Where 2584 miles will take you...

Last Tuesday Ethan and I ventured out on a 7 day roadtrip totaling 2584 miles.

We left St George Tuesday afternoon and headed for Rock Springs WY. As you know, we like to take our state-line photos.

 Once we arrived in Rock Springs, we walked over to eat at Applebees and stop by Smith's. It didn't actually feel like we were out of Utah. Though we did love sleeping on a king size tempurpedic bed. We also loved the sunset, the huge monster truck for sale (only $8500!) and that the mall consists of Verizon and the Wyoming state office.

 

 

Wednesday morning we headed northeast to Rapid City South Dakota. On the way we got stopped in traffic- and I am not sure if you have been through eastern Wyoming but the scenery is not exactly breath-taking. While waiting for what seemed like eternity, Ethan ate his smelly leftovers, I took a picture of the truck in front of us (I tried to get a picture of the funny little dog that kept looking out the back window at us) and we watched a guy get out of the truck behind us and we think went to the bathroom behind his trailer.

 

 

 

It turned out once we got back on the road that we were only a mile or so from Martin's Cove. So we stopped for a minute and took a tour. They said they would have taken us on the 4 wheel drive vehicle but they had 4000 youth there so they couldn't. I enjoyed the sign in the bathroom as well- I guess it is necessary with 4000 youth on a trek. It also took forever once we left for the pilot car to pass us so we could make a left hand turn. It was a big celebration when we finally saw it pass us.

 

 

 

We stopped in Casper at a fun diner for lunch. Turns out on Wednesdays that if you bring your own banana that you get a banana split at half price! Fortunately Ethan had grabbed a banana from the hotel that morning. It was delicious!

 

 

 

 

 

 We really liked the table of older people all eating their own banana splits...

As we continued on our way, I saw a sign for Box Elder- which of course I liked. We were also pleasantly surprised with how great our room was. We just sort of hung out and watch Jay Leno Wednesday evening.

 

 

 

 

Thursday we spent the day in Rapid City. We started with a trip to the mall, lunch at Firehouse Brewing (in the old Rapid City Firehouse),  and visiting the candy shop where Ethan found lots of Grape Crush Soda in glass bottles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we left the candy shop it started to rain so we headed back to the hotel. I had a lovely nap and I am not real sure what Ethan did. When I woke up we headed to Mt. Rushmore but stopped at the Black Hills Maze on the way. The maze had 1.2 miles of maze inside the 4 walls. The object was to find your way to each of the 4 towers and stamp the presidents face at that tower onto your blank Mt. Rushmore paper. After getting each stamp, you had to find your way to the exit and head out. It was lots of fun- but definitely took longer than we thought.

 

 

 

Mt Rushmore was AWESOME. We arrived and immediately after taking a couple pictures it started to rain. Also my hair (along with everyone elses) got super static-y. So we headed to the town to do some souvenir shopping before going back to Mt Rushmore for the lighting ceremony.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday morning we headed off to Laurel MT. We passed through Sturgis, and Belle Fouriche- which holds the geographic center of the nation. We stopped at the monument only to find out the real center of the nation was 20 miles away- in the middle of a pasture. Naturally we went.

 

 

 

 

 

 After our fun in SD we headed into Montana.

 

We stopped at the worst restaurant in the world- located in Broadus MT. Don't let the fancy pig decor trick you. When Ethan ordered his burger the waitress/cook told him "it won't kill you- its not bad." The menu didn't list prices, but it did say they watched Dr. Oz so they knew what was healthy to serve... Ethan took a menu with us- anyone that might need a laugh let me know. You will love it.

 

 

We finally made it to Laurel and were happy to see a Pizza Hut next to our hotel. We also enjoyed watching a guy on a 4-wheeler go through the drive thru at Hardee's on said 4-wheeler.

 

Saturday I worked at a team roping during the day. That evening we headed into Billings for dinner and a trip to Montana's biggest candy store. The restaurant was a little sketchy at first, but the food was delicious! The candy store also had an old soda fountain, I enjoyed a Lime Rickey and Ethan enjoyed a Cherry Lime Rickey. We also brought home a special bottle of soda.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We don't have any pictures from Sunday because once again I was working at the team roping. Sunday night we went to Livingston to spend the night at Chris and Darcy's home (the producers of the team roping.) They have a beautiful ranch and I am kicking myself for not taking any pictures.

Sunday morning we headed to Yellowstone. It was awesome! We loved all the Elk (and 1 bison) we saw. We loved the hot springs. (We stopped at Mammoth Hot Springs and about every other hot spring we saw.) We also went to Old Faithful and arrived only 20 minutes before the performance. It was so great!

 

 

 

 After the picture above- we heard a ranger say "BACK AWAY FROM THE ELK!!" to Ethan and about 10 other people. It was pretty funny.

 Mammoth Hot Springs. Yes, I am wearing an awesome Mt Rushmore clearance sweatshirt.

 

 Touching the water!

 

 

 Roaring Mountain

 

 Ethan LOVED all the hot springs. I admit- they were awesome.

 

 

 

 

 Bison above. Elk below.

 All the people waiting for Old Faithful to perform.

 

 

 

 We loved Yellowstone and are already trying to plan a trip back. Once we made it out of the park, we high tailed it do Salt Lake for his cousin Zack's wedding reception. We made it just in the knick of time. Below is a picture of us with his aunt and uncle (Brad and Tammy) at the reception. We had a great time with his family for an hour or so. Then we headed home to St George and our beautiful bed! We got home about 2:00 am Tuesday morning.

We had such a wonderful time on our trip! We are also having fun packing up our house because we move to Provo Saturday! I can't believe July is over- because oh how I love July! Back to packing I go...