ROADTROP

In April 2002, Matt and I roadtripped to New Orleans together, after two years of ICQ conversation, and a week after meeting in person for the first time. And we fell in love.

It has been ten years since then. TEN YEARS! Or at least, it will have been, by the time we start our latest roadtrip.

In case you can't tell, this is UTTERLY ASTOUNDING to me.

I just sent an e-mail to the reservations dude at the very hostel where we stayed in 2002:

Hi Steve,

Yes, I would love to reserve a private room for May 14 – one thing, though – would you mind taking a look at the attached photos? If it is possible for you to identify the private room at Marquette House in which they was taken, and if it happens to be available, we would love to book that particular room. (Long story short: ten years ago, my husband and I fell in love in that very room and we’re coming back for our anniversary!) If it’s not available or you can’t tell which room it is, not to worry, we’re still happy to reserve another room, but we thought it was worth a try for nostalgia’s sake!

Marquette House, April 15, 2002

Marquette House, April 17, 2002

Crossing my fingers ... so many memories! Best roadtrip ever. (Except for the upcoming one.)

A couple of days ago, I made a fairly major change to our trip plans, deciding we should leave Yellowstone a day early to make our way to Thermopolis. Initially, I was attracted by the idea of swimming in hot springs, but then I realized Thermopolis has a bigger draw. A much bigger draw.

Wyoming Dinosaur Center's Dig for a Day program allows Matt and I to go on an actual dinosaur dig. And dig. For dinosaurs. It is kind of expensive, but my god, this is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.

From the brochure we were sent when we booked:

Dig For Dinosaurs!
Join us for a Real Jurassic Adventure

High in the ancient rolling mountains above the Big Horn Basin of Wyoming, at the northern end of the Wind River Canyon, the bones of dinosaurs have lain buried in layers of rock for millions of years. It was not until 1993 that fossil hunters discovered that the bones weathering out of the mountainsides were actually fossilized dinosaur bones. Since that first discovery, over 40 sites have been found in a thick mudstone layer known as the Morrison Formation, dating from the Jurassic period (208-145 million years ago). This area, now named the Warm Springs Ranch dig sites, is actively worked by The Wyoming Dinosaur Center.

Dig with us!

If you’re looking for a “real-life adventure,” join us on the dig site hunting for dinosaur bones. Our Dig-for-a-Day program appeals to all ages, from young children to active senior citizens. Participants dig in the bone bed, where leg bones, tailbones, ribs and claws have been found. Individuals (ages 18 and over) and families are welcome. A parent or legal guardian must accompany small children and young people under age 18.

You should be in good physical health. The hill can be strenuous. Our climate is dry; the dig sites are about 4,500 feet above sea level; and it is easy to feel the effects of the sun at that altitude. Not to worry though – your are not alone. Our staff will be on-hand to answer questions and to help at all times.

What we have unearthed so far

Wyoming Dinosaur Center workers have removed more than 10,000 bones from the excavation sites. Most fossils are from long-necked sauropods (camarasaur, diplodocus, camptosaur, apatosaur). The ranch dig sites include a ‘bone bed,’ formed by an ancient stream that washed bones together in the channel of the river and then buried them in the silt. Another site, currently being expanded, appears to be a feeding site for the meat-eating Allosaur.

If you find a dinosaur bone…

If you find fossils, they will remain at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center. They are your contribution to science. Your name, the bone and location will be recorded in our bone registry for all to see! The information and fossils you gather will be used to help our scientific studies. Of course we cannot guarantee you will find a fossil, but even if you do not, you have helped scientists learn more about the site itself.

What to expect

A brief orientation begins at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center at 8 am on the day of the dig. We will introduce you to local geology and paleontology as well as digging techniques and data collection procedures. Transportation to the site leaves about 8:30 a.m. A sack lunch is provided at the dig site.

If you find a dinosaur fossil, technicians will show you how to preserve it while you are working and how to document your find.

Equipment is checked in about 4:20 p.m. The van leaves the dig sites for the Center at 4:30 p.m. You will be back at the museum before 5 p.m. (However, the van leaves the dig site every hour, so you may leave any time during the day if you wish.)

If you arrive the evening before your dig, stop by the museum. We’ll be glad to visit with you about the dig, and you can tour the museum and see technicians at work on bones from the dig sites.

My obsession with this trip has affected my television watching habits. I am one of those strange people who likes to have a TV on constantly in the background whenever I'm doing what might be classified as menial work, like grading assignments or answering e-mails or cleaning the house. Or writing blog entries. Usually I subsist on a diet almost completely made up of police procedurals, but recently travel documentaries have been on the menu, particularly programs about places we'll be visiting on the trop.

So far, my favorite has been BBC Earth's Yellowstone: Battle for Life, narrated by the velvety voiced Peter Firth of MI-5/Spooks. Unbeknownst to me, I had actually watched clips from this documentary before, when they showed up on poeTV. This one makes my heart ache indescribably:

As Matt reported on the LX forums:

For a few years, my wife and I have been talking about doing a big road trip across the US. Last October, to help move this along, I drove down to Antwerpen MD where I picked up a 2007 Magnum SXT with 50,000 miles and a comfort package. In the year leading up to that, we had narrowed down our road trip vehicles to either a Honda Element or a Dodge Magnum - the Magnum won out because I can fully lay down in the back of a Magnum.

For the last year, we've been driving it as our main car while we finished renovating our house, but the house is done, and now our focus is shifting to the road trip.

I'll probably go into the details about where we're going (it's a five week drive starting & ending in Philadelphia), but the main reason I'm starting a thread here is because we're modifying the crap out of the car for the trip. So yesterday, we removed the rear seats, and today, we discovered that a cheap Ikea bed frame I had fits nearly perfectly into the back of the car. We had to cut a few inches off the length, and repurposed the headboard into support struts.

So, enough jibba-jabba, here are some pics of day 1 of the process.

After we made sure it fit, we cut up the bed frame and added a hinge, for battery & tire access.

I am so happy about how well those Ikea slats fit in the back, with only a little modification to the frame. I was originally planning on something a little less comfortable, but this is a *real bed*, which will certainly make for sweeter dreams on all those Walmart parking lot overnight stops I have planned. And while it's a small space for two, Matt and I have slept on a twin before many times (aw, it reminds me of our early years) - and wedged in a car thus, it's impossible for one of us to accidentally push the other off the edge of the bed.

Plus, while it cuts down on headroom, the higher elevation of the bed gives us more storage room underneath. I think my plan to forego the cartop carrier (and remove the roof rack) might be successful, which would probably save us about $200 in gas thanks to increased streamlining.

Later this week, a 4" foam mattress I picked up for $80 new on eBay should be arriving. I'll cover it in upholstery fabric, throw on some fitted jersey sheets, and it'll be perfect. I'm so excited, I want to start sleeping in it NOW.

Incidentally, you might be wondering why we're calling it a roadtrop. It's a typo I kept making, and it stuck. Plus, we bought the domain.

We tend to do that. A couple of years ago, we bought a rolling toolbox whose label claimed that the compartments would snape shut. We use snape as a verb all the time as a result.

I need a vacation.

I really need one.

You can tell because despite the fact I have way too much to do, I am spending the majority of my time meticulously researching and planning stops on our Great American Roadtrop. Which is not until May.

But as it turns out, it is fortuitous that I've been dreaming about the trip early. We would like to camp in Yosemite, for example, which apparently takes reservations five months in advance. The dates we want open for reservations on January 15, and according to the interwebs, they sell out in ten minutes. Yow. Worse, the reservations are actually scalped on Craigslist afterward, by utter bastards who no doubt are responsible for the insane early demand. Thank god I am aware that I need to prepare to be on the web/phone that morning in order to curtail scalpers' profits. At least I'll have practice from all those years of trying to score rock show tickets. If only there were somewhere to camp out for camp reservations.

Meanwhile, I am drooling at the thought of packing, and of modifying our car for use as sleeping quarters. I have so many ideas. I actually bought an electric knife to cut a foam mattress to size to fit in the back of the Magnum, and I plan to construct some sort of storage system in there for important items. If I manage to organize it well enough, maybe we won't even need the car-top carrier, especially if we remove the back seats completely. Also researching making my own privacy panels out of Reflectix for the windows.

But it's too cold for long-term work in the driveway.

Mind you, I just found out yesterday that Yellowstone will likely be as cold as it is in Philly now when we're there at the end of May. Neither of us had any idea. We'll need crazy cold weather clothing, which probably means the car-top carrier is coming after all...