Orlando and Disney World

We flew the Miami coop early on Monday morning.

I tried to convince Bob to drive through the colorful neigborhoods as we drove out of town, but he wouldn't do it. And by colorful I don't mean the pretty houses with different paint colors.

We headed north and rolled in Orlando at about 5pm. We met up with my neighbor's son, Richard. Richard visits his mom (our neighbor) every year for about a month so we've gotten to know him pretty well. He took us out on the town, and we toured Orlando. The downtown area is very clean and very new. The new sports arena was built by the founders of Amway.

We got up early to head to Disney World. We had SO much fun! Splash Mountain, Thunder mountain, It's Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean, so many things we have already forgotten.

The grand finale was meeting Mickey and Minnie. And seeing all of the people dressed up for Halloween.

We are staying tonight at the Ft. Wilderness Disney campground. Tomorrow we're headed to to Charleston, SC where we're going to couch surf with a national park ranger/archaeologist. We're super excited!!

is anyone reading our blog?

No one has posted comments in a while.

Is anyone reading the blog?

We think we are quite interesting and funny. Bob is rolling his eyes at me as I write this post.

Key West

The day after the wedding, we decided to drive to Key West instead of heading north right away.

It was a long drive down to the south, but we did it. It would have been silly to be so close and not drive to the keys.

Our only stop was Key West. We took pictures at the Southernmost point monument, and we ate dinner at B .O.'s restaurant which serves the most delicious fish sandwiches and cronch fritters.

Key West was not what we expected. We envisioned big high rise condos everywhere.

Lots of good people watching (note the picture we decided to post). He was posing for us!

The restaurant where we decided to eat was a big hippie hangout where you can write all over the walls and signs. We added our own little piece of history by writing our names in indelible marker.

Miami

Lots of wedding festivities - a King family dinner on Thursday night, a bridal luncheon, the rehearsal dinner (and julie's fabulous speech on behalf of the King family), going to south beach after the rehearsal dinner (thank you mike and cathy), swimming, relaxing and appetizers at the Biltmore on Saturday (thank you mike and cathy), the wedding, lots of fun and dancing.

We stayed the first night in a gorgeous house owned by Brady's parents friends. They weren't there when we stayed at the house, but we met them at wedding. Super nice people. Friday through Sunday nights we stayed with another couple (friends of Brady's parents) in a beautiful home on a canal.

The wedding was actually in Coral Gables/Coconut Grove - the two nice/upscale neighborhoods of the Miami area.

Brady was a beautiful bride of course and Bruce was quite handsome in his tuxedo. Brady wore her mother's wedding dress. The wedding was a formal ceremony, and the reception was at a gorgeous tropical garden estate. Picture perfect in every way. We met lots of nice people.

Our pictures from the wedding didn't turn out that great. The one we posted was the best one we have.

Everglades National Park

We (well, Bob anyway) got up early to drive the last stretch to Miami. It turned out to be a

l o n g stretch. We were in a bit of a time crunch. We had to be in Miami sometime in the afternoon on Thursday (oct. 21). Brady's mom arranged accommodations for us, and we needed to meet them to get into the house. We drove and drove and drove and finally stopped at the Everglades National Park. Our stop was for gas, but we saw a sign that said, "Get Your Picture with a Live Alligator." We didn't think it was true. Bob was taking care of the gas, and Julie took off next door to find the gators. A guy in a little shack with an alligator in his bathroom makes extra money luring in tourists. It was pretty amazing. Leroy the Alligator was so cute and friendly, and was even cuter knowing he had a muzzle on so he couldn't bite off Julie's face. We have pictures as proof! When Julie "hugged" Leroy, he squeezed with his front legs around her shoulders - just like a hug. Awww, don't you want one as a pet?

gulfort - mobile - orange beaches - tallahassee

After New Orleans, we were trying to figure out where to stop. We found a really nice little beach community outside of Gulfport, MS. We barbecued some dinner and strolled the beach for a while. When it got dark, we saw tons of people launching little boats. They were going right along the shore with spears. We decided to drive into town to ask some locals about what they were fishing. We stopped at a little restaurant and found some interesting guys who told us all about flounder fishing. They seemed fascinated with the idea of meeting people from Idaho. They gave us some good hints about driving routes, and told us lots of stories about Hurricane Katrina also.

Bob woke up early the next morning and caught another beautiful sunrise! (Julie doesn't catch many sunrises.) OK Julie lets hit the road again.

New Orleans

When we woke up, Nathan (our host) was already gone to work. He told us he'd be gone, so we said our farewells the previous night. We made coffee, took quick showers, and we were writing a note for Danielle ( Nathan's girlfriend) to say goodbye. She woke up and joined us for coffee. She said was so happy we were their first surfers. She said she felt much better about the whole couch surfing thing. She gave us some pointers about where to go/not go in new orleans. She is from New Orleans, and she told us lots of stories about Hurricane Katrina.

We ended up spending about 4 hours wandering around New Orleans. We enjoyed coffee and beignets at Cafe du Monde. There is a national park office right in the French Quarter. A park ranger is stationed at the office. Very unexpected to find that! We are still getting stamps and stickers from every park office.

We wandered through Bourbon Street, Canal Street, and Decatur Street. Saw some of the street perfromers. We decided not to spend the night, but saw the beautiful Garden District before we left.

The guy in the dog crate said he makes about $12 an hour (most people give $1), and he said he sits out there about 7 hours a day.

Baton Rouge

We were shooting for an evening in either Baton Rouge or New Orleans. We didn't want to stay in the car in New Orleans. It ended up working out perfectly. We found a Baton Rouge firefighter who wanted to host us. We arrived at about 6pm at his house. We were his first guests through couch surfing. He had a beautiful home. His girlfreind was there, and she was making dinner when we arrived. She seemed pretty reserved at first, and told us that she's not so sure about couch surfing. Before too long, we were all telling stories, laughing, and couldn't believe how much we all had in common. She is an incredible artist, and showed me her etsy shop. She explained some of her mixed media art. Bob and Nathan talked shop. We had a GREAT time with them. Posted is a picture of Nathan.

Beaumont and Orange, Texas

We woke up kind of late after our night out in Ft. Worth. Our hosts were still sleeping, and we made a quick run to the store to buy some doughnuts, orange juice and coffee. We left a note for our hosts so they knew we didn't leave without saying goodbye. When we got back, they were awake and seemed happy with the breakfast treat we brought them. We lounged for about an hour, and worked on couch surfing requests for the next night.

Onto Beaumont and Orange. My high school classmate is a professor at Lamar University. we are Facebook friends, and I emailed her a while ago, and told her we would be driving through the area. I asked her if she wanted to meet for coffee or something. She gave us a tour of the university, and then we were back on the road.

Our next stop was Orange, Texas. Dave Sherman's parents live there. (Dave is Bob's coworker.)

It was kind of random to stop and see them because we had never met them. We figured if they are anything like Dave, then they are just friends we've not yet met. Dave told us they like pastries, and we brought them some yummy doughnuts. It was a short and sweet visit, and we were back on the road again.

Ft. Worth

We had a fantastic time in Ft. Worth! We tried to reach several people for couch surfing, and no one got back to us until the last minute, but it worked out perfectly. We were hosted by two paramedics. They said they wanted to show us some good 'ole southern hospitality, and they definitely did! They took us all around town, drove us everywhere, told us hilarious stories. We went country dancing, saw the stockyard district (where there is a rodeo every night of the week). We went here, there, and everywhere! They kept saying, "What do y'all want to do? We just want y'all to have a great time here. We will do whatver y'alls want to do."



We will post a picture of them when the blogger image upload function is back online.

bits and pieces

- Bob says the car smells like a bird cage. A dirty bird cage. He told me not to say that on the blog because it sounds bad.

- We have been bickering about little things like when Bob needs map navigation and I'm busy painting my toenails. Just kidding. I help him with the map navigation, but I'm actually not that great at reading maps for some reason.

- Our couch surfing experiences have been fabulous.

- We don't like big cities. We miss home.

- It's not as humid as we thought it would be.

- Public bathrooms in large cities are disgusting.

- We've been eating a lot of peanut butter sandwiches.

- I forgot my flat iron. It's the hair appliance I use almost everyday at home, and I can't believe I forgot it.

- Bob is tapping his feet on the ground, and watching the clock, so that means we need to publish this post and hit the road again.

Great Sand Dunes to Amarillo, Texas

We left the Sand Dunes and it was dark. We decided to drive as far as possible so we made it to raton, New Mexico. We ended up sleeping in the car at Denny's. We were really tired. The weather has been really nice. Upper 70s at night and no humidity yet! We woke up Saturday morning at about 5am and headed for Amarillo.

Amarillo was not much to see. Julie was very excited to see Cadillac Ranch which turned out to be colorful cars turned on their hoods and stuck in the ground. THIS is Cadillac Ranch? Julie had visions of something like in the Chris Ledoux song.

Estes Park, CO to the Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO

We left Estes Park feeling pretty tired after being up all night looking for ghosts. We took the freeway to and around Denver and headed south. We went through Colorado Springs, but didn't stop. There is SO much to see in Colorado. We were trying to get to the sand dunes and then to Texas. Trying to pack so much into a day has been a little bit tiring. Julie gets very emotional when she's tired. Bob gets a little impatient when we make too many stops. We made it to the sand dunes just before dark. Imagine gigantic hills of sand rising out of nowhere. We walked out on the sand field and scooped up some containers of sand. The sunset was beautiful. There are surf boards available at the entrance to the trail for people to slide down the dunes. The sign says the temperatures reach 120 degrees in the hottest hot of the day.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Not just another national park. It sounds corny, but it is so breathtaking and impressive. The road to the summit was closed due to weather this past week, and it just reopened! We were lucky! We drove to the top of the pass - 12, 200 ft. We stopped for pictures along the way. We saw LOTS of elk and chipmunks. While staying in Estes Park at the hotel, we could hear the elk bugling and coyotes howling all night. We loved it. It wasn't as warm as it looked! We should have been wearing our winter gear. Note Julie wearing her tropical hair flower. Should have been a winter hat!!

Estes Park, Colorado

We only made it two hours from Ft. Collins, and then made a long stop here in Estes Park. This place is amazing. Beautiful town. We went first to the historic Stanley Hotel - the inspiration for Stephen King's The Shining. We both think paranormal stuff is super fascinating so we sort of splurged, and got a room at the hotel. We were lucky enough to stay on the 4th floor, the most haunted floor! At night, the ghosts of little children run the halls and laugh and play. We didn't hear any kids, but we left our door open from midnight to about 4am, and it opened by itself repeatedly (no wind, no breeze, no fan). We were up until midnight ghost hunting. It was so much fun! The place was beautiful and eery!

Pictures for My Mom - Ft. Collins - Thurman McGraw

His name is very known in Ft. Collins! We took lots of pictures at the athletic center.

Ft. Collins, Co

We rolled into town very late! We had been communicating with our couch host (Jessica) who is a student at the univeristy. She gave us directions to her place, and we got there at 7:30pm. We were exhausted! She had homework to do, so we just relaxed at her place. She went out on the town with a friend, and we fell asleep. I'm sure we weren't very exciting to host. She was extremely nice, and she had a very nice house. The next morning, we were up early, visited with Jessica a little bit, and then we were on the way to look around the town for a brief bit.

historic wyoming state penetentiary

We are *way* behind in posting! We stopped here at the old penetentiary for a quick self-guided tour. Old prisons are creepy! The picture we posted is a photo of masks made by inmates using material found around the prison.

Centennial, Wyoming Population: 100

Bob said, "This is the kind of town where people eat other people." We took a scenic byway over snowy ridge, and came upon this tiny town.

Jackson Hole to Rock Springs, Wy.

We left Jackson Hole bright and early. We could have stayed much longer. Nice city. The drive was pretty uneventful for the next few hours. We discovered in Jackson that people use honey as a sweetener in coffee. I'm sure it's not a new invention, but we've not heard of that. We stopped to get some fresh coffee and use the bathroom in Pinedale, Wy. (The bathrooms are SO clean everywhere we go. Probably because it's not peak travel season?) We were back in the car, and I thanked Bob for putting honey in my coffee because it was so yummy. He told me there was no honey in it. We had a good laugh about it. I think it was one of those "you had to be there" moments.

We stopped at Rock Springs for another bathroom break, and decided we needed to find another couch - probably Ft. Collins. I played around a while on the computer and Bob organized the car. It has been amazing to find how many random, free wifi connections we find. We emailed a couple people, and hit the road again. Right after our freeway entrance, Bob realized we were going the wrong direction. It was serendipitous thought because, at the same time, we saw a sign for the Western Wyoming Community College Natural History Museum and Dinosaur exhibit! We love dinosaurs. We stopped for a while a took some pictures. The museum was in the Student Union Building.

Jackson Hole, Wyoming

We wandered around Jackson for a couple of hours looking at all of the overpriced everything. The town square is cornered on four sides by antler arches. There is an elk refuge right near town. Every year the boy scouts collect them, and auction them at an annual event. The antlers collected over the years have been donated to make the arches.

Our couch surfing experience in Jackson was so much fun! We stayed with Brian, Liz and their son, Bohdie. They had a great house on the edge of town. We had the whole downstairs to ourselves. We arrived at about 5pm, chatted for a bit, and then had dinner with them. They are both authors. She is an editor for The Practical Horsman and has written several books, and he writes climbing and guide books. We wished we could have stayed longer with them! We headed out of Jackson at about 7:30 am on Wednesday.

Grand Teton National Park

The park was really beautiful. We had the road almost to ourselves. So peaceful and pretty. We looked for a ranger station, but they were all closed. We love ranger stations. Bob says he wants to make our house look like a ranger station. It's green and in the woods so we already have half the look. The fall colors are just amazing. We've been stamping our National Park Odyssey book, so we've stopped at every open visitors center. At the last visitors' center we saw a car with plates from Quebec, and I got really excited. Can't wait to go to Quebec!

yellowstone fun

We had a very busy day. We had a slow drive through the first part of Yellowstone. I made Bob pull over the car every time we saw any buffalo. We saw a lot of them. They are not bothered by cars or people. I can see how people get attacked. Lots of tourists get out of their cars and get way too close. I posted my favorite buffalo shot of the day. It was just feet from the car!

We toured around Old Faithful. They built a fancy new visitors center. The last time I was there was maybe 15 years ago with my mom and sister. It looked very different. We waited about an hour for Old Faithful to erupt.

We continued on our way through the south part of the park. It was pretty quiet, and we didn't see any wildlife. We bought a subscription to Serius radio which has kept us company for many hours so far. We exited the park, and headed on our way to the Grand Teton National Park.

day one - coeur d'alene to yellowstone national park

We left Coeur d'Alene at about 8am on Monday. Not too many stops in between home and Yellowstone. We stopped in Missoula to try and find a Starbucks for wifi, but couldn't find one. We pulled into the parking lot of Hooters, and they had free wifi! We still hadn't heard a confirmation from our Jackson Hole couch surfers, so we were a little worried. We emailed another girl to ask for a last minute couch request. We headed on our way with no stops until arriving at Yellowstone. We drove through the park for about 10 minutes and saw a huge herd of elk and four bison right by the road. Nothing we haven't seen before, but it's way more exciting to see the wildlife in the national park! We found a fun place to get some dinner, and sat next to a nice older guy who was drifting his way around the northwest. He worked in the park for the summer while fishing everyday, and then was headed to Shoshone, Idaho to go on a hunting pack trip withi his buddy. He said he would probably go to Park City, Utah for the winter, and apply for a job as a ski shuttle bus driver. Very interesting guy. We slept in the car at the Comfort Inn parking lot. Julie didn't want to camp in a tent (too cold!). It was 20 degrees last night. "Chilly, but not too cold," says Bob. Too cold for Julie! We're at McDonald's at the West Yellowstone entrance right now enjoying some coffee and free wifi. We're headed to see Yellowstone today, then through the Grand Teton National Park, and we'll spend tonight in Jackson Hole with our couch surfers. We're excited to meet them - he's a climber and author of several guide books. They're about our age, and they have a 5 year old son. We'll post more after Jackson Hole!