Homeward Bound!

We know, we know! This post is a little delayed, and by a little, I mean A LOT.  We’ve been busy getting our lives back together and trying to find jobs.

After leaving the Tetons we got breakfast at a cute bagel shop in Jackson, and then we headed toward San Francisco.

Even after all the driving we had done up to this point, we couldn’t tackle that 950 mile drive in one day.  We decided to stop about half way in beautiful Winnemucca, Nevada.  This was like driving through Oklahoma and South Dakota combined.

After finally making it to Winnemucca, we checked into our hotel which was 1/2 hotel, 1/2 casino…Welcome to Nevada.  I only lost $20 on video blackjack.

Onward we went into California; I’ve never been so happy to be back in my home state!We crossed over through Truckee, down into Sacramento, over the bridge and made it to the last stop before returning home.  Lauren’s friend Carolina and her boyfriend Parker were nice enough to open their home for us weary travelers.  We stayed there for a few nights, and on Saturday, we took a drive up the coast to Muir Beach and Stinson Beach.

The weather didn’t cooperate and was overcast, but we still had a great time.

After a few fun and exciting days in and around the city, we were homeward bound.  I’ve never driven the coast down from SF, so we decided to take the long way home and extend our roadtrip by a few more hours.  We got breakfast in Santa Cruz, passed by some markets in Monterrey

through Big Sur, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara.

We hopped onto the 101 and made it home without too much traffic through LA.

We drove a total of 8598.5 miles over a span of 47 nights.  We visited a total of 27 states, Washington D.C., and Ontario, Canada.

Thank you everyone for following this blog and to all of you who showed us hospitality along the way by letting us stay in your homes!

Yellowstone and the Tetons

After driving through the entrance and using our handy-dandy National Parks Pass (we sure got a lot of use out of it this trip), we came upon a herd of wild buffalo hydrating themselves.

They inspired us to buy some ground buffalo for dinner.

So Lauren whipped up some buffalo bolognese. Check it out on FromTheLittleYellowKitchen if you’re interested in making it!

It sure was delicious, but we were a little worried that the bears would smell it and come looking for some.

We woke up the next morning for our driving tour of Yellowstone.  Our first stop was along some rapids in the river where you can see the trout swimming upstream during certain times of the year. That day wasn’t one of them.

Next, we pulled over and did a short hike around some mudpots and really cool hot springs. The one below was called Dragons Mouth for obvious reasons.

We continued the drive to see another herd of buffalo off in the distance roaming, eating and drinking…what a life.

The next stop were the waterfalls.  We stopped by upper falls and walked down to check it out.

Then we hopped back in the car and drove down to Lower Falls which happens to be in the “Grand Canyon” of Yellowstone.

After seeing these waterfalls, which hardly compare to the size of Niagara Falls, but are equal in beauty, we headed off to see some more springs.  It’s just so tempting to dive into this one.

But not this one.  We weren’t sure why it was called “Surprise Pool”, but we didn’t stick around to find out.

After some more driving, we ended up at the Grand Prismatic Springs. This spring dumps a bunch of water into the Snake River which passes by it.

Don’t step off the boardwalk!

Or else you’ll end up on this!

After seeing enough mudpots and springs for the day, we headed off to the Old Faithful Inn to grab a drink and watch the geyser erupt.

Once the eruption was over, we drove back to our campsite, passing over the continental divide…twice!

We woke up the next morning rather early so we could get a full day in at the Tetons.

Which included some sightseeing

and a float down the Snake River!

We were lucky enough to see a couple bald eagles and other wildlife on the float down the river.

After a relaxing float, it was time for some more drinks and a view.  This time at the Grand Teton Lodge overlooking the meadows, Jackson Lake and the Tetons.

Since we were only staying here for one night, we decided we should go see the sunset from the top of Signal Mountain.

When we woke up the next morning the temperature was a chilly 38 degrees, so we briskly packed up and left, snapping this picture on the way out.

San Francisco here we come!

Mount Rushmore and More!

We arrived in Keystone, South Dakota and of course we immediately broke out the Wisconsin cheese!

We decided on Kemp’s Kamp in the Black Hills to crash for the night.

The next morning we drove to Mt. Rushmore to see South Dakota’s claim to fame…the “Great Faces”.

With Washington’s nose being over 20 feet long, this monument blew our minds.

This is a picture inside the artists studio. Here is what the artist had originally intended Mt. Rushmore to look like…before budget cuts they ran out of funding.

After Mt. Rushmore we headed to Bear Country U.S.A where we got up close and personal with some ferocious beasts.

Bear Country is also where Santa keeps his reindeer in the off season.

Big horn sheep really do have absurdly large horns.

Here are the black bears in all their glory just loungin’ by the pool all afternoon.

This guy really has it rough…

Here are all the adorable baby bears huddling in the shade.

After bear country we treated Ruby to a much needed bath. Although with the mass amounts of bugs in those parts, she didn’t stay clean more than 20 minutes.

I really think Chris and I should hold a memorial, or at least have a moment of silence, for the hundreds of thousands of bugs we murdered on our trip.

We drove into Wyoming that day having no idea where we would stay or how far we would drive.

An awesome thunderstorm struck up in the distance over Big Horn National Forest. I felt like a storm chaser heading right into it!

Somehow we escaped getting even a little wet from the storm as we drove up and over the mountains. There was an awesome view up top!

We decided on a middle-of-nowhere campsite in Big Horn Recreation Area on the border of Montana and Wyoming.

We pulled in just in time for some extreme winds, a little rain storm and a gorgeous sunset.

Luckily we got everything set up in time to sit in the back of the car, drink some wine, eat more cheese and play cards for a while.

The wind was so strong that our tent poles were bending!

Here’s the gorgeous sunrise…

Not a bad view for just stumbling upon the place last minute.

Oh yea, then there was this guy. He just camped out under our tent all night and we had no idea until the next day. Thank goodness he couldn’t penetrate our dream machines!

Before we headed out, we decided to check one more state off of our list. It was only a 5 minute drive so why not?!

Then we found the Grand Canyon of Montana! We stopped here and ate breakfast as we watched the sun rise over canyon.

Then we went back down to Wyoming…

and headed on to Yellowstone!

Back into the middle of…nowhere

You know you’re in the middle of nowhere again when…

you can safely stand in front of the signs on the side of the road!

By now you may or may not have figured out that we are REALLY behind on the blog. We’ve actually been home for a couple of days but we still want to finish off the adventure on DriveCampExplore!

Onward. We stopped for cheese in Wisconsin.

We also found another giant animal! Who was ironically staring at the Arby’s across the street…

Back to the cheese.

We very carefully selected maple cheddar, blueberry cheddar, chocolate cheese and our favorite, horseradish and chive havarti. The decision was anything but easy with all these options:

Next up, Minnesota!

We had some awesome scenery. Rolling hills, wind mills, plains, cows…

That evening we stumbled upon a very empty Blue Mounds State Park. We set up camp, cooked dinner, played some cards and went to bed.

We woke up the next morning and it was surprisingly cold! I know, cold. It was the first time I wore sleeves the whole trip!

I clearly needed my morning cup o’ joe in this picture.

On our way out of the campground we stopped at the bison viewing deck. Yep, we saw a herd of wild bison! 

Oh, and Chris fulfilled his life long dream of standing on one of the rolls of hay we had been seeing so many of.

Next state, South Dakota! Great faces, great places, or so they say. 

I say they have great flowers though! Aren’t they purty? The drive was gorgeous thanks to the sunflowers along the road.

Then we hit it. 109 degrees Badlands National Park.

It was stunning, but so hot! It’s hard to believe I had a beanie and sweatshirt on earlier in the day. 

Check out these gorgeous sprawling plains and desert!

Badlands National Park is where the rolling plains suddenly drop off and this is what happens.  You look to one side and see green grasslands and on the other side of the road is what you see below…pretty crazy, huh?

I didn’t want to get out of the car…rolling down the window was hot enough.

Then there was Wall Drug.

There were a bajillion signs for this place along the road to Badlands so we decided we should check out what all the hype was about.

Wall Drug provided us with new found lovers.

aaaand a jack-a-lope!

But seriously, this place was crazy. All sorts of strange stores that displayed items such as a mouse, fox, wolf and bear taxidermy having tea together.

We aren’t done yet folks! Check back for Mt. Rushmore & much more.

Chicago

After a musty drive from our campground on Lake Erie to the border, we were back in the USA with only Michigan and Indiana separating us from Chicago…oh and 340 more smelly miles.

But at last, we made it!  We were lucky enough to be driving into the city when a White Sox game finished so we got to experience some Chicago traffic on a Sunday afternoon.

Fred and Brigitta were nice enough to let us stay with them, do laundry (after the rainstorm in Canada we had some serious laundry), shower, etc.  What a relief a nice home was after the rainstorm we were in in Canada.  And check out their bathroom!  They have a view of the whole city.

Just kiddin’. That is the bathroom where we had dinner one night though.

First stop on our self guided walking tour of Chicago was Millennium Park.

Too bad we didn’t hit the city in time for the free concert series…check out this amphitheater!

We also took a spent some time at the infamous “bean” in the park.

It was really neat to see the reflection of Chicago’s skyline.

And of ourselves…

After playing at the bean for a while we crossed over a bridge to check out the modern art museum.

Then walked through the aftermath of Lollapolooza…yikes!

And made it to the Buckingham Fountain which was huge! Quite a sight to see.

After that we headed back towards downtown to walk along the river for a while in search of food.

Deep dish pizza to be exact!

We took it to go and headed to the beach to indulge.

After lunch we made our way towards the Chicago Zoo, stopping to check out the colored trees along the way.

The zoo was completely free! We took our time wandering around there and saw some pretty amazing animals.

The next day, we left ourselves plenty of time to take the bus down to the river for an architectural tour. However, we weren’t aware of the gridlock and bus re-route downtown.

In the middle of traffic, we hopped off the bus and starting speed walking towards the dock we were supposed to be arriving at in ten minutes. We walked briskly for about 3/4 mile and sprinted the rest of it . We barely made it as they were pulling in the plank. Whew!

It stared pouring rain while we were on the boat but we still had a great time and learned a lot about the city.

Next up, we grabbed a cab and headed to the Willis (or Sears) Tower. Then we jumped out of the cab because of more gridlock and ran through the rain to get there.

Standing inside the sky box was amazing and despite the rain, we could still see a lot of the city from up there.

That evening we went to a fancy pants dinner on the 80th floor of the Aon Center tower.

We had an amazing view! I thought it was even better than the Sears Tower, but maybe that’s because there was food involved.

Before we left the next morning we had an awesome breakfast at XOCO by Rick Bayless. YUM!

Click here to see more on the food we had in Chicago.

Thanks again to Fred and Brigitta for showing us around and letting us stay in their beautiful home!

Toronto by bike and extreme camping in Selkirk

After a full day at the Finger Lakes we headed out to Niagra Falls and Toronto.

It’s going to be really difficult to be impressed with any other waterfalls after seeing this! The view was much better and you could see so much more from the Canadian side.

It was not only a huge and gorgeous fall but there happened to be a rainbow stretching across it when we got there. I’m not sure how common this is but it was awesome to see it in person!

After Niagra we drove about three more hours into Toronto to check out the “hotel” we planned to stay at.

Well, after hauling our luggage upstairs we discovered the “hotel” was more of a dirty hostel. They so kindly provided us with hair and boogers in the sheets. Oh, and I got locked in the bathroom. After profusely banging on the door and probably scaring our roommates (yep, we had a few roommates in this hotel), Chris whipped out his handy dandy tools and broke me out.

Needless to say, we got a refund and opted for the Metropolitan Hotel instead.

After finally settling in around 9pm, we got cleaned up and walked over to Queen Mother Café to treat ourselves to a fantastic Thai meal and bottle of wine on a lovely, but slightly hidden, garden terrace.

The next day we woke up early and headed out to explore. Ready for this? Be prepared because we really packed A LOT into one day!

We wandered through a cute little garden outside of a church where people were eh hem, sipping on beers at 10am (?).

Then there was the St. Lawrence Market:

Two giant buildings (one was one story, the other was two) that were both full of foods like these:

We ate all the samples we could manage to eat, walked around for about 3 hours, and bought some delicious fresh veggies, wine and maple syrup! If that was all we did in Toronto I would have been totally satisfied, but we fit in so much more…

We discovered a beach in the city called Sugar Beach and after a long walk down to the water we were happy to soak up a little sun.

Toronto is also where we discovered bike share. We got a bike for $5 and with places to lock them up all over the city you simply ride to your destination, pop them in, walk around and then pick up another bike at a different stop to ride on to your next destination. We really got to see the whole city by doing this!

First we rode from the beach to the CN Tower.

Chris read a sign…

Then we biked and biked and biked…

through different neighborhoods and stopped to wander around.

then picked up another bike.

We rode some more through a nice park.

Then we headed back to the car to drive off into the middle of nowhere for some good ol’ Canadian countryside camping.

We drove through some itty bitty towns where the people really say, “Eh” and the gas pumps look like this:

We pulled into Selkirk, bought some fire wood, set up camp, started cooking…

and then this happened…

Surprise! A huge storm hit. We finished cooking a delicious fresh vegetable hash under a tarp while the severe thunder, lighting and rain continued. We thought it would pass but it continued all. night. long. We got quite soaked and so did everything else so Ruby smelled pretty musty for the duration of the 10 hour drive to Chicago.

Good thing we had a 7am shower in a can (dry shampoo)…

and these delectable Canadian souvenirs to soothe us!

The ketchup chips were soooo good! The dill pickle tasted fairly similar to salt n’ vinegar. Roast Chicken on the other hand is still sitting in the back of the car (a week later). I think we’re both a little scared to try it…

We waited in line for a while to cross the border back into the U.S.A and then we we were off to Chicago!

Finger Lakes (New York: Part 2)

After enjoying what New York had to offer on Long Island, we decided to go back and check out Western New York. 

At the suggestion of Lauren’s parents, we ventured into the Finger Lakes which are very long and relatively narrow lakes formed by glaciers.  We decided to stay in  Watkins Glen after we some gorgeous pictures of a gorge hike in a brochure we found on Long Island.

Here we are, driving down the road into Watkins Glen, which is at the southern-most tip of Seneca Lake

We had eaten so much food at the previous destinations that after setting up camp, we made a healthy meal full of….

VEGGIES!

So here is why we decided to stay in Watkins Glen

They have a beautiful hike up the gorge with many waterfalls and bridges.

We even got to go hike behind waterfalls!

And stroll by a lily pond with real lilies, but sadly no frogs.

Our next adventure that day was to kayak on Seneca Lake.  We rented a two-person kayak and paddled around the lake.

Stopping off on a beach to skip some rocks and explore

We then drove over to Hammondsport which is at the southernmost tip of Keuka Lake and walked around town a bit.

We stopped at the visitor center and asked the person working there which winery was her favorite; she directed us to McGregor Vineyards up in the hills above the lake.

They had a pretty view of the lake with a bunch of big sunflowers at the entrance.

Look at the view!

While paying for some things at the gift shop we saw a flyer saying, “Pick your own organic blueberries—$1.50 a pound.”  So we said “Why not?”

After driving up a dirt road back to a highway, we were on our way.

We even saw an Amish family on their horse and buggy!

Here is Ruby in all her glory at the blueberry farm.  All of those bushes in the foreground are blueberry bushes and that’s just a small portion of this person’s farm.  It was gigantic.

Its too bad I didn’t get the picture when Lauren shoved these blueberries into her mouth all at once.

After that fun and exciting day packed full of activities, we were on the road again to Toronto. 

But first, a stop at Letchworth State Park in New York to look at some waterfalls.  We needed to get warmed up before we saw Niagara Falls.

But we couldn’t escape before the rain dumped on us.

As usual, the rain went away within 15 minutes, but it took it’s toll on our leather sandals and turned our feet orange like Oompa Loompas.

We also saw our first tree changing colors…a little prematurely.

And then we made it! To the border, to wait in line…for a while

Stay tuned for our adventures at Niagara Falls and Toronto.