Month: July 2005

“Good Morning America – How are ya?”

We’re out of Tetons/Yellowstone and sitting in an ECONO LODGE parking lot (with free Wi-Fi) just getting a quick e-mail update. We’ve been camping for six consecutive nights so we’re looking forward to our hotel tonight in Missoula, MT. (How sad is that?)

We’ll post a trip update tonight with pics from the last three days.

It’s great reading all of the comments. Dad – I’m with Morse – I had to look up “chortling.”

Having a GREAT time. Yellowstone and the Tetons were INCREDIBLE. Lot’s to post tonight.

Love to all…

Jeff & Amy

The adventure continues…

Had a GREAT day yesterday. We woke up at our campsite, packed up quickly, and drove down to Mt. Rushmore just as it opened. What an incredible place. The morning sun was shining on the monument. Very cool! Jack – we got your present from there.

We then drove down to the Crazy Horse Monument. It’s an unbelievable story that Lee got Jeff onto a couple of years ago. This sculpture will be extremely impressive when it is finished, it’s already really awe-inspiring and only the head is done. A Native American author was selling his book there with a tagline mentioning that his ancestors created the original department of homeland security – fighting terrorism since the 1800’s. Love it…

The highlight of our day was Devils Tower. Absolutely unbelievable. Breathtaking. After taking pictures of the prairie dog town near our campsite, we did a four mile hike following the route of Richard Dreyfus up the side of the tower to its base. There is a one mile path that goes completely around the tower at its base. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. We hiked back down to our campsite (see picture) and camped overnight. We woke up early after a cool night (finally!) and we’re now on the road heading across Wyoming. If all goes as planned, we’ll be hiking in the Tetons tomorrow.

No Griswalds yet dad – and no aliens behind Devils Tower either.

Hope all is well!

Jeff & Amy

Well – the trip rolls on… We’re getting deeper and deeper into the red states.

Sounds like Hayley isn’t doing too well at Jack & Linda’s. Hang in there pup. Stop eating their backyard…that might help.

Mark & Steph – welcome home. Too bad we couldn’t meet out here somewhere. We’ll upload some pictures from Jenny Lake when we get there. It should look familiar!

The Badlands were incredible. That’s where the picture is taken. We took the Badlands Scenic Byway which was absolutely beautiful. The scenery went from flat prairie to gorgeous rock in a few miles. Unreal… Wall Drug was a riot. We got some tacky souvenirs and had some ice cream. Pretty fun day all-in-all.

We’re in the shadows of Mt. Rushmore right now. We’re off to Rushmore, Crazy Horse and Devils Tower tomorrow. 105 was the high temp today (112 at the bottom of the Badlands.) We’re supposed to have some high winds move through tonight and then MUCH cooler temps for the next few days. Devils Tower should have a high in the 70’s tomorrow.

Stupid observations:

Corn Palace: HUGE waste of time. The billboards make everything in SD look fantastic. The billboards also lied when they said this tourist trap was 3 minutes off the highway.

We now know what “Amber waves of grain” means…

MN speed limit: 70 MPH
SD speed limit: 75 MPH
We’re almost to the point of the average speed on the tri-state tollway in Chicago…

Based on the number of RV’s on the road, we’re not the only ones with flexible work schedules…

SD has really cool road kill. Much better than the usual squirrels and deer back in Wisconsin.

Anna Nalick is stalking us. We saw her perform at Summerfest and now she’s on every radio station out here…

SD is an interesting place. They’ve managed to take the Wisconsin Dells concept and expand it to an entire state!

That’s about it. Thanks to all for the comments. Sounds like Jack had a good time at Bill & Stel’s. Tracy – we’re looking forward to food, wine and civilization. We may or may not be able to check in over the next couple of days – all depends on wireless connections.
Love, Jeff & Amy