The Wonders of South Dakota

For those of you who have never driven through South Dakota, here is a glimpse of all the fun things to do along I-90. For anyone who has done the very long drive, here's a trip down memory lane...


Crazy Horse - the Native American version of Mt. Rushmore, celebrating Indian culture throughout the US. A work in progress, and very impressive.

Mt. Rushmore - enough said. Check out the close up of Lincoln!!

Wall Drug - greatest tourist trap on Earth. There are literally over 100 billboards leading up to this destination.

The Bad Lands - my personal favorite. Years of volcanic ash and erosion created this National Park.


Prairie Dogs - found all over the Bad Lands. Not quite this big, but still really cute!


And last, but certiainly not least, we have the Corn Palace. You would think the whole thing was made out of corn, but it's only the sides of the building.

Made it over the pass!

We made it over the PASS! Look at how low the back of the car is ridn'!

-Oh boy was it a little sketchy at times. Our little car was driving in third gear over Snoqualmie Pass. We were the slowest car on the road but we made it. After the pass we got a good clip going... around 65mph average. Spike has Peed in Central Washington, Eastern Washington, the Idaho Panhandle and Missoula Montana, where we are waking up now. We arrived at 11:15pm at a famous Missoula couple's house, Tim (Sports Medicine doctor for the U of Montana) and Hassie (Local News Anchor). They let us and Spike in. Spike's downstairs now bunking with their dog Duke, a precious black lab. We had a late dinner with Rachel then returned to the house to go to bed. It was a first real sleep in a while. So though we're getting a late start we are quite refreshed. Headed out to meet Rach for a coffee before another day of driving.

Our host Hassie and dog Duke (if you can see him) outside her house in Missoula, MT

Look at my mean fingernail splinter! Yeahhhhhh!

Morning cup of Joe at the local establishment.

Introduction

Hello and welcome to our blog! We wanted to create this little web page for all of our friends and family to keep track of us over the next few years. There is a lot going on in our lives at the moment, so here’s a short timeline of where we will be for the next couple of months.

We are leaving Seattle on April 27th, and driving to Chicago. We are planning to stop through Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Wall Drug, The Badlands, and all of those fun places on the big road trip. Then, we’re making our way to Minnesota to visit with some friends there for a few days before we head to Chicago for about 2 weeks. It should be a comical sight with the little Infiniti packed with Spike and Flip, towing a 2000 lb trailer behind us. Hopefully we will make it up the mountains!

We leave Chicago on May 14th for 2.5 months in Belize and Honduras. We’ll be in Belize first, probably until June 1st or 2nd, and then we are planning to go to the Bay Islands off Honduras for a few days before we start a house-sitting job in Honduras from June 7th through August 5th. We will be living at a couple’s house in La Ceiba, and watching their dog while they are visiting family and friends in the States for the summer. We get free rent and they get a free dog and house sitter. It’s a perfect match!

After our tropical summer of diving and playing with an adorable German Shepherd, we are moving to Riverside, California where Chris will begin a 5 year PhD program in Entomology (aka bug studies).

We are really sad to be leaving Seattle, and all of our friends here. Over the past years (8 for Kimmy, 3 for Chris), they have become more like family than friends, and we will miss them more than they can ever imagine. On the plus side, we are looking forward to more sunny days than rain, and being a great vacation destination...hint hint...

We will do our best to keep you updated as we move from Seattle to Central America and finally back to Chris's old stomping ground in SoCal. I’m sure we will have some entertaining encounters along the way, and we hope you enjoy reading our blog.

Lots of love,
Kimmy and Chris