The City of Berwyn warned me that i needed a permit for the storage containers in front of my house.

551 Miles

Packed up the truck, locked the keys to my house in the house behind me, and left. Drove from Berwyn, IL to a motel in Brainerd, MN.

360 Miles

Drove from Brainerd to Backus, MN where i picked up my brand new Scamp trailer. After stopping at a local garage to fix the hitch wiring, i headed north and west, stopping to take pictures at Leech Lake which was still partially frozen. I drove that day to Graham's Island State Park near Devil's Lake ND. I was the only person camping there.

365 Miles

Drove from Graham's Island State Park to Teddy Roosevelt National Park. I pulled into a city park in Watford City, North Dakota and let the dogs run, made some lunch, and then i was vaguely napping on the see-saw in the playground when it suddenly became clear to me that about 50 yards away from me was a disc golf pole-hole! Well, lookee there! A 9-hole course. I played it twice and shot a lousy +2 and +3. Wasn't used to the discs.

There was a herd of bison roaming through the campground at the national park.

547 Miles

Teddy Roosevelt National Park to Thermopolis, WY. I was going to stay in Cody, WY, but i spent an hour or two driving in and out of the town trying to find a state park campground (which wasn't very accurately marked on the map), and after i got there, i decided to push on to Thermopolis and i stayed in an RV park and took a hot shower. The picture of the dogs above was taken at the State Park outside Cody. The picture of Montana was taken from a rest-stop along I-94.

406 Miles

I walked around the huge mineral spring in Thermopolis and over a cool steel-cable suspension bridge which the dogs were afraid to get on, then drove to Rifle Falls State Park, near Rifle, CO.

Massive headwinds going up and over the continental divide in and out of the great basin. I think i overheated my gearbox because it wasn't behaving very well by that evening. I pulled into Rifle Falls State Park and got the last space available. The ranger at the gate told me "dogs are supposed to be on a leash at all times, but..." "I'll just be cool" i said. "Yeah, just be cool with 'em" she replied. Needless to say, they weren't leashed and did just fine.

218 Miles

When i got up in the morning it was snowing. I drove into Rifle and found out that the only place to get an oil change (and transmission fluid filled up) was at the Wal-Mart, so that's where i spent the morning, waiting for the world's slowest service guys to change my oil. After that i drove to Vail, found a place to park with the camper, and hit the slopes for an afternoon of snowboarding. It was closing day and they had very little coverage, but still, better than driving. After i was worn out, i drove up over Vail pass and had to go down to second gear to get up and over it. I proceeded south through Leadville to just past Poncha Springs, CO and camped at O'Haver Lake Campground, elevation 9600 feet.

272 Miles

After a less than restful night (i don't sleep well at high altitude) i drove down to Caroline's house in Albuquerque, NM, then went over to visit Travis and Amy and their kids Noah (above) and Simon.

The dogs couldn't fit through the cat-door in Caroline's house, but they really wanted to.

Caroline and Daniel and i went to the Rio Grande Zoo. Daniel threw a fit about a couple of things, but we managed to get through it. That night, Travis and i went to see "Hellboy". Good flick.

Caroline had a party that night for all of the family in town for Ian and Crystal's wedding the next day. Charlie and i had gone out to a party store to buy stuff and we bought a bunch of bottles of soap bubbles for all the kids, plus a couple of really tacky crowns for the bride and groom to be to wear.

Ian and Crystal's wedding was held in their back yard, with the reception at the local Bahai meeting house. The three girls above are Ana (Crystal's daughter), Hannah (my sister Sarah's daughter) and Masha (Ian's daughter).

There was a reception for the newlyweds at their house on Sunday morning. I went down there for about an hour, then changed and headed over to Bullhead Park to see what was happening wth a small coed ultimate tourney which was going on that weekend. There were only 4 teams; Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Lubbock, and UNM. I arrived just before semis were about to start and i picked up with the UNM team and played with them against Santa Fe. After losing that game, i switched sides and played with Santa Fe against Albuquerque in the final, which we lost.

I was working on my PowerBook, then i got up and tripped over the power cord, knocking it off the desk while it was running. Immediate stop. And then no start. I had to tear the thing apart and re-seat all of the cards, memory, and disk drive and about the third time i futzed with it, ahhhhh, it started again. Whew!

Caroline and i went to see "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" that night.

Caroline and Thomas and i went to a track meet to watch Charlie run the 100m sprint. He won his heat (that's him in front), but didn't place a good enough time to move on. After that, Charlie and Thomas and i met up with their dad Bill and went to an Albuquerque Isotopes game. The 'Topes lost to the Iowa Cubs something like 13-1.

After the game, i went over to a liitle club called Stella Blue to see Chuck's band Mucho Buddha play. I had done their CD artwork so i recognized the rest of the band, but i'd never met them. I was greeted with bear hugs when i identified myself to them. Also, my friend Blake was playing with them that night.