South Dakota (yes it really exists)

MT. RUSHMORE- After spending the night in a cheesy town dedicated to the monument (slept at the White House Hotel), I drove up to see this famous site. There are no neon signs on the road saying, "Look here!" Just a mountain and as I scanned across it I was surprised by the pasty face of Abraham Lincoln. Later, as I studied the sight I couldn't decide whether the four icons looked like they were emerging from or being swallowed by the stone around them.
I have to admit they seemed smaller than I thought they would be. I guess it was one of those things that you build up to something and then it's never quite what you expected. Still though, it was actually a very impressive feat that many people spent 14 years of their lives creating for the ages to enjoy. I think an eyeball was still taller than I am so at an erosion rate of around an inch a century the monument should be around long enough for people to stand there asking, "Who is this Teddy Roosevelt fellow anyway?"

THE BADLANDS- Aptly named by the Native Americans, the Badlands, is a place of foreboding. The flat and normal (boring) plains are suddenly broken by a large gulf stretching out as far as the eye can see. This area is filled with jagged rocks that look like God squeezed them out of a can of Cheese Whiz or threw them in a blender and dripped them out randomly.
I went for a hike in this mess which ended up taking far longer than I thought as I climbed spires covered in caked mud and carefully crossed slopes covered with hidden and seemingly bottomless pits. I always thought those Native Americans were smart.

150,000

The Jeep made it! 150,000 miles and still kicking! I ticked over to this particular little green number as I crested the top of a pass in Wyoming. Looking back was the broken red, green, and tan of the mesa I had climbed, the colors set off by a sunset painting the rest of the sky in beautiful hues. Ahead the bright full moon was planted in the rosy alpen-glow to the east winning the battle for who would light the rest of my road. A very fitting way and place for this milestone - just don't give up yet little jeep.

Yellowstone and Idaho

Well I've been trekking across the country (it's so freakin big) for 5 days now. The highlight so far was stopping up at the Doody's cabin in Idaho. They were great for letting me use it and it was a perfect base for exploring a couple days. I spent the first day up in Yellowstone. At first I'm just driving through and thinking, "okay this is some pretty scenery but why all the fuss?" Then I saw a huge steam cloud as I careened around a corner and soon found out why this place is so special.
There are springs of boiling water sending up floating oceans of steam from their technicolored depths, bubbling pits of primordial ooze like some sort of witch's brew, cones of rock that send up violent jets of water with no warning. And then there's the wildlife: bald eagles carrying huge sticks to build there nest 70ft up in a tree, Elk with antlers larger than my arms spread apart, Grizzly bears gorging themselves for winter, and the mammoth Bison nonchalantly doing whatever it is they do (like just standing in the middle of the road staring at me saying, "What are you gonna do about it?" Did I mention the scenery? I went hiking along the snowcovered rim (guess my knee's doing well) of gigantic Yellowstone Canyon with it's walls dyed every color in the spectrum from the thermal activity and a 300+ ft thundering waterfall at the bottom, and it blew me away.
The next day I went fishing in peaceful rivers winding through fields of fall grass at the foot of jagged snow capped mountains and rivers that crashed through little rocky canyons that other people couldn't climb into. Now would be the point to wow you with stories of all the fish I caught...

Eagle Driver

Well the last month has been eventful, I apologize for not writing about it. I finished up the flying here with some huge rides. The last two were 4 v. 4's; that means eight jets up there fighting away. Needless to say it was a jumble of adreneline, confusion, fun, and being overwhelmed. Can't say I always knew what was going on (especially when AWACs started sending us bad info) but it was freakin' cool. The last flight was a scenerio where our four-ship had to defend a target against the commie hordes. For twenty minutes we fought everything another four-ship could throw at us (they had unlimited regenerations) until we were out of missiles and out of gas. It was a blast!

Our graduation was fun. We put on an Oktoberfest party for the whole squadron and some of my friends here. The best part though is knowing that now I am actually an Eagle Driver, ready to go and help defend this country and the things we believe in. It's been an intense two years of training to get to this point and it feels good.

Paul came out too and we had a great time exploring Oregon. Though we didn't climb any mountains or anything too crazy cause I had knee surgery last week. It's already feeling better though and I'm walking around easily.

I start on another journey across the country on Sunday. This time I'm taking the northern route to Virginia across Montana, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. I'm going to stop in Yellowstone, the badlands, and Chicago as the highlights (at least that's the plan). I'll be in Knoxville the first week in November and I'd love to see those of you who live there.