Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!!!

Home at Last-May 3, 2009

It is really hard for me to imagine that we have actually been gone for seven weeks, that we have driven through 32 states (and a province) and put 11,915 miles on my little black Mercedes. The time has flown by and I honestly feel like I have just had a full semester of school as I have learned and experienced so much. We had a whole box of maps and AAA travel books for the various states that we visited and we threw our last map and book away when we left Bear Lake. By car is the only way to really see roadside America, really experience where the people live, where they shop, how they talk, what they eat, and how dense the trees are in the east, how flat the plains are in the central states, and how rugged the mountains are in the west. We have searched for alligators in the bayous of Louisiana and looked for a grizzly bear in Yellowstone, we've eaten gumbo, cray fish, bison, conch chowder, boiled peanuts, cheesecake and my personal favorite, sugar pie in Quebec. We've experienced all kinds of weather, from super hot to freezing and snow, we've seen the devastation left by hurricane Ike in Texas and the everglades in Florida, the vastness of the plains in South Dakota, to once again the grandeur of the Rocky Mountains. You just can't see this from an airplane and it has been so wonderful to be up close and personal with this great country of ours. Having the opportunity to visit so many museums and learn more about our country, also gave me pride in our heritage. I am definitely proud to be an American and I have never loved our country more. If I could pick just one part of my trip that was my favorite, I would have to pick my traveling buddy. Craig was like having my own personal travel guide with me all the time. He always knew so much about every place we went and knew all the places that we needed to visit. We are home now and our trip is officially over, but it won't be our last.

Women's Conference 2009 April 30-May 1

What a treat to wake up to the sun rising over Bear Lake. The Worldmark Condos at Bear Lake were a perfect place to stay to regroup for my trip to Women's Conference in Provo, Utah and we were so happy to see sunshine. In fact we took a crisp walk up the pedestrian path and enjoyed the beauties of the lake and the mountains. The drive through Logan Canyon was as gorgeous as ever and nowhere in the country did we go on a prettier drive. After arriving in Salt Lake, we hung out with Bruce and Co. until it was time to pick up Tiffany from the airport. The tulips and spring flowers in front of Bruce and Carrie's were gorgeous and after all the brown and white we had been seeing, it was great to see flowers again. Craig took Tiffany and I to our dorm room at BYU where we spent the next three nights along with Jill and her sister Tina. (Craig stayed in SLC and checked on our apartments, enjoyed browsing bookstores, and hung out with the Poulsen gang.) We had a great time at Women's Conference and by far my favorite talk was the one Julie B. Beck gave, entitled "Nourishing and Protecting the Family". Tiffany met up with her mother-in-law and three sister-in-laws, Lisa, Nancy, and Christy, we were able to have dinner with Brooke Rasmussen, I went to a class with Pam and her daughters, and mostly we just had fun all being together as women. (Of course, we went shopping too!) The best part for me was spending time with dear, sweet Tiffany.
Saturday night, May 2, was our last official night of our trip and we were happy to spend it hanging out with Tiffany, Bruce, Carrie, Chris, Bea, and Clara at a great suite in Salt Lake City that Dan had arranged for us.

OK, I'm Officially Over Snow and Cold!!

It looked like Christmas when I peeked out the window this morning and saw everything all white and covered with snow. The only problem is, it wasn't Christmas, it was April 28th and we had many miles to go. We finally gave up thinking it would stop and headed out onto roads completely covered with snow---the highways too. (I kept thinking, "Don't they snowplow their roads around here?" I guess I'm just a California girl and I like it that way.) After about 30 miles of this, we were delighted to finally see the road again. We are now here in a very comfortable condo at the Bear Lake Worldmark. We did stop by the cabin and found it sad; bare trees and all alone without all the usual family activity there. It did look great, however. LeBeau's is closed of course, but we did manage to have a great dinner at the Bear Cave---it too seemed lonely waiting for all the fun summer people.

Just Vegging!!!!

We spent most of the day just relaxing and hanging out. We did brave another trip into the park as the roads looked good and the sun was shining. We got a tip that a grizzly bear was just 4 or 5 miles in so of course we had to go "on a bear hunt". We didn't find any bears, but we saw soooooo many animals and the park was breathtaking at this time of year. My favorite sight had to be the female bisons and their babies. The road to Old Faithful was open and I never tire of watching it erupt and it was especially gorgeous because of the cold and the vapor was especially visible.

Winter in Yellowstone---Wait, It's Almost May????

Our ride through Yellowstone Park rivals our ride following David through Manhattan. It was snowing when we entered the north entrance to the park (from Gardiner, Montana) and we knew we had at least 80 miles to go to get to our destination at the West Yellowstone Worldmark. The good news is the scenery was beyond spectacular and we have never seen so much wildlife up close and personal. The bad news is that it just kept snowing and snowing, never really letting up all through the park and as we climbed higher and higher (up to 7200 ft) , the temperature kept dropping lower and lower (down to 27 degrees) As I looked at the slush and puddles in some places, I knew they would be ice in a couple of hours and I was so grateful that we had left Sheridan early. In some places as we climbed the road was completely covered with snow pack---I was glad Craig was driving. The good news is there were no big motor homes slowing down the traffic, the bad news is there was hardly anybody around and if we did slide off the road we would be on our own. The ride through the park really was frightening, but we did see the biggest buffalo I have ever seen so close that I had to close the car window quickly. We saw a couple of others and then just before leaving the park we saw a couple of very young buffaloes scratching and licking a pole in the road. We saw a whole herd of elk close to the road and one was actually swimming in the creek in order to cross it. We saw some mountain sheep. (I'm sure if I wasn't so busy driving I would have even seen more animals.) It was quite a ride. Early in the day, we did make a quick stop at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument---where Custer's last stand took place. There were grave type markers scattered all over the mountain marking the spot where each of the men had died. It played a huge part in our country's history and seeing it and learning some of the details gave Craig and I much to think about. We are now all cozied up in a condo in a huge lodge in West Yellowstone. (And yes, we are a little crazy.)

The Badlands of South Dakota and Mt. Rushmore

No trip through South Dakota is complete without a stop at Wall Drug Store and, yes, all the signs for miles and miles leading up to the store are still there (they start in western Minnesota on I-90!). We woke up to snow on the ground and we were very concerned about the weather so we didn't venture too far into the Badlands National Park. However the part we saw was gorgeous and almost looked like a picture as we peered over the side down to hundreds of different rock formations and deep gorges, not to mention millions of years of geologic history. We were grateful it wasn't snowing when we arrived at Mt. Rushmore although it was obvious that it had snowed recently. These sculptures really are magnificent and you really have to see them first hand to appreciate their beauty and splendor. Borglum wanted to give you a sense of pride and love for this country and democracy with his work and you really feel that here. Interesting to note that his father, James (Jens) Borglum, joined the Mormon church in Denmark and emigrated to the US in 1864, the year after Craig's great grandfather, James (Jens) Poulsen, emigrated. Both the Borglum and the Poulsen families were settlers in the Bear Lake valley! Craig and I loved having bison chili in the cafe under the watchful eyes of these great presidents. It was fun to see a little wildlife too. As I started this blog tonight and saw the picture of the ocean under our name, it made me long for our beautiful Pacific Ocean. Seeing roadside American, really makes you appreciate not only the vastness of this great country, but also the real diversity in geology. We have left the Great Plains and they really are quite flat and plain and now are starting into the Rocky Mountains. Craig and I started to get excited as we once again are seeing the beautiful mountains of the west.