Devil's Tower

It was hot but we hiked all the way around devil's tower. From a distant the grooves look small, but they are actually huge. Some climbers were making there way up just one of the grooves and they looked really tiny compared to how big it was, let alone next to the whole tower. I personally do not believe that a bear slid down, digging in it's claws to make the grooves. There are no bears that big and we found no bear scat either. It must have been something bigger, ya think?

Beans

For some reason we had this idea that if we were traveling west along the old trails, that we should eat beans. So here is a picture of Jen eating beans along the Rogue River. We also had a chance to walk on the Pacific Crest Trail, which I plan on through hiking before I die or sooner.

San Francisco

After talking to my sister Denise, we had decided not to visit Fisherman's Warf and Alcatraz. I really wanted to see Alcatraz, but we had all Jen's valuables in the car and we weren't too excited about leaving the car in the middle of SF. After crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, we were just going to stay on the highway and do a drive by. The bridge was covered in a cloud, and we took a wrong turn and ended up driving up and down and back and forth through SF. After some tense moments between us, we decided to call our own personal On Star - we have 3 of them - Bob, Paul, and Jaymin. This time Bob was the lucky one and he managed to direct us out and back onto the highway.

Soddy

The best thing about South Dakota was the sod house. We did the Corn Palace, but it does not warrant a posting (sorry June). The sod house was cool, no really. It was so much cooler inside than outside. There was also a sod chicken coup, a sod cellar, and a sod barn. The news papers that they used to plaster the walls were dated 1911.
It was fun. The people who run it have to charge to see it cuz there is not another thing for them to do in South Dakota but see the soddy. I felt like I should have given them some food too. They don't even have neighbors for like 75 miles. I could have even given them my water bottle. Water was scarce too. I felt the same way in Mexico where people lined the streets begging. I wanted to empty my purse in their lap, but all the contents wouldn't have even bought them lunch.

Inside a Volcano

Have you ever wondered what the inside of a volcano looks like? I never did. But I did get to find out and go inside of one. It was creepy. How do they know if it is going to erupt again or not? What if it coughed up it's cookies while we were in there? It was kind of unnerving, even for me. Were there warning signs? I don't know.

the beach

We have decided that being professional site seers would be a great profession. We are trying to get sponsors, but so far Bob and Terry have both turned us down. So if any of you rich people out there need a place to throw some money, we could use it. We will send pictures to you for free.

Pelicans Smelicans

We took a little walk along the bay and there were more pelicans there than we had ever seen in our whole lives. They were having a fit. About 6 sea otters were trying to rest in the kelp, and the pelicans kept dive bombing as near to them as they could get. It was funny. Otters just seemed to ignore them.

Weird Grass

We found this really soft grass along the shore. It was like silk. The fibers were strong too, it seems like it would make good cord or rope.

Elephant Seals

We were driving down highway 1 and we saw a bunch of elephant seals just lounging on the the shore. Of course, Jenica had to go see the baby seals. They were really cute and we were able to video two big males fighting. It didn't look like much of a fight, more like a yelling match, but the outcome was the same. One of them went sulking away. The other looked all arrogant. We saw whales and sea otters too as we drove along highway 1. If you get car sick with hills and curves, then highway one is not for you. We spent 6 hours just doing "S" curves.

Jen's Room

This is the beginnings of fixing up Jen's room. It looks better now, but I'm too lazy to take another picture of it. We found out that she can hang pictures on the wall, so that will warm it up. She is talking to Paul.

A Picture

This is a picture.

Jen at Morro Bay

We spent a day recouping from so much driving at Morro Bay. We didn't thing we were tired, but we ended up sleeping most of the day, part of it on the beach. The waves were so pretty and there weren't very many people there. We ended up spending two nights there. We like that little town. We had been there before.

Lava Tube

At Craters of the Moon I climbed into a lava tube. It was much cooler in side. The temp at ground level was 130. It felt nice inside. If you ever get a chance to go there, you should. It is really strange. It would make a great place for a science fiction movie. We hiked some but we couldn't hike much because of Jen's computer being locked in the car in the heat. We were afraid all her stuff would melt. I wanted to climb into Angel lava tunnel. It seems like I would belong there.

Yellowstone

Where am I? That is the question I asked when I woke up in the morning at Yellowstone. Besides the fact that hardly anyone spoke English, the landscape was so weird. It seemed like another planet. It was hard to comprehend. I had to stick my hand into one of those pools of hot water, no I didn't see the sign, Jenica. I'm sure the old timers figured out a way to take a bath there, in spite of burning acid or whatever. Jenica had a date with a buffalo while here, she took a picture but was shaking too much for it to turn out. Unfortunately, much of yellowstone was burning while we were here. We saw the flames from the road. The entrance was closed the day before and the day after we arrived. There weren't as many people visiting as a result of the fires.

New Friends

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We met some new friends in the land of our ancestors. This is Tatonka and Wapiti. They are our Indian guides for the trip. We met them in Wyoming where they begged us for a ride. Why is that these visitors always seem to find us on trips??? Anyway, Wapiti decided to stay in California with Jen, and Tatonka is going to Iowa. I think he is a bit jealous cuz it is so gorgeous here in CA. The landscaping around Jen's neighborhood makes you think of paradise. Going for a walk is like taking a vacation.

Bad Lands

We took a tour through the Badlands. The day we were here we got out and hiked, the temp was 115 degrees, of course we went off the beaten trail. Jenica says I am oblivious to warning signs. Really, I swear, I didn't see it. We didn't take water with us either. We decided to turn back when we started getting dizzy and then we realized we were in a maze and had to work to find our way out. It was so cool.

Crater Lake

Jenica and I took a trip to Loma Linda so she can go to grad school. We took 10 days to get to the LA area, we took the scenic route through South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Northern CA. We didn't have any guys with us so we stopped and saw everything we ever or never wanted to see. We didn't care if the car passed us that we just passed and we stopped and to pee when needed, no hassles.
This is us at Crater Lake. We had a professional photographer take this picture! No, really. He did it for free.