I'm doing 10 things
No matter if this is read or not read, I love writing about it. This trip was my life’s dream (at least so far). At the beginning of last summer, it was merely a dream that I didn’t think I could reach, definitely not on my own yet…but my Uncle called my dad with some great news: he wanted to give his hot red Lexus to my dad because he was finally getting his Mercedes. So, what’s a better deal than flying out to Cali and driving back in a brand new car (at least to us)!? The deal was done, and in early July, we flew to San Fransisco. After a few days there, we began the trip of our lifetimes.
We took I-80 north out of California around Lake Tahoe, and through Reno, NV. Reno is, I know, the ghetto version of Las Vegas, but since i’ve never been to Vegas, it was ‘cool’ enough for me to see the casinos that were there, and then the Reno strip that i’ve seen a million times in “Sister Act”. Although I could definitely tell it was a bit..rough. After Reno, we continued on I-80 up until Salt Lake City. SLC was an interesting, albeit eerie town… I wish we could have stayed longer in order to tour the Mormorn temples, but unfortunately we had to skedaddle…plus, it was raining there (the only day of rain the whole trip).
After SLC, it was time to change direction – North to Yellowstone. We drove up I-15 through Pocatello, ID and then Idaho Falls. We ate lunch at a great Mexican restaurant in Idaho Falls, but the falls weren’t all that exciting. We just wanted to get where we were supposed to be – Jackson Hole, Wyoming. From Idaho Falls, it was probably another 2 hours…but we got lost through the mountain roads, so it tacked on another hour. However, getting lost was kind of mixed blessing – the views we got to see of a random reservoir were absolutely magnificent.
After our beautiful misadventure, we arrived in Jackson Hole – home to celebrities such as Harrison Ford and Sandra Bullock (I didn’t know that until we got there). If there were any place that I would have wanted to stay the rest of the summer, it would have been Jackson Hole. It definitely seemed like what it’s name says – a hole..nestled deep in the middle of mountain ranges, away from the craziness of the rest of the world. Being there, you can tell exactly why celebrities would want to have homes/summer homes here – besides the tourism, of course. The morning that we left, we were frantically looking for a Starbucks (an everyday staple of our trip). We were sad that we didn’t find one, bu we found a fabulous substitute – Pearl Street Bagels. Extremely busy – extremely good. Starbucks quality :)
As we set off from Jackson, we were on our way through Grant Teton National Park and then, Yellowstone. It took a lot longer than we thought, driving through mountains and such, but when we finally reached both places..it was spectacular. Unfortunately, we had to drive through quick, because we had a long day of driving ahead of us. And luck wasn’t on our side because when we stopped too see Old Faithful, it had just erupted and we didn’t have enough time to wait another hour and a half for it to erupt again. Oh well..I still liked seeing the smaller gysers :)
Like I said, we had a long day of driving after Yellowstone. A CRAZY long day. So much Montana, too much Montana. In Billings, thankfully, we found a Starbucks. After Billings we continued on I-90, which looped back south into Wyoming. It doesn’t look like too long of a drive on the map, but it took forever to get to our hotel in Gillette, WY…our nicest hotel of the trip I may add. It was a pity we basically could only sleep and get up the next morning!
Even after we got out of Wyoming (when the mountains ended of course), it was still fun. We continued on I-90 through South Dakota, and stopped to see Mount Rushmore and the Bad Lands. Mount Rushmore was so much smaller than I expected, I was a bit disappointed, but I was still happy to see such a landmark! The Bad Lands, to put in one word, were AWESOME :)
After that day, we didn’t really see much else in terms of sight-seeing…we stayed in Mitchell, SD that night, and then our last day of heavy driving, we went south through Iowa on I-29, hooking us back up to I-80, which we left all the way back in Salt Lake City. Our last hotel was in Davenport, IA…a disgusting hotel. I wish it wouldn’t had been the last!!!
The next day which was a Saturday, we arrived home to Ann Arbor, Michigan. I wish I could take a road trip every summer.
