Day Two: Mt Rushmore-Crazy Horse-Deadwood

I really have to keep up with this blog! I’m afraid if I don’t write it down, it will be a blur the next day. Wait... yup,  it already is! It seems like we’ve been on the road for a week - but in a good way :) !

I can’t believe it was just yesterday that we visited Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse and drove the Needles Highway (part of Custer State Park). Somehow I’m surprised the lack of crowds and traffic even though I know it’s early in the season.

On the way to Mount Rushmore, we nearly ran over a whole herd of deer crossing the highway - right behind the Mount Rushmore sign. It was a gorgeous morning as we walked the trail by the monument. It is really amazing how they worked on and completed this masterpiece. Truly old-fashioned American ingenuity!

Crazy Horse is equally awe-inspiring, but makes the completion of Mount Rushmore all the more impressive. Honestly, I think it’s a little sad how much more work there is to do after 60+ years. The original artist has died but his wife and children continue on, refusing any sort of government financial support. The completed project looks incredible but it seems like it will literally take another 300 years. I also wonder how the Native Americans that this monument is supposed to represent feel?

Thanks again to AAA, we took another fantastic drive we would have missed through Custer State Park on the Needles Highway. There were moments of terror - that might be overstating it a bit - but how often do you see a 5 MPH speed limit sign? Or, 9 foot-wide tunnels on the road?

Even with a full day already, we decided to drive up to Deadwood to see what it was all about. The answer - not a whole lot. We did find Dave’s namesake trail - The Mickelson Trail and did a little trek on that. Then, it was on to find a bite to eat which proved more difficult than expected. However, we figured out that pretty much every place had food, you just had to walk through a casino first. We ended up being lured in by the “Oldest Bar in Deadwood” sign, even though the bartender was a little vague on the details. After a shot and a beer, we nearly tried their Rocky Mountain Oysters. But, there’s just not enough alcohol in the world to get me past what they are.

After returning to our hotel, we apparently entered an alternate universe where Dave wanted to go to the bar and I wanted to go to bed! He won, of course, but we didn’t stay long as there was drama I did not want to behold. I’m not really sure what the entire situation was, but I did get hit on by some hippie-looking drunk dude that asked us three times if we were a couple and told us three times that he was into “big business” all over the country. He apparently was very rich, even though he was drunk at the Rapid City LaQuinta on a Friday night. After I witnessed a 7-10 year-old boy drive off in a muscle car at the drunk’s prompting and exclaimed to the bartender my concern which he rebuffed, I had enough and made Dave go back to the room with me.

Stay tuned-more tomorrow about today!

Day 1: Pix!

 

Day One: WI-MN-SD

Whew! What an outstanding first night/day! I was more than a little worried after running errands all day, and not having packed, I ended up only getting about an hour nap before departure. That was on top of the 45 minute “rest” I took the night before. And, I was still so unorganized, the car was nearly full before I picked up Dave at 11 p.m. But we got it all loaded up, case of Girl Scout cookies included, and took off through the rainstorm.

I drove to MN and then Dave drove through MN while I got a couple more hours sleep. We arrived at the Corn Palace, Mitchell, SD, (http://cornpalace.org/) an hour BEFORE we anticipated, right at their 8 a.m.opening time (I wonder how fast Dave was going while my eyes were closed!) After a short visit and some photo ops, we pushed on.

Speaking of photo ops, Dave has brought a “flat Stanley” of Saffy and I brought my Packer gnome for a little whimsy. Look for those special moments as soon as I figure out how to post pix!

A big Thank You to AAA (www.aaa.com)! Without their guidance and TripTik service, we would have driven right past the best (well, one of the best) parts of our first day - The Badlands drive (http://www.nps.gov/badl/index.htm). Oh, so “far-out”, man! As one hippie said to us on our way out onto one of the outcropping of rocks. Tho Dave got a little tired of me pulling over into the ‘scenic viewpoints’, I just thought they were awe-inspiring.

Thank goodness we didn’t see any rattlesnakes, but we did see one prairie dog (besides the “6-ton” fake one on the roadside) and -hold onto your hats!- we saw a wolf pooping! Yup! Ah, nature.

Oh, and we are not done yet folks! We were so far ahead of schedule, it was like we went through a time warp. We then stopped at the fabled Wall Drug in Wall, SD (www.walldrug.com) for a buffalo hot dog and some kitschy photos and shopping.

After checking into our hotel, we went downtown Rapid City for dinner and some well-deserved cold adult beverages. The Firehouse Brewing (www.firehousebrewing.com) provided both as well as some nice scenery for these road-weary travelers (read: cute bartender!). Downtown also has bronze statues of all the presidents (http://www.visitrapidcity.com/whattodo/thecityofpresidents/), so after dinner, we took a nice stroll to see them. Well, half of them. At that point, I did hit ‘the wall’. I had about 4 hours sleep in 60, so off to beddie-bye we went...

Kitschiest Roadside Attractions - Travel + Leisure Magazine

Look for us in these locations...Coming Soon!

Wall Drug Store, Wall, SD

The anticipation starts long before you arrive at Wall Drug, a Western-themed mall/amusement park near Mount Rushmore and the Badlands. Signs posted throughout the world count down the remaining miles to go; there’s even a sign for Wall Drug posted in Antarctica (for the record, only about 9,300 miles away). Wall Drug started as a humble pharmacy that doled out free ice water to weary travelers. Today, 2.2 million people a year pull over to ogle at the animatronic T. Rex and see the animated Chuck Wagon Quartet (one of the figures resembles Ronald Reagan); chuckle at a piano-playing, singing gorilla; and sit atop a giant jackalope statue. And yes, the ice water’s still free.
Mitchell Corn Palace, Mitchell, SD

Established in 1892 and existing at its current location since 1921, this showstopper—the only building of its kind—celebrates the harvest of king corn. The building exterior is redecorated annually with 275,000 ears of colored corn, other grains, and grasses. Themes have included Lewis and Clark; the space age; and historic figures such as Elvis Presley and Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive away with your corn memento of choice: popcorn, Corn Palace puzzles, or corn-cob jelly.

 

Yellowstone suggestions?

Does anyone have any suggestions for seeing Yellowstone? It seems a lot of it will still be closed when we visit in early May so we won't be staying inside the park. I'd like to hike, but I'm not too - how do you say - physically fit? I don't want Dave having to call in the National Guard to get me out of a canyon or anything. It doesn't look like any of the trails include beer stops which concerns me.

Also, it looks like the Grand Tetons are pretty close by so we may try to see those as well.

Suggestions welcome... oh, and if anyone knows where we can get some Bear Spray, let me know!

I need to get to Goodwill to see if they have any plaid flannel. Will work for hiking and for Seattle, I hear.

Two More Weeks!

I can't believe we will be leaving in just 2 weeks. I haven't even packed yet :) I have started to accumulate snacks tho...hmm... But I'm waiting until the last minute to have my car serviced since our itinerary is over 5,000 miles. And cleaned. I'm sure Dave will appreciate a freshly shampooed seat plus that New Car Smell. I just hope they can find and vacuum up all the food tidbits from years of eating in my car, I'm sure I have at least a small order of fries under my seats. Not to mention I recently attempted to eat Taco Bell while on a run to the bank. I would file that under Bad Ideas. Now that I think about it, it might be a tad embarrassing to take my car in. I might need to pre-clean like I used to do before the maid would come.

We have also had to change our heading from 14 States to 12 States. We just did not have the time to go as far as we would have liked to. And tho Dave is already talking about Road Trip, Part Deux, I'm waiting for the reviews to be in on The Original Road Trip before committing, or being committed, whatever the head-case may be.

I have also made a new travel friend. Check out their site, http://lifechangingyear.com/ to see their year-long, round-the-world adventure! If only I was that adventurous...or could figure out how to be out of work that long and still eat!

Speaking of that, maybe we should take donations to pay to for this little adventure of ours. Give until it hurts, folks. It's all for a VERY good cause and we'll even throw in a beautiful, hand-selected trip souvenir. Choose from:  Something Probably Stolen from a Truck Stop or Delightful Pre-Moistened, Lemon-Scented Towelettes or perhaps even a Personal-size Jam or Jelly (variety of flavors available but you will probably get strawberry). Limited Time Offer, while supplies last, we can't be held responsible for anything, yadda, yadda....Cash Only, Please!

Still in Planning Phase!

We hashed and re-hashed our itinerary and now I put it out for any suggestions! Any hints or must-see sights? Let us know - this is all new territory for us.

Day 1     WI-MN-SD          Milwaukee WI to Mitchell SD = 566 miles, 9:27 (Stop at Corn Palace!)
                                            Mitchell SD to Wall SD = 221 miles, 3:39 (Stop at Wall Drug)
                                            Wall SD to Rapid City SD = 55.5 miles, :55

Day 2     Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, hiking
Day 3     SD-WY-MT         Rapid City SD to Yellowstone Park WY = 542 miles, 8:21
Day 4     Yellowstone
Day 5     MT-ID-WA          Yellowstone Park WY to Spokane WA = 476 miles, 7:45
Day 6     Spokane
Day 7     WA                       Spokane WA to Seattle WA = 280 miles, 4:38
Day 8     Seattle
Day 9     WA-OR               Seattle WA to Astoria OR = 177 miles, 3:15
Day 10   OR                      Astoria OR to Tillamook OR = 71.7 miles, 1:35
                                          Tillamook OR to Portland OR = 79.4 miles, 1:36
Day 11   OR-ID                 Portland OR to Boise ID = 430 miles, 7:26
Day 12   ID-UT                 Boise ID to Salt Lake City UT = 340 miles, 5:24
Day 13   Salt Lake City
Day 14   UT-WY               Salt Lake City UT to Cheyenne WY = 440 miles, 6:47
Day 15   WY-NE               Cheyenne WY to Omaha NE = 495 miles, 7:37
Day 16   NE-IA-IL-WI     Omaha NE to Milwaukee WI = 513 miles, 8:20