For those that are wondering what's been going on here in Vegas...keep
on wondering. It's Vegas, we are having a blast and that's all you're
gonna get.
Looking forward to going home tomorrow after all this time away but
sad it's coming to an end.
We may do one more closing blog in a day or so but for now we are just
letting loose.

7/12/09
We woke up this morning and blah blah blah...skip ahead to the good
parts cause this day has been completly unbelievable.
I think it will be best in list form but hopfully the formatting holds
since I'm doing this from my phone:
*We got stopped before the Hoover Dam by Homeland Security and Winnie
was searched inside and out. I told Kat it was her fault cause of her
accent. Bomb free we were let go.
*While waiting to park Winnie at The Hard Rock hotel I asked a man to
close his car door so we could get by him. He and I started chatting a
bit and he just happened to be the President of the hotel. One phone
call made by him later and Kat and I had reservations at The Pink Taco
for a fully compt dinner this evening.
*While checking in we were told our room had been upgraded from a
mountain view room to a pool view room.
*We went to the hotel pool party called "Rehab" which was totally
insane. It was the biggest douche fest I've ever been to and believe
me, I've seen some douches in my days. Oh my gosh. Hundreds of
plasticy people dancing in and around the pool. Kat got picked up,
literally, and dunked under water. When she came back up the guy put a
dollar bill in her bikini top. Yeah, it was that kind of party.
*After our free $100 dinner we were walking through the casino and a
guy asked me to sit next to him at a Blackjack table. Being my
favorite game I sat down between him and another guy and Kat stood
next to me. We watched them play a bit $500 hands at a time. One of
the guys asked me if I liked to play. When I said that I did he threw
down $100 in chips in front of me. Yeah, really. A half hour later I
was up $50 when he was cashing out. I asked him if he wanted me to do
the same so I could pay him back. He said to pay back half and keep
the rest...$100. By now I'm waiting for some hidden camera show to
jump out of somewhere.
*We decided that since we had saved so much money today that we would
splurge the $20 each to go to the fancypants dance club in the hotel.
While walking up to the end of the very long line of people waiting to
get in a man in a suit, I think he also had one of those walky talky
ear things too, came up and asked us if we wanted VIP admission to the
club. Duh, of course we do. He walked us to the front of the line, we
got in for free, went in and danced our butts off.

We are now in our snazy room amazed at all of the things that came our
way today and we have only been here 9 hours. We still have 3 more
days to go!

7/11/09

I can’t even tell you how many trains I have seen and/or heard since we arrived in Flagstaff, AZ. They are constant and loud. Sleeping last night was stupid. Every two minutes another train would go by and Kat and I would groan as the whistle blew…all night long.
We got up this morning and closed up camp and headed into downtown Flagstaff. When we found a suitable parking lot I saw a sign that said “parking ok for Vietnam Memorial Wall”. No way, the miniature version of the memorial is here right now. I have seen this a few times in my life when it toured through Santa Cruz thanks in part to my dad’s VFW post. We walked over to see it and I found my dad’s good buddy’s name and took a photo for him. It was touching to see as it is every time.
Downtown Flagstaff is not safe from the trains either. The tracks are maybe 50 yards away and just as it was all night, every couple of minutes a loud train went by. We asked our waiter at a bar if he gets used to it. He made it very clear that you never get used to it.
The town ended up being pretty great. Kat found a really nice sweatshirt and I found a necklace to buy. It is some sort of art week in Flagstaff right now so there were many art shows and musicians out on the streets. It was great.
After a few hours of walking around we went back to the Winnie to relax for a bit…right on the train tracks…ugh. We plugged the tv into the cigarette lighter outlet we had and watched a movie, made some mac n’ cheese and just hung out in a random parking lot; you gotta love life on the road.
We had decided that since it was our last night in both Flagstaff and the Winnie we would hit up the town and see what the nightlife had to offer around here. We got a bit more dressed up than we have in a while, actually brushed our hair and even put on some make up too. We walked back down to were someone that we had met earlier told us was a good spot to hang out.
It was a pretty cool bar with a good crowd and a random band playing. We met a lot of people and we were even told “thanks for keeping Flagstaff beautiful” which, after two weeks in an RV is quite nice to hear.
We ended up meeting a couple of locals that we hung out with at that bar and then followed over to another bar called The Green Room. Right when we walked in I knew the night was going to be fantastic. There was a live band playing some sort of salsa/African music and people were dancing. We love to dance so we were excited.
We spent the evening dancing our booties off and laughing just as much. Our new friends were great and kept the energy going.
The night came to an end, as they all do and we made the walk back to our home away from home, found the nearest Walmart and set up camp in the parking lot as we have done many times this trip. We are winding down and getting ready for bed. It will be nice to sleep in a real bed IN VEGAS tomorrow night but I think we will end up missing our nights in the Winnie.
We are having a bit of trouble adding our video and pics so they will be added soon...

7/10/09

7/10/09
Disoriented was the feeling this morning. The heat from yesterday really did a number on us; neither one of us slept very well last night and it took me a little while to remember where I was when I opened my eyes. We have been changing locations so often it’s no wonder I was confused.
We had planned on taking the day slow and hang out at our campsite for a while before heading off to Arizona to our campsite there for the night and go to the Grand Canyon tomorrow, but we watched the news this morning and they were forecasting thunder showers for tomorrow. We decided that we would close up camp and make it to the Grand Canyon today.
The drive from Montecello, Utah to the Grand Canyon was, again, beautiful. We stopped at an Indian Trading Post so Kat could pick up some fancy jewelry, something she has wanted to do the whole trip, and we also stopped in Monument Valley to take some photos of the tall pillars made of bright red rock.
We got into the Grand Canyon a little after 3:00 pm and the cloud cover that had already blown in made the temperature much more bearable than it was yesterday at Arches. We decided to just start at one end and stop at all of the little view points along the way.
HOLY MOLY is the Grand Canyon big. When we were at Mt. Rushmore we both thought it was smaller than we thought it would be but the Grand Canyon far exceeded our expectations. It just seems to go forever. It was weird to think that just a few days ago we were standing on the highest peak and now looking down into the deepest canyon. It’s amazing what we have gotten to see on this trip so far.
All of the view points were different though I kept thinking it would look the same. We sat on the edge of the canyon and let our feet dangle over into the vast nothingness. We stood on rocks by the cliffs until we were dizzy with fear, it was fantastic.
Tons of photos, of course, and car ride dance parties later we made it to the other side, both exhausted from the day we decided to head out and find where we were going to camp for the night. Now that we were a day ahead and would now have a whole day to kill we decided to drive down into Flagstaff, AZ so we would have something to do on our downtime.
We found this lovely RV Park where we are now set up, but it isn’t just any RV Park. It is also a steakhouse restaurant and saloon. Yup, it’s fancy. We are relaxing with the air conditioning on high watching some more of the movies Cara let us borrow for the trip. We are both feeling a bit more delirious than usual and have been giggling all night long.
The plan for tomorrow is to find internet so we can post this blog and some photos, head into town to see what Flagstaff has going on and hopefully find something fun to do here tomorrow night as it will be our last night in the Winnie and we need to celebrate.

To see photos from Arizona go to: www.stopbathstudio.com/arizona

7/9/09

The landscapers woke me up way too early this morning but it was good because there was a lot to do before we set out on the road again. I woke up, well frustrated at first because of the lawn mower but then I had a strong mix of sadness and excitement. I was super excited to be heading out to our next destination but sad that I would be leaving my dad’s. I see him so rarely that I wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye.
We packed back up the Winnie, had a delicious breakfast with dad that he made for us and said our so longs. With tears in my eyes and love in my heart we hit the road, destination: Arches National Park, Utah, about a 5 ½ hour drive from Denver.
The drive took us high into the Rockies and through many little towns. We had some good laughs as well. Some of my favorite parts were when every time we would pass a big truck loaded with livestock Kat would assure me that they were being taken to a big field at a really happy place to live, not to a slaughterhouse.
We arrived at Arches National Park around 3:00 in the afternoon and once again we were both completely blown away with the views; the red rocks against the blue sky were stunning. We both agreed that it looked like a movie set background rather than real.
The map we were given when we arrived at the park had all of the good spots marked on it and we stopped at each one of them. The first time we got out of the Winnie we were both slapped in the face with, by far, the driest, hottest heat we have experienced on the trip yet. It was also very windy so it pretty much felt like we were sitting in front of a heater.
The arches were unbelievable. We hiked up to one of the bigger ones which, in that heat, was rough. It was hard to believe that they were all created by nature and not man made. It was also a bit nerve racking to stand under them and wonder when they were going to fall down. We also saw a lot of balancing rocks which were also strange to see. How the rocks don’t just fall down I don’t know.
After our big hike up to the arch we decided that, due to the heat, we would be doing a Winnie sight seeing tour of the park rather than getting out of the air conditioning to see stuff. We figured we did our part and hiked and got dirty and it was time to just relax so we turned on some good music and continued on through the park taking lots of photos and of course lots of laughs.
Almost three hours later we were both ready to leave the arches behind and hit the road yet again, now headed towards Arizona. We drove for about an hour and both agreed that we were tired and ready to find a place to stop. We found a little RV park in Monticello, Utah that had showers, hook ups and, most importantly, wireless internet.
So, here we are, both sitting at our computers after much needed showers and dinner. We are looking forward to seeing what Arizona will offer us in the next couple of days.

Photos from today can be seen at: www.stopbathstudio.com/utah

7/8/09

Kat isn’t always the most cheerful person when she wakes up in the morning; especially if it is me waking her up because we need to get on the road. Today, however, she woke up bright and early and quite chipper. I could only assume it was because today was Water World day. I had woken up just a few minutes earlier and too was quite excited.
We ate our breakfast quickly, put on our bathing suits, punched in the address to the park in our GPS “Betsy” and we were on our way.
We sang along at the top of our lungs to our little play list we like to listen to quite often on the road as we drove the 20 minutes to Water World. It was about 9:30 in the morning and already at least 85 degrees outside.
Upon arriving at the park it was quite obvious that we weren’t the only ones in the area with the great idea to spend the day riding the big waterslides. The park was just opening and the lot was quite full already. It didn’t dampen our mood or excitement one little bit. We were still just as giddy to get in the park and on some slides.
Water World is crazy fun. It is huge with so many different things to do. We weren’t really sure where to start once we got our towels and stuff shoved into a locker so we looked at the big map of the park to weigh out our options. We decided to start on the other side of the park and work our way back.
Oh my gosh did we have a good time. We went on pretty much every slide they had, some of them twice. We laid on tubes in the Lazy River when we needed a little break and floated around in the Wave Pool to cool off. We screamed as loud as we could on the big drops and laughed at each other when the pool at the end tried to steal our swim tops.
The temperature got to be around 95 degrees mid day and the bottoms of our feet were getting blistered from the hot concrete but we just kept right on running around the park going on slide after slide. We did, finally, towards the end of the day, put our flip flops on because our feet were getting so sore and just held them in our hands on the slides.
After about 6 hours in the hot sun and doing nothing but play we were getting tired. The lines had been pretty long all day so we spent a lot of time just standing in the sun. We decided to take one more run on one of the slides and call it a day. As much as we wished we had the energy to stay the two hours left the park was open, we didn’t. Sun kissed and water logged, we packed up our stuff and left.
One of Kat’s good friends and his family live here in Denver so after the park and after finding a Costco so Kat could restock on her mineral water (I was too scared to see what would happen if she ran out), we drove over to their house for a quick visit. They are a wonderful family with a beautiful home not too far from my dad’s place. We sat and chatted with them and played with their two beautiful daughters for a bit and then it was back in the Winnie and back to dad’s.
Dad made us a wonderful home cooked meal for dinner which have been very few and far between on this trip. It was nice to sit down at the dinner table with him as I haven’t been able to do that in years.
Full from dinner and tired from our big day, Kat and I are relaxing at dad’s on our last evening here. We are taking advantage of what could be our last internet signal for at least a few days and getting our things together for tomorrow. We are heading out bright and early in the morning, destination: Arches National Park, Utah.
Thanks again to both of our dad’s for making this visit so wonderful and eventful.

Photos for this part of the trip can be seen at:

www.stopbathstudio.com/colorado

7/7/09

After today I now understand why my dad loves it here so much as it was a day full of Colorado fun times.
We hopped into dad’s Jeep late in the morning and set out headed west. We stopped about 30 minutes out in a cute little town called Idaho Springs which was an old mining town; lots of little shops lined the street. Dad got some McDonalds, Kat and I got some sandwiches and we were back on the road at a steady incline our destination being the summit of Mt. Evans.
Mt. Evans has the highest paved road in North America and the summit is 14,240 feet high. The road up to the top was crazy curvy and steep and seemed to go on and on. There were many lakes and pools along the way some of which at the higher altitudes were still frozen. Snow was still on the ground and the temperature dropped more and more the higher we got.
As we got well above the timber line and the air got quite thin we came around a sharp turn to find a herd (is that what they are or is it a pack?) of mountain goats. They were pretty darn cool looking. We pulled of to the side of the road to take some pictures and that is when the cold and lack of air first became very apparent. Kat and I only brought sweatshirts since it was about 90 degrees at dad’s when we left; it was hard to prepare for cold when it was so hot out. Kat got pretty close to one of the smaller goats but I kept my distance. Those horns looked a bit intimidating and I recall an America’s Funniest Home Video where a goat was ramming someone so I wasn’t about to get too close. Freezing and out of breath we got back in the Jeep to continue on to the summit.
A few steep turns later we got to the parking lot at the summit but, that still wasn’t the final destination. We still had about 100 yards up to go via switchbacks which normally and by normally I mean sea level that little hike up wouldn’t seem so tough but at over 14,000 feet elevation it looked pretty darn far.
We took the path slowly taking in the views and taking lots of deep breaths to try to suck as much oxygen out of the air as possible and made it to the tippy top of the mountain. That is when the long drive, the cold wind, all the turns in the road became worth it. We had a 360 degree view of the world. It was breath taking..haha, get it, cause we already couldn’t breath..ok, stupid joke.
Kat and I made dad super nervous by standing on rock somewhat close to the edge and Kat scared all of us, including herself when she tripped a little bit. It wasn’t as though she was close to the edge or would have gotten hurt if she fell but when you are that high up and can see that far down you are already a bit freaked out, and any thing that makes you think you are going to fall is sketchy.
The other super cool thing about the summit of Mt. Evans is it is where my brother in law Nate proposed to my little sister Heidi a few years ago. It was touching to get to see where it took place.
After about a half hour on the summit we walked back down to the Jeep and drove the long drive back down the mountain to our second destination, the rugged, rocky roads in the middle of not sure where. Dad took us four wheeling on some pretty rough roads. It was Kat’s first time going off pavement and she totally loved it. I looked back at her at one point and she was bouncing around in the back seat with the biggest smile on her face and she just goes “this is so great!” it was fantastic.
We got back to dad’s house late in the afternoon after both Kat and I falling asleep on the ride home; I think the altitude makes you sleepy, well, us sleepy. We took showers and put on our fancy clothes to take dad out for his day-after-birthday dinner at his restaurant of choice, his choice being The Chart House. Dinner was great. The restaurant was up on the hill with a full view of Denver.
This evening we are relaxing at dad’s house; Kat has some work to finish up before we head out Thursday morning since we are not sure when we will have internet again. We are both pretty sleepy from our big day in the wild and are SO looking forward to our day tomorrow. We are going to Water World; one of the biggest water parks. It is supposed to be in the mid 90’s tomorrow so a day at the water slides will be perfect. Kat’s dad had offered to pay for us to go white water rafting tomorrow and we looked into it but we decided the water park was a better idea so tomorrow will be made possible by him…THANK YOU in advance.

7/6/09

We parked in a Walmart parking lot very late last night to sleep after way too many hours in a diner. I am not sure which played the biggest factor in this morning being rough: lack of sleep, lack of showering, or lack of home…I am sure it was a pretty good combination of all of it.
By 10:30, after a quick Walmart and gas stop, we were back on the road headed towards my dad’s house in Lakewood, CO. Today is his 60th birthday and we had a big day planned with him and we were both excited to get there. I hadn’t seen my dad in almost a year and Kat was looking forward to finally meeting him.
The drive was the shortest yet, only about an hour and a half. Colorado is so beautiful. I feel as though I am using that word a lot to describe places but we have seen a lot of really beautiful places. The Rocky Mountains are a sight to see for sure. They are huge, snow topped and seem to go on forever.
Jake the very big yellow lab greeted us when we pulled into my dad’s driveway followed by my dad. Yippee! We are here! My dad’s place is great and felt like home right away, especially once our week’s worth of dirty laundry was piled up by the washer and dryer and showers had been taken. A little thing about Kat I didn’t know yet was that she isn’t knowledgeable in doing laundry. She told me her father says she isn’t allowed to do it because she will mess it up. I thought that was pretty funny. I gave her a little lesson in the art of starting the washing machine.
Kat had some work to catch up on and I had a roof vent to try to get. I had spoken to a place in Denver last week where the guy was pretty rude but said they had what I needed. I had asked him if I could buy it over the phone to ensure they would still have it when we got here but he said it wouldn’t be a problem and not to worry about it. Dad and I drove the 20 min to the other side of town to of course, find out it had already been sold. Urgh. On the way back we did drop the Winnie off down the street for an oil change and all around check up. So at least the drive wasn’t a total waste.
The thunder showers started rolling in around 4:00 pm and we were leaving for the Colorado Rockies ballgame at 5:00. The clicker running along the bottom of the TV was telling us that we were under a severe thunder storm warning with possibilities of hail and strong winds. We got ready for the game anyways. Kat is the most optimistic person I know and I guess it has started to wear off on me cause I had all the faith in the world we were going to watch a game. It could just be that baseball is my favorite and I probably would have sat in my seat and watched the game even if lighting was striking the seat next to me.
As we pulled into the parking lot at Coors Field the sun broke through the clouds and the rain let up. A big rainbow went across the sky. It was perfect. We parked and walked over to the stadium I think we may have skipped a bit as we were pretty darn excited.
Our seats were left field in homerun territory so I was glad I brought my glove just in case. We sat in front of some guys that all had their gloves as well but promised to give me first shot at anything that came in our area.
Kat and I had the best time at the game with dad. We screamed and cheered for the team, danced to all of the music that came on and took lots of photos as usual. We went to a SF Giants game recently with a group of our friends and had a lot of fun but the game wasn’t all that exciting; the game tonight was crazy exciting. There were lots of great plays and the Rockies won 1-0. No homeruns came our way but it was the greatest time anyways. We also agreed that the Rockies have much better looking players than the Giants so we cheered maybe just a bit louder for them.
After the game when we were walking back to the car the full moon was just coming up on the horizon and my dad was totally right when he said it was the best way to top off the already perfect evening at the park.
We are now back at my dad’s house relaxing and getting ready for sleep. We have a big day planned for tomorrow in dad’s Jeep so a good night’s rest is needed.

7/5/09

Kat got me good this morning. We keep parking in these places where we aren’t sure if we are really allowed to be and keep thinking we are going to get a ticket. This morning she told me we had one. I am not sure why I believed her, maybe because I didn’t sleep well at all but I was bummed…she was kidding. Another free night for us, nice.
We drove down into Deadwood and found a place to park. We walked into town and found a bus tour that we hopped on to.
The tour took us through the town while the driver told us all about the history of the gold rush and how the town was established and why it is famous, mostly focusing on Wild Bill. The bus then went up to the top of the hill to the cemetery where Wild Bill is buried. It was very fascinating and fun. We were happy we decided to pay the $8.50 and do it.
We walked around the town for a bit after and took more tourist photos and looked in many souvenir shops; realizing neither one of us needed nor wanted a sparkly, fringy, hot pink shirt that said “Deadwood” on it we decided it was time to head back to the Winnie and head to our next destination, Mt. Rushmore.
Kat slept most of the short drive there which was good because I made a few wrong turns, that she doesn’t know about, but thanks to our trusty GPS, which we have named “Betsy” we got back in the right direction. I woke Kat up when I yelled “oh my gosh!” as we got into the town before the monument as I saw the best thing ever. It was this slide thing where you take a ski lift to the top of this mountain and then you sit on a little sled type thing with wheels on it and go down a 2,000 foot luge track. So now you understand why I couldn’t contain my yell even though Kat was sleeping. It was for sure a must do. We parked, signed some release forms that neither one of us read, and jumped on the lift. It was so fun I could have done it many times over and over but there were four dead presidents carved into rock waiting for our arrival.
Mt. Rushmore was beautiful; both Kat and I agreed that it was smaller than we thought it was going to be (that’s what she said) but great anyways. On the way up the hill Kat mentioned to me what her main motivation for going to Mt. Rushmore was, other than just wanting to see it. She told me that it was the only place that her Papa hadn’t been to, so now she can say that she has officially been somewhere that he hasn’t been and even if he does go there she can always say she went there first.
Many photos later we were back on the road now heading to Colorado to see my Papa. His 60th birthday is tomorrow and I am so excited to see him. It has been almost a year since we have seen each other. The fact that tomorrow is his birthday makes it that much better.
At the moment we are in Cheyenne, Wyoming at a diner where we have been for the past four hours. It is the first place we have been in many days that has internet so we are going through our pictures and updating our blog. We are trying to figure out if we should stay here for the night or drive the last hour and a half to my dad’s house and park out front in the middle of the night so when he wakes up in the morning we are there…guess we will see where we end up. All I know is that a shower is first on my list of things to do since neither one of us have done so since Friday. Life on the road is fantastic.

Photos for this part of the trip can be seen at: www.stopbathstudio.com/south_dakota

7/4/09

Happy 4th of July.
I woke up early after a very short night’s sleep. I decided to be nice to Kat this morning and walked over to the boys’ place so she could sleep a bit longer. We hung out and ate some breakfast until Kat called saying she was ready to hit the road.
We set out on our second biggest drive of our whole trip only shorter than our first day, Whitefish, Montana to Deadwood, South Dakota which is about 12 hours. It has been decided that our GPS seems to keep us off of main highways as much as possible and picks the more scenic routes that seem to get us where we are going faster anyways. The only problem is that there are very few gas stations on those back roads. We had a couple of stressful times where we were really testing how far we could go with the gas light on.
I think we would both agree that one of the highlights of the drive was after our gas light had been on for a good 20 miles we rolled into a little town and by little I mean very little. Our eyes brightened when we saw a gas station and then darken again when we saw that it was closed. Just to give you an idea of how small this town is…in the window of the gas station were flyers for people’s weddings. They don’t send invites, they just post it in the window of the gas station. Anyways, back to the story, so the gas station was closed so we pulled over to the side of the road to think out our situation. Kat saw a little old lady in the yard of the house we stopped by so she went to ask her if there were any other options. She had one. You see, Dale Jones, the owner of the gas station lives just up the block. Yup, 2 minutes later we were knocking on Mr. Jones’ front door…and laughing our asses of at the same time. Unfortunately, Dale was not home. We were so hoping he would be because begging a gas station owner to open his shop up for us on 4th of July would have made a better story but he wasn’t so we pressed on and made it another 17 miles to the next town where there was an open station where we coasted in on what fumes were left in our tank.
We also drove through some of the biggest thunder storms we have seen so far this trip. Luckily we purchased more duct tape on our last Walmart stop and we pulled off the road and did some much needed repairs to our plastic wrapped hole in the roof before we hit the storms. We had some good laughs while we were up on the roof of the Winnie taking turns taping and cutting and watching the vicious clouds get closer and closer. It didn’t seem like the safest thing to be doing since I think being up there made us the highest point and therefore a good lightning target but we made the best of the situation and got it fixed up.
The second highlight of the drive came late in the night on the Wyoming, South Dakota border. We came up to some construction where only one lane was open and we had a half hour delay while we waited for the pilot car to escort us through. That is where we met Phil. Phil is the man that holds the “stop” sign; since we were first in line we got to chat with him for a bit. There were some really big lights shining down above us and in the light of those lights was pretty much every bug from both Wyoming and South Dakota. It was crazy. We got out of the Winnie and ran around a bit. We jumped back and forth between the two states and took some pictures until we saw the lights coming our way and got back in the Winnie and pressed on.
We were fortunate in that we did get to see a lot of fireworks today in lots of different towns we passed through. We made it to Deadwood around 12:30 this evening and found yet another nice neighborhood to park in for the night. Which is good because sleep is much needed.

7/3/09

My cheeks hurt from laughing today; we had such an amazing day.
It started out as it usually does, me waking up early and making just enough noise to wake Kat without her realizing I am waking her up, eating some breakfast and doing our daily morning video which will never see the light of day as it is Kat and I at our just-woke-up finest.
We had to check out of our super cool camp site today so we did our close down of camp and checked out. We headed over to the other side of town to the condo where the boys are staying. We found an abandoned restaurant just down the street where we parked our home and walked over.
The boys were doing what they do best, fix their bikes…they do it endlessly but at least they have fun doing it. We sat around in the garage for awhile and then inside for lunch laughing and talking smack about each other…good times.
With some of the most beautiful weather we have seen yet on our trip we loaded up the boat down on the dock with all 9 of us and headed out on the lake. We all took turns wake skating which is like wake boarding except your feet are not strapped into the board. Most of the guys had done it before so they made it look pretty easy. Then it was my turn. I am pretty sure I drank a good amount of lake water my first few tries but I finally stood up. It was only for a short bit but I was pretty darn excited about it. Then it was Kat’s turn and as usual, she was a pro already at it. She stood up on her first try and made it look like it was no big deal at all.
We watched the boys be boys as well, seeing how fast they could go and jump off the back of the boat or stand on the top of the light bars and do black flips off. Kat and I sat back and laughed at it all.
After more food and a bit of rest time back at the house we headed over to the bridge that I had gone to yesterday but Kat had not been to yet. The water was a little deeper than it was yesterday but the jump seemed just as high. We watched the boys do back flips, front flips, pretty much any jump you threw out at them, they would do. How they weren’t hitting the bottom I don’t know. Kat and I finally got up the nerve and jumped as well. It was so much fun.
With the sun starting to set and it getting late in the day we headed back to the house for dinner and more madness. A couple of the guys made a huge burrito/taco bar buffet for us all to eat, homemade salsa and all. I also took advantage of the house and took a shower. There were talks of night tubing on the lake but I was pretty sure a shower right then was more appealing.
After dinner a couple more people from down south got into town and arrived at the house. The energy was quite high and somehow a photo shoot was put together after I had styled Greg and Matt’s hair for them. Oh how much Kat and I laughed. Those boys have no boundaries and don’t care at all what other people think; they just want to have a good time.
While Kat took her shower, myself and a couple of the others walked back down to the boat dock. It was quite late in the evening but it was still pretty warm out. The moon was bright on the lake, the stars were shining (not those stars El and Rory), a train was going by on the other side of the lake…it was pretty much wonderful. I sat at the end of the dock for awhile and just took it all it.
Like all of our days so far, this one too had to come to an end. Greg gave us a ride back to our house on wheels and we decided to just stay in the parking lot for tonight. It is in a safe neighborhood and we are exhausted. It is probably about 3 am by now. Time for sleep; we have a big drive tomorrow. We debated taking South Dakota off the itinerary so we could stay here another day but we decided to go for it. We are both bummed to leave but as usual we are looking forward to what is next.

Photos by Kat for this leg of the trip can be seen at: www.stopbathstudio.com/montana

7/2/09

Last night ended up being pretty fun. The boys rolled into town around 10:30 and ended up staying at the hotel next door to our park totally by coincidence.
We all piled into their cars and went to a diner down the street for some greasy food and lots of laughs. They all had pretty much been awake since they got on the road so they were all quite delirious and goofier than they usually are but it was great to see them all as it has been quite awhile and cool to introduce Kat to a group of friends of mine she hadn’t met yet.
When Kat and I woke up this morning she decided that it would be a good day for her to get some much needed work done and I decided that I would go track down the guys and hang out with them for the day…which led to…our first day apart…woah. I know, I had a bit of separation anxiety but it was bound to happen sooner or later.
I walked into town where my friend Greg picked me up and we met up with the rest of the crew at this really cool BBQ place. I am a vegetarian but I can still appreciate a good meat place when I see it and all of the stuff they were eating looked delicious. I ate a hush puppy for the first time. How did I not know these things existed? Deep fried corn bread are you kidding me? Yum.
All these guys ride fixed gear bikes; if you don’t know what those are google them or youtube them or something cause I don’t know how to explain it well but they are a type of bicycle. They are crazy. One of them had the brilliant idea to rally to the store on their bikes and let me ride one of them too. Um, it was an experience. I think it really takes some getting used to, especially when going downhill. Thank goodness I had a back brake on mine or I think I would have gotten hurt. It was a fun ride and good to be out and about on bikes.
After the ride a few of us drove to this bridge which is about 20 feet above a river; the problem is that the water is only about 6 feet deep. They were doing crazy flips and stuff; I managed to get myself to jump once. I hit the bottom a little bit so the once was enough for me. The rest of the day was spent at the lake swimming, then back at the house for dinner and usual shenanigans, all without Kat.
Kat knows that she isn’t on a full “vacation” but that she is more so working from a mobile office. She will be taking a lot of time off later this year so she is making sure to get things done on this trip. I don’t know how she can sit in an RV all day when the weather is so beautiful and there is lots going on all around her (Erst die Arbeit, dann das Vergnügen).
I am exhausted and have a full day of it all over again tomorrow except this time Kat will be there too which will make it even better. She was missed today but she got a lot of work done and did an amazing job. I am very impressed by her skills on that computer of hers.

7/1/09

Last night we decided to stay about 15 miles south of Whitefish in a town called Kalispell. Kat had been driving for quite awhile, it was late, and we were sleepy. We also found a Walmart which RV’s are allowed to park overnight in and we needed some stuff from there so it all worked out. We got up this morning and ventured into Walmart. I have spent many hours in Walmarts in my days but this was Kat’s first Walmart experience. It was quite amusing to watch her run around with the shock of how inexpensive everything was. An hour later and of course more than we had gone into buy we were back in the Minnie and back on the road. The drive to Whitefish was short which was nice. We got into town around 11 this morning and decided that instead of checking into the RV park right away we would drive into town to check things out. Whitefish is a very cute, rustic, little town. It has an old fashion, laid back feel to it. We found a spot to park the Minnie and set out determined to find a wireless signal and a place to hang out, preferably at the same place. Kat had some work to do and I had some serious web surfing to catch up on and also needed to go on the Winnebago website to try to find a place that will fix our stupid roof. We found a cool little coffee shop and took over a table in the back. So yeah, the first 2 hours in Whitefish we spent online in a café but we had some good laughs and met some locals so it was worth it. We found our camp which is just off the highway a couple miles south of town. It is a beautiful park with a lot of open space, trees, and we feel very safe here. Actually tonight during dinner (mac n’ cheese and salad) we were talking about how we have felt pretty safe everywhere we have been so far. People have been quite nice and friendly up to this point but we also know that can change so we are still keeping our eyes open at all times when we are out and about. The weather here is ideal, warm with clear skies. We walked the 3 miles back through town and to the lake…wow. Whitefish Lake is incredible; it is huge and has a backdrop of tree covered mountains. I am pretty sure both of our jaws dropped upon coming over the last hill of our walk and seeing it for the first time. But it also could have just been that we really weren’t sure where we were going the whole time and were hot and tired and just happy to finally get there. We actually thought we had found it a bit earlier and were not really all that impressed with the swampy small spot we found. We then realized after looking at the map that we were only at the river just downstream from the lake. We spent about an hour and a half at the lake swimming, taking pictures, relaxing and most of all just smiling at the fact that we are here. We are both still a bit in shock that we are doing this trip. Showers, dinner and relaxing have been checked off the list since we got back from the lake. At first we were a bit bummed at how far we are from town and that it may be a bit inconvenient but now we are happy at the fact that we get to walk and get some exercise to counter the massive amount of hours we spend sitting while we drive. We also get to see so much more that we would miss if in a car. We really get a chance to take in the sights on our walks. It is great. It is about 9:00 pm now and we are patiently waiting the arrival of a group of my friends that are coming in from southern California. I just got the update that they are about an hour out; I am not sure what is planned for tonight but I can pretty much guarantee it will be a good time as I am positive the next few days with them will be.

6/30/09

We woke up pretty early this morning to the sound of a big storm
outside, thunder and all and I was very grateful my dad taught me the
importance of duct tape and glad it was holding down the plastic
garbage bag over the hole above me.
We waited a bit for the storm to mellow out before closing up camp and
getting on the road. We stopped at the little auto repair shop to have them reinforce the roof with more tape and plastic.
The road out of the park was just as beautiful as the road in with
lots of water and wildlife including a meadow with at least a hundred
bison.
We drove through Montana stopping at any RV place we could but nobody
had the vent we needed so we are still, at this point, rockin the
quick fix.
We got into Missoula a little after 5:00 and stopped in to see a very
dear friend of mine. Natalie was my first best friend ever; we are
actually blood sisters and I was excited not only to meet her newer
family but also for Kat to meet her.
We sat out on her front porch while her two adorable daughters played
in the yard and caught up on the past years, our families, and had a
lot of good laughs remembering stories from our childhood. Kat took
advantage of the available wireless and got a bunch of her work done.
She also set up a website to post the pictures she has taken on our
trip. She is quite the photographer. Go check out the first link; she
will be adding links and we will let you know when they are up. http://www.stopbathstudio.com/yellowstone/
Natalie fixed us a wonderful dinner and we again sat out front while
we ate with more giggles and memories. She also showed us the really
awesome company her and her boyfriend Nathan run and gave me some
games for my nephews www.feeleez.com.
It was sad to say goodbye but I left there with my heart full of love
and a new perspective on things. Kat almost left there with one of the
kitties hidden in her shirt but we caught her in time.
We spent an hour or so sitting on the ground in front of a closed
Internet cafe updating our blog and emails and meeting some of the
locals that were curious as to what we were doing out there and not in
the bar next door.
At this time we are driving to Whitefish, only about 30 miles to go so
I am again updating from my phone.
We are looking forward to seeing what Whitefish has to offer us over
the next few days.

6/29/09

Our first night sleeping in Yellowstone was good. I have switched over into camping time by going to bed just after dark around 10:30 pm and waking up around 8:00 am whereas Kat is still on party time going to bed around 1:30 am and waking around 10:00 am.
I sat around this morning reading and doing some of the fun activities in the travel books that Cara got us for our trip while waiting for Kat to get up. Once up we packed our backpacks with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, snacks, water, cameras, sunscreen, and most importantly, bug spray, put on our walking shoes and set out.
We had gone to the Visitor’s Center yesterday and got a map of the day hiking trails in this area. A few of them are closed this time of year due to “bear activity” so from the three that were left, we chose to do two of them today.
The first trailhead started 3 miles east of where we are staying and it was a somewhat sketchy walk to it as we had to walk along the highway to get there. We had fun though stopping often to take photos and enjoy the views. They haven’t seemed to get old at all yet though I can’t imagine they ever would.
We reached the Strom Point trailhead just as some big storm clouds were moving in which made me nervous as not only did we not bring jackets or even sweatshirts of any kind on the hike, we didn’t cover the hole in the roof of the Winnie from where the vent cover blew off. We crossed our fingers that it wouldn’t rain and set out on the trail.
About 10 minutes into the 2.8 mile loop we came across a bison drinking from a pond. Well, we decided it was a bison but now are wondering if it was a buffalo; we don’t know the difference and since we don’t have internet or cell service here we can’t Google it to find out.
Many photos of the big animal later we continued on. The trail swept through a large meadow, through a thick forest and came out on the cliffs above the lake. We sat and ate lunch on the edge of the cliff which was incredible. From there the trial followed the lake for a bit where we found a large rock with about 5 or 6 marmots playing. Now, if you know Kat well you know that she has a bit of an obsession with rodents for some reason. I honestly have never seen someone get so excited about seeing a squirrel, gopher, chipmunk, and now marmot. I am not even sure those are all in the rodent family but they should be. Anyways, we stopped for a good 10 min so Kat could fill up the memory card on her camera with Marmots in every angle possible and then some.
Continuing on we looped back around into the forest again then came back out into the meadow where the bison/buffalo was still hanging out and back onto the highway and headed back towards our camp.
A mile from our camp we hit our second trailhead called the Pelican Creek Trail. This was a much shorter trail, just 1.3 miles but was still just as beautiful through a forest where we saw a lark elk and a ton of the biggest ants I have seen and down to another beach where we sat and ate some snacks and I expressed to Kat the shock in the fact that I had just hiked 10 miles and was still ready for more.
Back onto the highway and back to our camp, 5 hours and 12 miles later, we sat around, uploaded pictures from our cameras to our computers, where, again, I had to hear about how “cute and cuddly” marmots are and how “don’t you just want to take one home and snuggle with it?” many times over.
We have spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, watching Stand By Me and waiting for the hot water heater to heat up so we can take some much more than ever needed showers later. I also climbed up onto the roof and rigged a very temporary cover over the vent. It hasn’t rained yet but the clouds are still creeping in and I’d rather do it now than wake up to rain falling on me.
We are dirty, sore, hungry and having the best time ever. We are looking forward to heading to Montana tomorrow. Hopefully we will also find an RV shop that has a cover for us.

6/28/09

Wake up time came bright and early this morning parked in the TJ Maxx parking lot. Kat seemed to have slept quite well and I had weird dreams most of the night and didn’t sleep all that great. We looked amazing though. It is lovely to see what 14 hours of driving, no shower and a sleeping in a parking lot can do for a girl.

Somewhere either in our last hours in Nevada or our first few hours of Idaho last night we lost the cover on the roof vent over the bed which made for a nice view of the stars when going to sleep but with rain expected later in the week we spent the morning trying to find an RV place that was open so we could get a new one. We didn’t. We are keeping our fingers crossed that somewhere in Montana when we get there on Tuesday will have one.

The drive to Yellowstone was beautiful. The views were truly breath taking and almost hard to believe they were real. We both took lots of photos but none of them really could capture the full feel of it. We also spotted a few birds that looked to be mixes of a few things so we aptly named them ourselves. There was the bird that looked like a skunk which is the Skunkbird (obviously) and the bird we saw on the lake which we named the Peliswan; it looked just like a swan but with a pelican’s beak. We both missed our calling as bird watchers.

We pulled into the Yellowstone entrance around 1:30. I was kind of expecting the smell of sulfur to hit as we crossed through but it didn’t. We stopped many times at all the different geysers and, like the tourists we are, took many photos. The geysers and mud pools are where it is stinky; I think Kat actually likes the smell of it. We made it to Old Faithful and walked up to the look out just seconds before it erupted. We were impressed with our timing and acted as though we planned it that way, unlike the poor folks that had been there for the 78 minutes before us patiently waiting. Again, the views along the drive were absolutely incredible.

We are staying in Fishing Bridge RV Park. It doesn’t look so much like the photos online but it works. We had a good laugh hooking up the RV to all of the amenities for the first time and very grateful for the detailed notes we took during our lesson. I also don’t recall seeing any mosquitoes in any of the photos online which I am really impressed by. How the photographer managed to capture this place without them is besides me. We are looking out the window right now and it is hard to see past the billions of them on the screen fighting to get in here.

We went for a few small walks today and have our day planned out for tomorrow with some bigger hikes and hopefully no bears. At the store earlier we heard probably four different groups of people talking about the bears they had seen earlier today…agh. I wanted to buy a “bear whistle” at the store but Kat assured me that she can whistle louder than anything we could buy in a store; but, at the same time, she also thinks that they are too cute and cuddly looking to hurt us.

We just had a yummy RV cooked meal and are planning on spending the evening relaxing, watching some movies and hopefully showering at some point. Oh yeah, there is no cell service or wireless here…if you know either of us, which obviously you do if you are reading our blog, then you can only imagine how we feel about it. After the initial shock wore off we decided that we are kind of happy about it; it may not be our first choice to be out of contact completely with the outside world but this is why we are on this trip. To disconnect a bit from our current realities and figure out where we are in life.

What a day...

We got on the road just after 9:00 this morning. I was quite nervous
about driving the Winnie over 17 but it ended up being far more simple
than I thought it would be.
We decided our driving shifts would be swaped at fuel stops which
ended up being about every 3.5-4 hours.
My first shift was pretty mellow through California to Auburn where we
first stopped. Cute town, really warm and dry.
Kat's first shift was also her first time ever behind the wheel in a
Winnie. I was a bit nervous but she handled it like a champ and we
were soon cruising through Reno eating the sandwiches I fixed up while
moving. It reminded me of an I Love Lucy episode I saw when I was
younger where Lucy tries to make dinner in the RV while moving.
Long story short...all of Nevada looks exactly the same. Hours upon
hours of the same dirt and small bushes.
Our plan was to get to Elko and call it a day but when we rolled
through around 6 pm we decided we would keep on going.
The scenery finally changed when we started heading north towards
Idaho. Vast green rolling hills and wandering streams. So beautiful.
We lost an hour crossing into Idaho and into the mountain time zone.
We watched the most amazing sunset which, because of the time change,
was at 10 pm.
As I type we are still on the road, 14 hours later, well 15 if we are
including the time change. We are just under 20 miles from our new
planned destination for the night, a town called Pocatello.
We are quite excited that we are now only about 4 hours from
Yellowstone instead of the 8 or 9 we had planned.
We are hoping to wake early, go for a run before it gets too warm,
take care of a few Winnie fixes and head into Yellowstone.
I'm sending in this update from my phone so there aren't photos to go
with it but they will be added as soon as we find a wireless signal.
Much love to everyone, hugs and kisses, goodnight.

The Day Before...

Well, we leave tomorrow. Actually we leave in 22.5 hours from now....
Lots to do today but I thought I would do a quick update before I got too busy today.
Yesterday was a busy one for Kat and I; we loaded our stuff into the Winnie which was pretty exciting. It made this whole thing seem a bit more real. We also bought some essential gadgets and I spent part of the afternoon trying to figure out our GPS thingy. I think it is programed to get us where we need to go...guess we will find out tomorrow.
Today is another big day as Kat will be driving the Winnie for the first time. We are picking it up from my mom's and taking it to Trader Joe's to stock up on our food for the trip...lots of cereal is on my list of course. We are dragging our friend Gabriel along with us because he works for TJ and is kicking down his 10% discount for us (THANKS GABRIEL!). So I am a bit nervous to have Kat behind the wheel for the first time but it needs to happen so better now then never.
Other than getting last minute things together and seeing my nephew Davis today for his 12th birthday there isn't much left but to get on the road.
I am getting a bit homesick already but I know that this trip couldn't come at a better time for both of us. We both know what we are looking to get out of this trip and are excited about all of the possibilites that lay ahead in our lives.

A possible change in the route...

Well, we knew when we were planning this that our itinerary would have to keep it flexible as things would more than likely change along the way.
It seems things are changing before we even hit the road now.
Katharina's dad has thrown out an offer we can't really turn down. He told us that we should miss out on the 4 Corners (which apparently isn't really even in the right location) and stay in Colorado an extra day to go river rafting, his treat....um, YEAH!
So, we will see how that all works out but we are now looking into switching things around to do that. River rafting sounds way more appealing than being in the 4 corners.

Only 10 more days until we depart!

Itinerary...

Here goes the first post of our travel blog. We will be updating this blog as often as we can to keep our dear family and friends posted on our adventures.
We are leaving in less than two weeks from now and the plans seem to be falling into place. With the exception of Yellowstone (impossible to get through on the phone) our campsites have been booked and the route has been established.
We were recently given a 2 hour RV lesson on the good ol' Minnie Winnie that we will call home on our trip and have pages of notes on how to do everything from use the outside entertainment system (yeah!) to how to empty the sewer (eww!).
There isn't much left to do now but pack it up and get on the road.
Wish us luck and good weather...

Here is our tentative itinerary for our road trip...
June 27: Depart: Santa Cruz - Elko, NV - 566 miles, 8.5 hrs.
June 28: Elko, NV - Yellowstone NP - 466 7.5 hrs.
June 29: Play in Yellowstone NP
June 30: Yellowstone - Missoula, MT - Whitefish, MT - 448 miles, 7 hrs. (either stay in Missoula or continue on to Whitefish)
July 1 - July 3: Play in Montana!
July 4: Whitefish, MT - Ballings, MT - 453 miles, 7.5 hrs.
July 5: Billings, MT - Mnt. Rushmore (via Deadwood), SD - 339 miles, 5 hrs.
July 6: Mnt. Rushmore, SD - Lakewood, CO - 390 miles, 6hrs (early am drive to get to Lakewood for Dad's birthday!)
July 7: Play in Colorado
July 8: Lakewood, CO - Arches NP, UT - 345 miles, 5 hrs.
July 9: Arches NP, UT - 4 Corners - 151 miles, 2.5 hrs.
July 10: 4 Corners - Grand Canyon, AZ - 230 miles, 4 hrs.
July 11: Tour Grand Canyon
July 12: Grand Canyon, AZ - Las Vegas, NV - 277 miles, 4.5 hrs.
July 13: RISE AGAINST IN VEGAS!
July 14: Play in Vegas
July 15: Las Vegas, NV - Santa Cruz, CA - 532 miles, 8 hrs.