Cody Wyoming

One thing we are finding is that each place we visit has lots and lots of things to do and see.  We're sorry to leave, but we press on, keeping with the grand plan.  We left Rapid City yesterday (Thursday?) morning and quickly drove out of South Dakota and into Wyoming.  It was very windy and we could see the grass waving.

Our first stop in Wyoming was Devils Tower National Monument.  There is quite a bit of wildlife there.  Prairie dogs, wild turkeys and deer.

As we approached the tower it was very cloudy, with some clouds obscuring the tower. But quickly the skies cleared.  It was an impressive sight.

We couldn't spend much time there because we had another 300 or so miles to drive to Cody.  The Wyoming terrain was similar to South Dakota with fewer trees.  As we drove across the prairie we could see snow-capped mountains in the distance.  These were the Big Horn mountain range.  The maximum elevation for the road was about 8,000 feet.  The road was amazing.  We were able to buzz through at about 50 to 60 MPH most of the time.  There was a very scenic ski resort near the peak with a lake. 

As we descended we were in a narrow canyon with steep walls and a rushing creek at the bottom.  There were a number of switchbacks and we had to slow to 20 MPH.   Beth would have preferred 10.  The views were breathtaking and each turn revealed even more spectacular sights.  It would have been good to spend a full day just in that canyon, but we pushed on...

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The pictures don't really do it justice.

After leaving the Big Horn mountains we were on a high plain, the Big Horn depression or something like that.  The terrain was extremely varied, with rolling hills in places and bad lands.  We could see another range of mountains in the distance, the ones for Yellowstone park.  We arrived at Cody (founded by William "Buffalo Bill" Cody) at about 7 PM and quickly went to a western musical review in an historic theatre.  This was done by a small combo of singers.

On Friday we took a break from our relentless driving and spent the day goofing off in Cody.  The Buffalo Bill historical center is considered the "Smithsonian of the West" and we could certainly see why. There were a number of exhibits about Buffalo Bill's life as well as exhibits on native Americans and a natural history museum.  We spent a few hours there (not enough for Bill but too much for Beth and Matthew) and then went into the downtown area to do some shopping!  Matthew got a western belt and spurs (he already has boots).

In the evening there is a shootout outside the hotel that was built by Buffalo Bill.  Of course the good guys win.

A note about our hotel.  Each of our hotel lobbies have been decorated with stuffed animals.  The one in Cody takes the prize for the most, however.  Matthew counted 36 or so.

Bill looks tired in this picture. Maybe too much driving!

On Friday night in Cody the big thing to do is the rodeo!  Actually, this might be the big thing EVERY night, since they do it nightly, for tourists.  Matthew even got into the action.  They have all the kids under 13 get together in the arena floor and then they release three calves with ribbons tied on them. The kids run around like crazy and try to get the ribbons for prizes.  Matthew was a fast runner but didn't come up with any prizes.  This is something he shares with the performers, most of whom were either thrown from their bull or horse, or didn't rope the calf in time. 

Tomorrow we enter Yellowstone!  Looking forward to it.

North Dakota observations

This is really from a few days ago, but I had some thoughts I wanted to post.

In North Dakota we drove from Fargo to Bismark. We had plenty of time to take in the scenery, at least what we could see from the road.  There are quite a few dirt roads.  In fact, it seemed that at most exits, although the main road that intersected with the expressway was paved, most roads off of that one were dirt.  This helped to explain why sometimes I'd see a vehicle covered with dust.

The landscape was mostly rolling fields, with very few trees.  But things were green. I assume that it's still late spring and that in July and August maybe things would be dried up.  Occasionally we'd see lines of trees.  We assume they were planted as windbreaks.

There seems to be a tradition among ND ranchers of displaying an old piece of farm equipment at the edge of a field.  We saw this on quite a few ranches.  Not on every field, and not multiple pieces, but just one old buggy or bailer or something.  We didn't notice this in South Dakota.

Also, the ranchers like to have an entrance way of some sort to their ranch.  Sometimes this was just simple posts but sometimes they would be ornamented with metal figures or antlers or whatnot.

For the record, here's the capitol building in Bismark, state capital of ND.  Quite different from Indiana, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Our first Culvers experience!

I think it was Napoleon who said an army travels on its stomach.  That can be said of the Bartters as well!  Ever since leaveing Illinois we've seen signs for "Culvers" and bugged Beth becuase they never identified what they were advertising.  After a few days we learned it is an ice cream/custard place.  We went to our first one for dinner (and ice cream) today in Rapid City, SD.  We had a long, long day and we were in the mood for ice cream.

I'm skipping a few days; getting behind on the blog.  I'll write about today while it's still fresh and try to catch up later on the last two days or so.

This is our last night in Rapid City.  We sent to Mt Rushmore first thing, just a 30 min drive.

Of course we have the mandatory family shot in front of the mountain.

The site is very well done, with very up to date buildings, displays, etc.  They can really handle large crowds.  The work began in 1927 and continuted until 1941.  The original plans were to have their bodies (down to the waist) but the stone was not good enough.  It was fascinating to learn about the carving, etc.  Also, you could really get some emotional reading from each of the expressions.  Lincoln looked sad, Washington had a determined look.  The original plans also started with Jefferston to Washington's right but the stone didn't cooperate and the face was blasted away and now he's on Washington's left.

Following Mt Rushmore, we headed south to the little-known Wind Cave National Park.  This was the 7th NP and was the first that is a cave.  This is the third largest cave in the US and people are attracted to it both for the cave but also the prairie and rolling hills on the ground.  We enjoyed the topside scenery but didn't go into the caves.

After WCNP, we drove through Custer State Park which has a very large wildlife area.  We saw lots of prairie dogs, deer, and bison.  We also saw wild donkeys, turkeys and (maybe) elk. Here's a sampling.

This was a huge herd of bison.

In our typical way of sightseeing to the max, we were leaving the park as there were dark clouds and lightening in the sky.  We returned to Rapid City in some strong rain for the dinner at Culvers.  The storm passed and the sky had the most amazing clouds.  Pictures don't really capture the look but it was very dramatic.

Overlooking Rapid City is Dinosaur Park, a collection of life-sized concrete beasts.  We heard they were built in the 30s by the CCC (whey they weren't building roads and camps in national parks).  Matthew enjoyed it, but the sky was filled with lightening so our time there was short.

To add a little multi-media flavor to the blog, here's a short video of the buffalo herd.

The News from North Dakota

Sticking to our schedule, we drove from the St Paul (Mall of America), though Fargo, ND, to Bismark, ND, which was our kick-off spot for all things North Dakota, more or less.  We learned that Fargo is a manufacturing center for all those windmills we saw in Indiana.  We even saw some piece parts on the road.

This is one of the blades.  The things are huge and you don't really get an appreciation for that when you see them mounted on their pole.  I also happened to see part of the stand and it was labeled Siemens, one of Alcatel-Lucent's competitors. 

Speaking of things German, Bismark was named to that in honor of Bismark in Germany, in hopes that this would stimulate investment from Germany.  There are many folks of German descent in ND.  The name of our watier at dinner in Bismark was Avolt.  Avolt?  I asked him if that was of German origin.  He said his grandfather was from Germany and his name was Evalt and he Americanized it ot Avolt?  Only in ND...

From Bismark we drove north to a spot on the Missouri River where Lewis and Clark spent the winter of 1805 (or was it 06?).  We learned more than we ever really needed to know about the expedition.  For example, the role of  Sacajawea has been embellished quite a bit.  She was the second wife (and the first was still around, they were all together...) of teh French trapper who Lewis and Clark hired to guide them and serve as an interpreter.

Also, there was an African American as part of the expedtion.  But not as a volunleer or soldier.  He was a slave and owned by Lewis or Clark (can't remember which one).

From here we drove north to Lake Sacajawea, the third-largest man-made lake in the US.  We drove over the dam (Garrison Dam) and around the area a little.

From here we drove to a National Historic site on the Knife River for some Indian villiages that were active at the time of L&C and had been for 500 years.

After this we drove west to Theodore Roosevelt National Park (North Unit).  There are two parts to TRNP and we wanted to see them both.  These are the "bad lands" of ND.  It seems that the ones in South Dakota are better known, but we were interested in these because of Matthew's interest in TR and there is just spectacular scenery.  We arrived at about 5 PM, which seems late, but the office was open until 6 and it stayed light until almost 10.  In fact, we saw the sunset from the park.

The badlands were made from erosion, much like the Grand Canyon.  You can see stripes that are made up of different types of material, some harder rock and some clay, etc.  The Little Missouri river cut these over millions of years as it flowed north to join with the Missouri River (that L&C took).  The scenery was beautiful and very expansive.  As we drove, it seemed that each turn revealed another spectacular sight.

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Of course, Matthew and Bill did some climbing.  In one area there were spherical rocks that were somehow embedded in other rock.  It was just one example of the geological activities going on there.

We saw a number of Bison.  In fact, we settled down for a dinner picnic and a curious fellow seemed inclined to join us.  Beth and Matthew cowered in the bathroom while Bill stayed safely behind the car.

After a short time the guy and a friend moved on, but stayed fairly near us.  He seemed totally uninterested in us, fortunately.

We did some hiking to get a little closer to nature.

As we drove around the various areas of the park, there were times when we drove up to the top.  When you are at the top with your back to the canyons and coulees, the land is just rolling grass land.  But behind you are these wonderful canyons.  You realize that everything was carved out of the soil/rock.  I wondered where all that rock went!  I guess the river carried it down to the Missouri and Mississippi rivers and it ended up in the Mississippi delta perhaps.

Sunset as we left the park.  Very full day.

Two days and 800 miles from home

We started this adventure of a lifetime right on schedule, Wednesday morning at about 8:30.  It was raining and there was a thick fog.  I tried to tell Matthew and Beth that rain at the start of a trip is a sign of good luck.  Ha!  Actually, it rained much of Wednesday and about half of Thursday.  At least we don't have sun in our eyes!

We drove through Indianapolis, Indiana on the way to Huntley, Illinois (outside of Chicago).  We have this idea of taking pictures of state capital buildings, since alot of our driving will include state capitals.  This is kind of "dirve-by" shooting, from the car window, sometimes in heavy traffic, but we thought it might help us remmber the trip.

So, here's the capitol building for the state of Indiana.

The rain had stopped and we found a nice park on the outskirts of Indianapolis for a picnic lunch.

In northern Indiana, about 100 miles outside of Chicago, we encounted a farm of a different sort, a windmill farm.  There were hundreds of windmills, on either side of the road, stretching off to the horizon.  Some pictures:

I guess this is a "green enengy" project, located in lots of green farm fields.

We visited with Matthew's cousins Faith and Andrew and had a great pizza dinner with them and their folks.

We stayed in Rockford, IL on Wednesday night.  Thursday was to be a day of new states for Matthew!  We quickly got to Wisconsin and made it to Madison (a state capital!) for lunch.

This was in a nice park, across from the main part of Madison.

Is it fair to judge a state by it's public restrooms?  The restroom in the park in Indiana had a pool of water on the floor and hundreds of spiders.  The one in Wisonsin was immaculate.  Oh, Madision is a very bike friendly town, with lots of bike paths and people using them. 

As we left Madison, Matthew serenaded us.  You can see that the car is full to the ceiling!

Driving through Wisconsin was interesting.  There were many dairy farms but also some varied terrain with mini-mountains and rock formations along the way.  We never had time to stop and sample the cheese!

We arrived in St. Paul/Minneapolis in the early eavning.  Just enough light to get a picture of the capitol building!

We ended the day at that sanctuary of capitalism, the Mall of America.  This is a huge place, with four floors of stores and an enclosed amusement park in the center.  Of course, we had to partake of all the delights - food, shopping, and a bumper car ride.

Tomorrow promises to be a long day - driving across North Dakota!