Category: America

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Some Scary Stuff

You see all kinds of ridiculous stuff when you’re on the highway for days at a time. Some of it interesting…

and some of it downright spooky. See for yourself…

Not a big fan of tunnels that go through mountains…or under rivers…or at all actually. I’m perfectly happy to go around the darn things. So add to the general creepiness a Prestone jug yellow hue and you’ve got a real eerie driving tube.  Get out–get out–get out.

Now this could be an attempt to pass going very, very badly…but don’t be afraid. It’s not. This is actually a Semi towing another Semi…backwards. Just a tad startling to look up from a good book and see a this staring you in the face.

Seriously?! Would you build your brand new hotel at the base of not one, but TWO huge precariously teetering boulders? What were they thinking?!

I like pancakes, but not enough to want to be one. wow.

You can’t really tell from here–but this is crawling tube at a roadside McDonald’s is reeeally high…like a million feet up. Well, to Grammy anyway. I’m pretty sure this is the farthest that little Lilly has every been from home…alone.

My new favorite book series and best road trip pal. We were slow to get started with them–but everyone but the babies is neck deep in the series now. Very, very scary and thrilling at the same time. It’s the first book I’ve ever read that actually makes me jump.

Here’s the best one of all. So your driving along…minding your own business…when you just happen to look over at the vehicle to your right. Yeeeah. I’m sorry–is that a freaking  missile right next to us?! Like the kind they blow up small countries with?

I’m patriotic and all that, but come on. They just drive these suckers down the street?! Not sure whether to speed way up or slow way down or make a sharp left and bolt to Alaska. We took off like…well, like a minivan being chased by a missile, that’s what. We’d have had a great story for the policeman giving us a ticket.

“Well you see officer…there was this missile…”

Sheesh.

Just for that…

we’re coming home!

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Faces on the Mountain

Road Trip Day 4

Seems like all the days have started or ended exactly like this. Can’t you just hear the Beatles singing,  “The Long and Winding Road.”

Well I can…and it’s beautiful.

We did get a cute little guidance truck to tell us how to maneuver the road construction. They must not have known that we’re from UTAH MAN! The road construction capitol of the universe–and we are detour savvy.

It was a nice gesture though.

Then, all of a sudden these hills started popping up, from out of nowhere. We were entering South Dakota!

Did you know that South Dakota has real, live buffalo hidden away in their hills? I had no clue! Where did I get the idea that they were extinct? Oh no—they have been simply kicking back in SD all these years!

I must be out of the endangered species loop. Can I just tell you–these dudes are ENORMOUS!

Suddenly, the hills turned into bigger hills…small mountains even.

Which was a good thing because where we’re going needs to be a big, BIG mountain.

And it did not disappoint. In fact, Mt. Rushmore was positively breathtaking. I wish I could show you up close how cool this place is. President Roosevelt even looks like he has glasses on. It was amazing.

We had to take the token “stand HERE and snap your picture” shot–you know–for posterity.  See all that rubble at the base of the Presidents? There’s a really great film you can watch in the museum that told us that the rubble is from all the dynamite they used to carve this out of the rock.

In fact, they said that 90% of the actual carving was done with dynamite. How does that work? The rest of course, was done and finished and smoothed out with chisels by men hanging down in swing type things. Those guys were soooo brave. Another thing I learned is that the fellow who made it–with 4oo other workers–died before it was finished. They actually had plans for the collars and lapels of Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln–not just Mr. Washington.

The history was positively fascinating.

The ice cream was glorious.

The company was wonderful.

We’ll remember this place–the “Shrine of Democracy” at Mt. Rushmore, for the rest of our lives.

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Taking It Slow

Road Trip Day 3

No huge plans for today. Just kinda hangin’ out…

taking it easy…

entertaining the short folks.

However–you can only be locked up in a hotel room with 3 toddlers for so long before you need to find a big, huge park for them to run in.

So we did.

One with tons of very friendly squirrels…

who liked the peanuts we tossed…a lot.

I don’t think I’ve actually seen a squirrel up close before. Chipmunk–yes. Prairie dog–yes. Squirrel–not so much. I’m sure we have squirrels in Utah–but they must be invisible, because I’ve never seen one.

It even had a fountain for toe dipping—but it wasn’t enough to just get our feet wet. So we went back…

changed our duds…

and jumped in the pool!

Some of us were very brave.

Some of us were very chilly.

Some of us were too dang cute.

And some of us were just too tired.

Warm. Wet. Healthy. Happy.

Heaven indeed.

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Carhenge!!

Since this day was waaaay too big to take in one piece,

I give you…

Road Trip–Day 2B!

From Chimney Rock we packed our cute little selves up again and headed to our true destination. But first we still had to pass…

more corn fields…

and a million more trains. No, I’m not kidding.

These people are absolutely crazy about trains.

They LOVE them…

They want to MARRY them.

And if you’ve ever wondered where those sunflower seeds you eat actually come from…

ask us. We know.


At last, at last we see the sign that we’ve been searching all this time for!

Yes, my darlings here it is in all it’s glory!

CARHENGE!! In Alliance, Nebraska–some guy planted tons and tons of dead cars and wired them into the same configurations…

as Stonehenge…you know…the one in England…built by the Druids a million years ago.

Jillian is the only one of us who has actually seen the real thing…in real life. Even she was impressed.

The shorter folks were just thrilled to be turned loose in a big field and told to run.

What do you think? Crazy, huh?

Lyndi has wanted to go here since she was a pup. I guess all she had to do was marry a guy who was a good enough sport to actually take her there.

Some of the stacks looked precarious enough that they looked like they’d fall on our heads and squish us dead. But in reality–a place I don’t visit often–the cars are all carefully wired together.

I probably wouldn’t stand next to them in an earthquake, but they felt pretty solid to me.

Then there was a spooky old dinosaur made from spare parts. Ooooh looky. Dane’s sooo afraid.

Not me. I bring my own dinosaur with me wherever I go.

Ha! Go bald kid.

It was cool and amazing to look at and we never saw any Druids…

well, except this one.

 

 

Oh, and BTW– we did end up with a winner in the “Destination Quiz.”

jenna said:

carhenge!
my friend just told me about it from her last trip to omaha!

I’ll be sending you a marrrrvelous mug from Carhenge. Way to go!!

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Wyoming’s Winding Roads

or is it Hawaii? I sometimes get them mixed up. ha. ha.

Road Trip–Day 2A

This little dolly is up bright and early because we are excited to get going…you see, we have found…

a real, honest to goodness farmer’s market–

with every kind of fruit and veggie that you could possibly imagine.

Hey they even had some guy roasting peppers in a big cagey thing. And I thought they did that in a frying pan.

Well, I did.

Breads, cake, jellies, jams, candy, jerky–I had no idea. Dude.

Apparently, I have never really been to a real farmer’s market.

I was totally taken in with this fancy Peanut Spread, and Blueberry Jam that you see here.

Then there was the huge loaf of Asiago Bread…and the Cinnamon Streusel. No picture. Sorry…ahhh…bears ate it all…

yeah.

So after our cool little…ahhh…breakfast we realized that we needed to find a grocery store.

Let me introduce you to “Vikki” our GPS navigator. She’s brave and fearless and knows how to find absolutely everything. So we said, “Grocery Store” and she took us…

here. It’s supposed to be Safeway’s but if you look closely, you’ll see that the whole place is totally boarded up and abandoned. Perhaps we should have added, “…with people inside” to our request. Yikes.

Nevermind–we like the open adventurous road better anyway…

with all it’s trains…

and silos…

and cows.

Ever wonder where those fancy Angus Beef burger’s come from?  Let’s not talk about that right now.

Soon we came up on what is known as Chimney Rock. They say that a hundred years ago it looked much more like a chimney than it does now but time has marched across the old girl and now it looks like a big birthday cake with one huge candle.

For the earlier pioneers–it also marked the point in their journey, where the flat, rolling plains ended and the more rugged Rocky Mountains began. To be about halfway to Utah was wonderful, but now their trek got really gritty and dangerous.

And we whine about leg room in the car. Well, that, and having to travel with crazy people.

Sheesh.

And some of our crew couldn’t possibly care less…about any of it.

Grammy will have to save the amazing history lesson for another day.

I can do that.