TravelStream™ news feed for member bearsrule009 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/bearsrule009 en-us Copyright ©2010 TravelPod.com Sun, 27 Jul 2008 00:08:33 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bearsrule009/1/1217131020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bearsrule009/1/1217131020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bearsrule009/1/1217131020/tpod.html Sun, 27 Jul 2008 00:08:33 -0400 The Duttons drive to California

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Sioux Falls, South Dakota, United States

We departed Grand Island around 9:30. About noon we had our first "trouble. " And thank God it wasn't that bad. The engine light went on just west of Seward (look on a map I have no idea where that is.) Fortunatley Seward has a Ford dealer so we stopped and got our fuel filter replaced. The stop set us back less than an hour. The rest of the ride was uneventful.

We made it back to the KOA Sioux Falls-site of night one RV camping 21 days ago. Tomorrow we have about a four hour drive home. The kids had a blast swimming, having water balloon fights and making crafts. Jack is just about swimming. The scary part is... he thinks he can swim laps around the pool. My time of reading by the pool is slowly escaping yet once again. It was nice, while the life jacket was on!

Adam is excited to get home and sleep in his own bed without being kicked in the night by Drew and woken up by Charlie & Jack earlier than he'd like (although they have slept in until about 7:30 everyday in every time zone, which has delighted Mike and Lisa!) The rest of us are feeling sad to be ending our journey. We all have different favorites and stories to tell. Thanks for sharing our journey with us. Once we get to "real" internet, we will go back and add some photos. We have some great shots of some amazing places. One more entry to give with all our stats. For those of you who enjoy that sort of thing (Grumpa aka Chuck Dutton comes to mind). So check back in a few days.

Tomorrow we come home!

Lisa & Mike and boys
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Grand Island, Nebraska, United States

Today, Friday, was another driving day. OK Nebraska rivals Nevada for the worst state ever to drive through!
We already described Nevada. Nebraska is desolate and flat the sand of Nevada is traded for wheat fields. Fortunately today was a short (320 mile) day. We arrived in Grand Island at around 5:00 and immediately headed for the pool. It was hot outside. We swam, ate dinner and swam some more. The night was cooler and we sat outside playing games and reading. Went to bed early, trying to get back to our time zone.

I forgot that my company apparently got bought this past week. I really am enjoying the trip. By the way I received less than one call a day until Monday. That day the phone was ringing off the hook. The good news, for all of you who were inquiring, is as of today's market close I can pay for the RV trip!

Mike
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Cheyenne, Wyoming, United States

Thursday we had a nine hour long drive from Salt Lake City to Cheyenne. We arrived at 7:00 and had dinner and biked around for a while.

Friday we woke up and took a bus to Cheyenne's world famous Frontier Days. The first thing we did was go to the parade. Cheyenne has the largest collection of horse drawn carriages in the world. It also had a lot of cowboys that Charlie found really cool. The parade was filled with these cowboys, lots of horses, a few local school bands and military groups.

After the parade we took the shuttle to the rodeo grounds. Cheyenne has a massive fair ground and a huge rodeo arena. First we went on the carnival type rides. We all (especially mom) had a ball and really enjoyed it. After the ride we went to the rodeo.

Charlie really enjoyed it. He LOVES cowboys and had been waiting to see some "real ones." He was awestruck. The stadium was very big. It was very fun because there was never a dull moment and we all had fun. We saw bull riding, calf wrestling steer roping, bare back riding, races and rodeo clowns. The rodeo clowns were the announcers and were very entertaining. We saw some cowboy injuries too like a hoof to the head!

Charlie got a black cowboy hat and spurs. He was in heaven! We rode a few more rides before heading home. After the rodeo we went back to the RV had a cowboy steak and potato dinner and biked more.

-Adam and Drew-

Cheyenne was a throw back to the way America used to be. It was small town in the truest sense. I really enjoyed our time there. They have dirt roads (I am not kidding) in town. It didn't get past me that downtown didn't have a Target, Chilli's or (shockingly) a Starbucks anywhere to be seen. It was great to watch a parade that was filled with military people and floats (boats, airplanes, trucks etc.) Cheyenne made me appreciate what makes this country great.

Mike
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Salt Lake City, Utah, United States

Today we woke up at Winnemuca and left for Salt Lake City. On the way we stopped at the Bonneville Salt Flats. We had lunch there. We didn't get to see anything racing :(After another two hours we arrived at the campsite. The drive had been very beautiful with the mountains, valleys and lake. But Salt Lake was very hot so we REALLY enjoyed the pool. After a lot of biking, swimming,dinner and laundry doing, we went to bed just as it started to rain.

-Adam-
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Winnemucca, Nevada, United States

Today we woke up early and started the long drive to Winnemucca NV. After the long 7 hour drive. For lunch we stopped at Donner Pass Rest Area. For the non-skiers Donner Pass got ten feet of snow in one weekend last winter!!! However there was no snow now :( When we arrived at the RV park we played out side and cooked dinner and were able to eat just before a large storm came in. We played some games inside then between rain storms Charlie, Jack and Drew played in the large puddles and mud. They made damns with the gravel at our site. They were true white trash rvers! We enjoyed mucky Winnemucca!!!!

-Adam-
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bearsrule009/1/1216617660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bearsrule009/1/1216617660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bearsrule009/1/1216617660/tpod.html Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:22:15 -0400 The Duttons drive to California

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San Francisco, California, United States

Our last day in SF. We got up and got right on the road to make our Alcatraz tour. We took the ferry to Alcatraz and spent about two hours touring the island. We all thought it was interesting. Charlie loved the cells. And Jack really loved playing around with the audio sets his -"ipod!" The weather has been great in SF but very windy and cold. Wearing jeans has been most challenging for Adam who keeps saying he lives in MN and doesn't wear pants in summer! We hit Hard Rock for lunch and Charlie was in guitar heaven! (when we came home he wanted to immediately get his guitar out, I guess he was inspired). We walked around our final SF sights... Fisherman's Wharf and Giardellis Square and then walked back. We had beach on our minds! We went back to the beach and played in the waves. Everyone in fleece parkas (Mike included) thought we were mad. But Adam, Drew, Charlie Jack and Lisa went body surfing in some major waves with big undertoes so we didn't get in too deep but Charlie, Adam and Lisa went all the way under! We just had to go into the Pacific. Jack didn't want to get out but his frozen body demanded our departure. We had a great dinner and enjoyed the warmest night here sitting outside. Sad to depart but our journey must continue.... We head for cowboy country on our journey back home.....

~Lisa~

Note: Sorry for the delayed photos but some campsites do not have wifi and we cannot download them using our internet connect card. If you wait.... They will come!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bearsrule009/1/1216612080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bearsrule009/1/1216612080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bearsrule009/1/1216612080/tpod.html Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:04:38 -0400 The Duttons drive to California

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San Francisco, California, United States

Today was the day Drew has been waiting for... yet another ballpark to add to his vastly growing collection! After a morning filled with laundry (and the use of lots of quarters), we drove to ATT Park. On the way we took a detour to the mecca of BioOncology: GENENTECH! Mike took us around the campus and gave us an audio tour. It was Saturday so we didn't go inside the buildings, but hit the major hightlights. And saw where Dad spends a lot of time! We couldn't wait to get to the ball park because we were meeting Dave & Kari (with friend Curtis) and Brad (Dave and Brad are two of Lisa'scousins). Our seats were great with a great chance for foul balls, but the players didn't cooperate! Drew completed the whole score card for the game (thanks Aunt Sue!). As Cubs fans we desperately wanted the Giants to bring home a win, but the Brewers prevailed (score 8:5). Jack did a great job at the long game. His highlight was smashing a bag of cotton candy around. You'd be surprised to see what it turns into when smashed (small beads-very interesting!) After dinner we went to North Beach (what we had been calling Little Italy) Brad gave a great recommendation for dinner and we all ate our full. It was awesome spending time with Dave & Kari who had just moved out this Spring and Brad a lifelong CA dude who we sadly don't get to see that much. After a long dinner and a fun walk, we went back to base camp for a good night sleep!

~Drew & Lisa~
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bearsrule009/1/1216610820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bearsrule009/1/1216610820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bearsrule009/1/1216610820/tpod.html Sun, 20 Jul 2008 23:47:56 -0400 The Duttons drive to California

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Half Moon Bay, California, United States

Mom woke us up very early (around 6:00 am) to go explore low tide. We had a freezing blast finding star fish, tons of sea anenomes and even found a cave! It was awesome. We were happy to have a day where we didn't have to move the RV. We drove into San Francisco. The first stop was the Golden Gate Bridge. We didn't want to bike across it because of wind and cold. So we ended up walking about a third of the bridge to the first post. After we got back in the car and drove across the bridge to Sausalito. While there we had a picnic with some friendly pigeons and looked in the shops. We drove back and walked the city. We went to Coit Tower, drove down Lombard Street, drove through Little Italy and walked around China Town. We all liked the city very much. That night we drove back to Half Moon Bay and went to the beach. We all can't seem to get enough of the ocean! We tried to go into the cave we had found that morning, but Dad said it was "too dangerous!" We still did go briefly into it until he quietly commented, "BOYZ!" Had dinner at camp and went to bed very tired. Sadly there is a campfire ban here.....

-Adam and Lisa-

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Half Moon Bay, California, United States

Today was a long day of driving. We left at around 8:30 AM and arrived around 9:00 PM. We saw wind
farms west of the Central Valley (Fresno for you Midwesterners). Nothing like the farms in South Dakota these had hundreds of turbines lined in neat rows. It was a spectacular site!

We crossed the Bay on the South bay bridge. We saw Pelicans and Dad had a tough time keeping the RV straight in the gusting winds. We picked up our rental car right down the street from the "Genentech Starbucks" in South San Francisco. We drove the RV and car to Half Moon Bay.

The Pelican Park RV camp is " a stones throw" from the Ritz. Dad always promised Mom he would take her to Half Moon Bay. Who knew it would be Pelican park.

-Adam and Mike-
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bearsrule009/1/1215666660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bearsrule009/1/1215666660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bearsrule009/1/1215666660/tpod.html Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:47:28 -0400 The Duttons drive to California

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Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, United States

Today we had an only two hour drive so we hung around the campsite for a while. There we swam and rode bikes. Dad needed to get the a RV an oil change so we went to Cody WY. We looked through the shops and got some Ice cream. Unfortunatly my moms cell phone died and we couldn't hook back up (my dad took the RV well we looked around) but we ended up meeting up any way.

The ride to Yellowstone was very breathtaking and we enjoyed it. We saw a large number of waterfalls. When we got to the camp we set up and made dinner. My mom was explaining to Jack that we can't feed the bears because they are dangerous. Jack insisted on sleeping with his flash light to "Whack the bears if they attack him" We're enjoying Yellowstone.

-Adam-

Hi Everyone,
I finally have time (and the log in from Adam) to post something.
I know several of you can't wait to hear so I will tell you now....we are getting 7 miles to the gallon!
And in case you ever need to know Visa and MC have a $75 or $99 limit at gas stations. Apparently it varies by state. Fortunately Amex limit is $100. Before we left I 90 in WY I topped off with $99.

I also wanted to let you know I am keeping gas reciepts for the over/under contest. By the way, no I have not checked email....I hope Genentech is still in business. I guess I will find out if I get paid on the 15th.

Gotta head in before the grizzly bears come out.
Mike
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