When driving in 2014, I drove as far as I pleased on any days. Which sometimes was a lot. But his time around, I tried to break each day into smaller parts so we could see more. And we did see more curiosities than I did the first time around.
We got up not too late in the morning, and left our hotel in Columbus for our first leg of the journey. Our first stop of the day was something both I and my sister wanted to visit. An "olde candystore" in La Crosse. "Pearl Ice Cream Parlor". We found a parking space not far from it, and walked inside. They had truly managed to keep the "olde" look and feel. They were famous for their home made ice cream waffle cones. We bought some candies (way too much...) and an iceream each. Simply delicious. Sitting outside in the partly sunny weather and enjoying the icecream. If you are ever in the neighbourhood, check it out!
When searching for convenient stops along the way, I came across a little (...) thing in a small town called Blue Earth. We needed to stop around that point to eat, so I decided that would be a great place. It was "The Green Giant of Blue Earth". 17 metres tall. And green. And smiling. What isn't there to like?
We had our lunch at a Dairy Queen. And what is more appropriate than to meet a bunch of cows outside?
After spending the night in Sioux Falls, we continued on the I-90 west. The first stop was after just over one hour. I had found something I just had to see. The Corn Palace of Mitchell, South Dakota. The Corn Palace is an ordinary building (mostly) save for one particular feature. Every year, they decorate the walls of the building with different themes. And it is all made from corn. Either corn on the cob, or other parts of the corn plant. Inside the building they had a corn museum and an arena used for concerts and such. With the upper parts of the walls also covered with these corny works of art. When we were there, they had a souvenir shop...
An amazing little gem hidden away in this small town.
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| Mr Corny, I presume? |
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| Former design |
The reason we drove the I-90 wasn't because it is necessarily the most pictoresque route, but the fastest towards our desitnation. Rapid City and the Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse monuments. So there were some long drives each day. But here and there, there were some spots that broke the monotony of the road. And I snapped some photos of some of them. Old farmhouses. Nice fields and such.
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| Our destination for the day. Rapid City. |
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| Crossing the Old Miss (Mississippi river) |
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| Curves on the mostly rule-straight I-90. Just after crossing the Mississippi river. |
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| This rain was coming and going, but we just escaped this heavy cloud. |
In 2014, I discovered by accident a small gem right beside the I-90, called the 1880 Town. It is a genuine western town from the 1880's. With saloon, hotel, church, school house and so on. I wrote about it then, and added a lot of pictures, so just a few extra here.
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| The church |
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| On the homestead |
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| The dinosaur monument in the distance |
They also had a small part dedicated to those that were driven out by the White Man.
Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse I have also covered extensively in 2014, so just a few new photos here. We did stay for a light and laser show at Crazy Horse during the evening. That was impressive. I tried to take photos and videos of it, but that proved next to impossible. So I just opted for enjoying it live instead of through a camera lens. (Have made that mistake before...)
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| Hard to get good pictures of Mt Rushmore with the sun behind it. |
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| From the back |
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| Before the light- and laser-show |
We spent the night in the small town of Custer, just south of Rapid City. The town has a long history, and is considered to be the oldest settlement in the Black Mountains. Gold was found in these mountains in 1874. Custer also claims to have the widest main street in the US. They were designed so that a team of oxen pulling a wagon could complete a turn on the street...
We spent some time walking around the town before leaving the next morning. Although today it was mostly a souvenir town, it still had some nice photo-ops.
When I was there in 2014, I drove straight from Rapid City to Salt Lake City. It was one loooong drive, so this time, I suggested we made a stop-over in Rawlins. A small town in Wyoming. We arrived later than we had planned due to our GPS not being able to download maps for the drive to Rawlins in Custer. It wouldn't even acknowledge there even was a Rawlins. So we had to drive via Casper to get there. Casper was one of the towns that would be on the centre-line for the solar eclipse a week later. Everywhere, there were billboards saying that on August 21st, drivers should expect a lot of traffic, and closed roads. It would be chaos. I felt the tingeling in my stomach. Only a week to go before the Moon's date with the Sun.
Rawlins was more or less closed when we arrived. So we just had a long walk throught the town. And up a small hill overlooking it. Our hotel was at the outskirts of town. The town had some nice surroundings. We had planned to go to the Wyoming Frontier Prison museum. It is the first state penetentiary in Wyoming. But it was closed as well when we arrived.
The morning after, we had already planned to Skype our grandmother, who was celebrating her 90 year birthday. She loved it, seeing her grand- and great-grand-children live from across the world. She still speaks of it.
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| Rawlins, from a higher vantage point. |
The trip to Salt Lake City was a bit more interesting, since now mountains and hills would rise up around us. I covered that trip in 2014, so just a few more photos here.
In Salt Lake City, we visited the mormon temple, and the Cathedral of the Madeleine. And rode the tram. :-) In 2014, I only took a photo of the temple from the street when I drove by. I was on my way to Las Vegas, and had arrived so late the evening before that it was more or less dark when I headed out. So this time around, we had a lot more time to see the sights.
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| The mormon temple |
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| Cathedral of the Madeleine, just up the road from the temple |
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| Inside the cathedral. A service was in progress. |
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| We decided to ride the tram back to our hotel. |
The road to Las Vegas has some beautiful parts. If looking at a map, the road cuts one corner of Arizona. And the road dives through some beautiful mountain ridge. Look at my 2014 account for more details and images.
Las Vegas is, well, Las Vegas. Lots of lights, lots of party, lots of tourists. When we arrived, we went straight to the pool of our hotel. And when laying there, it was obvious what a destination this was. There were planes taking off constantly and ascending overhead.
On our way to Palm Springs we wanted to drive the old Route 66, but everywhere we could enter, they had blocked the road for repairs. So we gave up in the end. But before going to Palm Springs for the night, we drove to Hollywood. Both to see the sign, and to walk on the walk of fame. I had already found on the map a parking garage just a few blocks away from the Chinese Theatre. But what I didn't anticipate, was the sheer amount of traffic. It was total rush-hour. We arrived later than expected. Mostly because we had spent a lot of time trying to get onto Route 66, I guess. So it took forever to get to Hollywood. But we got our shots of the famous stars, both literally and figuratively...
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| Sign of the hills |
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| Famous Chinese Theatre. Where Star Wars premiered back in 1977. |
Our GPS didn't fail us this time around either, and our way back to Palm Springs, would take us through the back-roads of California... We got the scenic route. In complete darkness. And I do mean complete darkness. No lights on the road. Barely any small towns on the way. Undoubtedly a beautiful sight during the daytime hours... So we didn't arrive at our hotel until long after dark. Tired and hungry for sleep.
The next morning, we got up fairly early. This day was Disney day. We had tickets for Disneyland in Anaheim. I had until then only been to Disneyworld in Orlando. I guess the two parks are more or less the same. We had a nice time there, except for all the queues of course. But we got to ride most of the rides and tried some corn dogs. And bought some souvenirs. Of course...
My sister hates flying, and our first ride was the Star Wars flight simulation... She didn't realize this until she was strapped into her seat...
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| 7 million forms of communication, and he still cannot operate the panel |
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| Bleep, blopp. Weeeooooweep! I say, R2D2! |
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| Disney and Mickey. Have to agree with Don Rosa : Donald is my favourite... |
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| In the submarine |
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| Carousel. For the sake of my stomach, I took a photo instead of riding it. |
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| The electric parade |
My favorite part of the evening was of course the fireworks. But I didn't even attempt to take photos of it. There are plenty of videos on YouTube that shows it perfectly. I just enjoyed every bit of it.
We drove back to our hotel in Palm Springs. This time it took a lot less time, since we now managed to get the GPS to drive the short route...
We arrived at our hotel. I was dead tired. It was late. My sister and my niece had already left the car, and I packed my trash and by stuff and left the car and locked it. Suddenly, I became aware of a police officer standing with his hands on his gun, standing at the corner of my hotel. I stopped and looked around, Only to find several police cars had stopped, and a bunch of cops approaching the hotel. I watched them as I entered the hotel. A cop was talking to the receptionist, who smiled a bit when he saw me. When I came to our room, my sister told me they had stopped her and asked who was in her car. When she said her brother, they let her go. The next morning, we learned that the police was looking for a guy, and someone looking like him was spotted at the hotel. A bit excitement at the end of a long day...
Although we drove the same route, more or less, as I did in 2014, we did see more than I did then. I guess travelling with others has it's perks.
Ragnar
Taking the long road.
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