Home...home again. I like to be here, when I can...

So we have concluded the trip and found ourselves back in Summit County, Colorado. Of all the extraordinary places we have been in the last 38 days, we all agree our own back yard is as grand as it gets. Please make a point to check in one last time with the next week. We will finish the editing of our last video, post interviews from the crew, and the last of our pictures. Don't forget to stop in one more time! 

Steamboat Springs in Colorful Colorado

We spent Monday trekking our way across southern Wyoming. Scholars maintain that this is where they coined the phase 'the open road'. Its wide open out there, kind of a western kansas, fell of the face of the earth vibe. Seeing the flat tops of northern Colorado proved to be more difficult then usual as there was a fair bit of smoke in the air. Apparently, unbeknownst to Team Short Bus who tries to stay outta the loop, there are great wildfires in the west. We crossed the border back into colorful Colorado for the first time in over 5 weeks. Chris pointed the bus for Steamboat Springs for our last night. We found our way out to Strawberry Park Hot Springs to unwind. After all, 5 weeks of traveling, hiking, climbing, biking, skating, longboarding, surfing, swimming, cliff diving, kayaking, and sleeping somewhere new every night tends to take its toll in you. So we soaked in the 100+ degree rock pools alternating with dips in the 50 degrees river water right next to the hot spring. If you are ever in northern Colorado, I would highly recommend stopping at these hot springs. We met some friends that offered to let us park the C OOL Bus at their camp. A few s'mores later we went to sleep in the wonderful 35 degree Colorado mountain air. No more dessert heat. No more 7 a.m. Portland dump trucks. No more killer eastern Oregon squirrels. Just cool mountain air.

we're going to jackson!

last night the cool bus cruised into jackson, wy. we caught up with a friend josh who used to work in keystone, co. he and his 6 mo. yr old son haden have been nice enough to show us around the area. we had many options as what we could do today; kayak one of many rivers around jackson, explore the grand tetons, explore yellowstone, visit the hot springs, skate around jackson, play some disc golf, etc. . . . we narrowed today down to. . . . up by 8 am to began the day hiking the tetons; hiked up to the hidden falls, a nice 5 mile round trip hike. great views and beautiful mountains and wildlife. after the hike we played a nice round of disc golf, up at jackson hole ski resort. a fun course, with great views of the area. we made it back to jackson, where josh and haden cooked dinner for us. thanks friend. we now are headed south to the hot springs to camp for the evening. tomorrow we will make our way back towards colorado after getting the boats in the river . . . .

ps. . . the group really wanted to spend some time in yellowstone. the decision was made with our economic situation in mind, and the fact that to truly experience yellowstone we would need to dedicate 3-5 days to explore the great park, we will do it next time!

after our hike, staley took a great pic

josh and haden on chris's back

the group in tetons

a moose and her little one

the cool bus in the desert

Magically wisped away...in Idaho!

The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun."

— Chris McCandless

Hey team, how is it? Us short bus kids just spent some time in a beat little town, McCall, ID. Did a bit of kayaking yesterday on the Payette River and spent the evening at a house that had been turned into a brewery. The Salmon River Brewery it was called, rad scene and good beer. We also caught a band jamming, only to find they were from Wichita KS.

Today we are off for Jackson, WY. Our last few days will be spent visiting Yellowstone and Teton NP and navigating the last 1,000 miles. Stay tuned, in the next week we will be posting video interviews, clips, pics, music and more. 

This video was made for one, but can be enjoyed by all. 

Trail Boss Smith...hows them trailssss in Itlay?

Random photos from the trip

Enjoy these pics from the trip.  We have so many now it hard to choose which to share.

Need I say more

We found this bear just outside our camp...eatin some nuts

The life-saving waters of the North Rim, Grand Canyon

Brock doesn't like coffee, he sticks with Minwax

Cominagetcha

Who at can of dog is the is?

Killin it at Burnside

Looks choppy out there, but that never holds us back.

Mt. Hood

Hey gang!  As I sit here on the flanks of Mt. Hood where the bus crew camped last night I can't help but think how beautiful this place is and how fortunate we've been to find such a rad camp area and such a rad mountain all around!  For those of you who get kicks from snowboarding, this is the mountain!  You can ride all year round!  

Thanks to Alex and Mark for letting us stay in Portland for a few nights, what a stellar city!  I think I speak for all of us when I say Portland is one of the coolest cities in the world.  So far.....  Next stop, Boise.  Enjoy the pics

Kitchen jam session in Portland

The crew with Zonay, Mark and Waylan...the dog

Great close-up Steeze!

Mt. Hood from our campsite

Fire-side jam session with neighboring camper

vidayo

portland, which is in oregon

'the core of a mans spirit comes from new experiences

 (the supertramp)'

a special thanks goes out to joels grandparents! joel called his grandpop west coast to east coast when the bus broke down late in the evening to ask for assistance, his grandpop said he would have an answer on how to fix the bus by morning, and joel was to call him when he awoke up at 6am, to fix bus. . . around 11 am joel called  his grandpop who already knew what to do. he advised us to bypass the broken part, which we did and got back on the roooooooad!!!!!!! 

THANKS GRANDPOP AND GRANDMOMMY!!!!!!! from bus boys(video spoof coming)

new experiences. new friends. what a couple weeks its been. i would like to give a special thanks to brooke, andrew, zonay, patrick and john for being such gracious hosts. you guys rock, thanks much!!!

as i sit here in the historic mississippi part of portland, i realize that we are rapidly approaching the end of our magical journey. it seems like yesterday we were building the bus and hitting the road. and today i see this thing winding down. a man much wiser than myself would tell me, 'nothing comes to an end brock, there are only new beginnings.'i guess i agree, but if only the show could go on. . .  while we are on the subject of new beginnings, i have finally caught up with the tele, only to find that brett favre signed with the minnesota vikings, instantly taking the vikings from an 18-1 favorite to win the super bowl, down to 12-1 favorites. i also have learned that michael vick signed with the eagles. although at the current time eagles coach andy reid cannot commit to vick seeing any substantial p.t. in their 3rd preseason game, sad to say but michael vick will probably be on an nfl roster this year. felons and football, you have to love it. i don't think i need to point out that a certain wide receiver d. stallsworth ran over a guy and killed him, while he drove drunk in his bentley. or that a certain quarterback was murdered by his mistress, while his wife and kids. . . . blah. football, got to love it. which reminds me, i may or may not have missed my fantasy draft. blair please email me!!! i would have you call me but we need not remember the southerners that commandeered my celly and called who knows where in central americas. . . . 

turns out the bus breaking down was a blessing in disguise. i will have to check with my legal counsel to make sure the bus is 'street legal,' but, turns out the part that ceased to work was actually a mechanism to lower bus emissions. the fact that it didn't want to work anymore should increase our gas mileage on the way home, also increasing our, um......how about them chiefs? chiefs are a 65-1 favorite to win the superbowl. insiders would call this a long shot. hey at least we got coach snyder back. true to snyder form, the cats play 2 div 1-aa teams, meaning the cats must win at least 7 games to become bowl eligible. doable, but much like the chiefs, a long shot. they will beat massachussets, louisanna, and tennessee tech. beyond that i see no clear victory's.  their best hope will be to beat iowa state in kansas city. there other chances at winning are texas am, colorado, kansas and missouri; all being home games.

getting back to the cool bus trip, after crater lake we spent one night in coos bay. this stop was particularly important for me, as i'm very interested in exploring these small coastal communities along the oregon coast. after coos bay we headed north along coastal highway 1. we then camped in the foothills above lincoln city. very beautiful land. we awoke saturday morning and headed into portland where we have been catching up with friends and family. our plan is to head to either mt hood or mt rainier, first thing tomorrow morning. we shall keep you's posted. thanks again to everyone who has helped us on our voyage. 

 

bus kids with patrick
burnside skatepark in portland
right near the beach

mammaloosa bridge, portland