Home Sweet Home

We made it !!  After 6 weeks on the road, we are finally home!

Here is the final tally:

- 9586 miles driven
- 17 National Parks / Monuments visited
- 18 States and 2 Canadian Provinces visited
- 8 fish fossils
- A couple new tee shirts and hats and
- Too many memories and photos to count

Something Fishy

I like Aquariums. And our friends, Paul and Anne claimed the Chattanooga aquarium was as good as the one in Atlanta.  That sounded impossible, but worth checking out. 

Chattanooga did not disappoint. It is actually 2 aquariums in side by side buildings covering fresh and salt water respectively.  I thought they had a better focus on marine education and handled the crowds better than Atlanta. They also included some animals that live around the water making it more than just an aquarium. Two thumbs way up!! 

From Chattanooga we had a choice of driving interstate to Hendersonville via Knoxville, or back roads across the Smokies. We chose the latter which allowed us to revisit a favorite restaurant in Sylva NC we discovered this spring with Kala and Dave. But while we were eating, that powerful storm we hit in St Louis (or one like it) caught up with us. The rest of the trip to Kevin's parents was in heavy rain.  Another reminder how lucky we were most of the vacation with the weather. 

We should be home Sunday and I think we will both be ready to resume our normal lives.

Rain, Rain Go Away

Our plans for going up in the Arch in Saint Louis and exploring the Botanical Gardens were altered a bit this morning when it was raining so hard we could hardly see to drive!

The forecast didn’t look good and we decided to run from the storm – and made it to Scottsboro, Alabama (where the sun is shining).

Along the way I picked Paducah, Kentucky for a quick stop.   The good news was that the sandwich shop was great and the murals along the boardwalk were somewhat interesting.   We also saw a tourist steamboat that comes down the Ohio River.  The bad news was that the storm caught up with us while we ate and stayed with us through Kentucky.

The day did make us appreciate how lucky we have been with the weather - and how good it sounds to be home after 5 and a half weeks on the road!

I liked Ike

We got a late start to the day as the yummy breakfast served at the B and B we stayed in was not to be rushed. When we finally finished, we headed over to the Eisenhower presidential library.  

I think this is one of the better presidential libraries we have visited because it covers not only his political life but also his life as a 5 star general. (And yes, Paul, his home was in Kansas). We spent too much time at the museum so drove straight thru to St Louis after we left. We plan to stay here a couple nights which will be nice after a couple long driving days. 

So the stats on Custer to this point are: 17 states; 8500 miles driven; most expensive gas - $5 a gallon in Banff; least expensive gas - $1.89 in Missouri;  Roadkill - 2 birds, 1 turtle, and 4 gozillion insects. 

Blog catchup

We spent the last 4 days enjoying time with my sister, Kala, and her husband Dave.   We had great times catching up and taking advantage of their wonderful toys (a mountain home with a view and a sailboat on Dillon lake in Colorado!).

The first 2 days of our visit had quite a bit of rain – so a great time to catch up on laundry, play indoor games and make sure our wine/beer consumption quotas were being met.

The 3^rd and the 4^th included a mostly great (but occasionally very muddy) hike to … a waterfall, a chance to sail with Skipper Dave on the beautiful lake, fun tooling around nearby Breckenridge and enjoying incredible food, and a great fireworks display from the deck.   We couldn’t have asked for more beautiful weather (or better hosts).

Today we headed back towards home.   It was mostly a driving day but we did get a chance to stop and see 2 of Kevin’s aunts that live in Bogue, Kansas.

We also enjoyed a good visit with Kevin’s cousin Patti (seen below arguing with Kevin about who is older, or younger, or better looking or something) and her husband Larry.

We are now stopped at a Victorian Bed and breakfast in Abilene – staying in the Eisenhower room and looking forward to a visit to the Eisenhower presidential library in the morning.

Dinosaurs find Dinosaur's (Bones)

We started the day with a visit to the Dinosaur National Monument in Idaho.  This is a very cool place – where many of the Dinosaur bones on display at museums on the east coast were actually found.   They preserved one cliff (actually built a building around it) where you can observe the dinosaur fossils as they were found.   We took another ranger guided hike to learn more about the area.

We then took a beautiful drive through the park with cool scenery and took a few minutes to climb up and explore some huge  pictographs left 1000 years ago (no we can’t remember when that happened).

Next we drove to Colorado national monument.   Beautiful canyon views and some short easy hiking.

Now we look forward to arriving in Silverthorne tomorrow to spend the next few days with Kala and Dave.  See you after Independence Day!

Fossils find fossils

So after a restful night in the cozy cabin we rented, we headed for Fossil Butte National Monument.  Fossil Butte National Monument preserves the best paleontological record of Cenozoic aquatic communities in North America and possibly the world, within the 50-million-year-old Green River Formation. (I got that from Wikipedia).

Which brings us to the main event.  Because the area is so vast, there is a private fossil dig nearby where for a small fee you can chip away for fossils.  The cool thing is, the fossils you find, you get to keep!! Karla and I chipped away at the quarry for about 90 minutes and will be coming home with several 50 million year old fish fossils.  That beats a vacation tee shirt any day! (And yes, Terry, it was my idea to visit the quarry.)

The downside to chipping away in the limestone quarry is that we were covered in dirt/dust and now the inside of Custer is as dirty as the outside. (BTW, Custer has now logged over 7100 miles so far on this trip!).

We were planning to go to Rocky Mt National park but the weather forecast altered our plans and instead we went south.  We are in Utah and will visit Dinosaur National Monument tomorrow.  The drive south was surprisingly beautiful through the dark red canyons of Flaming Gorge.  I'm liking this detour for the weather!

Why did the Bison Cross the Road?

We started the day with a beautiful drive and a hike that had a bit of everything…

From beautiful meadows and lakes,

to more sulfur pots and geysers,

to the beautiful Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

After our hike we encountered a large group of bison – some very near the road.   We decided to sit at the pull off and have a cold drink (diet dr. pepper of course) and a snack and watch the buffalo.   To our surprise the park rangers worked to move the buffalo that were so near the road away – and we were witness to a large group of buffalo (20 to 30) stampeding across the road not so far from where we were parked.  Unfortunately we pretty much missed the picture of this.

A short while later a lone bison decided to come cross the road in the other direction.  Why – to be photographed by Kevin and Karla of course…