Holidays are over :(

We are en route home now!

We left bright and early yesterday. We had a few stops along the way. We went to Murdo south Dakota where there is a man who has 250 old cars and so many old collectables. It took us close to an hour and a half to go through all the rooms. the show American Pickers will be there is a couple weeks so that will be fun to watch knowing we have been there.

From there we stopped at the corn palace in Mitchell south Dakota. The outside of this arena type place was decorated in corn cobs. A little cheesy, but none the less, impressive to see. After a couple more stops for food and water we go to our hotel. I mean motel. Yet another place Chris was in charge of booking. We got to our musty smoked in room at about midnight so I couldn't complain too much as we were there to sleep and wake up and continue on home. We are about 2 hours outside of Fargo so hopefully we won't get home too late today.

Forgot this part!

Oh yeah. I totally forgot. Yesterday, we were caught in a crazy crazy hailstorm. It hailed for what seemed like forever. Some pieces were gold ball sized. It looked like it had snowed when it was all over. The poor echo has a few battle wounds. Neither of us had ever seen hail like that ever before!

Days 4,5,and 6

Days 4-6

I wrote a blog entry yesterday, but accidentally deleted right when was done so I was frustrated, but now i will try again.

So Wednesday we decided to go for a drive to Wyoming. Where we are staying is quite close to the border so it didn't take long to get there. We had lunch there and then wed decided to drive south through Wyoming and back into south Dakota and up into the badlands.

Chris's poor little Toyota echo is sure putting on some miles this week. It's being overworked too, as it is so hilly everywhere we go. Sometimes I wonder we will make it up half the time!

Anyways, the badlands was really beautiful. The landscapes in this state change constantly. One minute its green and hilly one minute it's rocky, the next it's flat and dry. It's crazy, but very pretty everywhere.

Yesterday we headed into rapid city for some shopping. We had lunch and decided to drive back to the needles highway and the animal loop at Custer state park. We got sidetracked by a couple more wineries that give free tastings which is fun! The only thing is we ended up buying more than our limit so as I type this I am drinking a cranberry wine. They make a lot of fruit wines here. Not the usual kind I drink but it's pretty tasty!

We had another nice drive after we finally got there. My map reading skills we slightly off yesterday too so that took us longer to get there too. We saw bison again and the donkeys were pretty friendly again. We took them some more carrots and they were practically in the car with us trying to get to them!

We had a nice supper, and headed back to our hotel after taking the wrong turns AGAIN.....but finally we got back after about an hour!

Today we decided to stick around our hotel which is in a town 3 miles from deadwood. We went to a mining museum and then a historical/mining tour of lead. It was interesting.

From there we went into Deadwood and we walked around town. Its been made into a gambling casino town. Some of the casinos are in the original buildings from the late 1800's and are very nice. One saloons had a picture of what It looked like 1889 and it was exactly the same, right down to the stuffed animals on the wall. We saw a re-enactment of Wild Bill Hickok being shot. It was fun.

From the we went to the cemetery to see wild bills grave and calamity jane. Very wild west feeling in this town!

Tonight we went to the deadwood rodeo. It is an annual rodeo and has won professional awards. It was really fun, and I got excited when they said there was a Canadian saddle bronc rider, then we saw he was from Inglis?!??! Crazy. That made it more exciting!

Tomorrow we leave for home. We have decided to drive half way and stop along the way at a few places, and drive the rest of the way on Sunday. The trip has been fun, but it will be nice to get home to our own bed. I would definitely recommend the trip to anyone. There are so many things for everyone to do and see!

Blackhills Day 2 & 3

Yesterday we started our day by driving to Sturgis. We weren't sure what to expect, but it was a fairly decent sized town and it seemed like they were getting all ready for the famous motorcycle rally in a couple weeks. There were still plenty of bikes driving around town.

We left there after having a nice cold beer to try and cool off. It was pretty hot out yesterday.

After that we drove to rapid city, the 2nd biggest city in south dakota. We had lunch at a pretty authentic Mexican restaurant. For a few minutes I forgot where I was and thought I was really in Mexico.

After lunch we walked around main street where they had lots of shops to browse in. I bought a couple Little things and we got back to the car right before a downpour.

We decided to take a drive to keystone to see what there was to see there. we discovered it was a very very touristy little town, but a lot of activities to do there. We decided we had to come back the next day because we had a cowboy dinner and show to attend!

We arrived at the show and got our cowboy dinner served to us on tin plates. We dined on roast beef (me) chicken (Chris), a baked potato, applesauce, baked beans, a biscuit and spice cake for desert.

The show was ok. Some very amateur country music singers who played instruments and played old country music. It was a good show and was something to do in the evening.

Today we got up early. We actually had a pretty full day planned.

We started out going to hill city. We went to a local winery for a free tasting on wines and some of them were pretty good. I bought myself a bottle of phat hog cab Sauvignon. They had many fruit wines that were sweet but good.

From here we went back to keystone. After lunch went to a gold mine for a tour and it was actually pretty interesting. There are a lot of gold mines in this area so maybe we will go to another one yet.

Next was the cave. We went into a cave for another tour. It was really neat too. Lots of stairs going up and down but it was pretty neat. There were lots of stalagmites and stalactites and they were pretty neat too see

(as I type this I am beginning to think we are pretty boring and this trip isn't with blogging about!! But I will anyways!)

Our next destination was a drive though Custer state park and the needles highway. That was fun. Slow driving though. Up and down mountains and hills and a lot of traffic and narrow winding roads.

When we got to the park entrance the first thing we saw was a giant buffalo wandering down the highway. As we drove through the park we saw a few herds of them. We also so an antelope type of animal and some burros (donkeys). They were pretty tame. Chris held up a carrot and a momma and baby came right to the window and stuck their heads in. I was laughing pretty hard, it was pretty funny. We drove a bit more and came up to a few more. I got out of the car and the raced up to me. I was a bit scared they were going to eat me but it turned out they wanted carrots too. They were a fun time!

We drove back through the "needles highway" which is a narrow highway with rock formations that are supposed to look like needles. To me they didn't look like needles but it was the neatest highway to drive on. Thank goodness wasn't driving though, I would have been pretty white knocked the whole time. The 67 mile loop took us about 4 hours with all the stopping and slow driving though the hills. It was a really nice drive though.

All in all, it was a pretty good day. We have to plan our tomorrow adventures now.

Goodnight xo

Road trippin' through the Dakotas.

Since we missed our holiday this past winter, I've had blogging withdrawal so i will blog out adventurous vacation to South Dakota!

We had been talking about going to the black hills for a couple years and everyone we talked to about it said it was a really nice area to visit. So here we are road tripping through the Dakotas.

We set out on Saturday am after dropping our little doggy off at her babysitters and we were off. We decided to head through Brandon and cross the border at the international peace gardens, which I had been to on a family camping trip. We got there and it started pouring rain so we crossed that off our list and continued to Minot.

Our original plan was to leave Sunday and drive straight though, but we decided to drive about half way and break up the trip. Chris, my dear Chris was in charge of booking us a hotel room.

After some shopping in Minot and dinner at Ruby Tuesday we headed off to what I learned was a cabin that chris booked for us between Minot and Bismarck. We pulled up to our "cabin" which was about the size of a small garage, musty smelling and decked out in retro '70's furniture. We found " Ronnie", the lady that showed us to our cabin, in the bar and it seemed as though she had been there for a few hours already. She took us to our cabin and informed us that "the only thing is, I don't have a key for this one, but don't worry, no one messes with the cabins". Which I thought, I don't blame them if she was in charge. Ronnie was a rough, foul mouthed woman who dropped the "F" bomb at least 25 times as she led us the 50 meters from the bar to the cabin.

So instead of sitting in our musty garage cabin we went for a drive to see all the lakes in the area. It turned out to be a nice evening sitting by the water and driving around the lakes.

After a surprisingly decent sleep we headed out to Bismarck and to continue onto our final destination. We got slightly sidetracked in Bismarck with Kohls and we stopped at walmart to pick up some fruit and veggies and cheese and crackers and other snacks for our hotel room.

Chris spoke with some people along the way and someone told him to stop at general Custers house. Because I know nothing about any type of history you will have to google General Custer. It was a neat house with a lot of original things in it and it was built in 1889. it was guided by a girl in costume and she spoke like it was 1889. A bit cheesy yes, but that seems to be how we do vacations now.

So after the museum and wandering around an old Indian village with mud hut type dwellings we headed off to south Dakota a bit later than we imagined. Bismarck is still 6 hours from Lead, which is where our hotel is. We only have about 2 hours to go as I type this in the car.

We stopped for dinner just a bit ago in Dickenson, where Chris happened to stumble upon a Bonanza restaurant which he was quite pleased about. I was curious myself since I hadn't been to one for years since I remember grandma and grandpa taking us there when grandpa ate this weight in all you can eat shrimp! This menu option was discontinued, which Chris was disappointed about, but he survived. We were both quite disappointed in bonanza, I guess it was much more exciting as kids.

So now we're driving through pretty rolling hills and we are looking forward to getting to our hotel (palace express). I'm a little nervous it may be a bit sketchy, but that seems to be how we roll. We will see what tomorrows adventures hold for us. Keep posted.

Update: we have arrived at the palace. It was pretty dark when we got here so we weren't able to see the scenery, but we could make out a bit of rock and it was pretty hilly. The little Echo barely made it up some of the hills. We checked into our room and we are completely surprised. The rooms are dated but cheap....cheaper than our garage cabin. Super clean, free wifi, breakfast in the morning! Who knew????

Off to bed. Goodnight

next adventure???

Stay tuned for the next adventure. Your guess when or where is as good as ours!

Last post from ethiopia

just back to Addis Ababa(cap. city of Ethiopia) and i am staying in this tourist area as there are lots of bars n hotel n restaurants in this area so it attracts tourists. it also attracts a lot of maggots and scum of the earth people, looking to make a quick buck by scamming/lying/cheating/pick pocketing tourists.....and also it attracts beggars cause of the 'rich' tourists.

well i just tried 'kitfo' raw spiced meat, i asked for well done....it was 1/2 done and definately pink....hope that doesn't give me the shits later!. anyways...........as usual i asked fr my left over's to be taken in a bag to give to poor homeless people, and i walked out to this old lady,70's, holding her hand out looking sad and motioning her fingers to her mouth, meaning money for food. aha, i thought i have fresh injera and this cheese like flat stuff in a clean bag and she saw me just walk out of rest. so i give it to her, and she loks at it, frowns and pushes it back to me. i was mad that i made the effort to bug waiter for a bag(huge order he no speak english, and i had 1/2 the restaurant. watching me as i motioned to put food in a bag and i walk out with it) i flat out started yelling at her that she wasn't hungry at all and that she should bugger off and quit trying to get sympathy from tourists! oh i was mad. i walked by her later and scowled at her as meanly as i could, and cussed her some more saying 'you're not hungry' don't even give me that look or stick out your hand!!' i am still mad about that

hmmm well the last town i left i kept getting different answers n prices about how to get to 'lalibela' so i said piss on it and just flew. Plus the fact that the flight was 37.00 or 39.00US made the decision simple.

i asked my hotel about 6 times for wake up knock about 4 different people, and thankfully the night before i did nothing but go to bed early, as sure enough i never got knock, good thing i heard my quiet travel alarm as i was so scared i would oversleep it. leaving i said 'hey what about my wake up call u primised?' to all of them! i was ticked off as the hotel was over charging me i know it, but every other place wanted same overpriced rate, and i only stayed there cause room was secure and i could use my padlock on it. many other hotels had old locks that didn't look secure or loose screws on door assembly, i figured after screwing me over for 3 nights rent, the least they could do was knock on my door, as they were all up!

oh i never mentioned. i never knew till i was here, but slowly i've been told that it is only 2002 here....i joked to local that i should go on a real 'bender' then that night as i am only 27 then not 35. how can country be 8 yrs behind the rest of the world? wait there is more! also the clock starts at 6:00 am like on watches 6:00 is where one 1:00 is so 8:00 am is actualy 2:00 in the morning and noon is 6:00 , 4:00 pm in the afternoon is 10:00 so everytime u talk to people about times u must ask if it is ethiopian time, or european(or rest of the world as i call it) time. strange! there's more. there calender is also 8 days behind ours! so today is the 17 for you yet it is only the 9'th here. can u imagine running a business trying to import/export things and constantly talking to people in outside world trying to arrange dates n times, the 20 of the month at 10:00 oclock in morning, here is the 12'th at 4:00 o'clock! i think is quite retarded myself and confusing as heck............but welcome to 3'rd world travel...nothing is easy here....nothing!

the churches i went to have website www.lalibelachurches.com check it out. i pulled into lalibela a lil town sorounded in every direction my mountains, way in the middle of nowhere. completely poor locals and lots of scammers trying to get money out of tourists any way they can.It is human nature i guess, cannot blame them, i just don't agree with the lies n cheating n trying to trick locals with false info.

i found a nice little family run hotel, 8 room, and for 1'st 2 nights i was only person there so it was nice having restaurant n bathroom all to myself. views were amaing and air was fresh. only bad thing is that to walk to centre of town, just about gave a fat old smoking drinker like me a stroke. it took 25-30 mins of about 20-35 deg incline, uphil the entire way and full sun as no trees for shade. sad locals cut down every tree they can while they r still young to sell/use for firewood or to build fencing. and it is dusty when the odd vehicle passes so u must basically stop n close your eyes. walking anywhere there was tough work! tough! and i had at least 10 different children tell me their families lived in countryside and they needed moeny to buy books for school n clothes, but sadly i couldn't give them all money. i truly believed about 8 of them and was really heartbreaking to think this kids future life could be ruined or his fate changed for the worse cuz he didn't have an 8.00 dictionary for his schooling! they all said how their families wanted them to quit school and move out to countryside to farm the land or be sheperds(with no future at all!) but how they struggled on to study n stay in school. so sad that their parents were uneducated n thought school was waste of time and were kinda mad that children went to school rather than help out at home and drop out at young ages!

i went and saw the 11 or 13 churches carved out of rock hundreds of years ago, carved into the ground. i never went on that site but i hope it has pictures. they were amazing and each had a priest inside that was happy to pose with staffs n crosses n prayer sticks , in their robes all for a few birr tip, which i had no problem tipping these holy men. no problem at all. All churches had solid rock pillars inside were each very unique to the other. lots of history n religion here, u could just feel it in the air.one even had some mumified bodies in a tomb carved outta the mountainside that was cool as well!

after seing all the churches i just went back to hotel and ended up chatting with some other tourists that came to my hotel for supper. they asked how hotel was. great i said, i have it all to myself! no hot water, but water heated by the sun so i just showered around 6:00 pm , oh wait, ethiopian time was 12:00 i guess, crazy time system, so water was okay. aside from doing their laundry, all day everyday all the mother/father/daughter did was sit in a chair and look aimlesly at the road, waiting for more tourists i guess! they had 2 younger children that went to school, but all day every day the 3 of them sat doing nothing. how boring, i think the dad shoulda planted a garden n they coulda had fresh vegetables. i woulda done that for me n laura n aby rather than just sit in a chair all day. oh one day i saw the father sorting beans/lentins, picking the rotten one out from the good ones.

i felt sorry for the girl. she was pretty about 15-16 and i thought, they own hotel, they could afford to send her to school. then i thought of it. only the girl spoke english. she showed rooms to tourists, told them how much, was waitress in the rest/bar. if she went to school, her parents couldn't run the hotel w/o her so b/c of that fact she'll never get an education or finish school. shitty, i felt sorry for her. 1 night i was up in bar w/some local guys till after midnight,rest of the world time that is, and she was waitressing, n today she gave me wakeup knock at 6:00 am so she is always there , or there is no communication for tourists at all! poor girl!

second day i just relaxed, walked through town up that stupid hill, looking for a restaurant that sold meat. because it is fasting time, 2 months before easter they say, they r not allowed to eat meat, so no rest. had meat. none . i searched everyone i saw n asked for 3 straight days plus asked every tourist i saw if they knew where i could find a rest with meat. retarded, really, if u don't wanna eat meat, then do not order it, but if u have a business and people wanting to order meat u should supply that service. many other tourists i spoke to also wanted meat. i ate the shitiest speghetti n vegetables, sauce 1/2 full of redish-orange grease n bland waay too much in that town. the girl in my hotel asked how it was and i smiled saying it was excellent, meanwhile thinking if i would be able to finish it before i had to run to the bathroom b/c it was so darn greasey.

i have never been to a country where they cook in soo much oil then dump the food in your plate and there is just a pool of oil oozing onto all the other food as well. i had to eat stupid fasting food, and i had a vegetable salad like no other, it had no lettuce(yet my spaghetti had lettuce so it was availiable? my salad was slices of 1/2 cooked potatoe,beet,boilded egg,onion and hot pepers slices. and i had injera , the thin vinegar tasting pancake with a big scoop of mushy sauce poured into the centre as u tear chuncks off with your fingers n dip in the sauce. man did i miss meat, first thing i did when i got here was look for meat and after this email i will go eat some more. because i am really hungry.....no, just because i can! i will try myself to lamb tibs! yum!(lil chunks of lamb meat, sadly bathed in oil, but good)

i found the most beautiful mountain view with 3 locals sitting at this bar(beer was warm but it was only .42 and amaing view) so i just sat and chatted with them for 3 hours. they spoke god english n i learnt many things about ethiopia, specially about the year being behind and calander by 8 days, the time i was aware of already. haha i looked out window in internet cafe and just saw a very pretty girl pick her nose, while talking to boy, roll it, then flick it.....hiliarious, never see that at home.and yup, she is pretty, even after that maybe 17 or so. i am bored killing time till i fly home so i also watch the street while i am here. internet is cheap so i don't care. anyways, that night i was sad about not being able to find meat, and i sat with about 6 local guys, all spoke english, and we had some beers, then walked to 2 different bars, ending up at mine thankfully. they left late, while i ended up inviting myself to sit with a well dressed local that worked with tourism board in this town, divorced and loved to drink. he wouldn't let me go to bed, kept ordering 2 more each time his beer was empty, offering to pay, which i am sure he woulda, but i insisted i pay for my own. . the poor girl at my hotel sat up at the table with us till almost 3:00 am, when ifinally had to say no thanks to another round, and went to bed.

slept in and went back to see churches and find rest that sold meat. again no luck! but churches were nice. 1 of them has a 7 kg solid gold cross, what is that worth nowadays! had many children ask me for money and some told me the 'my parents live in countryside i need money for dictionary story'. then i had this lil kid about 2, very dirty clothes n snotty nose, but as i walked he walked beside me, grabed 2 of my fingers in his lil hand, then walked beside me for about 10 mins. i didn't want to push him away, but i really felt like i was a crazy kidnapper or what would his parents think if they saw, where were they anyways. many locals pointed,commented to this kid holding my hand , most smiling so i just kept walking with him.saw many children kicking around what looked like a stuffed sock, as they couldn't afford a soccer ball, so they used that instead.

i went to a tea shop, told owner i was willing to pay only 2 birr(.14) no more for a tea, he thought about it, knowing he sells for less to locals but most places charged tourists 4 birr, he smiled and said okay, sit down with really bad teeth. i smiled back and said thank you. this is a country where u can bargain the price of anything if u think it is unfair or overpriced, and if shopowner agrees, then u get at decreased price. i was happy to givre him my business once he agree to fair price so i offered him a smoke and we chatted. he told me many people would be mad at rest owner if he sold meat and that they would argue, maybe even get into fist fight about it as they think it is so bad to sell meat during fasting. crazy i do not understand.

i was saddened to experience a lil girl maybe 5-7 'ish run by me and at the last second grab for my pocket. she didn't quite get my cigarette pack, but it had my rom key so i woulda been screwed if she had. woulda had to break into room and i'd have to pay. i yelled at her as she kept running, then bend down grabbed a rock and threw it at her. i missed, but it woulda hurt if i hit her as i threw hard as i could, lil girl or not, she tried to pick my pocket, no doubt taught that by her parents, as a young child doesn't know to do that on their own! lil bugger! that was my only bad exp. though in the whole country and it really wasn''t bad at all, just ticked me off a bit

the flies were totaly insane in that town, worse thean here in city. i breathed in 3, swallowing 1, yuck, able to spit 2 back out, but they buzzed around soo much that when u would breathe, u'd just inhale them right in. i saw this dirty homeless kid looking at me, mouth open a bit and i saw flies around his eyes and 1 crawled right in the side of his mouth. he didn't swat at them or bolw or nothing. i guess he was just so used to them, and they must go more for dirt n smelly things, as i was clean, well relatively, and they didn't bother me nearly as much, but this poor homeless kid had many on his head n face. sounds cheesey but it reminded me of a unicef commercial. i wanted to take picture of them on his face, but i was ashamed at the though of his poor misery, and me taking a photo, like a trophy to show people back home to awe at his poor misery. man i feel so sad now thinking back to all the things i saw, all the poornes that u cannot even imagine in your worst nightmares! and we r soo materialistic, most of u reading this think tap water isn't good enough and have to buy bottled water! western world really is pathetic! spoilt rotten n prissy!

also i look out window, muslim countries, i feel so sorry for the woman hardly any of their face shwing wearing this crazy thing on their head. i am also happy that crazy homeless man that followed me n waited outside 2 weeks ago, well i haven't seen him yet and hope i do not. all i have to do today is just buy some booze n smokes to take home. maybe some spices, not much else here interest to westerner. i checked into hotel and have everything of value(plane print out/pass port/camera/money belt) on me so i don't even care if my room gets ransacked. just smelly clothes in severe need of a wash in my bag, one clean set for flight home in plastic bag, so i can look 'hot' for laura when she picks me up.....haha, right laura?

well, i have the most awful flight schedule home. tomorrow i fly at 10:00am to kenya, then i have 16 hour wait till next flight, then i go to Cairo, then London, then Toronto, and finally winnipeg. it is depressing to think how many airpport security n ticket checks n bag searches n metal detectors i will go through. INSANE!

worse part s that i hate nairobi, think it is dangerous and my check in is at 2:00 am tomorrow night, so i will stay up all night as i am waaaaaaaaaay to scared i would sleep in......but, do i pay 15.00 to cab to the hotel laura/i stayed at in kenya to sit on their couch, then pay 15.00 to cab back? or do i sit at airport for 16 hours..........which would totally be hell, yet i'd be safe there, i do have 2 different books to read, or i guess i could go downtown, but with a big heavy backpack?

i am soooooooooo sad about that, i turly do not know what to do? prob sit bored out of my mind at airport, thinking of laura....ah sweet laura, what a pretty thought she is! wonder if she was outside this internet cafe if she'd a picked her nose n flicked it! haha prob not! i hope she wakes up and comes online soon! regardless i had an awesome trip, laura really enjoyed the pyramids n the safari in kenya so that makes me happy. and i liked Ethiopia. i had many a frustrating moments, many, n i still have18 more hours here plus some food to give out, yet glad i came

well i hope u have checked out the blog that laura spent a lot of time on.if not www.theadventuresoflauraandchris.blogspot.com
check it out and LEAVE A COMMENT IF YOU CAN! i haven't checked it yet but i am sure laura has many photo's on there

well sad about my brutal flights ahead specially about what to do in nairoby airport

by.prob last email!
looking forward to coming home to see my 2 baby's laura and aby!