My Adventures Began Yesterday

Hellllo World! It’s a beautiful 45 degrees, the sun is shining, the wind blowing, and we are heading west on Interstate 20 towards Jackson, Wyoming. The Grand Tetons and Yellowstone are awaiting our arrival with snow covered mountain tops (yikes). Many thanks to Laura for gifting me snow boots! They’ll come in handy over the next week as we trek through the mountains searching for bears and moose (yes, we have bear spray, and yes, I hope I’m close enough to the wild animals to actually see them (kinda blind here), but far enough away that they won’t feel threatened and attack! Look at me being animal smart.).  Last night, we stopped at a campground and spent our first night in a tent. During the full harvest moon no less. Beautiful orange glow around the moon as we were setting up our tent. There were many hunters staying there as well, and our observations led us to feel ill equipped at camping (slight understatement). Our tent is nylon; theirs appeared to be made from

Between Hot Springs National Park and Isle Royale National Park, time was spent surrounded by the love of family and it was a wonderful way to start off a two month road trip!  After 10.5 hours of driving on day 1, we found ourselves in Des Moines, Iowa, and in the company of 10 cousins. They showered us with Baked Ziti, molasses cookies, rhubarb strawberry pie (garden grown!), and a comfortable bed (provided by a selfless cousin who kept appointments and moving plans a secret from us because she didn’t want us not to visit! Ahh family.). The next day, we drove to Dyersville, Iowa, and met two cousins who proceeded to take us on a tour of Dubuque, Iowa. We visited two breweries, a winery, walked along the Mississippi promenade, drove over the Mississippi River into Wisconsin, took a right to drive into Illinois, then crossed a different bridge back over the Mississippi River (total drive time: 10 minutes, 3 states!). We then rode the shortest AND steepest elevator (origin