We started out on our initial leg of our trip with just my brother Sean, me (Jed), and our two dogs, Buster and Kidogo (picture outside a tourist center in Salt Lake City Utah). Generally Sean navigated with "Roxie" the computer (voice activated DeLorme Street Atlas 2005) helping us out with directions and such. On our way across Nevada we took a shot of this odd sculpture along highway 80 that's probably familiar to anybody who's made that trip.

We spent our first night in Winnemucca, Nevada where there was a flood. I'd never before heard of the Winnemucca to the Sea Highway. Here's a similar map from the DeLorme software. I was amused by this sign declaring Winnemucca the "Gateway to the Pacific Northwest and the Blackrock desert". I guess I'll have to take that route some time.

Next we headed throug Utah. Here's the state capitol building in Salt Lake City. Sean wanted to touch the Great Salt lake, so here he is touching it. To get there we had to drive off road along this dirt road with pot holes and brave many mosquitos -video. Here's a nice shot from near the capitol.

That night we spent in Pocatello, Idaho. The next day were toured Yellowstone National Park. We were greeted by bison in the fields and along the road. We even got to see some bears - video.` Naturally we spent some time viewing the geyser areas and got one nice video of one going off. You can see Sean in that video near the end. Of course we visited Old Faithful and even got a hand stand shot by the clock there. I seldom got behind the camera, so here is a video clip to show that I'm here too. Of course there's beautiful scenery there like the Norris Canyon Falls and valley. Here's a shot of Yellowstone Lake. As I recall it was in the Lamar valley that I spotted my favorite flower, a shooting star.

We spent the night in a little resort called Silvergate. Here is what our cabin looked like on the outside and on the inside. Rustic living. We set up a DVD movie that Sean had brought along, so we had all the comforts of home.

Of course I shouldn't forget out companions Buster and Kidogo. Their greatest fun was getting out of the car and chasing the aerobie as in this video.

As we left Yellowstone and headed east we didn't really have any plans until we hit the Dakotas. However, we lucked into the Chief Joseph scenic highway. There are really some beautiful scenes along that highway, like this view back toward the valley of Dead Indian Creek. Here's a video pan from that same location. Very impressive. Here's a shot of Sean looking down into the gorge of Sunlight Creek. It's an amazing gorge that you can get a better idea about from this poor quality video clip. Truely awesome.

When we got down into the flats of Wyoming we ran into some interesting weather like this tornado that touched down not far from our car and the later hail that pounded our car enough that we had to pull off the road under a tree. We also ran into some pretty serious snow in the Big Horn mountains and were afraid for a time that we wouldn't make it through. We finally made it to Gillette, Wyoming, found a motel (despite the energy convention in town) and had our well deserved Moose Drool.