update

Now that we are home I have not felt like doing anything with the pictures... Click HERE for the latest. I have a lot of work ahead of me to manage and figure out what pictures I am going to print out. For those of you who are computer savvy, we took 20 gigs worth of pictures. In time I will create a slide show of the better pictures and leave them on my laptop to show whoever is interested.

The voting is over and the winner was "hell yes, I'd love to hang with the spouse" followed by "hell no, I'd rather go to the bar". thanks to all who voted!

It was fun keeping this blog to update our travels and it even helped me to keep things straight. Assuming the Ireland hotels have internet I will keep the blog going!

Home

We made it home really late last night after a short 800 miles drive! Total miles for the trip was 7,075. I will update after I get through the last couple of days' pictures. Happy to be home, and I think the cat is too.

Effingham, IL

We traveled some 700 miles and made it to Effingham, IL, we have about 800 miles to go. Depending on traffic and construction we could roll into Twp. by midnight, or we may stay somewhere in between? It will be nice to use our own shower!

Colby, Kansas

We didn't leave Utah until the afternoon yesterday so we only made it to Colby, Kansas. Yesterday we visited the Arches Nat. Park in Moab Utah and it was cool, I will post pictures when I finally get home or have the energy at the next hotel! It looks like we have about 1500 miles to go to get home.

Moab, Utah

Click HERE to see the newest pictures. The first picture here on the blog shows a shot of our SUV and more importantly the license plate, it occurred to me that if anyone who didn't know the SUV wouldn't understand my "white boy" reference. So, it you take a look at the plate you will understand-it spells it out. In the second picture Lori had her chance to kick me off the side of the mountain, it was a straight drop to the Colorado River. We were on a scenic drive (Rt.95) when we stopped to observe the beautiful red canyons and travel through canon after canon, very confusing if you were to try to navigate all by yourself. When we did a little hike about 2 miles it was very evident we would clearly get lost without markers and probably dry up and get eaten by coyotes! After about 370 miles we wound up in Blandings, Utah and would you believe it was a DRY town, and nothing like Haddonfield!!!

Today we had an easy day set up, we were only about 80 miles from our next hotel stop, so we decided to travel 60 miles out of our way to see the Canyonlands Nat. Park. If we were prepared to hike everywhere within the park, we may have seen a lot. But, since the park was under constuction we didn't quite see what we thought we would!

Now, we checked into our hotel in Moab eartly b/c we have a dinner cruise set up that will take us on the Colorado River with a light show on the canon walls. Once today is over, Lori and I will be making our way back home, if you notice in the linked pictures there is one of the GPS that was set on HOME, just a short way from here (over 2000 miles)

NO BEER ON SUNDAY (sold in Utah)

We left somewhat early from Teton village since the weather wasn't so nice (very overcast), no gondola ride to the top of the mountain.
We drove about 320 miles to Provo Utah, just south or Salt Lake City. To both of our surprise we really enjoyed the ride through S. Wy, S.E. Idaho, and N. Utah following rt. 89 (scenic byway, Oregon trail). We traveled up one side of a mountain and down the other which took about 1.5 hrs (35 miles) via Cache Nat.Forest, just down right beautiful! We caught the end of the Eagles game and had a great dinner at a local fish joint! Next up our scenic ride (450 miles) through south east Utah before turning our sights back home hitting CO via rt. 70.

The first picture above is of Lake Bear which is huge and sites half in Idaho and Utah. It was a very unique color blue as well as a very unique vacation area all together, very hard to describe, but very cool to see.

The second picture is one taken within the Cache Nat. Forest which also doesn't do justice to the entire area, but we were lucky enough to catch the fall colors amid the pines.

Kiss my butte

Well I know it has been a long time since we updated so I will try to make it brief. We left Kalispell MT, for Glacier but first stopping in Lone Pine State park. To put things in perspective, we stayed in a Rhodeway INN the night before (nice room, but horrible breakfast). We left the INN without food or coffee b/c it was so bad, stopped for gas and coffee but the coffee was awful, to drive to a scenic over look to find it (scenic overlook) was of the same town that gave us horrible coffee! We continued onward to the Hungry Horse Dam which was pretty cool finding these nice deer who helped finish the foreshadowing of our long day at Glacier Nat. Park.

Once to Glacier we learned the "road to the sun" closed that morning!! So, we decided to drive what was open then back track and drive around glacier to the other side and finish the road (missing the middle two miles that were closed (best part of the park!)) However, before driving to the other side we decided to head towards Canada to see the West side of the park only to learn we drove 45 miles on dirt roads to what was another road under construction and CLOSED that no ranger warned us about, In fact the Ranger station was closed closest to the closed road! So, we went back to the east side (2 hr plus drip) to finish what we started seeing some amazing beauty, but not all (closed). We had a bit of trouble finding a place to stay, but after almost blood, sweat, and tears we made it to the east entrance of Glacier to an INN with no bottled water, TV, Internet, onions, and Merlot (which Lori drank the last glass) not to mention the Eagles losing to Dallas (we did managed to watch on the only tv in the lodge bar).

Now, on to Yellowstone, we drove about 400 miles to West Yellowstone which was all booked up but after spending about 45min. on the phone we found a place. (again no tv or Internet) Nice town good coffee got the white boy (my truck) washed and slept well! Next day we entered the West entrance and drove to our Pioneer cabins on Yellowstone lake (2.5hr drive no stops) but we stopped many many times to make this trip all day. However, we saw lots of stuff including a bald eagle, coyote, springs, geysers, waterfalls, continental divide, and bison. Not to mention the crazy awesome landscapes!

The Pioneer cabins were not all that impressive but, provided a very good location within the park. Second day in Yellowstone we got on the road by 5:45am to search out some Moose and Wolfs! NO such luck but we did see a nice sun rise and plenty of bison and one massive elk.

Day three we checked out of the pioneer cabin and hiked some awesome trails overlooking the Upper and lower falls of the Grand Canon of Yellowstone. We continued on to hike the Norris Geysey Basin and finished up the day checking into the Old faithful Inn (nice place but no Internet, or tv).

That brings us to today (yesterday) and we left Yellowstone after having a great breakfast and watching a mediocre Old Faithful (she was late and temperamental just like a woman). We left out the south entrance not before seeing the Moose falls, which was very secluding and serene.

From there we entered the Grand Teton National forest which again was awesome (maybe the most awesome) It was very awe-inspiring and we witnessed a passing thunderstorm. We stopped for many scenic overlooks including Signal mountain and Jenny Lake. From there we arrived Teton Village and acting on a tip from a very nice old lady we arrange a room at the local Hostel! What a horrible mistake that cost me $95 since we check in and out in about 3 hrs!!! The hostel I will let Lori describe "creepy, leaky, noisy, and flat out disgusting" Now we are residing in the Alpenhof Lodge which is just down right comfy with a tv Internet and balcony!

going to watch SNL now so feel free to check out these random Photos (click HERE) and post some comments!
Rob

Yellowstone

Rob and Lori will be in Yellowstone for the next three days. There is no cell phone signal or internet where they're staying so Rob asked me to add this post. Check back soon for an update on the Yellowstone visit.

Kalispell, MT

WE drove about 450 miles today and arrived in Kalispell MT, about 30 miles shy of one of the entrances to Glacier Nat. Park. The picture is of FLathead Lake the biggest fresh water lake this side of the country (some 28 miles long). In the morning we plan to drive through Lone Pine State park before going to Glacier. The Rodeway Inn we are in is a bit hickish but it has a casino with about 20 machines and a bar with bud and coores lite on tap. So, we will no doubt get to sleep early tonight!
Cheers

Billings Montana

Since I have not fully posted I am going to list the things we saw and did. We traveled Needles Highway which was awesome, then from there we hit Custer state park, wind cave national park, crazy horse, and then took a 1880 steam train thru Harney peak. From there we continued to Deadwood were we had a nice dinner and lori managed to hit a four of a kind on three different machines for a grand total of $60 of nickels!

Today we traveled thru Spearfish Canon byway, which was breath taking and even had a few waterfalls. From there we hit Devil's Tower where we had a "close encounter" and I am not sure but we may have seen some human like aliens!
After that we drove to Billings Montana to spend the night which is a halfway point to Glacier Nat. Park. We hit the local walmart which must be the saturday night place to go because it was packed with locals!
My updates are coming in late as we are 2 hrs behind (mountain time)

leaving deadwood, SD

Hello all, I wasn't able to update last night as our connection failed. After avoiding a near collision with 3 deer we drove into deadwood, sd. Now we are leaving and heading towards Glacier Nat. Park. I will update once we get settled in, whereever that may be.
Ps. Lori won $60 worth of nickles, I got pictures to prove it!

Rob

Badlands/Presidents' heads

I don't remember how many miles but I think we covered some 300? We crossed the Missouri River and from there the landscape really began to change. We continued onward to the SD Badlands which our pictures won't be able to due it justice, but I will post them anyway. From there we traveled thru Rapid City (cool city) to Mt. Rushmore and called it a night in Hill City, SD.

Click HERE for photo's of today.

Day 2- Made it to Mitchell, SD

The first part of our drive we took a little detour up and over the Mississippi river other than being scenic there wasn't much to see. We continued our drive for another 300 miles and arrived for the night at the Kelly Inn. The Drive thru Minnesota was a bit boring, bumpy, and windy. There were a ton of wind mills but I am not sure if they were wind mill farms or just supplemental energy sources?
We did one of the most tourist things we will do all trip by stopping by the Worlds' only Corn Palace (there is a reason it is the worlds only!) Our highlight of our stay in Mitchell was the Buffolo burgers and pale al at the local pub!
Manana we will continue onwards to the President's Heads!
for some random shot of today click HERE

Rob

some random shots

Click HERE and see some random shots of today. I am not altering the pictures until I get home so they are what they are.
see you all tomorrow!
rob

I am still new to Flickr (where the link will take you to the photos) So, I was just informed I don't have enough space or sets, so I will have to work around that to post pictures via Flickr, I will figure it out later. time for a beer.

We landed on LA CROSSE, Wisconsin

Wow, after 19 hrs and just over a thousand miles we made it to the very edge of Wisconsin, we are just shy of Minnesota. We had a bit of a slow start as Lori remembered at the gas station she didn't have her glasses. I went into the house only to NOT find them as they were in the car all along!!!
On to the drive, we hit heavy rain in Ohio, heavy traffic around chicago and heavy fog near Rockport IL. However, it was very managble and we got to Cracker Barrel in (IL)by 8:30am.

We are now checked into the Best Western of La Crosse WI which over looks the Mississippi river and ready for a due shower and nap, followed by happy hour at 4pm and a comedian at 8pm in the hotel lounge (if we can keep our eyes open) I will post more pictures later.
Cheers
Rob and Lori

Crunch time

Well we are getting close to game time and needless to say we are not exactly prepared, it is hard with me working right up until we leave. But, once we get packed and put everything down stairs we should feel better. Going over our initial plans we might add in Glacier Nat. Park since it is only 370 miles north of Yellowstone. Please, keep in mind that we have no idea of how long we will spend in SD, WY, and MT, when I was there with Chuck we spent all of 5 minutes checking out the presidents heads, but I know Lori will read every single sentence on every plaque on every wall. We decided this isn't a race and we will take as much time in each location as we want. So, if we don't make it to Death Valley, we don't make it. My initial goal of reaching Madison on day one is one I would like to keep as it is about 900 miles away, from there we can slow down.

Well next step is to pack!

Forgot to mention that some of my nurses took a poll and decided there is no way in hell they'd take a road trip with the spouses for three weeks, so I set up a poll, let's see what everyone thinks.