Since I graduated I needed to figure out what I was doing with my life. I decided a while back that I would move to North Carolina and gain residency to hopefully attend UNC's Physical Therapy program. Now the hard part... getting from Provo, UT to Wake Forest, NC (where my uncle Geoff lives). Thanks to my dad we made our second road trip across the country. Last time we did it in three days. The first day we made it maybe a mile east because we went to see Zion's National Park. The second day we drove about 22 hours from Flagstaff, AZ to Little Rock, AR. This was probably the scariest drive I have made because I felt like I was in the movie twister! Needless to day we decided to take 5 days and not beat ourselves up driving so much.
This year (2011) we started out for Jackson, WY. When we got there we started to check into a hotel when the manager said that this passage into Yellowstone is closed until mid may. Good thing we stopped there! So we drove to Rexburg, ID and I got to see BYU ID. Very different from BYU Provo! There were nothing but farms around BYU ID but I have to say I think it was prettier than Provo (Provo is a little run down if I do say so myself). Anyways we stayed in a very modernized Marriott. Never have seen a Marriott room like this! I had to text my Aunt Debbie to say "WOW this is different!" She said that her team is trying to make it more appealing to the younger crowd and I can say that it certainly would do that. Still had the best hotel bed and that's all I cared about :)
We left Rexburg and headed for the West entrance of Yellowstone because that was the closes entrance that was open. When we approached the entrance we saw beautiful mountains and had to stop and take a few pictures :)
Once we entered Yellowstone we first spotted buffalo. We both got really excited even if they were on the other side of the river. We didn't know that we were going to see about A LOT of buffalo and VERY close.
After Old Faithful we went to see the hot pots which were pretty cool. Each one was different. They were all different colors shapes and sizes.
after yellowstone the next day we headed out to Mount Rushmore. Along the way my dad decided to take a detour and see Devil's Rock from Alien Encounters. If you haven't seen the movie (like me) it is this giant rock that looks like a tower and is flat on top. My dad wanted to take the crazy pictures... haha
Then once we drove about 20 miles in the opposite direction we got back on the main road and reached a little town called Keystone and had a lunch at a cute little diner. After seeing all the bison dad had to get the bison burger for lunch haha! Then we headed a few miles more up a mountain to see Mount Rushmore. It was actually pretty cool to see in person. I can't imagine creating that! We read all about how they made it and it is pretty amazing and it took about 14 years!
After seeing this amazing national monument we started to drive towards our next stop which was Mall of America. One of the many time we stopped for gas and this is what one of the prices were....
We didn't get all the way to Mall of America and we stopped in Fairmont, MN. Needless to say dad didn't like the Holiday Inn we stayed at so he SWEARS by Marriott now (not that he didn't before but this just confirmed it! haha) Once we woke up we started driving to M of A. It was raining but good thing this mall was HUGE so we didn't have to worry about being outside like all the other stops on this trip! We got to the mall fairly early so the roller coaster was not running and once it opened we had already had lunch.... good choice not to go on it. Even though I already was grateful that my dad was doing this drive for the second time with me, he bough me a great graduation present... a new iPhone :) Thanks dad!
Even though we didn't get to stop we drove by Chicago at night. That was really amazing because it was lit up and such a great view! I wish we could have stopped there but we had to keep driving. One day I hope I can go back :)
At this point we were both exhausted from being in the car for 4 days and we were ready to be home. So once we saw signs for VA we were really excited! But even though we were in VA we still had a couple hours until home. Overall it was a fun time and I got to see somethings I probably wouldn't see otherwise.
Thanks Dad for putting up with me for 5 days in a car and thanks for planning the whole trip. Love you!
FOR MORE PICTURES OF THE TRIP CLICK HERE!
Once we entered Yellowstone we first spotted buffalo. We both got really excited even if they were on the other side of the river. We didn't know that we were going to see about A LOT of buffalo and VERY close.
We drove by all these buffalo and went to go see old faithful. We arrived about 10 minutes before it went off. This was good because it goes off every hour and half-ish so I didn't want to wait that long.
after yellowstone the next day we headed out to Mount Rushmore. Along the way my dad decided to take a detour and see Devil's Rock from Alien Encounters. If you haven't seen the movie (like me) it is this giant rock that looks like a tower and is flat on top. My dad wanted to take the crazy pictures... haha
Then once we drove about 20 miles in the opposite direction we got back on the main road and reached a little town called Keystone and had a lunch at a cute little diner. After seeing all the bison dad had to get the bison burger for lunch haha! Then we headed a few miles more up a mountain to see Mount Rushmore. It was actually pretty cool to see in person. I can't imagine creating that! We read all about how they made it and it is pretty amazing and it took about 14 years!
After seeing this amazing national monument we started to drive towards our next stop which was Mall of America. One of the many time we stopped for gas and this is what one of the prices were....
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| If you don't get it... premium was less than regular! |
We didn't get all the way to Mall of America and we stopped in Fairmont, MN. Needless to say dad didn't like the Holiday Inn we stayed at so he SWEARS by Marriott now (not that he didn't before but this just confirmed it! haha) Once we woke up we started driving to M of A. It was raining but good thing this mall was HUGE so we didn't have to worry about being outside like all the other stops on this trip! We got to the mall fairly early so the roller coaster was not running and once it opened we had already had lunch.... good choice not to go on it. Even though I already was grateful that my dad was doing this drive for the second time with me, he bough me a great graduation present... a new iPhone :) Thanks dad!
Even though we didn't get to stop we drove by Chicago at night. That was really amazing because it was lit up and such a great view! I wish we could have stopped there but we had to keep driving. One day I hope I can go back :)
At this point we were both exhausted from being in the car for 4 days and we were ready to be home. So once we saw signs for VA we were really excited! But even though we were in VA we still had a couple hours until home. Overall it was a fun time and I got to see somethings I probably wouldn't see otherwise.
Thanks Dad for putting up with me for 5 days in a car and thanks for planning the whole trip. Love you!
FOR MORE PICTURES OF THE TRIP CLICK HERE!
