---

pfffffffffffffffffft.

on paper.

first it was a shared savings account...

now hes my beneficiary.
i hope he doesnt off me.

july 17 yellowstone, wy => seattle, wa

this is what 5am look like.


up and at 'em early again- this time our reasoning was threefold- it was, in part, to see the critters, and to avoid the assholes, but it was also because we decided to make it all the way home so that we could wake up in our bed the next morning and have a day to recover. it meant 14+ hours of driving-- our longest day yet.

so we drove out of the park, getting to see LOTS of critters before we left, and out into montana.










he was not happy with us













he could care less about us.












mama black bear and 3 cubs


for the most part we had been on backroads since our first night on the road, but heading home in a hurry meant the highway. i-90 west. luke, face covered in a camping towel and black bandanna, fell asleep just outside the park and so it was up to me to get us as far as i could. and i kid you not, not even TWO minutes after getting on the highway, i was pulled over. the cop, who was visibly younger, was harassing us. though i speculate he thought i was kidnapping the seemingly bound luke. apparently it was from a lack of signal (which i call bullshit on bc he followed me long before i changed lanes- going 65 in a 70- also, i ALWAYS signal). anyway, he eyeballed the glove compartment and everything else he could before sending me on my way with a warning (for what?). and it was off to the races.

we took turns driving, got the teeniest bit snippy with each other for the first time since the trip (luke doesnt remember this, so maybe i was just being irritable), ate at a sonic drive in... mmmmmmmm and made it home at 8pm.












home!

spending day in and out with my favorite person and getting to see and do all kinds of amazing things makes me profoundly grateful. and i would do all of it again in a heartbeat.














best.birthday.ever.

july 16: yellowstone nat'l park

me and poke, and luke via shadow

luke decided that most critters are up early, so to see them, we should be up too.

we left jackson at 5 am (when you go to bed at 8pm you can do this with ease) and headed north to the road into yellowstone. (we saw some elk on the way, but not much else). we bought a national park pass before we left and were VERY excited to get to use it TWICE. (tetons and yellowstone) in ONE day. big stuff.

we were nervous about campgrounds filling up (considering casper was so ridiculous) so we scoped out a spot on the south side of the park, pitched a tent and headed out to see what we could.

let me preface most of this post with this: yellowstone was my least favorite part of the trip, so much so i wish we would have done the trip backwards. and people are assholes. (people would tailgate us and then speed past when they had the chance. they would pull off to the side of the road to see critters and then walk their children out to get a better close. ITS A FUCKING WILD BUFFALO, not a petting zoo goat! would you take your kid into a bull pen?! no! NOT SAFE, ASSHOLES. idiots.)

continuing on...

we saw old faithful! i had been through yellowstone once before but had never seen it erupt.







thar she blows- its the tail end of it, but its the best photo composition

we drove and saw critters.
























critters

and drove and saw pretty landscape.
and drove and smelled sulfur pots.
i think we drove for something close to 8 hours to see all of the park.




driving
(there are a lot of these pics)


anyway, then we headed back to camp and explored around there.














our campsite overlooked the lake so we hiked around to see it. we decided to eat dinner on the water until the mosquitos and weird water bugs realized we were there. we finished dinner in the car. then we zipped ourselves in our tent and read the park literature and watched the stars come out. ahhhhhhh....
















luke fending off bugs

july 15: casper, wy => jackson hole, wy

waking up with the sun is pretty awesome, but god, sleeping in and waking up in a bed is about a zillion times nicer than waking up on the ground. your own personal shower, albeit a days inn, is hands and fists above a koa shower- flip flops not required.

having made it pretty far west, unexpectedly, we took our time heading out of good ol' casper. we decided on the road to head to jackson hole that night instead of up to yellowstone. we were a day ahead of ourselves, so we jumped at the chance to see another place.

it was a gorgeous drive, of course. and we realized hat by that point we had been so incredibly spoiled with views from day one that we were taking them for granted. "oh look, another antelope." eeeesh.










just a day in the life...
the tetons

we drove along side the tetons once we got near jackson and stopped to check out the snake river where luke had been rafting as a kid. i remember an old friend of mine growing up had gone to the tetons and yellowstone and i remember thinking it sounded SO boring. things change.











capital A-mazing

we got into jackson at about 5pm and opted for an early dinner at the italian restaurant nearby. maybe we were just hungry but GOOD GOD that was a good eggplant parm. one beer and a glass of wine later, the high altitude got to me and i was ready to pass out. 8pm and on my way to bed. so THIS is what 30 is about! ill take it!

july 14: black hills (and eventually => casper, wy)

we woke up in the 2nd largest koa in the country- apparently the largest one is in florida and has a golf course (in case you are confused, this is NOT camping)- and headed out to breakfast where we met up with lukes parents.

then we went to mt rushmore. it was really cool. busy but cool. little did we know the crowds here would be a little foreshadowing of what was to come. (i hate people). we also found the state outline magnets and bought the ones that we drove through on our roadtrip.
















these guys are awesome.

we said our goodbyes to tom and marsha and started off on our hike up to harney peak. its the highest point in the u.s. east of the rockies. we decided we were gonna hike up there and then camp somewhere along the trail. well, the trail was busy busy busy (have i mentioned i hate people?) and the trees along the way were either destroyed by beetles or cut down to prevent being destroyed by beetles. i lost the urge to camp. i decided this at the top after we had carried our packs up. i freaked out at the top (i hate heights more than i hate people)















harney peak. notice i'm not anywhere near where luke is.

















so we hiked back down and decided to get as far west as we could within a reasonable time. this ended up being casper, wy. we also picked up the rest of the state magnets of places we had been together, but we forgot to buy texas. apparently everyone else had the same idea about casper, though, because every single hotel was booked. we got the last room in a days inn, which we discovered hadnt been cleaned. we ordered papa johns (i think i even paid) and sat in the desk chairs while they made up our bed and scrubbed the bathroom.

and just like that, im 30.










this is us at thirty.

july 13: ft. peck, mt => hill city, sd

sqeaks was a nice road companion through the trip

we got up early to head out.

luke and i had brought along a bottle of wine to hike in with but we had forgotten a bottle opener, so we decided to open it before we left and pour it into one of our many water bottles. i did the honors. and then i pinched the SHIT out of my finger. there were hard fought-back tears. it STILL hurts. stupid wine. we never did drink it, either.











100k baby!

this part of the road trip was accompanied by tom and marsha. its marshas favorite part of the country and she thought she would have too hard a time saying goodbye after only one night, so they decided to come along.










this used to be t.r.'s backyard.

we saw all kinds of badlands. and teddy roosevelt national park and finally ended up in hill city for dinner at the alpine in, where the only thing on the menu is filet mignon for 10$.










black hills ahead.

july 12: ft peck, mt

the view from the back porch

luke's parents live on the lake in ft peck. its a teeny tiny little town in the middle of nowhere that happens to be overlooking one of the largest man made lakes in the us that NOBODY seems to know about and its awesome.

we showed up to a dinner of salisbury moose steak, and a warm hot tub to alleviate the aching muscles from the ridiculous hike.


we went to see the dueling dinosaurs which were effing incredible. heres the scoop about fossils. 1. when you see them in museums, 99.999% of the time they are cobbled together from various people's collections-= a rib here, a jawbone there. 2. they are casts of fossils, not the actual fossils themselves. but these- THESE- two almost entirely complete dinosuars, entwined in battle and preserved in a way that has probably never been seen before- i mean tendons were fossilized, there were skin impressions. it was nuts. and they were real. the actual bones. and i got to touch them. 65 million years later. there is so much drama around them that we werent sure if we were allowed to take pictures so we didnt. ill write more someday on the drama of these guys. but OMG. so effing cool.

then we went and shot guns.
















pow. pow.

and then marsha threw a little meet mandy bbq with all their montana friends. it turned into a mini birthday party- she made me a cake.











what could it MEAN?!

we were well fed, well rested and ready for the next stop...












duck face.

july 11: glacier => ft. peck, mt

awwww...


we woke up that morning and decided against the hike up to the top of the glacier that was nearby (i couldnt take another hill) and started down to the car. i enjoyed this version of the hike SO much more than the one on the way up, though it did kill my knees.









deer posed for us after blocking the trail.
















hiker luke

and then we
drove the rest of the "going to the sun" road and headed out of the park and on to fort peck, montana.












puuuurdy







a bear a bear! a little black bear. thats how close he was to us- no zoom.













the only sign picture we have. glacier national park in formal wear.

july 10: glacier national park

so the whitefish koa was only about 20 minutes from glacier. made putting up with fritz and his fiance a little more worth it.

we got in there- glacier is effing incredible- and headed straight to a ranger station to see about our hike-



some river along the way



a little background on the hike.... we somehow managed to get a room up at granite park chalet- it was the last room available in july and just so happened to be the night we were there. *serendipity* the chalet is one of two remaining in the park (of 5 i think?) and you have to hike in. i guess back in the day people would ride horses from chalet to chalet as they made their way through. welp, the hike in is 8 miles with an 800 foot elevation gain- easy peasy- except that its scary cliff face and i had been freaking out about it all week.

we asked the sweet old man ranger where we should park for the hike, as we were planning on taking the "loop" hike out (4 miles, 2200 foot elevation change- out is all downhill). he tells us the loop is the only hike open. the highline still had snow (thats right. mid july, still closed due to snow). hello relief! but i also realized it was 4 miles uphill. and BOY was it the longest 4 miles of my life. (im pretty sure i nearly died of exhaustion. the beer and wine he packed in were almost worth it).











view on the way up




so, 4 miles uphill and we FINALLY make it. and the guy that runs the place at the tops goes "so did you come across the highline trail? it opened yesterday"

asshole old man ranger.












at the top


but holy incredible. amazing views. good camaraderie. just stunning. not to ruin the rest for you but this was both our all time favorite part of the whole road trip....









my road trip hat and glasses and a cup of wine


















my toes and heavens peak














snow. mid july.











my partner in climb (see what i did there)

july 9: seattle => whitefish, mt

woohoo. vacation!




new tires, new shocks, new oil, new battery. whats that radio? you only want to stay on a radio station for 15-30 seconds. this is gonna be a looong drive.

LETS GO ON A ROADTRIP!














lukes roadtrip hat




we drove out to montana and stayed at a koa that night because it had showers and was an easy destination, also, cheap. we wanted to get as close to glacier that night. our little camp site was located next to a group of i dont know how many college students who were silent (because they were gone) all night, until the bar closed. then they came back and made a ruckus. we thought they had lost their dog (this was probably inspired by a loud group of folks that HAD lost their dog and woken us up previously). anyway, fritz kept running away from the kampground. turns out fritz is a guy. a drunk guy. "we've got a runner." he left his fiance at the bar because a group of guys wanted to fight him. she had naturally assumed it was because he was with another girl. i dont know about you, but its TOTALLY the first thing i would think of MY fiance... huh.





sleepy luke makes breakfast. tries to make as much noise as possible to wake up fritz and co.

9 days B.M. (before Martha)

we had a little surprise shower for kara... here are some pics. there should be more but i got a little wrapped up in the cuteness that is a pregnant kj and a three pig-tailed toshi (that girl loves her picture taken- toshi, not kara)

(i love this last one)