So many sights, so many miles ...

Sorry, folks, for taking a while to upload new pictures from our trip and to tell more stories of our adventures; our Internet connections have been unreliable at best the past several days and tonight is the first time I've had a good connection.

I checked the Civic's trip odometer this evening before unloading the car and saw that Dolly and I have driven about 3,100 miles already on this trip. And we've accrued those miles while spending time in a number of states ... South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and Califonia thus far. I imagine Dolly and I will add Oregon, Washington, and North Dakota to the list before the end of this grand voyage across the West.

Tonight Dolly and I are overnighting near a town called Los Banos. Dolly and I welcome the stop for the night because it's been such an awesome and overwhelming day. It's hard to believe that fewer than 12 hours ago Dolly and I were having breakfast in Las Vegas. Now we're in central California after spending a day tooling around Los Angeles and cooling our heels for a bit in Venice beach. It's amazing what all we've seen and done in the space of the day.

Of course pretty much every day of the trip has been just as full as today has been. First we spent three days in the Black Hills of South Dakota and checked out various sights and attractions there. After that we spent a day driving across eastern and southern Wyoming on our way to Nephi, Utah, where we spent the night. We then proceeded to Las Vegas, where we spent the past three days. There truly is so much to see and do at each location that Dolly and I haven't been able to even scratch the surface of what fun and adventures lie in wait at each place. But the purpose of our trip hasn't been to comprehensively enjoy each stop ... this trip is meant to serve only as a survey of what beauty, landscapes, and landmarks await in the American and Canadian Wests.

We've seen and done so much in the past several days that it's hard to put everything down ... especially when I rely solely on my memory. Fortunately the photos Dolly and I have taken are worth at least a thousand words a piece and will help tell the story. Though I'm struggling to condense everything tonight (especially after a full day of driving through the snarls of Los Angeles freeway traffic!), the experiences I've shared with Dolly on this trip will remain with me for a long time to come.

In the meantime and as I jog my memory regarding the events of the past few days, you can check out photos of our adventures in our public photo albums on Facebook. Links to the albums are below:

Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=110131&id=654181853&l=13f44b3287

Black Hills July 2009 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=108969&id=654181853&l=01c1db80c7

The first leg of another great adventure

Dolly and I are in the Black Hills again; I've lost track of how many times we've been here before. But no matter - the important thing is that we're here and that we're both enjoying ourselves and are living life to the fullest. And this stop in the Black Hills is just the first leg of a larger adventure. Our latest adventure will hopefully take us as far as Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon, the Pacific coast, Vancouver, and western Canada before returning us to Brookings.

Today has been our first full day in the Black Hills this time 'round. Dolly and I began our day where it more-or-less ended yesterday ... in Deadwood. After getting cleaned up and gathering plenty of water and soda to drink, Dolly and I jumped on I-90 and headed west toward Sturgis. My first thought had been to go to Deadwood via the Nemo Road, but I decided to take the Interstate instead because I was concerned we wouldn't make the Four Aces breakfast buffet in time.

Dolly and I finished our breakfast and then decided to play the slots for a while longer. Our play lasted perhaps 20 minutes and then we were on the road to Bear Butte. Highway 14a between Deadwood and Sturgis is still under construction, but the areas that weren't being worked on were nice and traffic was light. The blacktop looks fresh and I'm sure the entire stretch of highway will be nice once it's finished.

As with the rest of our trip our plans for Bear Butte were flexible. Dolly and I had considered the possibility of hiking to the top but elected instead to rest and reflect at the mountain's base for a bit. A clear sky and plenty of sunshine awaited us overhead and the day was still. After we hung out for a bit, Dolly and I took a bit of a hike into an area that was probably restricted; no one seemed to mind, though. We walked down a driveway leading to what I assume is a caretaker's house and then found a lone young buffalo bull standing on the other side of the fence. Both Dolly and I are fond of buffalo and we felt it was safe to approach, so Dolly and I took pictures of the young bull for a bit. He appeared to be in good shape, but we did notice several sores on his right flank and that he'd been branded.

We stopped for fuel at a Conoco station on Highway 34 before setting our sights on Devils Tower. Even with some of the hot rodding and hard driving I've done lately, I still managed almost 32 miles per gallon for the tank. It would be nice if the Civic Si returned even higher mileage figures, but I can't complain if the car returns more than 30 mpg consistently.

Dolly and I had thought to take the Interstate as far as we could to Devils Tower, but I decided taking the back roads would be more fun. We exited at Highway 111 toward Aladdin and followed the back roads all the way to the monument. Driving the back road was as fun and challenging as I remember, but I could have done without the road construction on many parts of the drive. I guess it's true that we have two seasons in South Dakota and in this part of the country in general ... winter and road construction.

After we arrived we spent a lot of time hanging out around the Devils Tower Trading Post. We didn't spent that much time in the trading post itself, but we did walk around the grounds. Most of our time around the grounds was spent checking out some horses corralled nearby. We've seen before that horseback rides are a possibility at the tower, but no one was around to assist us with such a service. So Dolly and I had to content ourselves with checking out the horses before heading in to the monument.

The base of the monument was busy as always and so was the trail that circled it. It's been about a year since Dolly and I have walked the trail, yet we both had clear memories of what it looked like and where it led. I'm not sure if it was because of the elevation above sea level or other factors, but walking the trail required a good deal of effort. Exerting effort like that is good, thought, and we both felt good walking the trail and after we finished. Along the way we caught plenty of glimpses of people scaling the tower and even briefly visited with a trio of people who are planning to climb the tower early tomorrow morning.

Once Dolly and I finished with Devils Tower we returned to Rapid City and we've remained here ever since. We checked out various restaurants once we arrived back in town and ultimately settled on Denny's. All we've done since is return to the hotel to swim in a packed pool and then relax in our room.

Before leaving on this trip, both Dolly and I felt nervous about the sheer scale of this journey we're undertaking. Now that we're actually on the road, however, it seems that our nervousness has abated. We're just going with the flow, and we're confident we'll be able to make everything work as we make our way across the U.S. and Canada. It's been a great trip so far, and I'm sure it will only get better.