25 States, 6,885 miles, 25 Days!

What a trip it was! We arrived in Maryland late Saturday night. The eight hour drive from the beach was filled with excitement as we traveled along the familiar interstate, 95 North and approached the all too familiar sights of Washington, DC, Laurel, Columbia, and finally, Catonsville. Upon our arrival home we were greeted by a HUGE welcome home sign in the dinning room/living room archway and Hurley was in his travel crate below the sign. It was so cute and we were so glad to see him we forgot to take a picture of it! My parents created the sign and was really neat because they printed our a few of the pictures and put on the sign. So creative! We had the time of our lives but as Mark Vinje emailed us, "there is not place like home" and sleeping in our own bed last night was amazing!

We spent most of the day unpacking, cleaning up the camping supplies, and getting ready for school tomorrow! Yes it is right back to reality tomorrow as school starts!

As I reflect back to the trip, it is hard to choose one favorite spot or one favorite moment, but here are my top three memories:
1. The Badlands
2. Hiking in the Grand Canyon
3. Whitewater Rafting.

The places I want to return and or what I would change for the next trip:
1. The Badlands and I would want to camp and hike in that area
2. Yellowstone but stay in the western Montana area, and focus on one area of the park each day instead of driving all over the park!
3. The Grand Canyon and I want to hike down to the Phantom Ranch, stay there, and hike back up the next day. I also have a strong desire to hike Rim to Rim!
4. In and around the Grand Canyon are other National Parks we skipped over such as Arches and Bryce Canyon and I would like to take more time to head back to that area and explore!
5. Hopefully, in my lifetime I will be able to go back and see the completion of Crazy Horse.
All in all it was amazing and I cannot wait to make the trip again!

Here is Dan's reflections (yes I am forcing him to write it)
What do I have to write? A reflection? What, is this for a grad class or something? Just kidding, I would love to write a little something for all of our fans in blogtopia : )
Since our trip was so long it is hard to pin down ONE favorite location or activity. I do agree with Laura, there were several things that were amazing.
1. Hiking in the Badlands
2. Horseback Riding/White water rafting in Montana
3. Grand Canyon Hiking
4. Margaritaville
5. Wall Drug (just kidding)

On our next trip I would like to spend more time in just about ALL of our locations.
1. Badlands- It would be cool to do the 4 mile hike and camp in the badlands for a night.
2. Black Hills- We missed out on the Lantern tour of Jewel Cave. I still think it would be cool.
3. Yellowstone- Laura said it all. Next time we will be nomadic and move around the park. Yellowstone is HUGE.
4. Grand Canyon- I want to see the river. Laura and I did talk about a rim to rim hike. We could hike down from the north rim and up the south rim. We would only need someone to drop us off. Any takers? If not we could always simply hike down to the river, camp, and then hike back up. Any takers on that trip?

All in all, the trip was great. I was happy to see the Maryland welcome sign last night as we drove around Washington, DC. It was also great to see Hurley last night. I don't think he has left our side all day. I guess all three of us were happy to see each other.

I know I speak for Dan when I say I loved writing this blog and I hope you all enjoyed it. If anyone wants to take the trip out west, (I am certain that my Mom and Tyler will be making the drive next summer...Dad is going to fly out and meet them!) please chat with us. This trip was the "highlight tour" of the US and we look forward to more depth exploration of our great nation. As our National Anthem states, we live in the "Land of the free and the home of the brave" and what a great place we live!

Love to all and thanks for reading~
Laura, Dan, and Hurley :)

We made it to the East Coast!

Good Afternoon, 

As I write this I am sitting pool side at the resort in Myrtle Beach.  We have enjoyed two extremely lazy, realaxing days in South Carolina, soaking up the sun, drinking some adult beverages, watching the Olympics, and playing games!  What a pleasant time it has been! 

Courtney and Kris met us here on Sunday and we have enjoyed their company.  Dan and I joked about being reintroduced to people again because it has been the two of us for so many days! Anywho, we hit the Broadway on the Beach scene last night and were prepared to wait the 1 and a half hour to two hours for dinner at Margaritaville.  There is a bit of a story about how we got our table...just imagine Courtney and I standing in line for 35 minutes before we could even get the pager, while the boys drank beer at the bar!  It was a bit of a show, I was annoyed to learn our pager was already given away!  WHAT?  Well that misgiven pager allowed us to skip ahead of the wait and we got a table right away!  So it was all in all a lucky night!  

The weather forecast for tomorrow is calling for rain so we may hit up a movie or something!

Hope all you teachers are enjoying the last few days of freedom before the dreaded Monday!  

Have a great evening!

love you all

Laura, Dan, Courtney, and Kris~

East Coast Here We Come

Not much to say about today. We drove from Memphis to Atlanta with little to report. In Atlanta, we drove past the Olympic Torch and the stadium. It was pretty cool to see!

We are excited for the last 6 hour drive into Myrtle Beach, SC where we will relax and refresh for the week before it is time to head home and end a memorable wild west adventure. But do not worry we will continue the Blog at the beach! I am sure we have lots of fun things to report about...Margaritaville should create a good anecdote or two! haha~ I am sure we will not spend as much money as we did in Orlando with Cathi and Randy McNees! haha~

Night to all
Love
Laura and Dan :)

Oklahoma City Memorial Site

Good Evening,
As I write this the USA Olympic Team just march into the Beijing Olympic Stadium. I LOVE the Olympics and I am thrilled to watch it on a money 42" HD television! Our Hyatt in hotel room in Memphis, Tenn is the nicest place we have been on this trip! It is so nice that I took a few picts for you all to enjoy as well! Check out is at 12:00 and we will be staying tomorrow until the bitter end! haha! Our days of driving back East are coming to a close and we are getting very excited to get to the beach again. Exciting news...tomorrow we will cross over back into the East Coast time zone! yeah!

Anyway, this morning was a pretty emotional beginning, as we visited the outdoor portion of the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial Site. We took a few pictures and posted them onto the web site, and you can view them by clicking the online pictures link on the right hand side. We were both moved and thought this was a wonderfully created memorial site. I was only 15 when the bombing occurred and I did not remember much about it! As I read though the history at the hotel before we left, I was moved to realize it was an American to cause this terror on our soil! It is amazing that a person's view can be so slanted and narrow minded to kill 168 people, including children, and injury many more. It is an point of view I hope to never understand! Anyway...it was a reflective sort of day!

The drive was uneventful...we finished our fourth and final book on CD. I really liked the story Dedication, but Dan thought it was too much of a chick book! We did have a nice discussion about the story over dinner though..haha.

Well I bid you all good night! The Chineese Olympic team is entering the stadium! Go Yao Ming, carrying the flag! How cute is Lin Hao, the earthquake survivor!

Love to you all.
Laura and Dan

LONG DAY!

Good Evening!

Well we are heading back towards the East Coast! HURRAY~ Today was the dreaded 12 hour day, including a loss of an hour, traveling from Mountain Time Zone to Central Time Zone. In total it was 13 hours in the car~UG! It was great, we listened to an entire book on CD and are halfway through a second one. That was pretty much the entertainment of the day. There was not much communication between us as we were too tired to talk! haha

We checked into the Best Western in Oklahoma City and are very impressed with the hotel! One of the better ones we have stayed in! So tomorrow we will have a leisure morning (hopefully I will sleep in later than 7:00 am) and head to Memphis, a short 7 hour drive! HURRAY.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures from Grand Canyon and Mesa Verde! Check tomorrow for a post about the pros and cons of Yellowstone National Park and Grand Canyon National Park. We want to write down our ideas to remember for the next trip!

Talk to you all soon~
Love to you all
Laura and Dan

Grand Adventure at Grand Canyon

Greetings from Cortez Colorado!

Yet again, Laura and I have survived the wild and re-entered society (sort of). We have left the tent for the comforts of modern day living. From here on out it is nothing but the best...hotels that we can afford that is.

We spent the past couple of days camping at Grand Canyon. First of all, the campground was wonderful and the showers were excellent. Not only were the showers clean and warm, but for $2 we got 8 whole minutes of water. This was much better than Yellowstone which was $2 for only 6 minutes. Needless to say, Laura was thrilled! In the Grand Canyon we went on two different hikes. The first hike was a 3 mile round trip down the South Kaibab trail. It was a tough little hike with an excellent spot for lunch (check out the pictures). That night, after the hike, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at the El Tovaur Hotel on the south rim of the Grand Canyon.

On Tuesday we went for a second hike down into the canyon. This time we took the Bright Angel Trail. This time we hiked 6 miles round trip and enjoyed eating lunch at the 3 mile rest stop on the trail. After the hike we were able to finally see a sunset at the Grand Canyon. It was the first partly clear day while we were at the Grand Canyon.

Today we headed East for the first time in 2 weeks. After a short stop at Four Corners, we were able to tour the Balcony House and Cliff Palace at Mesa Verda national park. Laura liked the dwellings and thought they were amazing. Tomorrow we start the long drive eastward.

See you all soon.
Laura and Dan

Yellowstone National Park!

We just spent an exciting three days in and around Yellowstone National Park! Definitely check out the images by linking onto the online album link on the bottom right hand side! We saw some fantastic views my favorite was the Lower Yellowstone Falls with the rainbow, many elks, buffalo, and of course Old Faithful and the geysers and hot springs around the park! I am getting ahead of myself. Let me give you a recap of the three days in the park, including the best day of the trip so far!

So after our near death experience through the mountains to get to Cody Wyoming we enjoyed the Cody Cowboy Village and got up mid-morning to head into the National Park. We really entered the park through beautiful views and "stormed" the park. The wind on Wednesday was blowing hard and evidently blew down a powerline, starting a wildfire in the park. Fortunately we were not affected by the fire, but yesterday (Friday) we saw the smoke on the horizon and took some pictures. It was pretty cool. Anyway, on Wednesday, we found our camp site, an hour and a half drive from the East Entrance. We set up camp and headed to see Old Faithful! Another half an hour later we arrived. Dan had seen the geyser erupt previously and knew what to expect, but I had never seen anything like it in my life! It was amazing and the pictures do not do it justice! After the eruption we headed down the paths to view the hot springs around Old Faithful. The hot springs are amazing, such lovely colors and a delightful scent! If you have never experienced a hot spring before, it kinda smells like rotten eggs and sulfur. It was quite the combination. As the day drew to a close we headed back to the campsite to enjoy dinner cooked over the fire, and a relaxing evening at camp. It was great to chill out.

Day two of Yellowstone actually had us leaving the park and heading north into Montana for a Paddle and Saddle excursion. We wanted to do a white water rafting trip during this adventure and found a company that did a rafting trip and a horseback riding trip. So we drove another two hours into the northern area of the park and another half hour to the Slip and Slide Ranch, the place we were told to report to for lunch and the first part of the day. When we arrived, a little girl dressed in a pink cowboy boots and hat asked us if we where here for the afternoon ride. We replied yes and she said follow me. We thought we were heading to check in at an office but instead were greeted by a women in a backyard grilling up fresh hamburgers. On the table was a full spread of home made food. We were extremely taken back by the hospitality. When lunch was over we headed back to the parking lot and meet the women's husband, Brian who get us onto the horses. Dan and I did not know what to expect on this ride, but on the two and a half hour journey we rode the horses up to the top of the mountain and back down. The views were incredible and although our butts were a little sore we had a blast! The second half of the day we joined up with a guide named Derek from the Montana Whitewater company and along with a family of six we rode through nine miles of rapids. It was one of the best things I have done in my life! The family was from Michigan and we quickly became friendly, so it was nice and we all got to change positions in the boat. The best place was in the front, hitting the rapids head on! I cant wait to check out some places in MD to raft again soon. I may have a new hobby! We do have a few pictures we bought from the place but I forgot to download. You can see it next time! As the day closed we drove another two and a half hours back to our campsite and made dinner in the darkness of the night! It was a memorable day and one of the best of the trip!

Day three in Yellowstone we decided to drive to the other areas, see some of the views, and hike a bit. Well we definitely saw the park! We drove the entire area of the park with the top down, stopping along the way when we say something interesting. Dan and I both agreed we cannot comprehend the vastness of the park and the variety of nature. We saw the geysers, waterfalls, prairie land, canyons, and wild animals! The only disappointment was the Mammoth Hot Springs were all dried up. Dan saw it when he came as a kid and thought it was amazing. We took some pictures and we imaged what it would look like! There is one great picture of me at Mammoth. Can you tell it had been a LONG day? haha

So it is Saturday..well almost Sunday, we arrived in the GORGEOUS Salt Lake City, Utah this afternoon. We really took advantage of the hotel by doing laundry, working out, and refilling our coolers with ice! We drove into Salt Lake City and saw the Morman Temple. We forgot the camera though so no pictures of it! The sunset was beautiful over the Rocky Mountains ( I think that is the mountain range) and we enjoyed a tasty dinner at Red Iguana, a mexican place.

Tomorrow we are off on a NINE hour drive to the Grand Canyon to camp for another three days. We will catch ya all up in Cortez, Colorado on Wednesday night. That will be a sad post because it marks the beginning of the trek back east :(

It was very exciting to check the blog today and see the comments from everyone! We are so happy you all are reading this and enjoying it as much as we love writing it!

Love to all,
Laura and Dan :)

Indecision Strikes Again!

As all of you know, Laura and I can sometimes be indecisive. This happened yesterday. When we went to Jewel Cave we discovered that they were booked until 4pm. We decided to stick around even though we still had a 6 hour drive to Cody.

We both agreed, "When will we be here again? Let's take it all in now."

Well, 5 hours later as the sun was setting in the Wyoming mountains, we realize our decision to stay was not the best choice. In the darkness of night, Laura, a brave driver, was introduced to many of the woodland creatures in Wyoming. We almost were run over by two of the largest four-legged deer (or elk, caraboo, moose) we had ever seen. This was followed by big horn elk, deer, mice, owls, and bunnies. We finally coasted into Cody at 12:15am, lucky to be at our destination. The Cody Cowboy Village even left the light on for us.

It is now 10:55 and we are heading into Yellowstone. We will talk to you all from Salt Lake City.

Laura, Dan, and the wildlife of Wyoming.

Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and Wind Cave

It is 12:22 Mountain time...which means it is 2:22 East Coast time! We had a 10 hour, fun filled day of adventure in the Black Hills of South Dakota. We visited Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, took a tour of Wind Cave, and went back to see the Mount Rushmore evening event! Check out the pictures from the link on the right side of the blog page!

The highlights from Rushmore included the .5 mile walk through the president's trail, the history of the structure, and the patriotic, heartwarming, lighting of the monument program! It was really cool to understand why Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, and Roosevelt were chosen for the monument. It was also really moving to understand and appreciate what each of the leaders stood for and the impact each had on our new country! I was moved at the end when they lowered the flag and asked for all Military personal to come onto the stage! It was neat to cheer for soldiers past and present!

Crazy Horse is an interesting structure because it has been in progress for 60 years and is not even halfway done. The sculptor and his family though believe in private funding and will not accept government support. So it continues to be a family project with donations. It is rather interesting! We took a $4.00 bus ride to the base of the structure. It was pretty amazing! When Dan and his family say the structure in 1988 (89?) the face of Crazy Horse was not complete! He enjoyed seeing the progress. When complete Crazy Horse will be the largest stone structure in the world! Dan and I agree that we hope to see it complete in our lifetime!

Finally, we drove to Wind Cave national park, partially because we wanted to put another stamp in our National Parks Passport book, but this ended up being the highlight of the day. We took a 1 hour and 15 minutes tour through the Wind Cave, the fourth largest cave in the world! It was simply amazing and it was hard to capture the depth, beauty, and wonder of this cave with the camera but we tried!

It was an exhausting day and tomorrow we will head to Jewel Cave to take a lantern tour of the cave and then on to Cody Wyoming to get ready for camping at Yellowstone!

We love all the comments from everyone! We love that you all are reading this and coming on the adventure with us!

Hope all is well! God Bless and Good Night
Love
Laura and Dan :)

Badlands ROCK!

Where do I begin? Since the last blog was posted, Laura and I have enjoyed a lovely drive from the middle of Iowa to the west side of South Dakota. The drive should've taken 9 hours, but we managed to turn it into a 12 hour road trip.

How does one do this? You decide to check out Badlands national park (check the pictures). Laura and I spent 2 hours this evening hiking, driving, and taking pictures in the beautiful park. The views were spectacular and Laura is still amazed by the landscape. Once Laura got her picture taking under control, we headed out of the park and made a quick stop at Wall Drug. Yes, you read that correctly. Laura has officially seen Wall Drug. She even took a picture to prove it (once again check the pics). We finally arrived in Rapid City SD and are looking forward to exploring Black Hills national park tomorrow.

Oh, by they way, the pictures loaded today cover our trip from Cincinnati to South Dakota. All you Fighting Illini should check out the picture of your alma mater (taken at Lincoln Ave and Green St.) The random Bus shot with bicycles on top is one of many that we passed on the road. They looked like a wild bunch and had some crazy team names. I think the one in the picture is "Bad Monkey"! Crazy stuff.

See you all soon!

Laura and Dan : )

PS- the picture link is on the right hand side of the screen below the picture of us.

Des Moines, Iowa and Central Time Zone

The current time is 7:52, East Coast time...the problem though is we drove 10 hours yesterday, leavening the East coast time zone behind and entered into central time, an hour behind. It was sad to leave Jill, Steve, and Emma! We had such a great time and appreciate the five star treatment they showed us! Thanks so much guys!

The drive was non-eventful. We stopped for an hour for a lunch break, taking the top down for the first time on the trip, and driving through the University of Illinos campus. That was fun because several of Dan's family attended that college, including Jill and his dad. Our hotel had several bad write ups online about it and we were a little nervous about what conditions we would arrive to. We were happily surprised~ it works for a one night stop! Finally, we drove into the city of Des Moines for dinner at a great restaurant Racoon River. Delicious food and fun atmosphere. We found it in a book my mom gave to us a few years ago! Thanks mom!

Today we drive to Rapid City, SD to spend a few days at Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and the other beauties of the Black Hill! I am personally thrilled for today and the seeing this stone sculpture! I am sure the pictures will be amazing! Check back later to view the photo albums!

Hope all is well
Love to all
Laura and Dan

Lions, Tigers, Bears, and Sushi! Oh My!

The third day of the epic adventure included a visit to the Cincinnati Zoo (check out the pictures). Some of the highlights of the zoo visit included the howling swinging monkeys, the playful polar bears, vampire bats drinking blood, and the crazy goats. We left the zoo and enjoyed a cozy lunch at one of Cincinnati's best establishments. Yes, I am talking about Dewey Pizza. After lunch we returned home (to our 5 Star Resort) and had cocktails on the deck. The day was brought to an end with sushi and a great game of cards.

Talk to you all tomorrow as we head out into the wild west. Next stop Des Moines, Iowa...I am sure the accommodation's will not compare to the last few days! On Sunday we will be at Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse~

Dan and Laura

Cincy Day 2

Day two of our adventure brought sunshine, relaxation, and lots of good food! Jill and Steve brought us to their pool and we hung out there for the early morning and mid-afternoon! We then came home and just chilled! Another yummy dinner prepared b y Jill and Steve.

Emma is still getting comfortable with Dan. You can link to the picture from the first two days by clicking on the online album link on the right hand side of the blog page, under the great pic of Dan and I! LOL Emma is still warming up to Dan as you can tell by the numerous picts of Emma and myself! haha. She is a cutie with a great personality as you can see in the pictures.

We are off to play some cards!
Enjoy your evening. One more day here and on Saturday we depart for another destination of the trip!

Love
Laura and Dan :)

This is the FIRST stop!

We departed at 9:30 this morning, not bad in "Laura and Dan time", for wanting to leave at 9:00! We split the driving in half and each drove about 4.5 hours because of traffic in Wheeling PA, just outside of Pittsburgh! The drive was great, passing through counties called Licking and Picking, we had a good laugh about those names!

Jill and Emma welcomed us to Cincinnati with screams of fear....apparently Emma did not remember her favorite Aunt and Uncle! LOL We had a scrumptious dinner prepared by Jill of chicken, rice and salad! We are now enjoying a conversation, Dave Matthews Band music, and wine on the back porch!

First stop on the trip 5 out 5 Stars!

Hope you all have a great evening! Check back tomorrow for an update and pictures of our first two days on the adventure!

Love
Laura and Dan :)

Trip Departure Eve

Hello Everyone!

Well we finally packed the jeep, packed our suitcases, and packed a variety of activities for the car, including 9 novels, 4 books on CD, 5 different puzzle books, and a power adapter to charge and use the laptop in the car! I would say we are well prepared! I know Dan appreciates the activites to keep me entertained! haha

Anyway, we are thrilled and we will depart around 9:00 tomorrow and begin the adventure west, stopping first at Dan's sister Jill's house! We cant wait to get our hand on our niece Emma...oh yeah to hang out with Jill and Steve too. HAHA JK!

Hope you all enjoy Wednesday "hump" day...I know we will!
Love to all
Laura and Dan :)

We are beginning to see the light!

It is Friday, 5 days before we depart for our adventure. There are only 20 minutes left in curriculum writing, concluding the three weeks of working this summer (rough ug)! Last night we were up until 12:30, working on the our assessment plan for our final course! So the pressure is beginning to lift with every minute that ticks by!

This weekend should be exciting. My parents left today for their Alaskan Cruise~Our thoughts are prayers are with them! I am certain they will have a blast...and they deserve after all the bumps along the way. Tonight Dan and I will have Tyler sleeping over and we are celebrating his birthday early. He told us earlier in the week the only thing he wants to do for this birthday is to watch all 3 Star Wars episodes! I was all too willing to watch movies and relax!

Tomorrow Bethany will pick up Tyler and head up north to Rochester to visit our grandma and we will host a little BBQ with Dan's family, and some close friends. It will be relaxing before we need to start physically packing!

I will keep you up to date on the packing and the events leading up to the start of the road trip!
Love to you all
Laura and Dan

This is a test!

Did you make it to this point? Do you wanna read about our trip out west?

Then respond with a yes and wish us good luck and safe travels!!

We have two weeks from today until we leave and we are very excited! We will use this page to add pictures and video about our trip across this great country!



love
Laura and Dan