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In yesterday's post I think it came through that days 4 and 5 were long driving days, the weather was sunny and hot, and though we were having a good enough time driving through the beautiful country... once we found ourselves in Rapid City South Dakota it was time for a serious break.
Having not really done much traveling (nothing like this) or even left the East Coast before, so many things on this cross-country are new to me. Some things, like a dip in the pool, I just haven't done in years and years. When we woke up to the most beautiful sunny day last Sunday, we walked right down to the concierge and arranged to stay in our Best Western an extra day. From there is was directly to the pool without a second thought.
In Rapid City, the Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse monuments were to the south of us, Badlands to the east, Black Hills stretching south and west. We didn't go to Rushmore, but we did just happen to have the movie soundtrack in the car and listened to that on our way to our first stop of the day, the Petrified Forest.
The museum that explains what you are seeing before you enter the trail was absolutely strange, a pieced-together collection of stone, fossil, artifacts and typed or hand written signs that gave the whole thing a science fair feeling. In a way, that made it so much more endearing.
Pictures of petrified wood, however, really just looks like wood.
If you are ever in town, check the place out~ the trail around these fallen stone trees is lovely.
The view of the surrounding Black Hills:
From there we headed to Deadwood, another tourist attraction to the north and west of Rapid City. More on that, and the incredible scenic drive back to the hotel later.
Meanwhile, from here on day 9 I have in fact lost my voice entirely. I'm glad I shot that video while entertained by it because this morning I'm not feeling so hot. Back to bed for a little while while P is at the ranger station planning out how to get some Yellowstone adventures in before snow... expected around mid-afternoon. Wish us luck! :)
Hello! Last night we had a yucky hotel and the internet wasn't working... so I'm still catching you guys up on days and days ago. It was so amazing hooking up to wi-fi tonight and seeing all your comments, I can't express how fun it is to blog while on the trip- thank you for bearing with me! :) Tonights post covers a less-goofy day, this was day 5:
Nebraska really was very pretty, and we thought we would be driving through it on I-80, but when we left our hotel in the morning to find some summer clothes (we had packed all winter gear for our trip and by then it was quite obvious we weren't going to hit weather under 80 degrees) we actually left our maps in the hotel room. At the mall we went back to AAA for a new selection of maps with our revised destinations... we plotted a detour up to Rapid City heading toward Yellowstone then down to Salt Lake City. (This has since been re-revised)
This meant with our new map we left Nebraska and I-80 and went back through Iowa to get on I-90 through the length on South Dakota. This became the big day of no fun; it was hot and we were told it would be about 4 hours to Rapid City. In fact it was more than 9 hours with lots of construction along the road. Also, this was billboard country, and by the 3rd hour zooming past the bajillionth Wall Drug sign I think both of us were seriously regretting the I-90 choice. (complain, complain) Anyway, the rest stops in SD have these beautiful sculptures and we sure did find a gem- a rest stop complete with "scenic overlook":
The rest stop area on the map:
I took a lot of pictures there considering it was the one cool thing that happened that day (wink).
I'll be uploading all the Flickr stuff when finally in Oregon. Here was the view:
with a sign that said "BEWARE POISONOUS SNAKES"... guess I should go get P off the grass then...
It had been two very long days of driving by the time we really were offered our first taste of complete awe, entering Rapid City. South Dakots (other than the overlook) had been flat, flat, flat. Right as the sun was coming down, however, while we could see the city lights off in the distance, we must have turned a bend or gone over a hill because all of a sudden the earth just opened up all around us in these incredible rolling canyons. Covered in grass and shrubs, they glowed green in the sunset. My camera batteries had died, but fair enough- it was just the inspiration we needed to get us to the city and recuperating from a long Day5.
Just to let you know where we are at here in day 8, I'm attaching a video from several hours ago. Its a little boring and I do say a swear word at the end of it... but I just really wanted to capture our delight of driving through Montana. More soon, and again another thanks for the comments! Nighty night!
The day after Chicago was a long day of driving through Iowa... and in these photos our caffeinated loopiness shows loud and clear. I really liked Iowa, although it is flat we had the blue skies and hot weather we had wanted back in Chicago. The night before was a deep sleep in Ottawa, Illinois, that also contributed to a day of high antics.
At the World's Largest Truck Stop we should have suspected a case of car-related, caffeinated cabin fever had taken hold...
I don't think we even ate a real meal that day, in the attempt to get across Iowa in one day and spend the night in Omaha, Nebraska. I think that was the day I tried a bran muffin, but that goes to show there are Starbucks at the rest stops in Iowa. We were also happy to find an NPR station. :)
The rest stops keep going, and here I am starting to get cagey myself. Don't get me wrong, Iowa really is very beautiful.
Success! We cheered as we entered Nebraska right on schedule and Omaha welcomed us right before sunset.
The rest of the night was spent running around the streets of the city until after dark, using up the rest of the caffeine in our systems and shaking off the sweaty, sticky, sedentary nature of our trek from Illinois to Nebraska. We are running late this morning, so more later! :)
After the Petrified Forest it was a quick stop in Sturgis, South Dakota, for lunch. Sturgis is the home of Bike Week, where thousands of bikers from all over converge once a year... and they were getting ready for it while we were in town. We ate a seriously questionable lunch at Phil-Town right off the highway, took pictures of the surrounding town, and hustled back to the car.
Heading into the Black Hills again:
I'm not sure why either one of us chose Deadwood to visit, neither P nor I gamble really and that was about all there was to do there... other than get some pictures of the architecture in town:
We did have a really great walk after all that fried food, and though you can't much tell- the sun was extremely bright and strong that day. After about an hour and a fresh sunburn we plotted out or drive through the Hills to get back to Rapid City.
