What would you do with a week off from work? How about spending it in a car driving cross country to Bend, Oregon? It sounded good when Margaret and I came up with the idea of a road trip, and then we couldn’t get out of it. Still, we saw a lot of country – especially in Yellowstone National Park – and when we reached our destination, we were still talking to each other.

Day 1 : Margaret and I headed west on I-94 about 9 a.m. in gray and rainy weather that stuck with us as we wheeled our way around Chicago's toll roads (luckily Margaret had brought her quarter collection), only stopping for lunch in Elgin, Ill. Our goal for the first night was to reach La Crosse, MN, on the Mississippi River, but we kept going and got to Rochester, Minn., (home of the Mayo Clinic) about 7 p.m. It was our longest one-day drive: 651 miles.

Day 2 : After gassing up the car, we left Rochester about 8:30 am. In Sioux Falls, SD, we passed a billboard with a cartoon figure of a hot dog wearing a sombrero and the name of a restaurant, Señor Wiener, and the words, “You know you want me.” (If only we had gotten that photo!) Lunch was not at Señor Wiener, but at the Perkins near the highway. We made several stops along I-80, including at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD, and Wall Drugs in Wall, SD, before we stopped for the night in Rapid City SD. Total mileage was 576 miles.

Day 3 : We had an early start because we planned to make a few stops at Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Monument before continuing on our drive west. (Fun fact: At least 98 percent of the men in the Applebee’s in Gillette, Wyoming were wearing baseball caps.) In the late afternoon, we stopped at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument and took the time to drive the road out to the farthest reaches of the battlefield. We reached Livingston Montana that night and stayed in a Best Western, which had a garage for the car - “for the weather, not the security.” It didn't look like snow, so we left the car in the parking lot. Mileage for the day: 523 miles.

Day 4 : We drove the 55 miles along the Yellowstone River from Livingston into Yellowstone National Park and spent most of the day in the park. We stopped at the visitors center (and the post office, of course) in Fort Yellowstone, then drove the short distance to Mammoth Hot Springs, where we tramped among the springs and saw a herd of elk. We spent several hours on the upper and lower rims of the park's Grand Canyon, and then swung by Norris Geyser Basin to see a number of geysers and more hot springs . Of course, we had to see Old Faithful, and Margaret reached a few relatives who saw us on the Old Faithful web cam. We also came across nearly a dozen bison at various spots, including one that wandered along a road we were using. Despite Margaret's urgings, I did not pull up right next to the beast so she could take a photo. The season hadn't really started at Yellowstone , which meant there were few people around, but also few places open. We had to wait until we left the park to eat lunch – which was really dinner by that time – at the Old Town restaurant and bar in West Yellowstone . That night, we stayed in one of three Best Western hotels in West Yellowstone. Unfortunately, we picked the one where the television pooped out (so did the phone). Luckily, so did we.

Day 5 : This time, our hotel didn't have a garage for our car, though we could have used one. We woke up to see snow, slush and sleet out the window. After scraping the car windows as well as we could, we headed down the mountain – Margaret driving – at a slow pace. But by the time we'd reached the flats of southeastern Idaho, the weather was fine. We had lunch at the Brownstone, a restaurant and brewery in Idaho Falls, and got to check out the falls, which were right there. We avoided the interstate and took route 20 to see Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve before heading just past Boise to spend the night at the Hampton Inn in Meridian. (We now consider it the best Hampton Inn in the world because they gave us cookies at the front desk and the TV worked.) Dinner was at Ram, another restaurant and brewery, this time just down from our hotel. Total miles driven: 382.

Day 6 : We took our time getting on the road, leaving about 10:30 am. We had a great breakfast at the hotel, so by lunchtime we weren't too hungry. We stopped at the Safeway in Burns for something to eat – Margaret finished off a salad she couldn’t finish at dinner the night before. We arrived at our destination – Chris and Amanda's house – about 5:30 p.m. Total mileage for the day was 333. For the trip: 2,645.

Day 7 : No driving for us, but Amanda took us up Mount Hood for lunch at the Timberline Lodge, a hotel and restaurant built by WPA workers in the 1930s, the last great depression. More than 12 feet of snow still blocked the big picture windows on the first floor of the lodge, but the restaurant was on the second floor, so we could still see the occasional ski-boarder zip past. Up at Timberline, it was cold, snowy and quite windy. But driving down a few hundred feet, we were back in a more comfortable climate. We headed to Portland to have dinner with Amanda's Aunt Sue at Jake's, a seafood restaurant. We stayed in a wonderful suite at the Hotel Monaco, which was the very best place we stayed during the trip – perhaps during our lives, so far.

The ride home : Margaret, who has a real job, took a flight from Portland back home. Since I have all the time in the world, I took Amtrak's California Zephyr back to Ann Arbor, and here are some photos.