All good things...

We’re home!!!

What a great trip. We laughed and we cried. We might have even chortled once or twice. We drove 5,438 miles. From the heat of the Badlands, to drinking Starbuck’s on top of the Space Needle in Seattle, to peeling back layer after layer of American history – it’s been amazing. We’ve been from sea level up to up over 12,000 feet in elevation. We’ve switched our clocks four times and we’ve crossed the Continental Divide at least six times. We’ve seen some of America’s tackiest places and some of American’s most beautiful locations as well.

Now it’s all over. The six months of planning was worth it.

We know this wasn’t the most fabulous trip, or the most expensive. In the end, the blog was probably more for us as a journal than anything else. With that said though, it was great having you all along for the ride. As Dennis mentioned – the tent was cozy with you all in there with us. We loved every minute.

Everyone needs to do a trip like this once in their lives. We live in an incredible country. As students of history, there was nothing more fascinating than traversing the west in a Chevy. Although far from a Conestoga wagon, the feeling of carrying your belongings with you on your journey is an exciting one.

We ended up camping 11 of our 17 nights. National Forests are the way to go. They are cheap, beautiful and filled with friendly people. We met people from all over the world on this trip. It was a very enlightening experience for us.

What’s next? Well… we’ve got 1,762 pictures (thank god for digital) to weed through. Then we’re doing a quick canoe trip up to the Boundary Waters with our friends Mark and Stephanie. After that we need to start thinking about work again. It’s getting to be that time of year. The back-to-school commercials are starting already! It’s time and we’re ready.

Thank again for everyone who hung in there with us. We look forward to seeing each of you in the not-so-distant future.

Love,

Jeff & Amy

The earth is flat! ...again

We called an audible on our travel plans and we’re now in North Platte, NE versus being just outside of Denver which was our original plan.

We had a GREAT day yesterday in Steamboat. Our hike turned out to be just short of four miles. Not too intense as it was downhill the whole way – however, that has its challenges too… We rode the gondola back up after the hike and had some celebratory drinks on top of the Thunderhead. We then opted to take the gondola back down again versus another hike… After that we went out for some great Mexican food in the “downtown” area of Steamboat Springs. We also took the opportunity to check out some book stores. Jeff completed his Dan Brown collection (he's hooked) and Amy found a librarian action figure (no, we're not joking...) :)

We woke up this morning (Friday) and decided to head into Nebraska versus just stopping in Greeley, CO. We drove through Rabbit Ears Pass (Beautiful) and then began our approach to Rocky Mountain National Park. Rocky Mountain is an INCREDIBLE spot. However – it’s a lot like how we pictured Yellowstone was going to be. At the top of the mountain (12,000+ feet) it’s bumper-to-bumper with a lot of society’s less intelligent people driving when they shouldn’t be. Got some amazing views. We were well above the tree line and we really felt like we were standing on top of the world. Absolutely beautiful. It was funny seeing snow again because two hours later it was 102 degrees outside of Greeley. We first had to wind through "Wisconsin Dells West" (Estes Park - a beautiful area accompanied by go-cart tracks and mini-golf). We decided that we were ready to start heading back to Green Bay. We’re in North Platte now (home of the world’s largest freight rail yard) and hoping to make it to northeast Iowa or southwest Wisconsin by tomorrow night.

We might update tomorrow or we might just post our last note from home. Thanks to everyone for sitting through this blog these past few weeks. It’s been fun to do and it’s been a riot hearing from you guys via the site comments or by email.

"I guess he'd rather be in Colorado..."

Hello from the road! We're just doing a quick update as we're on a sketchy internet connection and we're parked illegally.

We're in Steamboat Springs, CO and getting ready to take the gondola up the mountain. We've got a 3 mile hike planned back down to the gondola base. 2000' drop in elevation. (I know, we're cheating by taking the gondola up...)

Had a BEAUTIFUL campsite in Utah Yesterday. The "Golden Spike" was everything Jeff dreamed of and more. Dinosaur National Monument was beautiful - Amy took another 100 pictures there...

We'll try and post more from Greeley tomorrow night. We're going to roam through Rabbit Ears Pass and Rocky Mountain National Park on the way there!

Love to all...

Jeff & Amy

From Sea to Shining Sea

We were fortunate enough to tour New England earlier this year. We stood next to the Atlantic Ocean in Gloucester and agreed that we were very lucky to be able to see both oceans in one year. We smiled at that today as we stood on the sands of the Pacific…

We headed out of Seattle very early in the morning on Monday. We chose to make a counter-clockwise loop around Olympic National Park. What an incredible day. This park completely took Amy and I by surprise. We drove 17 miles (and 5000+ feet of elevation) to Hurricane Ridge. Here we stood face-to-face with a variety of glaciers. We then coasted down (literally – not touching the gas once for 17 miles) back to sea level and drove another 80-100 miles to the Hoh Rainforest. It’s the only virgin, temperate rainforest left in the United States. We didn’t know if we were in Washington, Mirkwood or on Endor. (Wake-up sci-fi nuts…) Beautiful, huge, moss-covered trees. Dense forest… Amy was nuts using her camera. This was truly a major highlight of the trip. We ended our day by driving to the beach. 47* 42.634’N by 124* 24.939’W was our furthest point west on this trip. At this point – it was all eastward heading back to Green Bay. Our campsite was a bit further down the beach and it was lovely. We strolled in the sand and watched the setting of the sun. This was an incredible day.

Today we were on the road at 7:00 a.m. We were able to tune into news of the shuttle launch. We were very happy to hear that it went well. Today was a 12 hour day in the saddle. Olympic National Park to Boise, ID. Not a lot of sightseeing – although we followed the Columbia River along the Oregon/Washington border for quite a long time and we were able to catch a few nice views of Mount St. Helens. The goal was to get a lot of miles under our belt so that we have some time to stop in Promontory, UT (a spiritual spot for Jeff) as well as have a full day in Steamboat Springs, CO.

Great to hear from all of you. Loving this trip…

Jeff & Amy

The Wedding...

"We ate the food... we drank the wine... everybody having a good time..."
-U2

Wow... what a great wedding. While we've had a great adventure coming out here - it's important for us to remember the reason behind it all. Tracy and Tobias' wedding was a beautiful event. Pardon us for a second to get a little deep. Weddings are a great thing. Especially in this case, where people from all over the world (literally) came together and embraced an incredible occasion. We've met some fantastic people and made some good friends through this celebration. The bride was beautiful. The wedding was amazing. It truly brought things into perspective.

We're posting a picture of the "Fab Four" at the pre-nuptial gathering as well as a picture at the wedding.

We motor off tomorrow towards Olympic National Park and then off to Boise, ID. We'll check in again on Tuesday night.

Love to all,

Jeff & Amy

P.S. Sorry to those of you in the Midwest. Sunny and 75 out here... :)

WE MADE IT!

2,480 miles!!! We made it! We're safe and sound in Seattle, WA. Just checked into our hotel room. We're sad that our trip is exactly at its halfway point. However, we're excited to see the things on the upcoming agenda - including Tracy's wedding!

Just one picture today. It's another one of those "looks like its fake" shots. We visited the Grand Coolee Dam and camped on Lake Roosevelt last night. Kind of a funny place - the whole area is trapped in the 1950's. The visitor center shows the oldest information film I've ever seen. Reminds me of Mr. Hays' social studies class in 8th grade. The area has all of those cheesy drive-in motels/restaurants. Even the campground was uniquely "antiquated." It felt like we were in a time warp.

The geography of eastern Washington is fascinating. First of all - the drive from Missoula, MT to C'oeur D'Alene is amazing. Absolutely beautiful. Then you hit eastern Washington and it's as flat as a pancake - almost like being back in southern Minnesota. However, if you drive a little bit north and hit the Columbia River area - it's back to being breathtaking. We followed Highway 2 all the way to Seattle. The Cascades are amazing and there is still some snow up in the peaks - just like the Rockies in WY.

It's very odd driving around in a major city. We're used to dodging bison and climbing 7-8% grades in the mountains.

We're off to see some sights and find a cold beer or two. (Speaking of which - Pat or Dennis: Have you guys ever heard of "Moose Drool" beer before? UNREAL! Very good.)

To the New Buffalo bunch - Hope "Shore House" is going well. We miss you guys.

Mark - glad you're back from Minnesota. Hope everything went well. I'll give you a call later this week...

Jen & Andy - welcome back from Paris. Sounds like it was an incredible trip. We're looking forward to an evening of grilling, cocktails & trip stories when we get back. We'll host - I'm itching to cook again in a real kitchen...

Love you all - we'll be "on-line" until Monday morning.

Jeff & Amy

Montana is HUGE!!!

Okay – we’re now settled in our hotel in Missoula, MT. It’s actually a pretty big city (compared to Green Bay). I made friends with the front desk clerk who recommended a great steak joint for supper tonight. Love it…

Monday, we drove through the Bighorn Mountains where we’ve been up and down from 4500 to 9500 feet above sea level, but we haven’t cracked the 10,000 ft. mark yet. We were planning to stay at a campsite that we reserved but the afternoon just couldn’t go right after not getting our credit card back at a gas station and not realizing it until 150 miles later, and then driving 20 minutes past the campground we reserved. So we got a site that actually had a better view and a gas station and a “sub shop” that served hamburgers and beer. The showers there left a little to be desired, but you can’t have everything! Amy also got bitten by some odd bug while we were setting up the tent. More to come on that below…

We left early in the morning on Tuesday (our 8-year anniversary) so we could grab one of the first-come, first served sites at Jenny Lake in the Grand Tetons National Park. They were not kidding when they said that the sites all fill by 8 a.m., but a nice lady from Wisconsin let us grab her spot as she was leaving. We got our tent set up then began our day of hiking. We took a ferry across Jenny Lake and began hiking up the Cascade Canyon. Even though the flies were swarming around us, it was very beautiful. Lots of waterfalls, and scenic views at every turn. We didn’t see any bears, bighorn sheep, or moose while hiking, but did see ground squirrels everywhere, in fact one wanted our peanut butter sandwiches so much it would have crawled up our legs if we didn’t keep trying to scare it off. We ended up hiking up all the way to the back of the canyon (“The Forks”), before the flies and our sore feet sent us back down. We ended up with nine miles hiked (and over 1,000 feet in elevation change) in the end. Sorry to Dad (and Uncle Doug) who did this plus another 5 miles (and another 1,000 feet of elevation) when he was SIX YEARS OLD!!! (By the way gentlemen, the ranger was VERY impressed with that tidbit…)

We rose early Wednesday morning (6:00 a.m.) to get on the road up to Yellowstone. Beautiful drive. Yellowstone is a zoo. Imagine Door County on the 4^th of July weekend… The trick is to get up there early and hit the big things… We got a decent campsite, but small. We took a TON of pictures and video. Amy’s “bug sting” from camp two nights ago worsened and her leg was pretty swollen and red. We spent some time in the medical clinic (with an attractive young, male doctor from Yale) having Amy’s leg looked at. Nothing too serious – but he did prescribe some antibiotics. Old Faithful is still relatively faithful… wasted some video time waiting for the “big show.” Pretty neat though. This morning we were surrounded at “Mud Volcano” by a herd of bison. A little nerve-wracking, but we made it out of there intact.

That’s about it – we’ve rambled enough. We’re heading through Idaho tomorrow (VOTE FOR PEDRO) and into WA. We’re camping near Grand Coulee and then completing our journey to Seattle for the wedding of Tracy and Tobias – which promises to be a grand affair.

We’ll check in again from Seattle.

P.S. By the way…cheapest gas so far was $2.18 in South Dakota…most expensive was $2.49 in Yellowstone Park. Tourist effect? We think so!

Responses to comments:

Ginger – yep, I finally changed my shirt. Had to show off the city of Green Bay a bit though… [grins]

Thanks for the anniversary wishes. Couldn’t imagine a better place to spend it…

Mama Lapinskas – thanks for the prayers. Amy thinks it was those prayers that helped us survive my driving in the Rockies…

Glad you guys like the blog. We promise to not do this for our weekend trips to Iola though! LOL “Jeff caught a bluegill….” “Amy went to garage sales…” “Jeff drank a beer…” snooze….

Austin – Have fun on your adventure to Blackhawk Island. We’ll talk about Kastle Karts when we get back. Remember – you’re our favorite nephew…!

Amy E. – You’ll always be #1!

Nope… the feet don’t stick out of the tent. Who says Jeff is allowed to sleep in the tent? [grins]

Morse – I knew you’d pick up on the Dreyfus bit. One sci-fi nerd to another…

We're out of the wilderness....

"Good Morning America - How are ya?"

We're out of Tetons/Yellowstone and sitting in an ECONO LODGE parking lot (with free Wi-Fi) just getting a quick e-mail update. We've been camping for six consecutive nights so we're looking forward to our hotel tonight in Missoula, MT. (How sad is that?)

We'll post a trip update tonight with pics from the last three days.

It's great reading all of the comments. Dad - I'm with Morse - I had to look up "chortling."

Having a GREAT time. Yellowstone and the Tetons were INCREDIBLE. Lot's to post tonight.

Love to all...

Jeff & Amy

The adventure continues...

The adventure continues…

Had a GREAT day yesterday. We woke up at our campsite, packed up quickly, and drove down to Mt. Rushmore just as it opened. What an incredible place. The morning sun was shining on the monument. Very cool! Jack – we got your present from there.

We then drove down to the Crazy Horse Monument. It’s an unbelievable story that Lee got Jeff onto a couple of years ago. This sculpture will be extremely impressive when it is finished, it’s already really awe-inspiring and only the head is done. A Native American author was selling his book there with a tagline mentioning that his ancestors created the original department of homeland security – fighting terrorism since the 1800’s. Love it…

The highlight of our day was Devils Tower. Absolutely unbelievable. Breathtaking. After taking pictures of the prairie dog town near our campsite, we did a four mile hike following the route of Richard Dreyfus up the side of the tower to its base. There is a one mile path that goes completely around the tower at its base. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. We hiked back down to our campsite (see picture) and camped overnight. We woke up early after a cool night (finally!) and we’re now on the road heading across Wyoming. If all goes as planned, we’ll be hiking in the Tetons tomorrow.

No Griswalds yet dad - and no aliens behind Devils Tower either.

Hope all is well!

Jeff & Amy

...and we're rolling...

Well – the trip rolls on… We’re getting deeper and deeper into the red states.

Sounds like Hayley isn’t doing too well at Jack & Linda’s. Hang in there pup. Stop eating their backyard…that might help.

Mark & Steph – welcome home. Too bad we couldn’t meet out here somewhere. We’ll upload some pictures from Jenny Lake when we get there. It should look familiar!

The Badlands were incredible. That’s where the picture is taken. We took the Badlands Scenic Byway which was absolutely beautiful. The scenery went from flat prairie to gorgeous rock in a few miles. Unreal… Wall Drug was a riot. We got some tacky souvenirs and had some ice cream. Pretty fun day all-in-all.

We’re in the shadows of Mt. Rushmore right now. We’re off to Rushmore, Crazy Horse and Devils Tower tomorrow. 105 was the high temp today (112 at the bottom of the Badlands.) We’re supposed to have some high winds move through tonight and then MUCH cooler temps for the next few days. Devils Tower should have a high in the 70’s tomorrow.

Stupid observations:

Corn Palace: HUGE waste of time. The billboards make everything in SD look fantastic. The billboards also lied when they said this tourist trap was 3 minutes off the highway.

We now know what "Amber waves of grain" means…

MN speed limit: 70 MPH
SD speed limit: 75 MPH
We’re almost to the point of the average speed on the tri-state tollway in Chicago…

Based on the number of RV’s on the road, we’re not the only ones with flexible work schedules…

SD has really cool road kill. Much better than the usual squirrels and deer back in Wisconsin.

Anna Nalick is stalking us. We saw her perform at Summerfest and now she’s on every radio station out here…

SD is an interesting place. They’ve managed to take the Wisconsin Dells concept and expand it to an entire state!

That’s about it. Thanks to all for the comments. Sounds like Jack had a good time at Bill & Stel’s. Tracy – we’re looking forward to food, wine and civilization. We may or may not be able to check in over the next couple of days – all depends on wireless connections.
Love, Jeff & Amy

Road Trek 2005 is underway! We were on the road Friday at 5:30 a.m. Quick run to Oshkosh to drop our dog off with Amy’s parents. Thanks Mom & Dad Verwiel! Hope she’s doing well! We then hopped on 21 and raced across Wisconsin. We stopped in LaCrosse to drive up Granddad Bluff. Took some great pictures up there. We were then on I-90 westbound over the Mississippi and into Minnesota. I was a bit crushed that we didn’t have time to visit the SPAM museum in Austin, MN. We rolled into Walnut Grove, MN around 3:30 p.m. We established our campsite and then did the whole “Laura Ingalls Wilder” thing in town. It’s a neat museum and a nice visit for two history majors. We then drove out to the site of the original “dugout” house back in the 1800’s. Amy had a field day snapping pictures of wildflowers in a prairie restoration project in this area.

95 degrees today and pretty humid. I had a whole thought in my head about how I could gain sympathy about the heat on this trip. However, Amy and I later received an email from our friend Pete who is based in Iraq. He’s got us beat regarding temperature… (Great chatting with you Thursday night Pete…)

We’re off to Mt. Rushmore, The Badlands, and the Crazy Horse Monument on Sunday. See ya…

Love,

Jeff

P.S. - It's unreal how much corn this country produces...

Almost ready

We are in the midst of packing everything but the kitchen sink (at least it feels like that)! We leave at 5 am on Friday to drop the dog off at mom and dad's and then off to Walnut Grove, Minnesota for the first night.

After hearing that many campgrounds along the way filled up, we kind of panicked today about not having reservations for campsites. Jeff has been on the laptop all day making reservations in shady campsites with scenic views. Can't wait!

Off to do some errands!
Amy

First posting

Well, we finally have the blog (online journal) set up. Hopefully this works! Our goal is to write about what we see and do each day and upload a picture or two along the way...

So obviously if you are reading this, then you found our site. Bookmark it, or add it to your favorites and come back often. You can also add a comment if you want to.