Trip Recap

This trip definitely lived up to its expectations! Some highlights for me: Hiking the Highline Trail, going whitewater rafting and hiking to the Natural Bridge in Yellowstone. Our drive home led us through never ending North Dakota, where we encountered a huge storm! Also, on the way home we spent the night in the Walmart parking lot. Though I cannot say that night was a highlight for me, I won't forget it! The whole trip was unforgettable and I would do it again in a heartbeat!!

Hiking the eleven-mile Highline trail, high above the valley floor, was a highlight (This is the Highline Montana style, a tip of our hat acknowledging our friends in the Big Apple who worked on Manhattan's Highline).

Walking the tightrope path, gripping the high tech railing (A garden hose)

A buck + A doe = Blocked path and animal reproductive discussion

Every step was worth the incredible views of the mountains and sky.

The smiling faces belie the hikers' angst during our next and final day's eleven-mile hike to see Grinnell Glacier.

National Geographic moment

Our pot of gold at the end of the rainbow-dipping our feet into water from one of Glacier Park's five remaining glaciers, which will be gone before Matthew, Catherine, and Eli will be able to return with their own children.

Mike luxuriating sans cellular...for 12 more hours.

The Last Supper...The only thing left in the cupboard is a can of baked beans.

Our final resting place. No RV trip across America would be complete without a night spent in a Wal-Mart Parking lot (8-19, 0500 MDT, Jamestown, ND).

Miles Traveled: 4,509

Gallons of Gas: 560

Family RV Trip Out West: Priceless

Thanks for joining us in our journey across the country in the Kalama Krooz'r!

This is the start of our incredible 12 mile hike today -- 200 ft. rise over 8 miles and 2200 ft. descent over the last 4 miles. This was a milestone day for us -- which reminds me, it's a milestone day for my brother in law Ray, who is turning 50 years old today. Big shout out from a place in the world where there is no cell coverage.

Update from Glacier -- this is a breathtaking park -- perfect for day hikes. Yesterday, we walked about 6 miles and saw three waterfalls, multiple streams, and a glacial lake.

Here we are -- coming off the river after a beautiful day of whitewater rafting -- with our Southside Philly friends, John and Susan. Not sure why those gray things are in the background as we used the river. (BTW, we had never met John and Susan until today but they were some quality folks. She is a Head Start teacher and he teaches high school in Bucks County.) One of the best quotes of the day was when John, who claimed he went 265 lbs. was in the water and needed to be hoisted back into the boat. Catherine commented, "Don't worry. My Dad could bench press you." That may not be true, but I wasn't going to break the news to him.

Today was one of the most scary, exhilarating, invigorating, exciting, beautiful days of my 13 years. We went white water rafting! Our guide knew everything about the river, and told more than a few tall tales. We met the most amazing people, simple and genuine. Here's how it went:

The Scary Part: We were going over a class 3 rapid and Eli almost fell out. Later in the day, we made a quick stop to jump off cliffs. I couldn't do it, but I finally jumped!

The Exhilarating: We jumped into a fresh mountain creek, and the water was FREEZING! It was definitely exhilarating.

The Invigorating: I jumped off a cliff! I almost didn't do it. But, plunging into water from 15 feet above was invigorating.

The Exciting: Going up to a huge rapid and watching the other boats plunge up and down and knowing that those people would be you!

The Beautiful: The mountain scenery was absolutely spectacular. It was calming and relaxing!

I can't wait to go rafting again!

Catherine

Our first day in Yellowstone was one I will never forget. A friend had told us about the Natural Bridge Trail, and we decided to try it. The path was an easy walk, and when we finally reached the end of the trail, we walked up a steep path. Over us there was a Natural Bridge, which was amazing. It was formed by erosion. But under it, there was a beautiful little waterfall. It pooled over into small puddles, and we took some great pictures!

Second small world story -- we were at Artist's Point in Yellowstone - a very famous site with thousands of tourists. Eli looks over and says, "Isn't that our organist from church?" Taking a lesson from the gospel (it is church after all), I say to myself (unlike Thomas who said it out loud), "I doubt it." Well, sure enough, it is him -- in the flesh and bones -- out here on a Train Trip Across America.

Wyoming and Yellowstone

As Kevin Costner says in "Dances with Wolves,"

"Tatanka" and lots of them! No tourists were gored by buffalo despite the warning about being out of their cars!

The family hits the trail. Our first small world story -- our trail guide was from Portage, Michigan and her family lives in Rudgate. She was a 2005 Portage Central grad and had some of the same teachers as Matthew in Middle School. As for the trail ride, we saw a bear. Julie would be hard pressed to choose between a horse and a Harley as she did not particularly enjoy her encounters with either one.

If this law thing doesn't work out, I'm thinking of a career in rodeo.

Me and my cowgirl getting ready for the rodeo!

Julie and I have a Close Encounter with Devil's Tower.

Welcome to Wyoming

Greetings from Cody --

The Sturgis bike rally has been an education in and of itself. Lest you think we are winning the war on smoking, visit Sturgis where you can see 1,000,000 people chain smoking like mad befoe they hop back on their bikes. Note to bikers -- helmets are out but do rags are in. I'm sure they do a great job sopping up the mess when you wipe out. Best comment heard at Mt Rushmore by a 60 year old biker to his biker bud -- "Man, my ass is draggin today!" Of course this became our mantra today following our beautiful trail ride in the mountains here in WY. But I digress...I appreciated that Mike tasked Eli with following the biker woman in the Crazy Horse museum who was wearing boots, her Catholic uniform plaid skirt, and a haltar top that revealed an entire painting of tatoos so that Eli could signal me to check her out when I came out of the gift shop..as if I could've missed her!

Favorite town name so far: What Cheer

Favorite winery: Red Ass Rhubarb Winery

Favorite Free item: The Free Bikini Bike Wash

Favorite Road name: Crazy Woman Creek Rd (I think that pioneer life really drove these women over the edge)

By the way, our trail guide cowgirl informed us that she is from a small town in none other than Portage, MI. Does anyone know the Whitehurst family that lives in Rudgate?

Julie

Monday at Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and Wind Cave

The kids at Crazy Horse. Didn't your parents hate it when you bugged them for a quarter to use these pay binoculars? Guess what? It still bugs the parents.

This is but a small sampling of the Harley festival. Reportedly, there wer over 1,000,000 motorcylclists who attended the Sturgis rally. As you can imagine, the clothing (mainly jeans, black t's, and halter tops) and tattoos (small and large -- people as well as tatts) were inspiring. Is a Harley in our future?

What better way to embarass your kids (and yourselves) than by wearing matching t-shirts (courtesy of Catherine's summer camp) while visiting a public site, surrounded by Harley bikers (who by the way were doing the same thing - jeans and black t-shirts). Hey - stop staring at me!

This is Fred, the bison that was 50 feet away from our door on Monday morning. He just grazed happily as we took pictures. I wonder where his herd went.-Matthew

New Pictures-Sunday South Dakota

What would a trip to South Dakota be without a visit to the Corn Palace? What a great visit to the state of South Dakota! i always admired what the state had to offer -- George McGovern and Tom Brokaw -- but I never realized just how beautiful it was! We hiked the high plains in the Badlands - a fascinating area that is other worldly. That's me, (Michael) with the groovy bandana, next to the sign that says Beware of Rattlesnakes (and guys wearing bandanas)! A trip past prarie dogs and buffalo (I had to pick up the pie to see how it burns - just like in Little House on the Prairie. We spent the night in a "primitive" campground -- albeit in our RV with a refrigerator filled with cold water -- and much to the disdain of the "au naturel" granola lovers. That night, we went out to see the stars . . . and we saw the GALAXY. It was simply amazing!

M

Also, the engine light is still on, and blinks when we go over 70 -- which we shouldn't be doing anyway. (FYI, apostrophes don't work in comments - per my IT tech.)

Catherine On Sunday, we drove to the Badlands. We were so excited and they definitely didn't disappoint. The rock formations were wild, otherworldly. We got some great pictures of the vistas. On our 4 mile hike, we also saw wide open prairie. I never knew such simplicity could be so beautiful. We also saw prairie dogs and the famed jackelope. I loved our campground and I felt like I saw the whole galaxy. The Badlands are a place that I would HIGHLY recommend spending the night in!

Day one

Who knew that the adventure would begin just by getting the RV. As we pulled away onto the street, oops, on came the check engine light. I happily hopped out and ran down our capable assistant. Oh, they checked that and it doesn't mean anything. Everything checked out. OH, I smiled nervously, but how will I know if we really have a problem? It will be fine. Okay, and off I went. Once again, we pull out only to see water streaming out of the bathroom floor. Gross. Back we we go again and I track down our assistant. She happily tells me it is clean water left from the thorough cleaning they did that morning. Okay, if you say so. I was tempted to go back again a few minutes later to see if she was now cowering on the floor under the desk to avoid the nervous novice. Well all went well until we switched drivers. Oh, the kids said nervously. Mom is driving?? Yes, she is. Well, that went okay after that initial zoom onto the highway and even into the Stryker parking lot where unbelievably many employees had paused from their work to wave at us. Home we went and here we are at the KOA on our first night. Iowa is actually beautiful, much hillier than I recalled. I was thinking about the pastoral setting when to my dismay I suddenly thought I was back in Portage...Target, WalMart, and a grocery store appeared out my window. The KOA is everything they said it would be, complete with pool, minigolf, and trees....except for being right beside the highway! The Harleys are everywhere. As we sat happily sampling Iowa ice cream, 100 motorcycles screamed into town and they all piled into a local tavern. We, and our RV, the Kalamakroozr, were not invited as we sped out of town hoping to beat the bikers following their bar stop. Highlight of the day...watching M, C and E waving madly out the back window trying to get people to wave back and trucks to honk. At last count, Catherine recorded 200 waves and only about 25 "sours"! What a great country! Julie

Catherine

Hey everyone, this is Catherine posting from South Dakota. We drove across Iowa, and we saw more corn than I have ever seen before. It was an ocean of corn, and sometimes, there was no tree line, so you could see all the way to the horizon. It looked pretty cool, when the wind rippled through the fields. As we left Portage, I watched out the back window from Mom and Dad's bed. I had slept in the loft and it was really comfy. We stopped to get set things up and then the fun began. Matthew, Eli, and I spent the day waving at motorcyclists and cars out the back windows. We had 200 people who waved back, we kept a tally, and the motorcyclists had some interesting tattoos. We stopped for yummy ice cream in Iowa, where we saw thousands of cyclists heading into a tiny bar in an even tinier town. We also stopped in Grinnell Iowa to look at the college. The drive was long, but we were happy to find our spot in the campground. It has a pool (we swam) and mini golf (we golfed) and WiFi. Its going to be a contrast from tomorrow night, where we are basically staying in a big grassy field. We are looking forward to the Badlands tomorrow, and starting the highlights of our trip out west! Lots of love-hope everyone is great! Please comment!

Day One-At KOA

I am having so much fun on the trip so far. But one of the big highlights was The Ice Cream Shoppe. I was ten times better then dairy queen. Suddenly, at least one-hundred motorcyclist pulled into the parking lot of a bar and in the middle was a stretch limousine. We drove forever. This trip rocks!

-Eli G. Cartier

The Iowa Border and Fashion Disasters

Left K'zoo this morning at 0600. Dad was a fashion disaster. We stopped at the Iowa border for lunch, on the banks of the Mississippi River. Mom and Dad seem to like the local produce.

Matthew

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The RV Arrives!

Here is the RV, as we dropped Dad back off at work after picking it up near Grand Rapids. The name of the RV is the KazooKroozer-as dubbed by Dad and Catherine.

Edit: The RV is the KalamaKroozr, and Mom made up the name, after rejecting Creeper Mobile, the Mystery Machine, and Our Big Green Rolling Turd for fans of the movie RV!

Edit 2: Additional picture