Not much of note after South Dakota. We pretty much got through Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana as quickly as possible. Drove around Omaha a bit looking to eat an Omaha steak...ended up in some two-bit bar, but the steak was pretty good. As for Omaha - found it to be utterly characterless but typical of too many American cities...full of highways leading to shopping centers that all look alike. Small-town Nebraska was refreshing though...my car has no CD player or anything so we listened to a lot of radio; in some such small town we got the local news which included bulletins such as - ¨Josephine Davis backed her car into a wall at the car wash on Tuesday. No injuries reported. $1300 in damage to the vehicle¨ and ¨Jerry Thompson got a speeding ticket on Monday. Court date set for next week¨ and other such trivialities. Nice sense of community and all but I think I´d trade it for a bit of anonymity.
It was good to get home. Rolled up quite a few more miles on my old Camry. 300,000 is just around the corner....
http://maps.google.es/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=es&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=11053709540083...
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Monday, July 16, 2007
South Dakota
After Yellowstone, we pretty much just hightailed it on out of Wyoming. Cody has the Wild Bill Museum but we bypassed it and Devil´s Tower later on down the road. Northern Wyoming is pretty...I heard other opinions about southern Wyoming from a developer on a plane trip once. At any rate, managed to get across Wyoming over to western S. Dakota in time to see Mount Rushmore that same day. I didn´t realize you can walk a circuit up near the mountain to get different views of the memorial itself. Shame that the better two, Lincoln and Roosevelt, of the the four presidents up there aren´t quite as prominently displayed as the venal Jefferson and especially vain and pompous Washington...but I guess Washington will always hold preeminent position.
We´d hoped to get over to the Badlands before nightfall but that hope was dashed when we got hit by a wicked hail and rainstorm. That slowed us down a bit, which was fortuitous because we ended up stopping at the exit wherein lies Wall Drug.
Wall Drug is the 3rd grand attraction of South Dakota, after Rushmore and the Badlands (only slightly tongue-in-cheek do I write that). We´d seen what must have been hundreds of signs on the interstate directing us to visit Wall Drug. Not an exaggeration on the number of signs. They were all over the place, like billboards on I-75 in Florida, except Wall Drug´s signs were of various sizes and a bit more tastefully done. The signs extolled the many virtues of Wall Drug, from the free coffee for vets to the Old West memorabilia. At first I was annoyed at all the signs littering the landscape, but in the end there were so many signs of so many varieties that we just laughed and had to check it out.
I guess I should mention that Wall Drug is not really a drug store. I would call it a giant repository of Americana. My only regret is that I didn´t get a bumper sticker....
As for the Badlands, they´re worth a gander as you´re driving on your way out of the state, but I wouldn´t plan my trip around them. Do it fast, the sandstone they´re made of diminishes an inch a year.
We´d hoped to get over to the Badlands before nightfall but that hope was dashed when we got hit by a wicked hail and rainstorm. That slowed us down a bit, which was fortuitous because we ended up stopping at the exit wherein lies Wall Drug.
Wall Drug is the 3rd grand attraction of South Dakota, after Rushmore and the Badlands (only slightly tongue-in-cheek do I write that). We´d seen what must have been hundreds of signs on the interstate directing us to visit Wall Drug. Not an exaggeration on the number of signs. They were all over the place, like billboards on I-75 in Florida, except Wall Drug´s signs were of various sizes and a bit more tastefully done. The signs extolled the many virtues of Wall Drug, from the free coffee for vets to the Old West memorabilia. At first I was annoyed at all the signs littering the landscape, but in the end there were so many signs of so many varieties that we just laughed and had to check it out.
I guess I should mention that Wall Drug is not really a drug store. I would call it a giant repository of Americana. My only regret is that I didn´t get a bumper sticker....
As for the Badlands, they´re worth a gander as you´re driving on your way out of the state, but I wouldn´t plan my trip around them. Do it fast, the sandstone they´re made of diminishes an inch a year.
Lakota
After the Badlands we decided to head south for Nebraska. This would take us past the site of the Massacre of Wounded Knee where many Lakota Indians were killed, one of the final ´battles´ during the conflicts with the Native Americans. Not sure what I expected to see there, but there´s not much. No museum or building to mark the spot...just a wooden sign with a brief story and an old women selling native paraphernalia and some used paper pamphlets mark the spot. Another Lakota descendant gave us a very brief orientation on what took place where and that was pretty much it. Pretty depressing...the story and current situation.
Continued our drive on through the reservation toward Nebraska...coming into a town I neglected to slow down fast enough and was pulled over by a young Tribal police officer. He was nice enough to ask about my Florida license plate which gave me the perfect segue into that perfect get-out-of-jail-free line...¨On my way home...I just got out of the Marines, sir.¨ Little strange for me to call a 20 year-old sir, but gotta do it, and of course, he let me go.
The reservation itself, as well as the people and their appurtenances, was pretty dilapidated. Not sure how I feel about the whole reservation system and whether it is really working for anyone (never mind the whole Indian gaming fiasco that continues to spread nationwide) but I guess that´s the law and how it will remain.
The other thing in the area of note regarding the Lakota is the Crazy Horse Memorial near Rushmore...I had no idea it existed. Crazy Horse is being carved out of a mountain much like the presidents at Rushmore, although he´s going to be a bit bigger...the biggest sculpture in the world. We didn´t feel compelled to go see it since it´s not yet finished...but then the project started 60 years ago and is nowhere near finished so perhaps we should have taken what we could have gotten.
Continued our drive on through the reservation toward Nebraska...coming into a town I neglected to slow down fast enough and was pulled over by a young Tribal police officer. He was nice enough to ask about my Florida license plate which gave me the perfect segue into that perfect get-out-of-jail-free line...¨On my way home...I just got out of the Marines, sir.¨ Little strange for me to call a 20 year-old sir, but gotta do it, and of course, he let me go.
The reservation itself, as well as the people and their appurtenances, was pretty dilapidated. Not sure how I feel about the whole reservation system and whether it is really working for anyone (never mind the whole Indian gaming fiasco that continues to spread nationwide) but I guess that´s the law and how it will remain.
The other thing in the area of note regarding the Lakota is the Crazy Horse Memorial near Rushmore...I had no idea it existed. Crazy Horse is being carved out of a mountain much like the presidents at Rushmore, although he´s going to be a bit bigger...the biggest sculpture in the world. We didn´t feel compelled to go see it since it´s not yet finished...but then the project started 60 years ago and is nowhere near finished so perhaps we should have taken what we could have gotten.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Yellowstone NP
Yellowstone NP is kind of like a one-stop shop for nature...geysers, lakes, wildlife, canyons, waterfalls, mountains, you name it. Quite fitting for it to be the world´s first national park. Much of the park itself actually lies within a volcano...one of the world´s largest. We only spent a day there but squeezed in a lot...watched Old Faithful blow some steam (she´s still pretty regular), did a couple short hikes, drove by Lake Yellowstone, saw a grizzly and cubs from a distance, saw the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, walked by the beautiful geothermal pools, had the car stopped several times by herds of buffalo...everything you would want in a day at Yellowstone. Would love to have seen some of the more rare wildlife like mountain lions, wolverines, or wolves...but then that would probably require a bit more time than we were willing to spend.
I´d like to go back in the winter sometime.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NFhd5kmeNw
Friday, July 13, 2007
Western Canada and Montana
So we headed out from Vancouver, deciding to head eastward and drive through Canada toward Calgary. Lots of national parks along the route between the two cities...while we didn´t get out and hike much in them, the scenery was incredible. British Columbia has to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. I read a very interesting book once (see http://www.amazon.com/Cadillac-Desert-American-Disappearing-Revised/dp/0140178244/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206401485&sr=8-) that mentioned BC has a tenth of the world´s fresh water. I hope they´ll let us have some when the West runs dry.
Scenery does change quite a bit as you drop into Alberta...goes very flat...much like the terrain in Colorado as you drive east from Denver....same mountain range...same plains. We´d planned on staying a night in Calgary to see what the city had to offer but unfortunately the Calgary Stampede (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary_stampede) was going on at the time. I envisioned the Stampede to be like a gigantic rodeo of sorts...at any rate, we didn´t want to pay $200 plus for a crappy hotel so we drove on a couple of hours after Calgary, getting to somewhere close to the border.
Crossed the border back into the States near Glacier National Park in Montana. Yes, the glaciers are receding...but they´re still there...for now. Again, great scenery...hard to put it into words...well worth seeing. We didn´t end up driving across Montana east to west but rather north to south. I can see why the state holds an allure for people looking to get away...the Big Sky State is pretty, and more importantly, fairly wide open. It´s a bit flatter than I might have thought though, and a bit treeless in many areas.
On the southern border with Wyoming we arrived at the highlight of the trip - Yellowstone.
Scenery does change quite a bit as you drop into Alberta...goes very flat...much like the terrain in Colorado as you drive east from Denver....same mountain range...same plains. We´d planned on staying a night in Calgary to see what the city had to offer but unfortunately the Calgary Stampede (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary_stampede) was going on at the time. I envisioned the Stampede to be like a gigantic rodeo of sorts...at any rate, we didn´t want to pay $200 plus for a crappy hotel so we drove on a couple of hours after Calgary, getting to somewhere close to the border.
Crossed the border back into the States near Glacier National Park in Montana. Yes, the glaciers are receding...but they´re still there...for now. Again, great scenery...hard to put it into words...well worth seeing. We didn´t end up driving across Montana east to west but rather north to south. I can see why the state holds an allure for people looking to get away...the Big Sky State is pretty, and more importantly, fairly wide open. It´s a bit flatter than I might have thought though, and a bit treeless in many areas.
On the southern border with Wyoming we arrived at the highlight of the trip - Yellowstone.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Pacific NW
Got off the plane from Tokyo around mid-day June 30, having left Tokyo in the evening that same day. I was pretty tired as my body was telling it was time for sleep, but I was also excited to be back in the States and starting a roadtrip. My initial destination was Seattle, where I was going to pick up my dad to start a trip back to Louisville together.
The drive up through Northern California was pretty cool. It was my first time north of San Francisco on the west coast. Took a few pictures of Mount Shasta as I was driving. Lake Shasta looked beautiful from the interstate as well. I remember a friend in college telling me stories about a houseboat party weekend on Lake Shasta. It sounded amazing, but then that guy was one of the best story/joke tellers I´ve met so maybe it´s only great, not amazing.
Stopped to refuel at a gas station in Oregon...the people I saw there were definitely not like what you´ll see in California...more like what you´d see at a truck stop in Arkansas. Actually went ahead and changed a tire there as a tire-check revealed to me that the rubber was getting dangerously thin on one tire. I neglected to thoroughly check the spare...something that would have an effect the next day.
It was dark by the time I got to Portland so I decided to stay there for the night. My intent was to stay in a Motel-6 that I saw from the freeway, but I couldn´t figure out how to get there so I went to the Best Western instead. After hearing the high price, I went back out to my car and headed off in search of the Motel-6 again. Again I could not figure out how to get to it. I could see it the freeway but couldn´t get over there. Literally, 30 minutes I tried before throwing in the towel and going back into the Best Western with my tail between my legs. Now, I know I was tired after not really sleeping for a day and a half, but I have to say the roads in Portland (that area at least) are pretty confusing. There are exits that exist northbound but not southbound and vice versa, lots of divided highways with no spots to turn around, no signs, and just generally not coherent road structure. Anyway, that´s my opinion.
So got up and headed across the Columbia to Washington. My awesome spare tire blew out on me while I was chatting on the phone with someone just as I was coming into the Seattle area. Luckily, I got over to the emergency lane without incident and got the original tire back on there in under 5 minutes. My own one-man pit crew. When I went to get two new tires the next day the tire-man informed me my blown spare was from 1992...and that even if it hadn´t blown it would be a crime for him to put it on my car again with that much age.
Seattle...incredible in July - awesome weather, beautiful bay and islands. Picked up Dad at the airport. We spent a few days in Seattle - checked out the aviation museum, which is well worth a day (or more) of time. Did the Underground Tour...still not sure of the exact process of how a town rebuilds itself above its former self, thereby creating Underground tours for us tourists years later. Guess I should have paid better attention. Seattle also has the Klondike Gold Rush Museum right there in the middle of town...it´s run by the National Parks Service, which is a little strange to see Park Rangers in a buidling in the middle of Seattle, but the museum is really pretty cool.
We headed over to Vancouver to see what that was like...maybe 3 hours up the road. There was quite a long line to get into Canada. As if anyone pays enough attention to Canada that they have legitimate security risks, thereby creating long lines at Immigration.... As I was switching lanes to get into the faster moving lane at Immigration, I got lectured by some guy (talking out his car window) about how it was wrong to change lanes like that. Canadians.
Vancouver was very pretty...although it was a bit sterile for my taste. The town certainly is full of gays and Asians, and Asian gays. We stayed at the Pan Pacific since I knew a guy who worked there, having met him in Kyoto on a day tour a couple months previously. 4 and 5 star hotels are nice and all, but I really get bothered over how they nickel and dime you...they tried to charge me $10 to use the gym. I told them no way I was paying that, that I would only be 30 minutes, and just walked right in without them stopping me or saying anything. Between Canada´s high taxes and our dollar doing so badly on the world markets, Canada is generally pretty expensive these days. All the more reason to rush home.
The drive up through Northern California was pretty cool. It was my first time north of San Francisco on the west coast. Took a few pictures of Mount Shasta as I was driving. Lake Shasta looked beautiful from the interstate as well. I remember a friend in college telling me stories about a houseboat party weekend on Lake Shasta. It sounded amazing, but then that guy was one of the best story/joke tellers I´ve met so maybe it´s only great, not amazing.
Stopped to refuel at a gas station in Oregon...the people I saw there were definitely not like what you´ll see in California...more like what you´d see at a truck stop in Arkansas. Actually went ahead and changed a tire there as a tire-check revealed to me that the rubber was getting dangerously thin on one tire. I neglected to thoroughly check the spare...something that would have an effect the next day.
It was dark by the time I got to Portland so I decided to stay there for the night. My intent was to stay in a Motel-6 that I saw from the freeway, but I couldn´t figure out how to get there so I went to the Best Western instead. After hearing the high price, I went back out to my car and headed off in search of the Motel-6 again. Again I could not figure out how to get to it. I could see it the freeway but couldn´t get over there. Literally, 30 minutes I tried before throwing in the towel and going back into the Best Western with my tail between my legs. Now, I know I was tired after not really sleeping for a day and a half, but I have to say the roads in Portland (that area at least) are pretty confusing. There are exits that exist northbound but not southbound and vice versa, lots of divided highways with no spots to turn around, no signs, and just generally not coherent road structure. Anyway, that´s my opinion.
So got up and headed across the Columbia to Washington. My awesome spare tire blew out on me while I was chatting on the phone with someone just as I was coming into the Seattle area. Luckily, I got over to the emergency lane without incident and got the original tire back on there in under 5 minutes. My own one-man pit crew. When I went to get two new tires the next day the tire-man informed me my blown spare was from 1992...and that even if it hadn´t blown it would be a crime for him to put it on my car again with that much age.
Seattle...incredible in July - awesome weather, beautiful bay and islands. Picked up Dad at the airport. We spent a few days in Seattle - checked out the aviation museum, which is well worth a day (or more) of time. Did the Underground Tour...still not sure of the exact process of how a town rebuilds itself above its former self, thereby creating Underground tours for us tourists years later. Guess I should have paid better attention. Seattle also has the Klondike Gold Rush Museum right there in the middle of town...it´s run by the National Parks Service, which is a little strange to see Park Rangers in a buidling in the middle of Seattle, but the museum is really pretty cool.
We headed over to Vancouver to see what that was like...maybe 3 hours up the road. There was quite a long line to get into Canada. As if anyone pays enough attention to Canada that they have legitimate security risks, thereby creating long lines at Immigration.... As I was switching lanes to get into the faster moving lane at Immigration, I got lectured by some guy (talking out his car window) about how it was wrong to change lanes like that. Canadians.
Vancouver was very pretty...although it was a bit sterile for my taste. The town certainly is full of gays and Asians, and Asian gays. We stayed at the Pan Pacific since I knew a guy who worked there, having met him in Kyoto on a day tour a couple months previously. 4 and 5 star hotels are nice and all, but I really get bothered over how they nickel and dime you...they tried to charge me $10 to use the gym. I told them no way I was paying that, that I would only be 30 minutes, and just walked right in without them stopping me or saying anything. Between Canada´s high taxes and our dollar doing so badly on the world markets, Canada is generally pretty expensive these days. All the more reason to rush home.
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