3 weeks in....

Greetings from Lesotho, the Kingdom in the Sky, the Switzerland of Africa, the farthest possible point on the globe from a decent sushi joint!

So, my adventure so far:

I arrived in Philly on Monday, Nov. 10th. The Peace Corps put us up in the Sheraton University city- not bad digs considering what I imagined I was getting myself into. Went out that night with Phil, another trainee who got in that night. Had a few beers, had a few more, sang Otis Redding songs on the corner with some random drunk guy, as you do. The next day was Staging, a full afternoon of icebreakers and your standard don't-do-anything-stupid lectures. There are 19 of us, 11 girls and 8 guys, and thankfully I'm not the oldest one in the group. We have two older women who are back for their second tour in the PC, one of whom was in Liberia back in '64. I can't imagine how different the overall structure of the PC must be now in comparison. Anyway, most of us went out that night for pizza and beers, then went to sleep fairly early.

Wednesday morning, we all convene with all of our baggage in the hotel lobby. The chaos wasn't helped by the fact that there was also a group if 40 new trainees headed to Kenya at the same time. We had to take a bus from Philly to JFK, a bus that was apparently being driven by a guy who had just arrived in the northeast. I don't know how familiar all of you are with the Philly-JFK route, but let's just say that there's no good reason why we had to drive trough Manhatten. Even considering the fact that he had already made a massive detour, the driver still wouldn't let me get off the bus to get a hotdog. He also knocked off his side mirror in a tunnel (which had to be fixed at one of the seediest-looking mechanics I've ever seen, while we sat and waited. A few more minor collisions later, and we were at JFK.

Now, at this point, I had been in Mother Hen mode since about 4 in the morning when I got up. I, along with 3 others, was in charge of making sure that everyone stayed together, got their passports, etc. Maybe it's the elementary school teacher in me, but I was stopping every 2 minutes to do a head count, and then having minor panic attacks when people hadn't come through security yet because they had gone outside for one last smoke. Thankfully, we all made it on the plane- 17 hours to JoBerg via Dakar. The flight was fairly uneventful, with nobody getting thrown off the flight for drunk and disorderly conduct, despite best efforts. Once we landed in JoBerg, we went right to our hotel shuttle after customs- as we were flying out the very next morning, our baggage was spending the night at the airport.

We were shuttled over to the Southern Sun Hotel, just around the corner from the airport. Bless the PC for its paranoia in wanting to keep us close to the airport, because this is one of the nicest hotels I've ever stayed at (not saying much, but still). This is the kind of the place where you walk into the lobby and they hand you a glass of wine and point you towards the cheese & crackers tray. We checked in, showered (we were all more than a little rank by now), and met for a kickass buffet dinner. A few of us stayed up for a while, but we had to be up early, so I was asleep by 11, then up by 3. We had to take 3 separate shuttles to the airport, as some people took their sweet time getting downstairs. Once we all checked in, we headed to the gate, only losing Kelly once (a remarkable feat, as she tends to wander off). Once at the departure lounge, we handed in our tickets to board the bus that would take us to our sardine can with wings. All of us, that is, except for John. For some reason, when he got to the gate, John had his boarding pass, but not his actual ticket. After wrangling with the gate agents, John ended up running back out to the ticket counter, buying himself a new ticket, and then sprinting back to the bus with about 30 seconds to spare. Soaked in sweat, he joined us on the bus (interesting postscript to this story, we found the ticket last week. Apparently, it was in Phil's bag).

We waited for about 20 minutes, watching as the ground crew struggled to cram all of our bags onto this tiny little prop plane.

More later, my internet time is up!

And I'm off!

Ok, now that the formatting on my previous posts has been completely screwed up, it's time for me to go! I'm off to Philly tomorrow morning, and then after staging on Tuesday, we fly out of JFK on Wednesday morning. 17 hours on a plane later, we arrive in Johannesburg, South Africa, where we spend the night before flying down to Maseru, the capital of Lesotho, Thursday morning.

For now, my mailing address is:
David Gluck, PCT
c/o U.S. Peace Corps
P.O. Box 554
Maseru, 100
LESOTHO

Please send letters and pictures, and I'll send postcards. I'll post the links to some other blogs and info sites on the sidebar, but in the meantime, check this out:
http://www.travelandleisure.com/slideshows/the-worlds-scariest-runways/5
I'm totally going there.

Be good, keep in touch, and don't get too crazy without me (or at least send me the pictures).

Oh, and in case you were wondering, Africa is REALLY BIG:

Wagons East!

Seriously, did anyone ever see that movie? Not one of John Candy's finer moments. And that includes Canadian Bacon. And I'm still trying to figure out the formatting on this blog, so please bear with me!
Anyway, leaving Seattle, I went by Mount Rainier again.

I saw a bear, but it was really far away. I tried the old "I think I'm going to leave this pic-a-nic basket here and walk away" trick, but to no avail.







I got to see a few more examples of columnar basalt. Yes, I pulled over to the side of the road to get these pictures.








Oh, and by the way: Idaho? You have WAAAAAY too much time and money on your hands. Seriously, this was the best use of the cash? And in case you were wondering, yes, these signs were on both sides of the road.

I camped that night on...
The Oregon Trail

You have come to SNAKE RIVER.
What would you like to do?
1. Attempt to ford the river.
2. Take the wheels off and float across.
3. Pay $1.00 for the ferry to take you across.

You have chosen to take the ferry.
The ferry is a broke-ass piece of shit, and sank. You have lost 4 oxen, 2 horses, an axle, and 15 pounds of food. Your children have all drowned.

Oh, and you now have dysentery.

MTV, pimp my wagon!

Idaho also boasts the largest inland sand dune in the country (suck it, Delaware!), at over 400 feet tall. The thin dotted line is where I climbed up, and the thick one is where I fell down. I'm still trying to get all of the sand out of my ass.

I did a quick tour through Idaho's Mammoth Cave, not to be confused with the REAL Mammoth Cave NP in Kentucky. The "visitor center" was down a dirt road off the highway, staffed by a kid who couldn't have started shaving more than 6 months ago. He gave me a Coleman lantern and told me that the entrance to the cave was about a quarter mile down the path, and to just bring it back when I was done.

Have you ever been in a giant cave by yourself, with only a shitty gas lantern that throws shadows that look like giant bears all around you?

Speaking of bears, the visitor center also featured one of the most impressive collections of dead things I've ever seen.

Rawr rawr rarwr, nobody understands you, she-bear.

I wanted to go see Shannon Ice Caves, just up the road, but it was closed for the season. Though, as a consolation prize, I got to see a large dinosaur with an Indian on his head. There was no explanation for it; I found that pretty much most of Idaho is that way.

One of the hands-down coolest things I've seen is the Craters of the Moon NP in central Idaho. This is a giant volcanic plain, with cinder, splatter, and ash cones, spread across several hundred acres of lava flows.










There are several underground caves and lava tubes, which I took some time to explore. Again, underground, by myself- not my favorite thing. Absolutely incredible, though, and unlike the NP in Hawaii, this place is not very well known, so I didn't have to climb over any tourists.

That's been one of the best parts of this trip. I've avoided the main highways as much as possible, so I've been stumbling across all of these amazing, out-of-the-way spots that don't get a lot of traffic. I've driven through areas where I've only passed 5 or so other cars in an hour. And, as a bonus, I've gotten to see a fair amount of wildlife. A list of things that I've run over:
- A bunny, on my second morning out of Vegas. I've had a few near-misses before, even had a couple pass directly between the wheels unscathed, but this one never had a chance.
- A snake, in southern Idaho. It was near dusk, and I thought is was a piece of hose. It actually felt like I ran over a piece of hose (filled with corn flakes).
- A wild turkey, just today, in South Dakota. His brother just got clear, and I thought for a split second that he was going to pass between the wheels, but then I got him with my rear left wheel. I share Tyler's philosophy on this one: If you can fly, and you get hit with something that can't, I have no sympathy for you.

My last stop in Idaho was Arco, the first town in the country to be powered by nuclear energy. The "Atoms For Peace" sign will probably only be funny to Brett. [In Bangkok, we passed a building with the sign "Ministry of Atoms for Peace." We thought that it was a translation error.]

That night, I got into Yellowstone around 10 p.m., freezing my ass off. Pictures and story to follow soon.

I'm currently camped at a KOA in North Sioux City, SD (very southeast tip, another 2 miles and I'll be in Iowa). I got off the freeway, thinking I was following the signs for the campground, and found myself driving down a fairly residential area. Another car was about half a mile behind me (bear in mind it's very dark). I flip a U once I figure I've gone to far and begin to head back, at which point I notice the other car flip a U as well. Ok, I think, maybe they're looking for the KOA as well. I go back for about a mile, then U again, for one more pass. The other car turns around too. Huh. All of a sudden, I've got party lights in my rearview, and it dawns on me that I just made two illegal U turns and was going about 40 in a 25. I explain the the sheriff that I've been driving all day, and I have no idea where the hell I am (case in point: I thought I was in Iowa, and I was still in South Dakota). He gives me a "courtesy warning" for my brake light (it works about half of the time, apparently not this half), and then pointed me towards the campground. If he only knew about the dead hooker under the tarp in the back of the Jeep....

Quick Intro

Hey all, this seems like it's the easiest way for me to post updates and stories and whatnot when I go overseas. Updates will likely be infrequent, but I promise to get online as often as I possibly can. I will still have access to my email, but I've been told that Facebook and MySpace are notoriously unreliable. And so, here we are.

California, Oregon, Washington

Spent a few days around the SF Bay, between Oakland, Berkeley, and San Francisco. Drove back to Yosemite for 4 days. We saw some deluxe sunsets,











hiked along part of the John Muir Trail,














and came across some bitchin' rainbow-waterfall scenery







Seriously, I was just waiting for a unicorn to come along.



Back to Oakland for a day, then out to the Pacific Coast to continue northward.











Camped that night just outside of Fort Bragg. Apparently my Jeep was visited in the night by some curious creatures.











Following my route up the coast, I stopped by the Trees of Mystery. There's a lot of crazy shit in California.














I camped just across the border in Oregon that night.











Continued up the Oregon coast.











Stopped at Prehistoric World because, well, I had to.






















Pulled over to check out Oregon Dunes overlook. Found a trail, and made my way out to the beach. I had a solid 3 miles of Pacific Ocean all to myself.











Made my way up into Portland, stayed with my friend Lindy and her parents for a few days. Got to spend a few hours at Powell's, saw a movie at the Baghdad, and drank lots of fantastic beer. Left Portland for Seattle, swinging by the east side of Mt. Rainier.














Oh, and I got to see more columnar basalt.














Spent a week in Seattle, wandering around downtown, drinking, and playing Rock Band 2 with Tyler and his housemates. Got to do a bit of hiking just outside of Seattle. Not much wildlife, save for a few enormous slugs.














Today, we went to the zoo. We got to feed the tapirs,











the ostriches,











and a giraffe.














Leaving tomorrow morning, planning on heading down to and around Mt. Rainier again before aiming the Jeep east, towards Yellowstone.

Week 1: Last one out of Vegas, burn it to the ground.

Well, it's about time that I got this thing going.

After leaving Vegas on September 2nd, I camped my first night in Rachel, a small town on the Extraterrestrial Highway.
This place gets a fair amount of traffic, due to being less than a mile from the main access road to Area 51. Note the fairly prominent monument/time capsule dedicated to the filming on "Independence Day."
I went to check out the gate, but didn't take any photos. I was deterred by the large signs reading "NO PHOTOGRAPHY" and "DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED." These people are definitely not screwing around.

Continuing west, I crossed into California just south of Yosemite, and was distracted enough by the scenery to end up camped by June Lake for a couple of nights.

Here, I got to rediscover my long-dormant fire-making skills.

This is why I'm hot.
Well, technically, this is why my Ramen Noodles are hot.


I got to see some volcanic craters,









No, in YO craters!


an earthquake fault,






Well, technically,
it's a fissure, but
who's really keeping track?


and some spectacular columnar basalt in the Devil's Postpile National Monument.
If you're ever in the area of Mammoth Lakes, it's well worth the detour.









I then looped east and north around Yosemite, with a stop at Bodie,
a gold rush era mining town.






I think I found your problem, ma'am.
It's the timing belt.




Took the Sonoran Pass across the Sierra Nevadas. Very slow going, one of many roads through there that are closed during the winter, but got to see The Columns of the Giants near Dardanelle.

Yes, I'm a rock dork.



Once out of the mountains, I took a minor detour to see Moaning Cave (I mean, really, how could I not?). It doesn't really "moan" any more, as the acoustic amplification of water dripping into holes in the rock nearly 200 ft down was effectively corked by the visitor center that was built directly over the opening. The greatest part of the place was the 80-year-old metal spiral staircase leading over 100 ft down. This thing has only needed one minor repair in all of the years it's been in place.
Apparently, back in the day, tour guides used to dump their used flashlight batteries into the center support column from the top of the stairs. Meaning that the bottom 20 ft or so of the staircase's support column is filled with 60-80 year old leaking batteries.

Fun!


Oh, and this cave was used as a model for the giant party/orgy scene in the Matrix Reloaded. They even have one of the fake rocks from the film in a corner of the visitor center.






I had to take a minor detour, to verify the existence of
possibly the best place name ever.










Cruising across central Cali, picked up my first hitchhiker of my trip just outside of Concord. Swung up through the hills east of SanFran, then dropped down into Berkely.