Home, sweet home!

Let's see, where did we leave off? I believe we were in Kansas City, after a horrible night in Denver. Things got better for the last part of the trip thankfully. We left Kansas City and headed across Missouri to St. Louis, where we headed straight to the Budweiser Brewery.

While I certainly don't consider my dear Bud to be my favorite brew by any means, I do enjoy any place that brews that much beer. We happened upon the brewery on NASCAR Busch Series day and saw a bunch of drivers, the only one of whom I recognized was Kenny Wallace, brother to Rusty. We headed out on a fantastic tour of the brewery with 100 of our closest friends, and then followed it up with....FREE BEER!



We did get a chance to see the Gateway Arch on the riverfront. Unfortunantly, the ride to the top was a little long considering we still had another four hour drive to Louisville. However, the walk around the Arch was great and the Museum beneath the Arch was pretty interesting.



When we made it to Louisville late that night, the worry set in that we'd have another hotel experience....well we had an expereience all right. The Louisville Marriott knows how to run a hotel. Beautiful. Modern. Clean. Incredible Service. And they even had Chocolates on the Pillow.

The next day we got to the Louisville Slugger museum before the crowds and got to see the entire factory. As we were there they were making Derek Jeter's bats. We even got to take home a piece of one of the bats. We also were able to pick up bats that were ordered by the Babe and Ty Cobb. I took a few swings with Jeter's bat in the cages, but didn't want to intimidate all the kids looking on.



Before we left for the last leg of the ride, we needed to see Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby. Again, we didn't have time (or money!) for the full, official tour, so we took the unofficial tour. This included driving through closed parking lots, and opening unmarked doors. What fun!



And then the ride home. WestVirginia, home of the our second traffic jam of the trip. Are you kidding me? Well, we travelled through WV into Maryland and back up into Delaware to complete the circle. We arrived home at 12:20 AM and unloaded the car and then fell asleep for hours and hours. All in all, we drove 8854.5 miles and averaged 26.4 miles per gallon along the trip. Not too shabby.

Thanks for reading. Be sure to check back in a few days for stats, best-of photos and Lisa's Best Bathrooms review!

Colorado = no fun!

Before we get into how Colorado left us with a very sour taste in our mouths, I'll talk about the beginning of our anniversary, which was good. We started the day in Arches National Park, which was as beautiful as expected. Unfortunantly, we didn't have all day to spend there, or we would surely have hiked to Delicate Arch for sunset, but we only had a few hours, so we did as much as we could. Balanced Rock, the Windows, Delicate Arch from a viewpoint, and Landscape Arch. All incredible. Look for the picture of Lisa almost ruining the Balanced Rock. When we left arches we drove along the less traveled east side of the park along the Dinosaur Diamond Scenic Byway which travels along the Colorado River, which was incredibly amazing. I can't believe it wasn't part of the national park, because it should have been.



We finally hit cell phone range again and left Utah for Colorado. As we passed over the Rockies (we hit 10,602 ft in elevation) it really started to storm hard, which made for stressful driving. The only benefit of the rain was the amazing rainbow we saw afterwards. The other fun thing about the drive is that we went from 102 degrees in arches, to 51 degrees near Aspen. That's a 51 degree differernce!



Finally we reached Denver, and we were really looking forward to our night in the Rennassaince Denver Hotel, one of the top brands in the Marriott chain. Well, for some reason, the folks at Marriott have forgotten about this hotel since it was built in the 70's. What a discrace. Wallpaper peeling, outdated furniture, old everything...just horrible. By far, this was the worst hotel on the entire trip, and I let them know at the front desk. We were upgraded to the suite, which was just as horrible, only bigger (except the bathroom, which was probably smaller). It's no wonder they are going through a 20 million dollar renovation. They needed it 20 years ago. Marriott will be getting a letter from this Gold member! So we spent so much time with the room switcharoo that by the time we got settled, it was too late to find a place for dinner on a Tuesday, so dinner was at Cold Stone Creamery. But wait...this all gets worse. The next morning, we wake to hammering and a test of the fire alarm system at 7:30. Wonderful. When we finally get on the road, not more than two minutes later, Mr State Trooper pulls us over. Apparently for about 2 miles, the highway goes down to 55 mph from 75 mph, and while we stayed with traffic we got pulled over. And a half a mile later it's back 75. So the price of the trip just went up. That was NO FUN. Thank god we finally got out of Colorado, even if the next state was 500 miles of flat boredom.

At least we had a good dinner. We ate at the famous Arthur Bryants Barbeque. It almost felt like eating at Tony Lukes in philly. Some good, down home cooking.



Tonight's hotel it ok, and tomorrow we drive through St. Louis to Louisville. We probably won't post again until we get home, which means maybe Saturday some time, because we'll get home late Friday. Thanks for reading throughout the trip. It's been fun! Don't worry, they'll be pictures of our last two days posted this weekend, and hopefully a Trip Statistics post and "best of" photo gallery sometime next week!

~John and Lisa

One Long Dam Post (Vegas, Baby, and more)

Sorry for all those of you who enjoyed Lisa's post, but she doesn't like writing much and you are all stuck with me. Like most nights, she is icing her knee and watching some weird television while I type this. Also, apologies for not posting earlier. We obviously weren't about to waste precious time in Vegas playing around on the computer, and then the next two nights we were at the Grand Canyon where a lightning storm blew out the town's internet. We're in Moab for tonight, and be forwarned - this is going to be a long post.

Friday the 13th was a long day, and we weren't quite lucky for most of it. We got out the door in Fresno a little late and made our way over to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. The drive in was nice as parts of it drove by grove after grove of Orange, Lemon and Peach trees. The way up the hill, other trees reminded us of autumn back east. Just different colors. Once inside the park, the amazing thing was the sheer number of Sequoias. We've seen them before in Muir Woods and twice in Yosemite, but there were so many more here, close together, that it really dwarfed us. The General Grant tree (America's Christmas Tree) and the General Sherman Tree (The largest living thing on Earth) were definite highlights. Also, I did enjoy ze German boy asking me if he could "make a photo of your license plate?"



Then came the problem with these National Parks. There was construction on the way down the mountain and we missed the opening by about 2 minutes. So we had to sit and wait for an hour (in the sun) before we could head down. By the time we did get down the hill, and we plugged Death Valley and Las Vegas into the GPS, the arrival time in Vegas was 2 am. Not our idea of a good time, plus the weather in Death Vally was forecasted as 121 degrees. We were forced to bypass the Valley of Death and head straight to Sin city instead. The drive there was pretty interesting as we passed by Edwards AFB and tons of Wind farms. Ok, so not that interesting.



We pulled into Vegas around 9:30 and drove down the strip. The 2 mile trip only took about a half hour or so. Got to the Hilton, checked in, headed out to the strip and, well - you know what they say. What happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas. And lucky for all of you I didn't bring the camera anywhere. In all seriousness though, we took the monorail (GREAT!) saw some of the big casinos and then I played Craps for 3 hours and walked away up. Too bad I lost it all and more the the next morning. Oh, and the fountain shows at the Bellagio are awesome. Lastly, at the Hilton, Lisa was enthralled with the Star Trek themed Casino. What a geek!

It was 113 degrees as we left Vegas and headed for the Hoover Dam and then onto the Grand Canyon. We parked in the dam parking lot and headed down the dam stairs to the dam walkway. That's where we took a lot of the dam photos and Lisa went to the dam bathroom.



The Grand Canyon! What a sight. It's absolutely unreal that it exists. Even though we were standing there looking at it with our own eyes, it didn't seem real. It looked like a painting, or something from another planet. Just incredible that I can throw a rock over the edge and never hear or see it land. While the park map was the worst of the National Park system, we made good use of the park shuttle system, after a slight hiccup. We made our way out to Hermits Rest, which is as far west as the shuttle goes, though we hiked about two or three miles along the rim. It seemed we kept one step ahead of the rain until we got to the end of the line when it finally caught up to us. All in all, the weather held up and we got some great photos, including the ones I was able to stitch together (at the end of the slideshow).



After a not-so-great dinner at the Yippie-ei-ay steakhouse, and some carvel for desert, we headed to a spot east of the canyon village called Desert View for the sunset. While we didn't get the glowing canyon walls we were hoping for, we did get a neat sunset and some great stormy weather off in the distance, which added some drama to the sunset.



We woke up early this morning to get a jump start on the day, and we had a tour scheduled for 10:30 in Page, AZ. We took a few early morning pictures of the canyon and headed up the line. On the way, we were also able to make a quick stop at the Glen Canyon Dam and Bridge. We didn't go to the Dam bathroom this time. We we got a dam picture or two.



This next sight was by far one of the most interesting, most photogenic, and most breathtaking sights we've seen yet. Upper Antelope Canyon was incredible. We had a great Navaho Tour guide drive us out to the Canyon. We got lucky with a small group and seemed to be ahead of the masses, so we were able to get a lot of photos inside the canyon without people in the pictures. There's not much more I can say about it other than it was the best $28 per person we've spent on this trip. Check out the photos...



Lastly (it's been a long post huh?) we made it out to Monument Valley, which is also a Navaho Tribal Park, on the border of Arizona and Utah. Lot's of John Wayne westerns were filmed here, as well as parts of Back to the Future III. It was a rough ride for the CR-V....17 miles of unpaved dirt and rock. But well worth it. It's filled with Buttes. Big Buttes. Little Buttes. Round Buttes. I like big butte and cannot lie. Storms rolled in as we were there, which just made the place seem more alive. As we left we got some of the 'iconic' photos looking back at the monuments. It's the photo that seems to always be on the cover of an atlas or something. It's also where Forrest Gump decided to stop running. Right off the road was Goosenecks state park, where the San Jaun River took the long route.



We finally made it into Moab tonight and had a nice dinner out and found our hotel, which thankfully has some internet. Tomorrow we'll see Arches National Park before heading to Denver. It's our 3rd anniversary, so hopefully we'll find someplace nice to eat. We should be able to post again on the night of the 18th from Kansas City. Till then...

~John and Lisa

Bear Country!!!

So on Milton's request, here I go writing my first blog post (other than last night, I am usually half-asleep when John is writing the post). I was actually going to post a little something at the end of "John's" post, but now I am doing the whole thing!

We started off the day in Reno-another sunny and beautiful morning, before driving down to Yosemite. Thankfully we filled up the car in Nevada because the price of regular gas in Cali was a cheap $3.99 (gas in Reno was around $3.13). The drive into the East entrance was as usually beautiful, but littered with speeders. The park started posting signs where bears have been recently killed and just on the way in on the Tioga Pass, we saw 4 different signs. Even though we sort of saw a Grizzly in Yellowstone, John was dying to see one with his own eyes. About an hour into our drive through the park, we came around a turn with a car parked on the side of the road, we threw the car in park and jumped out. Sure enough there was a young black bear about 50 yards off the road. The bear was surprisingly brown, not black. There must have been a lot of people confusing the bears in the park for grizzlies due to their brown color because the "Yosemite Brochure" explained that they were in fact the American Black Bear. The sighting only lasted a few seconds and barely aloud us time to snap a picture-John got one off, but the camera focused on some branches-you can see his skillful photography in the slideshow.

During our last visit to Yosemite in October, Yosemite Falls was completely dried up. Thankfully it was still flowing today and it gave us a chance to take a short hike to the lower falls. The water was freezing and crystal clear. A lot of people were swimming in the many pools-I overheard one little girl gleefully tell here mother "I just peed Mom!" as she continued to sit in the water and play with other kids-Ahh...gotta love those campers!

Our next mini-hike was to Bridalveil Falls. At the foot of the falls, we were met with a large rock/boulder field. I knew my knee wouldn't cooperate, so John started the "5-minute" hike up the rocks to take some close pictures of the falls. 30 minutes later John returned-and you judge for yourself if the pictures were worth the time :)

The Mariposa Grove was our last stop in Yosemite and they did not disappoint. The Grizzly Giant was massive and you could barely take it all in at once. We even got to see a deer (and tons of small furry animals).



Tomorrow we head down to Sequoia National Park, Death Valley (maybe) and then Vegas, Baby!

Oh and stay tuned, because since I am a woman and need to use the restroom hourly, I am compiling a list of the "Best and Worst Bathrooms" in our great nation (sorry no pictures).

Lisa and John signing off-not sure if we will be able to post tomorrow night since we will be out on the town, but we should be able to post from the Grand Canyon on Saturday.

P.S. Just because we found ourselves passingup some picture spots, here are the photos from our first time in Yosemite, last October.

Laundry night

As I'm writing this post, Lisa is folding our laundry in scenic Reno, NV. Actually, we don't know how scenic, or not, it is because we pulled in after dark, which made the fires on the hills that much more spectacular. We started in Portland this morning and drove up the Columbia River to see the second-tallest, year-round falls in the United States, Multnomah Falls, which sits at the base of Mt. Hood. It's two sets of falls, the upper is 542 ft, and the lower is 69 ft. Tomorrow we'll being seeing Yosemite Falls (hopefully they are still flowing) which is taller, but not year-round. Anyway, Multnomah was quite a sight to see, and if we had more time, I'm sure we would have hiked to the top. Instead we did a mini-hike to a bridge above the lower falls, looking at the upper falls. It's a really great vantage point to see both the upper and lower falls, as well as out to the Columbia River.



After Multnomah Falls, we drove back through Portland (cool looking city by the way, wish we could have seen more!) on our way to southern Oregon. Crater Lake National Park was our next stop. It wasn't a park we had set out to see in the beginning like Yellowstone and Glacier, but since it was on the way, why not take this National Parks Pass for a spin?! Outside the park we stopped for lunch and noticed the building was covered in...Moths? Yes, huge moths. Needless to say, Lisa had a tough time getting her lunch down. And apparently this was a very light moth year...

So on to Crater Lake, which is basically an old, previously erupted volcano that left a giant divot in the earth. Snow and rain eventually filled it and there you go. It's actually the deepest lake in the US and doesn't have any streams that flow in or out of it...it just filled up. The coolest thing about Crater Lake was the snow everywhere and the color of the water, just a magnificent deep blue. In some of the pictures you'll be confused as to if you are looking at water or sky....but it's water.



From Crater we drove south into California where gas was $3.33, after seeing it in Oregon for $2.72 at one point. Thankfully I filled up before we crossed the border. We cut across the top of Cali and entered Nevada around Reno. Mileage on the Car is sitting at about 4850. Tomorrow, we're skipping Lake Tahoe due to wildfires and time, and just heading south to enter Yosemite from the East and travel across Tioga Pass to Yosemite Falls and then south to the Mariposa Grove. We'll be staying in Fresno tomorrow night. Hopefully we'll be able to post.
John and Lisa

Seattle's Grace...

Late last night we pulled into Seattle. This morning we slept in a bit as a celebrtion for making it to the west coast and marking the halfway point in the trip! We started the day in north Seattle near the Space Needle. The main reason we were there was really to go to the Experience Music Project. Thankfully for you, Cameras were not allowed inside, so no pictures of the great memorbilia and fun activities inside. It was really fun, and I'd recommend it to any music lover that makes it to Seattle. It also houses the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and Museum, so all you geeks will love it too. The building itself (designed by Frank Gehry) is amazing.

From there we walked towards the sound via the Olympic Sculpture Park and then south along the waterfront to eat at one of Milton's dining suggestions - Elliott's. Good food, Good Beer, and I even conviced Lisa to try an Oyster.

Since Lisa's knee was feeling up to it, we walked up the steps to the Pike Place Market and watched the Fish Toss take place. The fish looked great...If only i could have enjoyed some. We also were able to see the first Starbucks ever, as well as about 300 others, as it's on every corner here. Seattle's Best coffee is better though... We tried walking down to the Underground tour, but by the time we got there it was too late for us to get on a tour, as we still had to drive to Portland. We were able to see Mt. Rainier clear as day, as well as Mt. St. Helen's as we drove south.

We've heard that there have been some high tempertures back home, but don't worry - Seattle hit record highs as we walked around today. It almost broke 90. What a heat wave!



We left Seattle around 6 to drive to Portland, but decided that since we'd driven this far, we actually needed to see the Pacific Ocean and make the cross-country trip official. We saw the Pacific in Seaview, WA, not more than a few miles from where Lewis and Clark first saw the Pacific. It was a race to beat sunset, and we pulled up to the beach as the GPS unit switched to night mode due to sunset. We ran out and took a few pictures and enjoyed the rest of the sunset with the others on the beach. The last pictures below are the obligitory state line pictures going into Oregon.



We got to the hotel way too late to see any of Portland, but tomorrow we'll see Multnomah Falls, then drive through Portland on our way to Crater Lake and Reno. Hopefully we'll pull in with enought time to post. Till then...

Lisa and John

PS - Thanks to all who comment....we love reading them!

Montana and Beyond....

Surprsingly, today is the halfway point in our trip, although it doesn't feel like it. We pulled into Seattle a few hours ago and the odometer read 3997 miles. Not too shabby for 10 days. The last few days were spent in area surrounding Glacier National Park in Montanta. Actually, we were there for Nate and Maia's wedding (Nate was a classmate of mine at KP). The wedding is what spawned this whole trip. Anyway, for those of you that know Nate (or Maia for that matter) can click here to see the pictures from the Wedding. The wedding was a great time and it was good to catch up with Nate and meet Maia. After the wedding we hung out with Scotty Johnson and his fiancee, Zura, and the rest of the wedding party up at Nate's condo on the Mountain.

The next day we traveled through Glacier National Park along the Going-to-Sun-Road. What a road! The scnerey here was just amazing, and we had beautiful weather to back it up again. We crossed the park and then headed into the Canadian half of the park to see the Prince of Wales Hotel. On the way back, we circled around to bottom to see to Goat Lick: where Mountain Goats lick the salt off the side of the mountain. We also stayed at the historic Belton Chalet, which was excellent, as long as you can deal with passing trains throughout the night. (it wasn't that bad). There's not much else I can say about Glacier...I'll just let the photos below speak for themselves.



The last few photos in the slideshow are from today. We didn't do much except head into Glacier one last time this morning and then head west across Idaho and Washington to get to Seattle this evening. We'll tour the city tomorrow, and hopefuly eat at one of 'Milton's' recomendations and head down to Portland tomorrow night. One thing I'll say about the drive today, Washington was MUCH more boring than I thought it would be. The most exciting part was when they posted signs that stated the name of the crop in the field we were driving past. So informative...I wish the farms in Jersey and Delawhere would do that too.

Till next time,

John and Lisa

Why? Wyoming!

We'll keep this post short since it's a lot of pictures and it's getting late. We're in Helena, MT on our way to West Glacier for Nate and Maia's wedding tomorrow. The last few days were incredible.

Devil's tower was great. Lisa of course loved the Prairie Dogs, and yes, it reminded us of the cube farm at work. Heads popping up all over the place. The tower itself was nothing short of impressive. And then we saw those fools attempting to climb it! I wanted to try, but Lisa wouldn't let me.



The it was across Wyoming to Big Horn National Forrest, which is on the way to Yellowstone. Big Horn was beautiful...especially the needed 25 degree temperature drop - 92 to 67 as we climbed the mountain.



Finally we entered Yellowstone after a quick stop in Cody, WY for some supplies. We caught the Lake at sunset and things really came out beautifully. Our favorite part was the Coyote our for a stroll on the shore.



The next day we walked out of our cabin and saw Old Faithul blow about 5 minutes later. Talk about timing. The next few hours were spent in the Old Faithful area with all the Geysers and Pools. We eventually made our way up to Norris and across to the Canyon area where a large Buck Elk was causing a stir. He was magnificent. We toured the entire Canyon area, including Upper and Lower Falls, and made our way out to artists point on the south rim. After dinner we headed south towards Hayden valley, where lots of animals hang out at dusk. We got there about a half hour after the most exciting thing possible happened. A Grizzly walked right across the road. We were able to see him through someone's spotting scope. Crazy!



Today we traversed the north half of the park. We did a lot of walking yesterday and Lisa's knee was a little tight so we tried to stay in the car as much as possible. Thankfully there weren't as many trails. We looked down into bear country but couldn't find any, but later on we came across a ranger who had just seen a black bear cub go over the hill, but we never saw it. We took the road to the northeast entrance and saw a buffalo caused traffic jam and got some good shots of some bison calves. Lastly we hit up Mammoth springs near the North Entrance. The Elk were everywhere, and the springs were really different.



One more thing. In every parking lot we pulled into, we were very popular. Not because of our leg injuries or our dashing good looks. It was our License Plate. Everyone playing the 'Find all 50 license plates on summer vacation' game were so excited to finally capture the elusive Delaware (Delawhere?) plate.

That's it for today. The wedding is tomorrow, then we visit Glacier National Park on sunday, and will hopefully post again Monday evening from Seattle. Till next time...

John and Lisa.

Happy Fourth!

Wow, just wow is all either of us can say about yesterday. So much wow that by the time we got back to the hotel last night it was straight to bed. But since this is the last day we're going to have internet access until the night of the sixth, I figured I had to post these things now. Unfortunantly, none of the picture will be edited or captioned, but hopefully they'll speak for themselves.

We spent the entire day in South Dakota, and had cell reception for about 2% of it. Started 5 minuted from the east border, finshed 5 minutes from the western border. Most of the state isn't much to write home about, but the portions that are, are awesome. The first thing we saw was the Corn Palace. I made us go see it because yesterday we missed the 60 ft Jolly Green Giant.

Badlands, ain't so bad. We took the Badlands loop through our first National Park today (and purchased our National Park Pass). It was surreal. Both of us wondered what it must have been like to be first Americans out here to see this. I can only imagine it scared the bejesus out of them! But it's fantastic, and we also got some interesting weather and cloud cover, which made for some neat pictures. I used the auto photostitch tool, but it didn't do the greatest job this time, so please excuse!



After a quick lunch, we took the long way into Mt. Rushmore, Along the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway and through part of Custer State Park. There were signs for Buffalo, but we didn't see any. What we did see, however, was incredible. A pak of wild, or free roaming donkeys (well, we think they were donkeys) running through the hills. Lisa took all these great pictures of them running, even the babies. It was fatastic to say the least. We had a line of abuot 6 cars behind us watching as well. From the byway, we got our first glimpse of Rushmore through tunnels carved through the mountain. When it got time to head up to the last stretch, we were informed by the State Police that the lot was full (it was only 5:00!) and our best bet was to park along the side of the road and walk. Two miles, up a very steep hill. But Lisa, and her knee, were up for it (I believe the quote was "It's not like I can damage it anymore...") and we did it. And her knee held up fine. The crowd at the top was ridiculous. So many people, a concert and beautiful views of the Men in the Mountain.



As the sun went down, they started the fireworks, which were to say the least, the most incredible display I've ever seen. You haven't seen fireworks until you've seen them shooting out of George Washington's head. Some of the pictures at the beginning of the slideshow are dark, but once the lights warmed up, some photos came out awesome!



After the event, the walk down was a little tougher, and then an hour and a half drive to the hotel. Long day, but worth it. Today is Devil's Tower and into Yellowstone. We'll post again when we leave Yellowstone. Till' Next time, enjoy the pictures!

Lisa and John

Is this heaven? No, it's Iowa...

Wow, it's hard to believe we started the day just outside Chicago. We covered a lot of ground today. The tripometer is up to 1441 miles. Not too bad for three days worth of driving. I knew today was going to be a good day when I saw the Dunkin' Donuts across the street from my hotel last night. So that was the first stop for a large cup'o'joe for the ride. But what's this? One free donut per person on Monday's in July!?!?!? So, after a free donut and the world's best coffee, how can this not be a good day?

Travelling west out of Chicagoland, we took US-20 for while and enjoyed the Illinois scenery before crossing over the Mississippi River into Dubuque, Iowa. The Mississippi isn't too big up here, but on the way back we cross in St. Louis, where it should be a little more impressive.

Then the car just drove itself to a farm in Dyersville....and what a farm it was. It's quite possibly the most beautiful farm in the country. It also happened to be where they filmed Field of Dreams. It was heaven....and Iowa, all wrapped up into one. Lisa's leg held up for some catch, and we watched some of the 'game' that was going on. The movie site is completely free to go to, and the field is always available for anyone that wants to play. So we played. And disappeared into the corn. I couldn't find Shoeless Joe though.

After Field of Dreams, the long part of the day started. Iowa, Minnesota and into South Dakota. But, here's an interesting note. In Iowa and South Dakota, Super Unleaded is cheaper than regular Unleaded. Fancy that! (note: maybe Minnesota too, but we didn't fill up there). When driving through southern Minnesota though, I did realize that the Yanks were playing the Twins, so we got to hear the game. Though the names sounded all different. Robinson Cano (2B) was now Raabinson Cahnooo. Yanks won, finally.

Lastly, my favorite roadside stop was a place called Carlos O'Kelly's, a Mexican joint. It's a chain out here. I just can't figure out if I would walk up to the bar and order a Corona or a Guinness. Thankfully there was a Texas Roadhouse next to the hotel.

And with that, I'll leave you with a link to way too many pictures, but some of them are pretty fun. Sorry I didn't separate them out.

Tomorrow is Badlands National Park and Mt. Rushmore for the Fireworks. Till then...

Roooooo-Deeeee / Sweet Home Chicago!

Good evening everyone! We've survived another day. Total Mileage so far: 883. Not too bad for two days, and the CR-V, while covered in dead bugs, is holding up like a champ.

We started this morning bright and early with a hearty breakfast at the Fairfield Inn with the Yankees. Well, the little league version. The ride to Notre Dame was uneventful - farms, farms, dilapidated buildings and more farms. However, South Bend was another story. We got to campus at about 9:40 for 10:00 mass. Good thing, because the Basilica is about a 15 minute walk from visitor parking....20 if you've torn an ACL recently. Well, we were quite surprised when we opened the doors to see the place packed to the gills. Had we gotten there any later, we'd have been sitting behind the alter. (and yes, those sections quickly filled up too!) They let us know we were being filmed for DirectTV and the Hallmark chanel, and Mass began. They don't fool around...14 Priests! And then probably another 10 deacons and another 10 seminarians. Yowsah! Plus, one of the deacons or seminarians was the incense guru...incense over everything! Even us. But the mass was beautiful and the choir was absolutely angelic, and Lisa ran into someone from Gloucester. What're the odds?

After Mass we took a short walking tour of the campus, which included the Grotto back behind the Basilica and Notre Dame Stadium, home to Knute Rockne, Rudy Ruettiger and the Gipper. Here are photos from the home of the Fightin' Irish.



After a quick change out of Church clothes, we drove up to Chi-town, but not without a little adventure. I needed a new wrap for that scraped up leg you saw in yesterday's pictures, and pluged 'Pharmacy' into the GPS which took us 2 or 3 miles into Gary, Indiana. Woah Nellie! For a city with such happy song about it, not a very happy place.

Anyway, we quickly realized that we were changing time zones, and therefore might be able make the Cubbies game. All this time, we thought we wouldn't get to Wrigley until an hour after the first pitch, but it looked like we would get there in time to buy tickets off a scalper in the 2nd inning. No luck. Traffic killed us. By the time we found a spot and walked down to 1060 West Addison, it was the 5th inning, and with the weather we had, everyone in Chicago wanted to be inside Wrigley. But we enjoyed the Wrigleyville atmosphere, walked down Waveland Ave looking for a homer, and looked into right field from the street.

After a hearty, and late, lunch, we drove over to Lincoln Park, on the shores of Lake Michigan. Since the zoo was free (with a $14 charge for parking!) we took that in. It was a very nice zoo, but Lisa's favorite part was the abundance of bunnies, which happened to be everywhere. It's like they multiplied or something. Finally, we made our way over to the beach area. The lake was a brilliant shade of blue and everyone was out enjoying the weather.

Here are the Chicago pictures...


All in all, a good day, and not too much driving. Tomorrow is a long day with the only major stop being the Field of Dreams movie site. I really hope the corn is tall enough for me to disappear into!

Good Night!

Lisa and John