This picture comes from the first day of our trip. We found this sign at a small park in Michigan on our way to Chicago and points west. Note the frogs on Evita's T-Shirt (from Vancouver!).

On the way home we experienced a terrific thunderstorm in Limon, Colorado. Our tent took a terrific beating from the wind (we were watching from the car). Afterwards, we almost set our sleeping bags on fire trying to dry them in the campground laundromat, so we went to a neighbouring hotel for the night, the only night we spent in a hotel. The flyof the tent leaks since that night.

Evita is interested in prairies, especially tall grass prairies, so we visited a tall grass prairie preserve in Kansas on the way back home. This is still original prairie, looking almost exactly the same as it did 130+ years ago (except for the tour bus). It gave us a new perspective on prairies and on cattle. The guide considered trees to be weeds and cattle resting in the shade under trees weren't doing their job, which is to put on weight eating the rich prairie grass.

Dave stands by a huge tire, used on trucks in the Kennecott copper mine near Salt Lake City and the world's largest open pit mine. The hole is one of the few man-made things that can be seen from the space shuttle. It's one honking big hole!

Dave decided he had to float in Salt Lake. The lake is 5 or 6 times as salty as the ocean, and you can float in the water just like in the Dead Sea.

Cedar Breaks is 10,500 feet up or more. The park has alpine meadows full of spring wildflowers, which are at their peak in early to mid-July, which was when we visited. The guide told us that 6 weeks earler, there had been up to 6 feet of snow across the road! The flowers were gorgeous - a garden planted by God!

Dave, standing under the Sand Arch, which was located inside a cluster of rocks that were reached through a narrow passage between the rocks. The arches at Arches National Park are quite amazing! There are arches all over the place.

Bryce Canyon at sunrise - this is why we travelled to Utah in the first place. Evita had seen a gorgeous National Geographic photo of Bryce that could be downloaded to use as wallpaper on our computer, and she said, "I want to go there!" So we did. And the photograph didn't mislead us, Bryce was spectacular! We also visited Arches and Zion National Parks as well as Cedar Breaks for the alpine flowers. Each was spectacular in its own way.