George Rogers Clark

Here's someone you don't read about in textbooks! George Rogers Clark and his men walk through frozen rivers with no food for days. Their goal was to get to Fort Sacville and attack the British. They surprised the British and British Governor Hamilton was forced to surrender. The victory gave America the Northwest territory. The Northwest Territory gave us lots more transportation opportunities! It is the largest memorial built on a fort (Fort Sacville). A bonus fun fact: George Rogers Clark is William Clark's older brother! While George was fighting at age 26, William was at home in Virginia at age 9! 

Inside the memorial 

Santa Claus, IN

Today we went to Santa Claus, Indiana so send Christmas cards. There is a giant Santa Claus in front of just about every store!! Very cute little town. 

Vicksburg, Mississippi

We started the day at Vicksburg. We followed a path and saw markers where the Union and Confederate soldiers were. It was really cool. There was a huge Texas granite memorial for all the Texas soldiers that fought. We got to look at and go inside an iron clad boat called the Cairo. It was really cool and really inspired Dad. 

Cairo

Happy Happy (really) Happy

At Duck Commander we did get to see the Duck Dynasty trailer and RV. That was really cool! And we saw the warehouse. We saw the famous wooden Duck Commander and Buck Commander sign out front. From there we went to the gift shop. There were t-shirts and ornaments and bobbles heads and Si cups. There was Duck Dynasty gear EVERYWHERE!!! 

The famous sign

The trailer

The merchandise. 

Forrest of the Giants

We went to Sequoia National Park. The trees were enormous! It's really amazing! And when you knock on the tree it doesn't feel hard. We had a great time looking at all the trees!! 

As we were driving out we saw a little black bear yearling sitting on his bum and scratching his tummy! It was super adorable. He was just sitting like a little human! Sadly we didn't get any pictures because he got spooked, but I will never forget seeing him! 

My dad standing by a tree (he's 6'2) 

The car driving in between two sequoias! 

The gps as we tried to leave the sequoias

Our view on the road!! 

Yosemite

Yosemite is absolutely gorgeous! It was a perfect day, beautiful weather, and sunny skies. We saw Bridal Veil Falls and El Capitan. 

BASQUE FOOD!!!

For the first time ever, I had basque food at J&T's in Gardnerville, Nevada. We got the lunch special which meant they kept bringing us more and more food (which I can't complain about since it was all so yummy!). First it was sourdough bread, then soup, then salad, then rice and beans, then french fries and our main course (mine was lamb chips), and finally ice cream!!! It was so delicious and we had to waddle out of the restaurant, because we were so full!! Now we have all possible California basque restaurants marked on the map, just in case we are in the general area! 

  (They had to have big tables there with all the food!) 

Virginia City, NV

Cool, old, little town built on a hill. Lots of saloons!! Really took you back to the old west. Some really cool houses and some really creepy ones! 

The newspaper enterprise Mark Twain worked for! Now its a Mark Twain museum.

"What movie is that?"

Today we traveled to Preston, Idaho to see where Napoleon Dynamite was filmed. It did not exactly go as planned. First off they have street names like 3rd E street and so on so the streets were confusing. Finally we found Pedro's house it had a "vote for Pedro" sign in the window which was cool 

Then we found an elementary which had the teatherball pole where Napoleon is always playing teatherball. There was no teatherball but the pole was there! 

We saw the thriftshop where Napoleon got his "awesome" suit for the dance, but sadly it was closed. We looked in bunches of stores but there were no "vote for Pedro" tshirts in the whole town. When i asked one lady if they had any she replied, "What movie is that, again"? Basically the moral of this story is that if a fairly popular movie is filmed in your town, know where to find the souvenirs and what the movies name is... Somebody might have traveled thousands of miles to get there!!! 

Bighorn Canyon

In Wyoming AND Montana there is a beautiful canyon called the Bighorn Canyon. When we got there we had some not-so-good buffalo summer sausage to dispose of. So I threw it as far as I could to try to hit the water. When I looked down I realized there where people down in the canyon where I had just thrown a piece of sausage...OOPS! The Bighorn Canyon was my first canyon ever. It was jaw-droppingly beautiful!! 

Wild Mustangs

Just out of Bighorn Canyon we saw a sign that told us there were wild mustangs in the area. Even though I'm not a fan of horses, I still thought it would be cool to see them. We looked all around but didn't see any horses. That's when we saw a small body grazing pretty far away on a hill (about half a mile). So we decided to try to sneakily get closer. We ended up only 100-50 feet away from them. It was amazing because they just looked at us, then put their head down and ate again. Finally they walked away showing they weren't interested in us anymore. But it was really amazing how close we got and how different they look from domestic horses! 

BEST PIE EVERRR!!

At the Sunset Cafe in Ranchester, Wyoming, I had the most amazing pie ever. As soon as the waitress said they had triple berry apple rhubarb pie, I wanted it. Dad even let me have the very last slice. When I actually ate the pie, it was so good!!!! It was absolutely the best pie I had ever had! 

1st Mountain Snow

We saw our first mountain snow in the Bighorn mountains. Snow frosted all the trees and it was just like a winter wonderland, even though it's still autumn. 

A freezing waterfall

Paranormal Activity at Yellowstone

Today we went to Yellowstone National Park. Most of it was closed because of the weather, but we did get to the the Mammoth Hot Springs. It was beautiful! Hot Springs are just so different it was almost surreal. I've never seen anything like the hot springs before in my life!

We then went to the Mammoth Springs general store. There we were informed that a ghost named Lily haunts the store and knocks over book. Apparently there are a couple ghosts haunting Yellowstone. I was (un)lucky enough to meet one. It was quite scary. It's my second paranormal encounter on this trip and I don't really intend on having a third!! 

 

The Not So Bad Badlands

Erosion carved out this beautiful National Park in South Dakota. Even though it was cold, we still got some awesome pictures! 

PRAIRIE DOGS!!!

The prairie dogs here are so cute!! So naturally i had to take some (silly) pictures when i saw a 12 foot one...

Historic Geocache

Found a Geocache in a beautiful place. Learned some history too!! 

FIRST SNOW

In Harrison, Nebraska, on the side of the road, I played in the snow for the first time on this trip!!! I hopped out of the car, crossed the road, and jumped around in the snow. All of the Nebraskans driving by looked at me like I was crazy, but I had a blast!! It was only a patch of snow, but it felt like a winter wonderland!!!