Headed East

Greetings! This will be the last blog that you will have to read from us for this adventure…..promise! What an adventure!

After we left our friends in Montana, we beelined it to Yellowstone National Park. We had both visited Yellowstone before when Rebecca and Ben were little. I think we all loved it with the exception of Rebecca because of the sulpher smell that the hot pots and geysers produced. Once again, lots of geology! I will get Randy to add some technical narrative to the blog….you all deserve some accuracy in reporting.

Yellowstone is a geologic wonder. Due to the earth’s crust being very thin, the park is littered with geothermal features that are truly amazing. While the park was not completely open, we were able to see the majority of the best sites. We saw mud pots bubbling and popping; fumaroles steaming, hissing and whistling; hot springs in a variety of sizes and colors; geysers spouting (including Old Faithful). We visited all three geyser basins – Upper, Lower and Norris. We also visited the Mammoth Hot Springs and their spectacular travertine terraces and we saw all kinds of wildlife – lots of it up close and personal.

I’m back and want to report on our successful wild animal bingo game that I made up along our journey. We saw elk, deer, mountain goats, antelope, bison, a bear – thanks to a dozen cars off the road, all aiming their giant lenses into the underbrush where a brown bear was rummaging, a fox- who was about to jump into our car, a bald eagle, a black white jay bird, hawks, waterfowl and a wolf! We were the only ones who saw the wolf! It was a fluke! I just happened to turn my head and there it was! I wish I could say it was my excellent animal spotting skill, but it was just dumb luck! I left the park feeling like the buffalo are going to be ok. We saw so many babies! That’s one upside to visiting the parks in the spring! Another upside is that there were ZERO crowds. We could park anywhere, eat, shop…no lines. We read that Yellowstone gets 140,000 a day during the summer months! I can’t imagine that. The downside is that not everything is open, but thats ok, it worked out just fine for us!

We left the park out of the north exit, which had just opened for the season. We passed through a small strip of a dozen buildings(hotel, gas station, etc.) none of it was open yet. We didn’t pass or see another car for over an hour! The one pass wasn’t opened yet and the other option was “Closed but proceed at your own risk”. Of course we took that one. As we climbed the mountain, the snow banks kept getting higher and higher until it they were taller than the car. We were pretty happy when we reached the summit and started the descent into the valley where the snow all but disappeared…..and then we had to climb again. This time there wasn’t any snow, but the navigation screen looked like someone threw spaghetti on the map and that was the road we had to follow! I’m putting a pic of the nav screen…and that wasn’t the worst of it!

A day or two later, after driving thru vast prairies…..mile after mile, we made it to Rapid City, S. Dakota. What a nice little city! It is the city of presidents! Our hotel was really old and has a wall of famous lodging guests. There’s a bronze statue of select presidents on each corner of a block. It was super clean! As so many communities in the mid-west, there was a large Native American presence. The downtown was filled with hip restaurants, breweries and shops. There was even a big leather shop which was run by a real cowboy! I found 3 different bookshops in that little downtown! It seemed like a community that embraced the arts, lots of statues, murals and an art walk! We had the best burger of our journey at the Dakota Meat Company – burgers and Brews! And, it had the cheapest Starbucks we’ve ever seen!

The next day, we visited Mt. Rushmore. It was pretty awesome. Again, no one was there! We were in front of the plaza by ourselves! We watched the movie, visited the museum and marveled at the human ingenuity and fortitude that it took to make something like this. It took 400 workers 14 years to build it. It was funded even during the depression – in hopes of helping the local economy. It was pretty inspiring to read about the four presidents that make up Rushmore and why they were chosen. The we drove south to see Crazy Horse. Like Rushmore, the Crazy Horse sculpture is amazing too. Unlike Rushmore, the Native American community did not want to be beholden to the government so did not accept any funding. Instead, they found a polish sculptor from Connecticut and they started work. Korczak Ziolkowski dedicated his life to the project which honors Lakota warrior Crazy Horse. He and his wife had 10 children and today, his children and grandchildren continue to work on the project. In the movie about the project, one grandson is quoted as saying that he wanted to be a white man who kept his word to the Native Americans. Talk about choking up!

We left there and drove for hours and hours along a very flat prairie highway. All of a sudden, we started seeing signs for Wall Drugs. I’ve certainly heard about it before, but having never been anywhere near it, I didn’t know what to expect. It reminded me of driving to Florida with the Pedro Sez South of the Border signs! We definitely had to make a visit! We pulled up front 45 minutes before they closed which was really a blessing in disguise because I am certain that it would take several hours to actually see it all. Randy spotted some pretty adorable cowgirl jeans for the little girls, we bought some fudge for our chocoholic friend that had a birthday and we were off again. When we stopped at a hotel, Randy mentioned how flat it was to the young man at the desk. He was born and raised here. Then we heard one of the best quotes of the trip “My gramma says – “if you stand on a bucket, you can see Nebraska””.

Our last city visit was to Madison, Wisconsin. I found a beautiful old hotel right next to the capital building, made dinner reservations at a mediterranean restaurant and surprised Randy with tickets to a Talking Heads tribute concert all within 3 hours of arrival. Basically, that’s how we rolled this trip. The hotel was great! I think their government hangs out there because all the rooms were labeled after them and there was a special elevator that required a special key to use. Of course, we did not have the key! The city was super clean and there seemed to be lots of new, young dining options. We walked to the concert venue, not knowing what to expect. Randy really likes the Talking Heads and thankfully, there were lots of other 60+ people who joined the college kids too. The band was actually pretty good and seemed to get even better as the night progressed. We had a table in the balcony overlooking an open floor in front of the stage. It was fun watching the crowd that formed. It’s pretty difficult to not move to their music. We ubered back to the hotel – like $6…..you have to love those mid western prices – and had a good sleep! the next morning, Wisconsins largest farmers market, was located all around the Capitol building. We took a stroll along the market, bought some cinnamon rolls and coffee for breakfast and kept wishing that we could shop more but knew we had a few days before getting home.

That next morning, we had to make some decisions. Which route do we take to get home? We decided that we would head north and drive home thru Canada. The next decision was how long do we want to take? We had clean laundry for only a couple more days so either we had to do laundry, stop at a Target or power home and at that point we decided it was time to go home. The last hour of the drive from Ogdensburg through the middle of the Adirondacks was a great last leg of an epic journey because we live in a beautiful region too.

We all live in a beautiful country with different climates, different topography, different landscapes and flora, arid and wet. As different as the landscape is, it felt like the majority of the people we meant weren’t all that different from each other. Sure, we might have different skin color, pray to a different deity, say things differently, have different kinds of houses, but all in all, we want the same things for ourselves and our families. We want to be kind, we want to be safe, we want to be healthy, we want to have choices and we want to be loved.

10,800+/- miles – 25 States and 1 Province 10 chain restaurant visits – no independent options (out of 168 possible meals) 56 days 28 hotels visited – nearly all independent Gas prices – high of $6.89 low $3.49 Audible books – 7

5 National Parks and a National Monument

Thanks for coming along on this journey with us. Hope to see you all this summer up at the lake!