Utah Here We Come

The Dolphin has been sold but that doesn't mean the adventures stop. Myself and my two friends Sarah and Maggie will be taking a week long road trip to Utah to explore some more national parks. We will be going to Zion national park, Bryce Canyon, and Arches National Park. The good news is we have AC in the car! The plan is to tent camp and to see as much as we can see in that week.

I have missed the Utah landscape and can't wait to get back there to explore some more. I will get to see the arches in Moab that I missed last summer due to road construction. I can't way to hike in Devil's Canyon at the back of the park.

Utah here we come!!

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."

Heading out West

Map route

We woke early in Cleveland and headed to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I dressed accordingly, with a black bra top that was studded and had chains hanging off of it, and some tight brown leather pants. We got to the Rock Hall of Fame and took an intro picture of us looking like a rock band. We got to look around the museum at all of the guitars and clothing of some great rock stars. I really enjoyed Janis Joplin's hippy car. There was a section of modern pop stars and we got to see some of Beyonce's dresses which were amazing. When we finished the museum we went to the gift shop where some people took pictures with me because they loved the way I was dressed. Outside of the Hall of Fame we took a tour of Johnny Cash's travel bus. It was pretty awesome inside, definitely more spacious than our little dolphin. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was something I was really looking forward to but it paled in comparison to the Country Music Hall of Fame. The organization at the Rock Hall was lacking and made for a large eclectic mess. Still there was tons of cool stuff. When we finished at the museum we drove to Toledo, Ohio for the  night.

Natalie, Alicia and Nick rocking out at the Rock and Roll  Hall of Fame

Jimi Hendrix guitars

Led Zeppelin outfit/ guitar

Beyonce's costumes

As soon as we woke we drove to Chicago, Illinois; we drove through Indiana to Illinois. Once we got into Chicago it was really busy. Traffic was heavy and it had started raining. We came to the cause of traffic, a cement truck had tipped onto a car and smashed the driver's side- there was definitely no survivors as the truck was still on top of the car and they were working on lifting the truck up. We drove into the heart of Chicago where we miraculously found some outdoor parking that we could stay at for the night. After a nap we got some deep dish pizza at Beggar's Pizza then got ready for the night. After managing New York's subways we decided we could tackle Chicago and we rode the train to Michigan Ave to experience Chicago nightlife. Lollapalooza was going on the weekend we were there and had just got out so the streets were full of festival goers. We could only find small hotel bars and walked the streets until we settled at Miller's Pub. The bar was packed with people from Lollapalooza. We made our way down the bar to find an open seat. At the end of the bar some girl pointed at me and the guy sitting next to her offered his seat to me. I would have been sitting between the girl and her guy friend with the guy that gave up his seat standing behind me. I declined their offer and thought how weird it was. On the other side of those people were two seats available and a man at the very end gave his seat up to us. I sat closest to the group and they immediately turned and chatted with us. They had just come from Lollapalooza. The girl got up to leave and the guys asked if I knew her, I told them I didn't and obviously they didn't know her either. While we were chatting with the group we told them we were from NorCal and had been on a road trip for a month and half. One guy immediately asked if we knew where P-ville was, the old hangtown. All of our jaws dropped, no one knew where our small town was. Turns out this guy had family in P-ville and had spent his summers there while growing up. The guy told us he was from Connecticut and that growing up the girls he knew ranked about a 5. He said he thought hot girls only existed in movies and didn't think much of it until he came out to NorCal for the summer. He said "Holy Shit!! Every girl was hot as shit." He had wanted to live there and enjoyed his summer visits. We were all rolling at his story telling. He had many adventures to tell and told us some things to check out on the rest of our trip. The group of guys left, and then another guy sitting there scooted down to sit with us. He had also been at the festival and said he was coming down off acid. He said some really trippy things, he changed his name on us from Chris to Change. We just went with it. He was a bartender in Kentucky and got dragged out to Lollapalooza with some friends that he had lost earlier in the day. Another guy joined our group, Cory. He was a super muscular army man that was on his way back home. He talked just like Sylvester Stalone in Rocky. He gave us some movie quotes which was amazing!!! He said he had never seen the movies until everyone told him he talked like Rocky. We all got our fill of entertainment for the night and found our way back to the subway station and back to our motor home.

Pizza in Chicago

Nick and Natalie with friend in Chicago subway

We slept in a bit in Chicago then headed for Nauvoo, IL- a Mormon town on the Mississippi River. Along the way we ran out of gas :( and puttered into a rest stop. We were about 3 miles from the closest gas station so we asked some rest stop workers if they could help. They gave us 2 gallons of gas from the lawn mower gas can and we made it to the gas station to fill up. The hwy to Nauvoo crossed the Mississippi river into Iowa then back across the river to Illinois into Nauvoo. We checked into the campground and then drove into town. We walked the streets to the Mormon Temple and then down the hillside to the visitor center where we learned about the early settlers. We happened to be in town when the yearly pageant, a play about early Nauvoo, was going on. After eating dinner we sat in a huge field to watch the play. It was a highly technical play and you could tell had been practiced for a long time. It was very good and kept our interest the whole time. When it had ended we went back to the campsite. While laying in bed we could hear our neighbor's phone call where he was yelling at someone and threatening their job by saying he had connections. Then another phone call to his son telling him to throw our someones stuff and to piss on their pillows. The phone calls ended and we finally fell asleep, only to be woken in the middle of the night to the same man hacking for hours. It was probably the grossest sound I have ever heard. Finally we all fell asleep.

Joseph Smith and Hyrum statues outside of the Temple

Sunset over the Mississippi River in Nauvoo

A band playing at the Pageant in Nauvoo

We woke up and did laundry then headed into old Nauvoo. We got to see the old bakery and try some gingerbread cookies. We then went to the Family Living Center where we learned how to weave, make a barrel, do pottery, make rope, cook bread, and make a candle. We got to keep the rope we made and to eat some freshly cooked bread. After that we headed back to town to the real bakery for some pastries. Back in old Nauvoo we learned how the bricks were made and got a small Nauvoo souvenir brick. We drove along the trail of hope and read plaques of journal entries from the Mormons when they were escaping prosecution. We drove all the way to the Mississippi River where they crossed the frozen river and we put our feet into the Mississippi for the first time. Once we had finished up in Nauvoo we drove to Carthage to the prison where Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were murdered. We got the last tour of the day and got to see where they were held and murdered, with the bullet holes still in the door. After we finished our tour Natalie drove for a bit while I napped. When I woke up I took over the driving through Iowa where we stayed for the night in Des Moines.

Nick at the Mississippi River

Sun setting in Iowa

Quote:
     "The core of man's spirit comes from new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun." ~ Christopher McCandless

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