The Big Adventure

Driving across Montana

After a couple of days at Yellowstone, we left to head east. We were heading toward South Dakota's Black Hills and Mt. Rushmore, but we decided (ok, I decided) to drive straight east and then down, instead of kitty-corner down to South Dakota. The reason for that is that I wanted to cross over the southwest corner of North Dakota. One of my goals after this trip is done is that I have been in all 50 states, except Alaska (that's another trip altogether). If I didn't hit that southwest corner of North Dakota, I would never again get a chance to be in that state. So we added the extra 100 or so miles to the trip, and I can now check North Dakota off the list!

Anyway, back to Montana. As we were driving through Rosebud County (don't you just love that name?), I was struck by the fact that all of the sudden, we were leaving the high mountains and entering the plains. We were at 2525 ft elevation and it was a balmy 60 degrees. There were a lot of green rolling hills, and the Yellowstone River followed us almost all across the state. The hills were full of Black Angus cattle (mmm... steak anyone?), along with lots of little calves (ok, forget the steak comment).

I noticed, too, that we didn't see any highway patrolmen almost the entire way. In the western part of the state, we finally saw one and he had pulled someone over. I figure with the 75 mph speed limit, you really have to be driving crazy to be pulled over.

I saw lots of rail cars, full of coal, as well as several natural gas wells. I guess all those dinosaur bones in the ground provides all kinds of fossil fuel.

We also passed by Little Big Horn, and saw the Lewis & Clark trail. We didn't stop at those since it was getting dark, but it was cool to see where all that happened.

There was mile after mile of tilled wheat fields. Very pretty. Then it started raining ahead of us (we never did drive into it). But there was a very brightly colored rainbow. Thought I'd share that with you.

The other thing that made that drive great was that the entire time, we had the ol' XM Radio on 60's music. Then I got really inspired when I heard "Get your motor runnin', head out on the highway, lookin' for adventure, and whatever comes my way.... BORN TO BE WI-I-I-I-L-D!" (OK, you have your fantasy, let me have mine). ;-)

My Little Corner of North Dakota

We stopped and got fuel in Marmarth, North Dakota (I think that adds legitimacy to my brief ND visit, don't you?). It was located near the highest point in North Dakota (3500 feet). Anyway, there was just a tiny little sad desolate town there, on a bad road, and I kept asking myself, why do these few people choose to live here? There was no grocery store or town of any kind for many, many miles. This has actually been a recurring comment throughout the trip, that is, wondering why people choose to live in these tiny little towns out in the middle of nowhere. I wish I could walk through the neighborhood and interview them. Oh well.

One thing that Michael noticed at this gas station was that you could fill up before walking in and paying for it (the entrance was on the other corner of the station). It's pretty sad, I guess, that we're so used to having to pay first, that we're surprised when we come across a place that actually trusts people to do the right thing.

The Very Cool State of South Dakota

We spent the night in the town of Spearfish, South Dakota, then drove on in the next morning to the Black Hills area. It was surprisingly beautiful. It was very hilly and full of pine trees. It reminded us of driving up to South Lake Tahoe (of course, that will mean something to only those of you who've been there). We stayed at this secluded little campground near South Dakota's highest peak (7200 feet). At various times, there were deer all over the campground, and they were tame enough that they weren't too scared when I wanted to take their picture.

The first place in the area we drove to was Deadwood. That's the old western town where Wild Bill Hickok was killed while holding aces and 8's (FYI, that's why it's called the "dead man's hand"). However, I was a little disappointed. It was a very well-preserved town, and I thought it would be full of cute little shops. However, they've turned it into a total gambling town. Something I didn't know was that in South Dakota gambling is legal throughout the state (not just on the reservations). Isn't that odd? We also drove over to its "twin city" Lead (pronounced like "led"), where there's still a working gold mine. It was also well-preserved.

After that, we drove through the hills and came across a little winery called "Prairie Berry Winery". The name was intriguing. Come to find out, they have won all kinds of awards for producing wine from the fruits that grow in SD, like chokeberries and cranberries, as well as some grapes in the eastern part of the state. Whoda thunk? -- an award-winning winery in SD! We also went to this house next door to the winery that was a year-round Christmas shop. I ended up buying a little pheasant ornament (the SD state bird), and decided that I'm going to try to pick up an ornament in the various states -- I had also picked up one in Montana).

We drove on down to Custer SD where we visited the Flintstones Park! It was a crack-up. It used to be a "camp ground and amusement park", but now it's closed and run down. It was still hilarious to see (from in front of the fence) all the stuff they had there. I've put some pics on my photosite (for your reference again, it's at http://semitte.photosite.com).

On Down the Road

From Custer we drove on to the Wind Caves National Park. There are all kinds of caves in this area, and this one has been preserved as a national park. They give tours of the main cave, but it's started every two hours, and we had just missed (by 15 minutes) the most recent tour. So we decided that we wouldn't stay for that tour. By the way, they had several different tour packages available during the summer season. One of them was a 4-hour crawling tour. In other words, it was 4 hours spent in all the spaces so tight that you had to crawl through them. Hmm, I think I'll pass on that (!)

But my favorite part on the Wind Caves grounds was the wildlife. They had buffalo, deer and rabbits. But best of all, they had hundreds of prairie dogs! There were miles of hills, and when you look across them, you see dozens of "pocks" where the prairie dog holes were. We saw a lot of them outside their holes, both running around and standing up on their little hind legs. They are skittish little guys too. I decided that I wanted to try to get a closer picture of them, so we stopped the truck. I opened the door and tried to get out as slowly and quietly as I could. All the prairie dogs but one immediately ran into their holes. I figured out that he was the sentinel. As I was slowly walking toward him, he was squeeking and pounding his tail about once every couple of seconds. And as I got closer, it was about once a second. It wasn't too long before there was no more squeeking and pounding, and he also dove into his hole as well. They certainly were cute little guys!

We drove on down to Hot Springs where we went to the coolest thing ever -- an active paleontological dig! (OK, I'm a science nerd). There's a place called The Mammoth Site where they have actually found 55 Columbian Mammoths to date. These aren't the 9 ft wooly mammoths, but these were the biggest mammoths in history at 13 ft tall. What happened was that in the late 70's a builder had bought this property in Hot Springs to develop some new houses. There was a hill in the middle of the property, so he brought in the bulldozer. In no time, they started digging up big bones, so they stopped. They brought in an expert, who did a core sample about 65 ft down, and found bones all the way. The community got together and formed a non-profit organization to protect the site, then brought in trained paleontologists to do the very slow and painstaking digging. They built a 100' x 175' building around the site to protect it from the elements and to support the dig. They've been digging all these years, but are only about half way down. It's so slow because they can only dig, by hand, about 1/4" at a time. What they figured out was that many, many years ago, there was an underground cave that collapsed and formed a sinkhole. It filled with water from the local hot springs, and some of the mammoths fell in and couldn't get out. They just died there in the hole. And here we are, many years later, seeing their bones. The whole experience there was awesome!

Hail to the Chiefs

We finally made our way to Mt. Rushmore. We came in the back way, so we're winding through the hills, and all of the sudden we look up, and there were the presidents! We walked into the amphitheater area in front of them, then also down on the walking trail underneath them. It is such an amazing thing to see how huge these guys are, and to imagine that someone actually carved them! (How does one get the proper perspective dealing with that kind of scale??). While we were there, we came to realize that a movie was being filmed there. You know there was a new Nicolas Cage movie this last year called (I think) "National Treasure"? Well, they were filming the sequel to it. As we walked into the park, there was a sign there that said something to the effect that if you walk in, you are consenting to be in the film. But darn it, we won't be in the film. They were kinda wrapping up when we walked in. It will be cool, though, to see that film in a year or two, and realize that we were there on the same day (ok, so it doesn't take much to excite me). ;-)

On to Nebraska

We headed south out of the Black Hills, and the landscape changed quickly. There were lots of green, rolling hills, and no people -- just cows! Over the next several hundred miles, I've never seen so many cows! Well, I guess all that beef and milk have to come from somewhere, huh?

We were told that we should go down the western side of Nebraska since it was prettier than the rest. And yes, I guess it was with its rolling hills. We even drove through the Nebraska National Forest (huh?). There were some hills and some pine trees. It was pretty, but I certainly wouldn't consider it a national forest.

Once we got down to the interstate, we started heading east. Besides all the cows, I was very impressed with all the rail cars either full of coal, or coming back empty after delivering coal. These trains each had between 100 and 150 cars, with a couple of engines on the front and one on the back. I guess I've never been aware before of all the coal movement around these parts.

An Oasis in the Sandhills

We drove through some sandhills, then there was a sign, "Welcome to Alliance, an Oasis in the Sandhills." It was just this junky little town, but I had to laugh at their self-confidence! But the best part about Alliance was that it was the sight of "Carhenge" -- that's like Stonehenge, but with cars! We drove into town, then out into the country about 3 miles, and lo and behold, there was Carhenge! Someone (who obviously had wa-a-a-y too much times on their hands) had created a Stonehenge-like circle out of old cars. The trunks of the cars had been buried as a base, then they were all painted gray. It just made me laugh so much! I laughed because I couldn't believe someone actually decided to do this, and then pay for a billboard on the freeway, and I also laughed because it was so whimsical and ridiculous! They didn't even charge to look. It was kinda behind their house, and you just walked back there. They did ask for donations, though -- and I donated so they could pay for the billboard so someone else could go get a laugh too! There are more pictures on my photosite.

Continuing eastward down the interstate, there was feedlot after feedlot, with hundreds of cows each. It got to be pretty funny, because you'd see one up ahead and knew that you had to hold your breath for a while. We got pretty creative with that one -- but it was definitely necessary!

We also passed mile after mile of either winter wheat or fields read for planting corn. So any time going forward that I eat wheat or corn or beef products, I'll think fondly of Nebraska.

We stopped at little Gothenburg because they had the country's first Pony Express Station. It was just a little log house that they had built a park around, but it was cool to see this little station built in 18?? that was used to deliver mail to the rest of the country. I put the picture on the photosite.

Lincoln and Omaha

We were planning on driving as far as York, then turning south to head straight down to Oklahoma City. However, as we were looking at the map, we realized that Lincoln was only about 45 minutes away, then Omaha, another 45 minutes. So we decided we wanted to see those two cities while we were this close.

Lincoln is both the state capital and the home of the University of Nebraska. We saw both the capital building and the UN campus. It was cool to see UN's Memorial Stadium, which holds about 100,000 people for their famous football games. The campus was well-maintained and pretty traditional-looking. The rest of the city was a little blah -- no personality, surprisingly.

We then drove over to Omaha, and it was very impressive. Very dynamic, growing and pretty. We went downtown where they have an old town shopping area and a park down on the Missouri River. The national corporation ConAgra has their world headquarters right down next to the River, and it's a beautiful campus with a lake, fountain, etc. If I lived in Omaha, I would definitely like to work in such a beautiful working environment.

Since we were down near the river, we decided to drive across the bridge into Council Bluffs, Iowa. Wow, what a crappy little town! The only thing decent they had in that town was a nice welcome sign, then a section where Harrah's and a few other casinos were located. I'm not sure if gambling is legal in all of Iowa, or just along the river, but there were several casinos there. We left the town quickly.

Just another funny thing. After we got back to the trailer that evening, we fixed dinner and decided to eat out on the nearby picnic table. We had already sat down our full plates and glasses, and Michael had sat down. When I went to sit down, we didn't realize that the table was on uneven ground, and the table just about flipped over. Amazingly, both of us were able to grab our plates in midair, and I was also able to grab my glass. Only one glass hit the ground, as well as our forks (don't worry, the "glasses" are acrylic for such situations). It was quite a surprise, and we learned a lesson. Check out the picnic table before you sit down!

On the Road Again

We headed out of Lincoln, and on down into Kansas. Most of the way was more of the same -- fields of winter wheat and fields ready for corn. Kansas is a little prettier than Nebraska -- a little more lush and green. We've passed the hugest grainery we've ever seen, which speaks to the amount of grain produced around here. Just out of Salina, we also surprisingly passed a huge natural gas refinery, with lots of gas wells just interspersed throughout the crops (huh?).

We'll be getting into Oklahoma City tonight, where we'll see many of my family members. We'll probably be here for a few days, so I'll catch you up later.

Thanks for making it to the end of this blog! Now that we're going into the eastern part of the country, I shouldn't have to go so long without electricity and/or internet and can keep this up more frequently!

Before I continue about our journey, I wanted to let you know about a related website. I was a little frustrated that I'm only able to upload about 25 photos a month under this website, but I have so many more to show you. So, I set up another website, in which I have the ability to post tons more pictures. Its website name is http://semitte.photosite.com. I'll post related pictures, along with captions, on a regular basis. I'll also refer to various pictures in my blog from time to time. You can also view the pics as a slide show if you want. OK, on with the show.

Our Journey to Moab

We reached Moab Friday evening -- big surprise! We found out after we got there that Moab is a MAJOR playground for ATV's, motorcycles, etc. When we went to the grocery store, we must have seen at least a hundred twenty-something guys, each with beer and snacks. We were lucky we got a spot for our RV as just about everyone in town was booked for the weekend. But since we weren't out playing in the dirt, everything turned out ok and we didn't get in each other's way.

First we went to Arches National Park. This was exactly the picture of Utah that Michael and I had in our heads, with the arches, the mounds of sandstone, etc. We drove through the entire park, and all of it was amazing. We also hiked around and through a couple of the big arches. While we were up there, we met a couple, about 30-ish, from Nelson, British Columbia, named Aaron and Jen. Aaron is a cartographer (map maker -- hey Ken, he also has the map gene!). We had a good time talking to them. Jen was the one who took this picture of the two of us.

After Arches, we drove over to Canyonland National Park. It's kinda like a small Grand Canyon -- very beautiful. Some of you may know, I've always said I'm not afraid of anything. Well, I found out what I'm afraid of -- high ledges with no fences! There were several places throughout the park, including the one in this picture, that were like that (that's a road down at the bottom!). I freaked out whenever anyone (especially Michael) got too close to the edge. I knew for sure that the dirt and gravel would give way, or that that would be the day that the big rock would give way and fall to the bottom! Scary! But it was very beautiful there and we enjoyed it.

After we left Canyonlands, we took a little detour to see some petroglyphs (rock writing from hundreds of years ago). There were various writings all over the sides of the big rocks. Also all over the sides of the big rocks were several groups of rock climbers. After we looked at the petroglyphs, we walked down to the first group of 3 people. They were Shane and John from Colorado, and Sally from Florida. They weren't climbing all the way to the top, but were doing shorter practiced runs. Sally was climbing when we walked up. She's only been climbing for about 2 months. I was also amused to find out that she's afraid of heights! When I asked the obvious question, she said that this was a way for her to conquer her fears. Admirable! Anyway, both John and especially Shane were showing us all the equipment, how it worked, how the rope is tied off at the top, etc. I'm really glad we got to talk to them! After Sally made it up, and then back down (yeah, Sally!), John went up. Being the more experienced of the two, he zipped right up and down. Here's a picture of John.

Leaving Southern Utah

The next morning, we left Moab to head toward Salt Lake City. When we left, it was 68 degrees. But by the time we got to the middle of the state, it was 36 degrees and snowing. Around that point in time, I saw a beautiful river, the Price. Then right along the stream, I saw a coal burning plant. That was a bit surprising, and even a little sad, that all that nasty cool was burning in the middle of this beautiful valley. I had never seen a coal burning plant before.

One thing that struck me all along the way through Utah was the number of Mormon churches, and they all have white steeples. Every little community we drove through, we just looked across the landscape, and there it was. It didn't matter that it was just a junky little town, there was the beautiful, well-maintained Mormon church.

As we drove into Salt Lake City, I also knew we were in Mormon country by even the billboards. There was one billboard for a menswear store (I've included it on my photosite) that showed a guy in a suit, with a little dog after him, that said "Missionary tested". There was another one for a shoe store that said "8 kids. All girls. 120 pairs of shoes." Funny, huh??

The next morning, I went down myself to the Temple Square (Mike had some other things to do). It was all very beautiful and well-maintained. I went to the Tabernacle and heard an organ recital. It was what you would expect a Bach organ recital to be, but I enjoyed seeing and hearing that huge pipe organ. I also went through the Visitor Center where they have an 11-ft statue of Jesus, with the stars and planets in blue as a background. It was very striking. I've posted a lot of these pics on my photosite.

I also got to do something else that I had wanted to do for a long time -- that is, go to the genealogical center. For quite a while, I've had a fascination with searching my ancestors, although obviously not for the same reasons the Mormons do. Just on the one floor I was on, there were thousands and thousands of catalogued microfilm spools, each with thousands of bits of information on them. These spools were in hundreds of drawers that were cross-catalogued with the computer research that I had to do first. My dad has a lot of names from his side of the family, so I wanted to do research on my mom's side. I got to go back pretty far on my mom's mom's side, but had a more difficult time researching my mom's dad. He's a mystery man. The one cool thing I did find (and get a copy of) is my grandma and grandpa's wedding license from 1912. Very cool!

By the way, another interesting piece of info I got there was from a poster on the wall, where they had done a brief geneology on a man last-named Howland who came over on the Mayflower. From this one man and his children came President Ford, President Nixon, both Presidents Bush, President F. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill (as well as a couple of other supposedly-famous people I didn't know). Pretty cool, huh?

Spending all that time looking through the parts of Temple Square were very interesting. It was a cultural and educational experience for me. But I was also kinda sad when I saw all the money and effort spent for various things that were so far off the mark.

Salt Lake City was full of various companies and industries, and it seemed there was a lot going on there. But as I said to Michael, it seemed that there was a lot going on, but nothing going on. So other than Temple Square, they really didn't have an area that was worth spending time on. So we decided to go ahead and leave late that afternoon.

Up to Idaho

As we were entering Idaho, I couldn't help but realize that that border was at the same latitude as Oregon's, and that Pocatello was just about the same latitude as Medford. It was interesting, too, that when we first drove into Idaho, we were up in the mountains. Then, pretty soon we caught a view of a big valley, and started driving down the mountains into it. As we were driving down, we saw lots of homes nestled on the hill to the west, then we drove into Pocatello. For those of you from Medford, you'll understand it when I say that it felt just the same as driving into Oregon, seeing the Rogue Valley come into view, seeing the homes on the western hill in Ashland, then driving into Medford. It was an interesting deja vu experience.

Pocatello was a nice town, around 50,000. We drove on up to Idaho Falls. It was about the same size, but it wasn't pretty at all. I'm not sure what happened in those few miles between them. It was already starting to get dark, but Michael felt like driving on, so we continued on toward Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We actually ended up just pulling over and sleeping in Alpine, Wyoming (just inside the border) and rolled on into Jackson the next morning.

We had a great breakfast there, then headed for the Teton National Park. We were surprised to find out when we got there that it was too early in the year, and only the first 3 miles of the park were open. They don't completely open until May 1 (a week away). It was a little frustrating because we could see the roads, and they were fine. Just some snow along the side. Oh well. We went ahead and drove in those 3 miles, and I got a great view of the Tetons. Beautiful!

The other thing we found out there at the Tetons Ranger Station was that the south entrance of Yellowstone was also still closed. We had come that way planning to drive right on up out of the Tetons and right into the south entrance. Only the west and north entrances were open, so we had to drive back the way we came! UGH! We drove back to Jackson, then decided to take a different route out -- up and over a mountain that we had driven around the night before. This mountain was incredible, but there was a 10% grade! And we still had the fifth wheel on the back!! Neither I nor Michael had ever been on a 10% grade before. That pickup certainly got a workout, both up and down that mountain!

After we got off the mountain, we decided to take a back road toward the west entrance, and I'm glad we did. All along that 30-mile stretch of highway were potato fields, as far as the eye could see. It was either ready to plant, or had just been planted -- I'm not sure. But it had been "tractored" -- all the dirt had been processed and had the "lines" in it. We couldn't comprehend how so many hundreds and hundreds of acres could have been tractor-processed on a timely basis like that. It was very interesting, and I'm glad I saw where the Idaho potatoes come from.

We arrived at Yellowstone

We finally made it to the west entrance of Yellowstone. We also found out that more than half of the park was still closed until May 1 (or later). Only the western and northern areas were opened. We were bummed, but at least we enjoyed the parts we saw. I was amazed, though, at how much devastation was still left over from the huge fire in 1988. Even though it was 19 years ago, you can still see it all over. Everywhere you look you see all these 30-40 ft barren tree trunks hovering over new growth that's about 6-8 feet tall. Some hills have never really recovered. It's really sad how a fire like that can have an affect for years.

We first went south down to Ol' Faithful. I had seen that as a teenager, but it was certainly fun to see it again. I was thinking it spewed every 15-20 minutes or so, so I wasn't worried about when we would get there. But I found out that it spews about every 90 minutes, and it had just gone off when we got there. So we went back to the fifth wheel and had lunch and relaxed first before going back. That thing is amazing!

We also saw all along the way down to Ol' Faithful all the various areas of thermal activity. There was pool after pool of boiling water, minerals, mud -- it looked like we were on a different planet, and certainly not in the middle of a beautiful national park. I've included several pictures on my photosite, but of course, the pics don't do it justice.

We also saw several different wild animals -- elk, muledeer, bears, wolves, moose, and lots of bison. I took pics of all those animals, although the wolf one didn't turn out (he ducked behind the tree right when the camera snapped). Again, I have those pics on the photosite. The situation around those bison pics was pretty cool. We were driving down the road, and up ahead were 5 bison just walking down the road. One was kinda in the middle of our lane. We slowed down, and I rolled my camera down. I was just about 3-4 feet from them. I kept taking pictures, but then the head bison started getting a little annoyed, I think. As I was snapping the camera, I was thinking about what I would do if that bison just turned and decided to ram me and/or the pickup. We decided to speed on before that happened! We saw lots of other bison along the way, but that definitely was a close encounter!

We're resting this afternoon and are heading out tomorrow on the first leg of a long journey of boredom! We're stopping first in South Dakota to see Mt. Rushmore, but then we're driving down through Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma to go see my family. That's a lot of miles of nothing but flat land, empty fields, and tired backsides! Oh well, I think this will be the worst part of the trip, then it will be over with!

I'll catch up with you down the road!!

Hey, I'm finally back in the world of electricity and internet! I have a lot to tell you about our adventures over the past two weeks.

The California Grandkid Tour

We first went to the Sacramento area (Roseville, actually) for the first leg of the Grandkid Tour. We did get to go see Josh play baseball. Here's a picture of him running into home. It was great fun to see a bunch of 6-year-olds learning how to play ball!

As a bonus, we also got to go see Ashley and Tyler in their martial arts class. They weren't taking lessons, though. They're both Black Belt's and have been selected to be Junior Instructors. They work with 5-year-olds to instruct them in their beginning lessons. If there's anything more entertaining than watching 6-year-olds playing baseball, it's 5-year-olds learning martial arts. What a kick! Here's a picture of Ashley and Tyler.

After we left Sacramento, we went on down to Tulare to visit with Mike's brother Henry and his wife Carletta. It was a short, but enjoyable, visit.

Then we went on down to L.A. to see Avery. We took him down to the park to feed the ducks. And, of course, he absolutely had to have a drink of water at every opportunity. We also got to babysit him for about 24 hours so his parents could go play -- We had a great time. He knows several words now, and he loves to run and dance (like his gramma -- the dancing, that is, not the running). Here's a picture of Avery with a new doggie friend at the park.

The Real Adventure Begins

We finally left California last Monday (4/16) and headed toward Utah. We've been in Utah all week, and will be for another few days. All I can say is WOW! I never imagined that this state was so beautiful!

Let me back up and say that I'd never been up I-15 past Las Vegas. Most of it was a bunch of flat desert (surprise), but at the border between Nevada and Arizona (before you cut across to Utah), there's a town called Mesquite. It was a very pretty little town -- kinda like Palm Springs, but prettier. I was surprised by that.

We then cut across the border of Arizona for just a few miles (during which we saw 2 (!) highway patrolmen), and headed to St. George, Utah. What a pretty town -- and new homes and buildings everywhere! A lot of places we drove through, I said "Why would people choose to live here?" But St. George -- I get it.

We drove through St. George and on up to Hurricane (they named it that because of the strong winds blowing through -- and they were right). That's where we stayed for a couple of nights, and our basecamp to go up to Zion National Park. The first day we were there, though, it was too late to go anywhere, so we decided to jump into the pool at the RV park. That was the first time we actually felt like we were "on vacation." Jumping into the spa after that helped too. ;-) Michael and I talked about the fact that it will take us a while to actually relax and get out of the "go-go-go" mentality that we've been stuck in for quite a while.

Upward to Zion

So the next morning, we headed up to Zion. OHMIGOSH! Zion is so beautiful! The Virgin River cuts through a gorge like you've never seen. We went through the entire park in a shuttle, then went back up to go up to specific spots. We ended up hiking up a trail up to a waterfall that we could walk behind. Very cool. After that, we went to the end of the park and hiked up the river. The road ended, but there was a hiking trail for another mile or so. That trail finally ended where the gorge narrowed so much that only the river could pass through. We walked a LOT that day, but it was so enjoyable to be walking through such beauty.

I found out that Zion is the second most popular place for people to rock climb (after Yosemite). We saw several people rock climbing that day. It looked so crazy for those people to be hanging up there so high in the sky! I was told that it usually takes them 2 days to climb up to the top, so they have to sleep on the rock wall too. Is that crazy or what?

As luck would have it, on the way back down on the shuttle bus, four of the rock climbers got on board and sat next to us. They came down the wall prematurely since it was so windy that day. It was very interesting to talk to them and find out about their motivation and lifestyle. One couple was just there on a 10-day vacation from Southern California. But the other couple, who were from Maine, are traveling the country for several months, going from rock to rock, to climb as many as possible. They saved half their salaries when they were working, they eat lots of peanut butter and sleep in their car, and they live to climb. It was very interesting to talk to them.

On to Bryce Canyon

The next morning we packed up and drove a couple of hours to the Bryce Canyon area. We unhooked the fifth wheel, and drove on up about 50 miles to Escalante where we had heard there was some rare petrified wood. We climbed up a sometimes steep trail up to the top of the mountain (or was it just a hill that felt like a mountain?), and lo and behold, there was the petrified wood. It was amazing how the wood had turned to stone of various colors. I'd never seen anything like that before.

We came back to Bryce and drove through the entire park. It's an amazing geological phenomenon! It's one of many plateaus in the area, but it's like a peninsula surrounded by huge canyons. The canyon on one side is amazingly full of "hoo doo's" (that's new terminology for me too). The hoo doo's are partly-eroded sandstone that stand as sentinals in the canyon. Amazing. I've attached a picture, but there's no way a picture could do it justice.

We did something cool that night. At about 10pm we drove back out to the Park (yes, they just leave the front gate open). It was so incredibly dark and quiet out there, that I wanted to see what that was like -- well, it was incredibly dark and quiet! The moon was a slim crescent over on the opposite horizon, so there was really no moonlight to speak of. Michael made the truck lights stay on for a bit while we made our way up the trail, but when they went out, it was kinda scary! I was afraid a bear (or worse) would come up on us, and we couldn't see a thing. But the amazing part about that experience was to look up in the sky and see at least a bazillion stars! And it was so quiet that even if you held your breath, you could still hear your heart beat. While I was out there, I was reminded of Psalm 8, "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?" I felt so small and so insignificant out there. It was really awesome!

Well, that brings us to today. We were going to leave Bryce and go on up to Salt Lake City. But instead we just decided, "Let's go on over to Moab." It was another 275 miles added to the trip, but oh well -- "We're going to do what we want when we want" -- isn't that the way it's supposed to work?? ;-)

Tomorrow we're going to go up to both the Arches and the Canyonland National Parks. I'll let you know about that later.

This update is much, much longer than I thought it would/should be. But my intent was to write about our adventure the way I would tell you in person (hmm, maybe that means I yak too much, huh??) ;-)

More later!

Wow, I can't believe we've actually started the Adventure! Although I can't say for sure that it's actually sunk in yet. We're doing the California Grandkid Tour first, so it feels like the usual "trip to see the kids." I think we'll start seeing what this really feels like after we leave L.A.

Right now we're in Sacramento -- the old stomping grounds -- and we're going to go see our grandson Josh play ball this afternoon -- something we've never been able to do before!

I'm looking forward to the adventure ahead!