T-Day in TR

This was no ordinary Thanksgiving day, but maybe it's time to start new traditions.  The town of Medora literally cleared out when all seven other people we know living here scattered to other parts of the region. 

I thought I might be able to catch an online broadcast of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in the morning.  However, it appears NBC has not fully entered the 21st century, so your only option for online viewing is EarthCam's eight webcams placed strategically along the parade route, streaming the parade.  No commentary, which is not too shabby if you already abhor Al Roker's every word.

Just a couple mishaps this year:

1. Nathan is sick and couldn't eat most of his food until 2:30pm - after a piece of pie made him feel better.
2. I learned how to carve a turkey, but couldn't get the darn legs off until I grabbed one and twisted.  That works pretty well, but makes you feel like you had a much bigger role in the turkey's death than you wish you had.
   
3. I discovered our thermometer is not "oven-ready".

Mishap #3

 Roarrrr!  Carving Destruction!

Despite those, it's been a pretty good day.  I am thankful for a lot of things, but most of all, the internet and its role in bringing me under the same roof as Nathan - FINALLY!  So, once again, I guess that means I am thankful for Al Gore.

Last but not least, I want to share an internet discovery fitting of the day.  Bon Appetite & Happy Thanksgiving!  This is why you're fat.

Home Sweet Home

The title of this blog post is ironic because as of Saturday, I am officially a nomad.  Or maybe I'm the opposite of a nomad since I technically have two places to live.  Whatever the case may be, I am currently in Medora, North Dakota basking in the intense sun, breathing in the incredibly dry air, and watching yellowed corn husks cross the road by the hundreds wishing they were tumbleweeds.

All of the familiar giant animals and roadside attractions (Salem Sue, Jamestown's Buffalo, Geese In Flight, etc), seem to be welcoming me home, which it already feels like around here.  Today, we put down our first real roots - we joined the West River Community Center in Dickinson for the next three months.  Now, that's what I call commitment! 

Geese In Flight near sunset, which is 4pm here!

I have to admit I'm not entirely ready to give up Rochester, though.  I got a couple of very awesome parting gifts that only served to remind me how much I'm giving up.  A Dinner Club cookbook complete with photos and the word BACON always in caps serves as a reminder that I will REALLY miss my friends back home.  From my department, I got a web cam, so I can always feel like I'm closer than I really am.  I can't say it's not comforting and can't say that I won't miss the people and won't miss being "home".

Our very first webcam photo!

Bye, Rochester!

The Qwest is Over

It may be easier to quit being a Qwest customer than to be one!  Ever since we started getting our phone, internet, and Direct TV from Qwest, I've wanted to triumphantly call them up and end my services.  There had been hardly a time when I called them and had a good experience: starting with getting our service a week late to trying to switch my credit card number in their files so they could actually continue charging me after I closed my old credit card (do you want my money or not?), I hate dealing with Qwest.

So, I braced myself for a fight when I called to cancel my service this Friday.  Nothing!  I got a person online who gave me the right phone number to call over instant message, then a cheerful young man who set-up my closeout date quickly.  AMAZING!  Maybe I've been far too quick to judge.  There is one transaction that Qwest does well.  Go ahead, try it; close out your Qwest account, it's fantastic!

The only thing they don't do is close out Direct TV for you, but they did correctly connect me with DTV's personnel.  Here's where the goodness ends.  The DTV guy that answered the phone sounded like a 60-year-old drunken techie who transferred me to a woman who couldn't understand why I wanted my TV to continue until the day I leave and the boxes to return the remote control to arrive before that date, so I could actually pack up the equipment before I leave.  This is not possible with Direct TV!  They absolutely cannot sway from their automated system, whose return boxes do not arrive until 3-5 days after your official TV end date.

That's fine, they're losing a week's worth of revenue from me now that I'm quitting early to get my boxes.  Although I requested the service be shut off this morning, it's still turned on.  Perfect, since I'm excited to watch my last live episode of The Amazing Race tonight.  From here on out, it'll be hulu and day-old internet-based episodes of The Office for me.  A small price to pay for my emancipation from Qwest.

Monster Mash

The 2nd Annual Banff Mansion Murder Mystery Dinner took place on October 17th this year.  Nathan (a.k.a. Buster Ghost) and I (Di Wrecked, the producer of a haunted house TV series), appeared at the event dressed as our characters.

Buster Ghost including Ectoplasmic Detector (flash light, shoe box, stick, and duct tape) & Ghost Bag

I had to sit between a narcissistic ghost hunter who had seen over two ghosts (Nathan) and a somewhat violent turkey-choking ex-con played by our friend Danny.  For anyone that's never been to a murder mystery dinner before, it starts out with a murder, then, more and more clues pointing to the murderer are disclosed throughout the night and dinner courses are sprinkled in between.

The food was great, most people had WAY too much Witch's Brew, and, fittingly, Danny (a.k.a. Si Coe) was the murderer.  Above he is posing with his prize for best actor of the night with a gun, which coincidentally was not the murder weapon.  He had, of course, used his turkey-choking skills to strangle one of our TV hosts with a belt...in the dungeon.

Witch's Brew + a pinata held up by Danny - this should be good!

Also pictured: Katie (pregnant nun), Migs (host), Lisa (host & maid), & Jossie

Fancy a Bite to Eat?

Since Nathan and I will quickly find ourselves 25 minutes from ANY restaurants this winter and next spring in a city where Subway, Wendy's, McDonald's, and Sonic are 2/3 of the entire restaurant selection, we're throwing dietary caution to the wind and trying to get our fill of our favorite restaurants in Rochester while we still can.

Last night, we checked off Famous Dave's, which is Nathan's favorite. Dave's is still a slim possibility in the future, since there are franchises located within the state borders of North Dakota and Kansas, but apparently BBQ is big in Kansas, so we're hoping for great things in Great Bend, which is 30 minutes from where we'll live.

Larned, KS from space (this makes it look like a decently-sized city! yeehaw!)

Last weekend, we found a coupon to Jenpachi, one of those "Japanese" steakhouses where they cook the food right in front of you. It's not something we'll be able to get any time soon and the food is good, plus you get dinner and a show for the price of dinner.

On the list remaining are The Redwood Room (my favorite restaurant in the entire world), City Cafe, Beetle's and Noodles.

In case you were wondering, it's official, we are pulling up stakes here in Rochester. We met with our real estate agent Friday and plan to put the house up for sale next year. Oh, I'll be back to work occasionally and more importantly to visit people here, but keeping up three residences with a house in the one place we almost never are sounds pretty annoying to me.

Mammoth Cave

We ended our fabulous Tour d'East Coast on a high note at our lowest point: Mammoth Cave National Park.  Mammoth Cave is the earth's longest cave at 367 miles (that we know of).  The park offers a wide variety of cave tours that you need to book early.  I couldn't decide between seeing why it's called Mammoth Cave and seeing splendid stalactites and stalagmites, so we did two tours: the Historic Tour and the Frozen Niagara Tour.

The Historic Tour was probably the most interesting.  Through a dry cave and over two miles, you don't see anything that caves are really famous for (i.e. stalactites), but you are enveloped in the grand scale of the cave.  It starts you in a large room called the Rotunda, since the ceiling is a giant circle and walks you down through parts of the cave that have been used by humans for over 4,000 years.  Along the way you learn about how slaves mined for saltpeter deposits that may have helped us win the War of 1812 by providing us with gunpowder materials after the British cut us off from the gunpowder trade and other interesting tidbits like about the eyeless fish in the river still carving out sections of the cave hundreds of feet below where we walked.  Note: It was proven long ago that the cave does not cure tuberculosis.  Sorry, now you've got to think of another way to beat your consumption.

The Rotunda

The Historic Tour also takes you through a place called "Fat Man's Misery", a very skinny, winding section you have to duck and squeeze through for several minutes.  This was my favorite part and, as our guide pointed out, some of us polish the rock as we go by more than others.

The second tour was short and sweet: Frozen Niagara.  This section of the cave is still being formed by water, so you get the fantastic formations.  You also get cave crickets and spiders, where the other part of the cave could not support life (no water or food)!  A very cool place, if you're ever in the area!

Stalactites

The Frozen Niagara

Cavern Wonders

On Top of Old Smoky

'Old Smoky' from that song (whose lyrics have been replaced in my head by a song about a meatball) is actually Clingmans Dome, the highest point in Great Smoky Mountain National Park (6643 feet).  This is the most-visited park in the country and also the cheapest: free thanks to a stipulation on a $5 million grant from the Rockefellers back when the park was being established.

 

As you can see, the views are amazing.  The trees had already started changing colors so it looked like a beautiful patchwork mosaic from the road through the park.  That is, until the "smoky" part of the Great Smoky Mountains set in.

View of Tennessee from the TN/NC Border

I'm convinced that if there were a supernatural power controlling the weather, that they've got an evil sense of humor.  There is someone that just doesn't want Nathan and I to see any cool mountain ranges.  We've been in the Grand Tetons and yet haven't seen them and Kilimanjaro was always covered in clouds, except for a few mornings during the climb where we got fleeting glimpses of the summit.  So it was with the Smokys.  We saw nothing above a couple thousand feet due to the rain and clouds.  Oh, the drive was still gorgeous because of the trees along the road, but we blew through the park pretty fast.

Creek in Greenbrier

Luckily, one of our friends from Theodore Roosevelt National Park recommended the Ramsey Cascades hike, an 8-mile up-and-back on the Tennessee side of the park.  Despite the rain, we pulled on our hiking boots and set off for what proved to be one of my top five hikes of all time.

This time of year, the trail was lined withe colorful leaves.  You hike up a total of over 2000 feet, but you're constantly walking through streams, over roots and rocks, and through unbelievably gorgeous forest.  Honestly, amazing - here are some pictures:

 

First of Two Precarious Bridges

A creek followed us almost the entire way up the trail

The falls are well-worth the trek and the sore legs you'll have the next day.

Ramsey Cascades

On the way back, I found 5 salamanders.  It turns out the Great Smoky region is the most diverse area in North America in terms of biodiversity, especially when it comes to amphibians.  There are so many salamanders in the park that, combined, they eat more meat in the parks than the 1600 black bears!  They are also incredibly cute.

Can you find two salamanders in this photo?

We stayed the night in our first Bed & Breakfast, the Buckhorn Inn.  I'd gone crazy and splurged a little since this was one of our last nights, so we ended up in a secluded cottage with a living room, jacuzzi, screened porch, and fireplace.  This may in fact be the best place we've ever stayed.  So serene, they had a nature trail, pond with swans (whose names were Penn & Teller), hot chocolate and cookies at all hours, movies, games and a lot more we could have done if we'd only known it would be so great.  Check it out - I highly recommend it over the dirty, loud, cramped, god-awful tourist deserts that are Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge.

Cottage 2 Living Room

Cabins at the Buckhorn Inn