Glacier National Park

Our 1st big stop was in Glacier National Park in the northern part of Montana. It was an amazing place to be! We got there on the 15th of May which is the first week or so of roads and campgrounds being open. We stayed in West Glacier the 1st 2 nights for $20.00 each night. Our campsite was close to Lake Mcdonald where we were able to fish (no license is required in this national park) and drive around for the majority of the day.

On our 1st morning we ended up going on an incredible hike! It was a little difficult at times climbing over fallen trees and the hill, but it was well worth it, we were able to go and explore a ton of waterfalls and the river was just insane with how fast the water was flowing. Jesse & I have never been on a hike like this where at the corners another surprise awaits you, we hiked for about an hour or so in then turned around once the trail had become too difficult to see.

Since we could only go 18 miles on the Going-to-the-Sun Road we decided after the 2nd day to head to East Glacier and camp there for 2 more nights. We had an awesome time there the 1st full day, the weather was nice and we actually saw alot of different animals. My favorite in this park was the Big Horns. Our 2nd day it was VERY VERY cold and rainy so we sat and hung out in our tent the entire time, we actually ended up having to move our tent because where we had it ended up being extremely windy and our tent almost flew away...now we choose our spots a little bit better.

We were able to go on a few hikes despite the majority of the trails being covered in snow but it was nice & I definitely recommend the St. Mary Falls Trail in St. Mary, its only 1.6 miles and is absolutely breath taking!

Travel Tips:

*Drive around as much as you can in the area you are, you'll be surprised at the beautiful sights you might come across.

*Make sure to check with the information centers at national parks to check which campsites or trails are open. They also have maps available for you.

*Stop at larger cities to get groceries & ice...they're usually less expensive & have a much wider range of choices.

Getting started..

Getting started was quite an adventure, there was ALOT to plan and ALOT to organize for a trip of this size. We first made a list of everything we needed such as:

- Tent
-Sleeping bags
-Air Mattress
-Coolers
-Clothes & shoes we'll need for any type of weather
-Survival Packs (Knives, First Aid Kit, Extra Water, etc.)
-Hiking gear (backpacks, camelbaks, head lamps, insect spray, sun tan lotion, snake bite kit)
-GPS
-Shell for our truck, to keep all the supplies in where we can lock it up safely
-Hygiene Products
-Small portable Grill w/propane tanks
-Cooking Utensils
-Storage containers (helps stay organized)
-Axe, shovel, ratchet winch
-Extra automotive kits
-Shelving for truck aka back up bed
-Camera with LOTS of batteries or get a cigarette lighter converter for an outlet (WORKS WONDERS)
-Extra gas tanks
-Maps
-List of non-perishable foods in catagories of Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, & hiking snacks

That's pretty much the gist of what all we had to prep in order to get the trip started, its cost us a pretty penny; However, now that we have all this equipment it will now be cost effective for the next trips we have in store.

I got the truck ready with our Adervtisement that we feel very strongly about if you'd like to know more about how to stop foreclosure from happening call 888-894-8147 and speak with Jody Hill
Our storage containers with our food for lunch and dinners
Water, tent, and other supplies lined up to be stored in the truck
Jesse and I shopping for the food and other supplies.

Personal Traveling Tips:

* Baby wipes should be abundant, helps keep you clean when hiking since there are days when showers are not available.
*When choosing a camping site, remember to keep weather in mind if its windy make sure to have a good wall of trees around. Plus stay close to bathroom for the late night runs.
*Make sure to have easy light charcoal coals to help start a camp fire. Because wet wood is not fun to get started!
*Make sure to have a plan B
*If travleing in a different country make sure to write down the converter rates for currancy, distance, liquids, and tempurature.
*Stay organized and keep track of all your spending!

Plans have changed

Things have changed yet again with the trying times in Mexcio, we decided to go in the opposite direction and head north to Canada and visit Banff National Park and so forth, once we get out of Canada we're headed down the Pacific Coast Highway and down to the Grand Canyon then back up to Salt Lake City. We have a week left before we head out on our hopefully 6 week journey...it all comes down to the budget and how much we have, we're hoping to do this journey on $3,000.00, we've already spent a lot getting everything ready but now that we finally have good camping supplies we'll be able to go on more trips like this for ALOT less then what this total cost will come out to be.

I lost my camera on our last trip about 3 weeks ago to Chicago and we just bought a new one yesterday so I'll post pictures up of our stuff and the upgrades we've done to the truck...I've gotta say we definitely shouldn't have any storage issues on this trip, thats for sure!

I'm excited to get on the road and experince the west coast for what it is...the beautiful mountains, national parks, and beaches. The picture opportunities are going to be incredible and I can't wait to get all the pictures organized. Look at me I'm already planning the pics and we haven't even left yet, I guess that just shows how ready I am to get started.

So many things

So you could only imagine that getting prepared for a road trip like this that there is SO much planning and lists that need to be done and made. The planning has gone pretty good and will only get more in depth once Jesse's out of the Army he'll be able to really sit down and map out a good route for us. Which leaves us to the list of things for us to get to make sure that we are taken care of. I won't lie its a little overwhelming because I feel like its going to sneak up and we're not going to have enough time to get it all prepared like we wanted it to be. I just need to take it step by step first we need our passports (which will be done by the end of this week) and extra truck parts and tools to fix it. 2nd comes all the upgrades to the truck in order to make sure our truck lasts the 20,000 miles that we're going without standing us some where in Central America. 3rd we need to plan things out financially and figure out the best way to accomplish this trip of our on the budget we have left after getting the parts and upgrades.

I think the fun part about all of this is going to be planning where we're going to visit and stay each night. There are SO many wonderful places to see and to do while we're down there its going to be difficult to see all of them but I'm hoping we can get to at least our top 20 destination sights.

I can't believe I'm going to have a passport soon I know its a little childish on my part but I'm pretty excited to get one I feel like ill have more opportunities now to travel the world.

The Next Adventure To Come Is...

Our goal for the next year is to have taken for some people a once in a lifetime ROAD TRIP down through Central Mexico. We are planning on driving our truck down the entire west coast of Mexico down to Panama; then turning around and adeventuring up through the east coast. This new Blogsite is going to keep track of our latest updates on what we are going to be doing to prep for this vacation and more. If there is anyone out there that has done this and would like to offer any suggestions please let us know...We have only gotten as far as mapping out our path and what upgrades need to be done in order to have the ultimate off road trip machine. We still have alot of planning to do so there will be plenty of updates. We're hoping to start this adventure in May of 2009 and not really quite sure when its going to end...there is alot of fun stuff to see and do in Central America and we don't want to miss out on anything!

Our Weekend in Downtown Denver

So after our 15 hour train ride we arrived in Denver, CO my brother Tage hooked us up with a hotel right in downtown, it was so nice being able to walk everywhere we wanted to go. We basically just hung out shopping, eating at new places we had never tried since we had marked all his food spots off the list by the time we hit up Denver so it was cool to experience new restaurants. Almost everynight we ended up right at our favorite pool hall called the Tarantula Bar, there are pool tables everywhere and up against the wall they have a nice bar with some couches and a TV, but the coolest part is on 3 of the walls you have big windows overlooking the street and the intersection. We love it we would spend a few hours there and head out and walk around some more. For one of the cold nights we ended up eating at the restaurant the hotel had and it was amazing food! Every bite was SO good I was stuffed by the end and I wanted to eat it all but I just couldn't, but it was alot of fun to get dressed up and just enjoy each others company. On Sunday we went to the ESPN Zone there and watch our Raiders get their butts kicked but after the game we hung around and played all their arcade games I actually won 1 time out of 4 or 5 at shooting basketballs, I was pretty psched about that. We ended up going bowling again and had SO much fun we just messed around didn't really take our games serious and I think by the end our scores weren't even over 100 and if you know how good jesse is then thats pretty shocking, maybe all the drinks had something to do with the scores. By the end of our trip we were spent and ready to get on the train back to SLC. We ended up going to Idaho the next day, more pictures to come, I hope your all enjoying our little journey thru daily updates.
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A Different way to travel...

These pictures are of our train ride, yes that right I said train ride...you might ask "who takes a train these days?"...thats right the Marcial's do! Plus a bunch of old people. We were probably the youngest people in the sleeper cars it was pretty funny, although we did meet alot of nice and some very interesting people. At meal time they don't let you choose your seat instead they basically put you where ever the next table is that has space so you get sat next to whoever got there last. It was a very interesting way to do things...but the food was surprisingly good not like airplane food at all very tastey. For the train ride there we had a small room called the roomette which was perfect for us because we had the bed down the whole time and we just vegged out played games, slept, and listened to music while enjoying the beautiful scenary. You definitely get to see some amazing sights that you normally couldn't see driving I would recommend taking a train ride one of these days just don't be in a hurry to go anywhere, plus if you get one of the sleeper carts all your meals are included, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Oh the way back they didn't have any of those small little rooms available all they had were the family size rooms that fit about 4-6 people in them...it was HUGE! we had a bed plus 2 seats so if we got tired of the bed we could sit and enjoy the sights. The best part about this huge room was we had windows on both sides of the room so we got to see everything which was awesome! After about 30 hours in a train (there and back) Jesse and I were happy with being able to have this awesome experience and are glad that we were able to just spend that time together traveling without having to worry about anything.
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A Day in Yellowstone National Park

So I finally made it to one of the biggest national parks, it was amazing, we spent over 3 hours and I still saw a very small portion of it. But we did see alot of Bison & I saw a few elk...thankfully no yogi's though. The weather was great until it started raining on us but Sheri and I had a great time. She has lived here for over 5 years so she was a great tour guide filling me in on alot of info that i didn't know...for instance did you know they named the park yellowstone because of all they gysers and the sulfar that it produces...the sulfar turns the stones yellow. Now since you've all learned your 2 new thing for the day I put together a slide show instead of posting all of them there are too many too choose from...enjoy.

Hiking in Teton Valley

So on my days off when I don't drive down to Utah I have been trying to explore this area a little bit better and on my 2 days off my neighbor was kind enough to take me hiking with her to show me somoe beautiful spots that are just a short drive away...and I mean literally a short drive away maybe 10 miles at the most. It was so gorgeous I can't wait to bring Jesse up here and show him these areas its definitely going to be a nice change in scenary compared to the hot desert he's living in now. I think the high has been 120 so far and its just supposed to get hotter...thankfully they have AC in there rooms. But the hikes were fantastic we did a total of 14 miles both days, needless to say both Dre and I were sore the next couple of days, but it was well worth it I can't wait for this Monday 1 of the massage therapist is going to take me into Yellowstone and show me around she's lived here for 5 years so she'll be able to show me all the places that the tourist don't know about, I'll def post some good pictures of that up.

Me & my hiking buddy...he's good protection from the bears & other forest animals, plus he doesn't make fun of my singing =)

My calandar picture perfect dog..i'm not a proud mama or anything ;)

The tetons...this isn't a very good picture i can't wait to go to yellowstone this weekend and get better pics.

Wild flowers here are so beautiful

With all the snow melting this was just 1 of the MANY waterfalls I saw in the canyon, it was gorgeous!

Butterflies were everywhere it was so pretty.


Dre & his hunting buddy- Barney is teaching him all sorts of things, its so cute

Jackson Hole Hillclimb 2008

So my friend Melissa and her boyfriend invited me to go to the annual hillclimb that they have every year in Jackson, this was my first time in jackson and i had so much fun! I'm so happy that they asked me to go. The whole point of this is to see if people can make it up the steep mountain on their snow mobiles and if they can't make it some times the s.m. falls pretty hard and is rolling and tummbling down the side of the mountain it was pretty cool so see this. They do this every year when the ski resorts close & I'm so happy because that means spring is almost here even though its supposed to stay snowing for the next 3 days and then most likely all thru April but its ok cuz its almost here!!! I can hardly wait.




Me & Melissa playing




Melissa & AJ



This way i won't get stuck!!!




Melissa being silly

Tampa Bay Trip Sept. 2007

Check out the pictures from Jesse's Birthday weekend. We had such a blast we celebrated for 3 days straight. First his family sent us some cardne a sada this mexican meat, it is the best! So we had a bbq with some friends. The next day was the real present 2 tickets to a Pro-Football game neither one of us had ever been so we decided to go before he leaves...it was so cool, there was so much good energy at the game...it helped that the home team was winning but everyone was into the game it was awesome. Then we went and ate dinner at this really nice restaurant over looking the Tampa Bay it was so pretty to see the sunset over the water. The next morning we woke up early and headed to Bush Gardens we spent the whole day there from open to close it was so much fun riding the roller coasters and being able to see all these wild animals, by the end of the day I was so tired I felt so bad because I slept for the majority of the trip home...i was a bad travel buddy and poor jesse had to be to work the next day at 6:00 am. But I know that he didn't care he said that he really enjoyed his whole birthday weekend which is what I was hoping for...I hope for his next one he'll be able to enjoy it just as much!

Labor Day Adventure 2007

This Labor Day weekend was full of first's...Jesse and I took our first trip up to Asheville, NC if you've never been I would highly recommend going, thank you Jody for recommending it to me, its BEAUTIFUL up there! The Mountains don't compare to the Rocky's but they are still gorgeous and I bet it looks so cool in the autumn time with all the trees changing. We had no itenaray so we just drove around for a little while until we found this spot called chimeny rock, you climb to the top of this rock poking out of the mountain and you can see for miles on end it was so nice plus they have this waterfall that jesse and I were able to go and play in it was so refreshing.






Later that night we went to a casino both mine and jesse's first time gambling, we had a blast! We spent the whole night on the nickel slots...yeah we're ballas hahaha right We even got some "cool" hats for being first timers and we wore them proudly =)





The next day we went white water rafting for the first time! It was AWESOME!!! I thought it would be scary but it wasn't at all...i want to do it again. We also got to eat at one of Jesse's favorite fast food places, Jack in the Box, the closest one to us is about 4 hours away so we had to take full advantage of it I think we ate about 3 meals each =) I definently gained about 10lbs this past weekend...haha but i gotta say that is was all worth it because we had a GREAT vacation!

2 of our FAVORITE trips!!!

Miami/Key West ~ June 28 - July 5, 2007
This was an awesome vacation! Jesse "officially" proposed to me on south beach at night while we were standing in the water kissing he stopped for a second and got down on 1 knee. I was so shocked I started crying because I never thought that i would have a moment like this. It was amazing!!! Plus I finally got my ring, that was a good perk too. We had a blast here we got to do so many wonderful things that I never could have dreamed of doing like; snorkeling, holding an alligator, watching the fireworks in the Keys, and camping right alongside the ocean. I'm so thankful that we had the opportunity to go on a great vacation before Jesse leaves.




Washington D.C.~ March 15-18, 2007

This vacation was so much fun, there is a tons of stuff to do here and the best part about it is it's free! My favorite parts were going to Arlington & walking from the Lincoln Monument all the way to the Washington Memorial. But we had a blast neither one of us had ever been so it was exciting getting to see all of that up close...I definetly recommend going!

End of 2006-start of 2007

Jesse and I were having a rough couple of weeks nothing seemed to be working in our favor (financially speaking & with our house) and we were sick of everything that was going on, so we decided to pick up for 2 days and just drive south. We found that NASA & Daytona were only 4 hours away so we took off and drove all our problems away! It was exactly what both of us needed because when we came back home everything didn't seem that bad!

Daytona

NASA Visitor Center

Myrtle Beach~ November 2006

Since it was the off season here it was a nice quiet weekend get-a-way. This place was really cool cuz they have miniture golf places like the have churches in northern utah and they each have a different theme it was crazy, but we had a blast!

Charelston, South Carolina~ September 5, 2007

Charelston is one of my favorite places in the south, it is a beautiful city and it has a wonderful atmosphere about it and there is so much to see so many different historical places. I would love to go back again!