Today was a relaxing day w/ GPJ & GMD. We got Miles serviced (the new nickname for the car), and then went target shooting at an outdoor range. This was Jenn's first time firing a gun, and she blew everyone out of the water (literally). Her very first target (w/ a .22) had 1 bullseye and several other good shots. She then prooved to be just as proficient with the .45 and 9mm. I never stood a chance!

Then we hung out, GMD gave us a tour of their amazing yard, which is more a botanical garden, and finished the night off with dinner out.

Pics

Ok, we've finally got pics uploaded! Go to this link (you do not need to sign up for an account even though it might say something about that). View pics or click on the 9 Albums next to Bryan's slideshow to see them sorted by each State (some have description, others we'll fill in later). Enjoy!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?Uc=5ut2bdvt.bqxze4it&Uy=otgcdm&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&mode=fromshare&conn_speed=1

The Florida Keys are great; a beach community in every sense of the word. It was much different than I expected, which was sort of Santa Monica pier type set-ups along the coast for miles. This is much more rustic, lived-in, secluded. The only area really resembling that was Key West, which was more like a giant Venice Beach.

We inadvertently arrived during the Hemingway festival (whom I'd not realized was famous for living on KW). This was also of course where we officially reached our 1/2 way pnt, coming to the Southernmost Point in the Continental US. The festival was great, and we did some shopping and eating. This night we didn't feel like spending another $60 on KOA camping, so even though exhausted, we drove the length of the Keys back up to the peninsula and found a hotel for less than that.

Is anyone really reading these?

We're in Florida! This is momentous, for we knew if we made it here the entire trip would be happening regardless, because now we're across the country, as far from Seattle as one could be whilst still in US of A!

More blog soon.


ps Sorry no pics yet. Having problem with Jenn's laptop, so been using other pc's. Soon.

It was good to be back in the Smokies. I haven't been in this area since hiking the AT, and it brought back a flood of memories. We saw the Dark Side of the park, entering via car instead of on foot, driving through the vomitus trap of Gatlinburn during the height of tourist season.

The Smokies is the most visited NP in the country, but most people never leave the pavement. We decided to do an over-nighter on the AT and sleep in a shelter, and the minute we stepped away from our car and onto the trail, everyone vansihed. It was wonderful.

After spending several days back home in St. Loui - hanging out with the fam, eating ice cream, going to a sold out baseball game (Cards won!) - we started our journey to the South.

First there was the World's Largest Ketchup Bottle (the World's Largest Catsup bottle is in England). No fries for it though.

Nashville I didn't find too terribly appealing. Lot's of drunk people roaming the streets with music blasting out of every other bar front. We did find a nice Counrty bar with some good tunes and hung out there for the night.

Well, some of you may have given up checking this thing after 10+ days of no posts. For those still out there, we have at long last found connection to the internets.

The "Old West" is known for its vast expantion, but not its network capabilities, so it was some time before we had convenient access.

A quick update- we're in St. Louis, will be here for a couple days, and hopefully set up a link to pics and tell our previous weeks journey.

Chicago was the first major city since leaving, and also the first hotel splurge, which unfortunately, did not have working interent.

Having no particular destination, we started with the Museum of Science & Industry. This museum is enormous; we spent 1/2 a day there and only saw 1/4 of the exhibits. The U-505 submarine tour was one highlight, but most of our time was spent in the Body Worlds exhibit. This contains over 200 real human specimens preserved with a special plastic technology invented by a German scientist (and also a friend of my grandfather).

Growing up in a family with Anatomy professors, I've felt privileged to see a lot of interesting things in regards to the human body. This was the most remarkable, fascinating, frightening, inspiring, humbling exhibition I've ever seen. http://www.bodyworlds.com/en/pages/home.asp

We also happened to be in Chicago on Roger Ebert Day, and came upon an outdoor screening of Citizen Kane in the park. And, of course, a trip to Chicago would not be complete without some deep dish pizza.

Minnesota is home to many things I'm sure, but what surprised us the most was the SPAM Museum which is completely free and very entertaining. The entire town smells like deli meat, because the main factory for Hormel is located here.

We did not have a chance to eat breakfast/lunch this day, so after completing the SPAM Museum we were in need of food. But all the restaurants in the area served, you guessed it, SPAM on their menu. Perhaps it was the low blood sugar talking, or the nastalgia from spending an hour in an museum, but I sat down in a cafe and uttered the words, "I'll have the SPAM and eggs."

Wall Drug.

What started as a small store run by a married couple has turned into a chachkee mecca. We learned that the night before had been some big poker opening in the area, which explained why several gas stations were litterally taken over by bikers.

It's always a pleasure to stop in Wall, and we did the usual Wall Drug thing. After having our fill of an endless supply of completely pointless things to spend money on (of which we did spend some) we went to Mitchell, S.D. which has the world's only Corn Palace. I'm not sure why the world needs more than one these, but at least we have the one. It's a big building...covered in corn.

At this point, S.D. becomes what you previosly thought- boring. Empty, flat, and void of major vegetation.

Though we could've easily spent another week in the Black Hills, we opted to press on and take the scenic route into the Badlands, and desert N.P. due East. This ended up a frustrating day because the roads were not well marked on our maps, and we drove past the dirt road leading into the bottom of the park.

We didn't notice this until we reached Pine Ridge, S.D. (about 1 mile from Nebraska), so had to loop back up. This error was parshly salvaged by taking a route past Wounded Knee Memorial, where we met some very nice Indians and visited briefly. Once we got up to the park, we were noticing that we couldn't stop consuming large liquid, and getting out of the car for even a few minutes immediately produced copious amounts of sweat.

Then we learned what the temperature was when we got to the park entrance- 114 degrees.

Needlesss to say, we would not be spending as much time here as anticipated. There are some very distinct formations in this park. It is more dirt than rock, collected over many years, and the strong winds quickly coated our bodies and inside of the car with dust. It felt a bit like being a construction worker.

One thing was apparent driving through the park- it would be an incredible place to watch a sunset. So, we waited until the afternoon when it was much cooler (85) to go for a hike. We took a really great trail up some rock piles and onto a plataue where there was no end to places of exploration.

At this point it was late and we both felt so disgusting that we decided not to camp in the park, and instead head up to Wall, S.D., where we found a campground that we could have potentially stayed. But there were many drunk people who'd gotten there hands on a karaoke machine, and were blasting badly sung music.

So, we "borrowed" the campgrounds shower facility, which was vacant, and drove up the road to a rest area.

South Dakota is a severly underated state. Perhaps that's just my perception of it, but I don't hear many people get excited when you say you're going to South Dakota. And to be fair, there is a large (i.e. most of) area of SD that is filled with almost as much nothing as Nebraska.

But there is a small section in Western SD that is unquestionably necessary to experience. It houses Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, Custer State Park, the classic old west town of Deadwood, Sturgis, the Black Hills, and a surprisingly unmarked spot called The Needles.

The Needles are a collection of jagged rock spire formations that protrude from the thick trees covering the hills. We inadvertantly discovered this area as we drove from Wind Cave. It doesn't cover a lot of ground, but the entire region of the Black Hills should be a National Park.

Below are short descriptions of each point of interest from this area we saw in a 2 day period:

MT. RUSHMORE

It doesn't get more touristy than Mt. Rushmore. Thousands of people, all with clicking cameras, studying this surreal sculpture of faces staring back at you from a mountain. The guided tour arround the scultpure is not long and worth the time. It reveals many interesting facts about the creation of the monument and the choices of faces made. It's a cool place about cool people.

CRAZY HORSE

This newer monument is still under construction. When completed it will be far more massive than Mt. R, but right now it is honestly quite uninteresting, especially when it costs $20 to view an unfinsihed sculpture. When I was a kid it was free, so it was no big deal. Jenn and I tried to get our $ worth by going in the evening and watching the laser show on the rock face (probably added to make up for charging admitance).

WIND CAVE

This lesser known National Park, tucked away below the Black Hills, is a cave with only one opening- a tire size hole on the side of a hill, which releases the wind for which it is named.

What is cool about this cave is that it was formed by standing water instead of moving water, so the walls are jagged, not smooth. As a result, the caverns are like swiss cheese, overlapping each other, creating vast amounts of passages in a very small area. Because of this, it is EXTREMELY easy to get lost in this cave, and it's not possible to enter without a guided tour.

Y-O-Ming.

Home of the bucking bronco, Devil's Tower, and also the nicest rest area I've ever been in. This was outside Sheridan, and it was equipped with great bathrooms and a park with spring toys. If only there was a way to come back to this rest area each night...

Our first sightseeing point of interest was in WY, at that place Spielberg's aliens landed- the Mato Tipila. Geologists say it was formed by a volcano, pushing through the earth's crust and thousands of years of erosions in the surrounding land. But the more probable theory from the Kiowa Indians is that a giant bear tried to climb a mountain and scratched it to pieces.

I never get tired of goin to this monolith. It appears on the horizon from miles away, and it's just as impressive the fourth time as the first.

Mackenzie River Pizza Co. was our destination for lunch today. This was my favorite while going to school at MSU, and it's still just as good. Bozeman has grown considerably in size; among other new retails, it now has a Target and Borders Books.

Once you've passed Bozeman heading East, Montana kind of goes down hill both literally and figuratively.

See you in Wyoming.

Newman Lake is a vortex for sure, so it was difficult to leave. At one point we joked that we would never actually go on the road trip, but instead spend the entire 2 months at the lake.

Eventually, though, we packed the car back up and thanked the Bock's for their incredibly generous hospitality.

Leaving Washington really made the trip seem as though it were happening. Until this point, it just felt like a weekend vacation.

Traversing the northern part of Idaho takes about 5 minutes, so by late afternoon we entered the great state of Montana. Skipping the ranch on this leg of the journey, we pushed south towards Bozeman.

By nightfall, we were looking for our first rest stop when a storm rolled in. This was not a meteorlogical storm, but rather a storm of bugs, which wind shield wipers are useless against. The car surrvived, many bugs did not.

4th of July!

The mini-golf tournament took place toady, which Jenn deservedly recieved Rookie of the Year status by making it to the final round.

The dinner was a fantastic spread of turkey, mashed potatoes, etc.

Acquiring pictures of the evenings fireworks was difficult, so let's just say it was the best display ever witnessed. Imagine any city you've been to on Independence Day, and take those fireworks and set them off over a lake, but in 6 or 7 places all at once, because there are numerous cabins around the lake owned by numerously wealthy pyromaniacs. Yes, there was even some dynamite.

I felt privileged to have one of the better seats in the house, as Paddy and I took the motor boat onto the lake during the spolosions. This dramatically took a turn for the worse, however, as we found ourselves under attack by water balloons being flung from shore. This post will spare the gory details, but suffice to say Paddy sustained an injury to such an extent that he became incapacitated, and I unexpectedly earned my ship captains badge by bringing us back to shore.

As for who sent the fatal balloon into the night with physics even Einstein would be proud of, no one at the cabin will ever be able to claim for sure.

Waking up at the Lake, we began our day with several rounds of Folf, followed by playing on the water with the waverunners. Then a preliminary round of mini-golf on the backyard course.

Later that afternoon, Jenn and I participated for the first time in the annual corn-on-the-cob eating contest, the purpose not to eat the most corn, but rather one cob the fastest. Jeff was victorious.

The remainder of the day was mostly lots of BBQ, beer, and more card games.

Leaving the Cascades, we followed Hwy 2 past the tourist trap of Winthrop, an old time time of yester-year that markets itself as much. Avoiding said traps (knowing full well it would not be the last) we continued to our destination of Newman Lake, WA.

Once arriving at the Bock cabin, we foolishly walked down the driveway unarmed. Jeff, Paddy, and Ed took us by surprise with a barrage of water gun shots. We scrambled back to the car, grabbed our Super Soakers, and came back blazing. Though avoiding the artilary shots from the water balloon sling, getting soaked was inevitable.

After laughing at our stupidity for not being prepared, we were greeted by everyone at the cabin with heaping plates of spaghetti and wine.

That night was a round of "bad candy" poker, whose name suggests the outcome of losing a round. I was also given the name Padre after being handed a serape and straw hat, which seemed an appropriate match with my new moustache. This new handle proved quite useful as I was now a "man of the cloth" for the weekend.

After practicing tolerance in unnecessarily ridiculous traffic leaving Seattle (holiday drivers?), we began our adventure the first night in North Cascades National Park, an amazing park a couple hours N. of the city.

Setting up our new tent, building a fire, we opened a bottle of '98 Ferrari-Carano Tresor, a gift we'd been saving for just such an occasion.

Our trip was underway...

Today Jenn and I embark on a voyage into the unknown.

Actually, it's not so much unknown as it is known. And it's not so much a voyage as it is a road trip.

Today Jenn and I started our road trip. That resonates in a slightly less adventurous tone, but we're beginning our trip in eastern Washington, which is equally flat.