Road Tripping through the spring

OK, so my sister has guilted me into actually updating this blog (well, starting it, really...)

So far it has been a very busy year - hard to believe it's half over already! The past two months I have been on two major trips, both for work. The first was to Ft. Collins, CO for a week of schmoozing with other GIS folks and talking about data. We got stuck in a bad snowstorm in Rawlings, WY and had to scramble for hotel rooms, but it all worked out in the end. Met Dick Butkus at the hotel as well. Great yarn store in Ft. Collins - Lambspun. Headed over there with a couple of conference attendees one evening - very cool place! Also found a great knit shop mapping mashup - http://www.knitmap.com/ that everyone should check out.

The second was for 2 weeks of training at Grand Canyon NP. Decided to extend the trip an extra week when I convinced Aimee to fly in to Salt Lake and drive to Vegas beforehand. Jessi decided to go along once she heard about the trip.

So Jessi and I took off from Gardiner early (relatively) in the morning 4/16 - got to the McD's in West Yellowstone to discover snow berms taller than Ellie!

We made it to SLC in time to pick up Aims at the airport, hit the motel, and head to IKEA for a super shopping trip and lunch. From SLC we headed south through Utah, visiting Capitol Reef, Escalante-Grand Staircase, Brice, and Zion, finally ending up in Las Vegas.

Only 2 nights in Vegas

:-(

Didn't have time to do all we wanted to, but drank free drinks, ate, gambled, and experienced The Star Trek Experience. Sent Jessi and Aims home on planes while Ellie (aka the TARDIS) and I drove on to the Grand Canyon for a couple weeks of NPS training. More on that later.