We made it!

We finally made it home at about 1:00 this afternoon. It was a great trip and we saw some fabulous sights. We've got lots more pictures and some great memories! Can't wait to start planning the next trip!

Victor - Did you figure out why we brought the chicken???

June 3rd - Columbus Zoo

We made it to the Columbus Zoo today. It's a great place with lots of great animals. I really wanted to see the polar bears and we were just in time for the 11:00 showing. There are two females and, while we didn't get to see them in the underwater viewing area, we did go upstairs and see them fro behind the window. They're huge beautiful animals and I got some good pictures. We also saw a lot of other neat animals but we probably didn't cover half of the park. It's a really huge place and not all of the animals were out when we went through. We drove to Wilkes Barr, PA to spend the night. It was a long day for us but it got us fairly close to home.

June 2nd

The tornado missed us thank goodness! We did have a very bad thunderstorm though and that was enough to keep me awake most of the night. We got a picture of the sunrise at about 5:30 this morning and the sky was a very strange pinkish-yellow color.
We've accomplished almost everything we set out to do. Today we stopped at The Hat in Davenport, Iowa for lunch. The wings came highly recommended by the guy at AAA. He was right they were huge (about the size of my hand) and delicious! Of course we had to leave the chicken in the truck. She couldn't bear to watch. Hopefully she'll forgive us.
We're staying in Richmond, IN tonight and plan on going to the Columbus Zoo tomorrow morning. After that we're heading home.

Des Moines

We drove from the Badlands to Des Moines Iowa today - a long day of driving! We're staying at the Best Western tonight and we just heard we're under tornado watch until 10:00 tonight. It's about a quarter to eight now. I think I'll go downstairs and help Gary with the laundry. You're not in Kansas anymore Dorothy!!!

South Dakota Badlands

We entered the Badlands National Park at the southwest corner, stopped at the White River Visitors Center and spoke to a couple of the people working there. They're both members of the Sioux Indian tribe and gave us an interesting interview of their culture. We then drove to the north west corner of the park and camped at the Cedar Pass campground. As the sun was setting, we had a beautiful view of the shadows on the rock formations.

Mt. Rushmore

Mount Rushmore was every bit as impressive as the pictures we've all seen.

Crazy Horse Monument

This monument is a work in progress. The man who began this project had died but its being carried on by his wife and 7 of his 10 children. They blast the stone away and then use power and hand tools to refine the image. It just so happened they were blasting part of the monument on Memorial Day while we were there and we got photos of it. They also had a small sculture of what it will look like when finished.

Custer State Park/Needles Highway

May 31st was a busy day for us. We saw Custer State Park and Needles Highway, the Crazy Horse monument, Mount Rushmore, - all in the Black Hills- and the South Dakota Badlands. Another beautiful day for pictures. We've been so fortunate!
The Custer State Park was beautiful and well kept. We saw a lot of wildlife - pronghorn antelopes, buffalo, prarie dogs and a coyote. We drove the whole length of the park and went through the Needles Highway. There was a bus coming through one of the narrow openings. It looks like he just barely made it!

May 30th - Devils Tower and Mammoth Site

We left Hell's Creek SP early this morning and drove to Devils Tower in the northwest corner of Wyoming. On the way in we saw quite a few prarie dogs. The tower itself was huge and we were told it was probably 50 million years old. We stopped in the KOA Longhorn Cafe for burgers and then went on to the Mammoth site in South Dakota. The building is contructed over an actual archelogical dig where they've been unearthing the bones from mammals that were stuck in a sinkhole millions of years ago and died there. We thought it was very interesting.

May 29th - On our way to Hells Creek SP

The weather in Glacier was pretty nasty today. They had snow overnight on the east side of the park and it was pretty cloudy. The Going to the Sun Road is not completely open and the glacier is still covered with snow so we decided to keep moving and try to get back here another time. We drove from Glacier West to Hell's Creek SP just north of Jordan, MT. We took MT-200 and it was a beautiful trip. Miles and miles of beautiful farmland and ranches, some animals - cattle, horses, pronghorn antelopes, and deer - but very few other cars on the road or people. We know why they call it the big sky country - the most gorgeous blue skies for as far as you could see!

May 27th - Eureka & Glacier NP

We went to visit Jon Crandell in his own little corner of the world today. He lives in Eureka, just south of the Canadian border. It's probably one of the most serene, beautiful places we've seen so far. From Jon's we drove down to Glacier NP to camp for the night. It was drizzly and cloudy so the pictures don't do it justice but the mountains were beautiful. We stayed in the Sprague campground.

On our way to Whitefish MT

We drove from Yellowstone to Whitefish, MT today and it was a long but beautiful trip. As we went through the mountains we were driving through clouds. We took MT-1, the scenic Pinter Highway and it was so pretty! More nice pictures. Thank goodness for digital cameras! The water in Flathead Lake was a beautiful greenish-blue color. Amazing! Still having a great time. After this leg of our journey we're going to start heading back east again.

Yellowstone National Park

We drove from the Grand Tetons to Yellowstone and saw Old Faithful. It went off just after we got there and we went on a hike through the area and saw lots of other geysers and hot springs and when we got back to the main parking area Old Faithful was going off again so we got to see it twice. While we were walking we saw some buffalo and Gary got as close as he could (without getting gored!) to get some good pictures. When we left Old Faithful we started seeing buffalo all over the place! We had to stop the truck and wait for them to cross. They're amazing animals! After we got our campsite, we went to the Yellowstone Falls and they were amazing. The pictures don't do them justice!

Grand Tetons NP

We drove from Zion NP to the Grand Tetons NP and camped there overnight. It was cold but no bears! The mountains were beautiful when we woke up in the morning. You could see the reflection in the Jackson Lake.

Zion NP and north to Coalville UT

We went to see Zion early today and we were lucky to beat the crowds. On the way out of the park we took a wrog turn and had to take a different route back to I-15 but it turned out to be a great mistake. We passed through Duck Creek in the Dixie National Forest and saw some lava rock and cinder cones. It was a fascinating sight. We also saw the Cedar Canyon. We got a lot of driving in this afternoon and we're in the northeast corner of Utah above Salt Lake City. It should be an easy ride into Wyoming tomorrow.

On our way to Zion

We stayed at a Best Western just outside of Zion last night and we woke up to snow on the ground this morning. This is the southernmost point of our trip! What's going on???

Bryce Canyon and Red Canyon

We can't get over how huge all of these stone formations are. They're bigger than any skyscraper we've ever scene. Just gorgeous! The first picture is in Red Canyon and the rest are from Bryce Canyon. We're having a great tine and running ahead of schedule. We're doing more driving than we had planned so things are going well. Hope everyone at home is well.

Arches and Capitol Reef

Another beautiful day! We drove from Canyonlands to Arches and hiked to the top of the viewing area to see the Delicate Arch. I thought we were going to get blown off the mountain. I can't describe how beautiful all of this is! After leaving Arches we drove through Capitol Reef and we're staying at the Capitol Reef Best Western. We had a great meal in their restaurant.