July 18 & 19: SOUTH DAKOTA

We drove across southwestern Wyoming and made it to Hot Springs, South Dakota, at the bottom of the Black Hills area. The weather was perfect! We stayed in a little hotel and planned for a big day on Monday. First stop, the "World Famous" Evans Hot Springs Plunge. It is the largest indoor hot springs in the US and has slides and all kinds of stuff that Jake loved. Then we drove into Custer State Park. We loved it! It is a beautiful park with lots of wildlife and not so many people. We saw many Pronghorn (not to be mistaken for antelope) and buffalo, but the highlight was the wild, but very friendly burros living in the park. They come right up to your car. We fed them crackers and they were very happy. At the top of the park, we started to see glimpses of Mount Rushmore in the background, very cool. We parked at the Mount Rushmore visitors center and got the close-up look. Some thunder and lighting made for a pretty quick visit. We ended up driving through Rapid City and on to Sturgis to camp for the night in a lovely spot cleverly named Rush-No-More Campground. Thankfully, we are about two weeks before the big annual Sturgis Bike Rally, when the entire town and area is transformed into a huge biker party. We are way too old for that stuff anymore. Scott's Harley Davidson days are long gone. But, it was fun to see the town where it all happens and feel the "calm before the storm".

A quick trip across southeastern Wyoming

The buffalo roam throughout Custer State Park

A beautiful drive through Custer State Park

Note Mount Rushmore in background above along with scary clouds.

Sturgis.....we ate "steak tips", the local favorite.

July 16 & 17: COLORADO

It always feels great to come "home" to Colorado! We spent a fun evening with my cousin Kristi, Kevin and Nick. And Clover got to have some fun with their new puppies, Douglas and Brian (seriously) after some boring days in the car for her. We were greeted with the smell of one of Kristi's famous cherry pies, made with real "pie cherries". But first, we went out for some true seriously gut-wrenching yummy food. We had Frito Pie as an appetizer followed by massive quantities of awesome chicken wings. A very healthy choice, don't you think? Hey, the wings had carrots and celery sticks on the side! Scott is very anxious for later in the trip when we go to the true home of chicken wings in Buffalo, but these were very close! So, I especially, was in pain, but managed to have the pie for dessert later. It's always great to see them and good for some laughs as well. So after a short and sweet visit with my super-fun cousin, we were on the road to Morrison the next morning. We stopped along the way at The Gashouse in Edwards, famous for Rocky Mountain Oysters. And then we took a quick drive through charming Georgetown, where I lived when I was about Jake's age. Morrison is home to one of my most favorite friends, Joan. We were sorority sisters at CU together and our families now manage to see each other on occasion. We actually did a long RV trip with them about 10 years ago that was one of our favorite trips ever. Unfortunately, Steve and Annie were gone for the weekend, but we had a great time with Joan and got to sleep in a real bed and do some laundry too. We went to Cafe Prague in cute downtown Morrison. We had a German platter of all kinds of yummy stuff. Jake became part of the entertainment and sang "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" with the duet playing. I must get this on U-Tube. Then afterwards, Jake got to play Annie's guitar while we had s'mores back at home in the backyard fire-pit. Another short, sweet visit and we were headed out the next morning. We had to go to Boulder, my alma mater. Too close to not stop by. It always brings back fun memories. We had lunch at The Sink, famous for it's pizza served with honey for the crust. www.thesink.com Then we went by the Chi Omega house so Jake could see where I lived. That is always fun. But, no time to check out Pearl Street or the rest, we headed out. It was decision time, which way to head east? We had planned on heading through Nebraska, but scratched that at the last minute and headed north on the I-25 towards Cheyenne.

July 14&15: UTAH

It was hot, hot, hot in Vegas, so we headed out quickly after picking up our new Schwinn Cruiser bikes and mounting them on the trailer. They are really cool! We drove through Zion National Park, which was gorgeous, except the road was so torn up, Scott couldn't take his eyes off the road. We had reservations in a campground outside of Bryce Canyon, but the campground was a huge tightly spaced tourist trap and we didn't want our first night in the Shasta to be there...so we headed on to the town of Panguitch, and stayed in a nice little KOA. We opted to not backtrack to Bryce, but instead go to a lesser known National Park called Capitol Reef. We stayed in a nice campground outside of the park near the town of Torrey. Jake had a great time swimming and making fast friends. We partook in the "cookout" dinner, which was fun. The drive through the park was really beautiful the next morning. We had a nice drive to Grand Junction, CO to visit my cousin Kristi and her family.

In the photos, don't forget to look for the Venteux bottle....it won't always be easy to find!

July 13th: "On The Road Again" (and again)!

Plan "A": Depart on our journey Monday, July 12th in our recently restored 1968 Dodge A100 van and 1959 Shasta Airflyte 19 Deluxe. After three months of hard-core labor and lots of research finding the right parts, the matching duo turned out so cute! We planned for a "test drive" but time didn't permit as we weren't ready to go until July 13th. We loaded and were finally on the road Tuesday afternoon. Here comes Plan "B"....After about an hour and a half of a very HOT and very LOUD and UNCOMFORTABLE ride in the van, we came to the sad decision that our personal comfort was more important than how cool we looked, and we did look cool! So we turned around and went back home to change the van for Scott's Dodge truck. Wow! It sure feels luxurious after that experience! We think it was the smart decision and thankfully we made it when we did and not a few days into the trip. We made it almost to Las Vegas that night with a dinner stop at the Mad Greek restaurant for dinner. www.roadtripamerica.com/eats/madgreek.htm

Here are some photos of the Shasta, our home for the next 7,000 miles!

What a cozy family-bonding experience!

Dining Room

Bathroom

Living/Bedroom

Gourmet Kitchen!

July 27&28: Oregon Coast

We skipped over a couple states since the last post in Missoula. We left early to avoid the heat.....but it didn't work. We had a lovely and cool breakfast in Coer d' Alene, ID, but it was downhill from there. Eastern Washington is very desert-like anyway and at scorching temps we just kept driving (and sweating) with a few stops to let the engine cool down. We spent the night in a hotel (ahh... cold A/C!) in The Dalles, OR and left early the next morning to sprint along the Columbia River Gorge (again) to the coast in search of cooler temperatures. It felt strange to pass by Hood River and Newberg where we had been almost 6 weeks ago....feels like forever ago! We headed straight for Otis and the cafe we had gone to a few times last summer when we spent a week in Neskowin with the Nalley's. The weather was perfect and the food was as good as we remembered! We then headed down the coast and ended up in Waldport and had a great campsite right on the ocean. Highlights of this spot were Jake renting a three wheel bike, jumping off the cliff into the soft sand (joined by Clover)over and over again, a sand-spit full of seals, and needing a sweatshirt! Then, Tuesday morning, we were back on the road heading south along the gorgeous Oregon coastline. We have done this drive a few times now and we always love it. Oregon continues to be a favorite spot for us. We stopped at Heceta Head park and hiked up to the lighthouse. A great spot. We ended up spending our last night in Oregon near Gold Beach, although it felt like we were in Germany, except for the ocean views! The "Honey Bear Campground" was classic. The owners make every kind of sausage, wurst, wiener, etc and have a family style restaurant at the campground. After dinner, the owner entertains. Jake, in his usual fashion, was very involved and got himself invited up on stage to play the harmonica with him. It was a great spot and we hope to come back and spend more time.

Honey Bear Campground...Vintage Camping!

Jake the Entertainer

Heceta Head Lighthouse