Where there's a will, there's a way... Pirated Wi-fi!

Well, we are still alive. For those of you looking for a post today we are sorry we didn't get anything up last night. We are here in Gering, Nebraska at the Russel's (Becca's grandparents) and having a great time seeing the mid-west (me) and having a homecoming (Becca). For those of you that don't know Becca was born here and has half of her Mom's family still living here. It's been great to finally meet the rest of the family and seeing everyone again. (Becca hasn't been here for 14 years.) We would have posted last night but her grandparent's computer isn't working. We discovered that one of their neighbors has wifi today and here we are posting pirate style.


To catch everyone up: We left Custer yesterday morning after surviving our night of camping. Couldn't complain about the camping except that it got down into the 40's in the middle of the night and it was freezing. Thank God we had the extra comforter, and a Fred blanket.


After packing up we made our way up to Mount Rushmore. Wow, what a sight! Can you imagine taking the time to carve a head out of a mountain? I was only disappointed that the presidents weren't bigger. Everything you learn/see in school makes you think that it's the side of a huge mountain. I guess I was thinking it was much bigger than it actually was. Thank goodness that there is not a lot to see there as it was almost 100 degrees and we had to leave Fred in the car. We ended up doing Rushmore in a little over a half hour.


We were going to try and swing by the wind caves after Rushmore, but on the way down the mountain we encountered an accident and had to turn around and go down the mountain the other way. So, from there we eneded up going south to Gering. I don't recommed tyring to play auto bingo in the car while traveling through the heart of the midwest. Just ask Becca how hard it is to find a road sign with a S-turn on it for bingo. Hee Hee. Needless to say it took us over 45 mins just to play one game.


After a short day of driving we ended up in Gering, at Grandma and Papa's, around 3:30, and then got to see the rest of the family after dinner. I have to say that Scottsbluff and Gering are very nice and much bigger than Becca led me to believe. It's much bigger and has much more stuff than I expected - I think that it's much bigger that both Oswego and Scotia combined. Needless to say, you can see the bluffs to the west from just about anywhere in town. It's very cool.


Today we got the first class tour seeing both the Scottsbluff Natinonal Monument, home of a major pass for the Oregon Trail, and Wildcat hills. Both were beautiful, even in the rain. Where else can you actually see the remnants of pioneers moving west? The wagon ruts are still in the sandstone.


Tonight we ended up have a great mexican dinner with all the Russel family, and are getting ready for our big day tommorow. Tommorow we leave here and cross through Wyoming. Yes Zach, we will see a good portion of your home state. The end of our day will see us going through the Grand Teton's and Yellowstone park.


Well that's all from me tonight, hopefully Papa's neighbor doesn't realize his bandwidth is slightly lower. We'll post again tomm from West Yellowstone.


Jason


Hi everyone - it's Becca. I'm sure you didn't think I could go a night without posting myself! We have to apologize for the lack of pictures.... because we're using someone else's wi-fi, we keep losing the connection, and it's too much to try to upload pictures. When we get to the hotel tomorrow night, we'll give you a couple shots of Rushmore, Scottsbluff National Monument, and the Wildcat Hills.
Until then, and in case the Russel clan gets a chance to log in... it was great to get to see everyone! It was too bad Gene had to be away this week and Dionna couldn't make it to dinner, but it was great to see everyone else. Hopefully you'll all make your way up to Kodiak sometime in the next three years - there's a spare room and even a car to use waiting for you!!!
Since I have no pictures to post, I guess I'll keep this shorter than I thought! Pictures to come tomorrow!
Becca