Wow, what a busy day. I started the day off right by waking up later than I had wanted to after getting to bed later than I had wanted to. So much for making sure I started the trip off with plenty of rest :)
After checking out of the hotel (the breakfast was not that great...) I drove down to Wind Cave National Park. I mostly wanted to visit this place because we bought some old national parks postcards when we went to Bryce and Wind Cave was one of the places that was featured on a card. Plus it was very close to Custer so it did not seem like much of a detour. When I got there I found out that I would have to wait 40 mins for the tour to start which meant I would be an hour and a half behind schedule right of the bat. Oh well, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity, right? Unfortunately they only have one tour open at this time of year.
I've found that I've got a significant trade off on this trip of avoiding crowds and missing out on some of the programs and things that are available at the parks in the post-Memorial Day time frame.
The cave was pretty interesting. I forgot that I had gone into some caves in Mexico when Chi/Sean/Kelly/I went back in 2001. To be honest, this cave was not nearly as cool and unfortunately I discovered that my camera does not have a great flash for taking natural pictures in low-light conditions...bummer. Overall, the cave was cool and the best part was learning about how it had been discovered, explored, and then the geology behind it. Love that stuff. No shot glasses at the gift center but I did pick up a pin for Melanie which I may take for my own :)
Upon leaving Wind Cave I drove through the adjoining Custer state park. What a pretty area! There were so many wild creatures roaming about that I had to stop to take pictures several times. I managed to snap prairie dogs, wild turkey, pronghorn antelope, deer, and a bison. Needless to say this put me just a smidgen further behind schedule :)
The byway that goes through Custer takes you right to the Iron Mountain Road leading up to Mount Rushmore. This road was a lovely winding path that would have been a major pain in the summer when more people were about because of the one lane nature of the tunnels and some bridges. Luckily, I was there on a day when there were hardly any people so I could stop and take pictures as I pleased. The Prius is the perfect vehicle for this because it will happily shut down its engine while you take pictures and then take off on battery power while it can once you decide to head out again.
Mount Rushmore in the day was AMAZING. I think this is one of those things that you have to see and learn about to truly appreciate the magnitude of the accomplishment there. I felt quite patriotic while reading about the great people memorialized in stone here and it made me wonder what they would think about the state of things today. I'm not going to get on the political soapbox here so I'll leave that for you to ruminate on :) I'd love to be able to see this again (at night this time, without the fog!) and I might one day take another trip to the Black Hills region. Unfortunately I began realizing at this point that I was getting sick (run-away nasal drainage).
My way out of dodge took me through Rapid City, SD which is pretty small and then onto the barren expanse of I-90 as it passes through South Dakota. First of all, the drive is quite long (673 miles) and really has little to break it up. Add to that the RAGING wind from the north east which was a) killing my gas mileage and b) throwing my poor car all over the road and you can imagine how much 'fun' I had while driving this one. I had to stop a couple of times to get drugs to help contain my cold and the center console of the Prius ended up resembling a small medicine cabinet. To make this LONG story short, this part of the drive was quite sucky!
I finally wheeled into Minnesota around 2 a.m. Sunday morning and was having a hard time staying away so I pulled into the 2nd rest area I saw and decided I would set my alarm for a 2 hour and 3 hour interval nap and then decide which one was more appropriate. I woke up shortly before hte 2 hour alarm was set to go off and I was getting quite cold and a little hungry so I decided to get up and head off again. I had some coffee which had finally cooled off to get my jets started and headed off for the border with Wisconsin. Around 5 a.m. I decided it was time for my last power nap before the long haul into Chicago so I stopped and had a 1 hour nap. This nap was awesome and really woke me up. Plus the Dayquil I had purchased was finally kicking in (yay!). The south eastern part of Minnesota is quite pretty as is the western part of Wisconsin. There's a tangible change in the topography as you move between them due to soil types and the effects of the glaciers and rivers on the area. The area reminded me of northern Alabama with its rolling hills but I imagine the weather is a bit more temperate and probably gets quite a bit colder in the winter. Spring was obviously in full swing as the leaves on the trees were all budding out and some of htem were flowering. Unfortunately I didn't have time to stop and the pictures I took from my car ended up being quite blurry but you have to believe me when I say it's beautiful. One of the things I liked about the area is that none of the towns are really congregated around the interstates like they are in other places. While driving the interstate you will see exit signs for highways to a major city and then that's it, no sign of the city and you are just moving on. Of course this makes it tricksy to get gas and such when you think the town is going to be right up the road you are on and it's not. Thankfully there were scattered filling stations along the route right off of the freeway. Because of this anomaly I never really saw any of the bigger cities in Wisconsin. When you leave Wisconsin you get right on the tollway that runs to Chicago. I think I ended up paying 4 different tolls. 1 dollar, 1.60, .80 and .80. The GPS doesn't really have an option to avoid such things (I believe Google maps does) so this is one of the reasons it will be going back to Costco when I get home. The drive into Chicago was uneventful except for the consistent rain we were getting which made me think the Cubs game I had signed up for would be rained out. Luckily I asked someone when I arrived at the parking garage and they recommended I go ahead and take the Elevated Train down there because a lot of people were going. After parking my car and dropping off my bag I hopped the train up to Wrigley field just in time for it to stop raining! The game started 30 minutes late and I have to be honest and tell you that I was so stoned out from the cold meds and the lack of sleep that the experience was surreal. I didn't get a cubs jersey like I wanted but found a cool cubs sweat shirt that had a neoprene like fabric on the outside so it was at least water resistant. The seats I got were great, very close to the field. The park itself is small and a throwback: no jumbotron or instant replay. You just get to see baseball up close and personal. We were losing heading into the bottom of the 8th but we staged a rally and ended up winning it 6-4. By the end of the game I was a lot more alert and really enjoyed it. My seats for Tuesday's game are similar but on the visitor's side of the field and I will be sure to take my camera so I can get some non-cell phone pictures.
When I got back from the train I checked into the hostel, put my stuff in the room, then headed down to work on this blog. Instead, I checked out the improv group they had here for a nice hour-long diversion. It was pretty funny and all of the chairs in the room were filled. I talked with this weird older guy who teaches math at a community college in Virginia. He was nice enough but had that old pervert vibe to him and his hair and teeth were kind of gross. Hopefully I wasn't getting a nice look at things to come for me! :)
I'm lazy with my pics today and will just link to them. Enjoy! I'm off to sleep after my 19 hour driving ordeal (now with head cold!)
Custer
Wind Cave
Custer State Park
Mt Rushmore
Badlands
Minnesota
Wisconsin
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3 comments:
Dude I have a cold and can barely stand sitting at work for 8 hours. Don't know how you drove for that long, I think I would have just OD'd on nyquil (or as they call it in London nite nurse) at the rest stop.
I didn't know you were going to see the Cubs. Dude, you are just living it up!
That sounded like a looooooong day (or two).
The pictures are nice too.
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