Black Hills, Badlands, and Mt Rushmore

We have landed safely in Nebraska! But first, let's Tarantino it.


So, upon waking, we headed out from Murdo, crossed the into the Mountain Time Zone, and hit up Wall Drug. There was really no question whether to visit or not. There are signs EVERYWHERE for it. Old-timey, particle board signs ALL OVER I-90. There was also an amusing sign (which, alas, I didn't get a shot of) on the highway that ardently 'rejected' animal activists because hunting, fishing and fur trapping was vital to their economy. Apparently South Dakota thinks its 1804. But anyway, Wall Drug. It was fine, I guess. I got a key chain and lip balm made from bison tallow. Mickey made a friend.

From there, we took a right turn and headed south into the Badlands. The trip sort of went something like...
Me: OMG. South Dakota is so flat and boring.
Mickey: Agreed.
Me: Boringest place ever.
Mickey: Yup.
*An interesting piece of topography catches our eyes to the left*
Mickey and Me: WHAAAAAAHAHAAAAT?
*BADLANDS*


I've got to say that I think this was my most favorite part of our May Trip. The Badlands were incredible and I truly urge people to visit because it's a cheap vacation and the scenery is spectacular.
Apart from their name being a buzz word in my 5th grade Social Studies class and Badlands Tacos in Oradell, NJ, I didn't know much about them. Apparently, they were formed when the prairies eroded. The view from the Park was absolutely amazing. Let the pictures speak for themselves.

The Badlands (which is a National Park) was filled with wildlife. It was the site of our first encounter with BISON. We also saw Prairie Dogs!!! They were everywhere. You can't tell from the pictures but the main road through the park was the dividing point between 'Badland' and prairie. So on our left for a lot of the drive we had these eroded, lunar mounds and, on the other side, there was a peaceful, green prairie filled with grazing bison and burrowing prairie dogs. It was surreal.
Because we had been such early birds (and we gained an hour jumping time zones), it was only about 10 o'clock when we headed further west. As the Badlands gave away to more rolling prairie, black, Mordor-esque crags of rock filled the horizon. The Black Hills. This place was a sacred area to the Lakota and other surrounding tribes (and I'm just pulling this from Nat. Amer History II class) and it was where they believed all of life began. It's interesting that we plopped one our our most recognizable American landmarks right in the middle of it.

Around one o'clock we got to Mt Rushmore. (So named after...a ....lawyer.) It was a cool place and a little bit smaller than we had expected. (But hey, doesn't everyone say that about the Statue of Liberty?) The tour guide was probably the best tour guide I've ever had and he really knew his stuff. From there, we found our little camp site and set up our tent. Maybe this night would be better than our last experience?

We needed matches to light a fire so we drove up to Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park (which we spuriously entered) and found a little general store. From there, we got LOST. Mandy, our GPS, was at a loss. But we found our way back and had a freezing night in the Black Hills!


The next day, Mother's Day, we had a nice South Dakotan breakfast and called our mothers. From there, we headed south to Nebraska!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Day of Driving/Murdo, SD

So today was our longest day of driving since getting out to Pittsburgh. It wasn't too bad, though. We had a nice morning in the Twin Cities and breakfasted at Mickey's Diner in St. Paul. It's a pretty famous place where a lot of celebrities have been. It has also been featured in Arnold Schwarzenegger's holiday classic JINGLE ALL THE WAY. We sat at the counter to get the full diner experience and found out that the diner itself was actually built in Elizabeth, New Jersey! We had to drive all the way to Minnesota to get a down-home Jersey diner meal! All of the diners in Jersey have gone from "authentic" to "tackily mirrored" (Somerset Diner) or "ironically retro" (Skylark) so it was nice to see something that wasn't new or had been garishly redone. The counter guy/waiter was a hoot and I swear he made my eggs over easy perfectly, which is an extremely challenging feat.
After breakfast, we got back in the car and made the extremely long trek to South Dakota. The terrain was very flat for the first half our the ride. The weather wasn't too great either. We were driving right into a storm and, being on the prairie, there's no shelter from the wind. Robert was not happy about being blown all over the highway and neither were we because we had to steer him back on course through pelting rain and unfamiliar road conditions. To take a break we visited the Corn Palace. Weird place. The locals are very enthusiastic about it. The facade of the entire building was made of corn. They've been making new designs for it yearly since the 1890's.

Upon crossing the Missouri River, we stumbled upon rolling hills that can only be described as Tolkien-esque. I kept on checking the map to see what Reserve or Park we were passing through but there was nothing--just ten miles of verdant, steep hills with no trees to be seen for miles. This picture does not fully capture the majesty of the geography. I took some pictures with my film camera--hopefully I can scan them onto the blog eventually. It was an absolute gorgeous surprise and a nice change from the flat prairies of Minnesota and eastern SD. You can see a good picture here. South Dakota's speed limit (on I-90) is 75 mph. Granted, there were not many cars on the road at all but it was scary at times. I've also noticed that Wisconsin has some speed demons on the interstates. But damn, did we make good time!!
The town of Murdo has about 600 people and is literally a cluster of hotels and houses a half a mile from I-90. And that's about all there is to say about Murdo. The End.


Tomorrow we go on to Wall Drug, The Badlands, Mt Rushmore and the Black Hills!!! Excitement!

Wisconsin, Iowa, Minneapolis

So, on from the Windy City, we traveled northwest to Blue Mound, WI, pop. 432. Sweet. Blue Mound doesn't seem like it would be a tourist spot except for the Cave of the Mounds and Little Norway. Cave of the Mounds became a National Landmark in 1939 after people accidentally discovered it because they were blowing stuff up. Awesome. The result? Fraggle-freaking Rock. These caves were really cool and we got a full guided tour. Being that it was the middle of the day on a Wednesday, we were the only "grown ups" without kids. The only other people on our tour were Brownie Girl Scouts. These are actual pictures we took during the tour. This makes me really excited to see the Carlsbad Caverns in August!

Little Norway really made me reminisce simultaneously about IKEA Swedish meatballs and about the overpriced doll I so loved, Kirsten, the Swedish immigrant American Girl. Built by a Norweigan immigrant family in the mid 1800's, Little Norway was a homestead farm until Isak Dahle, some rich Norweigan American guy, bought it in the 1920's. He then used it as a summer home for a few years until it was opened to the public. His descendants still live on the property. Our tour guide was hardcore 2nd generation Norweigan American and it was obvious that he loved his job. The whole 'museum' really piqued my interest about the whole Scandinavian immigrant experience. The grand finale of the tour was a peek inside the "Norway House" which was built in Norway. The interior was reminiscent of the Rohirrim and Vikings. (I'm a geek, I know.) That's me standing on the steps as Eowyn, peering out over the rolling hills of Rohan, awaiting the return of Aragorn.
That evening, after having a hearty meal at the Grumpy Troll (complete with the gotta-have cheese curds), we spent the night at Blue Mound State Park---in a thunderstorm. Setting up the tent for the first time went well but starting a fire with wet wood did not. We settled for a quiet night of Pente in our sleeping bags. Thunder was steadily rolling in throughout the evening and there was a full-on downpour earlier while we were having dinner. Being in a warm, dry restaurant munching on amazing fried things during a thunderstorm is one thing but huddling in a sleeping bag while forks of lightning illuminate your teeny tent is another. But, for the most part, we stayed fairly dry. We lived to see the morning and we were off for Iowa. On the way, we got to see some Amish!!! YAY! The picture on the left is the back end of an Amish man's wagon. He was selling flowers.
Iowa was not originally on our itinerary. We figured we'd just go from Wisconsin straight into Minnesota but the Little Norway tour guide recommended the Effigy Mounds National Monument on the banks of the Mississippi River in Harper's Ferry, Iowa. So we went. Turns out that the Effigy Mounds are part of our America the Beautiful Parks Pass so we got in for FREE! Always a nice bonus. Even Robert was happy. (Remember Robert, our car? He got a nice break as we went on a hike.) The effigy mounds (which are in various animal shapes) are ancient burial grounds of hunter gatherer Native Americans from around 1000 B.C. They still pose various questions to today's archaeologists. Their mysteriousness may not translate from the picture but there was a certain sense of wonder I felt as I trekked over their sacred ground. It was a really nice spontaneous side trip.

Around 5 pm we arrived in Minneapolis or, as my mother acerbically put it, "Mini-no place". Of course, she visited for a business trip many years ago. Still, I wasn't really expecting much even though Minneapolis is second only to New York for theaters per capita. That should have been a sign. This city is great. We stayed in the International Hostel in the city. (I also must admit, I'd had a preconceived bias toward hostels. I always thought they were filled with hippies and bedbugs.) It is in an old mansion right across the street from the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts. Just like quaint bed and breakfasts, it has charming Victorian architecture and creaking wooden floors. It's very clean and we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves being that it's "off season". It's really close to downtown, which was a major plus.
After wandering around, we stumbled upon Dakota and had some delicious Pumpkin Gnocchi. After wandering around some more, we had some iced hard cider at Brit's Pub (also delicious). We made the nice walk back to the hostel neighborhood (which was in the heart of a Vietnamese and African enclave -- sad I can't stay and try out the cuisine!!!) and stopped by a retro 60's mod coffeeshop called Spy Coffeehouse. Minneapolis turned out to be a really nice city and I would love to return here to see some theater (Prairie Home Companion??).


Next stop? The middle of South Dakota somewhere.....

Chicago -- My kind of town

Ohio!! Why, oh why oh why ohhhh....

I really thought it was going to be somewhat of a wash but we happened upon the quaint little town of Vermillion on Lake Erie. It has a cute little downtown with the Main Street Soda Grill as its focal point. I, of course, had to order an Egg Creme. There were some really interesting canal-type waterways that wound their ways through the edge of the town into people's backyards. Vermillion was a nice little surprise on our long trip through an otherwise sorta boring state. Sorry, Ohio.

That night, we stayed at Mickey's Uncle's house in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Kalamazoo was a nice town with a young-looking center with a lot of potential. A few theaters, restaurants, shops. Everything was clean and new. But poor Kalamazoo; the recession hit it very hard. People losing jobs, companies moving out of town, buildings being torn down. A shame. It has good bones, though. It is truly evident that the citizens care about their town and are doing everything that they can to improve it. So, Bravo, Kalamazoobles!

A big ol' raspberry to Indiana. I lost me keys there. Boo.




We rolled into Chicago on Monday afternoon. After going to the wrong hotel and realizing I lost my keys somewhere in Indiana, I was getting a little worn out. But we found the right hotel and ignored the fact that my keys were gone and headed down to "The Loop".
I couldn't help but compare the Windy City to New York. I concluded that visiting Chicago has made me see NYC in a different way: New York is way dirtier (I saw people CLEANING public places!!!), Chicago's mass transit is "politer" but less efficient (they had extremely clear announcements on the train, cleaner cars and stations, and a FREE trolley.But the El just didn't move fast enough for me), and I realized that I like Chicago Deep Dish Pizza better than New York pizza.
It's just really delicious. We went to Pizzeria Due. It's like Uno but not. After dinner, we were wandering as tourists are wont to do and we literally stumbled upon a really great place called the Redhead Piano Bar. The singer was really amazing and they played all of the old standards that just really aren't heard anymore.
And so, today, was our full day in Chicago. We were real troupers and got up really early and headed back downtown and started wandering. Our original plan was to go over to the Aquarium but we found that the animals were shipped elsewhere as there were renovations being done on their habitats. Mickey was really upset. But because of Chicago's "Museum Campus" all we had to do was turn around and go next door to the Field Museum. There was this really groovy pirate exhibit that was like a museum in and of itself. I really enjoyed the Field and wished there were more hours in the day to have experienced it. It reminded me of the Museum of Natural History (again, comparing with New York) which is my favorite museum of all time. We took a break from the Museum and grabbed some Chicago hot dogs. These hot dogs are hot dogs on acid. Tomatoes, peppers and pickles on a dog? Are these people serious. They are. They are very serious. And it was delicious. Note that you really can't even see the hotdog in the picture. Still delicious.
After lunch it was back to the museum for some more exhibits. Then we wandered down to the Navy Pier and I had my first Ferris Wheel ride. From the wheel, I saw a great view of the skyline and even Gary, Indiana (though I was trying to erase that image from my memory. Gary, Indiana is the Midwest's answer to Elizabeth, New Jersey).
From there, we left downtown and headed to Bucktown/Wicker Park. Really cool. Thrift shops, vintage furniture stores, galleries, boutiques, clubs and good eats. Since it was Cinco de Mayo, we had to eat Mexican at Le Fonda del Gusto which was new restaurant that had just opened the night before.
Truth be told, I'm ambivalent about my time here in Chicago. It's nice to finally see it but it feels a lot like New York (which is both comforting and annoying). I'd love to return someday and explore some more.

Next up:

Blue Mound Wisconsin

Pittsburgh

It's been a whirlwind weekend so this is the first chance I had to post!

So the trusty trio of travelers started out on a rainy, drab Friday morning. Our trip was quick, nonetheless, and we made it out of NJ about an hour after starting. We then crossed the Delaware into the Keystone State. I'd driven only as far as State College in the past and driving through random mountains on the Penna Turnpike was fun. I think the thing that will stick most in my mind will be the maternal road signs that are dotted along the highway. "Buckle up, it's our law", "Slow down, save a life", "Don't tailgate", "Don't drink and drive-you can't afford it." The best was when we were driving through the mountains:

Sign: Take off your sunglasses
Mickey: Wait, what?
Me: What did that sign say?
Mickey: It said.....take off your sunglasses! And this one...
Sign: Turn your headlights on.
Me: These signs are being fresh.
Mickey: Maybe it ...gets... dark up here.
*Road leads to mountain*
Mickey & Alex: OHHHHH.

So apparently Pennsylvania is truly concerned for your safety while going through their dark mountains. We thank them for that.

We arrived in Pittsburgh at around 5. Traditionally known as the "Iron City", Pittsburgh has transformed from an industrial, working class center into an up and coming, exciting and refreshing town. Instead of the old ideas of steel and the Carnegies, my eyes were opened to the home of Andy Warhol and August Wilson.
We stayed with Mickey's sister, Amelia, and Amy, her partner. Amy owns and operates Enrico's Tazza D'oro, a local gourmet coffee hotspot, which offers more exotic coffees than you could ever have in a lifetime. We visited the Andy Warhol museum (which I adored) and saw the opening night of Wilson's Seven Guitars at the Pittsburgh Playwright's Theater. The theater itself is actual INSIDE of a parking garage. Interesting, to say the least. I do regret not having enough time to experience the Carnegie Mellon Drama Department's project, Waffle Shop, which seemed truly creative and original. The theater scene in Pittsburgh is vibrant and enthusiastic, which, fittingly, is a reflection of the city itself.
We experienced many culinary delights during our stay. Dinette should be mentioned for its entire menu and especially for their Ramps pizza. We also dined at Primanti Bros. in the Strip district, indulging in Pittsburgh's answer to the fat sandwich: two slices of thick white bread, roast beef, tomato, cole slaw and a handful of french fries. And last, but certainly not least, Amy makes a mean turkey burger.
Our final morning was highlighted with the Pittsburgh Marathon, which went right by Tazza D'oro! We got a front row seat of the race. In spite of Pittsburgh being a substantial city, it steadily maintains a fierce sense of community and a small town mentality. Everyone who we talked to was extremely proud to live in Pittsburgh and needed no urging to gush about their hometown. The love was contagious. We need to go back soon.


Next up: Ohio/Kalamazoo