Well, I made it to Jackson! The road trip was a ton of fun. Mom and I got to see and do a lot of cool things. We stopped in Paducah on Day 1 (June 16) for dinner and it was a neat town to walk around. We saw Whitehaven, the Riverfront, an Indian statue and had dinner. We were going to stay the night a little outside of St. Louis, but we changed our minds and drove on to St. Louis that night. We saw the Arch at night and then found a room. We got up the next day (June 17) and saw the Arch during the day and went up in it. We had Italian on the Hill (Cunetto House of Pasta…amazing!) and then we drove through Forest Park (site of the World’s Fair) and a couple of neat neighborhoods (Lafayette Square and Soulard). Then we went to Crown Candy Kitchen for some ice cream…delicious! That night we went to a Cardinals game and it was awesome! On the 18th we got up and drove to Kansas City. We stopped at some cheesy Nostagiaville USA place on the way and that was pretty funny. We ate at an awesome biker bar near it for lunch (haha) and then drove on to KC. We went to the Truman Library and it was neat to see. After the museum we went on in to KC and met up with Cooper (a college friend of mine) and went to dinner with her and her husband at Oklahoma Joe’s. SUCH good BBQ there! We went to a Royals game that night and their stadium is awesome! I loved it. They have fountains in the outfield! After the game we decided that we wanted to drive on toward Omaha so we didn’t have to get up so early the next day. We drove all the way there that night and got a room. The next day was College World Series day...oh yeah! We went to the LSU vs Arkansas game. It was really neat that we got to see two SEC teams! After the game we started driving and we decided Sioux City would be a good place to have dinner. Well, it was their biker weekend so the streets were blocked off and Harleys were everywhere!! We checked it out for a minute and then decided that wasn’t really the best place for us to be! We found a good place for dinner a few towns north of there and then drove to Sioux Falls, SD. We got there around 10 and we found out that Falls Park closed at 10. Well, we decided we were going to go try to see it anyway! We drove out to the park and ran down to the falls to see it. I am so glad we did! It was so neat! After we finished seeing that we drove to our hotel in Mitchell, SD. Well, turns out that Ramada Corporate lost our reservation. Awesome. We had to keep driving until 3am to find something! There really just isn’t much in SD! We wound up finding a really neat place in Chamberlain, so that’s good. We got up the next day (June 20) and had lunch at Al’s Oasis and then we started driving. We drove to the Badlands and it was awesome. I really enjoyed that! After the Badlands, we stopped in Wall at Wall Drug and had ice cream and then we drove on to Mount Rushmore. It was so neat! I am really glad we got to see that! After Rushmore we had dinner in Spearfish, SD and then kept driving. We couldn’t decide what to do about Devil’s Tower. It was an hour out of the way and it was beginning to get dark and it doesn’t light up. We decided…what the heck? Let’s just go anyways! So we got there just before it got too dark to see it. It was really neat because it was like we had a national monument all to ourselves! We continued driving until we got to Sheridan, WY. It was another late night! We got up the next day (June 21) and continued our drive across WY. We went through a couple of national forests and saw some beautiful things! We stopped in Cody and had lunch at Irma’s. It was a neat place! We kept driving through the pretty state of Wyoming and made it to Yellowstone! It was so neat!! We saw Yellowstone Lake, the Mud Volcano, Sulphur Cauldron, Dragon’s Mouth Spring, the brink of the upper falls, Hayden Valley, Mount Washburn, Tower Falls and lots more! We did have to race back up and then down Mount Washburn in the wintry mix to try to make it before they closed the road we needed to go on. No worries…we made it! We stayed at the Old Faithful Inn that night and it was so neat! I am really glad we stayed there. On Monday (June 22) we got up and saw Old Faithful in the freezing cold and then went inside to have hot chocolate and then lunch. After lunch we watched Old Faithful again (the second show was much better than the first!) and then headed out of the park. Along the way we saw lots of neat things…Kepler Cascades, Lewis Falls, Lewis Lake, the Continental Divide and lots of other places that we just stopped and went exploring! From Yellowstone we drove into Grand Teton National Park. It was really pretty too! We explored it a little but not as much as we did Yellowstone for sure. We got to Jackson and I moved my stuff in and met two of my roommates. I stayed in the hotel with Mom that night because I didn’t have any of my bed stuff yet. We went out to eat and then came back and went to sleep. On Tuesday (June 23) Tommy (one of my roommates) took us to brunch and then on a tour. He was a great tour guide! After our tour I put all of my stuff away and got settled in the new place. It didn’t really take too much…basically all I did was hang up my clothes! I stayed at my place that night and we actually wound up going out that night. It was fun, but it was really a weird feeling not knowing anyone there other than the people I came with! On Wednesday I went to get Mom and we went to eat at Dornan’s in Grand Teton National Park. It had the most amazing view! After lunch we went to the Chapel of Transfiguration and it was the neatest church…the view is phenomenal. We went back in to Jackson and stopped by the visitor center. We watched a movie on the Elk Refuge and we learned a lot! We then rode around downtown Jackson and stopped by Mom’s hotel for a bit. We then went to dinner and then back to Mom’s hotel again. We watched some baseball and I left after the games ended. I came back to my place and went for a run on the bike path. The next morning, I picked Mom up and took her to the airport. The road trip was absolutely amazing and Jackson is too! Here is the link to the pictures (they are on fb too)...enjoy! http://picasaweb.google.com/leighbarrow/RoadTripToJackson?feat=directlink
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