day 8 - Yellowstone

Driving to Yellowstone through Montana is quite beautiful. We drove through the snow capped Rockies and Jon wanted to ditch the rest of the trip to see if there was any skiing available. We were on the Beartooth Scenic Highway. One of America’s most beautiful drives! We made many stops to take pictures. At one stop I was the happiest I have been since March! I got to stand in some snow! Everyone around me was amazed that I kicked my shoes off and stood there in my bare feet. I thought I was in heaven.





On our way to the Old Faithful Inn we saw deer, elk, mountain goat, and bison, hundreds of bison. We have three days in this beautiful inn. The Inn was built in 1903 at a cost of about $140,000. The ceiling is 76 feet high and everywhere you look you see pine. The fireplace in the lobby was constructed of 500 tons of stone. The first guests paid $4.00 per night. The inn survived a huge earthquake and in 1988 was almost consumed in a forest fire. The new sprinkler system, installed the year before, saved the building from the 200 foot wall of flame. The inn is only open from May to the beginning of October. It is then winterized; this includes covering all of the first floor windows so the snowpack doesn’t break them.




If this bear was real, I would have wet my pants!


We arrived at our hotel just in time to make our supper reservations. We had a good meal of roasted buffalo. My second helping was sooooo tender. It is a pity that Wegman’s doesn’t sell bison roast. It’s a good thing Jon doesn’t live out here; he would eat them to extinction.





After dinner we watched Old Faithful erupt. At first it would sputter and throw steam. I thought it was broken. After it did this for a few times, it finally erupted. I was scared that it broke just as we arrived. I was starting to think it was as “Faithful” as Billy Clinton!



As we are writing this blog, we are sitting in the lodge sipping beer and wine coolers. Jon put a filled ice bucket in his back pack and filled it up with assorted drinks. Since it is pretty dark inside and out we think we can get away with this. The second floor of the inn has a huge balcony that overlooks the geyser. It’s due to go off again in about 5 minutes.

Day 7 - Badlands, ND

We left Deadwood this morning. On the way out we drove up to Mount Moriah Cemetery. Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Preacher Smith, and Potato Creek Johnny, are a few of the colorful characters buried up on the hill. But at twenty dollars to see their graves, we decided to take their word they were buried there!

On our drive to the North Dakota Badlands we ran into lots of construction. At one point, we had about a 15 minute wait and we struck up a conversation with the flag woman. She owns a ranch with her husband, but had to take on a second job due to the drought that they’ve experienced during the last 7 years. Her herd is down by about two-thirds because they can’t make hay and they have to carry water for their cattle to drink. She never complained, but said that God would take care of them.

We drove most of the day. We made a stop at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the first national park set aside by Teddy. He came out here to hunt and fell in love with the area, saw the need to conserve the land and created the National Park System. We saw our first herd of bison today, up to now we’d only seen a few buffalo. We stopped along the roadside and took quite a few pictures. Everything was fine until one of the buffalo wanted to chase another. A mini stampede started towards our vehicle. Jon was taking video at the time, and of course, he was standing through the sun roof of the car. As the bison came closer, I started screaming at Jon to get back in the car and get moving. Visions of explaining to National Rental that a buffalo smashed the PT Cruiser went through my head. Jon said he just about peed himself trying to get back inside quickly. The buffalo stopped, but only within a few feet of our car. We decided to move along!







I had a surprise dinner for Kim. We went to a pitch fork fondue! When we arrived there was a large number of pitch forks all stabbed with slabs of steaks. We watched the meat being lowered into 4 large vats of oil. Probably not the most health conscious meal we’ve ever eaten, but it was good and it was fun! The re must have been about 250 people at this dinner. We all ate under a large pavilion while a live county band played. My Jon is full of surprises, and some of them are even good!







This was our first trip to Montana. For many years, Jon wanted to visit. He had heard of the legendary Dental Floss tycoons. Jon just had to stop at the Montana border and get his picture taken with some Dental Floss!

Day 6 - Black Hills Tour

Today was very busy. We started out by riding the 1880’s steam train for a two hour trip through the black hills. The engine that pulled our train was originally used for logging operations. Our rail car was built in 1913, but was totally refurbished only two years ago. We were a little worried when it pulled out of town. We went by some of the best trailer parks that the town had to offer. However, when we cleared town the scenery improved greatly. The ride was relaxing and interesting as we learned about some of the local history and saw the sites for several old mines. At one point, we passed an elderly gentleman, Leonard, who puts on his conductor’s hat and waves at the train as it passes his house each day. There was also Fred, a man in his sixties, that rides his bike along with the train for the 20 mile round trip.







Although we’ve been to many caves and caverns before, this was the most unique trip we’ve ever taken through a cave. Wind Cave is the third longest cave in the US. It is very close to Jewel Cave, the second longest, but Wind Cave offered something we wanted to try. We took a two hour candlelight walk through the cave. We were given gloves to wear so that we didn’t hurt the walls of the cave if we needed to touch the walls for support or balance as there were no paths or handrails in the section that we went. This portion of the cave, about 210 feet beneath the ground, has remained the same since the early 1900’s.

It was a bit of a drive to get there and it was already 3:30 when we finished at the caves. We debated as to whether or not to make the two hour drive to Devil’s Tower, but we’re glad we did. It was pretty amazing! Millions of years of erosion of the sedimentary rock has exposed Devil’s Tower and many nearby buttes. The tower rises 867 feet from its base and stands 1,267 feet above the nearby Belle Fourche River (pretty fork river).



We walked the mile and a half trail around the tower. There were two points on the trail that rock climbers could be seen if you looked carefully. 5,000 people come from all over the world to climb the tower each year. We also saw our first rattlesnake in the wild! It was about 30 inches long and crossed the path in front of us and slithered under a rock. Jon was able to get a few quick pictures. After that we both found ourselves looking more closely at the ground around us than the tower above us.



Many local Native American tribes believe the tower to be sacred. Tied on to many of the young trees are prayer flags or prayer bundles filled with prairie grass, seeds, and sacred tobacco. One interesting story has been passed down from the Kiowa Indians: “Eight children were at play, seven sisters and their brother. Suddenly the boy was struck dumb; he trembled and began to run upon his hands and feet. His fingers became claws, and his body was covered with fur. Directly there was a bear where the boy had been. The sisters were terrified; they ran, and the bear after them. They came to a stump of a great tree, and the tree spoke to them. It bade them climb up upon it, and as they did so it began to rise into the air. The bear came to kill them, but they were just beyond its reach. It reared against the tree and scored the bark with its claws. The seven sisters were born into the sky, and they became the stars of the Big Dipper.”

Day 5 - Rush Mountmore

Wall was celebrating their centennial celebration today. Everyone in town was invited to a BBQ that night, but we had to settle for sticky buns at Wall Drug before we hit the road headed for Mt. Rushmore. During our drive the prairie gave way to the Black Hills.

Seeing Mt. Rushmore is something we both always wanted to do. We toured the site learning about the monument’s history. We learned that the mountain that the carving took place on was named after lawyer, Mr. Rushmore, from NYC. He was touring the area and asked so many questions that his exasperated guide told him that the peak he inquired about didn’t have a name and why not call it Mt. Rushmore. The name kind of stuck.





Our next stop was Crazy Horse Monument. The local Native American tribes decided to carve the likeness of Crazy Horse as a way of honoring all tribes and for telling their perspective of history. The monument is huge, much bigger than Rushmore, but the work is being completed very slowly. The family working on the sculpture is very proud of the fact that they’ve accepted no federal funds for this project even though they’ve been offered over 10 million dollars on at least two different occasions.



Korczak Ziolkowski began work on the sculpture on June 3, 1948 and worked for the next 36 years of his life. Equipped with only a sledge hammer, a jack drill and a box of dynamite, Korczak blasted away 7,400,000 tons of granite to rough out the world’s largest carving, in the round. Now 25 years after Ziolkowski’s death 7 out of his 10 children, along with his wife continue to work on this monument.

Here are some of the dimensions of the sculpture. Overall the monument is 563 x 641 feet. Crazy Horse’s face is 88 feet high and his horse’s head is 219 feet high. The statue is as long as a cruise ship and as tall as a 60 story skyscraper.

Towards the end of the tour we overheard someone behind us explaining to his friend, “This is going to be 3-D or more”. Wow, this is exciting news. The sculpture has learned how to sculpt in the 4th or 5th dimension.

I saved the best for last. Kim knew that I had planned a third stop for the day, but she didn’t know where. We pulled into Flintstone’s Bedrock City. It would have cost us $16 to go into the park for a picture of us in front of Fred and Wilma’s house. It just didn’t seem worth the money. Somehow it sounded like a better idea during the planning stage. We shot a few pics of each other standing in the prehistoric family’s phone booth and left.



We ate dinner in Deadwood, the town known for its notorious gunslingers. We watched a reenactment of the shooting of Wild Bill Hickok during a poker game by Jack McCall. The audience was invited to participate while Jack McCall was captured and dragged down the street by an angry mob to another building where the trial was held. The play was very entertaining as it followed historical events. The jury found McCall not guilty, much to the amazement of the townspeople, especially the outspoken, Calamity Jane. In real life, McCall was followed, rearrested, given a far trial, followed by a first class hanging, and dumped into a unmarked grave.

Day 4 - SD Badlands

On our way to the Badlands we stopped at a prairie dog trading post. We each bought a bag of “official” prairie dog food, AKA unsalted peanuts. Well, the fat little rodents were somewhat entertaining, but they had already had so many peanuts that day that they weren’t really interested in approaching us no matter how many times Jon crouched down snapping his fingers and making his best prairie dog imitation. “Damn prairie dogs are harder to train than a woman.”





The temperature was 103°F and it was only 9:00 AM. It’s going to be a sizzler in the Badlands today! Our next stop was just outside the park. It was a homestead from 1909; the original home of Mr. & Mr. Ed Brown. It’s has the last remaining sod house in South Dakota. Chickens, geese, and prairie dogs are the only residents now. Although the chickens and the prairie dogs ignored Jon, the geese wanted a piece of him.



The Badlands were spectacular! Just after we entered the park the landscape was transformed. It went from flat prairie to an unearthly like scenery. This area is composed of volcanic ash and silt. It is continuously changing due to rain and erosion, currently this section of the country only receives about 16” of rain annually. Since Al Gore has been playing with “Global Warming”, it has been estimated that the Badlands will be gone in twenty or thirty years! (Says Jon).







We took several short hikes. The temperature was now at least 106°F. We choose for our last hike a “strenuous” mile and a half trail. The trail wasn’t too bad until we got to a wooden ladder that had us climbing up the face of cliff. After that harrowing experience we were then rewarded with a narrow path that took us right to the along the edge. Jon slipped a bit on some loose gravel and decided this would make a fun game to try to scare his wife. Several more times when I went around a corner in front of him, Jon would have “accidents”. He was quite disappointed when I didn’t come running back or inquire as to his status.

The Badlands are inexpressibly beautiful. We would highly recommend this national park. It was awesome!

Our next stop was Wall, South Dakota. Along the way we literally passed about 100 signs advertising Wall Drug. In 1931, Ted and Dorothy Hustead, bought the only drugstore in Wall. The depression had left the small farming town of 826 people pretty desolate. After 5 years of barely making a living, Dorothy, came up the idea of serving free ice water to the tourists passing by to the new attraction nearby, Mt. Rushmore! They made Burma Shave type signs advertising the free water. Ted returned back to the drug store after installing the signs on the highway and found they already had customers asking for the free ice water. The rest was history. They still give away the free ice water, we each had a cup, and now up to 20,000 people each day stop at Wall Drug.

Day 3 - Corn Palace

We ate breakfast out on the terrace. Jon insisted on buying cinnamon rolls for breakfast. I ate one and he ate the remaining four. Let’s see, each roll had 400 calories and he consumed 108% of his daily saturated fat just eating those rolls. This doesn’t count the chunks of smoked swiss he wolfed down while I made and packed our lunch. Here’s the kicker, Jon complained most of the day about having a belly ache!

We hated to leave the cottage. It was so beautiful and serene. It was sad to see it disappear in the rear view window, but hey, at $300.00 per night it wasn’t all that sad!

We had a 7.5 hour ride. Our goal was to reach Mitchell, SD. We encountered a near death experience on the way. With a car on our rear and a car on our right we were boxed in pretty tight! The trailer in front of us was hauling a metal ramp that wasn’t tied down, do you know where this story is going? Jon could see the ramp starting to slice to the back of the trailer is it hit several bumps. When the ramp hit the asphalt Jon’s quick thinking and superior driving skills along with my screaming out erratic directions saved us!

CORN PALACE!! You’ve got to be kidding me! The only reason she got me to this place is because for months I thought she was calling it the Porn Palace. Doooooh!



For years we’ve heard of this place (Jon has heard of this place, not me). We knew it would be a tourist trap, and it was, but it was still cool to see. When we arrived there were workmen still putting corn on the façade creating this year’s theme. There were rumors that there would be no decoration on the front of the Corn Palace this year. Last year’s corn crop was poor. With great anticipation, we drove through town not knowing if would see the Corn Palace or the Cornless Palace. To our relief there was corn on the palace!



The Corn Palace has first decorated in 1892 and has been decorated since. Lewis and Clark both claimed that South Dakota was not suitable for agriculture. It was only good for grazing bison. Approximately 90 years later, the residents of SD wanted to prove them wrong by showcasing their bountiful harvest, thus the Corn Palace.



Each summer the corn mural is replaced. The scenes are drawn onto black roofing paper and are marked as to which of the eleven colors of corn are to go where. It’s like a huge corn-by-number project! Each of about 275,000 ears of corn are sawed in half lengthwise and nailed to the building. It takes about three months to redecorate each year.

Day 2 - Seth Peterson Cottage

We started out the day with another fun hour long trip on the subway. We met a lady who was a bit dismayed that Jon wasn’t helping me carry my giant suitcase up and down the stairs. I said I enjoyed the bruises on my legs from banging my 50lb suitcase up and down stairs and through turnstiles. Jon is feeling very smug about the fact that he can walk around with greater ease, however, I haven’t gotten over the experience of backpacking through Tibet and Nepal.

We went to National to rent our car. We picked out a brand new red PT Cruiser Limited Edition. Kim really had her eye on a new VW Beetle convertible. The guy behind the counter said there was no way they’d give that car out on a one way trip and looking at Jon also added there’d be no way he could afford it!

Once we cleared Chicago, we stopped for provisions. I had to carry Kim kicking and screaming into Walmart. Once she saw the low, low Walmart prices I couldn’t get her out of the store. (Yes, I have to admit that the prices were good, but I will remain ever vigilant and return back to my boycott of Sam Walton products.)

We made a quick stop at a Wisconsin cheese shop and had our picture taken with Sissie, the giant talking cow. Jon, of course, had to climb under her belly for his photo opportunity and suffice it to say, play with Sissie’s private parts. I just hope none of the passersby were impressionable young children. Jon said, “Those were some sweet udders!”



When we got to the Seth Peterson Cottage it was everything and more than we’d hoped it would be, a beautiful Frank Lloyd Wright work of art in the middle of a wooded setting. The house sits on a hill overlooking Mirror Lake. The house, like all of FLW’s homes gives you the illusion of having the outdoors come into the structure. The house was constructed mostly of glass and stone with some wood accents. It seemed surreal sitting in a FLW home, relaxing on the furniture and drinking a cold, delicious Leinkugel Red! We both felt one night at this remarkable setting just wouldn’t be enough.













We went for a beautiful scenic canoe ride down through the narrows and out to the main body of the lake. Later, we fixed dinner on the grill and ended the evening with a fire in the fireplace. We felt at home in this fabulous home.



The home was built in 1959 for Seth Peterson, a young, successful computer expert. Seth, a FLW groupie met and befriended the Wrights. Frank, often strapped for cash, was finally obligated to design the plans after cashing the $1500.00 check given to him by Seth. The cottage underwent construction, however, Seth never saw the completed project as he committed suicide. He was only 24.

Day 1 - Chicago

We arrived at the airport at 4:30 am. We got through security very easily. We now have a two hour wait until we board. We are full of anticipation. We do not know what to expect. Do the peoples of the land out west speak the same language? Do they have the same customs? Will we be able to relate to them? This trip is full of unknowns! Kim wants to know if they have the same toilets?

We had an uneventful hour and a half flight to Chicago. It was a long hour subway ride into the city. Kim insisted that she was not going to use a backpack this year. She kept telling me that I need more practical luggage. Well, she learned the hard way. We had to go up and down several stairs. My backpack and I had no problems. I think I already had the practical luggage.



Our room at the hotel was not really the best we ever had. In fact, there were several on last years trip that were better.

The first place we went was to the “Taste of Chicago”. Kim bought $21 worth of tickets. She thought this would be enough. We had to go back again after thirty minutes and get more. I think we used up half of our food money on just this meal. The food was great. We had some Jerk Chicken, Breaded Steak sandwich, Chili, Fried Ravioli …it was all good. We walked through right before it opened and picked a few places before it opened. It was a good thing we did. We may have spent most of our time in one spot. The most exotic thing we did was to eat Goat with Coconut Fried Rice. It was good, but the piece of goat was very small.







After we filled our bellies, we went to the Field Museum. We saw the new dinosaur exhibit. Sue, the most complete fossilized T-Rex ever to be found was the highlight of the exhibit. It was cool to see after reading about her with my students over the years. We went into the Darwin exhibit. I think this guy is a crackpot for coming up with the idea of evolution. Who in their right mind would believe that crap!
The coolest thing was that we were shrunk to 1/100 of our original size. It was accomplished in two psychedelic rooms that looked like they came out of the 60’s. There a lot of light changes and weird noises. At first I thought the museum was trying to pull a fast one on us, but after we went into the exhibit, we were really the same size as these micro features. I was surprised how fast and without warning they transformed us from small to original size. I was really fearful that we would stay that small size! (Men are always so worried about their size. If I’ve told him once I’ve told him a thousand times size doesn’t really matter! Now if I can only convince myself.)







We were very tired and had some serious jet lag. We went back and took a short one hour nap. Kim dragged me to a brew pub for supper. I really didn’t want to go, but she was very insistent. She made me get a sampler! How dare she do that!

We barely made it to Navy Pier to see the fireworks. They were awesome, some of the fireworks looked like giant smiley faces. On the down side, they didn’t last as long as other displays. Erie, PA has a longer show. We were entertained by a group of young teenage girls. Their language was as colorful as the fireworks, they were positive role models for today’s delinquent youth.