Road dust. Well, maybe more than a little.
Last time I wrote in here, we were prepping our home for an extended stay in Costa Baja Marina and getting ready for a return to the U.S. with all the angst that entails.

As I type this out, I'm sitting in my parents' home In Post Falls ID, having just arrived in time for my niece Ellie's 12th birthday. The road here wasn't quite a direct route.

First, La Paz to Tijuana International Airport courtesy of Volaris Airlines. Then, after doing the border thing and the trolley to Old Town San Diego, I caught a flight to Phoenix to bring the van back to San Diego for some repair work at Randy's Foreign Auto- the best VW guys in the southwest US.

A week or so of dinking around in SD and we were off to Vegas Baby! Actually, I have found Las Vegas has lost its sheen- after so many conventions, etc. it's generally just a drag. This was a little different as my partner and I are starting a new business and Infocomm 2012 was a good place to begin the rollout. Still was a drag though.

After Vegas we headed to the Grand Canyon for one of Kelly's "bucket list" items. Camping in the South Rim was interesting, I'm shocked at just how many people had the same idea of being at the Grand Canyon that weekend (not really shocked so much as dismayed). So I'm starting to see that camping in some of these places, these developed sites, may be more of a crowded room than I am completely comfortable with.

Then on to Flagstaff and a night at a pretty bare bones campsite in the National Forest. Much, much nicer- quiet and not crowded at all.
Flagstaff to Albuquerque and a hotel stay to get cleaned up a bit. The Van's AC unit is working great, but it does rob some very valued horsepower. And it is HOT!

Albuquerque to Ruidoso for ten days with Kelly's family.

Ruidoso to Dallas for another visit with Kelly's family, and of course I am still working so a quick drive to Austin and back for a lunch meeting.

I caught a flight to Baltimore while Kelly visited with her family. I then drove from Baltimore to Manassas VA to work with a supplier for part of our new product line. There for a couple of days and then up to Southbury CT to work with my partner on a prototype. I did mention that it was hot out?

Southbury CT to Darien CT after a few days for a very quick and far too short visit with my Uncle and his family. The next morning, Darien to Southbury, Southbury to Stamford CT for a quick meeting, and then a return to Baltimore all made for a really long day.

Return flight to Dallas and prepped the Van for the next leg of our journey. Awoke the following morning and loaded up the van for the trip to Amarillo.
Amarillo to Denver with another too short visit with our niece Megan. We decided then that a trip up the front range would be passé and as we had not spent too much time in Steamboat Springs, we headed to Steamboat Lake- first campground full, second, as well as the third. Then we lucked out and found the last available by Hahn's Lake.

Hahn's Lake Campground was very well taken care of, but the site we were at lay just to leeward of the pit toilet bathrooms. Not the best aroma.
From Hahn's lake there is a very cool, yet gravel, road that extend another 50 miles or so until you come to the small town of Baggs WY. From there to Teton Village for another night in a crowded RV park- $75 buck for a spot not much bigger than a parking spot- and they were almost sold out! I'm really in the wrong business.

Not expecting much of an improvement, we wandered our way up to Colter Bay Campgrounds in Grand Teton National Park. This ran $20 and was so much nicer as to not even be close.

On through Yellowstone and along with the requisite bear, elk, moose, deer, and bison sightings, we battled our way through the rush hour traffic to arrive at the Old Faithful Geyser just in time for the Matinee Show. At least 5,000 people joined us in witnessing one of the really cool events this planet dishes out. We have seen it a few times in the past, but this one was different for a couple of reasons- first we had all of these people from all over the world joining us, and second, we weren't freezing!

Yellowstone to the town of West Yellowstone for lunch at probably about the worst BBQ joint ever. Then on to Missoula MT- one of the great unknown cities- we just flat out love Missoula.

Then this morning- Missoula to here in Post Falls ID. 4200 miles and we will hold off on travel for a couple of weeks at which time we head over to the west side of Washington State for the annual Cruisers bash!

I will take up this journey once again-just give me a minute or two to gather thoughts!