9/1 - 2 - Feeling a little Philly.

Adam in front of the Second National Bank in Philadelphia, with original cobblestone street beneath his feet (right, & below)





We showed up to our Hampton Inn hotel room, courtesy of Adam's cousin Stephen, on a one-way street near a dark alley where parking, not included, cost us an additional $24; it was about 11:30 or 12 at night. Despite the feeling of insecurity (we had to use our room key to even enter the hotel lobby - another first for us), our room was very clean and comfortable with a huge bed to sprawl out in. We pretty much crashed in it once we were settled.


Trista stands in front of the landmark Independence Hall as it undergoes a bit of construction (right).
The bell tower at its peak was the original helm of the infamously cracked Liberty Bell (right, below).



Trista rose early enough to partake in the complimentary breakfast, which we weren't sure would be any good but surprised us. The night before we were both starving and foolishly decided to stop at a Wendy's to eat dinner - way past dinner time, mind you. Adam, for some reason, thought that the new bleu cheese and bacon burger sounded appetizing, while Trista had a salad and baked potato. Well, Adam felt miserable the next day - too ill to have any of the waffles or cheesy eggs that the hotel provided for breakfast. It took only a few hours for him to come around. Thankfully, it wasn't a legit case of food poisoning.


Once we checked out we were only a couple of miles from Independence National Historic Park, where the uber famous Independence Hall is located, as well as one of America's single greatest symbols of freedom: the Liberty Bell. The bell has quite an extensive history, which is very interesting to learn about, and it used to hang, long ago, in the bell tower of Independence Hall. The Hall itself is famous world-wide for its significance in U.S. History - it is THE building where the Declaration of Independence AND the United States Constitution were both written and signed, and here, in 1776, the U.S.A. was born as a free nation of the world. When visiting these two icons one can feel that sense of origin and power and history. Even a few of the streets are paved in some of their original cobble stone.

Adam couldn't leave Philadelphia without ravaging a trademark cheesesteak sandwich from one of the numerous vendors supplying them. Even Trista, not typically a carnivore, couldn't resist it; totally scrumptious.

ONCE AGAIN, we didn't allow for enough time to explore the inside of the famous Hall because we were facing a two hour drive to New York, with the night looming in soon; plus Trista said she was getting bored. Oh well.

We hopped in the car quickly and anxiously headed for our new home, and the purpose for this whole trip, the one and only New York City. Big Apple, here we come!

Additional pictures of Washington, D.C.

Trista "hugging" California at the WWII Memorial.


The Reflecting Pool as seen from the Lincoln Memorial.


Adam on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial - his favorite site in Washington, and another respected carving of his.


Trista in front of the Smithsonian Castle - now used as the Information Center.


The Great Phallus illuminated.

8/31 - 9/1 - A Capitol idea.

Adam tries to be regal in front of the White House.









Before we left California, Adam hadn't read any of the Harry Potter books or seen any of the movies in their entirety. So, as per Trista's request, he downloaded the first four audio books so we could listen to them along the way. At this point in our little adventure, we are near the beginning of the third volume: "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." Trista correctly predicted that Adam would really get into them because of how imaginative the stories are, and, for the record, the man reading the books is superb (he does all the voices).

Adam's Uncle Sonny assured us that whatever time we arrived would be just fine. Again, we didn't want to intrude at a late hour of the night, but they insisted and we carried on through Virginia to Great Mills, MD, near Lexington Park, and arrived at about 12:30am. Thankfully, they were all mostly awake, and VERY welcoming - social even. Sonny, Cheryl (Adam's aunt), and their oldest, Stephen, were up for about an hour catching up with us on every one's lives.

Trista in front of the Washington Monument.


When we were ready for bed they gave us the entire basement level of their deceivingly large house, complete with a full living room, bathroom, and separate bedroom. Waking up without any natural light peering in can sure throw you off. We didn't get out of there until almost 3:00 in the afternoon, with all of Washington to still see.

Adam's cousin Stephen was kind enough to treat us to breakfast/lunch and we said goodbye to him (he didn't know yet we were going to Michigan with everyone else), and we drove into D.C. for some typical touristy stuff.

Not that Adam is an ex-patriot, but he is convinced that Washington, D.C. has the highest crime rate in the country, and that almost all of it takes place inside its impressive buildings. We were both further tipped off by the outlandish parking situation. In order to avoid any tickets while we walked around we were forced to park in a structure that cost us $18 for less than four hours. Whenever we tried to ask anyone for assistance we were completely brushed off. So far, at least in our experience, D.C. holds the distinction of having the rudest people we've met; St. Louis had itself a similar population, although our caretakers during our dinner cruise were super nice.


Cartwheeling on the National Mall lawn.

Trista touching the Vietnam Vets Memorial - a very powerful tribute.










Adam solutes the Vets of World War II.





Unfortunately, as seems to be the case lately, we didn't leave ourselves much time to explore the many, many things that the Capitol does have to offer (its people aside). Of course we saw the Washington Monument, but we didn't go up in it; we saw the White House, and waved to its unseen occupants; we gazed at the U.S. Capitol building from a distance; the amazing, yet sad WWII and Vietnam Vets Memorials; and our favorite point of interest was the Lincoln Memorial, with its awe inspiring and incredibly well detailed sculpture of one of our mightiest presidents. Also, as we walked the lawn of the National Mall we were halted at a crossing by an enormous procession of long black cars book-ended by an entourage of police on bikes and in cars. Hmmm. Could it have been...?

New York is no more than four or five hours from Washington, so we are sure to return soon to squeeze in some of the Smithsonian Institute and other famous museums and libraries.

Adam's cousin Stephen does lots of traveling for work so he was extremely gracious to book a room for us in Philadelphia, our next stop, with some of the hotel points he has saved up. We had to leave D.C. around 10pm in order to get there at a reasonable time to sleep. Thank you, Stephen, and see you all in Philly.


The WWII Veterans Memorial - with some rather obnoxious commentary from Adam.

8/28 - 31 - Tim and Gay, Adam and Trista, and......Earl

Together at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.



At around 10:30 or 11pm, we called Adam's Uncle Tim to let him know where we were and he estimated our arrival to his house in North Carolina sometime around 5 in the morning. We didn't want to put anyone out at that hour so, although Adam's family insisted it was alright, we pulled into a rest stop to sleep until the early morning.

We got to Tim's at 11am and he and Adam's Aunt Gay couldn't have been more hospitable. They fed us a huge breakfast right away and allowed us to recuperate by sleeping all afternoon and showering. Adam reminisced with his Aunt and Uncle. They also talked a lot about the rest of Adam's relatives and swapped updates with each other. They fed us three times while we were there and by the time we left, Trista felt that they were some of the nicest people she'd ever met, which was encouraging.


On the Okracoke Ferry. We barely made it on.

We left Tim and Gay's after a 24 hour stay for the Cape Hatteras National Seashore on the outer banks of North Carolina. From the southern tip at Cedar Island, which connects to the mainland, we paid the toll to ride the two hour ferry ride to Ocracoke Island. Ocracoke is only about 14 miles long and you have to take another half hour ferry ride to Cape Hatteras from there. But while on Ocracoke we both HAD to indulge in some homemade ice-cream from a mom and pop stand; these NC coast-liners LOVE their ice-cream - it's everywhere. Adam had a scoop each of butter pecan and peach, and Trista had chocolate and strawberry. All were AMAZING!!!


Homemade ice-cream that was to die for.


Aboard the Okcracoke Ferry.

As we drove our car onto the ferry from Ocracoke to Hatteras Adam realized he left the video camera on the ferry from the inner banks. We contacted them and fortunately they had recovered it and held it for us, but that little slip up cost us about two extra hours and three unnecessary ferry rides back and forth. By the time we landed on Hatteras the final time it was getting dark and we didn't get to enjoy the island.


Before Adam misplaced the camera.


Trista at sunset - after a day of riding ferries.

Hurricane Earl was also sweeping in behind us so we weren't sure if we should camp on the island, but we were finally assured that we had plenty of time before we would be in danger, so we camped at the Frisco Campground for the night. We woke up so hot, sweaty, and bug-bitten (Adam counted nine bites on himself), that we packed up three hours before check out. Plus we had limited time to enjoy the island and beat the hurricane.


Adam cooling off after packing up camp.

Cape Hatteras is a very well known and touristy ocean-side destination. It is a very narrow strip of land separated from the mainland and as you travel its length the ocean appears on both sides, not far from the road, and for long stretches. The environment is quite different from the California beaches we're both used to. Another very impressive thing about Hatteras were the amount of gigantic beach homes that towered four stories up with wooden wrap around decks out of every opening on them. Also every house was on stilts - another major difference from SoCal beaches.

The North Carolina coastline contains seven magnificent lighthouses, including the pride of the state: The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. Standing 210 feet high, it is the tallest lighthouse in the United States. It had to be moved some 1,000 feet inland several years back due to erosion of the shoreline. This made headlines, of course. We did not climb the 248 steps to the top (equal to a 12-story building) because we didn't feel like spending the $14 to exercise - but we got a real good look at it from the ground. Before we visited the lighthouse and its original site on the beach we grabbed some lunch at the Diamond Shoal Grill where we shared a cup of incredible clam chowder.

Attempting to beat the evacuation traffic, we took a quick side trip to see the site of "The Lost Colony" at Roanoke Island. This was the site of the very first recorded English settlement in the New World. It is considered "lost" because the entire colony mysteriously perished. This was twenty years before the Jamestown and Plymouth settlements of Virginia gave birth to the English-speaking United States. There was a really neat theatre there where they perform a fictional/non-fictional account of the site's history. The stage reminded us of the Ramona Bowl in Hemet, CA. The set was a permanent structure built of wood and mud and the performers walked on grass, dirt, and stone, and from the production photos we saw they wore extremely elaborate costumes.

Needless to say, we left before Earl came and are perfectly safe. Off to Adam's Uncle Sonny's house now in Maryland.


"What's the happiest day of your life?"


Trista and the Atlantic Ocean. The famous Cape Hatteras Lighthouse stands behind her in the distance.

WE MADE IT!!!! Please stay tuned for updates.

Okay everyone, we have officially landed safely in New York. We are now New Yorkers. We touched down in our new town on Friday, Sept. 3rd. However, that doesn't mean we have forgotten about the last two weeks of our blog - it's just been a little hectic, as you can imagine. We will still be posting our East Coast travels, as well as our micro-excursion to Michigan for Adam's Grandma's surprise 75th birthday bash (where Trista finally got to meet a huge chunk of his mom's family).

Anyway, please continue to follow as we post entries for the last leg of our journey.

8/27 -28 - The Living Mountains

We drove through Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee to stop off at Nashville for some grocery shopping since we didn't do that in Missouri. We were navigated to a crumby part of town where the only grocery store had this uncomfortable, random Middle Eastern flair, so we did what we could. They did have avocados, though - got to hand it to them.

We didn't reach the Smokies until about 2:30am and it took another half hour to the campgrounds. We must say, though, Great Smoky Mountain National Park is no slouch. The Rockies, Yellowstone, and the Grand Canyon all have the name and get the credit they deserve, for sure; but the Great Smoky Mountains, believe it or not, are the most visited National Park in the entire country. And after waking there the next day and driving around, it wasn't hard to understand why.

The Smokies boast the most diverse ecosystem of trees anywhere in North America and Europe combined. It seemed as though anything could grow there. The greenery was totally unreal. We both just kept repeating to each other that we'd never been anywhere greener. It was actually pretty magical, and quickly became Trista's favorite scenery of the entire journey so far. There were long stretches of highway where the trees grew together above the road, creating a canopy of foliage. And whenever the sunlight could get through it flickered across the windshield and gave us the most inspiring drive of anywhere we'd been yet.

A happy video. Who needs us to watch when there's all this. See for yourself. Don't mind the bug-ridden windshield - that's normal for cross-country travel.

The Smokies are the coziest of the parks we've now been to. The sides of the road were so crammed with lush, green trees, all standing upright, that it seemed everything in the forest was alive and breathing - there didn't appear to be many, if any, fallen or dead trees. Even the running creeks were chalk full of green mossy stones. EVERYTHING was green. There were furs, and ferns, and pines, and oaks, and maples, and tons of types of trees where leafy vines were growing up around the entire trees, wrapping even the trunks in green. It looked like a fairytale, and it makes you not want to leave. In fact, it is the one place Trista says she wants to stay a full week next time (see...cozy).

After losing another hour with the time change we rolled into our site after 3am. We set up camp in our fastest time yet (we're getting it down to a science now) and we just completely crashed. We knew we could register in the morning for the site we'd chosen and, fortunately, the Smokies weren't as full as they are known to be. The camp host came to our tent at 11:20 the next morning to let us know to check-in/out by noon, which we did.

The Great Smoky Mountains do not have many so-called "attractions" (the scenery is enough, trust us) but it can lay claim to over 900 miles of hiking trails, including the legendary Appalachian Trail that divides Tennessee and North Carolina through the middle of the park. Well, we wanted to do so many things with the limited time we had there, but in the end we managed to squeeze in the drive through Scenic Loop in Cades Cove, where we finally caught our very first wild bear sighting - a medium-sized black bear foraging berries from a tree - we didn't get very good shots of it, though; and we had fun taking a brief dip in a running stream with lots of slippery rocks beneath our feet.


Trista attempting, rather poorly, to recreate a dance move performed by Adam in "Cabaret" five years ago.

We missed Newfound Gap and the overlook Dome, where you can apparently see a glorious 360 degree view of the mountains from its highest peak. We also missed any true hiking and the cascading Laurel Falls that we wanted to see.

On the way up there is a crazy village called Gatlinburg and it is a mountain town unlike anything you've ever seen. Gatlinburg is just JAM-PACKED with hordes of touristy things to do, with a slew of different restaurants and crowded knick-knack shop-type storefronts and amusement parks (Dollywood wasn't far away), and an aquarium and a petting zoo and arcades and laser tag and speedway cars, etc., etc., etc. It was a veritable Las Vegas of the hillbilly kind. We even saw a huge, white pillared mansion turned upside down on its roof - we didn't know what that was. We entered at night when the place was still lit up like a pinball machine. We had also hoped to squeeze in some time for a bite to eat at one of its many audacious eateries before we left, but again...

The Smokies were very memorable and we highly recommend them to anyone. Our next destination is Adam's Uncle Tim's house in Hubert, North Carolina. See you then.



As we leave, everything is just "breathtaking" once again. haha

8/26 - 27 - Rolling on a river

The famous St. Louis Gateway Arch.

After driving 14 hours, our longest continuous stretch, with one stop at Denny's in Nebraska, and Trista's first time taking over as driver so far, we finally reached St. Louis, Missouri, and were looking for accommodations. St. Louis was the only destination during our trip that we had planned to find indoor lodging once we were there because it was sort of a half way point and we wanted to make sure we could clean up and have a date night in the city, near the river. But, naturally, we wound up securing unplanned indoor lodging twice already prior to this due to unforeseen circumstances. We found an Economy Inn with great clean rooms for only $30 a night. It was forty minutes outside St. Louis but we were obviously looking to save money here and, honestly, you wouldn't have have known it was that inexpensive - the room was as good as anything at a Holiday Inn.

On the way into the city, we booked a very reasonably priced dinner cruise on a Mississippi Riverboat for our date. We napped in our hotel room, woke up to get ready and barely gave ourselves enough time to drive into St. Louis to board the boat. We departed at 7:30 and returned by 9:30. Dinner was a lovely three course meal with coffee and tea included, and because we may have mentioned it was our honeymoon (shhh), the bartender was kind enough to whip up some complimentary cocktails and the cruise director, Nick, was our personal waiter, attending to us on the, otherwise empty, second level. We each had a salad, then Adam had the prime rib for his entree while Trista had the fish (Alaskan pollack?) - both were scrumptious. For desert, two kinds of cheesecake: apple and raspberry. Yummy.

We were in food comas, but managed enough strength to walk the upper deck to enjoy with the other passengers the fresh night air blowing softly on us as the riverboat quietly waded us two miles up the Mississippi to gaze on the city lights. Quite the change of scenery from just a day before. Of the many romantic memories we share together, we both agreed this would be up there near the top.

After the cruise had docked and we exited the boat, we were presented with the photo packet of the picture we took before we boarded. We couldn't refuse such a nice remembrance of this evening so we purchased it. We were still fairly dragged out by the commute from the mid-west so we retired to our room for the night, where we caught the blog up to speed, perhaps for the first time, and easily drifted off to sleep.

We checked out the next day at eleven and drove back into St. Louis to restock some groceries and to ride up into the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, better known simply as the famous Gateway Arch. Unfortunately, we didn't leave much time to visit the Arch and left the "city by the river" without so much as a step inside its Visitor Center, let alone riding the egg-shaped elevator up to the observation deck all the way at the top of it. We had planned our stop through St. Louis for this very reason and didn't even do it. This is Adam's only regret about the trip so far. AND...no magnet again.

Oh well, we had a very romantic evening on the Mississippi River and we were now off to the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.



About to board our quaint dinner cruise on the Mississippi Riverfront.


Our only footage together on the trip so far, courtesy of Nick, our waiter.

8/25 - 26 - Magnets! We don't need no stinking magnets.

We hit the road and left Custer around 1:30pm. Just for fun, we thought maybe we'd add a destination to our travels when we were passing Wind Cave National Park South of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills. We stopped into the visitor center to see how much the cave tours would cost. Even though they were affordable to us, they lasted an hour or more, depending on the tour you chose, and none were ready to go down again for at least an hour. We just didn't have that time to kill. Too bad because it would be pretty cool to check out one of America's great caves. And, if we're not mistaken, Wind Cave is one of the longest, or deepest, or something like that - it has some unique distinction. Perhaps we'll visit the Carlsbad Caverns on our way back to California in November.

The next destination on our map was the Chimney Rock National Historic Site near Scott's Bluff, Nebraska. From South Dakota to the site it took nearly five hours and by the time we arrived the Chimney Rock Visitor Center had been closed for an hour. NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! We wanted to see the museum. We wanted to learn the rich history of the site. And, most importantly, where were we going to get our magnet souvenir to show we were there? The whole area surrounding Chimney Rock was closed for business around 7pm. Sheesh. What's with this town?

Anywho, for those who don't know what Chimney Rock is, Adam will fill you in. Chimney Rock is a large red clay mound with a thin, naturally formed spire rising from the center of it. It's in the middle of nowhere and it was of great importance to settlers on the Oregon Trail because it was a landmark to the progress of everyone who traveled it westward. The "chimney" or spire used to be taller and thinner but years back the tip was struck by lightning, toppling the narrow pin portion and reducing its height.


Trista, the original Settler of Catan, in front of the great Chimney Rock.

It was neat to see it, but disappointing that it was closed to visitors. So Adam was hellbent on finding a neighboring town that would proudly sell memorabilia of its famous landmark. Adam took us to seven different nearby stops to ask. Nope. Nothing. Not unless we wanted to travel twenty-five miles out of our way to the Scott's Bluff Visitor Center, another point of interest relating to the history of the Oregon Trail. Boo-hoo. Adam is determined to find a Chimney Rock magnet for his troubles, even if he has to call the Visitor Center at the site and have them mail him one, darn it.

We stopped after dark at what had to be Nebraska's only Denny's and had a large, greasy meal and about ten cups of coffee for Adam because we were planning on driving straight through the night to St. Louis. He was fairly wired and fidgety. We got to catch up some more on the blog from here and Adam got the chance to see a urinal with chewing tobaccy spit in it. That's when you really know where you are.

Meet us in St. Louis.

8/24 -25 - Just stopped by to see some familiar faces.

We exited Yellowstone's East Entrance around 10pm. After several hours, we stopped off near a bank in Greybull, WY to park and sleep for a few hours in the car again. We proceeded by 7am, had breakfast at a rest stop, and reached the Black Hills National Forest, in Big Horn County, after six hours of early driving.

Along the way, we happened to see some interesting roadkill; which included 1 deer, 1 big horn sheep, 1 mountain goat, 1 groundhog, and a porcupine. We also saw a cool little red fox scurry across the road.

Maybe twenty miles South of Mount Rushmore, we passed through the town of Custer, another neat little backwoods town, where we spotted a Flinstones' Amusement Park (up in the mountains!), with its own campground. There were actually a great deal of camping options in Custer. We decided to stay the night at Beaver Lake because it was on the way out, family owned and operated, and had a heated pool with a huge water slide (but they never fired it up while we were there due to a lack of interest).

Anyway, the coolest part of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial is when you are driving up the mountain and you catch your first glimpse of that universally famous carving. It is definitely something to drive up and see a thing that has been so familiar to you your whole life but never experienced in person.


Adam, being the newly ordained sculptor that he is (wink, wink), had a great appreciation for the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum (Swiss perhaps?), and his crew of over 400 men who used the many techniques of sculpting to mold the gigantic faces of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln into this crazy mountainside. It truly is a remarkable feat. It took nearly 14 years to get it where it is today and it still isn't complete according to Borglum's designs because funding for the project had ceased in 1941, and Borglum died in 1943. And there were a number of deaths during its construction - what a task to be commissioned to. Now, there it sits, forever part of our history, as one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world. Borglum and his team have their own tribute there as well.

Trista wasn't feeling too well so we made some quick tuna sandwiches in the parking lot, went back up to pick out our magnet, and headed for our campsite before it got dark. The memorial has a nightly lighting ceremony that we couldn't stay for but we both agreed it is meant to be seen by the light of the day.


Mama and baby mountain goats at Mt. Rushmore.


Adam taking a dip at the Beaver Lake Campground swimming pool.

8/24 - Haven't you "herd?"

The incomparable Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, with the stunning Lower Falls gracefully descending in the center.


If you visit Yellowstone for only one reason, let it be for its sweeping landscape and lush scenery; if not for that, then for the romance; if not for that, then for its unique array of hot springs, geysers, and waterfalls; and if you visit Yellowstone for no other reason, you must go for its spectacular wildlife and the probability that you will be close to it.

We rose from our motel room in a flash, got ready for the day, and checked out by 11am; but not before Trista rapidly whipped up some delicious eggs and blueberry pancakes. We spent a couple of hours at the neighboring hotel to blog and scurried off through the West Entrance to Yellowstone again.

Not five minutes in and there was already a wildlife sighting. Yellowstonians call these "Buffalo Jams" because passerby's just stop in the road to gawk. We were no exception. To our left, up a tiny hill and very close, was an enormous buffalo. Down the road a bit, there were two more. Down the road further, even more. Buffalo soon became a regular part of our day. Late in the afternoon, we were right in the middle of a completely ridiculous "Buffalo Jam." Traffic came to a halt both ways as a herd of at least 35 bison and calves milled between all the vehicles. We were surrounded. It was AWESOME! A bit nerve-racking too because bison have been known to charge at cars. But here they seriously had no room for that. In fact, the embankment dropped off the side of the road to our right and the beasts stopped themselves there beside the car because they hadn't enough room to pass us. So Trista got a two minute view of this huge buffalo's ass, right next to her head. I finally pulled up a bit to let them by.


Major "Buffalo Jam." This is only half of them.

So here was the breakdown after our third day at Yellowstone:
Buffalo - about 100
Bull Elk - 3
Mule Deer Buck - 2
Female Deer - 4 or 5
Pronghorn (like antelope) - 20 or so
Trumpeter Swan - 2
and many different squirrels, prairie dogs, small birds, and bats

We had hoped to see, some from a distance: a bear, a moose, a bald eagle, a big horn sheep, a wolf, and a beaver. These all live there too, but we had no luck. That's okay, we got out alive.

Trista took this photo of a Mule Deer with her cell phone.

The enormous Yellowstone Lake behind us.


Adam at the brink of the Upper Falls.

Other fascinating things on our last day were the Fountain Paint Pots, with its various hot springs and geysers, including the Fountain Geyser, which burst up and sprayed all its viewers. Lastly, no visit to Yellowstone would be complete without trekking the North Rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River, where you can view from many different overlook points the Upper and, just unbelievably majestic and more impressive, Lower Falls. The Canyon and the Falls are of such scenic scope that its no wonder artists have been painting this for eons. Viewing it in person feels as if you are in those paintings.


The brink of the majestic Lower Falls. There is a beautiful emerald green ribbon that runs down the center at the drop, if you can see it here.

We went up to Canyon Village to buy another magnet and headed down and out the East Entrance along Yellowstone Lake, with the huge full moon glistening brightly on it as the water rested peacefully.

This is not more snow, it is hot white mud at the Fountain Paint Pots.


Needless to say, we LOVED Yellowstone. It was everything it promised to be and we were very sad to say goodbye to it. We hope these entries can help you feel as though you enjoyed it with us.

Next stop: Mt. Rushmore!


The beautifully colored Silex Spring at the Fountain Paint Pots.

8/22 - 23 - Yellowstone, the Great!!!!! FINALLY!!!

Old Faithful = show-off.











Sadly, Adam stands against a backdrop of dead trees due to fires and a pine beetle pandemic.







We have arrived, folks! All other National Parks bow down - Yellowstone is King! Yellowstone was America's first National Park, and it sure is a doozy.

By the time we got to our campsite, which we had reserved on Grant Village, near Yellowstone Lake and the first town through the South Entrance, it was almost 4pm. We set up camp quickly and made a very late lunch of French toast. Bears in the Rockies, we learned while we were there, are not a real threat. Bears at Yellowstone, however, are a serious matter apparently. When we finished lunch we had to clean up immaculately and store everything edible and odorous in a bear locker provided near each campsite. A small detail that Yellowstone does share with the Rockies was the presence of loud, clicking grasshoppers.

Due to the sheer size of the park and the diversity of its many features we opted to stay two nights at Yellowstone. We figured we'd camp one night in Grant Village and then see where we wanted to camp for our second night, since there seemed to be plenty of availability for tent camping.

After lunch was cleaned up we both went to the state-of-the-art shower facilities to clean ourselves. Ahhh, refreshing. We then went into town to do some grocery shopping and while we were there it started to RAIN. AGAIN!! We just decided to share a burger and fries at the little restaurant there since we couldn't cook now.

Our campsite was dark and rainy when we got back and we began deliberations over sleeping in the tent or the car because it was shaping up to be colder than the Rockies. What the heck? We kept getting robbed by the weather. Anyway, we slept in the tent. Big mistake. We both had on several layers, two pairs of socks, and hooded sweatshirts tied over our heads, and we still couldn't mange to generate enough heat between us. By morning, our tent was so cold, we thought we were lying in a puddle of water. The rain outside persisted all night; it sounded like a bunch of kids taking turns tossing handfuls of gravel at our tent...or so we thought. Neither of us wanted to go out in it but we were too frozen to go back to sleep. At 7:30am, Adam finally unzipped the tent to the shocking sight of SNOW just outside; on the ground; on our chairs; everywhere. No wonder we couldn't get warm. And the rain had actually stopped long ago; what we were hearing was the snow melting off the trees above us and landing on our tent. Yes, everyone, we got snowed on while camping. It may have only been an inch thick in some spots, but still...try sleeping on the ground in it. And the best part was that we got to clean it up. Yay to that!!! We were tired and cold and just wanted to get out of there. It took a couple extra hours to pack up.


An extra side of snow to go with your freezing cold, sir?

Adam being a naughty. He's standing on dangerous thermal crust at Fairy Falls. (below)


The next few hours were filled with chores, including washing our soaked towels and blankets at the laundromat. We met a woman there who regaled us with her tales of hiking and wildlife encounters. She and her husband and their daughter were hiking in the Tetons with a small group of fellow campers when they spotted an enormous Grizzly Bear not more than 75 ft. from them. They all panicked but, thankfully, one guy in the group was familiar with bear behavior and walked them through the experience. The Grizzly was following them on the trail so they were instructed to move off to let him pass. They all climbed up the side of the trail as the bear wandered by, only TEN FEET in front of them. Safe. In total, she saw nine bears, and was lucky enough to spy a moose as well. This excited us about the prospect of wildlife sightings ourselves.

We left there to eat, mail more postcards, and finally unload the burden of that darn Coleman stove - we mailed back to Trista's parents, who lent it to us. We did all this in the town of Old Faithful, where the world's most famous geyser resides. Of course we waited for it to go off. The suspense of waiting was as cool as the big pay off.

We also stopped to see, that day, the Kepler Cascades and the hot springs of Fairy Falls and the Midway Geyser Basin. Of all the parks' unique attractions, Adam seemed most excited about seeing the Midway Geyser Basin, home to Yellowstone's largest and most brilliantly colored hot spring: the Grand Prismatic Spring. When viewing it you are level with it and so much steam was escaping from its surface that you can't really see the rainbow of colors that it's made up of. Oh well, it was still neat. Also there, was the Excelsior Geyser Crater, which bubbled like Champagne and poured down into the Firehole River below.


The awesome Grand Prismatic Spring, a very popular attraction, steaming us over.

Because of the snowfall, even though the day had cleared beautifully, we weren't taking any chances our second night. Again, all of Yellowstone National Park was booked. We found an affordable room at the Pony Express Motel in the town of West Yellowstone in Montana, just outside the West Entrance to the park. Neither of us expected to visit Montana during our trip but West Yellowstone is an awesome little Western town with great entertainment, restaurants, and its very own live theatre playhouse. We visited the Wild West Pizzeria (hehe), voted the best pizza in town, and stuffed our faces. We called it an early night, put on "Revolutionary Road," and dozed off in sweet bliss.




Trista near the Firehole River.














Wild West Pizzeria in West Yellowstone, Montana.

8/21 - 22 - "On the Road Again"

It goes without saying that every destination on our map has been extremely memorable and fun up to this point, but often times, driving there can be just as memorable. Sometimes the smallest things happen but you keep talking about them. Like during our drive from Grand Canyon to the Petrified Forest, when we shared a jug of water. While Trista was taking huge gulps from it, Adam remarked, " That's good water, isn't it?" She nodded, lowering the jug from her vision, as he pointed to the approaching sign showing the next town was Good Water. It was a deliberate setup and it couldn't have been more perfect. Her mouth was completely full and she barely got it all down. We're still laughing about that one.

We also really enjoyed seeing the Grand Canyon follow us down the 89 to an average crevice, where we stopped so Trista could purchase some authentic Native American jewelry off the side of the road.

After the Grand Canyon where Trista bought some handcrafted jewelry from the Navajos.

When we drove five miles an hour up Trail Ridge Road, it was a disaster, but very memorable still.

And when we reached the 80 westbound in Wyoming, the vast farmlands and rolling hills were very tranquil. We even stopped for gas near here and saw buffalo and elk burgers for sale.

Once the sun went down we were nervous about climbing the woodsy elevation again so we looked for cheap lodging in the three nearest towns just South of Yellowstone, because the park was booked solid. We decided to stop in Dubois, WY. It's the closest to the South Entrance - about an hour and a half away. We just slept in the car again at a lit turnout from 11pm to 7am (hard to do when you can't recline your seats).

In the morning we drove to an adorable little nook called Kathy's Koffee because they had free wifi. So we had some coffee and pastry and updated the blog for a few hours.

Kathy's Koffee in adorable Dubois, WY


Then we took off and drove North, straight up through Grand Teton National Park. This next 40 minutes or so was one of those driving moments to which we were referring before. The Grand Teton Mountain Range, with the enormous Jackson Lake at its feet, was one of the most visually astonishing things we've ever seen. Really, really gorgeous. We had to stop for pictures, even though nothing could do justice to seeing it in person. By the way, our cell phones are the only cameras we brought, so the quality isn't that great. Sorry.

Adam in front of the glorious Grand Teton Mountain Range.

8/20 - 21 - Tap the Rockies!

Together at Bear Lake - absolutely beautiful.



We had made our reservations at Moraine Park within the Rocky Mountain National Park. It was the most popular and picturesque campground of the five they had. Our reservation was to be for Thurs. night to Fri. morning but, instead, it was taken for Wed. to Thurs. So when we showed up at 8 in the morning on Friday, thinking we still had our site for four more hours to sleep in, we were disappointed to learn that our site had been given away and held for the wrong night. We were charged the $20 for the site anyway, plus an additional $20 no-show fee. And to top it all off the campground was FULL. All this after the mid-night drive from hell!

It was suggested that we try the Glacier Basin Campground, ten minutes away. Lucky for us, they had only two sites left. Oh, and we called the National Park Services for our $40 refund.

Alberta Falls

Anyway, we really don't want everyone to think the Rockies was this horrible experience; It's all part of the adventure. Quite the contrary, in fact, because we loved our campsite at Glacier Basin and the scenery was devastating 360 degrees around us everywhere in the park.

Trista at Moraine Park


We set up camp quickly and minimally, again due to possible bears, and we caught up on some sleep until about noon:30 or so. Trista made us a large, handsome lunch. Adam had a five egg omelet with avocado, salsa, fresh basil, and tortillas and beans for rolling. Trista had a smaller version. We both had orange juice and beer to finish it off. We could barely move afterward.


Trista captures Adam showering now.


Later that night, before sun down, we took a shuttle to stops at various campgrounds and points of interest. Our driver, Steve, was THE nicest individual we've met so far - he takes the prize; a very down to earth guy and he gave us a tour all by ourselves, educating us about what to do while we were visiting. Bear Lake was the most mentioned attraction so we set our minds to do some hiking there the next morning, on our way out.

After dark we enjoyed our first campfire (Arches' got rained on) and sipped some more red wine while we filled out more postcards and made each other laugh. The air up there was very crisp and was a little brisk, so it got rather cold throughout the night as we slept. It feels like waking up covered in dew.

Two beautiful sights, according to Adam.


Bear Lake: we walked the entire perimeter.


We rose around 8am to pack up hastily in order to get in a few hours of hiking before we left the Rockies. We hiked the trail all the way around Bear Lake and we took the slightly more strenuous trail to Alberta Falls. We ran out of adjectives to describe everything we've seen so far on our journey, but what kept springing to mind at every turn was "breath-taking." Bear Lake and Alberta Falls were exactly that. Adam also kept using the word "frolic," but for a different use. We started the Rockies very...well..."rocky," but we ended them wonderfully. And no bears. Some elk though. Thank you Colorado!

Finally, we are off to our wildest and most anticipated destination: Yellowstone! Can't wait to share it with you.

Updates

We have uploaded new photos and some video to a few previous entries. Please check 'em out. Feel free to leave comments - we love reading them.

8/19 - "Can you see anything?"

The drive up Hwy 64 was, in a few words, a stupid idea. We started up at about 2:30am and it took 4 hours to reach our campground. If we were scared in the storm at the Petrified Forest, that was nothing compared to the freakish nightmare that was Hwy 64 in the middle of the night. What we had to experience was absolute horror.

This highway is apparently famous, first of all. It is the highest continuous roadway in the country and it is known as the "scenic" Trail Ridge Road. Scenic? Well, yeah, maybe during the day. As we embarked on this treacherous road up the mountain, we were stopped before the climb by ROAD CONSTRUCTION. After we were allowed to proceed, we began one steep, narrow curve after another on a two lane road...in complete darkness...in fog as thick as a steam room...with NO divider line...with severe drop-offs on BOTH sides of us.....aaaannnndddd.....NO FREAKIN' GUARD RAIL!!!!! Hence, the four hours. Throughout the ordeal we were stopped by construction three times, AND were told to watch for wildlife in the road. Trista wouldn't look up from her pillow and Adam started sweating. He insisted on getting them out of it and going on, but after Trista refused, for the second time in one day, there was no way Adam could continue on. We were both too creeped out and had to stop at a turn-out that was, seriously, at the top of the world. We slept for about two hours in the freezing car until there was a little dawn light to guide us down. That's when we could see just how high we were and just how dangerous the conditions were on this road when we traveled it. We are still alive, but NEVER AGAIN. That was the Devil's route.

P.S. - The beauty of the morning light on us way high up at Rainbow Curve was a paradox to the night before. A once in a lifetime view.

8/18 - 19 - Wal-Mart or nothing at all.

It was between 3 or 4pm on our way out of Arches. We stopped into Moab again to replace the o-ring for the stove; Adam made sure it fit this time. Yay, finally the stove will work! We crossed through the Utah/Colorado border and stopped off at a visitors center right outside of Fruita to grill our salmon and update the blog. By the time we got there, we only had a half hour left to use the internet, so it became an opportunity to eat dinner only. Trista prepared some delicious looking rice with onions, garlic, tomatoes, and butter - all waiting to cook in a pan. Guess what? The stove STILL didn't work! The hose was still leaking because it had melted. THAT'S IT! Adam is ready to throw the stove by now. Four days in and no hot food. We finally just broke down and found a Super Wal-Mart, against our beliefs, and bought a brand new stove (big sigh). NOW...now...we will be able to prepare a warm meal. Sounds great.

Driving through the Rockies.

Knowing we were heading into bear country we wanted to unload our salmon and the clock was ticking. Since we now had a working stove, we found another rest stop in the Rockies just before we ascended Hwy 64 to Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a perfect time to break in our stove and grill our salmon and rice. Oh, the sweet symphony of flavors in our mouths. How great it felt to eat real food, and we chugged it down with a couple of ice-cold Rolling Rocks.

We understood that bear proofing ourselves and the vehicle were crucial before arriving at the park because we knew we were arriving late, so we bagged all the food and readied ourselves for bed in advance so we could lock our toiletries in the car as well.

Ready to climb the mountain. Almost up to speed, folks.

Just Kidding!

No sooner did we publish our last post about difficulty uploading video, when, low and behold, we were able to upload our very first video. Guess we just needed a faster connection. :) ENJOY FINALLY.

8/18 - 19 - Overcoming the height issue.

At the world famous Delicate Arch together.


Once we reached the entrance to Arches, it was about 4 am, we were both exhausted, and we had another 20 miles North through the entire park before we could reach the Devil’s Garden Campground.

If you have never been to Arches National Park you don't know what you are missing. The landscape of the entire place is, quite simply, surreal. You cannot imagine such bizarre scenery, you just have to see it for yourself. It is a land of such unusual setting and natural formations, i.e. arches, fins, spires, monoliths, balanced rocks, and many other crazy occurrences. Now, of course, when we drove through it was totally dark, minus the hint of moonlight spreading out on the structures. As we traveled the main road through the park an eerie feeling would come over us every time we passed between some rock formation, especially The Organ (google the park for shots) and The Three Gossips. They rose straight up high above us on both sides (like The Southern Oracle in "The Never-Ending Story"). It was so ominous at night.

The tiny little spec under the Arch is Adam.


The Devil's Garden has the only campground in the park and it fills up fast we were told, so we tried to make reservations but we also understood that they had to be made four days in advance and that they always kept a few walk-up sites available. Well, obviously, at that hour there was no one to assist us, so we slept in the car for a couple of hours.

Adam under Pine Arch.

Around 6:30 am, Bill, the camp host, came tapping on Adam’s window. We explained our predicament and he told us to return at 7:30 or 8 and then he could help us. By the way, Bill and his wife, Heidi, were two of the kindest and most accommodating people we’ve met so far. Anyway, we drove 3 miles South back to Moab, Utah, the nearest town, to kill some time, fill our gas tank, and replace the o-ring on the Coleman stove hose line that was broken to begin with.

We ended up in site #5, which has always been Adam’s lucky number, so we took it as a good sign. We set up camp, caught up on a little sleep, and then Adam attempted to start breakfast. Guess what? The o-ring didn’t fit. Still no hot meals three days into our trip.

Trista standing in front of Landscape Arch.

To temper the frustration of the stove, we decided to get in our first round of hiking. We packed a small lunch and plenty of water and headed off to The Devil's Garden near our campground. The memorable sights on this hike were Tunnel Arch, Pine Arch, Landscape Arch (which is one of the largest in the world and worth the hike alone), Double-O Arch, and Dark Angel (which is the farthest distance to hike in the park).

On the way to Double-O Arch, a hike that is preceded by caution signs indicating the difficult nature of the trail leading to it, we soon realized Trista's very real acrophobia (fear of heights). The hike requires the hiker to climb rocks and walk steep fin ledges, and when we got to a spot where you could see far down into the canyon on both sides of you, Trista stopped cold and went to her hands and knees. It didn't help that it was windy. Adam waited patiently and eventually, after about fifteen minutes, was able to talk her through it until she was calm enough to walk upright off the ledge and onto the flat pathway below. Trista was SO excited she overcame her fear that she was on a high for the rest of the hike.

We hiked back and had our lunch at the trailhead as it started sprinkling a bit. We hiked for about four hours. Our favorite arch in The Devil's Garden was, by far, Landscape Arch.


Trista enjoying a shower at our campsite.

When we returned to camp the sun was setting and it was looking really rainy now. Our first campfire got rained out and we had to pack everything back into the car because it was all getting wet. We tried to take shelter in our tent but that wasn't easy either. In the end, we had to move our tent four different times due to a lack of flat ground and our tent was holding a puddle of water under our air mattress, which was such a joy to clean. So much for lucky #5.

After dozing off to some wine and "The Notebook," we rose to another gorgeous day from our mostly dry tent. Check out was at 10 am. At only 3 after, we were approached by a new camp host who told us that "we knew the check out time and needed to hurry," and bellowed at the guys next to us to "pack up and get out!" Aside from Ranger "Rude-neck" (get it? 'cuz he's a rude hick of a man), the people of Utah are very welcoming and friendly.

We had a whole day ahead of us. There were still many things to see before we left but we only managed to squeeze in one more attraction. We couldn't drive away from Arches without seeing the most famous natural arch in the world: Delicate Arch. It's the one that appears on the Utah State quarter and license plate. About 35 minutes after we left the trailhead, we arrived at the wondrous Delicate Arch. But not before Adam mistakenly followed two other hikers off the path to the arch. When hiking at Arches, all the trails are marked by piles of stones so hikers know where to go, but at one point we couldn't see the pile and we veered off until we ended up at a rather treacherous location at the base of the arch. It was really high up and, again, you could see out into a canyon. Adam attempted to talk Trista through it again, but it was no use. She was gonna' lose it if we didn't scale down. What she had accomplished the day before seemed like a cakewalk compared to this. We had to turn around and go all the way around the hill and back to the trail that is meant to lead you to Delicate Arch. But we made it safely and it was astonishing to see it against the sun. It became Adam's favorite arch, while Landscape Arch remained Trista's favorite, understandably.

This is the famous Delicate Arch. It drops off far down into a canyon just on the other side of it, which is where we were trying to climb around.

The thunder storm from Arizona seemed to be following us, because we saw it moving in. So we climbed down and back to our car and headed out of Arches without seeing the Panoramic Viewpoint, The Parade of Elephants, or the entire Windows Section of the park. Too bad. We're sure it would've been something.

NOW OFF TO THE ROCKIES!!!

8/17 - 18 - Horses and Bats and Deer, oh my!

It took approximately 8 hrs straight up highway 191 from the 40 before we finally arrived at Arches in Utah. Let us just say that, since it was the longest continuous route thus far, there was a lot of room for unusual happenings, and there were a few.

First of all, it was already about 9 or 10pm before we even reached the 191 so it was very dark and it’s a rather desolate highway with only a single lane running each way for practically the whole length of it. Lots of rolling hills that we could barely see and plenty of bats, one of which was clever enough to smack right into the passenger side windshield. But we think it’s okay.

The most startling of these happenings, however, occurred just after we crossed the Arizona border into Utah. Adam had been driving with his high-beams on for good measure but had to keep switching them off for on-coming traffic. So he just left them off for a while, but soon forgot they were off. Trista was almost asleep and Adam was a little drowsy himself. We drove through a remote intersection that was only slightly lit up and surrounded by fields and a tiny gas station. As we passed through the street lights and into darkness once again, very suddenly, and faintly in the headlights, appeared a gray horse directly in our path!!! Adam gasped really loud and slammed on the brakes immediately and swerved into the opposite lane to miss it. Trista woke up instantly and we both watched the horse taking its sweet time crossing to the side of the road. Whew! We couldn’t believe what had just happened. Adam knows what his heart tastes like now.

The rest of the evening we were both extremely paranoid. Later on, when our headlights reflected a deer’s eyes back at us by the side of the road, it gave us both another good scare. In these bloggers’ opinions, driving at night is for the birds (or the bats).

No video... yet.

Just so everyone has the additional info it is difficult and time consuming to post our videos on here. We have taken a lot of great footage and lots of photos too and we were hoping to flood the blog with more of it but it is just taking too long between destinations. We will try to create a facebook photo album or post our videos on youtube and paste the link so that everyone can get them somehow. If we do manage to add any pics or vids to previous posts we will update the blog to announce that we finally have something for you to see. Hopefully you will go back and revisit them. Until then thank you for following.

8/17 - We Were Petrified!

Trista at the Painted Desert.

We left Grand Canyon National Park mid afternoon and we set off back down highway 89 to the 40 en route to the Petrified Forest National Park, only to arrive at 6:30pm, a half hour before the park closed. We weren’t aware they enforced operating hours and even less aware of the ginormous thunder and lightning storm that was brewing over the entire park. The ranger at the gate informed us that it was a 26 mile drive from our location all the way down to the Rainbow Forest at the South Gate. To say the least, it was an unforgettable drive through the park.

The Painted Desert on the North side was only partly gloomy but as we traveled on down through the southern section the storm gained strength and we found ourselves in the middle of a heavy downpour, with what seemed like three inch rain drops and lightning striking down less than forty feet from us. It was rather unsettling. Adam was white knuckled on the steering wheel and Trista must have missed half the park because she couldn’t even watch.

We ended our stop at the Petrified Forest at the South Gate Museum to fetch another magnet and some postcards when we experienced the most startling thunder crash of our lives. It actually rattled the building! And the cashier was so nonchalant about it that our reactions humored her. Trista seriously jumped. We dashed to the car in the fat rain and headed out in the dark. Due to the Four Corners Monument construction until September we bypassed our original route and made way for Arches National Park. See you there.

8/16-17 - Grand Canyon: Our first hiccup.

We left Vegas around 3pm and didn’t get to the Grand Canyon until almost 10 at night. From the Hoover Dam to the Grand Canyon the weather began to normalize, eventually becoming a very comfortable and picture-perfect temperature.

It was dark when we got there. We traveled the gravely route 64 all the way to the Desert View Campground at the tip of the South Rim of the Canyon. It’s first come, first serve only at this site, so we were concerned about availability during peak season, but, to our surprise, there were a lot of open sites AND it was self-registered.

We set up camp very quickly and left the car headlights on for visibility. Imagine the look on Adam’s face when the headlights went out! The car wouldn’t start. Oh well. We decided to sleep on it, and dozed off in a rather luxurious camp setup, with queen sized air mattress, two down comforters, and a dvd player showing Myazaki’s “ My Neighbor Totoro.”

We rose to a gorgeous morning to start breakfast…but the camp stove hose had a leak and caught fire, so we had to repack the meal we started to prepare and finish a cold breakfast instead. In the meantime, the car issue was still looming. A ranger came to the rescue, but after sitting over night our wonderful car started all on its own, yay!

We packed camp and headed for the canyon (which was seriously only seconds away) and viewed the famous gorge from our side. It was Adam’s first time seeing it and said he actually had to catch his breath. There is no other view like it in the world. We both explored the South Rim Watch Tower for a bit, and, upon leaving, decided here that we would begin collecting some token at each of our destinations. We settled on magnets and purchased our very first souvenir on our trip.

Then we sat outside the general store to write some postcards and enjoy a couple of refreshing, hand-crafted Grand Canyon ales. The only wild life we managed to see were a few ground rodents and some small common birds.

We were on our way out when we spotted an incredible panoramic view of the canyon along the road side. So we opted to prop some chairs less than ten feet from the edge and enjoyed a quick lunch all alone together. It was AMAZING!