Exciting News!

Last Sunday our family gathered at our house for an early Thanksgiving since we will be spending the holiday with Sue's parents in Lancaster. Jeff called early in the week to ask if he and Bridget could bring dessert. We said, "of course".


After dinner on Sunday, Jeff went to get the dessert....an ice cream cake he had left outside until it was time for dessert. When he brought the cake (Dairy Queen) in he said, "Oh, no! They put the wrong bird on the cake." We all gathered to see a cake...... with a stork and the words, "we're expecting June 4th". Needless to say, we are thrilled!








We continue on this adventure called "life". Thanks, Jeff & Bridget, for adding to our fun!

Bob & Sue

Home - Mile 7295 - Route 89 - Mile 1394

You might be wondering what happened since our last blog. We'll explain. . . . . . .

Las Vegas - Mile 4381 - Route 89 - Mile 1394

On Saturday, September 13th we left Las Vegas for Lake Havasu City to visit Chuck and Marie.


This is the beautiful back yard of Mary Jo and Lon's home. You can see the mountains in the background.


This is Lon and Mary Joe just before we all left for Lake Havasu City.

Lake Havasu City - Mile 4596 - Route 89 Mile 1394


Chuck and Marie were wonderful hosts. As a part of their greeting are the "Chuckeritas" you see here.

Here's a picture of the desert sunset at Chuck and Marie's house Saturday night. The temperature was cooling down from 110 degrees earlier in the afternoon to around 95 degrees at this time.

Here's the pool we enjoyed twice before we went to bed.

Another Chuck specialty is Cherries Jubilee.

About 4:30 a.m. Sunday we received a phone call that a a very special uncle, Orielle, had passed away unexpectedly. After numerous phone calls and a quick breakfast, Sue and I decided we needed to go back to Minnesota. This is a picture of Chuck and Marie just before we left. We were sorry we had to leave so early but we promised we would visit them again.

We travelled west all Sunday and at Albuquerque, we headed north towards Denver. We spent five hours at a Super 8 near Fort Morgan and we continued on to Minnesota. We arrived at home about 10:30 Monday night. We got up early Tuesday to head towards Sue's parents in northwestern Minnesota. We attended the visitation Thursday evening and the funeral Friday morning. We arrived home Friday night.

So what were our "takeaways" from this trip?

• We traveled a total of 7295 miles; 1394 were on Highway 89.
• We wished everyone could have seen and enjoyed what we saw.
• The lifetime $10 "Senior Pass" for the national parks is a great deal!
• The (free) shuttle busses for three of the national parks were awesome.
• Route 89 was a wonderful road. It didn't seem very busy. You seemed much closer to nature. Seemed like much of it was along rivers. We will finish Route 89 through Arizona another time.
• If you plan to stay within a national park, book your room at least 6 months before you leave.
• We really enjoyed have a GPS navigation system. We used a "Tom-Tom". It wasn't always perfect, but is was really good.
• For the most part, we stayed in Super 8s. They were generally reasonable, clean, included breakfast and wireless internet. If you stay in Jackson Hole, be prepared to pay significantly more than most/all other locations.
• We really think it's important to enjoy things when you can; you can't take it with you (you don't need pockets in your last pair of pants), etc.
• The call of an unexpected death of a person dear to us is a reminder of how every day is precious; like time it needs to be spent wisely.
• For those of you who followed this trip, we are flattered. We took tons of pictures but only posted a few. If you want to see more, please let us know, we would be happy to show you. We have a spectacular country and we just saw a very small part.

We haven't planned out next trip but when we do, we'll let you know.

Bob & Sue

Las Vegas - Mile 4381 - Route 89 - Mile 1394*

Good Morning,

Yesterday morning we left Bryce Canyon headed for Zion National Park. It was 45 degrees. When we arrived in Las Vegas the temperature was 102. We are posting from Las Vegas. This is Mary Jo and Lon, Sue's sister and her husband. We are getting ready for a nightcap after having spent a few nickels at the Pilazzo. We left Route 89 at mile 1394 and jumped on Interstate 15. Zion is only about 150 miles north of Las Vegas.


Lon and Mary Jo

This is a picture from the patio of Jo and Lon's house looking across the golf course and the moutains in the background.

Zion National Park - Mile 4150 - Route 89 Mile 1350

Ahead of us on our way into Zion was a group of 51 Italian Motorcyclists, none of whom spoke English. The remaining pictures were taken at Zion National Park. You really should be a geologist when you visit these parks. Zion is best known for its Navajo Sandstone which composes cliffs 2000 feet high in Zion Canyon.

Today we are hanging out in Las Vegas, washing clothes, relaxing and not to much driving.

Have a great day!

The Travelers

Bryce Canyon National Park - Mile 3712 - Route 89 Mile 1270

Sorry the wifi system was pretty slow last night and we weren't able to send this. Hopefully we can this morning



Bryce Canyon is just over 100 miles from Capitol Reef. We chose to take State Highway 12 from Capitol Reef to Bryce. That entire distance could also be a national park; absolutely breathtaking the whole way.





Like Glacier National Park, Bryce has it's own (free) shuttle busses. Since we had been on the road most of the day, we were ready to sit on the bus. We got off three (of the four) locations to take pictures.


Bryce Canyon has been described as one of the

world's geologic masterpieces. This picture shows

examples pf pinnacles and spires and eroded stone

that stand as natural made statues.



Some of the areas like this are described as an

an ampitheater.




It seemed everywhere we looked there was a

different and beatiful geologic formation.



As we got off the shuttle bus to take pictures,

they reminded us to take it easy since we were

at 8000 feet.


So it's 8:40 p.m. and time to get some rest.

It has been another awesome day. Tomorrow we

plan to go to Zion National Park and then we will

see if we have the energy to see the North Rim of

the Grand Canyon before we head for Las Vegas.





We were saying today you could spend your whole


life traveling around the country and only see a


small part. We are greatful to be able to see what


we've seen.





Good night,





The Travelers

Capital Reef National Park - Mile 3587 - Route 89 - Mile 1145

We started our day at Capital Reef. More very beautiful sights, but different from any we have seen thus far. It was formed 65 million years ago and stretches for 100 miles across south-central Utah. We took more pictures today than we've taken in a single day so far on our trip. It was hard to choose just a few to show you.

These spires are common in the park. Many

seem to look like animals or faces.


This mass is called "The Castle".

The area has a desert feel and there are some

plants like cactus. There was also an orchard

in the park with apple, cherry and peach trees.

Yes, we stopped for pie and ice cream.

Signing off from Capital Reef.

The Travelers

Richfield, Utah - Mile 3443 - Route 89 Mile1020

We are currently in Richfield, Utah which is about 150 miles south of Salt Lake City. When we arrived in Salt Lake City yesterday afternoon the weather was rainey, windy, and cold. This morning it seemed nice and we decided to go to Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City. By the time we got there it was rainey, windy, and cold. We were not sure the Mormons were welcoming a couple of Lutherans from Minnesota. The weather cleared and we spend most of the day here.

This is the Salt Lake Temple; one of about 14 major buildings on a 35 acre site.

This is on the mall in front of the Temple. The value of the picture is to show you how hard the wind was blowing on this waterfall. You can see the wind whipping up the spray in front of the statues of Joseph and Emma Smith.

Inside the Joseph Smith Memorial Building is one of the areas where you can do geneological research. They have folks that sit with you to help you find your roots. Sue and I each had someone helping us and we must have spent 2 hours just doing this. We ended up going to lunch with the couple that helped us. Lunch was on the top floor of this building which looked over the city as well as Temple Square.

Tomorrow we are planning to see two or three more national parks; Zion, Bryce Canyon and Canyonlands. We had thought about Arches but since it is kinda out of the way and since one of the arches has fallen, we will probably skip it. I do like the name; Fallen Arches National Park, however.

Hope you are all doing well.

Blog you later,

The Travelers

Salt Lake City - Mile 3297 - Route 89 - Mile 855

When we began our travels today, we were ready for some boring travel. WRONG! There is just so much more beauty in this part of the country than we ever imagined. We traveled through Bridger National Forest. It is gorgeous mountains filled with evergreen forests.

Beauty around every turn.

Again today we saw many fisherpeople, kayaks and rafts in the mountain streams. Lots of people making the most of a beautiful holiday weekend.

We thought the use of antlers was pretty unique

throughout this small town. We also saw some homes

that must belong to FLDS "families" because of their

size, and a beautiful resort area called Bear Lake. The

water in Bear Lake looks aqua colored.

We did run into some rough weather, but found a closed drive-in for shelter.

We're here in Salt Lake City and not sure what tomorrow will bring - maybe seeing the temple where the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs, maybe finding some geneological stuff - or maybe just plan the rest of our week.

We hope to be at Mary Jo and Lon's by Thursday, then on to Chuck and Marie's on Saturday. We haven't called them, yet, so hope they'll be home at Lake Havasu by then.

The Travelers

Jackson Hole - Mile 2982 - Route 89 Mile 587

Good Morning - We are in a very nice motel; Best Western Jackson Hole. You might ask why? Especially when we are pretty much Super 8 travelers; reasonable, clean, has a continental breakfast and internet. Now the rest of the story . . . We left Great Falls yesterday morning on Route 89. Our plan was to go to Yellowstone and hopefully find a place to stay in the park. When we checked it turns out the entire park (hotels/motels) is booked for the rest of the year. So if you plan to go to this park and if you plan to stay at a motel/hotel, you should plan a year ahead. Since Yellowstone is just north of the Tetons, we decided to go to the Tetons and look for a place to stay and after checking some places (like Supet 8) which were already booked, we found this place. I know, it was a little pricey but it has a fireplace, sitting area, kitchenette area, king sized bed and a jacuzzi . . . oh and it also has a great breakfast and free internet.

We are realizing that even though we have month for this trip, you could easily spend a week or so just at one of our national parks. The pictures we have taken can't begin to do justice to the beauty of these areas.



We are posting this picture because so much of yesterday's trip was along rivers; Columbia, Yellowstone, Gibbon, Firehole, Lewis, and Snake. There were many folks enjoying them from fly fisherman to kayakers to inflatable rafts.


Old Faithful - Mile 2870 - Route 89 Mile 488

Route 89 enters Yellowstone National Park at the North entrance. Old Faithful is about 50 miles into the park. There wasn't a huge amount of traffic but it still took us about 1 1/2 hours to get there. Parking was easy and we located Old Faithful. This picture shows a perimeter boardwalk where folks can sit and wait. The most common comment was, " When is the next eruption?" We waited about an hour. It finally happened

Old Faithful

So here it is! Really pretty remarkable and although this the best known geyser, there are many other smaller geysers and hot springs and sulpher laden steam vents all over the place.







The Tetons

We left Old Faithful and drove about 40 miles south to get out of the park. This route took us directly into Teton National Park. You enter a very long and beautiful valley. This picture is as we drove entered the valley. This is Jackson Lake with the Tetons in the background. So many awesome sites

The Grand Teton

Not a spectacular picture but clearly a spectacular mountain. The Grand Teton has an elevation of 13,770 feet

This is the lodge where we stayed last night. Lots of carved animals; bears, raccoons, etc.

We plan to have a relaxing Sunday. We are plotting the rest of our trip. We know later this week we plan to visit Lon and Mary Jo in Las Vegas and Chuck and Marie in Lake Havasu.

Hope you are all doing well,

The travelers

Great Falls - Mile 2423, Route 89 Mile 161

Mile 2262 - Route 89 - 0 Miles - Glacier National Park

Hello after two days. In the last two days we drove from Butte to Glacier National Park. Unfortunately when we wanted to update the Blog yesterday, the router at our Hotel was down so we had to wait until today. Wouldn't you know it, when we tried to update the Blog tonight, we coundn't log on to the internet. Turns out the router at our motel (after a lot of fiddling around) needed to be rebooted. Whew!

So . . . on our way to Glacier from Butte we tried to figure how how close we could get to the East Entrance at St. Mary. We had taken Interstate 15 to Shelby, Montana. Shelby is about 72 miles from the gate. We thought we would take a chance and drive to St. Mary and if we had to turn around and go back to Shelby, we would. Turns out we found a wonderful lodge; St. Mary Lodge and Resort which is about 200 yards from the entrance to the park. The rates were reasonable and the food was great. We were up to have breakfast at 7:00 a.m. this morning and were on a shuttle at 8:00. By the way, one of the best kept secrets is you can take a National Park Shuttle free from one side of the park to the other and back on the "Going to the Sun road".

Since we did this today, Friday, we also felt fortunate since the road was shut down on Wednesday due to 80 mph winds at Logan Pass along with some amount of snow. We were also fortunate since the last day of the shuttle is Monday, 1 September. You can take the shuttle like a city bus; get off when you want and get on when you want. This pretty much took the whole day. We left Glacier at about 4:00 p.m. and headed for our current destination, Great Falls.

This is the lodge we stayed at last night. We got up early this morning as we were loading the luggage into the car the sun was just coming up and we saw the picture below.

It was really wierd that we were going on "Going to the Sun Road" and before we got started we saw this from the parking lot of the Lodge. Actually the sun (and clouds) create an infinite variation of how the mountains and valleys appear. Many times throughout today we saw so many incredible views and we just couldn't get pictures of everything.

We got off the bus at "Sun Point". Shortly before this stop we noticed a black bear sow and her two cubs. So we were just a little nervous when we were the only people at this site. In addition there were warnings about bear and finally this listing of a person who has been missing since the 8th of August. We were pretty happy to get back on the bus.

This is another picture of "Sun Point" on St. Mary Lake.

Here's a picture of one of the many waterfalls along the way. Some is the normal runoff from rain and the rest is from melting snow/ice. Glacier National Park is now forecasting all glaciers will be melted by 2030.

This is lake McDonald on the west side of the park. A very old and elegant resort.



This is a small stream emptying into Lake McDonald.

Tomorrow we are on our way to Yellowstone National Park. It's about 200 miles from Great Falls. We haven't decided if we will try to see some of the park tomorrow or wait until Sunday.

Hope you are all doing well,

The Travelers