Jason Lancaster

Well, the journey has ended.. and I can safely say it was a success. It is hard to believe sitting here at home that the past 2 weeks really happend. Unforunately thought, reality is starting to sink back in. We arrived early this morning, and shortly there after I had to make my way to school for my first class (After driving all night, than driving to school I was less than happy to be there). I can not describe what it feels like to go from our trip to a classroom, but it certianly wasn’t good Now time can be dedicated to uploading the pictures and journaling all the stories we have to tell. I can truely say it was an unforgetable trip that is a once in a life time expirence…

I know everyone is dying to see the pictures… We are working on it!

I also wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who helped out with this project/trip, especially our families. I know we could not have done it without you!

Well, I’m almost home. Miami will be coming later this evening but for now, I’m at my parents in Maryland. Chris and I drove through the night from our stay at the Holiday Inn in South Dakota and made it here at exactly 9am this morning. We hit rush hour on 695, hard rain in Ohio, and heavy fog in Maryland. I can’t believe it’s over! It’s so nice to be out of the car but I’ll sure miss our adventures. Stay tuned for the next week or so as we organize pictures and stories of our journey. Thanks for keeping up to date with us.

We are currently at the Holiday Inn Express in Oacoma, SD 57365. After a rewarding long drive we made it all the way from Edmonton, AB to SD without stopping. The drive was long, hard, and exhausting… but we are running out of time to get back. According to our best calculations we are looking at a solid 22-24 hours of driving remaining.

Today did have some high points though. We stopped at the site of the Battle of Little Bighorn. For those of you who are a bit rusty on your history, this is the site of Custard’s Last Stand against the Indian Chief Sitting Bull. Unfortunately, to even enter the parking lot you are faced with a $10 fee before you can even evaulate if its worth it. Luckly (in my humble opinion) it was a worth while stop. The primary focus of the park was this 5 mile drive-through tour of the battle site. It was a self guided tour in which we stayed in the van and followed along with the posters of each important marker along the way. It was a powerful presentation between the realism of actually standing there and the military style graves.

Our next stop along the way took us to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. We made our way up Route 16 to the carved out mountain side, to be greeted yet again by a pay-to-park type of deal. This time the fee was $8.00, but we decided not to pay as we could see very well from the road and took a few pictures there. The most astonishing part of the area is how OVER-CAPITALIZED it is. There are more shops and places to eat than Ocean City. I could have never fathomed that a National Park could spawn such a town. The town was nearly deserted because most of the “activities” do not reopen until May 1st. Which wasnt a bad thing, after all I came to see Mount Rushmore not play mini-golf .

I just got out of the shower here and Jason is already asleep. At the very least I got the basics of the day here and should probably head of to bed myself. Busy day of driving ahead!! Stay tuned…

Last night we ended up falling about 100-110 kms short of Edmonton due to the weather conditions. Jason was driving and at random it started snowing like crazy. The snow kept coming down hard and the temperature was around 20. The road conditions kept getting worse. After about 2 hours of driving in the stuff Jay had only covered about 45 kilometers. We switched drivers and I drove another 100 or so until we reached Whitecourt, AB where we stayed at the Ramada Limited. Unfortunately they did not have any rooms with 2 beds, only 1 bed and a sleeper sofa. I slept on the sofa bed, it had that typical attacking spring feeling, but sleep found me soon enough! We got up this morning and went to Red Lobster again for lunch… What a great lunch, our waitress was a bit bitchy (I think because Jay was on the phone when she first came over) but the food was still rather tasty! I got the shrimp platter and JJ got a lobster/steak meal. *YUM!* We are heading South-bound on route 2 to Calgary, AB then to the US (entering through Montana) I can honestly say I know nothing about Montana (other than they named a minivan after it, or maybe the other way around? ) , so now would be a great time to learn!

[This next part was dictated to me while Jay drives] SUBJ: DOG!

We have been driving the past few days. ALOT. I dont know about Chris, but I’m “done”! I think I have developed a cold of sorts and of course I have lost all my medicine (You know how I am about my meds).. So things are good now though, because the wintery mix has stopped and visibility is good. We have this cinnibun from Toad river, YT and we are about to ROCK IT! Seldon were passing some cow farms, but the lighting is not that great for pics… so you will just have to deal.