Frankly, we had so many days with 6-10 hour drives that I was just too damn tired to deal with doing updates, hell, I was lucky to get a wireless signal and at least check my LJFL!
Anyway, we flew out of here on Wednesday, 8/15, rented a car in Denver, and drove up to Cheyenne, WY. We poked around Cheyenne for an hour or so, figured that there really "wasn't much there there" and headed on. That first day was a bitch, as we didn't get in to Billings, MT until around 2am. On Thursday, 8/16, we toured around Billings (where my aunt and uncle lived when I was a kid), and stayed there that night. Friday, 8/17, was one of our shortest drives, as we were visiting with an old college buddy who lives out that way, and drove down to his apple orchard, somewhat east of Yellowstone, that morning, then went up to check out Bozeman. It's really beautiful up that way, and we ended up going on a drive/hike up to this waterfall (the guy at the visitor's center said the walk was "a half mile or so", but didn't note that it was all uphill!). We stayed overnight in Livingston, MT and then went to back to Bozeman on Saturday morning (where my buddy was selling apples at the farmer's market), and headed west. The road from Bozeman to Spokane was amazing, and we made a side trip to check out Coeur D'Alene, ID on the way over the mountains. Just amazing views up there. We got into Spokane, WA on Saturday night and spent all day Sunday (8/19) touring around. We found some amazing neighborhoods there, and if there are jobs to be had, this likely is heading our list for "places to go if we have to go". Monday, 8/20, was another very long drive as we had to head south-west past Kennewick, WA to pick up I-84 heading back south-east through Oregon into Idaho again. We got in to Boise in the late evening, found a place downtown (ironically an Old Chicago) that was still serving dinner, then crawled back to the hotel. We actually took a "trolley tour" of downtown Boise on Tuesday 8/21, then piled into the car again and headed down to Salt Lake City. We met up with
scottks and meredith on Wednesday 8/22, and they toured us around the various neighborhoods that Scott was recommending. We had lunch (and a bit of a tour) down at Temple Square before heading out on the long drive back towards Cheyenne and Denver (we were staying in Denver to make the logistics of a morning flight not so traumatic on Thursday morning).Wyoming ...
Billings ...
Bozeman ...
Bozeman further up ...
Intrepid (but very bummed out) traveler ...
Coeur D'Alene ...
Spokane ...
Spokane Lion ...
Boise ...
Salt Lake City ...
Of course (as reported previously), the trip home turned into a SNAFU-fest with our flight being only 5 minutes from landing at O'Hare when tornados forced the evacuation of the traffic control center in Elgin, then the tower at O'Hare, causing our flight to be diverted to Indianapolis, and eventually to our having yet another long drive to get home!
Anyway, The Girls got to see 8 states (if you count driving through several hours of Oregon and Indiana) in 8 days, got to visit 8 cities, and stay over in six of them. Quite a handy way to fill up a big chunk on one of those "visited" maps, eh?