Cody, WY

I love small towns.  People are so friendly and unpretentious.  I went for a brief run this morning (very brief – I’m choosing to blame the altitude) and folks were making eye contact and even saying good morning – from across the street!  In Northern Virginia sometimes the other runners won’t even look at you.  I have to remind myself to let my guard down a little around here so I don’t offend anyone.

My quest for a haircut continues.  I really thought today would be the day (this started before I left Virginia, and has been continuing unabated across the country).  Three cool little barbershops within a few blocks of the hotel.  Two don’t even bother opening on Saturday or Sunday, and the third posts Saturday hours but a post-it note on the window indicated she had to go out of town for a funeral this weekend and would be back Tuesday.  This is the kind of town where a post-it note does the trick.  The search for a barber yielded pleasant conversations with the guys in the fishing shop (actually Cody appears to have about a dozen fishing shops – it’s a big deal here) and the ladies at the coffee shop.  Things could be worse.

We’re a little nervous about the weather today and tonight.  It was 55 degrees in Cody this morning and overcast.  Up in Yellowstone it’s bound to be cooler, and there’s a chance of showers today and tonight.  There’s a good chance we’re looking at a cold, wet night in the tent tonight.  Just another adventure, right!  Fortunately I have long hair to keep me warm.  Pity Paul, who’s well trimmed.

Videos from the trip

Swamp Tour in Slidell, LA

Bourbon Street Brass Band in New Orleans

Walker Art Museum in Minneapolis, MN

Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Happy Birthday Patrick!

Steak! It's what's for dinner.

Today was very much a big surprise for me, I didn't expect much more then to view the Crazy Horse monument from a parking lot location, seeing as they aren't finished with it, and probably a lot of driving through what I thought was almost all prairie land.

Well like I said I was surprised, first off the Crazy Horse monument was very well put together even though it's not finished and they're not exactly in a hurry to get it completed. The thing that impressed me the most / drew me in was the telling of the story of the beginnings of the monument with the Lakota Indian tribe and sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski. There's also much more to the exhibit then just the monument; upon completion there's suppose to be an University and Medical Training Center for the North American Indian and the Indian Museum of North America along with the existing guest cultural center and different art exhibits from Korczak and the Native Americans. (Thanks Fuzzy for suggesting it)

My experience of driving through South Dakota was that it seemed to be a lot more interesting then the scenery passing through Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, and Illinois when you weren't in a big city. It also changed from where it boarders Minnesota where it's starting to have some curves and rolling hills and becomes more and more curvy as you enter into it. Then you arrive in the Badlands and it's a dramatic change of scenery and there's no other place in South Dakota quite like it. Then once you leave it changes dramatically again as you enter into the Black Hills part of South Dakota where Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse are.

As far as the scenery today I wasn't expecting to see much besides a good chunk of prairie land as from what I envisioned Wyoming to be, but I was very much mistaken. Wyoming is known for it's many buttes, which I learned today as well as it is for it's prairie land and there was a good mix of the two.

I need to take a break here and talk about lunch time in Gillette, Wyoming. Chip had been through the town before on a business trip and recalled a good steak place that he had visited then. The name of the place was 'The Chophouse' that sat just off the main drag of the town. Well they didn't serve straight up steak on their lunch menu so I decided to order the Prime Rib sandwich. I couldn't believe my eyes when this sucker came out...it was huge and juice was running all over the place and I wasn't quite sure how to 1. Make it fit inside the sub roll it came on or 2. How I was going to manage to wrap my face around this thing. Well I stopped dilly dallying and got to work and managed to solve both of my problems in no time and man was it tasty.

After lunch I spotted a gleaming light shining forth on a store across the way from the Chophouse that read "Wisconsin Cheese". Well goofy me didn't get any cheese while I was in Wisconsin so I figured I needed to check this place out and see if it had the potential to help me right my wrong. We walk in and there is this kind fellow in his early 70s that comes up to greet us and after finding out we're from the DC area begins to start in that we need to as quickly as possible uproot and get the heck out of there and move to Wyoming. He then says we'd be fools if we didn't try some of the free samples of cheese and sausage he was selling. He didn't have to tell me twice and as I was muling over what cheese I liked the best (the cheese's were either "imported" from Wisconsin or made in South Dakota) he started talking about how he came out to Wyoming to retire after making cheese in Wisconsin for some 33 years. Combining how good the cheese tasted with this guys personality and apparent knowledge of it made me feel comfortable with labeling this place as legit. (Even if it was 912 miles away from Madison, WI)

After our pit stop in Gillette we continued onward toward Cody, which I thought would be an easy 4-5 hour drive especially if we're just cruising through prairie land. Well we followed I-90 west, but as it get's about 1/3 into the state it starts bending up towards Montana and so if you want to head towards Cody, which is our stop before Yellowstone, then you need to get off on one of the smaller state roads and do a lot of random bends connecting different ranching towns. Well when we approached the big bend in I-90 I wasn't expecting to see the Big Horn mountain range...I thought that was just in Montana (it doesn't show up labeled on Google Maps in Wyoming) and if I looked hard enough I could see it. However, there it was right in front of me and realized that we were going to be driving through that sucker. I was totally charmed by it and it totally made my day getting to cruse up and down the mountain and vear around all the sharp bends. It was another one of those in awe at God's creation moments and probably on the same level as the Badlands.

We got into Cody around 730 and we checked into our hotel before heading out for dinner. Chip didn't get to have a steak earlier so we needed to quickly remedy the situation, so we picked Wyoming's Rib & Chop House and sat down in front of two very large and very juicy steaks on par with the steak I had back in Texas at Chez Embree. We're now just finally getting situated for bed and trying to figure out what we want to get done tomorrow in Yellowstone.

If it's Wyoming it must be Friday

Apparently when I set my watch to Mountain time in the tent last night I hit an extra button and put it ahead one day.  So when I woke up this morning I thought it was Saturday for a moment (and when I say “moment” I mean half the morning). Eventually I figured it out. We’ve crossed two time zones already but Paul assures me we won’t be crossing the International Date Line on this trip.

Mt. Rushmore under the stars was beautiful last night.  And I was encouraged to hear that many people in the crowd still knew the words to the National Anthem.  Seems like we’ve become a nation of people that listen to, but rarely sing along with, the national anthem.  Instead we stand by and endure singer after singer doing a hatchet job on a song that’s pretty hard to sing straight, let alone to embellish.  Anyhoo, I’ll hop off my soap box for now.  The Four Presidents looked great up there last night, and were still there when we went back for a quick photo op this morning (our pass to the park is good till December 31, so we’re just trying to get our money’s worth). 

After that it was almost literally around the bend to the Crazy Horse monument, which is a colossal but very cool work in progress.  When done it will dwarf Mt. Rushmore (which would fit on Crazy Horse’s head according to them – forget about the horse).  It’s going to be a while till they are done, but what a cool monument! 

The weather turned a bit yucky this morning, with cool temps and some drizzle (it was nice and cool in the tent last night).  From Crazy Horse we headed towards Wyoming.  The plan is to cross Wyoming today and spend the night in Cody, which will be our launching pad for Yellowstone tomorrow.  Eastern Wyoming is almost lunar in appearance – rolling hills and buttes with grass and scrub bushes but very few trees.  Come to think of it there are very few people, too, which also lends to the lunar feel.  It has a certain rugged beauty.  I’m hoping we see some cool wildlife at some point.  We had hoped to catch a glimpse of Devil’s Tower this morning, but the crappy weather cut visibility and we never got a clear shot.  Next time.  The weather has cleared in the past hour again, though, and it was 92 degrees when we had lunch in Gillette.

Just rounded a bend and caught our first glimpse of the Big Horn mountain range.  It looks like a few of the peaks still have some snow on them!  Things should start greening up a bit soon (we’re currently on top of a rise on the Interstate with pretty good visibility, and looking around I can’t see one tree!  Anywhere!).  Oh!  We just crossed over Crazy Woman Creek.  This trip is the gift that keeps on giving!

South Dakota

Paul told you about our first night camping and our adventures the first half of today. He failed to mention my favorite moment from last night, though. Once the wind really kicked up and basically collapsed the tent on us we did a two-minute drill to break down the tent and everything in it and throw it all in the GOLF cart, then make a quick check of the site and pick up anything else blowing around. We finally get in just as the storm begins to really rage, and the conversation goes something like this:

Chip: Now what?

Paul: Turn it around so we can watch the storm!

Of course! So I did a 3-point turn and we watched the storm through the windshield for a while. Paul’s perspective on things is awesome and keeps me sane.

After the Corn Palace we were back on I-90 heading west. The nice part about today was despite the high mileage we never went more than two hours without a great diversion. After a brief nap for me (Paul was driving – I promise) we landed in the Badlands. This park is sort of like the Great Plains meet the Grand Canyon. It’s full of canyons, cliffs and rock formations one minute, then you turn a corner and it’s amazing views of the prairie. We kept taking picture after picture and oohing and aahing the entire time. Quite spectacular. Oh, did I mention it was 102 degrees at the guard house when we entered the park? I considered it a test drive for Death Valley. (We passed, of course, but don’t get me started about this ‘dry heat’ thing. Hot is hot.)

We also made a quick stop at a former minuteman missile silo. It’s amazing to think how recently we were stuck in the cold war with Russia, and how hundreds of ranchers across the Plains agreed to bury missiles in their fields pointed at Moscow to keep us safe. And apparently it worked. And now we’re free to talk about it. A lot to digest there.

The next stop was Wall, South Dakota, home of Wall Drug. The moment you cross into South Dakota you start seeing billboards for Wall Drug. They are everywhere. Fortunately, most of them are pretty funny. Wall Drug is the “South of the Border” of South Dakota. It is a magnet for tourists, and it delivers. We started with one of their famous donuts and a 5-cent cup of coffee. They also offer free ice water, which was popular today (the bank sign read 98 degrees at 5pm). Then we decided to have dinner (yeah, the donuts were our appetizers! I hope this catches on!) After dinner we walked around the complex, which has several restaurants, a zillion gift shops, a collection of cowboy art, a chapel, and a dinosaur (see Paul’s video). It was quite a place.

And now we’re in the parking lot of Mt. Rushmore waiting for the evening light show to begin. We’ve already been to our campsite and set up the tent. We’re really roughing this time – no running water! It’s a nice site though, and we already chased two deer away. We’re hoping the storms pass us by tonight and we’ll actually able to sleep in the tent.

More great license plates today. From Canada alone we saw Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and British Columbia. Also saw New Jersey and Massachusetts, so I guess we’re not the farthest from home any more.

Okay, turns out I’m terrible about checking the miles every night, so don’t be looking for that feature any more. Also, we’re offering a rosary every day on the road for various intentions. We intended to tell you those every day, but got a little behind. So here’s catch up:

Monday was for families who are hosting us during this trip.

Tuesday was for the Youth Apostles community.

Wednesday was for WoYAs on one of their saint feast days and for all the CLCs.

Today was for a special intention.

If you have an intention for us please let us know – we’d love to pray for you. And thanks to all who are praying for us! We’re having a great trip, and it’s clearly through God’s grace. (Seriously, if you were there last when the storm blew in you’d understand.)

Time to go watch the Presidents light up the sky!

Insert your own corny joke here (or maybe under the comments)

With the worst part of the day already past us (sleeping sitting straight up b/c there wasn't time to organize the GOLF cart to recline the seats last night before the rain), we got off to a great start this morning. Mass at St. Mary Help of Christians in Salem, South Dakota was a surprisingly beautiful church for how small the town is. Afterwards we had coffee and a cinnamon roll at Mom and Pop's Pastry where the daily mass crowd gathers each morning. It was 4 bucks for two rolls and two cups of coffee served in a setting that made me feel like I was walking into my grandparent's kitchen and somehow all of their friends had shown up. Well the two "youngsters" as we were refered to as stuck out just a little bit and we were quickly welcomed in with loving arms and a warm cup of joe. We got to talking to a couple of the local folk and were telling them about our journey and where we were headed for today and asked about the low down on South Dakota and the sights to see. They passed on a few tips and one woman confessed that she had lived in South Dakota for the last 55 years of her life and she'd only been once, but we quickly countered with how it's like that living in DC...there might be more than you could see in two weeks of walking around there, but I hardly ever go to see the sights.

Our next stop of the day brought us to the town of Mitchell home of the Corn Palace where each year the decorate the outside of the building with yellow, white, and brown corn with other locally grown grains and produce. The murals that they make out of corn were pretty impressive and quite appropriately themed to our trip as it was America's Destinations and by the end of the trip we'll have gone to almost all of the ones they displayed (we're missing the statue of liberty and Cocoa Beach/Cape Canaveral where they launch the space shuttles, but we've been to both of those places seperatly already so we're doing pretty good for ourselves on this trip).

For lunch we stopped in Chamberlin at Anchor's grill, which from the amount of trucks parked out front was the most happenin place in town...i.e. if the locals eat there it's proably pretty good. I got a tasty South Dakota Buffalo burger with waffel fries...and Chip got some burger with fungus plants on top...blah. The thing that caught our eye on the way in was the dessert display so we figured that since this is probably going to be our most substantial meal of the day we needed to check out how good "mom's apple pie a la mode" was. I've been doing my best to take pictures of the local food and it's presentation, but it was gone faster then I could remember to take a picture of it. If you see a picture with an empty plate and fork that would be the remains of what once was a darn good piece of apple pie a la mode!

We're now on our way to the Badlands National Park, Wall Drug, and Mt Rushmore so we'll write more about that later, but I do need to end with how much I'm loving the rolling black hills of South Dakota...it is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend you come and visit.

Light Show

Well we were looking for a light show and we sure got one, except that the one we got also came with a lot of wind, some rain, and even brighter light then we were expecting. The wind was so strong that the tent began to contort and collapse on us, so we broke things down before it got too nasty. Now instead of watching the meteor shower we have a storm above us that's keeping us entertained.