lolz, i'm driving across america!: June 2013

Monday, June 17, 2013

Day 7&8: Ryan and Chicago!!

The past two days Anna and I stayed with her friend Ryan in Chicago. It was awesome!!! It was so nice to get off the road for a couple days and see the city. The first day it was raining and spent the day making pancakes and hanging out in her beautiful apartment right outside the city. The next day we decided to get back into out "tourist" mode and see the sights. We visited Millennium park!! We saw the infamous bean and listened to an orchestra play in the park. Chicago is such a cool city, almost as cool Missoula!!!

The green dot to the red dot is how far we've come!!

Friday, June 14, 2013

Day 6: Mall of America

We're still alive everyone!! No worries. We got to Bloomington, Minnesota late last night and crashed at a pretty classy Motel 6. We woke up and went to Mall of America!!! And let me tell you, it IS everything it's cracked up to be. We visited the American girl doll store, inside amusement park and all of the 2 Claire's. AND MANY MORE! The mall had everything you could ever want and more. BEST PLACE IN 'MURICA!

When I went to the Mall of America with my Dad in 2004, we spent all day at this beading store. It's where I discovered my mad jewelry making skillz, it's where I found my new hobby....my new way of life!!!

We HAD to stop by Forever 21

Look how far we've come!!

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Day 5: Worlds only Corn Palace

You have not lived until you've stopped by Mitchel, South Dakota's World famous corn palace!!! The palace was built to attract tourism in 1892 and is now used as a theatre and gymnasium. There's an annual festival to reveal the years new themed design. This years design was "We Celebrate", the palace was decorated with different images illustrating different holidays like 4th of July, Easter, St. Patrick's day, Christmas and Valentines day. For more information plz visit:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Corn_Palace

Day 5: Celebrity sighting!!

WE FINALLY MADE IT IN AMERICA! Where dreams become reality. Our good friend Kevin spotted our car parked outside of the hotel and tweeted at us!!! He creatively added the hashtag. #lolzdriving is now on twitter, get it trending!!!

We did like the faces, Thanks Kevin!!!

Day 5: Wall drug

Wall Drug: Americas most favorite roadside stop!! Wall drug was founded in 1931 by Ted Hustead. It started as a small convenient store but took off when he and his wife began offering free ice water to tourists in route to Mount Rushmore. We saw billboards advertising the town way back in Bozeman, Montana (a couple posts ago). For more about Wall Drug visit: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Drug

Day 5: Mount Rushmore

In keystone Anna and I stopped to see our 4 most notable presidents CARVED IN STONE! We spent some time with Washington, Adams, Roosevelt and Lincoln. Mount Rushmore took from 1927 to 1941, to be carved. The total cost came to $989,992.32 and took about 400 workers to complete the monument. They chose Washington because he was the first president, John Adams because he signed the Lousiana Purchase, Theodore Roosevelt because he helped bridge the gap between the east and west AND Lincoln because he saved the union during the civil war!!! Each face is about 60 feet tall and each nose is 20 feet tall.

'MURICA!!

Day 4: Made it to Keystone

We finally made it to Keystone, South Dakota. On our way there we passed Crazy horse memorial and drove through the Black hills. Since it was so dark the hills were really black!!! We ate dinner at Teddy's deli that happened to have "the best Rueben on this side of the Mississippi" SCORE!

From there we slept at Roosevelt's inn, that incidentally did not have wifi LOLZ. Anna's 4th day without internets. Making progress!!

RIP our first bag of Smartfood :'(((

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Day 4: Lost Springs

Passed the crowded city of Lost springs! It consisted of 1 house and 1 abandoned bar. In 1976 it was declared one of the smallest incorporated city in America!

Day 4: Fun facts

We noticed random fences scattered throughout the fields of Wyoming

And google said "These are snow fences to prevent ground blizzards which happen in flat, windy places. Even if the snow isn't falling from the sky, the wind-whipped snow can create very dangerous conditions on roadways - zero visibility. These fences help prevent that" .....interesting, interesting. Me and Anna's guesses were embarrassingly off track.

XOXO

Day 4: Wind River

After finally making it out of Yellowstone, Anna and I wanted to head to Wind River Indian reservation but PLOT TWIST, it was no where to be found! We ended up on a street in the heart of Riverton, Wyoming. The number on the website was wrong, the woman on the phone didn't really know what Indians were. Please visit: http://m.wyomingtourism.org/travelguide/

detail/Wind-River-Reservation/31500

And work towards taking down their website of nothing but LIES. But awell YA WIN SOME YA LOSE SOME!

XOXO

Day 4: Jackson Lake

Day 4: Leaving Yellowstone

I woke up early today and took a run around the park to check out the geysers that we weren't able to see yesterday, it was a pretty scenic route. Even though my pace was a 4 minute mile, I was able to snap some picz

After Anna woke up and we packed up we said our goodbyes. We visited the Old faithful in which is a historic landmark built in 1923. The inside one large lobby, Anna and I were very confused by its purpose...but it was still awezome!!!

ANDD we're now back on track!

XOXO

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Day 3: Yellowstone National Park

After we got into the park Anna drove about 2 hours to make it to our final destination, THE old faithful geyser. We took a small (hour long) detour that took us past the lake, which would have been AWEZOME if we weren't an hour away from our destination and going on our 9th hour in the Corolla. But either way we got to see some beautiful parts of the park...

When we finally got to our cabin we were psyched because its directly next to old faithful...kind of like the splash zone. Our cabin is 203 if any of you were planning to visit, we have plenty of room! Anna makes it look really welcoming, we were going forp little house on the prairie...

After we settled into our new home we took a walk around all the geysers. By this time it was 8:30 and we had 30 minutes until Old Faithful went off again. On our walk around we came across a...BISON! We took lots of pictures with the lil' feller. He didn't seem to be half as interested in us as we were with him but, whatevaa. BFFSAEAE <3!

We managed to time our arrival perfectly because we were able to see the sunset right over the mountains!

And around 9:10, two minutes after expected, Old faithful erupted!! She went about 20ft. into the air, leaving the whole audience in awe

Afterwards Anna and I enjoyed dinner at the Snow Lodge, right across from our cabin. We learned that all the employees live in dorms and cabins, inside the park, just walking distance from the restaurant AND THEY DO HAVE WIFI FYI! The chef said that without the morning basin crossings it would take him at least 45 minutes to drive to and from work everyday. Anna and I chose to respectfully decline the job offer, thnx anyway though!!