May 28-30, 2003
May 28-30, 2003 From Theodore Roosevelt National Park, we drove south through North and
South Dakota to Spearfish, SD, home of Black Hills State University. The
drive took us through seemingly endless stretches of open range land -- few
fences, no trees, and many square miles of grassland. We saw a number of
antelope out grazing -- they are apparently doing quite well in this part
of the country.b
For lunch, we stopped in Bowman, ND, and had lunch at Big J’s Diner,
where we had a great lunch of burger and steak sandwich. This turned out
to be an interesting stop, because the older farmers and cowboys would stop
by this diner to drink coffee and play cards. While we were there, one card
game finished up, one went on the whole time we were there, and one started
up -- with people coming in until there was enough to start the game. This
diner was also mentioned in Robert Pirsig's 60's counterculture book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and they had a framed page
from the book to prove it. An interesting way to spend the afternoon in downtown Bowman, SD.
(We could tell it was downtown, because the traffic light was down the block.)
When we got to Spearfish, we camped in Mike and Betty Zehfus' driveway, which
was really great. (Mike and Jacque were in the same lab when she was at grad
school at Hershey.) They have a large yard, so the dogs could run. They
also have four horses at whom the dogs could bark. Their daughter, Terry,
loved playing with the dogs, too.
The first day there, Mike took us for a drive into the Black Hills up the
Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway. We saw waterfalls; we also looked for mountain
goats, but didn't see any. Then we went for a hike -- Mike took us to an
old mining town (Carbonate Camp) and we got to poke our heads into old mine
shafts. It was great fun!
After hiking, we made sure to cool off our hot feet in the icy cold Spearfish Creek.
The second day, Mike guided us on a driving tour of the very beautiful
Black Hills region
of South Dakota. We stuck our noses in some more abandoned mining sites and saw the
Mount Rushmore and Crazy
Horse monuments. The Crazy Horse Memorial
is a very ambitious, privately financed project honoring Native Americans
and their heritage. As you can see in the photo, it has a long way to go
to completion.
We also drove through Custer State Park (home to more roaming
buffaloes).
May 31, 2003
On Saturday, after saying good-bye to the horses, we left the Zehfus house
and first traveled east to the town of Wall, SD, and world-famous
Wall Drug, a must-see destination. Then we drove
through the Badlands National Park.
Brian had never seen them before, although Jacque had been there once when
she was in high school. This time of year, all the rocky formations had green
grass between them. It was very interesting landscape. Unfortunately, the
wind kicked up, and we decided to stop early -- it's not a lot of fun to
drive the trailer on a windy day. We stayed at a KOA in Interior, SD, just
outside of the Park on the banks of the White River. It was a nice quiet
campground.
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| Chuck the Truck contemplating the Automotive Afterlife at Carhenge |
Sunday morning, we headed south. We decided to drive through the Pine
Ridge Indian Reservation to see the Wounded Knee monument. This was a pretty
drive, though the Wounded Knee National Monument was not much to see. We
continued south into Nebraska (Brian's second-to-last state) and Carhenge,
an attraction that Steve Betz insisted that we had to see. It was quite
interesting -- cars painted white, standing upright to look like Stonehenge.
It was even more interesting, because the sky was dark and stormy, lending
an interesting impression to the site. Carhenge doesn't ask for an admission
fee or anything -- some guys once just decided to build it, and it's sort
of taken off on its own. The Alliance, NE, chamber of commerce has whole-heartedly
embraced it, since it actually brings tourists (like us!) to the area. We
ate lunch in Alliance at Ken and Dale's Restaurant in Alliance, and bought gas, too.
After lunch we continued east on Route 2, a road that Charles Kuralt calls
one of the top 10 scenic highways in America. The drive across Nebraska was
long -- it was mostly raining, with some wind. We had expected Nebraska to
be flat and full of cornfields, but this drive was actually rather pretty,
with green rolling hills. We saw a number of very interesting birds, both
in wetlands and grasslands. But, after awhile, even green rolling hills get
boring, especially when the weather isn't too nice.
We stopped for the night in Grand Island, NE. In the middle of a rainstorm,
we happened upon a Walmart (Walmart has a corporate policy that allows RVers and
long-haul truckers to spend the night in their parking lots -- of course
they know you will buy something) next to the Something-or-other Creek Grill
and Saloon. This sounded good to us -- at least the restaurant's neon sign
looked really inviting after the long, rainy driving day. The restaurant turned
out to be not very good, but, after having joked about it for the whole trip we finally did spend the night in a Walmart
parking lot (certainly a sufficiently significant event to qualify Nebraska
on Brian's state tally).
And, we did buy a few things at the Walmart.
June 2-3, 2003Continuing east towards Iowa was a long drive. It continued to rain and
be windy, so the drive was slow. We finally arrived at Ledges State Park
in Boone, IA, just west of Ames. We unhitched and drove into Ames to have
dinner with Gloria and Joe. We were treated to a great dinner and our dogs
got to chase their cats (poor cats!).
On Tuesday morning, Brian tried to catch up on some computer work on the campground picnic table.
Later we got to see Gloria's laboratory at Iowa State and Joe gave us a tour of the Molecular Biology Building.
We then accompanied them to a lab picnic at nearby Brookside Park, where the dogs
played and chased squirrels and hoped to get some dropped bits of food or
spilled beer. Jacque also got to play volleyball, and she was very
happy. The labs sponsoring the picnic had a gyro cart serve the food --
the hummus gyros were awesome!
From Ames we headed further east to Nappanee, IN, where Brian's sister
Kerri lives with her husband and three daughters Bianca, Brenna, and Blaec.
The weather was beautiful, and we spent a lot of time hanging out in their
large, grassy backyard. Bianca mowed the backyard on the riding mower while Blaec drove around in her little Jeep.
