5/22/07 5:17 pm, West Yellowstone, MT

The deer-like animal we were seeing is a pronghorn.

(Side note from Anna at the date of publication: Austin's check engine light magically went away. Apparently it just gave up on us taking it in. We have since seen a coyote and many ore buffalo, as well as many many geysers. Check out our pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/austin.walton)

5/21/07 5:07 pm, Dubois, WY

We are headed west from Dubois, which we suspect is similar in its touristy quality to West Yellowstone. Looming before and beside us are huge mountains cloaked in mist. I am reminded very much of the Misty Mountains in Middle Earth, and hope that our adventure will be more like Bilbo's than Frodo's.

The terrain we have seen today has been so widely varied that I have been comparing it not just to Middle Earth but to a Civilization world. First miles and miles of plains, then a few foothills, then rocks upon rocks. Huge bluffs of red and blue and gold and white and green and purple. Now we are driving past Shoshone National Forest and it is snowing!

Aside from me wishing I had brought socks for the trip, only one event has put a damper on our trip. After rolling over 100,000 miles in his Accord, Austin's engine light came on. We are going with the belief that since there are no symptoms, there is no sickness, and are going on with the journey.

Things we have seen today:
- snow
- some seagulls in Sinclair?!?
- 2 prairie dogs
- lots of a deer like create that looks sorta like an antelope, with light tan and white fur
- llamas (or alpacas, we aren't sure)
- horses
- cows
- a mare and colt crossing the road
- a bunch of KOA's!
- wind farms!
- Grand Teton National Park
- 5 elk (female?)
- a wolf
- another elk crossing the road
- Old Faithful erupting!!!
- buffalo
- 5 more buffalo and 2 baby buffalo!
- a whole herd of buffalo! with two males fighting and more babies
- another herd with more babies going down the street
- another herd that sploit around us...SCARY
- another herd that stopped us in the road for 10 min. and completely surrounded us

Cornelius the Pig and Lattka the Loat are on the dash, guiding the way Their felt skin is good for that cold spot.

- Anna

5/20/07 3:16 pm, Aurora, NE

Wedding went well yesterday. Ceremony was simple and short, but well done. I broke the key off in the door when leaving the house. Reception was also good & everyone enjoyed it. Paul gave a good toast. Earlier in the day he told some pretty tall tales about Pat drinking a whole fifth of whiskey in one go while they were at Ole Miss. We brought Bekah back to the house with us after the reception. Stopped to get some beer; this made Rebekah very excited. We drank beer, talked, and watched TV til about 10. After taking Bekah back to the hotel, we packed upt he car and headed to bed. This morning I woke up about 5:15. That sorry excuse for a mattress was more like a seat cushion and I was glad to be up. We left under the cover of darkness and were headed west on I-70 towards Kansas City by 6:05. At the Nebraska State Line we decided to stop at the Lewis & Clark Center. The exhibits were fun and hands on. We took lots of good pictures. They had a prairie dog that was very interested in me, as I was her. Outside, while posing for pictures on a replica of the boat L & C used to float the Missouri, we were asked to stay for a "Nebraska Life" Photo shoot on roadside monuments. We really wanted to, but with 400 plus miles till Wyoming, we couldn't. I did get to take pictures and play with a 125 lb Newfoundland they had there to play the part of "Seaman" (Lewis & Clark's trusty dog). His real name was Duncan and we wish we could have taken him with us, but we decided he wouldn't fit in the car. We're now about 230 miles from the Nebraska/Wyoming border on I-80W.

- Austin

5/17/07, 8:30 am

We've just set out and have already had some taste of the kind of adventures we'll be having this summer. As we he was wedging some more stuff into the car he suddenly cried, "My suit bag was on the back of your dad's car and he's gone!" Into the car we jumped, speeding away. What if it had gotten run over? "My suit!" Austin said. "My dress!" said Anna. But there it was, down the road a bit, with only some road burn to show for it.