Some repairs, some progress, some FUN!

Today, after replacing a part in the jeep, we drove into Tennessee! That is one state away from our final destination this trip!

We made it to East Tennessee, Pigeon Forge is a great town with tons of fun things to do...so on our way we made reservations to stay a night in The Smokies.

I did not tell Doug what kind of town we would be staying in, so when we got here...he was very excited. See below: Doug's happy face.

Once we checked in and got cooled off in the pool, we caught the trolley and saw some more of the town.

Doug had looked at some coupon books and found an amazing buffet not far from where we are staying...it was really SO much food...again, see Doug's happy face:

I am sure we will have lots more pictures after we see some more of the town tomorrow...keep checking in for updates!

Snapshots...

Enjoy some snapshots from this weekend and from our journey today:

While in Missouri we watched a lightning and thunder storm pass by the house at sunset:

We passed through a great big storm and the sky was beautiful on the other side of it!

We made it to Illinois...this was not planned, the old bridge is closed so we went a little out of the way and spent about fifteen minutes in Illinois.

A big,yet shockingly narrow, scary bridge over the Ohio River...

And into Kentucky!

A weekend in Missouri...

This weekend we enjoyed relaxing at Doug’s Dad and stepmom’s house in Missouri. It was nice to be off the road for a couple of days and get some laundry done too. Before we got there, we stopped at a zoo in Kansas. We enjoyed seeing the animals and stretching our legs a bit…
Can you find Doug in here swimming with the fishes?


My favorite bird in the rain forest part:



And proof that we did make it to Missouri...

We hope to update on today a little later...

Another fun day...

This morning we left hoping to make it into and through most of Kansas, however a quick stop just about out of Colorado we found out that we would be spending the better part of the day waiting for the jeep to get fixed. We did get the jeep to a mechanic in Colby, Kansas and while we were waiting for him to fix it up we explored the town a bit.
We were happy to find out that there was a brand new water park just a few blocks away so we enjoyed some time in the water!
Doug on the fast slide:




My favorite part of the place was the lazy river...I floated around and round for quite a while!

Once we were able to pull ourselves out of the amazingly wonderful water, we were back on the road!

Tonight we are staying in Salida, Kansas and will update more as we go along!

Day # five...Mechanic # four...

Apparently we are going to visit a mechanic in as many towns as we can along the way this trip...here we are at mechanic number four...

Anyone looking to purchase a 2001 Grand Cherokee Jeep? It has a ton of brand new parts...

Day four...

Today we said goodbye to Wyoming, after enjoying some beautiful countryside:

We also made a stop in Buford, population 1:

It is exciting for me that we are back in Sonic country!


We also did a lot of this today...waiting for the jeep to cool down since it overheats going over most hills.

We did make it into Colorado...


We drove later in the day today so enjoyed a wonderful sunset...


Tomorrow we will be making our way into Kansas...more updates to come!

Airplanes, Freeze Dried Ice Cream and Wyoming...

Today has been fun! We enjoyed a nice day of traveling today, we made it 370 miles with a fun stop on the way!
Here are some pictures from the Hill Aerospace Museum!


Doug, ready to be ejected!

Can you see me?



We even got some yummy, although a little strange, astronaut ice cream!

Astronaut Ice Cream

And, we made it to Wyoming!



It is fun to see all the different types of terrain as we travel across the country...today was beautiful!

Twin Falls...

Last night we stayed in Twin Falls, Idaho...we enjoyed a bike ride near the canyon in the evening but since it was dark, we didn't get to experience the full view. So, this morning we went out to see the sites before we headed back on the road.
I am looking a little nervous here because I was nervous...it was really far down!

This statue right at the view point is of "The Twins"...I thought it was very pretty.

An impressive bridge...

An impressive view...

After enjoying Twin Falls, Idaho we moved on and made our way into Utah...

day two on the road...

We made it into Idaho today, here is the proof:

Shout out to the Kilde's for our Next Exit book, it is the best traveling tool ever! We check it every few miles to see what is coming up and where we would like to get to each night. What a wonderful gift! Thank you!

We were excited to stop at Cracker Barrel today...all the food was good but I was especially pleased with the REAL sweet tea!

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And it's not a true visit to Cracker Barrel without sitting a bit on the rocking chairs on the porch!


This is why we decide to not camp tonight...

And just a taste of our view for most of today...

Things are going well and we hope to get some more miles behind us tomorrow...more then!