There was a time when the quality of a restaurant wine list was judged primarily by the number of countries and regions represented, and therefore the larger the wine list, the better the rating. I recall lists that were encyclopedic in stature that went on for pages and pages, invariably starting with the classic regions of France - Champagne, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhone etc. and ending with a smattering of "New World" offerings that were added as an afterthought.

The days when a restaurant can afford to maintain an inventory of that size have long been over and the best lists in my view, are the ones that work on a "less is more" philosophy where the skill lies in creating a selection based more on stylistic considerations than trying to encompass every region of the wine world.

Recently I have seen some excellent examples of short lists that exemplify brevity in creative ways.  A hotel restaurant I visited in Chicagoland has an all-American list that breaks out of the mold of offering only Napa cabs and chardonnays. The list is divided into sections based on styles and grape varieties and states such as Virginia, New York, Michigan, Arizona and New Mexico are included alongside the usual representations of California, Oregon and Washington. Cabernet Sauvignons are intermingled with Bordeaux blends and Meritage blends within a section called "Powerful Reds", and there is a delightful section of "Alsace grapes" within the whites, representing wines made from the likes of Pinot Gris, Gewurtztraminer, Riesling, Muscat, and Pinot Blanc. There are recommendations for which styles pair best with certain items on the menu and a large number are available by the glass or 500ml carafe (2/3 of a bottle, which is a very good size for a couple wanting a little more than a glass each but not needing a whole bottle). This method of presenting wines to the consumer does a wonderful job of combining the familiarity of grapes and styles with a modern and accessible way of encouraging experimentation. And the whole list is but a few pages long. 

There is really no excuse for a wine list to ever be out of date these days, with the ability to print beautiful full color pages on word processors and desktop publishing programs from any computer. Restaurants can keep their lists fresh and vibrant by frequently changing the selections, perhaps buying small quantities and gauging customer reaction before committing to purchasing more. Restaurant managers and sommeliers can experiment with different ways to present the wines and engage the customer by requesting feedback. They can monitor what sells and encourage experimentation by offering a large selection of wine by the glass. The best wines are not always the most expensive, a fact that consumers and restaurateurs are becoming more aware of in these hard economic times. 

Wine lists should be accessible, informative and fun to read. If they have a focused theme, so much the better as nobody has the time or inclination to wade through 100 pages, and few of us are impressed by the gargantuan choices of yesteryear. Before going to a restaurant, check out their wine list online. Small lists are actually harder to put together than long ones. If there is a fairly short, well thought out selection that is presented intelligently, it means the restaurant truly cares about its wines and you won't be disappointed. 

In the very early hours of last Friday morning, 9/9/2011, my step-daughter, Lora gave birth to her first baby, making me a step-granddad, Ginnie a first-time grandmother and starting a new generation for this little family.

Kieran Thomas was born by C-section after a long labor. He weighed in at 8lbs 11oz and was 20.5" long. As you would expect, both Lora and her husband, Matt are thrilled.

Lora stayed in hospital until Monday and now she is at home. An unexpected upside to my layoff is that we are staying in Canada right now, close to the new parents and little Kieran, so Ginnie has been able to help out with some practical stuff around the house and I have the added advantage of being able to see them much more often than if we were still in Wisconsin.

I have already taken quite a few photos but am looking forward to doing a proper "session" in a few days. A selection of the early ones are below.

I never cease to be in awe of new babies. I have three beautiful daughters of my own and now a new generation has begun. I hope we can work together to make this a world in which they can prosper and thrive. For now I am going to enjoy seeing this little new life begin to flourish and hold him as often as I am allowed!

Earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, bombings, shootings, explosions, fires. All of these disaster situations have been in the news in the last few months and I don't know if it is my imagination or whether many of them really are worse than we have experienced in recent years.

We were recently staying in a hotel in Ontario, Canada, when the whole area was placed under a tornado warning. It appears to be a very rare occurrence in that region and nobody on the staff had the slightest clue what they should be doing. In fact there was argument and misunderstanding regarding the difference between a tornado "watch" and a "warning" but absolutely no plan in effect for what to do in the event of either. Consequently, while the local TV stations were advising residents to take shelter in basements, the hotel pool, with glass on three sides was full of kids completely oblivious to what was going on or the potential danger they were in. Hotel staff and guests were standing outside, watching the rain, the lightning and the winds as if a  new show had come to town. All the while, the front desk clerk (who was also the designated Manager on Duty) was completely unprepared and had no clue what she should be doing, but  seemed fine with that, assuming that it was just a thunder storm.

As an hotelier who has spent the last ten years in the US Midwest, I take tornadoes seriously. We had a plan and we practiced to make sure everyone knew what to do in the event of a tornado or other disaster. The residents of Joplin, MO certainly understand the devastating power that nature can bring to bear on a community, and it is to late after a disaster to put a plan in place. Hindsight can cost lives. A plan that we hopefully never have to put into action is a wise investment in training time and can literally make the difference between life and death.

The last couple of months have been a whirlwind. We sold our beautiful home in Sheboygan and the buyers wanted to close very quickly. In this market, it doesn't pay to be too inflexible and so we finished the packing that we had started several weeks earlier, booked a moving company and watched as our possessions were loaded onto a 53' semi. It was a bitter-sweet moment; we were happy to have sold our home, considering the current state of the real estate market, but sad to be leaving it after less than three years there. But as we said to friends and family, in the end it is just a building - the memories of happy times there remain, and we had some extraordinarily happy times entertaining in that house.

We elected to leave the furniture on the truck and pay a daily fee to store it there rather than unload it into storage, given that a couple of job prospects were looking quite promising and I was progressing well in the process. Hopefully, we thought, one of them would crystallize and we would soon be on our way to new climes. In the short term, we would travel north to Ontario and stay with various family members for what we hoped would be a short time. What we didn't figure into our calculations, was that the month of August seems to be the worst time to arrange interviews and trips to see resorts and hotels as so many of the senior teams take off on vacation.

So four weeks after our move, we are still in Canada playing the waiting game (we did take off to Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City last week to give our relatives a rest from us) and hoping that  will receive some positive news on the job front very soon. Effectively, right now we are homeless and jobless, a fact that was not lost on us as we listened to Bob Dylan's lyrics to Rolling Stone, the other day. How does it feel? Not great, but we are confident that this situation will be short lived and we will land somewhere soon. At least  we are close to my step-daughter, Lora, whose baby is due next week. 

There is a silver lining to every cloud!

Yesterday, Ginnie and I visited a new ice cream parlor located on the South Pier of Sheboygan. The weather was perfect and the whole area was a-buzz with activity. The Blue Harbor Hotel was obviously running at high occupancy, the mini-golf course was crawling with people, the patio of the Italian Restaurant was pretty with umbrellas shading late afternoon diners and the ice cream parlor had people lining up out of the doors. Yachts and motor boats were gliding in and out of the harbor,  there was a light, warm breeze that kept everyone comfortable and there were no bugs. We remarked that the scene could not have been more perfect.

The ice cream parlor had been featured in the local paper yesterday morning, and the owners were remarking that it had really drawn the crowds and they were having one of their busiest days yet. It was so wonderful to watch their success and then, as we walked up and down the pier, I reflected on a sobering thought. The numbers of perfect summer days like this are pretty few in South Eastern Wisconsin. What will it look like here in November, December, January and February? How many people will be lining up for ice cream on this off-the-beaten-track area of the city even in March? This year we had snow right into April and this summer we have had a fair share of cool, wet days too.

Most businesses that offer any kind of hospitality service have to navigate through some element of seasonality. Unless you are located in Southern California, it is likely that there will be some times of the year when the weather is less kind to business than others.  How do we have a successful business when we only have a few months of optimum conditions and what should we do to minimize the effects of slow business in the "low season"?

The old adage that a business needs three things to be successful - location, location and location really holds true more than ever before as we continue to claw our way out of this recession. If our business is located in a location that has no traffic or little appeal for half the year, then it will be exceedingly difficult to be profitable. Most hotels need to run at a minimum of 70% occupancy year round. Even if you run in the 90s for six months of the year, that means you still have to run at 50% for the other six months. That is an increasingly difficult challenge for some hotels particularly when rates are also being driven down by a "buyer's market" .  The same goes with ice cream parlors. The lines outside the doors in June, July and August need to be VERY long to survive the winter famine.

So what do we do? Basic as it seems, there are really only two ways to succeed in a seasonal market. The first is to do everything possible to steal market share and maintain the highest levels of business possible in the low season. This needs to include building loyalty to our brand, encouraging what business there is to use us rather than the competition and to come up with innovative ways to bring in new business as well as maintaining our current position. Social media has a lot of potential to help in this area, and an intelligent pricing policy (or revenue management strategy) is essential to balance rate (or price) and volume. The other essential but equally difficult thing to do, is to reduce costs to the bare minimum WITHOUT negatively impacting your customer or guest experience. And herein lies the challenge. As hospitality and business leaders, we have to walk the fine line of cost cutting while ensuring that we don't undo the reputation that we have worked so hard to build in the high season, because now, more than ever, we need loyal customers.

Our ice cream parlor will likely struggle in the winter. Hopefully that has been fully fleshed out in their business plan and they have not been too optimistic in their revenue projections. If they can reduce costs or maybe even close altogether for the winter, they stand a good chance of succeeding. But even if they close, there are ongoing fixed costs that don't disappear. Cash flow becomes critical.  If they could pick up the parlor and put it in Malibu, California, they would have a greater chance of success. But people want ice cream in Sheboygan as much as California and I am pleased they are taking the chance and putting everything into it to provide a great summer experience for visitors. They will have to navigate the seasons as carefully as the mariners who take their boats up and down the estuary. Lets hope that the seasonal rocks don't snag them and they come out unscathed.

We returned from our epic journey almost three weeks ago and yet I have not been able to find the time to complete this blog until now, as it is has been completely manic since we got back on the house selling and job hunting fronts. However, the last day was as interesting as the others.

We left our very nice hotel near Sioux Falls,  South Dakota and headed due east on Interstate 90, quickly crossing into Minnesota. I had looked for some Minnesota wineries that we might be able to visit en route that were not too far from the Interstate (this was going to be a 575 mile day and so we didn't have time for long detours) and located one near Rochester. 

Salem Glen Vineyard is a small farm winery that has been operating since 2007 making wines from cold-hardy variety grapes grown on property and around the region. There are no signs to it and you access the winery along a long, straight, dusty earth road. On Saturday afternoons, they often have live jazz in the tasting room (which opened in October 2009) and this beautiful, sunny Saturday afternoon there were a couple of dozen people enjoying the music and wine. If we had more time we would have stayed longer as the atmosphere was wonderful.

Winemaker and owner, Dustin Ebert kindly took some time to show me around the winery, pointing out the astronomy observatory that is used as a logo on the wine label and explaining that he makes the wine in the garage attached to the house. A true 'garagiste".  About 1/3 of his grapes are grown on property and the rest he purchases regionally, within a 120 mile radius. Varieties include Seyval Blanc, Edelweiss, Frontenac Gris, Marquette (that was developed at the University of Minnesota) and Marechal Foch which we also saw in Nebraska. Dustin is a self taught winemaker who is extremely passionate about the wines, making about 1000 cases per year.   I asked him if he is particularly proud of any of his varietals. Currently, he really likes the Marquette and I was able to taste it with him. Well structured and balanced, the body is relatively light but the flavors are richer than I anticipated with aromas of cherry and a pleasing peppery finish. I was pleased to finish our trip at this beautiful little winery that epitomizes the philosophies of so many that we had visited in the 30 days we were away. Passion, individuality, experimentation and most of all a love of the land, and the vines that ultimately define the finished product. Wine should be for everyone and at Salem Glen, everyone is welcome. No pretence or stuffiness, just plain good fun!

After a drive through Wisconsin Dells (which we had never visited in ten years and for which we felt a bit guilty that we had never taken our kids there during their visits) we arrived back at our newly-painted-soon-to-be-sold house in Sheboygan at about 9:30pm, tired, safe and elated at having completed this epic journey.


As I reflect on the trip in which we traveled 7,500 miles, crossed 13 states and one Canadian province and visited dozens of wineries, I am in awe of several things. First, the sheer beauty of the different states and provinces. Each has an individuality and character that is unique and a personality that is distinct. It would be as impossible to pick a favorite state as it would be to pick a favorite wine. Certainly, drinking wine in the region in which it is made adds a whole different dimension to the enjoyment.

Second, the variety of wines, the different personalities of the winemakers, the beauty of the areas in which they are made and the zest for life that is engendered by everyone involved in the winemaking world has left an indelible imprint on us both. 

Third, I am in awe of our little puppy, Hopi. Spending that amount of time in the car, going to different hotels and cottages all the time could have been unsettling, but he was a trooper and so well behaved. The world is gradually becoming more doggy friendly and it was great for us to be able to have him with us both.

We are both so please we took the time and made the trip. I was able to continue the job search process and networking with the help of cell phone and WiFi connections and since returning I'm pleased to say that the job market appears to have brightened somewhat. There are several positions that I am pursuing in different parts of the country and with a little luck, one of them will come through and set us on our next adventure. 

Our house selling adventures are another story, and a bit of a roller coaster, having had one sale fall through. However that too will work itself out in time.  Whatever happens we have the memories, blogs and photographs from our trip and have experienced something that we will hold close to our hearts for the rest of our lives.

Don't forget to check out Ginnie's blog too

For our penultimate day, we wanted to explore some of the places around Mount Rushmore before heading to our final overnight stop in Sioux Falls. 

We had read a number of reviews of Mount Rushmore itself, some very positive (especially espousing the feelings of patriotism that are felt by Americans as they observe the 60' carvings of presidents' heads in the mountainside) and some rather negative, talking about the commercialism and "touristy" nature of the park. We had limited time as we had to make it to Sioux Falls and I also wanted to visit a winery in Hill City, so we opted to go to Crazy Horse rather than Mount Rushmore. And we were very pleased that we did.

On the way there, I went in to what I thought was a winery, Stone Faces in Hill City. It turns out that this is not really a winery  per se, but only a tasting room for another winery, Valiant Vineyards that is in Vermillion, SD, some 300 miles further east. The girl in the tasting room explained that the winemaker there, Eldon Nygaard was responsible for writing the law (The South Dakota Farm Winery Act) back in 1996 and established the first Farm Winery in the state there. Rather than taste the wines in Hill City, and knowing we were heading towards Sioux Falls, I said we would go there and visit. Unfortunately, I miscalculated the time we had available to fit everything in, and we never did make it to Valiant Vineyards, but I do plan to get hold of a bottle of their wine and taste it.

We headed to Crazy Horse in weather that was still very iffy. Mist and drizzle persisted as we drove through the Black Hills, but gradually it improved and the sun came out. 

Ginnie has a particular interest in Native American culture, having written her first novel set in the Hopi and Navajo Lands of Arizona, so we were pleased to be able to see this monument, started by a white man and his family and funded entirely by private funds, to try to right some of the wrongs of the past in the way that the American Indians were treated.  

In comparison to the Presidential stone faces of Mount Rushmore, the scale of Crazy Horse is colossal. It is the world's largest mountain carving. The face of the sculpture is completed and the wife, Ruth, and children of the sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski who started the carving in 1948 and died in 1982, are continuing the project. We were able to take Hopi into the visitor center as long as we held him. We went in to the theater to see the orientation video and scared the poor little guy half to death. He hates guns, bangs and explosions and the video shows in graphic detail how the sculpture is made by using a combination of high explosives to blow away huge chunks of the mountain, and heavy machinery.

The project is incredible and you really have to see it to understand the scale. The visitor center is fascinating also and we spent a long time there.

As we left Crazy Horse, we headed briefly through Rapid City and visited another winery, Prairie Berry, whose family have been making fruit, honey and berry wines in South Dakota since 1876. The Vojta Family came to South Dakota from Moravia and now the wines are being made by 5th Generation, Sandi Jojta. Many of the wines are fruit based (they are famous for a fun little number called Red Ass, which is made from rhubarb!) but I tried a few of the grape wines that were interesting and better than I expected. La Crescent 2009 was a semi-dry (or semi sweet depending on which way you look at it) white wine made from native grapes grown in South Dakota. The blush, called Pink Slip was mostly white Zinfandel (!) but the red Sand Creek was very good. Made with a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and what they call River Grapes, this had fullness, a fine bouquet and hints of the oak in which it had been aged. At $21 a bottle, this is serious wine and was an unexpected pleasure from a state that in not perhaps noted for its winemaking prowess.

Our journey continued along Interstate 90 and we arrived late at out final hotel, a very nice Homewood Suites in Sioux City where we were able to order a good steak for delivery to the room. We opened a bottle of wine and tried to take in the fact the the next day would be the last one of our trip and that we would soon be back in Wisconsin.

Well the weather may have been wonderful for our day in Yellowstone, but the following day (Thursday) we made up for it.

Our journey started from Cody, Wyoming (Buffalo Bill Land) and we had planned to make it to Hill City, South Dakota the next day, hopefully to visit a winery and maybe Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse and Custer. We knew it was a long way but we were rather sleep-deprived and had a few things to do before leaving Cody, including picking up a prescription from Walgreens (this is a good trick to know if you are traveling for a long time. If you use Walgreens, you can have your prescription filled at any one of them in the country. Everything was done online and the drugs were ready for pickup just as if we had been in Sheboygan).  I also needed to get a new digital downloader for our cameras. The one I had brought with me managed to break two memory cards and I couldn't risk losing the images. Walgreens obliged once again!

It was cold and drizzling when we left and as we headed off on route 14, the Bighorn Scenic Byway, the rain became heavier. There were some short periods of breaks in the clouds and I marveled at the changes in geology as we progressed along the windy roads.

As this was the first time for either of us in this part of the country, we weren't entirely aware of the topography. I thought that as we headed east, the landscape would turn flatter and we would soon be in the pains. What I had not realized was that we had to navigate a pretty big mountain range first, and as we started to climb, the rain came down more and more heavily. I watched the temperature drop to the low 40s and commented that it may actually be snowing higher up. But the "Road Closed Ahead When Flashing" sign was not flashing which meant the road was open and, I thought, must be OK.

Rain turned to sleet. Sleet turned to snow. My laid back approach to the windy roads turned a little more cautious. One of the biggest problems was the brightness of the snow. I lowered the sun visor to help differentiate the contours of the road, but fog was all around and everything was basically white. There were no other cars on the road, or so it seemed, and there was no cell phone access, but there was also no alternative. We had to get over the mountain and the pass was the only route. 

On we went and the snow came down heavily as the temperature dropped to 30 degrees. We reached the summit which was 9,300' - not quite as high as Leadville, CO where we stayed the first week of our trip, but still pretty high. and the snow was blowing sideways. A snowplow appeared coming in the opposite direction and I decided to move to the other side of the road to drive in the cleared tracks. Of course i had to be aware of oncoming traffic which was few and far between, but when it came, it was shrouded in fog and I had to cross the thickest snow in the center of the road to get back on the right side. It felt dangerous and it was, so I opted to drive back on the the fresh snow most of the time, really slowly, and plow through. Although I wished that I still had my Land Rover, the RAV 4 did an admirable job. Only on a couple of occasions did the ABS brakes shudder as I lost a little traction, but we made it to the top. The drop down was eleven miles of 8% gradient. I put the car in 2nd (low) gear and kept my foot away from the brake as much as possible. Those eleven miles took almost an hour and seemed interminable. Finally the snow turned back to sleet and then to rain and I breathed a sigh of relief as Ginnie massaged my shoulders, which were tense from the almost three hours of intense concentration. My right thigh also ached and mentally I was exhausted. Although I never feared for our lives, I was certainly concerned as this was probably the worst conditions I have ever driven in, and certainly the longest sustained white-out conditions I have experienced. Although we couldn't see it, I knew there were sheer drops off the side of the road. I was pleased that there were barriers almost the whole way down and thankful for the Wyoming taxpayers who presumably footed the bill to install them! Through this whole episode, Hopi was uncharacteristically nervous and anxious, panting and trembling even before the white-out started. I think he could sense the danger ahead, or sense our concern. Doggies are remarkably perceptive!

As a result of this slow start to the day, we didn't make it as far as Hill City, SD and stopped at a pretty crummy Holiday Inn (why are they less good than the cheaper Holiday Inn Express?) for the night. Ironically, there was a Culver's next door. I was grateful to my friend Craig Culver for having the foresight to build a restaurant right there, and we filled our stomachs with butter burgers and fell into bed, too exhausted to blog.

Not may photos today but the following give an idea of the mountain pass conditions. This was certainly a day on the trip that we will remember and eventually we will look back on it fondly, as we do on every day. The main thing is that we are safe!

I have decided that I need a change of career. I want to become a weatherman. It is the only job I know where you can be spectacularly wrong and there are absolutely no consequences. That being said, I am pleased when they get the forecast wrong and it turns out to be much better weather than they predicted. That is exactly what happened yesterday for our excursion into Yellowstone Park, a trip that I had been looking forward to for weeks.

So despite predictions of snow, rain and cloud, we had perfect sunshine with interesting cloud formations for the entire day. And the day was AMAZING!

We had stayed in Gardiner the night before and made a relatively early start, at least for us, having packed a lunch and got the car washed. Gardiner is right at the north entrance and we passed under the Roosevelt arch, paid our $25 and headed south into the park. First stop was Mammoth Hot Springs. We couldn't take Hopi on any of the boardwalks and so I made a mini excursion myself as Ginnie watched the bubbling cauldrons from the car. The smell of sulphur is almost overpowering but the colors of the lava against the blue sky with the resulting steam from the boiling water that is erupting from the bowels of the earth are amazing. 

On we drove towards Old Faithful. Some of the scenery on the way was beautiful and some of it was frankly quite unremarkable. There are areas that have been ravaged by wildfires that are not pretty and some boring areas with just lots of pine trees. But the beautiful areas, along the rivers and across valleys are simply stunning.  We stopped for lunch by the Yellowstone River and then headed to Old Faithful. We managed to time it perfectly, able to use restrooms and do a little shopping before the eruption which is very impressive. We have not been able to visit any Montana Wineries (the few that exist were not on our route without a very long detour) but I was able to purchase a bottle in the Old Faithful Store that was made at Ten Spoons Winery near Missoula that I will sample and report back on. 

Old Faithful did her thing and we headed on. We knew that the East Entrance to the park was closed which would have been our best route to Cody Wyoming, so we had to make a detour and head back north and out of the North east Entrance. It turns out that it was fortuitous that this was the case, as while we were on the northbound road, we saw stopped cars and a Park Ranger directing folks. Yes, there was a grizzly bear less than 100 yards away. Excited, we pulled in and joined the throng. Ginnie had the binoculars and I had the 70-200mm zoom already on the camera as I had been using it to photograph many other amazing features of the park earlier, including geysers and bubbling mud holes near the Yelowstone Lake which is still completely frozen over.

With the long lens, I was able to see the bear clearly. She was completely undeterred by the audience but the ranger was being cautious. They can run at 35 mph and could be with us very quickly if she wanted to. But he has worked with these bears for over ten years and knows the signs. After gobbling at whatever she could find in the mud between snow banks, the sow finally ambled away, and the crowd left with huge smiles on our faces.

We also saw a lot of bison some with their young, an elk having a wander in the the river, some beautiful birds and the telltale signs of other bears. Apparently there was a coyote hiding behind a restroom too, and Ginnie was warned not to take Hopi near there!

As we left the park, we had a rather long drive to Cody, but the views were just as impressive as in the park. We arrived late and tired at our Cody hotel (The Cody), picked up a pizza, downloaded hundreds of photos and went to bed at 1:00am! Too late to do a blog, but it was an incredible day that will live in our memories and on our computer screens for a long time!

We left our Bitterroot Vally cabin and headed south, then east, then north and then east again. Our destination was Gardiner, Montana, near the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park. The journey was quite simply breathtaking in its beauty. We followed the Bitterroot River and then headed into one of the many high plains of Montana, past battlefields ringed with high, snow-capped mountains where cowboys and Indians fought in yesteryear. It is hard to imagine that kind of carnage and violence in a landscape that it so peaceful and serene.  As I white man, although I am not from USA and had no part in that awful period of history, I felt somehow ashamed that it should ever have occurred and that the Hollywood versions of Westerns have been so romanticized, even in UK.

The journey today should have taken about five hours but we didn’t rush, as I couldn’t resist stopping frequently to take photographs. There are no wineries in this area and so photography took over as my primary consideration and method of remembering the area. The weather was perfect. There was sunshine, shadow, fluffy clouds, plains, mountains, fences, cows and rivers that just cried out for us to stop and record them on digital sensors.

This was a day when I brought out the big boy – the 70-200mm zoom that weighs a ton but is such a pleasure to use on my Nikon 300. Interestingly, up until now, I have used my SLR less than I had expected, relying to a large extent on my smaller Lumix GF1 which has a fixed focus f1.7 lens that is pin sharp and super fast. It is amazing how sometimes stripping things down to the basics frees you to be more creative. To zoom in and out with that camera, I have to use my feet and move back and forth, or alternatively I can manipulate the image on the computer later. Anyway, enough of the techy stuff; the important thing is that I tried my best to record some of the scenes on the cameras as much as anything to remind myself that nature is so immense, so awesome that no matter what equipment you have, recording it in two dimensions does not do it justice.

Part of our journey took us on Interstate 15 and Interstate 90 and we crossed the Continental Divide twice. These stretches of highway have to be some of the most beautiful in USA and there was hardly anyone on them. The lack of commercialization is so refreshing in these areas.

Our hotel is a Best Western Plus and our very reasonably priced room overlooks the Yellowstone River. We had dinner in the Cowboy Grill (barbecue pork and bottles of Bud Lite!) and I am writing this as the sound of the gushing river can be heard outside our window. Tomorrow we will go into the park and see what we can, hopefully ending up in Cody on the east side. The weather forecast is not good (rain and snow) and we are trying to get confirmation that the road to Cody is open. We fleetingly saw a sign on the way in that suggested it may be closed and they have also had avalanches on some roads, so tomorrow could be another adventure!