Bye Bye, Blogger

It's been almost five years and I'm leaving Blogger behind for the big (hopefully better) world of Wordpress.

Click to find the new Mona's Apple Goes Hollywood.

It's exciting and it took me a while to figure out, but I hope you like the change. Thanks for following me here and I hope you'll continue to do so over at Wordpress.

-M

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Home Stretch

"Nevada is long and boring, boring and long, long and flat... very flat..."

"OK, Dad, I get the picture. Thanks."

I'm staring at our nation's maps -- two versions. The type you hang on your wall that looks pretty and the LARGE SCALE LARGE TYPE road atlas. I love maps and I'm having fun planning our next route.

My dilemma: hit up Utah and go straight to Yosemite or go through the entire state of Nevada (which sounds awfully painful from my mom and dad's reports) and hit up Tahoe. We are scheduled to return the vehicle that's been so good to us so far (knocking on huge wooden desk in hotel room) at 4 p.m. on Sunday. And the plan is to rent a U-Haul truck on Tuesday or Wednesday to drive down to L.A. with a bed from our house in Carmel and any other furniture I might find along the way. It's hard without the city corners of Manhattan to shop around.

My mom's yelling at me to wrap it up so I must be going. I'm leaving on a full stomach. We drove out to the Spring Creek Ranch this morning, on Mr. and Mrs. MaineMan's wonderful recommendation. I ate their huevos rancheros, which were phenomenal, and our lovely hostess Trish gave me the "clean plate" award. YES!

Where will the road take us today? We will just have to see. So long, Jackson and The Lexington, so long, wilderness and the animals I've loved watching and spotting this past week. So long, cowboy boots and saddles at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. So long, Moose Drool and other local beers I've enjoyed and guzzled down. So long, warm days and crisp, cool mountain nights.

If I throw a penny in the Snake River does that mean I must return? One can only hope.

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Jackson

It's time for bed. Had an incredible day of whitewater rafting with Jackson Hole Whitewater. Our salty dog guide Ron was awesome. We managed two great meals around the exciting ride down the Snake River: a lunch of massive sandwiches at New York City Sub Shop and dinner at Trio Bistro.

We saw our first moose of the entire trip today along Moose-Wilson Road and our fortunate viewing was met by many cheers and "Thank you gods!" A mother moose and her juvenile were eating along the side of the road and 30 seconds after our car pulled up they crossed the road and disappeared into thick brush where we lost them for good.

Tomorrow we go fly-fishing. My dad warned us, "Tomorrow is not about catching fish, it's about learning how to fly-fish." Dad doesn't know that no matter what event we participate in it becomes a competition. T- and I will enjoy learning how to cast, but there will definitely be some concentration on catching a trout. Wish me luck!

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On the Road Again

I'm sitting in my corner hotel room, staring off into the hills and listening to Eminem blasting from outside my window. The Holiday Inn in West Yellowstone is doing some renovations and it's shocking nobody on the first floor has complained about this jarring morning soundtrack. I love me some Eminem, but at 9 a.m. while I'm on vacation? No thanks.

I'm supposed to have a roommate in this huge hotel room, but my brother never made it. He was scheduled on a 6:20 a.m. flight Monday from San Jose to Jackson, my parents left at 8 a.m. to go pick him up (Jackson is about three hours south of West Yellowstone) and I got a text from him at around 7 telling me he missed his flight. Back in civilization this wouldn't have been a huge problem. I could have called my parents, they would have picked up and they would have turned around and we would have figured out T-'s next move. Only out here in the middle of this beautiful wilderness there is no cell phone service to speak of so my poor parents drove all the way to Jackson expecting to pick up my brother and he never made it.

T- spent an entire day in San Jose and finally flew out at 4 p.m. He checked in to the Super 8 Motel in Jackson where we are heading to pick him up. It was a stressful day for all of us, but we tried to relax with a couple of IMAX movies in town and a nice dinner at Sydney's Bistro.

Now it's time to head through Yellowstone one last time. I'd love to see the bald eagles again. I don't know why, but I'm obsessed with these magnificent creatures and had a meltdown when I saw my first one. Dad caught it all on camera...

Hope you had a nice July 4 weekend. I heard it was HOT in New York City. What a novelty -- being able to see fireworks from anywhere in town.

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Day 6

It's only appropriate that M. Night Shyamalan's movie "Signs" is on after driving through hundreds of cornfields in Iowa. It's all I could think about watching the miles and miles of endless rows blowing in the wind. The movie's creepier than I remembered.

My mom and I drove about 10 hours today from Custer State Park, S.D., to Gardiner, Wyo. We were originally intending to end up halfway somewhere between Custer and Yellowstone, but I had a bee in my bonnet to drive through Montana and my mom wanted to end up close to the park so here we are.

We stopped off at the Devils Tower National Memorial (below)



where "Close Encounters" was filmed and pretty much drove straight the rest of the way.

Gardiner is an adorable small town on the banks of the Yellowstone River. My dad's going to go bananas with all the fly-fishing spots and angler stores. He joins us Saturday and my brother joins us in Jackson on Monday.

I was worried when I read Frommers' description of Gardiner as "dinky" but I think it's cute. Mom and I ate Chinese for dinner (which was a huge mistake because we were planning on eating "small") and fled to the gas station to grab a six-pack before making some phone calls, catching up in our travel journals, getting spooked by "Signs" and calling it a night.



Blue Bell Lodge, Custer State Park



Stoney Creek Inn Pool, Sioux City, Iowa

Things I learned today:

When I mentioned my surprise at a Chinese restaurant in the middle of this small mountain town on Twitter, a friend informed me of the following: "The western half of the TransContinental RR was laid by Chinese immigrants. Hello Kung Pao!"

And the difference between antlers and horns: deer, elk and moose have antlers that they shed every year in the spring. Buffalo and pronghorn have horns that they keep for a lifetime.

The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri River and runs through three states: North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming.

A foal is a baby horse of either sex up to a year old.

A colt is a male horse up to the age of four.

President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Devils Tower the first national monument in 1906.

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