The final days of our trip.

Saturday, 9/30/17

On the road by 6:20 AM, just in time to watch the sunrise as we headed east along I-90 through South Dakota, Minnesota, and into Wisconsin.  

As we crossed the Missouri River in eastern South Dakota we took the advice of one the rangers at the Minute Man Visitors' Center  and stopped to see the 50 foot statue “Dignity”, a recently erected memorial to Indian women.  On a bluff directly overlooking the Missouri, the statue was very impressive.

Our campsite for the evening was room 212 in the Comfort Inn.  After 700 miles of driving, we were ready for a clean motel room with a shower.  After 5 days without showers we were ready for a thorough cleaning!

After checking in to the motel, we headed for a local Mexican restaurant that Joni discovered on Trip Advisor.  It must have been a game day for the University of Wisconsin Badgers since almost all of the other customers were wearing red and white, the school's colors.  College football is obviously a big deal in Wisconsin.

Sunday, 10/1/17

Up at 6 and on the road by 7, we headed for downtown Madison.   Anyone that we've ever met from Madison has sung the city's praises, so we headed for a coffee shop in the downtown area so we judge for ourselves.  

Madison is a big city, and it's the state capitol.  It was pleasant enough, but our brief tour did not convince us that we must move there.

We had a shorter drive today, only 400 miles to my sister’s home in West Bloomfield, Michigan.   Traffic was light until we got to Chicago, but since it was Sunday morning, it was probably much lighter than it would have been on a weekday.  We stopped for lunch at "Culvers", a Mid-Western version of Friendly’s,  just outside Kalamazoo.  Culvers is a step up from McDonalds and their milkshakes are made with frozen custard.  We like them!

We arrived at my sister’s around 3:45 pm, and had a wonderful time visiting with Wendy, Carl, and my nephew, Scott, his wife, Michelle, and their two young sons, Ryan and Evan.  Wendy put together a great dinner of barbecue; pulled pork, ribs, creamed corn, and salad.

Monday, 10/2/17

Wendy, Carl, Joni, and I drove to Windsor, Ontario for the morning, visiting a public garden that still had many beautiful blooming plants.  Hard to believe it’s October!  

Before returning to Detroit, we drove along the river, taking in some great views of the Motor City's downtown.   Detroit is coming back and definitely recovering the the crash of the auto industry that so decimated the city a few decades ago.

Heading back into Detroit drove to Belle Isle, a city park right in the middle of the river that separates Detroit and Windsor.  Wendy discovered a picture of our father at age one, with his mother on Belle Isle, taken in 1922.  Why they were on Belle Isle is a mystery since they lived in Bayonne, New Jersey.  

For lunch we dined in Greek Town,  enjoying authentic Greek food at Pegasus.  On our way back to West Bloomfield we drove past “Hitsville, USA”, Barry Gordy’s modest recording studio where Motown was born.  Unfortunately it was closed on Mondays, so we couldn't take the tour.  That would have been fun; so many of the songs that define our teenage years were recorded right there!

Monday night dinner was at a nearby Mexican restaurant.  It was very good; we can’t get enough of it.

Tuesday, 10/3/17

In the morning we toured Ford’s Rouge Plant in Dearborn where F-150’s are assembled, and in the afternoon we toured the Ford Museum which includes cars, trains, & planes.  Both were really fascinating…I highly recommend both to anyone who likes any of these modes of transportation.  Henry Ford’s contribution to the industrial age and our American culture is certainly impressive.

 the original mid engine Mustang 1 prototype

 it's not a Ford, but it certainly epitomized 50's cars

 Jimmy Clark's Ford powered Lotus, the first rear engine car to win the Indy 500

 Nash Rambler

 Pratt & Whitney engine with Hamilton props

 600+ tons and 76 feet long, one of the last coal powered steam engines ever built

For dinner we went for elegance, dining on the lakefront terrace of one of the finest restaurants in the West Bloomfield area.  I can't remember the name, but it was good!

Wednesday, 10/5/17

500 miles across Ontario to Massena, New York, where we’ll be spending two nights with Joni’s Aunt Roey.  Traffic around Toronto was very heavy…can’t imagine dealing with that every day…but we made good time and crossed back into the US at Ogdensburg, New York, around 4 pm.

 Who wouldn't drive 500 miles for a slice of Sergi's pizza?

Friday, 9/29/17

This is our last day camping in the West and we spent it in the Badlands! 

a pronghorn 

 one of the 120 bighorn in the Badlands

 pronghorn sheep

 a prairie dog town

 those are buffalo, not seals

This is our last day camping and we spent it in the Badlands! 

After a simple breakfast of cereal and coffee we returned to the Visitors’ Center and watched a movie about the area which emphasized the difficulty of both surviving and making a living in this area that was once entirely part of the Lakota Nation.  We then drove to the “Door” & “Window” trailheads where we took short hikes into the Badlands.  From there we drove across the park, stopping at numerous pullovers to enjoy the landscape and wildlife.  Even in this barren wasteland we saw some beautiful fall foliage!

We also saw prairie dogs by the thousand, a small group of pronghorn sheep, some bighorn sheep, and finally after a 6+ mile drive down a gravel road, the iconic buffalo.  A whole herd of them!

With our wildlife fix satisfied, we stopped in Wall, the home of the classic tourist trap, Wall Drug, who have hundreds of billboards throughtout the Dakotas; very similar to I-95’s “South of the Border.  After a quick walk through of the mall like Wall Drug, which sells everything from Western Wear to fudge, we had an enjoyable lunch at the Badlands Saloon, and then headed back toward the eastern end of the national park. 

Before re-entering the park, we stopped at the nearby “Minuteman Missile National Historical Site” which is a museum to the Cold War and numerous Minuteman Missile launch control facilities that located in this area, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana.  It was fascinating and creepy; especially with Trump and Kim Jong-un playing their daily game of chicken.  I left the following message in the visitors log, “…if Trump calls, don’t answer!”

All in all, today was a relaxing one.  We only recorded 78 miles on our odometer, and we were back at our campsite by 4 pm.

Tomorrow we start our trip home with stops in Madison, Wisconsin, West Bloomfield, Michigan; to visit my sister, Wendy; and Massena, New York; to visit Joni’s Aunt Roey. 

This will be my last blog entry for this incredible trip.  My father always talked about taking such a trip, but he never made it.  He would have loved it. 

Joni and I have indeed been fortunate to visit so much of our beautiful country.  Words, photographs and videos don’t do it justice.  As much as the thrill of seeing so many of our country’s natural resources, we have equally enjoyed the people that we have met along the way.  Travellers seem to be more willing to talk to each other as we explore our country’s treasures. 

Can’t wait to start planning our next trip!

Thursday, 9/28/19

 The hole in the center of this picture is the original entrance to these caves!

 box work cave ceiling

 Like a horse, when a buffalo raises its tail, its about to...

 Up early today, hoping to see wildlife in Wind Cave National Park, but only saw the same three deer, a doe and her fawns, that we saw last night.  I took a short hike over the hill that overlooked our campsite and enjoyed the rolling grasslands that dominate this park.  After breakfast we packed up and headed to the visitor center to book a tour of the wind cave.  We were able to catch the first tour of the day, a 75 minute tour that descended more than 400 feet into North America’s most extensive cave system.  It was only 54° in the caves so we dressed in down to stay comfortable.

These caves do not contain the water that most familiar ones like Carlsbad or Meramec Caverns do; no stalagtites or stalagmites.  Instead these caverns have formations called boxwork, which is lattice-like but as fragile as potato chips. It was very pretty but  not easy to photograph.

Once we finished drove through Wind Cave NP, enjoying the prairie dogs and buffalo, through Custer State Park which seemed like an extension of Wind Cave, and onto Mount Rushmore, which is only about 40 miles form Wind Cave NP.

Driving through Custer State Park we wondered if there is the same controversy around naming towns and parks after Custer as the South is experiencing with towns and parks and monuments that honor Robert E. Lee.

The monument is located in the town of Keystone, which we drove through before getting to the monument.  The town was incredibly tacky, filled with every kind of souvenir and novelty shop you can imagine.  It made Lake George, Long Lake, or Alex Bay, New York, look like Aspen!

The monument was awesome and well worth the trip.  The road to the monument is uphill and winding.  You don’t see the monument until you’re right on top of it and then BAM, there it is…four of our greatest presidents, and there’s room for Trump too.  We had lunch, a hamburger for Joni and a bison burger for me, at the cafeteria right below the monument,  and we were lucky to get a front row table on the outside terrace, so we just saw and enjoyed the sculpture for quite a while.  The National Park Service again proved its value in preserving our wonderful national resources; everything was very well done.

Leaving Rushmore we drove through Custer State Park which was filled with buffalo, through Rapid City, onto the Badlands National Park which was less than 100 miles away.  We arrived around 4 pm and were immediately struck by this park’s unique qualities.  The visitor center was still open, so we toured that facility and then headed to our campsite which was barren, like the Badlands, but has incredible views.  Bacon & eggs for dinner, and we closed the day enjoying the stars under these incredible big skies!

Wednesday 9/27/17

Main Street, Frisco

We got in one final hug with Alex this morning as he left for work.  After leaving Alex’s home around 7:45 AM, we drove to Frisco, did the laundry, had breakfast at the Butterhorn Baker, again, bought some groceries, and filled up our water jugs.

As we headed east toward the Eisenhower/Johnson Tunnel we were treated to a view of a fresh snowfall from last night on the higher peaks.  Traffic was relatively light as we made our way through Denver and after about two hours we stopped at to pick up sandwiches at the Choice City Deli in Fort Collins, a favorite of Alice’s from her days at CSU.  If you’ve never been to Fort Collins, put it on your list; it’s one of Colorado’s finest!

 Leaving Fort Collins the rest of our trip through Wyoming, and into South Dakota was uneventful.  The roads were straight, and very few cars or trucks.  The speed limit in Wyoming on I-25 is 80 mph! The scenery is very similar to western Kansas; rolling prairies.  We did have to keep our eyes open for deer; they were everywhere, sometimes in herds of 20+.

We arrived at our campsite at Wind Cave National Park in Custer, South Dakota at 6:50 PM.  We travelled 454 miles in about nine hours.  As we drove into the park, we were treated to views of grazing buffalo and deer.  Thrilling, but wanting to set up camp before dark, I didn’t take any pictures; that will have to wait ‘til tomorrow.