And we're here!

...well, sort of. We don't exactly have a place to live yet (the Best Western doesn't count), but we're sure getting to know the Kansas City area well as we search for an apartment. Here's a recap of the last several days.

Toward the end of our California visit, Brandon went hiking with a friend at Trail Canyon Falls, where he posed for the following picture and saw a rattlesnake.


From California we headed to Utah. The picture in the previous post is from Brandon's master's thesis defense. It was a bit of a nerve-wracking experience, but he passed with flying colors! Here is the aftermath. Brandon is looking pretty pleased with himself. The man on crutches is Dr. Hal Miller, one of Brandon's committee members.


Here's a shot of Brandon and his mentor/committee chair, Dr. J. Dee Higley. (Also pictured in the previous post was Brandon's third committee member, Dr. Mikle South. (On the second link, scroll about halfway down the page and read the end of the second paragraph about Dr. South to see his claim to fame...)

Brandon's last photo on BYU campus! Taken after we turned in his thesis for final college approval and just before we started our drive to Missouri.
Thesis edits took longer than expected, so we got a bit of a late start on our trip. We had to travel pretty quickly and make few stops, but we did take a moment to snap this shot by the San Rafael Swell in south-central Utah.
Driving through the mountains of Colorado was beautiful.
The first night of the trip, we stayed in a terrible and deceptively-named town: Goodland, Kansas (apologies to anyone from Goodland--there may be some nice parts of town, but we sure weren't in them). Our motel was lame, the restaurants were pretty sketchy, and overall we were extremely glad to leave in the morning. At least the motel had a pool...
Brandon's first view of a Taco John's. Alison sang him the song from the Taco John's commercials ("There's a whole lotta Mexican goin' on, goin' on at Taco John's!"), we took this picture...and decided not to eat there. Alison is pretty sure she never once ate at a Taco John's during her 5 years in Iowa, and we weren't about to break that streak in Goodland, Kansas.

Filling up at a gas station somewhere on the plains. Yes, we foiled our car windows.
Amber waves of grain! (Not actually waving.)We finally made it to Kansas City! Our first meal in town was at famed barbecue restaurant Arthur Bryant's.
They serve all their sandwiches on Wonder Bread...not sure why. Pretty tasty though!
Here's a shot of the Plaza in Kansas City. Wish us luck as we continue the apartment search tomorrow...