Meandering the Country

July 16 – 22, 2023 Our journey from Salt Lake City to Iowa is a familiar one!  We took it several times before we began this adventure when we would leave Hastings, MN and head to visit Brandon’s family.   I-80 leads you directly from SLC to Des Moines where we would pick up I-35 and head to Minnesota.  For our current trip, we will be delaying our visit to Minnesota and sticking around Waukee, IA for a while. Our first overnight stay was at Western Hills Campground in Rawlins, WY.  It’s basically a large gravel parking lot with full hook-ups.  They have clean restrooms, free coffee, and a putt-putt golf course, though!   Wanting to stretch our legs and always game for learning a little about a town, we found ourselves touring the Wyoming Frontier Prison .  The cornerstone for this facility was laid in 1888; however, due to Wyoming’s difficult weather and budget constraints, construction wasn’t completed for another 13 years.  It opened...

July 6 – 16, 2023 Brandon and Anne certainly do live in a beautiful location!  From their home in Salt Lake City, UT, you get views of both the snowcapped Wasatch Mountains and the Great Salt Lake itself.  Quite literally, the highs and lows of the area! Okay, so as beautiful as the area is, our main attraction is being able to spend time with Brandon and his family.  Time with family has been a somewhat rare commodity during our travels.  This was a nice combo, along with our time together in Yellowstone NP, to be able to get our hearts completely topped off! First on our adventures with them was a trip to Loveland Aquarium .  The entire west has been having quite the heat wave and SLC was no exception.  The aquarium provided a nice way to get out of the house and still be able to escape the heat.  Highlights included taking a virtual reality trip to the rain forest, the touch tank, and the shark tube! Brandon’s neighborhood has a community pool, givi...