Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Hi Deer!
These deer visited us both mornings at Legion Lake and could be seen throughout the day nibbling on the grasses, how sweet!!
Devil's Tower and Deadwood
Today began with a lovely, early morning hike around Legion Lake to say goodbye to our lovely cabin in the woods. The resident Osprey was making is morning circles searching for some breakfast, the mallards were quacking away and there was a noisy woodpecker that was a fantastic escape artist avoiding my cameras capture of him. Oh well, he was cool looking with a huge plume on his head, and we awoke to him pecking away at our cabin's walls.
Our next stop was Devil's Tower, which is actually in Wyoming. I drove today and it was a pleasant, and remarkably fast, drive into Wyoming via the scenic route rather than the interstate. Wyoming seemed even more cowboy country-ish than the Black Hills, and there's red clay ridges cutting into the grassy countryside everywhere that is rustic and pretty. We pulled up to the massive tower awestruck by this thing which is incorrectly attributed to the Devil. If there were a devil, it most certainly couldn't be responsible for this wonder smack dab in the middle of an environment that seems to be mismatched; they believe it was once a volcano, or the inside remnants of a volcano, or just a bubble of magma that popped up. Whatever it is, it seems as if it should be sitting in Hawaii and not in Wyoming! On the long, slow ascent up to the visitors center where you start the walking path around it, there's a village of prairie dogs that skitter and chirp and do cute little doggie dances with each other that are worth a stop of the car to snap photos. They seem to communicate to each other the ever-present danger of golden eagles circling overhead, they are fast and have many underground tunnels to take refuge in. The walk around Devil's Tower is not too long, a mile and a quarter I believe, a bit of a challenge but there are many places to rest, and there is a unique sound that surrounds the tower: the wind. I've never heard wind like this, it's almost like invisible water falls crashing down around you, but yet it's still. It's both sunny and shady, hot and cold along the trail of trees and massive rock. The forest surrounding the tower is a silent beauty, it smells of pine strongly but not overpowering. The rock that has fallen from the tower are huge columnar formations that have broken away and look as if they could kill an entire village in one swoop. After our walk, we shared a little picnic and took a load off, then headed onto Deadwood, SD.
Deadwood, if you've not heard of it, was a gold rush town that has an interesting history. John got into a tv series called "Deadwood" that's based on the whole story, but it was too realistically gory for me to watch so I don't know much about it, other than what he's told me. Most people seem to have an ideal about these cowboys as silent, stoic and honorable men like in old John Wayne movies. They were anything but. It was a grizzly time, so it's definitely an interesting history, but again, it's a pretty disturbing, lawlessness which I find difficult to comprehend. The town today looks a lot like the old west, one story towns from the movies, so much so it almost looks like a movie set. It's filled with casinos, there are slot machines in every window, there are even fake prostitutes in the second story window of the building across from our hotel window, how quaint! But....a little creepy.
Our hotel is the highlight so far, though. We were planning on spending only one night here, so we booked Room 218 of the Celebrity Hotel along Main Street, and upon seeing this grand suite, we promptly went back downstairs to secure it for a second night. It is the largest, most tasteful and extravagant hotel room either of us have seen, and for the low low price of $99 per night, (that's right, $99) we decided to extend our trip another day to enjoy this great escape. I can't even describe it, so we will let the pictures do all the talking.
Our next stop was Devil's Tower, which is actually in Wyoming. I drove today and it was a pleasant, and remarkably fast, drive into Wyoming via the scenic route rather than the interstate. Wyoming seemed even more cowboy country-ish than the Black Hills, and there's red clay ridges cutting into the grassy countryside everywhere that is rustic and pretty. We pulled up to the massive tower awestruck by this thing which is incorrectly attributed to the Devil. If there were a devil, it most certainly couldn't be responsible for this wonder smack dab in the middle of an environment that seems to be mismatched; they believe it was once a volcano, or the inside remnants of a volcano, or just a bubble of magma that popped up. Whatever it is, it seems as if it should be sitting in Hawaii and not in Wyoming! On the long, slow ascent up to the visitors center where you start the walking path around it, there's a village of prairie dogs that skitter and chirp and do cute little doggie dances with each other that are worth a stop of the car to snap photos. They seem to communicate to each other the ever-present danger of golden eagles circling overhead, they are fast and have many underground tunnels to take refuge in. The walk around Devil's Tower is not too long, a mile and a quarter I believe, a bit of a challenge but there are many places to rest, and there is a unique sound that surrounds the tower: the wind. I've never heard wind like this, it's almost like invisible water falls crashing down around you, but yet it's still. It's both sunny and shady, hot and cold along the trail of trees and massive rock. The forest surrounding the tower is a silent beauty, it smells of pine strongly but not overpowering. The rock that has fallen from the tower are huge columnar formations that have broken away and look as if they could kill an entire village in one swoop. After our walk, we shared a little picnic and took a load off, then headed onto Deadwood, SD.
Deadwood, if you've not heard of it, was a gold rush town that has an interesting history. John got into a tv series called "Deadwood" that's based on the whole story, but it was too realistically gory for me to watch so I don't know much about it, other than what he's told me. Most people seem to have an ideal about these cowboys as silent, stoic and honorable men like in old John Wayne movies. They were anything but. It was a grizzly time, so it's definitely an interesting history, but again, it's a pretty disturbing, lawlessness which I find difficult to comprehend. The town today looks a lot like the old west, one story towns from the movies, so much so it almost looks like a movie set. It's filled with casinos, there are slot machines in every window, there are even fake prostitutes in the second story window of the building across from our hotel window, how quaint! But....a little creepy.
Our hotel is the highlight so far, though. We were planning on spending only one night here, so we booked Room 218 of the Celebrity Hotel along Main Street, and upon seeing this grand suite, we promptly went back downstairs to secure it for a second night. It is the largest, most tasteful and extravagant hotel room either of us have seen, and for the low low price of $99 per night, (that's right, $99) we decided to extend our trip another day to enjoy this great escape. I can't even describe it, so we will let the pictures do all the talking.
Where the Deer and the Antelope Play
Again, I must reiterate: wow. It’s hardly to be believed that this place is part of the same, flat, farming state that borders our own, the landscape here reminds me of Pennsylvania. The weather has been absolutely perfect. We keep remarking that we picked the perfect time to come (rock on for May 2 weddings!) because there are hardly any people on the roads. There are tourists, but not too many, so it’s quiet but not completely isolated. Very romantic.
Today we were up and at ‘em around 5:30 (Mountain time) and got on the road by 6:45 to our first stop, the Crazy Horse monument which supposedly opened at 7, but that was a lie, so we took some pictures from afar and left for Mount Rushmore. We were wholly impressed with Mount Rushmore, say what you will about the controversy surrounding its making. There’s a nifty little trail and audio tour that you can take to see some very cool views over the Black Hills. There are more chipmunks than you could ever possibly imagine, and there are also mountain goats! I was hell bent on seeing a mountain goat before we left, and as you’ll see from the pictures, right before we left two of them appeared out of nowhere right in front of the visitors center!! Amazing! It topped off a bit of an unpleasant patch in our trail journey where I got really sick, so I was happy to have it end on a high note ☺
Onto Rapid City for a bite to eat at the Firehouse Brewery where we shared a delish meal, followed by a walk where John almost bought a tuba from an eager salesman (haha!), then to enjoy some iced drinks at Dunn Bros and login to the internet to post yesterday’s entry. We giggled and acted like a teenage couple hovering over our iMac with our icees, it was quite fun, and helped me recover a bit from whatever the hell it was that struck me at Rushmore. We were then going to go to the Wind Caves, but the long drive and the hour and a half journey they promise (all underground with over 300 steps to walk) didn’t sound like it would be best for me today, so we ended up going back to Custer State Park to drive the Wildlife Loop Road. That turned out to be the highlight of the day as you will see in our photos that follow!! We saw wild turkeys, two kinds of deer, antelope, burros, prairie dogs (we think) and of course, BISON! We actually saw wild bison! We even got out of the car and stood to take pictures of a whole herd of bison with their little young ’uns, it was absolutely incredible! A lot of the animals we saw were very close to the car so we got good photos, but the burros, oh my gawd the burros were the cutest things! They literally walk right up to the cars! John was out taking some photos and there was this adorable dark brown burro that started making a bee-line for him, so we made for the car where he kept right on following us. While I love animals, and these did appear friendly, they are wild so we kept the windows up even though it broke our hearts to drive away from those sweet faces, it’s probably for the best. We’ve got pictures of other folks who stopped to pet the burros and who blocked their cars to try to beg food from the passersby ☺ What silly loves!
Monday's Mileage: 156.8
Roadkill Report: Zero!! Double happiness!
(This post is from Monday, last post was from Sunday but we didn't have internet access so they are both a day late.)
Today we were up and at ‘em around 5:30 (Mountain time) and got on the road by 6:45 to our first stop, the Crazy Horse monument which supposedly opened at 7, but that was a lie, so we took some pictures from afar and left for Mount Rushmore. We were wholly impressed with Mount Rushmore, say what you will about the controversy surrounding its making. There’s a nifty little trail and audio tour that you can take to see some very cool views over the Black Hills. There are more chipmunks than you could ever possibly imagine, and there are also mountain goats! I was hell bent on seeing a mountain goat before we left, and as you’ll see from the pictures, right before we left two of them appeared out of nowhere right in front of the visitors center!! Amazing! It topped off a bit of an unpleasant patch in our trail journey where I got really sick, so I was happy to have it end on a high note ☺
Onto Rapid City for a bite to eat at the Firehouse Brewery where we shared a delish meal, followed by a walk where John almost bought a tuba from an eager salesman (haha!), then to enjoy some iced drinks at Dunn Bros and login to the internet to post yesterday’s entry. We giggled and acted like a teenage couple hovering over our iMac with our icees, it was quite fun, and helped me recover a bit from whatever the hell it was that struck me at Rushmore. We were then going to go to the Wind Caves, but the long drive and the hour and a half journey they promise (all underground with over 300 steps to walk) didn’t sound like it would be best for me today, so we ended up going back to Custer State Park to drive the Wildlife Loop Road. That turned out to be the highlight of the day as you will see in our photos that follow!! We saw wild turkeys, two kinds of deer, antelope, burros, prairie dogs (we think) and of course, BISON! We actually saw wild bison! We even got out of the car and stood to take pictures of a whole herd of bison with their little young ’uns, it was absolutely incredible! A lot of the animals we saw were very close to the car so we got good photos, but the burros, oh my gawd the burros were the cutest things! They literally walk right up to the cars! John was out taking some photos and there was this adorable dark brown burro that started making a bee-line for him, so we made for the car where he kept right on following us. While I love animals, and these did appear friendly, they are wild so we kept the windows up even though it broke our hearts to drive away from those sweet faces, it’s probably for the best. We’ve got pictures of other folks who stopped to pet the burros and who blocked their cars to try to beg food from the passersby ☺ What silly loves!
Monday's Mileage: 156.8
Roadkill Report: Zero!! Double happiness!
(This post is from Monday, last post was from Sunday but we didn't have internet access so they are both a day late.)
Monday, May 05, 2008
Black Hills
Wow, well, we made it to Black Hills! It is more beautiful than I could have imagined. Even the developed areas are wild and free by city slicker standards. This would be a cool place to run a restaurant or bed & breakfast, or just own a little cabin to spend the summers. Wow, that’s the only thing I can say to describe it here. Wow.
We started the day with a peanut butter sandwich and were on the road by 8:30 am to get a jump on the long day ahead of us. We stopped at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, which was a disappointment: I was thinking a literal palace made entirely of corn, but it’s actually a community center with large art made of corn above some seats on a basketball court. Not great. Something to do with fire regulations, I think. BAH! We did happen across Lake Mitchell, though, and found an impressive flock of pelicans and got some awesome pictures of them!
My sweet love did ALL the driving today, except for a small stretch of highway between the Wall Drug (which is a big tourist attraction, though I’d never heard of it before this, and much better than the Corn Palace of Shame) to the next rest stop after I started having a panic attack about how winding the roads were going to get. I’m glad we switched seats, because that panic was nothing compared to the mortal fear I experienced later as we drove up the side of a mountain to get to the Sylvan Lake Lodge, egads. At one point, there’s a tunnel that is big enough for only ONE car, though it’s a two-way road. The Sylvan had some funny situation going on, so the manager called the Legion Lake Resort to hold us a cabin. It is the cutest cabin, perfect for a little romantic stay in the woods ☺ We’re ill equipped for a cabin stay, but they’ve got a little grocery store and restaurant at the bottom of hill, nice and convenient, and my idea of “roughing it”.
We were amazed at how many deer we saw on the way up the mountain, and they were right outside the car just looking up at you like, “Hey, how’s it going? Got any food?” We haven’t seen any wild bison yet, but they are here in this very park, Custer State, and there are warnings everywhere about how dangerous they are. I’d love to see some and take pictures from afar, WAY afar! That’s the beauty of having a zoom lens. After we settled into our cabin, we took off on a walk, and right outside the cabin looking straight at us were three very friendly deer!! They stayed there and looked at us with interest while we shot a buttload of pics, I couldn’t believe it! I suppose to people out here the deer are as common as squirrels, but to us, it’s so incredible to get that close to them! They nibbled on the grass demurely as we admired them and they never did get spooked, not once, even with all the clicking of our digital cameras.
We explored the large, mountainy ridges that surround this tiny serene lake, and then settled down near the waters edge to admire the mallards coupling, the birds twittering, the fish jumping, and a very large Osprey trying to get dinner for himself. We’ve got photos of it all, never fear! The fluffy sprawl of clouds over the lake had me mesmerized until the chill in the air finally sent us to the cabin to snuggle in for the night. So now we’re here relaxing in silence, no tv, no water park or kids running down hallways, no freeways, no cars, no sounds (except the chorus of our bellies that are strangely in unison, I hope my IBS isn’t contagious), no internet access…just us in this grand place that I imagine is quite similar to what it was when the world was new to human life.
Tomorrow’s agenda: Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, find an internet café (preferably a Caribou coffee, I’m dying for a chai latte!) so we can post this and our photos, then off to tour the Wind Caves, which are reportedly some of the largest caves in the world! YAY! Now I’m off to take a look at the beautiful gemstones I found for a STEAL at the Wall Drug. In case you’re wondering, I picked up 2 rose quartz, an amethyst, moss agate, blue lace, clear quartz, blood stone, fancy jasper, obsidian, malachite and adventurine, all for only $3.07!!!!!! I’m very tempted to stop back there to pick up more because they were so cheap, hopefully time allows. I would still like to stop off at a couple of the trading post places around Rapid City to look for totem animal carvings, cuz I’m into freaky stuff like that. Whee!
Our live animal report for the road is good: we saw LOADS of pheasants, ducks, cows, horses, regal white cranes and deer roaming around alive and well!! It is, however, a sad day for lots of others ☹
Roadkill Report: 3 bunnies, 9 pheasants, a raccoon, a muskrat (perhaps), 2 “chunkies”, and 2 “tiny somethings”. Lots of semi tires also lots their lives today; tons of rubber bits on the road.
Today's Mileage: 366.7
Restaurant Report: Today we only ate out once at a shitty little place called the Cactus Grill near the Wall Drug. It was food, that’s about all I can say for it. I kept telling myself that we were eating better than they did in the old west, and at least I’m not turning tricks for my meals like the ladies of those days had to. Ick.
We started the day with a peanut butter sandwich and were on the road by 8:30 am to get a jump on the long day ahead of us. We stopped at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, which was a disappointment: I was thinking a literal palace made entirely of corn, but it’s actually a community center with large art made of corn above some seats on a basketball court. Not great. Something to do with fire regulations, I think. BAH! We did happen across Lake Mitchell, though, and found an impressive flock of pelicans and got some awesome pictures of them!
My sweet love did ALL the driving today, except for a small stretch of highway between the Wall Drug (which is a big tourist attraction, though I’d never heard of it before this, and much better than the Corn Palace of Shame) to the next rest stop after I started having a panic attack about how winding the roads were going to get. I’m glad we switched seats, because that panic was nothing compared to the mortal fear I experienced later as we drove up the side of a mountain to get to the Sylvan Lake Lodge, egads. At one point, there’s a tunnel that is big enough for only ONE car, though it’s a two-way road. The Sylvan had some funny situation going on, so the manager called the Legion Lake Resort to hold us a cabin. It is the cutest cabin, perfect for a little romantic stay in the woods ☺ We’re ill equipped for a cabin stay, but they’ve got a little grocery store and restaurant at the bottom of hill, nice and convenient, and my idea of “roughing it”.
We were amazed at how many deer we saw on the way up the mountain, and they were right outside the car just looking up at you like, “Hey, how’s it going? Got any food?” We haven’t seen any wild bison yet, but they are here in this very park, Custer State, and there are warnings everywhere about how dangerous they are. I’d love to see some and take pictures from afar, WAY afar! That’s the beauty of having a zoom lens. After we settled into our cabin, we took off on a walk, and right outside the cabin looking straight at us were three very friendly deer!! They stayed there and looked at us with interest while we shot a buttload of pics, I couldn’t believe it! I suppose to people out here the deer are as common as squirrels, but to us, it’s so incredible to get that close to them! They nibbled on the grass demurely as we admired them and they never did get spooked, not once, even with all the clicking of our digital cameras.
We explored the large, mountainy ridges that surround this tiny serene lake, and then settled down near the waters edge to admire the mallards coupling, the birds twittering, the fish jumping, and a very large Osprey trying to get dinner for himself. We’ve got photos of it all, never fear! The fluffy sprawl of clouds over the lake had me mesmerized until the chill in the air finally sent us to the cabin to snuggle in for the night. So now we’re here relaxing in silence, no tv, no water park or kids running down hallways, no freeways, no cars, no sounds (except the chorus of our bellies that are strangely in unison, I hope my IBS isn’t contagious), no internet access…just us in this grand place that I imagine is quite similar to what it was when the world was new to human life.
Tomorrow’s agenda: Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, find an internet café (preferably a Caribou coffee, I’m dying for a chai latte!) so we can post this and our photos, then off to tour the Wind Caves, which are reportedly some of the largest caves in the world! YAY! Now I’m off to take a look at the beautiful gemstones I found for a STEAL at the Wall Drug. In case you’re wondering, I picked up 2 rose quartz, an amethyst, moss agate, blue lace, clear quartz, blood stone, fancy jasper, obsidian, malachite and adventurine, all for only $3.07!!!!!! I’m very tempted to stop back there to pick up more because they were so cheap, hopefully time allows. I would still like to stop off at a couple of the trading post places around Rapid City to look for totem animal carvings, cuz I’m into freaky stuff like that. Whee!
Our live animal report for the road is good: we saw LOADS of pheasants, ducks, cows, horses, regal white cranes and deer roaming around alive and well!! It is, however, a sad day for lots of others ☹
Roadkill Report: 3 bunnies, 9 pheasants, a raccoon, a muskrat (perhaps), 2 “chunkies”, and 2 “tiny somethings”. Lots of semi tires also lots their lives today; tons of rubber bits on the road.
Today's Mileage: 366.7
Restaurant Report: Today we only ate out once at a shitty little place called the Cactus Grill near the Wall Drug. It was food, that’s about all I can say for it. I kept telling myself that we were eating better than they did in the old west, and at least I’m not turning tricks for my meals like the ladies of those days had to. Ick.
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Sioux Falls
Chillen' here in Sioux Falls, SD, which to me seems a lot like Edina, or maybe Red Wing. It's like a big suburb. What strikes me is that the streets seem very empty, though there are lots of people about, and what strikes John is the large amount of smokers here. It's kind of curious to see so many smokers, I guess we've gotten used to the non-smoking luxury of Minneapolis. We're currently in our Best Western Ramkota Hotel room at the end of a long hallway of families with kids who are here solely to utilize the water park and I just have to thank the gods we didn't book a pool side room. The room is quite nice, very "chain hotel-esque" which is okay because we know what we're getting: a decent bed, a coffee maker and a safe place to kick our feet up. At least I don't feel the need to worry that there's a dead hooker under the bed.
I drove most of the way here until I got my mid-day sleepies and we switched spots at the saddest little rest stop you ever did see. The drive was an absolute luxury with virtually zero traffic the entire way. We had our upbeat tunes cranked most of the way to get us pumped for driving and we had fun singing and goofing together. There were countless hawks and eagles on the way, and we saw a massive eagles nest before we even got out of Minneapolis, so that was cool. It was beautifully sunny, but so windy it was hard to maneuver our little boxy Toodlebug! Of course, our Toodlebug was the coolest car on the road, contrary to what all these red, sporty cars would have you believe.
Once here in Sioux Falls, we lounged a bit before heading out to scope out a couple of bead stores. The first was a cute little shop that had a free class going on, they had some of the most unique jewelry I've seen in a long time, and they were selling the most beautiful cabochons I've ever seen!! They had a cute sign that said, "Shoplifting is bad karma". I'll try to find their website to post with our other links. The second store was a complete ripoff; they were selling mini-strands of gemstone chips for twice the price of what a normal strand should cost, all their beads were in champagne glasses that cluttered the entire store which made it hard to find anything, and they didn't have anything I wanted there anyway, so we split. We ended up eating at a funky diner that seemed to be a local hot spot, and the food was good. John had a corned beef and swiss sandwich with coleslaw, and I went the full fried/fatty selection with a fish sandwich and fries, which I'm now paying for in a big way :( We did have a very pleasant walk near The Falls that we'll post pix of in a minute. Sadly, they're right near a sheep slaughter house which I tried to ignore as we drove past on the way in and out of the parking lot. It seemed like most of Sioux Falls residents were at The Falls, and they're celebrating Cinco de Mayo today (for some reason) so there was live music and kids all crawling everywhere out on the rocks having fun. We took photos of some geese and their little goslings!!!!!! The mama in one of the photos is just giving me the evil eye even though I was far away shooting with the zoom lens. Cute motherly protector of those little yellow fuzz balls!
Anyway, I meant to make this a quick post because we haven't done too much yet, but here I've blogged most every detail! Geez, a blabbermouth even in writing ;)~ Anyway, tomorrow's post will be from Sylvan Lake, which reports are saying got 24 inches of snow the other day. Hmmm, flash floods...let's hope not!
Roadkill Report:
Three raccoons, a very decomposed deer (half of it, anyway), something that looked like a dog, and something that looked like nothing we could figure out...like a raccoon/fox. A silent lament for all the roadkill, please.
Mileage: 258.2
I drove most of the way here until I got my mid-day sleepies and we switched spots at the saddest little rest stop you ever did see. The drive was an absolute luxury with virtually zero traffic the entire way. We had our upbeat tunes cranked most of the way to get us pumped for driving and we had fun singing and goofing together. There were countless hawks and eagles on the way, and we saw a massive eagles nest before we even got out of Minneapolis, so that was cool. It was beautifully sunny, but so windy it was hard to maneuver our little boxy Toodlebug! Of course, our Toodlebug was the coolest car on the road, contrary to what all these red, sporty cars would have you believe.
Once here in Sioux Falls, we lounged a bit before heading out to scope out a couple of bead stores. The first was a cute little shop that had a free class going on, they had some of the most unique jewelry I've seen in a long time, and they were selling the most beautiful cabochons I've ever seen!! They had a cute sign that said, "Shoplifting is bad karma". I'll try to find their website to post with our other links. The second store was a complete ripoff; they were selling mini-strands of gemstone chips for twice the price of what a normal strand should cost, all their beads were in champagne glasses that cluttered the entire store which made it hard to find anything, and they didn't have anything I wanted there anyway, so we split. We ended up eating at a funky diner that seemed to be a local hot spot, and the food was good. John had a corned beef and swiss sandwich with coleslaw, and I went the full fried/fatty selection with a fish sandwich and fries, which I'm now paying for in a big way :( We did have a very pleasant walk near The Falls that we'll post pix of in a minute. Sadly, they're right near a sheep slaughter house which I tried to ignore as we drove past on the way in and out of the parking lot. It seemed like most of Sioux Falls residents were at The Falls, and they're celebrating Cinco de Mayo today (for some reason) so there was live music and kids all crawling everywhere out on the rocks having fun. We took photos of some geese and their little goslings!!!!!! The mama in one of the photos is just giving me the evil eye even though I was far away shooting with the zoom lens. Cute motherly protector of those little yellow fuzz balls!
Anyway, I meant to make this a quick post because we haven't done too much yet, but here I've blogged most every detail! Geez, a blabbermouth even in writing ;)~ Anyway, tomorrow's post will be from Sylvan Lake, which reports are saying got 24 inches of snow the other day. Hmmm, flash floods...let's hope not!
Roadkill Report:
Three raccoons, a very decomposed deer (half of it, anyway), something that looked like a dog, and something that looked like nothing we could figure out...like a raccoon/fox. A silent lament for all the roadkill, please.
Mileage: 258.2
Friday, May 02, 2008
Delayed
We're delaying our departure by one day due to winter storms/tornado warnings in South Dakota, which sound like they will be dissipating tonight into just rain tomorrow. This is a bit of a relief since we weren't quite ready to go anyway.
We slept in a bit this morning, then headed out to Hell's Kitchen for breakfast which was EXCELLENT. Man, that place is the shizz! The bison sausage is handmade on the premises (I believe) and it is better than any sausage I think I've ever had, and trust me, I'm a sausage freak!! I had the Lemon Ricotta Hotcakes, which come with fresh berries on the top and are so good and moist that you don't even need syrup. John had the Bison Benedict with bison steak which he felt was not as good as the bison sausage, but still yummy. We both had coffee because they serve the really good stuff, and our meal was a bit on the expensive side, but hell, it IS our 10th anniversary, after all. No better excuse to blow our money :)
We wandered down to the library because we still had an hour on the meter, and I got wrapped up looking at my new favorite blog (http://oggi-icandothat.blogspot.com/), I was trying to find a cookbook author she blogged about who had Japanese bread recipes, but couldn't find it. We made it back to the car with 3 minutes to spare, then came home to start packing and finish cleaning. Soon, we'll be heading out to catch a matinee of Iron Man (!!) and grub some buttery popcorn. Hopefully we'll come back home for some Schmoopiness, then to bed early so we can head out early, early, early tomorrow!!
YAY! Soon, we will be on the road! Next post will most likely come to you via Sioux Falls!
Love to all ;)~
R&J
We slept in a bit this morning, then headed out to Hell's Kitchen for breakfast which was EXCELLENT. Man, that place is the shizz! The bison sausage is handmade on the premises (I believe) and it is better than any sausage I think I've ever had, and trust me, I'm a sausage freak!! I had the Lemon Ricotta Hotcakes, which come with fresh berries on the top and are so good and moist that you don't even need syrup. John had the Bison Benedict with bison steak which he felt was not as good as the bison sausage, but still yummy. We both had coffee because they serve the really good stuff, and our meal was a bit on the expensive side, but hell, it IS our 10th anniversary, after all. No better excuse to blow our money :)
We wandered down to the library because we still had an hour on the meter, and I got wrapped up looking at my new favorite blog (http://oggi-icandothat.blogspot.com/), I was trying to find a cookbook author she blogged about who had Japanese bread recipes, but couldn't find it. We made it back to the car with 3 minutes to spare, then came home to start packing and finish cleaning. Soon, we'll be heading out to catch a matinee of Iron Man (!!) and grub some buttery popcorn. Hopefully we'll come back home for some Schmoopiness, then to bed early so we can head out early, early, early tomorrow!!
YAY! Soon, we will be on the road! Next post will most likely come to you via Sioux Falls!
Love to all ;)~
R&J
Saturday, April 26, 2008
South Dakota
That's right! The Schmoopies are off again on another journey, this time to South Dakota! I know, you're probably thinking, "Gee, is that really a travel destination hot spot?" But it really is! There is actually a lot to see there, at least according to all the travel brochures and those South Dakota commercials with the catchy jingle. We'll be seeing Mount Rushmore, the Crazy Horse memorial, the Badlands, Devil's Tower, the Corn Palace and miles and miles of clear, open roads, or one would hope anyway.
We'll be leaving on Friday 5/2, the 10th anniversary of the day we made our Schmoopie-ness legal and have been in wedded bliss ever since, starting the special day off with a breakfast at Hell's Kitchen downtown. (If you haven't been to this fine establishment, you'd best get on it, it's ded good. If you go for Sunday brunch, don't be shocked that the wait staff serve you in their jammies.) Then we plan on heading straight to Rapid City to hole up in this little romantic hidey-hole, assuming there's a vacancy: http://www.powderhouselodge.com/index.htm. The rest is all up in the air at this point, we'll just see where the days take us.
A little unnerving is the fact that it is currently snowing outside, and the forecast for the week is looking quite shitty, but let's try to think positive and hope there is no inclement weather for us during our trip. I turn into a crazed freak woman when driving in crappy weather, so yeah, keep your fingers crossed for us.
This brings me to another horrifying thought: I've got to actually get this condo CLEAN before we leave. Yikes, time to get on that! We'll be blogging and podcasting when we can!!!!
Love to all,
R&J
We'll be leaving on Friday 5/2, the 10th anniversary of the day we made our Schmoopie-ness legal and have been in wedded bliss ever since, starting the special day off with a breakfast at Hell's Kitchen downtown. (If you haven't been to this fine establishment, you'd best get on it, it's ded good. If you go for Sunday brunch, don't be shocked that the wait staff serve you in their jammies.) Then we plan on heading straight to Rapid City to hole up in this little romantic hidey-hole, assuming there's a vacancy: http://www.powderhouselodge.com/index.htm. The rest is all up in the air at this point, we'll just see where the days take us.
A little unnerving is the fact that it is currently snowing outside, and the forecast for the week is looking quite shitty, but let's try to think positive and hope there is no inclement weather for us during our trip. I turn into a crazed freak woman when driving in crappy weather, so yeah, keep your fingers crossed for us.
This brings me to another horrifying thought: I've got to actually get this condo CLEAN before we leave. Yikes, time to get on that! We'll be blogging and podcasting when we can!!!!
Love to all,
R&J
Sunday, July 08, 2007
At Long Last
We have made it home. After waking up with my arms and hands numb from that Sleep Inn bed that may as well been made of stone, I vowed that we were not spending another thin dime on rented sleeping arrangements. We hauled it all the way from Ohio to Minneapolis yesterday. Leaving at 7:30 AM or so, we drove through the rest of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois (with all the scary drivers that place breeds), and Wisconsin and rolled into our home garage to unload the car for the very last time around 10:00 PM. We're toast.
I drove us through the mess that is the Chicago freeway system, passing up a 5 car pileup in the center lanes and I even blew past a toll area (accidentally); I fully expect to receive my ticket in the mail. I relinquished driving duty to the steady nerves of my husband once we passed the city, only after having to peel my white-knuckled hands from the wheel. I like Chicago, but holy gods, only if it's via the El. People have got to be insane to navigate that place in a car. John took us safely and calmly the rest of the way. There were TONS of deer running amok in Wisconsin, so I was trying to stay alert to warn of any bounding fawns near the roadway. Such a long drive brought relief to see the lights of our familiar downtown skyline. Our total mileage for this journey was an impressive 2709.7 miles!!
The kitties were pleased as punch to see us and, of course, woke us up around 4, 5, 6 and 7 o'clock with their chasing and pining for our comatose attention. After kicking Vesta out and getting Boo to lay down by me, we slept in gloriously this morning, and not one of my limbs felt like it was going to fall off! It was a lovely trip, but always a relief to sleep in ones own bed, and to have the kitties trade off laying on my lap all day! John's working on the photo album in iPhoto, and as soon as I've had enough lounging on the couch watching Man vs. Wild, I'll do some photo editing, too. Right now though, I've got to catch up on my tea drinking and laying about with our babies :)
Thanks for joining us on the road!! See you next trip!
Love & hugs,
R&J
I drove us through the mess that is the Chicago freeway system, passing up a 5 car pileup in the center lanes and I even blew past a toll area (accidentally); I fully expect to receive my ticket in the mail. I relinquished driving duty to the steady nerves of my husband once we passed the city, only after having to peel my white-knuckled hands from the wheel. I like Chicago, but holy gods, only if it's via the El. People have got to be insane to navigate that place in a car. John took us safely and calmly the rest of the way. There were TONS of deer running amok in Wisconsin, so I was trying to stay alert to warn of any bounding fawns near the roadway. Such a long drive brought relief to see the lights of our familiar downtown skyline. Our total mileage for this journey was an impressive 2709.7 miles!!
The kitties were pleased as punch to see us and, of course, woke us up around 4, 5, 6 and 7 o'clock with their chasing and pining for our comatose attention. After kicking Vesta out and getting Boo to lay down by me, we slept in gloriously this morning, and not one of my limbs felt like it was going to fall off! It was a lovely trip, but always a relief to sleep in ones own bed, and to have the kitties trade off laying on my lap all day! John's working on the photo album in iPhoto, and as soon as I've had enough lounging on the couch watching Man vs. Wild, I'll do some photo editing, too. Right now though, I've got to catch up on my tea drinking and laying about with our babies :)
Thanks for joining us on the road!! See you next trip!
Love & hugs,
R&J
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