We just got back from another epic journey in the American west. Jetlag has attacked with a vengeance (I am having more and more trouble with him as I get older, it seems), and I am up at all sorts of ungodly hours, writing. But I have to say that we had a grand time – as expected. It was also a learning experience, my second such educational tour in the western part of my own country. There is so much to discover out there and I am sure I haven’t learned nearly all I want to know.
So I decided to compile a list of things I didn’t know before I went, as well as vignettes and facts that surprised me during the 12 days we traveled through northern California, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Nevada. Maybe you were ignorant of these as well (but probably not).
If only I could put all my cool experiences in a box and take them with me everywhere, to open and enjoy whenever I want to.
Here is my list of interesting & fun stuff (in no particular order):
- There is a lot of desert in Oregon.
- There is a sign at the side of the road whenever you cross into a new time zone.
- Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone National Park blows every 93 minutes, like clockwork. Almost.
- San Franciscans have thoroughly embraced the Smart car.
- Bison can swim?
"Yes we can!"
- Buffalo wings have nothing to do with these buffalo because they come from Buffalo, New York.
- The LDS-church temple in downtown Salt Lake City (from which non-LDS-believers are banned) is pretty small. And downright insignificant when you compare it to many European cathedrals built 600 (or more) years ago.
- A Jeep Grand Cherokee is also called a “Laredo.”
- New quarters will be minted with motifs of the national parks, in the order in which they were established. Yellowstone (founded in 1872) is the first to be commemorated on the back of a quarter – and I have one.
- Coast Redwoods can get to be 2,400 years old.
- While looking for change in my wallet at a Starbucks in Bend, Oregon, the Barista told me, “Sorry, we don’t take Euros.”
- There is actually a place called “Jackpot” in Nevada.
- There are many onions in Idaho.
- Sarah Palin was born in Idaho.
- West Yellowstone, Montana is the self-declared “Snowmobile Capital of the World.”
- It takes eight hours to drive from Salt Lake City to Reno, Nevada (520 miles / 800 km), across a whole lot of nothing.
- If you come to live in San Francisco, you will never leave. As a friend put it so aptly: “How can you be miserable in such a beautiful place?”
She's right, you know.
