The final push west...

[We're getting better! Only two days behind now!]

In the past week, we’ve gone from one set of craters to another, from one state to the next. We’re leaving Oregon today after having visited Craters of the Moon and Boise in Idaho, and stopping briefly in Bend, OR before spending the last couple of days at Crater Lake National Park. This morning, we’ll leave for our last “scenic” stop of the trip – a few days in Redwoods National Park in Northern California. Before that though, here’s the recap.

The futility of speech

[The last of the time-delayed posts (we hope). But the pictures weren't all on the PC so look for an update with the rest later!]

The noted philosopher Thomas Roman said it best: “It doesn’t get any better than this.”

Color me disappointed

[Contiuing our "time-delayed" posts!]

Yellowstone was founded in 1872 as the world’s first national park. Not the first in the U.S. mind you – the first on this planet. And while our forefathers were prescient in their foresight to protect such important landscapes and their inhabitants, a lot has changed in 138 years, and Yellowstone is not at all what I anticipated.

Lies that Steven Spielberg taught me

[Due to limited wireless access availability in the state of Wyoming, we're a bit behind in our postings, but hope to catch you up in the next couple of days! Also, check out the updated itinerary!]

When I was younger, I was mesmerized by science fiction movies. Okay, so I still am. Often these movies could transport you to another place altogether, while still using places on this planet as their scenery. The most impressive example in my mind was Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and its use of Devil's Tower in Wyoming as the backdrop for its climactic scenes. There was something so amazing about this chunk of rock that just thrust itself from the ground with nothing else in sight around it that for years I told myself "I have to go there".

Manifest destiny

So we've been in South Dakota for a week now,and it has become woefully obvious just how much our trip pales in comparison to what those who preceded us have endured. We're talking about the explorers, settlers and Native Americans who broke the ground between the Appalachian Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, those who suffered through harsh winters and crossed mountain ranges on horseback and with wagons to arrive at places we now reach in a fraction of the time. It has been an education and a vacation at the same time, and we still have a lot to learn.