I have arrived pt. 1

What a week it has been folks, and after 3,305 miles I have finally arrived.

Sunday evening (the 15th) my brother Bryan and I left Parkersburg. I had quite an emotional goodbye with family and friends, but all those feelings somewhat faded after the first few days and reality began to set in. That evening we drove straight to the Badlands in South Dakota, 20 some hours. My brother wanted to see if he was able to drive the whole way on his own, so he never let me drive, but I was okay with that, and he really did make it. I was shocked. After a long day of hiking and milling around we headed back to camp and Bryan passed out while I proceeded to watch a quite beautiful sunset. It was a great day.
Tuesday we woke up around 6:30 and headed toward Wyoming to Yellowstone with a few stops in between at Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse. We found a little diner in Keystone and had breakfast. I found a Minnetonka store so I bought some new moccasins and then we checked out the mountains, pretty cool.
Later that evening we arrived to Yellowstone upon which every campsite was full, so we drove up to Gardiner, Montana and found a room to stay in. The next morning we found an open spot in Norris to camp, and after we put up the tent and paid our fee to the biggest jerk park ranger ever, we drove the loop around Yellowstone. I believe this was the best day of the trip. Old Faithful and the Canyon were on the top of my list as some of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.
Thursday morning we bounced out of Yellowstone and drove to the Grand Tetons. We decided that we would make it to Boise, Idaho by the end of the day so we just drove the scenic route around the park and jumped out to take snap some pictures here and there. Around the Grand Tetons and Boise we saw some pretty sweet towns: Cody and Jackson to name a few.
Boise, Idaho was awesome. There were lots of neat cafes, bookstores, shops, pubs and breweries, and we could hear music playing from the sidewalk as we walked by.
I woke up the next morning pretty excited to make the 4-hour drive into Kennewick, WA to spend time with my good friend from school, Tyler Parnell (I can’t even tell you how great it is to know that he is so close to Olympia). I also got to meet his new puppy, Truman. He is about the cutest little wiener dog you’d ever see. I’m glad Tyler got him to keep him company as he continues to get acclimated to Kennewick.
That night we went out to dinner and sat along the Columbia River and talked and talked and talked. We stayed out pretty late and woke up early the next morning to head to my new place in Olympia. After lunch in Kennewick I said my goodbyes to Tyler and we began our final stretch to Olympia. As if the trip wasn’t already amazing enough, Bryan and I talked basically the whole way there. I would definitely mark it down as one of the best talks we’ve ever had. I know he’s always going to be my brother, but now I definitely feel like he’s always going to be a great friend of mine too. (awwwww).

So that catches you up on my travels. I hope you enjoyed that because I’ve seriously told that story probably 20 times since Sunday, haha. I would have liked to post pictures along with this post, but I left my camera USB chord in Parkersburg, so I’m waiting for my Mom to mail it. We’ll just go ahead and say this is a two part series and the pictures will come soon after.