Big Blue COCK pics finally

Spoonbridge and cherry in Minneapolis sculpture garden

 Miles and Judd and I wandered the sculpture garden and played "guess the name" of the piece before looking at the placard.  Then we would criticize the artist for their poor choice.  We even debated what made something art.  Pretty much consensus on least art-y:  the jungle gym with bent legs that the artist painted stripes on.

Cat dragging and biker dodging

Tuesday 8/8

Yesterday we left the seediest Day’s Inn (next to no wifi, dirty, dark carpets—only one washing machine, in use, that we did not wait up til 11pm to fill) We departed with our free breakfast and dirty clothes, spontaneously planning what sites to see in South Dakota.  First rest stop just happened to have a memorial to Lewis and Clark, with a little museum of their expedition and a massive 50’ outdoor statue of an Indian woman with the Missouri River in the background.  We assumed she was Sacajawea but the docent said her name was Dignity, representing all indigenous women. We took a little walk to overlook the river despite the warning signs to avoid poisonous snakes.

 Next stop was Badlands National Park.  Judd got to exercise his Geriatric Life Pass to National Parks, and it worked!  Free admission for the whole carload of passengers (i.e. Judd and me.) We kept stopping at the outlooks off the interior loop road to take pictures of the unusual, exotic rock formations. At the first stop, we were next to a car where the couple cooed at their cat.  The cat, in a little harness, joined them on the scenic overlook walk, if by joined them I mean dragged him on a leash while he mewed loudly and angrily. We saw license plates from such diverse places as New York, Texas, Minnesota, Iowa but we were the only Mainers that I’ve seen.

 Along the way, we kept seeing billboards that said Wall DRUG: “5 cent coffee” or  “Wall Drug 300 miles”  or “free Water Wall Drug 216 miles” or “fast Food Wall Drug 33 miles.”    Judd thought it was advertisement for some kind of weird drugs.  I thought it was a drugstore that wouldn’t pay for the last 5 letters on the sign.  Turns out the town is called Wall and the place started as a drugstore and has oozed into a soda fountain, restaurant, touristy trading post, art gallery. We got our free ice water, cheap coffee and a cafeteria lunch and got out.  There had been bikers going up and down the hills of the badlands and in this little town, the main street was LINED with bikers of all shapes and sizes.  I tried to google if this was some special biker day or if this was just normal town traffic.  I didn’t find out until dinnertime, but Kelcy commented on my snapchats about whether Dad and I joined a biker club.

After lunch we drove to Mount Rushmore via a little town called Keystone.  It, also inundated with bikers, was more like Dollywood or Gatlinburg, TN with all the sights, museums, historic buildings, shops, shops, shops. I’m assured that Gatlinburg has TWO Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museums. Many marquees and signs saying “Welcome Bikers” or “Watch out for Motorcycles”  or “Motorcycles: use left lane” made us think this was a special week, not business as usual.

Mount Rushmore is not actually a National Park (and did NOT accept Judd’s pass)  but is a National Memorial. They actually didn’t charge admission, only parking and we did get a geriatric rate of $5 AND it’s good for the entire year (in case we chose to drive 1200 miles back anytime this year.)  We were surprised to see tables in the entry hall where, in addition to large ice cream cones, you could purchase alcoholic beverages.

Judd had been in text touch with AT buddy Mav and we set up a rendezvous for about 5:30. That gave us time to follow bikers to the Crazy Horse Memorial.  This giant sculpture in the rocks is still in progress. The Indian museum was interesting and had poignant portraits of many warriors. We were saddened by the extremely embarrassing white man hx of the death of Crazy Horse—shot in the back by a  soldier while standing under a truce flag for negotiations.

We met up with Mav (Father Goose’s AT buddy and Birdie (Mav’s AT love—now living happily ever after) at a cute town square in Rapid City. I sat as the 4^th wheel (oh, that doesn’t make sense) while these 3 AT veterans listened to a guy on stage talk about “what I put in my pack” and then I listened to what and why Judd, Mav or Birdie did or didn’t put it in their pack. It was riveting. Birdie had gone to get each of us a raffle ticket for giveaways at the end. I did hold a winning raffle ticket and Judd got some fluorescent green equipment ties.  Birdie got a new mattress.

We had dinner at the Firetruck Brewery. We had seen roadside signs along the way with each billboard dangling above an actual old fire engine, one engine even on end. Plenty of bikers were still lined up on the streets and we finally heard we had come during the Sturgis’s biker something. Festival? Pow wow? Meeting? Conference? Rally!! And Mav and Birdie told us, there were “not that many bikers this year.”

Mav and Birdie now spend 2-3 months every year hiking. They have an inspirational poster within reading distance of their toilet listing all the national trails they aspire to do.  I think you could get the 2 page magazine-map from www.trails50.org          Judd got ideas.

Wednesday 8/9

We departed Piedmont, SD under an orange ball of sunrise. The Black Hills are the highest US mountains east of the Rockies. We drove past fields with no bison; over the Bighorn Mountains. At the end of the day, in Wyoming, some big mammal, bigger than a breadbox, scurried across the road in front of me. I thought it was an albino beaver but the tail was big and bushy. We later read about the yellow-belly marmots. If that wasn’t one, I’ll buy a breadbox.

As we decide to get to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons; we skipped Custer’s Last Stand. Arrived in Yellowstone as it began to rain. We were awed by the size of Yellowstone Lake way up there in the mountains. I was also awed by the ANIMALS ARE DANGEROUS—DON’T APPROACH THEM signs, although they probably mean the bison, bear and wolves not the marmots. The cabin at LakeView Lodge (elevation 7744’) was small and cozy, with a private hot shower and a heater that worked.  We took a short walk, past many cozy cottages and considerably fewer bikers, to the lodge where food, drink and the view awaited.

Today, it’s off to Old Faithful and the Grand Tetons.

Muskie and Crayfish and Wasps, Oh my!

Friday - another long travel day with few rewards

Mackinaw City, MI  to Northern Comfort B & B, Embarrass, MN

505 miles

9 hours’ seat time

1 time zone change

Two afternoons in a row we ran into massive thunderstorms with rain pelleting our windowshield to the point of running hazard lights and *thinking* about pulling over.

Judd found a B & B on line near our desired tomorrow-destination so he booked it.  The innkeeper called to remind us that there were no dinner options once we got that far out of town. So we stopped in Duluth about 6pm and had dinner at the Scenic Cafe overlooking the superior side of Lake Superior. The restaurant had a big garden out front featuring mostly green tomatoes. A campfire was going with white Adirondack chairs all around but too warm for anyone to be sitting there. We did try a selfie with Lake Superior in the background.  The B & B was warm and inviting—we just didn’t feel like schmoozing with the other guests in the gazebo, so went straight up to our room for the night.

Saturday am

23.2 miles

22 minutes   

Birch Point Marina Ferry to a camp on an island on Vermillion Lake, MN

When we had contacted Susan about visiting her in Iowa on a certain weekend, she said she wasn’t going to be in Iowa but at a camp in northern Minnesota. We figured out that when we weren’t going to re-enact the Oregon Trail via Independence, Missouri, we could just as well drive a few hours north as a few hours south. So, Susan’s rental lady met us at the marina and ferried us to her family camp out on the island. Susan and Kaiko awaited us with and family and friends for their last day at camp.

The “camp” was really a lodge, 2 parts log cabin and 1  part finished off house with at least 3 stone fireplaces with wood stoves in the great room the dining room and the master bedroom suite,  PLUS a wood-burning kitchen oven. Every room had at least 2 gas lamps. The pre-college-agers swam, canoed, row-boated, camp–fired, made us lunch, played Clue and Yahtzee….it was the real deal.  We had a wonderful, full visit.  

Four of the eight of us received bites?stings? from the whatever-s that swarmed the 3^rd plank on the dock. We saw lures the size of your forearm hanging on the camp boat dock and figured out what the heck kind of fish goes for a lure that size:  a muskie.  We googled up pics (you should too) and they look the size of a beluga whale. This did freak out the swimmers a bit but we heard they were bottom dwellers.  The other disturbance were the mini-lobster size crayfish crawling on the rocks right at water's edge. *Someone* caught enough crayfish to boil, peel and eat as lobster hors d'oeuvres. *Someone* else wouldn't go swimming unless they could jump off a boat out in the middle of the cove to avoid toe pinching. *No one* had nightmares of crayfish picking an entire skeleton clean.

Sunday am

233 miles

All were ready and rearing to depart by 9am after a breakfast of scrambled cheesy eggs and banana bread baked, impressively, by me, in the wood-stoked kitchen oven the evening before. Every time I wiped a counter or table, there was another sprinkling of mouse poop.  Never saw a mouse, but the poop appeared magically, as if falling from the rafters. The "ferry" arrived close to noonish and we all began our 4.5 hr ride to Minneapolis (JT and me) vs. 9.5 hr ride (Susan et al) back to Coralville, IA……. Notwithstanding the construction delays, torrents of rain and accident delays, it was a great commute to the next destination: Peace Corps buddy, Miles’ home.