the 'hangers on' as we like to call them, especially after having such a truly fantastic time with them) . We flew from Bangor to Boston in a 16 seater plane it was so small Elvis was in row 1, seat 1 and for a second I thought she was going to have to be the co-pilot - she was that close to the cockpit - although she felt sick by the time it landed an hour later. We then flew four hours to Denver. We then went to pick up the car, which was a small ordeal when they said they didn't have the car we wanted - Elvis then went into 'negotiation overdrive' and we ended with with a Dodge (Hodge in a Dodge - what else!) Durango, basically a git big seven seater - it's great to store all the camping gear we have. We stayed in a hostel that night - clean and cosy and then set off to Walmart (for the camping gear, which took 2 hours) then set off for the mountains - the drive through the Rockies was amazing - we have some good pictures but not sure how to post them now that we don't have the Sissy's laptop, I (Keith) am working on it though.

You won't believe where we spent our first night camping - Camp Dick (the equivalent name in England would be Camp Willy!) Beautiful place - very basic but that's the best places in the Rockies, I bet you're all wondering how we are managing with no showers and holes in the ground for a thunder box - well all I can say is the 'Wet Wipe' is a modern day miracle! We did eat well though - chicken and veggies on day one and a risotto on the next day, all home made of course, although the risotto got tricky when we had a thunderstorm in the middle of cooking!

Left Camp Nobby this morning for the National Park (Rocky Mountain NP) and got a great site. We're in the library now at Estes Park, got some hikes planned for tomorrow about 9,000 feet up the mountains (Estes park is about 8,000 feet above sea level).

May check in again tomorrow, hope to post some pics next time.

PS Happy Birthday to Deborah, have a good one and keep a piece of tomato garlic bread for me!

The Fantastic 'Fitness' Four

Well howdee dodee bloggers, happy Independence Day! We have just had six superb days in Acadia National Park, biking, hiking and enjoying a few of the trails from lowland paths to montain routes! There is a free bus that picks you up from the campground and takes you (and your bikes) straight into the park, good eh? Saturday and Sunday we hired bikes and followed a few of the bike trails including cycling up Day Mtn (583ft,yes really), the views were magnificient (2nd photo) and part of the way toward Sargent Mtn. My smile in the 3rd picture was somewhat forced, my legs were starting to ache from all the miles the day before and poor keith's ears were aching from the serious whinging on the way up. I must admit it was worth it though, and great cycling down!

We did climb to the top of Sargent Mtn (1373ft), a little scenic lunch stop on the way up (4th photo) and we were both triumphant on the sumit!

The 6th photo has Sand Beach in the Back Ground. We had an early start that day, managed Champlain Mtn (1058ft) then took a well earned rest, spending a lazy afternoon on the beach. (the main source of amusement being an older guy insisting on running up and down the beach in a pair of speedos!)

Today we have had a very interesting day hiking up a couple of mountains, just small ones (679ft) than ended up taking a walk around Echo Lake which involved some serious rock climbing!

Tonight we are having a typical July 4th supper, bbq chicken, corn, jacket tatties and beans - all cooked on the fire by you know who!

The next blog will be from Colorado, our 2nd adventure!

Birthday boy

Here are a few pictures from my Birthday. Thanks for all the e-mails and best wishes, anyone who forgot have had their names placed in the 'black book'

The day started at 4:15am with a beautiful sunrise. We then had a hike up the biggest mountain - Cadilac Mountain and then the choice was mine for my Birthday meal out. Maine is the lobster capital of the world, so Bob and Suzanne agreed that they would suffer so that I could have a lobster dinner (Suzanne doesn't like the little critters and Bob is allergic to fish and fishy friends) you'll notice though that my Sissy likes the taste of a quality crustation! We then went back to the RV and had a fire - those of you who know me would have guessed that bit. By the way, on the second picture it may look like my kegs has dropped down - but if you click the picture you'll see it's only a strange trick of the light - there probably will be pictures of Elvis and I with thrapper problems when we're in India - but that will be for good reason.

We've been out and about since my birthday and we've done so much and seen such fantastic scenery already that I can hardly keep pace with it - We are going to do a blog summary of the last few days with some of the pictures - I can't do justice to the beauty of this place with a photo, you really do have to climb the mountains and see it for yourself.

Anyway - that's enough from us - we've only got a day left in Maine before we set off to Denver where the Rockies await us! More blogging tomorrow.

Everybody give a big-up to my niece Lindsey who got her results from her teaching degree back today - she got a 2-1, we're very proud of her.