Yellowstone Part Two

Double double, toil and trouble...fire burning...

(Dragon's) cauldron bubble!

Although some of the stuff in Yellowstone is so unbelievable, it's all true. Above you can see Mark posing in front of some misty-looking stuff...those are sulphuric wellsprings that smelled to high heaven! The one he's posing in front of is called "Dragon's Cauldron", to give you an idea 'bout how odoriferous they were...

After that, we headed out on a hike.

Just a short, lovely hike down to Angel Falls- we could've hiked for days and days in there and not even scratched the surface but at least we got to see a bit of it; unfortunately, these shots don't really give you a sense of how magnificent it was in person!

And to round out a beautiful day, we went over to Old Faithful, a cone geyser in the park. Spitting out up to 8000 gallons (32000 liters) of water in each 4-minute long eruption, it was a sight to behold. Usually Old Faithful erupts every 60-90 minutes; we got lucky and only had to wait about 15 minutes, being regaled with stories by a ranger who's worked in Yellowstone for 20+ years. He was telling us how a couple years ago a herd of bison got spooked and charged through the waiting area we were in, stampeding and miraculously only leaving mild injuries to the spectators in their wake...

Even if injuries were minor, still happy they didn't make a return appearance!

After all that, here was the headliner I was waiting for!

What a day!

-Judy

p.s. Less than a week after we left Yellowstone, I got a very urgent phonecall from my mother worried sick because two convicts had escaped and were (are?) hiding out in there. Thanks Ma- always lookin' out for me! And p.p.s.- just heard someone got eaten by a grizzly- Just as well we didn't camp out there! Never know your luck in the wild, wild West--

Yellowstone!- Part One

I've been SO excited to share this next post with you- thanks for logging on!

Yellowstone has been a bit of a dream of mine since I was a child, flipping through National Geographic with my dad, so that morning I woke up like a kid at Christmastime, totally unable to get back to sleep!

Here's the triumphant moment:

It was just SO cool. After being on the road for so long I wanted to stretch my legs at every pretty moment possible, and there were lots!

Gosh, I'm a goofball.

The park itself is about 3500 square miles of preserved forest lands- Native Americans had lived there for over 10,000 years but now there are some ranger stations and camping/lodges but mostly just amazing wildlife preserves and natural beauty. There are bears (including grizzlies- quite happy we didn't run into them!), deer, elk, bison and buffalo, as well as all the less dramatic but equally beautiful smaller fauna and birds, including lots of hawks and eagles.

I was so excited to get in and see this field of buffalo that I nearly fell out of the car when about 10 minutes we were held in a traffic jam by this:

Can you tell what that is? How about a different angle?

Oh yes, perhaps the second-most stubborn animal known to man (after yours truly) held us up for about 15 minutes before ambling off...amazing!

I've gotta sign off here; I've got some pics saved up for part two- hiking, acid springs and Old Faithful- stayed tuned!

-Judy

Wild and Wonderful Wyoming

Done a lot of driving, done a lot of travelling, and so I feel semi-qualified in saying this:
Wyoming is the most beautiful state I've ever seen in the U.S. Look at these mountains!-

It is absolutely gorgeous, and the next few posts I hope will convince you too.

We arrived in Wyoming and drove some state highways to arrive at Buffalo, Wyoming for the evening. Some highlights that day were this amazing rock formations along the way:

I don't know that this picture will do it justice here, but this formation was enormous. I wish I remembered the name...

And you can see for as lush as the forest was in spots, the raw ravages of wildfires stripped the land in others, eerily beautiful in its starkness.

We spent the night in quaint Buffalo, Wyoming. From Buffalo NY (near Niagara Falls) to New Buffalo, Michigan (near Chicago) and now Buffalo, WY. Things really coming full circle, huh? We were treated to another beautiful sunset, as you can see...

and awoke the next day for a scenic 6-hour drive to Yellowstone National Park, via Little Bighorn (above) and the Shoshone National Forest (at the left).

Yellowstone itself is largely in Wyoming as well but Yellowstone really needs its own post; stay tuned...

-Judy

Crazy(Horse)-ness!

I should adopt a more respectful tone here, as this is a complementary post to the "Mount (Rush)MORE Sculpture" post.

When Mount Rushmore was carved and finished in the 1930s, the Native American tribes who have suffered through America's expansionist history were rightly indignant living under the faces which might represent not the ideals of liberty and equality but repression, loss and despair.

Chief Henry Standing Bear sent a letter to this effect to the Keystone, SD government officials and it caught the eye of Korczak Ziolkowski, one of the sculptors who had worked on Mount Rushmore.

"My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know that the red man has great heroes, too.", Standing Bear wrote.

And so Ziolkowski started. Although he was offered federal funding twice, he turned it down, wanting control over the project without "federal interference". Ziolkowski passed away in the 1990s and the sculpture is far from finished, but the Indian Foundation has taken over construction and it is anticipated it will be 80 feet tall when finished, which would make it the largest sculpture in the world.

It's in a very special spot, and I definitely recommend visiting both. Beautiful.

-Judy

(Rush)MORE sculpture

Howdy y'all. We're just peeking in the window of an old Wild West saloon: Keystone, South Dakota.

Keystone was cute- built up nowadays for Wild West tourism but still retaining some charm with long saloon boardwalks and bars:

Keystone serves as the gateway though for perhaps the most famous American scultpure ever,

and no, I'm not refering to tired ol' me, but that which looms behind me in the distance...

TA DA! Mount Rushmore!

Mount Rushmore. Four American presidents carved in the granite Black Hills - Washington, Jefferson, T. Roosevelt and Lincoln. Each of the presidents were chosen as the embodiment of an American ideal: the struggle for independance, the rights of equality...it was quite poignant seeing it above in the mountains high above us.

It was cool driving down the hill as well, you get one more glimpse of Washington in profile. Very striking and beautiful framed by the pine trees around and below.

One more sculpture post coming up- to balance the heroes of American expansion the Native American tribes have a tribute currently being sculpted, set to become the largest sculpture in the world...

-Judy

Entering...the Wild Wild West

Howdy y'all! After the wonder which was Iowa, we crossed into South Dakota... aka The Wild West! Heehaw!

Cue musical montage:

That was some sculpture South Dakota styles...

And to your right you can see our far-off shot of The Badlands. They were much more spectacular in person.

A very interesting feature of the South Dakota prairie were the amazingly common Wall Drug signs. Starting 350 miles off, the billboards started...and just ran clear through til you were FORCED to want to stop there. Very effective ad campaign I'd say.

This was big country. Big sky, big prairie, big sculpture...

And wait til you see the biggest sculptures of all. Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse get their own post-

-Judy

Gettin' even CORN-ier: Iowa part deux!

Oh yes, remember I said how Iowa was such a special place? A special field (see the last post) and a palace fit for kings...?

Check these pictures out:

Can you even BELIEVE this? Mitchell, Iowa, home of The Corn Palace!

The entire facade, both inside and out, is designed and built every year with 12 varieties of corn! Every year they change the design!

Inside, The Corn Palace holds a large auditorium which hosts various shows and concerts- Kenny Rogers is coming in a few weeks (omigosh!!)- I'm sure plenty of you have heard me singing "The Gambler" at one karaoke night or another!

Of course, I have to show you some of the corn murals from inside as well:

And here's me sitting in the auditorium, hoping against all hope that Kenny Rogers will show up early...

I don't know why, but I really loved this place.

The people working there were so nice too; we showed up at 8:55pm and they closed at nine, but the lady just said "Oh, don't worry. Take your time." Very nice and easy going and friendly-

I said it once and I say it again.

Iowa is great.

-Judy

Is this heaven? No, it's Iowa...

Car three catchin' up with y'all...now, that subject line...what movie is it from?

Think on it. Here's a couple hints...

And one more...cue "Jeopardy" music...and DONE!

Did you get it?

" Build it, and they will come.". And we did...to a big cornfield in the middle of Dyersville, Iowa.

Can you see? It's the baseball field built for the Kevin Costner movie "Field of Dreams"! Anyone can go and play ball and just walk around and enjoy it...

And it was so fun! As you can see, I ran the bases and we both walked out of the corn and just stretched our legs and felt that little bit of heaven that is Iowa in the late afternoon...

Very cool.

And that's not all. Stay tuned...

-Judy

Idaho

This is totally out of sequence, but had to post.
Idaho was mad intense. Over 100 degrees, scrub desert, hours and hours.
Idaho.
Whoa.

Tomorrow more down-to-earth posts...Iowa, Wyoming...gentler pastures...
-Judy

me and abe

Well I arrived in Springfield after a 400 mile day.....drove by the Hoosier's Gym in Indiana, Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio and the Indiana High School Basketball Hall of Fame and about 200 Jesus Saves Billboards....of, and of course lots of corn.....temperature today of 95 with a heat index (whatever that means) of 110....more of the same tomorrow....Joyce and Lucy are in Ashland and the movers arrived today....they are exhausted but happy to be there....tomorrow I'll check out the Lincoln Museum and Library and get a tour of his house.....my next project is to figure out how to get some photos on line.....I welcome any suggestions......Uncle P2

Car Three- Makin' Tracks!

Been awhile since we've checked in, huh? Crossed many many miles since then, and here's some to share.

After Niagara, we headed out through the fields of Pennsylvania and Ohio, making heavy tracks through alot of highways...

Not much to see but cut through Cleveland:

Home of the Cleveland Indians-cool you could see the stadium right from the highway!

And saw one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen on the highways of Ohio...

Finished that evening with a long drive across Indiana (no prairie shots- honestly not so much to see) and camped in Michigan.

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Morning saw us rolling through Chicago, though we took the roads around so as to avoid the madness.

Then headed through the countryside of Illinois and into Iowa. Flat. Flat. Flat. Check it out, although I can sum it up in one word:

Corn. They call it the heartland of America, the breadbasket as it were. Goodness me I can see why. I have to say, I loved it. Almost felt like I was back in Vermont, but just corn and turbines and fields as far as the eye could see.

But before you write off Iowa as completely boring, I must say Iowa gets its own post...for small slow corn country there's a lot there. A special field...a house fit for kings...stay tuned for Iowa's very own post. Coming soon...

-Judy

Niagara Falls

We arrived in Niagara Falls around 9:30 at night...drove to the YMCA (it's NOT so fun to stay at the Y...M...C.A., by the way! Everyone was super nice but you know... it was DEFINITELY just a place to crash).

So, we arrived, dropped off a bag and headed to Goat Island, situated in the Niagara River which divides NY and Ottawa, Canada:

As you can see, it was way dark by the time we made it to Terrapin Point, but they had a nice lightshow on The Falls. We were standing right over Horseshoe Falls but could also see Bridal Veil Falls as well. Too dark to get the pictures to come out clearly, but here I am...

And if you think I'm lookin' pretty cold and pretty wet, you're right! MAN, I was DRENCHED in The Falls.

We made tracks back to the car pretty quick, but as we did, they had a great fireworks show over Bridal Veil, which was such a nice closing to our first night on the road and the start of our trip.

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Had me feelin' like THIS in the morning!

This shot is from Prospect Park, so these are Bridal Veil Falls, I think. You can go down right around the base of the Falls (for a price, of course!), or head to the Maid of the Mist:

So beautiful, isn't it. My mom totally wanted me to go on this, and I kept saying "No, no...I won't even WANT to spend the money on this...totally cheesy, no way." Of course, when I got there, the more I looked at the boats placidly steaming through the mist all around, I wanted to go on. Oh well- timing didn't work out for checking out of the YMCA and of course we needed to get back on the road. Another time.

We still had a super-cool day! -Judy