Monday August 27, 2007, Travel Day. Leaving the Badlands behind we crossed South Dakota and Minnesota. Not much to see from the highway. Crossing the Missouri River we stopped to take in the view. More farms and giant windmill turbines dotted the scenery, quite a sight there must have been at least one hundred of them. That night we found the Dalles House Motel on Highway 8, it had everything we needed a clean bed, restaurant next door and a laundry room. ... read more

Another day another state. Lunch in Cody Wyoming, dinner in Keystone South Dakota! Sunday we made the obligatory pilgrimage to Mount Rushmore. It is impressive but once you've gone to the main viewing area and taken your pictures (10 minutes) that's it. On our way out a random man directed us to nearby Custer State Park that you can drive through and at one of the tunnels actually get a picture of Mount Rushmore framed in the distance. At that point we decided to check out the park which also has a buffalo herd. Another great find. The buffalo here are vaccinated and culled so the herd remains at a constant number. The roundup is October 7th and you can actually watch. We also ran into a burro jam. The herd, mostly mothers and babies were ... read more

The Grand Teton National Park is a little over two hours from Yellowstone, yes we are a little crazy but we're trying to see as much as possible. The drive follows the Snake River another beautiful scenic area. How much beautiful scenery can you take in? Anyway the Grand Tetons are magnificent. (I'm running out of adjectives!!) We went to Jackson to see how the rich cowboys and cowgirls live. Sylvan thought it was kind of like a western version of Nantucket. Lots of very expensive shops. Fur and taxidermy are VERY popular here. We stopped at the Million Dollar Bar for a beer. The bar seats are real saddles (I'm so glad I didn't attempt a trail ride) and the prices are high. At $4.50 for a bottle of beer (no drafts) there was no ... read more

Tuesday August 22, on the road again this time heading east. As we were leaving Oregon we took a scenic road that parallels the highway and stumbled upon the most beautiful Multanomah waterfalls. There's a big visitor's center with a restaurant so we stopped for pictures and breakfast. It turns out this is the most visited tourist attraction in the entire state of Oregon. We got back on Interstate 84 that follows the Columbia River. This is the prettiest interstate highway and there are various stops with information about the Oregon Trail which passed close by. There are even areas where you can still see the wagon ruts. Passing through western Oregon once again it hits you just how big this country is and how much open space still remains in these areas. In other ... read more

You can't come this far and not see the Pacific Ocean so Sunday, August 19th we headed for the coast. It's so different from home. Much of it unsettled and forested. Driving from Corvallis to the coast on the back roads it was also startling to see the vast areas of clear cut forest. Some areas had just recently been cut and other areas were in various stages of re-growth. The ocean was beautiful but the beaches are not ones that you actually see people sunbathing and swimming. Today was cool and mostly cloudy with showers but even on good days the air and water temperatures are just too cold. We took in the Sea Lion Caves. It was actually pretty amazing. The land is privately owned and operated. You take an elevator down about 200 ... read more