Highland Park, NJ; total miles: 3,346
Finally, a place with an Internet connection. Part of the problem of stopping in small towns is there's no dial-in number, which means that all the great tidbits of the day are long forgotten by the time I get to connect. So here is a reconstruction of the past few days:
Drive. Drive some more. Drive, drive, drive. Be really bored. Sing some songs. Sleep. Drive, stop and see a sight, drive some more.
Of course, when I write "drive," I really mean "passenge," since all I'm doing is sitting in the passenger seat. I offer to drive. He never wants to take me up on that. Hmmm, wonder why.
I've got a passenger tan. The right side of my body is quite dark and the left rather pale. Lovely, I assure you.
Okay, so here's what we've done:
Tuesday, leaving Jackson, Wyoming
A fun-filled day of drive and stop. After breakfast with my aunt, we headed through the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone, with periodic stops to look at moose and nature. Very lovely. And then we drove. All day. Till we reached the other side of Wyoming on little back highways. We stopped for the night in Moorcroft, Wyoming. What, you've never heard of it? Shocked!
Our pictures from Tuesday:
Jenny and the moose
The self-portrait series, 1 (The Grand Tetons)
Wednesday, leaving Moorcroft, Wyoming
How much fun can you have in one day? I think we packed just about all we could in. First, a stop at Devil's Tower. Which was fine except that I was obsessing about not being able to remember the tune to Close Encounters, and it was making me buggy. But we walked around the Tower and it was as astounding as people say it is. The temperature was not so slowly creeping up, so we didn't stay and do more hikes--we're not really the nature types, me and Adam. Sure, it's pretty to look at it, but after awhile it all looks the same.
So off to Deadwood, South Dakota, famed as the deathplace of Wild Bill Hickok. Adam and I walked the streets, had a $2.99 lunch buffet, gambled a bit at blackjack (he lost his $20, I made $5), and left with plenty of time to visit Mt. Rushmore, which is the most poorly signed national monument ever. We got a little lost (how hard could it be to find a huge rock with faces in it?) but finally made it. We both agreed we had expected it to be more kitschy, but actually it was a remarkable thing to see. What, that's not enough excitement for you? Well, not for us either, and we saved the best for last that day: Wall Drug. We entertained ourselves for a good 100 miles reading the billboards, and you know, it's just as good as they say!
Our pictures from Wednesday:
The self-portrait series 2 (Devil's Tower)
Leaving Devil's Tower
The self-portrait series 3 (Mt. Rushmore)
Adam outside of Wall Drug
The magic that is Wall Drug
Eventually, we wore ourselves out good and ended up in Murbo, South Dakota, just this side of the Central Time Zone. And we rested in preparation for...
Thursday, leaving Murbo, South Dakota
The next and final mandatory stop on any cross-country trip is, of course, the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota. As glorious as it sounds, this is a building decorated completely in corn. A wonder to see, they change the designs every year (have to, as the birds eat away at the walls), and it was truly not a disappointment. The last high point on our trip, the last checkmark to check off, so now there's nothing to do but drive mindlessly toward the east coast. Or so we thought. Because to our absolute delight and surprise, I-90 takes you right through Austin, Minnesota, which is of course home to...
The Spam Museum
We saw the sign. "Believe the hype," it said. And oh how we did! The Spam Museum is by far the finest museum I've laid my eyes on. Shiny and new with lots of buttons to press, the museum is dedicated to all that is Spam. From a movie introduction highlighting Spam haikus and a college student who for the last five years has worn a Spam t-shirt every day to the history of Hormel to the Monty Python Spam sketch, this museum leaves nothing out. Spam, it's a beautiful thing. Worth, perhaps, a trip to Austin, Minnesota.
Adam at the Spam-packing simulator
And Then...
And then there was nothing but road. We got on the road and made it to Rockford, Illinois, pretty late. And then today, we drove 905 miles to make it to New Jersey where we are crashing at the Tweedle Twirps. Tomorrow we will spend the day in the city, attend my cousin's engagement party, and then return to New Jersey on Sunday to retrieve our car and make it to Boston in time for our house closing this week. It's been a long tedious drive. Never again. Although, if I recall, I've said that before...
Finally, a place with an Internet connection. Part of the problem of stopping in small towns is there's no dial-in number, which means that all the great tidbits of the day are long forgotten by the time I get to connect. So here is a reconstruction of the past few days:
Drive. Drive some more. Drive, drive, drive. Be really bored. Sing some songs. Sleep. Drive, stop and see a sight, drive some more.
Of course, when I write "drive," I really mean "passenge," since all I'm doing is sitting in the passenger seat. I offer to drive. He never wants to take me up on that. Hmmm, wonder why.
I've got a passenger tan. The right side of my body is quite dark and the left rather pale. Lovely, I assure you.
Okay, so here's what we've done:
Tuesday, leaving Jackson, Wyoming
A fun-filled day of drive and stop. After breakfast with my aunt, we headed through the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone, with periodic stops to look at moose and nature. Very lovely. And then we drove. All day. Till we reached the other side of Wyoming on little back highways. We stopped for the night in Moorcroft, Wyoming. What, you've never heard of it? Shocked!
Our pictures from Tuesday:
Jenny and the moose
The self-portrait series, 1 (The Grand Tetons)
Wednesday, leaving Moorcroft, Wyoming
How much fun can you have in one day? I think we packed just about all we could in. First, a stop at Devil's Tower. Which was fine except that I was obsessing about not being able to remember the tune to Close Encounters, and it was making me buggy. But we walked around the Tower and it was as astounding as people say it is. The temperature was not so slowly creeping up, so we didn't stay and do more hikes--we're not really the nature types, me and Adam. Sure, it's pretty to look at it, but after awhile it all looks the same.
So off to Deadwood, South Dakota, famed as the deathplace of Wild Bill Hickok. Adam and I walked the streets, had a $2.99 lunch buffet, gambled a bit at blackjack (he lost his $20, I made $5), and left with plenty of time to visit Mt. Rushmore, which is the most poorly signed national monument ever. We got a little lost (how hard could it be to find a huge rock with faces in it?) but finally made it. We both agreed we had expected it to be more kitschy, but actually it was a remarkable thing to see. What, that's not enough excitement for you? Well, not for us either, and we saved the best for last that day: Wall Drug. We entertained ourselves for a good 100 miles reading the billboards, and you know, it's just as good as they say!
Our pictures from Wednesday:
The self-portrait series 2 (Devil's Tower)
Leaving Devil's Tower
The self-portrait series 3 (Mt. Rushmore)
Adam outside of Wall Drug
The magic that is Wall Drug
Eventually, we wore ourselves out good and ended up in Murbo, South Dakota, just this side of the Central Time Zone. And we rested in preparation for...
Thursday, leaving Murbo, South Dakota
The next and final mandatory stop on any cross-country trip is, of course, the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota. As glorious as it sounds, this is a building decorated completely in corn. A wonder to see, they change the designs every year (have to, as the birds eat away at the walls), and it was truly not a disappointment. The last high point on our trip, the last checkmark to check off, so now there's nothing to do but drive mindlessly toward the east coast. Or so we thought. Because to our absolute delight and surprise, I-90 takes you right through Austin, Minnesota, which is of course home to...
The Spam Museum
We saw the sign. "Believe the hype," it said. And oh how we did! The Spam Museum is by far the finest museum I've laid my eyes on. Shiny and new with lots of buttons to press, the museum is dedicated to all that is Spam. From a movie introduction highlighting Spam haikus and a college student who for the last five years has worn a Spam t-shirt every day to the history of Hormel to the Monty Python Spam sketch, this museum leaves nothing out. Spam, it's a beautiful thing. Worth, perhaps, a trip to Austin, Minnesota.
Adam at the Spam-packing simulator
And Then...
And then there was nothing but road. We got on the road and made it to Rockford, Illinois, pretty late. And then today, we drove 905 miles to make it to New Jersey where we are crashing at the Tweedle Twirps. Tomorrow we will spend the day in the city, attend my cousin's engagement party, and then return to New Jersey on Sunday to retrieve our car and make it to Boston in time for our house closing this week. It's been a long tedious drive. Never again. Although, if I recall, I've said that before...
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