Gorging in the Gorge

We left Spokane this morning and headed south wanting to get into Oregon. While heading south we discovered a Washington desert! Tumbleweeds everywhere! We even hit one with our car that was roughly the size of a large dog! After that we made it across the Columbia River into Oregon and followed it along to the Columbia River Gorge Scenic Area that stretches roughly 70 miles. It was endless mountains on either side with large rock outcroppings, a large river in-between and lots and lots of moss! We ended up doing some local hiking in the mountains and saw several waterfalls! We decided to stay the night and do a bit more hiking tomorrow morning. After about two hours of hiking we were starving so we went to a local ale house and ate our weight in food! Now we are all tucked into our camper with the rain outside making excellent white noise on the steel roof. More hiking and waterfalls to come tomorrow!

-The A-Team

Being goofballs as only goofballs can.

Banana Slug! 

Upper Horsetail Falls, can you find Adam in the photo?

Yeah, it was a pretty big waterfall to make us look that tiny!

The views from up top!

We told you, everything is green up here! 

Neature's pretty neat. 

One of the few times we asked a stranger to take our photo

Selfies are much easier! 

FOOOD! 

Just Around The River Bend

We made it safely over the Rocky Mountains! It was a full day of driving but western Montana was beautiful! We stopped in a small town called St. Regis and got a local Huckleberry Shake which was delicious! The entire drive was basically following a beautiful yet very windy river path through the mountains with only a few steep up and downs! Idaho was cool but it only took roughly about an hour to cross the entire state. Coming into Spokane at rush hour made us a little uneasy and did not give Washington a good first impression. After a minor detour we made it to an amazing campground right along a river that totally redeemed the state! The camp host gave us free firewood (typically you would have to pay) and we had our first campfire and made turkey pesto quesadillas over the fire. We sat around the campfire and enjoyed watching the river flow by before bed!

-The A-Team

Setting up the Yeti in Washington

The view from inside the Yeti

So many flowers!

Makin' fire! 

SO EXCITED FOR A HOT MEAL!

Peaceful river flowing behind the campsite

At the river, looking up towards the campsite

Hello Rocky Mountains!

Good Morning!

Yesterday Adam and I visited Devils Tower in Wyoming which was awesome! Got a chance to hike around and take some pictures. After that we decided not to go to Yellowstone because of how much of the park was still closed for the season. Hopefully we'll get a chance to see it on the way back! So we spent the day driving through Wyoming into Montana where we stayed in Bozeman for the night. Hillary and Case gave us some great places to see and eat while we were in town! The drive was beautiful and we had an awesome time jamming out to Alan Jackson and Brooks and Dunn!!

Our goal for today is to stay on I-90 and go through Montana and Idaho. Hopefully the mountain drive isn't as scary as it looks from a distance!! Wish us luck and hopefully we'll be writing from Washington next!

-The A-Team

Rocks, Rocks, and more Rocks! 

Devils Tower...boy that is tall.

The Sweaty Yeti enjoyed Devils Tower as much as we did! 

Badlands!

Today was great! We drove from Sioux Falls, SD all the way to the eastern side of Wyoming. We drove through Badlands National Park which was amazing and then stopped at Wall Drug which was neat to see. It was at least a fun little break from the car for a while. After that we headed west and decided to make it to Wyoming and set ourselves up for the next day instead of stopping in the Black Hills. What a great choice it was because we are staying at the great campground with really nice people and we have already seen roughly 15 deer walk just a few campsites away. Also we have two very friendly rabbits hanging around and some wild turkeys nearby. We are surrounded by mountains (Mountains to us, hills to people from Wyoming) and it could not be more beautiful! Had a great day and very excited to head over to Devil's Tower and move west to Yellowstone! We finally figured out how to add pictures! Enjoy!

Oh HEY Badlands! 

Our first national park! Oh boy is it magical! 

These pictures are not doing it justice

Deers just hanging out at our campground

This bunny was not shy! Jumping all around our camper!

Minnesota Miserable No More!!

To Whom It May Concern:

Southern Minnesota is a blackhole of boredom. The roads are awful, it's boring, it's long and the only redeeming quality was the friendly townsfolk. We had to make a brief detour and do some very minor fender work on the camper. Yesterday was like a gas station hot dog, you're not thrilled with it but you need it to get where you are going. We ended stopping in Sioux Falls, SD to visit Adams sister and stayed at the KOA Kampground nearby.

South Dakota is like eating a slice of pie after choking down several brussel sprouts! Honestly, we are  having loads of fun in South Dakota! We drove past and saw the Corn Palace (closed on Sunday's FYI) and are very much looking forward to stopping Wall Drug, hopefully a hundred billboards can't be wrong about how exciting it is! Our goal is to get to the west side of South Dakota by supper time. Picture still to come...

-The A Team

Meet The Sweaty Yeti

Top of the Mornin' to Ya!

As Adam and I head out on our adventure we wanted to introduce you to The Sweaty Yeti! This teardrop camper will (fingers crossed) make it all the way to Alaska and back with us! We started building this in February and finished it yesterday (literally). We chose to name it The Sweaty Yeti after spending our first night in it and realizing how freaking hot it was. Man, can this thing hold its heat! The camper is 8ft long and 4ft wide and aside from the custom cut mattress and hardware we made/built everything for this camper! The curtains, blankets, shelf, windows, doors and storage box are all handmade by Adam and myself with much assistance from Larry and Teresa Popanz. Grandpa Rich gave us his seal of approval stating that it would be bear proof, so hopefully he is right...only one way to find out! We hit the road around 8:15 this morning and hope to stop for the night at Badlands National Park.

Wishes us luck and we will post again soon!

-The A Team

This is the Sweaty Yeti! 

Of course it snowed the morning we left. Thanks, Wisconsin. 

The Sweaty Yeti ready to roll! 

We are pretty proud of ourselves and the Yeti! 

Takin' a peek inside!

Room at the foot of the bed for our shoes and a shelf for our pj's! 

How do blogs work?

Hello Everybody!

This is our first blog post and please bear with me, I do not really know what I am doing! Adam and I are going to try to update this every few days. That way you guys can see what we are up to and that we are still alive and well. In Alaska we should (hopefully) have cell service and it is believed that we will have access to wifi so feel free to call, email, Facebook, Skype or face-time us while we are up there. Currently our leave date is April 9th and we hope to make it to the Black Hills by the first night! I will keep this short because more will definitely come but I just wanted to test this out now and get the link to everyone before we leave. Hope all is well and you will here from us again soon! We leave in T-Minus 11 days!!

Sincerely,
The A Team