3800 miles

we started out in Bozeman. spent saturday floating the madison river after a breakfast in the all american diner, the Western Cafe on Main street. we set out on a rainy sunday into Paradise Valley that turned out to be completely encased in a thunder/snow/rain clouds. go figure.

we dipped into the boiling river for a few hours. continued down to mammoth hot springs, saw some animals. a buffalo sauntering down the road, blocking traffic. also saw a grizzly cub. saw bubbling mud, grand prismatic spring in a snow storm. James came and found us. we drove out of yellowstone and camped for the first night. thankfully it stopped snowing, the stars came out, and we had a good fire and nice dinner cooked on the fire.

in the morning James and I laid in the tent for hours. I didn’t want to get out of the tent. neither did he. the sun was out, I cooked breakfast, and we drove on to the tetons and Jackson. got a hotel room. we ate, napped, went out, sat on the saddles in the Cowdoy bar. bought a coozie.

tuesday morning dawned way too quickly, we had breakfast and I had to kiss James goodbye, not knowing when I’d see him again. we got on the road and drove all night until we finally scoped a camp ground with the direction of photos taken of a gazetteer at a gas station. voila. we found it and in the morning woke up to stunning red cliffs in the desert. wow!

we broke down camp, made breakfast and got back in the car. suddenly in 80 degree heat. made out way to the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Minka was horrified of the hike out to the ledge. Jarmo and I poked around and took pictures. later we had chili dogs and drinks on the rim, enjoying the view.we got back in the car and arrived in Las Vegas a few hours later. I was horrified. we found a Travelodge right on the strip and went out for our first adventure that night. we were very quickly over whelmed by the craziness of it all. the next morning we did not leave the hotel room in any hurry. I think we finally made it out around 2pm for breakfast.

that night Minka and Jarmo got remarried by Elvis. the King. we celebrated, Minka got a pink veil, I wore boots and Jarmo had a flower. we adventured in Vegas, got drunk on piƱa coladas. made memories. watched shows.

the next morning we got back into the car and headed out into the vast void that is the Nevada desert. my, my! field lunches from the back of the car and torturous heat. we drove into the night and landed a camping site somewhere at the base of the mountains before you climb into Yosemite proper. had a lovely fire and another cold night. vino and dinner, breakfast ready in the morning in the sunshine!

we drove into yosemite, I was stunned by the round boulders and rocks everywhere. by the hundreds of people we saw on the walls. I could see how amazing it would be to spend time in yosemite, to grow on those walls. there was such a variety of walls to climb and there seemed to be a lot of ones I could climb with comfort and enjoy.

after yosemite we got into San Fran. got a room and proceeded to tour the city for two days. got afternoon drunk in china town for no good reason and the shopping thing with the ladies just got out of hand. or at least that’s how Jarmo might put it…

after San Fran, Napa Valley wine sipping. Then onward towards Oregon! We spent the night in the mountains in northern califoria, just south of Mt Shasta. In fact, we drove up to bunny flats and had breakfast/lunch there. it was nice to see my mountain again. miss her!

since we ended up with an extra day we desided to take a detour to North Umpqua river hot springs. those are nice pools on the side of a cliff. lovely! we did the sort hike in and spent a few hours enjoying ourselves in the fantastic bright blue pools. that night w made it back into portland. it just so happened that Po’ Girl was playing friday night! Dan, Kenny, Mike came out to party with all of us and we had an epic night of too much drinking and chaos. party people!!

after a few days in pdx of seeing friends and loved ones, we continued to the last leg of our trip. stopped by at Multnomah Falls on the way out, got another crushed penny and kept going across the flats, through the tri-cities, into the grass lands all the way over the ranges, past old mission church, through wallace idaho, down the other side of the range and into missoula.

spent the night in missoula with wonderful Brittnea and Jon. next morning finished our trip with a tour of Gardiner Ghost town and arrived back in bozeman in the afternoon. enough time for Minka to shop at the Dollar Store and Wal-Mart.

Love you!

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