Sunday (last day)

We started off with breakfast at the Steve and Rachel Restaurant. They made there famous BLT's with coffee. We then got on our way to complete the remainder of our trip. As we approached the Bay area we decided to stop in Sausalito for lunch. This was convienently located close to the area Damian wanted to finish our video at. After lunch we headed that direction. Damian's plan for the ending of our video was to go to a look out point the has the Golden Gate Bridge and Downtown San Francisco in the background. We set up the video camera and he had me stand in front of it to say "We made it". Then he came over and joined me and all of the sudden he started to kneel down on one knee. He then pulled out a ring and asked me to marry him :) Oh come on, of course I said yes! It was a perfect ending for our road trip and a perfect start of our new journey together. Now if that isn't cheesy enough for you stay tuned the wedding will be September 2006...

Check it out....

Golden Gate Bridge

Lunch in Sausalito

Saturday

Well we woke up in Jackson Hole and started driving West. We drove through the rest of Wyoming, Idaho (where we did not kill a bird with our hood), Utah (where we stopped for lunch in Salt Lake City), Nevada, and finally our sleeping point Truckee, CA. While driving through Utah we had the pleasure of see the neverending salt flats. It was pretty cool. When we entered into Nevada we thought it would be really cool to see how many bugs we could take out with our windshield. We stopped every 100 miles to clean our windshield. We made to Truckee where Steve and Rachel live. These are friends of Damian's that were so cool and let us stay the night. We were pretty beat from driving twelve hours so we just went to bed.

Our friend Rachel. (Steve is hiding) Thanks again for letting us stay at your place!

Looking across the lake at the Grand Tetons.

Entrance to the Tetons.

Old Faithful showed us what she was made of right as we arrived.

Yellowstone has lots of Geothermal activity. This is Yellowstone lake and there was a pool of boiling water on the edge.

Yellowstone falls were amazing!

A Bison with her Baby in Yellowstone. She was licking the baby clean and the baby was trying to get away. "Mom! .. not in front of my friends!"

Friday

We left Cody, Wyoming the home of "Buffalo Bill" and headed toward Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone was Amazing!! We saw so many Bison/Buffalo. They were so close we could almost touch them. We knew better than that because there were signs everywhere reminding us that they were in fact wild animals. We saw the most beautiful waterfall, it was picture perfect. We continued to travel around the park and couldn't help but notice all the damage the fires had caused. Most of the park had dead trees laying on the ground and burnt stubs standing up. The positive part was that there was plenty of new growth. If there are no more massive fires the park should develop nicely. We then came upon a road block created by four legged fuzzy grunting horny animals... a.k.a Bison/Buffalo. The cars were backed up 5-6 deep and the bison didn't care they just kept truckin down the street. We got some great close-ups on film. Next adventure was "Old Faithful" so we drove along. Just before we got there, we spotted some Elk and of course took some pictures. We then pulled up and parked in the lot and starting walking toward the site of Old Faithful. We noticed a sign on the way that talked about how to perdict when Old Faithful would go off, and basically you can't perdict it. As we approached Old Faithful, we noticed about 200 people gathered around as if they had been waiting awhile. We thought oh no, I wonder how long this is going to take. As luck would have it we walked up, pulled out our camera, and there she blew. It was so awesome!

Next, The Grand Teton National Park...The Tetons are super jagged and only accessible by helicopter. What an overwhelming site. Damian fell in love with the Tetons and I think he had visions of granduer and actually wants to snowboard them...as he said only if he gets way more advanced! I think that is one goal I can do with out.

Finally, our stopping point for the night Jackson, Wyoming. We stayed at the Jackson Hole Inn. What a cool little town. We had dinner and fell on our faces. We have a big driving day tomorrow...

A waterfall in the Big Horn Mountains.

They say this won't be complet for another 10 years or so. This is the Crazy Horse Monument. The flat part will be his arm. The front will be his horse.

Thursday

We saw some cool stuff today.

We started by driving to Mt Rushmore. Then we went out to the Crazy Horse Monument. That thing is huge!! It's a whole mountain. After that we drove to see Devil's Tower. It was the US's first national monument and it was where the film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" was filmed.

Then we drove west and through the Big Horn Mountains. These mountains are amazing. At the top we were between 9 and 10 thousand feet and it was still covered with 2-5 feet of snow. After we decended we went through a canyon and on to Cody, WY where we stayed the night.

Tomorrow we are off to see Yellowstone.

A Bad team in the Badlands!!

Ground floor perspective of a formation in the Badlands.

Looking down into the Badlands.

This is looking out of someone's house toward the saloon at the Ghost town in South Dakota.

Victoria getting some good footage of the Ghost town. This place is dated back to the mid to late 1800's

Damian made a new friend too!!

Victoria made a new friend at the Corn Palace.

The Corn Palace is almost completely made of Corn!

Wednesday

What a big day!!

We left Iowa at 5am. We drove across Iowa all morning. Just before we reached Nebraska we headed north to South Dakota. Another several hours of nothing. Finally when we thought we were going to die of bordom we stopped at the Corn Palace. It's this huge palace made of Corn. They use different colored corn to make art and different patterns in the building. It was super cheesey but hey, that's what road trips are for right?

After that we came across a real ghost town. They used this town for the set of "Dances With Wolves" This place was cool. We walked around, went into the old saloon, and took lots of video. We even got to see a tumbleweed pass through. So Cliche.

We drove some more along I-90 until we reached the Badlands. We had debated whether or not we wanted to take the time out to see them but were were glad we did. They are really cool. You don't even see them coming because the peaks are at the same elevation at your approach.

Finally we arrived at Rapid City where we went for dinner. We discussed our evening plans for Camping and Victoria wasn't feeling so hot so we opted to bail on that and get a hotel room. It was a good thing because we were wiped out.

I think we might alter our agenda and drive from Jackson Hole straight to the Lake Tahoe area and stay a night with our friends Steve and Rachel. We won't stop at Salt Lake City. Since we got a hotel here we will be able to cancel the one in Salt Lake City and save some cash.

We will see Rushmore in the Morning. And then drive to WY. Pictures are on the way.

Damian and Moorea got a long pretty well. ;)

Tuesday

Finally we get some excercise. Damian's dad gave us passes to the YMCA so we could get a workout in. Afterwards, we met up with Damian's mom and Kevin (stuff) and took them to Ben's new apartment. Once Ben got home we all went for some lunch. Then We took Ben to Target for some big time shopping. We are all very proud of Ben for his new accomplishments. He has graduated college and moved out on his own. Mom and Kevin hooked him up with some pots and pans and lots of good kitchen stuff. When we got back Damian started to load music on the iPod that we got for him. Chris made it down and we all went to dinner at a really good italian place in Bettendorf, IA. Ben tried Calamari for the first time and we showed him a little about wine. Ahhh, that was a good dinner. We got in a little later than we had planned and we still need to repack the truck. We are tired and have to leave at 5am tomorrow.

Monday we had lunch with Uncle Scott and Aunt Eileen.

Monday

We slept in finally and got some good sleep. We got up and drove out to North Liberty, IA so we could have mexican with Uncle Scott and Aunt Eileen. It was nice to see them again. After that we went to the farm to see grandma, Mark, Rita, Martina, Christina, Logan, and Jerome. Damian played baseball with the boys and we have a lot of video footage but we didn't take any pics. Later we went to dinner with dad and Cyndia. Chris Brown (a friend since Damian was like 11) came so we could meet his new baby. He's going to come down again tomorrow to see Damian's mom.

There's a lot of farmland to look at in the midwest. Just loop this picture for 8 hours and you can the same thing we did on sunday. :)

Sunday

Not too exciting of a day. We saw a lot of farms. We arrived in Iowa in the evening and just ate some dinner and got some rest.

Breakfast with the Cleveland Gang. Clockwise from left: Victoria, Damian, Nikki, Chip, Cindy, Jim. This place had awesome Crepes!

We went Clubbin' in Cleveland.

Saturday

So we got a later start than we wanted. After reloading the car we went over to Queens and settled some business and met up with Kevin and Michelle for Brunch. We ended up hitting the road about 1pm. We hit a bunch of traffic in the South Bronx because of an accident.Once we got into NJ we were cruisin' along nicely. After stopping to go to the restroom about 485 times. We ended up making it to Cleveland, OH around 8:30. We changed clothes and went to dinner with Chip, Cindy, Jim, and Nikki. After dinner we headed to the club for drinks and a little dancing. There must have been a dozen bachelorette parties going on. It was nuts. There was this old dude dancing around with all the girls on stage. he was doing the robot and what not. It was great.

Another long day. Tomorrow we are off to Iowa so see the family. This will give us a chance to unpack the car, do some laundry, and get re-organized.

Paola and Victoria at the Party on Friday. Those are some hot chicas!

Here's a pic of the gang from Victoria's graduation party. Thanks again Jamin G for being the DJ!

Friday

What a Crazy day....

The plan was to sleep in and get some rest finally so we'd have a laid back day. We got up around 9am. Putzed around the house for a while and then left to meet Paola for lunch. We had some more yummy sushi. (we had sushi last night too)

So we get back and i'm looking at some computer problems on Paola's Computer and Victoria's mom calls to tell us that she and Howard just walked down 12 flights of stairs because their hotel was on fire. It turned out to be a pretty big fire. It started as an electrical fire on the 6th floor and ended up with bellows of smoke pouring out of the roof. After about an hour of phone calls, we found them a new room.

We tried to get our stuff squared away and finally we made it to Jamin and Melissa's house. (Jamin is a good friend of mine who is also a DJ) We got the DJ gear into the car and got cleaned up and ready for the party there. We ended up walking into the Party right at 8:00pm. So needless to say we were running late.

Crazy day but we still had fun at the party. Nothing was going to stand in the way of that.

I will post some pics from the party.

We had to talk to one of the security guards in front of the New York Stock Exchange to get down Broad street for the party. Luckily they let us in and then we were able to park right out front all night. Score!!

After the party we decided it would be easiest to stay the night at Jamin and Melissa's loft in Brooklyn. It was nice. It gave us a chance to hang out and talk about old times.

Pizza at Lombardi's

More Graduation

Graduation Pictures

Thursday

Graduation Day!

After breakfast Cindy and I sat in Washington Square Park and waited to see Victoria's Procession into the park for graduation.

After graduation her uncle Jim showed up to take her grandparents home. The rest of us went for lunch at Lombardi's who claims to be the first Pizza place in the USA. It could be possible but there are like 6 places in NY that claim that.

After lunch we took Cindy to get her haircut while we went dowtown to show Victoria's mom and Howard the Gym that Victoria worked at.

The haircut finished before we did so she decided to go pierce her nipple. Whoo Hoo! She's a crazy one sometimes.

finally, we took Cindy to the airport, parked the car, and met Victoria's mom and Howard for dinner.

Wednesday

I arrived around 7am after sleeping my whole flight. Good thing because Victoria's frend Cindy flew in around 8:30.

We ran around the city all day as Cindy encouraged us to have drinks all day.

I got a phone call while we were at one place so I went outside to take the call but it was so lout I thought it would be a good idea to go into the foyer of the building next door. One of the tenants came by so I held the door and he proceeded to physically throw me out. I gave him a few choice words. He came back to the bar looking for me so we could shout mean phrases back and forth. Then Victoria threw him out. LOL she's a tough chick sometimes.

Wednesday night we went to Roy's for dinner with Paola, Donald, Cindy, Victoria's mom, Howard, and Victoria's grandparents.

Good deed

I'm at the colliseum station to get to the airport and I needed to ask the station agent a question. The girl in front of me couldn't get home because the turnstile ate her ticket. The agent says "we have a policy against giving away free tickets"

So here she is stuck in the midle of Oakland with no way home. I did the right thing and have her a couple of bucks to get home. She wanted my address to mail it back to me but I wouldn't give it to her. Maybe I just wanted her to leave so I could get out of there myself. Whatever, we both got where we needed to go and it all worked out in the end.

Now, its time to get on this plane already

Okay so i'm about to head to the airport. I always feel like I'm running late and i'm forgetting something. I guess that's normal. I'm starving. I need to eat on the way out of here. This is going to be an awesome trip.

Itinerary

Okay so the time is quickly approaching that we will be starting this trip so let me start by posting an itinerary. If anyone has any suggestions for things that we "can't miss" feel free to post/comment.

• I am flying from San Francicso to New York on Tuesday night (arriving Wednesday morning) May 10th/11th.
• Thursday is Victoria's graduation
• Friday we are having a party to celebrate. See eVite here http://www.evite.com/pages/invite/viewInvite.jsp?event=CEHEYXFNUHVDCLCGNNGC
• Saturday we are leaving. We will drive all afternoon and arrive in Cleveland, OH. We will be staying at some of Victoria's undergrad friends' house. I'm sure this will only lead to yet another crazy night of partying.
• Sunday (when we finally get moving) we will drive from Ceveland to Iowa. We will be staying at my Dad's house in the Quad Cities. Perfect timing too because my little brother will be graduating from College too. This way we get to celebrate with him too. My mom http://www.violapace.com is coming up from Florida for this one so we get to see her and Kevin too. We are going to hang out for a couple of days here and recover.
• Wednesday morning (early) we depart Iowa for South Dakota. Where we will drive through the badlands if time permits and head over near Mt Rushmore. We are camping out near there.
• From South Dakota we head west to Cody, WY. This is the original home of Buffalo Bill. We will stay the night in a hotel here so we can wake up refreshed.
• Friday we aren't going to cover much ground but we will be spending the day in Yellowstone National Park and The Grand Tetons
• Friday Night we stay in a lodge in Jackson Hole
• Saturday we take a short drive from Jackson down to Salt Lake City where we get to see our friends Burke and Brandi
• Sunday is the last day of the trip where we will drive the Utah Salt Flats and then into Nevada, through the Siera Nevada Mountains, and to San Francisco.

How Exciting!!