Badlands National Park > Phillipsburg, KS

Phillipsburg? Well we were bound for Norton but it is Labor Day weekend and they were having the sprint track races (they were awesome -- several wrecks which always livens things up a bit) and so all the hotels were booked. Luckily, we found one in Phillipsburg at about 11pm and got a good night's sleep. Not sure if the crash pictures came out, but if they did, they'll be on flickr.

Deadwood, SD > Badlands National Park

We finally left Deadwood after 3 days there. Fun little town, mostly gambling and old west street shows, but the saloons are pretty good. Found one place that advertised itself as "the only museum with a bar" which is a nice combination -- edutainment, if you will.

We left and headed toward Mt Rushmore and more of the Black Hills. That was enjoyable. Was going to visit the Crazy Horse monument, but it was visible from the road and thus we didn't feel like paying the $30 to see it closer. They got a long way to go on this monument; perhaps Emily's kids will see it finished.

We then ventured on over to Badlands, NP and got there for some really nice evening lighting. I have pictures of a lot of this, but I'll put them on flickr as it'd get too crowded here.

Newest Iteration of our Travel Plans

Plans are always changing, but here's the latest version:

8/28/08 - 9/2/08 Badlands NP

9/2/08 - 9/9/08 Ransom, KS

9/9/08 - 9/15/08 Horton, KS

9/15/08 - 11/8/08 NYC, Washington, MA, etc

11/1/08 > Portland (Bliss & Emily)

11/8/08 > Dubai (Shawn)

~December > South America (all of us)

Yellowstone NP > Deadwood SD

Some 500 miles of road behind us yesterday and now we're in Deadwood. Have found Al yet but I'm looking around; seems every Al I know is a philosopher. Kind of a fun town, but haven't seen much yet. Lots of gambling but that don't thrill me. Going to go weep over Wild Bill and Calamity Jane's tombstones today. Might have a drink too.

Grand Teton NP

Did 8 miles of hiking in the park and around Jenny Lake. We even went swimming in the lake, with snow visible on the Tetons. This is a beautiful park! I think next time I would stay here instead of Yellowstone.

Yellowstone NP

Had a great time in Yellowstone. Emily and I took a photo workshop sponsored by Canon where we got to try out different cameras and lenses. Waz cool.

Bozeman, MT > Yellowstone NP

Descending into Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone is just enormous. It took us about 3 hours to drive the portion inside the national park! We found a good camping location at Grant Campground, but our first night was spent shivering as it got down to 28 degrees at night.

Garnet Ghost Town

Garnet was a mining town that survived up until the early 1960s and has been amazingly preserved due to its remote location. Many ghost towns simply have parts and pieces of what is left, but Garnet has whole buildings with many daily use items still in them. Furthermore, one can walk through any of the buildings to closely inspect it all. It was a fabulous stop! This place was very neat; like stepping back in time! Emily did a scavenger hunt finding various items throughout the town.

Glacier NP > Bozeman, MT

We drove from Glacier NP to Bozeman, MT in a single day -- 8/21/08. It was about 360 miles and took us through Butte which has a fabulous but derelict downtown area. One can tell that it must have been something in its day. We did make it over to the Berkeley Pit, but was told that the pollution there sometimes glows in beautiful iridescent colors. Sounds like something from The Simpsons.

Glacier NP

We arrived into Glacier National Park on Tuesday the 19th. It was just turning dusk but we had enough time to set up our campsite, make a quick dinner (Trader Joe's Creamy Tomato Soup) and get a campfire going. During the night it rained slightly but then continued to rain all day of the 20th. We drove over the "Going-to-the-sun" road and saw some nice scenery despite the rain and clouds. Though our tent is old it did keep us dry, but just barely. It was a rainy mess, so we headed for Yellowstone on the 21st.

Portland > Coeur D'Alene

We left Portland on Monday the 18th. Not knowing until the last minute exactly how we were going to get to Glacier NP, we decided to just head out of Portland and follow the Columbia River Gorge. As long as we remained in the National Forest area, it was quite nice, but then it got pretty boring. Once we got into Spokane there was an awful amount of smoke--must have been a large forest fire somewhere. So we traveled onto Idaho and found an awesome area next to a lake - Coeur D'Alene. Our camping site was good, but not great. There was a highway too close by and the sites were pretty close together. At night an awful big wind came through and nearly collapsed our tent, then came the rain, then came the thunderstorms. Luckily, we had an opening in the sky the next morning to pack up and head out.

Portland, OR

Have been in Portland for about a week now (got caught up on my blog and then slacked again). Just mapped out our general route between here and Washington, DC tonight. It takes in 3 National Parks and a whole lot of family and friends.

Here's a cool photo I took here in Portland. Just a block away this person has the craziest car.

Bound for Portland, OR

August 3, 2008. We're headed for Portland, OR to take a break. Bliss' mom is there so we'll have beds and showers for awhile. My friend Ron and I will see if we can't get into some trouble. It was a long stretch, but nice farmland all the way. BTW, crops look good this year.

Crater Lake NP

Have you ever seen blues so blue? Wow. The next day the haze from the CA fires moved in and all the clarity disappeared. We had a lucky day indeed. There are more pictures on flickr.

Off to Crater Lake NP

From Redwoods NP we decided to head for Crater Lake NP, before heading up to Portland. It was a worthwhile detour as the lake was absolutely gorgeous. Blues I have never seen outside of the Hawaiian Pacific ocean. Just amazing. Here's the road trip. The photos are will be in the next post.