OH->MI->MN->ND->MT->ID->WA

time to make our way back across the country. although brooke said he never wanted to do this again, he was having fun the whole way.

leaving toledo. hauling 'the burden.'


mackinaw bridge.
we stopped to picnic...

until the seagulls attacked us!

we made a brief stop at pictured rocks national lakeshore

although the stop was quick, it was easy to see the beauty...

only the trislers would take a uhaul off roading!

sometimes you have to travel rough roads to understand.

to be honest, not much happened in minnesota. our only recommendation would be to NOT stay at buffalo river state park! it's some sort of government mosquito breeding experiment that has gone horribly wrong. never in our lives have we seen mosquitos [aka, devils] swarm a human being...we're talking thousands! maybe millions!

after escaping near death-ness, we set our sights high on north dakota. we pushed hard to get to medora, although we wouldn't have time for the musical. we just stopped to get our national parks passport updated at theordore roosevelt national park. we've been there before, but just didn't get the book stamped.

teddy's badlands.

by way of great falls, montana we headed to glacier national park; our second favorite park. we had a good two day rest ahead of us at a place we love! trying to shake off our road weariness, we treated ourselves to a dinner at lake mcdonald lodge.

waiting for dinner. look at what glacier can do to two
road-worn people!

if you're ever in glacier, take the lake mcdonald interpretive
boat cruise. you'll learn a lot.

dinner time!

we tasted the goodness!
yes, that's wild huckleberry wheat lager.
a great brew from great northern brewing company.

we got treated to a red jammer bus tour!

this is fred. he had a passion for the red jammers, and
glacier np like one we've met.

he even let andrea use his 'field glasses.' fred is our hero!

we cruised us 'going to the sun road.' fred made little comments
in his monotonous voice, towards other drive racing up and
down the road like, 'why so fast? you're missing all the scenery.'

we saw plenty of wildlife: mt goats, rams, birds, and others.

the glacier valley.

tomorrow we head back to seattle, and we're ready for a vacation!

finally up to speed!

andrea and i have finally arrived in seattle. we unloaded 'the burden,' and returned it. so glad to be done with that thing!

look at that crazy shadow...


first sign for seattle!



we found an studio apartment in downtown renton. a great little city/town just outside of seattle. there are so many cool things about renton that you'll read about over the next few months.
outside of our new place....home sweet home for a while.



thanks for reading. make sure to come back. we love reading your comments. talk soon.

NOBO Answer:

in reference to NOBO question, please see post

answer:
$769,000.

that's right $769,000. what the heck do people do to buy a 2 bedroom $769,000 house!?

as my mom said, " it doen't matter if trees are growing out of it...it's still not worth it!" i fully agreed.

ps-more post on eco-friendness will follow as soon as we bring you up to speep.

note to self: trailer etiquette

when on a hill, always remember to block the tires on a trailer before jacking it up off of the tow hitch of towing vehicle.

our tired eyes turned wide as we watched ‘the burden’ roll backwards through our campsite at signal mountain. thanks to the ingenuity of the national park service for installing logs that are concreted into the ground to stop run-away trailers.

while all is well, we’re not quite sure what is broken inside of ‘the burden,’ though we unanimously agreed it’s the official time to grab some grub and beer at Pearl St. Bagels in Jackson.

ust look at that distance!

saved once again by the park rangers.

rocky mountain np -> grand teton np

today our road was long and hard. leaving estes park, co this morning around 9am, we traversed the rockies multiple times. as if struggling up pass after pass wasn’t enough, rain began to fall; turning dried up creek beds into raging rivers. there were certain points where the wipers ceased to keep up with the heavy water droplets. after taking a beating for a few hours, it seemed the appropriate time for a break as we rolled into the quiet town of lander, wy. lander is a great little community in the middle of nowhere; are type of town. we stopped at wild iris outdoors to stretch our legs and take a break from ‘the burden’ tugging at our back. what a great little outdoor outfitter. after refueling our stomachs at our favorite road trip restaurant, taco bell, we conceded back to the road for another punishing five hours of rain, incline, then fall. hitting dubios, wy at full steam, we didn’t slow until we saw a construction sign that read, ‘pavement ends.’ not sure what to expect what W-DOT means when they say ‘pavement ends,’ we discovered very quickly they mean, ‘pavement ends… but the road continues as a mud pit.’ we drove, in four-wheel, through mud for about ninety minutes until we arrived at the the moran entrance station of grand tetons to a perky park ranger that asked if we had come up from jackson, wy. we answered no, but why; she responded by saying there was a report of a man hitting a tatanka [buffalo; pronounced: Ta-tonka]. this happens more than one might think. we searched two campgrounds until we had found the very last open camp spot at colter bay. a spot with a parking space big enough to fit the xterra and ‘the burden.’ though grass would have been nice to rest our weary bodies on, a six percent grade kept us from pitching the tent in the appropriate tent location, so we put the tent on the gravel pad in front of the truck. at that point it didn’t really matter we would sleep. our headlight rays faded at 12am as we slinked deep into out down sleeping bags as the rain started to get heavy. today was long, we’ll wake tired, but at least we’re in our favorite park. goodnight.

NOBO

so while travelling through boulder we found this awesome 'green' housing development in north boulder, co [nobo]. since we had 'the burden' in tow [actually it was back at the campsite], we decided to stop and see how much these two bedroom green homes were going for.

let's see what you guys think. comment on how much you think these go for. we'll post this answer in a few days.

kansas still sucks

other than my mom's friend mow, lawrence, abilene, and beef...kansas still sucks.

'the burden' still in tow.


we found this place...seemed like a place that ryan adams would write a song about. we like it!