More Pictures from the Great Road Trip!

Here's a link to lots of family pictures!!! :) Please click on the image below:

From 2011 Road Trip Family

Pics from the Road Summer 2011

We have so many pictures from our road trip! Here is the first set. It does not include family, Yellowstone, or Mount Rushmore. Those will hopefully come soon. These are just pictures from the road. Please click on the picture below:

Home Sweet Home!!!

(Yes, that's it for now.)

One Leg Left!!!

Our trip back to the northwest has included stops at several college campuses--some planned and some unplanned. On Wednesday, we had lunch at Gettysburg College in PA, where our friend is a professor. It was great to see both Josef and Sam! The trip back has also included brief stops on the campuses of Nortre Dame, University of Wyoming, & Weber State. These stops were mostly for impromptu picnics on cool grass under the shade of trees. College campuses are good for trees and such--much nicer than intersate rest stops. The picture above is of Molly today at Weber State, which is in Ogden, Utah. I didn't get a great shot of it. But the picture shows Molly "puttin on the breaks". She had a cool patch of grass and she absolutely did not want to give it up. She's so sick of the car. She's completely over getting back into the Element. Poor doggie! Little does she know that we will be back home tomorrow!! Tonight, we are spending the night in Boise, Idaho (which has an absolutely awesome downtown.) We have only about 8 more hours of driving. We are so excited to be back home! I predict Molly will take a week long nap on her futon! Well, gotta get to sleep. Can't wait to hit the road again tomorrow morning for the last leg of a great trip.

Another 650 miles ... 2 days to go!

Driving cross country is an interesting experience ... one that I recommend if you've never done it. About 10 yrs ago I drove from CA to DC. During that trip I was struck by the differences in each state. If you look at a map, state lines can seem arbitrary -- but, when you drive between states it makes more sense. There are also states that you like better than others. For example, I think Iowa is really quite pretty. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to live there. But, it is really green, rolling landscape and the weather wasn't humid. Wyoming is another state that I like. Nice landscape, huge sky, breezy and again, no humidity.

On the other hand, there are states that are terrible. For me, that is Nebraska. It was in my 1st trip across country ... and it was again this trip. Our original plan was to leave Jersey and go south on 70, which would take us through Missouri and Kansas and into Colorado. Kansas had 100 degree temps, I screwed up our trip and somehow we were short a day, and the 2 combined seemed like a good reason to take 80 on the way back. 80 is the most direct route, so we'd pick up some time and Nebraska's temps were in the 90s, so we changed plans.

We left Omaha this morning on the eastern edge of NE and drove 400+ miles to get the heck out of the state! We entered Wyoming and drove about 150 miles and are staying in Rawlins, WY. There isn't anything here, but it breaks up our last few days of driving pretty well. Tomorrow we will drive to Boise, ID and then home on Sunday!!!

We are all thrilled to have left the humidity behinds us! Molly has no idea what the heck we've done to her over the last 2 weeks! Long days in the car, no comfy futon to nap on all day ... but, I'm pretty sure her biggest issue was the weather! She's hot anytime it is over 80 degrees. Crank that up by 15 degrees and throw in humidity and I'm pretty sure my puppy would have walked all the way back to Eugene if she could. Can't wait to see her asleep on her futon! I'm pretty sure she's not going to get back into the Element for a drive for a week or 2!

Full Moon Over Omaha

Today is a 25 hour day for us. And 1 extra hour makes a big difference. We woke up in Toledo, Ohio, drove 711 miles, and now we are camped for the night in Omaha, Nebraska. Along the way, we hit a fair amount of traffic due to construction, which is good for workers and the local economies, but not so much fun for us. But still, we covered some serious ground today. We are now officially out of the Land of Toll Roads. Toll House I like. Toll Roads not so much. I digress. All of us agree that we really, really like Iowa. Iowa has lots and lots of beautiful rolling hills. Much greenery, much corn. Tomorrow, however, we drive through the dreaded state of Nebraska. Flat and not much to see, we've both been there, done that. But, it's all down hill (so to speak) from there. We are planning on making it to Rawlins, Wyoming tomorrow night, then Boise, Idaho, and then--if all goes well--back in Eugene on Sunday. Unfortunately, plans to meet up with friends in Colorado won't happen on this trip. But, hopefully, we can make it there some day soon. We have lots of pictures and some video to post, but those will have to wait till we get back home. Home sweet home sounds absolutely wonderful right about now.

On the road again!

We had to say our final goodbyes today to family in Jersey … we had a fabulous time visiting everyone, especially our talented oldest niece who got the part of Rizzo in a summer production of Grease, our favorite nephew who has the best "football" face ever, and our youngest niece who plans to work with animals as a groomer when she grows up! Everyone in Jersey was so great with the fact that we had Molly with us & she's going to miss all of the extra attention!

We did a bit of a zig zag route today - which isn't the best way to get home quickly! We left Hoboken and drove south/west to Gettysburg, PA to visit great friends and have a long lunch break. From there, we headed back north and drove about 620 miles today to get to Toledom, OH.

Our original plan was to drive a more southern route on 70. But, the entire state of Kansas is 100+ degree and that was a enough to scare us to a more northern route ... so we are now on 80. I have driven through Nebraska before and never wanted to do that again. But, 90 degrees in Nebraska seems way better than 100 degrees in Kansas. Okay, I get that both states and tempatures suck, but we have to get through the middle of the country somehow!!

We are trying to drive longer days on the way back because we realized we are a day short! I thought we'd get home on Sunday and I'd go back to work on Tues ... but, it may be Monday before we get home. We'll see! Our plan tomorrow will be to get through the rest of OH, all of Indiana & Illinois and to at least Des Moins, Iowa (but hopefully further west). We will have a 25 hour day as we pass back over the 1st time change, which will help too!

Give us a call if you want, we've got time to chat! - S