"Too Far to Walk" -- Day 8-9

Day 8, Saturday. We woke up to no fleas (or bed bugs) in our motel! Success! We then started off our morning (and last leg of our trip) by driving through Minnesota and Wisconsin. Minnesota was entirely uneventful. Wisconsin was also uneventful but had something we were all looking forward to: CHEESE!

We drove a few more hours (all while eating entirely too much cheese) and ended the day in Chicago. Zach went to visit a friend and attended an album release party, while Brian and I went to visit our cousin Nate at Moody Bible Institute. We had SUCH a wonderful time walking the sidewalks of the Magnificent Mile, seeing the Bean, drinking really awesome pumpkin tea from David's Tea (where Nate works), and eating classic Chicago deep dish pizza from Giordano's (my stomach still hurts from the gluten but it was soooo worth it). Nate was just the best tour guide (seriously, he's awesome, go visit him and see for yourself) and it was the perfect last night of our trip.

Day 9, Sunday. We detoured through Louisville and spent the afternoon with my family celebrating my nephew's 5th birthday (who was too busy playing to pose for a picture like the other two :)). My mom even had a "treasure chest" waiting for us! 

Guys, let me tell you something. Two million dollars would have been insanely cool, but in the end, we realized we are already so incredibly and perfectly blessed. For fear of being cheesy (no Wisconsin pun intended), I won't say our time together with Zach and our families was the "treasure Forrest Fenn meant for us to find." But I will say that coming home to incredible friends and family reminded us that there is no amount of treasure that could ever equal the incredible blessing we have in the people who love us dearly (and who we love too!). The way they love us is greater than gold, more precious than rubies, and stronger than any amount of jade (hopefully jade is strong or else my terrible analogies end here, haha). As we have arrived at the end of this adventure, let us never stop looking for more!

Mom's treasure chest for us. Those pennies are going straight into the adoption fund. Double win!

"Too Far to Walk" -- Day 7

Day 7 (Friday). We started our morning at Mt. Rushmore. If you haven't seen this national monument yet, you need to get off the computer right now and drive to South Dakota. It's incredible! Watch the 14 minute film about how they sculpted the mountain. Take pictures. 

Go through the museum slowly. Pay $5.50 to eat Thomas Jefferson's original recipe vanilla ice cream (soooo worth it, made with real vanilla beans and enough to feed 3 people, plus you get sa-weet pictures with TJ). 

Pay $0.00 to become a master sculpture of ice cream (see the likeness of Jefferson? It's truly uncanny).

Heck, even pose with Gutzon Borglum (the sculptor who spent the last 17 years of his older life hanging off the side of a mountain).

Whatever you do at Mt. Rushmore, I promise you won't be disappointed! It's been one of our very favorite stops so far.

Next we stopped by Wall Drug. How this even makes the list on TripAdvisor is beyond me. Just don't.

On the other hand, the Badlands were well worth the time! Gorgeous views, fossil hiking trails, and lots and lots of prairie dogs made for a great afternoon. The boys also did a lot of climbing (I stuck to the small hills :)). 

Lastly we made a stop at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. It came highly recommended from people back home and...well, it was definitely interesting. For those of you unfamiliar with the World's Only Corn Palace, it's a Russian-style building containing a large arena on the inside and corncob murals on the outside. The town spends $120,000 per year changing out the corncob murals and also hosts an annual Corn Festival which we were just so...lucky...enough to see. 

The whole thing was so close to an episode of Parks and Rec it was almost funny, but eventually we left just feeling sad. We bypassed the $22.00 bucket of flavored cheese curds and the plastic smiling corn sippy cups and made our way to Minnesota. Here's hoping our dud of a Hotwire purchase doesn't still have the fleas mentioned in the TripAdvisor reviews AND that all that Wisconsin cheese tomorrow makes up for our unexpectedly interesting evening. :)

"Too Far to Walk" -- Day 6

Day 6: Thursday (remember we are posting on a one-day delay). Devoid of any workable treasure theories, we decided to pack up the Focus bright and early and make a detour into North Dakota.

Were we disappointed about leaving the treasure behind as we departed from West Yellowstone this morning? Of course we were (are), at least a little. We had big daydreams of meeting Forrest Fenn and starting our adoption process earlier (plus I was only going to sell the movie rights for our adventure if Amy Poehler from Parks and Rec agreed to play my role, haha). But seriously, we have seen SO much of the United States and have enjoyed so much laughter and so many memories together that we really can't be disappointed for long. And hey, like I said yesterday, there's always next year! (But don't mention Forrest Fenn just yet...he's a bit of a sore subject at the moment.) ;)

We had planned to see Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota but decided to visit the small town of Medora instead. Medora has a population of 112 year round, which swells with 250,000 tourists each summer (how tourists find this place is beyond me, but apparently it's the #1 attraction in the state). We met a really nice lady in a nut & chocolate shop in town, who told us about growing up here and about the "Medora Musical", which essentially determines their tourist season. If you're looking for "pitchfork fondue" and the history of "Doc Hubbard" who moved to Medora at the age of 80, you came to the right place.

From there we headed south and spent the night in Rapid City, South Dakota. This trip has been such a change from how Brian and I usually travel! I typically overpack and bring a binder filled to the brim with hotel reservations, pre-paid attraction tickets, and a perfectly planned out itinerary. This time I packed one small backpack containing a few changes of clothes (plus a bunch of treasure notes) and one motel reservation. The rest we made up as we went!

And you know what? I've found I'm actually enjoying the break from my over-planning. We have added 4 extra states and Chicago to the trip, and we have made what would otherwise have been a disappointed trip home into an extra three days of experiencing all America has to offer (and Wisconsin cheese, as Brian and Zach remind me often). Stay tuned!

"Too Far to Walk" -- Day 5

Day 5 was more hiking, research, and theories. Yellowstone continues to be one of the prettiest places in the county! We didn't take many (or any) pictures today, and we still didn't find the treasure. In fact, it looks like our treasure hunt is drawing to a close. 

That said, this trip was far from a failure! Yellowstone has been such a wonderful place, and we have learned so much! Thanks to Forrest Fenn we have learned all about trout, what they eat and where they live. We have learned about the history of Yellowstone, of figures like Gary Brown and Oscar Brown and any "Browns" that might have ever been to or worked in Yellowstone. We have learned about bison and bears and the efforts by the government to replenish the populations of both. We have learned about creeks, canyons, and that you should always look for the places were the water is rippling before you cross the Madison River. I leaned how to read a topographical map, and we all learned how to use bear spray (I also learned I have an intense, debilitating fear of bears!). Perhaps more than anything, we learned to appreciate a good riddle and an adventure -- outdoors, across our beautiful country, together.

We haven't given up, but we are taking a self-declared Forrest Fenn Fast. Despite the 8 miles of walking and hiking each day, this trip has been far more mentally than physically exhausting. We have spoken and thought in riddles for the better part of 3 months and our brains are tired! But give us a few poem-less months and a free week next year, and I have a feeling we will be right back into the outdoors searching for the elusive place "where warm waters halt." 

For all of you #fennsfriends out there, we will be posting our theories and searches in detail once we are back to a real computer. Hopefully they will be valuable to at least a few of you. For all of our supporters, for Kate who is watching our house and Marcia who is feeding our stray cat Charlie, thank you for this opportunity! You guys are the best.

Now, onward towards North and South Dakota! 

"Too Far To Walk" --Day 4

With our spirits and energy renewed after a full 9 hours of sleep, we did a bit more research and headed back into the National Park (for the record, we don't believe the treasure is buried or otherwise in a place that would deface nature, so we aren't using shovels or anything like that).

On our way to Mammoth Hot Springs we saw a bison right on the side of the road! I mean, this guy couldn't have been more than 20 feet away (we were in the car and he didn't care, so we were safe).

Mammoth Hot Springs is beautiful! It's growing significantly each year as scalding water brings minerals to the surface of the ground and then evaporates, leaving an ever-growing natural wonder. That would explain why it looks so differently than it did when I visited Yellowstone nearly 20 years ago!

We ate lunch in the "town" of Mammoth Hot Springs and then continued toward Tower-Roosevelt. For being the less-traveled and less-famous area of Yellowstone, this side of the park is so much prettier and more diverse!

We stopped at the Lamar Ranger Station, where we met the sweetest volunteer ranger, Harold Brown. He told us all about the history of the area, the efforts by the Park to regenerate the wolf population, and how male bison roll around in their own urine to smell good for the ladies (it's currently bison mating season here). He talked to us about our risk of bear and bison encounters as he loaned us a 3rd bottle of bear spray and pointed us up the stream for a backcountry hike towards Druid Peak.

This was during the first 10 minutes of the hike: a.k.a. the only 10 minutes I enjoyed it before being terrified of bear sightings.

The hike was beautiful but I was on high alert for bears after our conversation with the rangers. I'll just say it WOULD have been my favorite hike ever if this wasn't bear country... but, considering the risk of bears, it bottomed out my list of best hikes. I'll stick to the boardwalks and maintained paths from here on out and leave the risk-taking to the boys. ;)

The hike took up the greater part of the afternoon, so as daylight waned we headed back to West Yellowstone for the night, stopping to see one more buffalo along the way (one that came way too close to where the boys were perched on a boulder!). More research tonight and then onward to more adventures (and theories) tomorrow! 

"Too Far to Walk" -- Day 3

Day 3. Monday. After departing Idaho, we drove 2 hours north to West Yellowstone, Montana. Not only the closest town to the west entrance of Yellowstone National Park, West Yellowstone is also the town where Forrest spent much of his childhood and later owned the Dude Motel (still standing, ironically right next door to the pizza place where we ate dinner tonight.

We checked into our motel, where Michael warmly greeted us with a smile, a book about grizzly bear attacks, and a crash course on how to use bear spray. He even let us borrow a second can of his bear spray (a commodity worth more than Forrest's gold in these parts). 

Zach and I were the designated bear spray team today, while Brian kept us on our toes with ample practice. He would randomly shout "bear!" throughout the day -- whether in town or in the woods -- to which Zach and I would draw our bear spray, pretend to pull the safety, and aim it at our invisible attacker. Zach got it down to 3.5 seconds flat (it takes about 6 for the bear to recognize you and charge apparently). We tried to limit shouting "bear" around other hikers, but eh, they could probably use the practice too (just kidding).

We made it to Yellowstone by lunch where we were immediately greeted by a female elk (no other wildlife spottings today). We made a quick stop by the Midway Geyser Basin and Old Faithful before consulting our new trail map and beginning the hunt!

(Elk in the water)

(Photo with the elk)

We drove and hiked back and forth across the area that matched our theory and what we knew about Forrest Fenn. We scouted for tributaries, checked both of our maps continually, and even dipped our toes in the cold, clear water of a designated swimming hole, but eventually we had exhausted our primary theory to no avail. When morale started to wane, we took a detour to the artist's paint pots (which were incredible) and then headed back to town for pizza.

After dinner, we found Wifi, opened our maps, and went back to the drawing board. Two new theories and more pictures of this beautiful landscape coming tomorrow!