Trip Statistics

S0---
We travelled 9,581 miles
We used 441.5 Gallons of gas
We went to 11 National Parks, 2 State Parks and 1 island.
We crossed the Continental Divide 5 times
We saw a gazillion beautiful sights and stored beautiful memories
We took 3,383 pictures to help us remember
The stack of receipts is 4" high

As we travelled west and north and east and south, we marvelled at our beautiful country. Driving all that distance was an invaluable chance to see how earthquakes, volcanoes, glaciers and erosion have changed our world. The changes in topography were sometimes subtle and sometimes striking, but always stunning! Even the snow was pretty!

A big thanks to Michelle and AAA for helping us plan the trip.

We hope you enjoyed this blog--it's become a journal for us.

Love to all..............

The Almost Zip Line Home......

We left Schaumburg at 4 am on Monday with the full intention of getting home Monday night. There has been a lot of rain in central Indiana, and many of the fields were flooded; some of the fields were so wet they have not been planted yet.
















We drove through the Smokey Mountains so we could see them while the Rockies were fresh in our minds. The Smokies are just small hills after our trip!

It was good to see palm trees again as we reached the Florida Welcome Center!

During our drive we got a call from George and Karen -- they were still at their new house in Ruskin FL (just north of Sarasota). We decided to go visit them and see the house, so we stayed in a motel one more night and had lunch with them on Tuesday.

They have a very nice house in a very nice development with
a golf course, two really nice pools and all the upscale

amenities.

Then we drove home and SLEPT IN OUR OWN BEDS LAST NIGHT!!!!!!!

It was the first night in a long time that we woke up knowing where we were and which way to the bathroom!

We miss you all while we say Welcome Home to us!

Visiting in Schaumburg

We had a ten day visit with our family and friends in Schaumburg.
Bob and Liz were on vacation, but we were able to spend time with our other four kid and all of our grand kids. We had lots of fun! We went to Robert's baseball game and watched Robert and Alexis swing.
We had pizza with Lori, Amanda and Sarah and we had Chinese with Tom, Mary Lou and their kids. We were also able to spend time with Phil, Sue and their kids. Sorry--no pictures of them.


We had time to see many of our friends, and we celebrated with Marv on his 77th Birthday

We went for a walk in our favorite Schaumburg Nature Center

We had a great time!

Our travel on the Oregon Trail from 5/25/10

On our way to the Tetons we came across a beautiful town named Montepelier, Idaho. We went to the Oregon Trail Museum there, and learned that the town used to be the mid point for settlers between Independence, MO and the Oregon Territory (includes what would become Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, California).
We learned we would be traveling for 6 1/2 months. We would need a wagon, 6 oxen, 20 lbs of coffee, 10 lbs of gun powder, a gun for every man woman and child, and food/water for the trip. The cost would be $1,500.00 -- $18,500 in today's dollars! The wagon weighed 1,000 lbs and we would be allowed to take 1,000 lbs with us.


Everybody walked. They slept under the wagon if it rained. Sometimes they had to throw their prized possessions (like china, crystal, furniture) out of the wagon if the hills were too much for the oxen.
All in all we are, once again, grateful to be cruising along with our horses under the hood and the air conditioning on!

The museum tour was conducted by "settlers" in period costumes and included a ride in a Conestoga Wagon (done hydraulically), stories, music and information about what it was like to travel the trail.

It was delightful!

Minnesota to Wisconsin - Family Fun

We stayed in Albert Lea MN two nights ago and made our way east into the central time zone and across the Mississippi River to Madison, WI. It was refreshing to see the thick, rich foliage of deciduous trees and rolling fields.







Many of the rivers and lakes are over their banks due to heavy snow pack over the winter months.






We went to visit Rodney and Darlene to find a big bulldozer in front of their house -- the road is being redone and right now it's all mud! But that did not keep us from enjoying breakfast with them at their MM Breakfast club. They meet with a large group of people for breakfast and have a good time. It's a great group of people and the owners of the restaurant are extraordinary!













Then we went to Russell and Jane's house and had lunch. We ended up staying till about 7pm just talking.



Neal has great brothers!


Tomorrow we will leave for Schaumburg. I think there's a baseball game (Robert's) and there is also the Belmont -- so we'll have to get there fast!

See you soon!

We stayed in Albert Lea MN two nights ago, and arrived in Madison WI yesterday.

So we left the Badlands today...The Badlands are still bad!
The Black Hills turned into gently rolling hills and then to the flat farmland of Minnesota.

We drove all day and arrived in Albert Lea MN just in time to have a great dinner.

Tomorrow we will travel to Richland Center to check on our friends there and then on to Madison to spend some time with Rodney and Darlene and Russell and Jane.

By Saturday evening we should be in Schaumburg and we are looking forward to seeing all of you!

PS -- Forgot to tell you we learned how to pan for gold in Rapid City SD. -- But we did not get rich doing it!

Bears, Crazy Horses and Wine......

We've had a busy few days here in Rapid City, South Dakota.


We went to Bear Country and saw lots of bears and a very bored looking mountain goat....











We've taken so many pictures (3,122) that we blew out the back up drive and we had to go get a new one!








We visited Crazy Horse to see the progress, but they have not gotten too much further since 2006. I'll compare pictures when we get back home.

The picture below is of the statue in the foreground and the actual mountain in the background.

We ended our afternoon with a trip to the local winery to sample their wines. After Wine Country X3, there's not much room in the car!

Tomorrow we will leave for Sioux Falls and then on to Madison to see Rodney and Russell. We plan on being in Schaumburg sometime Saturday evening. See you soon.......

Hiking Around Devil's Tower

Today we went to Devil's Tower. The original Indian name was Bear House, but an exporer changed it.

Legend has it that 7 young Indian girls were being chased by a bear -- and jumped on top of a rock and prayed to the rock to save them. The rock heard their pleas and began to get taller and taller. The vertical lines on the tower are from the bear scratching the sides to try and reach the girls. The tower got higher and higher until it pushed up into the sky, where they are to this day in a group of seven little stars called the Pleiades.

More modern theory is that the tower may be a plug from the top of a volcano that erupted millions of years ago and the softer rock eroded away. The tower is a spiritual place for the Lakota Indians and there are prayer rags all around the tower.






This is a picture of Neal and myself at the base of the tower.

There is also a large Prairie Dog community just outside the park. They are real cute!

The 1983 Bar

Hi there! Today was a travel day, and the only really interesting

thing we did was to have lunch at the Sheridan Inn. It's a restaurant, bar and Museum. The picture shows the original bar where Buffalo Wild Bill Cody spent time and held auditions for his wild west show. The round stool without a back is his.


We are now close to Devil's Tower in Gillette, WY.

Our phone service is not real good - it keeps going in and out. So if you need to reach us, use email.

Love to all........

PS to our Mining Blog

Interestingly enough, we were reading about the mines and discovered that BP-Arco is responsible in perpetuity for the operation and maintenance of the water treatment plant that keeps the contaminated water out of the aquifer.
And Now we have the Louisiana spill too!

Also, we got through Yellowstone just in time. There's 5 inches falling there as we speak!

Today we went to see a mine. The World Museum of Mining provides a tour which took us 165 feet down into a real hard rock mine.

The metal structure is the "Mine Head" where the ore is brought to the surface. The deepest mine shaft is one mile deep.

Appropriate attire includes a hard hat with light and a belt to hold the battery for the light. The battery pack is attached to the back of the belt. The mine is very dark, and the light beats a candle, which was what they used in the 1800's!

Mining was very hazardous work and safety was not a priority like it is today.

In the picture below the bell in the upper right corner is their communication tool and their safety/warning. It was so noisy that they could not hear each other, so the loud bell was needed. Nine bells meant a disaster in the mine! Neal is standing in the Cage, which is the metal box that transported miners and ore up and down the mine shaft. The picture on the right is the actual mine showing a hand pushed cart on the little railroad tracks.

We also visited the Berkley Pit. This is a huge open pit copper mine. It has been worked off and on since the early 1800's. In 2000 it was closed because the low cost of copper made it too expensive to operate. They turned off the pumps to save money and the pit began to fill up with acidic water containing metal ores. It is now the largest US Superfund clean-up project. In 2003 they started processing the water to remove the copper and keep the water level in the pit below the level of the Butte Aquifer. The water in the pit is 1000 feet deep and contains more than 40 Billion gallons. They are pumping 13.2 Million gallons per day out of the pit, and that just maintains the level of the water to keep it out of the aquifer.

The pit itself is 1.25 miles east to west and one mile north to south with a 4 mile circumference.

This was very interesting, but I don't think mining is "my thing" -- or Neal's!

There is another

The Road to Butte

Today's drive was from Yellowstone Park to Butte, Montana.

We drove through beautiful valleys and over more mountain passes. Sometimes the road got pretty narrow.....

Neal was fascinated by the way they bail the hay. These bales are really big!
We stopped in a little town named Ennis, and it was a lovely down. They are doing painted rainbow trout...

We had a cup of coffee and a "to die for" cinnamon roll at Yesterday's Soda Fountain and Drug Store.

The chairs and table legs were all covered with different baby booties to protect the floor and help them slide.

When we got to Butte we went to see the Berkley Pit.

It is a very large mine that produced great amounts of copper during the Industrial Revolution. The mine has been started and stopped several times over the past 50 years. It is not being mined right now because the price of copper is low.

The Hike to Hidden Falls

We began our hike with a boat ride across Jenny Lake to the Mount St. John peak. The map said that Hidden Falls was about .5 miles, and that did not seem too bad......













After climbing many steps, we got to the real starting place for our climb....






It didn't take long to find the snow line -- and the slippery slopes! It got colder too!
Neal found sturdy sticks for balance.









After what seemed more like 5 miles than .5 miles, we arrived at the falls. The view was beautiful!












The climb down proved harder than the climb up -- the snow was hardpacked and mixed with mud and water in places, so it was easy to get off balance and slide.

I fell once when my stick broke, but I fell in the snow not the mud, so it wsn't too bad.

By the time we got back to the boat we were hungry and ready for lunch!

We finally got to see Grand Teton National Park!

We had a great time in the Tetons! This picture was taken at the bottom. The Teton Glacier is just above and to the right of my head.



This picture was taken at Lewis Lake, just about the middle of our drive.






What's a pile of snow without a snowball??

This picture was taken as high as we could get. The Big Mountain with the Glacier was closed to traffic because of snow.
We had a great time and we hiked to Hidden Falls. We'll show pictures of that hike/snow/ice in another blog.

We finished the day in Yellowstone Park seeing the places we missed last time. Lots of animals, but no bear! I am so disappointed!!!

A note about Hotels

The hotels here in Jackson are western styled and upscale.
Our room had a fireplace -- and a hot tub -- and a kitchenette and wet bar -- and a great mattress -- and it cost more than twice what we've paid anywhere else -- and it was Wonderful!

Jackson Hole is the south gate to the Tetons, so we are off and climbing again. See you in Yellowstone.........