We're Rolling Out

Thanks Kids!

2010-09-22T11:13:00.000-07:00

One month ago yesterday Rebecca and I left Seattle for Washington DC. It was a wild (and long) ride. You can read back through all the post to see everything we saw and did, but I wanted to take a moment to thank both Rebecca and Adam for joining me for this adventure. I had such a great time for me.

We saw so many things. In case you weren't sure, the United States of America is a very big place. With both kids I had a nearly 900 mile days (895 miles with Rebecca and 892 with Adam).

I wouldn't have made this trip without both of you and I'm very grateful for the time and love you shared with me.

Thank you!

I Love you guys.

Dad

Day 15 - Idaho and the return voyage or "How it all came to an end"

2010-09-07T12:11:00.000-07:00

The final day of our trip was also had the earliest starting time of our leg. I set the alarm for 7 because there was a lot of things to do before we left Idaho. By 730 we were on the road to Craters of the Moon. The drive was pretty bleak, lots of potatoes, but there were a few interesting views along the way, like this one:

The craters were really cool. I'd never seen a lava field before, Dad was telling me that it reminded him a lot of Hawaii. I'd expected the rocks to be a lot smoother, boy was I wrong.

Our next stop was going to be City of Rocks but we decided that was too much back tracking so it got nixed, so we were off to Minidoka. This turned out to be extremely difficult. Minidoka is an old Japanese internment camp in the middle of nowhere Idaho. It's also one of the newest facilities under NPS authority and as such a visitor centers is not yet finished. Apparently they also haven't put up many sign for it either. We drove around these rural dirt roads for half an hour trying to find the place with no luck. We later found that we were closer than we thought.

Once we found our way back to the interstate there was only one thing left on the list for the day, Hagerman Fossil Beds. Google maps failed to provide me with a valid location and instead took us to a little river area where people were swimming. That's where we came across this little waterfall:

Dad used his cunning to find a sign that pointed us in the right direction and we were off. Unfortunately we weren't going to see much. Turns out that about a week before our visit the entire area fell victim to a fire and pretty much everything was shut down. Here are a few shots of the area though:

After touring the area we heading off for the freeway. On our way we went through the town of Hagerman, where we found the visitor center for both the fossil beds and the temporary one for Minidoka. This is where we found out how close we actually were and when the fire happened. There was also a short film about the geology of the fossil beds that was really interesting. Apparently the majority of the cliffs were formed in just eight weeks when an ancient lake in the Utah basin spilled over its banks and water went rushing through the valley.

Then it was back on the freeway and the long drive home. Not much to speak of at this point. We made it to Oregon.

I've been on the majority of the route from that point on. The one cool thing that happened was while I was driving in eastern Oregon. Since Nebraska I'd wanted to see tumble weeds with no such luck. However while doing about 75 down the interstate one came out of nowhere and hit my door! Shook me up for a bit, but well worth seeing.

Then we crossed the river into Washington.

It was about 8:00pm when we crossed Snoqualmie Pass. We were welcomed back to Western Washington with rain. It was most fitting and very appreciated. After everything we'd seen I was happy to find that home was just as it's always been.

I'm going to do a final wrap up post, maybe today, maybe tomorrow, with my final impressions. All in all though a great trip. Thanks so much Dad for the experience. You rock!

Day 14 - Colorado and Utah or "Where have all the Dinosaurs gone?"

2010-09-07T11:19:00.000-07:00

First off I'd like to apologize for the delay in getting the final posts up. Our hotel Friday night was a bit lacking in the wifi department and I decided to go out for a couple beers instead. Then when I got back to Seattle I was just wanting to relax for a couple days. This is how it all went down either way.

By the time I woke up Dad had already got the car over to have the breaks checked out. Turns out it needed new pads so we had a few hours of just hanging out in the hotel room. Wasn't so bad, it was a nice place. It was more like a hunting lodge than anything else. There were stuffed bears as you walked into the lobby and various horns scattered about in strange places. This is how I will remember Craig, CO. Here is a shot that Dad got while waiting for the car. Apparently it wasn't just the hotel that had a thing for hunting:

Once we were sure that we could stop safely it was off to Dinosaur National Monument!

The monument is divided into two areas. The first is the canyon area. I was amazed at how beautiful it was. When I'd decided to stop by I was expecting it to be all about dinosaurs but the cliffs and canyons were a pleasant surprise.

I've never been to the Grand Canyon which is what Dad compare this to. I feel like I have to go now because this was magnificent. The variation in color and texture was surreal, the pictures don't do it justice. While we were touring this area Dad told me that he wasn't so excited about the idea of going to a place to look at dinosaur bones. That'd be "lame" in his opinion, so he was happy that it wasn't just a bunch of bones.

After leaving the canyon area we had to get back into Utah (a portion of the canyon is in Utah):

The Fossil area was the second section which was a little disappointing and a little unexpected. Turns out that the area that has all the dinosaur bones wasn't open. You read that correctly. Dinosaur NM had no dinosaur bones to be seen (with the exception of a few in a temporary visitors center). You can imagine the frustration. It seemed that everywhere we went something was closed for some reason. But it turned out to be fairly interesting in the end. Driving through there were even more crazy rock formations all around us. And to top it off there was a variety of petroglyphs etched into the rocks.

This is just a small sampling of the pictures I took. There was so many things to photograph I went a little crazy. But I figure it's better to have too many than to regret not taking more.

By the time we were finished at Dinosaur we decided to skip the caves in Utah. It was too late to do them and we were both starting to want to get home. So instead of staying in Salt Lake City we set our sights on Pocatello, ID.

Since we weren't staying in SLC there wasn't much reason to stop there, but I did snag this picture while we were cruising through:

We also stopped just north of the city in a place called Roy, UT to get some food at Burger Bar (a triple D site). The food was great, the only down side was that it was a drive in and we had to eat in the car. Usually not such a horrible thing, but after spending 10 hours a day in it for a week you can understand that I wasn't enthusiastic about it. The burger made up for it though.

Not much else to speak of. We drove north to Pocatello in the dark and got ourselves a room. Dad was beat and called it an early night while I ventured next door for a couple of beers. Didn't expect a couple things about that. First, Idaho apparently doesn't have indoor clean air laws so the place was smoky as all hell. Secondly, rural Idahoans are a strange bunch when it comes to karaoke. We'll leave it at that.

Day 13 - Rocky Mountain National Park or "I've never been so high in my life"

2010-09-02T22:22:00.000-07:00

This morning started off early. I got up and finished uploading a bunch of pics from yesterday. I had hoped to get a post out, but as you can see that didn't happen till this evening. We had breakfast with the Greenfield's and conversed for a little while before I had to start pushing to get on the road. However that wasn't until after I tried to breathe my coffee and nearly spit out a whole mouth full on the entire table. I was able to choke it back, but the downside to that was my choking for about five minutes. It was pretty hilarious.

But back to the real story. We left around 10 o'clock, a little later than intended, but still a decent hour. It wasn't far up I-25 before we started back west. Pretty much as soon as we shifted directions we began to gain altitude. The Roosevelt National Forest was pretty. I had been wondering if the Rockies were really that rocky. Rest assured, they are.

Estes Park was pretty cool. It's the kind of place I could see myself spending summers at.

Now you may notice that little black dot. It's in all my pictures. I'm not too happy about it. Honestly I'm really angry. I'm hoping that once I take some more time (I should say Rebecca takes some more time) to figure it out it can be fixed. Hopefully.

Just after Estes Park we entered Rocky Mountain National Park.

We weren't even two miles in when we encountered a herd of Elk roaming around in the lowlands.

There was one male running the show and another would be suitor straggling behind. One of the rangers stopped to take some pictures with us and told us the term for it, but I can't remember. Dad might.

After this we ran up to Hidden Valley for a bathroom break. There's a little creek that runs through that I was diggin'.

Then I met a new friend!

His name is Barry

It was after this point that Dad got a little uncomfortable with the whole scene. You see he isn't a big fan of heights and we just kept going higher and higher while the drops got closer and closer. At Many Parks Curve I got out and got some great pics. I'm really hoping that my attempt at a panoramic turns out, but I have to spend some time on that one.

Now while I was out gallivanting along the edge, Dad was making sure no one stole the car.

The roads were just as beautiful as the vistas.

The next stop was at Forest Canyon. On the way up we hit a short of milestone. I can say with certainty I'd never been that high before.

Once we got up to the Forest Canyon view point, wow. Spectacular! It was so stunning that Dad even had to get out and have a closer looker.

Now to give you a better idea of how nerve racking some of this driving was take a look at this shot where the road winds around and then seems to drop off entirely (even I'll admit, it was a steep drop).

Okay I'm going to pick up the pace a little bit with this post. Next major thing we saw was Lava Cliffs.

Here we have a shot of Dad driving, almost like he's flying a helicopter.

Just before the Gore Range look out we hit the highest point of our trip.

The view was just amazing, but there was one thing that seemed to be missing - snow! The majority of these peaks are over 14,000 feet high and there was only the occasional spec of snow left. It must get a lot hotter here than I would have guessed. As a frame of reference for all you Washingtonians out there, Mt Rainier is 14,411 and can you remember the last time you saw it without any snow?

We had lunch up at the Alpine Visitors Center (elevation 11,796). Didn't take any pictures here because the place was tore up due to construction. We were actually about to find that the whole west side of the park was under construction along the roadway for repaving. Now we were going slow to begin with, about 25 mph, but we came to a grinding halt and ended up averaging probably 10 mph for the majority of the road down. Most of that was because they had pilot cars set up and we spent a lot of time waiting.

I really thought I got some pictures of the Colorado River at this point, apparently not. I've seen the Colorado before, at Hoover Dam, but this was nothing like that. It's a small windy river that contrasts beautifully with the surrounding landscape. I'm really kickin' myself about this now.

When it was all said and done we'd spent 6 hours traveling about 70 miles. By far the slowest traveling day so we had to make up for it a bit. We cruised for while through north-central Colorado. The landscape seemed to change every time I looked up.

After a little while we decided to call it quits in Craig, CO where I am currently sitting at a desk in our hotel room writing this post for you. Tomorrow should be interesting. We're going to start off by having the brakes double checked, there was a slight noise and it's better to be safe than sorry. We're also staying at a place that happens to be adjacent to a dealer so they should be able to help us out. Then it's off to Dinosaur National Monument, Timpanogos Caves and Salt Lake City, UT!

Phew, I can't believe I'm now all caught up on blogging! YAY!!!!!

Day 12 - Nebraska or "None of this was supposed to happen"

2010-09-02T20:56:00.000-07:00

The original plan was to go from SE Missouri over to Kansas City and call it a night. Then we'd wake up in the morning go to the Truman Library, cruise over into Kansas to see TruckHenge and the Eisenhower Library before making our way to Denver for the evening. All of that got scrapped as you've already discovered.

Instead we decided to spent some quality time with a new friend of mine, Nebraska. In the end the change was for the best as we got to see some amazing stuff and still ended up in Denver on time.

Before we left Lincoln we rolled back into Downtown because I'd noticed a pretty cool building the day before, but we couldn't really see it that well because of the storm. Turns out it was the state capitol building.

After that we were off on our way west into the panhandle. Dad and I both agree, it's kinda fat to be a panhandle, but that's what they call it. The sky was still a little dreary, but there was hope on the horizon and we kept good thoughts that it was going to all push east or just dissipate.

I don't think there is a flatter or straighter road in existence than I-80 between Lincoln and the Platte River. It became rather redundant but we made good time. We reached Ogallala just about lunch time and headed northwest.

Our first point of interest was Chimney Rock. If you've ever played the Oregon Trail then you've heard of Chimney Rock. It was a major landmark along the wagon route west. We were about 10 miles away when we first spotted it (after miss identifying it a couple of times). As we got closer it was without a doubt our destination.

They had a little visitors center there, not much to speak of really. Surprisingly it's listed as a National Historic Site but it's not managed by the NPS. The Nebraska Historical Society was running the show, so it wasn't as decked out as I thought it would be but they had some interesting stuff and the rock itself was still worthwhile to see.

Our next stop wasn't too far away, about 20 miles, Scott's Bluff National Monument. This was amazing. We could already see it shortly after leaving Chimney and as we got closer I started to realize how massive this thing really was.

The little museum there wasn't much to speak of either, but the museum wasn't even really needed in my opinion. The land was the real spectacle. So we headed up the bluff on this little road. Dad wasn't entirely thrilled about the steep cliff off the side of the road, but he soldiered Atlas up to the top. The view up there went on forever. We started down a little trail to a vista. Dad turned back a little early, but I went all the way out and it was well worth it.

In the end I thought Nebraska was top notch. Well not so much the middle, but either side was exciting in my experience. But alas our time in the cornhusker state had to come to an end. We traveled south into Wyoming for a short while. I'd never been to Wyoming. In fact a good friend of mine once rationalized a theory that Wyoming doesn't really exist and it made a lot of sense. If his theory is correct we weren't really in Wyoming but instead a combination of Nebraska and Colorado. They had a sign though.

Real or not, it's a strange place. I think the weirdest thing I saw in our short time was a giant religious statue in this square of sorts overlooking an RV park.

Its kind of irrelevant in the scheme of things because we weren't there for more than 30 minutes, the shortest time we'll spend in any state (well they may have spent less time in WV on the way out), before we hit Colorado.

I didn't expect much from Colorado at this point (the good stuff would be tomorrow) and there really isn't much to say about it. The nice thing was that you could tell the landscape was changing and there were peaks visible on the horizon, something I'd not seen since leaving Seattle.

In Denver we stayed with some old friend of my Dad's that he hadn't seen in years. I can't begin to tell you how hospitable they were, but I will say we had steak and shrimp for dinner. Delicious. After we ate I decided to run into downtown since I wouldn't get another chance and it seemed like they were going to chat the night away.

Before I left 16th Street Mall was briefly mentioned but I didn't think much of it. I just hit I-25 again and decided to see where it led me. Funny thing is, somehow I ended up on the 16th Street Mall.

Probably the best place I could've been because the place was hopping. The whole street is closed to wheeled vehicles with a few exceptions and littered with shops, restaurants and bars. If I hadn't had been driving I'm sure I'd have gotten myself into trouble. But with the keys in my pocket I kept a clear head and just walked about a mile down and back up. I saw the capitol building and the mint along with various street performance, squares, etc. The bummer is that my camera didn't work so well at night and most of them turned out too blurry to even bother posting. Here's one of the more decent shots.

Oh yeah, then I went back and went to sleep. But you probably could have guessed that.

Day 11 - Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska or "The Arch, The Library and The Storm"

2010-09-01T23:31:00.000-07:00

It was in the low 70s when we woke up, perfect weather to walk around the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, better known as the St Louis Gateway Arch. But first we had to get there. Since we did a little extra driving the night before all we really had to do was cross the Mississippi and we were there. It was visible within about 15 minutes.

Then for the first time in my life I saw the Mississippi River. I wasn't terribly impressed. It was narrower and slower than the Columbia. Maybe I just have high expectations. As we crossed the river we also crossed into Missouri.

The Gateway Arch is situated as the focal point of a beautiful park. I thought that the landscaping was very well done. Both sides of the park were completely symmetrical, With the exception of the placement of the ponds. It was starting to warm up, but there were trees everywhere to block out the oppressive sun.

Up close the Arch is something else. I don't really know how to describe it so I'll just show you.

Underneath is a whole museum dedicated to all things relating to western expansion. I found it really interesting. I think we spent an hour just meandering about.

We thought about going up the Arch, but it would have taken an hour and neither of us were really feeling it, we also had a lot more things to see before the days end. So after the museum we walked around the park a little bit more and then headed out for the long haul across Missouri.

Missouri was boring to be honest with you. I spent most of the time playing my Gameboy. I love that the Gameboy I've had for 15 years still works. It's kind of my touchstone when it comes to traveling. It's perfect for when the scenery becomes monotonous.

Our next stop was in Independence, on the other side of the state. While trying to find Truman's Presidential Library we stumbled upon this epic Mormon compound. The center piece of which was a giant spire.

Once we got back on track we found the library. There was a couple of different movies we could have watched, but I've already seen a 3 hour documentary on Truman and Dad's read an extensive biography so we thought it'd just be things we already knew. However the exhibits were great.

I have so many more pics over on my flickr page, feel free to check them out. I learned a few things that I didn't know prior. For instance, Truman and his wife were the first two Americans to receive Medicare cards. And now you know too.

After the library it was time for some Kansas City BBQ. Rebecca sent us the address to a place that she wanted us to pick up some rub so we figured it was as good as any to eat at. And it was. I liked the fact that it was smoked, which also meant it wasn't drenched in BBQ sauce. You could really taste the meat itself. Good coleslaw too. Kind of like kim chi.

Now the next stop on our trip, Brown v Board of Education National Historic Site, unfortunately closed too early for us to make it in time. I think it would have been interesting, it's housed in an old segregated school, but oh well. These things happen. So we cruised through Kansas for only a short while. Then it was up to Nebraska. I had no idea I was going to love Nebraska.

But in the end how could I not? It has so much CORN!!!!

The crazy thing in Nebraska was the weather. The mercury had risen to nearly triple digits and it was just plain balmy. Until we noticed some dark clouds forming on the horizon.

Only an hour later we were in the middle of the most intense thunderstorm I'd ever been in. Rain was pouring down on the car heavy than going through a car wash. Lightning was flashing in all directions around us. Many times Dad had to slow to about 20mph on the highway, because visibility was nothing.

Not the best picture, but you get the idea. Right behind us your could still see the sky

I also have about 45 minutes of video footage from this whole event, but I'm going to need to figure out how to edit it down. Probably not till I get back, sorry.

Once the storm cleared up we were able to make good time to Lincoln, NE where we found a room and hunkered down for the night. At one point I tried to do some laundry, but there was no soap in the motel so I had to walk over to the gas station. Bad idea. Mind you it was only about 1/2 a block away but by the time I got there I was soaked to the bone. The storm had decided it was time for round two and I foolishly went out into it. Doh! The worst part was they didn't even have laundry soap. Ugh. Good thing I could make it another day.

***I apologize if this is littered with spelling and grammatical errors. I will fix them in time. Right now I'm struggling to stay awake. Must sleep. I can't believe that I feel more sleep deprived on vacation than I usually do at work***

Day 10 - West Virginia, Kentucky, Indian, and Illinois or "The Birthplace and The Subterranean."

2010-08-31T21:30:00.000-07:00

We started off the morning in West Virginia, but it wasn't long before we hit Kentucky.

I was pleasantly surprised with how beautiful Kentucky was. I guess I expected it to be one large rural slum, which it definitely was not. Funny how we get these ideas in our heads.

Most of what we saw was farm land. There wasn't any one crop that seemed to dominate the landscape but the one thing we saw that we didn't see else where was tobacco.

The first destination that we had was Abraham Lincoln's Birthplace. We were about 15 miles from there when we came across Lincoln's boyhood home. It was just a small log cabin, but it was interesting to see the inside and how people lived at that time. Very minimalist. It also turned out to be a good thing that we stopped to get a view of the inside, but we wouldn't know that until later.

Then we made out way to the main historic site.

This was pretty cool and disappointing at the same time. The Visitor Center had some great stuff about his early life and what it was like to live on the frontier. However the actually memorial (I had no idea that this was also the first national memorial to him predating the one in Washington by a decade) was undergoing renovations so we weren't able to go inside. Zut Alors! Good thing we saw the interior of the other cabin;.

After that we grabbed a quick bite on the road and bombed down to Mammoth Caves

The caves were so cool. Both figuratively and literally, it was a perfect 54 degrees inside, which was very welcome being as had been in the mid 90s for a few days. If any of you find yourself in Kentucky, make a point to check this out and tour some of the caves. It's time well spent. The cave system is almost 400 miles in its entirety. We did the "Historic Tour" which starts at the largest natural entrance to the caves.

The only thing that it was missing was stalactites and stalagmites. However the ranger told us that those do exist in various parts of the caves, namely on the "New Entrance Tour", just not where we were. At the same time, the massive rooms, bottomless pits, and wall formations were more than enough to impress.

Not much to speak of after the caves. We decided to alter the plan a little bit and head up closer to St Louis so we'd be in better position for the Arch in the morning. On the way we passed through Indiana and Illinois but it was dark so there isn't much to say about it.

Oh wait! For the first time the whole trip Dad finally gave up behind the wheel and I ended up driving for about 150 miles. Mostly because he got some massive blisters in DC and the 2 miles in the caves didn't help at all. Atlas (I've told him that we need to finalize the results btw) is an interesting ride. I don't think it was really designed for people of my height, but I've driven much worse so I can't really complain.

The one other thing I've found that I'll let you in on is lodging coupons. At every rest stop they have little magazine like things advertising lodging in the area. These are a great way to find deals on rooms. We've trimmed down the lodging budget substantially because of them.

Hopefully I'll have enough energy to get today's post up too, but it seems to be taking forever to upload the pictures. We'll see.

Day 9 - Washington DC, Maryland, and West Virginia or "Final musings on the Capitol and then there were two."

2010-08-30T22:11:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning I woke up later than everyone else. Apparently there was a scene while the two of them had breakfast but I wasn't a part of that. Once Dad's laundry was wrapped up we were off to Comet Pizza for some lunch.

The pizza was pretty good. Rebecca and I both preferred The Smokey, while Dad liked The Slam better. The cool part about the place was the decor. I don't have many shots from lunch so I'm hoping that Dad or Rebecca can fill in some images here. There's also some pics on the twitter feed you can check out.

After that we headed out to Arlington and the Iwo Jima Marine Memorial. It was much bigger than I had expected.

Nearby there was the Dutch Carillon, a gift to US for helping out in WWII. Just as we were approaching it the bells all started to sound. It really completed the experience, without that it would have been a little disappointing.

Next we cruised past the Air Force Memorial and the Pentagon, sorry no pics. Then it was back into DC to check out the Jefferson Memorial. On the way we ran into George Mason.

Jefferson was cool, but also a little disappointing. They're rebuilding the seawall so there was a lot of construction going on. From the previews I saw it's going to be impressive when it's all finished. Unfortunately it made it so we had to park a ways out and the heat in DC was killer, which made us all that much more irritable. I didn't get too many pics here, but I'm sure Rebecca can supplement what I've got.

After that we were running out of time and had to load up the car and get up to BWI so Rebecca could catch her flight. It was great that we were able to over lap for a little while, but after a week on the road I think she was ready to go home.

The rest of the day/evening was spent driving from BWI to Dunbar, WV. By the time we got there we were both spent. I stayed up a bit later fighting the horrible wi-fi connection before finally just giving up on the whole thing.

DC through my lens

2010-08-28T23:00:00.000-07:00

Just so we're clear, Adam's a pretty decent photographer. His experience as an artist (incredibly talented painter!) serve him well in the photographic medium. But I took the better equipment home with me. ;) Though he tried hard to talk me into leaving it! Love that boy, but I have plans for that camera this weekend! As previously mentioned, while the guys were at the rally, I hooked up with some of my photographer friends in Georgetown. After a tasty and fun lunch at Filomena, we headed out to play with our cameras a bit.

Kim let me try out her 35mm L lens. (Canon shooters will appreciate the deliciousness of this!)

Then Michele suggested I check out her 20mm wide angle lens - WHOA! Everything fits in the frame!

Including my toes!

After hanging with them until about 6pm, I jumped back the metro to meet up with the guys. We grabbed a quick Qdoba dinner and headed out to tour the monuments at night. We took the scenic route which is how the poor dad ended up with blisters nearly the size of my palm! I was beat from walking around Georgetown, but got some cool shots that night.

Capitol Building

Washington Monument from the side we approached (opposite Lincoln)

Washington Monument + Vietnam War Memorial

There are lots more on my computer, but this is it so far! Enjoy!

Day 8 - DC Memorials After Dark

2010-08-28T22:00:00.000-07:00

Last night we went on an epic walk around DC. We saw walked down Pennsylvania Ave up to the Capitol building and then back down to the Lincoln Memorial and up to GWU to catch the metro. Here's some of the pictures I got. I'm sure Rebecca will post some in the near future in an attempt to over do me with her photographic skills but at least I'm first. What!

Washington Monument from the Vietnam Wall

Lincoln Memorial through the World War II Memorial

Fountains at the World War II Memorial

Capitol Building

There are also more pics on my flickr account if you're interested. As for now it's already noon and we haven't left the hotel room. It's time to head out to Arlington, see the rest of the memorials we missed yesterday (Jefferson, FDR, etc), and hit up a couple other spots (Library of Congress, Supreme Court).

Couple more picture, showing love for the home state:

Day 8 (RJS) - I have the greatest friends ever. Seriously.

2010-08-28T20:59:00.000-07:00

Several years now, I joined a chat board with a bunch of girls into photography. Through this board I have met some of the most amazing, talented, generous, wonderful women out there. Today I got to meet 4 of them in person. :D My friends, Michele, Kim, Kelly & Amy, came to spend the day with me while the guys went to the rally. We met up in Georgetown (it's OLD!) and had lunch, cruised around, sat and chatted in a mall, walked around some more. It was so, so fun!

I can't even really explain what it's like... I've known most of these girls for over 3 years now and we chat (fb, the board, text, etc) on a pretty regularly basis. I might even wager I talk to Kim online as much as I do Adam these days! I am so, so blessed. While my feet and legs are TIRED and SORE from walking around (Georgetown for 2-3 hours and then around the monuments for 3-4 hours) my heart is so full and happy. Yeah, I'm a little cheesy - deal! ;)

If I can find an outlet at BWI and I have time to sit for a bit, I'll try to get some shots up. We really had the bestest time. Now I just need to talk my sweet husband into 4-5 day adventures in Chicago, Philly, Jersey & DC. :D

Here is a shot of me with the gals! We had a random passerby shoot it real quick. It turned out pretty good!

Day 8 - Washington DC or "How much more out of place can I be?"

2010-08-28T14:48:00.000-07:00

I'm going to do a quick post about the rally. Nothing too in depth, just some pictures.

There were people everywhere:

Pretty much as far as you could see:

At times it was a little difficult to keep track of dad, but I always found him:

This guy apparently wasn't aware that when it comes to wolves with moon t-shirts, it's three wolf moon!:

Everyone was a little flag happy too:

Okay one more and then I'll leave it up to Dad to tell the whole story:

Day 7 - Seattle International Airport or "Airport Idling"

2010-08-27T21:12:00.000-07:00

So my part in this journey is about to take off. Literally. I'm waiting for my flight to leave Sea-Tac. It's a bit strange. This is the first red eye flight I've ever taken that is going to be filled to capacity, or so they say.I think I have to believe them because the gate is littered with people. Hopefully I can still get some sleep on the plane, but I'm beginning to realize that might not happen, which could lead to a very interesting day tomorrow. I started this morning at 6:30 so I'm already starting to fade a little.

I should also point out that I had no problems at all getting through security. The brother-in-law was convinced I'd get a full strip search; single guy flying one way to DC without any luggage, I guess it could happen. But it didn't. Looks like we're starting to board. We'll see if they have free wifi in Baltimore or on the train to DC. If not it might be tomorrow night before my text post. However keep an eye on the twitter feed as I'll be posted pics of the rally there until I can do a proper post.

Day 7 - Philadelphia, PA to Washington DC

2010-08-27T19:30:00.000-07:00

We woke up in Philly on Friday morning and eventually got ourselves out of the hotel. It took us a couple of tries, but we got tickets to see Independence Hall at 12:30pm. What an incredible place! It's building that's stood for centuries. It's probably the oldest building I've ever been in. So cool.

First room on the tour, pretty sure it was a courtroom.

Detail on the interior of the first room

LOVED this roman shade in the second room!

One of the rooms upstairs.

Guns! (also upstairs)

Loved this piano!

Exterior

Shot I grabbed from the freeway as we were leaving Philly

We had to go through...

To get to...

After checking into our hotel in MD, Dad and I jumped on the metro (went the wrong way one stop) and headed into the city to see what was going on down at the mall.

We hopped off the subway at Farragut North and walked down to the mall. We came in about here (WWII Memorial) -

The Lincoln Memorial was CRAWLING with people!

We had to get closer...

Caught this shot of the Washington Monument from the steps of Lincoln...

More to come from our other days in the city!

Silk City Diner

2010-08-27T18:10:00.000-07:00

Silk City Diner Bar & Lounge
435 Spring Garden Street
Philadelphia, PA 19123

We landed in Philadelphia Thursday night tired and without a plan for dinner.Rebecca hopped on to her I Phone and looked up the nearest Triple 'D' location and off we went. Coming off the White Palace Grill experience I wasn't feeling too excited about the possibilities. Boy was I pleasantly surprised. We both ordered the Meatloaf and we both left very happy. It was about the size of my fist and wrapped in bacon (that might be the way I want to be buried). Then it was covered in a mushroom gravy sauce that would make Adam's flip flops taste good. All that rested on mashed potatoes with peas filling out the plate. Did I mention I loved it!!! I must return to Philly yo try their other entree's (hear that Sharon, were going to Philly),but not in the summer.

Day Six - Wheeling WV to Philadelphia PA

2010-08-27T18:00:00.000-07:00

Day six was not a big picture day. Sorry folks! We slept until 11am, and nearly had to pry ourselves out of the bed with a crow bar. Yeah, we were pretty wiped out. After we saw our first Cracker Barrel (no idea where that was, might have been as early as Coeur d'Alene) we kept looking for one at a meal time. It wasn't until our first meal on day six that we succeeded! Cracker Barrel is some good ol' down home food. I ordered biscuits & gravy - YUM.

We spent the rest of that day on the road to Philly. However it was leaving WV that we missed our first state sign - SHOOT! We thought it was another 5 or so miles and I just couldn't pull it off in time. So, we had about an 8 mile detour to go back and get it again. Dad insisted that I shoot the WV state sign again since technically we were crossing the state line again.

And other than shooting the state lines, I didn't pick up my camera. I was stil pretty beat from being on the road until 3am. The Pennsylvania countryside was lovely! Very green, lots of trees and just some beautiful land. The "service plazas" are pretty incredible. Being from the NW and not driving much outside of WA/OR, I had NO idea what much of the country considers to be a rest stop. I feel lucky if we've got indoor plumbing and a soda machine! I would never have expected Hershey's Ice Cream, Burger King, Popeyes + a pizza place. CRAZY!

Also being from WA, I'm not real experienced with the various kinds of tolls. I was pretty shocked when we got this in western PA -

SERIOUSLY, it cost us $18.05! WTH?!?

Anyway, we found ourselves a room at the LOVELY Alexander Inn. The room was small, though Dad said it was bigger than NYC. It had a full + twin. Yes, I was a good girl and took the twin. I know the pecking order! :D Honestly though, it was comfy and in the middle of things! We went out that night to our 3rd triple D spot - Silk City Diner. Try it. SO GOOD. I took a nuts picture inside the restaurant of their bar with the hipstamatic app on my phone.

I tried to take a picture of our food, but it was REALLY REALLY dark inside. Sorry!

We're in DC tonight having an awesome time. Shot some images of the Lincoln Memorial + Washington Monument. Tomorrow the guys are going to the rally while I'm at brunch with some friends. Good times to be had for sure!

We're seriously behind in blogging...

2010-08-26T22:00:00.001-07:00

Eventually we'll catch up! I think. ;) Possibly tonight!

Brief update - Day 4 consisted of getting up EARLY and leaving Minnesota to catch an early tour of Taliesin. No, those images aren't ready yet. Sorry! After touring Taliesin, we headed down to Chicago. Since we'd gotten only 4-6 hours of sleep the night before, we hit Smoque for dinner (GOOD!) and then found a hotel. We ended up at the Best Western down by Grant Park. It was fine except the wifi signal was CRAP. Drove me nuts. Which was part of the reason I didn't blog. That and I was wiped out so I went to sleep. ;) The next morning I got some of the previous days images up but that was it. We took a walk around Grant Park - lovely! I just realized I have a couple of images on my phone, yay! Here is one from Grant Park and one of the Sears Tower w/Chicago River. I'll work on the rest tonight! We're in Philly with an awesome wifi signal. Dad's pretty beat, but I've got some energy left. Stay tuned!

White Palace Grill

2010-08-26T22:00:00.000-07:00

White Palace Dinner

1159 South Canal Street
Chicago, IL 60607-4906

Rebecca and I got up Wednesday morning and walked across the Chicago River to eat breakfast at the White Palace Grill. On the show Guy was all about their dinner meals as I recall. Italian and comfort food, not breakfast. Now I know why. I had an omelet and pancakes, neither of which would draw me back for a second visit. I will say the service was was good, but when the best thing being delivered is the Diet Coke it means I won't be rushing back anytime soon.

I did enjoy the building. It has a nice dinner feel to it with the red and chrome motif.

http://www.whitepalacegrill.com/

Day Five - Chicago IL to Wheeling WV

2010-08-26T21:31:00.000-07:00

We woke in Chicago on the 5th day of our trip. We both woke early and spent some time online. Or in my case, screaming at the CRAPPY internet signal in our room. Dad's machine didn't see to have any trouble staying connected, but I got booted CONSTANTLY. Hence the limited amount of blogging that occurred.

We hung out for a bit because I was hoping to connect with a friend of mine. We used to work together and spent 7-8 hours every day about 3 feet from each other. Thank goodness we became friends! ;) Alas, my dear friend and I weren't able to get together. She's busy teaching philosophy while completing her Ph.D. Yeah, she's super smart like that. ;) Dad & I eventually headed out to get some breakfast. We had managed to score a room at the Best Western down on Grant Park - awesome location! We ended up in a smoking room, but thankfully it wasn't too bad. Breakfast that day was at DDD location #2 - White Palace Grill. I'll let Dad tell you about that too. The DDD is kind of his thing. ;)

After breakfast we went for a walk down past the aquarium (which Dad says is the coolest one ever - sharks!), along the harbor and so on. Lake Michigan was incredible! I've never been at a lake where all you see at the horizon is water at the curve of the earth. So awesome!

We needed to check out of the hotel, so we grabbed our stuff and then drove north along the lake for a few miles to check out the view. For lunch we hit up Al's for Italian beef sandwiches. SO GOOD. Also a Dad thing, but not DDD! I'll let him fill you in.

Dad had made plans for us to go out to dinner in Indiana with his lovely mother-in-law, Rosemary. We got a little confused about what side of town she lived on and ended up WAY later than we planned. Oh well! Life happens. We just rolled with it. Unfortunately, something happened earlier this week and R wasn't able to hear us at all. :( We weren't about to let that stop us though! We went to dinner armed with a note pad, pen and a video camera. We got some great stuff. Hopefully it will be ready later today. It's sooooooooo good!

We'd thought about staying in Columbus OH, that night but there was some concern about bed bugs (the state has had a major outbreak recently) so we ended up leaving western Indianapolis about 9:30pm.

We made it to Wheeling WV (barely!) and pulled into our hotel at 3am. I thought that this one was the nicest we've stayed at so far. And go figure, it's the one we're in for barely 9 hours! We were thrilled to have found it. We thought we'd be forced to go into PA, and were pleasantly surprised to find a bit of West Virginia first!

And then we collapsed.

Smoque BBQ Review

2010-08-26T21:11:00.000-07:00

Smoque BBQ

3800 North Pulaski

Chicago, IL

This was the first triple 'D' restaurant we visited. I was really glad that we showed up on Tuesday because we both looked at the door and saw that they were closed on Monday. We would have been really ticked off, After the Voula's disaster.

We had driven all day ending in Chicago rush hour traffic. We abandoned the freeway (parking lot) and Rebecca successfully navigated us through numerous back streets to Smoque. I was very pleased with the aroma as we walked in. The line wasn't too long and we quickly ordered. Rebecca ordered sliced brisket and pork. Looked good. I got the 1/2 rack of baby back ribs, Coleslaw, baked beans and corn bread. Then I finished it all off with some Peach cobbler (small so as not to spike my blood sugar). I found the entire meal quite delightful including the conversation with my charming daughter, navigator and eastward traveling compatriot. So if you are ever in Chicago and must have some good BBQ be sure to check it out. I'm certain I will return in the future to try out some other things on the menu. http://www.smoquebbq.com/menu.html

Taliesin

2010-08-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

The trip to Taliesin was an on the fly decision. We were bombing across the middle of South Dakota (the most boring stretch of road I've ever driven with the exception of the Mojave desert). I've been to Taliesin once before but didn't get into the main residence. This was the day. There were many spaces (inside and out) like the one below that compressed and then released you.

Unfortunately we weren't allowed to photograph anything inside the house but the shots of the 600 acre site were amazing.

I really love the shot below of the hill across from the house. It looked like it would end near the Romeo and Juliet windmill tower and Tay-y-deri ( a house Wright designed for some family member).

The inside of the house was very interesting. I loved some the spaces, like a little off to the side of the cantilevered deck over looking to grounds and the valley. The main entertaining room reminded me of the main room at Falling Water. There was a 150-300 year old Chinese rug in the families private living area that wouldn't fit between the columns til Mr. Wright took out a knife and cut the rug around the columns. What an ego, but I will say it looked great in the room.

The structure seems to be falling apart. I asked our tour guide what the estimate was to bring the entire house up snuff, and after trying to dodge my question, she said that a couple years back the number was 60 million dollars. I hope they raise the money and fix this great piece of thinking. Mr. Wright's way of seeing space was amazing. There was an interaction between interior and exterior, the made you aware of who owned what around the property. The horse stables had a beautiful view (one most of us would kill for) but not one he controlled so the family quarters all over looked a hill across the way the he and his family owned and could control.

These steps were something that were found all around the property. They drew you into either small intimate places to sit a sip tea (diet coke) or to view expansive vistas of the surroundings. I really enjoyed looking at the detail he placed into everything. From the repeating of stone in the hills across the way to the little "tv" trays he design from plywood (it was during the depression) for his guests to eat there meals from in the main entertaining room.

I want to added a special thanks to Rebecca for 1) being willing to take this side trip and for 2) for taking these beautiful photographs for me to remember this stop.

I will return to Taliesin with plans to take the "Estate Tour" (4 hours) . We took the "House Tour" (2 hours) and previously took the "Hillside Tour" (1 hour).

http://www.taliesinpreservation.org/

Day Four - Worthington MN to Chicago IL

2010-08-26T20:32:00.000-07:00

We got up EARLY (out the door by 6am) on Tuesday morning (after arriving after midnight). We left MN headed for Taliesin in Spring Green WI. Our path took us through south eastern MN, NE Iowa and into WI. Seeing the sunrise was actually really nice. I just wish the sun could rise later as a general rule so I could see it more often!

In Iowa we saw the Mississippi River, lovely!

The property at Taliesin was just gorgeous! I had NO idea WI was so beautiful!

Unfortunately, we weren't permitted to take pictures inside of Taliesin. The house and property have a really interesting story. If you've read Loving Frank, you might recall this house. I won't say what MAJOR thing happened here in case one of you hasn't finished the book yet and doesn't know how it all turns out. It really is a fascinating piece of architecture.

After the tour we made our way into Chicagoland! Can anyone explain WHY on earth it's referred to as Chicagoland? There's gotta be a story there!

I'm going to let Dad blog about dinner. All I have to say is YUM. And, it's after midnight here in Philly, so images from Chicago and our trek across Ohio will have to wait until tomorrow. Night all!

Day 4 - Four Days with the Father

2010-08-26T18:24:00.000-07:00

It continues...

Rebecca and I have been on the road for 4 days now. I've driven almost 2400 miles. I haven't felt like sharing the driving yet. I guess it's okay for me to cruise at 90 MPH in my own car but not ready to let go of the reigns.

Day One

We made it to Shirlene's (my mom's good friend) home in Dalhton Gardens, ID Saturday evening. We had a great meal and some really fun conversation. Shirlene sent us along our way Sunday morning with a bag of trail mix and raspberry muffins. We made those guys last until the middle of Tuesday. Good stuff, thanks Shirlene!

Day Two

We went thru Yellowstone for most of the day. Saw some elk, Rebecca snapped a shot of one with a radio transmitter antena sticking up above its ear. We stopped at several pools of bubbling mud and other pools of hot water with stinking sulfer pouring out and engulfing us. We video taped Old Faithful while chatting with this delightful older couple celebrating their 59th wedding aniversary. Amazing. Real nice folk. I've been making a real effort to talk to strangers and its been kinda fun. I had made it all day without anyone passing me and some local about 20 minutes out of Cody flew by me in the dark, RATS! A perfect day shot to ...

Day Three

The road between Cody and Sheridan, WY provided the biggest suprise so far. There was a canyon that simply knocked our socks off!!! We were later able to see both Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse. Very cool stuff!!! Then we drove another 500 miles clear across South Dakota and about 50 miles into Minnesota. I had a buffalo burger in Mitchell, SD - good stuff. The dinner break lasted long enough for the sun to set and spare us the balance of the mind numbing landscape of eastern South Dakota.

Day Four

We broke camp and hit the road at 6:15am. Neither Rebecca or I were rested or excited about getting out, but the chance to see the main residence at Taliesin in Spring Green,WI motivated us both. It was Rebecca's first time to visit Taliesin and my second. The house and grounds were amazing. He was an amazing Architect. Some very intriguing spaces. Worth the effort. We left for Chicago around 2pm.

All caught up for now...

Time to vote on the PT Cruiser's name!

2010-08-26T17:54:00.000-07:00

Dad reserved the right to include a name of his choosing. It's time to vote!!!

If Dad or Adam's name comes out to be the winner, we'll be drawing a name at random. Sorry brother, you're not eligible!

The prize will be either a $20 gas card or $20 to iTunes. Gas and music are road trip essentials. ;)

The poll is in the sidebar!!!!!!

South Dakota - Sturgis, Mt. Rushmore & Crazy Horse Mountain

2010-08-25T04:50:00.000-07:00

Our first stop in SD was in Sturgis. Dad wanted to check out Buffalo Chip where they hold the motorcycle thing. He was hoping to eat at a biker bar, but we went through at lunch time and they were all closed! We ended up with fast food in Rapid City on our way to Mt. Rushmore.

I started shooting as soon as we saw Mt. Rushmore, but realized you get plenty of perspective from where the visitors center is. This is looking down the columns with the state flags.

Dad with the mountain

Me with the mountain - you can see how the wind was blowing my hair all over!

This shot may make my brother crazy, but it made the dad mighty happy!

Caught a George Washington profile on our way out to Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse was pretty amazing. It was started in 1949 and all we have so far is the face of the man. They're working on the massive horse head next.

Ultimately it will look like this

You can check out a few more pics here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/rebeccajeanne/sets/72157624778008938/

After Crazy Horse, we got on the road and headed out of South Dakota. It was after dinner that we got the wild hair to drive an extra 250 miles to include the stop at Taliesin. I agree with Dad, it was worth it! Taliesin images coming soon!

Some of the missing images...

2010-08-25T04:17:00.000-07:00

On Monday morning we got in the car in Cody WY and started heading east. The route from Cody to Mt. Rushmore took us through Bighorn National Forest. I know both Dad & I have already mentioned it, but it was just breathtakingly beautiful. It was such a treat! Here are my favorite shots from that day...

Sun rising in Cody over the hotel office

The road into the forest/canyon/mountains

Gorgeousness!

As we came down the other of the mountains, we got this view of eastern WY.

From there it was into South Dakota!

ETA: We stopped for a quick dinner in SD and then it was into Minnesota!

Day Three - Cody, WY to Worthington, MN

2010-08-23T22:33:00.000-07:00

Um yeah, we're in Minnesota. No, that wasn't on the plan, but whatever! Plan schman. When talking about our possible routes/stopping places east of Mt. Rushmore, I gave Dad several options through SD, through Iowa and randomly through Minnesota/Wisconsin. Dad asked real serious like, "Is there a route that takes us through Madison, WI?" I said, "Yeah Dad, I-90. ;)" He didn't realize that if we keep to I-90 (instead of dropping down to I-80 through Iowa) that we'd go right through Madison. What I didn't know (or remember) is that Spring Green (outside of Madison) is the home of Frank Lloyd Wright. So we drove as far as we could reasonably manage tonight and made it to Worthington, MN. We made it almost 900 miles today. Woot woot! We're speedy. Tomorrow we'll be up early and on the road to WI, hoping to check out a 2 hour tour of FLW's home. Keep you posted!

Hopefully in the near future I'll get some images up from Bighorn National Forest, Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse Mountain. The mountain sculptures are pretty cool, but we both agreed that today's real treat was the forest! It was breathtaking. So glad our path included it!

Video of Old Faithful

2010-08-23T22:30:00.000-07:00

Dad captured some video of Old Faithful. It turned out pretty good!

Day Two - Coeur d'Alene to Cody - the full story

2010-08-23T22:10:00.001-07:00

Dad woke me up SUPER early on Sunday morning (5:30am on a Sunday, seriously?!) We ended up on the road about 7am. Yeah, I was thrilled. It’s a good thing I was looking forward to Yellowstone! The lovely Shirlene fed us breakfast and armed us with snacks (raspberry muffins that are DELISH) and away we went. Spent the morning driving through the mountains of Idaho and then into Montana.

Montana was gorgeous! The sky really does feel bigger there, it’s simply amazing.

We made a couple of short stops for fuel (both us and the car). One short stop turned into half an hour because the gal making sandwiches at the Subway in Three Falls, MT was brand new and super slow. We eventually made it to Yellowstone.

Dad thought that when we entered the park that we’d be entering Wyoming at the same time… But we didn’t see a sign! Since we’d decided to capture all of the state signs as we encounter them, we were bummed to miss WY’s. And then we saw it! When you enter the park from West Yellowstone, you’re still in MT for a few hundred feet. We almost missed it for real though! It’s a cute little sign –

Dad talked up the wildlife he saw on previous trips to Yellowstone. I was hoping to see a bear or wolf or something crazy. We saw a few deer, a few elk and of course, the bison! Some of the animals are tagged with radio transmitters (check out the deer shot!) It was so wild to me – they just chill along the side of the road. Cars and people all over the place and the animals just do their thing. They could care less about us. :)

We stopped and saw these incredible bubbling pools at Fountain Paint Pot. There were all different kinds, bubbling mud, random little geysers and pools of hot water that just steam.

And then we made our way to Old Faithful. We got there a little earlier than I would have liked, it was a little on the chilly side. ;) We sat down on a bench and waited (more or less patiently) for Old Faithful to do her thing. About a minute or so after we sat down, the sweetest lady started talking to us. She never gave us her name or age, but she and her husband (Carl, 83 – got his info!) were celebrating their 59^th wedding anniversary. They’re from Dallas and were traveling with a tour around Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. She was a kick! Carl had been walking around and at one point after he joined us, she hooked her thumb at him and said, “This crazy thing…” At which point Dad just started dying of laughter. I can’t even remember what she was saying we were so fixated on “this crazy thing”. Dad decided that’s what he’s calling me for the rest of this trip. My guess is that next week it will be Adam. ;)

Sure enough, within a couple of minutes of the time Carl said, Old Faithful made her appearance. The benches were PACKED with people and cameras. I, of course, was one of them. Based on the way the wind was blowing, we had a pretty good spot! The geyser shot up and the steam blew to the right. Pretty awesome!

After that we toodled out of the park and on the path to Cody WY. Dad was expecting something pretty small like Kellogg, MT but it turned out to be good sized. We got a room at a Comfort Inn, grabbed some dinner at Irma’s (cool looking bar + animal heads ALL OVER) and then we crashed. It was a long, but wonderful day.

Tweets Across America!

2010-08-23T09:07:00.000-07:00

Alright, since I'm still stuck behind a desk in Seattle I've been fooling around with some things. The most notably is the new twitter feed you'll notice in the sidebar. Since doing a full blog isn't always possible until late in the day you can now follow the trip in real time through twitter, just search for #wroblog.

Also if you notice there is something major that's being missed by only a short distance send us your suggestions with the same hashtag. Actually if you have anything that you'd like to add about the trip tag it. Any questions, comments, gripes, complaints or needs for clarification can all be funneled in this direction.

I know that Rebecca is going to keep up on this, it might be more of a struggle getting Dad to embrace the technology, but we'll just have to wait and see. Who knows maybe he'll become the biggest thing to hit Twitter since @KanyeWest.

Day Two - ID to WY

2010-08-22T21:48:00.001-07:00

It's late. We're beat. I'm about to fall asleep in bed with the laptop. Tonight you get pictures. Tomorrow you'll get witty stories to go with them. Good night!!!

Check out the set so far here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/rebeccajeanne/sets/72157624778008938/. It includes yesterday's images too. :)

Name the PT Cruiser!

2010-08-22T07:31:00.000-07:00

I have been bugging Dad for a while now to name the car. I always name mine! He said the only way he'll go along with it is if I A) get name suggestions and B) the public votes! So I need some help people.

Leave a comment here! I'm currently thinking Patty the PT Cruiser. Help a girl out!!!

It's a beautiful Idaho morning!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Day One: Seattle to Coeur d'Alene

2010-08-21T20:18:00.000-07:00

Randy & Rebecca here!

Our first stop was 8 blocks from breakfast to pick up ice for the cooler and a couple of sodas (the pop machine at Julia's was busted! Doh!) As expected Rebecca had to stop by the little room (micro bladder). Yes, really. Eventually we made it onto I-90.

The first REAL stop was in Cle Elum, WA. This was a real bathroom stop. ;) (Aren't you loving all of the detail???) We didn't grab any pictures, we were too busy getting cookies! YUM.

We got back on the road with our treats. We pulled into Spokane at 4pm. We need to pick up a couple of more memory cards for our cameras (go team Canon!) so we hit up the Costco in Spokane Valley. Only to find they had none. LAME. We got right back in the car and headed out to the final destination of the day - Coeur d'Alene, ID.

We were gracefully received by Shirlene at her lovely home at the foothill of a mountain in ID. It's lovely here! We even saw deer before dinner. :) We were served a wonderful meal (Jake, I got you the recipe!) during which, I (Randy) got to tell one of my all time favorite stories of Rebecca's youth. It's definitely my favorite story of one of the kids driving. Ask me about it sometime, it's GOOD!

So I (Rebecca) was working on making a few quick adjustments to today's images, when I saw Dad in the corner of my eye with his new Flip UltraHD camera. He started coming in real close... Check it out for yourself! ;)

Good night! We've got a long day tomorrow in Wyoming!

Day 1 - Seattle, WA or "And they're off!"

2010-08-21T12:15:00.000-07:00

It begins.

I just got back from the kick off breakfast. Rebecca and Dad are probably on I-90 right about now barreling east towards Coeur D'Alene, ID. We had a bit of a rocky start but it all worked out in the end.

The plan was to meet at Voula's down on Lake Union to start off the trip with one of the "Diners, Drive-in's and Dives". Now I'd mentioned that every time I've tried to go to Voula's its been closed. So Dad double checked the hours online and it said they'd be open. However when we arrived they were very much closed. Something about a tailgating special. I didn't really understand, but had a smug sense of "I told you so" about it.

So instead we cruised up to Wallingford to Julia's. Great place. They have good food and a pleasant atmosphere. In the end I think everyone was very pleased with the selection. Dad had a Denver omelet, Sharon had French toast, Rebecca a pancake with blueberries and I went for the biscuits and gravy. Mmmmm gravy.

It got a little strange when Rebecca requested some peanut butter and they brought her about a cup and half dish of it. She then smothered her pancake in it and topped it off with some strawberry jam. I've never been one for PB&J but it made her very happy.

After eating I tossed my giant bag in the car, so I don't have to check any luggage, and they took off. As I'm writing this I'm realizing it's not terrible interesting. Hopefully future posts will be more so. Or maybe they won't be. We'll just have to wait and see.

Oh yeah! There are pictures to go with all of this but they're on Rebecca's camera. They're going to add their own take on this and some photos when they get to Idaho. Check back for updates.

I'm here too! ;)

2010-08-19T21:09:00.000-07:00

So far you've heard from my brother and my dad and I'm sure you were ALL wondering, is that girl going to blog too? I've been busy yo! Though apparently not as busy as Dad who hasn't blogged in 15 months. ;)

Anyway, to get to the point, I cannot WAIT for this weekend! Tomorrow is the last planning lunch before we roll out on Saturday. Ever since Dad brought up the idea of this trip I've been looking forward to it. I did some fun stuff this summer (shot a wedding in PR with a good friend, camped for my birthday and most recently hit the OR Coast) but I've been REALLY psyched about this road trip. I couldn't tell you the last time I spent a week with just my dad. 1996 maybe? Whenever it was, it was a long time ago!

I'm really looking forward to some quality time hanging with my dad, checking out some places I've never been but always wanted to go to and meeting up with some photographer friends in DC. Political rally schmally - I'm brunching! :)

Can't wait to get out on the road!

Why Washington DC in late August?

2010-07-27T12:14:00.000-07:00

Given the horribly hot weather that time of year and my well known hatred of heat and humidity you must all think I’ve lost my mind! Well that is certainly part of the answer to why a 6,000 mille road trip in August. The rest of the answer starts while I was reading a book (fiction) late last year. I found the best definition of happiness I’ve ever read.

Happiness:

1. Somebody to Love.

2. Something to do.

3. Something to look forward to.

Somebody to Love. This one I’ve been greatly blessed. My beautiful wife Sharon, my delightful (and crazy) kids, Rebecca, Adam and Jeremy. My mother and Sister Rhonda and her family. All the members of my family and some really great friends fill my life with great joy.

Something to do. I love what I do. Designing and drafting houses have been a delight and a challenge for over 35 years. I still enjoy walking through a house that at one point was no more than a thought of mine. As I get older work has become more about making money and then the experiences that money can create.

Something to look forward to. Here is where the idea of this trip began. At that point I had just finished the worst year in business and was sorely lacking in vision. When heard that Glenn Beck was arranging a rally for August 28^th I knew I had to be there. I’ve never been in crowd larger than 70k or so and decided that before I can’t I should!

Knowing that Sharon couldn’t get that much time off from work and that she wouldn’t enjoy that much sitting I asked Rebecca and Adam if they would like to join me. Neither could get the full two weeks off work so I proposed they each join me for half of the journey. Rebecca and I will be leaving August 21^st. Adam is flying in early the morning of the rally (Saturday August 28^th) and Rebecca will be catching a flight out August 29^th.

The itinerary is almost all theirs except the rally. Along the way we are going to see how many Diners, Drive Ins and Dives we can hit and when we can’t locate one I hope we are able to discover some of our own. I have no doubt it will be a fantastic adventure. I hope you will be able to keep up with us as we hit the road.

Ready to roll out

Randy

What's going on here?

2010-06-28T09:32:00.001-07:00

We're Rolling Out!

This blog has a real simple premise: One car moving across America.

A short time ago my father, Randy (you'll get to know him real well), decided that a road trip from Seattle, WA to Washington, DC was in order. I'm not going to get into the political motivations for that at this point, I'm sure it will come up later.

The trip is two weeks long starting August 21st, 2010 and is broken up into two legs. Going to DC and coming back to Seattle. For the trip to DC pops is going to be joined by my lovely and amazingly talented sister Rebecca. Once they reach DC I'll be flying over to meet up for a couple days of carnage in the capitol. As we head out of DC we'll also be leaving Rebecca at an airport (doesn't matter which one) and then it's just Dad and I back to Seattle. Each route will be different in an effort to cover as much ground as possible.

Here's a rough idea of the route, the northern being the first leg and southern the second (you might have to zoom out at first to see the whole map):

View Larger Map

Nothing about this map is set in stone and as I've found during past road trips there is certain to be changes along the way.

That being said some of the highlights are sure to be:

Yellowstone National Park
Mt Rushmore
Chicago, IL
Washington, DC
Rocky Mountain National Park
Utah (There's a bunch of things I want to see there)

One of the things that Dad wants to do along this trip is visit various "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives". So you can all look forward to many food reviews. In the same vein I'm going to try to eat as much local food as possible to get a better idea of what people are eating across America (and I don't mean McDonald's).

Well that's the gist of it. See ya in August.