Category: 2006 Journey

Amanda and I survived the three weeks on the road. We had lots of fun too. We visited the fraternity brothers in Grand Forks, North Dakota then toured around Northern Minnesota before circling back to Detroit Lakes, Minnesota for the 10,000 Lakes Music Festival. It was about what we excepted, maybe not what we had hoped but definitely fun by any standard. It was fun visiting with Dr. Peter Read and all my other friends. There was some pretty good music and we met lots of unique people.

After the festival we drove across the plains of South Dakota. Stopping in Murdo, South Dakota where I was impressed by the claim that it had the original General Lee car from the Dukes of Hazard show. That is until I mentioned this to my brother and he pointed out that they probably used hundreds of cars in the making of the shows, so getting a used one was probably not all that hard. That made it a little less impressive but the fond memories of Murdo shall live on! We stopped in Wall, South Dakota to visit Wall Drug where we drank the free ice water and marvel at how many people can be attracted by the signs along every Midwest highway. We drove to Mt Rushmore and drove past Crazy Horse and went into Jewel Cave before making it to Devil’s Tower just before dark. Then we took the long way to Yellowstone going south through Thermopolis and along Hwy 26. Lars and Kristen met us and we drove around and checked out all the neat geysers and natural wonders of Yellowstone. We saw lots of Buffalos too!

After camping at Yellowstone for two nights we drove to Billings, Montana where Lars raced his motorcycles in the Billings Hillclimb. He made it over once on the bike he built from scratch using a street bike engine in a modified dirt bike frame. But on his last run his bike tumbled down the hill a ways and got a little dinged up. But not unfixable. Then we hightailed it back to Portland returning home on August first.

Now it’s the end of August. Amanda has returned home to Buffalo, New York where she just started her last year of University. I have been working at the wreath shop office some and selling tie dye some at the Gresham Farmers Market. I am headed this weekend up to the Gorge in Washington to see the Dave Matthews Band and try to sell the rest of my inventory and cash in. Or at the least to have a really good time.

“I don’t need to fight to prove I’m right. I don’t need to be forgiven! Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yea!” -The Who

Last week Amanda and I drove to the Oregon Coast and stayed in Yachats, Oregon. Sitting on the beach that night I asked Amanda to marry me. She said Yes! So now we are embarking on our engagement honeymoon. In about an hour we will leave on a three week roadtrip.  The van is all packed and ready to go and we are washing out our last batch of tie dye right now. We are excited and happy as can be.

Next week my wonderful girlfriend Amanda will arrive in Oregon to visit me for the summer. The week of July 10th we are going to take off on a road trip in my van. We are planning to heading to Glacier National Park in Montana, then cruise along Highway 2 until we arrive in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Pete will be there along with lots of my other friends for the “Pi Kappa Phi Fix the House Weekend.”

After a weekend of partying and a bit of painting or something we are going to head to Detroit Lakes, Minnesota for the 10,000 Lakes Music Festival where Amanda and I are going to have a Tie Dye booth in the campground. After four days of selling and trying to become thousandaires we are planning on heading to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming of course seeing Mt Rushmore and the Devils Tower along the way. While visiting Yellowstone my brother Lars and his girlfriend Kristen are going to join us midweek for some camping then we are all going to head to Billings, Montana for the motorcycle hill climb that Lars is going to compete in. After that we are going to convoy back home with Lars, ending three weeks on the road.

But those are just the plans. And plans can always change……