The footage contained in this project cover the period between my return from Furnace Fest (see project for that here) and Thanksgiving when we left for Pennsylvania for the whitetail deer rifle season and to celebrate the holidays with family. I decided to make a separate post that includes any of the hunting I did for 2024 so folks who prefer to NOT see that will not be blindsided by the footage in the midst of this project or that for The Holidays 2024.
This is by far the shortest "Fall" project in length in some time if not ever. That was due in part to an episode of COVID-19 happening at Halloween which knocked us out of commission for our usual Halloweeniversary celebrating and for the week afterwards.
After returning from Furnace Fest, I headed to work on Monday morning October 7th, 2024. I was pretty dang tired but I went to work. As I made the morning commute, I noticed and captured that there was a rainbow at Buckingham Fountain. It seems during a certain part of the late summer or early fall, the sun must be at just the right spot during my morning commute to make this happen. I suppose it is possible in the spring as well if the fountain is on during that particular period of time where the sun would hit just right.
On Thursday October 10th, 2024 another solar storm occurred bringing visibility for the Northern Lights to the Chicago area. We didn't make the effort to go out into the dark spaces this time but I was able to capture the color pretty well from where we live in the city that night.
10.12.2024
On Saturday October 12th, 2024, we attended the 15th Prison City Halloween Massacre at The Forge in Joliet, IL. We got there a bit late and missed the first couple of bands. The first band we saw was Sarmy Of Doom. It was an interesting performance. Whut? played next. They essentially host the show each year. The vocalist was having a birthday as well. The Disgraceland Wasteland Suspensions did their performance after Whut? finished up and it was cool as usual. The night ended up closing out with Elbow Deep who put in a performance that was part hardcore punk show and part wrestling with a couple 'fights' among band members toward the end. One of them ended up cut pretty badly and will apparently require surgery. The mess that they made ended up taking so long to clean up that Disgraceland Wasteland didn't do any more suspensions as they had indicated they hoped to do.
On Monday October 14th, 2024, it was Canada's Thanksgiving and Indigenous People's Day here in the United States. I made my usual dinner choice on Canada's Thanksgiving and went to The Bad Apple to pick up some poutine!
On Tuesday October 15th, 2024, there was hail coming down as I went to get my lunch. As I made my commute home, the skies had some vibrant colors reflecting off of the storm clouds over Lake Michigan.
10.18.2024
On Friday October 18th, 2024, friends were putting on a show in the Garden Room at J.P.U.S.A. in Uptown Chicago. I decided to stick around after work and catch the show. Since I had to take the C.T.A. to work due to getting a dent worked out of the car, I walked over from work at Cornerstone Community Outreach, stopping off at Sonic to grab some dinner.
Kevin Schlereth opened the night with some new tunes he's been working on and showcasing on this tour. Tobin Bawinkel played a 6'10 set next and played a newer song called "The Eastland" about a Chicago River shipwreck that happened around 100 years ago and took many lives. This may be a Flatfoot 56 song whenever it gets released rather than a 6'10 song...I'm not sure, ha! Sun Baron ended the night and I enjoyed the tunes that he played as well. I hung around quite a while after the show, enduring an odd fellow seemingly saying some imappropriate things, ha! When Tobin prepared to leave, I asked if I could hitch a ride home rather than ride the train and he thankfully obliged. We got in a cool conversation on the way as well.
NOTE: For some reason I posted this as being October 19th, 2024 originally. I went through to correct the video titles and information on YouTube but the embedded text is wrong.
On Saturday October 19th, 2024 I picked my car up at Parkview Auto where a dent and scratch as well as my amateur attempts to cover it was fixed. I also made a quick trip to Jewel to get some chopped vegetables to add to our venison stew. As I left there, I noticed someone set up weird little statutes or something along the old KFC at Western and Archer, I assume trying to sell them. That evening, we enjoyed some venison stew!
10.23.2024
On Wednesday October 23rd, 2024 we scored some extremely cheap tickets to see The Sisters of Mercy at Aragon Ballroom in Uptown Chicago. It was a bit of a surprise we were able to score such cheap tickets as it is a Ticketmaster/Live Nation venue and the face value was around $50.00 I believe. We took advantage of the low price on Stubhub and hoped for the best upon arrival. We hung out over at J.P.U.S.A. for a bit before the show, having dinner. A few of our friends Skot and Rachel Shaw and Mellie came out to the show as well. While waiting for the show to start, at one point a fairly significant group of our friends were all gathered around where we tend to hang out to watch shows at that venue. There is a step up so Elphie can see over the heads of the crowd and for the most part it doesn't get overly crowded.
The opening act was Blaqk Audio featuring members of A.F.I. They were ok and I thought sound wise it reminded me a bit of NYVES.
The Sisters of Mercy had a fairly long setlist and I expected the show to go quite a bit later than it did but they got through the songs quite quickly. I decided to capture "Lucretia, My Reflection." Of the songs I know by The Sisters Of Mercy, that would probably be among my favorite and I was introduced to it through a cover by Project 86.
After the show, we hung some more at J.P.U.S.A. with Skot and Rachel Shaw and Mellie as well as Shawn and Holly Browning who came out from Fort Wayne. We ended up driving Shawn and Holly to where they had parked their car after the hangs.
On Saturday October 26th, 2024, we attended the annual Nocturna All Hallow's Eve Ball at Metro. I decided to make this video clip of the night which is mostly showing the costume contest. That is in itself worth it to attend to see the creativity of costumes. We got to hang with some friends for a bit and that was fun. We didn't stay terribly late but had a good time while there.
On Thursday October 31st, 2024, I had to take Stein back to the vet for a follow-up appointment for a vaccination. Elphie hadn't been feeling well the last day or so and stayed home. After finishing at the vet, I captured some footage of the Halloween decorations in the neighborhood as I went to work. Not long after I arrived at work and clocked in, Elphie messaged that she had tested positive for COVID-19. I tested myself but came up negative. On my drive home I saved some footage from the CrossTour CR-900 of the neighborhood and Trick-or-Treat activity. We had to put our usual plan to celebrate our Halloweeniversary on hold. We ended up being out of commission for the next week.
NOVEMBER
11.09.2024
On Saturday November 9th, 2024, Elphie and I attended an "old-school" set by Five Iron Frenzy at the Bottom Lounge. They brought Lo(u)ser out as well. I think he has been on most of these "old school" set shows. His set was pretty funny, making some jokes about youth group culture and utilizing video game graphics with his songs. The video clip I captured used PacMan themed graphics. The Boy Detective was also on this show (and the one in Columbus from this weekend run). They are out of Michigan and did a pretty cool set as well. The lead vocalist spent most of the show in the middle of the crowd. I captured the last song of the set. I also captured the last song from the Five Iron Frenzy set. It was "Every New Day." I am pretty sure I have some footage of them performing "Every New Day" from another show but I wanted to capture it again anyway...there were a number of other fun options I could have decided to capture from the set. We saw a few friends at the show and Elphie got in a little bit of time hanging with Raye so that was cool.
On Sunday November 10th, 2024 we went to our friend Daniel's house for his birthday party and a bonfire later in the evening. He had meat pies for us as a meal! I only captured the bonfire.
On Thursday November 14th, 2024 I experienced a couple bad Chicago drivers and decided to pull the footage for the ongoing documentation. The first one was on Lake Shore Drive as I tried to enter using the ramp from Wilson Avenue. I was accelerating up to speed as one is meant to do. A car was in the right curb lane and initially it seemed I'd have plenty of room to merge in front of the car. The driver sped up but not enough to get passed me...only enough to end up mostly in my blindspot. They also chose to not shift left to the next lane. As I ran out or ramp space, I proceeded with my merge and accelerated, creating and maintaining a gap with this other driver. They apparently intended to use one of the next off ramps. While utilizing it, they flashed their lights at me it would seem. Why?
Further down Lake Shore Drive near the downtown parks I encountered another bad Chicago driver who created a close call but turning right on a red light directly in front of me. I was forced to slam my brakes and honked my horn. Thankfully, I was able to stop and not hit them (nor get rear-ended in the process).
11.15.2024 On Friday November 15th, 2024, Elphie and I went to see one of the last Front 242 shows at Metro. Elphie had a ticket with Kori and I bought my own. Unfortunately there was some issue with the tickets Kori had gotten which seemed to negate the ticket for Elphie. Eventually, they were all permitted in but sure seemed like a lot of unnecessary problems. I had secured a space in the balcony to watch from and held on to it the best I could. It turned out I was trying to hold space for three other people not just two! It was a good show though. I captured clips from both Front 242 and the opener Kontravoid.
On Tuesday November 19th, 2024 I noticed an odd drone show apparently happening as I drove down Lake Shore Drive. I have no idea what it was about or why it was happening.
On Thursday November 21st, 2024 we had our first measurable snow storm in Chicago as far as I can recall. I captured some clips of that.
Early Sunday morning after returning from Bloodline Fest in South Bend, Indiana, I stopped to get a charge. As I waited for the light to change so that I could go to the charger, several vehicles apparently felt that they did not need to stop at the red light and proceeded through. It was quite a few vehicles. As I plugged in to charge, I could hear squealing tires and assumed it was probably at least some of those same cars doing a "street takeover" and spinning donuts. This is a thing in Chicago.
On Tuesday November 26th, 2024 during my evening commute, while sitting with the rest of the traffic on Pershing Road, a driver determined that they did not need to wait and proceeded to continue down the middle of the road passed everyone who was waiting and I'd assume probably through the next light.
The rest of the footage for the year of 2024 will be included in the Holidays project and also the hunting project.
Additional soundtrack includes "An Autumnal Nightmare" by Rodent Emporium, "Halloween" by Insomniac Folklore, and "Autumn" by The Curbsquirrels.
I decided to make a separate post and public video project highlighting the hunting trips during the fall of 2024. It was a successful hunt during both times I was able to get out into the woods. I harvested a doe with my Excalibur Bulldog 440 Crossbow and an 8-point buck with my .30 Remington rifle.
I spent parts of four days in the Pennsylvania woods during the Archery Season to hunt White Tail Deer. It was considerably warmer than I am used to during a couple of the days but the hunt was successful!
When I drove to Pennsylvania for this hunt, I loaded up the target so I could get in some practice before going out on the hunt. The day before I went out to hunt, I set up my target and took a few practice shots with my Excalibur Bulldog 440 Crossbow. I hadn't shot it since last fall. It took a few shots to get it aligned again but felt pretty good about my chances if I had an opportunity to pull the trigger. I also spent some time sharpening my knives ahead of time.
Last year, I took the target into a section of abandoned Route 66 to get some practice shots in before leaving Chicago. I don't know of taking the practice shots in Pennsylvania was more helpful than taking the shots in Chicago but circumstances worked out in such a way that this is what I did.
I parked my car on the property of some relatives who remain on the old family land that we'd hunted for probably 100 years or more. I walked into the woods from their property and continued toward where I had been setting up the last couple of years. Since really investing time into hunting again the last few years, I have seen a lot of deer and last year, 2023 brought me some success so I hoped it might continue.
As I walked slowly through the woods, I eyed a few other locations to consider setting up just in case it would be necessary. As I crossed an open area that used to be used to dump compost, I saw a new set of Posted signs around the area where I usually enter the wooded land. I decided to continue walking up the dirt road and try to determine what might be off limits to me now. The signs seemed to stop shortly after beginning to walk uphill into the wooded area so I entered in at that point and walked to where I had set up last year. I found that the area had been logged to some extent and the spot I had set up had been destroyed with that activity. I had another spot not too far from there that was still good though...but it might not be much longer. There were markings on the trees all around it and even within the spot with orange spray paint so many of those trees may be taken in the near future, I suppose.
I got into my spot, a makeshift ground stand using downed limbs and logs I had gathered a few years ago and set up on a base of a previous similar structure. The purpose was to give me something sturdy to lean on and rest for a steady shot when using both my crossbow and rifle. It also could hide some of my movement. I cleared out the leaves as much as I could so as to try to not be too noisy when moving a bit. I also got a bearing for my shooting range by using my range finder to determine a few distances in each direction by measuring using specific trees. By this time, it had been probably an hour since I left the car. I decided to have a some of my coffee.
It was shortly after finishing that cup of coffee I saw movement of deer downhill to the north east...this would have been near where I had been set up last year. The time was around 9:30am. I grabbed my crossbow and leaned in to set up for a shot in the first clearing where the deer would hopefully reach that I estimated to be about 40 yards out. I saw that there were at least three deer. The first two deer were doe and I could see there was a buck following so I prepared to take a shot at the buck. When the buck appeared to reach the clear spot, I pulled the trigger and I heard the bolt hit something solid as the deer continued on their path but ran a bit quicker. They continued to move around the gully directly east of me but obscured by the brush and terrain. They kept on moving which didn't give me much of a chance to take another shot. I used this time to reload with as little movement and noise as I could. To my south I noticed movement as well as to my east. I saw the sunlight shining of something that may have been antlers so I was hoping that perhaps I had hit the buck and it was lying down over there and expiring. Meanwhile, to the east I still was seeing movement then saw two white tails up as the deer ran off further to the east turning north and back up into the hillside which has been posted land for many years.
To the south though, the movement continued and I saw a doe begin to move toward me. It seemed that it saw me. It would stop and stare then occasionally take a few more steps toward me. I kept watching it and it kept watching me. I tried to get a feel for if I could take a shot a few different times but it seemed to be a bit too far out and the area wasn't entirely clear either. At one point when I looked through the scope of my crossbow, all I could see clearly was the rump. Obviously, that was not a shot I intended to take. The doe continued to hang around though...it managed to move from about 80 yards away to less than 60 yards. I adjusted myself during a brief moment when the deer had taken its eyes off of me and was able to set myself up for a shot. It was quartering toward me. By this point I was estimating the shot to be just over 40 yards (which was incorrect) and I took aim just behind the shoulder, adjusting for the distance I was estimating. I saw the deer stomp a few times and figured I was running out of time for this opportunity that was being presented to me. With my aim and adjustment set and a steady rest on the stand, I pulled the trigger. It seemed just as I was pulling the trigger, the deer stepped back. It seemed to react as through it had been hit but at that distance I couldn't see any evidence yet. I estimated that shot occurred at around 10:00am.
I waited around probably a good 15-30 minutes before taking a walk to see if there was any evidence from either shot that I hit either the buck or the doe. I went to the area where the deer had crossed into the clearing and I took the shot at the buck. I found the spot where he was when I shot and where he lurked forward likely startled by the sound of the bolt's release or perhaps impact on whatever it hit that was solid. I did not find any blood at all. I looked around that area for a while, going further away. I also could not find the bolt but I began to assume I may have struck a limb. In hindsight, the deer were still moving when I took the shot and that likely accounted for a miss. I should have exercised patience and waited for them to stop or perhaps even made a noise to see if that made them stop. I continued searching around for a while then decided to try to follow the tracks for a bit to see if there was any blood. I still found nothing. I figured I could go back to that area if needed in a bit but decided I'd go look at the spot where I shot at the doe and see if there might be any evidence. At first when I got to the spot where I thought the doe was standing, I found nothing at all which was frustrating. I stood there for a few moments, trying to replay the shot and see if I might have been off a bit on my estimate when I looked a bit further out and saw what appeared to be significant blood as well as hair. I was very confident that I had a kill shot at this point.
I decided to head back to my stand area and give the deer a bit more time before pursuing it. I hoped to not have to chase it too far if possible. I poured myself another cup of coffee and also ate a sandwich while texting out to my parents and Elphie that it seemed I had a successful day. While doing all that, a nice sized 8-point buck had wandered into the area, standing probably no more than 25 yards from me. I was not prepared for shooting at this point but since it was standing there, I tried to quickly grab my crossbow and set up to take a shot. Of course my movement was noticed by the buck and it snorted then ran to my north into brush and terrain that would make for a difficult shot. I wasn't sure it was in my best interest to take that shot as I definitely already had one deer down and there was the chance I had hit that other buck too but just wasn't finding the evidence of it yet. As I was sitting there, a vehicle had made it way up the road where I entered into the woods. I hoped that the deer I shot hadn't ended up on the road as I didn't want to have to deal with other people at that time...especially being unsure of the new posted restrictions and where the signs actually covered and not wanting a confrontation with regards to that.
I think it was probably around 11:00 or maybe as late as 11:30am when I decided to start tracking the doe. I walked to the spot where the bolt hit her and first blood. Using my range finder measuring back to my stand (or the tree that sits in the middle of my stand). I found the distance to be right around 55 yards. I followed the blood and tracks as it ran mostly south through occasionally veering a bit to the west and uphill. There were just a couple places where I worried I had lost the blood trail but was able to fairly quickly find the trail again. The amount of blood was pretty significant most of the way so I figured it had to be a kill shot but last year I thought I had one but eventually lost the trail. As I kept going, this trail seemed remain with a consistently significant amount of blood. While the trail veered a bit west and uphill again, I looked ahead toward the south and saw a deer laying next to a rock. I was pretty certain it was this doe I had shot and it was likely dead. I walked along the blood trail anyway and it seems the doe may have fallen down and rolled then settled next to this rock. I poked at it a couple of times to ensure it had expired. I then went back to gather my stool and backpack and returned to field dress the doe. While walking back, I took a couple of measurements to get an estimate of how far she had run before expiring. It took a couple measurements because it wasn't a straight line that she ran. I estimate she ran about 70 yards.
I took a few pictures to document my harvest and filled out my tag as well then attached it to the ear. This was the first deer I had to field dress entirely on my own. As a teenager, I always had my grandpa with me. The first deer I got as an adult, I had forgotten the process and my father helped out. The same with the last couple, not because I had forgotten how but because he was impatient waiting on me to get it done. Also, the last time, my knife was too dull. Thankfully, that was not the case this time.
It probably took me a bit longer than maybe some others to get the field dressing done but I did it, leaving the gut pile for the scavengers to enjoy. I was pretty covered in blood by the time I got done and with the heat of the day, I was definitely feeling a bit too warm. Where the deer fell, there wasn't any active mountain streams to try to wash off any of the blood or my knives.
I tied a rope around the neck of the doe and tried to tuck her front legs in as well to help ease the drag a bit. I started carrying everything along with the doe but it was a bit too much. I ended up carrying my crossbow, stool, backpack, and heavier jacket ahead some amount of distance then coming back to drag the deer. I kept doing this through the rest of the day until I was able to get it to the car eventually. The drag used up almost all the remaining daylight...several hours. At a point trying to catch my breath in a clearing from a pipeline, the folks driving on the road in the ATV had come back off the hill. I am certain that they saw me but didn't approach me. There is a parking lot and access closer than where I park and at times I wondered if I shouldn't try walking through there and get permission to move my car to the lot and lessen the distance for dragging.
Once I finally got the deer dragged to my car, I was pretty exhausted. Thankfully my father was able to come and help me lift her into the car on the tarp I bought to keep the car clean. He also brought some water so I could re-hydrate as I was certainly dehydrated. I had to deal with some cramping the rest of the night after that.
We got the deer back to my parents house and got her hung up in the shed, then began to work on skinning her. We had to bring her back down once due to not getting one of the legs skinned right. We took a break about half way through the skinning for dinner then I went back out on my own and finished the job. I had it skinned and decapitated before going to bed. I didn't sleep real well due to the cramping of being dehydrated. I made a point to carry water with me going forward.
I went back out the next morning but didn't necessarily plan to stay out for more than a few hours. I mainly wanted to search some more to see if I could find any evidence of hitting the buck, and if so, any chance of finding it. As I walked in, I entered near where I dragged out the doe. I was a bit south of the spot. I walked toward my stand and as I walked I happened to find the bot that killed the doe! It was south of the hit spot as well and seemed it might have taken a right turn (facing the deer) once it exited the body. One of the blades of the broadhead was missing and the broadhead itself was slightly bent but the shaft of the bolt and everything else seemed to be ok and re-usable. I stashed it with my other bolts and continued to my stand where I unloaded my backpack and stool. I then walked back to the spot where I had shot at the buck to again search for any evidence I may have hit the deer. Again, I found nothing. I more thoroughly searched all around the area trying to decipher which tracks likely belonged to the buck. I assumed the deeper and more dug out ones were likely belonging to the buck as it would indicate it had been startled. But there was no blood anywhere near those tracks. I also could find no sign of the bolt that I had shot at the buck. I walked along what seemed to be the tracks looking for any evidence of blood but I found nothing. I followed along as far as the edge of the wooded area and along a stream bed before giving up on the idea of finding any blood or this buck.
I went and sat in my stand for a little bit, drinking a bit of coffee and water and eating a sandwich. A small buck came from behind me in the direction I was facing. I had come from the northeast. It was not a "legal" buck. He hung around for a little bit looking at me before getting more suspicious than curious of me and ran off. As I left my stand, I went back toward the blood trail from the doe to see how it looked a day later. It had dried up quite a bit and was a lot harder to decipher on the leaves whether it was blood or just reddish leaves.
I also found as I left by way of one of the old roads, that the area I had been sitting was indeed now posted. I took a picture of the sign so that I could have the information of those who posted it and I moved along. I crossed over the main road that is still in use on that side of the hill and headed south up the hill. I was able to see where the signs cross over the road and continue toward the old compost dump. It would see that where my father would like to set up and hunt was outside the posted zone but not where I had been setting up.
I walked up to his stand, It was still intact even though he's not really been taking the time to go out to hunt anymore. I headed west along the ridge of the hill, passing over one of the oil roads into an area I had walked a bit some years ago while squirrel hunting and scouting for deer. I had also walked through here a couple different times during a few of the previous unsuccessful hunting seasons. I had always seen deer but not before they would see me. As usual, some distance ahead of me I saw a deer get up and begin to run. I mostly just saw the tail. It stopped and it looked likely to be a buck but was far enough away it was hard to see the antler situation. It ran off and I decided it was as good of a time as any to get a spot set up to hunt in there. I gathered some downed limbs and smaller logs and built up another little makeshift ground stand for myself to utilize at some point. Once I ensured it to be mostly stable enough for leaning on to take a steady shot, I made my way back down the hill and to my car. I ran into Denny who had his dog out on his property and spoke with him for a few moments. His memory is going but he was still friendly, even if he didn't recall who I was. I eventually told him I needed to go as I wanted to try to quarter the doe I had hanging with it being so warm out.
I went back to my parents and did exactly that. I quartered the doe. I removed the front legs and bagged them up in garbage bags then proceeded to find a way to fit them into my parents freezer. I removed the ribs and spine where it attached at the pelvic bone, also removing the backstraps. I then tried to saw through the pelvic bone while the legs were still hanging but eventually I pulled them down off the hooks and cut through the pelvic bone while the legs were on the floor where I had a bit more leverage to make the cut. This method worked out for me and after trying to spray off the legs of any dirt or other debris from the floor, I bagged them up as well and put them into the freezer. I removed as much meat as I could from the ribs and neck area before settling in for the night. We had a tenderloin dinner that evening.
The following day, I went back out but set up closer to where I parked on the land that Denny actually owns. It was a bit of a wet morning. I gathered up some downed limbs and logs and made another makeshift ground stand right on the edge of his land and waited to see if anything might move through. There are tracks around the area. I didn't see anything and decided to come in early due to the rain.
I worked my way through more of the meat I could harvest off the rib area and the neck. I left as little as I could of the meat and when I got to the point I didn't know if I could get much more off the neck in particular, I bagged up the meat I was able to harvest, leaving some cuts for stews for my mom, and set everything into the freezer.
I went back out to the woods one last time with my crossbow and set up again on the edge of Denny's property in my makeshift ground stand. I stayed through the whole day. It was dry and moderate temperature. The only deer I saw were to the east of where I set up and moving a fairly good distance away. They may have been moving along the pipeline or one of the oil roads. Between where I sat and the deer there was quite a bit of brush that obscured any chances for a shot or much decent visibility of them. They did not make their way any closer as far as I could tell. At some point in the mid afternoon, a man came to one of the oil rigs and started it up then proceeded to look into the wooded area where I was sitting. He noticed me, then apologized and went on his way in his truck. He returned a bit later to turn off the oil rig. I saw no more deer and came in at the end of daylight and finished my archery hunt.
Back at my parents house, I decided to hang my hunting clothes in the shed where I had processed the deer. I figure if any scent from the deer is lingering perhaps it will attach itself to the clothing...at the very least it should be closer to natural smell than storing them inside the house.
I drove back to Chicago the next day, loaded with the meat from this deer frozen after sitting in the freezer. Some of it I was able to fit into a cooler and the legs I kept in the garbage bags with frozen bottles of water surrounding them. I had tossed the rib cage, the hooves, and the hide over the hill behind my parents house where my grandpa would usually toss the waste from any of the deer he had processed as well as lawn clippings and other compostable items.
I processed through the legs and other meat over the next week in the kitchen back home in Chicago. The first couple of days were busy with prior commitments so I left the meat in the car, covered and in the bags with the frozen water bottles in hopes that they would remain cold.
In the end we came away with steaks, chops (backstrap), burgers, and jerky from the meat as well as the liver, the heart, and the tongue. We made the tongue and liver into taco meat which we shared with our friend Guy while he was in town and our landlord Moses. I tried to utilize the lung with the taco meat but it was pretty well bloodshot and I found some of the broadhead blade in it as well so I gave up on trying to salvage them for safety purposes. Moses also got some of the jerky (we hadn't finished that yet before Guy left).
Rifle Season
The rifle season started out a bit rough in that during our trip to Pennsylvania, there was a blizzard hitting the Erie area. We left Chicago around noon on Black Friday and made it to South Bend for our first charging stop. I looked at the conditions and figured we'd go as far as we could. We had a couple more stops to make for charging at the Ohio state line, near Sandusky, Ohio, and near Cleveland, Ohio. I hoped to be able to book a hotel that had a charger on site so we could leave with a full charge in the morning and get to my parents house and I could proceed to go hunting. Unfortunately the hotel we chose did not have on site charging, even though it was indicated to be the case on the profile on booking.com. We stayed anyway. The next options we found that weren't terribly expensive were potentially in the midst of this blizzard and no telling if the chargers would be accessible in the snow or not. There was still availability of rooms but we opted for the closer hotel.
The next morning, the first day of rifle season, we left the hotel earlier than check out. My hope was to get to my parents' house and at least be able to get a few hours in the woods to hunt. We had to stop in Mentor, Ohio for a charge due to not having the charger at the hotel. As we approached Mentor, we began to get into the heavier snow cover from the edge of the blizzard. As we continued toward Erie, it was sunny and clear. We could see that it was a pretty significant snowstorm. For the most part the road had been cleared...at least one lane. A few spots got a bit dicey where snowpack and chunky ice remained on the road. There were a few vehicles that had been stranded in the snow. As we entered Pennsylvania, we came to find that I-90 was closed and we decided to get off a short time after seeing the notice on the road sign. We used State Route 98 and headed south to US-6N and then US-6 to get around the closure and hopefully the worst of the snow. We kept it slower than usual but steady and eventually got to my parents house at about 2:00pm. We had 10-15% of the battery remaining which was plenty to get out to hunt and back!
I unloaded the car then got prepared to go hunting, gathering my clothes, rifle, an ammunition. I got parked then began to walk into the woods and up the hill to the makeshift ground stand I prepared during archery season on the ridge. As I walked across the pipeline clearing I heard a noise and stopped. It turned out to be an ATV on one of the oil roads. It continued west and further uphill so I continued to walk toward my ground stand. I found the tracks of the ATV as well as some boot tracks that if the person was still in the woods, should be far enough away from where I was headed to not be an issue. I continued walking, noticing some turkey tracks, deer tracks, and coyote tracks along the way. I didn't see any movement or living thing as I walked though. I think it took me 40-45 minutes to make it to my stand. I had forgotten my stool but I figured I wasn't going to be out there long due to how late in the day it was. I got myself into the stand, accidentally kicking part of it lose and having to do a little repair work. I cleared away the snow and leaves as much as I could and waited to see if anything might come along. there was a deer trail right next to my makeshift stand as well as coyote tracks following the trail.
As I waited, I kept looking in each direction. To the south I had mostly the hillside to see as well as the edge of a higher ridge. It was less likely I figured to be where I'd get a shot but you never know. To the north was downhill and mostly a clear view of anything crossing that area. It was also where the oil road and an oil rig were so there was potential for human activity. To the east there was a short distance of a clear view that might allow for a good chance to shoot. Same situation pretty much to the west. Too far west the woods became thick enough it would be hard to see much.
As the sun began to set, I was watching to the east for a bit and turned back to look west and saw a deer standing there looking at me. It was definitely a buck but with the sunlight going it was hard to really see well enough what the antler situation was. I had my rifle and tried to slowly move into a shooting position with a learn on the stand but the deer ran at my movement back toward the west and there really was not shot to take at that point. I didn't stay out much longer after this as it was getting dark quickly. I came back in unsuccessful but I had the option to go the next day and planned to do so.
I woke early the next morning intent to get to my spot before it got too light. It didn't quite work out as it took my too long to climb the hill. I had no other human encounters. I saw more animal tracks though. I was looking at some deer tracks that crossed the oil road just north of my stand before I started up that hill and then heard a snort only to look up and see four white tails of fleeing deer headed southeast up the hill. They would likely have crossed by where my father hunts if he had been out there.
I continued to my stand. I had my stool this time and I worked the ground to get it set up in such a way that it would be steady for me to sit when I wanted to. I surveyed the area and it wasn't long before I saw movement to the west along the deer trail. It was headed right for me in the same general area the buck I saw the night before had been. It had antlers! I was able to get myself situation and a good sturdy rest on my stand to take a shot and could confirm that this buck met and exceeded the regulations for the area I was hunting as I saw at least three points up! I steadied my aim and took the shot as the buck had lowered its head to graze whatever was on the ground in front of it. The shot dropped this buck where he stood and I shot the steam puff of his last breath. I waited a few moments and saw no other motion from where the deer had fallen. It turned out my shot had hit just behind the neck and between the shoulders near the spine, breaking it. This is why it could not run. It was a bit of an odd shot especially considering I was on the ground and knelt down but the deer had also stepped into a dip so I think all that factored into the shot. I was originally aiming lower toward the vitals before it stepped into the dip but I didn't miss and it was a fairly instant kill at 8:00am!
I believe the shot was somewhere in the 35-40 yard range at most. It actually felt a whole lot closer but when trying to gauge it with the range finder, it read 35-40 yards. I walked over, poked at it a few times to ensure it was expired. I documented with some pictures, sent them out to my parents and Elphie. Then I gathered my stuff from the stand so I could begin the field dressing again. My father planned on going to church in the morning but offered to come help get the deer out of the woods. I accepted the offer and tried to explain exactly where I was...not necessarily the easiest thing to do, ha!
I had my first couple cups of coffee then got to work on the field dressing. As I was getting started the ATV I saw the day before rolled up the oil road. The man sitting in it looked like it may have been the man I saw during archery who turned on the rig down the hill. He rode off after a moment without engaging with me. I waved and that was about it. This one was a bit messier than the doe. It seems the bullet and possibly spinal fragments had made it through into the guts, ripping open the stomach. I did my best to clear that all out and with the snow cover, I cleaned out the body cavity the best that I could. It seems to have possibly niched the liver as well but I saved it nonetheless as most of it should be edible. Once I reached the vital organs, one lung was pretty much obliterated. I didn't try to salvage the other one, leaving it with the rest of the gut pile for scavengers. I cleaned out the body cavity again with the snow as well as my hands and the knife I was using and then started to pack up to get out of the woods. I pinned my tag to the deers ear inside my license holder because I forgot another zip tie.
I tied the rope around the antlers and tried to get the front legs tied up there as well. After the initial drag down to the oil road, the legs had popped loose so I took a break and re-tied everything. I had to go back and forth with my father by text to better explain where I was. I took a picture of the area and sent it before retying the deer up. As I was finishing, he walked up the hill not too far away and from there we made out way back down the hill. This drag was a lot easier due to the snow, even though the deer was quite a bit larger. I tripped up once but otherwise got it down the hill with no issues. Climbing the short incline down at Denny's homestead prove to be a bit of a chore as I kept slipping on the snow but we got it up to to the car together. Denny and Dawn (his wife) had just returned from church and came to see the harvest and took a picture. I moved my car so that we didn't have to drag the deer around to load it. We got him loaded in and headed to my parents house.
At the house, after unloading the buck, we sprayed it out to clean out as much remaining residual stomach contents as possible. We got it hung up again and began to skin it. We took a lunch break and watched the Steelers beat the Bengals before getting back to work on skinning and quartering the deer.
I spent most of the next day processing the meat off of the legs and the day after that, after a morning trip to Erie for a quick car maintenance appointment in another blizzard, I worked my way through the meat on the body around the ribs, the neck, and the back. I had it mostly processed before we returned to Chicago. We celebrated Christmas with my family and shared a meal of tenderloin as well.
Back in Chicago, I finished processing the meat, grinding some of it for burger use or to turn to jerky. I saved the tongue again for tacos as well as the liver and the heart. We ended up running out of freezer space so I gave some of our meat away to friends.
I had to purchase a larger pot so I could boil the skull to clean it off as much as I could. I protected the antlers using tin foil. After I did the best that I could in cleaning it, I set it out near the compost box in the back yard in hopes that bugs will scavenge the rest of the non bone material and I will then clean it up and have it to display.
That same pot I used to boil the bones I had saved from both deer and make bone broth.
This project features a road trip we took in the fall of 2024. We left on September 13th, 2024 and returned on September 29th, 2024 and covered eight states of the United States of America, three Canadian provinces, three National Parks, one Provincial Park, several landmarks, some unincorporated natural spots, and a variety of sites we found on Atlas Obscura. It was a good trip and despite the many hours on the road, Elphie and I didn't necessarily feel that exhausted at the end. The trip allowed us to knock off four more states in our quest to visit all 50 (should be completed in 2025) and also another two provinces if we ever decide to complete that. The general area we covered was the northwest of the lower 48 of the United States of America into the mountains and then the prairies.
Our flights were on Southwest Airlines. We used both AirBnB and booking.com for some of our lodging. Our rental was through Debbie's work account and utilized Avis. Some of our stops along the way were picked using Atlas Obscura. Our visit to Moose Jaw was inspired by some suggestions from Darrell Theissen.
Life after the trip ended up being pretty busy...with Furnace Fest, Bloodline Fest, the holidays, and a couple hunting trips. It delayed any editing I could do until after the new year began.
I came to realize during this trip why wild fires are such a problem as the whole area is covered in evergreen trees which the wood burns quickly. We saw some evidence of recent wild fires but fortunately had a route that missed the worst areas of that time. Much of the footage captured is of the nature variety as this entire trip was pretty much in the natural spaces. It was my first experiences of a lot of it. I had never experienced natural hot springs before and that was quite RAD. The geysers, the volcanic elements, the glaciers, as well as the western wild life was also quite amazing. I also an opportunity to capture the northern lights while near Moose Jaw in Canada as well as in North Dakota while spending a night in a Pilot parking lot. I brought along my tripod on this trip to help capture steadier shots. I still haven't quite figured out how to get video footage of the northern lights with my Canon Rebel T6s...I might need to invest in a more powerful lens that can achieve better low light settings. But I did capture some decent northern lights photos with my iPhone 14.
I decided to start with building the intro/promo/teaser video that I like to do for these projects. I thought I might be able to build out animated maps on Final Cut Pro X but it seems I likely still need to purchase Motion (it didn't come with Final Cut Pro X as it did with the older version). I still have Motion 4 on an old Macbook so I utilized that again...also making the title because it seems I can have a bit more control over what I'd like to do with it using Motion rather than Final Cut Pro X. I downloaded a font called "Cowboy Movie" for the title. It seemed fitting for the places we visited (including the "old west" town of Deadwood). I looked into the font from the television series "Yellowstone" but didn't care too much for it. It was rather ordinary. I liked how "Cowboy Movie" looked better.
I took several screenshots from Google Maps to use again and once again went about using the Bezier tool to created dotted lines and animated it to show the trip. I also animated a car and southwest jets to follow the lines. I had one map to show the entirety of the trip and a few others to show specific areas. I ended up scraping those maps and only used the full trip one. I also downloaded the state and province flags to include in the intro/promo project to I guess better show where we were for each photo I dropped in. I want to try to make the photos look a bit more like post cards or something along those lines. I achieved that by adding a border around each picture. I also included a "drop shadow." Once I organized the photos I wanted to use in the intro, I adjusted the map timing to stop at the various locations while the pictures dropped in. I am generally happy with how it turned out but I did cover some of the title and motion path with some of the photos. I organized the soundtrack for the intro to include songs that are meant for the areas we visited.
I included a couple other visual effects and quick clip with a film strip title at the beginning. I also added the old film effect but layered the text on top so it would be unaffected by the old film effect. I found a glitch kept occurring so I found the fix in using "slow motion" for the title rather than "smooth slow motion." I used this project as the intro as well without making any modifications.
We flew out of Chicago in the evening of Friday September 13th, 2024 from Midway on Southwest Airlines. we utilized the CTA to get to Midway. As we waited on a bus, we were passed by a few folks celebrating Mexican independence. The flight was pretty uneventful. I kept looking out to the north to see if any Northern Light activity was visible but it was not. I wish I had captured a cool lightning strike I saw in a large storm cloud but I missed capturing it. I captured our take off, the flyover of Seattle, and our landing at Seattle Tacoma Airport. Once we landed and gathered our checked belongings, we found out where the taxis were so that we could get a ride to Debbie's house for the night. The first part of this trip would be with Debbie and she was driving.
We woke up on Saturday September 14th, 2024 with a driving day ahead of us. We got loaded up at Debbie's packing up her vehicle inside and on top. It was drizzling as we left and seemed like fairly typical Pacific Northwest weather. As we drove, I captured some scenery along the drive through the mountains of Washington. I noticed that there was a lack of bird graveyards around the windmills which contradicts a certain talking point of a certain president. We stopped at an Arby's along the way but I don't recall exactly where it was. We passed under the Renslow Trestle (it was recently added to Atlas Obscura but I didn't see until after I finished the video) Just after crossing over the Columbia River, there was a sculpture on the hillside of horses. It was an Atlas Obscura site called "Grandfather Cuts Loose The Ponies." My capture of this wasn't great as we were driving by it but I did see it and capture it at least.
Our first planned stop was in George, Washington. We intended to seek out the George Washington bust in George, Washington but we first needed to get gas. While Elphie and Debbie were in the convenience store, I looked around as it seemed, according to the information on Atlas Obscura that the bust should be nearby. It was in the parking lot! So we took a picture by it and captured video to prove our visit.
We continued our drive through Washington state into Spokane then on to Idaho. Along this portion of the road we went through areas that seemed to be likely burnt during wildfires. I captured some footage of that.
In Idaho, we stopped in the town of Coeur D'Alene at a Roger's Ice Cream. It was a newly built restaurant. Some years earlier, Elphie and Debbie had stopped at one that was old timey but this was not that one. Apparently that was was down the street from a Ku Klux Klan house, While working on the editing of the video project, I found that we probably could have stopped at that one if we had driven a bit further down the road. At any rate, we got some food, including french fries so that we could have Idaho potatoes in Idaho! I got a burger and it tasted pretty good too. We made our way to a Wal*Mart after this to pick up some necessities for the next few days. We were a bit ahead of the loosely planned schedule so we figured it was as good of a time to take care of the Wal*Mart trip as any.
As we drove further through Idaho, I continued to capture some scenic footage. We stopped in Wallace, Idaho to see a manhole cover which claimed to be the Center of the Universe. It was an old mining town with not much else going on. The I-90 Interstate was built almost on top of the town.
We continued into Montana and stopped in St. Regis for gas at a travel center advertising "The Best Shake Ever!" I gave it a try...it was made from huckleberry which seemed pretty popular in the region. I'm not sure it was the best shake ever though. I also checked out the Trout Museum, not realizing it was an Atlas Obscura site until after we had left.
We only had a few more miles to go to arrive at out final destination of the day. We were staying at a Yurt in Superior, Montana that Elphie found on AirBnb. It was an interesting place to stay. We could smell some smoke from a distant wild fire but we were pretty much in the middle of no where. Once it got dark I went out to see if there was any chance to capture some Northern Lights footage but there was cloud cover. I think it even stormed a bit. We went to bed fairly early as we had another long drive ahead of us.
09.15.2024: Rocky Mountain Drive - Montana, Wyoming and Arrive At Yellowstone National Park
We woke early in the Yurt on Sunday September 15th, 2024 for another day of driving. Our original plan had a stop in Missoula, Montana at the Wal*Mart but since we got that out of the way, we intended to skip it. We did stop in Missoula after all to get new wipers and some other car maintenance items. As we drove I noticed a large smoke stack in the distance while capturing some scene views. We ended up stopping at a rest area to utilize the toilets and I captured the smoke stack and later found it was called the Anaconda Smelting Stack from Atlas Obscura.
We continued on our way and stopped near Butte, Montana on the road side where we were able to capture footage of Our Lady Of The Rockies and the Berkeley Pit. The road to the statue seemed to be closed off. Later in the day, Debbie's car started having some issues so it was probably for the best that we didn't make that drive to the statue.
As we continued, we arrived at Whitehall, Montana way before we expected to and hand lunch at an A&W / KFC combo restaurant. I got some coneys and a root beer float. After I finished it off, I added some Mountain Dew Sweet Lightning from the machine. It ended up foaming up quite a bit but I finally got to taste this honey and peach flavored variant.
We began to make our way toward Yellowstone National Park, capturing scenic footage along the way. After passing through an Old West style town, the car issues began. A local tried to help out and sent us back through the town to see a mechanic who gave some information and indicated that we'd likely be fine. I saw signs for "Earthquake Lake" as we drove and ended up capturing some footage of that. It was also on Atlas Obscura but we didn't stop. We continued to West Yellowstone where we fueled up prior to entering Yellowstone National Park.
As we entered Yellowstone National Park and made our way to the Madison campsite where we would be staying, we encountered some slow traffic due to some elk along the road. I captured more scene footage as we drove. At the camp, we set up for our stay. I borrowed a tent from Debbie and set that up along with an air mattress. We had a pasta dinner and lit a fire for the evening as well. We were warned of the dangers of bear and had access to bear boxes to store items that had odors.
09.16.2024: Driving South and East on the Grand Loop Road of Yellowstone National Park
We got up and moving on Monday September 16th, 2024 for our first day of seeing Yellowstone National Park. A coyote came wandering through the camp as I was getting up. Elphie made up some eggs for breakfast then we headed over to the Old Faithful Inn to utilize the showers. As we drove there, we had another coyote cross in front of us. I captured some of the geothermal features as we drove and while we were pulled over for a minute. I also captured a lone bison grazing in the fields nearby.
After the shower, we decided to drive south on the Grand Loop Road then to the east. We passed the Continental Divide and along Yellowstone Lake. We stopped in a gift shop near the lake to utilize the rest room and I got a Americana huckleberry soda and a few things to give my family for Christmas. The first real stop we made was at a mud volcano. There were several other geothermal features at this site as well: Dragon's Mouth Spring, Sizzling Basin, Cooking Hillside, Churning Caldron, Black Dragon's Caldron and Sour Lake. Across the road and a bit further northeast were a few more features including Sulfur Caldron. One could also see a feature bubbling in the river. I walked the first area to see the whole thing. We also had our lunch while there.
As we drove, we pulled off where a lot of other tourists were watching some bison. A few were getting quite close! I captured some footage and probably should have utilized my tripod. There also seemed to be a storm brewing. We also stopped at a waterfall and captured some more scenery there. As we drove up a mountain, we experienced some sleet and hail. We continued to drive, in hopes of finding wolves. I captured more scenery as we drove and we encountered a couple herds of bison. Some were walking up the road impeding the traffic. Another herd was crossing. I captured some footage which included a bison pissing. I also tried to capture some footage of antelope but they were a bit off in the distance and on the move.
Back at the campsite, we cooked some dinner on the fire and sat by the fire as a storm came in. I captured some lightning with my iPhone. As the storm got closer, it rained pretty heavily before we were able to get into the tents. I ended up setting in a huge puddle as well. At some point in the night, I woke up needing to use the restroom and when I got out of the tent to go, the skies had completely cleared and the moon was shining bright. I hoped it meant the forecasted rainy day to come might be wrong.
09.17.2024: Old Faithful and Other Springs and Geysers and Driving North and East on the Grand Loop Road of Yellowstone National Park
Tuesday September 17th, 2024 was our second day of exploring Yellowstone National Park. It was a dreary drizzly day with some heavier rain as well. We started the day at Old Faithful again, taking a shower at the Inn then seeing the Old Faithful eruption. I captured that with a few crass jokes made by some other tourists.
We drove north on the Grand Loop Road and stopped by another geyser site not too far from Old Faithful. This was the Black Sand Basin where we checked out the Sunset Lake, Raindbow Pool, Green Spring, Emerald Pool, and a couple of small geysers. We also encountered a raven hanging around the parking lot that seemed to have a wing issue.
We drove a bit further north to the Grand Prismatic Spring. Elphie was very excited to visit this site but unfortunately the weather was such that the seem was hovering low so the colors weren't a vibrant and visible. We also saw the geothermal released waters pouring into the Firehole river causing more steam. Other features at this site included the Excelsior Geyser Basin, the Opal and Torquoise pools. As we got ready to continue on our way, we ate some lunch. I dropped a bit of meat and a raven took it all and was wandering around with a chunk of meat in its beak.
As we drove north, I captured more scenery. We pulled off at a spot to see the Artists' Paintpots but it would have been a fairly long hike. We continue to drive north and as we neared the Mammoth Hot Springs area, traffic slowed and we saw a bear sitting on a rock near the road. We passed by the Mammoth Hot Springs with the intention to stop on the way back. In the town nearby, we saw a couple of Elk. We made a restroom stop near a scenic river and as we continued a bit further east, we found a lot of tourists pulled off the road. There were a couple of bears that they had spotted. We did our best to capture some footage of the bears.
We continued to a Petrified Tree and checked that out before turning back westward. On our drive west, we were impeded by another bison herd which came quite close to the vehicle. There were some obnoxious tourists who were getting seemingly too close to the bisons and also were getting in front of Debbie's vehicle and leaning on it. She got a bit upset with the people. Once we got through, we returned to Mammoth Hot Springs. We walked around the area a bit in the rain and captured some more footage. Elphie went back to the vehicle and ended up capturing a young bull elk grazing nearby.
We made our way back to camp but stopped quickly at Roaring Mountain along the way. We made some dinner but didn't try to start a fire as it continued to be very wet through the night.
09.18.2024: Wyoming and Montana Drive From Yellowstone National Park To Glacier National Park
We left Yellowstone National Park on Wednesday September 18th, 2024. Another coyote passed through camp and tried to take our garbage. I had loaded the bedding I used into a garbage back and it tried to snatch that from me as well. We left the same way that we came in, crossing back into Montana at West Yellowstone and made our way north toward Bozeman where we had to visit the airport to pick up a rental vehicle for the rest of the trip. We ended up with a minivan instead of what we had reserved but that was ok. I captured some scenery as we drove. Once I obtained the rental, it took a minute to get synced up with our electronics and such but we were able to get all the seats in the back stowed away and get everything we needed into the van.
As we continued the drive now on our own, Elphie captured the scenery along the way. She also captured Bleu Horses along the road near Three Forks, Montana. We made a stop at a Wal*Mart in Helena...after the trip I realized that we could have probably knocked off a few Atlas Obscura sites while in Helena. Oh well. We stopped at a mountain overlook somewhere along the way as well.
We utilized a rest stop that was across from a Sinclair gas station. Besides the dinosaur, it has a cow sculpture called the "Clearwater Bull." Apparently that intersection was Clearwater, Montana or very close to it. We captured some footage of that from the rest area as well as driving by it as we continued north.
We stopped for dinner in Kalispell, Montana. Elphie's old friend Erin from JPUSA met up with us there. The original dinner plan was scrapped as Moose's Saloon, the restaurant was unexpectedly closed. We went to MacKenzie River instead where we were able to order personal size pizzas and have a good meal.
We continued on our way to Glacier National Park, stopping at a Wal*Mart again to get some firewood for the camp. We arrived at Apgar campground and had some time around the campfire before going to sleep. I decided to sleep in the van rather than set up a tent again.
09.19.2024: Driving Going-To-The-Sun Road in Glacier National Park
We had one day to explore Glacier National Park and we spent that day, Thursday September 19th, 2024 on the Going-To-The-Sun Road through the park. The road itself is an Atlas Obscura site as was the lake near where we were camping, Lake McDonald. The Going-To-The-Sun Road was utilized in the opening titles of The Shining as well. It was an interesting ride through the mountains and distant glaciers. We stopped several times and captured scenic footage of the rivers, the mountains, and the glaciers. I was able to get out and walk a bit at Logan's Pass, capturing some footage there as well.
As we drove near St. Mary's lake, we encountered some pulled over traffic and found there were bears in a tree. The park ranger was trying to move folks along and ensure that they didn't get too close to the bears. I tried to capture a clip of the bears but didn't get aimed well as we drove by, unfortunately. At the east end of Glacier National Park, we stopped at the visitors center and utilized the restroom. There was an observatory and 'dark sky' information outside of the visitors center. We continued out of Glacier National Park and after a wrong turn, we found the trailhead for the Pacific Trail. We also passed by Chief Mountain during this excursion.
As we made our way back to camp, we stopped at the Glacier National Park sign outside the east entrance to the park. We captured some more scenic footage during the drive as well. Back at the camp, I prepared the fire and put some venison chops on to cook. I may have overcooked them a bit but they still turned out pretty good. We enjoyed a good dinner of a few left overs from previous meals as well and sat by the fire through the evening. Some deer came through the camp nearby as well.
09.20.2024: Montana, British Columbia, and Alberta Drive - Glacier National Park To Banff National Park
On Friday September 20th, 2024, we made our way into Canada. We crossed over out of Montana at Roosville into British Columbia. As we were passing through Eureka, Montana, Border Patrol agents were blocking off the way we intended to go and my phone tried to detour us in such a way it would have added four hours to just reach a similar border crossing. I kept following the local traffic and found our way through Eureka back on the main road and to the border crossing station. The actual crossing was without any incident and we continued on our way.
As we drove to where we were meant to meet up with Debbie again, we had a cow elk and calf run into the road ahead of us. The calf skidded under the cow and knocked her over a bit but they regained composure and went back into the wooded area nearby. Elphie captured some footage of them running along side the road. She was able to capture a bit of the scenery as I drove. We reconnected with Debbie then rode with her to the Lussier Hot Springs. It was up a dirt road and it an unincorporated hot spring (currently at least). Some locals indicated that they had more or less built the pools with the rocks and didn't seem to like that the word was getting out about the spot. Lussier is also a name given by the government but it was known as something else before, apparently. It was a bit busy when we arrived and as it got later and cooler, I finally decided to get in and check it out. It definitely had a sulfuric smell. I got in the hottest pool for a few minutes before leaving and apparently it left a red mark on me. We left as Debbie's friend was showing up.
As we continued north toward Banff, we passed by a few of the other hot springs in the area called Fairmont and Radium. They were set up as resorts. In the town of Radium, the locals were set up like there as a parade about to happen. We noticed quite a few hot rods and roadster type cars and some old timey ones as well. Turning to go into the mountains toward Banff, the round-about had a Big Horn sculpture and not too far from it were some rams or big horn sheep walking down the road. An impatient driver laid on the horn as he swerved around us. We had slowed down and were passing the sheep as this happened. Elphie continued to capture scenic footage and I got out at a turn off to capture a bit more.
We crossed into Alberta which was a new province for us. As we drove toward the Lake Louise campsite, we passed under a couple of the Banff Wildlife Crossings meant to help keep the wildlife from getting hit by vehicles on the highway. When we got to the camp, we scavenged some firewood and found out where there was more. It turned out we found there was a closer spot had it been light out. All the wood was fairly wet and hard to get a sustained fire going. By the time I did get it burning well, we were ready for sleep. I tried to see if I could capture any northern lights but had no success.
09.21.2024: Banff National Park - Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, Banff
Saturday September 21st, 2024 was spent exploring the Banff National Park area. We started out taking a shuttle tour to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. Both spots were nice scenic areas. I did a bit more exploring at Moraine Lake, climbing a trail up a rock pile. I captured some pretty good footage at both places.
In the afternoon, we drove to the town of Banff while Debbie took a gondola ride. We visited the Cave and Basin Historical Site and the ticket also gave access to the hot spring that one could actually go in. The Cave and Basin spring has an unique and endangered snail so there are preservation efforts to try to keep it alive. The site had a lot of information on its history. The cave itself was pretty cool. Apparently during war time, Banff was used as a concentration camp so its history wasn't all great. I walked around quite a bit of the area before we decided to head into the town to park.
While in downtown Banff, we walked the main strip for a bit before meeting up at the Grizzly House for dinner. It was a fondue restaurant and one could order a course with a variety of meats. Elphie order the exotic meats and I ordered the Alberta meats. First we got a salad, then cheese fondue with bread to dip. We got the meats next with dipping sauces and a hot stone to cook the meat. My variety was beef, bison, elk, and venison while Elphie got bison, elk, a frog leg, kangaroo, a fish, and venison (if I am correctly remembering). It was all very good! After the meats, we were given fruit and chocolate for dipping to finish off the meal. This is definitely something we would do again given the chance.
We walked back to the vehicles then drove up to the Banff Hot Springs so I could check it out. I had about an hour and a half before it closed. This hot spring had chlorinated water so the sulfur smell wasn't as strong. It was still quite hot though. I enjoyed sitting in it for a while. Outside, there was a fountain where I assume the hot spring water was coming from. We returned to the camp but didn't bother getting a fire going. This was our last night hanging with Debbie on the trip.
09.22.2024: Alberta Drive - Banff, Calgary, Edmonton, Mundare, Vegreville, Lloydminister
We left the Lake Louise campsite in the morning on Sunday September 22nd, 2024, saying out goodbyes to Debbie. We utilized the shower house then made our way east through Alberta. As we drove, Elphie captured more scenic footage. We passed through the Banff Wildlife Crossings again as we headed toward Calgary.
Just outside Calgary to the west were some remnants from the Olympics. We captured a bit of footage as we entered into Calgary's downtown. I stopped to check out the Saddledome where the Flames play hockey. It will be replaced in the next few years and the work has begun around it. We also captured footage of the By The Banks Of The Bow stampede sculpture near the arena and close to the rodeo arena. As we left the Calgary area, we passed an Atlas Obscura site called "Travelling Light" which was a ring sculpture along the highway.
We drove into Edmonton a few hours later, passing by Rogers Place where the Oilers play. There was a hockey game getting ready to start that the local fans were going to watch televised in the arena. We decided to get dinner in Edmonton and figured we'd get some poutine. We found La Poutine and getting to it meant crossing the High Level Bridge. We found out later it was on Atlas Obscura! We also happened to be next to another site, the Garneau Theatre. After eating, I captured a quick skyline shot from the hillside before leaving the city. We ended up driving on another bridge where we could see the High Level Bridge.
As we drove, we saw some more bison along the road in the prairie land. We stopped in a town called Mundare next where we saw the World's Largest Sausage. I captured some footage of other sculptures and local information as well. We continued to our next stop which was Vegreville to see the Pysanka. It was located in a park and had a few other sculptures and local information as well.
From here, we continued to drive to Lloydminster which sits on the border line of Alberta and Saskatchewan. We arrived in Lloydminster but Elphie didn't want to cross over until morning. We stopped at another Wal*Mart to get something to use as a cushion for sleeping in the van since we returned the air mattress and sleeping bags to Debbie. We decided on some cheap yoga mats. Perhaps we should have picked thicker ones. We decided on trying to sleep at a truck stop parking lot. The one we found seemed a bit sketchy. My phone indicated a Pilot station so we drive over to that but it didn't exist. We returned to the truck stop and slept there.
On Monday September 23rd, 2024 we woke up fairly early due to the lack of comfort provided by the yoga mats. We made our way into Lloydminster to the border line. There was a road that ran along the border line and we ended up driving along it for the duration of the town limits. I sped up that footage a bit. We got out and documented the border line in the middle of the town before progressing into Saskatchewan. We captured the proper sign for our entry into Saskatchewan just outside Lloydminster.
We continued our drive to Saskatoon where we saw the Junk Metal T-Rex. There were also sculpture of the globe and Transformers at this site. Elphie captured a bit more footage as we drove through the town and I sped that up as well.
We continued on toward Regina which I added into our trip because I found it funny. In Regina, we saw the Holy Rosary Cathedral. It had recently suffered a fire to its community food shed and an eccentric local told us all about it. We also saw Reginald the Grasshopper and the Albert Memorial Bridge which is the longest span over the shortest body of water. In the nearby park, I captured a bit more footage including the state house.
After the Regina excursion, we headed back west to Moose Jaw where we would be staying. We got an AirBnB of a tiny house on a property and it was in walking distance of downtown. Once we unloaded and settled in, we walked and checked out the downtown area. They embrace the idea of being Little Chicago due to the Al Capone connection. We found where the Temple Gardens Hotel and Spa was located, which was a short walk from the AirBnB and then decided to get dinner at Rosie's on River Street. I got a Hawaiian Burger and Elphie got a salad with some local fruits as well as a French Toast with local berries to eat in the morning. We walked around a bit more and found a sign indicating the original site of the Temple Gardens Hotel and Spa just a block north from where it stands now.
Moose Jaw was suggested by the Theissen's and it didn't disappoint. Thanks Darrel and Laura.
We returned to our AirBnB and got some rest after not sleeping so well the night before.
09.24.2024: A Day In Moose Jaw, Temple Spa, Northern Lights
We got up on Tuesday September 24th, 2024. We thought about taking the time to drive out to a mini-golf spot I saw as we drove into Moose Jaw but it was apparently closed on Tuesdays. We turned around and headed for the visitor's center instead, while passing by a cemetery. At the visitor's center we were able to capture footage of Mac The Moose along with a few other sculptures outside. We went inside as well and I purchased a drink made with local berries. I can't recall what it was called. It was pretty good and apparently meant to be relaxing.
After spending time in the visitor's center, we returned to our AirBnB then headed to the Temple Gardens Hotel and Spa to utilize the pools. There were a lot of older folks there and one in particular decided to talk about sports. It was a cool way to pass the day.
We left for a bit for dinner. We decided to get poutine again at Philthy Philly's. I got one with peirogies and Elphie got one with BBQ Pulled Pork. We headed back to the pool then Elphie decided to leave to go back to the AirBnB and take care of laundry.
I saw that it appeared there would be a good chance to see the Northern Lights so utilized the outdoor pool hoping to see them. It didn't seem to be visible so after it got dark enough, I decided to leave to get the van and drive out of the city lights so try to see if I could see anything. I was able to see them somewhat! I captured a few shots with my iPhone but couldn't get the settings right to capture much by video nor with the Canon Rebel T6s at all. I probably spent about a half hour checking it out before heading back and getting sleep. It seemed likely we'd have a long day of driving ahead.
On Wednesday September 25th, 2024 we set out to leave Moose Jaw. We stopped at a Tim Horton's before departing and got a couple of Maple Cream donuts. Elphie captured some prairie scenery as we traveled south through Saskatchewan toward the USA border. We stopped to get gas in a town called Weyburn then stopped again pulling off the main road to finish off some food before the border crossing in hopes to not get in any trouble for crossing with contraband food.
Crossing into the USA was fairly uneventful. The border patrol agent wasn't the friendliest guy but apparently didn't feel like searching the van so that was nice. We stopped again in Williston, North Dakota to use the rest room at a truck stop. I believe this was where Elphie had originally scheduled us to stay for the night but we continued on as it was still quite early. Elphie captured more scenery as we drove.
We stopped and got dinner at a Pilot station in Beach, North Dakota. I also fueled up there. The next stop on the trip was to be Devil's Tower. We decided to just end the trip for the day at this spot and set up camp in the van. I captured the sunset while we were there. I sped up the footage of that for this project. I woke in the middle of the night at some point to use the restroom and before getting back in the van to sleep I decided to see if I could capture any northern lights with my iPhone again and had success!
09.26.2024: North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota Drive - Devil's Tower and Mount Rushmore
On Thursday September 26th, 2024, after another rough night sleeping in the van, we got ready to head to Devil's Tower. I utilized some shower points a friend offered and took a Pilot Truck Stop shower! We departed from Beach, North Dakota and crossed back into Montana. The directions put us on some dirt roads through the farm land for a bit. We continued as Elphie captured the scenery and interesting road conditions. We stopped just before entering Wyoming at an old country store to use the restroom. We found the temperature was around 100 degrees!
We crossed into Wyoming and headed to Devil's Tower. We captured some footage of prairie dogs before getting to the parking area. We went inside the visitors center and then I decided to walk the short loop around Devil's Tower. I found some areas that appeared to have had a wild fire and there were a lot of down trees due to a storm hitting over the summer with high winds. I was also able to capture a glimpse of an old ladder used to climb up Devil's Tower. The walk ended up taking a lot longer than it seemed it should.
We left Devil's Tower, capturing a few more shots of the prairie dogs, then an alpaca and some bison with cattle. We crossed into South Dakota and captured footage as we passed through historic Deadwood.
We continued on our way toward Mount Rushmore and ended up in road construction. We captured a shot of elk along the way. We got to Mount Rushmore as it was getting dark. We had to pay a fee...Elphie wasn't happy about that! We captured a bit of footage and then decided to book a hotel room for the night in nearby Keystone, North Dakota. We got there and still had time to use the pool so we did!
09.27.2024: South Dakota and Nebraska Drive - Crazy Horse, Carhenge, Chimney Rock
On Friday September 27th, 2024, we got up to leave our hotel in Keystone, South Dakota and head for the Crazy Horse Memorial near Custer, South Dakota. As we drove, we passed by the World's Largest Big Foot. We had passed this the night before as well as we headed into Keystone to see Mount Rushmore. I also included some footage as we passed by Mount Rushmore once again as well.
As we approached the Crazy Horse Memorial, we had a low flying helicopter fly right in front of us. It was a bit odd how low it was flying! It might have been a tourist flight or something. We arrived at Crazy Horse, paid admission (it is a privately funded memorial) and got parked. The first thing we decided to do was take a bus tour closer to the mountain sculpture. We had Mike the tour driver and he was quite informative. I captured most of what he had to say during the drive out, while at the viewing location, and the drive back. I ended up overlaying a lot of this with footage we captured inside the facilities of the exhibits from the museums on site of Native Americans, the process of creating the Crazy Horse Memorial, and an American Bison museum. This is by far the longest section of this video project but there was a lot to capture and I didn't want to really cut much of any of it out. I probably could have cut out when Mike the tour driver had to scold a mother for taking her child outside the safety zone but I left in the audio. I think we spent about two hours at Crazy Horse.
We drove south toward Nebraska, going through the nearby town of Custer as well as Hot Springs, South Dakota. We didn't feel we had the time to stop at any of the sites in Hot Springs, unfortunately. I did capture some turkeys along the highway. Elphie captured some scenery as we entered into Nebraska of the flat terrain.
In Alliance, Nebraska we visited Carhenge. I walked around the entire exhibit capturing it all on video. We also stopped at a Git 'N Split gas station. To Elphie's disappointment, they did not have lighters or any other memorabilia with "Git 'N Split" printed on it though they did have a lot of Trump memorabilia including a hat with a orange toupee sewn into it.
We continued south and reach the Chimney Rock of Bayard, Nebraska. Apparently it has also been known as Elk Penis. We got there not long before the sunset. We were trying to figure out a plan for dinner and decided our best option was west in a town called Scottsbluff. It wasn't too far away and the Chimney Rock visitor's center wasn't open.
We arrived in Scottsbluff as the sun set. I captured it setting over a hill with my Canon Rebel T6s. From there, we decided to try a place called Scotty's for dinner. It was a small diner. I got a burger and shake and Elphie got a corn dog. After we ate, we decided to make another Wal*Mart stop then visited another Git 'N Split for Elphie to try to find some memorabilia. She did not find any.
We continued south toward the Colorado state line. The hope was to arrive at Panorama Point before the end of daylight but that wasn't going to happen. This also meant we were too late to go to The Potter Sundry for their Tin Roof Sundae. We ended up booking a hotel room very last minute in a town called Pine Bluffs, Wyoming. As we approached the Wyoming state line, we captured some footage of the Our Lady Of Peace Shrine.
09.28.2024: Nebraska, Wyoming, and Colorado Drive - Potter Sundry, Panorama Point, Denver
We got up and left the hotel on Saturday September 28th, 2024. We decided to backtrack a bit and visit The Potter Sundry in Potter, Nebraska to try the Tin Roof Sundae. It was a small town but The Potter Sundry was pretty busy. The person running it was going non-stop and perhaps her children were also working with her. She seemed pretty friendly and we talked briefly with her before we left, buying a couple stickers. The sundae was pretty good and it was messy! I'm not the biggest fan of nuts on my sundae but for this, I made an exception.
Driving to Potter on I-80 we went through construction and some slow spots so I decided to try getting to Panorama Point using local roads. This meant utilizing some dirt roads again. There were little birds zipping along that were spooked by our driving through and we created quite a bit of dust! Panorama Point is the highest elevation point in Nebraska. It is located in the western corner where Wyoming and Colorado meet Nebraska. There really isn't much of anything there. It's pretty flat land with some windmills and bison roaming about. At the entrance there is a place to pay a small fee ($3.00) but it is by the honor system. At the actual point, there is a desk with a guestbook to sign. People have left some things behind there so we did as well. After capturing some footage, we began our trip to Denver, Colorado.
We headed south through the dirt roads, eventually getting to some paved roads, however, we kept encountering detours that seemingly indicated going to the previous road we tried. Eventually I decided we'd make our way back to I-80, head back into Wyoming to. Cheyenne, then take I-25 south to Denver. In the meantime, we saw the Pawnee Buttes as we aimlessly drove, ha!
Elphie captured scenery as we drove toward Denver through Wyoming and Colorado and as we entered the city. We had reserved a room in Denver for the night so we made our first stop at the hotel and unloaded what we needed into the room. We then went out to explore some of Denver. We decided to head for dinner first and chose to visit the Linger Eatuaries. It is a former mortuary turned into a restaurant. Apparently the pitchers for water were formaldehyde pitchers. The portions were a bit small but the food was good. We ate on the roof top.
After dinner, we drove by the Ball Arena where the Avalanche play hockey. There was some event going on. We headed into downtown Denver and found somewhere to park so we could visit the Mile High Steps on the statehouse. This also happens to be near where the Zero bus meets the Fifteen bus...mentioned in the Five Iron Frenzy song. There was also a rave going on at a nearby park. We could see the lights and hear the music pretty well from outside. We hung around for a few minutes then continued to drive around. We drove by Meow Wolf, Mile High Stadium where the Broncos play and recently lost to the Steelers, a weed shop just because, ha!, an amusement park, and Coors Field where the Rockies were playing. As we returned to the hotel, we decided to visit a car wash so we could retun the rental in a bit nicer condition and hopefully not get a charge after 3,000 miles of bug and dirt residue.
09.29.2024: Denver, Scum Of The Earth and the Flying Back To Chicago
I woke up on Sunday September 29th, 2024 to pee and realized that the sunrise was about to happen. We had east pointing windows so I grabbed the camera and captured the sunrise through the window. I did not have my contacts in nor did I put on my glasses so the focus wasn't quite right. Nonetheless I captured that sunrise!
When we got up to leave the hotel, we decided to get some burgers at In-N-Out. I also gave the new Mountain Dew Voodoo a try. It had a strawberry taste to it, I think. It wasn't a favorite flavor for me by any means and I don't know that I will try it again. The In-N-Out burger was fantastic and I was glad to get to have one again!
We made our way through Denver once again. We were able to see the stadiums and amusement park in daylight as we drove. We made our way to Scum of the Earth church and spent the afternoon hanging out with the Filizola's. We learned a bit about Scum of the Earth in its current state. This was another church that had a bit of a lore to it due to its connection to the underground Christian music scene (punk, ska, hardcore). It's been interesting to have visited a few of these places over the years. The building was cool. We left behind some of the items we used on this trip and didn't have space or desire to take back to Chicago with us. We hoped it would be helpful to some folks in need and it seems most everything would likely be given to folks who would need it.
We had to leave to get the rental back to the airport and go through the whole pre flight process. The place to drop off the rental was quite a ways out from the airport and then we rode a shuttle to the airport. I tried to capture the Blue Mustang as we went by it from the shuttle. It wasn't the best capture but it was what I could get. I also wandered a bit in the airport trying to see if I could find any windows to get a better shot of it. Once inside the airport I captured a few shots of sculptures and other art. After we got through the TSA screening, we had to take another shuttle to our gate. While riding that, I captured a shot of the Jack Swigert statue. He was an astronaut who said "Houston, we have a problem."
We had a while to wait and so I watched some hockey and football on the iPad. We found some food to eat as we waited. The flight home was pretty standard and thankfully uneventful.
Back at the house, we were greeted by Stein who needed all the physical contact possible. We also found that Carlos had put a doll to bed in the room he uses while he stays with Stein.
I created some end credits including the soundtrack information to overlay some of the flight footage.
This was a great trip overall. We didn't feel particularly tired afterwards. I returned to work for a few days then was back on another flight out to Birmingham for Furnace Fest. You can find that video project here.
