Today we left for our trip. First stop, Annawan, Illinois..

We left Illinois and headed for Iowa..

First time I've crossed the Mississippi driving..

We decided to detour a bit and check out the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa..

Ike's cheering on the kids playing baseball..

..actually it's a yawn, but i still like the photo. Here's the house from Field of Dreams..

On the way to Sioux Falls, SD we came across this huge wind farm in Clear Lake, IA..

..with these massive wind turbines..

We arrived in Sioux Falls, SD just as the sun was setting..

Tomorrow, Rapid City.

It started innocently in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. We headed west, and stopped to see the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD:

Then, about 10 miles outside of Chamberlain, SD there were these guys sandblasting the closed lane of an overpass in a work zone.. Why they were sandblasting, I don't know.. but I spent the next 2 hours or so hanging out there dealing with this:

How fun.

At least I got to see one of the 'real' General Lees at a museum in Murdo, SD:

..and I got to meet some nice new faces.. or maybe they're old faces..

and then we drove through the Badlands..

..and stopped by Wall Drug in Wall, SD:

So now my window looks like this..

..and I get to spend several hours tomorrow getting the window replaced in Rapid City, SD instead of spending it at Mt. Rushmore. Oh well. Nobody got hurt.

More tomorrow.. maybe.

So today we got our window fixed in Rapid City, SD. I didn't take a photo of the glass place, sorry.

With new glass, we headed down to Keystone, SD to see Mt. Rushmore..

Then we headed toward Custer, SD to see the Crazy Horse Memorial..

We ended up skipping it since they wanted $18 to see it, and it's not even done yet. :) We got the above photo as we turned around and headed for the hotel.

When we got there, this cool little helicopter was taking folks for scenic views of the area right across the street (i didn't go for a ride)..

After resting a bit in the hotel and grabbing some dinner, we headed back up to Mt Rushmore for their lighting ceremony. While we waited, this really nifty thunderhead showed up to the north..

..and as the sun began to set..

As it started to get dark, we listened to a park ranger give a talk about Teddy Roosevelt, watched a short movie and sang the Star Spangled Banner as they began to turn on the lights..

And as our day of glass fixing and colossal sculpture gazing came to a close, we decided to end it properly..

Tomorrow it's on to Wyoming.

This morning we woke up and made our way to Deadwood, SD..

..had breakfast and did some shopping. There was a shootout at high noon..

..with some ladies watching on..

After the shootout, we did a little more shopping and climbed up to check out the grave of Wild Bill..

Then we headed out of town towards Devils Tower..

On the way out of the park, we ran into these guys..

Then it was time to head west for Wyoming..

About an hour after sunset, we rolled in to Cody, WY. Time to sleep.

Tomorrow, Yellowstone.

I didn't have net access last night in Yellowstone, so this entry covers both 7/10 and 7/11..

Woke up this morning in Cody. Had a few bugs on the front of the car..

From Cody it was off to Yellowstone. What a beautiful place. We saw all kinds of things, like bison..

.. including on the road ..

At least he was in the correct lane.

The roads here are pretty wild..

I'll admit it, I'm a sucker for waterfalls. This place is full of them..

It's not all waterfalls and bison, however.. There are elk..

..and hot springs..

..and waterfalls running from hot springs..

..and geysers..

..including, of course, the most famous geyser, Old Faithful..

It's Friday night, and we're now in Grand Teton..

We're here tomorrow night too, so more from Grand Teton then.

We woke up in Grand Teton National Park, in Jackson Hole, WY.

Ike slept well. He got his own bed..

We spent the night in a cabin pretty much on Jackson Lake, with a good view of the mountains.

We ate breakfast in the lodge and then drove south through the park towards Jackson, WY for lunch.

Along the way both down and back, there were almost as many different places to capture images of the mountains as there were waterfalls in Yellowstone..

There were more bison, too..

..and of course, bison and mountains..

..and some other beautiful scenery..

After dinner, I made good on my promise to Ike and took him down to the lake for a swim..

As the sun sets, we're enjoying the view from our cabin..

Tomorrow it's off to Casper, WY.

This morning we decided to get up at 0445hrs and try and get some photos of the mountains at first light. We weren't disappointed..

Then, after going back to sleep for a few hours we headed out for Casper, WY.

We stopped for lunch in Dubois (doo-boys, not doo-bwah), WY..

We went a little out of our way to see the hot springs in Thermopolis, WY..

It was ok.. difficult to photograph.

Then we continued on towards Casper.. What a pretty drive..

Except for the road construction.. and in Wyoming, when they say road work, they mean it..

So tonight we're in Casper (no photos, sorry). Tomorrow it's on to Cheyenne.

This morning we woke up in Casper, WY. We slept in a little later than the past several days.. driving around two large national parks for 4 days wore us out a bit. Happily we only had a relatively short drive today from Casper to Cheyenne.

We stopped a few times along the way to snap some photos of the scenery..

Ike is becoming quite the well-travelled puppy dog..

Once we got to Cheyenne, we found out there wasn't much to do. There's an Air Force base here that was home to one of the first ballistic missle groups, but they don't give tours anymore.

There's also a big Union Pacific railroad depot in town..

..but they're renovating the museum, so that's closed too.

In a park near our hotel, they have a Union Pacific Big Boy on display..

..said to be one of the largest steam locomotives ever built.

They had an old west shootout in downtown Cheyenne..

Tonight we're at the Hitching Post..

Another city, another sunset..

..tomorrow, Estes Park, Colorado.

Nothing too exciting today. We drove from Cheyenne to Estes Park, Colorado.

We stopped in Ft. Collins for breakfast..

Once we got to Estes, we walked around the town looking in the shops and admiring the scenery..

Again, another city, another sunset..

Tomorrow we head into Rocky Mountain National Park.

Today we woke up in Estes Park, CO. We spent most of the day in Rocky Mountain National Park.

The skies were overcast, but I was still able to get some interesting shots.

Once again, my penchant for all things flowing water is evident..

As we made our way up into the mountains..

..there were many opportunities for nice shots of the mountains..

..and some wildlife..

I wish this one came out better.. she was about 8 feet from me.. oh well..

It was quite scenic at Sprague Lake..

After a long day in the park, we headed down out of the mountains back into town for dinner..

And located the doggie park so Ike could run around like an idiot with other dogs for awhile.. (sorry, no photo)

Another day, another sunset...which we tried to capture back up in the park, but the clouds didn't cooperate..

..not too bad. Tomorrow, we start the trek back east. First stop, North Platte, NE.

Today we left Estes Park and headed for North Platte, Nebraska. Nothing too exciting to photograph.

We stopped in Greeley, CO and saw a neat old Union Station train depot..

Once we got to North Platte, we headed into town for dinner. On the way we passed a Nebraska hobby shop..

We decided to eat at the A+W.. We don't have these around us at home..

The interior decor is pretty nifty..

Here's tonight's sunset over North Platte..

Tomorrow it's on to Lincoln.

We woke up in North Platte, Nebraska.

As I gassed up the van, I noticed a sign hanging at the gas station..

Indeed.

We headed east from North Platte towards Kearney. The view from lunch at Applebee's was a bit different than we're used to..

After lunch, we headed over to a train and trail museum. They had a neat old locomotive and caboose..

Then it was off to the archway museum..

From Kearney it was on to Lincoln..

Another city, another sunset..

Tomorrow we head towards St. Louis.

Today we woke up in Lincoln, Nebraska. After breakfast, we headed up to the Strategic Air and Space Museum. .

They had some pretty nifty stuff, like this SR-71..

..and a B-17..

..and a B-52, including a cockpit you could climb into..

They also had some nifty old SAC comm and missile silo launch-control consoles..

..and some other nifty stuff..

After the museum, we headed for Missouri, but we had to cross this toll bridge from Nebraska first..

We drove completely across Missouri..

..to Hannibal, the home of Mark Twain.

Sorry, no sunset photo tonight.

Today we woke up in Hannibal, Missouri.

We went and visited some Mark Twain historical sites. Then it was off to
St Louis to see the Gateway Arch.

As the sun sets over Indy..

..we get ready to head home tomorrow.

Today we woke up in Indianapolis to this wonderful weather..

On the way home, we stopped for lunch in Springfield, Ohio..

It continued to storm most of the way home.

Pulling in the driveway, we drove 4,761.1 miles and hit 12 states.

Ohio:

Indiana:

Illinois:

Iowa:

Minnesota (no photo)

South Dakota:

Wyoming:

Montana:

Colorado:

Nebraska:

Missouri:

Kansas:

It was hard to judge color and sharpness on the laptop I had with me on the trip. Over the next few days I plan to go through the photos and re-edit them at home. Once I've got my favorites from the whole batch, I'll post them.