Finally Yellowstone

We left Buffalo, WY for an eventful day. First, as we were climbing the Big Horn mountains, we heard a loud bang and thought we might have blown a tire. After looking around, we discovered that a bag of chips had exploded, probably from a change in altitude. Secondly, we finally got rid of a fly that had been in our van for at least three days (wonder what he thought when he looked around at his new home?). Then, we saw a sign in Greybull, WY that made Connie shudder. You can see it in the photo above. Finally, we spotted a carwash in Cody and tried to turn around to wash some of the mud off our van. The turnaround led us into the Cody Riverside Cemetary and its automatic sprinkler system; thus a free carwash!

We saw lots of beautiful scenery, especially in the Big Horn Mountains and again as we approached Yellowstone. We did not get to see much of the park as we were trying to get to our motel before dark. But we did see many elk and one carefree buffalo walking straight down the middle of the hiway, stopping traffic in both directions. Tomorrow we will begin to explore Yellowstone!

We woke up to a nasty, rainy, cold (about 50 degrees) day. Glad that it was today and not yesterday when we were visiting Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse and all the other sights nearby. We headed west toward Yellowstone doing a little side trip to see Devil's Tower, WY. They used it when they filmed Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It was supposedly formed from volcano lava that hardened and the mountain itself eroded away. In all actuality, I think it is a giant petrified tree stump.

We stopped for the night in Buffalo, Wyoming to visit with Richard Kendall, who went to high school with Mike K and Connie T. They hadn't seen each other in many years. It's good to see old friends! Everyone should do it more often.

We'll be heading out to Yellowstone tomorrow. I'm sure we'll take off bright and early. Around 10. Maybe 11.

We started the day going to Mt Rushmore which is about 20 miles from Rapid City. Rapid City itself is very flat but you start up the mountain immediately south of the town. You go up and up until your ears start popping, you make a turn in the road, look up, and there is the most magnificent sight. The granite faces of Washington, Jefferson, T Roosevelt and Lincoln appear perfectly white, with the entry park being a series of archways and flags. Ellsworth Air Force Base was doing a flag retirement ceremony. One of the park rangers (she told us we could call her Rushmore Ranger Rhonda) told us they are creating a 9/11 museum honoring the firefighters who lost their lives. It was a sobering moment.

We then went on to the Crazy Horse Memorial, which is only about 5 miles away. We knew that it wasn't nearly completed but we certainly didn't realize they had only done his face. It was a "Well, I'll be!?" moment. A little disappointing. I guess the pictures we had seen were those of the "model" which is on display in the museum on the grounds. It will be a monumental (get it?) project to finish it and I'm sure it won't be in our lifetime but they are determined and are working fervently on it. It will be 563' high and 641' long whereas Mt Rushmore is about 60' tall although it is very high up. Both are worth seeing. The story behind Crazy Horse Memorial is the most important thing to take home from that one.

We toured the Black Hills and drove on some of the most twisty turny roads I have ever been on since they opened the WV turnpike. I drove all day so I wouldn't get sick. The roads had so many switchbacks and pigtail turns (those are the ones that spiral down under where you had just driven!). There were a lot of tunnels through the stone mountains where only one car could go through. One was only 8'4" wide! When we got to that one we pulled over because people were standing outside of it waiting with their cameras. Lo and behold, a big tour bus came inching its way through. We're not sure but we think he greased it first.

On the wildlife loop we saw herds of buffalo from a distance, one close up, many wild turkeys, lots of deer, some gorgeous prong horn antelopes and some very, very curious donkeys. Connie especially liked those and really got up close and personal with them!

We closed out the day by going back to Mt Rushmore to see it lit up at night. They light it every night but tonight the lights will be on all night in honor of 9/11. Ranger Rhonda told us the Presidents were watching over the country.

Yesterday we started the day with Mike Tatum playing the Beatles' song "When I'm 64" to honor Mike Kincaid's birthday. It was a hoot!

We traveled west from Sioux Falls (yes, I have learned how to spell Sioux). Unfortunately, we forgot to go see the Falls. We've heard we didn't miss much. Along the way we stopped at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD which is a large building covered in corn parts and grains. There are huge murals on the sides of the building which are made of half ears of Indian corn in various colors. The birds especially like the Corn Palace.
The terrain was very flat with corn, soy beans and hay fields as far as you could see. We saw the occasional wind driven generators and even passed a semi pulling a long trailer with one of the blades on it. We estimated the blade to be 80-100' long. It was definitely an "over-sized" load.
After crossing miles and miles of flat land we suddenly came to the Missouri river valley which was 400-500' below us. It was a beautiful vista.
After the valley, it was miles and miles of flat land again. Then all of a sudden, we looked and saw a canyon-like break in the terrain. It was the start of the Badlands. What a contrast! That was the moment when we all knew that we were OUT WEST! We took the Badlands Scenic Byway which is a 31 mile loop running through the Badlands National Park. (By the way, those of us over 61 can get a lifetime pass for $10. This allows entry of everyone in the car. Everyone else pays $15 per entry per car. Wow!) We saw spectacular canyons and mountains in various shades of gray with red strata. It was late afternoon and the shadows were very striking on the jagged terrain. We kept taking pictures at each overlook. Thank goodness for digital cameras. We also saw several colonies of prairie dogs. Fat prairie dogs preparing for winter. That seemed a long way away since the temp was 95 there. It had been 80 the entire day until we took the side trip.
After visiting the famous Wall Drug Store on the way, we arrived at Rapid City, SD for our tours of Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse. More on that later.

We toured Minneapolis and St Paul today. Saw the Capitol in St Paul. So far, we’ve seen the capitols in Frankfort, KY, Madison, WI, and St Paul, MN, not to mention the capitol in Indianapolis at night from the highway. They are all strikingly beautiful with lots of granite, marble and murals. We will be teaching a class in Capitols 101 after this trip. Can you say Rotunda?
Geography lesson---The Mississippi is quite narrow and shallow through this area. It joins with the St Croix river south of here to form the Mississippi that we are used to seeing.
We headed west for a rather uneventful afternoon seeing more wind driven generators (these were actually turning!) and a motel where all the rooms offered garages. Can’t imagine why!! Not sure but I think it gets cold up here!
We’ve been stopping at McDonalds to use the free WiFi to get our hotel rooms through Hotwire. Today, a young man came up to us after we had finished up and asked us if we were finding everything we needed. (Where was he when we were trying to spell Souix, Soux, Sioux Falls, SD?? Hotwire does NOT have spell-check.) In our conversation with him, we told him we were heading for Mt Rushmore and he said that he had recently spent his honeymoon there. He told us he especially liked the town of Deadwood. When I asked him if it was a neat, western town, he said in his distinctive Minnesota accent “Well, it’s pretty nice but, ya know, you can polish a turd, but it’s still a turd”. He could tell by our laughter that we had never heard that expression. It’s a good one.
One thing we’ve noticed is that people up here are exceedingly nice and have a lot of personal pride in their towns and property. It shows. Everything is so well cared for, overflowing with flower baskets and planters. Much like Canada.
More tomorrow.
SK
　

We left Chicago near noon on Monday and headed north toward Milwaukee. After an hour, we were getting hungry and since we were all wearing Marshall gear we stopped at a Chik-Fil-A for our free chicken sandwiches. Are we cheap or what? After lunch, we made it to Milwaukee and saw some of the sites, including Marquette University and Miller Park, the home of the Brewers. We then went to Madison where we walked around the state capitol and toured the University of Wisconsin campus. The school is located a few blocks from downtown and is right on a lake. It really was a beautiful campus and town.

Our next stop was the Wisconsin Dells, a town as commercial as Gatlinberg, TN with amusement parks, miniature golf, and water parks. We spent the night there and the next day (Tuesday) we checked out the beautiful Wisconsin River and the bluffs (the Dells).

It was then off to Minneapolis. We elected to drive due west and then follow the Mississippi River up. It was a beautiful drive and we stopped in the town of Red Wing (where the shoes are made) that was very quaint and full of gorgeous flowers, which Mike K. said would be dead tomorrow from the frost. It was then on to the Mall of America, the largest mall in the US. It was and we were worn out after touring and shopping just part of it. Tomorrow we will check out the state capitol and other sites before leaving for South Dakota. See you then!

On Saturday, we left Indianapolis after breakfast and headed north for Chicago. Just past Purdue University on I-65, we noticed some large windmills in a field, so we pulled off of the interstate and found hundreds of these wind turbines extending for miles and miles. Unfortunately, it was an unusually calm day and none of them were operating at the time. But what an impressive sight and hopefully a start on supplementing our dependency on oil.
We reached Chicago in early afternoon and the traffic was absolutely horrible. Thank God we don't live in a big city! We checked into the Westin, which was very luxurious, but everything seemed to be a la carte. There are extra charges for everything; parking, internet access, even local and 800 phone calls. Seems a bit odd for such an nice, expensive hotel.
After lunch, we took the train toward downtown, but stopped in Wicker Park to meet the Kincaids' younger son, Wes. He showed us around his place and then took us downtown to the Chicago Jazz Fest and fireworks. At one time while walking along Michigan Avenue, Wes looked around and the 4 of us were just piddling around in the crowd behind him. He threatened to go get one of those retractable dog tethers for us if we didn't keep up. We stopped at Bennigan's for dinner and Wes thought Sheryl was trying to fix him up with one of the "cute" waitresses (much to his chagrin). We really had fun walking around Chicago, but were extremely tired when we got home around midnight.
Was glad to see on ESPN that the Herd beat Southern Illinois 31-28. GO HERD!
Sunday morning we took the CTA to pick up our travel guide, Wes, and before heading downtown, took turns riding his Yamaha scooter. It was fun and Mike even talked about getting one for local trips around Leland. We'll see! We then had lunch at a small sidewalk sandwich shop near Wes' apartment. It had the most extensive, diverse sandwich menu that I have ever seen. Connie and I ordered a turkey meatloaf sandwich, as did Wes. When our food arrived, our sandwich had a piece of meatloaf over an inch thick, but Wes' was made up of what looked like small crumbs. After we all laughed about it for a few minutes, he told our waiter, and received a much larger portion which pleased him very much.
The remainder of the day was spent touring downtown Chicago and the Navy Pier area. By the time we went to dinner, Wes admitted to us that we were wearing him out, both physically and mentally. He said it was like babysitting four kids. Imagine that!