Aunt Anita and I woke up to a beautiful brisk morning, with wild turkeys and deer in the front yard, and much happier dispositions after a full night's sleep. There's something to be said for staying in one place for more than 8 hours. After breakfast and a kitchen remodel design session (on Aunt Anita's part), we decided it was time to hit the road. (Uncle Jim spoiled me by removing the bug guts from my windows before we left.)
First stop on today's agenda is Sturgis, SD. Sturgis is the home of an annual motorcycle rally that attracts motorcycle enthusiasts from around the world. I first learned about the rally from American Pickers, a television show about finding "rusty gold" pieces of history, cleaning them up, and reselling the treasures. The two main characters are Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz, both of whom are motorcycle fans, and have taken me to Sturgis through a couple episodes of their show.
It was actually Aunt Anita's idea to make a stop in Sturgis as the rally was only a few days away, and there were sure to be vendors and participants there early to enjoy the festivities. The rally technically lasts one week and there are typically 500,000 extra people that flood the area to enjoy the week long party. Yesterday we definitely noticed an increase in the number of motorcyclists on the road, and as there's not too much traffic and lots of sites to see, I can definitely appreciate how nice of a ride it would be. We stopped at one of the t-shirt vendors for souvenirs and found out that some people ride into town while others ship their bike. It is slightly looked down upon to ship your bike, but I can imagine a ride from Florida on a motorcycle would get tiring after a while. Honestly, I felt a little out of place driving into town in my Toyota Camry, so after the requisite pictures it was time to move on to the next stop of our adventure.
From Sturgis, we continued west into Wyoming to Devil's Tower. The Native American legend of Devil's Tower is that a group of seven girls were playing and chased by some bears. jumping on top of a rock they prayed that the rock would grow and take them out of harm's way. The rock began to grow under their feet and took them high into the sky. As the bears tried to jump at them they scratched the rock and slid back to the ground. The seven girls were taken so high that they became seven stars known as the pleiades. I am also informed that it is a popular rock climbing site. As I am terrified of heights, this fact did not really appeal to be, but I can definitely see the excitement for others. One again this was primarily a photo-op of a national landmark, and considering that this formation seems to rise out of the ground independent of any another mountains, it's definitely a site to see. For those of you that have seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind, I'm sure you're familiar with the site.
The plan for the rest of the day was to drive and get as close as possible to Yellowstone without getting into the park as nighttime is most definitely not the best hours for sightseeing, as we learned from our Carhenge experience.
Much to my surprise, Wyoming is beautiful, and by far my favorite state to drive through on the trip. We were headed toward the east entrance of Yellowstone, and our course took us on some winding roads through Bighorn National Forest. This mountain range amazed me because the eastern side of the mountains are lush with evergreen trees. The western side of the mountains are desert-like. While cruising up one of the mountains, we stopped at a "scenic overlook" to view some waterfalls. On one path we even encountered a snake! The ranger station/information kiosk was closed by the time we got there, but it turns out all of the bathroom facilities and drinking fountains we contaminated with e. coli, so perhaps the station wasn't open at all that day. Aunt Anita and I got back in the car, lathered up with some hand sanitizer and continued on our journey.
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| The Desert and the Forest |
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| Shell Falls, Bighorn National Forest |
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| A hummingbird feeder at Shell Falls |
As an aside to or perhaps in conjunction with this entry I would like to take the time to make a recommendation to the US government. Now as I previously mentioned, I am not up-to-date with every political nuance, however my recommendation to the government is that in regards to domestic policy/agenda, you should look to the heartland of the country for inspiration. For example, throughout my travels I have seen these signs on many of the roads:
And I have also seen many deer as roadkill. What am I inferring from this situation? Well of course that deer are illiterate. They obviously cannot read, and therefore do not know that when crossing the street they should be crossing at these signs. Deer illiteracy kills, reading saves lives! On the other hand, cow illiteracy is not a problem that needs to be corrected.
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| Cow Crossing! |
As we made our way out of the mountain range, I was running a little low on gas, so we pulled off at the first small town and stopped at a station that apparently still believes in the honor system. Most gas stations believe in the pay before you pump adage, so Aunt Anita walked in ready to hand over the cash only to be sent back out and told to gas up before paying up. As we waited for the tank to fill, a bunch of locals decided to shout out of their car "Oh wow look at that!", and pointed to some random nonevent. In terms of making fun of tourists the barb was pretty lame. You're going to have to work harder to get more than an eye roll out of me!
Driving out of that small town, we hit the open road once again. Our next stop, and as it turned out the last for the day, was Cody, Wyoming. Buffalo Bill Cody, a soldier, bison hunter, and showman put Cody, WY on the map. Buffalo Bill's Wild West, a circus-like show, had headliners such as Wild Bill Hickok, Annie Oakley, and Calamity Jane.
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| A bison chained up on Main St, just a statue! |
Nowadays Cody still has a nightly rodeo in the summer and a beautiful main street with a bunch of quaint little shops. One shop we decided to checkout was a food speciality shop. One row of hot sauces particularly caught my attention.
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| Now that's hot! |
1. My house, Cherry Hill, NJ
2. Aunt Anita's House, Philadelphia, PA
3. Lost Dog Cafe, Binghamton, NY
4. Martin House Complex, By Frank Lloyd Wright, Buffalo, NY
5. Niagara Falls State Park and Cave of Winds, Niagara, NY
6. Erie, PA
7. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland, OH
8. A Christmas Story House, Cleveland, OH
9. Ciao's, South Bend, IN
10. University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN
11. Chicago, IL
12. Millenium Park, Chicago, IL
13. Chicago Hop on Hop off Tours, Chicago, IL
14. Lou Malnati's, Chicago, IL
15. Frank Lloyd Wright's Home and Studio, Oak Park, IL
16. Home Alone House, Winnetka, IL
17. Wrigley Field, Chicago, IL
18. Grinnell, IO
19. Downtown/Main St, Winterset, IO
20. John Wayne's Birthplace, Winterset, IO
21. The Bridges of Madison County, Madison County, IO
22. Sandhills, Grand Island to Alliance, NE
23. Carhenge, Alliance, NE
24. Hot Springs, SD
25. Wind Cave National Park, SD
26. Crazy Horse Monument, SD
27. Mount Rushmore, SD
28. "Aunt Eileen's and Uncle Jim's House," Rapid City, SD
29. Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Sturgis, SD
30. Devil's Tower National Landmark, Wyoming
31. Bighorn National Forest, Wyoming
32. Cody, WY
Today's Destinations:
1. "Aunt Eileen and Uncle Jim's" House, Rapid City, SD
2. Sturgis, SD
3. Devil's Tower, WY
4. Big Horn National Forest, WY
5. Cody, WY
"Never stop exploring..."
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