Vanessa and I took a quick trip up the St. Louis Arch this morning before heading west. Nearly 10 hours later we arrived in Sioux Falls. Turns out they grow a lot of corn in this part of the country.
Tomorrow we're planning on visiting the Corn Palace, Devils Tower, the Badlands, Wall Drug, and, time permitting, Mt. Rushmore. Vanessa has been begging to go to Sturgis for the Bike Rally (www.sturgis.com), but we probably won't get to that until Wednesday.
More later.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Lions and Tigers and Reticulated Giraffes!
After leaving Lexington at 6 a.m. and an 11-hour drive, we made it to St. Louis in time for the 6 p.m. Cardinals vs. Astros game! The stadium was really fantastic and we had great city views from our seats. I was especially delighted to see All-Star Matt Holliday hit two home runs. As most of you know, Holliday is batting .609 since being traded to the Cardinals from the Athletics - wow!
(At Busch Stadium after the Cardinals win!)
We crashed early that night after the game, but got up fairly early this morning to purchase tickets for the Arch tour on Monday morning in an attempt to avoid the weekend crowds. We wanted to make the most of our 1 full day in St. Louis so we headed to the St. Louis Zoo! It was huge with a variety of exhibits....our favorites included the zebras, lions and bears (wish I could have tested the bear spray, but thankfully they were caged).
(My new friend at the St. Louis Zoo.)
We then left the zoo for the tour of the Anheuser-Busch Brewery. This was Josh's second tour of the brewery, as he visited last summer with his father. We both enjoyed seeing the Clydesdale's and tasting the free beer!
After the tour, it was time for a snack, so we headed over to the famous frozen custard joint, Ted Drewes. The place was packed, but we couldn't tell the difference between custard and ice cream. As I'm writing this, Josh claims he could taste the difference. I don't believe him.
We tried the traditional St. Louis pizza for dinner down on the River Front. Very delicious. We then wandered across the street to a bar which had actually run out of Budweiser products! I thought that stuff ran through the faucets here!
We had a great day enjoying the sights and food of St. Louis. As you can see, we ate extremely healthy. A big thank you to Bryan Greenberg, the actor who recommended many of the local food joints in our hotel's brochure.
Tomorrow we'll climb the arch, before our 9-hour drive to Souix Falls. It should be an interesting drive as the motorcycle rally in Sturgis is also this week. Reminds me of when my Catholic High School took us to Daytona Beach during Bike Week. See you in Sioux Falls!
Tomorrow we'll climb the arch, before our 9-hour drive to Souix Falls. It should be an interesting drive as the motorcycle rally in Sturgis is also this week. Reminds me of when my Catholic High School took us to Daytona Beach during Bike Week. See you in Sioux Falls!
Friday, July 24, 2009
Planning
Before we jump into the Ford Escape and onto the highway, we're jumping on the blog bandwagon! We hope this blog allows our friends and family to experience the road trip with us as we witness all of the magnificent to unusual sights our country has to offer.
With a week to go before wheels up, we are scrambling to finalize our travel plans while also orchestrating a big move from NC to Connecticut. The move was the original inspiration for this road trip, as we initially planned on making a few stops on our drive up the east coast to our new home. This drive quickly evolved into a 27-day cross country detour! Josh and I were both fortunate to have our schedules coincide during the month of August, allowing us to take this once-in-a-lifetime trip!
We are excited to kick off our trip on August 1 from Lexington, NC. First stop: St. Louis! Thanks to Priceline, we reserved fantastic accommodations at the downtown Hilton in St. Louis. After that, we downgrade to an earthen bed in South Dakota. We will be camping for about 2.5 weeks of the trip and will be staying with friends for the other days (thank you Fuglers and Brian Freeman!). Our other planned stops include:
August 1-2: St. Louis, MO
August 3: Souix Falls, SD
August 4-5: Black Hills, SD
August 6-9: Yellowstone, WY
August 10-13: Colorado
August 14-17: Grand Canyon, AZ
August 18-19: Carlsbad Caverns, NM
August 20: Dallas, TX
August 21: Little Rock, AR
August 22-23: Memphis/Nashville, TN
August 24-25: Raleigh, NC
August 26-27: Farmville, VA
In preparation for our departure, we are gathering camping items including a tent, grill, food, lanterns, sleeping bags, blankets, etc. I even made Josh go to REI to purchase a $45 life-saving, miracle bear repellent. A few weeks ago, I expressed my concern over the growing bear population in the United States. Josh isn't quite as worried about bears, his solution being: "I don't have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you, Vanessa." Thus, the bear spray was added to the list.
We'd like to add a new post to the blog every day, however this may not be possible due to our campground accommodations for a majority of the trip (can anyone hook up WiFi in our tent please?!). We encourage you to send us your travel trips and suggestions and certainly let us know if you will be in any of the cities at the same time we're rolling through!
Here's to road trippin'!
With a week to go before wheels up, we are scrambling to finalize our travel plans while also orchestrating a big move from NC to Connecticut. The move was the original inspiration for this road trip, as we initially planned on making a few stops on our drive up the east coast to our new home. This drive quickly evolved into a 27-day cross country detour! Josh and I were both fortunate to have our schedules coincide during the month of August, allowing us to take this once-in-a-lifetime trip!
We are excited to kick off our trip on August 1 from Lexington, NC. First stop: St. Louis! Thanks to Priceline, we reserved fantastic accommodations at the downtown Hilton in St. Louis. After that, we downgrade to an earthen bed in South Dakota. We will be camping for about 2.5 weeks of the trip and will be staying with friends for the other days (thank you Fuglers and Brian Freeman!). Our other planned stops include:
August 1-2: St. Louis, MO
August 3: Souix Falls, SD
August 4-5: Black Hills, SD
August 6-9: Yellowstone, WY
August 10-13: Colorado
August 14-17: Grand Canyon, AZ
August 18-19: Carlsbad Caverns, NM
August 20: Dallas, TX
August 21: Little Rock, AR
August 22-23: Memphis/Nashville, TN
August 24-25: Raleigh, NC
August 26-27: Farmville, VA
In preparation for our departure, we are gathering camping items including a tent, grill, food, lanterns, sleeping bags, blankets, etc. I even made Josh go to REI to purchase a $45 life-saving, miracle bear repellent. A few weeks ago, I expressed my concern over the growing bear population in the United States. Josh isn't quite as worried about bears, his solution being: "I don't have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you, Vanessa." Thus, the bear spray was added to the list.
We'd like to add a new post to the blog every day, however this may not be possible due to our campground accommodations for a majority of the trip (can anyone hook up WiFi in our tent please?!). We encourage you to send us your travel trips and suggestions and certainly let us know if you will be in any of the cities at the same time we're rolling through!
Here's to road trippin'!
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