Day 4 Grand National Tetons (Gros Venture State Park)

After leaving Massacre State Park we headed toward the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. We drove through some of the most beautiful parts of Idaho. Wade got advice on the best roads to take from a friendly bus driver, and the day was pleasantly passed listening to audio drama and looking out the window.

I think this is in Wyoming. Rachel had time to exit her ipad program and snap this shot!

Entering Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Wade had a childhood memory of the antlers. He was also pretty sure that the guy you see under the antlers was his cousin Russell. He was so sure that he called Russell to find out where he was. As you probably already guessed, no it wasn't him. Just his look alike I guess.

Beautiful Teton's. Taken again with the ipad. Try to ignore the bug spots on the window!

Another way to enterain yourself in the car. Maybe I wouldn't have fought with my sister on our long road trips if my parents had bought us an ipad!

Here we are at Gros Venture Park. I was a little disappointed that our campsite didn't offer a view of the Tetons. But we busied ourselves by skipping rocks on the overflowing Snake River.

I walked a ways to get this one.

Day 3-4 Massacre Rock State Park, American Falls, Idaho

After Shoshone Falls we headed to our campsite in American Falls. I was excited to stay here because of the history. This spot was right along the Oregon Trail. It gained its name by some Indian skirmishes. The rocks were amazing and a good spot for the Indians to hide. There were immigrants killed, but not enough to really call it a massacre. Still, the name caught my attention and I think that's the point.
There were several hikes. I chose first and looking at the map, it looked like we could loop into several. We need to rewrite their maps. After walking 1/2 mile we found a sign that said our trail was 1 mile away. Oops! Well, it was important to me. We were going to see wagon tracks left by immigrants on the Oregon Trail. I said we could do it, so we did....

Lilly had her moments. To be fair - we all did!

Walking on the Oregon Trail.

Another trail, along the Snake River.

This is Register Rock. Here the immigrants carved their names into rocks as they came through.

Look close. This boy - J.J. Hansen also sketched an Indian head near his signature.

Very cool rocks. Good hiding places for Indians, and fun climbing for kids!

Day 3 - Shoshone Falls, Idaho (Twin Falls)

One of the first things we did was cross into Mountain Time. Rachel's phone changed, Wade's didn't (for a while). The ipad never changed, the ipod eventually did - but I think we were in South Dakota before it caught up. Garret changed his watch, Wade didn't. The truck didn't change time either - and it was 10 minutes slow besides! So time was just a number on this trip. It really only mattered when we needed to eat lunch. Then Lilly usually did the calculating for us!

Thanks to Wi-Fi, we found out our very good friends the Ebersoles were coming from the Tetons and that's where we were heading. We thought it would be fun to meet up on the road. After several phone calls -we realized that we'd passed each other before we had a meeting spot. Oh well, Wade (Ebersole) did give us some tourist advice. He told us to stop at Shoshone Falls and we're glad we did.

The Snake River. We followed it for three days!

Shoshone Falls and the Snake River

The Happy Campers!

Beautiful!

Did I mention that we're traveling with our 28 foot trailer? It was a little tight getting to this spot. But Wade's so good at maneuvering that truck and trailer, he never let a thing like size get in his way of having a good time on this trip!!

Day 2 - to Wells, Nevada

There isn't much to say about this day. It rained some, the dessert seemed to go forever. The only thing that interrupted the landscape were the Super Walmarts placed here and there. We spent the night in an RV park, and thought we could have driven further. We're not fans of RV parks - but this one was decent. I met some very nice people there - who told us all the things we should do in South Dakota. There was also Wi-fi so Wade and I put the kids to bed and watched one of our shows on Netflix! That was fun!

Another observation ...restrooms are seriously much cleaner in every state we visited than they are in California. Starting here is where I noticed. Old RV park, sparkling restrooms - and it continued throughout our trip. Hmmm.....I wonder why??

We're on our way...June 28th, Reno, Nevada

I'm back on my blog - to share our vacation with you. I thought this would be the prettiest way to show some of our pictures and explain our trip.

Day 1- Off to a late start, of course. It's kind of hard to pack and make final arrangements for a 21 day trip. But we were anxious to get to our first destination. We left early afternoon and it was a wet, wild and slow trip! We pulled off to get gas in Lodi, Ca and noticed gray clouds and cooler weather. We thought we might hit a little rain. As we traveled through Sacramento at less than a snail's pace - we were dumped on. And we seemed to bring the storm with us as we drove.

We finally arrived at our destination. Pizza Plus, Reno, Nevada (as much as I love Pizza Plus in Ripon, this was better). Wade's oldest nephew and his family had been patiently waiting for us. It had been several years since the girls and I had seen our Wagner cousins. But they were fast friends and favorite cousins before the night was over! In fact, Lilly and Grace were up at 6 the next morning so they could get some more play time in before we had to leave. Thanks - Wagners for your hospitality!