You Packed the Garbage?!

Justin and I are now finishing day one of our three and a half week roadtrip that we've been planning for weeks.  Today was our longest driving day, we went from Boise to Rapid City, SD, cutting through Yellowstone and all of Wyoming.  Our final destination will be California by way of Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.   Justin tries to deny that he's been brimming over with excitement about this for weeks, but he is not to be believed.  Last night we finally finished all of our last minute packing, had the rental car loaded, and went to bed around midnight.  Justin set his alarm for 2:40 in the morning, which was originally my idea, but when the alarm went off I laid there feeling semi-despondent, while my husband bounded out of bed like he'd never slept better, and was pretty much completely ready to go by 3:10, just as I was emerging from the bed.  He had hurried and loaded up a bunch of last minute items that had to wait until the morning of to be loaded in the car, and we left a little after 3:30.

I can't say much about the first couple of hours of the trip, because I was sound asleep for the most part.  When I finally woke up I think Justin was so afraid that I'd doze off again and that he was barely taking a breath in between sentences.  As we were approaching Yellowstone, he announced that he had a confession to make, and that he had realized that he forgot to pack his winter coat.  What sort of a person embarks on a roadtrip in November without a coat?  My husband, that's who.  Furthermore he said he was hungry and asked me to find him something to eat.  When I reached into the back seat to get some food I found on top of everything the bag of garbage from out of our kitchen.  He forgot his coat, but somehow managed to pack the kitchen garbage.  I have no idea how this happened.  Neither does he.

So now we have these ridiculous pictures of us together in Yellowstone, me in all my winter gear, my husband in a long-sleeved t-shirt. 

Anyhow, we spent way too long in Yellowstone, had to revise our route a little, and cut out a few things, but had a great time.  When we finally arrived in Rapid City late this evening Justin managed to lose his wedding ring, so that's now the first casualty of our trip.  I expect there will be others along the way.  We also originally thought it was a brilliant idea to pack our underwear, socks, pj's and the like in one bag, and our clothes in another.  It wasn't until we arrived at the hotel that it dawned on us that this arrangement requires us to drag two enormous duffle bags into the hotel, along with a smaller bag for toiletries, a computer bag, a camera bag, and an enormous cooler full of food.  Justin was so embarrassed by the spectacle that we made of ourselves dragging all that stuff through the lobby in an attempt to get it up in one trip that he felt like he had to offer a brief explanation to the front desk person who was looking at us like we were from Mars. The desk person stared even more when I came down a few minutes later to retrieve a few more items from the car, including a toaster oven to cook a baked potato in for dinner.  I'm pretty shameless, Justin...well he's not there yet, but being married to me long enough I'm sure he'll become that way sooner or later.   Tomorrow we explore the Black Hills!