On July 4, 2004, we officially launched the next phase of our trip, the part we dreamed about while we slaved away on the Airstream. We started from Corning, CA, headed towards Northern Minnesota to meet my mother for her 60th birthday. Here are some scenes from California, Nevada, Idaho, and Wyoming.

Our first night in Scotts Flat, outside Nevada City, CA. Yummy swordfish kabobs. In Nevada, we crossed Highway 50, the aptly-named "Loneliest Road." The Big Sky of Nevada. We just camped by the side of the road. Lehman Caves were amazing. Looking at Wheeler Peak in Nevada from a glacier at 11,000 feet.   A little break from nature at Experimental Breeder Reactor 1 (EBR-1), the world's first atomic energy plant.   Racing to Wyoming, we spent the night under a dam near Grand Teton.   Grand Teton went by fast but Yellowstone was a parking lot so we pushed on for Minnesota. We'll see more of Wyoming in the off-season.		Big Trees, Big Rocks, No Food on Donner Pass. In Great Basin National Park, we hiked through Lehman Caves. This is "cave bacon." I hiked to a grove of Bristlecone Pine, the oldest living thing on Earth. They grow for 3,000 to 4,000 years. Escaping the heat of Nevada, we hightailed it for the beautiful Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho.   A Simple, Beautiful Rest Area Tree on the Wyoming border. We pushed on to South Dakota.