S/V Adventurer

After we left Yellowstone we headed south all the way to Mesa Verde National Park in Southern Colorado. Actually we took a quick detour for a night through a great little town called Lava Springs in Idaho because of the hot springs that were rumored to be some of the best in the world. They did not disappoint. Every time that I have been to a hot spring in the past, I have hiked in to a spot in the woods, soaked in the springs, and left smelling like farts. These springs lacked the crucial ingredient for fart smell...sulfur. These were un-purified, crystal clear, steaming hot mineral springs that were pretty incredible. The whole town is piped into the spring runoff, so every hotel, every campground, every B and B, has some sort of soaking pool from the springs. The city also has a huge water park for the kiddies with water slides and a Olympic size swimming pool that apparently are all fed off of the springs as well. There is also a small river that runs through town tha...

Here are a few pictures from the last week and a half which include some ghost towns, the Lewis and Clark Caverns, and Yellowstone. Virginia City, Montana Lewis and Clark Caverns You may not be able to see her very well but Brenda is FREAKING OUT right here.  This is a fairly tight spot on the way down through the caverns. Another shot inside the Caverns.  Some of these formations in this room are about 20 feet tall! Old Faithful The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone Awwww....the happy couple...even after 4 months of traveling together in an itty-bitty space! Notice the clouds in the background...this was taken right before the big lightening storm hit. This little guy liked to be scratched on the head right in between the horns, but we found out the hard way that he didn't want to be ridden.

We are now here at the holy grail of our great National Parks. Yellowstone. Most of you reading this have probably been here...maybe even more than once. Neither Brenda nor I have been here and were really excited to get here. We camped out at the Lewis and Clark Caverns the night before and barely slept a wink because we were so excited (Brenda actually didn't sleep because she was still freaked out because of the caverns we just went through and I didn't sleep very well because of the howling wolves that seemed awfully close to our camp...and because we were excited). It's one of the places that have been on both of our bucket lists for too long and now we are able to cross it off the list. After day one at the park, all I can say is that this place is off the hook! We made the necessary stop at Old Faithful and watched the geyser spit right on cue up into the sky. We hiked around the area and saw the worlds largest predictable geyser, the Great Geyser, spr...

We are now about a week into our road trip. We have already seen some incredible things and I have made some important discoveries. Since I am sure you are wondering what has been going on with us and I can write about whatever I want, I'm going to start with the discoveries. The first thing I have discovered has to do with grocery shopping. In our past life of the working type, Brenda did all of the grocery shopping. It didn't start that way but it was quick to become that way because when I went grocery shopping, I got all of the things that were important to my well being...snacks, bacon, steaks, and things that come from a can. Brenda for some reason didn't appreciate the way I shopped or the way I ate so she decided that it was best for the both of us if she did the shopping. That way we had fresh fruits and vegetables, nothing from a can, and no snacks (unless you consider dried fruit and nuts snacks). No more reese's peanut butter cups, no more can...

We have finally left for phase 2 of our trip after 10 days in the Seattle area. Those 10 days were a bit of a whirlwind and left us a little bit dazed but we got a lot accomplished. We spent a few days getting the boat put away for the winter and moved into our home on wheels, we spent as much time with family and friends as we could squeeze out, Brenda was thrilled to have real stores and got a lot of shopping in, and we cursed our way through the Seattle traffic. I can't tell you how much I didn't miss driving in the city...I despise it with a passion. One of my greatest joys of not working has been the fact that I don't have to sit in traffic every day. Anyway, there were quite a few friends that we wanted to see but we just didn't have enough time to get to everyone (sorry if we missed you...we tried). We had to be in Spokane on the September 15 th so we had to get out of town. Actually we could have stayed a couple of more days in Seattle but we really wan...