Black Hills of South Dakota

Tatanka! If you've seen Dances with Wolves this might sound familiar: it's buffalo in the Lakota language. I had no idea Kevin Costner developed a site to tell the story of bison and not the white man's version. We saw buffalo in the wild as well--those things are so massive! We also ate some...in the form of burgers and brisket. Tastes like...chicken, ha. Actually much leaner than beef. Other wildlife sightings were of pronghorn antelope, prairie dogs, and even burros (sort of look like donkeys) right at our car window.

It's hot here! And very dry but surprisingly has a varied landscape--sagebrush, pines, rock formations, and red clay. So we saw the must see sights: Mount Rushmore (at night) and the Crazy Horse Memorial which I saw in high school and seems barely farther along in its' completion.

We also visited Deadwood, home of the Wild West (I didn't know this before this trip.) Apparently, Wild Bill Hickok was shot dead at Saloon no. 10. We did the very touristy thing of watching a reenactment of his death and Ryan got to play the bartender!! Ironic, right?

Covered wagons

Here's a picture of our friends Shawn (R's best man) and Jessie in Loup City, NE on the farm Jessie grew up on. Aren't those signs classic?

Anyway, driving through Western Nebraska was pretty even in its' desolation. Drove through a number of towns with populations of only 200 or 300! And I thought Columbus was small...but Wyoming is even more sparsely populated: the town of Lost Springs only has 1 and another town had 10. And of course, no cell phone service. Many sections felt as if we were on another planet! But back to Nebraska.... Wide open spaces, sand hills, corn taller than us, and rolling hills, much prettier than the landscape in Omaha. I have to say I still think the nicest people I've ever met are from Nebraska.

Europe Pictures

To see more pictures from our trip visit: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=lqm3nyo.9zuh14rk&x=0&y=-481ku . It's free but unfortunately you still have to sign in with a password, tried to change that but couldn't.

You'll be happy to know there are considerably fewer pictures than the 2,000 we originally had so 875 doesn't sound too bad now.... Let me know what you think!

National Park trip itinerary

We're about to leave for the National Park portion of our US trip--we're taking a very scenic route from Nebraska to Seattle!!

Sun, July 22--drive to central Nebraska to visit my aunt then high school friends & stay the night.

Mon-Tues, July 23-24--Mt. Rushmore/Crazy Horse

Wed-Sat-, July 25-28--Grand Tetons

Sat-Mon, July 28-30--Yellowstone Nat'l Park

Tues-Fri, July 31-Aug. 4--Glacier Nat'l Park

The plan is to arrive in Seattle on Aug. 5th; Ryan starts work Aug. 15th. Hopefully we won't have any more scary hiking stories:-)

Runza

Every visit to Nebraska requires a taste of these meat, cabbage, onion and cheese-stuffed bread sandwiches! Plus we made a trip to the Henry Doorly Zoo--heard a tiger roar, a gorilla smacked into the window right in front of us, and we saw penguins swim--very fun.

Saw the movie Ratatouille with my parents, highly recommend it, especially for any foodies. Johnny, you would love it!! You sort of forget the story is about a rat and his family. Only had to hold me feet up a few times as it felt that the rats were scurrying right under you. Ok, so I'm not selling this movie with that comment, but honestly, haven't enjoyed a movie that much since the first Shrek!!!

Went to Borders at midnight for the Harry Potter book but came out empty-handed. Got my copy today, it seems ominous from the few pages I've read...... Anyone finished with it yet??

Then and now

Our wedding day....July 18, 1998

9 years later.....

Look how we've changed!

We celebrated last night by eating at the restaurant where we ate at for our senior prom 13 years ago!

Cornhusker Land

We finally made it to Papillion, Nebraska at midnight on Friday the 13th after 1,000 miles on the road from San Antonio! Why do the last hours drag on so? Met my cousin Val in Denton for lunch, the highlight of the day.

I've already caught up with my first roommate from college and her twins on Saturday. Then yesterday we went to Nebraska City to see my Mom's side: my grandma, 2 aunts and uncles, and cousin and her new baby. Also went to Arbor Lodge in NE City, where the Morton family started Arbor Day. I've been trying to get Ryan to go there for years. It's great to catch up with my parents and brother too!