Through My Lens

     We arrived at Lewiston, Idaho for the night. We had to change hotel rooms because our first room had a very bad odor. The gentleman at the front desk had explained that this smell was due to the hotel being in the middle of a paper mill and a fertilizer plant. We accepted the second room, posted and edited pictures and went to bed.      We awoke this morning to find an overwhelming stench in the room. It was so bad that it was difficult to get back to sleep. Without much complaint from either of us, we started our day at 4:30 am. We didn't even stay for breakfast. We just wanted to get out of town and away from the smell.      The smog from the factories covered the town like a thick black cloud and made travel difficult in the early morning. We went in circles looking for our 12W exit and even with our GPS enabled still had a hard time finding it. We ended up on the wrong side of town with many one way streets and in that instance my ...

     Today was a wash for me. We woke up in Belgrade, Mt which is right next door to Bozeman. We drove for most of the day with not much really in mind. We did visit the Historic district in Butte Montana, we saw NezPerce National forest, Cougar Canyon and realized that we were on the Lewis and Clark trail.      Mostly today, I thought about how thankful I am that I was able to go on this trip. If it had happened at any other time in my life it would not have been possible for me to do this. I am truly blessed!! We are stopping in Lewiston, ID for the night and after talking to my cousin who we will visit in the next few days, we are headed to Mount St. Helens and Walla Walla, Washington for some wine tasting. Until tomorrow...

  We drove through the Bighorn Mountains, ordeal and all, but made it safely to the Beartooth Inn where we met the night attendant, Nick. What a nice man! He was extremely accommodating and very nice to have a conversation with.We never realized the sights around the hotel until we stepped out into the morning. We were greeted with bright blue skies, the moon high overhead and stunning snow capped mountains in the distance; and with that... we were off to Yellowstone National Park...         On our way through Wyoming we were greeting with tall mountains of stark rock. They were absolutely captivating. I found myself leaning forward in my seat as we drove through, camera in hand, mesmerized by these mountains of rock that jutted up all around me as we pressed onward through the west.   The Shoshone Mountains were breathtaking as we drove through. They are so tall and they surround the road as you drive through. I realized how small we are in compar...

     I woke up to a day of horror and distress when in the morning after waking up and getting ready for the day, I found out that there was no Dunkin Donuts. Not just in Rapid City, SD but none in the next few towns we were driving through!!  What happened to America Runs on Dunkin? !!!     But I digress....      Rapid City, South Dakota is where we were and I just had to deal with no coffee.. *pout*. In any case, we noticed lots of snow piles as we drove through SD. Although it was 47 degrees F, it felt much colder. Today we headed toward Mt. Rushmore and Devil's tower. It was so refreshing to to see tall mountains after driving through flat plains.      Mt Rushmore was nice to go see. I don't think I'll ever go back there unless I'm taking someone who hasn't seen in. It's was great for me to be able to cross this off my bucket list and say that I've been there, but it was just a bunch a rocks with faces.. and lots of tou...

     After leaving our hotel room in Brookings, SD and driving passed field, after field, after field... we bumped into a small town named Arlington with a huge mural and a saying worth stopping for: "As pioneers, we sowed the seed. As families we nurtured it. As a community, we watch it grow."  We didn't spend too much time here as there were many other sights that we wanted to see through South Dakota today. We had a suggestion from a friend to check out the place where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived. We met Dianne in the visitors center and she was very helpful! She showed us a movie and gave us lots of information.  Dianne gave us our map of the 160 acre area and showed us points of interest that we should definitely hit. The first thing we did was climb up into the tower and look out over the property. From that vantage point you could see the entire property. I couldn't believe that were standing on the very same property wh...