We finally left Denver on Tuesday and made our way to the East side of Rocky Mountain NP. What a lovely place! Did some light hiking. The boys had a blast translating the name of "Bierstadt Lake" to the chatty shuttle bus driver. Naomi spent the first 45 min. or so complaining that her hiking boots were too heavy. After I explained to her that they help her walk, telling her where to place her feet (where the water would flow, and not on top of every boulder), and carving her a cool hiking stick she finally came around. At the end she proclaimed that she really liked her boots. Yeah!

Wednesday we drove the windy (meaning much wind, and many curves) mountain road to the West side of the park. The bark beetle epidemic is really dramatic here - up to 70% of the woods consist of dead pines. Also, many Germans. And I met an American lady at the visitor center who not only knew Switzerland from Sweden, but had lived in Pfungen and gone to the Lehramt Gymnasium in Winterthur! In the evening, we spotted some Moose and Elk in the meadows of the Colorado river.

Thursday we woke up to the sight of about 10 Elk cows walking over the campground, as well as a Moose cow with a calf. The rest of the day was spent driving the hinterland of NW Colorado (Craig) and SW Wyoming (Baggs) to the KOA in Rock Springs. It's hard to imagine after Kansas, but the stretch from Craig to I-80 was considerably lonelier. Stunningly featureless flats changed into equally stunning badlands/canyons and back, without a single tree in sight from horizon to horizon. Did a walking tour of the many RV rigs on the campground with the kids. Despite there being more than 100 or so, we win the prize again for having the oldest/grungiest vehicle. I kind of enjoy being the gypsies among all the retirees with their $150k contraptions. We're usually the only ones with kids, doing our dishes outside, hanging a clothesline, and playing our own music.

Tomorrow we're off to Yellowstone. Sorry, our WiFi is so crappy that there won't be pictures today.

across the plains

driving on I-70 straight across the great plains fast! of course just as fast as our shasta was able to run! ~55 miles an hour. with this speed we were able to really enjoy the flat and treeless stretch through kansas. it is very impressive to see so much sky and flat fields of corn, soy, millet and sunflowers. o yes and of course grain. spotting a few towns which consisted of grain silos and a railway loading dock.
all of us welcomed the stop at limon, jumping into the cool water of the campground pool.
although the mosquitos were eating us alive! thank's to joel we have a table in our shasta to eat on. all bug screens closed we enjoyed the quinoua/broccoli dinner.
we then arrived yesterday at our friends house in engledwood (denver).
thank you s & z for welcoming us and hosting us for a few days.

travel log continued

Tuesday 8/18: 364 miles, Asheville NC to "Land between the Lakes", TN
Wednesday 8/19: 379 miles, LBL through KY and IL to Columbia MO
Thursday 8/20: 340 miles, having generator removed, Columbia MO to Ellsworth KS
Friday 8/21: 301 miles, Ellsworth KS to Limon CO

We have some new pictures up.
The states we touched so far: MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, PA, DE, MD, DC, VA, NC, TN, KY, IL, MO, KS, CO

our travel log so far

Sunday 8/9: 270 miles, boondocking on I-95, NJ
Monday 8/10: 222 miles, 3 nights at the Sorli residence, VA
Tuesday 8/11: 30 miles, trip into DC for Air & Space museum
Wednesday 8/12: 22 miles, trip into DC for Natural History museum
Thursday 8/13: 145 miles, "Colonial" KoA, VA
Friday 8/14: 134 miles after Colonial Williamsburg, boondocking on I-64 near Charlottesville, VA
Saturday 8/15: 180 miles on Blue Ridge Parkway, 2 nights at "Rocky Knob" campground, VA
Sunday 8/16: 0 miles, hiking around "Rocky Knob", VA
Monday 8/17: 227 miles on BRP, "West Asheville" KoA, NC

Williamsburg pictures:

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Blue Ridge Parkway pictures:

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In case you haven't figured it out, you have to mouse over the bottom of the picture frames to get access to all the pictures in a given set. If you want to look at bigger versions, you have to click on "link", which will take you to Flickr.

two smithsonian days

While our "official" program for the past two days in DC included the Air & Space Museum as well as the Museum of Natural History, our inofficial adventure had us address an ant invasion and various Shasta-related dramas. A good time was had with our hosts Melanie & Gisle and their kids. Thank you very much for your spontaneous hospitality! Tomorrow morning we're off to Colonial Williamsburg.

the farewell party

thank you J's for throwing our good by party. thank you to all of you who showed up. it was very special to have so many friends over for a farewell. we enjoyed each of you.
it's been two days already, and we left boston on sunday after everything was loaded into our shasta. a final trip to castle island in the afternoon, and dropping my parents off at logan. because the propane on board makes us a "hazmat" transport, a state trooper escorted us through the tunnel to the surface road south.
spent the night on a truck stop on the new jersey turnpike south of new york city. arrived safely in washington dc in the early afternoon.

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new look

After trying a few other options, we have decided to re-fashion this blog a little to chronicle our transcontinental adventure. It's a new look and title, but the same old Daniela with the odd guest post by other family members. Here are some pictures from yesterday when all our stuff was whisked away in a purple truck.

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the garden

our little garden plot is now officially our friend e's plot. he is a great almost 11 year old boy who loves gardening. we went through it this morning, weeding and digging up bind weed... it is all under control now. there will be swiss chard ready to cut, summer potatoes to dig in a week or so. there is garlic ready in a few weeks and the tomatoes are gaining in colour. basil is doing well and we cut a few sprigs, this will keep on going. the same with the carrots, we pulled a few and he will be able to pull some every week. the last two beets will be finding their place on the table within the next two days...
it is really hard to load photos on our old slow lap top, so no photos today, please take a look at our travel blog, from now on we will be posting infrequent on that one.
the plan is to slow down and just be for the next three months, we will have a good by party tomorrow and hit the road on sunday. i will be back here sometimein the fall, early winter, then posting from winterthur switzerland!
see you later and enjoy the summer with all it's colours and warmth.

done for today

the movers were here this morning and all the boxes are now ready to be loaded tomorrow morning. of course they were using a lot lot lot of packing materials and i could not stop thinking of all the money we are going to pay for the over packing... $8 per cubic foot. although i just have to trust that things are done correct and needed to be wrapped in paper and bubble wrap for so many times.
joel forgot to pick the books he wants to bring along on our trip. he is going through some boxes as i write...
more on our travel blog, i guess i will write less frequently, and for now stay tuned, it will take a while until i'm able to get photos up loaded again.

the 8th birthday

a glorious morning with our birthday boy! we all enjoyed breakfast on the deck, and amos was very happy that his 8th birthday finally arrived.

for lunch his two best friends came over. thank you a & a for having birthday lunch and cake with us. it was a full day and a happy day for amos, lot's of playing and reading and enjoying friends.
my parents joel and i are still in the middle of sorting and figuring out what is going into moving boxes! today it was the oil paints, the shoes, some card and board games and the wooden train set. more tomorrow, or when ever, i'm very tired.

hitching the bike rack

a few weeks back joel started a travel blog. today was my turn to write a few lines, please go and have a look.