To Oregon or Bust

Starting July 17th we embarked on a very long journey(we ended up putting 4800 miles on the car). The plan was to go out to Greshem, Oregon to visit Jeremy and Krissy by way of Lincoln, NE to see Angela in the musical, "Footloose". On our way down to Lincoln, we stopped at Watertown, SD and saw an exibit on King Tut. Even though everything was just replicas it was still pretty impressive.

We spent Friday night with Tim and Amy and then went to Lincoln on Saturday after we went to church in Bellvue. We enjoyed a scrumptious meal of lots of garden produce and packed a picnic lunch for the play. It was quite an experience getting there 2 hours before the play to get a great spot, spread out our blankets, played Phase 10 until we felt like breaking out the picnic lunch. Ben Yancer, Emily and her husband and little girl joined us later. It was a lot of fun and the play was great!

We left the next morning and drove to Laramie, Wy, where we stayed the first night. Then drove through some very desolate salt flats in Utah, with a stop at the Great Salt Lake(very smelly) and ended up at Elko, NV where we enjoyed some great Basque food. Our next day's journey brought us to California! Where we finally started seening some pretty scenery. Northern Nevada is pretty desolate and brown. We visited Lassen Volcano National Park that day and then stopped at Redding,CA for the night. We headed out the next morning for the California coastline to see the ocean and Redwoods National Park. At the first sighting of the ocean we turned off and had to take a walk on the beach. There is just something so mesmerizing about the sound of the ocean. I just love it and could sit and listen and watch it for hours.

We then stopped at Grants Pass, OR for the night. A very beautiful area. Then onward to Crater Lake National Park. By far the most beautiful lake you will ever see. I couldn't stop taking pictures. The blue coloring of the lake is fantastic! That alone was worth all the days of driving. That evening we finally arrived at Jeremy and Krissy's in Greshem.

The next day we ate breakfast at Maltnomah Falls and hiked up to some other waterfalls. I was fun walking behind Ponytail Falls. Saturday we packed a picnic lunch and headed for the ocean and had a relaxing day on the beach. Sunday we slept in and went to "The Proposal" and went out to eat at the Bombay Cricket Club for supper and went back to the apartment for some swimming in the pool.

We started our jouney home on Monday. Stopping at Coeur d'Alene,ID for a brief stop and wishing I could live there. We stayed at Missoula, MT for the night and drove to Gillette,Wy the next day to visit Curt's sister Claudine and her family. Wednesday we drove the last leg of the jouney home, stopping at Wall Drug for lunch and drove through the Badlands. I forgot how beautiful they were. Right up there with Bryce Canyon. We made it home about 10 pm that night. It was good to be home but truth be told I could have kept traveling. Curt was really glad to not be driving for a while. You see he did all the driving(his choice, I offered) and I got a lot of reading done.