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