Marching Along

Just like that, 2009 is a quarter complete. It seems like I have hardly had enough time to blink, err, maybe that's the lack of sleep that does that to me..? Either way, someone told me spring is here and that means the snow and cold will soon be gone for awhile - I think. The weather the past few days has been something else. Blowing cold and a even some snow last night. Just a few weeks ago there were tornadoes in Eastern Nebraska. Strange weather to say the least.

We did manage to get to Idaho during 'spring break.' We left on Saturday morning around 5:30 a.m. and drove the entire 940 miles by midnight - just about 20 hours in the van. Laura, Emryk and I had the back seat while Rylan and Kayla looked cozy in the middle captain seats, mom and dad saw most of the road through the windshield. Seven of us stuffed into a mini-van was a little tight, especially with all our stuff - or should I say Emryk's stuff. Either way, we all seem to get along pretty well, so there wasn't too much discontent amongst the ranks.

Lana and Kory had to put up with us crashing in their one room apartment for a few days, and they did a pretty good job of dealing with all of us invading their space. Lana gave everyone a haircut and we all were looking better right off the bat. We spent most of the time just exploring Twin Falls and checking out all the things there were to see. The Perrine Bridge at Twin Falls crosses the Snake River and it's about 500 feet off the water. It's one of the only bridges where BASE jumping is legal 24 hours a day - we saw a few jumpers while we were there too. Looks like a real rush and if I could get ahold of a parachute I think I would try it out.

We also saw Shoshone Falls and Twin Falls - although, the Twin Falls are now just a single waterfall. One of the falls was damed to creat hydro power - kind of a sad deal actually, it looks like it would have been a neat sight to see with two waterfalls.

Tuesday was St. Patrick's Day, we drove west of Twin Falls on Highway 30 to the Hagerman area where were saw the springs which flow right out the side of the cliffs into the Snake River. We also stopped and saw where the Oregon Trail was. The ruts and cuts are still visible in the side of the hills near the Hagerman Fossil Bed National Monument.

I always enjoy just driving and seeing the countryside. There were parts of the drive that looked like areas of Nebraska - especially areas north of Kearney. With the exception of a few rocks in the fields it appears nearly identical - just don't look too far on the horizon and spot the mountains off in the distance!

Tuesday night Kayla had friends coming to Twin Falls to visit her, so the rest of us loaded up the van and headed south to Nevada to be robbed by the one armed bandit in Jackpot! Well, I guess it isn't robbery when you willingly give the money, but it did make for some fun. I think Kory did sneak away with the few extra dollars in his pocket, but as for the rest of us...well, lets just say I better keep working for my paycheck. Did you see Emryk decked out in his St. Patrick's Day outfit? When we arrived in Jackpot we were adorned with festive beads and Emryk was really playing the part.

We made it back to Twin Falls a little before mid-night and we packed up our things. We tried to leave Twin Falls around 5:30 Wednesday morning since we decided to change our route home and go back through Nevada and across Utah to so I could see the Bonneville Salt Flats. That small detour added 100 miles to our drive and Wednesday we really put the miles on! It was 1,048 miles home - a new one day record drive for me. We rolled into Kearney a few minutes before midnight and we were all feeling the trip catching up with us. That's just how my family vacations though, we go 100% while we are on vacation and relax when we get home.

Besides our trip to Idaho, Laura, Emryk and I made a trip to Cheyenne this past weekend to see Laura's parents. It was another quick trip, but it was nice to have such a 'short' distance to go this time!

Which reminds me... With today being the last day of March, I snapped a picture of my GPS tonight. I have been logging the miles I travel each month, just to see how far I travel. I think this is my second farthest month I have logged since I started paying attention - 5,091 miles.

Until again

-=Nolan=-

On To Idaho

A few months back my brother and his girlfriend mentioned going to see my sister and her boyfriend in Twin Falls, Idaho over spring break... He didn't necessarily invite Laura and I along, but we mentioned that we would be interested in going along and paying for gas. We did stipulate that Emryk would be coming with us but that wasn't a problem either. Fast forward a few more weeks and mom and dad decided they might like to go along too. Well, that's seven people packed into the minivan, so that confirms that we are on a spring break trip - minus that fact there is a baby along, but we don't discriminate.

Saturday morning we are setting out for Twin Falls and we should be in town by early that night. The drive out is around 940 miles and should take about 12 hours on the road. We have a stop in Cheyenne to make - that will be 1/3 of the way - to see Laura's parents and let Emryk burn off some energy, otherwise we are going to be seeing a lot of Interstate traffic. I do have a few geocaches along the way to help break up some of those long stretches and help Emryk get out of his seat for a few minutes.

I am excited to see some new scenery and Laura and I will have some new road to travel together. We have been through Twin Falls before, and we have been across nearly all of Wyoming on I-80, but we have not been through Northern Utah together. We had plans to go through Salt Lake City on a trip to/from Missoula/Kearney but since I moved back rather quickly we were unable to travel through Utah. So, now we have our chance to travel some new roads and go through a few new counties as well. We were spoiled when we were in Montana, we did a lot of traveling on the weekends, and since moving back and having a baby we have been rather stationary. It should be a good time, and we are looking forward to going on a road trip.

Until again

-=Nolan=-