My Journey

[GregSplett]

About time you got tired of the desert and started hankering for some forest time.Must be nice!

The wild horses to me represent just how much the discovery of north and south America turned the world up side down.Americas got horses and pigs just for a start.Europe got potatoes the Italians got tomatoes.It just goes on and on.

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Ashton.....I think that you just find new places. I'm just now discovering that many places that I've always avoided in the past, have now become interesting. So much out there.....although we could use a rest.....it's been 201 days on the road.....



Mccaf.....thanks.....I should be headed north towards the end of this week. The plan is New England and then through Nova Scotia, New Foundland, and Labrador.....the next chapter.....

Greg.....yes ! forest time ! I love it.....

And camp fires are so nice as well.....



I finally dropped a kayak into the bay and got some paddling in. Of course I headed right to the area where I loved to hear the song birds and the waterfowl sing.....





It was great ! I paddled the shorelines for a couple of hours on a perfect afternoon. The shoreline is lined with these muscles.....there must be trillions of them out there.....



The sky was a beautiful blue filled with contrails from the jets flying north and south along the coast.....



Early in the week we barely set foot on the Atlantic Ocean beach.....it was just too cool with the constant breezes. But when temperatures rose and winds declined, we were at the beach.....



Surf fishing is huge here.....



I wish I could have let the dogs run free here. They wanted that so badly. We walked together.....

 

[longhorn1]

Jerry, trailer is awesome. Headed to Rhode Island, Cape Cod, and Camden, ME early June. Nova Scotia and Newfoundland will be in our plans. jd

 

[GAmuddin93]

I really like following your travels! Keep it up!

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

JD.....maybe we will cross paths in the northeast U.S......

GAmuddin93 and Susan Miller.....thank you.....

We headed back to northern Virginia with plans for a short stay but things haven't quite worked out that way. Nights are spent in random parking lots mostly. Days are often spent visiting with the few family and friends I have in the area. We love hiking around Manassas Battlefield. Miles and miles of trails.....







Now we did need a break from the city life so we drove west into the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. I've got a favorite spot in George Washington National Forest.....



There's a creek nearby for the dogs and plenty of almost completely deserted roads and trails to hike along.....



Beautiful Virginia countryside makes for a great evening ride out of the forests....



I saw this at REI.....I find it difficult to believe.....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

It's hard for me to believe that we arrived on the east coast nearly a month ago. It's so true that time and life seem to just fly by at incredible speeds. And speaking of time flying by, Tanner turned one year old several days ago. Our bond continues to grow and grow with the passing of time.....



I had a plan to leave the area several weeks ago, but that was not to be. Seems like one thing after another you know. But that should change in the next couple of days I think.....

We continue to hide at night in random parking lots throughout the city, and we're still hiking on the miles of trails at the Manassas Battlefield National Park. We stayed late last night and caught the sunset.....







I've had some amazing experiences in my life.....I've traveled to 5 continents, climbed mountains over 20,000 feet high, dove on shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean, explored the Amazon jungle, jumped out of airplanes.....and so much more. But I found something here that can't be matched by any adventure in the world. And that was the time I spent with my granddaughter. She's the most beautiful girl in the world.....

She asked me not to leave and there's a part of me that would love to stay, but there's always the tug of needing to wander. I've often thought it's a curse to live with. It's such a challenge to explain to a 5 year old that her grandpa just loves to wander.....

The passage below explains so well the way I feel about my life.....torn between two worlds.....

"Descending from the heights we met the first blade of grass and the first flower, and finally the slopes were hairy with sage brush. Perhaps our passage from the cold upper reaches to the familiar earth had been too rapid; as I looked back at the lonely peaks, then at the huts and fields below where people groped their whole lives away. Torn between contentment and longing, caught between two worlds, one that possessed me, yet could never be more than a passing phase, and that other which is a part of human existence, I yearned to retain my dual identity." George B. Schaller........Stones of Silence, Journeys in the Himalayas



Photo from my 2015 trip to Nepal

 

[Foy]

I've wondered how you find balance between the two worlds. We have our only grandchildren, a 5 year old boy and his 2.5 year old sister, living with their parents in a house right around the corner from ours. We've gotten to where we think twice or three times about planning weekends or longer trips, wondering "what will 'the babies' be up to during that time?"

Enjoying seeing you back in Virginia! We love us some Virginia. The wife's parents are still living in their own home in the Valley, near Staunton. She's going to spend the weekend with her Mom, leaving tomorrow, stopping for a long bike ride on the High Bridge Trail in Farmville along the way.

Foy

 

[Masonjar]

Maybe sometime soon she can join grandpa on a road trip. We camped with our kids when they were small, but "things" started to get in the way... I wish we had tried harder to keep up the tradition.

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Foy.....I've never found a balance.....

Masonjar.....yep.....

DAY 215.....waiting on the storms to pass so we can begin our journey north. We spent last night along the side of a road in an industrial park.....



I saw a rainbow a few days ago.....



A rainbow is more than a beautiful sight for me.....it's my connection to my best friend that died last summer. I'm always grateful to see a rainbow.....

 

[Ashton]

Every time you talk about Montana I cry a little and hug my ********** a little tighter. thanks for the photos and insights.

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Ashton.....yep, still not over the loss of that guy.....

The rains finally subsided a bit shortly after the last post and we were on the road again. While I have certain destinations in my mind, certainly we won't be making a straight line to them.....we're gonna be wandering. So we drove northwest out of northern Virginia, as opposed to northeast towards our planned destinations. We made our first stop at the railroad station at Point of Rocks, Maryland for lunch. Pretty scenic area for sure.....



I had decided that I wanted to drive more on the back roads as opposed to the four lanes and interstates, and often my mind will wander as I take in the wonderful scenery and sometimes I just plain overlook the details. So there we found ourselves in a bit of a dilemma.....



I did recall seeing a sign saying bridge ahead.....20 ton limit.....but I don't recall the whole 10' 6" part of the deal. All the locals that stopped to say hey (very friendly people here) told me that it was clearly on that sign. Well, we were a traffic disruption for maybe 10 minutes, and on the bright side, I met some nice people and saw a pretty damn nice covered bridge.....



I had mentioned awhile back (I believe it was while visiting Carlsbad Caverns) that I wanted to see more of those places that I have refused to see in the past.....either because I deem it to be too commercialized or just too crowded for my likes. So our next stop, Gettysburg National Military Park, clearly fell into that category. This place is amazing.....I love it here.....and once again I'm reminded that the benefits of having an open mind far outweigh the opposite.....








The cannons are cool, the countryside is stunning, and just like Manassas Battlefield, there are miles and miles of trails to walk. And really, nobody uses the trails, so we were alone for a good bit of the day.....





Abraham Lincoln sure does look grumpy.....but I guess when you've just realized that approximately 53,000 lives (28,0000 Confederate and 23,000 Union) were just lost there in a matter of a few days, he has every right to have that face.....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

We walked a lot yesterday.....my Fitbit says we walked 16.3 miles. One of the benefits of walking so much is that from time to time we get to see things that the crowds surely miss.....like the snake with the mouse in it's mouth in the Guadalupe Mountains or the osprey flying directly overhead with a huge fish in it's talons on Assateague Island. And yesterday we were given another gift of that type.....








It was a great day and I'm so thankful to have lived it. We drove to a high point in the park to watch the sunset.....





We left as darkness came and brought the end to another day of our lives.....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

We spent the next two days walking and exploring the trails and roads throughout Gettysburg National Military Park.....



Along the southwest border of the park lies the Eisenhower National Historic Site. This was Dwight Eisenhower's retreat home from Washington and eventually his retirement home. From a distance it looks pretty damn nice.....



On Monday afternoon while walking along a trail through the fields we encountered a nest of ticks. It was unreal is an understatement. Within 24 hours I removed 138 ticks from Tanner, probably half that from Yukon, and again half that from myself. I've found ticks throughout the truck and camper.....



After that encounter I decided it was best to walk along the roads, which really aren't busy whatsoever.....and they're absolutely beautiful.....





Pennsylvania field stone, in my opinion, is probably the most beautiful wall building stone in the world. There's miles and miles of stone walls throughout the park.....





Additionally, there are quiet a few amazing farmhouses that have withstood the test of time. The National Park Service has done a tremendous job maintaining these gems.....





What an amazing place this is.....

 

[the deputy]

Still enjoying your journey.

Brian.

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Thank you Brian.....I always appreciate the feedback and appreciate it that you take the time to say thanks.....

Tanner found a pair of mating Box Turtles. I don't know.....I like the picture. That dog should work search and rescue.....



So many monuments in Gettysburg National Military Park. There must be hundreds.....

From the National Park Service website.....

"There are approximately 1,328 monuments, markers and memorials at Gettysburg National Military Park."







After 5 days of hanging out in Gettysburg, I finally decided Thursday morning that it was time to move on. So we passed through the park, got in a bit more hiking, before we drove SOUTH !



We spent a night in Frederick, Maryland at the largest Walmart on the east coast. Seriously, I think I've stayed at hundreds of Walmarts but never one like this. Shopping here actually wasn't a bad thing.....

The following day we arrived back in northern Virginia. In case you're curious why we returned, I wanted to meet my son's girlfriend who was flying in from Europe. After deciding to return, I had some issues with some dental work that I had done in northern Virginia several weeks ago, so here we are.....meeting the girlfriend and hopefully getting the tooth repaired.....



The weather this week has really sucked.....rain, rain, rain. So I thought stopping in at Great Falls Park on the way down might be interesting. Here the Potomac River falls 76' in less than a mile. After these falls, the river becomes placid and you'll often see college rowing teams on the river. But the falls were crazy violent with all the rains.....







Looking at this sign, it's hard to imagine how much rain fell to get the water level this high.....



The plan (I wonder why I make them) is to drive north Monday.....