Jackpot Top 10

Top 10 Reasons Why I Love Jackpot, NV:

10. It is in the middle of nowhere with very few people.

9. Rock hounding. 

8. It's only a 10-hour drive from Seattle.

7. The size of the casino (cactus pete's) is perfect in size: not too big, not too small.

6. Texas Tina slot machine at Horshu casino.

5. Kitty Glitter slot machine at Cactus Pete's.

4. Free drinks in the casinos. 

3. Earthquakes. Although I didn't feel any, it is near a swarm area.

2. The people-watching.

1. The landscape. The color palette and texture of the land are beautiful. The silver sage brush to the sculpted hills spotted with brown, yellow and green. Even behind the casino, it's all natural land. Apparently you can even hike and camp in the BLM (bureau of land management) areas according to some guy I met in Big Sky. There are owls hooting and doves cooing. It is a special place. And to think, I discovered it just by swiping around randomly on google maps. 

Note to self... Retirement plan: open an espresso stand or coffee place in Jackpot!

Gran Teton National Park

I find the mountains here to be memorizing, which I think is because of the shape of the peaks and the snow to rock ratio.

Lots of bison and moose here!

Yellowstone and Geysers Galore

This is one of the most beautiful places on earth. 

Old Faithful:

The best place for geyser photos, in my opinion, is the Geyser Hill walk by Old Faithful. Some highlights:

Grand Prismatic Spring, above, is big and has gorgeous colors. 

Bison just walking down the road. So close I felt him snort. 

Coeur D'Alene

I couldn't stay in Coeur D'Alene without going to Texas Roadhouse for dinner! Country music, steak, summer beer, peanuts, and kitschy Texas vibe :) 

It hit 97 degrees today and man, I haven't felt heat like that in a long time. 

Here's a shot of Rocco at the rest stop just east of Ellensburg (where I did not stop to have a fake chocolate ice cream blizzard):

Also, it's safer but Rocco definitely did not like being on the floor of the car. Maybe too loud or the vibrations bothered him? I put him on the passenger seat and he went right to sleep, that little snoozy fox!

We're Off!

Currently stopped somewhere in central Washington near Ellensburg. 

I don't think Rocco likes being on the floor of the car...

He keeps scratching the seat. Good thing he can't jump :P

Austin, TX

I had such a good time in Austin! Live music and BBQ every day. A few too many Shiner Bocks. Two-stepping. And a fire pit or two.

Beer in the fridge at Lone Star Court!

One of the fire pits right outside of my hotel room.

I took the photo after eating my ribs... Just couldn't wait. 

Made a trip out to Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

Walked up to the Texas State Capitol building in downtown Austin.

Saw Dierks Bentley and Kacey Musgraves perform (after witnessing Matthew MacConnaughey auction stuff) at ACL.

Headed over to Zilker Park Botanical Garden and got lost in a beautiful place :)

Spent a lot of time in the South Congress area just waking around and drinking iced turbos from Jo's. I also spent a couple hours hanging out on the Congress bridge to see the millions of bats fly out at dusk. That was cool. Lots of people had blankets and just chilled in the park waiting for the bats. Others, like me, stood on the bridge. Still others paddled in the Colorado River on kayaks or in boats. 

One of the highlights was going to the Broken Spoke to hear Dale Watson (pictured above) play. I two-stepped with a nice gentleman from Midland, TX all night and had a great time.

The man from Midland recommended I go to Gruene Hall so that's what I did the next day. I saw another band play and had a cold Dos Equis. That place is like a chicken coop. Very cool vibe and I will be back!

Vanuatu

I want to go to Vanuatu. Since I'm an American and never had geography class, I just now discovered its existence by noticing it on my earthquake app map.

It's near the Solomon Islands, which is on my radar because there are strong magnitude 6 earthquakes there pretty much every week.

Doesn't it look beautiful? It's like where all those island screen savers are photographed.

Look at this guy!

Highlights

Some of the best moments from my trip:

Dancing the two-step to great country music at the Grizzly Rose with a bear

Touring the Coors Brewery

Waking up in Craters of the Moon

Buying "cheese" in Denver

After hours drinks at the bar with the friendly staff of Buck's in Big Sky

Apologizing to Avis for the obscene amount of dead bugs on the car windshield

Wild Horses Monument

In central Washington

A very loud jet:

Back in Seattle

Total Mileage from my trip...

About 4,800 miles :o

DQ

Apparently Dairy Queen (at least the one here in Ellensburg, WA) stopped carrying chocolate ice cream over a year ago. Crazy, right?? I couldn't believe it. The sales girl said she could add chocolate syrup to vanilla ice cream. 

Texas Roadhouse

Steak and beer at Texas Roadhouse in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. I came here for the music, but turns out the food is pretty good. 

Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

There is a grassy park, a beach, parasailing, kayaking, paddle boarding and pedal boating. And if you are so inclined, you can hop in a seaplane for a scenic flight. Also, there are lots of bros playing frisbee. 

Apparently there is some kind of Iron Man thing going on today as well. Behind me are a hundred of people singing the national anthem. 

Bozeman, Montana

Of course I went to Wild Joe's for some coffee in Bozeman :) Now walking around, checking out Main Street again (I was here last August) and Montana State University. 

It's about 90 degrees at 11:30am... So hot! Some thunderstorms might roll through later. I really miss storms... Seattle doesn't really get them.