There and Back Again

We're home again from our annual pilgrimage West.

Here's what we saw:

• Four thousand, three hundred and two miles of America's finest highway system, from the rolling farmlands of Illinois and Iowa, through the Nebraska sand hills, the rocky deserts of southern Wyoming and the harsh highlands of southern Idaho, into the dry mountains of eastern Oregon and then back, skirting the northern tip of the Rocky Mountains along the edge of southern Montana and then down again across the north-eastern tip of Wyoming and into the Black Hills, Badlands, and tall grasslands of South Dakota before crossing into the familiar hazy hills of Iowa and the tall corn fields of home.
  
• Lots and lots and lots of antelope, a few deer, and one largish lump that may have been an elk.
  
• The vast grass land of South Dakota waving in the breeze like the Little House on the Prairie.
  
• Oil rigs, pumps, and pipes spreading like a web across most of Wyoming.
  
• Windmills on the hills and windmill parts en route to make more windmills.
  
• The Mississippi River, the Missouri River, and the Snake River
  
• More freight trains than we could count.
  
• A couple of A-10 Warthogs taking off in Boise and two B-1B Bombers coming in for a landing in Rapid City, SD.
  
• Bumper-to-bumper semi-trucks along I-80, motorcycles and motor homes on I-90.
  
• Traffic jams in Idaho.
  
• Grandpa Steve’s new tractor.
  
• Uncle Byron’s new house and new baby.
  
• Grandpa Scott’s new moustache.
  

We met friends in Boise that just moved from Michigan who where good friends with a young couple that just moved to Illinois. We saw some friends in Montana that are in the process of moving to Boise but know my cousins that live in Seattle from when they lived there.

Anthony got his second set of stitches.


We saw no fish.

We found Stuart’s new house and learned that retaining wall blocks weigh 62 pounds in the morning and 96 pounds in the evening. Dad got to drive the skid-steer loader. Auntie Meggan has a bump in her belly!

We enjoyed the company of Grandpas and Grandmas, brothers and sisters, numerous cousins, second cousins, cousins once removed, and many friends. Thank you all for your hospitality.

(Sam has a few more pics here)