See America Tour One

Home Again Home Again Jiggity Jig

2010-05-16T21:48:00.001-07:00

Luke, Jack and I left Claremont on Saturday morning, the 15th. We determined to make a quick trip home in two days. Drove to Reno the first day up 395, very scenic drive, one of my favorites. We had to stop at one point and heat some water to soak Luke's infected finger, but other than that our stops were very short.
We met with Ace and Marsha in Reno and they treated us to their company and a swell dinner at the Peppermill. Really fun time that evening, Jack waited in the car.
Left Reno early the next morning following 395 north. We went past the house I lived in during the years I was in 8th grade into my junior year. It is still standing but vacant and broken and has been for many years. The area is ranching country, beautiful then and is beautiful now.
Made it home around 5:00pm Sunday the 16th to a welcome banner and dinner by Kenni. Place looks great. Jack was so excited to be home he rolled luxuriantly in horse manure the first chance he got.
The See America Tour One is over, I look forward with eagarness and longing to Tour 2!

Return Trip May 13: Claremont, CA

2010-05-13T21:34:00.000-07:00

Luke was at Huntington Beach with friends on Wednesday, he had a good time but lost his cell phone there. That night I got a text from Luke’s phone sent by the person that found it. The text read, “Found this phone leaving it by the showers at the beach shower 11 on top of pillar.” Thursday morning Jack and I drove to Huntington Beach to find shower #11 to collect the phone placed there by a good Samaritan. Luke didn’t think it worth the trip, he thought the phone would be gone and it would be a wasted trip when he had better things to do with his time, like sleep in. The trip was not wasted, got to Huntington Beach, what a lovely lovely beach, and actually parked right in front of shower #12, went south a few hundred feet to shower #11 and just barely reachable was Luke’s phone on top of one of the pillars! Luke’s phone is so beat up, scratched and has the battery held in with duct tape no one else would want it, I don’t understand why Luke thought it would not be where the G. Samaritan said it would be.
Jack was not welcome on the beach or the pier so we did not stay long, too bad, it is a very inviting beach with the blue Pacific, white sand, and sunny blue sky. After a short stroll on the cement boardwalk we headed back to Claremont and met up with Luke to return his recovered phone to him.
Luke has often mentioned snowboarding at Mt Baldy so to satisfy my curiosity about the Recreational area we took a drive up the steep switchback road that takes one from an elevation of about 1000 feet to over 6000 in only a few miles. The grade is 15% near the upper reaches! There is a little town tucked into a tight, steep canyon at about the 6000’ level, nice looking place, cool and fresh seeming after being in the hazy warm valley. The ski area looks compact and precipitous, I prefer a more gentle slope for snowboarding than appears to be offered at Mt. Baldy Ski area. The stream racing down the canyon is clear and cold and animated. It is a beautiful area. The view to the valley is obscured by the haze (or should I call it smog?). I shudder when I think of Luke driving on that pig’s tail road in snowy icy conditions, it’s scary!

Return Trip May 12: Joshua Tree Nat. Pk

2010-05-12T19:27:00.000-07:00

The drive from Needles, CA, to Joshua Tree National Park on hiways 95 and 62 is a pleasure. These routes are lightly used two laners going thru miles of rugged desert uncluttered by development. The air is clear and clean smelling, the sky today was uninterrupted blue. Amazingly enough cell service was available over most of those deserted miles. I did see a solar powered tower of some sort, wonder if it did cell service...?
Joshua Tree Park was full of wildflowers, unfortuately I forgot to move the camera setting from the vista mode to the close up mode so most of the flower pictures I snapped are blurry. The Park is interesting both for its geologic aspects as well as the flora. I wonder if Joshua Tree Park is also considered a National Forest? The J trees are a forest aren't they, but I have never heard them described as a forest. Maybe they are not technically trees? Anyway, it makes an interesting looking forest.

Return Trip May 11: Grand Canyon

2010-05-11T21:17:00.000-07:00

I have been to the Grand Canyon a couple of times, once when I was about 10, and then another significant visit to the lower reaches of the canyon on the Colorado River (I loved that short but thoroughly mesmerizing boat ride). Jack has never had the pleasure of visiting the South Rim. We got there early, one of the first 30 cars in the parking lot at Grand Canyon Village, there were a 2 tour buses in the bus parking lot. It was cold and windy, very windy, the kind of wind that made me wish I was wearing thermal underwear. We shared the rim trail with an assortment of non-English speaking canyon marvelers. It is quite marvelous to be there, even Jack would stand staring out over the precipice. The canyon is 10 miles from rim to rim, a long distance, and looking down over the edge made me nauseous! It is so steep and so far to even the near bottom. The Colorado River is puny looking down there in the far bottom. The elevation at the South Rim is about 7200'. We walked and enjoyed and shivered at times for 3 hours then left to find a sheltered location to consume our picnic lunch. While we were eating it started snowing, just a little, then there was more, and more snow. Wow, better go see how this looks in the Canyon I thought, so ceased the grinding and headed back to the rim. The Canyon was invisible, snow was all there was to see. When we had left to picnic there were clouds and what looked like rain moving in from the west, but not rain, it was snow, a blizzard of it.
After that we left, went back to the parking lot which was filled with cars from many different states, two cars vied for the space we vacated. If it had not been so achingly cold I would have stayed to see if the snow would stop, and enjoy a new view of a snowy Grand Canyon, but I was chilled to the bone and the tourist population was growing too large for comfort.

Return Trip May 10: Paint and Color

2010-05-10T18:22:00.000-07:00

The first stop this morning was Red Rock State Park which is near Gallup, New Mexico. The name accurately describes the main feature of the park. The park is multi-functional: the natural attraction, the camp grounds, also it appears to be equipped with rodeo facilities as well as some sort of theater or convention center or both, and there is a US Post Office on site. I bought some stamps. I was planning on eating breakfast at Red Rock but decided against it as it was too frigid! Cool temps with a breeze that kept the flag in front of the post office straight out made the thought of sitting at a picnic table trying to keep the cereal on the spoon long enough to get to my mouth unappealing. The park has very good examples of large , smooth red rocks but it is only a small part of the total extent of this geologically colorful area.
The Petrified National Park, just over the Arizona line, is a short distance west down Interstate 40 from Red Rock. This place is uncommon in a land that has many unusual rock formations. What a pleasure it was to visit the Painted Desert! The petrified wood is cool too, but the purple, red, white, orange, brown, black and etc. striped hills and rocks were enchanting. The Painted Desert thrilled me. We had breakfast there at a picnic area near the north entrance. The area is tucked up next to a natural rock wall so there was protection from the wind and with the sun eye stinging bright it was warm. This park is very pet friendly so Jack had a good time too. He was welcome everywhere but the gift shop, that is as long as he was on leash.
We have been above 4000 feet in elevation for 3 days. The last 2 days above 6000 most of the time, and frequently above 7000. This high desert is high!

Return Trip May 9: White Sands, Black rocks, Brown River etc.

2010-05-09T20:51:00.001-07:00

This has been a beautiful driving day!
Started out with White Sands National Monument, fine better-wear-your-sunglasses white sand dunes. The sand is cool to the touch and so fine, it is gypsum, it makes salt in your shaker look like rocks. The White Sands Missile Range is next door and before visiting the park one should check to make sure it isn't closed due to missile testing. The dunes are very entertaining.
We, Jack and I, visited Helen and her dogs today in the Village of Tularosa. Tularosa, I like to say that name, it is sylabically pleasing to say and hear and it represents a pleasing village. Helen lives in an endearing and appealing adobe home with wood and tile floors and 3 large pecan trees in the backyard (I wish I had not forgotten to take the pecans offered). I liked that house, I enjoyed the coffee and the visit, and Jack enjoyed the time with Shadow and Dexterous (I hope I got those names right). I liked the doors on that house too.
Stopped at the Valley of Fire, a park situated in the middle of an old lava flow. Black rocks with desert vegetation adding some green relief.
I wanted to find a place to get next to the Rio Grande so started down a paved road to a Game Refuge but the road turned to dirt and then got a bit rocky and rutted so I turned around and came back. Nearing the freeway I saw a man and woman trying to push their van unsuccessfully. I stopped to give them a jump start.
The rest of the day was spent driving thru lovely high desert scenery. The wind starts blowing about 10:30am and stays strong until sundown. Tried again down to the Rio Grande, closest I got was on a bridge going over it.

Return Trip May 8: Palo Duro Canyon then to Alamogordo NM

2010-05-08T20:09:00.000-07:00

The Palo Duro Canyon is located about 20 minutes south of Amarillo, TX. A lovely and fun place, and well attended this Saturday. The camp grounds were populated with lots of human campers as well as deer and turkeys. The trails were busy with bikers and hikers. Dogs are welcome in the canyon and there were lots of leashed dogs there and Jack was earger to meet each and everyone of them. The park is pretty, pleasant, has picnic tables cleverly situated throughout, and it is colorful. We spent 3 hours there enjoying this cozy canyon, had breakfast at one of those nifty tables.
Then on to Alamogordo, New Mexico, thru flat cattle ranching Texas and then up into the mountains of the Mescalero Apache Reservation. The city of Ruidoso, NM, has a horse racing track, Ruidoso Downs. I wonder if the horses from lower elevations have diminished abilities there due to the evelvation of Ruidoso, just under 7000'. Ruidoso also has Casinos and other tourist attractions. It is a beautiful area, tall pine trees on the steep mountain sides.
Then thru Tularosa, NM, and on to Alamogordo. There are lots of trains chugging East and West in this area, see or hear or both them every couple of hours!

Return Trip May 7th: Oklahoma and Texas

2010-05-07T20:06:00.000-07:00

We drove almost straight across the center of Oklahoma East to West today. The road is good, Interstate 40,but there is a noticeable lack of rest areas, only 2 with facilities on the Westward side of the freeway for the 340 miles from border to border. The landscape is mostly flat, the bodies of water are predominantly brown in color, the earth is a lovely reddish hue, multiple Indian craft trading posts and casinos, and the wind is consistantly gale force. There are lots of Stars and Stripes fluttering on tall poles in the urban centers. Some wind turbines and a few oil derricks and some pumps actually pumping seen from the highway.
Texas has the distinction of gracing the traveler with what I deem the most well appointed rest area I have yet to visit. It is just a few miles over the border on
I40 from OK. It is almost grand enough to be a destination on its own merits. Lovely stone work, automatic doors leading into the air conditioned public restroom area, extensive vending machines, brochures galore, and a tornado shelter. Outside are telescopes on the patio railing to enhance the travelers enjoyment of the vista (which is striking). The picnic areas are many and sport hibachis as well as tables and benches and shade roofs. Metal decor, decorative rock paths and flooring, a playground for kids, and interesting archetecture add to the appeal of this ritzy rest area.
Since we are in Texas we should eat some barbeque for dinner, which we procured from Hent's Pit B-B-Q's drive up window. Great eating! The beans were my favorite!

Return Trip Day 4: Arkansas and the Ozarks

2010-05-06T20:17:00.000-07:00

We drove over the Mississippi River from Tennessee to the alluvial plain of Eastern Arkansas this morning. One of the first things I noticed about Arkansas, besides the flat mud brownness of it (in contrast to the green rolling hills of TN) was the potholes in the freeway. "Oh," I thought to myself, "must be doing work on this part of the freeway." But, in all the states I have been in Arkansas roads are the least car and tire friendly. The rough road conditions persisted intermittently across the whole state.
We drove on two scenic byways thru the Ozarks today. Highway AR 7, and AR 23 which is called the Pig Trail Scenic Byway. The Pig Trail is located in the Boston Mountain area of the Ozark National Forest. It is a 2 laner that corkscrews thru the mountainous forest with the trees crowding the pavement and interlacing their branches above. It is fun to drive, rather enchanting to be enveloped so cozily for so many miles in a shady, leafy tunnel. There are times when the trees pull back and vistas of forested hillsides can be seen, but because of the curviness of the road a driver often misses the view.
AR7 runs North to South thru the middle area of the Ozark National Forest. It also is a 2 laner. The area has few developed turnouts or marked hiking trails. It appears as tho much of the road frontage is privately owned, for sale signs dotted the landscape and there were lots of single family dwellings. There were numerous small, rundown or completely defunct souvenir shops along AR7, a few still operating and showing signs of pride of ownership. It is a picturesque area, the highest elevation we encountered was 2300'. The tallest peak in Arkansas is Mount Magazine at 2753', it lies south of the area we drove thru.
I have included a picture of my meal making paraphernalia. I eat dinner in the motel room, Amy's soup heated up on a little Sterno stove with bread, milk and yogurt for dessert usually.
One more report: In Russellville, AR, at about 2pm today I saw the flashing lights in the rear view mirror again. This time the patrolman said that in going down the exit ramp two of my tires touched the white line on the shoulder of the road (I was likely trying to avoid a pothole) and he wanted to make certain I "was alright?" This concerned patrolman didn't even look at my driver's license, I guess the mature appearance of my visage satisfied his concerns. I guess it is procedure to check on cars sporting plates from the West Coast...??? The stop lasted about 60 seconds, no time to get the camera out.

Return Trip Day 3: Burgess Falls and Across TN

2010-05-05T19:58:00.000-07:00

It is hot here, hot and humid. Also, it is very green, every nook and cranny green outside of the cities. Driving down the highway it is green on the left, green on the right, green up ahead and green behind. The hills are green, the flats are green, man, it is green in Tennesee! We are crossing TN from the NE corner to the SW corner, 500 miles of green.
Jack and I hiked the Burgess Falls State Park trail this afternoon. It is a shady trail along the rain swollen Falling Water River. The river today was light brown, probably from all the recent runoff from the prodigious amount of rain this area of TN received the first couple of days of this week. Today was blue sky and hot but under the trees and next to the misting falls it was a comfortable hike, a short hike over a rooty, rocky trail on a low bluff over the raging water.

Day 2 Return Trip: Skyline Drive, VA

2010-05-04T18:10:00.000-07:00

A friend suggested that I visit Shenandoah National Park, specifically to motor the Skyline Drive that snakes along the spine of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. I took 113 pictures during the 6 hours spent on the 105 miles of that heart swelling drive and every one of them is a pitiful representation of the grand vistas I enjoyed today (I don't know if Jack enjoyed the view or not). I will post a few of the pictures but keep in mind they are dismally inadequate to convey the true majesty of the area.
Upon coming into the park we encountered a turtle crossing the road, I picked him/her up and moved him/her to the grassy verge of the forest.
We took one short hike. There are many maintained trails in the park, some are even handicap friendly! I know that Jack enjoyed that part of the day. He also enjoyed the vehicular speed limit, 35mph, he had his head out the window for most of the length of Skyline.
The highest elevation in the Park is 3600 and some feet and up there the air was cool and clear and the trees were still in the process of presenting their leaves. Under 2500' feet in elevation the trees and shrubs were leafed out and many were flowering adding perfume to the breeze.
The park is extremely user friendly. It has the highest population of black bears east of the Mississippi. The park ranger I talked to this morning enthusiastically congratulated me on visiting in May as it is her favorite time of year in the Park because of the low volume of visitors and the high volume of flowers. Besides the turtle we saw a herd of deer grazing at Big Meadow near the summit, lots of vultures circling below the overlooks so instead of seeing them from below you see them from above, other birds, and squirrels.
Skyline Drive is an uplifting experience, a treasure of sensory pleasures.

Day 1 of Return Trip: off to Virginia

2010-05-03T20:21:00.000-07:00

Said good bye to the Fairfield family and blithely set off for Front Royal, VA. at 9am. A trip of 373 miles, easy. Whoops! it took 11 hours and on this trip we did not stop as often as we usually do for exercise and marking.
I95 proved to be delayed, after 45 minutes we had gone only 20 miles. So we moved over to the Merrit Parkway, better, zooming along till it came to a stop due to an accident. Jack could have kept up with the car if I had let him out. So we got off the Merrit and went West. All good for a bit, then, I thot to try a route I thot I remembered from map study the night before and we got LOST in Jersey. I don't even know what town we were lost in. Drove around there for an hour, thru all kinds of neighborhoods, old and older, crowded and crammed, till we hit the Projects. Finally we found our way out of there with the hellp of the Magellan, whew! Interesting to see so many brick houses so close together. And all those overhead wires, one almost wonders how the rain gets thru them there are so many wires crisscrossed over the roads and houses.

Spent time driving thru the rest of New Jersey, pretty and green, to Pennsylvania where I got a colorful greeting, a patrolman put on his lights for me. Seems he noticed my OR plates, ran them and discovered that there was no insurance company listed for them. He detained me only briefly then sent me on my way with good wishes and an explanation that car rental companies are "self-insured" and it is a bother to an alert officer that that information is not attached electronically to the license plate number.

Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and finally Virginia to the Budget Inn in Front Royal where two doors down there are two fellows sawing on their fiddles and whooping it up. I am in bluegrass country now.

Lots of beautiful country on the trail today, rolling green hills, big flat rocks in the rivers, brick and stone houses and barns, old buildings, quaint towns, lots of quilts and antiques for sale, no rest areas on the roads, not a single one after I left New York.

Long Island and Montauk

2010-05-03T19:33:00.000-07:00

Corina, the boys, Jack and I went to Long Island on May 1. We took the Bridgeport, CT, to Port Jefferson Ferry to L.I. It is 65 miles from the landing to Montauk at the NE end of the island and we didn't expect a long drive, but, one must cover that distance while obeying the posted speed limits thru all those little towns beaded along the highways. Narrow main streets, lots of traffic (both vehicular and pedestrian) gave the boys plenty of opportunity to ask, "How much farther?"

We were adequately rewarded at the end of the journey. A beautiful beach with clean, soft sand, a sparkling Atlantic Ocean, and a really swell 2 bedroom cabin to move into. The beach is long, lovely and mostly deserted.

The people we had business with were all uncommonly friendly and accomodating. The town is busy in a laid back fashion. I can understand why Long Island is featured in so many of the mystery books I have listened to. Great Place!

On our way home we went to admire the lighthouse at the end of Long Island, then took the ferries to and from Shelter Island. All these areas are visually pleasing, even stunning in places. We showed up at the Orient Point Ferry landing to drive on for a ride to New London,CT, but since we had not made a reservation we had to buy a stand by ticket, we did not make it onto the 3:00 ferry..... The boys and I threw rocks into the sound while Jack watched us and Corina sat in the car reading her book while we waited to see if we could get onto the 4:00 ferry. It was fun throwing the rocks and Corina was enjoying her book and Jack does hate the ferry rides so we could have waited for the 5:00 ferry without too much chagrin but, we were the second to the last car on and we made it home in time to enjoy the pizza Talm had made for dinner.

Visting Montauk will likely be one of my favorite times on the SEE AMERICA TOUR 1.

Connecticut Pictures

2010-04-29T12:12:00.000-07:00

Staying in CT

2010-04-29T11:39:00.000-07:00

We are going to stay here in CT at Corina's house until Sunday, I think. Jack perhaps would like to get back on the road sooner due to the kind attentions he receives from Quinn and especially from Nate. Both boys like to take him for a walk on the leash and then pet him and sit on him and admire his teeth, tongue, ears, nose, how his feet smell, how long his toenails are, and the list goes on. Jack has proved to be a good guest thus far; he does all his peeing and pooping in the neighbor's yards, wants to chase the cat, Odie, but has refrained heroically from doing so, and sleeps quietly thru the night. I hope Jack can be relied upon to continue with his good behavior.
It is warming up today, what a joy! It has been chilly since we left Indiana, too chilly for comfort because of the relentless wind.
So, no more posts until we are back on the road, likely Sunday.

Day 9 continued: Mohawk River Valley

2010-04-28T12:15:00.000-07:00

This area of New York state is uplifting to drive thru. The low, steep, forested hills cut by the river are uncommonly appealing. The Mohawk River is part of the Erie Canal waterway. We were on a toll road, the toll at the end of this 400 mile highway was $18.35, surprised me. Then, in the next few miles there was a $5 charge to go over a bridge.

Day 9: Leaving PA for Niagara Falls then thru the Mohawk River Valley

2010-04-28T09:53:00.000-07:00

Then thru Buffalo, NY, to Niagara Falls. The pet policies at the Falls state park are friendly, but not completely permissive. Jack was not allowed on the elevated observation deck or down on the path near the bottom of the falls. We did have a very glorious time walking around the multiple walkways, observation points, and bridges of the park until the cummulative effect of the positively glacial stiff breeze with the copious amount of mist we encountered behooved me to seek the warmth and wind proofing of the car. I truly enjoyed Niagara Falls, it is as tho an ocean of clear beautiful water is pouring over those black rocks.The foam is so snowy white. Captivating! I did have to pull Jack over to the edges, he preferred to stay back from the precipices. i will post pics later, Nathan and i are going out now........

Day 9: Leaving PA for Niagara Falls then thru the Mohawk River Valley

2010-04-28T09:49:00.000-07:00

There is big and beautiful Lake Erie in the distance.

Day 9: Leaving PA for Niagara Falls then thru the Mohawk River Valley

2010-04-28T09:43:00.000-07:00

Typical Pennsylvania countryside.

Day 8: Leaving IN, thru OH, Stopping PA

2010-04-26T19:14:00.001-07:00

Had such a swell time in beautiful, benevolent Brownsburg with Wen. I almost hated to leave, but, time to See America!
Not so much rain today, it was nice and windy and darned chilly. I even had to put my flip-flops away and wear real shoes for Jack's walks! And my big guns jacket! Jack was even shivering for a time in the car after a stint in one of Indiana's nice road side rest areas. I must comment on what a thoughtful and tidy dog Jack is(except for one disgraceful faux paux on his part at Wen's when he lifted his leg in her kitchen!). He generally takes care of his business in out of the way places, such as today when he made his solid deposit at the farthest edge of the rest area tucked neatly up along side a square wire fence, no one will step on it there! I usually don't have him on leash. He has been very co-operative about staying near me and coming quickly when I summon him.

I got off the freeway and drove thru a little bit near the downtown area of Indianapolis this morning. Nice looking area, lots of trees and looking very green and clean.

Ohio welcomed us twice. Pennsylvania once. We actually are only going to be driving thru a small section of PA. In Brownsburg there are leaves on most of the trees but went we got North of Columbus, OH, no more leaves on the trees, back to the wintry look rather than the spring. Quite a difference.

The trip meter passed 3000 miles today.

Over and Out from Erie, PA.

Day 7: Domestics, Tech Help, Dog Exercise, Visiting

2010-04-25T18:28:00.000-07:00

Today Jack and I stayed at Wendy's house visiting. Did laundry, personal hygiene,dog exercise (Jack and Chauncey), sightseeing, and audiobook/fuze/computer tech assistance. Rained all day in varing degrees of intensity.
This is a very nice town, very green, multiple species of flowering trees in full glory, lots of water everywhere. Good food offered by our hostesses.
The electricity was back on this morning. Last night I used my camping lantern after the electricity failed us. The unusual thing about the electricity; the houses on Wendy's side of the street were all dark last nite but the houses on the other side of the street all with lights. Fortunately the sump pump battery back up functioned heroically and Jack and I were not needed to bucket water up from a flooded basement today.

Day 6: Iowa, Illinois, Indiana

2010-04-24T19:11:00.001-07:00

I never thot about the fact that these 3 states are consecutive both geographically and alphabetically in the road map atlas. Of course they line up differently in each situation.

It rained much of the day's travel, not just sprinkly stuff, but downpour have to have your wipers on the highest setting cloudburst percipitaion. Consequently the sightseeing in these 3 "i" states was significantly impaired. Missed seeing most of those plowed fields getting good and muddy, missed admiring the low rolling hills, and flat expanses, missed all that green grass and budding trees, missed all those farms buildings and tidy farm houses.

I did get to see the Mississippi River, went over it on I 284, I think that was the number of the route. And the Iowa River, and the Illinois River, and many other rivers and creaks.

Iowa gets the prize for the best Rest Areas along a major hiway. Very well appointed with playgrounds for kids, well stocked vending machines, clean and modern restrooms, beautiful landscaping, multiple picnic areas, ample parking, and, the best of all, wireless internet access. Also, the pet areas were a cut above the norm.

We drove 550 miles from eastern Iowa to the middle of Indiana. We were enthusiastically welcomed by Wendy with snacks, drinks, and dinner. Great dinner.
Jack likes the freedom of a backyard and the company of Chauncy, a black dog.

But, got to go, no electricity here and the battery is running low on my computer.
Over and out from America's heartland.

Day 5: Across Northern Nebraska

2010-04-23T18:41:00.001-07:00

It rained in this part of the country today, significant rain. When the availability of a good place to stop to let Jack out coincided with a lessening of the rainfall I felt blessed. We stop often during the day, every one to two hours, and we got lucky several times, other times we got wet.
We drove on the Bridges to Buttes Scenic Byway for the first 150 miles or so, it is Hiway 20 in Northern NE. Even in the rain it was a lovely drive. There are lots of birds, including wild turkeys (there must be a large population of turkeys in NE for me to have seen so many from the car), pheasants, water fowl, raptors, vultures and other birds I cannot identify abound. Highway 20 is lightly used, I could slow down and even come to a stop as usually there were no cars in view in either direction. Ponds and marshes are the reason there are so many bridges. Wooden bridges for walkers and bike riders and railroads I guess as they weren't being used by automobiles. Many bridges, many windmills, and many buttes with groves of tall deciduous trees interspersed between the wetlands and grasslands.

At Valentine, NE, we switched to Hiway 275, it was picturesque as well, but much of the time had an olfactory quality I found unpleasant. Cattle feedlots were responsible for the stink. As we neared Iowa the feedlots were replaced with farmland, green rolling hills, or plowed earth, but still there were the groves of large trees slicing thru the vistas.

Crossed over the Missouri River for the second time today, this time it was much larger.

The rain has abated, our evening walk was dry in a stiff breeze, almost a gale. Tonight we are on a hill overlooking an expanse of farmland and a sky roiling with clouds as the sun neared the horizon, exhilarating weather. Maybe it was just that it had stopped raining that made me feel so uplifted. No funnel clouds at that time, I searched for one.

Day 4 (part 2) Mt. Rushmore

2010-04-22T19:33:00.000-07:00

Keystone, South Dakota, is the town closest to Mt Rushmore. The population of Keystone is 311 as reported by the welcome sign. An interesting tourist town, clean and crowded with buildings crammed between steep stone hills that have pine trees battling to get their roots into the ground between all those rocks. It is pretty, amusing, and has only one street down the middle, that is all there is room for.

Mt Rushmore is 2 miles up the forested stone hills from Keystone. The facility is new and impressive, multi-layered parking garage, and a granite building with stone walkways leading to the Presidents. It is a well designed building, looks like Mt Rushmore brings in lots of money. In the parking lot there were license plates from many different states, but only one from OR that I saw, mine.

It was raining and foggy while we were there, indeed, I had to wait a few minutes for the mist to clear and reveal the stone faces. I have seen many pictures of Mt Rushmore, and I had the impression that the Presidents were larger than they are. They are good looking alright, just not as big as I thot they were. Also, I am lucky it was raining. Wet rocks always look different than when dry. The Presidents had richer, more color intense complexions than in the pictures I have seen. The whole area is beautiful, I liked it.

Day 4 Leaving Montana

2010-04-22T19:05:00.000-07:00

This morning we, Jack and I, left billings on I90 heading southeast towards South Dakota and Mt. Rushmore. There was still lots of Montana to drive thru. Lots of prairie, rolling grass hills with lots of small ponds. Buffalo country, but no bisons, just cattle, and sometimes huge herds of them, mostly black. Also, lots of horses, but no sheep. Today there were prairie dog towns, first time either one of us has ever seen a prairie dog town. The elevation remained above 3000 feet, often above 4000'.

It was a huge sky populated by small clouds that gradually grew into large clouds so that the sky was filled with thunderish looking clouds in many shades from steel to light ash gray. And then it started raining. Mostly showers as the weather guy would say.

Stopped briefly at THE LITTLE BIGHORN BATTLEFIELD NATIONAL MONUMENT.

Passed thru country rich in colorful rocks and earth. It was in the Cheyenne Nation.

We cut thru the NE corner of Wyoming and into South Dakota. Mining appears to rival cattle ranching for the major income producer in that corner of Wyoming. There were cattle, but the mining industry is an ugly presence, tho necessary.

Day 3: Kalispell to Billings MT

2010-04-21T21:28:00.000-07:00

It was a high altitude drive today. After leaving Kalispell at 9am we took MT 83 south, what a pituresque route, certainly a scenic byway. There are several profoundly blue lakes, Swan and Seeley to name a couple. The lakes at the summit are still frozen over! I didn't try walking on the ice but it looked solid. The first couple hundred miles where spent well above 4000', Helena is at 5000'.

The elevation at MacDonald Pass was over 6800'. Sounds high, all of the Montana we drove thru today is high.

We ate lunch just east of Helena next to Manlove Homestead, the original log home they built in the summer of 1864 is still standing.

Just before and after Helena the landscape was no longer forested, it was rolling grasslands with mountains in the distance, then the mountains were no longer visible. And lots of landscape, gee, Montana is large, there are still many miles to reach the South Dakota line.

Jack has become resigned to his new daily routine. He is sleeping more there in the back seat. He consents to drink from the bucket of water he has back there, he treated it with disdain the first two days and would only drink when out of the car.

Today we saw more wildlife: bald eagle with a beak full of long sticks, ospreys both flying and in their nest, a herd of proghorn antelope, 5 deer on the side of the road sporting what looked like herds of lice on bare patches of skin, geese, ducks, lots of vultures circling together tightly, doves, pigeons, magpies, redwing blackbirds, and squirrels.

Much of the last 3 days we have been on the Lewis and Clark trail.

Over and out.....

Glacier Pictures, second posting for day 2

2010-04-20T21:27:00.001-07:00

My friend has 5, or was it 7, very English bulldogs that were a bit too eager to meet Jack, we kept a fence between Jack and them.

Day 2

2010-04-20T20:59:00.001-07:00

What a swell day! The weather was blue skies and breezy sweet smelling air. So scenic here in northern Idaho and Eastern Montana. This is beautiful country. I think Jack even started watching the scenery roll by.

Left Spokane at 7:30am after eating cold cereal in our room, Jack had a lite meal of one chicken patty. Only 16 miles or so to Couer d'Alene. The lake there is very fetching and the town is clean and spiffy. It is a big lake and I thought it exceedingly beautiful (but it paled in memory when we reached Flathead Lake which is far more grandly pleasing to eye and spirit).

Drove thru lots of little towns on I90 with miles of wild and wonderful mountains, hills, grasslands, forests, rivers, lakes, ponds,and streams in between. Jack and I stopped alot to look at rivers, lakes, trees, towns. I did the looking and Jack did the sniffing. Jack took care of his most important works in a snow field late morning. Spent the whole day above 2000 feet in elvation. Much of it well over 3000.

Upon reaching Columbia Falls, MT, the gateway to Glacier Park, I picked up a friend of many years that lives there and together we went to the entrance of Glacier. The rest of the park is still closed for the winter. Too bad, those mountains are very dramtic from a distance, wish we could have driven up to the higher elevations and enjoyed them more intimately. There were signs along the road warning to stay on the road and out of the woods as the bears are waking up and are particularly dangerous at this time of year.

Not much traffic around this time of year..... this is very nice.

2010-04-19T21:07:00.000-07:00

The plan was to leave home today by 8am, left at a little after 9am. Jack did not seem to enjoy the first half of the day. He seemed edgy and uncomfortable, guess he doesn't want to go across country in the back seat of a car. He is a smart dog.
Usually when Jack and I go somewhere in a car he is in the back of the pickup. Today is the first time he has ridden in such close proximity to me. I was surprised to learn how lustily he passes wind. We were riding with the windows half open in the back but still the robust aroma of his gaseous production was impossible to ignore. His prodigious emanations starting lessoning after 1:30 pm and ceased by 3pm.
We went thru Molalla, Colton, and so forth past Mt. Hood and turned onto HiWay 35 to Hood River. Hood River is so pretty now with all the fruit tree blossoms!
We stopped at a rest stop that had almost as many poison oak plants as squirrels just east of Hood River for lunch. I ate mine, Amy's tomato soup, but Jack ignored his completely, he was only interested in water. The columbia was smooth as glass, not a ripple to be seen.

Then on down the gorge to US 395, thru the rolling desert (the temperature was 79 degrees) and on into Spokane, WA. Nice country around Spokane, snow topped hills, pine tree forests, water features, lovely country.
Bedding down in a hotel for the nite. I am sort of surprised not to be at home.....really am Driver Gal Mel...

Two Days

2010-04-17T07:57:00.000-07:00

We are almost ready to hit the pavement trail. Tomorrow early we pick up the car and strategically pack the trunk, set up the back seat for Jack (prepare it so he cannot damage it), fix up the cockpit for comfortable and convenient travel, tie up loose ends here, and then Monday morning take off to the northeast.

Not Long Now!

2010-04-09T21:13:00.000-07:00

ETD is 19 April. I am in the process of slowly gathering together the tools, toys, and supplies to take on See America Tour One........ Jack is not doing anything to help.

2010-02-14T20:28:00.000-08:00

Coming in late April, 2010, the See America Tour One blog..... check back then....