The 'Pause' Button of Life

When I’m reading a good book, especially a thriller, when the action gets hot and heavy or an emotional event occurs to the character I sometimes have to set down the book and let my mind calm before I read on (yes, I do this when I’m watching DVD’s too).   When reading a piece on physics, scientific theory or philosophy, I will set it down just to digest what I’ve read, explore the concept(s) and contemplate perspectives.

When we’re traveling …. I often wish I could hit that pause button and just let the action, concepts or beauty sink in and then move on.

For example in Glacier National Park (GNP), there was a moment at the East Glacier Lodge in the morning watching the sunrise while chatting to a fellow traveler.  She was reflecting on her travels from Florida, and how she usually flies to her destination, then rents a car and hits the areas of her interest.  This time though, she was traveling with a tour group.  She wanted the companionship of a group, and the organization of the tour.  We discussed the pros and cons of various ways and places to travel.  We then discussed the vagaries of life and aging.  After bidding her safe travels we went to our room and freshened up for breakfast.  I went to the huge balcony off our room and would have loved to be able to hit the pause button and reflect on the thoughts rushing through me at the moment. We not only discussed the surrounding beauty, but the reality of life and the effort it takes to press on.  The discussion could have happened in a philosophy class.  Still, we went to breakfast, packed and hit the road to Rising Sun on the Going-to-the-Sun Road.

Another example was the time we were leaving Glacier National Park.  As we were driving down the west flank of the Going-to-the-Sun Road we observed mist/clouds of mist rising over the areas bathed in sun for the first time that day.  We had seen the same flank the day before but that was mid day.  This was a whole new world!  The magic of the mist, the stillness of the mountains, the quiet calling of the birds made me feel like I could have just pulled up and sat for hours  taking in the magic of the mountains.  We were on a two lane road and even though there are pull offs, we were on a schedule to find a new place that evening to sleep, so I just took a few pictures to remind me of the feeling.

One might suggest that the trip, itself, to GNP was putting the ‘pause button’ on.  To be able to reflect without the helter-skelter demands of the day to day world, hopping in the car and taking in the beautiful landscape, the villages, the people.  I agree that in a small way it is a time given to reflections and ponderings.  Yet there are so many layers to what’s out there to discover, to observe, to ponder….

Maybe the next time we go to GNP we’ll spend a year there!!

Music, music, music

I absolutely must add a few photos from yesterday in Sioux Falls.  At the nice hotel, Dennis was sitting on the outside patio and called me to come and see - it was a hot air balloon floating nearby.  I dashed out to take a picture and a few minutes later he called me to see another one!  I love hot air balloons.  They always look like they are from another world.  We took a balloon ride many years ago, and despite my normal fear of flying, I loved it.  Being in a balloon is like being the wind.  You do not feel the motion because you are moving with the air.  It was just lovely, peaceful, and exciting all at once.

 
Since the balloons did not stop to pick me up, so we got up this morning and worked out in the awesome workout room at the hotel.  I have been feeling fat, so I really threw myself into it.  We ate breakfast and hit the road because we had a one hour drive to Vermillion. 

This turned out to be a lovely little town on the banks of the Missouri River.  Vermillion is the home of the University of South Dakota and the university seems to be the biggest thing going in town.  The National Music Museum (NMM) was not hard to find - they provide excellent directions on their website.  What is hard to find is a parking place!  We finally parked in front of a dorm that was one block away.  The dorm had metered parking so we thought we would be okay (we checked with museum staff just to be sure).

This was a great museum visit.  Dennis plays guitar and trombone and sings and loves musical instruments.  I know it is hard to imagine that someone like me who can only sing and does not play a single instrument can be fascinated by all of the instruments, but it is true, I am.  There were hundreds to look at - many were beautiful beyond belief.  I'm afraid that our photos do not do justice to these fine artistic wonders.  The museum had little wireless devices that were loaded with multimedia displays that gave historical and aural information about several of the collection pieces.  I especially loved hearing the instruments that we could not touch.  The museum is transferring all of the multimedia info onto an app for iphones!  So, when you visit you will be able to use your phone to take the tour.

One gallery was all guitars - I called it Guitar Heaven, but it was really named for a significant donor.  Here are some of the examples we saw.

 Dennis' dream workshop

 Entrance to guitar heaven

 Gibson harp-guitar (see, I told you it was guitar heaven)

 Original Dobro - so beautiful!

Original Fender

I took some pictures of the curious and unusual instruments that we found.  I was dying to touch and play some of these, but my grown up girl asserted herself and I followed the do-not-touch directions.  Here are some of my favorites - and these don't even include the many ancient and beautiful pianos!

 Devil's Fiddle - old homemade instrument

 Dr. Seuss inspired drum

 Lyre mandolin

 Serpent (I bought a CD of a serpent concert - fascinating!)

 Hurdy gurdy - I think I could play this one

Glass armonica - I love the sound of this instrument and have a CD that uses it well

We spent a couple of hours looking, admiring, and listening at this museum and we loved it.  After we left the museum in Vermillion, we returned to I-29 and headed south and east into Iowa.  We stopped for the night in Des Moines, a large but not ugly city.

We felt welcomed into Iowa.  As we have driven across states, we have commented on the differences in ecology, population, poverty level, and industry.  All of these things contribute to the uniqueness of each state and to their value to the US as a whole.  In these fractious political times, it is helpful to gain this insight.

Bye-bye Buffalo

Yesterday was our last day in the Black Hills area and we spent it by going underground.  We visited Wind Cave National Park and toured the cave in the morning.  Visiting caves is always interesting.  I'm a little bit claustrophobic, but I push that aside because I really like the various rock formations and the cool quiet of the cave.  Several years ago we visited Kartchner Cavern in Arizona.  It was very well organized, easy to walk and all on one level, very wet, and it had lots of bats.

Wind Cave is small but complex, relatively dry, and has no bats.  What I mean by small, a strange thing to say about the sixth largest cave, is that it is under about one square mile of land.  But in that square mile, the cave winds back and forth and over and under for many miles.  Our tour guide, Ranger Bree, used the analogy of a bowl of spaghetti.  The spaghetti tubes were like the cave passageways and were all tangled up together.  We went up and down, mostly down, over 300 steps.  We had to stay on the concrete pathways so that we did not damage any of the cave formations.

 Inside Wind Cave - above my head.

 Most of the time we walked single file because the pathway was so narrow.  See who I was following?

Boxwork - this is a rare and delicate formation and Wind Cave has 95% of the boxwork in the world.

The steps and pathways were constructed by the CCC during the Great Depression.  The people who built the steps must have gotten into really good shape because they hauled concrete up and down the cave to build the steps.

After our cave tour we went back to Custer and visited a rock shop and then went back to the cabin for some reading and relaxation.  And we did some packing and cleaning so we could leave the cabin in good shape.

When we left this morning, we again encountered that large herd of large bison on highway 16A.  I took one last picture and said goodbye to the bison.  We drove all the way across South Dakota to Sioux Falls.  We found a nice hotel, CH Clubhouse Hotel and Suites, by accident.  It is a comfortable hotel with a great workout room and large guest rooms.  There seem to be a lot of families here, as though they were living here temporarily.  We found a brewpub for dinner with good beer and good food, and are now settled in for the evening.

Tomorrow we are going to Vermillion SD to see the National Music Museum and then we turn for home.

To our Blog followers

Greetings all! 
Just an aside to thank you all for following our travel blog(s).  We love traveling and of course  love blogging.   It has come to my attention that we have followers from France and the Far East.  Wow!!!

I would like to say Thanks  to all who are following us, especially those outside the USA.  We really appreciate your reading this blog.

One way we can thank all of you who follow us is to offer our services!!  Yep... if ever you are considering traveling by road across the USA and if you have questions, feel free to contact us!  We have years of travel (in the USA) under our belts and have developed ways to find out how to see what we want to see.  And if you've been following us, you know we travel comfortably, but not expensively. 

Sooooo....... message us if you would like to dialog about travels, we'll figure out  the best  way to communicate, and then we'd love to help you get your wheels on the road!

Once again THANK YOU for following our blog.

now back to our travels!

Happy Trails!
Dennis

Just Being a Tourist

Today we decided to visit several tourist attractions.  We chose to start with one we wanted to see and learn about - the Crazy Horse Memorial.  It is a truly massive undertaking.  The sculpture was begun in 1948 and will be the largest sculpture in the world when it is finished.  It was inspiring to see this beloved Indian leader emerging from the rock of the mountain.

We watched a film on the inception of the Crazy Horse Memorial and how it is being created.  I would love to be there when they are actually doing some of the explosive "carving."  The model of the sculpture is beautiful and in one picture, we actually captured both model and sculpture.

 You can see the lines on the right where the horse's head will emerge.

The grounds of the Crazy Horse Memorial house a visitor center, museum, gift shop, and sculptor's studio.  We examined many artifacts, photos, and stories while at the museum and it left us puzzled and saddened by the dreadful treatment of our Indian brothers and sisters.  It is clear that a deep lack of communication and an unwillingness to bridge a cultural gap lead to loss and bloodshed and a lingering feeling of mistrust.  I understand why the association that continues to build the memorial does not want to take federal funding or assistance for this effort.

We drove north from the Crazy Horse Memorial to the town of Hill City to find the Museum at Black Hills Institute to see the dinosaur bones and other geological finds.  It was small but fun.  The T-Rex skeleton was huge.  I can't imagine how much work and digging it took to get that whole skeleton out of the earth.  We found some smaller skeletons that were photo-worthy, too.  I couldn't get Stan (the T-Rex) all in one photo.

 Info on Stan

 Stan

Dennis' new pet

After the dry work of geology, we went to visit a winery, Stone Faces Winery, just north of Hill City.  The people were friendly and we sampled sips of several South Dakota wines and bought a few.  It was amazing to me that grapes could be grown in South Dakota, but the person who was helping us sample said that the grapes came from the southeast corner of the state where there was more water and a more moderate climate.  I am not complaining about dry weather!  We have had perfect, sunny, warm days and that has suited our travels just fine.

As we came back into Custer, I told Dennis I wanted to stop at the National Woodcarver's Museum.  This turned out to be kind of a waste of our money.  It was not what I expected.  I envisioned fabulous artistic works of wood carving from a variety of artists.  It was the work of one man and the carvings were like cartoons - many of them animated.  The displays were dated in feeling and presentation.  The final blow was that many carvings in the gift shop were from other countries.  I thought they were totally missing an opportunity to showcase American arts and crafts.  It was disappointing.

Tomorrow we plan to visit Wind Cave for an underground adventure.  Walking shoes and warmer clothes are in order for us!

...Where the Buffalo Roam

Notes from Friday, August 30:  We carry the curse of being morning people no matter what time zone we inhabit.  So, we got up at 6:00 am and made coffee and discussed our plans for the day.  It was too cool to sit on the porch this morning and it rained a bit.  We determined our path and then I made breakfast for us.  Then we both showered and dressed and hit the road.

Morning view from our cabin

Our plan was to take the Needles Highway up to Mt Rushmore and take the Iron Mountain Highway back to Custer State Park and drive the Wildlife Loop.  We accidentally turned onto the Iron Mountain Highway instead.  As it turned, that was a happy mistake because the Iron Mountain road was the place to be.  We were stopped by a highway worker when the road turned to a one lane road because of construction.  She told us that there was "difficulty with the buffalo" this morning and she did not know how long we would have to wait.  After about ten minutes, the lead truck came for us and we moved forward - slowly.

We found ourselves surrounded by bison.  They were taking their time and taking their share of the road.  Since the bison are so much bigger than most cars, we all let them have the right of way.  This was our first chance to take pictures of bison and we took lots!  After we passed the herd (or they passed us), we continued on toward Mt Rushmore.  The road had three one-lane tunnels on the way.  One tunnel framed the president faces - very cool.

Look closely above the oncoming car.

When we got close to the Mt Rushmore entrance, there was a pull-off so we cold take a long distance picture.  The National Monument was not wildly busy (Remember that morning people thing?  There are benefits.) so we found a good parking place and headed up to the monument.  It was a beautiful clear day and we had many opportunities to take great pictures of Mt Rushmore as a whole and of each president individually.  Washington and Lincoln are the most compelling, but I wanted to spend some time with Jefferson and Roosevelt - we would live in a very different nation without them!  As we have traveled through the mountains, Dennis and I have commented that the rocky hillsides often seem to contain faces.  When we took pictures of the whole scope of Mt Rushmore, we thought we could still see potential faces in the un-carved rock next to the presidents.

 Faces from a distance

 Faces carved and un-carved

Mt Rushmore's grandeur

I have to admit that I was most strongly attracted to the Lincoln sculpture.  Several times as we walked and viewed, it looked like he was looking right at me - probably saying that the work he started is not done and I should get about helping.  The monument is an impressive sculpture and a real tribute to perseverance and to having a vision.  We were both in a reflective mood when we left.

We drove back on the Needles Highway.  Oh my goodness, what a road!  It did not just curve, it jackknifed.  There were many times when we thought oncoming cars wold just crash into us.  And several tunnels and passes were carved out of solid rock and only carved to hold one car at a time.  The needles for which the highway was named are giant, jagged pillars of stone.

 The Needles

The eye of the Needles

After we came down from the heights of Needles Highway, we drove the Wildlife Loop and finally saw lots of wild life.  We saw more bison, wild burros, pronghorn deer.  It was great to see the animals up close in their environment.  Seeing the wildlife was a great way to end today's tour.

 Big, up close bison - still roaming

 Wild burro, hoping wild Dennis will feed him even though it's against the rules.

 Pronghorn deer keeping their distance.

Devils Tower and on into South Dakota

We are spending four days in the Black Hills area of South Dakota, so we decided to stop at Devils Tower in Wyoming today on our way to South Dakota.  Our hotel last night was disappointing and not real clean, but it was quiet.  We vowed that we would not stay in hotels that don't feel right to us from now on.  Of course this was easy to do in light of the fact that I had already reserved a cabin for four nights - now we had to hope it was a nice cabin!

We drove the two and a half hours to Devils Tower with no problem.  Dennis had been there when he was a kid on a family camping trip.  I have never been to any part of Wyoming and had only experienced Devils Tower by seeing its majesty in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  It is a stunning sight.  I had to read about the geology of the Devils Tower and now I know what a butte is. 

 Devils Tower from a distance

 From a distance with zoom lense

We could see it for several miles before we arrived at the National Monument entrance.  I have to give a big hurrah to the National Forest Service!  In our travels we have noticed that the Forest Service does a great job of maintaining our national park lands and does a great job of showing them to best advantage.  In Glacier National Park and at Garnet Ghost Town and at Devils Tower the park service has been careful to offer excellent opportunities to get great pictures.  Approaching Devils Tower there are pull offs where visitors can take great long distance shots (even goofy shots like Dennis holding the monument).  And on the 1.3 mile trail around the bottom of Devils Tower there are benches and small shady spots where a photographer can get a clear shot.  I really appreciated this today.

 Devils Tower from the foot of the butte

 Do you see the rock climber in this picture?

 The Tower through the trees.

 Dennis holding the Tower in his hands.

Dennis got this picture of a golden eagle flying over the Tower.

I would love to show you all of the awesome pictures we took, but there were more than 70!  I wanted to get photos of the Tower from every side.  It was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for showing the shadows and columns of the monument.  We walked and stopped and took pictures and talked to other tourists and heard the languages of the many visitors to this location.  It was fun.

When we jumped back on the road again, we took state roads south through rural Wyoming until we reached US 16.  We turned east and headed into South Dakota.  Our destination was Custer City, outside of Custer State Park.  We had to use our phones to find the bungalows where we were staying and the phone was not completely accurate.  But we got here finally and registered with our host, Scott.  We are in cabin 4 which looks out at a nice pond, lots of trees, and rocky portions of the Black Hills.  It is somewhat remote, very quiet and kind of like camping but in a really nice cabin.  The cabin has a bedroom, living room (with a TV that doesn't get a signal), a small but nice (and clean) bathroom, and, best of all, a kitchen.  The kitchen has lots of pots, pans, dishes, and silver ware.  All we had to do was go to the grocery store so I could finally fix a meal!  Yay!!  We will eat some meals in restaurants, but it is great to fix our own food.

Into South Dakota for our Black Hills adventure.

Tomorrow we will start our Black Hills exploration with Mt. Rushmore and Custer State Park.  This discovery process is the reason we travel and we are so glad we can do it.