Arches, Monuments and Canyons

The last two days we had the opportunity to see some of the greatest landscapes of the USA. Yesterday we visited the Arches National Park and had a lot of fun following the trails and doing all kinds of stuff, like climbing or just shooting silly pictures. The arches there are just amazing. Instead of just spending a couple of hours there we spend almost the whole day there and could have easily spend a couple more days there. But we had to move on and so we drove another 2 hours and got until Blandings (Utah), where we spent the night.

Today we got to see Monument Valley. Another unbelievable landscape! To even top that we got to see the Grand Canyon! Words can't describe the view of the Grand Canyon. Maybe the pictures help you to imagine what we saw.
So right now we are in Williams, which is south of the Grand Canyon. Tomorrow we'll set off for Sin City, better known as Las Vegas.

Arches, Monuments and Canyons

(our trip)

Colorado

After a really long drive we got until Abilene, Kansas on Saturday. The next day we arrived in Denver in the late afternoon. We got one of the last rooms in one of the hotels there. Since the Democratic National Convention started on Monday, almost every hotel and motel was packed. We decided to go downtown the same day. We got to see the Capitol, a lot of nice parks, the famous 16th street and a lot of cops. The reason for such a high security level was of course the DNC. We tried to get as close as we could to the Pepsi Convention Center but at some point we couldn't get through the gates. So we got to know the Denver nightlife a little bit and we thought Denver is really one of the most interesting cities in the US.

The next day we went up to the Red Rocks to see the Amphitheater. What an awesome view! I have actually been there before but it was definitely worth a second visit. Every great artist has performed there. Just have a look at the Hall of Fame.

The second part of this day was designated to shopping. We went to one of the biggest shopping malls in the state of Colorado and didn't really find a way out. We went shopping for about 7 hours! In the end we just wanted a bed because we were actually exhausted from all that shopping. We still wanted to get at least a little westwards so we drove as far as we could and ended up in Dillon.

For today our plans were clear: we wanted to go rafting in the Rockies. So we called a rafting place and reserved a boat for 1 o'clock. Unfortunately we didn't make it there on time because of unpredictable road works. We got to Canon City around 1:30 (after we drove by the place without seeing the huge sign the first time and rather believed our gps that led us right in the middle of nowhere). Even though this may sound kind of weird but we were actually better of running late. That way they gave us a more or less private trip with just the guide and the two of us. Usually you have a guide and 6 people together in the boat. So we really enjoyed the great scenery of the Arkansas River and even had to fight with the rapids a little bit. We really had a great time and could recommend rafting in the Rockies to everyone! Rafting makes you so happy, that you don't even mind buying expensive pictures after it ;-).

So we are on the road again and plan to arrive in Grand Junction around 11. Tomorrow we want to see the arches at the Arches National Park. In about two days we plan to visit Monument Valley and walk on the skywalk at the Grand Canyon.

(our route so far)

Colorado

Interstation: Denver

We arrived in Denver yesterday and visited downtown. More details will follow ...
Here is our Route so far on Google Maps.

Yes we can!

The drive from Rushville to Indianapolis went smooth and we got there in the afternoon. First we got to meet Brad and Bella (a really clever dog) and later on Jen came back from work and we had some burgers and corn. Delicious! Before dinner Brad showed us some tricks with Bella. We had a lot of fun!

After dinner a friend of Brad and Jen joined us and we went to a football high school game that took place in the new built Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianpolis. What a huge place! 70,000 fit in there and the roof is retractable. I guess even the pictures can't explain how big that place was.
After the game (which the good guys won :), we went to Fountain Square. It's an area with a couple of restaurants and a bowling alley in the style of the time between the 20ies and 50ies. In the bowling alley there was a place in the style of the 50ies and one in the style of the 20ies. We went to the Duckpin Bowling which was in the style of the 20ies. The rules where a little different and the balls were about half the size of a regular bowling ball and there were no holes in it. compared to regular bowling it was a lot harder to score a spare or even a strike. But Brad did it! We also had a couple spares.

Back home we tried to figure out what we could do the next day. At first we planned to go to the bodies exhibition but just before we went to bed Brad found out that Barack Obama is going to hold a speech in Springfield the next day. So we decided to go there spontaneously. Springfield was on our way anyway so that was a perfect plan. We left early the next day and got to Springfield around 11. After waiting in line for an hour and waiting another 1 1/2 hours he finally got on stage. Obama! It was really cool to so him live and later on we might be able to say that we got to see next the president of the USA.
So after that we had to say good bye to Jen and Brad. Thanks guys for the great day!

We hit the interstate and drove west and were actually thinking about exchanging our PT Cruiser since we didn't have cruise control which is a nice feature to have on such a long drive. We called a National rental station at St. Louis and got to exchange our car! I heard Martin's right leg saying "Thank you". So now we are driving a Toyota Corolla and try to get as far as we can. We plan to arrive in Denver tomorrow. And guess who is gonna arrive there also? Obama for the National Democratic Convention. Yes we can!

Indianapolis and Springfield again

PS: We have to mention the tiniest burger we've ever eaten. They are called sliders, 'cause you don't even have to chew to get them down. just sliding .... :-D

PS2: Here are Brads pics from Springfield.

Our route so far

Our route on google maps
(about 620 miles so far)

Rushville

It was a nice feeling being back in Rushville and of course we were very happy to see David again. We had dinner in Beardstown and David was telling us about the computer problems he had recently. His computer was 8 years old so he decided to buy a new one. So we went to Springfield on Wednesday and checked out all kinds of stores that sell computers. It took us about three hours to finally get what we wanted. Now David has a powerful new computer with a nice flat screen that came with it. We configured everything the way David wanted it to be and of course copied all data from the old computer to the new one. Now David is up to date. David 2.0 :-)

Besides being busy with all kinds of computer stuff we had the great opportunity to go on a boat trip on the Schuy Rush Lake. Bob and Carol invited us and we had a wonderful time floating around on the lake. We had beer and wine on the boat which made it even better :-)
Yesterday we got to meet Sheila at Pizza Unlimited and of course we had the unbelievably great Chicago style pizza. If I would introduce this pizza in Germany I could probably make a lot of money with it. $$

Later on Lynn, Glenna and Jennifer came by at David’s house. Lynn and Glenn visited us in Germany two years ago and they might come by again next year. Hopefully Chris will make it this time too. You guys are more than welcome to visit us in Germany again. Maybe even David will come with them!

So now we are leaving Rushville and will head east to Indianapolis to see Jen and Brad.

PS David told us that he is actually smiling in the pictures :-)

Rushville

day 2 and day 3

After, our pleasent welcome on Sunday, we slept in a really comfortable bed and found out that we didn't adapt to the time change yet. Martin woke up at six in the morning and I got up around 9. After a nice little breakfast we went to the beach of Lake Michigan and enjoyed the perfect day. Then we had lunch back at gernecks' house it was already time to say goodbye. What a perfect start for our vacation! Thank you Claire, Andreas, Chloé and Sophia!

Our next stop was downtown Chicago. The Illinois Institute of Art to be correct. We met Brittany there, one of our friends that we always visit when we have the chance to be in Chicago. After another warm welcome (with some nice coffee) Jonathan (Britt's boyfriend) joined us and all of us together drove to Britt's place. There we met two nice fellows that we got to know two years ago: Daria and Ada Jane, two dogs! Daria got really excited, what a crazy lovely dog. Woof!
We had dinner at the "uncommon ground" (with a real uncommon waitress :-). The food was great! We went to another bar and then we went back to Britt's place. Since Brit and Jonathan had to work and Martin and I were kind of tired because of the jetlag, we went to bed pretty soon.
So we got up early again and left Chicago around 9. Chicago is such a great city. We could have spent more than three weeks there, but it was time to say good bye again.
Thank you Brit and Jonathan. We had a blast!!

Next stop: Rushville, Illinois. We can't wait to see David!

PS We just found out that our car doesn't have cruise control. So the 3000 miles that lie ahead of us are going to be a good workout for Martin ;-).

Day 2 & 3

Tag 01 - Chicago

Nach einem angenehmen Flug sind wir endlich in Chicago angekommen. Der etwas träge Mitarbeiter bei der Autovermietung hat uns letztendlich doch noch ein Auto aussuchen lassen (wir haben uns einen PT Cruiser genommen) und wir sind durch den Chicagoer Berufsverkehr direkt zu den Gernecks gefahren.
Hier gab es für uns ein herzliches Willkommen und ein kühles Bier :)
Und natürlich mussten wir sämtliche neuen Computer-Spiele mit den Mädchen ausprobieren.
Jetzt sind wir ziemlich fertig (sind ja schon seit fast 24 Stunden wach) und freuen uns schon aufs Bettchen.

Tag 01 - Chicago

Noch zwei Tage...

In zwei Tagen geht es schon los. Noch stecken wir in den Vorbereitungen aber grundsätzlich sind schon alle Anreiseprobleme geklärt.
Sonntag früh geht es von Leipzig nach Frankfurt, bevor wir dann Sonntagvormittag von Frankfurt nach Chicago fliegen.
Als erstes werden wir dort Brittany treffen die auch schon vor zwei Jahren unseren Besuch in den Staaten eingeleitet hat.

From Chicago to LA - Roadtrip USA 2008