The Great American Road Trip!

Upon completing my first Road Trip of my adult life, I do have to say that it was a pretty amazing experience. Thankfully, Pete and I never inflicted physical harm on each other, even after 13 hours in the car together in one day. Truly though, we had a nice time. A few quotes permeated the sound waves in the car over and over and over and over and...... (you get the point) Consequently, most of them rang true.

1) "We're all friends on the open road."---Indeed, we did meet many an interesting person on our road trip. From Howard, to the brothers from Michigan, to the trivia knowing folks near Devil's Tower to the people who had a son at CUW in Mequon. The list could go on and on!

2) "It's all about the journey, not the destination."----This fine quote was like venom to my spirit some days as our anticipated 7 hour drive from one stop to the next would turn into 12 hours. But ahhhh, we did see some beautiful sites on the way out. Plus, we were able to take a few scenic routes-some inadvertently and some on purpose!

3) "Sioux Falls. Sioux Falls hard. Sioux Falls down." ----I don't ever need to hear that again!



The overview of the trip follows:

June 30: Left Wisconsin at 4pm and drove to Preston, MN. Stayed at the Jailhouse Inn

July 1: Drove to Hill City, South Dakota and saw Blue Earth, MN (Jolly Green Giant Statue), the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD, Wall Drug, and Mount Rushmore.

July 2: Drove to Cody, Wyoming and saw Crazy Horse, Devil’s Tower, and waterfalls along the way. We ate at Wild Bill Cody’s hotel in Cody, WY and camped in Cody.

July 3: Spent the day at Yellowstone and visited the Fishing Bridge, Tower Falls, the Grand Canyon, Old Faithful, Mud pots galore, lots of wildlife and more geysers than I care to count. We saw the sun set in Yellowstone as we watched dozens of elk feeding. We camped in West Yellowstone.

July 4: Drove into Idaho and back to Yellowstone to see Mammoth Hot Springs. After, we met Jenna's family in Gardiner and went Whitewater Rafting down the Yellowstone River. Jenna's dad gave me a wonderful motorcycle ride for the next hour and a half through the mountains and Paradise Valley to our dinner location. Amazing!!!!! We tried to see fireworks to no avail since they started too late and everyone was tired. We arrived in Billings, Montana at 11:00 and started our 4 night stay at the Carsten home.

July 5: Helped with wedding stuff and went to the Reinholz Ranch for a critter hunt and barbeque-thankfully we did not barbeque the critters!

July 6: Pampering day for the ladies-pedicures, etc... Jenna's bachelorette party at night. Everyone gathered at Red Door later for a family celebration and karaoke by some talented (read drunk members of the group), of which I was not a part!

July 7: Helped with more wedding details and enjoyed the Rehearsal and dinner at the Old Train Depot. Hot Tubbing followed at BootHill Inn.

July 8: The Wedding! Wonderful/Beautiful! It was fun to see 2 people, who love each other and the Lord, make a commitment! Lots of dancing at the reception! A 1am pizza to follow and fast asleep!

July 9: Church at 9:30 a.m. and then on to the Carstens for a luncheon before heading out! We drove all the way to Fargo, North Dakota with only a few stops. We had to see Salem Sue (the largest holstein cow statue in Salem, ND). The badlands were very pretty to drive through!

July 10: Drove to St. Paul and took my grandma out for lunch at Cossettas (the best authentic Italian market and restaurant ever!). Left there at 2pm and drove to Milwaukee! I was at home, sweet home before 8pm and that included a stop at the Pig for milk!