Date: 2004-07-07
From: Yellowstone Park

To: Road Trip from the West Coast
Miles today: 0.0

I finally have the chance to finish the road trip story. It has been a busy few days at home.   I had wished to have all of this finished by now but there was just too many people to visit while I was home. So last entry I left off with our departure from Yellowstone National Park.   We were heading down to Colorado to see the Dead at Red Rocks.   We planned on traveling down the western side of Wyoming.   I couldn't wait to see the Grand Tetons.   Everyone I knew that had seen them always told me I would fall in love and never want to leave.   I guess I'm not most people.   I thought they were pretty but they didn't make me fall in love and want to stay there.   I did like the view while driving in the area.   It made that afternoon and the next morning very scenic.   We ended up camping with an amazing view of the mountian range.   I always did love a view with my morning tea.All those mountians made traveling in the Vanagon slow!   Not only did we have to spend another night in wyoming but the next day we only made it as far as vernal, Utah and a KOA campsite for the night. We had to pick a place that had a shower.   7 days without a shower, boy did we smell bad.   We thought about showering at Yellowstone but I didn't want to smell like something good to eat with all those bears around.   The shower and laundry felt great.   We got an early start the next morning.   We wanted to get to Denver early enough to get tickets to the show.   Colorado was pretty but Utah was better.   I think it was somewhere in this area that Poptart and me decided to do 10 push ups every time we stopped.   We ended up doing a lot of push ups on this trip. We got to Red Rocks early enough to buy 3 tickets to the show and head off to resupply our micro brews and find a campsite for that night.   The campsite was at a state park nearby. The beer we got in Morrison.   I picked Left Hand brew, Poptart got a bunch of Tommy KNockers.   Now we were well supplied for the concert.   After catching a quick buzz we went in to watch the show.   I thought it was a good show but the view was the best. I would love to go back and see another concert there at another time.   Great place to see a concert. If you ever get the chance do it.So now we have seen the Dead and we were ready to start making some time across the mid west.   We entered into Wyoming 2 more times.   The first was the south eastern corning before going into Nebraska. Then we went into the North eastern corning to check out Delvi's tower after going through South Dakota.   Before heading out of South Dakota we stopped by the crazy horse momument and Mtn Rushmore for a couple of pictures.   2 more things on our list of things to see on this road trip.   Devil's tower was cool.   We were all happy to have made that stop.   Although Teresa's camera almost bit the dust at that stop.   We had been using the windshield of the vanagon as a tripod at each of the state lines.   This way we could set the timer and get a great shot of all of us infront of the state sign.   This time the camera jumped off as we were getting a picture of Devil's tower and all of us when the camera fell off of the vanago and dropped onto the ground.   The camera opened up and exposed all of our film inside.   That sucked.   We just hoped the camera still worked after that.   North Dakato went quick. It was flat and the speed limit was 70mph. We made up alot of time in North Dakato.   Now in Minnasota we stopped by the head waters of the Mississippi River to stick our stinky hiker feet into the river.   We played around in the river that was only about midcalf deep for about a half of hour, then we were off again.   It was time for michigan and the great lakes.   We were able to catch a perfect sunset on lake Michigan.   Not to worry I got lots of pictures.   We had perfect weather through the remaining states.   After Michigan the trip went fast. We called our Dads for father's day on the shore of Lake Erie. It was perfect weather to go to the beach.   Then we were off first Ohio. Ohio on whyo!   Don't go to Ohio there is nothing there.   There was nothing to say about Ohio!Next was Kentucky and the completion of all lower 48 states.   It was late on father's day that we crossed over the border.   Didn't get to see a lot of kentucky but we did stay in a state campground for the night.   Next morning it was off to New River Gorge.   That was pretty.   Got a great picture of that bridge, the longest steel structure in the world I believe.   It didn't take long for us to find our way back into Virginia after that.   We headed up to see Turfhead!Teresa and Turf hadn't seen each other since late summer of 2001.   It was great to have the 3 of us back together.   We spent the night at his house catching up and drinking some Yuenglings (Finally).   The next morning he brought us over to the new golf course he was working at.   He also changed the oil in the vanago for T.   You got to love Turf he is such a great person. All of you that have met him know that. And the rest of you will find out when you meet him.   He's actually getting married this fall. Katelynn is perfect for him. She is so cute and such a nice person.   I can't wait for that wedding!It still took us 2 days after getting back to Virginia to actually start hiking again.   It was a great road trip with T but I was happy to be back out on the trail.   6 weeks I had been gone. I had a lot of catching up to do.   And I couldn't wait.