Just got our tickets lined up for the Cowboys - Giants game at Cowboys Stadium on October 25th 2010. Dad and I will be making the road trip to end all road trips to watch the Cowboys play. Got a great package deal from Maximum Sports Connection, thanks Ronni!
Heading up to Seattle in a few hours with Mom, Olivia and Jack to watch the Yankees beat the Mariners, just like they did last night. Although today the Yankees face the Seattle Ace Cliff Lee, who has won 4 in a row, 3 of them complete games. Should be fun regardless, especially since the weather will be cooperating.
Getting ready for departure, heading out in a few short hours for the Oregon Coast. Should be a fun weekend.
Trip to the coast cancelled for us due to mechanical problems with our trailer and car. Ah well, at least we have cold beer at home and a DVR full of tv shows to catch up on. Next trip? Who knows, nothing planned til December or January gymnastics competitions.
Getting ready this week to go camping north of Tillamook, Oregon.
We will be meeting Debbie and Mike around September 11th at a new site. Well, new to us, have never camped here before so should be fun. Debbie retired this year from C-COM and Mike is Captain with the Lake Oswego PD. Great friends. Also joining us are some couples from work, Maureen and Gerry, Tony and Phyllis, and hopefully Teresa and Darren.
If you use Dopplr, here is link to my profile there.
More later from the campsite!
Forgot to post this, the end of the journey on 081508 so here it is:
Leaving Idaho Falls, ID today enroute home, 664 miles to go, last leg of the trip.
Here is the map of all the places we have been too, as well as links to all the blog posts for each one.
This has been a fun trip, an adventure actually. It has had its ups and downs but I'm glad we did it. The next road trip with more than 4 people that is similar to what we just did is going to have to be done in an RV, bottom line. Let me end this fantastic journey with the following:
7,700 miles travelled.
Gas expense: roughly $1,700.
Lodging and meals: roughly $4,500.
Travelling with 6 of your family members in a 7 person vehicle over 7,000 miles? PRICELESS!!
So HOT: 6pm amd coming west through the Columbia River Gorge, west of Hermiston.
Stopped in Arco, ID for some breakfast at the Golden West Cafe, then filled up the gas tank next door at Don's Texaco. Gas definitely going up the further west we go. The cafe was small, clean and had a simple menu. Portions were large and it appeared to be a popular place to eat in this small town of 1000. Food was very good. Now only about 8 hours from home where I hear from a friend that the thermometer is hitting 105 already! (only 72 where we are).
Stayed at the Best Value Inn in Powell, WY last night. Very clean, comfortable rooms. Don't let the outside appearance fool you.
Today we are off to Cody, WY and then Yellowstone National Park before ending up at Jackson, WY.
Stopped off for gas in Cody then had a very good breakfast at a place called " Granny's Fine Food".
Now back on the road to Yellowstone. Lodging is going to be a challenge. We have been walking the line between price and quality and besides Page,AZ, we have fared pretty well I'm getting quality affordable lodging. Jackson is pretty high priced area though, so we may have pop across the border to Idaho to spend the night. Luckily it is close to Jackson.
So Mom is calling on our way to Yellowstone. It makes me a little nervous when I hear her side of the conversaation..." Well, yes, but they don't smell do they? ". This is one of those red flag moments, when you realize that you may have crossed that line I mentioned above about quality and price. It is times like this on a family road trip when it is best to focus on the scenery!
And there is plenty of it during this leg of the trip, just outside of Cody, WY we went through long tunnel and on the other side was Buffalo Bill Reservoir, gorgeous, part of Buffalo Bill State Park.
Yellowstone is huge, saw lots of buffalo today.
Made a wrong turn so took us longer than we wanted but ended up at Old Faithful and only had to wait about 30 minutes to see it blow so it all worked out.
By the end of the day today, we made a quick stop in Jackson, WY for some food. Turns out there was a big festival of some kind in the city so no wonder lodging was hard to come by. We ended up finding a place via Priceline.com in Idaho Falls, ID, you will never guess where. That's right, Best Western!We stayed at the Best Western (where else) Cottontree Inn. I noted the mileage when we pulled into Idaho Falls, ID, we hit the 7000 mile mark. According to Google Maps, we are only about 664 miles from home, I think everyone is ready for it to be over after 3 weeks in the suburban.
Big day of sightseeing today. First stop was to meander our way from Deadwood to the Crazy Horse Memorial via State Highway 385 and 16.
This is an amazing memorial that has been a work in progress for over 6 decades, and will continue for decades longer. Here are a few photo's of the place.
From here we were off to Mt. Rushmore.
And after this we stopped at Bear Country USA.
Nice driving tour of the grounds that feature numerous wildlife such as bears, reindeer, wolves, cougars and coyote among others.
For lunch/dinner we made it back into Deadwood and ate at the Buffalo Steakhouse in old Deadwood.
After leaving Deadwood, the goal was to make it to Cody, Wyoming to shorten the drive time tomorrow giving us more sightseeing time in Yellowstone and Jackson. Picked up some gas in Gillette, WY and then on our way. Well, not quite, we first had to convince the clerk at the Flying J gas station that we did NOT have a Flying J card. She asked Olivia (14 years old) if she had one when Olivia put her water on the counter, then when I put my stuff on the counter she asked me a couple times. Finally understood it when I said no for the 4th time.
Also at Flying J, wonder how many air fresheners you need to be effective???
We gambled again on lodging and didn't win this time, the only rooms available were in the $150 + range so time to switch it up and go for Powell, WY. Success here, four couple rooms with two queen beds in each here for about $90/each at a place called Americas Best Value Inn. We were hoping this would not turn into a Page, AZ event! The road was long and windy through mountain pass, and we encountered several "herds" of cattle blocking our way ( must be free range country). Finally made it into Powell about 10:30pm and located our hotel. Outside appearance didn't make us hopefull but too late to change now. It was clean but appeared to be an old Kings Inn. Pleasantly surprised, was very clean and the beds were very comfortable. One of the best nights sleep of the trip! Tomorrow long day as we tour Yellowstone.