Thursday, September 2, 2010

all good things come to an end.

Well this is going to be the last post. We made it back home a day earlier than anticipated. After driving to Milwaukee, we realized we were only 5-6 minutes away from Detroit so why not go home? Matt has school Thursday and Fri, and I had a bunch of stuff to do before school started so why not?

Watching the tigers take on the Twins at Target field was so so much fun. I was happy to root on our Tigers, even though they lost.

Well the highlight of the trip came when were about 10 miles south of detroit, less than a half hour away from home. I got pulled over for speeding, and he did give me a ticket. He claims I was going 87, I think it was a little less, but the limit was 70. Oh well. We ALMOST made it to Detroit without getting a ticket. But it was expected.

Thanks for reading though! And for all the support of family and friends :]

Monday, August 30, 2010

Sorry...my browser failed so pictures are separate. These pictures are from the canyon land national park, arches, dinosaur museum.






















The pictures are from Canyon lands National Park...a little hike we went on.

coming to the end

Well we are about 3-4 days from home. Currently we are in Nebraska, heading to Minneapolis to root on our Tigers Tuesday night. This should be a lot of fun! As we head home we are going to head to Bells Brewery (which is my favorite beer) on the west coast of Michigan and head home! This has been the best trip ever! Here are some pictures from the Arches in Utah and the Dinosaur museum in Colorado. The Arches in Utah are so amazing...so unique and nothing i could possibly imagine. I did this long hike to get to the delicate arch. It was challenging for me...hiking uphill at 5500 ft elevation, direct sunlight in the desert. The air is definitely shallow. But it was so worth the hike! Yesterday as we were driving to Denver, CO is was beautiful and mountainous and as soon as we got east of Denver, the land became completely flat!! Total night and day change...compared to when we started heading west there was some hills, rocks, soil changes, then mountains. But since Matt is rushing me at sbux, I'm going to throw up the pictures.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Here are some more pictures















The Southwest






Well it is the time in our road trip we have to start making out way back East. So far the second half of the trip we have had to pay for camping. I think our good luck streak has run out. Usually when we are rolling in around 10 pm we are greeted by the owners. Luckily it has been pretty cheap, less than 20 dollars a night. So we'll take it! We are still saving tons of money doing it this way.

Since our rough night in Vegas we drove to the Grand Canyon. The drive there wasn't too bad. I got really excited to see the old route 66 go through a town on our way, so I made Matt take a little detour. I have been wanting to see route 66 since we left! So I was really pumped up about that. We spent a majority of the day at the Grand Canyon. All I can say is wow. I was so speechless when I was there and I still dont know what to say. It is the most beautiful thing on this earth. It looks like a painting. So perfect. Its so hard to grasp the idea so massive to be real. The pictures dont do justice.

On our way to the Arches in Utah we had to drive through a Navajo reservation. On this reservation, we drove through the painted desert which is just as gorgeous, especially in the sunlight. The soil is so red like Mars. As we were driving down the highway, we saw a little sign saying "dinosaur footprints" and I took a little detour because Matt really wanted to see something dinosaur on our trip. He looked a little apprehensive but I kept telling him why not? So we went down this little dirt road and saw these little stands with home made signs. As we got out of the car this nice woman approached us and took us around the land and showed us dinosaur footprints, eggs, bones, and even their poo! She told us about the land and how they were discovered. They are approx 1.65 million years old. It was very interesting. She also let us keep two jasper rocks which come from lava. AS we were leaving, she gave us some apples and grapes to take with us on our trip. That was very nice! I was so thrilled.

So far, that is the most recent. We are in Utah right now at a nice campground and will head to the Arches today. Then we will go through Denver and start heading home :( I dont think I can look at Roseville the same way again. Okay, enough babbling, and here are some pictures.

Friday, August 27, 2010

las vegas

Day 9

Between the Redwood forests and the drive through Nevada to get to Vegas, nothing interesting really happened. We drove through the desert which was very interesting. We found it ironic when we approached some rain clouds sporadically throughout our drive in the desert more than we did when we were in Seattle and Portland. We saw a gorgeous full rainbow though; it almost looked like a double rainbow. Of all places, we see this in the middle of no where in Nevada lol. After our very long 10 hour drive, we were super stoked to see the glow of the Vegas lights in the horizon. At this point, we were so pumped to have fun in Vegas, stay out late, and sleep in the following morning. But let me tell you about OUR Vegas adventure!

So we finally get to Vegas around 10 PM after about 12 hours of driving. We were so thrilled and had some plans to see some of the shows and walk around. As we were driving down to the strip we saw a campground right before the strip! We went through the campground that looked like a parking lot turned into an RV park, and of course they didn’t allow tent camping. Of course it was too good to be true. So we just continued down to the strip to have fun and deal with it later. Well as we turned on to Las Vegas Blvd South, it was nothing but a construction zone. The right lane had to merge over and with the constant flow of people turning on to the blvd it was impossible to get through. Then throw in the traffic lights, pedestrians, limos, taxis, which add up to being stuck for over an hour. We barely moved. We did get a good view of the attractions and some shows that were on the sidewalk but I desperately wanted to get out and explore the strip. Eventually the frustration built up and we just said EFF this and lets get outta here. As we drove away from the city in search for a campground or RV park, we got pulled over by the popos. They clocked us for going 62 in a 45 zone. We talked to one of the officers about our road trip and stuff. After we complied with the police, they let us off with a warning. WHEW! Couldn’t imagine how much that ticket would have been since we were still in Las Vegas. By the way, we saw more police patrolling throughout Nevada in the desert than we did this entire trip.

After a few deep breaths, we continued to just drive as far as we could out of the city. By this point it was approx 1 am. We were both really tired and getting cranky. We got to see the Hoover Dam at night though lol. Luckily we avoided that traffic jam of a mess because that whole area is under construction as well. Our GPS (her name is Lucy) set us to go another 60 miles until we hit a city with a campground and hotels as a back up. We finally made it to this city and found the campground that accommodated tents. We go to the office to register and pay, but we didn’t have a PEN TO WRITE WITH! Ugh. Lets just say the car is a hot mess so finding a pen was impossible. Matt suggested we buy a pen from somewhere and the idea was stupid at the time. We found some little cheap ass motel for 20 bucks. So we were like whatever, lets try it. I went inside and this little Mexican guy comes out in his pajamas, half asleep, gives me the paperwork and an actual key. The smell of this place was just disgusting…the outside smelled like a gorillas peepee (matt’s words, not mine). When we went into the room, it was this decrepit, with a rancid smell, old, musty, bottom feeding, trash, brutal, vile, abomination of a room. There was NO WAY I was going to get into that bed. Who knows what drugs or sex or STDs was in that room. So, I went back to the office, woke up the little Mexican guy, and got my money back. I just told him I was going to drive back to MI that night. So we went to the gas station down the street and got a pen from the clerk. About 3 am we went back to the campground, filled out the registration form with our money (it was only 15 bucks) and set up camp for the night. We finally got set up and went to bed by 3:30 am. We were looking forward to sleeping in a bit, but as I anticipated, the heat would come early. And it did. By 8:30, we were up because the heat was already becoming unbearable. In the daylight, we noticed what a dump this place really was. We were on a gravel pit surrounded by large black ants. Eww. We packed up quickly and took off. What a crap night. But, we knew we were going to hit some road blocks along the way.

Now we are off to the Grand Canyon and Arches in Utah. Our trip is starting to wrap up which is depressing. This has been so amazing so far. I’m sad to come back home.