Update (Old trip, new trip, and life)

WHEW.
It's been a while.
After planning to 75% specificity our New England trip, we've made a few major changes. First off, were going south, not north.
Pretty major. And tentative.
We both have only visited our grandparents down in Florida once or twice, and in my boyfriend's case, never. When my grandparents casually invited me to come and visit, I thought, why the hell not? As awesome as NE sounds, I have never visited most of the southern states. I also have family in VA Beach, Baltimore/Washington, and Western (not to be confused with west...) Virgina.
This means that a totally new journey will be archived here, with more planning advice: including the mistakes that we learned from our last trip, and of course, the good ole internet.
Oh yeah, and this time, the pup's a long for the ride.

How could I leave that smile behind?

At the time of the last trip, I didn't have Stella. Now I can't imagine a road trip without her.
While I've driven to Philly and back more times than I can count, with or without Stella, she's a handful. She howls/barks/whines whenever she's in the car.
I've tried everything:
-toys
-treats
-comfy and familiar blankets
-Thundershirt
-letting her out to pee a lot
-making sure she get's lots of exercise
-loud music
-quiet music
-talking to her
-ignoring her
-benadryl
...EVERYTHING that has been suggested to me, ever. The only thing that works is lots of exercise, which is not always easy or effective when your riving 6-8 hours a day. It's even more impossible when your on your way to somewhere why you want to wear her out. Like the dog park, for instance. Who wants to take a dog for a 45 minute walk or 20 minute run before you can take her to the dog park for more exercise.

Anyway. Questions I'm currently tacking:
-Dates of travel
-Exact stops
-Approval from the relatives that I'm staying with that dates all agree, and that Stella is okay. Most I haven't even asked yet because everything is still so up in the air. If not, it's not a big deal- she loves going to doggie day care/ overnight camp!
So yeah. Pretty much have to iron out the whole itinerary. But I'm so excited! Below is the general framework. We'll be going in either late June or mid August.

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More to come!

Note: PROOFREADING

So...I'm just now reading that the automatic spell checker on Blogger is worthless. If your wondering if I'm a complete idiot, I am a poor speller, but I do know how to use spell checker and I do know the basic rules of English. So, please bare with me as I complete the last post (Chicago!) and then go back through adding pictures, more links, and proofreading the crap out of each post: )

...And the rest of South Dakota

One of the nerdy things that I really liked about South Dakota was that I had read a novel about a young woman growing up on the reservation in the 30's in South Dakota. Hill City was the closest town. I would highly recommend it. I took a class called "Native American History" where the professor was an expert in cultures on the Great Plains, specifically the Lakota. We read 7 friggin novels strictly about the Lakota people, so I became a bit of an expert myself.
Anyway. So we drive toward Mount Rushmore. I vaguely remember driving behind someone ridiculously slowly on the way there and not being able to get around them. So we said to ourselves, one way to fix that is to make a pit stop on the way to the heavily roadside-advertised Crazy Horse Memorial, largest mountain carving in the world. So we get up to the "toll booth" and they say its 20 bucks per car. And that they've been working on this thing for 60 years and it's (my estimate) less than 15% complete. NO THANK YOU. They tried to pull this whole "Oh, well proceeds go to fund the building of a University on site for Native Americans." Okay, I would be more than happy to donate time, money, or both to help education. However, can I really have faith that they can make it happen if the stupid statue alone has taken 60 years. Sorry.
So, Mount Rushmore. Cool. Not thrilling, but worth photographing. They had a Mount Rushmore Coke machine, that was cool. I got a sandwich. It was really plain and expensive, and also not thrilling, but it's a tourest trap, so thats what I expected. And for the record, I think it was 8 bucks a car, as apposed to 20 bucks. Interesting.
The drive to Souix Falls was uneventful. Well, pretty much the whole friggin state was uneventful. So we drive and drove and drove until we reached Soiux Falls. We would be couchsurfing here. It would be a lovely oasis. Actually a really cute town. We went to go lounge in the grass. It reminded me a lot (as far as the people were concerned) of my suburban town at the park. Couples, families, and teenagers milled around, going for walks, reading books, sketching, picnicking, enjoying the nice summer evening. So we did the same; lounged on our blanket while I read a book and Boyf sketched. Relaxing. I was somewhat concerned about our host being available, but that was just because he was initially our fall back and we scrambled to find his contact info last minute. We were planning to go to Minneapolis, but then decided that was a waste of time. Boyf had a cousin up there, but it was 5 hours north out of our way. The host called to say that he was on his way, and showed up with two other couchsurfers. Everyone was very nice; Our host had lived in Sioux Falls all his life and the other surfers were from Washington. We asked him if he knew of somewhere to get some grub, and we were very glad to take him up on his recommendation of Granite City. We had a great meal. If you are ever anywhere near one of these, you MUST eat these:
Idaho Nachos
Recommended pairing: Northern Light
Golden fried waffle-cut potatoes topped with Colby-Jack cheese, bacon bits, diced tomatoes, sour cream, and green onions.
They are in shown third from the left in the photo montage of awesomeness at the top of the page. I also enjoyed a few drinks. This was a much needed break from campfire hotdogs. So was the accommodations where our host was house-sitting, They lived in this beautiful ranch house in a little cul-de-sac. We got hot showers and slept on the same air mattress we had slept on since Seattle, but no complaints there. All in all, Sioux Falls was the best part of South Dakota, which isn't saying much, but really, we did enjoy our stay there.

Custer, South Dakota

Okay, so it's been almost a year since we went on this trip. I need to just get this over with and finish this blog.
Our experience in South Dakota was at times, frustrating. We got lost just outside of Wyoming, and had a very difficult time finding the camp ground. We find the campground, realize were short on the fee, and drive around looking for an ATM. We figured the nearby KOA would be a good spot. People go to these places for these types of conveniences. Not only was their ATM down, but they were the rudest people we had encountered in a long time. When we asked them where there may be another ATM nearby, they said that they didn't know. So we drove around aimlessly until we found a bar that had an ATM. They were the total opposite, wish we could have stayed for a drink. It was one of those "way out west" dive bars that had way out west dive bar characters. However, it was dark and we were on a tight budget. Money in hand, we drive the 5ish miles back to the campground to check in, where we were greeted by the skeptical campground hosts. I'm trying to put myself in their shoes, but they were just very sketched out by us and I never figured out why. So....we cooked dinner (more hotdogs) set up the tent and went right to sleep. Not to be a debbie downer, but there isn't much I would recommend about this site. Luckily, we were only there to sleep. When I looked up information about where we stayed for the blog, I noticed so many bettter places nearby to stay at. Here? Crappy website but the scenery looks awesome. We were just sort of in the woods. The wet, dark, woods. Tomorrow would be Mount Rushmore and the drive to Souix Falls on the other side of the state.

Still have'nt finished the last trips log...speed planning the next road trip!

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Yellowstone

I could have sworn I already wrote this up, but I can’t find it and figured rather than procrastinating further I would just rewrite it. I loved driving through the beginning of Wyoming. We stopped at a sit-down pizza restaurant in Cody, Wyoming, and had some of the best pizza we’ve both ever had. We got a whole pie, and were both devastated when we realized the next day that the foil and ziplock baggie that we had kept the leftovers in did not hold up. There’s nothing good about waterlogged pizza. I tried to convince myself that if I could just cook it on low heat (which, by the yea, is impossible on a camp stove- the flame goes out in any amount of wind on anything other than high.) Pizza may be rehydrateable (ever leave it in the fridge improperly covered? Just sprinkle it with water and stick it in the oven- it’ll be golden). Pizza is not dehyrateable. Not in these conditions. So in addition to amazing pizza, and amazing service, we also saw a ghost town, which they wanted 8 bucks admission to per person. I was not about to pay what we did for a fabulous culinary experience to see some old buildings up close. We saw plenty from the parking lot, and from movies. We did not, however, feel comfortable taking pictures when we didn’t pay, so we just spent a few minutes peeking around and reading the sign before moving on. Shortly after Cody, we entered all the National Forests (Wyoming is at least 85% National Forest. Check it on Google maps.) We drove by one spot that I fully intend to camp at next time I find myself here. It looks like this
We drove right by it (the lake) and I wanted to jump in. Such a gorgeous landscape. The lake, which you can see in some but not all of the photos on the linked site, is a very pale greenish blue. *Sigh* Next time.
So by this time, we were almost at Yellowstone. We drove in, and immediately were in traffic. What’s the deal with this? I mean, we hadn’t hit traffic yet to this point except for construction at the Hoover Damn (UGH) a little bit in Tulsa, OK (rush hour + construction), and a little in Portland, OR (rush hour). It was Bison in the road. Yup. No construction. No rush hour. Just Bison. So cool. So we took a couple shots (pictures!) of the bison, and moseyed on toward our campsite. On the way, we stopped to see the Painted Pots and Old Faithful. Did you know that the stupid thing only erupts every 90 minutes, and despite what you would think, is not very predictable. The painted pots were so cool. The way that the minerals mix together makes a rainbow of bubbling awesomeness.

So were drivin’ drivin’ drivin’ and its feeling like its taking an awfully long time to find the part where we bear right into our site. We check the map, which is mildly informative, and the signs, which are practically non existent and also not informative, and keep going. We drove all the way through the west entrance and out the east. Yes, we drove all the way through (about 75 miles). UGH. So, by the time we got to the other entrance booth, we were furious. So we asked the ranger at the booth, who told us to open our maps to check out the “real map.” There was a map on the back of the brochure that looked as if it was the primary map, but I guess if you open it up there was a larger, more detailed map inside. That still, btw, sucked. So we drove, finally found the campsite, and were sorely disappointed. It felt like a crowded music festival. The whole site was as big as our tent with about enough room to set up the tent without stepping on anyone else’s tent, but little else. Our neighbors included an older couple with an RV(read: 40-55ish, not like, elderly, just older than us), a bunch of rowdy teenage boys that did not seem to have parents, and a nice couple of similar age and temperament to us (such a s sweet guy; lent the boyf an ax and then lent me some vegetable oil). I wouldn’t say that they were horrible people by any means, but my idea of camping does not include being able to hear the conversations of at least 6 different groups/families. And them being able to hear my conversation. I like the balance that I found at many other sites where you could come in, say hello to those within an earshot if you wanted, and then go about your business. Whatever. So while boyf is working on building a fire (giant treeless field+ relatively windy summer night=incredibly difficult fire starting conditions)….I go to deal with the shopping essentials (hotdogs, buns, wine, ice). 2 hours worth of fire failure later, I went to yet another bottle of wine. A bottle of wine a piece= no problems in the world. We made hot dogs, played iPhone poker (such a fun high tech in the dark), drank wine, and went to sleep. The evening was stressful (finding and dealing with the camp site) but we enjoyed the rest of our time at Yellowstone. In the morning we went to see the mud pits and the mud volcano. It smelled like horrible sulfur, but it was really cool to see mud violently bubbling up from the ground.
Our next stop was the Black Hills National Forest.

I've been working with the pictures..because I have INTERNET!

These are somewhat random, but they are in chronological order from Pittsburgh to Texas, which is as far as I've gotten so far on my photo editing journey. At some point, I'll delete this post for simplicity, or at least edit it to direct them to their location (where they wee taken and the post that they go with).