Day Eight: On the Road Again! We're ahead of schedule, and plan on finishing the trip tomorrow evening. Stay tuned tomorrow for the exciting conclusion! But first, today:

Last night was our second and last night at Dan's house. Thanks, Mary and Pete, for having us! ...why is that mayonnaise on the front porch?

We got up early this morning, so we did a lot of this in the car today. Note: Kristina does not like this photograph.

When we got to Meeker, Ryan and Nick woke up enough to have a shoulder-touch fight. They do this a lot. Whoever gets their shoulder touched is the loser. (In my humble opinion, they're both losers.)

Another shoulder-touch fight action shot. I just can't look at the expression on Ryan's face without laughing aloud.

Later, Kristina woke up for an excellent game of Hey Cow! (Right click and click Save As... 500KB WMV file)

This is another one of those photos where I'm not sure what's going on. I think Nick is getting trampled by some iron sheep, and we're encouraging them.

Another nice day of driving in the mountains: This is the view from Rabbit Ears Pass in Northeastern Colorado.

High altitude! There's still more than enough snow for a snowball fight on Rabbit Ears Pass.

These two rocks, which apparently look like a rabbit's ears, are the namesake of Rabbit Ears Pass. I think they look like two square rocks next to each other, but I suppose that name isn't as catchy.

At the top of Rabbit Ears Pass, we all piled out of the car. Ryan ran off into this forest, and we wondered if he was making some sort of attempt to commune with the woods. He eventually returned though: he'd received a call from nature of a different sort.

We hit 3000 miles on our trip odometer today!

One of many, many shots of Ryan with his head out the window at high speeds. At some point, one has to wonder just how much human DNA he actually has.

We crossed the Continental Divide another three times today, marking our fourth, fifth, and sixth times overall. Here's our fourth, at the top of Rabbit Ears Pass...

...our fifth, at the top of Willow Creek Pass...

...and our sixth time, at the top of Hoosier Pass.

We also saw this Continental Divide sign, and came within 50 feet of it, but we turned just before crossing the line, so it doesn't actually count.

We visited 7 county seats today! Here's the proof:

Meeker, Rio Blanco County

Craig, Moffat County. (Ryan? I'm not even going to ask.)

Steamboat Springs, Routt County. We're upside down! Note: we tried doing handstands, but this was the best we could manage.

Dead on the steps in Walden, Jackson County.

Hot Sulphur Springs, Grand County. For this photo, we tried to get all of us in midair. Out of more than 20 attempts, this was the best photo we got!

Breckenridge, Summit County

Fairplay, Park County. It was the end of the day, and we were getting a little goofy.

Our progress so far:

DAY EIGHT STATS:

Miles Traveled - 432
Total Miles Traveled - 3165
County Seats Visited - 56
Percent of counties done - 87.5%

Meeker (Rio Blanco County)	5/18/06	10:09 AM
Craig (Moffat County)	5/18/06	11:21 PM
Steamboat Springs (Routt County)	5/18/06	12:27 PM
Walden (Jackson County)	5/18/06	2:19 PM
Hot Sulphur Springs (Grand County)	5/18/06	3:44 PM
Breckenridge (Summit County)	5/18/06	5:34 PM
Fairplay (Park County)	5/18/06	6:23 PM

Albums listened to:

• Badly Drawn Boy - About a Boy Soundrack
• Bishop Allen - Charm School
• Josh Rouse - Subtitulo
• Tapes 'n' Tapes - The Loon
• The Libertines - The Libertines
• Loose Fur - Born Again in the USA
• Nada Surf - The Weight is a Gift
• The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
• Soul Coughing - Ruby Vroom
• Stephen Malkmus - Stephen Malkmus
• Thelonious Monk & John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall (1957)