Another busy/lazy day, so, no photo galleries till tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Sorry for the blog silence. I’m a bit under the weather. Will post more tomorrow, probably.

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audblog audio post

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We’re still 1 or 2 hours out of South Bend, so I may not have time to post photos tonight. My apologies.

In other news, Clay Aiken rocks! Vote for him at 1-866-436-5782!

We’re parked at a rest stop in Wyanet, Illinois, watching the “American Idol” finale on my portable TV. Go Clay!

We just entered Iowa, the 49th state Becky has been in. She now leads me, 49-48, in the state count. (I already went to Iowa, in 1992 with my parents.) I still need to visit Oklahoma and Alaska; Becky needs only Louisiana to have visited all 50 states.

Wow! We had a great time at the Nebraska Audubon Society’s Spring Creek Tallgrass Prairie Park. The grass wasn’t exactly shoulder-high, but it was very pretty anyway, especially seeing it blowing in the wind. And the panoramic views were lovely.

Toby, in particular, had a fantastic time running through the grass.

Those thumbnail pics are just a preview. Stay tuned for more extremely cute photos later tonight, once we arrive at our hotel in South Bend!

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Yesterday’s scenery ranged from deserts to forests to snow-capped mountains. Today, we saw a bunch more snow-capped mountains — and then descended to the vast prairies and farmlands of Nebraska (which, by the way, is state #48 for both Becky and me!).

The day’s whole gallery of 70 photos is online!

We ended up staying in Kearney, Nebraska, instead of going all the way to Grand Island, as I anticipated in my audio post. Still, we went 21 more miles in 9 fewer minutes today than we did yesterday. Ah, the joys of those virtually endless, virtually empty Wyoming and Nebraska highways. :)

At times, the road was so straight and empty that, while I was driving, I could safely afford to pet Toby, eat a sandwich, even take a few pictures:

We didn’t stop much, but we did make a brief visit to a scenic (if rather flat) rest stop along I-80 in Nebraska…

…although the stop did make Becky a wee bit cranky:

We also crossed the Continental Divide today:

Anyway, here is the day’s travel summary:

Distance driven: 711 miles
(Two-day total: 1,401 miles)
Time, including stops: 9 hours, 57 minutes
Time, not including stops: 9 hours, 2 minutes

Segments:
Park City, UT to Rawling, WY (Becky driving), 6:37 AM MDT - 9:59 AM MDT
Rawling, WY to North Platte, NE (Brendan driving), 10:25 AM MDT - 4:07 PM CDT (includes a six-minute rest stop)
North Platte, NE to Kearney, NE (Becky driving), 4:20 PM CDT - 5:34 PM CDT

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I have to get to bed, but here is today’s photo gallery, and here is the day’s travel summary:

Distance driven: 690 miles
Time, including stops: 10 hours, 3 minutes
Time, not including stops: 9 hours, 11 minutes

Segments:
Los Angeles, CA to Glendale, NV (Becky driving), 8:11 AM PDT - 12:15 PM PDT
Glendale, NV to Nephi, UT (Brendan driving), 12:59 PM PDT - 5:43 PM MDT
Nehpi, UT to Park City, UT (Becky driving), 5:51 PM MDT - 7:14 PM MDT

Selected photos:

Becky smiles as we leave L.A.

Utah’s beautiful snow-capped mountains

Check out all the photos!

We decided to bypass Salt Lake City, so we’re spending the night in Park City, Utah. More details (and photos) later.

We’re in Utah now, rolling toward Salt Lake City. (We may end up staying overnight there.) The scenery is beautiful!!! Lots of snow-capped mountains. Stay tuned for digital pictures!