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Day 7: Custer/Wind Cave/Devils Tower

 A random geologic formation soon after crossing into Wyoming

Today was filled with state/national parks galore.  Though attempting to wake up early, we didn't actually get out of the hotel until 8:30am (about 1.5hrs behind schedule).  After reading about Custer State Park in some travel magazines we picked up, I reaally wanted to go.

Custer State Park is home to the 2nd largest herd of buffalo in the country.  They boasted that people often see the herd crossing the road (Wildlife Loop Road) along with other animals.  We were a little skeptical, but we haven't seen ANY buffalo yet, so we opted to try and take the long way to Wind Cave.  To our excitement, almost as soon as we turned onto Wildlife Loop Road, we see some Pronghorn Antelope on the side of the road just hanging out.

In the distance we spot a lone buffalo and eagerly take tons of pictures.  We wondered why he was off by himself, but soon found the answer after driving over the hill - he was meeting up with a herd of buffalo!  We drive further and see even more.  As soon as we pull over, the head bison decides to cross the road, and a bunch of other bison (and babies!) follow.  It was so cool to see a bison about 20ft in front of us.

Farther along we got to a herd of burros (donkeys).  Though wild, they're known in the park for standing in the road to stop traffic then demand food from drivers.  It was pretty funny.  Some people did give food and the burros just stuck their heads right into the car.  We didn't give food so some just used the side view mirrors as scratching posts for their head.  I was hoping they'd wipe off some of the dead bugs stuck to the mirrors, but no luck.

On the way to Wind Cave National Park, we past through some prairie dog towns.  They're sooo cute; all you hear is squeaking from them as they run around and into their holes.

11am - Once at the Wind Cave Visitors Center, we went on the Fairgrounds Cave Tour.  We found out that Wind Cave is the most complex cave in the world.  It also is known for its rare boxwork formations (not the typical stalagmites and stalactites) which were really amazing.  Our guide told us it was due to calcite forming in cracks, then the rock dissolves away, leaving the "mortar" behind.



12:30pm - Head out in search of lunch.  We ended up back at Custer and went to Sage Creek Grille which got good reviews online.  While the food was pretty good (we shared a walnut and brie bruschetta, I got a buffalo burger, and pin got an english grille sandwich), the service was terrible.  Our waitress took forever and was super awkward.  She only acknowledged Pin when asking how everything was, and would give me a strange look when I talked to her.  However, seconds before I was about the write the tip on the check, she stopped me to give recommendations of places to visit in Custer.  I saw through her ploy and gave her the minimum 15% tip.  We thought we were ahead of schedule but by the time we got out, we were pretty much on schedule again.

2:30pm - We decided we would try to make it up to Devils Tower in northeast Wyoming as it was slightly on the way.  Though this would add 1.5hrs of travel time, who knows when we'd be there again, so we decided to go for it.

4:45pm - Devils Tower is the country's first National Monument - dedicated as such by Teddy Roosevelt in 1903 or something like that.  Its nearly 700ft tall and is incredible to look at.  Native Americans believed that the structure was created by a huge bear that tried to claw its way up to get to some people who retreated to the top.  We walked around the trail that wrapped around the base of Tower (about 1.3miles).  Along this route we saw awesome panoramas of the surrounding area and saw some mountain climbers about half way up the tower.  Well worth the 1.5hr delay!

6:30pm - We stop in Gillette at Casa Del Rey (now a new name).  Though we had the address, it was impossible to find, namely because they were in the process of changing their name so there was no sign up.  Instead we sat outside trying to figure out where this place was.  In the end, it was worth the hassle, as the food was pretty good and not too expensive.  I got a chile relleno with enchiladas and pin got a bean burrito.  In stark contrast to our Sage Creek waitress, this waitress was extremely attentive and cheery.  She asked us 2x if we were all right while we were eating their chips and salsa waiting for our food to come out.

11:30pm - Finally get to our hotel in Billings, MT.  Before we go we have to wipe clean the roof top bag - covered with dead bug guts.  Pretty gross.

South Dakota is our new favorite state!

Distance Traveled: 560 miles
Total Distance Traveled: 2695mi
$ Spent: $203.42
Total $: $719.49

Day 6: The Badlands / Mt. Rushmore / Custer

A grasshopper in the Badlands National Park, South Dakota.  These are everywhere!














What a long but fun-filled day!! Amy and I are both exhausted, but we're updating the blog anyway, because we're dedicated like that.

6:30am - Amy wakes up and decides to explore our campsite. It's absolutely beautiful during the daytime, and she gets some great shots of the flowers and animals in the area.

8am - I finally wake up. Little do I know how much I missed in the past hour and a half. We start to take down the tent, and get ready to hit the road.

9am - Ready, packed up, and ready to go. The owner of the campground takes us on a trip into his 'backyard,' and we get a nice view of the badlands from the upper plains. We also get to meet his herd of horses, all of whom are very friendly. One of them, Jason, tried to eat Amy's shirt, while another tried to eat my jeans. Absolutely adorable.

10am - We finally actually hit the road, checking out some trails along the badlands. We start off with the 'Window' trail, which gives a great view of valley below us, and we also blaze part of our own trail. The rock formations are really just breathtaking. We also note a few rocks that might be fossils. I don't really know what fossils look like (compared to just funny looking stones), so.... maybe.

11am - We embark on the 'Notch' trail, rated by the park service as a "moderate to strenuous" path. It starts off easy enough, meandering through a flat rockbed, but then we quickly come upon a wooden ladder leading up the side of the cliff. Amy's favorite part of the day, I think. And by favorite, I mean nerve-wracking. Once we get on top of the cliff, the path winds along some narrow ledges (so narrow, in fact, that more than once I thought the trail had ended, only because I couldn't tell where we were supposed to go next) until we came upon a spectacular view across the badland valley. A few pictures here, and we make our way back to the car.

12:30pm - Finally back to the car and we're starving. We stop by the Cedar Pass lodge for a nice lunch. Amy got an Indian Taco, which was essentially everything you would put on a taco (with buffalo meat instead of beef), on top of a big fried bread. I went with the unlimited soup and salad bar. 5 plates of food and a bowl of soup later, we're re-energized and ready to go.

 1pm to 4pm - More exploring the badlands. We pretty much stop at every single overlook spot (as well as a few overlooks of our own), and take a billion photos. At this point, both of our cameras are about to die, but we push forward!

4pm - Leave the badlands, time to head over to Mt. Rushmore!

5pm - Pull into Mt. Rushmore. Huge heads. In a mountain. The end.

6pm - Pull into Crazy Horse National Monument. One big head. In a mountain. The end.

6:30pm - Check-in to our hotel room in Custer, SD. Small room, but I'm looking forward to the continental breakfast tomorrow. Mmm.

7:30pm - Head back out to Mt. Rushmore to catch the lighting ceremony at 8pm. Big heads in a mountain. At night. With lights. Whoop!!


Distance Traveled: 200 miles


Total distance traveled: 12135mi
$ Spent: $121.41
Total $ Spent: $516.07

Day 5: Minneapolis/SD

 

Driving off into the sunset - while raining, South Dakota

We ended up staying overnight in Dani's apartment - nicer futon, and later waking up!  Though we weren't originally planning to, it seemed wrong to be 15min away from the Mall of America (largest mall in America) and not go. I also found out that Target headquarters is in Minneapolis, where they have a 3 story store downtown.  If it weren't for the snow, I think Minneapolis might be my heaven.

9am - I woke up and started getting ready.  We had cereal, yogurt, and really good tea (Lady Grey) for breakfast.

10am - Finally got out the door; Dani drove as she was our Minneapolis tour guide for the day.  I was super excited to find out she's a Prius owner!  We headed to the Mall of America first.  We were immediately amazed by the mall directory, which is 4 sides - each side with different categories of shops.  Walking farther into the mall, we came to the center which is a huge indoor amusement park.  There are at least 4 roller coasters and a dozen or so other rides - all INDOORS. [pictures coming soon]

Next to the amusement park is a Legoland store with huge statues built from Legos.  It was mandatory to go into this store.  They had some prebuilt Lego buildings that cost upwards of $100.  They also had packs of "vintage" Lego-men, which I remember having when I was a kid.  Are our toys really vintage?? [pictures coming soon]

Next, we headed to the in-mall aquarium.  While we didn't have time to go through it, we did need a picture of the world's largest [something], and this was the world's largest underwater aquarium (see "25. World's largest").

It was about 11:30am at this point, and we really needed to head out since we had a looong drive to South Dakota (and needed to check in by 10pm).  So of course, we debated riding one of the roller coasters (finally decided no time), and also decided to go to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.  The sculpture garden was pretty, and reminded me a little bit like Grounds for Sculpture in NJ (though not as big as ours I think).  The main feature is a huge bent spoon with a cherry spewing water into a large pond.  By now, Lucas was done with his morning orientation activities, so we headed out to meet him for lunch. [pictures coming soon]

12:15pm - Already past the time we should have left, we met up for lunch in "Dinkytown" - UMN's downtown - at Potbelly's. We ate pretty quickly, said bye to Lucas and Dani and headed out on the road.

1:30pm - Headed off to South Dakota.  We were 1.5hrs late already, though luckily, we would be crossing through to Mountain time and would then be only 30min late.   Along the way, the landscape really started to change.  TONS of farms for miles and miles and the terrain was getting flatter.  Even more annoying was that random parts of RT60 were completely closed for road construction.  Lacking the extensive road network we're used to in Jersey, this meant detours that were miles and miles out of the way.  We even had to detour onto the original detour a second time to get around a 2nd road closing.  This was all before even entering South Dakota.  The other nice thing about the midwest terrain, is its conduciveness to wind turbines, which we saw many of along the horizon.

6:30pm - To make the drive more interesting, SD makes up for cornfields with tons of billboards for the same thing.  They work though - this is how we ended up at the Corn Palace (world's only!) in Mitchell, SD.  We figured this would be an ok stop considering we needed to get gas and dinner, and the corn palace had free admission.  For those who don't know, the corn palace is the world's only palace made of corn.  Structurally, it is normal, but the exterior and some of the interior, is made completely of corn.  Every year, they rebuild the exterior to a new theme.  You can find out more at www.cornpalace.com.  While we wanted to get gas, we were put off by the non-branded gas stations and the cheaper "unleaded plus".  Later, we found out this just meant 10% ethanol added - which is the norm in NJ.  We stopped at a Country Fair grocery store to get breakfast food.  This meant we had to stop later down the road at a gas station to fill up and get quick dinner food.  We ended up getting personal pizzas and eating in the car.

10:45pm CT/9:45pm Mountain - Time change!  Though we were worried, a few miles out of Murdo, SD, the time changed giving us extra time to get to the Badlands Ranch and Resort.

10pm - We finally get to the Badlands National Park.  It was pitch black and my headlights cast huge shadows over the geologic peaks that sandwiched the winding road we were on.  It was incredibly scary to drive through - I don't think you could have paid me to stop the car and get out.  Needless to say, we were both pretty excited for tomorrow when we could see these in daylight.  Our campground was farther than we thought and was down a long dirt road.  The manager had closed the office but ended up seeing our carlights as he was playing his xbox in his motor home next door.  He showed us to our camp site and we set up the tent and air mattress.  Both were awesome - good buys.  Unfortunately, we had no idea where the bathrooms were - that wasn't fun. 

Thanks to Dani and Lucas for our time in Minneapolis!

Distance Traveled: 544mi
Total Distance Traveled: 1935mi
$ Spent: $120.23
Total $ Spent: $394.66

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Day 4: Madison / Minneapolis

Our first real day of long haul driving, and it was super fun! Amy and I are both officially (in my mind) qualified truckers.

10am - Woke up in Chicago, about 2 hours later than we had planned. Whoops!

11am - Waiting for the bus to get downtown, and it turns out that the bus we wanted didn't run after 9am. Figured that out after about 45mins of standing on a street corner looking sketchy and lost. Double whoops!

12pm - After deciding to drive into downtown, we finally make it, meeting up with Jing at Fox & Obel's (Chicago's answer to Whole Foods) to grab some food. Heading down to Navy Pier, we eat in the park and take a quick stroll down to Lake Michigan. Unanimous decision to avoid a hive of yellowjackets is made, and we head back, to drop Jing off at work.

2:30pm - We swing by Giordano's Pizza to pick up a famous Chicago deep dish pizza, and head off to Minneapolis. So long for now, Windy City!

4pm - Wisconsin! First sign that we see upon entering Wisconsin states, quite simply, "Cheese, Gifts, Fireworks." I immediately get the feeling I'm going to like this state.

4:45pm - I realize that Wisconsin has nothing but endless fields of corn. Love for Wisconsin beginning to fade.

5pm - We take a quick detour to Madison, Wisconsin, to visit Amy's cousin at the University of Wisconsin. It's a beautiful campus, though the main street area was fairly uneventful. After taking a quick tour, we head back out, only to see a guy protesting along the highway. Wisconsin interest is once again piqued.

7pm - Continuing through the state, more driving, more singalongs (Weezer was the artist of choice), and a whole ton of interesting rock formations / hills / valleys off in the distance. The pizza from Chicago meets its partial demise somewhere along the line here.

9:50pm - Gas stop. Debate about whether or not to buy a giant 44oz blue raspberry slurpee for $1.29. The yays beat the nays 2 - 0, and brain freeze takes its toll.

10pm - Minnesota! Fail at attempt to doubleback and get a picture of the "Welcome to Minnesota" sign.

10:30pm - Arrival at Lucas' apartment. Horizontalness begins, as we discuss many very serious subjects, like seahorses with Lucas, Boris, and Dani. The apartments are super nice (especially Dani's curtains), and we learn to call the futon home.


Special thanks to Jing for letting us stay at her place and being such a wonderful hostess, as well as taking time away from work to have lunch with us. Also big thank yous to Lucas, Boris, and Dani for staying up to meet up with us and hang out, as well as giving us a wonderful place to spend the night!


Distance Traveled: 421mi
Total distance traveled: 1391mi
$ Spent: $106.90
Total $ Spent: $274.43

12. A bison

Submitted by Amy: a bison or buffalo

 

At the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History