We Are Ready Now.......

Well after 37 days on the road, visiting 12 states and travelling over 6000 miles, it seems we have both decided we are ready now to go home.

It has been an amazing trip, we have seen so many things.  There were lots of firsts, lots of things and places we had seen before and some places we never dreamed of being.

Being on the track at the Indianapolis Speedway was something that was purely accidental, not planned and something we didn't even know was possible.  It was an incredible experience.




We experienced almost all forms of weather.  Temperatures went from a low of 14 degrees to a high of 70+.  We had bright sunshine and clear blue skies as well as dark cloudy icy cold gray days.  We had rain, sleet, ice pellets, snow and everything in between.  We saw rainbows and moonbeams.

Our trip this time included two visits to our most favorite place, Yellowstone.   What a difference two weeks makes.  The first visit to Yellowstone was warm, bright and clear.  The second visit two weeks later was cold, rainy and snowing.  We enjoyed both visits tremendously.  It was fun to see the park in the snow.  It has such a charm and in our opinion it is only enhanced by the snow.

We also had our first close close, way too close encounter with buffalo.  As we rounded a corner, there in the road were 5 buffalo.  They were in the road.   A couple oncoming cars waited, as we did, for the buffalo to decide which way they wanted to go.  You just don't rush a buffalo!  As they filed past the driver's side of our car (and I'm driving) I rolled up the window.....as if that would have helped any if the buffalo decided to drive!  I could have reached out of the window and touched two of them as they sauntered by!!!  

As we went through the highest elevation, at 9000 ft., it was storming pretty good.  Snow had covered the road except for the two tracks left by previous cars.  It got a bit  dicey for a few minutes but we made it through fine.  As soon as we got over the top and descended to lower elevations, it was much better.

Tonight we are in West Yellowstone, Montana.  It is just outside the western entrance of the park.  There are lots of closed roads for the season, construction on others and it's a bit difficult getting through and around the park right now.

We plan to be home probably in another 3-4 days.  We will probably see our beautiful San Francisco by Monday latest.  It's almost over, but we are ready to be home.   A good night's sleep doesn't seem to rejuvenate like it should.   Guess we are getting too old!

Although we are a bit tired and will need some down time at home to catch up on rest, we are two very happy people tonight.  Happy that we were so blessed to be able to make this trip, again, and happy that we have each other.

I think we will have one night somewhere in Idaho and in Nevada and then a stop to see Jim and Gail in Lincoln and then home.

Wayne and I both want to thank you for following our adventure and we hope that everyone will be able to do a RoadTrip someday just like we did.

Just as soon as we get home we are going to begin saving our pennies for the great Road Trip 2011 !!!!!  That is if the good Lord is willing and the creek don't rise!

Love to everyone
Wayne and Colleen

**Alert The Media !! NEWS FLASH! Wayne A. Stevenson, Jr. visits Mt. Rushmore on Monday, October 12, 2009 !! Write This Down !!

It's true, it's true, it's actually true!   Jim, Chad, are you listening?   Wayne actually saw Mt. Rushmore today !!!   Oh the applause is deafening, I know it!!!

We left Wall, South Dakota early this morning, well early for us.  It was about 7:00 or so.  We arrived at Mt. Rushmore around 8:30am.  It was nasty cold, mid 20's.  Yes, that's me and no, I didn't freeze all the way through!

That face says it all......this old lady is NOT a fan of cold, snowy weather in the 20's.

The entrance to the monument is very nice, of course it would have been nicer if it had been about 40 degrees warmer!

Yep, that's him!  My sweet husband Wayne standing at the entrance of Mt. Rushmore National Monument, who, as some of you know, had thumbed his nose at the monument during earlier visits to the area.  Well this time he went, he  took the plunge, he actually was in attendance at the foot of the monument.

We went inside the restaurant to get some breakfast since we hadn't eaten yet.  As you will remember if you saw the Hitchcock movie North by Northwest with Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint, there was a very important scene filmed in the restaurant.  It has, of course, been revamped and reconditioned quite a bit since then, but still basically the same room.

Notice the  gold hanging lights.  There is a wrought iron "man" hanging from a rope and seems to be hammering on the monument.

You can see the monument through the window of the restaurant.

Here are a few more Mount Rushmore facts for inquiring minds

• Borglum was 60 years old when he began working on the monument.
• Rushmore's granite faces tower over 5,500 feet above sea level.
• The carvings are scaled to men who would stand 465 feet tall.
• Each President's head is as tall as a six-story building.
• Over 800 million pounds of stone was removed from Mount Rushmore during the construction.
• Imagine climbing 506 steps to reach the top of Mount Rushmore-this was how many steps the workers had to climb each day!
• The president's noses are 20 feet long, their mouths 18 feet wide, and their eyes are 11 feet across!
• Did you know that Gutzon Borglum was a student of renowned French artist Auguste Rodin, and was one of America's most successful artists before even considering Mount Rushmore? His Mares of Diomedes was the first American work purchased by New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. He also has 5 statues on display at the U.S. Capitol Building.
• Here is an astonishing fact: no deaths occurred during the whole period of carving, just a few minor injuries.
• Can you imagine that with all the dynamite used?
  

Of course we made the obligatory visit to the Gift Shop. Got a few really useless things that will probably never be used, but isn't that what we do? No, just kidding. I got some very nice things and I have passed that desire to buy all the useless things that only gather dust when you get home.

It doesn't matter how many times you see this, in my opinion, it is always breathtaking.

Well, our visit to Mt. Rushmore finished and we were both sufficiently frozen, we leave the area and head west on I-90.  We are actually going to Yellowstone again on our way home, but with the weather so threatening and so much snow all  around us, we decided to take the interstate instead of the state highway that we normally would take.

We don't like being on the interstate because it is so impersonal and not  likely to be anything but tourist traps.  You meet more nice people in  little towns along little highways.  But today we decided to be safe,  not  sorry.  

This was especially when Wayne had a conversation  with a  park ranger at Rushmore who told him that in no way should we go through Wyoming (the shortest route), instead take I-90 thru Montana.  That cinched it, after our GPS lady, Google Maps, AND the park ranger said to take I-90, well you know....that's exactly what we did.

Tonight we are in Sheridan, Wyoming in a very nice Hampton Inn room and plan to travel the 4 hours remaining to get back into our nirvana, Yellowstone tomorrow.

We love it there.  There is a special peace that takes over your soul in Yellowstone.  We are so happy to get back there tomorrow.


Oh, and by the way, Wayne did say he was glad he went and enjoyed seeing Mt. Rushmore.   YEAAAA ~

Thanks to all for following us!

Love Love Love and Peace to everyone...

Wayne and Colleen

Snow in Wall, South Dakota..........WHAT???!!!

Yes, it's true, there is a big storm heading our way today, expected to drop 3-5 inches of SNOW  !!!

We decided to wait out the storm here and go on to see Mt. Rushmore tomorrow.  Since we are just wimpy Californians who don't deal with this on a regular basis, we really don't want to drive in the snow.  

Of course for those of you who know my history and know that 45 years ago I lived here and swore I would NEVER live here again OR in the snow, you might be saying to yourself "what is she doing there".  Well, I am saying that myself my friends, WHAT AM I DOING IN WALL SOUTH DAKOTA AGAIN AND IN THE ******* SNOW   !!!

Not to worry, we are fine, I'm just kidding!  Wayne actually loves Wall and of course Wall Drug.  Yesterday we spent a lot of time there and I noticed that the lady behind the counter in the cafe had a sweatshirt on that said "Wall Drug Staff".

So, of course me being me, I said to her "I noticed your sweat shirt, how can I get one?"  She replied that I couldn't that they were only for the staff.  But if I went around the corner there was a guy there who maybe could help me.

Around the corner I went and there stood 3 "guys" and I didn't know which one to address so I just marched up and said  "I noticed the lady around the corner having a sweat shirt on that said Wall Drug Staff and I want one, how do I get it?"

One of the men said, I'm sorry it's only for staff.  I told him that 45 years ago I WAS staff but that didn't seem to impress him so I walked off.  Next thing I know I hear "Ma'am?  Ma'am?"  only to turn around and see one of the other men signalling me to come over where he is.  We are now in the clothing dept and he says to the lady working there, take care of her (meaning me).  The lady said she would go up to see what sizes she had.  In just a moment she was back with my sweatshirt!!!  How cool is that?!

While we were waiting for her to come back, I asked the nice young man his name.  "Todd"  he said.  How profound that was, huh?  I told him that it was a nice name and that I had given it to my oldest son, who by the way was born when I lived her and is now 43 years old and a cop!  He was nice and appeared to be impressed by my news.

In just a minute she was back with the shirt, I paid for it, thanked everyone involved and walked away a happy woman!

OK, so here we are in a motel room at the Best Western Plains Inn, waiting for the storm to hit, destined to be in our room all day until it passes.  We are armed with bread, peanut butter, bananas, granola bars and one bag of M&M's from somewhere back a few days ago.  We are fine!

More later.....

Catch Up Time.....

Ok, so it's been a few days since I posted on the blog.  Sorry, there were a couple nights that we had no internet signal and others that I was just so tired I didn't have it in me.

But here we are, all together again and I will try to catch you up on what has been happening in the past 5 days or so.

Leaving Ottawa, Indiana, which was shall we say less than a desirable place for us, we drove to Madison Wisconsin.  Now for those of you who stayed awake in grammar school, Madison is the capitol of Wisconsin.   Madison is also the home of the University of Wisconsin Badgers.  The university has 40,000+ students and I think we saw at least half of those during our stay!

Madison is a beautiful city with the greatest older homes and such history.  The campus is spread out over a great area of the city and it must be a challenge to get from one building to the next if your schedule isn't handled with transportation in mind.

We loved Madison.  We really enjoyed being there and driving around seeing the sites.  There is a beautiful lake in the middle of the city and the most amazing capitol building.

We spent two nights in Madison to catch up on some rest and to let Wayne recover a bit more from his cold/flu.  We were at our favorite place, a Marriott Courtyard. The people there were so friendly and we felt right at home there.  And of course there is THAT bed again!  It is the most comfortable bed of all.

After two days rest, we left Madison Wisconsin and drove to Fairmont Minnesota.
We stayed at another Hampton Inn.  Very nice young man at the desk and a very nice room.  The Hampton Inn rooms are decorated differently than most rooms.  They incorporate dark wood and different things in the rooms.  They are really nice rooms.

From Fairmont Minnesota, we drove to Sioux Falls for a meeting with our attorney.  It was a very nice day.  It was nice and warm with mostly sunshine.  Our meeting was only about an hour so we left Sioux Falls and headed for Wall, South Dakota.

About 50 miles or so from Wall, it began to snow.  Yes, snow!  We got a room at the Best Western in Wall and went down to Wall Drug for dinner.  It's one of our favorite places, Wall Drug.  We stopped at a market to replenish our tea and water and other supplies and came back to our room.

Wayne checked the weather reports and it looks like we are in for a real snow storm on Sunday.  We had planned to leave here on Sunday for Mt. Rushmore but decided now to stay here until the storm blows over on Monday.

Wayne is feeling much better and I am still well and so far have escaped the bug he had.

From here on out until we get closer to home, it looks like we will be dodging snow storms.

More later.........
Love to all
Wayne and Colleen

Covered Bridges and Indy Speedway !!!

Yesterday was an amazing day.  We went out in search of the covered bridges I wanted to see so badly.  Parke County was supposed to be the place to see them.

For some reason, these old structures have some sort of charm for me.  It's such a piece of history and if they could speak they would tell us  about all the horse and buggy carriages that came through with the ladies in their finest and the men all dapper and having just had the weekly bath!

Yes, I do have a vivid imagination!

Just look at this, isn't it beautiful?  Can you hear the horses hooves? (hoofs?)
Aw c'mon, you can imagine can't you?


The reason they built covered bridges,  is that the roof kept the beams and timbers from being hammered by the weather.  To see the inside of one, you would wonder if it will ever come down.  They are as sturdy and strong as can be.

We saw several of these beautiful structures within just a couple miles.  Each bridge had the same thing painted above the entrance:  The year it was built; the name of the builder; the name of the bridge; and the instruction to "walk" through the bridge.  Obviously meaning to walk your horses.

This was the last one we saw and probably the most beautiful one.  It was certainly the longest one and was painted red.  It is over a beautiful river and the falls you see in the picture just add to the ambiance.   It is a beautiful setting for sure.

After leaving the area of the covered bridges, we encountered a sign on this very small badly paved road that said "Barn Sale"....being the nosey one, I said to Wayne, "let's stop there"....

We got out of the car, walked up to this huge white barn with 3-4 people inside.  Just outside the entrance was an old fashioned metal tub filled with a burning fire.  I stopped  just for a minute and warmed my hands, felt good.  The guy walked up and said "feels good don't it?"....my thoughts exactly!   He said he'd come on down here about 5:00 this morning and started it up.

We went on inside and there were table after table of the usual garage sale stuff but in these parts, it was a Barn Sale.  They had an old fashioned, I mean REALLY old fashioned stove they wanted $250 for and the note said "Firm".  I'm sure it would have been a good buy, but what would I do with it?

We bid the guy goodbye and asked if there were a nice place to spend the night somewhere nearby.  Well, that started a long conversation about how we could "go on down to the county line, over to ....."  none of which was either intelligible  to us or informative so we thanked him and got back into the car.

Then, after a few miles, we began to hear banjo's playing if you know what I mean.  Our GPS lady we were sure had lost her electronic mind since she had us driving on gravel roads only slightly wider than our car and badly paved roads.  After what seemed like an eternity, we finally found a real  road with real civilization and off we went.

It turned out we got a room in Indianapolis at the Hampton Inn.  We were really tired after our adventure that day.

Then, this morning, our GPS lady led us to the Indianapolis Speedway and boy what fun we had there!

We drove and drove and drove alongside the speedway, only to see the back of the stands.  Had no idea it was so big! Wow, it just went on forever!

Look!  There is an open gate!  Turn in, turn in!  The stern guard at the gate when asked if we could just come in for a minute to see the track responded with a very determined "Nope, not from this end"......she then went on to explain how we could get into the inside so off we went back to where we were to begin with.  Although her instructions were a bit confusing at first, they became crystal clear when we got to where she told us to go.

We went thru a tunnel, under the speedway and up into the inside of the track.  There was a huge building that housed a museum and two gift shops.  Reading the signs, we see there is a tour we can take ON the track!  How exciting.  

We go into the building and buy our tickets for the ride!  The tickets were a whopping $3 each!  Can't beat that price!  It's now 11:10 and the lady says the next ride leaves at 11:30.  Wow, not only accidentally finding this place but also our timing was  perfect!

We got onto the shuttle type bus thing, one of those 10-12 passenger vans you see taking people to and from airports and hotels.  We were the first on so we sat right in the front where I could video out the front window and the side too.

What a thrill that ride was!  They told us all sorts of details about the racetrack and history of it's drivers.  One of the things I found interesting was that to illustrate the speed the drivers are running, it would be like going the length of a football field in  .9 seconds!!  That is, less than one second to cover the length of a football field.  Now that's fast!!!

Entering the track

   Into turn one

                                                         The straightaway to the finish line.

The famous "Gasoline Alley"

The bricks remaining in the finish line.

I didn't know this, but they said that the original bricks were not taken up, but covered and are still there below all the  surfacing that has taken place since.

They left the ones in a few rows only at the finish line.

It was a thrilling morning for us and we are not even necessarily race fans!  It was an impressive place for sure.  

We left Indianapolis and headed west for the first time since we left home almost a month ago now.  We plan to go back and see Mt. Rushmore on the way home and of course we are going back through Yellowstone one more time!

You cannot absolutely cannot spend too much time in Yellowstone!

We are staying tonight in a place called Ottawa Illinois and I must say not to impressed.  We got into our room at the Holiday Inn Express and freshened up a bit.  We left to go find a nice place to have dinner.  Well we drove and drove and drove around and around and could not find anything but fast food places.  No "hot food you eat with a fork" as we used to say during baseball season.  

After spending too much time driving around, we just gave up, went to McDonald's and brought our "dinner" back in a paper bag!

Tomorrow will be another exciting day, I'm sure.  What will we find tomorrow?

More later.....

Love to all

Wayne and Colleen

Parke County Here We Come

What is Parke County you ask?  Hmmm?  You didn't ask?  Well I'll tell you anyway.  Parke County boasts the most covered bridges in the country.  There are 31 covered bridges along with Amish Communities.  It is for that reason that I decided a while back that I would like to see it.

This morning we are in Peoria, Illinois and will be in Parke County in just a few hours.  Since we left Sioux Falls on Friday, we have had nothing but cloudy, rain, overcast, rain, heavy dark clouds, rain and well, you get the picture.

Friday night we spent in Des Moines, Iowa and I haven't felt a bone chilling icy cold wind like that in a long time.  The wind was about 20 mph and went clear through to your bones.  Just unloading the car was a challenge.

Yesterday we drove from Des Moines, Iowa to Peoria Illinois.  It was a short trip, only about 4 hours but Wayne is feeling so bad that he was ready for a rest.  He is being such a trooper.  While we were still in Sioux Falls, I said we should probably just turn around, head west, and get him home.  Knowing how I had been looking forward to seeing Parke County, he said he wanted to try it so on we came.

After we see Parke County today and tomorrow, we will head back west and go back through Yellowstone and on the way, stop to see Mt. Rushmore.  We never have made it there yet and Wayne hasn't seen it.

There haven't been any pictures or videos for a while because we haven't seen the sun for a while and haven't taken any pics.  Today will be different, we will get lots of pictures.  The weatherman on tv has assured me that today (Sunday) will be bright and sun shiny for our day in Parke County.

We will get packed up here and head out soon.

Thanks for following us and our love to all.
Wayne and Colleen

Goodbye Sioux Falls

This morning we bid adieu to Sioux Falls.  Our week there did not work out as hoped, but we did get to see Nicole three times.  All three visits were supervised by her new Service Coordinator Jessica Bauers.  Yesterday, our third visit, was the first time we were "allowed" to take Nicole out  for lunch.  Of course the weather had been perfect all week until yesterday and it was cold and rainy.

Nicole's mother continues (11 years now) to be ....how can I say this nicely...a problem.  But we are continuing our fight and will prevail in the end.

Wayne is sick.  He caught some sort of bug and is all stuffed up and has a sore throat. I drove today so he could rest.  He insisted on going on with our trip.  I said this morning that I thought we should head home, but he knows how I was looking forward to seeing Parke County Indiana, (covered bridges and amish communities) so he said he wanted to go on.

I did agree that after Parke County, we would take a U turn and head back west.  We are going back through Yellowstone again and before that, will finally see Mt. Rushmore.  I used to live there so I've seen it but Wayne has never seen it.

We drove to Des Moines Iowa today.  It poured rain and blew an icy frigid wind all day.  We stopped in almost the first place we spotted, a Holiday Express and Wayne has been asleep for a while now.  I hope he wakes up feeling better.

Onward and Upward.......we are trying.

Falls Park, Sioux Falls

Hello from Sioux Falls.  Today we went downtown to Falls Park.  It's a nice little park with a piece of the Big Sioux River and Falls running through it.

It was a really nice day, although a bit windy.  The last few seconds of the video taken from the car and during the right turn, is Achieve where we are going tomorrow in hopes of seeing Nicole.

Today we unloaded more stuff from the car and I unpacked the suitcases, hung up clothes and generally put things away and organized our stuff here in the room since we will be here for a week.

The people here are so nice, it's incredible how helpful they are.  They brought us a microwave and refrigerator today from another room.  They would have brought it yesterday except that it came from a room that was occupied.

They are short of things this week since there are a lot of construction workers staying here and they are here for 3 months.  The people are just very friendly and we feel real at home here.

This morning we went to our favorite place OPH, Original Pancake House.  More "Swedes" for me.  The Swedish pancakes there are delicious.

We then went for a ride down to the Falls Park and took some video I am sending along tonight.  It's a pretty town here, lots of history.

http://vimeo.com/6787419


Not a lot to say for the next few days and this brings you up to date.  We will be here until Friday then we are considering going southeast to something we saw on tv last night.  It's the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Really sounds great.

We have lots of time to make that decision.....

More later
Love to All
Wayne and Colleen

Sioux Falls, South Dakota

http://vimeo.com/6772829


Well folks, we have arrived in our home for a week now, Sioux Falls South Dakota.  As most of you know the situation here, we are hoping against hope to get to see Nicole.  We don't know until we go out to Achieve on Monday if we will be able to see her.

I found a video uploading service called Vimeo and I'm experimenting with getting a video clip here on the blog.  If it works, I will post a few more each day.

The first one I'm putting on here is from a few days ago at Yellowstone.  I hope it works!

We went to Lake City Minnesota after leaving Minneapolis.  Lake City is where Pat Riskas used to live.  For those of you that don't know, Pat is my sister in law Gail's mom.  That would also make her Wayne's brother Jim's mother-in-law.  See how that works?

Our trip to Lake City was in the first rain we've had yet on our trip.  Other than a couple real cloudbursts, it really wasn't that bad.  It stayed warm and muggy all day.

Lake City is a pretty little town along the Mississippi River.  Lots of nice things to see and pretty landscape both before and after Lake City.

This was on Friday, yesterday, and we just decided to come on into Sioux Falls  since it was only 4 hours away.  Yes, we are here early but Wayne feels much better about being here early.

We went to our favorite place in Sioux Falls to eat today.  It's The Original Pancake House.  They have a real variety of special pancakes and crepes.  My personal favorite is the Swedish Pancakes with Lingonberry.  MMMMMM!

We did some laundry last night for the first time since we left home.  Our hotel, the Fairfield does not yet have their laundry room in so we had to go across the parking lot to the Marriott Residence Inn where we were able to use their laundry room.  They have a very nice section of their lobby that is like a living room with a nice couch and some  chairs along with a very large screen Hi-Def TV.

Tomorrow I am going to re-organize all of our things.  We are going to be here for a while so we can unpack a bit.   We have been buying lots of souvenirs and I want to go through everything and consolidate them a bit.  Somewhere in there are a few things we bought for Nicole!

I know you are probably getting tired of hearing this, but this road trip is just amazing.  Wayne and I love being together and seeing all these beautiful things we have seen.  We love meeting all the new people and seeing the new places.

It is a very strong feeling in my heart of gratefulness to God for making this trip possible for us.  I am happy to be as healthy as I am and although I have gained so very much weight, I am still here.  I am still here and enjoying life more everyday.

Wayne and I are blessed for sure.  This is the trip of a lifetime and we are happy to share it all with you.

Love to everyone
Wayne and Colleen

MOA - Mall of America

What an experience we had today.   No, it didn't involve police officers!


We went over to the MOA which is across the street sort of from our hotel.  This place is a nightmare!  First of all you have to decide which entrance you want, North, South, East or West.  Then you have to find a parking place (good luck) or go into the appropriate parking garage.  


When you finally get inside, you have to decide which level you want to shop, there are 4 levels.  With over 400 businesses, it's an incredible place.  We got something to eat first and then located a couple shoe stores and I actually bought two pair of shoes.


We were really afraid if we ventured very deeply into the labyrinth of the place we may never see our car again and God forbid maybe even each other!!!


We took the shoes and headed for where we thought we left the car.  Yep, it was there!  


We drove back over to the hotel and was happy to get here!


Have I mentioned how much I love this  bed!  It is amazingly comfortable.


Last night we did a horribly decadent thing and ordered room service.  Terrific food but terribly expensive!  Then after our experience at the mall, we came back here and ordered panini and ordered a movie, Angels and Demons with Tom  Hanks. 


So here we  are, stretched out on this wonderful bed, eating lunch off of fine china and watching a current movie on TV.  Does it get any better?


Tomorrow we start out again, having enjoyed a good rest and wonderful time in this great room.  The folks at the Marriott are very attentive and very nice.  They make you feel really at home.


Tomorrow's Dilemma...... which new pair of shoes do I wear?


More later......
love to all
W & C

The Biggest Shopping Center in the World

Hi everyone.  Tonight we are in Minneapolis, actually Bloomington, Minnesota.  And all you girls know what is in Bloomington.  The Mall of America is here.

We got here about 4:00 this afternoon, found the Marriott and stopped in the parking lot.  Our GPS lady gave us not only the directions to the Marriott but also the address and phone number.  So I called to see if they had any rooms available under the Friends and Family rate that Richard was so kind to give us certificates for before we left home.

Yes, they have a room so I reserved the room for two nights from the parking lot !!!
We  pulled up front, a very nice man all dressed in red came out to unload our car. We went inside and registered and to the top floor we came.

Now this is the nicest hotel we have stayed at yet, I love Marriott.  And the biggest reason that I like Marriott is that it has THE bed!!  The bed is the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in in my entire life.  It's wonderful!

We are almost across the street from the MOA (Mall of America) and plan to go there tomorrow and check it out.  I have been wanting a new pair of shoes so I think that will be on the agenda tomorrow.

Looking at the website tonight, I find the MOA has over 400 stores employing over 12,000 people.  Amazing.  It's on 4 levels and has movie theatres and lots of other entertainment venues.

Note to Pat:  We think we will be going through Lake City on Friday when we leave here.  We will stay somewhere between here and Sioux Falls Friday night and then be in Sioux Falls on Saturday.

Note To Lil:  Thanks so much sweetie for your comments and compliments.  We really appreciate your following us.

Note to Todd:  No more dummy moves today!  Have been very thoughtful about the use of my Flip!

Today when we drove around Fargo a bit before leaving town, we encountered a peaceful protest in front of a Women's Clinic in old town Fargo.  There was a shoulder to shoulder line of approximately 12-14 young people holding signs that said "Pray for the End of Abortion"........The clinic was in the middle of the block and on each corner were 2-3 young people wearing vests that said "Clinic Escorts".  They were there to escort patients past the protesters.

After thinking about it, I asked Wayne to drive back around so I could video the protest.  He drove up to the clinic, stopped, and stared at the protesters.  I held my breath thinking for sure that they would say something and he would  respond, we would BOTH respond and then one or all of the cops who were stationed a safe distance away would be all over us.  I could see them pounding on our car with their signs and everything.  Well, actually we just had a staring contest, no one spoke, and off we drove.

Todd, I almost needed you again!!!  But once again, we got through it without the feel of the cold steel handcuffs on our wrists!

Note to Mom:  Really good to hear your good news today.  Glad your shoulder is healed and all is good.  You needed some good news!

Again today we had a great ride and some beautiful green landscape.  Really great farms, little settlements, and green green hills.  The weather was clear as a bell and nice and warm today.

Note to Todd:  Added to previous comment, today we came upon a traffic stop on the freeway just before getting into Minneapolis.  As we approached, we noticed there were no markings on his car at all.  It was a dark  colored four door sedan looking as normal as any other car on the road.  There were no visible lights or any other marking or object that would make him look like a police car.  However, there were lights coming from several places, still not sure how though.  He was dressed all in brown with those silly looking round brimmed hats.  I grabbed the Flip and tried to get as much as I could as Wayne gasped  "I wish you wouldn't do that"  !   So, contrary to what I said earlier, maybe this was a dummy move on my part!

Bye for now .....I promise I will try to stay out of trouble now!!!

Love to all
Wayne and Colleen

In Fargo, North Dakota......eh yeah

Hi there everyone from Fargo North Dakota.  No blog last night because we took another down day yesterday in Minot.  Today's drive was only about 4 hours to Fargo but we stopped because it looked real stormy and we decided to get a room and just look around Fargo for a while.

We haven't taken any pictures today and since we didn't go out of our room yesterday, none then either.

Fargo is right exactly on the border of North Dakota and Minnesota.  We plan to go into Minnesota tomorrow.

Note to Pat:  We may be going to Lake City tomorrow.  Wayne looked it up and it's about 5 hours from here.  We'll get some pictures for you to see tomorrow night if we get there.

We are way ahead of schedule for Sioux Falls, we aren't due there until Saturday.
Wayne is feeling the magnet pull of seeing Nicole and he wants to keep within a few hours of Sioux Falls.

On our way here today, we stopped in a cute little town called Harvey.  We drove around Harvey for a while and it was really cute.  There was a police officer driving a pick up with the license plate "police" so Wayne asked her where to find a good place to eat.  She gave us a couple choices and away we went.

It was strange seeing such a little town even having a police department but we know they have at least one officer and she was very friendly.

These small little towns in eastern North Dakota are priceless.  Things look like they haven't changed for dozens of years.

There were miles and miles and miles of sunflower fields along the highway today.  I think they were left to go to seed because they looked almost dead but there were miles of them on both sides of the road.

Note to Richard and Lisa:  We stayed at the Fairfield Inn in Minot for two nights at $49 each night......THANKS again !!!

Dinner at Applebee's tonight introduced us to the cutest little waitress named RUNEA.....pronounced Re nay  or Rene.   I gave her one of my cards and told her she could have 50% off if she found something she liked on my website.  She was real interested in our trip, where we were going, etc.  Very nice young lady.

We have been travelling on smaller state highways instead of the impersonal interstate freeways.  It is just so much nicer on the smaller roads.  You see so much more and meet such nice people.  It is the preferred way to travel in the Stevenson Family!

Note to Self:  No more riblets at Applebee's, delicious but too hard and messy to eat.

Note to Cameron and Sergio:  We both signed up as followers on your blog and marked it on our favorites.  We are looking forward to your posts!!  We are excited about your trip to NY and DC and hope you have a great great time!!

We are in the central time zone now so we are two hours ahead of home.  

I cannot tell you how much fun we are having.  We are happy to be together each day and seeing new things and meeting new people.  It's an amazing way to take a vacation and I totally recommend it for everyone.  I wish you could all be here with us.  You get such a great view of life in this way.  It's so powerful when you see new things and see how others live.

Update on our License plate game:   We  only need 12 more to have all 50 states.  We still need  Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and West Virginia.  All the rest we've seen.

That's about it for today.  Tomorrow we will be in Minnesota and  will post again tomorrow night.

Love to you all
Wayne and Colleen

BUSTED at the BORDER !!!!!!!

Hello again everyone!  I'm so happy you are reading our blog.

Today we changed our minds and diverted our route northward to Canada.  We entered the border check and was questioned extensively by the Canadian officer there.  He was real nice, but firm.  He couldn't understand why we were only going to be in Canada for the day or possibly one night.  Anyway, he finally let us  go and off we went.

We went to a town called Weyburn, Saskatchewan.  Well, it was nothing fancy or exciting enough to write home about.  Our experience was less than amazing too.  First, we went to a gas station to fuel up.   Wayne doesn't like to drive on the lower half of the tank.  He considers us empty when we reach 1/2 full!

OK, so the gas is sold by the litre and is quite expensive when you do the math.  It was $3.80/gal today.  We haven't been paying anything over $3.00 since we left home.  They also do not allow self service.  You have to let the attendant pump the gas.  The young man at the station  was amazed that we were from San Francisco and was there in Saskatchewan at his gas station!

He recommended a cafe for lunch and boy are we sorry we went there.  It took us over 30 minutes just to get something to drink.  All in all, it was over an hour before our food arrived.  Yes, they were a bit busy, yes it was Sunday after church, yes we should not be in such a rush but ONE HOUR???

The waitress seemed to have a real attitude and Wayne wondered if they have something against Americans and had figured out we were American.  But I do have to say the food was pretty good, when we finally got it.

Ok, so now we have a dilemma, do we go on up to Regina as the border guard suggested or do we head back down to the good ole USA and in the general direction that we were originally headed?  We decided to come on back down.

So, now we come to why I used the title of Busted at the Border tonight.

As we approach the American portal for getting back in the US, I whipped out my trusty Flip video.  You remember that, right?  The Amazing Flip Video camera?!!

I am merrily getting video of the signs, the buildings and everything leading up to the actual port entrance.  As we are waiting for the Border Guard to come up to our car, he suddenly approaches the driver's side and says, "no photography of any kind here" and TAKES MY FLIP !!!    He took it right out of my hands!

He went in to the little guard shack or whatever you call it and someone else starts pushing buttons and looking at all the video.  (we had 27 clips at the time)
He kept it and kept it and I was sooooo afraid I would never see my little Flip again.

Finally he came back out and asked us/me if I/we knew that it was illegal  to do any photography at any time.  He said Homeland Security does not want anyone photographing what they do.  He was also VERY firm.

After he did all the looking and punching buttons, he finally gave my little friend back to me.  It went immediately into the case and into the cubby hole in the door where I had been keeping it.  He asked Wayne to pop the trunk and when Wayne started to get out of the car, he told him to stay seated!

Wayne says to me, "I wonder if he deleted  everything we had".....my response:  "There is no way I'm touching that puppy right  now, I will wait until we get away from here, if we ever do, and then I'll check.

After a cursory check of  our trunk, I guess he was satisfied that we were not raging terrorists or capable  of any bomb threats and he let us go.

Whew!  That was some excitement that neither of us needed!
Did I know I shouldn't have been filming?  Well of course, after the fact when I thought about it, sure I knew it was wrong.  But at the moment, as a tourist, who all day has been filming signs, buildings, everything, I just kept on doing it until I was BUSTED!

BTW, he deleted not only the clip of the border crossing but also 2-3 of the  clips  immediately prior to that.  Not to  worry, I won't miss them, I'm just glad we got out of there without handcuffs being placed on our wrinkled old wrists!

As we were leaving, I noticed some guys who had been driven into a special area and the border guards were taking rifles  out of their vehicle.  I saw two of them.  I'll bet those poor idiots are still there !!!!!!

We did so enjoy our ride on Highway 2, the Hi Line.  It's quite a place.

This is the typical  view across Montana and NorthDakota on the Hi Line.

I was amazed to see the round bales of hay.  They have some plastic sort of shrink wrapping  around them to hold them.  They look pretty all out in the field.

I have this thing for old old old buildings and barns.  These were in North Dakota along the Hi Line.  Cool, huh?!

Tonight we are safely ensconced (sp?) in the Fairfield Inn/Marriott in Minot North Dakota.  Tomorrow we plan to as far as Fargo.  Then since we are way ahead of schedule for being in Sioux Falls on Saturday, we are planning to swing out east a bit and loop through Minnesota before going on in to Sioux Falls to see Nicole.

Love to all.........more later.
Wayne and Colleen

Goodbye Montana, Hello North Dakota

We are in a new state for both of us.  Neither of us have ever been in North Dakota.  We are in a small town called Williston, ND.  We are in the least expensive motel we have stayed at yet.  No, I think it's the nicest one in town!!  Oh well, we are only here one night.

This Hi Line, highway 2, is a great little road to ride.  There are lots of little towns along the way.  And friends, when I say little, I mean little!!!

We discussed making a left turn and going into Canada but decided we were having too much fun on the Hi Line.

We are just barely over the border of Montana/North Dakota so we have lots of driving to do to get across ND yet.  We plan to go to Fargo, then cut south to Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

This area is known for agriculture of course, and oil.  Yes, oil.  Who knew?

Lots of road kill for those of you who are interested in such things.  Today we saw more dead critters on the road than I think I've seen in my entire life.  Among the numbers were skunks, oppossum(s?), dogs, cats, deer, porcupines and one that I couldn't figure out.

Everything in eastern Montana was one Indian Reservation or another.  Lots of casinos, large and small.  Last night at the restaurant, we had dinner with cowboys and indians !!  

We are both feeling good and very refreshed after our down time in Havre.  Spending the extra day there made a big difference.

Today was also the first day I did all the driving.  Wayne has been doing most of it but today was my turn!

Tomorrow can't come soon enough, I think Wayne is really anxious to leave the thriving metropolis of Williston, North Dakota and I think I  agree.

More later........

Havre? I didn't even know her ! (insert laugh here)

-Here we are in Havre, Montana.   Our journey across the Hi-Line, otherwise known as Highway 2, has been very interesting.  There is a lot of nothingness out there.  For as far as you could see, just wheat fields and flat lands.

Every three or four miles is another grain elevator.  Some are old, some are new, lots and lots of wheat grown in these parts.

If you like seclusion in your life, the Hi Line is the area you should live near.  We would see homesteads miles away from the nearest sign of civilization.  It makes one wonder what happens in an emergency?  What happens in the case of an extreme dose of boredom?  I guess they adapt.  Personally, I would prefer to know that if I step outside my front door and scream bloody murder that someone will hear me besides the cows!

Don't get me wrong, we love this type of land and driving through it is very entertaining.  We went through a typical town called Chester Montana.

Main  street in Chester Montana, yes, that's the whole thing.  Chester was very small but had a definite personality.  I did a video travelogue through Chester if any of you are interested, let me know and I will send it!  Had lots of  fun doing it.

Indicative of the personality of Montana small  towns is the sign we saw just before coming into the metropolis of Hingham Montana.....I wrote it down so I would get it right here......."596 nice people and 1 old sore head"

I told  Wayne we should walk into a cafe (if they had one) and march right up to the counter and say "ok, I would like to meet the old sore head please"

Trains, now there is a subject.  Wayne was in train heaven along the Hi Line.  We saw a few and got some good pics.  But the real thrill was when we got to Havre (pronounced   Have-er)  and found the Diesel repair facility.  Got some pics.

Note to Jim:  This one is for you

One of the more delightful indian folk lore was noted on the sign in the next picture.  The sign says it far better than I could paraphrase:

Hope everyone can read it.  It's a very nice story.

When we got to Havre, it was early afternoon yesterday (Thursday).  We decided to stop anyway and take root for a while.  We reserved our room at the Best Western Great Northern Inn for two nights.  We chilled for the afternoon then went to a recommended restaurant nearby for dinner.  It was fantastic.  We both had steak and shrimp and it was so good.   I haven't had a more tender piece of steak.

Today we just vegged all day.  It felt so good to just rest and sleep and sleep and rest.  I went out to a grocery store this afternoon and got a few things and we just got back now from having a very nice dinner at the 4B's restaurant.

Tomorrow it's back out on the road again and the balance of the Hi Line.  We plan to ride the Hi Line all the way across Montana and North Dakota to Fargo.  Don't think we will make it all the way to Fargo tomorrow but we will stop when we get tired.  We are several days ahead of schedule for getting into Sioux Falls.

More later........love to you all and thanks for following our adventure!

Glacier National Park 09-16-09

Well just take a look at that boys and girls.  We had another fantastic day!  Glacier National Park is an amazing place.  It has a different feel to it than Yellowstone does, but it is gorgeous.

Today was the first day we had just a slight bump in the day.  First of all, we left our hotel in West Glacier this morning and didn't feel like breakfast right away.  We got into the park and wow, we forgot about eating.  Around 1:00 it got to be that both of us were really getting hungry and there was not an abundance of places to eat!  Finally we came onto a lodge that had a restaurant so we went in.

At that point we would have paid $10 for a package of crackers so it didn't matter that it was probably more expensive than we wanted.  Went in, sat down, and sat and sat and sat.  Looking around, we were one of only 3  tables in the place that had someone sitting at them.  Two waitresses and a hostess along with someone who I didn't know what his job was, was not enough to take care of us I guess.

After being noticeably ignored by the taller of the two waitresses, the other one was clearing a table behind me.  I turned around and said "are you our watress?"  She said she wasn't but that she would send "our server" over right away after I asked her with just a slight edge in my voice if ANYONE was.

The same girl came back a couple minutes later saying now that she was indeed our waitress.  Ok, so here we go, we are both starving, no other choices for someplace to eat so we were just captive to the bad vibes in that place.  I ordered something I have never seen on a menu before.......Elk brat sandwich.  Yes, I ate elk sausage!  It was actually very good.

We both enjoyed our lunch and was happy to be back in the car afterwards.  We had already reserved a room for tonight at a place called Circle R.  They had explained they had nothing less than third floor and no they didn't have an elevator.  They did, however have some "rustic cabins" off site that they could let us have for $89.  Ok fine, we'll take it......uh huh

We get here today, find the motel, check in and the girl at the office gives us directions to drive to our "cabin"......directions?  we need directions?  Off we go.

We got lost, could not find the "rustic cabin" so we stopped a passing deputy sheriff and he says "follow that dump truck, he is going there".........ok, now I know we are in trouble.

We get there, it's in the middle of a construction site, it isn't either rustic OR a cabin!

That is the corner of our "rustic cabin" that you can just see on the left.  gravel road, dirt, dirt, bumpy, gravel, dirt right up to the door.

There she is, our rustic cabin!!!  Right in the middle of a construction site!!!   We unloaded our stuff, sat inside for a few minutes, realized we didn't even feel safe since it was so isolated from the rest of town.  We got in the car, and went searching for a place for dinner.  On the way back into civilization, we saw a cute little motel named "Dancing Bears Inn" and it had a great big "vacancy" sign in the window.  Hello!  We are moving.  Wayne left me at the Dancing Bears to get the room, and went back to the "rustic cabin" to load our stuff back into the car and came back to our new room.  

OK, now I'm ready for a fight.  I'm going to get our money back  from that first place, this is ridiculous.  We marched in, and began to tell them why we weren't staying there.  With no problems, no questions and no resistance, they refunded our money and off we went.  Frustrated!   I was all ready for a fight!

Now we are both really approaching exhaustion so we found a market close by, bought a few things and came back to the room and fixed our own meal.  The new room is $10 cheaper and has wi-fi internet and the other place even wanted to charge us $6/hr for access that we couldn't even get out there in our "rustic cabin"

Oh well, we are fed, movie made of today's video, images downloaded and here we are together again on the blog.  All is right with the world again.

Let us see what we saw today............

Beautiful, huh?

This was found when we pulled off the road and just walked down a little bit and there was the clearest water I have ever seen in nature.  It was in parts about 10 feet deep and you could see clear to the bottom, it was beautiful.

There is/was a fire burning nearby and the sky was a bit hazy from the smoke.  Our pictures do show it.  It was actually beautiful, but a bit smoky in parts.

Guess what we found when we arrived at East Glacier?  Amtrak!!   Can you believe it?  We can actually take Amtrak to this beautiful place.  This is our car in front of the station.  There are only two trains a day so it was closed when we were there.

This is the Amtrak Station from the front.......

OK family and friends, I am pooped and need to chill a bit now.  Hope you all enjoy today's pics and forgive my rant about our little "bumps" in the road that we had today.  

Love you all and see us here tomorrow same place, not sure about same time!!!

The travelers......Wayne and Colleen