Road trip (continued)

Ok, so I've gotten some sleep, hopefully I'll make fewer typos now. :)  The next couple of days, we took things a bit slower and stayed in Custer, SD for a few days.

Day 8 -(Custer, SD) - First, we went to Custer State Park, since we had heard great things about their wildlife, including herds of thousands free-roaming bison. We went on a prairie hike where we heard a large animal just over the hill; we were to chicken to go exploring without the protection of a metal car frame, just in case it was a temperamental large animal.  On the drive around the "Wildlife Loop" we saw a few bison, mule deer and pronghorn antelope, but not the herds of bison we had heard so much about.  Then, we turned a corner on the main highway through the park, and there they were, bigger than life, so many of them, and not caring one whit about the traffic wanting to get through.  In the afternoon, we drove out to Mt Rushmore and saw one of the most patriotic sculptures out there.  We also spent a few hours in the quaint downtown of Custer soaking up the tourist trap vibes.

Day 9 - (Deadwood, SD) -We spent day 9 soaking in the wild history of Deadwood, beginning with it's illegal founding.  We visited several local museums, including the Adams Museum, the Railroad museum, and the Adams House Museum. We learned the story behind the shooting of Wild Bill Hickok, why Calamity Jane was so calamitous, and the history of Deadwood's short-lived China-town. And, just so we could say we did it, Jen and I each put $2 in the Deadwood slot machines.  I won $0.30 on a machine where the minimum bet was $0.40, and we both chalked it up to an interesting experience.  On the way home through Black Hills National Forest, we stopped at a scenic overlook where the nearly tame chipmunks mobbed me while I tried to take their picture.  I am glad they were nearly tame chipmunks and not grizzly bears.  (Don't feed the wildlife, it's cute, but too often it ends badly for them!)

 a photo of the first chair ever made in Deadwood.

Day 10 - (Custer, SD) - We drove through Custer state park again to get one last look at the bison, and then we went on to the Badlands.  As repetitive as it sounds, it was amazing - so different from what I'm used to in western PA.  The most incredible thing about it was, as Jen put it, "it's just dirt!"  While the other crazy formations we saw in the Black Hills and Yellowstone were made of solid rock, the Badlands were made of what seemed like ordinary soil in amazing formations; they could crumble and change when people walked on them.  It was weird to see something that beautiful and large as fragile and changeable, too.  After the Badlands, we visited the famous "Wall Drug Store"  - that's a neat story about how giving something away for free can really change your life.  (I'm sure you can look up the story online)  They did have a jack-a-lope your could ride, but Jen wouldn't pose for pictures :)   The last picture for today is one of the roads that our GPS wanted us to go down, even though we had "Paved roads only" option checked.  I was convinced it was marked "No Outlet" but Jen swore it was a different road.  The road our GPS recommended went from paved to gravel to dirt to two ruts down an empty field. I was ok with gravel and dirt, but I didn't want to get the rental car stuck in the middle of nowhere. I (while receiving much heckling) eventually decided to turn around and take the highway to our next destination.

Day 11- (South Dakota and Minnesota)  - This was probably not the most culturally significant day of our trip. I insisted we get some pictures of the town of Lismore, because how many people have a town that close to their name?   We also visited both the Mitchell Corn Palace and the Jolly Green Giant Statue.  At Jen's request, and to get some history, we also visited the Jeffer's Petroglyphs which was a giant red rock in the middle of nowhere.  The archeologists estimate that the carvings on the rock date back many thousands of years, but they didn't photograph well. We also visited the site of an archeology dig in Mitchell, SD.  They had a very nice replica of the types of houses that people in the area lived in thousands of years ago.

Day 12 - (Wisconsin) - In another cultural and historical morning, we visited the SPAM museum, but Jen wouldn't partake in the deliciousness.  We spent a few hours at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum, and a few more at the Bily Clock Museum in Iowa.  We weren't allowed to take pictures of the clock museum, but it included was a great story about two brothers who worked together in their free time to build intricate clocks with many moving pieces and details you wouldn't believe.  I highly recommend a visit if you are ever in the area. 

Day 13 - (Wisconsin, and Illinois) - Well, as the granddaughter of Dairy Farmers, I couldn't visit Wisconsin and not visit something having to do with cheese. So, this morning, I talked Jen into visiting the National Cheesmaking Museum. Unfortunately, they didn't offer free samples, or sell any cheese, so that was quickly followed by a visit to a local cheese factory where we got to taste the wares and picked up something that wasn't pb&j for lunch.  A very small cheese tray and small package of Haavarti changed the pace nicely.  We then went and walked around the Rotary Garden in Janesville, WI, where we seemed to take a tour of the world in a few short steps - there was an english cottage garden, formal french gardens, italian courtyard gardens, japanese moss gardens and more.  We settled in for a long drive, and made it most of the way home before nightfall.

Day 14 - we made it home!

Wow, you made it all the way to the end! Thanks for reading - I hope you enjoyed looking at the pictures as much as I enjoyed sharing them.  I don't know if I would have gone on this vacation if it hadn't been for the shock of a cancer diagnosis.  I hope maybe, just maybe, it might inspire you to take a trip or do something extraordinary that you've been thinking about for a while.  


"The journey not the arrival matters" - TS Elliot -   Enjoy the journey!

Road Trip!

So, here is chapter 2 of the road trip - (and yes, we took notes every day so that we wouldn't forget any little touristy things!) This part of the trip, I was accompanied by Jen, who, despite her concern for money, house, and limited vacation leave, embarked on this great two week road trip across the US.  Thanks, Jen!

Day 1 - (Seattle) - The Center for Wooden Boats Festival was this weekend, so we were able to get a free boat ride around Lake Union in a little wooden motor boat with a couple of Seattle natives and their grandchildren.  After that, we walked around the Olympic Sculpture Garden (really neat stuff), and the Fremont Sunday Street Market.  A short hike up the Seattle Troll, and our quick tour of Seattle was done.  (I'd really love to go back and see the Experience Music Project Museum and so many other things).

                      (Can you find the space needle in the above picture?)

               This was done with blue paint and silver sharpie.  So cool!

Day 2- (Mt. St. Helens) - We had to do a fair amount of driving in the afternoon, so we weren't able to do both views of the volcano. Thanks to the rental car guy, who told us about Ape Caves and the cool stuff to do down there, we decided to try it out.  Ape Cave is the US's longest known lava tube. The upper tube, which was recommended by the rental-car guy, was much harder than Jen and I anticipated.  It was really neat, but if you try it, we'd recommend taking along more than two travel flashlights, a flashlight keychain and a book light.  Luckily, the book light was brighter than it sounds!  After that adventure, I swore off caves for the rest of the trip, then we drove parts of the very scenic Columbia River Gorge and visited a local museum called the Columbia River Gorge Discovery Center and Wasco County Historical Museum.  After a bit of driving, we also came across a replica of Stonehenge that was erected as a memorial to WWI soldiers. It wasn't the last strange thing we'd see!

Day 3 (Oregon) - This day was a good amount of driving. We started at the Oregon Trail Museum, and enjoyed our first really exceptionally warm day (over 100 F) and a hike to some restored wagon ruts from the original Oregon Trail.  All of this really made me appreciate modern conveniences like air-conditioning, cars, and highways. Day 3 was when the scenery really started to change - going from trees and hills to mostly flat, mostly treeless prairie.  We ended the day in Hailey, ID.  This was the only day where we really didn't know where to stay.  I am pretty sure we got the last room in about a 50 mile radius. It was a slightly over-priced bed and breakfast, much better than sleeping in the car!

Day 4 - (Arco, ID) - Day 4 was our day to visit Craters of the Moon National Monument. It was another very warm day (105F) and the scenery was an amazing alien landscape made of black volcanic rocks .  Despite the heat, one of the "cones" still had snow inside, giving it the name "snow-cone". The completely alien landscape captivated Jen and I, and it was probably the photographed day of our trip.  After braving the heat, we decided to visit a more modern site, the first Experimental Reactor Breeder to produce electricity in the USA.  It was quite interesting to see the old scientific equipment and (lack-of) safety equipment, and all of the vintage signs and papers.

Day 5 - (Yellowstone) - Yellowstone. Need I say more? It was amazing, worth it if it was the only thing we saw on the whole trip.  Within five minutes of being in the park, a black bear ran in front of our car.  Other animals we saw were a bald eagle, grizzly bear (from a long distance), pika, elk, bison, and several baby bison.  We did the lower loop first, it's the one with most of the geysers, hot springs, and other various geological anomalies.  I have never seen anything like it! We decided to do the top loop, too, where we saw the obsidian cliffs, and a few other things.  Our biggest hike for the day was a trip out the natural arch.  There were rumors of a grizzly bear sighting on the trail, so we walked up with two families, one from Denmark with two young kids, and one from Oklahoma with two daughters.  The oldest of the two daughters had just graduated with a chemical engineering degree, so we got to talk science for a while, too!

Day 6 - (Wyoming and North Dakota) - We visited the gift shop at the hotel, before settling in for a long drive to Little Bighorn National Battlefield and Monument.  I don't much  like visiting battlefields, but I was glad to see that there was a monument for both the US armed forces and Native Americans who fought and died there.  

Day 7 - (North Dakota, Wyoming) - We spent the night in Bowman, ND.  There are so many places we stopped on our trip where I felt like we could have spent so much more time, there were so many more things to do. Bowman was NOT one of those places - there were two restaurants in town, and we ate in both of them.  Then, we went into the local museum, which was surprisingly large and well done for such a small town.  It even had a dinosaur skeleton that was found in the nearby hills.   After that, we drove to Devil's Tower in Wyoming and saw yet more amazing scenery! The prairie dogs by Devil's Tower were pretty cute, too. 

Ok, it's getting late! I'll tell you about the rest of the trip later.