Manning the Post: Eastward Ho

We planned a different route for our drive to Boston this time. Last summer we went across Wyoming, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. This time we started in Idaho and crossed Montana, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ontario, and New York. This time around was much more scenic. We first stopped in Rapid City South Dakota where we camped for a night and visited Mount Rushmore! The monument site was quite impressive.

Massachusetts here we come!

There was a 45 min. lighting ceremony/presentation. It was pretty cool!

On day two of driving we were pulled over just before crossing from South Dakota into Minnesota. The highway patrol man said he clocked us at 69 in a 65 mile/hr zone and asked Jeff to step into his car so he could issue a warning. Then the officer started asking Jeff if there would be any reason that his patrol dog would smell traces of drugs from our car. Jeff answered all of his questions and was allowed to leave. We thought it was pretty odd that he had to sit in the cop car, but we later found out that there have recently been instances of people from Idaho moving to South Dakota to work in the oil fields and they've been involved in drug trafficking. We saw a lot of cop cars on the highway that afternoon, so they must have been looking for something. We had Idaho plates, probably fit the age profile. And that's the story of how we were profiled as drug traffickers.

Jeff looks like an upstanding citizen, no?

We stayed at a hotel in Madison Wisconsin that night and had way too much trouble finding a place to eat dinner. The restaurant we had plugged into our GPS ended up being closed down. We finally ended up going to a taco bell.

We did get one nice picture of downtown Wisconsin. Pretty capitol building.

On day three we headed to Michigan to see Kelsie and Jared!

Eating Gyros with Kelsie and Jared in Ann Arbor!

The Big House

Touring the University of Michigan campus.

Happy boys with frosty roof beer floats.

We loved playing tennis with the Roberts in Provo, so we made sure to find a court in Ann Arbor.

Jared is going to grad school at the U of M and his classes had just started when we got there. Luckily his classes got out early so he could hang out with us most of the time we were there. The times he was in class Kelsie kept us entertained. One morning we went berry picking!

We had a good haul.

We had a great time with the Roberts, and hope to see them again soon!

We left Ann Arbor three days later and headed towards Ithaca New York. We passed briefly through Canada and stopped at Niagra Falls. The view from the Canadian side of the falls is spectacular!

Niagra with a rainbow!

After stretching our legs and taking in some beautiful views we got back in the car and wound our way through some New York country roads into Ithaca to see the Webbs. We got there late on friday night, but the next day Steffany took us to Buttermilk falls (not far from their house), which was gorgeous.

This is the view of the falls from the starting point of the hike. As you climb a mile or so up there are tons of more waterfalls. It was a really cool hike.