http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/MoGrath14/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from MoGrath14 en-us Sun, 06 Dec 2009 14:48:51 +0000 Sun, 06 Dec 2009 14:48:51 +0000 Our vacation has finally come to a close. We woke up Tuesday morning in La Crosse Wisconsin and thought that depending on how the day went we might try to drive home that day. We got on the road around 745AM and made our first stop outside of Chicago in Naperville Illinois around noon for deep dish pizza. We had our pizza and it was pretty good although there is nothing better than a good t http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-Jersey/blog-416609.html I didn't have time to post anything yesterday because we were out late but let me do a quick recap of the last two days for you. Yesterday we were still in South Dakota and we got up early to drive the Needles Highway which is a scenic road throughout the Black Hills with some interesting rock formations along the way. After Needles Hwy we went to Mt. Rushmore and spent some time there staring http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Wisconsin/blog-416014.html Today begins the slow journey back east. We were up early this morning and left Greybull WY and headed east towards South Dakota. We drove for about 40 minutes until we found a town big enough to have a place open where we could buy breakfast. There really is very little in Wyoming. I think the largest town we passed through today had about 8000 people. The landscape is beautiful though. It http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/South-Dakota/Rapid-City/blog-415247.html Thursday morning Dad and I got up early from Gardiner MT and went into Yellowstone for the day. We drove all through the park stopping at all the neat little places to see. We saw more hot springs mud pits Old Faithful and all sorts of wildlife. We went down one road for a while where there was a herd of at least 200 bison I counted 80 in just one little area and we got some great close u http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Bighorn-National-Forest/blog-414966.html We did not have internet service in Glacier National Park the past two days so unfortunately I couldn't post anything. We are currently in Gardiner Montana just outside Yellowstone National Park. We spent Monday driving about 500 miles from Billings to Glacier. Monday we explored Glacier and drove the Highway to the Sun. Today we drove about 500 miles from Glacier down to Yellowstone Nationa http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Montana/Gardiner/blog-414301.html Firstly yesterday's blog has been updated with photos. That being said we made it today into Billings Montana. It was about a 715 mile drive from Alexandria Minnesota this morning. Most of the drive was flat farmland throgh North Dakota much like we had seen for the past two days. Once we near the last 30 miles of North Dakota and into Montana the landscape started to look a little nicer. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Montana/Billings/blog-413194.html Firstly I know I promised photos for this blog but they're not here. This computer is a POS sorry Mom but this isn't anything new to you and the program that is supposed to download the photos from the camera onto the computer is not working and I can't figure it out so unfortunately the photos are going to have to wait for tomorrow. We're going to buy some stuff tomorrow that will allow me http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Minnesota/Alexandria/blog-412983.html Day 1 of our great American adventure was a success. Unfortunately Dad's VW was unable to make the trip with us due to some electrical problems so we have my Mom's Ford instead. So now we can't drive to Montana on vegetable oil which is slightly disappointing but I'm just happy to be going regardless of the car I'm in. We made it without incident to Goshen Indiana approximately 650 miles fro http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Indiana/Elkhart/blog-412682.html It's been quite a while since I used this being I only created it to document my trip to Thailand last year but my Dad suggested it would be a good idea to wipe the dust off and use it again for our road trip this summer. Tomorrow my father and I are leaving on a 12 13 day cross country road trip to a place I've been bugging him to take me for about 16 years now Glacier National Park. Whil http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-Jersey/blog-412309.html So I just spent about 20 minutes writing part of this blog only to accidentally leave the webpage thinking that it had saved itself only to find out that it did not save and I had lost everything I wrote. So now for the second time here comes my promised final blog.I've been putting off writing this all week because I really had no idea what I wanted to write and I still don't really know but http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-Jersey/blog-256153.html This past week was my last week at school making it my last week in Thailand. It was an incredibly easy week being my classes were working on projects or beginning new projects so in the 4 days I was in school last week I only had to teach 2 lessons. It was a nice way to finish off the first half of my student teaching. Plus Jason got here on Monday so it gave me stuff to do in the evenings http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/XiCheng-District/blog-252661.html I apologize for the tardiness of this post but I haven't had much free time this week. So this past weekend I took a trip to Siem Reap Cambodia so I could visit Angkor Wat. It was expensive but definitely worth the trip. I got to fly into Cambodia on a small prop plane which was pretty cool and I spend 2 days exploring the temples. Well it was supposed to be 2 days but I had a really crapp http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-250869.html I'm down to 8 days left in Thailand. It seems surreal. Just like I couldn't believe it when I first came here now I can't believe it that I am almost leaving. I think I'm ready to come home though. I've grown to like it here but obviously there are things about home that I miss and that I am craving. I especially can't believe that Jason is going to be here on Monday and that I'll get to be http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-248917.html I am completely neglecting all the lesson planning I should be doing to write this so I'm going to do my best to keep this fairly brief but still include all the details. I think that's probably an oxy moron. Anyway I spent this past weekend in Chiang Mai. I had no idea what was there but I had heard that it was a place I needed to see so I went and saw it. I ended up picking a pretty nice http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-247528.html As a student I never thought I'd say something like this but I am working my ass off at school and thoroughly enjoying it. Maybe it's just because I'm in an exceptionally good mood right now but I just feel good about things at school. Sure I still have WAY too many things that I am horrible at as a teacher but I think I've taken some important first steps since I've been here. I'll do my be http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-246244.html Before I write about my vacation I'm going to talk about school for a little bit. This past week I took over full control for the remaining classes that I wasn't teaching in yet so now I am teaching all four classes that I am placed in. I think so far things are going well but I got really mixed reactions from the students when I told them that I would be teaching their class for the remainder o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-244819.html So this weekend was an adventure packed weekend for me. It started out with me staying in and doing absolutely nothing Friday night because I was tired and I actually really enjoyed myself. Two of my housemates went out partying but I was perfectly content to take it easy and get some sleep so that is exactly what I did.Saturday I got up relatively early to try and get a lot accomplished. Afte http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-242304.html So I've only been out of the hospital for a little over two days now but what a difference I feel like a normal person again both physically and mentally. Physically I feel great. I still fall asleep almost anytime I'm sitting down for more than a few minutes mostly just when I'm riding in a taxi. and don't worry Mom I haven't fallen asleep in a taxi by myself and I don't plan on having th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-241020.html So it's been nearly 24 hours since I was released from the hospital and what a difference it has made. I'm still not back to my usual self but I'm getting close. I took today off from school again to rest up a bit more and to get back up to speed with my planning and hopefully tomorrow I will start going to school again. So today I'm just hanging around and being a bum while I still can and I'l http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-240158.html I need to preface this post with a little note. It's currently Sunday afternoon in Bangkok and I was just released from the hospital about an hour ago where I had spend the last 3 days and 3 nights. During most of that time not only was I a physical wreck but my emotional well being was thrown out the window. I wrote what's below on Friday night my second night in the hospital when I was feel http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-239869.html