7/6/07

Leaving Indiana early in the morning, we traveled straight through Ohia and West Virginia to Pennsylvania on I 70. We arrived back home at around 8pm. What an adventure it has been!!!

7/5/07

Traveling through Oklahoma city, we pulled over due to a huge rain storm that came through. It did not last long but dropped buckets of water. On the road again, we stopped at the largest McDonald's in the world in Vinita, OK. It is also known as the "Glasshouse". The dining room sits on a bridge crossing I 44 with large windows to view the highway. After our stop, we made our way through Oklahoma and into Indiana were we spent the night.

7/4/07

We drove through New Mexico and into Texas. Close to Amarillo, we stopped along the road at a visitor site that does not have a name - it can only be described.... It was 10 older cars that have been 1/2 buried in the ground. Cans of spray paint were available to put graffiti on the cars. Everyone took turns putting something on the cars. Heading farther east, we stopped in Groom, Texas, where there is a replica of a cross that is the 2nd largest cross in the western US. It is 190 feet tall ( 19 stories). Surrounding the cross were statue replicas of the stations of the cross. From Groom, we continued east into Oklahoma. We spent the night at Cherokee KOA campground in Hinton, OK. We were able to see some fireworks from the campsite ( Happy 4th of July). We also experienced our first raindrops that night. We had not hit any rain the entire trip until that night.

7/3/07

As we headed east, we made a stop in Arizona to visit the Petrified Forest. We spent some time at the Rainbow Forest musuem where we saw a film about the forest. Did You Know?Petrified wood at Petrified Forest National Park is almost solid quartz, weighing in at 168 pounds per cubic foot. It's so hard, you can only cut it with a diamond tipped saw! We did some hiking about the forest. We also visited Newspaper rock where we could view petroglyphs, which are lines or drawings on rocks made by prehistoric people. Did You Know? Petroglyphs are sometimes calendars, marking events like the summer solstice with interactions between the glyph, the sun, and natural landscape features. We made another stop at puerco pueblo where the remains of a 100 room pueblo exist. Our final stop was to view the painted desert from an overlook. After we left the national park, we stopped at Stewart's trading post. Thanks to the generousity of the owner, Gazell Stewart, we were each given a sample of petrified wood as a souvenier. We also were given food to feed her many ostriches. The ostriches were so quick to feed, they kept snatching our food cups out of our hands. Ostrich food was flying everywhere. These ostriches were scarrier than the rattlesnakes at Praire dog town. We did get our first taste of ostrich jerky ( yum??). Back on the road again, we made it to New Mexico before stopping to rest.

7/2/07

We got up at 5:30 am this morning to pack up camp and head out towards San Bernardino. We had a long drive ahead of us. In San Bernardino, we dropped off the loner vehicle we were using and rented a van to take us the rest of our trip. "Thanks, Barry for letting us use the Suburban!" Tonight we began our trip heading back East. We did get a brief opportunity to check the GO WEST email. We received an email from a family that was in the Grand Canyon and received the deck of playing cards that were passed on to us during our travels in the G.C. They also passed the deck onto others who were hiking the G.C. (Pay it forward).

7/1/07

Our camp site offers complimentary hot chocolate and coffee in the morning - what a great treat! We got up leisurely this morning and cooked pancakes for breakfast. We learned another new card game called "pebbles". This became the new game for the day. Losers of the game found themselves with dish duty. We did laundry today which took up a big part of the afternoon/evening. When we made it back to camp, we started a fire and again made "s'mookies". Although it was not quite a full moon tonight, from the valley the moonlight was reflecting strongly off the granite walls of Yosemite through the trees. It is a shame that no camera can recreate that view under the stary night- truely magnificant.

6/30/07

We arrived at Yosemite in the very early hours of the morning. We were able to get a campsite at Camp 4 which was down in the valley and within hiking distance of Yosemite Falls. After we set up camp, we played a card game that Rob taught us called, "Tonk". In the mid afternoon, we went for a hike to go see the lower Yosemite falls. We climbed up the rocks to get to the base of the fall. This water fall is the 2nd highest water fall in the world. We worked up a sweat climbing the rocks to the fall. We rewarded ourselves with a swim/dip into the fall base waters. According to Rob, this was the coldest water he has ever gone into. We all agreed that we would all get in and go under, despite the cold. Would you like to guess who got in first??? Cathy got in first but Rob was the first to go all the way under. We were all very awake after that swim. After showers and dinner we entertained ourselves with more "Tonk". The crew loves this card game. We made a fire and roasted marshmallows. We created a new treat which Taylor appropriately named, "s'mookies". It consists of toasted marshmallows in between chocolate chip cookies. We were out of s'mores supplies and improvised. They were very tasty.

6/29/07

Today we traveled from San Bernardino to Yosemite in the Sierra Classic Suburban. We made a stop in downtown Fresno and to a local mall/movie theater. To take a break from all the driving, we decided to watch a scary movie at the theater. After the movie we continued our travels to Yosemite.

6/28/07

Today we packed up camp and headed out towards San Bernardino. We were received by Barry and Chris ( locals to Angelus Oaks) who set us up for the night. We had a cook out and played with their 4 English Springer Spaniels ( Lucy, Froto, Peepers, and Piper). We spent the night in their cabin in a remote part of the woods in Angelus Oaks. Froto slept on Andy's pillow while Piper slept in between Taylor and Amanda. I think the dogs slept more comfortably than the crew. We saw one of the biggest pine cones we have ever seen from a widow maker pine tree. It was the size of a small basketball. It was heavy too! Thanks to the generousity of Barry, we now have a vehicle to continue our trip and adventure to GO WEST!!! More to come....

6/27/07

Today we went for a hike to try to get to the river to do some swimming. Unfortunately, the river was further than we were told. It was a nice hike despite not getting to swim. After our hike we did laundry and some other logistical odds and ends. Some of the crew learned a new game called frisbee golf. Andy, Amanda, and Cathy played three holes of frisbee golf throughout the campground. We even had sprinkler water hazards to the game.

6/26/07

We all slept very well this past night. This afternoon we made our way into town to do some odds and ends. We stopped at a local internet shop were we were able to update our blog and some emails. We went shopping at the local grocery store and picked up any additional supplies we might need. During down time, the crew is entertaining themselves with Cathy's juggling toy know as a diablo. It is a juggling yo-yo of sorts. The crew have created a tournament style game/competition with the diablo. They are getting really good with it. They are even trying to do some juggling tricks with it. Taylor and Jordan were our chefs for dinner this evening. They did a great job. We had a campfire and smores as a night snack.

6/25/07

This morning we had a setback in our travels. Driving through the Panamint mountains we lost our brakes. It was a scary situation, but we were blessed to be able to stop. We crashed the van and came to a stop along the embankment. No one was hurt. Despite the setback, we were able to make our way to Bishop, California to Brown's Town Campground. The crew describes this campground as a "little town" all by itself. So far, it has been there favorite campground to stay at. We will be staying at this campground until our vehicle setback can be resolved with the insurance company.

6/24/07

Today we packed up camp and headed west towards Las Vegas, Nevada. We made it to Las Vegas at around 8 pm. We had a buffet meal at one of the big hotels. It was good treat after all the hiking in the Grand Canyon. The crew really enjoyed seeing the lights about the city. On the road again we headed towards Bishop California via going through Death Valley.

6/23/07

The Indian Gardens crew started their hike back up the trail at 4 am. We started so early to avoid the heat. The temperature gauge went beyond the 120 degree mark at 3pm in the afternoon on the previous day. On the hike up, the crew handed the deck of cards off to two young adults on their way down the trail. We saw them later that day - they had handed the cards off to someone else on their way out of the trail. We got to the top at around 10 am. We then waited at the top to greet the rest of the crew who were making their way up the trail. The rest of the crew started their 9 mile hike up and out of the canyon at 5 am. While waiting for the rest of the crew, we sat and greeted other hikers who were coming up and out of the trail. The crew arrived at the top around 5 pm. It took them approximately 12 hours to come up and out of the canyon.

6/22/07

We woke up at 3:30 am to hike down the canyon. We took the Bright Angel trail which is on the southern rim of the canyon. We started at 4:30 am. We came across 2 big horn sheep. Cathy was able to get within 10 feet of one of the sheep. The park is full of mule deer who have no problem with walking around with people in the area. The squirrels come right up to people looking for food. We arrived at Indian Gardens ( the half-way point - 4.5 miles down) at about 9 am. At this point the crew split up. Jamie, Heather, and Cathy stayed and backpacked at Indian Gardens while the rest of the crew continued their journey down into the canyon (another 5 miles down). The crew at Indian Gardens camped out in one of the shelters they had. They also did a sunset hike out to Plateau Point where you could view the Colorado river down below. It was a beautiful and clear night to view stars from the canyon. We got to meet a lot of great and freindly people along the trail. Thanks to the generousity of two hikers (Mitch & Gregg) - we were given a deck of cards to play with while we backpacked. Their only request was that we pass the deck of cards onto other hiker on the trail so that they might enjoy them (pay it forward). The crew that hiked down to the bottom got there around 12 noon. Andy, Jordan, and Rob built there own dam at Bright Angel Creek. Each camper did some push ups in the creek as well. We all went to bed early in preparation for the hike back up the trail the next day.

6/21/07

It was an early morning for Rob, Joe, and Nehemiah who traveled to the park office to reserve and get our backpacking permits to go down into the canyon. It was a logistics day of sorts. We did laundry and watched a safety video on hiking in the canyon. Laundry, itself, took a good part of the day. After dinner we again went to the rim and took photos and visited the gift shop. We went to bed early to prepare for our backpacking trip down into the canyon the next day.

6/20/07

The campground we stayed at had a pool, so some of the crew went swimming in the morning before we hit the road again. Today we traveled to the Grand Canyon, Arizonia. We made it to our campsite - Mather campground which is in the park at about 4 pm. We set up camp and Rob cooked an awesome meal for us all. After dinner we went to the Canyon rim to view the sunset. Some of the crew described the view as beautiful, magnificant, "gia-gant-a-nor-mous" ( we can thank Jordan for that word).

6/19/07

After a big breakfast of pancake's and bacon we headed out to Arches N. Park. We took a hike out to view Delicate Arch. We drove out to some of the other Arches to view them close up. All the mountais and rocks look very sculpted. After our visit to Arches and our hike in the hot sun we found a local swimming spot in a creek. We did a bit of creek stomping. Jordan and Jamie were catching crayfish. We found a deep water spot that came up to our necks. After our refreshing swim we drove out to Monument Valley at the Southern end of Utah - close to the Arizonia border. We camped at Goulding's Monument Valley Camp Ground.

Thoughts from the crew

The crew was asked, "what was your favorite thing so far and why?"

Andy enjoyed the challenging climb up the sand mountain/dune because he was the first to make it to the top.

Jordan is enjoying seeing the sights in person, "Seeing it in person is better than just looking at pictures of it."

Jaime enjoyed seeing the animals, especially the snakes, at prairie dog town. She also enjoyed using her first aide skills on a fellow camper.

Heather liked the Arch best so far. "It was amazing to view everything from the top." "Things below looked ant size."

Day 4 (6/18/07)

Today we headed for the Rocky Mountains. We drove along the Colorado River heading for our next destination of Moab, Utah. There was still quite a bit of snow at the tops of the peaks. There was also water running down the mountains. We stopped at the summit of Lake Dillion, CO and took some pictures. This blog site picture was taken there. We also came across two wildfires along the mountains. The one wildfire was about a quater mile from the road. Their was a helicopter scooping up water from the Colorado river and trying to put out the fires. We followed the Colorado river into Utah. We stopped outside of Moab for a run up a sand mountain. Tonight we are camping at Moab Rim Campground, just south of the town.

Day 3( 6/17/07)

We started off at 6am this morning in hopes of making it through Kansas. Kansas is one very long state. We stopped at a town outside of Oakley, Kansas to see the home of the 8000 lb prairie dog. We visited Praire Dog Town which had all kinds of animals. Some of us got to see our first rattlesnake up close and personal - through a cage. We got to feed the animals. As for the 8000 lb. prairie dog...it was never advertised as being a live animal - it was a statue. We did get to see a 6 legged steer. After our visit with the animals, we again hit the road making the journey to just beyond Denver, CO to the town of Golden, CO ( no relation to our trip leader Rob Golden). We camped at Chief Hosa campgrounds for the night.

Day 2 (6/16/07)

Today we continued our journey out west. Our adventures landed us in St. Louis, Missouri, where we visited the Gateway Arch. The challenge question for the day was, " How many stories high is the Arch?" Do you know? We found out that the Arch is actually named the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Gateway Arch. It was completed in 1965 and is 63 stories tall. Taylor Crawford had the closet guess of 60 stories. The most exciting part of the Arch was the ride up on their tram cars system. The tram cars are a 5 seat bubble that is like stepping into a space pod. At the top you can look straight down out over the Mississippi river. The Arch was a refreashing break from all the road driving. After our stop at the Arch, we hit the road again. We ended up in Boonville, MI for the evening.

Day 1 - Leaving on our trip (6/15/07)

As Dr. Seuss would say, " Oh, the places you'll (we'll) go!" We started out on our trip from Mechanicsburg. The route we are taking is I 70 with a destination of Denver, CO and the Rocky Mountains. We made it through Pennsylvania, Ohio, and part of Indiana. We spent the night at Walnut Ridge Campground in New Castle, IN. So far we have had beautiful driving weather. We are all getting to know each other very well while traveling for long hours in the GO WEST van.

At the summit, Lake Dillion, CO