Wednesday, July 29, 2009
The Journey
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Happy Belated Birthdays To Us...
About to play cards with some Barbie cards and have a small boy steal Evan's watermelon!
On the open sea....or a cove in the extremely calm Hudson!
Inspector Gadget
Cold Spring
Room at the Hudson House
Beautiful flowers at Caramoor
Haha! Smile pretty Ana...Use the sun!
Our last stop on our road trip at Katheryn's in NJ
Well here we are coming to the end of July in which month both Mikey and I have birthdays! Woohoo! 1/4 century!!!! For Mikey I bought tickets to a jazz show at Caramoor which we attended on Sunday with Evan and Juerie. We ate...and ate...and ate...and ate...and...oh yea we saw some cool live music, hehe. It was a beautiful relaxing afternoon. For my birthday Mikey took me up to Cold Spring for a night at the Hudson House Inn. We spent the afternoon kyacking and walking around the town.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Reality
Well, I know you have all been waiting for us to continue posting but really life has not been so exciting as of late. The end of our trip was a blast, we ran into rain that followed us all the way back to NY and has slowly (very slowly) been drifting away. It's a beautiful July morning/afternoon right now but it feels like May which is ok with me.
Anyway, after MT we stopped in Yellowstone park for a few days, there was snow on the ground and lots of rain and I wished I had brought gloves to fight the cold. The scenery was worth it all. We took a day to drive around the park and stop at all the different geysers and mineral ponds, the colors and heat are amazing, oh and the smells (so we didn't have to shower cause we smelled better than the outside! hehe). We took a hike up by a lake to the top of one small peak where there was an amazing view. On our way back to the campsite we stopped along the road to take a picturesque picture, giant lake, mountains, sunset, just serene and beautiful. Mike hopped out of the car and ran across the street for the picture, a man in an SUV pulled up in front of Mike as he was headed back to the car, he said, "What is it?" Mike replied, " Um it's just a nice view". Man, "Hmph" and starts to drive his car away. Man's wife, "Oh! It is!" (like she hadn't noticed before he said that). Now many people keep a watch for animals but seriously this man was annoyed that there was no animal and it was just pretty.
Ever onward, our motto for the trip, we continued East through WY. We camped at the eastern edge near a lake and encountered an extreme thunder and lightning storm that brought superbly heavy rains. Next through South Dakota where we stopped and took pictures of Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore ($20 and $10 for parking, no thank you when you can see it from the road!). Our next camping stop we were next to a man, a woman and three kids, so you would think nice quiet evening, and you'd be wrong. The man (definitely not the father of the kids) was yelling "Whooooooo!" all night and drinking and then on the phone with his friend in jail who he had to go bail out. We just wanted to yell, "Shut up!" but eventually it stopped.
The next day we stopped in the Badlands which is a crazy muddy mountainous region in the middle of flatlands, it was really pretty and interesting. We drove through SD without much more excitment and it continued to rain a lot so we drove late into the night, stopped for dinner and then slept in the car. It stopped raining for the next day and we stopped in Omaha for some lunch and to look around, there is a really cute downtown area. The next camping spot was in Weston Bend, MO on the river which was a big part of the Lewis and Clark expeditions. It would have been cool to hike down and check out the river but alas the rain was with us so we drove to Mike's friend's parent's house and had lunch with them, yum!
We wanted to check out Southern MO so we drove through Rolla to look at the school for me and then further south. We checked out the town (not much of one) and drove around looking for this property that we had seen for sale online. It was pretty cool when we finally found it, right on the river off of a dirt road. We didn't make much progress for a few days because then we found an awesome camping spot (down another dirt road) right next to the lazy river where we could go swimming. There was a boat launch and people were coming and going all day while we just sat and relaxed and enjoyed. Ah the simple life.
We headed to Nashville and ran into a country music fest and even though I'm not much into country music it was really fun. The cover bands in the bars were all playing the same songs but they were talented musicians and the crowds were really into it making it enjoyable. We stopped for some late night bbq ribs....ohhhhhhhhhh so good! By the time we got back to the car it was after midnight and we had no place to stay. Mike passed out as soon as we got to the car and I was left to navigate out of the city of circular streets that were half closed because of the festival. Finally, I found a highway going north but at this point I was quite exhausted. I was hoping for a rest stop as soon as we were out of the city but after an hour and no sign of one I decided to pull into a truck weigh station for the night. At 6am there was a loud knock on the window, the state trooper telling us he was opening in 1/2 an hour and we had to get out of there. As we were slowly waking up he came back and offered to let us use the bathroom, brush our teeth and freshen up, so nice! It had only been a couple of hours of sleep so we were both still pretty tired, we stopped for breakfast at a Cracker Barrel and then fell asleep again in the parking lot for another 2 hours or so.
About an hour north was Mammoth Cave, the largest known cave system in the world. Most of the tours were booked by the time we arrived so we embarked on a 3/4 mile self-guided tour. The coolness of the cave is shocking you can feel it from hunderds of feet away. Through Kentucky and West Virginina and back into Maryland. Our last stop was in Cape May, NJ to see my friend Katheryn who just moved down there to work. We hung out at the beach and got some amazing fresh fish and rode bicycles around.
And here we are, back in NY. We are both helping our parents with projects around the house and sending out resumes. Maybe some jobs will appear soon but for now this is life.
Anyway, after MT we stopped in Yellowstone park for a few days, there was snow on the ground and lots of rain and I wished I had brought gloves to fight the cold. The scenery was worth it all. We took a day to drive around the park and stop at all the different geysers and mineral ponds, the colors and heat are amazing, oh and the smells (so we didn't have to shower cause we smelled better than the outside! hehe). We took a hike up by a lake to the top of one small peak where there was an amazing view. On our way back to the campsite we stopped along the road to take a picturesque picture, giant lake, mountains, sunset, just serene and beautiful. Mike hopped out of the car and ran across the street for the picture, a man in an SUV pulled up in front of Mike as he was headed back to the car, he said, "What is it?" Mike replied, " Um it's just a nice view". Man, "Hmph" and starts to drive his car away. Man's wife, "Oh! It is!" (like she hadn't noticed before he said that). Now many people keep a watch for animals but seriously this man was annoyed that there was no animal and it was just pretty.
Ever onward, our motto for the trip, we continued East through WY. We camped at the eastern edge near a lake and encountered an extreme thunder and lightning storm that brought superbly heavy rains. Next through South Dakota where we stopped and took pictures of Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore ($20 and $10 for parking, no thank you when you can see it from the road!). Our next camping stop we were next to a man, a woman and three kids, so you would think nice quiet evening, and you'd be wrong. The man (definitely not the father of the kids) was yelling "Whooooooo!" all night and drinking and then on the phone with his friend in jail who he had to go bail out. We just wanted to yell, "Shut up!" but eventually it stopped.
The next day we stopped in the Badlands which is a crazy muddy mountainous region in the middle of flatlands, it was really pretty and interesting. We drove through SD without much more excitment and it continued to rain a lot so we drove late into the night, stopped for dinner and then slept in the car. It stopped raining for the next day and we stopped in Omaha for some lunch and to look around, there is a really cute downtown area. The next camping spot was in Weston Bend, MO on the river which was a big part of the Lewis and Clark expeditions. It would have been cool to hike down and check out the river but alas the rain was with us so we drove to Mike's friend's parent's house and had lunch with them, yum!
We wanted to check out Southern MO so we drove through Rolla to look at the school for me and then further south. We checked out the town (not much of one) and drove around looking for this property that we had seen for sale online. It was pretty cool when we finally found it, right on the river off of a dirt road. We didn't make much progress for a few days because then we found an awesome camping spot (down another dirt road) right next to the lazy river where we could go swimming. There was a boat launch and people were coming and going all day while we just sat and relaxed and enjoyed. Ah the simple life.
We headed to Nashville and ran into a country music fest and even though I'm not much into country music it was really fun. The cover bands in the bars were all playing the same songs but they were talented musicians and the crowds were really into it making it enjoyable. We stopped for some late night bbq ribs....ohhhhhhhhhh so good! By the time we got back to the car it was after midnight and we had no place to stay. Mike passed out as soon as we got to the car and I was left to navigate out of the city of circular streets that were half closed because of the festival. Finally, I found a highway going north but at this point I was quite exhausted. I was hoping for a rest stop as soon as we were out of the city but after an hour and no sign of one I decided to pull into a truck weigh station for the night. At 6am there was a loud knock on the window, the state trooper telling us he was opening in 1/2 an hour and we had to get out of there. As we were slowly waking up he came back and offered to let us use the bathroom, brush our teeth and freshen up, so nice! It had only been a couple of hours of sleep so we were both still pretty tired, we stopped for breakfast at a Cracker Barrel and then fell asleep again in the parking lot for another 2 hours or so.
About an hour north was Mammoth Cave, the largest known cave system in the world. Most of the tours were booked by the time we arrived so we embarked on a 3/4 mile self-guided tour. The coolness of the cave is shocking you can feel it from hunderds of feet away. Through Kentucky and West Virginina and back into Maryland. Our last stop was in Cape May, NJ to see my friend Katheryn who just moved down there to work. We hung out at the beach and got some amazing fresh fish and rode bicycles around.
And here we are, back in NY. We are both helping our parents with projects around the house and sending out resumes. Maybe some jobs will appear soon but for now this is life.
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