Our Last Stand in Custer

A quick post for now: I'm blogging (still can't get used to that verb) from a cafe with WiFi in Custer, SD. I'll add a few pics later.

Before arriving in Custer, we left Chicago and stayed overnight in Sioux Falls, SD. Our plan was to camp overnight and hit the road in the morning. We set up camp, ate a quick dinner, and as night fell, headed to the restrooms to wash up. We ran into an older couple packing up their RV who relayed to us that a large storm and tornado were heading directly towards us. If we were camping, they suggested we sit by the bath house because it was a storm shelter; we could quickly get inside it if we needed! Since our campsite was about 200 yards from a row of electrical lines and we saw brilliant lightning illuminating the clouds in the distance, we threw everything in the Jeep and hightailed it to a hotel! Once safe in a Comfort Inn, it was interesting to watch the local station track the storm (through stormwatchers, text messaging, and live streaming video). Thankfully, the cyclones didn't hit us, but the surrounding areas saw baseball-sized hail and five tornadoes! Needless to say, we left pretty early the next morning...

South Dakota is a lot of grassland and cows until one reaches the Badlands. The Badlands are... bad. We were there at the peak of the day, it was hot, parched, and, we felt, once you've seen it, you've seen it. I'm sure the geology and history of the area is quite notable, but we were glad to leave. Some prairie dogs waved us goodbye!
Getting out of The Badlands

Our introduction to Custer State Park was a great one: we were greeting by a large herd of bison--babies and all! This area of South Dakota, the Black Hills, in the Western part of the state, is much more lush, green, and beautiful. We're staying in a small camp cabin and an almost-turquoise Western Bluebird sings to our front porch each morning.

Western Bluebird; Bison feelin' the breeze; One of my favorite pics of this trip

We took a ride on a wildlife loop last night and sighted prong-horned deer, mule deer, more bison (buffalo), a wild turkey, prairie dogs, amazing birds, and a marmot! Everything really is bigger out West: the animals stand taller, the colors are brighter, and our love for this place grows, too. "Home on the Range" can really sum up South Dakota for us: "where seldom is heard a discouraging word and the skies are not cloudy all day..."
J admiring some pronghorn deer behind our camp cabin

We drove past Mt. Rushmore (just to say we saw it--just another mistake of WhiteFace) and visited Crazy Horse Memorial. J and I were so depressed after leaving Crazy Horse that it's hard for me to express the guilt and remorse we experienced. I'll suffice it to say that White Guilt hangs heavy with me despite having no direct connection to what happened in our country's history. I feel the need to hold the emotion since so many do not.

Mt. Rushmore--big deal; the progress of Crazy Horse Memorial

Tomorrow is another long day of driving straight to Yellowstone. We're excited to see more beautiful peaks and wildlife!

Ta-ta 'til more WiFi...

Arrrrgh-n't ya wishin' you were in Chicago?: a windy post from the Windy City

One word can summarize Chicago: impressive. I tried to think of a better synonym but "impressive" is the best descriptor.

Our day began with a delicious (vegan!) breakfast at the B&B, paired with some great conversation with other guests there. One guest was a recently-retired teacher, so we spent a good amount of time chatting education with him. That's the best part of staying in a B&B--the personal, comfortable feeling.

After breakfast, we walked to the L station to head downtown. We needed to buy CTA all-day passes, so we stopped in two convenience stores looking for them. Never before have I gone into a convenience store in a city (even in touristy areas) and felt 1. safe and 2. welcomed. Both clerks were super-friendly and even...happy. This friendliness is a theme that continued throughout the day. So, after getting our passes, we hopped on the L and were again shocked at the helpfulness of the CTA employees and the cleanliness of the train. Coming from the East, it's so hard to avoid comparing cities to Philadelphia and New York. In our Chicago experience there is no comparison in terms of good ol' fashioned manners and comfort.

We got downtown and headed to Millenium Park, one of the most beautiful public spaces I've ever encountered, and enjoyed a symphony orchestra rehearsing for the park's music festival later in the week. All I wanted to do was dance across the lawn, spinning, pirouetting, leaping, and I totally would have if it had not been 95 degrees already.

Millenium Park has fantastic gardens, modern sculptures, and interesting landscape architecture features that we wished we had a cooler day for which to explore.


Photos from Millenium Park

The heat in the city was unbearable even before noon. The best plan of action was to seek shelter in a museum; once again, Chicago delivered in quality. We took a bus (and after my experience getting pepper-sprayed on a bus in San Fran, I was exhilarated by Chi-town's buses) to Solider Field (Bears' stadium) and the Field Museum, both on the waterfront. The Field Museum, sitting on the site of the 1893 World's Fair, is humongous. Much of its collection was donated to Chicago after the Fair, so their holdings are quite impressive. We were considerate and didn't use our flash in the exhibits, but here are a few pics from that excursion:




Pacific NW Indian house posts, mask. A ceiling medallion in the Tibet display.



We decided to beat the still-imposing heat by taking an architectural river tour of Chicago. The boat motored up and down the Chicago River while we got a very educational look at the structures that comprise the city. This tour sealed my newfound obsession with Chicago and I will be promptly purchasing a Chicago architecture book upon my return home.





The diverse styles of the Chicago skyline

On our way back to the train after our tour, Chicago showed us its true colors. We stood on a corner waiting to cross the street and encountered a ranting, homeless woman, which every city seems to have at least 264 of. She was saying, and I quote, "Yeah, [expletive], you come ovah here an' I'll break my other wrist--right in yo' face! I'll break my wrist on yo' face!" Everyone on the corner was moving away from her as she ranted and moved through the crowd. But every time she needed to get past someone, she said, "Excuse me---I'ma break my wrist on yo' face!--Excuse me, 'cuse me..."

A block later, a panhandling woman begged for change, and when I ignored her, she said, without irony, "Have a good day!"

We can't wait to come back to Chi-town!

Diatribes, me?

So, J posted below about our delicious Chicago pizza experience. Seriously: heaven. I'm not sure it can stand up to NY style in the world of pizza, but it was pretty darn good--especially after driving 11 hours today and living off of soy jerky and dried fruit. Oh, yes, J forgot to mention that tidbit. ELEVEN HOURS. If you're playing our little game, chalk that up as one of the longest driving days. We were prepared for it, so it really wasn't so bad, but to be honest, my butt still hurts from sitting so long!

We drove through three states today: Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. Western PA is so pretty right now: green mountaintops, rolling hills, rivers. Ohio is...well, um, Ohio had a lot of... er... Ohio had a lot of minivans. I'm sure Ohio has its good points (the highways are well-maintained?) but from what I saw from the interstate...hm. [insert fart noise and me pointing my thumbs down] Once we crossed into Indiana, the topography changed slightly, we saw plenty of state highway patrolmen (not at OUR window, thank goodness), and J spit on Notre Dame as we passed through South Bend ("We Are...Penn State!") Sadly, too, we passed at least three auto plants that have been closed.

The most interesting part of the drive was entering the Chicago metro area. We had no idea that Gary, Indiana is so close to Chicago. Gary is like the industrial step-child of Chi-town; we passed through numerous bouts of drudgery before seeing the Chicago skyline. Some of the stretch looked very similar to the Wilmington/Philadelphia area: water to the right, railroad tracks, marshland, graffiti. Once arriving in Chicago, we were pleasantly surprised by trees! The city is very clean, there are small pockets of greenery, flowers, and grass, and there is a new green initiative in place to keep things that way. This is a refreshing change from the smog and plain dirtiness of East Coast cities.

The area in which we're staying is called Bucktown; what a fabulous borough! It's quiet, safe, and the B&B we chose couldn't be more comfortable and quirky (my favorite type of place).

It is now 11:00 pm (12:00 am East Coast time) and I'd better rest my little head. Tomorrow is supposed to be a sweltering day in the city and we're looking forward to a little museum culture followed by dinner and blues? jazz? rock?

We're loving Chicago so far!

Cultural Icons of Chicago A Post by J

Lake Michigan, Sears Tower, Grant Park, Da Bears; so many things to see in Chicago, but it was an easy choice for me as to where we needed to go first. With only a little persuasion, G agreed to a little Chicago deep dish pizza as soon as we got into the city. I'm not much of a food critic, but it is tasty. A lot of sauce, not too much cheese, and a very filling crust.

I'll save the long diatribes for G....we're safe and happy in Chicago. Life is good!

"Wanna pack your bag, something small?/Take what you need and we'll disappear..."

One more day in Delaware!

We'll be leaving for Sunbury, PA tomorrow (to visit the Sowers' before heading out West), and I would be fooling myself if I didn't admit I have some apprehension about this trip. I mean, honestly, who, other than college students and fanatical-band-following hippies, goes on a pleasure excursion for a month? We have finally settled into our house enough that it needs only a few more updates here-and-there. We live near the BEACH, for goodness sake, "America's summer playground!" On top of that, I'm a bit of a control freak and like knowing the end result of my endeavors. And I'm a person who likes to RELAX. So, in essence, it seems a little kooky to take off into the wilderness for four weeks.

But last night, we watched this great independent film, 10 mph, about two guys who quit their corporate jobs and decide to ride Segways across the U.S. While I have no desire to ride a Segway in any circumstance, really, the film made me contemplate the unpredictable elements of any trip: the quirky people you meet, the mistakes which lead to memories, the moments of clarity. The guys from 10 mph discover multiple life lessons on their journey, and that's the sort of unpredictability I can deal with and look forward to experiencing! Check out the film; it's definitely worthwhile.

And so, we're off! I've tried to beef up our lil' blog with some neat features. The map at the top is clickable and zoomable. (Zoomable?) The stops are all of our planned areas to visit. Once we get to Salt Lake City, we'll be haulin' booty to get home, hence the lack of stops to speak of. If you haven't scrolled to the bottom of the page, check out "The Soundtrack," which is not only a small collection of songs which embody the essence of road-trippin', but sort-of our philosophy about life in general. And before this blog becomes too much of a high-school journal entry, I say, Adieu.

Thanks for keepin' tabs on us! We'll see ya from Chicago!

ONE WEEK 'TIL TAKE-OFF! a post by G

It's Sunday. One week until we're on our way to Chicago, the first stop on this hopefully slightly-wild excursion. There is so much to do! We've decided to clean our home spotless so there are no concerns while we are gone. Plus, we have a lot of packing to do later in the week, we've got to buy food for the road, get a tune-up on our vehicle, and mentally relax (perhaps the toughest task of all, eh?). I don't anticipate this trip being a brain-buster, but I do foresee some inevitable conflicts. So, I'm instituting a challenge. Take a stab at the questions below. Leave your answers in the comments. Whomever is closest to the final total (tallied when we get home) wins a handpicked souvenir from our trip. (I promise it will be something fabulous.)

Thanks for journeying with us! :)


J & G's CROSS-COUNTRY CHALLENGE

What's the number of times we'll...

1. Get lost? (Hint: we have an atlas, maps and possibly GPS for use in cities.)
2. Argue to the point of not speaking to each other?
3. Breakdown mentally and eat fast food (meaning: McDonald's, Burger King, etc.)?
4. Order a meal that includes meat?
5. Flip someone off or yell at someone while driving?
6. Spot an elusive type of wildlife (bear, owl, wolf, etc.)?

7. How many times will G cry on this trip? (out of sadness, fear, happiness or otherwise?)
8. Name the number of people we'll see on this trip whom we already know. (Famous person? Former student? Former classmate?)
9. What's the longest total hours we'll drive in one day?
10. Approximately how much will we spend on souvenirs? (Round to the nearest whole dollar. Hint: gas prices are rising and our salaries might be cut. But, ya only live once!)

Tie-breaker: How many digital photos will we take on this trip?