Elk #3 (20070703204613_0136)  

The trip to the west coast went well.  That being said, I wouldn’t recommend anyone go out and rent a 26 foot truck for a 3,200 mile trip.  Taryn and I both agreed that it was gruelling, and that we’d love to do it again in a motor home.  Sleep and time are valueable, and we passed by many things we’d have like to seen while racing to meet the delivery deadline.  We pulled out of Raleigh around 2:30 pm (EDT) on Saturday, June 30th, and arrived at around 2:00 am (PDT) on Wednesday July 4th.  That clocks us in at just over 3.5 days (86.5 hours to be exact).  The only significant delays were a couple of hours spent at a truck stop while I worked on some office work, and a half day spent visiting with Wayne Casey in North Dakota.  Not a bad time for a cross country trip. 

It was great to visit with my sister and her kids.  It’s amazing how much they’ve grown up since the last time we saw them.  It was also my first chance to meet Lilyth, my niece Cristina’s daughter.  She is a super sweet child, and an expert at wheedling candy from her grand-uncle. :)   I’m hoping we get to take many trips out there to visit with all of them.

IMAGE: There is a herd of Elk that live in the woods around my sister’s home.  They’re radio-chipped so that alarms go off when they’re close to the highway.  Because of the alarms, we knew they were in the area, so we piled into their family van and went in search of the herd.  We found them wandering in a nearby neighborhood that’s under construction.  I climbed out and crept up toward them, taking cover behind a pile of sheetrock that I also used to stabilize my camera.  After few minutes of giving me the evil eye, this guy decided I was not safe and started moving toward me.  I decided that I didn’t need anymore pictures, and walked back to the van… checking over my shoulder periodically to make sure he wasn’t following me.