October 14, 2013

We're on the road again!  We left Lafayette on the 7:33 am train to Chicago.  You can imagine what time Steve had to pry me out of bed.  I had to change my planned attire from shorts to jeans, as it was 37 degrees out.  Since we're headed for Dallas, I had to plan for both fall and summer weather, but I wasn't ready for it to be that cold.

We both love train travel and enjoyed the early morning scenery.  Softened by a patchy ground fog and the pale light of dawn, the fields and trees showed off their autumn colors.  Soon the train was speeding north.  We had never seen the windmills north of Lafayette from the train, or this early in the morning.  The only way you could tell which ones were turning was by the shadow of the blade from the rising sun.

We are fairly familiar with the scenery north of Lafayette, as the train follows 43 N for quite awhile.  But you notice other things from the train.  In one small town (Chalmers?), there's a church that we usually see from the road.  But we'd never noticed that the real front of the church faced the railroad.  Maybe the railroad used to run down Main Street.

We saw quite a few houses decorated for Halloween, some quite elaborately.

Soon the train rocked me to sleep and I slept until we hit the Chicago suburbs.  We had some delays as we waited for freight trains to clear the tracks, but mostly the trip went smoothly.  We made it to Union Station, where we were going to catch the Metra to Schaumburg, where Natasha would pick us up.  Since we had just missed the 10:30 train, we took our time getting tickets and some lunch while we waited for the 11:30 train.

The trip to Schaumburg had some drama.  About two thirds of the way there, an announcement was made that we were having mechanical problems, which was why we were moving at a crawl.  A technician was on his way to meet the train and try to fix it, so we could stay on or get off at the next stop and try to find alternate transport.

Since we weren't in a hurry, we opted to stay on for at least one more stop.   Shortly after that, speed picked up and an announcement was made that the engineer had managed to fix the problem.  So we made it to Schaumburg and let Natasha know we were ready to be picked up.  We went to Natasha's house, where she had lunch and then Steve dropped her at her clinic.  Olga, Maria, Steve and I then went shopping, first to the Apple Store, so Steve could show me what he has picked out to replace this computer (which keeps dieing) and then on to Ikea.

We were checking on items for the fifth wheel.  We are now officially owners of a fifth wheel travel trailer which is currently in storage in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  As soon as our truck (Chevy 1 ton diesel with adjustable pedals, blue) comes in, we'll go pick it up.

But in the meantime, we're doing some dreaming.  Desk chairs, tables, lighting and a head board were all looked at.  But so far, we haven't bought anything for the fifth wheel.  (Steve has purchased some shorts and jeans.  He didn't have much of a casual wardrobe.)  It's coming fully furnished and we won't know what we need until we get into it.

The plan is to pick up the Uhaul truck in the morning and load the stuff Natasha and Mike need "immediately" into it.  A lot of that stuff is Maria's.  They have a two bedroom furnished apartment in Dallas at the moment and will wait to move the rest of the stuff until the condo sells or they find a house. 

After the truck is loaded, Steve, I and Salami (Natasha's dog) will head out, pulling Natasha's car.  We hope to get in several hours of driving before landing in a pet friendly hotel.

Natasha, Maria, Olga and Sonia (Olga's dog) will fly to Dallas on Thursday.   Hopefully, we'll arrive in Dallas on Thursday, too!

No pictures today.  Hopefully we'll have some tomorrow.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

I've had a request to contiue my blog, so here goes!

We really enjoyed our time on the road and weren't prepared to get back to reality.

We got home on a Saturday night and surveyed the construction progress.  The roof on our house wasn't done right when it was remodeled 25 years ago, so we had part of it torn off and rebuilt.  Of course it rained while the roof was open, damaging the ceiling in the familyroom.  So we will be pulling that down and redesigning the lighting in that room.

Rebuilding the roof also meant replacing skylights with light tubes and repairing the ceilings in the guest room and master baths.  And building a walk in closet over an unused balcony.  So there is lots of construction all over the house.

Sunday morning, August 18, I woke up and couldn't move.  Stiff as a board.  I manage to get out of bed, finally, as Steve comes in and announces that the refrigerator isn't working.

Can we go back on the road?

By Monday, I've decided we needed a new mattress, but don't want to mess with one until we get some of the construction out of the way, so I buy a mattress topper, which helps.

Tuesday, the refrigerator repairman comes and fixes the frig.  We empty the four ice chests back into the refrigerator.

Diana and Leigh (who are both staying with us through all this) help us decide where lights should go in the family room.  Steve and I pick out recessed lights and indirect lighting for the family room and flourescents for my new closet.  The new closet is in the hallway to the bedroom, so Steve says it's MINE!  (He wants more space in the master closet.)

Through all this we have construction workers traipsing through.  The dogs are confused.  They can't use their doggy door as construction litter is all over the back yard.  Our lovely neighbor has offered to let them run around her backyard.  It's a stitch.  I take them over there and they sniff around a bit and then lie down.  Don't want to misbehave at someone else's house!

Meanwhile, I'm watching the ads for rvs.  We really like the HitchHiker RVs we've seen.  They are very well built.  After looking at a couple, I check their web site.  They have a wonderful archive of past models and it looks like their 29.5 model will fit us best.  Of course we've never seen one.  So I'm looking for one close enough to go see.

About the time they actually finish the roof (but nothing else) I find an ad for a 29.5 HitchHiker in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  In between picking out cabinets for the family room (an old broken built in grill is being removed) and managing the dogs, I remember to tell Steve about it.  The ad is on Craig's list and I found a way to search more than just locally, so I go search again to show Steve.  Two ads now pop up.  They are Hitchhiker 29.5 triple glides, 2006 models.  Both in Grand Rapids.  Both look good in the pictures.  Time for a road trip!

We call and make appointments for September 4 and 5.

In the meantime, the aunts are planning a bridal shower for the last unmarried niece.  Just the two nephews are left and neither of them has a steady at the moment.  So meetings and projects for that take up time, along with Steve's activities.

We drive to Grand Rapids Wednesday, September 4.   On the way, we find a riverboat  restaurant in South Haven Michigan.  Good food, great casual atmosphere.

We stop at a Camping World on the south side of Grand Rapids and confirm that they can do an inspection for us.  Then it's on to see the first Hitchhiker.

 

We are impressed.  It's very clean and I can only find one small piece of damaged trim. This is the kitchen:

 

 

This is the living area:

 

Dining area and entertainment center:

 

 

 

It's tough to get a good shot of either the bedroom or the bath, but this is half the closet (with a light):

 

Here's the dresser (two drawers each):

 

Steve thoroughly examined everything underneath and on top.  Everything looks good, so we thank the owners and head for the hotel.  We agreed that this unit is well cared for and priced right.  The one we see on Thursday will have to be perfect to top it.

 

So the next morning, we're off to see the second trailer.  It too is in very good shape and we spend a lot of time looking at this one.  In the end, it comes down to small things.  The upholstery in the second unit is not as neutral:

 

 

 

And there was no fan in the bedroom.  The first trailer also had a compartment and wiring for a generator.  This one didn't.

 

But they were both in good shape and had been well cared for.

 

 

So we went back and talked to the first owners and set up an appointment at Camping World for an inspection of all the systems and mechanicals.  That won't happen until September 16, so we had a while to wait.

 

But while we were waiting, Steve went to work on finding a truck.  After lots of research and back and forth, he ordered a truck last week.  Of course, it won't be in until the end of October.

 

And now the inspection is done.  By the end of this week, we'll be the owners of  a fifth wheel, which will remain in storage in Grand Rapids until the truck comes in.

 

Construction meanwhile, continues.  Rumor has it that the drywallers finished today, so everything is covered in dust.  It's lucky that we have a lot of bathrooms.  Only one can be used without cleaning it first.  And the pool bath is out of commission entirely, as it's getting a makeover.

 

So now we only have trim and painting to do.  Plus the cabinets and counters in the family room and most of the work in the pool bath.  Maybe in another month?

 

But next week we get to go play grandparents for a few days!  Yeah!

 

 



Friday, August 16, 2013 Bloomingdale, IL

Thursday was a  very long day.  11 hours of driving to Bloomingdale.  We got in late and I crashed (after playing with Maria a bit)

Thursday we got up and had breakfast at the hotel.  This was the first night we stayed in a chain motel the whole trip.  When we got out to the car, a plane appeared to be buzzing the parking lot.

Turns out he was crop dusting the field across the road.  We were definitely back in the Midwest.

The scenery was corn fields, rolling hills and wind turbines.  Made me think we were in Benton county, but we had a long way to go.

We stopped for lunch in the same town as the Spam museum, so we did a drive by shot.

I was amazed at how much the traffic picked up the farther east we got.  Even Minnesota was fairly sparse, but Wisconsin was crowded and it just got worse as the day progressed.  We had gotten used to empty highways in Wyoming and South Dakota.

Lots of RVs on the road the whole trip.  I was surprised at the number of older (1980's and 1990's and earlier) motor homes I saw.  You could tell because of the graphics, colors and shapes, but it was close to 50-50.  We also saw a lot of fifth wheels and trailers, some truck campers and a fair number of pop up campers.  And lots of motor cycles.  We still think our choice is a fifth wheel.

We also ran into a lot of foreigners.  There was a German family on our float trip.  This was their second trip over to see national parks.  I know I heard some Scandinavian sounding language and Slavic and one of the last restaurants had a French group.   If there were people around, pretty soon you heard a different language.  I think it's great that they want to see our country.

So far, Leigh's car has survived the trip.  Only one more leg to go.

Friday -

We visit with Natasha, Olga and Maria.  Here's pics.

Tomorrow night I blog from home.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

We got up early and checked out of the Rocket Motel.  Here's a pic of the motel.  It was a pleasant place to stay.

Every August there is a HUGE motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, early in August.  I think this is the week after Sturgis.  Most of the rest of the hotel was filled with motorcyclists.

We're headed for the Badlands.  I don't  know what to expect, but hear its worth seeing.  So off we go.  We head for I-90 and take the Wall exit but head south.  We skipped Wall Drugs this trip.  We have at least a 7 hour drive today.

The landscape is slightly rolling and dry.  Any farming is done with irrigation.  This is prairie.  We drive through the park gates and notice people pulled off on a side road.  Since the key to animal spotting is to look for the crowd, we head that way.  No animals, but our first glimpse of the Badlands.  The prairie just drops off.

The guide book said that if you drive across the state just north of the Badlands, you might never see them, as you just see the prairie.  If you drive on the south, you see a wall.

The topography changes from steep pinnacles to prairie at the bottom.  Some of the valleys seem to have rounded mounds. 

 

Steve and I thought it would make a good landscape for a star wars scene.  It seemed like a stage set, a bit unreal.

 

We were lucky enough to finally see some big horn sheep.  I think this one is a ewe.

 

There were two and they were both peering down looking at all the funny tourists taking their picture.  We passed another prairie dog town.  I'd take more pictures, but they are too hard to catch with the camera.

 

We stop at the park lodge for lunch, but a bus has just stopped and they are swamped.  No problem.  We head for I-90 and start trucking across the state.  Turns out lunch places are few and far between.  We decided we'd stop at an 1880's village tourist trap that had a restaurant.  But just outside the old village is a 1950's diner train.  Right up Steve's alley.

 

We have lunch there and then we're back on the road.  We're now seeing cornfields without irrigation.  Seems like the Midwest.  Steve's goal is to spend the night in Minnesota.  I want to swing by and see the corn palace.  We decide to do both.

They are not finished with this years design.  Not all the crops are in.

 

We eat dinner just east of Sioux Falls, still in South Dakota, so Steve finds a hotel 15 miles away in Minnesota.  Goals for the day are met!

 

Steve thinks we're getting into Chicago tomorrow.  That means driving all the way through Minnesota and most of Wisconsin and heading south.  I may scour the AAA guide for something interesting to take a break at.

 

That's all for today!

 

Tuesday, August 13, 2013 Custer, South Dakota

We headed for Custer State Park this morning.  We've had several recommendations from people and they have a wildlife loop drive, so we're checking it out.

On our way to the wildlife drive, we encounter our first buffalo.

He reminded us of Scrappy, sitting in the sun enjoying himself, with no intention of moving.  Traffic slowly moved around him.

We found the beginning of the wildlife drive and right there, to welcome us, were a family of prong horns (American antelope).

The mamas and babies were lying in the grass and hard to see. In the above picture, to the right of mama, you can just see the ear of one of the babies.  Good camouflage.

Next stop was Prairie Dog Town.  I'm not sure I've ever seen prairie dogs in the wild before, but if you look closely at the picture, you'll see there are a lot of them.  It may be too small to see.

 

So here's one closer up.  He looked like a squirrel eating a nut.

They acted a lot like meercats, all standing at attention, standing guard and then suddenly darting away.  I was fascinated, but we moved on.

We saw a few more prong horn and then caught site of a buffalo herd in the distance.  This also shows the terrain of the park.

The park is bisected by Highway 16.  North of the highway the terrain is rocky and mountainous like Mt. Rushmore.  This is the landscape south of 16.  Perfect for buffalo.

We have lunch at the State Game Lodge, which is where President Coolidge stayed in 1927.  It was his summer white house that year.  Then we head back to the hotel, so Steve can drop me off for a rest and he can head to Wind Cave National Park.  I'm not much for caves, and I haven't gotten Steve to write anything for the blog, so here are a few pictures.

Steve encountered more buffalo and prong horn on his way back, but also saw a deer.

Tomorrow we check out of the Rocket Motel and head for the Badlands. 

I did update yesterday's post, if you want to look.

Monday, August 12, 2013 Cody, Wyoming to Custer, South Dakota

After another great breakfast at the Southfork B&B, we left Cody to head for Custer, South Dakota.  Steve had tried to make our drive days relatively short, but this one was going to run 7 - 8 hours, not including stops.

The scenery leaving Cody is almost flat with some rolling hills.  Farming is with irrigation.  In the distance you can see mountains to the east.  Occasionally you see a strange outcropping of stone.

We're headed for the Big Horn Mountains, about halfway between Yellowstone and Mt. Rushmore.  As we approach, the scenery changes.  We start seeing plateaus and rocks similar to those before Cody.

 

We're having connection problems, and it's late, so I'll finish this tomorrow.  I'm back.

We travel through the Big Horn Mountains, which have suffered forest fires, but not as badly as Yellowstone. The Big Horn Mountains are not as heavily forested as Yellowstone, which helps limit the spread of fires.  As we're driving through, a report comes on NPR (we're listening on satellite radio) about how forest fires are bigger this year than usual.  The Big Horn Mountians are also suffering from the pine beetle, which kills the trees.  If the dead tree is just a skeleton, it was fire.  If the needles are still there, it was the pine beetle.

We leave the mountains behind for the gentle rolling hills of eastern Wyoming.  This is coal country.  We didn't see any open pit mines, but we saw miles of coal trains.

We leave I-90 to head for Custer, South Dakota.  As we near South Dakota, the landscape changes again to pine forested mountains. We've been driving all day, but looking at times and events, it looks like we might be able to see Mt. Rushmore tonight.  They light it in the evening and we've heard that we should see it at night.  Steve has reserved rooms for us at the Rocket Motel in Custer.  I tease him about not being able to pass up the name, but he assures me it was well rated on tripadvisor, but we have to check in by six.  So we drive to the hotel, where a sign says "Rockin' with Jesus at the Rocket Motel."  The motel was built in the 50's and has been kept up and recently refurbished, using a 50's theme.  It's well done.  Bathroom is brand new with black and white tile.  I'll try to take a picture of the outside.

Anyway, we check in and head for Mt. Rushmore.  We pass the large Crazy Horse statue that's still in progress.  The face is done and you can see the top of his outstretched arm.  We don't go into that park, as we want to get to Mt. Rushmore and have dinner before the lighting ceremony at 8 pm.

We miss the turnoff for Mt. Rushmore. I thought we should turn at a certain point, but if there was a sign, we missed it. (This was irritating, as there were many signs for Crazy Horse, which is a private site, but few if any for Mt. Rushmore.)  After checking 3 guide books for maps, we stumble into Mt. Rushmore.  You can see Mt. Rushmore from the public highway, but if you want to get closer, you pay an $11 parking fee.  A private entity, which supports Mt. Rushmore, built the parking garages which were needed and that's how they are payed for.

Mt. Rushmore is well done.  It has a stately feeling to it while remaining open.  The sculpture is visible from almost everywhere.  There are two visitor centers, a short hike around the property, the sculpter's studio, gift shops and a restaurant.  An ampitheater and viewing terrace are situated to view the sculpture. Here's our view at supper.

On our way to the viewing terrace, we have our only wildlife encounter of the day, a mountain goat.

Here's Mt. Rushmore, up close.

And a sunset picture.

They started the presentation at 8.  The ranger introduced a movie, more like a slide show, that told about how the monument came to be and the presidents that were chosen.  Originally, the state historian for South Dakota wanted sculptures of men of the west created to attract tourists and teach about South Dakota history.  He didn't find much support for the idea until he talked to one of the senators from the state, who helped promote the idea and suggested a sculpter be found to help solidify the project.  Gutzon Borglum was carving Robert E. Lees face at Stone Mountain, Georgia and was asked to consider the project.  He agreed and immediately changed the project from regional to national heros.  The project still had many road blocks and it wasn't until President Calvin Coolidge spent the summer at nearby Custer State Park that the project took off.  They persuaded President Collidge to give a speech at the dedication of the project and he surprised them by promising federal funding.  It was still a struggle for funding as the project ran from 1927 to 1941, during the depression.  400 people worked on the sculpture over the years.

Gutzon Borglum also chose which presidents he'd carve - Washington, the father of the country, Jefferson, for expansion (Louisiana Purchase), Lincoln for preserving the union, and Theodore Roosevelt for progress.  Roosevelt was a close friend of Gutzon Borglum.

At then end of the movie, America the Beautifle was sung.  The lights were turned on.

 

My first thought was "When are they going to turn on the rest of the lights?"  Then, "Steve would have done it better."

But the best part of the evening was coming.  The ranger asked us all to sing the national anthem and then he would invite members of the military, both past and present, to help lower the flag.  We sang the anthem and the ranger invited the military down front.  No one left and every one clapped as over 100 service men and women made their way to the stage.  A standing ovation!  After the flag was lowered and properly folded, the ranger asked each person to identify themselves and their branch of service.  The crowd stayed standing and gave another round of applause after the last person was introduced.

As a member of the generation that saw Vietnam and the treatment our veterans received, I was moved by the crowd's response to our military men and women. It was amazing.

Sunday, August 11, 2013

I went to bed early Saturday and didn't blog, so I'll bring you up to date.

Saturday, we left Canyon Lodge, Yellowstone and started on our way to Cody, Wyoming.  Steve was a bit excited, as our exit route would take us back through Hayden valley, where we had seen lots of buffalo 2 days ago.  He wasn't disappointed.

This one decided to climb up on the roadway, stopping traffic.

What do you do when a buffalo decides to walk down the highway?  Follow him.

This was taken through the windshield, which is why there is some glare.  We followed him until he decided to walk beside the road instead of on it.  Then we came upon valley after valley of buffalo.  This is one of my favorite pictures.

A few feet away, I was able to set up this picture for someone to take for us.  I think it's a great shot.

At least it shows we were near some buffalo!

The buffalo had traffic backed up forever that morning, as they kept deciding to cross the road.  The rangers try to keep traffic moving, but when the buffalo is in the middle of the road, there's not much anyone can do.

We decided to stop at the mud volcano, as we'd passed it by twice.  This mud pot used to be a mud geyser that shot mud up into the air until some earthquakes in the 1970's changed things underground.  This is one of the pools at that site.

The bubbles I hope you can see indicate that the water is in fact boiling.  In this next pool, the water is just steaming.

If you notice the green hillside beyond the pool, that used to be covered in pine trees.  They all died after the 1970's earthquakes, not because of the quakes, but because the ground temperature had been raised to 200 degrees!

We had some more excitement at this stop.  The buffalo decided to invade the parking lot.  I was back at the car and managed to get this shot.

 

Steve managed to get this one.  The buffalo is actually standing on an area they don't want people on because of the danger.

People are always ignoring the danger signs, why not buffalo?  I think he's giving Steve the evil eye.

 

We finally left the buffalo country and turned off onto the road leading out of the park.  It was lunchtime, so we stopped at the general store at that intersection and pick up some lunch to picnic with.  Picnic areas are plentiful in the park and don't seem to get a lot of traffic, so we were sure one of the first two areas on the map would work for us.  We were wrong. 

 

Almost immediately after leaving the general store, we ran into burned forest, which extended for miles.

 

Much of this had to be recent fire, as trees hadn't started growing back or were less that a foot tall.  It's so sad to see.  Maybe between the volcano, the earthquakes and the forest fire, Mother Nature is trying to tell us something.

 

We finally got back into mountains with trees on them and found a nice picnic area for lunch.  The picnic areas are quite nice, all things considered.  Tables and outhouses, which are equipped with toilet paper and hand sanitizer.  About as good as you can get if you don't have flush toilets.  We had a nice peaceful lunch under the tall pines and then got back on the road.  We finally left Yellowstone and the scenery changed.  We were still in a mountainous region, but it was dry, with little green.  It looked more like what we are used to seeing in Arizona.

 

 

As we got close to Cody, we came upon the Buffalo Bill dam.

Steve couldn't get a decent picture of it.  It was built in such a difficult place that the American Society of Civil Engineers designated it a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.

 

Then we headed for Southfork B&B, where we have terrific Internet access and I'm managing to upload pictures without it taking forever.  Yeah!

 

Sunday morning we got up for a home made breakfast at 8.  It was worth it.  Scrambled eggs, home made sausage, hash browns, home made biscuits and strawberries.  The owner is a former chef.  We ate too much.  All this eating out is going to show up on the scales when we get  home.

 

We then headed for the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.  It's really about 5 museums in one.  One wing is, of course, devoted to Buffalo Bill.  But there's also a wing devoted to the Plains Indians, a Whitney Western Art Museum, the Cody Firearms Museum and the Draper Natural History Museum.  Huge place and very interesting.

 

Buffalo Bill was the rock star of his day.  He took his wild west show all over the world.  He even did a command performance for Queen Victoria.  But before his show business days, he hunted buffalo for the railroad and the army to feed the workers.  He also worked for the pony express, for a month or two during it's 18 month existence.  Any longer would have killed him he said, as it was a dangerous and exhausting job.  He then became a scout for the army.  His knowledge of the West was real.

A lot of the art was very good, but expected subject matter.  There must have been 10 different paintings of the lower falls of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  But there were several unique pieces.  Steve and I each took a picture of this piece.  The plaque beside it said something along the lines of ".. a traditional subject with a modern twist."

 

I don't know if you can tell, but the modern twist is that it's painted like a paint by numbers painting, except for the shadow.

 

One unexpected offering was a raptor show.  The Center has a few birds that have been injured and cannot be released to the wild.  We saw a turkey vulture, a red tailed hawk, a horned owl, and my favorite, a golden eagle.

 

Tomorrow morning it's another home made breakfast (at 8 am) and then we are headed for Custer, South Dakota.  Steve made some planning errors and we have a 7 - 9 hour drive tomorrow.  We'll be tired after that long day and probably won't have much to report, so I may not blog again until Tuesday.