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Gail A. Valentino
My husband, Larry and I are both retirees of the State of New York. Larry has been retired since 2005 and I recently retired in February 2011. We reside in West Sparta, NY with our 21 year old daughter, Kayla. Kayla is currently a colleget student at St. John Fisher College in Pittsford, NY. She will be a senior this fall. GailAnn
Larry & I have always wanted to travel around America. So our first trip will entail most of the upper states. We are planning to visit one of my very best friends, Susan Orton, who lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, but used to be my neighbor in West Sparta. We are also visiting Larry's cousin, Cindy Dunn, in Puyallup, Washingston.
Please join us & follow along with us on our adventures. The first 5-6 days will not be very eventful because we are mostly driving and stopping overnights to sleep. Our plan is to drive first to Cindy's, the furthest point west on our trip and work our way back to see all the phenomenal sites along the way back home. That is where I hope to be able to tell you all more, and share lots of photos.
Travel Blog Posts
August 21st 2011
We set out around 1:00pm, MST, to tour the local area of Jackson Hole. We stopped at visitor center where this is also a Wildlife Viewing area. However, we were not fortunate enough to see anything there other than geese & ducks. We decided to take a drive up the Teton Mountain road and see if we could see any wildlife up there. We did see a good size mule deer buck when we first started out. But that was it…not even a squirrel! We drove about 20 miles, and up to an altitude a little over 8,200 feet. The temperature never dropped below 84 degree even at the altitude. We think that is why we did not see any elk, moose or bison. But, nonetheless it was a beautiful drive. We wandered in the village ... read more
August 21st 2011
This morning I received bad news from Arkansas. My very dear friend, Jackie Arnold passed away after a long illness with Congestive Heart Failure. Larry & I will be spending today in Jackson Hole, but early tomorrow morning we will headed out en route to Mountain View, Arkansas. Matt is not sure yet what all the arrangements will be, but will probably have a memorial serivce for Jackie in Mountain View, with no View. Jackie's final resting place will be PA where a funeral will be held. When Larry & I get to Mountain View, we will help Matt out with whatever he needs help with and then drive him to PA. Not much beyond that is certain at this point, but I will be certain to keep you all up-to-date on our movements. Take care ... read more
August 20th 2011
Yesterday, Larry & I went to Snowbird Ski Resort where there is summer things to do there. We rode an aerial tram up the mountain where you can walk around and hike if you want. At the top of the mountain, we were 11,000 feet above sea level. When got off the tram, both of us were a little light headed. But Larry felt it the most. I was able to walk around pretty good and not get short breathed. Not so much for Larry. He also had a queasy stomach. The tram leaves after 30 minutes at the top, but you don’t have to leave when the tram leaves. You can stay up there as long as you want as long as you are sure to not miss the last tram at 8:00pm. That wasn’t ... read more
August 18th 2011
After leaving Caldwell, we headed on down to Salt Lake City. The drive was fairly uneventfull and really not all that scenic. Most of Idaho has been having fires, so you could always see the haze of the smoke and in some places, even see the fires. There was a really flat section where the wind would sneak up on in gusts...one time it nearly blew us off the road and into another vehicle. Most of the scenery was either brown, flat, burnt or all 3....very little green due to the dryness....we think we had a draught in NY??? not even close! We could see, what we soon found out were little mini dust cyclones. But at first from a distance they looked like weird cloud formations straight up from the ground into the sky. As ... read more
August 15th 2011
We left Puyallup this morning around 10:30am PST. the scenery was a little dull through the first part of Oregon. Then, as we ascended up into the mountains, it vastly improved. We did not stop anywhere except to get gas. I drove today for about 189 miles, which was a huge blessing because it was in a very mountainous & curvy area....no motion sickness! YAY...I must confess that I was secretly wishing that Larry would get sick so he would have som empathy for all the suffering I did ! LOL sshhh We saw several areas where fires had gone through and burned a lot of vegetation. As we watch the news tonight, we see that Idaho has had a lot of burning through out the day. We arrived in Caldwell, Idaho this evening around 9:20pm, ... read more
August 14th 2011
We have just had 2 great, busy days! Yesterday after breakfast, we headed to Seattle with Cindy, her boyfriend, Rick and his daughter, Maddie. Just the drive alone was fun & interesting. Rick was driving our truck, Larry in the front passenger seat with Cindy, Maddie & I in the back seat. Cindy was Navigator & Captain, and Rick aptly addressed her such! LOL I have gotten some great pictures of Mt. Rainier. It really looks like a mountain floating in the sky. We first went to Pike's Public Market, as we were told by everyone that you can't visit Seattle without going there. What a great place to people-watch...jammed packed with all sorts of people. We saw the famous "flying fish" market. What a riot that place is, and those guys are on their feet! ... read more
August 12th 2011
Well, we finally arrived at Cindy's in Puyallup, Washington yesterday around 3:00pm PST. We chilled out & waited for Cindy to get home from work. We sat & visited for a while then went down to the ocean and had dinner. Then to bed. We left Ellensburg yesterday around noon. The drive was beautiful, but windy. I will upload photos. We saw a couple of elk and alot of beautiful snow capped mountains. We saw a huge military convoy. At one point we had to shut off our cell phones because were travelling through a dynamite blasting area. It was a bit unnerving, but it ended up not being that bad. There was a traffic jam, going in the other direction which we were thankful to have not been in. We are very excited to be ... read more
August 10th 2011
We left Missoula this morning around 11:30 MST. It was a rough trip today...a lot of construction, and windy weather. I think the total yesterday brought us to 2,243 miles traveled. Today we traveled 361 miles bringing our total to 2,604 miles. We arrived in Ellensburg, Washington around 7:00pm PST. We are camped out at a Days Inn that has RV parking. We have water, electric & sewer hook up. I got motion sick again today...the wind is undescribable out here. Larry really fought the wind a lot and really feels it a lot in his arms & shoulders. BUT...we saw a lot of beautiful countryside too! I took more pictures, however, I'm still having difficulty loading to this site. And, truthfully...by the time we stop for the night, I'm too tired to frigg around with ... read more
August 9th 2011
We arrived in Missoula, Montana after driving around 345 miles, bringing our total miles traveled to 2200 and something...my brain is kinda toast tonight. We had a scenic, uneventful trip today. My motion sickness seems to have subsided some. We both decided to not try to put as many miles in per day. It's pretty taxing on both of us. This terrain is something we are just not used to. Combined with the mountainous territory, windy, curvey roads...the wind is something to be reckoned with in some of these areas. Larry fights the trailer a lot of the way...again...no more F150 on these trips. Us New Yorkers just don't understand the concept that our terrain in the east is nothing compared to the west and if you're going to tow a travel trailer, the suspension and ... read more
August 9th 2011
We will be leaving Billings, Montana soon. We had nice restful night. Hopefully, no motion sickness for me today. I have figured out how to post some photos. I posted some last night, but they are not attached to the right blog entry, so I will fix it tonight. I guess I need to keep my entries "public" because some of you are having difficulty viewing them. I will fix that tonight too. Watch for my next blog this evening...problaby tomorrow morning for most of you...this time zone thing has me all whacked out. HA! ... read more
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