Homeward Bound

Map Route

We woke early in Billings, Montana and drove west through the grasslands. The further west we drove the denser the trees got. We stopped in Livington for lunch then drove south to Yellowstone National Park. Along the way we stopped at the river to try to swim but the water was freezing. In the park we saw tons of elk and drove east through a part of the park. We went on a hike to Wraith Falls, a short hike through wildflowers to the waterfall. After playing with the flowers we drove on and stopped to see Tower Falls. The waterfall was a lot larger and we hiked to the base of it which flowed into Yellowstone River. The river smelled of sulphur and the stone walls across the bank were colored yellow. After our hike we spent some time in the gift shop then drove along the main road through the park. We saw our first bison and were thrilled. We exited the park into West Yellowstone where we found a lot to stay in for the night.

Entrance into Yellowstone

Wraith Falls

Nick enjoying the wild flowers

Alicia at Yellowstone River

In the morning we drove back into Yellowstone where we saw our first geysers. We saw tons of crystal blue pools that contrasted beautifully with the yellow and white soil. We hoped that Steamboat would go off, it is geyser that erupts every couple of years and lasts only minutes. The great thing about Steamboat is that it is three times larger than Old Faithful. It didn't go off while we there :(. We found a spot along the river for lunch, Nick and I waded in the cool river and Natalie showed our pet turtles off to a couple little kids. We drove to Old Faithful and got seats right up front to see the geyser go off. Within 5 minutes of waiting the geyser went off. It was really cool to see it in person and to feel the mist hitting us. After the eruption stopped we drove back towards West Yellowstone. We stopped just inside the park to eat dinner and watch the sunset. After dinner we parked for the night.





Hot springs at Yellowstone NP



Yellowstone Nat'l Park



Old Faithful



Alicia at the geysers in Yellowstone NP

We headed back to Yellowstone to finish checking out the park. We drove to Yellowstone Lake, along the way we saw a large bison making his way down the middle of the street. At the lake we had lunch and spent the afternoon laying in the sun, skipping rocks, and swimming. We left Yellowstone National Park and drove south to the Grand Teton Nat'l Park. We got to see the amazing mountain range reflecting off the lakes. We continued on into Jackson, Wyoming. We drove through the town and then headed west to Victor, Idaho for the night. We stayed at a campground and I finally got caught up on Orange is the New Black show off netflix.

Up close and personal with a buffalo in Yellowstone NP

Alicia, Natalie, and Nick in Grand Teton NP

Grand Teton NP

Nick enjoying the view at Grand Teton NP

We woke up early and thoroughly cleaned the motor home, then we drove south through Idaho to Utah. We stopped in Wellsville, UT to see Natalie's grandma. We told her grandma all about our trip and then we cooked up dinner. There was so much food we ate till we were sick. We left and drove through a crazy rainstorm to Salt Lake City, UT.

Nick riding shotgun 

We woke up and explored downtown Salt Lake City. We got to see Temple Square and look at the beautiful Mormon Temple. We left Salt Lake City and drove west past Salt Lake. We stopped at the Bonneville Salt Flats. The races were supposed to be going on while we were there but the rains earlier in the week flooded the area. We waded in the salty water and were blinded by the pure white salt reflecting the sun. We kept driving through the "loneliest road in America" through Nevada. It started raining and hailing really hard, we had to pull off for a minute until the storm passed because we couldn't see. We decided to drive through the night and we made it back home at midnight. We decided to spend our last night at our hometown Walmart because we had stayed at Walmarts all across the US.

Alicia at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah

Quote:
    " A journey of a thousand miles began with a single step" ~ Lao Tzu.

Lowlands, Highlands, and the Badlands

Map route

We woke up and drove north through Iowa into South Dakota. We headed west towards the Badlands Nat'l Park. Our first stop was a cowboy store in the middle of nowhere. We looked at buffalo hides and skulls and tons of fireworks. We got to see his domesticated bison in the fields. There was some strange animatronic machines that we put quarters into and watched some really creepy shows. At the store was Sturgis Motorcycle Rally stuff, we looked it up and the rally was going on this week. We decided we should check it out. All of the bikers on the road made a lot of sense now. We left the store and continued on, however it was getting late and I wanted to see the Buffalo Gap Nat'l Grasslands in daylight so we pulled off at a truck stop for the night.

The amazing sky at a rest stop

In the morning we drove through the grasslands, no buffalo in sight. We made it to Badland's Nat'l Park. It's a grassland with some rock formations/ canyons of beautiful reds and yellows. We hiked out into them and played around on some rocks. We stopped at the visitor center where we got to see some fossils being uncovered. When we finished at the Nat'l Park we drove to Wall, SD. We had seen billboards for Wall Drug since we got into South Dakota. We looked up Wall Drug to find that it was a huge store that had gained business by offering free iced water in a dry desolate area. We had to see it. The store is so large there is a map letting you know what each section has to offer. We browsed the various items before finishing up in a corridor full of taxidermy animals and strange statues. Out on the patio was an animatronic monkey and a huge Jackalope that I climbed onto its back for a picture. Two bikers that we saw yesterday at the cowboy store took a picture of me on the Jackalope. It was a little strange. We ended up in Rapid City for the night.

Alicia and Natalie frolicking through grasslands

Alicia at Badland's Nat'l Park

Nick at Badland's Nat'l Park

After a refill on ice we drove to Mount Rushmore. The drive was through lush green forests, we rounded a corner and saw the president's faces on the mountain side. After parking we hiked around the mountain and got to learn about the carving process. There were miniature faces that the carvers used for comparison. After leaving Mount Rushmore we drove south to the Wind Cave Nat'l Park and paid for the Fairground Cave Tour. We had to have our shoes "decontaminated" since we had been in another cave in the last 5 years We were in Ruby Falls cave just a couple weeks ago. Turns out there's this fungus outbreak on the east coast that is waking up bats from hibernation and causing them to leave the cave in search of food. The bats are dieing and it turned out Tennessee had a really bad outbreak. Ruby Falls is in Tennessee, so the rangers were really happy that we told them. After the shoe cleaning we walked on a 1 1/2 mile tour of the upper and lower level of the caves. There was some box work going on, it's where the limestone has gypsum in it that expands and contracts causing the limestone to crack. The cracks are filled with calcite and the limestone breaks away leaving a negative of the cracks. It looks just like a wasp nest and is really cool and a little too fragile looking to be making up a roof of the cave. We finished our tour and drove back to Rapid City for the night. We stayed at a campground after haggling for a lower rate since the rates were raised from Sturgis Rally. We spent the night watching Noah, a crazy movie with Russel Crowe and some cannibalism.

Alicia at Mount Rushmore

Alicia at Wind Cave Nat'l Park

After we got ready for the day we headed into downtown Sturgis to see all of the motorcycles. We walked through the biker crowded streets looking at all of the booths. We ate lunch, Natalie finally found a corn dog to celebrate her sister Kim's birthday. We stopped into a restaurant for the restroom and saw a lady passed out on the table. Not only was she out she was topless and her boobs were resting on the table as well. We left the restaurant to see more biker women wearing next to nothing. We went back to the motor home that we parked at the city park. We laid around on the grass looking at magazines and Nick went for a run through Sturgis. When he got back we cooked up some kabobs for dinner. After dinner we drove to Deadwood to go out with a friend. My friend from home, Cacia, happened to be in Sturgis working the rally. We went out to a karaoke bar where Cacia and her coworkers belted out rock and rap songs. We ended the night at a live band and danced the night away.

Sturgis, SD

Natalie and her corn dog

Alicia at Sturgis

Alicia and Cacia in Deadwood

In the morning we woke up and drove out of South Dakota to Wyoming. We drove through grasslands to the Devil's Tower National Monument. This was the first Nat'l Monument ever. The Devil's Tower is a large rock formation in the middle of grasslands. We hiked all the way around the tower, and we were able to see ladders bolted to the rock. The ladders had been there since the 1890's when the tower was first climbed. We drove on to Billings, MT for the night.

View off lookout near Devil's Tower

Alicia at Devil's Tower

Quote:
      "What if it's the there and not the here that I long for. The wander and not the wait, the magic in the lost feet stumbling down the far away street and the way the moon never hangs quite the same."

Big lights will inspire you

Map route

We woke up early and packed our things. We had to throw out all of our perishable foods. I drove us to the Philadelphia Airport. We parked our motor home in the economy lot and put our turtles into one tank and then stowed them into a carry on bag. After taking the shuttle to the airport we walked through the terminal to arrivals and caught a cab to the greyhound station in Philly. There was time to spare after getting our tickets so we got breakfast at The Down Home Diner. We headed back to the station where we stood in line to board our bus. Finally we were on our way to NYC, with a 2 hour bus ride we made it in no time. When we had managed to get out of the underground station we came up to a huge city surrounding us. We had made it!! After deciding not to get into a non moving cab and too scared to learn the subway system we walked 1.2 miles to our hotel while lugging our bags through the crowded streets. The turtle bag fell once and we stopped to make sure they were ok, thankfully they were. We had a couple people ask us where we got them because they wanted turtles too. We checked into our hotel and were amazed at how fancy our room was. There was 2 bedrooms separated by a living room and a huge bathroom with 2 showers. After unpacking the turtles we rested for a couple hours. It was getting late so we decided to grab some pizza for dinner, Nick and I walked around the city looking for an affordable pizza place while Natalie napped. When we got back to the room with the pizza I woke Natalie up just with the smell of the hot pizza. We ate and then got ready to go out. Our first stop was Whiskey Trader where we had a shot of whiskey with a pickle back, delicious! Then we went to the Dream Hotel for a nightclub that was on the terrace. The music was good but we were a lot younger than the crowd and decided to take a cab elsewhere. We caught a cab across the city to a street where we were told there were more bars. Along the drive we got to see Times Square full of light up billboards and tourists. At our destination we saw a tattoo shop, where Nick decided to get his nose piercing changed to a ring and Natalie found another nose ring for herself. After a quick change we went to the bar across the street The Grisly Pear. We hung out there for a bit then decided this wasn't what we were looking for and took another cab to the  meat packing district where there were tons of nightclubs. We walked down the cobblestone streets till we heard some music coming from a building, there was a long line waiting to get in. We decided this was where we wanted to be. We stood in the line as the bouncer pointed at the various groupings of people asking how many in their party, still not letting anyone in. Another door guy leaned into the bouncer and pointed at us and the bouncer asked us, we responded with 3 and he waved us in. We had made the cut even though there were other groupings of 3 or less that could have been let in. We took the elevator up to the terrace top that was emitting loud club music and began to dance. After ordering a drink we realized how expensive everything was- $18 for a vodka and orange juice!! We danced the night away and some guy bought me two drinks, what a sucker! It had gotten late so we took a cab back to our hotel and fell asleep.

Smuggling some baby turtles

Alicia falling in LOVE with NYC

In the morning we were awoken by room service, we had ordered breakfast up since it was reasonably priced and sounded nice. Natalie and I ate our breakfast in bed while watching cartoons. We got ready for the day, and asked the front desk how the subway works. After walking to a subway station and figuring out the payments we took the subway to the Staten Island Ferry terminal. The terminal had lots of restaurants so we grabbed lunch and listened to a guy playing violin. He was really good and played cover songs we knew. When the ferry arrived we got on and went to the second floor deck outside so we could see the Statue of Liberty. We got to see Ellis Island and our Lady Liberty. At Staten Island we looked around at the little shops and the fish tanks in the terminal then took the ferry back, on the way back we were able to see the Brooklyn Bridge. From the station we walked to the World Trade Center Memorial. Along the way we saw the Wall Street Bull and took pictures with his balls that seemed to have been polished from years of being touched. We made our way to the memorial feeling sad along the way as we reflected on 9/11 events. The fountains were huge and we looked over the edge and read some of the names surrounding the memorial. We got to see some of the firefighters who had survived and look at their memorial for their fallen brothers. There was a tribute center nearby but we were unable to go in because it was closed for the day. Feeling exhausted we took the subway back to our hotel. We went to TJ Maxx, Natalie's favorite store, and then grabbed some drinks and a hot dog from a street cart before heading up. At our room we ate dinner and watched movies.

Natalie checking out the Brooklyn Bridge from the ferry

Statue of Liberty from the ferry

9/11 Memorial

I woke early and got my stuff packed to leave. I wanted to go to Central Park before check out so we didn't have to carry our bags around. It took too long for everyone else to get ready, with only 30 min till check out I dragged Nick and Natalie out of the room for a quick walk to the park. We walked through part of the park and then grabbed breakfast to go. It was past check out time so we hurried to grab our bags and leave for our bus. We were barely going to make the bus so we ran down the street to the subway but couldn't find the subway entrance we needed, after asking for direction we back tracked to our terminal. The first train was a couple minutes out and turned out to not be ours, our train came a couple minutes afterwards. We got on and rode the train to the greyhound station. We hurried off the train and up from the subway, lugging our heavy suitcases after us. I tried to orient ourselves to find the bus station and then we hurried towards it. Once inside the station we had to find our terminal, we took the escalator down and ran down the hall. We got to our terminal, there was no one in line, everyone had already boarded. We went outside where the bus driver took our tickets and asked us why we were late, all while he shook his head at us. He finally opened the luggage compartment where we threw our bags into and he let us on the bus. We had barely made it!! Once on the bus we were able to relax. The bus ride was 3 hours long because it had a couple stops in New Jersey to make. Once back in Philly we took a cab back to the airport to get our motor home. It was like being back home and we were too happy to be back in our tiny box. Tomorrow we will go to Gettysburg so we drove west stopping at a brewery outside of Philadelphia for dinner. We made it into Gettysburg just in time for bed.

Natalie looking bisque at dinner

In the morning we drove straight to Gettysburg battlefield and stopped inside the visitor center, we decided to not pay extra for the museum and instead bought an audio tour that we listened too as we drove to various point in the park. We learned all about the battle and got to see the memorials and representations for the states that were involved. Throughout the park are tons of canyons and statues that were really cool to look at. We tried to take a hot air balloon ride because it was the cheapest we had seen but weather conditions wouldn't allow it and we looked inside a free museum about Gettysburg instead. After we were done in Gettysburg we drove to Hershey, PA to see the Hershey Chocolate Factory. We rode a Disneyland like ride through a mock factory to see how the chocolate it made, at the end of the tour we got free candy and then looked through the huge candy shop. After we were done at the store we drove towards Niagara Falls, we made it to Painted Post, NY where we stayed for the night.

Natalie in battle at Gettysburg

The battlefield at Gettysburg

Memorial at Gettysburg

I got up early and ran into Walmart for some more milk when I got back to the motor home I realized I was somehow missing a back piercing and I didn't know when I had lost. We searched the bed and the floor of the motor home but we couldn't find the tiny jewel. Our first stop of the day was a pet store to buy a new lamp for our turtles. I played with the bunnies and looked at all of the animals. There was a ferret and a huge iguana as well as lots of pythons. After looking around the pet store for a while we drove towards Buffalo, NY and along the way we went through a small town where we saw an open tattoo shop, we stopped to buy a new jewel. The shop didn't carry the type of jewelry I had but they did change Nick's nose ring out to a better ring for free. We drove on and Natalie found the only shop in Buffalo that had the type I was looking for but they said it would be $60 and they wouldn't just sell me the jewelry separate from a piercing price. I decided we had better head there and try to bargain with the guy. At the shop he said they didn't just sell the jewelry. I told him I had 10 dermal piercings and that one came out, usually I can just shove the skin diver in and tape it over to heal up, I didn't see how paying $60 was justifiable. He finally said he would sell me the jewel for $20, I took it. Back at the motor home I went to the bathroom before we put the new jewelry in and I heard a clink, my original dermal had fell out of my short and landed on the floor. Thank god I didn't pay $60 for the skin diver, at least now I have a spare. We cleaned mine off and Natalie put it back in for me and then we were off to Niagara Falls. On the way to the falls Natalie got a warning on her phone about being in a flash flood zone. We drove out to the falls while it poured and water pooled up on the roadway. We got to Niagara Falls and the rain stopped. We went on the Maid of the Mist, a boat ride that took us right next to the falls and we got sprayed with the mist coming off of the falls. The waterfalls were huge and we enjoyed the beautiful scenery with Canada in the background. We left Niagara Falls and drove to Cleveland, Ohio. Our first parking lot we picked for the night we go kicked out of so we drove across town to another Walmart to sleep.

A farmhouse in New York

Alicia, Nick, and Natalie at Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls

Maid of the Mist Ferry at Niagara Falls

Quote:
     "When you die God and all of the angels will hold you accountable for the joys in life you've denied yourself."

East Coast Living

Map route

We woke up and got our laundry taken care of before heading up the coast. We got a late start and did a lot of driving. I was beginning to get restless so we stopped in at a Starbucks to enjoy the AC and WiFi. We stayed at Starbucks for quite some time before heading on our way. A rain storm rolled in turning the sky beautiful colors of bright orange and purple. We drove just outside of Daytona Beach and called it a night.




The amazing sky near Daytona Beach, FL

We woke and drove to Daytona Beach for the day. After parking I saw a store with boogie boards for sale so we headed over to pick up one for the beach. In the store there were baby red eared and yellow bellied slider turtles for sale and they were going for cheap. The turtles are about the size of a silver dollar and we couldn't resist their cuteness. After talking with the turtle expert we decided the turtles had a pretty good chance of surviving in our motor home back across the country. I bought 2 turtles since they like company and Nick and Natalie each bought one. We were so excited with our purchases we brought our new friends to the beach to play with. We didn't stay put for long as a storm came in quickly and rained us out. We ran back to the motor home and made lunch (we definitely washed our hands to avoid salmonella from our little loves) The rain had stopped after an hour so we grabbed our new boogie board, said goodbye to our baby turtles and hit the waves. We played in the ocean body surfing and riding the waves on our boogie board. The water of the Atlantic ocean was a little colder than the Gulf, but still warm in comparison to the Pacific. After playing in the water we laid out on the beach soaking up some rays. We started to get hungry and worried about our new pets so we went back to the motor home. After cooking up some dinner we spent some time figuring out the best place for the turtles to ride and rigged up the seat belts and bungee cords to keep them safe as the motor home bumped around. We drove to Jacksonville and went to the store to find aquarium pieces for the turtles to bask on out of the water. After getting some aquarium gravel, fake rock/coral, and more turtle feed we set up their tanks and fell asleep.



Koopa and Yoshi getting their bronze on at Daytona Beach

We woke up and fed the baby turtles. My two turtles, I named Koopa (Troopa) and Yoshi after Mario, seemed to be doing the best and eating tons of turtle food. Natalie's turtle is a lot smaller than the others and hasn't eaten yet. He doesn't move around as much and just lays under water. We are worried for him, he might be sick. We drove up the East Coast to Georgia. We tried to go to Cumberland Island, a wildlife area with armadillos and alligators but we missed the last ferry by an hour so we continued up the coast. We stopped at the Hofwyl-Broadfield plantation. The plantation was built in the 1800's and was made for rice cultivation. This house stayed in the same family until 1973 when the last owner died and donated the house and land to the state. We toured the plantation home and everything that was in the home when the owner died was still there in place. There was tons of really old books, furniture from the 1800's, civil war pieces, and the owners Oldsmobile sat unmoved in the garage. We got to look around the house, the dairy farm and milk bottling shed, as well as saw the slave quarters. The plantation was surrounded by live oaks, one right next to the house was 800 years old. We stopped at a peach stand and got some fresh Georgia peaches and tried some boiled peanuts, they taste more like beans. While driving I DJed some songs that talked about peaches with lyrics like "in the teaches of peaches" "moving to the country going to eat a lot of peaches" and "peaches and cream". We drove up to Savannah and crossed over to South Carolina. I stopped to figure out where our drive would continue to. In order to save time and miles we drove south back to Georgia, then cut across Georgia towards Tennessee. We made it outside of Atlanta where we stayed for the night.



Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation

Nick holding a sword from the Civil War
At Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation

After waking up to Natalie's turtle still not eating and being sessile we decided to go to Petsmart for some turtle meds. We actually found an employee that we deemed the turtle master. He had 2 red eared  turtles about a year old that were doing great. He looked at Natalie's turtle and said he thought he looked fine and that his own turtles didn't eat for the first 2 weeks. They told us that these turtles need UVB light and a heat lamp on them and that Natalie's turtle was probably just really cold. We picked up the lights and set up a tanning booth for our babies. We continued on our drive to Tennessee and stopped at Ruby Falls in Chattanooga, TN. Ruby Falls is a waterfall inside a cave. We walked about a mile to the falls and ended about 1200 feet below ground. The whole thing was a lot more commercial then we thought it would be with colored lights illuminating structures and music to enhance the scene. It was still pretty cool to check out even with the theatrics. Once we were out we climbed the stairs up to the top of tower of lookout point. On clear days from lookout point you can see parts of multiple states. We drove down the mountain to an RV park and after eating some "breakfast" at a waffle shop we hung out around camp and got to see fireflies for the first time. I only saw one and Nick saw a couple buzzing around. So cool!!


Ruby Falls

A rock formation that looks like a turtle at Ruby Falls



Alicia at Lookout Point, Dolphin in the parking lot

We got a late start out of the campground and drove to Lynchburg, TN to see the Jack Daniels Distillery. We were not going to make it in time before they closed but luckily we passed into central time zone and got to the distillery 30 min before their last tour. We did the sampling tour, due to loopholes we were allowed to taste in the otherwise dry county. We got to see how the charcoal was created from burning wood with 140 proof alcohol. We went through the distillery and got to taste the yeast and corn mix from day 1 to day 5. Day 1 was sweet from the sugars and had a cornbread taste to it. Day 5 tasted more like stale beer. We saw the charcoal mellowing process and tasted the vapors of the 140 proof alcohol. We walked around the distillery and saw various buildings that were built in the beginning and the natural stream that the water for the whiskey is collected from. After the tour we sampled Jack Daniel's, Gentlemen Jack, and Single Barrel. My favorite was the Single Barrel, this particular batch had a smooth and sweet start then warmed up. The tour guide was impressed with my knowledge (I work with Jack Daniels) and pulled us aside after the tour to let us know about the cemetery up the road. Jack Daniels was buried there and he had many girlfriends. Back in the day they kept finding girls passed out in the cemetery from visiting his grave and installed 2 chairs next to his grave for multiple women to grieve on. We checked out the cemetery and the local Jack Daniels store then drove on to Nashville. We got to Nashville, TN late and parked in the city parking for the night. After getting ready to go out we walked down Broadway Street looking for a bar to hang out in. After passing up a couple bars I spotted one I wanted to check out so we crossed the street to go to a tri-level bar- The Honky Tonk. While walking to stand in line I noticed a guy in line that looked really familiar and the more I looked I realized it was (my brother) Micauly's friend Dean. At the same time I realized who he was, he realized who I was. Dean, who lives back home, was on a trip with his fraternity to Nashville for the week. After having a freak out about seeing a good friend from home we went into the bar and grabbed some drinks and caught up. The Honky Tonk bar had a band playing on each floor along with a bar on each floor. It was a really cool atmosphere, and it was packed. Dean let us know about some bars down by Vanderbilt College and we took a cab across town. The cab brought us too far from the bars and we ended up walking a mile to get to them. We hung out at Rebar and Losers & Winners then took a cab back towards our motor home. We hung out with Dean at the Omni Hotel, where he was staying, then walked back to the motor home for the night.

Nick, Natalie, and Alicia with Jack Daniel's statue

Alicia and Natalie mourning over Jack

We woke up exhausted from staying up so late, but got ready and walked to the Country Music Hall of Fame. We got to see instruments and costumes from the beginning of country music. I really enjoyed all of the costumes and their intricate detail made by Nudie. We saw Webb Pierce's car- Nudie had customized it with 1000 silver dollars, embossed leather interior and pearled guns all over the car. It was amazing. We also got to see Elvis Presley's old car and gold piano. We went into the sound booths and listened to some old country music and walked around looking at the more modern guitars and costumes. The attention to detail had not been lost on any piece. After we were done at the museum we grabbed some burgers and then went back to the motor home to get our swimsuits. Dean had given us an extra room key so we could use the pool at his hotel. He was in a meeting all day so he couldn't join us but we hung out is the rooftop hot tub and laid poolside for the day. After relaxing for a couple hours we decided we needed a real nap and went back to the motor home where we slept for the night.






Webb Pierce Car

Johnny Cash Guitar

Costumes made by Nudie