We've been very busy the past three days and haven't had time to update. But we left Denver at 6:30am this morning and arrived about an hour ago.

It's good to be home. More later and new pictures. But soon, bed.

We got out yesterday morning intent on seeing the sites, and promptly wilted at about midday. Well a little later than that. We walked around the casinos near us, The Mandalay Bay and the Excalibur, headed across the street to New York New York and the MGM Grand. At the Grand we took some time to check out the lions in the lion habitat. They were so cute! It always amazes me how much they act like domestic cats.

We headed out from there and picked up the Las Vegas Monorail. We took it a couple of stops and then toured Caesar's and the Bellagio. We had lunch at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill in Caesar and after lunch shopped the forum shops. We made our way back to the monorail and headed up to Harrah's where we picked up a shuttle to the Rio. citygirl2 and I had tickets to see Penn & Teller and had to pick up the tickets. From there we took a cab back to the hotel and collapsed. It doesn't sound like a lot but there was a lot of walking around the hotels and it was about 100°F outside. We rested a bit and then marco235 and I went down to the casino and played some games and put a some bets on football at the sports book and Lauren hit the arcade. Then it was time to get ready for dinner at the hotel. Afterwards Lauren and I grabbed a cab back to the Rio for the show. It was really a great show. I love to see them live.

Today we've been taking it easy. We went back to Mandalay Bay and took in the Shark Reef exhibit. We wandered back to our hotel, had some lunch and spent the rest of the day resting in the room. Various incarnations of webbing and napping have ensued.

Tonight we're hooking up with mfiveonline who's headed here from Fresno. I've proposed that we hit the Las Vegas Hilton and have dinner at Quarks then head to the Fremont Street experience for a while.

Tomorrow morning we'll get up early and head to Denver with Larry caravaning with us for a while. Vegas has been fun but I'm ready to move on.

Up at a reasonable hour on Monday, got to the Hoover Dam around 11ish. The problem with going to tourist sites in the height of tourist season is, you guessed it, lots of obnoxious tourists. It also didn't help that we had seasonal temps, which, when reflecting off the white concrete of the Dam, resulted in major bakeage. So we did the tour and took some pics (which will be uploaded later in the week). The unofficial highlight for us was getting to see the supports for the new bridge (contruction of which we had seen on an episode of Extreme Engineering a couple of months ago). Then we headed off to Vegas.

We're staying in one of the pyramid rooms at Luxor, and it's very cool, especially at sunrise. Monday (last) night, we met up with fiorebrillante and ohlert for dinner. Today, we visited some of the southern end of the Strip (MGM Grand, Bellagio, Caesar's) and tomorrow the plan is to hit the northern end as well as Fremont St.

Tonight, gibbie69 and citygirl2 are off seeing Penn & Teller, and I'm sitting here doing the update whilst trying to not make too large a donation to the casino coffers. We may yet end on the plus side, as we've made a few token NFL bets at the sports book, and those possible payouts would exceed our small loss elsewhere so far.

More tomorrow!

A shorter day today. The main part of the agenda was the Grand Canyon. Three years ago we went in the "back" way to the canyon and missed the main canyon road. This time we went in on one end and drove most of the length of the park.

Rain

Yes it rained. A lot. People should pay me to visit places. Or to stay away.

Shopping!

We stopped at a scenic overlook before we got to the park. It was run by the Navajo tribe and they had lots of tables with arts and crafts available. We bought a beautiful hand made, painted and signed pot and a hand made hematite bracelet. Both are very nice. The overlook was stunning as well.

Photos!

( Ok, lets cut to the chase, photos behind the cut )

And tomorrow, Vegas baby!

Another full day on the road.

No rest for the weary

It seems that most states decided to remodel their rest areas this month. We dealt with more closed rest areas than I ever recall on a single days driving. Not to transportation departments. Do not work on all your rest areas at one time. Please.

Rain rain go away

My rain curse is still in full effect. The last time we were in Albuquerque three years ago it poured buckets of rain in what had previously been the middle of a drought. Driving across New Mexico today what did we see? Rain. Lots of it. I did get some nice pictures of the storm from the road though. Can't post them tonight because the cable is in the car.

And speaking of predictable

As I just mentioned we were in Albuquerque three years ago. That trip we spent the evening with a former coworker of marco235. The actually live up in the Sandias above ABQ. We had a lovely meal with them and then they led us to a motel they'd been kind enough to book for us. This time we decided just to see ABQ on our own. We didn't actually make reservations but knew we were going to stay somewhere on the road to the Sandia Peak Tramway as I really wanted to take it. We got off at the Tramway exit and found a Comfort Inn that was offering free breakfast and internet. We decided to check in first and then head up the road to the tram. We still had about 20 minutes to drive to get there and we wanted to be sure we had a place for the night. As we pull in Steve noted that it looked familiar and as we parked and walked into the lobby we realized, this was the same place where we'd stayed three years ago. And sure enough, they still had us in the computer.

I can see for miles and miles and miles

We did manage to get to the tram and get the very last tram up. I wasn't sure we'd get there because it was still raining and the lightening was pretty bad. But they determined we had a clear pocket and headed on up the mountain. The views were stunning. We didn't stay up top long as it was raining and the temperature at the top was 48°F (8°C). Which isn't so bad but when the wind kicked up it was raw. And did I mention I was wearing shorts? But we got a few good photos. We also hit the gift shop before we left.

Breakfast anyone

We'd wanted to eat at the restaurant at the base of the tram but they were close by the time we got back down the mountain. We drove around a little bit but didn't see anything that appealed so we decided on the Waffle House near our hotel. It turned out to be the perfect choice as breakfast is a good thing at 11 o'clock at night.

And with that I'm going to bed. Grand Canyon tomorrow.

And we've just gotten started!


We liked leaving so much we did it twice

marco235 got home early and I'd already loaded the car so we got out early. We ran the standard check of the house and determined we were set and hit the road. We made a quick stop at McDonald's on the way. Just after we left McDonald's we remembered we'd not brought trash bags with us in the car. Did we want to go back? No we'll find something on the road. A little further down the road Steve asks, "Did you turn off the ceiling fan in the bedroom." "No. Do you want to go back." No we decide and keep on driving. Just a little bit more I said to him "Did you lock the door?" "I didn't, didn't you?" "No, I didn't." Now we turn around. Luckily we weren't on the Interstate yet. It was just a couple of miles back home. Locked the door, turned off the fan, grabbed the trash bags and hit the road. Again!

Taco Bell run

Not us. College kids. Across the highway. Right in front of us. At night. I didn't see them at all. Steve saw them just in time to swerve. We'd just crossed into Arkansas and near Arkansas State University. Why they needed to run across the highway wearing black clothing at night, I'll never know. We and they were very lucky.

No room at the inn

We'd decided not to try for Little Rock tonight thinking that it would be just a little too far and it would be better to stop near Memphis and get a good nights sleep. We looked in our Hampton Inn guide and found one in West Memphis and decided to shoot for that one. We got there and found them all full. As well as the next one down the road. There were rooms at another Hampton Inn, in Little Rock. The ladies at the hotel were nice enough to book the room for us. So we just sucked it up and kept driving here. So we'll sleep a little later tomorrow.

Let me in!

So after another couple of hours driving we arrived at the Hampton Inn in Little Rock. Only to find the inner doors locked. And the man at the front desk looking at us but not opening them. He motioned for us to pick up the intercom. Which we did and gave him our name and told him we had a reservation. He couldn't find it. We told him it had been booked in West Memphis. Nothing doing and he wouldn't open the door. I trooped back out to the car and retrieved the confirmation number. As I was going back in, someone came out the inner doors and I just walked in them and up to the desk and plopped the number in front of him. He looked a little put out but after he found our reservation he decided we weren't muggers. Turns out that the nice ladies in West Memphis had transposed Steve's name. Even though they were copying the information directly from his driver's license and credit card.

My kingdom for a bed

This hotel was out of double bedded rooms so we got a king bed with a pull out sofa for Lauren. Which is what the man at the desk confirmed he'd given us. Until we got all the way to the room and found that it had no sofa. Back down the elevator and to the desk to tell him there was no sofa. He apologized. Seems that they're remodeling and the room types are mixed up. We finally got a room with enough sleeping space but the air conditioning is a little weak. But at this point it's good enough for tonight!

And with that, to bed.

I'm just about finished the packing and getting ready to load the van. We'll be hitting the road as soon as marco235 gets home from work.

We're heading west on I64 but dropping south on I 57 and going through Arkansas this time. The plan is to stop in Arkansas tonight, be in Albuquerque tomorrow, spend Sunday tooling through Arizona and the Grand Canyon probably stopping in Kingman, and then roll into Vegas on Monday morning. Three nights in Vegas and then on to Denver on Thursday.

It was a long trip but a very enjoyable one. We saw a lot of amazing sights along the way. We got to meet old friends for the first time and connect with friends we've met before. We experienced the odd sensation of of finding things in Canada almost familiar but not really. We relaxed and enjoyed a slower pace for a few days and a much needed respite from everyday life.

We also took a lot of photos. Here are a few:

These are everything but the Yellowstone photos. Those were so numerous they needed their own album.

Vacation 2006

Yellowstone 2006

I'll probably add a few more thoughts in the coming days but nothing major. I am not, however, closing this LJ. I'm going to keep it open for more family trips and other family musings.

We got out about 7am this morning and pulled in about 45 minutes ago. It is very good to be home. The best part is that we now have two days to rest and recover before we go back to work on Wednesday.

We're all unloaded, unpacking starts later and laundry starts tomorrow. Today we're doing catch up from being away.

I'll post again tomorrow once I have the photos all sorted and loaded into albums. But for now, rest. :)

Pretty uneventful day today. We got out early continued east to Winnipeg then dropped south and back over the border. We got all the way through North Dakota and Minnesota and just into Wisconsin where we stopped for the night. We'll be back on the road tomorrow morning and should be home tomorrow early evening. It will be good to be home again.

The only thing of note today was reentering the US. We had an very officious customs agent. I was starting to wonder if she was going to let us back in. She took our papers, looked over them several times. She asked us where we entered and we told her Washington (actually we said Vancouver first then corrected it to Washington). She asked us when and we told her three days ago and she looked shocked and said sharply "Why so fast?" Why? Because we got done? I don't know. We told her that we'd been visiting friends in Edmonton and just got done and drove on home and that we were on vacation. She asked when we had to be back at work. She asked if we bought anything and Steve told her a couple of bottles of wine and some souvenirs. Then she started asking about Lauren. There's three of you? Where's the third? Open the door so I can see. This is where things got confusing. We'd watched as every other person in all three lanes had been required to open the trunk or the lift gate of their vans. One person with a camper got to pull over to be inspected. Anyway, when she said to open the door, Steve popped the lift gate in back open. No we were told, she wanted to see the other person. So we opened the side door and Lauren sat up and waived at her. She looked over the papers again. She looked at me and said "Lauren is your daughter?" This is the first time that anyone has said anything about Lauren's last name being different. I told her she was and we weren't questioned again. At this point I think it looked pretty clear we were all together and she wasn't being forced to be with us (there was lots of confusion and some laughing amongst the three of us over doors opening and closing). Then she started with the birth certificates noting that each was from a different state. Then she asked Steve how he got from Philadelphia to Indiana. What? Like people never move? He told her for a job and then she asked what business he was in and who he worked for. When he told her she said "Oh yea, I see their commercials." Finally she gave us all our documentation back and let us go through. You might think that she was trying to make conversation with us but every question was very serious and businesslike. We were definitely being interrogated. I suppose we passed because we were let back in. Oddly though, after all that, she never asked to look in the back. Strange.

Ahh well, that's all behind us now. A few hours sleep then on the road for home.

As Lauren said last night, kilometers and kilometers of nothing. We were driving through southern Alberta and Saskatchewan. Before that though we stopped in Drumheller to see the World's Largest Dinosaur in Drumheller, Alberta. As I mentioned last time, Drumheller was founded by an ancestor of mine. It's a small oil town in the middle of the Canada Badlands. We toured the dino, got gas and lunch and took a few pictures. We mentioned to the woman dinosaur visitor center why we were in Drumheller from Indiana (which wasn't even listed on their list of places to mark visitors from) and she thought we should stay for the next day and be in the parade. :) However at that we hit the road for the trek home.

We did discover that SK does the Indiana daylight saving time maneuver. As in they don't. We crossed the border and assumed that the time zone shifted only to stop for dinner and have the clock be behind. We asked the waitress if the clock was right and she went on some riff about how we should never look at it that it's always wrong and if she uses it she's 10 minutes late. She never did tell us what time it was. Finally when we got to the hotel we got the right answer.

Drumheller was the last official place to visit. For the next two days it's just the long ride home. It will be good to be there.

Nothing much to say except Canada has a lot of... nothing. At some points we could see the road for miles and miles or I guess I should say kilometers. More update tomorrow. Ze parents are to wiped to post anything. Happy Canada Day!

We got up fairly early and made the short drive from Hinton to Edmonton today. We're staying at a hotel right across the street from the West Edmonton Mall.
( click to read more and see some photos )

Beautiful rocks at that. I don't know who this Reid dude is but I hated the fact that him and another person seemed to like spray painting the rocks with their name on it. It really cheesed me when it was on a particularly beautiful formation in the Rocky's that had a nice little waterfall coming out of it. It also had a lot of sulfur in it, so once you got past the rotten egg smell it was really quite nice. I guess some people don't respect natural landscapes like the rest of us do. Oh well.

Today we left Mount Vernon and headed into Canada. We left fairly early and crossed the border a little after 8am. The border guard looked at us a little strangely as we were at a smaller crossing (rather than the large Peace Crossing in Vancouver). He also didn't quite seem to know what to do with the fact that we didn't know exactly when we were leaving. But after a few questions and a lot of typing he gave us our documentation back and sent us on our way.

We had a fairly uneventful but very beautiful drive north. After getting used to different looking road signs (I missed one because I wasn't used to looking for maple leaves) and dealing with the metric (ok, so it says 100 is the limit, how fast is that?) we settled in and made good time.

We stopped in Jasper for dinner and ate at L & W Family Restaurant. It was a very nice place with outdoor seating. We sat out on the patio and had a beautiful view of the Rockies.

After dinner we continued on our way and ended up in Hinton for the evening. Tomorrow we head on into Edmonton.

Well ok, sleepy in Mount Vernon still. But tired nonetheless.

We hit Seattle today for a little sightseeing. We stopped at Everett on the way in and met up with Chris "Tigger" Wallace for breakfast. That was a little misadventure itself. Tig's coworker gave us directions to a Denny's and gave us the wrong exit information. We passed a Denny's on the highway, the next exit was the street name he gave us so we got off. The exit was having construction work done so we detoured around a little and were a little lost. At that moment Steve's cousin called (we were meeting here later in the evening) and we told her that we were trying to go to the Denny's in Everett. "Oh the Denny's by the Holiday Inn!" she said and gave us directions right to it. So we called Tig, told him we were there and got a seat. And waited. And waited. And waited some more. Finally he called and said "I think you're not at the Denny's I'm at." Turns out there are three in Everett and the one where he was sitting was a couple of exits down. When we did pass it on the highway, it was a very similar name but not exact. Anyway, he drove on across town and sat and chatted with us a while. It was very pleasant.

We then headed on into town and hit the Space Needle, the Pacific Science Center, and the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame. The Space Needle was nice and had beautiful views from the top. We were lucky and Mt. Rainier was visible from the top. We spent some time shopping at the bottom then headed to the Science Center. It was actually a bit of a disappointment. It's rather small and geared toward young children. I was also disappointed to see that they are hosting the Dead Sea Scroll exhibit later in the year. I wish it could have been now as I would love to see it. From there we headed to the Science Fiction Museum. That was very nice. We spent a long time there looking at the exhibits. They do a nice job of covering all areas of sci-fi. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

We spent the next little while sitting and enjoying some ice cream then headed a few miles away to I Love Sushi on Lake Union and met with Steve's cousin, her husband and her daughter. The restaurant was located on the lake and had lovely views. We enjoyed a wonderful sushi dinner. Afterwards, we strolled along the lake front a bit and then headed back to our hotel for the night.

Tomorrow morning it's up early and we head into Canada. We're going to spend some time in Jasper National Park and then head to Hinton. The next day it's off to Edmonton.

We're officially at the turn around point as after we go north a bit we start heading east. We've done just over 3000 miles now and expect another 3000 on the return. We're having a great time.

More tomorrow.

Something important to know about Idaho. Road signs really mean what they say. When they say "Road Closed in 10 miles" it really will be, and when it says, "Watch for Stock in Road" you should do so.

( Read about our adventure here: )

Well not really, but we did go to Mount Rushmore. The monument is the same as I remember but they have upgraded the surrounding facilities a great deal. Now there's a huge parking garage and new observation deck. There's even an amphitheater.

After we left Mt. Rushmore we took the scenic route through the mountains to get to the highway. It was a slow trip but very beautiful.

We also hit Devils Tower in Wyoming. That was very impressive. I'd only ever seen it on Close Encounters. It's much more awe inspiring in person.

After that there was miles and miles and miles of nothing in Wyoming and Montana. Different varieties of nothing, but nothing none the less.

We took it easy today after overdoing yesterday. Tomorrow we're up early and off to Yellowstone and Grand Teton.

I'm going to put our photos in an album eventually but for now, here's a couple of quick shots.

( Click me! )

More after Yellowstone!

The first of the "long" travel days turned into a "too long" day. Combine that with having failed to call ahead for hotel room for a Friday night in the middle of peak tourist zone, and it became a situation where by the time we got settled, we just wanted to go to bed.

We drove through Iowa and most of South Dakota, stopping at the Mitchell (SD) Corn Palace, Badlands National Park, and, of course, Wall Drug. (links and pictures to follow on later update)

So the next couple of days are actually looking to be easier drive-wise, with today's end-point being shortened by over 100
miles so that we don't run into more hotel angst.

Agenda so far, with accrued mileage:
(Thu) Evansville to Moline (IL), 408 miles
(Fri) Moline to Rapid City (SD), 854 miles (the normal EVV/PHL one-way is around 840)
Total so far, 1,262 miles
(Sat) Rapid City to Billings (MT)
(Sun) Billings to Idaho Falls (ID)
(Mon) Idaho Falls to Seattle (appx 750 miles)

Time to pack up and get breakfast before heading to Mt. Rushmore. Lots of pictures to be posted later.

gregtrotter said once, when after he arrived at our house for a visit, that there was "way too much Illinois." He is correct, there is too much of the state.

We got on the road around 5:45 pm CDT and stopped in Moline IL for the night at midnight. We drove about 400 miles this evening. Not a bad start.

The drive started with pouring rain. Oh yes, the family rain curse lives on. Fortunately it was short-lived as the storm was heading east and we were heading west. The very worst of it was right at the border. We've had off and on rain since but nothing as bad as the bucket loads of rain we had at the beginning.

After that it was just mile after mile of endless Illinois. It's easy to forget how rural the state is. When you think of Illinois you think of Chicago, not the miles of farmland that make up the rest of the state. There is a lot of it. Lots and lots and lots of it.

We almost saw Peoria but there was constructed and people were advised to take the bypass, which we did.

We took a scary pit stop to gas up somewhere outside of Galesburg. There were some, interesting, people stocking up for the coming weekend. Also we say a wide variety of police officers. At least four, one of which was an Illinois Department of Corrections officer. I'm not sure what prison we were nearby, but we must have been close.

Shortly after that we started driving through some strange, alien-like fog. It appeared from nowhere and seemed to stick to the windows. Then, as quickly as it came it was gone. That's when I decided that I'd simply had enough of this freaky state and it was time to be elsewhere.

Fortunately, we were close to the end of the driving for the night. We are still in Illinois but close enough to Iowa to be ok. We'll hit the road bright and earlier in the morning. The goal is to be to Rapid City tomorrow night. A long drive, but about the same distance we do when we drive to Philadelphia.