May 21

It's been almost a week since we last updated you, so here is what has happened so far:

May 15th

Last we left off we were heading out of Mesa Verde and off to the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon is, wait for it, huge. We got into the park grounds and saw the first of it and that was a massive gouge in the earth. After hiking up a watch tower, which was built to look old and purposefully made shoddily to look authentic, we got a rather bland view from their scratched up windows. So with a couple of good sights from outside we headed in further into the park where the so called main attraction is.

What I said about the Grand Canyon being huge is that it is also very, very long. We drove for half an hour at 50mph to the second view point, 25miles for the quick ones out there. There you got to see just how big the canyon is. To truly scan the horizon you have to move your head at a snails pace for 180º. Every inch of your vision passes over miles and miles of varied terrain. If you were to hold out your arm and put up one finger you would cover an entire canyon inside the Grand Canyon. There are mountainous rocks that jut up from the floor to plateaus that may have never seen a footstep except for the birds which fly by. A very huge canyon that was a welcome sight after miles of flat country.

From the Grand Canyon it was off to Zion National park, which makes up the middle step of the so called Grand Stair Case. In the Grand Stair Case the Grand Canyon is the bottom step, Zion the middle and Bryce Canyon is the top.

May 16

We came in to Zion at about 10pm on the 15th. The drive in was a windy switch back and it was in a canyon that was so black that left a lot to the imagination. Damn these flies. I'm writing right now from the shade of a tarp in Joshua tree, a few days later, and a fly just landed on my leg, leaning forward to smack it I inadvertently closed the laptop lid and lost some work when it shut down. Damn those flies.

So back to the part where we're driving into Zion. Pitch black, no view, 1.1 miles long tunnel with no lights bored through the mountain. Fun drive but not exactly anything scenic since it was pitch black. The campsite was great, right next to a river, shaded tree, not too bad. Except for that there was an ants nest under the tree and caterpillars in the tree. We woke up the next morning with no less than 30 cocooning caterpillars stuck on our tent. We picked off what we could and then headed out to climb.

We had some issues climbing in Zion. First off, you can't drive to the climbing sites. You need to take the shuttles. This we didn't find out until we drove most of the way up the trail heads to a sign that said we needed a permit to pass. Frustrated we drove back and asked the guide, who never mentioned this about getting a permit. My advice to future climbers of Zion, lie and tell them you are staying out past 10pm and they will sell you a pass for $5 per person. Driving to the sites is so much easier. Instead we lugged our gear on the shuttle and had tourist ogle all the gear until you explain everything's purpose and then point to the highest thing you can see and say you have to run because you have to climb that. We got to our first climb and the trail was less than maintained. The leaves there hurt like hell and stuck to you. I got my first lead climb in there and the finish was something like crawling on your hands and knees through barbed wire. I set up a top rope there and we bummed around that spot for a while.

After hiking back out and getting lunch we went to another location and had to turn back before the wall because of the lack of time before sunset. The hike in was exhausting and treacherous. The heat in these places is obscene. I'm writing this a few days out and in the shade here it's 102ºF according to the thermometer here. In the sun or in the truck it was reading 140ºF. That kind of heat really dampers your will to hike through bramble to a climb that's going to kick the crap out of you. The ratings in Zion are based on 5.10 being something that nobody can climb. An important note to those who feel comfortable climbing 5.8's. We left early and dropped off our gear to go do some hikes. Seeing it all in the sun was a lot more impressive than the night. We got a good couple of miles of hiking in and then called it quits. The next day was Bryce Canyon and it was just a hiking day, but with the heat the way it was, I needed rest.

May 17

Brie writing now :) A few other notes about Zion. The trail we hiked that evening was probably the highlight of the canyon. It was the Emerald Pools trail, and we saw three pools that flow down into each other. The first pool, the Lower Pool, was the biggest, and perhaps the most spectacular. It's in a big rounded cove, and the water cascades down from about 30-40 feet above you. Then you hike up another half mile of stairs to get to the Middle Pool, which is what feeds the Lower Pool. It was fairly small and flat, but fun to scramble through because you can easily hop around from stone to stone. After that it's another third of a mile, up a steep and sandy rock staircase to the Upper Pool, which was very secluded and cave-like. It was a very serene place, with some pretty boulders and cool water. We stayed for a few minutes for some good pictures, and then decided to start the hike down. Luckily, we made it back town to the bottom just as the sun was setting, and right in time to hop on a shuttle. On our shuttle ride back to the car, we saw a very strange Zion phenomenon – native turkeys that roost overnight at the tops of trees. It is a very unreal sight to see a bird as fat and clunky as a turkey at the top of a 20 foot tree!

We left in the morning for the drive to Bryce which was a whole 2 hours in length. It was nice to get there after the heat at Zion, because the temperatures were reasonable – probably 60 F at the campground and 75 F in the full sun in the Canyon itself. Bryce was amazing yet frustrating – all theses really neat hoodoo rock formations, and yet total ban from climbing them! You could see Nick twitching every time he saw a new one. We did what they claim is the best 3 mile hike in the world, and no doubt the first half is fantastic, through the Queens Garden of the Canyon. The second half, the Navajo trail, it pretty dull to start, but ends with a steep set of switch backs through some great personable rock formations. I loved the rocks at Bryce because they seems to tell such a story. Some looked like fortresses, some like soldiers (one looked exactly like a sock puppet!), all were really knobby and full of character. We got back to the campgound in time to make some dinner, play a little banjo and fiddle, and make Nick some birthday smores!

May 18th

Unfortunately, leaving Bryce was less pleasant. We were woken up in the middle of the night to a very loud rainstorm that continued into the morning. The drive from Bryce to Las Vegas actually got a bit sketchy, as we went through another snow-filled mountain pass. So far on this trip we have seen our share of weather: everything from scorching unbearable heat to pleasant sun to snow to hail to wind to rain. We haven't seen thunder yet, but we still have a week to go!

Las Vegas was definitely a strange place. Nick and I have both been to Disneyland when we were younger. And in Salt Lake City, we were definitely in Disneyland for Mormons. Las Vegas is another kind of Disneyland, but for heathens and consumers. Giant malls riddled the strip, encased in somewhat garish and absurd buildings with huge ads built onto the side of them. The water consumption of that town alone must be the reason for the world water crisis. As nice as the misters on the restaurant patios were, they did make you feel a little guilty. At the same time, buying ridiculous cocktails that you drink while site-seeing definitely kicks ass. And drinking while shopping is probably the height of entertainment. All in all, I would totally return to Vegas, because for all of the ridiculousness, coupling a night of revelry with the good climbing we experienced the next day in Red Rock Canyon definitely sounds like an amazing getaway.

May 19

We decided Vegas was the place to sleep in a bit, but we forgot to set the air conditioning in our hotel room, so we ended up waking up at 9:00 anyways. We got checked out fairly quickly and headed to Red Rock Canyon for some good climbing. We knew we only had time to do one face, so we chose what according to our book was the one most likely to have routes we could practice lead climbing on.

Here's a fun fact about sandstone. It's really really weak. I mean, can sometimes break off in your hand kind of weak. Very disconcerting when you are climbing. This hasn't happened to us, but apparently it happened to someone on the wall we had decided to climb on. Our guide book was printed in 2008, and since then, the face we were climbing had a 10 foot diameter chunk off the bottom slide off. This made the climbs a bit more difficult than we had anticipated, so we just decided to top-rope. Nick did well, but I struggled a bit. The climbing on this trip has definitely been a bit frustrating for me, but it has motivated me to start training a bit harder, and I've seen how far and in what directions I would like to take my climbing.

By 3:00 it got way too hot to keep climbing, so we hiked back to the truck. We've started looking at this trip as a bit of a scouting mission for future climbing trips. Red Rocks is certainly on the list. We've also realized the ideal number of people for a climbing expedition is 4 – mostly because hauling the gear out to the site you're climbing at is a pain in the butt for two people scrambling up hills and sometimes-dodgy terrain! One to carry the rope, one to carry the rack, one to carry the water, and one to carry the other 20 lbs of random equipment. It's made hiking to the routes more tiring than climbing them sometimes (no need to worry though, as we speak Nick is devising various methods to either dehydrate or gassify the water needed for 4 people to make it lighter)!

We drove from Red Rocks to Joshua Tree – getting a little lost in the massiveness that is Joshua Tree National Park. By massiveness, I mean we drove 12 miles between campgrounds (of which there were around 6) on the main thoroughfare through the park, only to discover that we were on a different road into the park – right in between the ends of the main thoroughfare! Just enough time for Nick to set up the tent while I made dinner, and then go to bed!

May 20

We woke up at 7:30 to a 30 C tent, unable to possibly sleep any longer. Since we hadn't gotten breakfast-groceries the day before, we went into town for eggs at the Country Diner in the town of Joshua Tree. The towns near the park are an interesting mix of fundamental Christians, white trash, gangstas, senior-spillover from Palm Springs, government spooks, old hippies, and your typical So-Cal pin-up style punks. It's actually kind of a neat place.

The park of Joshua Tree is also home to the most interesting critters we've seen so far. Nick saw a roadrunner, and we've seen some bats, some swifts, some jackrabbits, hummingbirds, and gambler quail. We also saw what we think was a diamondback rattlesnake, which Nick got closer to than I was comfortable with (which means closer than 50 yards!). When he first saw it at the top of our climbing route, he jumped and did the splits, and then stomped his feet to try and scare it away. Our favourite critter, no doubt, has been what we call the “push-up lizard”, named so because when it sees you, it furiously does about 20 push-ups, we think to show off how strong it is and how much easier it could climb the route than we could. No seriously, it does push-ups. I want one, except Ger would totally eat it.

We spent the morning climbing – until to got too hot to climb again. By too hot, I mean way too hot. Our car was reading at 150 F, and the air in the shade was 102 F. Then Nick rigged up a tarp to make some shade at our campsite, which was very very nice. We relaxed for a few hours and then decided to go and find some of the other sites around the park to climb in – particularly ones that might have offered some shade! Luckily, we found one, not in any of our books so the rating and name is a mystery, that Nick was able to lead, I was able to get up, and both of us were able to downclimb. A confidence-boosting climb for sure, which is much needed after some of the more humbling rocks we've faced on this trip!

After climbing, we were pretty hungry, so we headed back to the campground, picking up some firewood on the way. We successfully started a one-match-no-paper fire (my Uncle Mark would be proud), and cooked our dinner on that for a change. Then we made some Jiffy Pop, and roasted a few marshmallows and went to bed.

May 21

Today, we have packed up our campsite, and are headed for who knows where. After some of the frustrating climbing, and since we don't have reservations for the next 2 nights, we are going to just drive north with the ideal of finding a place with some good moderate-level climbing and a lake nearby for swimming. Wish us luck!

May 15, 2010

No photos today unfortunately. We realized we forgot to bring our cable to our cameras, and you only have other photos courtesy of Nolte and Trevor's cable!

It’s been a few days since I’ve updated about the trip. Since last, we’ve been through Salt Lake City, Fort Collins, and are now leaving Mesa Verde National Park. We decided to detour from Black Canyon of the Gunnison for two reasons. First, we had run into some terrible terrible weather, and we just wanted to get as close to the desert and warm sunny weather as possible. Second, it actually cut part of our trip down by a few hours – so instead of a 12 hour drive tomorrow, we only have around 8 hours! Much better!
Nick updated you on a lot of SLC. Suffice to say the Mormons were super friendly (frighteningly so), and the mountains were amazing. We also ate some great food – including at the famed Blue Iguana (the less-crowded cousin of the famed Red Iguana), where Nick got to have some “real (i.e. Americanized but delicious) Mexican food.
We got on the road by 7:30 on Wednesday to make the marathon drive over the I-80 to Fort Collins. Now, let me just make this observation: it seems like some states were destined to be beautiful, and some states ended up just plain ugly. I thought it was an amusing fluke when the vistas suddenly got pretty again once we crossed from southern Idaho into Utah. I observed this phenomenon again along the I-80. The portion of the highway in Utah went through these cute little mountain towns, including Park City, where much of the 2002 Olympics were held. Then we crossed into Wyoming, and suddenly everything became a barren wasteland. We were actually “lucky”, because there was a fair bit of snow on the plains, and it made it look a little more dramatic. Without that, I imagine everything would have been pretty dull and brown. Then, 7 hours later, we crossed into Colorado and were met with beautiful mountains and fir trees and rocks! So lesson learned – Wyoming is just ugly!
Fort Collins was a great town as well. We stayed there with my old high school friend Amanda and her fiancé Chris, who live in a small 100-year-old house in Greeley (half an hour outside of Fort Collins). They have a dog and two cats (and 3 horses!) who entertained us immensely. Aspen, the Cattle Dog-Border Collie cross, was hilarious, and would wrestle with both cats. She was very pleased to have Nick and I to scratch her, and we were happy to do so, since we’ve been going through some puppy withdrawl!
Amanda and Chris are beer connoisseurs and took us to a few local breweries for samples. We went to New Belgium, Odell, Equinox, and CooperSmith's (the only place to eat). We tried samplers at the first three, but were a bit too drunk for samplers by the last one (damned elevation!). I ended up with two favourite beers. The first was from New Belgium called Eric’s Ale, which was an in-house specialty that was aged three years in casks with peaches! It was light and sweet and so delicious. The good parts of a cider with the good parts of a beer. My second favourite was Coopershead’s Chili Beer, a beer made to taste like chili peppers. It would have tasted fantastic with nachos, and in fact was just fantastic and fascinating on its own. Unfortunately, the end result in my tummy was the fire one usually feels in their mouth when eating chilis! But it was fantastic beer all around, and I didn’t have one beer that I wouldn’t drink again!
The morning of the 13th, after a great breakfast at one of the local coffee shops (Loodles), we headed on the road toward Denver for our Casa Bonita detour. Unfortunately, when we got there, neither of us was really hungry, and we couldn’t see all the cliff divers and Black Barts Cave without eating. PLUS, apparently no one at Casa Bonita ever takes any food home because they didn’t have take-home boxes! But the novelty was in seeing the place, so we grabbed a picture and hopped back on the road. We drove southwest on the 285, which was a fantastic drive, albeit a bit scary! It takes you through all of the mountain towns, several of which were clearly used as the basis for the town of South Park. Unfortunately, these mountain towns came with some real mountain weather, and our elevation peaked at near 3100 meters! There was still about 4 feet of snow on the side of the road, and some near-white-out conditions. Not exactly what we planned on, but we never had any real scares since the roads were recently plowed and our truck has 4X4!
We arrived Thursday night around 8:30 at Mesa Verde, which is absolutely gorgeous driving in. We spent Friday on a long hike to see the north face of Prater’s Ridge. We spent about 2.5 hours hiking around and then went to scope out some climbing. We saw lots of animal tracks - we guessed we saw mountain lion, fox, and deer tracks. We figured as long as we were seeing tracks of mountain lions and not actual mountain lions, all was good. Plus we got some photos of a bunch of lizards. After the hike we took a short nap, and hiked in about a mile to see the sunset between Prater Ridge and Knife Ridge. Today it’s off to the Grand Canyon and Zion for some real climbing!

May 11th

City Day!

Salt Lake City, for those of you that don't know, is home to The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints, aka the mos. They have a huge church here, and a huge assembly hall, and a huge conference centre, and a huge buisness school and a huge, i mean huge office building. How huge of an office building you ask, well let's just say that there is a law in town that no other building can be taller than it...
You may also notice the globe on the lower left hand side, there's one of those on both sides.

On to other things. The downtown core itself consists of about 8 high rises. All of which were taken down and moved a few blocks over near the new mall which is a lot better than the old mall. Needless to say when you come to SLC you come for the scenery and mountains, not the city.

After touring the town we headed out to grab some stuff at the camping store which we had forgot, had some awesome pizza and then off to the mountains to see what's really worth the drive. The weather wasn't on our side. You can see by the colour of the sky in the photo that matches the concrete that it wasn't like the glorious sunshine we see in Vancouver. We got to take a look at a lot of climbing spots but they were soaked through and through and in no way climbable. Driving further up into the hills we saw snow. Lots of snow, like three to four feet of snow. This I was told is uncommon but not unheard of. I think the next town we drive to had weather forecasts of a blizzard too. This climbing trip may not start until we hit the deserts.

One more night in town. Going to hit up the iconic Blue Iguana restaurant and then come back for a bit of a jam session seeing as I just found out that Nolte also fiddles and knows the songs I do.

-Nick-

May 8-10th

Hi everyone! We made it to SLC yesterday safe and sound, and ready for a break from driving! So far, most of the trip has been from the car, so we're anxious to have a day to poke around and take pictures of stationary objects.

Saturday we left, a little later than planned, and took Highway 1 to Abbotsford and the Sumas border (we also had our last Tim Hortons for the month)! We then took Highway 20, or the North Cascades Highway. We took a quick "stretch-your-legs" break at the Gorge Lake Outlook Trail, and were tempted to take do the whole 1/2 mile trail. Alas, that will have to wait till next trip! And we will go this highway again, because even though it's a bit longer, it's totally worth it.



We traveled through Winthrop into Eastern Washington. We think we found Ger's birthplace along the way, but figured we'd avoid dropping in, since they were probably in town for Winthrop's 49er's Days (festivities included a barn dance and cowboy poetry!).

Once we got near Coulee City, we had a bit of a storm scare. The clouds were huge and gray, and all converging on what looked to be our final destination: Banks Lake. I tell you, driving into big gray swirly clouds seems very ominous. But we lucked out and they missed the lake mostly, though the weather overnight was positively frigid!

Sunday morning we got up and hiked up to the top of Steamboat Rock. It was already starting to get hot, and when we saw this, we knew we had to make sure and drink lots of water:


The hike was lovely as usual and only took us about 40 minutes. Then we jumped in the truck and got on the road. We meant to make it to Boise, but alas, since we got a later start AGAIN, we decided we would start looking for campsites regardless of where we were by 8:00/sundown. We traveled most of the way on Highway 17, cutting through eastern Washington and Eastern Oregon. Pendleton had amazing views, where the hills turned bright green and were rolling in perfect spheres. We got pics, but they are on my camera, which hasn't been uploaded yet :( We continued on the I-84, through the hills by Baker City, where we saw this amazing cement factory that seriously looked straight out of A Brave New World. We also crossed into "Mountain Time", and realized we had missed our 8:00 campsite-finding deadline. Luckily, the sun still hadn't set, and we found a nice little spot to camp at Farewell Bend State Park, nestled within the hills along the Snake River.

The night was less cold, though we woke in the morning to gray skies that continued through our journey through Idaho. Gotta say, southwestern Idaho was mostly a throwaway, and Boise itself did not seem too inviting. Twin Falls, where we pulled off to get beer before hitting Utah (3% beer? What??) had an amazing view from the road, which Nick managed to grab a snapshot of:



We also encountered a hailstorm and some other nasty looking clouds, but honestly, once we crossed the border into Utah, the weather cleared and the scenery doubled in beauty:



We're being hosted in SLC by my friend Nolte and her husband Trevor, who are absolutely lovely, and experienced climbers in most of the areas we are going, so we've gotten some handy tips! Also, they are going to take us on a tour of the town today, to see Temple Square (which we caught a glimpse of on our way in) and to see some of the canyons outside town. We're definitely looking forward to it, and promise more and better pictures to come!

~Brie~

Pre-Trip: An Introduction

Nick and I have been planning this trip for the last 6 months, and it's hard to believe it's almost here! After all the Olympic madness, and after I finish UBC's check-out madness, it will be nice to have a good three weeks to relax and get in some camping and time on the rocks (not to mention miles on the new truck)! We're also planning on bringing my banjo and Nick's fiddle, which neither of us have played much since we moved in February. We're going to be those obnoxious campers in the next site over, drinkin' and carrying on until late in the evening. That is, if we don't ruin our fingers climbing during the day :)

The itinerary is as follows. It will be interesting to see how it changes over the course of the trip:

Day 1, May 8th: Get up bright and early and drive to Steamboat Rock State Park, via Abbotsford and the North Cascades Highway. Stops in Winthrop/Twisp (Ger's birthplace).

Day 2, May 9th: Get up bright and early and go for a hike up Steamboat Rock, where my Dad's ashes are scattered. Perhaps attempt to boulder a bit on the rocks (at the BOTTOM!), since they are rated. Pack up camp and leave for Boise, ID. We'll stop for lunch at the burger joint we always stopped at when we left Banks Lake camping every summer. Adventure of the day = finding a campsite, ideally in the Boise National Forrest!

Day 3, May 10th: Hang out in the Boise area in the morning. Maybe go for a short morning hike to stretch our legs before the drive to Salt Lake City (hereafer referred to as "the SLC", because I'm cool like that) to see Nolte!!

Day 4, May 11th: City day in the SLC and beyond. Nolte has hinted at some local climbing, and I'd like to check out Temple Square. I may have to rewatch SLC Punk and figure out all the 80s-hardcore things I want to do, like ditch a stolen car in the Great Salt Lake :)

Day 5, May 12th: Get up bright and early and endure the Marathon drive to Fort Collins/Greeley, CO and stay overnight with McGuinness! Hopefully a brewery tour shall commence, and later some snuggling with goats :)

Day 6, May 13th: Up bright and early again, and on the road to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park (our first National Park) via Denver. Lunch stop over, obviously, at Casa Bonita. We will definitely post pictures with the cliff divers, in Black Bart's Cave, and eating delicious sopapillas!

Day 7, May 14th: All day at Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Hopefully the climbing won't be too advanced, and hopefully the weather won't be too rainy/thundery. Although a good storm might be kind of adventurous. Hey, I've got rain pants, bring it on!

Day 8, May 15th: Total marathon drive-fest. First leg of the trip takes us down to the Grand Canyon, where we have a bit of time to gaze out at the vista. The debate at this point is South Rim vs. North Rim. South Rim technically has a shorter drive, but could be mobbed with tourists, which could actually add the hour difference of the trip to the North Rim. The North Rim won't have as many tourists, but on paper is a longer, possibly less scenic drive. There is also the possibility of skipping the Grand Canyon all together and just marathoning from Black Canyon to Zion if we are sick of driving by that point. Also, one stop on the trip must be made to procure enough beer to celebrate Nick's birthday (since we will be re-entering Utah/crazy-liquor-law-land). Endpoint: Zion National Park, climbing mecca!

Day 9, May 16th: All day at Zion. I fully intend my fingers to be raw, and my back to be sunburnt.

Day 10, May 17th: Nick's Birthday! Also, a "quick" 3 hour drive to Bryce Canyon, home to much-lauded hiking and vistas.

Day 11, May 18th: After sleeping on post-Nick's-Birthday hangover, we travel to Las Vegas! Staying overnight in a swanky room at the Monte Carlo. We're only there overnight, so we won't have the time for the gun range or a show. But I fully plan on enjoying drinking-whilst-shopping, having escargot at Daniel Boulud Brasserie, and observing the general hedonism of the Strip!

Day 12, May 19th: Ger's Birthday (will seriously be missing my puppy by this point). We will be headed early to Red Rocks (you have to get there early, or else you get heatstroke!) for some morning climbing, and then to Joshua Tree National Park for some more climbing!

Day 13, May 20th: All day at Joshua Tree. Soaking up more of the desert for me, perhaps a little bit of heat-misery for Nick (he's crazy and doesn't like the dry heat like I do).

Day 14, May 21st: Up bright and early to tackle L.A. traffic. Lunch in Santa Monica, hopefully by the pier, and then cutting north and east to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park. No campsite booked, so hopefully we can find something pretty :) Another adventure!

Day 15, May 22nd: Climbing/hiking day and Kings & Sequoia.

Day 16, May 23rd: Not too long of a drive to Yosemite National Park and some good bouldering!

Day 17, May 24th: Some climbing in the morning, and then off to San Francisco. Or more specifically, Lafayette and Aunt Terry's beautiful home! We will probably spend a large part of this day in the pool relaxing and catching up. I also want to get in a much needed cooking lesson from our master chef host!

Day 18, May 25th: A city day in San Francisco! I want to check out the Mission District for some good shopping and lunch at 'wichcraft, Tom Colicchio's sandwich restaurant. Nick really wants to see the Golden Gate Bridge, and then we'll see where the evening takes us!

Day 19, May 26th: On the road again, this time to Redwoods National Forrest. Another adventure in campsite finding, but hopefully the day will bring a nice hike and a nice evening under some big trees.

Day 20, May 27th: Marathon drive up the California and Oregon coasts to Manzanita, where we will be staying at the Inn at Manzanita, a little bed and breakfast. A good way to end the trip and collect ourselves before we have to re-enter the real world!

Day 21, May 28th: Long-haul drive from Manzanita to Mom's in Lynnwood to prep for Alicia's Bridal Shower. Perhaps a stopover in Portland to grab a bite and drop into West Elm and Powell's in the Pearl District.

It should be an exciting trip! We're planning on getting together a few car games, burning a bunch of new CDs to listen to, and taking a lot of pictures. We are bringing the computer on the trip, so hopefully we'll run into enough random wifi to be able to update on a decent basis. Also, we have a car charger for the laptop, so even if posts only get updated every few days, I intend to journal for at least a few minutes every day. And expect pictures :) Maybe not all the ones we take until we have time to upload them at the end of the trip, but definitely a highlight of the day!

Happy Trails!

~Brie~