Sorry Debbie

Ok, so I was laying in bed last night and for some reason started thinking "I dont think I wrote anything about seeing Debbie in LV on my blog." and it was one of the best parts of the trip! So today I take a look and sure enough, I didnt! Heres what happened. About a week or so before the trip I got an email from a lady that I use to work with in Knoxville. She said that she and her husband were going to be in Las Vegas around the same days that I was, and wanted to know if I could ahve dinner with them. I was pretty excited about that, so we set up a time and on Thursday night I met them at this resturante called The Spice Market, its in the Aladdin hotel/casino. For one thing, this was some really good eatin! It was a buffet, one of the best in LV. But besides the food, I got to meet Debbie's husband, which was fun, and I got to hang out with them for a few hours. It was so nice seeing people that I knew and getting to talk with someone I actually knew for more than 5 mins. And after we ate, I went with them up to their room, on the 37th floor, and watched the fountain show at the Bellagio across the street. Which was pretty neat, differnt than seeing it from the street. It was really one of the highlights of the trip, I cant believe I didnt write anything about it last time. So, sorry to Debbie, who is a faithful blog checker. :-)

Road Trip Done

The road trip is done. I got back in town late Friday night after driving almost 4,000 miles (3800) in 12 days. That's quite a lot. But I did get to see some great sights, and visit with great people. After I left Oregon, I drove down the California coast to the Redwoods Nat'l Park. It was so beautiful, and the trees are so huge! In the pictures its hard to tell cause there isn't a lot of compare their sizes too. After that I made my way down to Scotts Valley, CA which is about an hour south of San Francisco, and maybe 10 mins north of Santa Cruz. There I got to stay with a lady and her son that I had met here at the ranch, Cathy and Tory. They were both so nice and made my stay so great. One morning they even brought me breakfast in bed! While I was there with them I went up to San Fran for a day and did most of the tourist stuff. Visited Fishermans Wharf, which I thought was going to be more of a fish market type place, but now its mostly restaurants and shops. There is this one pier thought that has all these sea lions hanging out. That was pretty neat to see. Also in SF is the world's crookedest street. It was neat to see. The rest of my days in CA were spent more around Santa Cruz. One day Cathy's daughter, Cara, took me around giving me a tour of the place and the other day Cathy and I went down to Monterey and checked out the Aquarium there. After Santa Cruz I headed over to Yosemite for a day, not long enough though. It was really neat. The whole place is almost like one big rock that's separated into big pieces. It would be a great place to take some hikes one day. I can definitely understand why Ansel Adams spent so much time there. After that I headed over to Las Vegas for a couple of days. That was pretty fun, I kinda liked the feeling that pretty much everyone else around was a tourist too. I went to the Margaritaville Cafe one day for lunch and learned that Jimmy Buffett was going to be in Vegas that weekend doing a concert. I thought about staying, but it was sold out of course. But I was ready to be getting back to MT, I learned that a road trip by yourself really isn't all that fun. There is a lot of time spent in the car, with nothing to do but drive and listen to music. But I guess I agree with what Thoreau once said, "The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready."

The Flamingo Hilton, and guess what was right next door? Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville Cafe. What a good block, flamingos and Jimmy B.

You just never know the kind of things you will see in Las Vegas.

Las Vegas at night, from the 37th floor at the Aladin hotel.

It's tall....

Me in Redwood Nat'l Park where some of the tallest trees in the world are, this tree here is almost 2,000 years old!

Death Valley at sunset.

Yosemite Nat'l Park. The whole park is almost like one big granite rock.

I love jellyfish. They're so beautiful and peacefull.

This is Cathy and Tory, the people that I met at the ranch who I stayed with in Santa Cruz, CA. They were so nice and so much fun.

A view of Alcatraz from on top of a big hill in San Fran.

This guy was so funny. He would sit by this trashcan and hold up some branches and as people would come by, he'd scare them. Not funny for them, but for everyone else watching, it was great!

Road Trip!

So I've taken to the road. My route is going to be something around the likes of Southern Washington (see pics below), Portland, the OR coast, CA coast, to include the Redwoods Nat'l Forest. Then San Fransico, maybe Yosemite, Kings Canyon/Sequoia Nat'l Parks, Death Valley, Vegas, Grand Canyon (north rim) maybe Zion and Bryce Canyon in UT, and then Salt Lake City. My first stops today, Mt Rainier and Mt St Helens were great. Rainier is beautiful! The park itself is almost 97% untouched, which is so beautiful. I got to Mt. St. Helens at a bad viewing time, when the sun was right above it, so it was hard to really see it. But still the destruction was evident, although things are definatly growing back full force. Tonight I am staying in Portland, and will be tomorrow night as well, I think. We'll see tomorrow!

Just a pretty view.

Looks like a regular, ordinary size tree by the road doesn't it? Better look again.....

This is me in front of that same tree! Look how huge it is!

I couldn't resist, is this a tribute to the old, green shirt? Who can say. For those who don't know, I have these 2 green shirts from Cedar Creek, a place my elementary school takes 4th graders. One is from when I went, 14 year ago, and the other (the one in the pic) is from when my sister went, 24 years ago. They have been everywhere eith me and are my favorite shirts.

Pretty leaves, there is not a lot of leaf changing in Montana, so any color is always appreciated.

At 14,411 ft. Mt Rainier is the tallest peak in Washington.

Looks close doesnt it? But really I was almost 6 miles away!

Me and Mt. Rainier

This is the area that was totaly wiped out by the blast, but its all growing up a lot. Still a long way to go to be a forest again, but still, looking good.

The sun was shining right behind the mountain, so I couldn't get any good pics of it. This is probably the best one.

This is Spirit Lake, pretty much at the base of Mt. St. Helens. Those are all trees that got blew down from the force of the eruption, over 25 years ago!