Arches 3/30/13

What a great day we had in Arches National park. We did the Double O arch hike, which was about a 4 mile hike up and down rocks. It was a really nice hot day which lead to getting a really bad horrible sunburn. We didn't want to put on sunscreen on because we just had shower... Lesson learned....

Bryce Canyon to Moab, UT

We had an amazing sunrise today in Bryce... The colors were amazing. It was a little chilly last night and this morning in the bus. We booth slept with sweatshirts and double layered socks and added extra blankets.

We took the advice of the ranger and drove the scenic route 12 to Moab, what a pretty drive it was. Chris drove most of it while I was able to do some studying for my OTA test when we get back to Cali. We hit 9,600 feet in elevation and 6 grades, 8%, 10%, 8%, 8%, 6% and 8% (I'm so happy he was driving and not me)... On the drive we made a stop at the petrified forest, we did the trail hike and almost finished the hike without realizing what we were supposed to be looking at ... Gotta say for being a state park there wasn't a whole lot of petrified wood.

We got in to Moab and the plans were to wing it for the night and find a campground in the area, but once we got into town we were welcomed to the jeep jamboree festive with 10,000 jeeps. We were so lucky to finally find a RV campground with room. We are right on the Colorado river with huge rock mountains around us, which made for an amazing sunset. Dinner was great and the shower was even better .... It's off to bed so we can get an early start in Arches and a drive to vail, co ...

Bryce Canyon

What an amazing place... Spent the day driving the rim and hit every view point... Just got to our camp site for the night. Going to start dinner (taco's) and head back out for the sunset :) can't wait to sit by the fire and look at the stars

Day one

Day one is off to a great start.  Was able to get out of Cameron park earlier than we expected.  I made the drive to Elko, nv and Chris will get us to salt lake or even farther to cut down on the drive tomorrow to Bryce Canyon.  We can't believe how much easier it was to pack the bus in a garage than park on the street in midtown three years ago. We were able to get everything in and still have space :). Well I'm off to bed while Chris finishes the drive.  Bryce Canyon here we come :)

2013 US TRIP :)

18 more days til US Trip 2013 !!!!!!  Chris leaves tomorrow to head up to Idaho to pick up the bus and bring it down to start packing it.  3 years ago we left sacramento not knowing what to expect.  Well its been 3 years and alot has happened, We Bought a house, got married, Chris promoted to an Engineer, I just recently graduated from Occupational Therapy Assistant program, and before babies come we figured why not make one last trip around the United States.  We set to leave March 27th and travel through the middle of the US all the way down to Key West, Fl,  back up to Nashville, to Kansas where we will go north to Canada , West to Vancouver  then back to Sandpoint, ID to drop off the bus.  We have already made plans throughout the trip and cant wait to get to Florida to see our new Nephew who was born March 8th.  Well that's it for now...

Mt. Rushmore & Crazy Horse

We were in Chicago on the 18th and on the 19th we had a long drive.....

oh man was this a long day...we started just outside of Chicago and we ended the day/next very early morning in Livingston, MT.... we drove 16ish hours with 3 stops, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse & Wall Drug, gained an hour on our drive and still made it to our appointment in Livingston the next day for the bus on the 20th at 9am :) GO US

Mt. Rushmore
        Who would of thought that face on a Mountain could impress you so much.  It was a sight to see for sure, the heads looked perfect, like they just finished with them....

 i think pictures do enough ... no words can describe it more than these pictures .... it was off to Crazy Horse (which is only 20minutes away)



Crazy Horse - its a must do, just make sure you go to Mt. Rushmore first.... after looking at Mt. Rushmore and then going to Crazy Horse, which isn't even a tenth done, the difference is amazing.  The size difference is huge... the head alone of Crazy horse can fit all 4 heads of Mt. Rushmore... Crazy...  a worker their said they hope to have just the head of the Horse done in about 10years, but no one really knows when it will be done... this project was started in the 40's and its only this far... its a must see if your in the area...

we did stop by a little place called Wall Drug, Sd ... it was started by a pharmacist and later turned out to be a free amusement stop for people.... it was a nice little break for us and a well need leg stretch...

 

Kings Island - April 17th

What a fun park.... its not a Six Flags park but its a true old fashion theme park.... they only had a few big roller coasters but their main one is awesome... BEAST ... its about 4 minutes long and it takes you out in the woods and through tunnels and everything... very cool wooden coaster... its one of the top wooden coasters... we pretty much did all the rides they had big to small... chris was really bummed because "son of beast" wasnt running... its a wooden coaster that had a single loop, but later to find out was taken out because it caused injuries... they had it open last year but closed it again because of more injuries... this coaster looked off the chain... it was really tall and looked like it went fast, too bad its coast the theme back around 30million just in fixing it ... maybe next time we make it to Cincinnati it will be up and running.... after a very long day we ended it with a great fireworks show right at the front gate...

After a long day at the theme park we jumped back into good old Nancy and started our drive to Chicago... we ended up about an hour outside of Chicago and pulled in to our home away from home Wal-Mart for the night... im not starting to get picky at the ones we stay out... i always look for the ones that are open 24hours so that way i can always have a bathroom and i dont have to wait til morning  :) .... its the little things in life that are very important to always be aware of ....  alright so back to Chicago... what a great city... we stopped and ate at a little pizzeria and watched the white Sox's and Cubs play on tv... we did some more exploring of the city and found our self's outside of the cubs field ... Chris wanted to get a picture with Nancy and the famous Wrigley Field Chicago CUBS sign... it was pretty crazy with the game going on and people walking everywhere but i jumped out of the bus and walked across the street and waited for chris to go around the block and make his way back to the stadium ... i quickly snapped the picture and ran to catch up with him ...... it was the best picture because 3 seconds before he went through the light a big bus blocked the view and he had to slow down and then 3 seconds after i took the picture another bus ran right in front of me and would have blocked the view...

all in all Chicago was pretty fun and i would love to spend more time there...        NEXT STOP is ................