Ten Days in Jackson Hole~ April 13- 22

Grand Teton in the center .... wow!

Uncle Duff and Aunt Lynn's house was gorgeous, comfortable and the perfect place to take a nice long break from driving, eating out, sleeping in hotels, struggling with Emma in the back seat. She had a great time flopping across the carpet (not quite crawling yet). While Dale and I enjoyed the view of the mountains out of the family room windows.

It snowed off and on during the first 3 days, but we got in some snowshoeing.

more to follow......

Wyoming

Sunday, April 12th ... Off to Wyoming. More and more snow on the ground, more hills, more scrub bushes, antelope, deer. We drove through the Big Horn Mountains and National Forest. Very beautiful ... the east side of the mountains was very snowy with lots of pine trees, while the west side was dry and rocky. We descended down and mountains opened up to farm land. The road followed Ten Sleep Creek to the town of Worland. We carried on and followed the Wind River through the Wind River Canyon .... beautiful ! To Riverton, Wyoming

Monday, April 13th .. we headed out of Riverton and wound our way up the Teton Range and crossed the continental divide .... lots of snow

We turned south at Moran Junction and followed Rte 26 .... entering Grand Teton National Park ... and our first moose siting

The road opens up into Jackson Hole (the valley is called Jackson Hole, while the town at the south end of the valley is Jackson) and the Tetons are huge and impressive and almost surreal.

South Dakota

Friday April 10th we drove through South Dakota from Vermillion to Rapid City. We took some back roads in order to drive through the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Indian Reservations. We also stopped at the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre. It was kind of desolate terrain and seemed somehow forsaken. The Wounded Knee site was nothing more than a historical sign and a small tourist center that was closed, plus it was really hard to find. We felt compelled to pray for the land and people there.

Part of Badlands National Park

Saturday, April 11th .

Beautiful drive into the Black Hills and to Mt. Rushmore. It really is quite a spectular site! It took 14 years and $ 1 million to create.

Dale and the gang.

After lunch we took a hike on Mickelson Trail

Kansas City, MO

Hangin' w/ the Malone family.

Daddy and Emma together.

The beautiful downtown KC weather.

Sunset over the International House of Prayer.

Kansas City, MO was a nice spiritual oasis for us @ IHOP (International House of Prayer) where there is continual corporate prayer (http://www.ihop.org/) 24-7. We caught up with some old contacts of Sean and Laura Malone and family, and made some new contacts. During our time we had some nasty weather and some beautiful weather as you can see in downtown KC by a stream. Following KC on 4/9/09 we headed further North to S. Dakota (check out Emma and I in the wind), and will be driving west through the Sioux Indian Reservations (4/10/09) on our way to the Badlands and Mount Rushmore today...

Emma update

Emma now has 2 teeth ... likes being in a highchair when we can find her one .... she intermittently says "mama" ... rocking on all 4's and scooting forward ..... started crinkling her nose and snorting ... loves meeting new people and seems to really bring joy to others :)

St. Louis

What a neat city! Mighty Mississippi.. the arch ... new cardinals stadium... Forest Park (like NYC's central park) ... and a free zoo ! It was a bit rainy but we really enjoyed St. Louis. I was able to get in touch with an old Georgetown friend, Anna ... so we were able to meet up and her and her husband for lunch. We had a great time reconnecting after 8 years or so. Then we took in the zoo. Emma got to see some penguins, seals, bears, giraffes, zebras, leopards, chimps, etc. Naturally, she got a great nap in the car afterwards. We headed out for Kansas City ....

GATEWAY TO THE WEST

Indianapolis

We left Cincinnati and drove to Indy on April 3rd and stayed over at our friend, Julia's, house. She had to work all night so we didn't catch up with her until the next afternoon. We enjoyed a really nice sunny day in Indy on April 4th with Julia, ate lunch and played some frisbee at a downtown park. Then we headed out and made it across half of Illinois to Effingham and stayed the night. Effingham is so happenin' that we barely got a room due to the biker convention and gymnastics meet that weekend. Up on Sunday, April 5th and off in the rain to St. Louis ....

Ohio

We left Baltimore on April 1st and went to Columbus, OH. Emma is starting to eat yummy veggies! We stayed with Uncle Greg Larson and his son, George. We had a really nice visit with them, got some rest, ate some Skyline Chili and Graeter's ice-cream, stopped by Larson Toys & Games and picked up some things for Emma, and visited the farm in Lancaster. From there we went to Cincinnati on April 3rd and had lunch with Great Uncle Tom and Aunt Marge Sloane (Ruth Larson's sister) and a couple cousins and their children. Really nice to meet and spend some time with them. We dropped in on Great Aunt Jane and said hello. Then we were off to Indianapolis........