Day 14 Sod Huts to Mansions - Sites of South Dakota

Wednesday August 18, 2010

(Blog Hint: you should be able to click on the images to get bigger versions).

Today was given over to seeing the sites in southwest South Dakota. Our hotel room in Kadoka was okay, but boy did it stink. We woke up at 6:00 and were just tired of it, so we headed out early. We were in the car a little after 7:00.

We first headed out to the Bad Lands, then hit the booming burg of Wall, headed south to Mount Rushmore, finished up by a trip north through the Black Hills into Deadwood.

As we got close to the Bad Lands we stopped by a place that has an original sod hut built in 1909. As we walked back to it we saw lots of prairie dogs.

Ed and Alice Brown homesteaded this area in 1909. For $18 and the ability to improve 5 acres of the property over 5 years the homesteaders would get 160 acres. They had a saying about homesteading: the government was wagering 160 acres against $18 that the homesteaders would starve to death within 5 years. Apparently this land is much more accommodating to grazing than farming; millions of buffalo can't be wrong. 

Here are a couple of shots showing the inside and outside of the hut. You can see where it the left and back walls are sod.

 

Numerous problems beset the homesteader. Extreme heat in the summer with frequent droughts; fierce cold in the winter including blizzards and a lack of water. At this homestead site we saw the site of the original well. It was 30 feet deep, dug by hand and yielded a couple of buckets of water a day.

Then we went on a 32 mile scenic tour of the Bad Lands. These are amazing and defy description. The erosion continues to work its way northward and the high plains washes away into the low plains.

One of the amazing things about this country at this time of year is seeing the beautiful blue sky juxtaposed against the gray pyramids and spires

We met a young woman moving back to Alabama from Washington; we exchanged the taking of pictures.

As we headed farther west we noticed that the hills picked up some hints of pink.

Back on the theme of homesteading. Imagine you move to South Dakota from back east with the hope of homesteading; you come upon your stake. Imagine trying to make something of this:

I'll be honest, it's more than I can imagine myself doing.

No trip to western South Dakota would be complete without a trip to Wall Drug. We learned that the town of Wall got its name from the fact that it is perched atop the wall formed by the Bad Lands; don't worry, it's safe, it's just built close to the area on the high plains side.

Yeah, we bought some souvenirs.

Next we headed south to Mount Rushmore. I didn't know what to expect. I had figured it was probably larger in my mind that in reality, so I tried to set myself up for it being smaller than expected (if that makes sense). But it was indeed big. Looking through binoculars it looks to me like Lincoln isn't completely finished, the top of his head is kind of still just block.

People who saw this and the Crazy Horse monument say the Crazy Horse sculpture is more impressive
 thing that really struck me is that this is such a big pieced of Americana but because of it being so remote there weren't a lot of people there. Maybe we saw it on a slow day, but this is in the middle of the summer. Only 1 1/2 of the 4 parking lots were filled. I wonder if this were in California, Oregon, or Washington would there be a huge traffic jam for miles, kind of like for the tulip festival in the fall?

From Mt. Rushmore we headed north on a scenic drive on US 385 to Deadwood. We passed a couple of beautiful lakes that I bet it would be way fun to boat on and swim on. I can almost see myself camping there (Horrors!)

In Deadwood our number one priority was to see the Adams house. It was owned by a couple of the local rich merchants in town. It was a very well preserved/restored Victorian house with all the original contents.

The tour guide was okay, but not great. If you remember my recounting a tour of a railroad museum back on our Route 66 trip, you'll recall the character who guided our tour. Well intentioned but a little too corny and rehearsed. But he gave us plenty of time to look around each of the rooms.

Next we signed up for a quick bus tour to see the highlights of town including Boot Hill where Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane are buried. This tour guide was wonderful; very knowledgeable and informative with a minimum of corn.

We finally checked into our hotel, the AmericInn and the Cadillac Jack casino. Back in the 70's or 80's the South Dakota legislature allowed gambling in Deadwood with the proviso that 4% of the income be devoted to historic restoration. All the better for Carla and me; we get a low rate for a nice room and meal discounts. They figure they'll get the money back from us on the gaming tables - not so much. Walking through the casino to the restaurant, the people don't look very happy.

We've covered 1,000 miles on our way back west and are still less than halfway home; we still have about 1,300 miles. Tomorrow we head through northeast Wyoming into Montana with a quick stop scheduled for the Custer battlefield monument. It will be a long driving day tomorrow so no promise of an update tomorrow.

I hope my blog entries aren't too long to be interesting; we've been very busy and I'm trying to capture something about everything we've done so we can remember what a blast we had.

 .

Day 13 Evening in Kadoka

Tuesday Evening August 17, 2010

After catching up on the blog I looked outside and saw the sun was going down. We grabbed the camera, crossed the street and grabbed a few pics. Sunrise and sunset pictures never look as good on film as they do in real life - at least not for me.

Then back to our room.

Day 13 Rochester to Kadoka

Tuesday August 17, 2010


We woke up ate breakfast quickly and headed out toward our planned stop of Murdo, South Dakota. As I said yesterday, Rochester or at least the hotel we stayed at, was pretty sad. Lots of worried people milling around getting breakfast and heading out to the various clinics. The hotel does a good job of ferrying people around; they have a small bus that is constantly dropping off and picking up. We saw other hotels doing the same thing. At any rate we were anxious to leave so we hit the road.

Saw this cool  water tower as we left town

We have seen a lot of corn on this trip; way more than any other crop; or all the other crops combined.

Traffic was much lighter than it had been the day before and we just zipped along next to lots of grazing cattle and some ponds for watering

We stopped for lunch in Mitchell, SD and couldn't pass up the chance to see the Corn Palace. We didn't go in we just grabbed a couple of pictures from the outside.

A little later we crossed the Missouri River.

Interspersed with the corn fields were some sunflower fields. This picture is evocative of what I envisioned for the road trip.

This is really the wide open spaces; the sky just goes forever like a huge bowl over us.

The speed limit in South Dakota is 75, which means we were cruising at just under 80, except for the spots of construction. We went so well we figured we'd get to Murdo in early afternoon and we thought we'd like to get farther along so we could really spend some time in the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore on Wednesday. Carla busted out the tour guides as I drove and found a tiny hotel in the tiny town of Kadoka, South Dakota (population 706). The town is just over the time zone divide so we picked up an hour and felt all the more refreshed.

After checking into the hotel we walked into town to tour main street and visit the depot museum. This is the end of the line for trains, I don't think a train has gone by in years.

An old grain elevator across the now torn out tracks.

And the old Pearl Hotel just across the street

On the way back to the hotel we crossed a creek and saw a couple of deer who were keeping their eyes on us.

The temp was about 90* and dry (ah, nice to be back more west). Back at the hotel we took a dip in the outdoor pool which was chilly but refreshing. Then dinner at the diner next to the hotel.

Days 12 Chicago to Rochester

Monday August16, 2010


Monday was a sad day on both ends of the drive. Henriët came over to Andrew's and we went around the  corner to Ann Sather's cafe for breakfast; they have terrific cinnamon and pecan rolls. Andrew lives in an amazing neighborhood; like Northwest or Southeast Portland with all these great little cafes, diners, and restaurants.

Our visit with Andrew and Henriët was so fun. Andrew is a very considerate guy. He had gone all out in preparing for our visit. He had gone to the bank to get a couple of rolls of quarters to use in the laundry He cleared out some space in his bathroom for our supplies, and had laid out fresh towels and wash cloths for us. And he really took charge in organizing our site seeing. School starts for them in a few weeks  and we won't be seeing them for quite a while.

After finishing breakfast we headed back to Andrew's place where we packed up the car and said goodbye. Once we had reached Andrew's place on Thursday evening we either walked, took the "El", the bus or Andrew drove, so it was my first time behind the wheel for a few days. Chicago driving is intense, I"m glad it was the middle of a weekday so getting the few miles from his place out to the Dan Ryan Expressway was relatively easy. But oh my gosh the Expressway was jam packed; it reminded me of driving in Los Angeles; plus we had the added inconvenience of having to stop and pay tolls every 10 or 15 minutes, and the case lanes were constricted and slow. At any rate we were kind of blue as we drove north to Wisconsin.

We had planned to stop in La Crosse, Wisconsin on the Mississippi river but we were making better time than we had expected and just wanted to get some miles in. We stopped at a rest stop and went over the maps and figured Rochester, Minnesota would be a good stop.

Wisconsin was hilly with lots of dairy farms and what-not scattered about.

There were some interesting yellow rock formations we drove by. At first I thought this was a man-made road-side attraction, but it really was rock.

We stopped for gas in La Crosse and took a little detour to see the Mississippi river, driving across part of French Island. When we crossed the big river a week earlier in Hannibal, Missouri it was incredibly hot and humid. Here it was much cooler, in the 70's.

This was a beautiful spot. It might have been fun to stay and swim in the river here; I dipped my toe in and it was warm; not as warm as it is in Hannibal, but definitely swimmable.

We entered the next state on our journey: Minnesota

We didn't do the best job of capturing the "Welome" signs today; but trust me, the sign says "Welcome to Minnesota".

More lovely little farms in Minnesota

 
Rochester is the home of the Mayo Clinic. Back in the day a tornado had destroyed the local hospital so an order of nuns came to an agreement with Dr. Mayo: the nuns would build a new hospital if Dr. Mayo would staff it. Our hotel was just about 1/2 mile from one of the main Mayo buildings. It was pretty sad being there because there were so many sick people and families of sick people. Our hotel had a lot of suites with kitchenettes for long term stays.  On the other hand, I suppose there is a lot of hope there as they are doing amazing things there by all reports.

The evening was cool, a cold front must have pushed in from the north, so we went for a little walk around part of the pretty downtown. There was a large veterans' memorial park we could have walked in for hours but we were tired so went to the hotel restaurant, Twigs, for dinner. We started off with vodka tonics and perused the menus. They have a heated rock entree which I just had to try. They bring out a large slab of flat granite nestled in a paella pan that has been heated to 650*. Then they bring out whatever type of meat you choose along with a couple of sauces. I had local pork (of course); slapped it on the  rock for about 5 minutes and my dinner was ready. Jeff (our son) would hate this; he figures if you go to a restaurant you are paying them to cook your meal. In this case I think he would be right; it was interesting, but in the end just a gimmick. The meat has no seasoning and the two sauces I tried (bourbon and raspberry chipotle) were not that great. I'm glad I did it but wouldn't do it again.

So, sad in leaving, sad in the idea that we are headed home and have passed the middle of our vacation, and sad on arriving in a town with a lot of sick, sad people. Well

Day 11 - Chicago River Architecture Tour

Sunday August 15, 2010


Henriët sings at St. Michael's Catholic Church in Old Town. Today she sang cantor for both the 9 and 11 services so was unable to be with us for breakfast.  Andrew, Carla and I put a couple of loads of wash in then went down the street to have breakfast at the Melrose diner. After folding the laundry we headed out second service. Carla and I have only heard her practice a few times, so it was a total treat to hear her in a more performance mode.

I had taken the camera out of Carla's purse before church so I could load yesterday's pictures and I forgot to put it back in its place. As a result we have no pictures of the beautiful church with the gorgeous stained glass windows. Being protestant we weren't very familiar with the Catholic church order of service and knowing the responses. Today's lectionary topic was the annunciation of Mary; something we protestants don't focus on much. One side of the church had stained glass windows focusing on Christ and the other on Mary. The priest did a nice job of relating the images of Mary on the window with his homily.

At this point I'll turn the blog over to Carla to narrate the tour

After hearing Henriët sing so beautifully, we took a bus back to downtown Chicago for an architectural tour via boat on the Chicago River. It was about perfect weather-wise today, and the city looked magnificent. Chicago is all about BIG, and very proud of their prairie school of architecture. The tour guide was very knowledgable - he was a volunteer docent, who clearly has a great love of his city.

There are definitely lots more bridges over the Chicago River than the Willamette, but then again, the river isn't nearly as wide as in the Rose City.

Here is  our tour guide - he talked non-stop for the whole 90 minutes, but it was all so interesting, it went by in no time.

Henriët rook this photo of one of Chicago's 'International' or modern style high rises.

These are from the lock separating Lake Michigan and the river, and looking back at the city. The lake is two feet higher than the river, evidently.

Howard and Andrew having fun in the sun.

The Wrigley Building is to the left - hard to tell, but it's very grand.

On the way back to Andrew's on the El - another great way to see Chicago. 

The sign should have been pointing down, because that's where Howard clearly was.

It was such fun today, seeing the sights and getting to pal around with Andrew and Henriët. A wonderful day.

Day 10 - Chicago Art Institute

Saturday August 14, 2010


Unfortunately for us, but very fortunately for the newlyweds, Henriët had to sing at a wedding today so could not join us on our venture into Chicago. Andrew, Carla and I headed over to m. henry's in the Andersonville neighborhood for breakfast. Carla and I had "birds in a nest"where they cut a hole in a piece of bread and fry your egg in it. Delicious. Andrew had a fried egg sandwich with gorgonzola cheese and fresh thyme. The best part of the breakfast was the bacon; we had candied applewood smoked bacon and it was terrific. It definitely fills the bill as meat candy.

After breakfast we went back to Andrew's place for a bit; then took the "El" to downtown where we walked over to the Art Institute

We spent about 4 hours walking through the various exhibits and we saw a lot of art and I do mean a lot. It was very interesting walking through the various exhibits in chronological order so we could see how an artists work changed and a school of art changed over time. For example we saw Picasso pieces spanning many years from fairly realistic representation the planar, cubist works. I also got a better appreciation for how the modern art fits into art history. Andrew commented that the music world went through similar changes and he could tell how the music of various times coordinated with the visual arts. Pictures won't do them justice; you'll have to go experience it yourself.

My legs were very tired after the museum but it wasn't as hot as it had been. We tried to get into the (Jeff) Willis tower but when we got there at 4:00 there was a 90 minute wait to get to the top an we had dinner reservations at the Weber Grill restaurant at 5:15. I guess we can't fit everything in. So we headed toward the restaurant detouring through Millennium Park. There was a series of out of this world sculptures from China; I wish we had a better picture of the red one.

It's some sort of animal with a long tongue turning into a crane lifting a hippo and some people into the air. Also in the park is this big stainless steel "bean"

I took my picture - a portrait of the artist if you will

Also in the park is a fountain with two towers featuring changing faces. There is a spout right in the mouth that shoots off every 5 minutes; kind of like the fountain at the waterfront in Portland.

I need to get back to this park when I'm not so tired so I can get better pictures of everything; it was really wild.

Henriët called and said she was done with the wedding and was at the restaurant so we grabbed cab over to the Weber Grill. It's true; they cook everything on these ginormous Weber kettle grills. Andrew and I had St. Louis style ribs with a dry rub and sauce on the side; Carla and Henriët had salmon. The ribs were delicious. I've been working for a few years trying to get ribs down and I've been pretty happy with the results. I was glad these were dry rub so they'd give me something to compare with.

Henriët had driven downtown so we piled in her car (she was the designated driver) and went back to Andrew's place. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to walk the 2 blocks down to Lake Michigan for a stroll (we hadn't walked enough :))

Sunday would be less walking and standing and more sitting; we have tickets for the river architecture tour.

Road Trip 2010 - Eastbound travel statistics

We've completed the first half of our travel and I thought it would be interesting to share how much car time we had. These are statistics for "in the car" driving whether it was on the highway or driving up and down Grand Island Nebraska looking for a DQ.

• Total miles Portland to Chicago: 2,371
• Average speed: 52 MPH. It's really dropped from the fast times at Wyoming High. It dropped another 3 MPH just driving through Illinois.
• Average fuel usage: 30 MPG. This has dropped from a high of 31
• Total time in the car: 44:59

Naturally if we had climbed in the car and come directly across I84/I80 with no side trips, the miles would be much lower and the average speed probably a bit higher. We spend a lot of time at 60 MPH across Nebraska and Missouri.

When we climb in the car on Monday morning we'll reset the travel odometer and compare the trip back.

I also have a spreadsheet I'm keeping of the time and miles between towns. I've had problems in the past formtatting spreadsheets in Blogspot, but I'll cross my fingers.

Road Trip 2010 - Day 9 Chicago Field Museum

Friday August 12, 2010

Finally a day of no driving! Henriët came over in the morning and we headed to Orange With a Peel for breakfast; a place that has terrific French Toast. I had French Toast infused with orange and served with a raspberry cream sauce and slivered almonds. Henriët and Carla had Chai Tea French Toast with Ricotta cheese. Andrew had a Popeye scramble (with spinach).

Henriët had to leave for work; Carla, Andrew, and I went to the Chicago Field Museum with is a natural history museum. It is on the lakefront in the same complex as Soldier Field, the aquarium, and planetarium.  They all have similar architecture; they kind of ruined Soldier Field (in my humble opinion) when they remodeled it; it's all modern glass stuck on top and around the beautiful old architecture.

Here is the outside of the Field Museum

The first stop was Sue, the most complete T-Rex ever. It is named Sue, not because of the gender, but because Sue is the first name of the woman who discovered her. I think it has been in the museum 10 years; a few years ago the prevailing theory on how T-Rex fed changed. They now think they were scavengers rather than predators; accordingly, they changed Sue's pose. Carla must have read about Sue being a scavenger before I did, because she wasn't scared at all about it looming down on us.

We spent at least 4 hours in the museum looking at Egyptian mummies, Native American migrations, mammals of Africa, climate change, and mammoths and mastodons. Some of the items have been in the collection over 100 years.  I didn't get any pictures inside because there is a no flash policy and the lights are very low to reduce the deterioration. 

Leaving the museum we were presented with the Chicago skyline, a portion of which you see here:

As we walked down to the aquarium and the lake side we heard jet engines. Surprise, surprise, there was a water and air show going on over the beach and the blue angels were in town. We looked up and the whole squadron roared over  at a height of less than 500 feet; just over the tree tops. By the time I got the camera ready they were long gone leaving only their contrails.

I took a dozen pics but could barely get them in the frame. They move so fast it was hard to pick them up in the LCD frame of the camera. I got one as they were headed over the city.

On the way back to Andrew's apartment we stopped by De Paul

and saw Henriët on the job

This is where they met; he dropped by to pick up the key to a practice room and BAM.

Carla and I went back to Andrew's apartment for a nap while Andrew went back to campus and practiced until Henriët got off work. 

Then we went out for sushi at Wakamono. It was terrific. The sunomono  had strips of crab over the top. We wanted to linger over drinks, but lightening started appearing and the wind kicked up. It was a couple of blocks back to Andrew's apartment so we beat it back ahead of the storm. For dessert we had the more of Henriët's chocolate caramel mint crisp. What a way to spend the day.

Tomorrow we head to the Art Institute and hopefully a trip to the top of the (Jeff) Willis tower.