Nebraska seems to be mostly farmland. We're driving along, and I can't find any wireless networks. What the heck? Just cause we're driving in the middle of farmland... One day, the Internet will be everywhere. (It's close now, but still elusive at times. I want FREE Internet - and the Internet wants to be FREE.)
So, Alliance has several signs pointing towards Carhenge - this makes me laugh for some reason. I shouldn't laugh too hard - after all, I'm one of the dorky people driving into town specifically to see Carhenge. "Who's dorkier?" Obi-Wan Kenobi asks. "The dork who built it, or the dork who followed after to see it?" You're right, Obi-Wan. You're always right.
(What brought on the weird Star Wars reference? I dunno. It just pops up sometimes in unexpected places. ...Maybe it's the Rebel Alliance that brought it to mind. Bwahahah!)
Anyway, today is actually one of the times when the GPS is indisputably useful (the rest of the time, we are suspicious and dispute her motives). When I checked out Carhenge online, I found an actual address on a country road, input it into the GPS, and we're on our way.
There's a sign at the entrance: Carhenge and Car Art Reserve. Not just Carhenge now, but more! And it's FREE! You just can't argue with "free." :-)
I cannot describe how awe-inspiring it is to stand inside the mystic circle of Carhenge. The ancient dudes (pronounced doo-ids) built Carhenge, for some unknowable mystic reason of mysticism, of course. You just feel the weight of time, and the weight of all those gray-painted clunkers, and blah de blah.
Perhaps even more importantly, it's cheaper than flying to England and going to Stonehenge. (Free! Remember when I mentioned the part about it being free?!)
There are so many grasshoppers and crickets out in his field, we know we're headed back towards home. It's the return of the insects! Maybe it's just too hot during the day, but we didn't see much of them further south (I guess they only come out at night). Nevertheless, I brought some Watkin's bug repellent along with us, and we've never used any of it on this trip. Try THAT when you're in Waskesiu.
After Carhenge, we head into South Dakota. Our GPS has decided to take us the fast way to Mount Rushmore - at least it's a real road - but it's a road that travels outside the Black Hills. I don't want to drive away from all the scenery (I'll have the whole road back to Saskatoon for that) - I want to drive through the Black Hills. I make Stephen turn around and go back, and we ignore the GPS as, for the next few miles, she tries to convince us to turn around.
Yes, it's a much more scenic drive in the Black Hills. :-) My first thought was "why are they black hills? The soil looks pretty red to me." But, as you keep driving, the hills get rockier, and yes, it's dark rock. Ergo, black hills, I presume.
What was also quite striking was that it appears as if there's a good amount of pyrite in the area - when we drove by, some of the rocky embankments were sparkling in the sun.
As we drove past the sign for the park, we wondered why it was Mount Rushmore National Memorial (versus National Monument). Eventually, we figured it out. It's so they could exempt our National Park pass, which gives us access to all parks and monuments (but not memorials?). So we had to pay $10 per vehicle to use their parkade. For some reason, I find it really amusing that Mount Rushmore has its own parkade and traffic lights. This place must be a zoo in the summer. But, fortunately, we're here after prime tourist season, and all the kids are now in school (who says we don't know how to plan?).
So, yeah - it's a bunch of presidents carved into a mountain. Washington and Lincoln, everyone recognizes. Then there's the other two... Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt. If you think Roosevelt looks like an afterthought who was squeezed in there, you'd be right. The monument is also unfinished - it was supposed to have almost a full torso for Washington, and significantly more for Lincoln as well. (Roosevelt was probably always doomed to remain a shallow floating head.) But the project was put on hold when WWII started, and then the artist died, and his descendants have not wanted it continued. So, it stays as is.
We followed a hike around the grounds that takes you closer to the monument. There were workers crawling around on Washington's head and climbing up and down the side. (Must be giving Washington the heebie-jeebies. "Ants! There are ants crawling on me!") Part of the maintenance program; they check the rock for cracks and who knows what else.
Since we'd already paid $10 to see four presidents, we decided not to spend $10 each to see unfinished Crazy Horse's giant head. What is it with carving mountains? The artists always seem to die and leave their sculpture unfinished. Hmm.
Anyway, we could see Crazy Horse's giant head from the highway as we drove by. I took a picture. Ha ha! Try to get your $20 now, suckers!
I wonder if you can hike up to his giant head. That might be worth $10 each.
We'd contemplated going to the Badlands National Park, but since our park pass is good until August of 2011, we decided maybe we would take another swing down through the States next year; hit Badlands, and maybe Wind Cave, as well as Yellowstone.
For now, though, we head towards Wyoming and Devil's Tower. This takes us through Deadwood, South Dakota.
Deadwood appears to be a town that's put some work into retaining some of its "old west" persona. And I would have some nice pictures for you, if we hadn't been stuck driving behind a gigantic logging truck that blocked every possible photo. (I think it even blocked out the sun at some points.) >:-(
You can see Devil's Tower quite easily from the highway, but it's worth going into the park to get a closer view. (Especially when your park pass lets you in for free. Cha-ching!)
You can actually climb it if you want to, but you do need to register. And yes, you need proper climbing gear (ropes, harnesses, etc.) - this ain't no hiking trail. Stephen and I weren't interested in that kind of exertion anyway; we were content to walk along the trails at the bottom and take pictures from there.
We did actually see some climbers - no one really high up, in the long vertical lines of rock, but the were climbing through the upper boulder field. I'll bet you the view is spectacular - and that it's incredibly windy up there.
After leaving Devil's Tower, we were back to driving again. Booting it out of Wyoming, back through South Dakota, and hoping to stop in North Dakota. From far off, we could see several storm systems in the east - the lightning was flashing off in several directions. (One of the interesting things about driving in flat lands - you really can see the weather moving.) However, there was a big ridge of low-lying cloud that I didn't like the looks of.
The sun set around 7 p.m., and we were still making our way through South Dakota. When we finally crossed over into North Dakota, we knew that we were definitely driving into the storm. The wind was picking up, and the lightning seemed to be far away, but it was a very big lightshow - quite impressive, except that I was busy intently watching for deer (I'd seen a few on the side of the road). When we turn on the radio, we hear that yes, there are large thunderstorms and a tornado watch for the area. Great.
By the time we get to Dickinson, it's almost 9 p.m., and there are no hotel rooms. We stop at four higher-end hotels. The Comfort Inn is the only one with any rooms left, but they just have a jacuzzi room and a two-room suite. "Ouch," says my wallet, and we move on.
We drive to Belfield, which is kind of nowhere. Still seeing 'No Vacancy' signs at the few motels they have. There's one room left at the Trapper's Lodge, for over $100. Well, it's either that, or we sleep at a roadside rest stop. So we take it, but ask the clerk why there's so few rooms available. She says they get a lot of workers staying in the area.
That explains all the Haliburton trucks and road crew vehicle. Darn them, taking all the hotel rooms. >:-(
The final insult? $100 for the room, and I don't even get freaking wireless Internet. What the heck? Even Grandma and Grandpa Bates in Fredonia tried to provide wireless Internet (sure, it mostly failed, but at least they made the attempt). But they do have crappy cable TV.
Well, there's thunder and lightning out there, and it's raining pretty hard, so I guess I should be glad we're not sleeping at the rest stop.
So, Alliance has several signs pointing towards Carhenge - this makes me laugh for some reason. I shouldn't laugh too hard - after all, I'm one of the dorky people driving into town specifically to see Carhenge. "Who's dorkier?" Obi-Wan Kenobi asks. "The dork who built it, or the dork who followed after to see it?" You're right, Obi-Wan. You're always right.
(What brought on the weird Star Wars reference? I dunno. It just pops up sometimes in unexpected places. ...Maybe it's the Rebel Alliance that brought it to mind. Bwahahah!)
Anyway, today is actually one of the times when the GPS is indisputably useful (the rest of the time, we are suspicious and dispute her motives). When I checked out Carhenge online, I found an actual address on a country road, input it into the GPS, and we're on our way.
 |
| Carhenge! |
I cannot describe how awe-inspiring it is to stand inside the mystic circle of Carhenge. The ancient dudes (pronounced doo-ids) built Carhenge, for some unknowable mystic reason of mysticism, of course. You just feel the weight of time, and the weight of all those gray-painted clunkers, and blah de blah.
Perhaps even more importantly, it's cheaper than flying to England and going to Stonehenge. (Free! Remember when I mentioned the part about it being free?!)
There are so many grasshoppers and crickets out in his field, we know we're headed back towards home. It's the return of the insects! Maybe it's just too hot during the day, but we didn't see much of them further south (I guess they only come out at night). Nevertheless, I brought some Watkin's bug repellent along with us, and we've never used any of it on this trip. Try THAT when you're in Waskesiu.
*****
After Carhenge, we head into South Dakota. Our GPS has decided to take us the fast way to Mount Rushmore - at least it's a real road - but it's a road that travels outside the Black Hills. I don't want to drive away from all the scenery (I'll have the whole road back to Saskatoon for that) - I want to drive through the Black Hills. I make Stephen turn around and go back, and we ignore the GPS as, for the next few miles, she tries to convince us to turn around.
Yes, it's a much more scenic drive in the Black Hills. :-) My first thought was "why are they black hills? The soil looks pretty red to me." But, as you keep driving, the hills get rockier, and yes, it's dark rock. Ergo, black hills, I presume.
What was also quite striking was that it appears as if there's a good amount of pyrite in the area - when we drove by, some of the rocky embankments were sparkling in the sun.
As we drove past the sign for the park, we wondered why it was Mount Rushmore National Memorial (versus National Monument). Eventually, we figured it out. It's so they could exempt our National Park pass, which gives us access to all parks and monuments (but not memorials?). So we had to pay $10 per vehicle to use their parkade. For some reason, I find it really amusing that Mount Rushmore has its own parkade and traffic lights. This place must be a zoo in the summer. But, fortunately, we're here after prime tourist season, and all the kids are now in school (who says we don't know how to plan?).
We followed a hike around the grounds that takes you closer to the monument. There were workers crawling around on Washington's head and climbing up and down the side. (Must be giving Washington the heebie-jeebies. "Ants! There are ants crawling on me!") Part of the maintenance program; they check the rock for cracks and who knows what else.
*****
Since we'd already paid $10 to see four presidents, we decided not to spend $10 each to see unfinished Crazy Horse's giant head. What is it with carving mountains? The artists always seem to die and leave their sculpture unfinished. Hmm.
Anyway, we could see Crazy Horse's giant head from the highway as we drove by. I took a picture. Ha ha! Try to get your $20 now, suckers!
I wonder if you can hike up to his giant head. That might be worth $10 each.
*****
We'd contemplated going to the Badlands National Park, but since our park pass is good until August of 2011, we decided maybe we would take another swing down through the States next year; hit Badlands, and maybe Wind Cave, as well as Yellowstone.
For now, though, we head towards Wyoming and Devil's Tower. This takes us through Deadwood, South Dakota.
Deadwood appears to be a town that's put some work into retaining some of its "old west" persona. And I would have some nice pictures for you, if we hadn't been stuck driving behind a gigantic logging truck that blocked every possible photo. (I think it even blocked out the sun at some points.) >:-(
*****
You can see Devil's Tower quite easily from the highway, but it's worth going into the park to get a closer view. (Especially when your park pass lets you in for free. Cha-ching!)
You can actually climb it if you want to, but you do need to register. And yes, you need proper climbing gear (ropes, harnesses, etc.) - this ain't no hiking trail. Stephen and I weren't interested in that kind of exertion anyway; we were content to walk along the trails at the bottom and take pictures from there.
We did actually see some climbers - no one really high up, in the long vertical lines of rock, but the were climbing through the upper boulder field. I'll bet you the view is spectacular - and that it's incredibly windy up there.
*****
After leaving Devil's Tower, we were back to driving again. Booting it out of Wyoming, back through South Dakota, and hoping to stop in North Dakota. From far off, we could see several storm systems in the east - the lightning was flashing off in several directions. (One of the interesting things about driving in flat lands - you really can see the weather moving.) However, there was a big ridge of low-lying cloud that I didn't like the looks of.
The sun set around 7 p.m., and we were still making our way through South Dakota. When we finally crossed over into North Dakota, we knew that we were definitely driving into the storm. The wind was picking up, and the lightning seemed to be far away, but it was a very big lightshow - quite impressive, except that I was busy intently watching for deer (I'd seen a few on the side of the road). When we turn on the radio, we hear that yes, there are large thunderstorms and a tornado watch for the area. Great.
By the time we get to Dickinson, it's almost 9 p.m., and there are no hotel rooms. We stop at four higher-end hotels. The Comfort Inn is the only one with any rooms left, but they just have a jacuzzi room and a two-room suite. "Ouch," says my wallet, and we move on.
We drive to Belfield, which is kind of nowhere. Still seeing 'No Vacancy' signs at the few motels they have. There's one room left at the Trapper's Lodge, for over $100. Well, it's either that, or we sleep at a roadside rest stop. So we take it, but ask the clerk why there's so few rooms available. She says they get a lot of workers staying in the area.
That explains all the Haliburton trucks and road crew vehicle. Darn them, taking all the hotel rooms. >:-(
The final insult? $100 for the room, and I don't even get freaking wireless Internet. What the heck? Even Grandma and Grandpa Bates in Fredonia tried to provide wireless Internet (sure, it mostly failed, but at least they made the attempt). But they do have crappy cable TV.
Well, there's thunder and lightning out there, and it's raining pretty hard, so I guess I should be glad we're not sleeping at the rest stop.
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