Salt Lake City, UT

We learned a ton about Salt Lake City and The Great Salt Lake! We learned what a hub was, why a capital city is important, and about the history of the city. What a wild story!

Mining booms and the construction of the first transcontinental railroad initially brought economic growth, and the city became nicknamed the Crossroads of the West. In the 21st century the city has developed a strong outdoor recreation tourism industry (skiing and biking), become the industrial banking center of the U.S, and served as host to the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Reno, Nevada

We learned about rocks and why we shouldn't go to the casino tonight!

Reno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 180,480, making it the second-largest city in Nevada. Current census estimates, however, show the city's population has grown to approximately 214,000 but the city is now the third largest in the state, following Las Vegas and Henderson. Reno lies 26 miles north of the Nevada state capital, Carson City, and 22 miles northeast of Lake Tahoe in the high desert. The area of western Nevada and the California Sierra Nevada anchored by Reno has a population of approximately 650,000. Reno shares its eastern border with the city of Sparks. Reno, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World", is famous for its casinos, and is the birthplace of the gaming corporation Harrah's Entertainment. Reno residents are referred to as "Renoites."

Yellowstone National Park

Did you know that this was the first National Park in the world? What an amazing place with so much to see! We could spend a week here!

Yellowstone National Park, set aside as a national park on March 1, 1872, is located mostly in the U.S. state of Wyoming, though it also extends into Montana and Idaho. The park was the first of its kind, and is known for its wildlife and geothermal features, especially Old Faithful Geyser, one of the most popular areas in the park.

Missoula, MT

Did you know that Missoula has a city wide read in once a year! This town loves to read and it shops up in their community! The Clark Fork River was filthy, so what did they do? Blame others? No! They cleaned it up as a group. They think on their feet. The river front is beautiful with sculptures and views that warm the heart. What a completely awesome town!

Glacier National Park!

Ranger Julia told us about Glacier National Park today. WOW! We learned about Glaciers, endangered animals, global warming and much much more!

This is an amazing place!! Talk about beauty and wonder!! It has been a while since I have been here and I am glad to be back!!

Glacier National Park is dominated by mountains which were carved into their present shapes by the huge glaciers of the last ice age. Evidence of widespread glacial action is found throughout the park in the form of U-shaped valleys, glacial cirques,arêtes and large outflow lakes radiating like fingers from the base of the highest peaks.

Spokane, WA

Beautiful city with tons to do! I learned so much about Spokane that I didn't know! Every city in the US has so many wonderful secrets! The parks here are great and the sculptures bring the city to life. They even have a city clock that is still wound by hand! We got to try Washington apples! It is the state fruit and they are delicious!

Seattle, WA

For all of the coffee drinkers out there, we are in the city where Starbucks started. It even smells like coffee here. It also smells like fish. We went to the fish market today, those guys are crazy. They love there job so much that they made a video about it called "Fish." They were very funny and very nice.

There are some similarities between San Francisco and Seattle, they deal with earthquakes and they had their own gold rush.

The Space Needle was awesome. We ate lunch up there today!

Portland, OR

What a place to spend a weekend!! It is sooo beautiful here! We will be taking a day off on Monday to celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This will be nice place to take an extra day and see the sites! Hope that you are staying warm back home!!

Portland has a great light rail system and is surrounded by 32 volcanoes! Thanks goodness none of them are active. We might go skiing and hiking this weekend!

Crater Lake

Ranger Dave told us that Crater Lake is a caldera lake in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and famous for its deep blue color and water clarity. The lake partly fills a nearly 4,000 feet caldera that was formed by the collapse of the volcano Mount Mazama.

On June 12, 1853, John Wesley Hillman was reportedly the first European American to see what he named "Deep Blue Lake" in Oregon. The lake was renamed at least three times, as Blue Lake, Lake Majesty, and finally Crater Lake.

Crater Lake is known for its famous piece of driftwood named the "Old Man of the Lake." It is a full-sized tree that has been bobbing vertically in the lake for more than a century. Due to the cold water of the lake, the tree has been rather well preserved.

Redding is Beautiful!

What a hidden gem!! Talk about a beautiful area and we are still in great weather! San Fransisco was amazing. We used chop sticks in Chinatown. Shari came to visit us and had a great way to learn how to use them. We are moving along and learning a lot. I am sending home a story about the San Francisco earthquake. Today we saw a bridge that is a sundial! How cool is that!?

How about that pine cone!?

San Francisco, CA

The kids woke me up and got me out of the tent this morning and oh what a beautiful morning it was!!

What a town!!! It is endless. There is no way that you can do this town in a day much less a week! We went to Chinatown, Lombard Street, The Golden Gate and Alcatraz. We had a beautiful day in the 60's and enjoyed learning about the gold rush and how some people survived by being entrepreneurs. One person took advantage of the Gold Rush by making their fortune in chocolate!

San Diego, CA

Wow! What a beautiful morning! We ate breakfast outside today and had our morning meeting. We will be heading up the coast and leaving San Diego. We had a great weekend. Some went across the boarder, while others went to the zoo and still others enjoyed the beach. It is always a nervous time starting a journey.

As you can see in the picture I was nervous in San Diego last summer as we waited at the start of the Race Across America. It is a combination of excitement and nerves. You know that you are alive!

We learned a lot of new things today! We learned about the San Andreas Fault, imports and exports, plate tectonics and all about San Diego's many attractions!

We are Rolling!

Bus Driver Bob is driving us west! We have already seen some amazing things about the Midwest! We learned that this is an area that is known for agriculture!

The kids are nervous, excited, scared and thrilled! They are ready to see the world. We are looking for the many wonderful things about our country. Our eyes are open. We will miss you but we will call every night!

Heading Out!

So this is it, tomorrow we load up the bus and head down the road. We should be in California by Sunday morning. Don't worry about us, we have trained for this journey. We are ready for challenge and we are ready to learn!

One Day Closer

We are one day closer to heading down the road. We are fit and we are ready! Yesterday we checked our fitness in class. We will need to work as a team! Today we are going to look ahead to the trip and we are going to practice using a GPS.

Gathering for the Journey!

We have studied the weather patterns that we might face. It is all coming together now.

We have gathered together to get ready for our trip. Mr. E. is checking our supplies to make sure we have everything we need. It is important to organize our things to make sure we know where everything is. Wish us luck!

Getting Ready!

We are back at school and getting ready to go! We had a long break and all of the kids came back with great stories. Our goal in our campsite will be to "be beautiful." When you are on the road with the same group of people to months you need an easy one liner to fall back on. Our line, when in doubt... be beautiful. There will be times where we really need to be patient and will need to care for each other, even when we might not feel like it at the moment! Be beautiful everybody!