Blogs from Butte, Montana, United States, North America

Jessica and Jamey's Alaskan Expedition Adventure has entered it's 3rd day, we've made it to Butte, MT, the tore-up road capitol of the country as far as we can see. We're leaving shortly for Glacier to see what the heck we're going to do up there until Friday morning, hopefully it will involve an overnight backpacking trip in the park. We'll have to wait and see. We've seen Casper Mountain, the Grand Tetons and Old Faithful, in Yellowstone NP, and we've only been on the road for 48 hours... read more

Here I am in Butte, Montana, sharing a room with Dave. Along with String and Bugsy, they have completed the TAT and the ride from Charleston, North Carolina on the East coast across America to Port Orford on the West Coast at Oregon. String and Bugsy have packed up their bikes and headed off back home. Dave headed back West to meet up with me at my secret hideaway in Deadwood, and we are now making our way back West and down to San Francisco to catch up with Pete and Suzette. I haven't heard from Tony for a while, I will send him an e-mail and find out where he is.... Here is an update from Keith..... We are on an Indian reservation, with 3 casinos (all absolute dumps) and 3 motels which I am ... read more

In my almost endless research I’m doing lately, to help me gaurantee the most of my time at the Olympics, I kept seeing this weird stone man popping up in pictures. In fact, a cartoon version of this symbol was released in 2005 as the official symbol of the Vancouver games. With this kind of respect directed to this “thing,” I grew curious about it, and decided to look into it’s story. Inukshuk, pronounced In-ook-shook, was first used by the arctic Inuit people of Canada. It means “likeness of a person” and was built to mark trails, indicate caches of food, locate settlements, and good places to hunt or fish. Most of the Canadian arctic is made up of permafrost, or year round frozen soil, and only has a few natural landmarks which could be used ... read more

We’ve been back for over a month now, and this will most likely be the fitting final episode of Blog-abration. I’m sure you’ve all seen this one coming, we’re back- our trip finished. I also saved this topic for a few other reasons. First, home is something we’ve carried around with us while we were away, comparing and contrasting the different societies we’ve experienced with our own. We have thought daily of home, yet were glad in the opportunity to not be there. And second, I recently have just published an article on BootsnAll (click url=http://www.bootsnall.com/articles/09-11/how-canned-peas-changed-the-way-i-think-about-travel-an-essay-on-returning-home.html here to read it) about some of the sentiments that returning home creates. You learn so much, but having that come to an end is a bit difficult at times, it is how you take the lessons of traveling ... read more

Day 132 (Sunday 30/08/09, NJJ) Booked car and accommodation for Las Vegas on the internet before leaving camp. Had a wander around Old Trail Town - an Old Wild West town with original artefacts of the bygone era. Back to Yellowstone National Park. Saw a coyote in the distance but still no bears - this is Yellowstone and we haven't seen one! Saw loads of bison and in Mammoth Springs, an elk fest. Travelled back to Bozeman. Checked into KOA campground. We pitched the tent in the least windy spot we could find and use the car as a wind breaker but the tent still felt it was going to take-off all evening onwards. ... read more