Road Trip, June 2007

Blog Slideshow

2009-02-23T14:24:00.002-05:00

This Blog is Over

2007-06-24T22:48:00.000-04:00

There are daily posts with highlights from every day of our trip from June 6 through June 22. To go back to the beginning and read in order, or to read any single day, use the archive to the left. Happy reading. Really hope this was not a "once in a lifetime" trip.

Road Trip, By the Numbers

2007-06-22T21:21:00.000-04:00

[aka: The End]

4,285 miles
100s of Buffalo (3 up-close)
15 post cards
10 states (counting Montana, which we were only in for about five minutes as we took the photo of the North Entrance to Yellowstone.)
6 national parks/monuments
3 puzzle post cards (extra postage)
3 big horn sheep
2 coyotes
2 yellow-bellied marmots
2 moose
2 flat tires
2 state high points (Iowa, South Dakota)
LOTS of prairie dogs
TONS of petrified wood
About one-hundred Wall Drug billboards
2/3 of the world’s geysers (OK we probably didn’t see every single one, but they are all there in Yellowstone)
1 black bear
1 graduation
1 Crazy Horse (in progress)

AND...

Some good quotes from the trip:
Will, as we are looking over the upper falls brink on the Yellowstone River, “It’s a good thing water molecules don’t feel pain.”

* * *

Will: “If a grizzly attacks me you know what to do, right?”
Me, totally serious and slightly frightened at the thought: “No. What?”
Will: “Keeping filming. It'll make you millions.”

Posted some videos

2007-06-21T16:10:00.000-04:00

We're sort of "stuck" in Wisconsin right now. So I've spent some quality You Tube time getting lots of videos posted.

BUFFALO GRAZING IN FRONT OF OLD FAITHFUL:

SPASMODIC GEYSER:

MUD POTS:

There are a few others from the trip all posted on YouTube if you want to look.

Headin’ East

2007-06-20T01:15:00.000-04:00

It’s not completely over, but now there is no denying that we are firmly heading East. I guess technically the minute we left Yellowstone we were heading East, but it didn’t feel like vacation was over. Today it does. I even thought about work today for the first time since leaving back on the 7th.

Last night we stopped in Spearfish, SD. This morning we drove down toward the Badlands and did one of the hikes we missed earlier in the trip because of the tire trials. It was a short, four-mile flat trek through prairie and the floor of the Badlands.

Last week when we were here it would have been bliss in the 70-degree temperatures. Today however, it was in the 90s and … “difficult” is the adjective that comes to mind . (I think I used “brutal” as we were walking.) I’m really glad I took so many pics of the Badlands last week, because it was hazy today and everything looked very one-dimensional. Also, the few flowers we saw today were beginning to whither in the heat – nothing like the colors we saw last week.

After the walk: back in the car, across the rest of South Dakota, then Minnesota, over the river and up to Menomonie, WI (back to Will’s bro’s). Tomorrow we will be on the road heading back to Jersey.

It occurred to me today that it may have been unclear in this travel log who was on this trip and when. Just to clarify, most of the trip was just me and Will. Our trip intersected with Will’s bro, mom, sister Linda and nephew Scott just that one day - the Jewel Cave, Crazy Horse, Rushmore, Devil’s Tower day. They were all on a different trip, ultimately heading up to ND where – just to confuse things even more – they met up with Judy and GP3 for GP3’s two-day college orientation.

That's it for today.

Saying Goodbye to Yellowstone

2007-06-19T00:37:00.000-04:00

Ed note: We were in Yellowstone without internet access the past few days (no access anywhere in the park... something silly about wanting visitors to enjoy the wildlife and scenery and whatnot... whatever!). So in addition to today, I've just posted the last few days too.

Today we hiked along the south rim of the Yellowstone Canyon. Pretty much vista, vista, vista.

We then followed another trail down though an active geothermic field – the stinkiest yet. We learned from a film at a visitor’s center this morning that more stink = more acidic elements, which = bubbling mud (vs. water), because the acidic stuff breaks down the clay in the soil.

After that, we wandered through an open meadow and walked right past a grazing buffalo. He turned his butt to us just as we were going by, so no photos.

Before leaving the park, we stopped by the Mud Volcano area. (It erupted long ago and is just a gurgling pool of mud now.) I have a video of this, but I'm struggling with You Tube from this connection. I actually plan on putting up a lot more videos when I have a better connection and will provide links in a future post.

Leaving the East gate of the park we then went to Cody, Wyoming and stopped at the Old Trail Town Museum where they have relocated many original old west buildings, including the Hole-in-the-Wall Cabin. (Will doesn’t look much like an outlaw.)

Note to self: Rent Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid when you get home.

Mammoth Hot Springs to Yellowstone Canyon

2007-06-18T23:59:00.000-04:00

Writing at the end of our third full day in Yellowstone NP.

This morning we walked around the terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs. (The white ones are dry and colored by silica and other mineral deposits left when the spring that formed the terrace was active. The orange and other colors are caused by heat-loving living things in the water.)

This is the oldest area of the park and there were some great photos of people in the late 1800s and early 1900s sitting on these terraces – literally in chairs placed on the rock formations. Ladies in full Victorian regalia - parasols, lace, yards of fabric and all. Also some historic buildings there as well. We also drove up to the North Entrance to see the stone gate that was once the only way into the park.

We then found our way over to the Fossil Forest walk. Saw lots of petrified wood.

Non-stop wildflower fiesta on this walk.

Wildlife spotted today included: black bear, moose, trumpeter swans, more marmots, picas and buffalo and – my personal favorite of the day - big horn sheep.

Other interesting sights from today:

45th parallel.

Cool bear sculpture outside the Yellowstone post office.

Geyseriffic! (and) Close Encounters of the Buffalo Kind

2007-06-17T01:02:00.000-04:00

I think I’ve hit my geothermal limit. We walked more than five miles today in and out of various geothermic phenomena. Geysers, bubbling mud, boiling pools and springs… we saw it all!!

grotto geyser

marmot pokes his head out to enjoy a geothermal facial in the steam

flowers and steam

In addition to all the steaming holes in the ground, we also saw two buffalo up close today. The first one strolled up to Old Faithful before it went off and stayed for another two hours until the next blast. The next one walked right past us as we were waiting for another geyser to erupt.

Buffalo grazing in front of Old Faithful (pre-eruption).

Buffalo passing across from Riverside Geyser.

We saw a lot of other free-roaming wildlife including elk, a coyote, yellow-bellied marmots, some funky green-winged swallow, and pica (there are some squeaking under our cabin right now). Tonight we arrived at Mammoth Hot Springs, so tomorrow morning we will enjoy yet another amazing geothermal experience, before heading over to the petrified forest walk we mistakenly thought was further south in the park.

Oh yeah: it was really windy and cold today. It even snowed on us a few times.

view out the car window as we waited for things to clear a bit

[There are videos from today too, but can't post now... stay tuned to future posts. ]

We’re at YELLOWSTONE!

2007-06-16T01:13:00.000-04:00

Highlights from today:

The stunning Grand Tetons Mountains.

A mediocre hike from which we were chased by a pack of wild Wyoming mosquitoes, menacing dark clouds and threatening thunder.

Crossing the Continental Divide about three times.

Carole’s first-ever viewing of Old Faithful (Will’s sixth or so…)

Note the people in the bottom right-hand corner of this shot for a sense of scale.

Getting hailed on shortly there-after.

(no photos of this, just a highlight from the day, to be sure.)

Lots of other neat geothermal activity.

Devil’s Tower

2007-06-15T00:20:00.000-04:00

This has been - officially - my favorite day of the trip so far. I mentioned our cabin in yesterday’s post, and I can’t resist posting two photos – one from the outside showing the cabin in relation to Devil’s Tower, and the other showing the cute inside. We had breakfast –including super yummy biscuits with gravy - at the KOA café, before hiking, so all-in-all a great start to the day.

We then spent most of the morning doing an 8-mile hike around the base of the tower and the surrounding prairie. Including a walk through a prairie dog town. This was too cool for words… so I’ve included a picture below and a video so you can hear them “barking” at us (sorry for the shaky camera... this is really all about the sound).

The walk was so varied – pine forest, prairie, desert/canyon-like terrain – it was just great. And we saw at least 10 different wild flowers in all sorts of colors - purple, blue, white, yellow and orange. It would be really annoying to post them all here so I picked just one. The air temp was hot, but a near-constant, cool wind and the smell of sun-warmed pines made the hike insanely enjoyable. I was definitely on a nature high for most of it… and a few hours after.

Oh – and how can I forget – we met a RED SOCKS fan along the trail at DT who was so devoted to his team he had red socks tattooed on his left ankle (this gentleman appeared to be about my dad’s age). But he said to us, as we were chatting about baseball and of course… the Yankees, “I am a Red Socks fan first, but I am really a baseball fan, and I know which team is number one.” He couldn’t let the name of the team escape his lips, but he pointed to us. Swell fella.

We left DT around 1 or so and drove through some of the most beautiful country I have seen – spectacular rocky gorges, lush green prairie, dramatic sparse desert/canyon-like stuff. It was incredible. Met some nice bikers from SD at Powder River Pass along Highway 16.

We’re now in Riverton, Wyoming, which is within the Wind River Indian Reservation. (Staying at a hotel tonight.) Tomorrow we drive to Yellowstone.

This is for Scott - This board explained about the missing bark - porcupines EAT IT!!

Jewel Cave * Crazy Horse * Rushmore * Devil’s Tower

2007-06-14T23:25:00.000-04:00

If you’re thinking that’s too much for one day you're right. But we did it anyway.

Will’s brother George set today’s agenda which began with a 9 a.m. tour of Jewel Cave. The Cave was misnamed by those who discovered it and overestimated the worth of its contents by just about 100 percent. Nothing really valuable inside. At least not in terms of money. No pics worth sharing because… well.. it’s a cave. It’s dark. Not many photos came out well.

Visiting Crazy Horse was very satisfying. I didn’t really know the whole story until we were heading out here and it’s way too much for a blog entry, but I was most excited to learn the artist was Polish, and the entire venture is non-profit and non-government (learn more here). We also were there for a blast, and met the sculptor’s wife who now runs the whole operation with seven of her ten (!!) children.

I’ve always wanted to see Mt. Rushmore. And now I have. We showed up at an inopportune time for photos, with the sun at just the wrong angle. Oh well.

Devil’s Tower is poorly named. It is a sacred and spiritual place to Native Americans and maybe it was because we came here at the end of the day and nearly had the place to ourselves, or because the wind was blowing just enough to make that great swooshing noise in the trees, or because we got to see the sun set on the tower, but it is a place much closer to God than the devil, I am sure.

Tonight we have the most fantastic little cabin at a KOA just outside the park. I can see Devil’s Tower out our cabin door as I type this. Sadly, I have no idea when I will be able to post… no wifi last night or tonight. Bummer.

It's the solididified core of an old volcano.

Native American Prayer Bundle hung on tree near tower.

Thistle (always reminds me of my Grandma Dicton, because of her dishes).

Back on track

2007-06-13T23:16:00.000-04:00

Got up early this morning and drove to Rapid City. Spent about half the day there while we waited for the car, which was being repaired at Sears. We then drove to Custer State Park, where we got on a trail heading up to Harney Peak – the highest point in South Dakota. It was a gorgeous 3.5 mile hike up to a rocky-top vista. We has some snacks (dinner at this point) before heading back down.

The trail wove through lush forest, with gigantic jutting rock formations mingling in with the trees. We only ran into a few other hikers – most heading down as we were heading up. The trail to the peak actually led out of the state park and into the Black Elk Wilderness of the Black Hills National Forest where the peak is located.

The state park was really nice – lots and lots of lodges, campground, cabins, picnic areas. We even saw a few wild buffalo up pretty close, but didn’t stop to get a picture at first because there were so many I figured for sure we’d see more. Then we didn’t, until this one which was pretty far away (had to use the digital zoom to get this shot which is why it's not as clear).

We ended the day at Mt. Rushmore where we met up with Will’s brother, mom, sister Linda, and nephew Scott, and saw the evening program as they light up the monument. We’ll be heading back there tomorrow, along with Jewel Cave and Crazy Horse before heading to Devil’s Tower in Wyoming.

P.S. If my dear darling niece Caroline is reading this: I think I have more good news for you. When the mechanics at Sears were working on the car they had to take out the back seat that connects to the trunk and they found ANOTHER little something that I think is yours... are you missing any other games??

Not quite as planned

2007-06-12T14:37:00.000-04:00

Today began with a bang – literally. As we pulled out heading toward the visitors center for an 8.30 geology walk, our back passenger side tire blew out. Will nearly qualified for a pit crew changing the tire and we made the walk. I should also mention that just moments before the blowout, we discovered that a mouse had helped him/herself to snacks and rolls we had left in the trunk of the car.

After learning a bit about how the Badlands were formed we drove to Wall, SD (home of the famous Wall Drug and the nearest town), and got a new tire, some lunch, and mouse traps at the local hardware store (for all the hype, Wall Drug is fairly useless in terms of practical shopping). Back to the park for some serious hiking the rest of the afternoon. EXCEPT… as we climb out of the car we see the brand new tire is now also flat. Who cares, let’s go for a hike. Nice (albeit short) 1.5-mile walk on Notch Trail. Back at the car, Will is on his back jacking up the car when the heavens open. We toss everything that was previously in the trunk into the back seat and jump in the front to wait it out.

Few minutes later we get out and Will finishes the job, noticing that the spring (something to do with the struts and shocks) has actually broken and left a sharp edge, which is what cut/punctured both tires. (It’s not sticking out far enough to catch the donut spare). Back to Wall. The tire guy sends us to the local mechanic who tells us he can’t really help and we need to go to Rapids City. We’ve decided to go first thing in the morning because it’s over an hour away and this all was taking place around 3.30/4. By the time we got back to the park it was steadily raining and we both just crashed.

It’s nearly 8 now. Still raining. Will just put the mouse traps in the trunk and the front seat of the car. Not quite the day we had planned.

Photos from today:

Our second flat tire of the day. (Oh how this tire mocks us).

P.S. This post could have also been titled, Why no one will be getting postcards from the Badlands. Had planned to get, write and send post cards today/tomorrow at the latest, but it’s not going to happen.

WI to SD

2007-06-11T14:26:00.000-04:00

Pretty much a full day of driving, but with two fun stops and an early arrival in the Badlands NP, which left plenty of time to snap some pics before settling into our cabin for the night. Sadly there’s no wifi here, so I probably won’t be able to post this until Wednesday.

First Stop: Hawkeye Point, highest point in Iowa
Hawkeye Point is less than 10 miles south of the Minnesota border, so as we were scootin’ along Rt. 90, we turned south to head toward the high point.

This was quite an adventure since Will brought along only a photo of the site and the GPS coordinates, which would have been super helpful … if we had a GPS. We drove around in circles for a good 30 minutes; Will stopped at a farmers’ co-op and got more detailed directions and we eventually found the place. It’s on private property – a pig farm. The marker is at the end of the corn crib. This is Will’s 30-somethingth HP and my twenty-somethingth. The property owner was mowing her lawn and gave us a smile and a wave as we parked our Jersey plates and walked toward the marker. Funny.

Next stop: Corn Palace, Mitchell, SD
This has been in my sights since Jenn V. crossed the country with her cat, moving from Boston to Seattle, oh-so-many years ago and sent me a postcard from this joint. Sadly they were in the midst of changing the design, so the outside of the palace was not in its usual glory. Here’s a nice picture of one of the murals inside though.

Destination: Badlands National Park
There were storms in the area and the dark skies really made these geological wonders appear even more spectacular. Tomorrow’s agenda includes lots and lots of hiking.

BMOC

2007-06-10T23:02:00.001-04:00

So NOW it's official. He's all graduated and stuff. Can you even stand how cute this kid is???

So after a trip out east to work with Uncle Will for a bit this summer, and a trip to Italy with the family, he's off to University of North Dakota in Grand Forks to pursue a degree in airport management, commercial piloting and something else.

It's sort of amazing that there are no photos of him with cute girls, because let me tell you there was a veritable parade of them during the course of the day.

Judy, George Peter III, George Peter Jr., Scott.

With Gram.

Valerie and Linda (Will's sisters - they will NOT stand for a photo so we take what we can get with them!)

Scott and Uncle Will (the ceremony was two full hours).

Congratulations George!

2007-06-09T22:25:00.000-04:00

Today was George’s graduation party and that took up most of the day (although Scott really wants to get a game of Risk going right now and I feel a little guilty that I am sitting here doing this when I SHOULD be hanging with the family). Will and I started the day with a nice little hike up Hoffman Hill which is just a few miles from here. We plan to go back tomorrow and maybe I will take some pictures. But for now… here’re some shots from the party.

Nice photo of some grads...

..and then the rock band shot.

These kids today and their texting! I was able to confirm that at one point party guests were texting each other across the room!

Jackson learning all about quoits!

Bubbles...

2007-06-09T21:43:00.000-04:00

Ok so at some points during the party, when Will and I weren't kicking George (Will's brother, not the graduate - he was way too busy socializing) and Scott's butts in quoits, we struggled to entertain ourselves.

The Cup Stays in Wisconsin

2007-06-08T22:22:00.000-04:00

Well it was a heated competition but the Hayducsko Cup will remain in Wisconsin - even if only for a short time. The honor passed from Young George to his dad.

He looks so happy about it, doesn't he?

The Competitors. Back row, l to r: Will, GP3, Scott, George, Charles (Judy's bro), Linda (actually, Linda was a cheerleader). Front row, l to r: Halle and Ib (exchange student, Malou's mom and her man), Carole, Judy.

The Hayducsko Boys: Will, Scott (nephew), George (brother) and George (nephew).

The champ sinks one.

So close, and yet ... so far.

In other news....
Earlier in the day, before we got to George and Judy's place, we stopped at a Sinclair gas station with this really cool giant dinosaur.

816 Miles later…

2007-06-07T23:59:00.000-04:00

Stopped for the night in Rockford, IL (just west of Chicago). Very late. Too sleepy to compose any sort of elegant prose and not much to report anyway… just driving, driving, driving. Toward the end, went through about 25 minutes of nasty-butt storm. Drove by Comiskey Park shortly after the Yankees finished kicking white sock butt. Just a short five hours tomorrow morning and we will arrive at Midwest Chez Hayducsko.

Leaving tomorrow!

2007-06-06T13:59:00.000-04:00

Aired out the tent and sleeping bags today (that's the rain tarp for the tent strung across the two clothes lines).

T: minus 5 days...

2007-06-02T11:38:00.000-04:00

Nothing done yet. No packing. No laundry. No idea how we are going to get ourselves ready to leave by Thursday.