The Final Four -- well maybe. . .

This good looking group is the Huff family.  Dave (youngest brother) and his wife Kathy, Carol and me - and my big brother Dan. This picture was taken at Rick's Cafe in Omaha last Saturday night where Dave treated us all to a very nice dinner. Thanks little brother. The next morning we flew back to New England, and it was a completely uneventful day of travel - everything worked like it was supposed to.  But let's get caught up to date.  We we were last traveling we were in Deadwood which is a long way from Omaha.  Overnight the wind began to howl once again and we awoke to about 2 or more inches of snow and ice on the car and the roads covered and slippery. Carol and I got underway early and took route 14 back up to Sturgis where we got coffee, but only after I spilled my cup all over the store... Once on 90 East we decided to stop at the Wall Drug Store (link to their site) in Wall, South Dakota for breakfast. We had heard about Wall Drug from just about everyone and had seen signs all along 90. As it turns out it is the only thing to see from Deadwood to Omaha. They serve a pretty good breakfast and coffee is only a nickle... and I didn't even spill any.

Wall Drug Store Outside

Wall Drug Inside

Once we got beyond Wall, SD things began to flatten out and even though there wasn't a lot to look at it was still an interesting ridge, albeit a long one. East of Wall we turned south on Big Foote road to get away from the highway and take a look.  Not much here either...

Big Foote Road

Late in the afternoon out little GPS took us across a small piece of Iowa, (Pottawattamie County) and into Nebraska and right to David's door where my brothers were waiting outside for us. It was so good to catch up with them as we all hadn't been together for a while.

At Dave's

We had a wonderful visit and a great vacation all around. Special thanks to Jason out on the west coast and to all his friends who welcomed us with open arms and showed us such a great time, and to Dave for his generous hospitality, and to Dan for making the trip from Illinois so we could all be together. Thanks to all the folks back at Vibco for picking up the slack while I was away and thanks Karl for for the time off at this busy time, (I'm afraid I missed more than one circus) and especially the loan of the big lens.... so many cool shots. Keep an eye on the blog as I will continue to post and am working on a picture gallery of the trip - start to finish.  I also took a 78 shot panorama of San Francisco with the large telephoto which I haven't stitched yet and many other panoramas... so there are still things to be done.