The End

Western Rambling...the final post. After checking into the only hotel in North Platte, Nebraska that had any rooms at 1 a.m, the Howard Johnsons, we were checking out at 10 a.m. on Friday. Nice to have a shower on our final night. We then drove, and drove, and drove. On our trip we logged over 5300 miles, listened to over 50 cds (we counted), saw every license plate in the USA except Delaware and Hawaii, watched 6 dvds, were in 10 states, and saw a few mountains and trees, right Leslie? When we drove into our driveway at 11:30 Friday night, we were tired but extremely happy to be home. 2623 N. 71st Street never has looked so good!

"There's no place like home!"

June 29, 2006

Jim here for my last turn. Last night the kids said they wanted to get on the road as early as possible. I wasn’t sure how serious they would be when I woke them this morning at 6:45AM. To my amazement, we broke camp, said goodbye to the humming birds, and were on the road by 8:00! We did a couple things today. First, we spent some time at the Taos Pueblo. It was very interesting to see a real pueblo. Some of these buildings were 1000 years old and have been maintained through all these years. The Adobe style of architecture in New Mexico gives the small towns we have been driving through a very unique look, especially the town of Taos. We decided to skip seeing the Rio Grande Gorge but headed the wrong direction on highway 64 and ended up there anyway. It was worth the extra 10 miles. That’s all we could stand. Our next destination is home. It seemed to take forever to get through the last of the mountains to reach Cimerron, New Mexico, “Where the Rockies Meet he Plains.” We had lunch in Cimerron and left around 3pm. We decided to get as far into Colorado as we could before calling it a day. We got farther than we thought, North Platt, Nebraska! We should be home early on Saturday and are looking forward to seeing everyone.

June 28, 2006

Howdy!
This is Leslie M. Halverson reporting to you from Ghost Ranch campground in northern New Mexico. We woke up this morning in the nice motel we spent the night in last night and headed out. We drove for about 2 ½ hours to the home of Carolyn, our former church pastor from Perseverance. We visited with her and her husband, Keith, for about an hour, and then she took us out for lunch at the “Rancho el Chimayo” or something else Spanish, I can’t really remember. Anyway, the food was great! We all got these drinks called Prickly Pear lemonades. They were bright fuchsia in color but they were delicious! Who knew that something so neon could be so sweet? She took us on a tour of her little neighborhood, showing us the church she preaches at and some art galleries/stores where we got to see a woman weaving a rug. It was really cool. Carolyn had recommended that we spend the night at Ghost Ranch, a Presbyterian conference center, so she drove with us to the campground. When we got there, there was a tree with hummingbird feeders hanging from it. There must have been about 20 or 30 humming birds flying in and around the feeders and the tree. It was sooooo incredible! My mom took a bunch of pictures! AWESOME! We visited with Carolyn and Keith for a little while after we set up the camper, and then we said goodbye. It was really nice to see both of them. We are now eating a delicious, scrumptious, delectable meal…of bologna sandwiches, and will probably play a game or something after we eat. We’re looking forward to heading home tomorrow and hope to be back by late Saturday. We miss you all and look forward to seeing you soon! Love ya!
~Leslie

June 27, 2006

Good Evening,
This is Bradley with the latest edition of “Our Lives”. Today we woke up in the 2nd hotel we have been to so far. We said goodbye to our T.V. and shampoo/soap dispenser and packed up. We headed toward New Mexico to visit Carolyn (our former pastor at Perseverance) and her husband Keith. Our 1st stop was to go grocery shopping. While shopping, Leslie and I saw some soda. “Mountain Breeze” and “Dr. Skipper”. The cans (just as their names did) strongly resembled 2 other sodas that I could mention. Our nest stop was just to stop and make sandwiches for lunch. Then we kept driving for many an hour till our next stop. We did some shopping in New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah, and enjoyed some Indian Frybread and a snowcone in Colorado in a matter of minutes! Yes, as you might have guessed, we were at 4 corners. After that we got in the car and drove till we found a motel at 8 something in Cuba New Mexico. It has a T.V. on the wall, a microwave, and is a little bigger than a hotel! We microwaved up some hotdogs and popcorn for dinner and now might watch a movie or play a game or something. Well, that’s what we did today. Hope you enjoyed it! TTFN!!!!!

June 26, 2006

Hi Folks! Chris here and reporting on another fun and interesting day in the life of the Western Ramblers. We started with breakfast buffet at the Maswik Lodge in Grand Canyon National Park. Good food for all! We decided to take the shuttle to the east route of the Southern Rim, the Kaibab Trail. Because of the fires on the northern rim, the canyon was still hazy today, but a ranger told us to go to the east route and it wouldn’t be as hazy. He was right and we got to see some more beautiful sights. We even hiked along the rim despite being a bit weary and not particularly in a hiking mood. I think we were all glad we did because it was a nice walk. We then had lunch at the Bright Angel Lodge restaurant, and it too was delicious. Much better food here than at Yellowstone or Grand Teton. We boarded our train back to Williams and believe it or not, about ½ hour before we got to Williams, we were robbed!! Masked bandits appeared on horses, stopped the train, got on and we had to give up all our worldly possessions. They even had guns!! Good thing the Marshall was also on board, and it wasn’t too long before he was on their trail. Quite a traumatic time for all the passengers. We checked into our new room and had another nice meal, and then Jim and I headed to a Laundromat to do another few loads of laundry, while the kids watched Back to the Future. We are ready for another traveling day tomorrow and starting to think about being home this weekend. I think we are all looking forward to being home again. We all got a little homesick after we called and sang to Maggie for her birthday. It’s nice to have family to miss. Good night John Boy!

June 25, 2006

Hello, Jim here. We started the day with a great breakfast buffet at the hotel followed by a very entertaining gunfight. We then boarded the train for the Grand Canyon. The ride was enjoyable with a strolling guitar player singing both Country and Western tunes. We walked from the train right to the south rim of the canyon. Surreal! Words and pictures cannot do justice to the unbelievable immensity and beauty of the Grand Canyon. The only down side is the air is hazy from a couple fires burning to the west. Nevertheless, the scenery is breathtaking. We ate our box lunch and enjoyed a bus tour toward the west on the rim. Each spot we stopped was equally wonderful. The tour driver was very good and because I didn't have change, I over tipped him when we were done. We walked about 200 yards to wait for the shuttle to take us to our hotel. Apparently, it helps to be a big tipper since the empty tour bus pulled over when he saw us, told us to get on and gave us a ride directly to our hotel. After resting for a while and grabbing a relatively quick bite to eat, we decided to walk to the rim for the sunset. Disappointing doesn’t quite do it, eerie is more like it. The air smelled like a campfire and there was ash floating in the air. There was a bizarre glow over the canyon and you could not see very far at all. The canyon was full of smoke. Very weird! Hopefully the winds will change and clear things out for tomorrow.

June 24, 2006

Hey everyone!
Leslie here with today’s report. We woke up and had breakfast, then took our 8 minute showers. Unfortunately mine was only about 5 minutes. You can imagine my disgust when the water shut off. Anyway, trying to avoid heat that was expected to be in the 100’s, we packed up and left as soon as possible and headed for Arizona. There was some beautiful scenery and we stopped near a cliff to eat lunch, but because it was 103º we ate in the car. We also stopped at a little hillside market on the side of the highway and bought a beautiful Native American vase/pot thing. We drove for a couple hours and arrived at our hotel in Williams, Arizona. After camping in 100 degree weather for the past few days, and air conditioned hotel room was welcomed with open arms! We have our own shower with a shampoo/soap dispenser on the wall! Ah, the simple things in life! We also got our internet working, so we’re very happy about that. We ate dinner in the hotel and are now headed down to the pool. Not our most eventful day, but tomorrow we head to the Grand Canyon, so prepare yourselves...dunn DUNN DUNN!!! Hehe! Just kidding!
~Leslie

June 23, 2006

Greetings,
Today it’s Bradley typing. We went to bed last night hot and bothered with no blankets. Then at about 7:00, my dad woke up to a very cold temperature! He threw the rest of us our blankets and we are all truly thankful to him for that. After having an 8 minute shower each with our shower tokens, everyone just kind of laid around reading or listening to music for a while. We had just put up our new chili pepper lights (just like the ones on Weinberg’s deck) and a humming bird flew up to them! I was the only one to see it though. Well, hurray for me! Then we headed for Zion National Park. 1st we saw the “Weeping Rock”. Some of us got fairly soaked from the water dripping. It was actually quite refreshing! Then we did a 2 mile hike, during which Leslie, my mom, and I got to wade in the Virgin River while my dad took pictures. Later we found out it was 109 degree weather! By the end of that, it was quite a few hours after lunchtime and we were all starving. We went and had a delicious lunch at the “Pioneer Restaurant”. Me and Leslie each tried our very first Italian Sodas (what Italian sodas have to do with pioneers I don’t know)! Leslie had peach which was good except for the spearminty after taste. I had chocolate which was kind of like drinking a carbonated tootsie-roll. Let’s just say neither of us finished them. We were so full! Then we came back and after sitting around and baking in the heat, we went to the pool. We didn’t stay long but it was so refreshing! Then we had a nice relaxing evening of home-made pudgy-pies, smores, and popcorn. After I finish typing, we are going to play oh-heck so good night and pleasant dreams to all!

June 22, 2006

Hi there, Chris this time. Today was another driving day, across Utah to the southwest corner right between Zion National Park and Bryce National Park. We are in a pretty commercial campsite, where all the sites are packed side by side and our picnic table is about 6 feet from our neighbors. Kind of weird, but did I say we are looking at the most beautiful scenery in the world. It almost looks fake. Anyway after starting on the road this morning, we decided not to detour to see the National Dinosaur Something or other, (I can’t remember the name!) but instead just drive southwest because it was a long trip. We noticed a Dinosaur Quarry on our way so we decided to check it out. After missing the sign and then doubling back to find it, we followed about 5 miles and then the sign pointed us down a very deserted gravel road. We drove into Utah oblivion, not seeing another car for about 12 miles and finally found the sign pointing to the Dinosaur Quarry…Closed for Renovation!!! Unbelievable…we were so out in the middle of nothing and not sure the quickest way back, so we used the GPS tracking system on loan from John Feuling and we were good to go, literally!! Thanks John! We then drove and drove and drove. At least Utah has billboards and an occasional town, which Wyoming doesn’t. We are settled quite nicely now in the campsite, and hopefully we will not have “screaming bullfrogs” singing all night like last night! We will be here two nights, so it should be fun and relaxing. Temps are around high 90’s but it is a dry heat, whatever that means. That’s all for now!

June 21, 2006

It’s Jim again and today we leave the Tetons. It has been relaxing while we were here in the middle of incredible scenery. On our way out, we stopped in Teton Village to take the tram to the top of Mt. Rendezvous. When I say the top, I mean the summit at over 10,000 feet. What an unbelievable feeling to look 360 degrees and see the awesome sights of the Teton Range, Jackson Lake, and the Snake River valley. While up there, we stopped in the snack shop for ice cream and I noticed a Waukesha West Track and Field jacket out on the deck. The young man will be a junior but did not know Lizzie. Once we were back at the bottom of the mountain, we had a nice lunch in the grill and then drove to Utah. On the way we drove through the Flaming Gorge. We could tell it was appropriately named because of the deep red rock. However, it was not as “flaming” as it could have been because of the overcast sky. As we closed in on Steinaker State Park in Utah, we saw what we believe was a female moose waiting to cross the highway. For some reason, everyone in the car made sure I saw it. Our campsite at Steinaker was great and so were the pepperoni pudgy pies we made for dinner. One other note is that most of the travel across Wyoming is boring, especially when you hit construction on the “open range”.

June 20, 2006

Hey everyone!
Leslie here with today’s scoop. We got up bright and early at about 7:30 to take the rafting trip that got canceled yesterday. It was really cool. Our guide, Jeff, was a really cool guy and he made it enjoyable for us. The scenery was so beautiful and we even got to see a bald eagle up in a tree by its nest! The ride took almost two hours but it went by *snap!* like that. We came home for lunch and chilled for a little while, and then drove out to Jackson for dinner. We went to a place called the Snake River Brewery. Don’t worry, I didn’t have that much beer. We had some really great appetizers and some fantastic pizza. Then we had s’mores for dessert. And by “we had s’mores for dessert,” I mean we ordered one at the restaurant. They actually carried s’mores as a dessert option. It was huge! It was a whole graham cracker (homemade, I might add) a whole Hershey bar, and probably about 5 marshmallows in between. It also came with three scoops of creamy vanilla ice cream on the side. Okay, so enough about the s’mores. After the s’mores we went mini golfing. My mom kicked everyone’s butt, and I, like the generous person I am, lost so that everyone else could feel better about themselves. Gosh, I’m just so thoughtful! Haha… So my mom has had this goal ever since we first got to Yellowstone; to see a moose. So we went on a moose hunt. We drove on this scenic trail between Teton village and Moose (which is a town for those who don’t know) for a while, until it got to dark to really see anything. But the cool part was still to come. We looked up and saw some deer with huge antlers at the top of a hill, silhouetted against the night sky. It was amazing. Then we look to the side of them, and there were more! And more! There must have been about 20 of them all silhouetted together at the top of this hill. Unfortunately it was too dark to get any pictures, but believe me, it was incredible. Too bad, no moose, but there’s still hope! We finally got back to our cabin at about 10:30 and we’re all pretty tired. We’ll talk to you again tomorrow!
~Leslie

June 19, 2006

Greetings,
I (Bradley) am typing today. After our 1st night in our new cabin in The Grand Tetons, we all got up early and took showers. We were going to go on a float raft ride down the Snake River. We got there only to find out it was cancelled because of weather! We ended up rescheduling for the same time tomorrow. After that, my parents wanted to go do something but me and Leslie wanted to relax, so Leslie and I watched “Zoolander” and “That 70’s Show” while my parents went and did the laundry. Yippy hurray for them! Then we ate lunch and headed for Signal Mountain. We drove to the top to find a gorgeous view! I think it got its name from the giant antenna at the top. Then we went to the Willow Flats for a wildlife hike/walk. We saw lots of wildlife like……..the……..um…….one……..thing……..Get my point? If you don’t, let’s just say there was an abundance of gravel. Then we went to the Pioneer Grill for dinner and planned to go to a ranger talk after that. Let me back up a little. I have been really tired and generally not feeling well all day. At the restaurant, I didn’t eat a lot but, had to go to the restroom, my dad was showing me where it was when, after we got around one corner I threw up! Right in the restaurant! The strange thing was that even the people right behind me when it happened did not notice! The employees were very nice, cleaned it up, and gave me a free glass of 7-up. One girl in flip-flops did step in it though! Obviously that meant no ranger talk. I think it was an upset stomach or dehydration because after drinking something, I am feeling fine and my parents went for a walk. Other than that, it was a well needed low-key day.

June 18, 2006

Well, we are now beginning our next adventure in Grand Teton National Park. This morning we checked out of Canyon Village Pioneer Cabins and headed south to Grand Teton Park. We stopped at Lewis Falls and saw our last, amazing waterfall in Yellowstone. We took a very short path to get closer to the falls, and discovered that even in June we can have a snowball fight!! Very weird. 60 degrees and snow on the mountains! I still haven’t figured that out. We also talked to some people at Lewis Falls who said that yesterday a woman at Tower Falls was trying to get a picture of a nest and slipped over the edge and they have been unable to find her body. As this couple were telling me about the horrible event, I look down to see Leslie, Bradley and Jim were at that moment climbing as close to the water as possible, in fact Leslie was standing on a big rock in the water!! Needless to say they came up quickly.
We have seen many animals, but now I am searching for the elusive moose. I’m told we are now in the right place for seeing moose, so we’ll keep you posted. Today we saw a bald eagle and a pelican.
Once we got to Colter Bay Village in the Grand Tetons we had some time to kill before we could check in, so we decided to go the the Jackson Lake Lodge nearby and use their wireless internet to update the blog. However we only discovered that the problem probably isn’t with the internet connection but with our computer. After a very frustrating couple of hours, we gave up, checked into our adorable cabin, ate a great dinner at a sit down restaurant, ChuckWagon Restaurant, and then went back to the cabin and watched a movie, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”. We loved it again, as always, and were reminded of how much we love our families and wish they were here with us on our adventure! We will continue to search for a solution to our computer problems, and keep you posted, no pun intended. We enjoyed talking to both Dads today on Father’s Day, and were sorry to not be there to celebrate. Happy 21st Birthday Jesse! Talk to you soon…love you all!

June 17, 2006

Hello all. I’m not sure how to start because it has been such an ambitious, action packed day. We were attempting to do way too many sites in the thermal areas of the park. Our first stop of the day was Artist Paintpots. This was our first experience seeing boiling water coming out of the ground. Later we would learn that the different colors are different varieties of algae and bacteria depending on temperature. The boiling mud pots were very “cool”. Next was Firehole Canyon Drive. This was extremely scenic and not as well traveled as the main roads. It follows the Filehole River. We checked out Fountain Flat Drive and found it pretty but nothing special. Next was the Fountain Paintpot area. This is the only area with all 4 major thermal attractions within walking distance, (hot springs, fumerals, mud pots, and geysers.) Onward to Firehole Lake Drive to see Great Fountain Geyser and White Dome Geyser. Neither was active while we were there. So, we headed to Old Faithful. On our way, a coyote surprised us right next to the road. As I stopped the car, we saw it cross the road behind us and disappear into the trees on the other side. It was very exciting, but it happened too fast to get pictures. Once at Old Faithful, we had a quick lunch in the car and headed to the visitor center to find out eruption times. Old Faithful was due shortly, so we went to listen to a ranger talk about the geology of Yellowstone right in front of the geyser. Suddenly, a Behive alert was issued. So we bolted from our vantage point of Old Faithful to see Beehive erupt. Behive is a very powerful geyser but only erupts once a day and is unpredictable except for a 5-10 minute warning blast from a side vent. Behive ended and we rushed back to Old Faithful to catch its eruption as well. Nobody was in the hiking mood and having witnessed 2 incredible geysers, we left the area. We stopped back at Great Fountain armed with better information. We relaxed for about 45 minutes and saw White Dome go off first. Then, Great Fountain rewarded us with a wonderful show. Our day was far from over. We set out for Mammoth Hot Springs. On the way, we were fortunate enough to see 2 black bears walking 20-30 feet off the road. This time we got pictures. Mammoth Springs were very cool but I think underappreciated by this time of the day. So, one more scheduled stop on our way back to the cabin. We checked out the petrified tree. In other words, we stopped, took a picture and left, enough said. But, our day was not done yet. We were to be treated twice more. First, by a fox. It, like the coyote, was running down the road and disappeared before we could take its picture. Finally, we came upon a group at the side of the road taking pictures of a small grizzly bear! It was a good 100 yards down the mountain so our pictures are not good, but there it was. Chris and the kids are already asleep as you can imagine. I’m not far behind them.

June 16, 2006

Hello all you party people!
This is Leslie coming to you from our cabin in Yellowstone. Today was a day full of scenery for us. We started with a bunch of waterfalls, the Lower Falls, the Upper Falls, and Crystal Falls, which were all awesome. Unfortunately, if you wanted to get up close and personal with the Falls, you had to do about half a mile of switchback hiking for each one. Oh, and that was just to get down to them. Then you had to do the same thing, again, uphill. That was fun… Anyway, the views were totally worth it. We also went to Artist Point, where you can see the Upper Falls, surrounded by cliffs of about five different colors all mixed together. It was sooo beautiful. After that, we were pretty beat from all that hiking so we went back to our cabin for lunch. Some of us slept, and then we got back out on the road. We drove through the Dunraven Pass and the surrounding area which had gorgeous mountains and amazing scenery throughout. In the Lamar Valley we saw a ton of buffalo, some mule deer, and a Pika, which is kind of like a little hamster-mouse-chipmunk type animal. It was so adorable! After a full day on the road we returned for a dinner of ravioli and chocolate chip cookies, and we played cards for the rest of the night. Well, we are all exhausted, so here’s closing out our first week! We love you all and think of you always, especially the Kelnhofer family. We’ll talk to you all later! Bye!
~Leslie ;)

P.S. Sorry these are late, our internet is not working in our cabin. We’ll get these posted as soon as possible.

June 15, 2006

Hi all,
It’s Bradley again. We began today by packing up the camper and examining the car. Our collision yesterday seams to have knocked to shit (pardon my French) out of the deer since there is a fair amount of dung on the front of the car! We took it to the dealership and it is drivable (thank God). Then we headed to the Buffalo Bill Museum. I thought the section on Indians was pretty interesting. We started listening to a talk for about 5 minutes and realized it was just a bunch of panelists talking about writing about Buffalo Bill. It was fascinating! You can probably hear my sarcasm from there! We then drove to the Shoshone reservoir and took many pictures/movies. We came in on the east side of Yellowstone but sadly, the stones we saw were not very yellow. There was a long delay because of construction. We also had a little bit of sleet that made the weather seem even weirder. While driving, we saw 2 huge buffalo taking dirt baths about 5 feet off the road! We got to our cabin which isn’t much of a cabin (it strongly resembles a hotel room) but anything’s better than a camper (except a tent). We ate at a cafeteria type place which didn’t have the best food in the world but it was edible and we were all hungry after practically skipping lunch. We also went to the information center and had a talk with a very nice ranger type person. He walked us through everything! What to see, what not to see, what to look at a little bit, etc. It is going to be great instead of the 7 am to 7 pm tour that is $60 a person! We did here about Pat, so we will be keeping you Kelnhofers in our prayers. We will be sure to keep in touch.

P.S. this post is being posted a day late since our internet wasn’t working.

Not exactly as we had planned...

Hi all! We are continuing to be amazed at all the beautiful scenery, mountains, wildlife, and clean fresh air!! We almost hit 2 different deer as they darted onto the two lane highway, but luckily we didn't. We drove to Devil's Tower, and Jim and the kids climbed way up on the boulders, and I stayed back to take pictures. I wondered if they were supposed to be climbing up there, and when they came down after about 20 minutes, a kind of official looking man started to shadow us. He probably was making sure we didn't do any more climbing! We then started the long trek across Wyoming. There really isn't a whole lot to see for a long time, temperature was 95 degrees, and then we got to Big Horn National Forest, and drove through the most beautiful mountains!

Temperature in the mountains quickly dropped to the 50s. We even saw a moose by the side of the road, which Jim thought was one of those tacky statues at first, until it ran away. Boy was it huge! After stopping at an A&W for supper, and waiting almost 1/2 an hour for an entire high school baseball team to order, we headed for our last leg of driving to get to Cody for one night at a campsite. Our luck was about to run out though, and after 4 deer darted right in front of us in a true deer crossing, all at once, we were unable to avoid the 5th one and hit it. We are all fine, except the deer who I'm sure was killed, judging from the way it flew and landed in the ditch away from the road. The car needs front end work now, and we will explore that tomorrow. It seems to run fine, but lots of cosmetic repair is needed, I'm afraid. Needless to say we were all very shaken by this, especially Bradley for obvious reasons, and Jim because he was driving. It could have been so much worse, and we are saying a prayer tonight thanking God for watching over us. We are ready for bed now, and tomorrow we will spend some time in Cody, and then off the Yellowstone! (Jim's post from yesterday didn't post, so we just reposted it!)

Wolves and Mountain Lions and Bears Oh My!

Jim “Boom-Boom Vacation Man” here with today’s adventure. We started with a simple bacon, egg and toast breakfast at the campsite. Then, it was off to “Bear Country”.
Although it did have some cheesy aspects and was surprisingly expensive, we did enjoy the self-paced car tour through this wildlife preserve. It must have been less than 30 seconds through the gate before Leslie yelled “There’s an Elk!” Clearly one of the most majestic creatures I’ve seen and we were 15 feet away. We saw a number of beautiful animals, wolves, longhorn sheep, dall sheep, Mountain lions, reindeer and black billed magpies. Then, we found out why they call it “Bear Country”. First, we saw four black bears right next to the road. Then we drove over the hill to see several dozen scattered on the landscape. It was quite an incredible site to see a couple black bears chasing wolves away from the watering hole. Then it happened. The scene went from Mutual of Omaha to more of a PG-13 National Geographic cable channel special on the mating habits of the black bear. While Bradley was somewhat in denial, we all knew what we were watching. Did I mention they were only 5 feet off the road? We finished the drive and parked so we could walk through the babyland part of the park. This was really more of a zoo for young animals.We took time for a late lunch at Route 16 Diner and some shopping before visiting Crazy Horse. The size is really very impressive. The introductory movie is a must. I did not realize how long they have been at this project. It was really interesting to browse through the impressive collection of Native American artifacts. We also went back at night to see the “Legends in Light” laser light show. Unlike anything we have seen before. We were watching a multimedia event projected on the side of the mountain. Very cool.

I see dead presidents...

Hi there ho there!
It's Leslie today. This morning we had a very satisfying breakfast of luscious cereal at our campsite and had a little visitor. Quote of the day: Chrissie~"I just saw a rabbit! It was wild, or, tame or something!" Got that right. We then headed down to the volleyball court and got our game on!!! Yeah, ok, so then we ate lunch and headed off to see the rushiest of mores, Mt. Rushmore. We took the scenic route. And I mean, the scenic route. It took about 2 hours, but we saw many a buffalo. And I mean, many a buffalo. We also saw some deer, and birds, and other life of a wild nature. Mount Rushmore was, in a word, awwwwwwwwesome! It was HUUUUUUUGE! And I mean HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE! Well, maybe not worth 16 U's, but still. It was breathtaking. Then we went home and had a nice dinner of chicken sandwiches, and we learned how the cave men made popcorn! Fascinating! Peace out!

~Leslie

P.S. Betsyjane-me and Brad are actually getting along quite splendidly! =)

"Go west young man...

Hello everyone,
It’s Bradley typing this time. After we left the corn palace, we headed for the Bad Lands. By the time we got there, the temperature had changed from the upper fifties to the lower eighties and the skies seemed to have been wiped clean by God! They were some of the most amazing things any of us had ever seen. There are no possible words to describe it. We did a good deal of climbing and both Leslie and I got further than we had expected. On our way out of the Bad Lands, we saw the largest prairie dog in the world (a lame statue)! Then we went to the famous wall drug store. They seemed to have an obsession with hanging dead animal carcasses on every bit of wall available. For dinner, we went to the cactus café. They had spaghetti that I gagged on, a cheeseburger that almost made Leslie sick to her stomach and two overcooked buffalo burgers for my mom and dad. The fries were also bland and my shake was almost pure Hershey’s syrup. Our waitress was just as wonderful as the food. Our family does not recommend this restaurant to any of you! We are now at beaver lake (our campground) and got the camper up. There is a water slide that will hopefully be better than the one at the last site. I’m typing this right before we all go to sleep so, pleasant dreams to all!

P.S. Deboe, the corn palace is just as it's name suggests, a palace made of corn!

Off and running!

We finally left Tosa at 12:30pm. The trip was dry until Minn. It rained off and on the whole way to Mitchell SD. Temp is in the 40's and very windy. We are thankful to be in the camper and not in a tent. We took a cold walk to Marlin's Roadhouse Restaurant. Food was great and the sodas were served in large Ball jars. Campsite is bare bones slab with no fire pit, kind of like a parking lot. I boasts a HUGE water slide...they've never been to the Dells!!

Now it's morning, we packed up after a challenging night sleep in the cold windy South Dakota June weather, and since we have no food yet enjoyed a wonderful huge breakfast at Perkins. We won't be doing that very often, so it was very enjoyable. We are now in the car on our way to Wall Drug, but we have been changed forever because we have experienced the once in a lifetime Mitchell Corn Palace!! It was the most incredible 15 minutes of our trip so far!!!!! Pictures will follow later after we set up camp in Custer. So far so good, but cold weather (low 40's last night) and drizzling can end any time now.

It's 8:20

Hi all,
We are getting ready to leave for our three week trip out west! Come back here occasionally to see what kind of a trip we're having! Tata!