Changes in lattitude...

Our day may have begun on HARD beds at the Red Feather Lodge but it is ending on comfy beds in a suite at the Luxor!!! What a whirl wind adventure it has been today. We saw the amazing sights of the Grand Canyon, went on a dam tour (those jokes never got old) and walked the strip to see the Vegas lights.

Some of the highlights included...

Grace remarking that she hates it when we try to sell her to strangers....what she didn't realize was that we were trying to give her away not sell her.

Elias, Mary and Geer got to experience their first Weinerschnitzel. I,of course was in hot dog heaven.

During the dam tour Mary overcame a fear of heights to walk to the end of a drainage pipe. We have a picture to prove it!

All in all a fabulous day of riding the Inclinator, watching a water show and seeing mules.

Day1 Grand Canyon here we come...

The flight to Vegas was easy and smooth. The boys were excited to see a BestBuy vending machine. Geer thought it was amazing that it was possible to buy a DS that way. He said "Next thing you know there will be pets on a vending machine."

The 5 hour drive to the Grand Cayon was full scenic vistas, fresh beef jerky and Elias wishes for pie.

Wishing Mary could operate my iPhone since we forgot the gps...ooops

Tomorrow morning 5 will go to the Rim and we will let you know if 5 come back.

Way too early...

We are up and airport bound. Hard to beleive that we will be seeing the Grand Canyon today.

Quote of the day
Geer - it's way too early, wait that's not my quotes...I mean it's way too early to have a quote

Diana - on the road again...

Mary - great minds think alike

Grace - I think that's stupid.

Elias - What no one walled my dog? (He walks his dog everyday)

And so the journey begins again...

Mary, kids and I begin our next big adventure on Monday. We will keep you up to date and carry you with us on this trip.

Summer vaction in the SNOW

Yes, that's right snow. And not an Alabama snow but a full fledged, in mountains snow. We left SD early to head to Yellowstone. On the way we stopped at Devil's Tower, it is an 895 feet tall volcano shaft. We can give you the geological explanation but then we would have to kill you. The Indian story is much more interesting and you should google it. After leaving there we drove up into the Big Horn Mountains. It was while climbing the 8300 feet mountain passes that we encounter a foot of falling snow to add to the foot that fell the night before. It was very foggy and at some points it felt like a white out. During our summit the temperature outside dropped to 27 ( this was a 15 degree drop)We stopped to have a snowball fight in our flip flops and the kids where blissfully unaware of my white knuckle grip in the steering wheel. All in all after accomplishing this Mary and I believe we can do anything.

We made it to the East Yellowstone entrance by about 7pm. Just in time for amazing wildlife. While driving to the Old Faithful Inn on the Grand Loop we stopped to watch an Elk in the birthing process. She was surrounded by 10 other Elk. As we watched a gray wolf stepped out of the woods and began to approach the Elk. Most of the others crossed in front of us and while two other females stayed to protect the mama to be. We have since learned that seeing a gray wolf is very rare and we were very lucky.

We arrived at the Old Faithful Inn and it was lovely. Our room overlooked the geyser. We explored the 105 year old building and one of the bellmen told us a ghost story. For full details of the story you need to ask Geer or Grace.

.....more to follow

Making the last day in SD count....

Saturday was our last day in SD and it started with a Wild West adventure (OK maybe just a photo shoot but getting all of us to smile was an adventure). Mary's mom made a great Madam in the photos but man she needs better looking working girls, Grace is the only one worth a plug nickle. Both boys loved the guns they got to hold and it was a lot of fun.

Velma left after our shoot and headed home. We ate a great lunch at a restaurant called Desparados....it had a boot rigged to kick you in the ass on your way out of the door. All of the kids did this several times.

From there we headed to Wind Cave National Park. If you haven't heard of this before check it out on the web it is really cool. There are over 200 miles of cave in a 1 mile square area. We went down about 200 feet and saw the amazing boxwork, frostwork and popcorn. To think a young man at the age of 16 explored the same cave with only a candle, it was awesome.

After the cave tour we drove to Hot Springs, SD (misnomer since the spring is only 87 degrees much to our dismay). In Hot Springs there is the Mammoth excavation site. Man the Mammoth were mammoth.

.......more to follow

Internet at last.....

For our faithful blog reading friends (all 7 of you) we apologize for the delay. I am sure you have been worried, anxious and awaiting our next post.

To catch you up...

Wednesday we made it to the Badlands and did the scenic drive through. It was humbling and amazing to see the beautiful landscape. We stopped at a sod house frontier original home. After stalking the prairie dogs for photo ops, Mary and I got advice from a worker to take the hike at the Window and Door scenic stop. It was a short hike that led to a ladder of logs and cable. We climbed up about a 100 feet and stood on the side of a mountain. It was exciting, terrifying, and remarkable. Mary fretted on the way up and I cried on the way back down. From the Badlands we drove on through to our resort. The Garmin lied to us and we were wandering about the Black Hills, in the dark, on dirt roads, do you hear banjo music.

Thursday we got up early and went to Bear Country, this is a great place to see wildlife up close. Because of the bugs on the bumper a bear licked our car and then gnawed on the bumper. This year they had 21 baby bears who tumbled and played and were sooooo cute. We then briefly visited Mt. Rushmore it was a place of awe and disbelief. Then we went a took the 1880 train from Hill City to Keystone. We spent a couple of hours in Keystone and the highlight there was fabulous taffy. The train ride was really cool and very relaxing. Read here, the adults all had trouble not using this as a nap time, and Velma flat out snored a time, or two.

Fun facts we learned on the train. The train whistle at crossings is Morris code for the letter Q because the Queen's ship toots this signal when it comes into the harbor for other boats to clear the way. 90% of the fawns this year will be born this week. The train we rode was in several movies and documentaries. The seat backs on the train flip, so that you can face forward, no matter which direction it travels in.

Friday I woke up in a lot of pain and Velma took me in to Rapid City. There she and I took a tour of the Rapid City ER. Confirmation of a kidney stone and great pain medicine later we reconnected with Mary and the kids. Mary had taken the 3 kids on a horseback ride, played miniature golf, jumped on a trampoline and rode cool banana bikes. Her comment about that whole experience was, "My knees are too old for this shit!" We then went on a safari jeep ride through Custer State park....all I can say is WOW! The buffalo were within 3 feet of us. You know your close, when you can smell them. The sound they make when our jeep comes between the cow and her calf is primal. There were fields of buffalo, picture Dances with Wolves movie scenery, and we were there. We really saw "Where the deer and the antelope play" and we sang it a few times. This trip ended with a chuck wagon diner and cowboy entertainment. I danced and sang until the cows came home.