Fam. Rusten

Day 0

Skedsmokorset, Norge.

4 big suitcases are placed in the middle of living room, and tickets to Alcatraz is printed on our computer at home. There is much to do when one is the tour Organizer. But now I think everything is in fixed. We are as ready as we can be, and the plane leaves tomorrow anyway!

The horse is put on a summer grazing area. Have been there for 2 days already. He's there with 3 other horses, 2 mares and another Quarter gelding. 3 of them is standing together while Sisco is approx 100 meter's away. They won't let him stay with tem yet. The horse world is merciless. As a fresh horse owner, I feel sorry for him. This is the first time he's not in the stall. But according to the one's who's done this before, it will work out well after some days...

Day 1

Denver, Colorado.

Travelling day. We were on the move for about 26 hours. So at 10 O'Clock in the evening local time, we went to bed. The rest of the family slept pretty well, while I (father of the house) woke up in the middle of the night. Sleept maybe 5 hours the first night. But anyway, We arrived safe and well. We got all our suite cases at the Airport (and that's NOT normal). A brand new SUV (Mazda XC-7) is standing outside the Hotell. We're reday to hit the road!

Day 2

Alliance, Nebraska.

Our first day on the road here, ended up with a hugh hole in my Wallet! We stopped at "Brighton Feed and Saddlery". There they had "some" equipment for the horse - and rider. A poor western rider from Norway is in heaven here. So the credit card went a little warm after a copuple of hours here. And furterh down the street, they had a whole bunch of Ariat Western boots too. So now is the empty bag we had with us already full. And that's already after the first day. Oh Boy! The rest of the day was spent in the car, driving over the rolling, endless prairie. Pretty cool - actually!

Day 3

Wall, South Dakota.

The course was set to the north. Via Pine Ridge reservation and Woundeed Knee. One sad sight. A lot of poor buildings in the Indian resevate, for this once so proud tribe (Lakota / Sioux). After Wounded Knee we headed for the Badlands and Scenic (Longhorn Saloon from 1906) and up to Wall. I drove on the TomTom all the time. It took us through some local roads and all the way to Wall. Wall Drug Store was also a slight disappointment. A really "Tourist trap", with a lot of souvenir store's. But they had Boots for Anne and cowboy hats to everyone. Now we lack only pure Cowboy clothes (Wrangler Jeans adn Chaps). Forwards efforts in the morning to a couple of pure Western stores in Rapid City.

Along the entire route there was big farms (that is the land was HUGE). And I thought the farms were far apart in Norway ... Cattle and horses were grazing on vast areas, who incredibly enough was fenced. I saw a lot of Quarter Horses along the Road!

Day 4

Newcastle, Wyoming.

From Wall we drove west toward Rapid City and the Black Hills area. There the terrain looked like home in Norway, with hills and Pine trees. When compared to the Terrain Black Hills could have been somewhere in Norway, but everything else here was from America :-) Rapid City was a nice small town. There we shopped the rest of the remaining Western articles. So now we are ready for a Ranch vacation! Black Hills offered us Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Monument and Deadwood City with the graveyard of Wild Bill Hitchcock. Interesting for an old Western history fan. This whole area was great, but we had too little time here (this time!). In the morning the ranch are waiting. We are excited!!

Day 5 - 11

Livermore, Colorado.

"Cowboys" for a whole week, high up in the eastern part of Rocky Mountains in Colorado. A week without TV, radio, mobile phones coverage and Internet. Riding every day in a whole week. And for a horseback riding it was! We could ride twice a day, before and after lunch. The rides lasted from 1 to 8.5 hours! The Weather was excellent all the week. The Nature was epic and the horses excellent.

They were all trail horses, and they went in so steep terrain that I was "scarred to deadth" the first day! I can take an Oath on that they had suction cups on their feets, when they went up and down almost 90 Degree gradients: "). Both with sand / stone and clean mountain as the foundation. Absolutely incredible. But after a couple of rides I trusted the Horse I was assigned 100%. When we went loping, it was full-throttle-lope. It was top speed, on the narrow paths. Almost like I could hear the Indians screaming behind us. Ye-ha!

In addition there was a swimming pool, hot tub, entertainment, shooting, a trip opportunitie, rafting, ... What a week, absolutely Excellent. Better than expected. We will return!!

Day 12

La Junta, Colorado.

We have left the Ranch. Walked away with a large lump in my throat. I hadn't excpected that, but that's the way it ended! We were well acquainted with most of the guests. Mail addresses are exchanged, and some of them are returning back. We will see if we can manage to come back next year. If Not we'll be back in 2011. We are now driving southwards in the direction of Texas. We will visit Bent 's Old Fort (in southern Colorado) tomorrow.

Day 13

Amarillo, Texas.

The Day starts on Bent's Old Fort near la Junta, Colorado. This is an old trading post, which is restored back to original standard. It was on the original Santa Fe Trail. Here they traded with goods, both White and indians. The most hostile Indians (Arapaho) could only trade through a whole in the wall. Others was let into the fort. Some soldiers were also stationed here. After the visit here the direction was set south toward Amarillo. Here AQHA has their headquarters and their "Hall of Fame" Museum. The Journey was spent travelling over the plains in Texas. I believed Denmark were flat, but this area is HUGE and completely flat!!'

Day 14

Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The day starts in the AQHA's Museum. Here is Sisco's great-grandmother reviewed. She was a famous Cutting Horse. It was a bit fun to see this. We also had some time for their Souvenir shop...... Afterwards, we head off to Albuquerque. Along the way the temperature passed 100 deg Fahrenheit. The landscape is the most barren we have been driving through. Only brown grass. And the roads are going straight forward, mile for mile - almost hour after hour. Fascinating but actually a little boring. We arrived in Albuquerque around 3 PM. There we had to search a bit for a hotel room. It's getting more crowded now. Fortunately, we have pre-booked the room for the rest of the trip.

Day 15

Tusyan, Arizona.

Arizona is if possible even more desolate and drier than New Mexico. Yeat another day with long flat roads. Here we also had our first (and last) rain shower for the trip. Tusyan is the closest village to the Grand Canyon. Located just minutes away. The closest town is about 1 hour away. Easier to stay here, and more expensive! But the Grand Canyon is impressive. Quite incredible. You just have to be, standing on the edge to understand it fully out. The day after the arrival we takes a 45 minute helicopter ride over the "gap". Impressive as we fly from the flat country surrounding it and over the Canyon. Awesome!

Day 18 - 19

Valencia, California.

Getting a little tired of the endless country roads, so we drops the trip to Death Valley. It would have taken an 3-4 hours extra. Running straight to Valencia, where we will visit Six Flaggs amusement park. Now the traffic increases. Up to 6 files in each direction, but "TomTom" takes us straight to the hotel. Would have been difficult without a GPS. The first evening, we takes it easy at the hotel, however the most noisy we have had - right on the highway. The day after is spent in entirely in the park. We stays there for around 10 hours, and since this is a Saturday we spent a lot of hours staying in lines... But that's the way it is. We got run the toughest "Thrill Rides". All but the most spectacular one. There the line was just too long the whole day (3-4 hours).

Day 20 - 21

Pismo Beach, California.

From Los Angeles we headed to a beach, via the "Danish" town of Solvang. As expected, it is a real tourist trap. Certainly exciting here in the U.S. But not for us, and besides it's very expensive. After a relatively short drive from Solvang we arrives Pismo Beach. It is known for long sandy beaches, like in Denmark. We stayed also here for 2 nights. The one full day we are here are spent partly on site, partly on the beach. We do not swim (it's to cold), but drives ATV's on the beach. There are huge areas of desert-like sand - dunes. You can go almost wherever you want to and have fun, and so we do for about 8 minutes. Then before Pernille is jammed! We all do that except Anne. After a bit cautious start it goes very well, and the 2 hours goes fast. This was fun. Surprisingly great place. But cooler than expected.

Day 16 - 17

Las Vegas, Nevada.

Arrives Las Vegas via the Hoover dam. Temperature rise the whole way, and rounds 111 degrees Fahrenheit! For the first time we hear of other Scandinavians. 4 Swedish boys are on their Route 66 tour. Running their bikes back home. But takes this one in the car. Too hot here now. Hoover dam is impressive. But here in US, they have also made a separate Visitor Center, Restaurant, etc. We also have several hugh dams in Norway but none of them with other Faclilities.! Las vegas is exciting, when one home has seen the CSI series from the city. The hotel we are staying at (NewYork NewYork) is impressive. Never seen anything like it. A HUGE hotels like the others here. Otherwise, the city is noisy and intense, very hot (over 40 Celcius/104) and expensive. Water on site costs 4 times more than along the highway. We stops on an Outlet Mall for some shopping and visit Hard Rock to complement my Beer Glass collection. 2 nights here is enough for us right now.

Day 22 - 24

San Fransisco, California.

From Pismo Beach we drives Highway 1 north, right on the coastline. This is a "Scienic Highway" here in the United States. And it's quite famous. For me it was just a bad winding coas road, with a couple of stops with scienic nature. So we heads straight to SF. The first (half) day is spent at the hotel. Everything is thrown Out of the car, which is left back to Hertz. Our suitcases and bags have double in number! The next days we are tourists. First we explored Alcatraz. We took an informative "audio tour". Really interesting. Then waits a hop-on-off bus tour, in an open double-decker. The weather is pretty cool for the season, and the fog rolls in from the sea. Bu no rain, so we are not complaining.

Day 25

Skedsmokorset, Norge.

When we are back home again. A little "empty" in my head now. Both after all the impressions and the jet lag to California. It has been a fantastic adventure, where the Ranch vacation was the highlight. The rest was "just" a normal holiday. We drove about 5500 km (3.400 miles), and it was perhaps a little too much. But if your going too see this part of the states then it involves a lot of driving.

In summary: Fantastic trip. Ranch vacation is highly recommended (especially the one we choosed :-)). We were also the first Norwegian guests there. Don' t drive too long distances. Our varied from about 330 to 700 km (205-480 miles). Pre-book a hotel room in densely populated areas. We had to search a bit in Albuquerque, dut to a conference in the city. It is much easier to do it comfortably at home. When you stand there in the twilight, dense traffic and hungry kids in the back seat - then it's not so fun! In the Country side it's a lot easier to find a hotel room. And even in July it was pretty easy to find a room. Select hotel with breakfast, it saves a lot of money. Some chains have it, others do not. We had pre-ordered some rooms in Best Western hotels. They had usually not breakfast... GPS is also recommended strongly. Our TomTom took us to all addresses. Missed just a couple of times, due to changes in the road. Keep up to date maps. If yoy are going too do some shopping, then select airlines that allow the most storage. Some allow only one item à 23 kg (50 pounds). We travelled with KLM and they allowed 2 packages á 23 kg, which we used for fully!

HAPPY TRAIL!!