The View from the Dells!

First, my apologies to all you East Coasters who are looking for updates earlier in the day - but it's only 11pm here, so you're stuck waiting til tomorrow. Just think - it's only going to get worse the further we go west!

So today was a beautiful day in the Wisconsin Dells. Originally, Jason and I thought we'd go to one of the bazillion indoor water park/theme park places while we were here, but we changed our minds after our full day at Cedar Point, and decided to sight-see instead. We couldn't be happier with that decision! After dropping Fred off at doggie daycare, we headed out on a 2-hour boat ride/walking tour of the Upper Dells. WOW!!!!!!!!! It was really beautiful, and I think this must be the best time of year for it, with all the trees fully green, a little bit of a chill still in the air, and not a lot of boat traffic on the river. The tour took us through some amazing rock formations and tiny waterways that would make the best Coast Guard shipdriver cringe! The scenery was beautiful, and we just enjoyed our time on the water (even if Jason got stuck sitting next to a chatty grandpa who seemed to be tired of his own crew!!!). Part of the tour is the dog jump across two rock formations - an interesting quirk of the area based on an historical event that proved that an instant shutter worked on a camera. Here's some history: http://www.dellsboats.com/html/history.html

And, here are a few pictures to share with you from the Dells.

This one just gives you an idea of the greenery and a little bit of the rock formation. It was taken during a walking portion at a place called "Witches Gulch." I got all kinds of great shots in there - and annoyed everyone on the path by stopping every two seconds and fiddling with my camera. One of these days I have GOT to learn how to use that thing!!!!

The next shot is from Stand Rock - the famous dog jump. Again, a little slow on the uptake, I didn't think to put the camera in continuous mode so I would actually get the dog in mid-air. But I got him taking off from the rock at least. I was surprised he didn't take a running start at all - he just walked up to the edge and jumped!

In the interest of saving time (we have limited wi-fi connectivity because they put the dog people at the very end of the hotel), I'm going to skip any other Dells pictures and move onto our after-dinner drinks. Of course, we found the local brew-pub (actually, brew-pizza place), and popped in for a sampler after dinner and before we had to go pick up Fred. So here's a picture of the two of us and our "Ten-Pointer" sampler... and, yes, Jim, the beer was all really good!!! Not only was the beer good, but Jason highly approved of the bathroom - apparently there were windows above the urinals, so Jason enjoyed playing the license plate game while he was in there! (This is what he gets for posting that picture of me sticking my tongue out!) The place was called Moosejaw Pizza and Brewery, and they had 10 different beers on tap (thus, the 10-pointer). Jason has no shame (reference the urinal story), and asked the bartender to snap a picture. I hate being so touristy, but I have to admit it's nice to have some pictures that actually have BOTH of us in them!!

In other Dells excitement, we had hibachi dinner and bought some genuine Wisconsin cheese that was a nice snack tonight back in the room. Of course, the room stinks now (it's a buffalo - as in wings - jack, so the room smells like chicken wings), but it was worth it. Wisconsin isn't known for its cheese for no reason!

Tomorrow is going to be a long day for us - we'll be driving from here all the way to Wall, SD. I'm not sure what we were thinking when we planned that one, but we're stuck with it now! We're guessing we have at least 12 hours in the car tomorrow, so if anyone's bored, we'll be on the cells (if they work out there!!!).

We love reading everyone's comments, so please keep 'em coming!

Vicki - Fred misses you, too!

Mrs. Winkler - no, I cannot stop calling you Mrs. Winkler... really, I just couldn't do it! I don't think I could do this trip the way you did - I need the comforts of a hotel!!!

Mom - sorry we're late getting these done every night. We'll have no news tomorrow night, though, so this should last ya!

Miss and love you all!!!

Becca (Jason would sign off, too, but he's sleeping. I'll give him a pass on falling asleep long before me again, though, since he's the one doing most (if not all) of the driving!)

Good news for hotel lovers; Bad news for s'mores lovers....

For anyone who may be following our trip close enough to also be following the weather out this way, you'll be happy to know that we are safe and sound, even with the current tornado watch and thunderstorm warning!
We decided to check the weather real quick this morning before leaving Sandusky - since we had planned to camp for two nights - and we're REALLY glad we did! My jaw almost hit the floor when I saw high wind and strong thunderstorms forecast, along with the possiblities of tornadoes (or, "tormadoes," right, Mom?) coming from the storm. The forecast also included heavy hail and rain - exactly the kind of weather that's PERFECT for camping, right? So, thanks to AAA again, we did a quick search to try to find a hotel. Come to find out, the reason we decided to camp here in the first place was that very few of the hotels in the area are pet friendly.... which made the search frustrating. But, we found one a little south of the Wisconsin Dells in Baraboo, WI (a 3-diamond one, no less!), that accomodates Mr. Fred (along with a bunch of other dogs from families who abandoned their camping plans as well!).
So far, we haven't seen any of the severe weather, but we're happy we made this decision. Anyone who knows me knows I'm not much of a camping girl anyway, but, oddly enough, I'm a little disappointed. Truth be told, I just wanted the s'mores! We'll have another chance in a few days when we pitch our tent at the Flintstones Bedrock City Campground in S.Dakota (reliving a piece of my childhood!), so hopefully that one will pan out for us! After that, we have one more shot at this camping thing, but it's in a KOA Kabin, so it's not the same. I told Jason we can pitch the tent in the backyard in Kodiak when we get there - that didn't seem to be a solution, but I'm sure we'll get another chance!
So, after a little over 8 hours in the car today (and one VERY unhappy dog - wait til we get to the 14-hr day!), we're safe at a Best Western in Baraboo, resting up for some sight-seeing in the Dells tomorrow. Fred will be checking into a local doggie daycare (which he'll hopefully like better than the kennel at Cedar Point, but not nearly as much as All Four Paws!), and Jason and I are planning on either a Duck Tour or a more leisurely boat tour of the Dells, along with some shopping (of course!), and other general touristy things here in the Dells. It'll probably be a low-key day, though, since we're looking at a looooong trip on Saturday from here all the way to Wall, SD (almost 700 miles in a day - ACK!).
So that's it from Wisconsin for today. After our tours tomorrow, I'm sure I'll have some pictures to share.... and hopefully at least one of Jason will be as flattering as the one he put up of me yesterday!

Cedar Point should be on all cross countries!!!

Well it's been another fun day for the three of us. We woke up in Sandusky, Ohio and readied ourselves for a great day at the amusement park. We meaning Becca and I, Fred didn't have as much fun as us. He spent the day in the kennel at the park. He did get to meet a couple of other dogs, but he seemed to want to chase the roller coaster when we had him outside to walk.

Anyways, Becca and I did about 12 of the 17 coasters, with only one that we didn't like. We did love the Top Thrill dragster. Wow, 0 to 70 in 3 seconds and then over 400' into the air. It was awesome!

We ended up spending all day there and got back to the hotel around 7 pm. Fred was glad that we finally sprung him out of the clink.

Here are a couple of other pictures from our day, and one of the truck since we said that we would show you how we look like the Beverly Hillbillies. Tomorrow we'll be heading to the Dells in Wisconsin and will be camping for the first time on our trip. We'll try to post while we're there, but we can't guarantee anything. Hope all is well. Jason

Boring day today.... fun starts tomorrow!

Today was just a day of driving, so nothing big to add. We had a short trip (about 4 hours-ish) from Niagara to Sandusky, OH. We planned it this way so we could have a fresh start to hit Cedar Point Amusement Park tomorrow. For those who aren't familiar with it, Cedar Point is one of the best places in the world for riding roller coasters - they have 17 of them! Needless to say, tomorrow should be fun!

Meanwhile, tonight is just a quiet night in Sandusky. I decided I didn't want to make any decisions tonight, so I told Jason to pick one of the millions of restaurants on the road our hotel is on. I'm sure it will come as a surprise to no one that he picked Outback. Figures. Oh well, it's not like we'll have access to one of those once we get to Kodiak!

So that's it for tonight, with the exception of sharing a few pictures from our walk back to Niagara Falls last night after dark. They light up the Falls every night, and it was just gorgeous. Thanks to my tripod and the night setting on my camera, I got some fantastic shots - and I had fun playing with the shutter speed and learning some things about my camera! So, enjoy, and we'll let you know how Cedar Point is. (Oh, and Jason says hi!)

A Meeting with an online friend, and a Wonder of the World!

Today we finally struck out on the "vacation" part of our trip! We left Oswego mid-morning after stopping by Jason's grandparents' house, and traveled up the road to Batavia to meet up with Pam. We had a great lunch/chat with her, and then continued up the road to Niagara Falls.

So that you can all get an idea of how the car part of the trip is going, here's the view:

Fred has made himself competely comfortable on the back seat. Either a toy or my backpack are making great pillows for him. He pops his head up whenever we slow down at all just to make sure he's not missing anything. And, so far, only Jason has had the pleasure of driving the truck and trailer. I'm not that comfortable driving the truck to begin with, and am definitely not looking forward to driving with the trailer, too! As long as we keep having these short days, Jason will probably keep driving.... I think I'll get a turn on Thursday, though. We have a long trip from Sandusky to the Wisconsin Dells that day!

So that's the car.... now, onto the good stuff. I have just one word to describe Niagara Falls - WOW!!!!! I am absolutely in awe of the beauty and POWER of the Falls. We walked all around the Park, with Fred in tow. Not until we were leaving did we finally see another couple with a dog... we were starting to think we were the only crazy ones to bring one along. Of course, we didn't have much choice, and Fred was just happy to meet and greet anyone and everyone who would stop to say hi.... that's our boy - international ambassador!

After walking around and taking lots of pictures for about an hour or two, we brought Fred back to our hotel room (our upgraded hotel room, by the way - for FREE!), and then headed back over to the Falls for a ride on the Maid of the Mist. We donned our souvenir ponchos and got underway for the most incredible view of the Falls I think it's possible to get. You can find more info about the Maid here: http://www.maidofthemist.com/en/ We got a little wet, even with the ponchos, but it was so worth it! They take you right into the middle of the Horseshoe Falls, where you're surrounded by crashing, misting, and pounding water. AMAZING!

We're thinking about heading back over tonight to see the Falls lit up - both of us are exhausted, though, and Jason is supposed to be writing a paper, so we'll see how that goes! For now, I'll share a couple pictures and then maybe add a night time view later! So, here's a taste of Niagara Falls:

Next stop: Sandusky, Ohio and Cedar Point Amusement Park!

The last night with immediate family...

So tonight I'm posting from Oswego, NY, our last stop to see family until we get to Nebraska. We spent last night in Scotia with Jason's mom and step-dad, and had another teary goodbye this morning. I'll be honest, I've had enough of those now, and would like to begin my happy-go-lucky vacation! It's just so tough to say good bye to everyone when we're not exactly sure when we'll make it back to the East Coast, or when they'll all make it up to us. After visiting with Jay's cousins today, though, I'm just hoping we get a chance to get to our new home before Matt (cousin) and Alex (cousin-in-law) get there. Something tells me we'll be seeing them sooner than later!!

Tomorrow we head toward Niagara Falls with a brief stop at the Bob Evans in Batavia to meet a online friend from my Coast Guard Spouse message boards. Pam and I tried to meet up last summer when we were up this way for Josh and Erin's wedding, and couldn't quite connect, so we'll have a quick cup of coffee or lunch before we make the rest of the trip to the Falls. Jason couldn't care less about Niagara Falls (growing up in Upstate NY = field trips and vacations there), but I've never seen them, so I'm excited! I'm sure I'll have pictures from there. I also have some exciting pictures from our trip up to Scotia, but Joe (Jason's Dad) doesn't have a USB drive on his computer, so they'll have to wait. Just picture Jason in the driver's seat and Fred crashed out on the back seat of the truck - there's the excitement!!

We love seeing everyone's comments, by the way, and we're glad everyone seems to be enjoying this! Now we have pressure to keep up with it, so stay tuned!
By the way -
Kim - glad you liked the gift, and we still owe you for Fred's last two visits - we'll send a check!!!

Next stop - Niagara Falls!

Hearing from the other half.

Hello everyone, sorry it's been a couple of days since we have posted. Things were kind of crazy over the last 48 hours. As Becca said, the house was empty late Wednesday night leaving us with an amazing amount of dust and hairballs. Anyways after checking out of work and about 14 dump runs on Thursday, we were ready for packing up. All that I can say is Wow, we have a ton of stuff. Thank god we didn't try to take even more stuff. We filled the back of the truck, and most of our trailer. After having it weighed we were sitting at 3300 lbs of "stuff" to pull cross country. It should make for some great gas mileage.

Anyways, we made to to Vernon, CT last night and celebrated Heather's birthday (Becca's sister) and said goodbye to her brother this morning. We'll be heading to Scotia, NY in a little bit for day two of the journey. We'll post again later and maybe have some more pictures to share.

Hope all is well, and if Becca lets me you'll hear from me every now and then.