The Slow Road to Jackson

This morning as I looked at the day ahead, I noticed that the road I took to the ghost town was the same one that I could take to go to Jackson. I had seen this sign last night, but I wasn’t sure it was referring to the same Jackson as I was going to. 

So, I didn’t want to redo the same route, and I certainly didn’t want to drive on I-15 the whole way, which was another option. I wanted something scenic and maybe a bit adventurous, so I took off, not knowing which way I was going to go. I saw a highway on the map that I was going to keep a lookout for, and I knew that if I got too lost, I could always ask my Mini Nav to get me back on track.

The reason I wasn’t using Mini Nav from the beginning is because she has a tendency to give me the most direct route, and I wanted to take some detours and hopefully drive through some forests or Yellowstone.

So, I took off driving, and got about fifteen minutes down I-15 before I saw a road that looked intriguing. This one was more of a rocky, dirty version of the field I drove through last night. After driving on it for a while, I had a sneaking feeling I should check which direction it was taking me. I stopped at a beautiful lake and took a bit of video.

Immediately afterwards, I checked the map and decided to turn around and take a different approach. 

Oddly enough, I ended up spending most of the day in Idaho, which is fine with me, but I had thought I would be seeing more of Montana.

After driving for a while on a major highway, I felt like it was again time to check the map and re-triangulate myself.  My road atlas and my Mini Nav were both telling me there was no direct route from here to Yellowstone; that I’d have to drive almost all the way to Jackson and double back. But I investigated both Google Maps and the Apple Maps on my iPhone and the Apple Map showed that the place I pulled off, just happened to be the spot where I could catch a small road that looked like it took a meandering short cut to Yellowstone. I was delighted, thinking, “Now the adventure begins!” as I turned left, and hit the road.

About 400 yards in, the road was no longer paved. It was a gravelly dirt road. I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to drive on it, or if it would go through, but I saw cars coming the other direction, so I rolled up the windows and ventured forth.  I also took some video of this road as I couldn't quite believe it was happening and I wanted to have some proof for later.

I couldn’t go faster than 30 MPH and I was kicking up a cloud of dust and rocks behind me. Then, the trucks started coming. I noticed a cloud of dust approaching me from the road ahead. As it got closer, I saw it was a semi truck with a trailer heading my way. It was a two lane road, but without “lines” and I was hoping the truck driver could see me from within his dust plume. He barreled by me, and much to my surprise, didn’t kick any rocks up onto Thumper. Then, as soon as the dust cleared, I noticed another truck was right behind that one. Again, we negotiated the rocky road, and again none of the rocks found my car. Within the next half hour, I counted ten trucks coming the opposite way, and I’m happy to report, not a single rock touched my paint job or windshield.

To make a long story short, I was on that gravel road for about two hours. We passed through the beautiful Targhee National Forest and I saw some rural camping the likes of which I had never seen before.  I would love to go back and really explore this area. 

We did stop along the way to have some food. I found a little ‘driveway’ kind of thing, that I think was basically the ‘back door’ to a huge ranch. River was fascinated by the cows, grazing, as I grazed. I made a lunch out of grated carrots and beets, hummus, pumpkin seeds and potato chips, and finished with a Capitol Hill bar. I ate it out of my pie plate on the bonnet of my car.

Oops, I got the car dirty.

After a couple more hours of driving carefully through the forest, I felt I had had my day’s adventure and was now ready for a more direct route to my destination. Fortunately, I happened upon Idaho 32; a scenic route highway that would take me directly to Jackson. 

I was blown away by this drive. The road winded over grassy hills that stretched out to the horizon. I felt like I should be singing The Sound of Music. And in the background was a magnificent view of the Grand Tetons and a mountain formation called the Sleeping Indian. 

About 45 minutes from Jackson, we stopped at a shopping center parking lot in a small town we were passing through because they had a big patch of grass in front. We got out and rolled around and stretched and drank some water and ran a little and played some fetch and tug-of-war. Then we sat under a shady tree and I fed River some kibble.

I put together the three short videos I took today:

The town of Jackson seems bustling. Although most of what goes on in bustling towns like this, River and I have no interest in. We’d just as soon be at a neighborhood park than go to restaurants, museums, rodeos, shopping, rafting, skiiing or bike riding. We make our own fun whatever town we’re in.





In and Around Dillon, MT

Even though we had a short drive and a lot of time to do it in, we still had to get up and out early due to the early check-out time in Missoula. So we were on the highway by ten am.

We stopped at a few rest areas. Those are always fun. At one, we set up a picnic lunch at the tables, but at most of them, we just run around and play in the grass.I was shooting some video of River enjoying the scenery and I felt something on my toes. Then I looked down and noticed that I was standing in a colony of ants. There were very big ants, and they looked menacing with the combination of red and black. I expected to be bitten, but I wasn't. Right after shooting the video, I felt something on my head, reached up and rubbed it and an ant fell off my head. I imagined them falling out of the trees, crawling out of the dirt and coming from behind the picnic tables. I decided I wanted to be back in the car right away, so we left. I've been trying all night to get the video posted on YouTube but the internet connection here at the motel is free, and worth every penny.  I'll try to post it later.

 At one of the rest areas, we stopped our regular playing to practice some of our new training system. I was delightfully impressed at River's reaction to seeing a dog walk through our playing area.

It was twenty minutes out of the way, but I just had to stop and see Butte, Montana since I was so close. It’s cute. I drove through the old, historic district and all of the brick buildings were quite stunning. 

Butte is one of those towns with a church on every street corner, but I think it’s probably Montana Tech that keeps in on the map. Butte seems to be a mining town and Montana Tech the place to go to study geology and minerals and mining.

The thing about Montana is the mountains, no doubt. Hence the name, Montana, which is basically ‘mountain’ in Spanish. The uniqueness of the landscape was hard for me to put my finger on at first, but now I think it has to do with how the region appears to be very flat, and yet there is a mountain in the background no matter where you look. And even beyond those mountains, are more mountains. The clouds hanging low and the different distances of the mountaintops, really give the sense that the land goes on forever.

We got into Dillon, somehow. The Motel 6 wasn’t showing up on my navigation system, even if I tried to enter the street address manually. So I navigated to a park that I saw was nearby, and eventually found it. Dillon is a trip. It’s like it’s getting ready to become a ghost town. It feels like it’s falling apart and it’s very quiet. 

I’ve never seen such an empty Motel 6 parking lot. But I suppose it’s not so good for business if the address doesn’t show up on navigation systems.

In Butte, I happened to notice the local Motel 6 was the prison-style. That’s what I call the ones that have indoor hallways. I’ll make a point not to stay at that one if I ever return to Butte. And unless I want to get into mining, I don’t see why I would return.

River and I are going to take a drive into ‘town’ and see what else Dillon has to offer.

***************

Well, there was a train stopped on the tracks in Dillon that prevented me from driving into town. I didn’t know how long it was going to be sitting there, so I just turned around and got on the highway instead.

I found this long stretch of highway that felt like I was driving on the only road on the moon. Except for the one, winding road I was driving on, there was nothing but unspoiled, unimproved land stretching off as far as I could see in all directions. I wanted to stop and take a picture of it, but I couldn’t find a place that was appropriate to stop. This was a 70 MPH road, so I didn’t want to pull off unless it was safe and legal. But even if I were able to snap a shot of it, I don’t think I could have captured the feeling on camera. It was expansive and vast and desolate and beautiful.

I was driving on this road for a good twenty minutes. It didn’t seem like I could get any further into nowhere, but then I saw a sign for a state park called Bannack. It said it was a ghost town, four miles down this road.

So I turned off of this isolated lunar highway, onto an even more remote and rural road. Four miles later, I saw the sign, “Bannack State Park” pointing to (of course) a gravelly dirt road. There were two campground near a creek, and one campsite had a teepee and an outhouse. I kept driving and there was a visitor center near a parking lot. I saw on the sign that dogs on leash were welcome in the ghost town, so we went for a tour.

The town had its heyday during the gold rush, and it looked like these same buildings hadn’t been refurbished since then. They were delightfully dilapidated and dripping with history. We walked around for about two hours.

The old Assay Office

Inside the Turner house

Inside the Turner house

Turner's table has seen better days

Outside the city drug store

Inside the saloon, River was afraid of this barber chair

Inspecting the saloon

Skinner, the owner of the saloon, was hanged as a spy.

Rusted mining artifacts

River inside a mining car

Bachelor's Row, now crumbling

River inside the church

School days

On the steps outside Hotel Meade

And here is a video of the inside of the Hotel Meade:

Hello Montana!

Today we added two new National Forests to River’s growing list of places visited. 
We passed through and enjoyed the Idaho Panhandle National Forest and the Coeur d’Alene National Forest. 

We also passed by Elmer’s Fountain. It caught my eye from behind some trees off to the right of the highway. I thought it was a waterfall with something in it until we got a little closer.  It was through some trees, and I was driving, so I didn't get a great look at it. And then I saw a hand painted sign that said "Elmer's Fountain" so I remembered the name and looked it up when I got to the motel room. I don't know why it caught my eye or why I care about it, but I thought it was neat. The trip from Spokane to Missoula was not leisurely. I would have loved to stop and really absorb the new forests, and to investigate the fountain or to pull over and take a picture of Coeur d’Alene Lake. But as it was, we really only had time to stop at a rest area in Montana for a quick bathroom break and a walk in the sunshine. 

I took this photo. My first photo of the famed Montana Sky.

The reason we were so tightly scheduled was because I took longer than expected getting ready this morning. We didn’t hit I-90 until 9am. It’s a good thing I filled the tank up with gas the night before, because we ended up having no time to spare in the morning. After we got back on the road at the first rest area, and I had adjusted the car clock to Mountain Time, I became aware that I wouldn’t be able to stop for lunch like I had hoped. Instead we just drove straight to the Downtown Dance Center in Missoula where I'd be teaching.

We got to the space and parked in front, but then I grabbed an apple, some nuts and a box of spinach so I could eat something while I took River off in the opposite direction to find some grass. We made it back to the studio in just enough time to comfortably settle in, get set up, meet everyone, and start on time.

River spent the duration of the two hour playshop in his crate, although not peacefully and quietly the whole time. As usual, he fell right to sleep as soon as i started teaching Nia, but the first half-hour segment of this playshop was a lot of me talking and explaining, then demonstrating and then the class doing different activities. River doesn’t feel quite as soothed by this type of class, I guess. At one point he was biting the cage, and another time he scratched the floor of his cage like he was going to tunnel out. And then he pulled the blanket the was under the crate to protect the floor, in half way through the bars. It was like, really jammed in there, too. It was hard for me to pull it back out after class. I apologized to the class, but they didn’t seem too bothered by it.  He also chewed on his bone for a good portion of the time, which can sometimes get noisy.

I may be making it sound worse than it is. The truth is, except for the pulling of the blanket trick (which I don’t know how he did) he was only doing these things for about as long as it took you to read them. In fact, it was probably much louder for me, holding the space, than it was for the participants in the playshop.

We had a great time. It was a really fun, enthusiastic group, ready to rock. What I really love about doing this work is when I ask, “Who here can do a push up?” and only one or two people out of ten will raise their hand. But then, once I show them the secrets of Super Human Strength, everyone in the room does at least one push-up! Some did more. I had to caution them not to overuse their new powers unless they wanted to be really sore the next day. And then we practiced turning their new powers on and off and adjusting the ‘volume knob’ of their strength up and down, depending on what movement we were expressing in the context of a Rock n Roll Nia class. Suffice to say, it was a blast!

Tonight’s Motel 6 is worlds better than the nightmare I slept in last night. I felt like I was in a minimum security prison last night and today it feels like I’m in a residential apartment building. Even River seems much more at ease tonight. Last night, especially when we went through the hallways, he was very edgy. But it didn’t take those famous dog sensibilities to get creeped out by the energy in this place. In all of the Motel 6s I’ve stayed in, I have only ever had bad feelings about two. Most of them are nice and decent and occasionally I’m surprised with extras. Like tonight, the wi-fi was free and there’s a refrigerator in my room, so I saved $3 and my cooler gets the night off to dry out. Also, there’s an easy chair.

For some reason, this room was build for two beds but only has one. The headboard for the other bed is still there, as well as the nightstand, installed in the wall, but there’s a big easy chair in the space where the bed would go. I don’t mind. It gives River a nice big floor to stretch out on. 



Preparing for JAG & River Mountain States Tour, 2013

I literally spent all day Friday in the kitchen. Except for a few breaks, to shower, to take River on two walks and one pee break and to eat lunch and dinner, I was busy cooking about ten meals to put in my cooler for the road trip.

I used all recipes from my new book and the yummy meals are entirely comprised of friendly foods. I will not be following The Plan while I’m on the road, but , as always, I will make every effort to eat as healthfully as I can. I learned a lot about my eating habits from the experience of readying The Plan, and one of the things that I learned was to rely on seeds and nuts for my daily protein. So I stocked my cooler with plenty of those, too.

In my cooler, I’ll have carrot/beet salad, homemade hummus, baked butter nut squash, herb and lemon roasted chicken breast, sweet and spicy chicken thighs, mango/cucumber salsa, about five cups of brown rice, cheesy sauteed shiitake and broccoli, and thai vegetable soup. 

That should last me for at least four days, so I won’t have to look for groceries again until I’m in Jackson Hole. I froze the vegetable soup, so it will not only help keep the other food cold, but it will stay fresh for a long time. Some Motel 6 rooms have refrigerators and microwaves and some don’t. I don’t know what I’ll be getting, so I have plenty of foods that can be eaten cold.

On Saturday morning, I was ready to go. I had my coffee and made my breakfast and then I started loading my bags into the car. 

It was my birthday that morning, so Zeke presented me with a gift. It was a driving cap. Ever since I had gotten the Mini Cooper, I was talking about how I needed an Andy Capp hat to wear while I drove it, but I couldn’t find one that I wanted to commit to. This one was perfect. Not too crazy, and yet not too conservative either.

So once the car was packed up, I hit the road; first stop, Spokane.

The drive was mostly I-90. We stopped along the way at a couple of rest areas. At one of them, we saw a guy with a pet cat. The cat was walking around, exploring the trees and shrubs in the area near the guy, who was sitting on the ground, under a tree. I got a kick out of it. I’d never seen a cat at a rest area before.

At the second rest area, about an hour later, I put River on his 30’ leash so we could run a little bit. When we started running, we were all alone in the far end of the rest area. But a woman on a slow jog worked her way around toward us, and she was quite fascinated with watching us play and run. She called out, “Good Exercise!” And would clap her hands whenever River was running fast. 

At one point, River ran up to her and jumped up and barked. He didn’t jump ON her, but just jumped in front of her. And his bark was not aggression, but more playfully encouraging her to wrestle with him. But she, understandably, didn’t know how to interpret River’s actions and was startled. She looked at me and said, “He shouldn’t do that!” I said, “I know. He’s just feeling playful.” She seemed satisfied and continued running. River didn’t give her another thought.

While we were running, it became obvious that it was a nice, warm day. It was 85 degrees, actually. So when we got back into the car, River was panting. It's rare that I see him get so warm that he fully pants with his tongue hanging out. It was so much fun to see, I had to take a picture.

When we got to Spokane and had checked into the room, I was making a trip from the room to the car to get another bag, and as we descended the stairs, there was a big German Shepherd standing at the base. In the past, this could have been a problem. River would have gotten very excited and wanted to meet the dog, but didn’t have proper etiquette, so he’d just charge the dog. This would mostly result in the other dog feeling threatened and the meeting would not go well.

But since we’ve been working with Stephen at Nitro K-9, River has better impulse control. We stopped at the top of the stairs and waited. I didn’t even have to tell him to stop, because it’s part of the whole deal; when I stop, he stops. And he did. 

There was no human with this dog. No leash. So I called out, “Is this dog ok!?” But there was no answer. The dog was very calm-looking, and River was being calm, so I decided to descend the stairs and let them meet. They did their sniffing thing and then I continued out the door. I was so proud.

Tonight I have nothing going on in Spokane. I’ll just look over my music and write some notes for tomorrow’s class. I have to get up and on the road earlier than usual tomorrow. I have a long drive to Missoula where I’m teaching class at 2 P.M. And I’m passing over into the mountain time zone so I’ll lose an hour. According to Google Maps it’s a three hour drive, but with the time change, that makes it four. And since we like to stop at rest areas a lot, that adds about another hour to the time. So, if I want to get to the studio space with time to spare, I’d need to be driving out of this motel’s parking lot by 8:30.  

That’s usually the time I wake up, so I’ll have to get up about an hour early so I have time to shower, eat breakfast and pack up the car.

Settling into the first of many Motel 6s

Swiss Chard Wins

Today’s test is for swiss chard. Not my favorite veggie, but one that I tend to include in my diet for its array of healthful benefits. I've heard it described as the world's second healthiest vegetable. (Second only to spinach)

Now, it is possible that it could be an unfriendly food for my body chemistry, so it deserves a test. One thing I did learn was that swiss chard, especially if eaten raw, is highly goitrogenic. So, as long as it passes this test, I will still be including it in my diet, although it won’t be to the degree it has been in the recent past. And I will be cooking it.



For lunch today, I had a big bunch of it, chopped and sauteed with shredded carrots and beets for a bit of sweetness and then seasoned with cayenne, black pepper and lemon. I crumbled in some goat cheese and then topped it with a handful of sunflower seeds. Along with that I had a bowl of my spicy vegetable and chick pea soup with a handful of chia seeds mixed in. 



About an hour after eating I felt strangely bloated and experienced a weird energy drop. The sensation didn’t last long, maybe for an hour at the most. 
It could have been due to the fact that I was immersed in the project of packing up my bags for the car trip, which for some unexplainable reason, is something I really do not like to do. I love to travel; hate to pack. My theory is that it’s due my not liking to decide what I think I will and won’t need and want two or three weeks from now. 

I’ll have a typical, friendly dinner and then in the morning, the scale will tell me what my body thinks of swiss chard. And then I’ll tell you.

Thursday
******************
Friday

Well, despite the fact that I felt those strange gurglings in my stomach an hour after yesterday’s lunch, and that I thought I felt the twinges of unhappy muscles in my back after dinner last night, which I thought for sure were signs that I was filling with inflammation after eating, the scale showed otherwise.

I lost a great deal of weight yesterday. Over a pound. So I can’t deny the clear message that swiss chard is a friendly-to-me food.

The twinges in my back were possibly a passing fluke, made into something bigger by my overly sensitive and active imagination.

I’m feeling fine today.

This is the last day I’ll be in town before hitting the road for “The JAG & River Mountain States Tour 2013” and tomorrow, the day I leave, is my birthday. So today I’m not going to be doing any food testing. I’m going to allow myself a cheat day.

I will be going to the store and buying food supplies for the trip and even making some healthful soups and sautees for the cooler to enjoy over the next few days, but I’m not going to be following the Plan, nor doing any food testing while I’m on the road.

I will most likely be ready to get back on The Plan when I return in early July. Until then, please enjoy my blog posts about River and my travels through the Mountain Time Zone of the USA.

Retesting Capitol Hill Bar

I’m so glad I decided to take this test again. I weighed in 0.6 pounds less than yesterday’s weigh in, so that’s an indication that I don’t have an inflammatory response to my Capitol Hill bars.  I did have a slight, phantom twinge in my back last night before going to bed and this morning when I woke up, but it wasn’t a full-blown ‘pain’ like I experienced that last time I tested these bars, and that plagues me occasionally. I’m actually going to chalk that up to a bit of hypnotic suggestion. I was so hyper-aware of feeling all of the bones and muscles in my back, that I could have created or heightened an insignificant sensation. Since the sensation only lasted for a few moments last night and again for a few moments this morning, I am going to consider it a fluke and move Capitol Hill Bars over to the friendly column.



I had always attributed the back discomfort to my tendency to push myself to my edge when I exercise. I’m relieved to learn that there isn’t a relationship between my awesome snack and my occasional twinges of pain. 

My original theory is still probably the better one: I sometimes don’t warm up sufficiently, despite knowing better, and I always pay the price for that. There are times when I’m doing extremely sophisticated movements, and I can forget to support my core and let my abdomen go relaxed, which releases the support of my spine in those movements. I can easily understand why that sort of thing would cause me pain. And then there’s simply the fact that when I get excited, and if I’m trying a new movement, or trying to beat my old record for repetitions, I can push myself beyond that point of being safe. When my body is so fatigued that I cannot properly perform in good alignment and control, I should stop. I tell my clients and my students to stop, so I should too. And when I don’t, those are the mornings that my back hurts. 



So, I owe Capitol Hill Bars an apology, and I’m going to go to the store today to buy a big supply of them for my road trip.  They’re fantastic for eating on the road.

We're almost ready to go.

And now today, I have the opportunity to test another food. This will be my last test for a while. Tomorrow is the last day I’m in town before we leave early the next day for my three week road trip. And that departure day is my birthday, so I have a feeling I’ll be celebrating my birthday with my friends tomorrow while I’m still in town.  I don’t want to be concerned with testing a new food when there’s going to be cake and ice cream.

I’ll make an entry tomorrow with the results of whatever test I ended up doing today.




Surprising Results from Testing Quinoa and Pork Chops

Even after my quinoa breakfast yesterday morning, I showed a weight loss on the scale this morning, so I get to move quinoa over to the friendly foods column.

I’m also free to test another new food today. I wasn’t exactly prepared for this. In the past, I haven’t had this much luck with the foods I’m testing and have had to interject rest days to wait for the inflammation to subside. But now, with four passes in a row, I’m out of foods to test. 

That’s not to say I have no more plans to test foods, it's just that I don’t have any available in the house right now. But I’ll hit the store a bit later and find something I can test today.  In the meantime, I’m enjoying my flax seed granola for breakfast and vegetable soup and salad for lunch.

************

Ok, I’ve returned from the store and have decided that tonight will be the night I finally test pork chops. 

I’ll reveal the results in the morning.

Tuesday
*******zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz******
Wednesday


Wow, first of all I want to say that I love pork chops. YUM Sorry, Mom, but growing up I never had a good one. I don’t know if the difference is that I only buy happy pork from humane sources, and you always just got them from the grocery store, or if there is a big difference in the cooking methods, but the ones that I make are so juicy and tender and full of flavor.

And... NOT INFLAMMATORY!!  I’m actually a bit surprised, because pork is one of those foods that tends to be highly inflammatory for lots of people. I guess I’m not one of them.  At least not for chops. I'm well aware that slow cooked beef can be inflammatory when steaks are not, so I deduce that the same would be true for pork. This morning, my weight was down again, which indicates no inflammation and that I can include pork chops in my friendly, weight-loss, happy body diet, but perhaps pork roast, which would require a separate test, won't fare as friendly. Remains to be seen, of course.

It’s interesting to learn that I can safely eat pork chops and unsalted potato chips on my ‘diet’, but if I eat tomatoes or wheat bread, I’ll gain weight.

So, much to my surprise, I’m in a position to do another food test today.

The other day I was looking over my notes as I entered my body weight into my chart. And I noticed that I showed a bit of a weight loss on the day that I was testing my Capitol Hill Bars with all the nuts and dried fruits.  I was surprised because, I was considering those bars as having failed the test. I was confused until I went back and read my blog entry for that day. I had forgotten that I experienced a return of a mysterious back pain that occasionally haunts me. It hadn't been bothering me for weeks and then, the day after eating the bar, it was back. So I considered that information more important than the small amount of weight loss (which was only 0.2 pounds). 



But now I think this calls for at least giving the Capitol Hill Bar a second test to make sure I have repeatable results. I wouldn't want to condemn a healthy snack under false pretenses. 

So today I’m having a Capitol Hill Bar as my afternoon snack and the rest of the day's food will all be from the ever-growing friendly list.

I'm interested to take note of two things tomorrow. One is that I'm curious if my weight loss trend will continue at almost a pound every day, or will it finally come to a halt by only showing a measly loss of 0.2 pounds. Or perhaps even a gain if it truly is an inflammatory culprit. And the second thing is I'll be looking for a return of that pain in my back.

If neither of those markers indicate inflammation tomorrow, then I can exonerate the Capitol Hill Bar and add them back into my life.