6/26-27/10: Bend

(26) The 26th was a driving day. We drove, and drove and drove. We hit a lot of long, out-in-the-middle-of-no-where straight-aways and every once in a while hit a town or a Metropolis. We stopped by the Craters of the Moon in Idaho and a tiny little diner called "Pickles Place" in Arco, well known by Ali's dad. But probably the most exciting thing that happened was when we almost ran out of gas. On the last leg, between Burns and Bend there was a 98 mile stretch with no gas pumps. After about 38 miles outside of Bend the gas light went on . . . after the light goes on the car has about 30 miles left to keep moving. We were singing to the car (whose name is Tony by the way) “Go Tony! Go Tony! Go-Go-Go Tony!” and stroking the doors, leaning forward up hills and coasting downhill. We did make it to a gas station thankfully, but we laughed at the idea of breaking down on our last leg.



Dorota was our host for the night and she was the sweetest hostess ever! She made us dinner (lots and LOTS of dinner), gave us her bed and even gave us our shower towels with mints on them!! She gave Ali a French-Press for her birthday and gave Rachael and “tickle” as a gift just because she loves her :) We slept well that night.

(27) We woke up to breakfast in bed. Dorota had gone to church and set out hot coffee and muffins for us. It was a lazy morning and we took our time getting ready. When Dorota got back she took us for a walking tour of neighborhood. On our way downteh street we realized that the name of the cross street was Delaware! Why is that significant? Because Delaware was the ONLY license plate we didn't have. So, we thought it was fate and added it up to our list :) There was some bicycling event going on so there was a lot going on. Bend was really nice and it was cool to see the places that had become special to Dorota and to see her in element.



When we had made it back full circle to her home, we sat on the porch for a bit and relaxed before heading down to the Old Mill District. We walked into some fun stores, tried on some clothes and then went to a coffee shop that Dorota really liked. We talked for a little while and then we decided we better start heading out towards Sheridan. After a few big hugs, muffins to go and a few honks down the road we were back on the highway to finish the shortest drive of the trip – 4 hours aaaaahhhhhhhhhh.

We made it back to the Andy Fam in time for dinner. We perused some pictures and caught up. The following days would be filled with house and job hunting and one full day of doing absolutely nothing – so nice :)

But that’s all folks! Thanks for following us over the course of the last few weeks. It was a great way to end the school year and now we are excited to start our new Portland adventure. Lots of love!!

6/24-25/10: Yellowstone and the Tetons

(24) The 24th consisted mostly of driving, but we drove through some beautiful country as we stretched across Wyoming – from Rapid City to Yellowstone National Park. We made a stop in Cody near the park entrance, where we got some coffee from a local place and just enjoyed being out of the car.

Once we got closer to the park, Rachael was determined that she would see a bear. So from that point on she had on what we refer to as her “Bear Eyes.” On entering the park (which we were able to get a free pass due to the fact that we were staying with a good friend of Ali’s who works in the park – thanks Jen!!) we saw a moose!! We saw a crowd of people on the side of the road and Ali’s dad had said – “you see a crowd of people, stop! There’s something going on” – so we did stop and after tromping through some sticks we spotted the big Bull Moose. Cool :)



So we drove and drove, knowing that we would be able to see and enjoy the park at a slower pace the next day. But we did stop at Fishing Bridge, gape at Yellowstone Lake and we got a glimpse of some geysers. We passed through Yellowstone into the Tetons where the mountains reflected in the lakes and the trees were a vibrant green. Finally, after a long day, we made it to Jackson Hole where we met up with Jen at her apartment. She fed us really good pasta, we chatted for a good chunk of time and then we were all pooped so we crashed without hesitation.

(25) The next day we spent the whole day making our way around the park. We started out at the Tetons Visitor Center where Jen works and we took spin around the place, watching video clips and reading little info boards. She took us for a short hike outside, telling us some facts about the parks history as well as pointing out some cool plant usages. Then, after asking a few more bear facts (where to look for them, what to do if – and when – we see one, etc.) we headed back up towards Yellowstone.



Instead of taking a whole step by step of the whole trip, we’ll just hit on the stopping points. Jen had laid out a map of spots we would enjoy seeing in the one day we had (Jen was APPALLED by the fact that we were only there for one day – there was so much to see!) But she helped us out a lot by picking some beautiful spots and it was great to have someone who really knew the park to help us out.

Our first stop was the geysers. Before we watched Old Faithful “erupt” we drove over to the Black Sand Basin. It was so amazing!!!! The smell was awful, but it felt like you were back in the age of the dinosaurs – water bubbling, steam everywhere and the colors were so bright. We walked around the boardwalk, making sure not to fall off – Jen had mentioned to us how new geyser holes can pop up from time to time, unpredictable spots. So what looks like a solid bed, could actually be a thin layer of earth ready to break . . . creepy!!!



Then we watched Old Faithful which in the end turned out to be not all that interesting. It was cool, but we liked the Black Sand Basin better. Then we moved on and saw some more geysers on another boardwalk hike. We saw some huge bull elk and lots of geese. The landscape changed so much with just driving as well as with the changing light. By the time we go to the other end of the Southern part of Yellowstone, the sun was getting lower and the lighting was so beautiful. We saw a huge waterfall whose river stretched down a long canyon and as we headed back to Jen’s we drove by a huge open plain of bison. They crossed the road, weaved in and out of the cars and passed the traffic of people like they were part of the scenery. Yellowstone was pretty spectacular.

We ended up getting back to Jen’s very late, but we chatted a bit before bed and were up early the next morning to head to Bend. It was a great way to end the trip. Thanks for everything Jen!!!

6/23/10: Wall Drugs and Mount Rushmore

We got up good time that morning to be sure and leave enough time to explore our final destination – Mt. Rushmore. A few more hours of driving and two cups of AWEFUL iced gas station coffee we finally arrived at our halfway point that had been advertized all along I-90 – Wall Drugs. What is Wall Drugs? Well, it is a little pull off western model town filled with nick-nack shops and fun-totally-tourist statues that you can take your picture with. There was even a T-Rex!!! Not only did we take our picture with about every statue possible, but we also took the time to scope out the parking lots for any new license plates, which I believe we did find West Virginia that day. We strolled around a bit longer and then jumped back into the car and were on the road again.

A few hours more and we had reached Rapid City. We swung by our KOA and checked in and before we knew it we were turning our wheels up to the four stone heads of Mt. Rushmore. Before seeing the mountain, we drove through yet another made-for-tourists town where the streets were packed with out-of-towners. It was cute and bustly, but we didn’t want to dilly dally, we wanted to get up that mountain.



We continued to wind up the highway and eventually started getting glimpses of the faces. We paid $10for parking and walked up to the monument. There were a good amount of people there, so we had no problem following the crowd to where the best view was. We walked through the flag archways and ended up on a terrace like area where we looked up at the four carved faces. They were SO COOL!! We were both a little surprised at how far away they were – I guess we had imagined that you could actually get pretty close to them, but either way it was a pretty awing experience. We stopped at the museum and learned about the making of the mountain then we took some more pictures and decided to head back. We scanned the parking lot one more time for license plates – Vermont was found on that round – and then we headed back down.




It was Ali’s birthday that day, so we decided to go to Olive Garden and get some dinner and then we walked around downtown Rapid City for a bit. That part of town was really cute, really quiet, but cute. All of the shops closed at about 7 and so we did a lot of window shopping. Afterwards, we went to an Irish pub (which wasn’t really Irish at all) where we had a beer and people watched for a while. We decided to call it a night, so we head back to the KOA where we were going to get in the hot tub for a bit, but it was filled – literally FILLED – with little children. Instead we washed our faces, laid out the sleeping bags, put up our bug net and went to sleep.