What made us do this?
Russian
What made us do this? |
Russian |
For a long time we wanted to visit Yellowstone National Park - but all the ideas had always stayed in their "orginal" (that is verbal) form. Maybe because it is always complicated - time, money, maybe just because I am not supportive enough for such plans. But we mentioned it to Kelley, my former roommate in Pullman, and now our big friend, while visiting with her in Tucson (the trip we have put on our page as well) and she somehow inspired us to go. Plus as soon as a plan includes someone else - it sounds more serious, takes more planning and responsibility. Not to add, that for several reasons we had decide not to go to Russia this year - so we needed a vacation! Ok, we'll go to Yellowstone to meet with Kelley. After that, she was supposed to go to a wedding (not hers yet), and we... would go somewhere, weren't sure where at that point.
Yellowstone is pretty far away. Nonstop driving would take about 20 hours. But if we want to take our time and actually enjoy the trip - 2-3 days. So, we studied all the attractions along the I-90, and tried to visit as much as we could.
From Yellowstone, it is only 10 hours or so to Pullman, WA. Why don't we go there as well? I spend there 18 months and have nothing but good memories of that place. Then we could go to Glacier's National Park, not too big of a detour on the way back. What about California - Yosemite, for instance? Well, for us, who did not remember how a tent might look like even Yellowstone sounded too much. So, we decided to get there, and then see how tired we are, and how much we still want to see - or, maybe we should just go home as quick as we can and spent the rest of the vacation doing nothing at home.
But we got a tent - pretty good one, Coleman Montana, tried it several times here, in Wisconsin, and found out that it is not too bad to live in the tent (for a week or too). Plus, everywhere you can find a grocery store or a fast food restaurant - so, we can make it!
As we normally do, we took Microsoft Streets and Trips, and planned out trip from Madison, WI, through southern part of Minnesota, South Dakota, though Mount Rushmore, Devil's Tower in Wyoming, to Yellowstone. Then to Pullman, WA. And then... we decided, that we should see what we want after that - it is quite easy to find a campgrounds, so we did not have to plan the return very carefully.
So, after filling in Pullman our stomachs with fresh blackberries (courtesy of Jean and Ken Campbell), we went to Glacier's National Park, then through central Montana and North Dakota - to Minneapolis, MN and - hurray! - back to Madison.
It took us exactly 14 days, and about 4300 miles. (~113 gal of gas and does not really matter how much money - not too bad though)
All of the virtual albums we will try to furnish with a little story - you don't have to read it, but if you want to - you are certainly welcome.
(In the Russian version of this page, I added, that only few of the names were translated to Russian, other would stay in the English versions - Yellowstone, Glacier's, etc. Not that it makes any difference here, but I thought I'd mention it anyway).