Monday, September 1, 2008

WY, CO, and the ride home

After a l o n g day on the road yesterday, we're home unpacking and trying to adjust to knowing work starts again tomorrow...

It is impossible to say what the best thing we saw or did on the road was, since we saw and did so many completely awesome things. Yellowstone and South Dakota surely are at the top of my list, not to mention getting to see my long-time pals Missy (Cheyenne, WY) and Aaryn (Fort Collins, CO). And of course, who could forget breakfasts of fresh figs and plums at The Alger Ranch (Moraga, CA), the sights, sounds and scents during our walk through China Town, Little Italy and Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, or cooling off with an afternoon swim in the sparkling river in Yosemite, with giant rock faces rising up on all sides... And that's just to mention a few.

Thank you so much to John, Heather, Grace and Russel, Missy, Zoe and Maggie, and Aaryn and Colorado Dave for their warm hospitality during our time in CA, WY and CO.

Here are a few more pics from our last few days on the road. More to come later...


Me and Aaryn in his beautiful backyard in Fort Collins.


The rockies in the distance on the way to Fort Collins, CO.


The road through Nevada was long and scrubby, but sometimes surrounded by cool hills.


A view of Mono Lake from our hotel room in Lee Vining, CA, just outside of Yosemite.


The Shirley Mountains in WY.


See the story behind this window in downtown Cheyenne, WY below.



More pics to come later after we get them off of Dave's camera card.

6275 miles.

A 16 hour day on the Road and it's time to sleep in my own bed. Had a wonderful time, but it sure is nice to come home. Updates for our last couple days tomorrow.

The Gypsy Travelers.

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Iowa

The world's worse drivers state.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Yosemite

Rolled into Yosemite about 2:00 pm and went for a ride in the valley. Was about 90 degrees so we went for a dip in the Tuolumne River. Very refreshing. The bottom sparkled with fools gold. After that we took in some of sights. Unfortunately in August the waterfalls are non existent or very low. Bridal Veil falls were beautiful but barely a trickle. The upper and lower falls were nothing but rocks. We also got to see some giant sequoias after a mile walk down a mountain. The walk down wasn't bad....coming up was a struggle. Overall driving in the valley with huge rock faces on both sides was incredible.

After leaving The valley it was getting dark and we stopped to gaze upon the moonless and cloudless sky for a little while. Incredible how many stars there are when there is no light pollution and regular pollution. Then we were off to Lee Vining where I think we have got the last room available in this major metropolis. Was dark when we got there, so was a nice surprise to sip coffee overlooking Mono Lake from the porch of our room.


The Half Dome.




A pretty girl.


Yes I'm a tree hugger (this is a small 500- 600 year old sequoia).


This one was HUGE, but the pics don't really do it justice, since we couldn't get that close to it.



A tree stump cut out by the pioneers.


Angel Veil Falls.


I traded the mini even for this beauty.


Bartender...gimme a beer.

The Weirdest Thing?

This was the weirdest thing. The front half was like a regular greyhound with the seats and all, bt the back half was raised and had 3 levels of windows on one side. The only thing we could figure out was that they were berths or something?

Also...European license plate? Fake? John?




Cools colors though.


This was Crissy and not me!!

It's late....and we are exhausted. More on Yosemite tomorrow morning.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

A Whole Lot of Nuthin'

This was by far our most boring day. After leaving our hotel in Lee Vining CA we decided to take an alternate route through Nevada
. Ugh!! Nothing but 7+ hours of scrubby desert.

Yesterday was fun though in Yosemite. More on that later. Too much work for iPhone blogging, plus no pics this way.

Keeping Chrissy fed in Utah!!!

Dave

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

First day of school and all that REDness.


Red enough for ya?

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!