2011 New York Trip-Day 22 – 08/10/2011

2011 New York Trip-Day 22 – 08/10/2011

Left at 6:45

For some reason I find the landscape of New Mexico and Arizona much more appealing than Texas.  When I saw the Las Cruces road sign, I really felt like hanging a right and detouring.  When Jimmy and I went to Socorro so long ago, I think we went through Las Cruces on the way back from Roswell and Carlsbad Caverns – great memories.

I saw some road crews in Arizona – at around 2:00pm they were out in 105 degree heat using rakes and shovels to spread asphalt on the freeway.  Now there is a job I would truly hate to have.  I almost hit my goal of a 600-mile tank of gas.  I chickened out at 575 miles.  The next station was about 30 mile away, it was 103 degrees, the gas light was on, and the thought of running out in the desert was really unappealing.  As it turned out, I had just under 2 gallons left, so I could have made it.  I found a gift shop west of Tucson in a town called Picacho – I spent about 30 minutes perusing the goods.  I have to stop there on my next trip.

Once I get into the mountains west of El Centro, I always s forget just how frickin’ far El Cajon still is.  Those hills just seem to go on forever.  Finally parked in the garage at 7:30 pm.

Home sweet home.

Total time for the day:12:30

Total miles for the day: 700

Total miles for the entire trip: 6825

Counting end-points, I hit 13 states in each direction for a total of 23 different states,

If I do this again, I think I may make the “to New York” leg the fast one – but try to find a route a bit south of I-90.  A woman at a visitor center in Minnesota said that you can see a lot of plains if you go a bit south of I-90.  On the “back to CA” leg, I think I would like taking the I-81 south again, but instead of hooking up with I-20 and staying on that for 2,000 miles, I would break off in Mississippi or Louisiana and head up to I-40 and then in Aluquerque head back south (after eating again in the Route 66 Diner there) to pick up I-10/I-8.  I just did not enjoy Texas.  I saw a lot of places along I-81 and along I-20 that looked interesting . . . especially Civil War battlegrounds.

The end

2011 New York Trip-Day 21 – 08/09/2011

2011 New York Trip-Day 21 – 08/09/2011

Left at 9:45

Texas is DULL.  When I went through Midlands (which is a particularly unattractive town), I exhibited great self-control and did NOT flip off the “Presidential Library” sign.  Most of the rest stops have parallel parking – not diagonal – even for trucks.  I got to see an 18-wheeler parallel park.  The truckers must love that.

About 70 miles east of El Paso, I started seeing lot of lightening.  I saw a great cloud-ground strike and another that had one bolt between two clouds and one from one of the clouds to the ground.

Checked into the El Paso Motel 6 at 10:50.  The A/C was not on and some idiot left the refrigerator open – and on – so that the top of it was really hot.

Total time for the day: 13:15

Total miles for the day:788

2011 New York Trip-Day 20 – 08/08/2011

2011 New York Trip-Day 21 – 08/08/2011

Hit the road at 9:15

Made it through TN, MS, LA and into Texas.  Tennessee and Mississippi and Louisiana were all pretty nice – lots of green and lots of trees. 

Checked into the Marshall, TX Super 8 at 10:30

Total time for the day: 13 hours

Total miles for the day: 782

2011 New York Trip-Day 19 – 08/07/2011

2011 New York Trip-Day 19 – 08/07/2011

I hit the road at 9:30.  I managed to get in the car quickly enough so that the sadness did not hit me until I was out of sight.  I hit a really nasty thunderstorm in PA.  It slowed me down to 45.  Cruised on through MD and WV.  In VA hit another storm.  I got down to 40 for this one.  I almost got off of the freeway – but I figured out I would get out of it quicker by driving.  I realllly do not like driving in rain that is coming down that hard.  It seemed to take forever to get through VA.  I was on a roll and not feeling tired, so I kept going until 10:00 when I checked into the Morristown, TN Super 8.

Total miles for the day: 682

2011 New York Trip-Day 18 – 08/06/2011

2011 New York Trip-Day 18 – 08/06/2011

We went back to Lake Wawayanda.  This time they rented a 4-person paddle boat.  They did a rotation where one kid would stay on shore and either Jenny or Andy or both would take the other two out for a spin.  Andy’s problem with the peddles was that they were so close to the seat that he could never extend his leg enough for his knee to exceed a 90 degree angle – really awkward. Nathan had one of his little obstinate rebellions and tried to refuse to hold a hand while sitting by himself in the back of the boat . . .Andy lifted him out by his life jacket and took him ashore to have a chat with him.

Later in the afternoon, Andy got his pellet rifle out and let me try it.  That thing has a hell of a kick.  Using that scope makes me appreciate why you almost always see snipers laying on the ground . . . it is just about impossible to hold it steady enough to keep the target in the scope.

Jenny and Andy went out to dinner and some music.  So . . . I introduced the kids to Despicable Me.  I explained how the bad guy is really not so bad – but he wants everyone to think he is.  I think the minions are what sold them on the movie.  At one point Zoe (in her tiny squeaky voice) said she was scared. . .  but she could not tell me why she was scared or what was scaring her and she did not want to stop watching the movie.  All three of them seemed to really like it . . . a lot of laughing.

2011 New York Trip-Day 17 – 08/05/2011

2011 New York Trip-Day 17 – 08/05/2011

Pretty much just hung around the house. The kids went swimming in the afternoon.  Jenny made a Chinese dish for dinner that was really pretty good . . . I had three helpings.

2011 New York Trip-Day 16 – 08/04/2011

2011 New York Trip-Day 16 – 08/04/2011

Tried making a paper airplane with the girls from a kit they had.  A resounding failure.

Jenny and the girls set up a car wash outside that was really funny.  They took a rake and put the handle between the tops of two lawn chairs.  Then Jenny suspended strips of crepe paper from the handle to look like the washing thingies that are in car washes.  They had an old vacuum hose that was either a gas pump or vacuum – depending on who was using it.  They would take turns driving something through the wash, and then someone (usually Olivia) would use a spray bottle to spray the “car” and a sponge and towel to dry it.  Whoever was driving would have an umbrella to shield them from the spray.  Olivia and Jenny had chalk signs on the ground.  There was even a tip jar, except that with their car wash, the customer does not give the tips – rather the customer takes the tips.

Later, all three of them were running all over the yard with their umbrellas. One of them would have a spray bottle, chasing the other two around.  It was funny to see how much fun they had with just three umbrellas and a bottle of water.

I made my journey into town to Shop Rite to buy food supplies for the trip home.  Last time, I don’t think I found the ATM that was supposed to be in the store – this time I had no problem.  That store sure has a lot of slow old people wandering the isles.

Dinner was a real battle of wills. Jenny bought a chicken pie from “the pie lady”.  It was really good, but neither Nathan nor Zoe wanted to even try it.  When Nathan refused to try it, she started removing anything that he was playing with – water glass, spoon, extra fork. It was hard not to laugh when Jenny told him that everyone else was being “awesome” for eating their chicken pie, he went around the table: “Is Olivia awesome”, … and would end up with “I’m not awesome”.  Zoe only wanted to eat the crust.  Andy got home and she still balked.  Eventually, she would eat a microscopic piece of chicken and then a piece of crust.  Jenny, Olivia and I finally left the table and left Andy to deal with Zoe and Nathan.  About 10 minutes later, Zoe gave in and ate enough.  About 20 minutes later, Nathan finally gave in.  I have never seen anyone who can drag out the process of eating as much as Zoe.  At one point, Andy told her that at the rate she was going, it would be bedtime by the time she finished – so she might as well go to bed right now.  I would love to have gotten the entire process with Nathan on tape – it would be great to show it to him 10 or 15 years from now.

Before the girls went to bed I was finally able to let them look at the moon through the telescope.

2011 New York Trip-Day 15 – 08/03/2011

2011 New York Trip-Day 15 – 08/03/2011

We went to Lake Wawayanda State Park in New Jersey.  It was pretty amazing.  Less than 30 minutes from Warwick – and I saw a sand beach with sunbathers and people swimming in the lake.  We hiked for a total of maybe 2 miles.  They have boat rentals that might be kind of fun.  The lake is beautiful.  I kept seeing what looked like big patches of pond scum – but turned out to be big “fields” of densely growing water lilies.

For dinner, we went to Taco Hombre.  It is a real hole in the wall.  You walk in and they have a long buffet-type counter with all the ingredients.  You tell them what you want and what you want in it and the girls behind the counter put it together for you.  I had a burrito that was really quite good.  Whenever Nathan sees the restaurant from the car, he starts yelling “Taco Hombre”.  Jenny said that for the first year or so that they were here, they just made sarcastic remarks about it based on the name.  She said when they finally tried it, they were amazed.  It is the only Mexican restaurant they have found that they like.

I was explaining to Olivia why I like my umbrella with the long handle – because of Singin’ In The Rain.  I managed to pull up the scene with Gene Kelly doing his dance in the rain and she really got a kick out of it.  She asked if he could tap dance, so I told her that tomorrow I would show her a movie where he tap dances with Jerry the mouse. 

2011 New York Trip-Day 14 – 08/02/2011

2011 New York Trip-Day 14 – 08/02/2011

Went to G’s for lunch, followed by the good old Toy Chest.  Got some tinker toys (but not called tinker toys) for Jenny to wrap for Nathan’s birthday.  Got the girls jump ropes and Nathan a small stuffed monkey.  They had a thing on sled runners that was a snow stroller.

I have had a ton of notebook problems.  For one thing, it virtually never closes properly – in order to restart it, I always have to go in to “processes” and kill it first.  For almost a day, I lost all of the info from LastPass.  I finally figured out how to re-sync. But I have to re-sync virtually every time I start Firefox.  And to enter the LastPass password, I have to pull it from Password Safe – since Andy does not run with any encryption on the router, I am just too nervous to enter the password through the keyboard.  And . . the mouse wheel click stopped opening URLs in new tabs.  I spent three days trying to figure this one out – I finally downloaded the mouse drivers from Microsoft and installing them manually.  Once I did that, I was finally able to get the wheel click to work.  And . . , for three days, I could not re-arrange photos at SmugMug through Firefox.  That did not start working again until Wednesday.

2011 New York Trip-Day 13 – 08/01/2011

2011 New York Trip-Day 13 – 08/01/2011

Last night was OK again.  As long as I can have the windows open, I am OK.

Pretty much stayed around the house today.  Pretty hot – and humid, of course.

Andy showed me his pellet rifle.  Pretty nice.  It has a heck of a scope – and a silencer.  I am going to have to give it a try one of these days.

There was (at least for me) a heck of a thunder storm fairly close.  The thunder was kind of like a drum roll in an orchestra that builds to a huge crescendo.  Jenny left a battery operated lamp with me in case the lights went out.

2011 New York Trip-Day 12 – 07/31/2011

2011 New York Trip-Day 12 – 07/31/2011

The temperature and humidity were decidedly better last night.

We went to Rogowski’s Farm for breakfast.  This is the farm where Jenny has a membership thing that allows her to go once a week and actually pick her own produce – can’t get much fresher than that.  The breakfast menu has maybe three or four things on it. The omelet I had was really good.  I had a taste of Zoe’s OJ and wished I had ordered one of my own.  They have a neat little terrace with a couple of tables so you can walk out and look out over the farm.

After breakfast, we went to the farmers market in Warwick.  The kids got some cotton candy.  Nathan’s hands were soooo sticky.  I felt bad, but every time he needed to hold someone’s had to cross the street, I would just take his wrist.  I just could not bring myself to grab that sticky gooey hand.

Andy must have spent at least five solid hours working on the lawn.  He says he kind of enjoys it – but in the heat and humidity it has to suck.  Everyone (except me) went swimming.  Olivia can go in with no flotation devices – she is tall enough by several inches.  Zoe can just keep her mouth above the water,  so she still wears water wings, as does Nathan.

All three kids want to play with my Droid.  I introduced them to Angry Birds – even Nathan gets a kick out of playing it.  Nathan spends most of his time talking to the “Taking Hippo” and related games.  It is funny to watch how Nathan practically crawls into the lap of whoever has the phone, trying to watch every move they make.

The girls kept wanting to take pictures with my camera, so I gave them an old HP digital camera that I had in the car.  They have been having a ball with it – especially Zoe.  The problem is that it has a really bright flash and Zoe has a tendency to stick it too close to whoever she is taking a picture of.

Andy made a great dinner.  Some kind of grilled kielbasa (or something like that), sauerkraut, black beans . . and other stuff.

2011 New York Trip-Day 11 – 07/30/2011

2011 New York Trip-Day 11 – 07/30/2011

It was really hot and humid last night.  This morning was not much better.  Finally, in the living room with all of the windows open, I found some comfort.

The clues to find the telescope went really well.  Even Nathan managed to find a couple.  The love the telescope.  Zoe mostly likes to stand in front of it, but Olivia has spent a lot of time with it already. She is already putting the lens caps on and turning the spotting laser off when she is through.

We went to see the new house.  There was a big deer in the neighbor’s yard, just standing around.  Andy said that once when they were there, there were three baby deer playing in the front yard.  The house has tons of room.  It looks like a three car garage, plus there is a detached shed that is about half the size of our garage.  The garage is attached to the house via a mudroom/laundry room.  The basement will only need a little work to be usable.  My favorite part was the porch.  It looks out over the hug front yard.  I can just picture the two of them (after the kids are sleeping) sitting out there on a summer evening with a bottle of wine between them. It is going to be a killer place for sleds.  They have everything from beginner slopes to kamikaze slopes.  They are definitely going to need something to keep the driveway clear during the winter.

I had the girls go around with the camcorder and then had Zoe do the outside.  Unfortunately, during the transition from Zoe to Olivia going upstairs, the zoom was pressed so it was at its max . . . so very little of the rest of the video is worth anything visually – although you can still hear talking. 

2011 New York Trip-Day 10 – 07/29/2011 / 77017 / 3:10

2011 New York Trip-Day 10 – 07/29/2011 / 77017 / 3:10

Arrived at destination.  And man is it ever HOT and MUGGY.  I hope I do some acclimatizing ‘cause it was truly miserable.  I hate that sticky clammy feel on my skin.  Anyhow – it is great to see everyone.  Zoe came running up to me, wearing glasses.  I was panicky, trying to figure out (1) how in the heck I missed the fact that she is wearing glasses now or (2) when she started wearing them and why did no one tell me?  It turns out they are lens-less – just some old glasses that Jenny popped the lens out of and gave to Zoe for play.  I did some unpacking of stuff.  The biggest hit was the crate of Legos.  As soon as they were opened, all three descended upon them and did nothing else for the next 30 minutes.

We went outside for a while.  Both Zoe and Olivia are pretty good with the hula hoops – especially Olivia; she makes it look effortless.  It was a real hoot when Jenny asked Olivia to “go back the tractor out of the garage for Nathan”.  I got some video of him taking his little tractor around the back yard.  It was funny too, to see him driving his little car – operated by scooting his feet along the ground – just like Fred Flintstone. Everytime I saw him, I wanted to yell “Yabba dabba doo”.

There was a great thunderstorm.  I have not heard peals of thunder like that since the 50’s when I still lived in Ohio. I loved it.  Zoe, on the other hand, scooted under the table a couple of times after the thunder.

Dinner was at Fratellos.  Really great food (I had the Italian Style Pot Roast) – but the portions were too big for me. I actually did not finish my mashed potatoes. I was ashamed.   

End of day: 214 mile (total for trip so far: 3856)

2011 New York Trip-Day 10 – 07/29/2011

2011 New York Trip-Day 10 – 07/29/2011

There is a point near the New York-Pennsylvania border going into New York where you go around a turn and have an incredible view of a beautiful valley stretching into the distance. One of these times I need to see it in time to park in the pull-out and get some pictures.

2011 New York Trip-Day 10 – 07/29/2011 / 76803 / 10:10

2011 New York Trip-Day 10 – 07/29/2011 / 76803 / 10:10

Checked out of Auburn Finger Lakes Super 8

2011 New York Trip-Day 9 – 07/28/2011 / 76803 / 9:37

2011 New York Trip-Day 9 – 07/28/2011 / 76803 / 9:37

Well, what looked on Mapquest to be a location just a mile or two off of the turnpike turned out to be a 20 minute drive.  I ended up in Auburn – what must be the outskirts.  I passed a Chili’s a couple of miles before the motel.  If it had not been so late, I probably would have stopped there in the hope that their chips and salsa would be the same as I am used to and help suppress the memory from the chips and salsa I had in Montana (or wherever it was).

End of the day: 371 miles for the day – 3642 for the trip

2011 New York Trip-Day 9 – 07/28/2011 / 76771 / 8:10

2011 New York Trip-Day 9 – 07/28/2011 / 76771 / 8:10

Stopped at a rest stop to make my motel reservation.  The idea was to use the GPS to pull up the nearest Super 8 and then get on the web with the netbook using the Droid’s 3G hot spot.  The first problem was that I turned off  the car (and GPS) before writing down the nearest Super 8.  When I turned it back on, instead of showing the ones further down the road, it just listed them by distance and gave their direction (NE, SW, etc).  So . . . I took wrote down what I thought was the nearest one and fired up the netbook – only to find my mouse battery had died – so I had to use the touch-screen.  I used Mapquest to make sure I was checking the right motel and then went to the Super 8 website to check rates. But before making the reservation, I called their 800 number to check their rates.  It turned out the 800-number was a tad cheaper than the online rate.  The person I talked to said that the rate at the 800-number will never be more than the website, and will often be less.  Somuch for my clever idea of booking all my stuff via the web.  Hopefully, by the time I get home, I will have this whole motel-booking process smoothed out.

I went inside the rest stop and ate a Sbarro.  Big disappointment.  I normally like Sbarro – but this one was a serve-yourself where you pay for your dinner by how much it weighs.  The spaghetti was nothing like I am used to from Sbarro.   

2011 New York Trip-Day 9 – 07/28/2011 / 76666 / 5:50

2011 New York Trip-Day 9 – 07/28/2011 / 76666 / 5:50

Niagara Falls.  I did not go on any tours.  Next time I might try going out on the bridge for a better view; and maybe one of the boat tours.  I have to say, the falls is really pretty impressive.  It was strange to stand along the 3 foot fence and know that if I climbed over the fence and took two steps it would be very easy to just slide right into the water and be swept over the edge – about 30 yards downstream.  When you get to where the edge is, the power of the water is just kind of overwhelming.

When I walked back to my car, I walked by a huge Expedition with the hood open and jumper cables connected.  I walked back –there were three big guys hanging around – a couple with USC T-Shirts and a couple with doo rags.  I asked if one of them if they needed a jump start – they did.  When they left it to see the falls, their kids left some electronic stuff going and they came back to a dead battery. I pulled the car up and they hooked it up – but got nothing out of their car at all.  They seemed to think they needed a bigger car to hook up.  While they were still trying we got to talking.  One of them has a brother who is a Urologist that lives in La Jolla.  They all agreed that summer and winter – San Diego weather beats the crap out of New York.  When I pulled away, one of them was running up to an RV and begging the guy to give them a jump.  What an awful place and time to have a dead battery.

2011 New York Trip-Day 9 – 07/28/2011 / 76447 / 11:20 – 12:45

2011 New York Trip-Day 9 – 07/28/2011 / 76447 / 11:20 – 12:45

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum

The last time I was in downtown Cleveland was 52+ years ago. The first thing that I faced upon entering the museum was a line – about 10-15 minutes. Admission is kind of steep: $22.  They take your picture in front of a green screen.  When you leave, you can buy a couple copies for $26.  I passed.  What I thought was very un-green of them is that they print out an 8x10 and put it into a folder (you are superimposed in a picture of the front of the museum) so you can see it.  They really just need to let people look at the screen and not waste paper and ink on those who do not want to buy.

Anyhow, I was disappointed that they do not allow any photos of any exhibits.  The lighting is really low – not sure why.  What I got a kick out of was seeing the actual clothes and instruments that famous rockers had used on stage.  They really have a lot of stuff.  I also found interesting the history of recording media that they showed.  I think Jim would really enjoy spending a full day there – me, 60 minutes was all I really needed.

Next door to the museum is the Great Lakes Science Center.  It looked like it would be pretty interesting, but my energy level was too low, and I really wanted to get back on the road.

2011 New York Trip-Day 9 – 07/28/2011 / 76432 / 10:50

2011 New York Trip-Day 9 – 07/28/2011 / 76432 / 10:50

Checked out of Westlake, OH Super 8

2011 New York Trip-Day 8 – 07/27/2011 / 76426 / 7:30 pm

2011 New York Trip-Day 8 – 07/27/2011 / 76426 / 7:30 pm

Checked into the Westlake, Ohio Super 8

Ugh!

End of day: 404 miles

2011 New York Trip-Day 8 – 07/27/2011 / 76406 / 5:50 pm

2011 New York Trip-Day 8 – 07/27/2011 / 76406 / 5:50 pm

Stopped at a Travel Plaza to try and make a motel reservation.  Although the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is open until 9:00 on Wednesdays, it is just getting to late and I am too tired; so I decided to call it quits and hit the museum first thing in the morning.  I tried using the WiFi in the Travel Center – but they wanted $4.  I tried using the phone, but the signal was really weak and three separate times I lost my connection when I got to the room availability page. I finally gave up and call the Super 8 800 number for reservations.  I ate dinner at a Panera Bread in the Travel Center.  I must say I am getting a bit tired of driving.

2011 New York Trip-Day 8 – 07/27/2011

2011 New York Trip-Day 8 – 07/27/2011

I hit some pretty heavy traffic about half an hour after I left. We would just completely stop ten minutes, move forward a couple hundred yards, and then stop again.  I REALLY do not like toll ways.  It just does not seem right to make me pay to use public roads.  $7.50 for Indiana and $9.00 so far in Ohio. I am going to have to look into an EasyPass.  One of the toll takers said they works in every state except Florida.  At least I would not have to wait in line to pay.

2011 New York Trip-Day 8 – 07/27/2011 / 76028 / 10:00

2011 New York Trip-Day 8 – 07/27/2011 / 76028 / 10:00

There was a pretty big corn field behind the motel.  I managed to get my tripod set up and used the remote shutter release gizmo to get a couple of pictures of me next to the corn.  I can totally imagine getting hopelessly lost if I were set down in the middle of the field.

2011 New York Trip-Day 7 – 07/26/2011 / 76021 / 8:15

2011 New York Trip-Day 7 – 07/26/2011 / 76021 / 8:15

Checked in to the Peru, IL Super 8

Stopped at Home Depot for some glue to try and repair one of my suitcases.  Also stopped at a Wal-Mart Superstore.  This was the biggest Wal-Mart I have ever seen.  It probably has at least twice the square footage of the Santee Wal-Mart.

End of day: 400 miles

2011 New York Trip-Day 7 – 07/26/2011 / 75884 / 4:30

 2011 New York Trip-Day 7 – 07/26/2011 / 75884 / 4:30

Stopped at a Perkins outside of Madison, WI for dinner.  Found WiFi access, so I was able to make my motel reservation during dinner. 

2011 New York Trip-Day 7 – 07/26/2011

2011 New York Trip-Day 7 – 07/26/2011

I went past a couple of big windmill farms in Wisconsin or Illinois.  They have some really big wind operations around here.  I passed two windmill farms in Minnesota that extended back from the road as far as I could see – they probably had over a hundred in each of the two farms.

2011 New York Trip-Day 7 – 07/26/2011

2011 New York Trip-Day 7 – 07/26/2011

Based on what the woman at the Visitor Center told me yesterday, I detoured off on I-90 onto I-16 and went through the Minnesota wine country.  It was a really beautiful drive.  The countryside was breath-taking.  It was kind of how I imagine someplace like Tuscany to look.  Just lots of rolling hills of lush green.  The only problem was that I never saw one single winery.  My goal was to buy some rhubarb wine.  At least the scenery did not make it a total waste of time.

2011 New York Trip-Day 7 – 07/26/2011 / 75637 / 10:30

2011 New York Trip-Day 7 – 07/26/2011 / 75637 / 10:30

The Hormel SPAM museum in Austin.  This was really kind of fun . . . rather tongue -in-cheek.  They had a film that showed a singing group called The SPAMettes.  The song they sang was “Mr SPAM-man” sung to the tune “Mr. Sandman”.  I got a real kick out of it. I was going to buy some T-Shirts,  but could not think of anyone who would actually wear one.

2011 New York Trip-Day 7 – 07/26/2011 / 76535 / 10:25

2011 New York Trip-Day 7 – 07/26/2011 / 76535 / 10:25

Checked out of Super 8.  I did not get out for my “free breakfast” until 9:45, and found out that they close it up at 9:30.  Oh well . . . .

2011 New York Trip-Day 6 – 07/25/2011 / 75635 / 7:30pm

 2011 New York Trip-Day 6 – 07/25/2011 / 75635 / 7:30pm

Checked into the Austin, MN Super 8.

I think I have finally had enough farm land.  The lady at the rest stop mentioned that if I were to go about 30-50 miles south of I-90 I would go through the prairie.  I think next time I might try that.

End of day 6: 436 miles

2011 New York Trip-Day 6 – 07/25/2011 / 75458 / 3:30pm

2011 New York Trip-Day 6 – 07/25/2011 / 75458 / 3:30pm

Beaver Creek, MN rest stop.  I talked to the person manning the desk for a while.  Turns out she had the same GPS problem I had.  She was glad to hear about the reset.  She gave me some nice route pointers – one that will take me through the Minnesota wine country (who knew there was one) and a detour that should help me avoid the Chicago traffic.  She also gave me road maps for Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois as well as a bunch of brochures on where to stay and things to see.  It would be nice of California had rest stops like South Dakota and Minnesota.  It turns out I timed this trip just right.  She said that they just re-opened the visitor centers last week when the state finally passed a budget.

2011 New York Trip-Day 6 – 07/25/2011 / 75349 / 1:20pm-1:40pm

2011 New York Trip-Day 6 – 07/25/2011 / 75349 / 1:20pm-1:40pm

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Society in De Smet, SD.  I saw the society building – mostly a gift shop and couple of buildings.  According to someone in the gift shop, the “Surveyor’s House” is where the Ingalls lived during their first year in De Smet.  I opted not to go on the official tour – but I overheard the guide talking about the two school houses.  One is old and decrepit and not much bigger than a small bedroom.  She said this was where the Ingalls’ girls attended school.  There is a much bigger and nicer school house which is where (the guide said) Laura Ingalls taught. After reviewing my pictures, I am confused.  The sign in front of the nicer school house says that this is where the girls attended class.  Oh well.  There was supposed to be the house that “Pa” built, but I saw no signs of it.  I am glad I stopped, but I doubt I will return.  The thing I noticed was how incredibly small the original school house was and how primitive the desks were.

2011 New York Trip-Day 6 – 07/25/2011

2011 New York Trip-Day 6 – 07/25/2011

I am still amazed at the scope of the farming being done.  I passed a field that was almost three miles wide.  I am seeing more and more corn now – at last, a crop I recognize.  I was tooling along doing about 60 when a duck and 8 ducklings came waddling across the road.  There was no place to swerve and all I could do was try to slow down.  I braced myself for the impact of little ducklings – but nothing came.  I looked in the mirror and the mother and 6 of the ducklings were on the side right side of the road.  The other 2 had stopped about a foot before my lane – they then turned around and returned to the side.  About a half hour later, a group some kind of birds did the same thing.  This time I saw them in time to honk while I braked.  I was sure I was going to get one in the windshield – but again, they all avoided the car.

2011 New York Trip-Day 6 – 07/25/2011 / 75199 / 10:10

2011 New York Trip-Day 6 – 07/25/2011 / 75199 / 10:10

Checked out of Pierre, SD Super 8

I drove a couple of blocks and parked where I could walk to the bridge over the Missouri.  That is one big river.  I could definitely see a lot of places that had water that clearly should not.  I would guess the river’s shore was about  100 yards beyond where it should normally be.

2011 New York Trip-Day 5 – 07/24/2011 / 75199 / 5:30 pm (6:30 local time – now Central)

2011 New York Trip-Day 5 – 07/24/2011 / 75199 / 5:30 pm (6:30 local time – no Central)

I decided to pack it in early today.  I pulled into the Super 8, and then connected my netbook to their WiFi to check rates.  When I went in, they wanted to charge me $13 more than their website.  So I said I would be back in 5 minutes.  I went back out to the car and booked my reservation online.  I went back in to the desk and the girl said “You must be Ted” – she had just had my reservation pop up.

There are some real red-necks staying here.  This one old guy (nothing wrong with that) who was hanging around with about 4 or 5 bikers.  He had on a beater T-Shirt with a pack of cigarettes rolled up in his sleeve and one hanging out of his mouth- he looked like a 65 year-old biker, except that he got into a pickup.  The bumper had a sticker with a picture of President Obama and a caption that read: “I is so confused, I just don’t know what to do.”  In the interest of health (mine), I chose to ignore it.

I had an actual sit-down dinner at the Guadalajara Mexican Restaurant next door to the motel.  It serves “authentic Mexican food”.  Well, maybe I am just not used to authentic Mexican food.  The chips were crappy.  The salsa was almost tasteless.  I was never able to get a forkful of my burrito all the way to my mouth without it falling apart.  That said – the “Mexican” restaurant Jimmy and I went to in Egypt is still unrivaled at the bottom of my Mexican restaurant list, but this one is firmly in the second-to-the-bottom place.

2011 New York Trip-Day 5 – 07/24/2011 / 75071 / 2:50pm

2011 New York Trip-Day 5 – 07/24/2011 / 75071 / 2:50pm

Since Mid-Montana, the freeway periodically has signs that say “When Flashing, the road ahead is closed, turn around and return to (whatever the previous town was)”.  Thre are also occasional railway-type barriers that can be used to close the freeway.  All of which tells me that maybe I don’t want to be up here during the winter.

I stopped at a rest stop on I-90 just east of Wasta, SD.  I was just kind of killing time inside looking at the displays when one of the women there asked if she could help me.  I told her my planned next stop and she enthusiastically endorsed it. She asked about my route.  I laughed and said I just go where my GPS tells me to go.  She showed me an alternative to the I-90 route . . . going a bit north and taking I-14 off of I-20 and then following it east through Pierre.  She said it would be more scenic and I would see some kind of river or something dumping into the Missouri.  She even gave me a road map of the state in case my GPS died again.

So . . . . I got brave and followed her suggestion.  I is big-time farming land almost the whole way to Pierre.  I saw some fields (of what, I don’t know) that must have been a half-mile deep and three-quarters of a mile wide.  I saw a lot of corn, but it was all short.  I would love to see it when it is taller.  And rolls of hay . . . it seems that I was never out of site of a field littered with big rolls of hay.  Without exaggeration, I would not be surprised if I saw over a million rolls of hay.  I never get tired of traveling through farm land.  There are also lots of little bodies of water along the road.  They range from a hundred feet across to maybe a couple of hundred yards across.  I am curious about the source of the water, because I seldom ever saw any streams feeding them.  I can’t help but wonder if these are really good breeding areas for mesquitos.

I crossed the Missouri River going into Pierre.  I saw some partially submerged buildings along the banks – and it seemed that the water was awfully close to the bridge.  On the other side of the bridge, I saw hundreds of sandbags by a lot of the buildings – including the buildings on either side of my motel.

2011 New York Trip-Day 5 – 07/24/2011 / 74992 / 12:55-1:13pm

2011 New York Trip-Day 5 – 07/24/2011 / 74992 / 12:55-1:13pm

I felt kind of cheated.  I would have been happy getting a picture from the driveway leading to the ticket booths.  The visitor center is a mile away, so an extra couple of hundred yards would not have affected my pictures.  But they have “No U-Turn” signs posted once you can see Crazy Horse from your car, so you are kind of stuck.  The scope of Crazy Horse is amazing.  It was kind of disappointing – at least to me – that it has so much more work to be done.  The visitor center is a full mile from the actual figure.  The have bus rides to get closer – but they were closed today because of blasting being done.

Upon further reflection and consultation with my “Off The Beaten Path” book, I decided to skip the Buffalo Interpretive Center and head straight for De Smet, SD – where Laura Ingalls Wilder grew up.

2011 New York Trip-Day 5 – 07/24/2011 / 74976 / 12:00-12:30

I noticed a sign a few miles before Mount Rushmore for the Big Thunder mine.  Now my question: is the Disney ride named after the actual mine or is the mine named after the Disney ride?

Not sure if the revisit was worth it.  Yesterday when I left, my finely honed sense of direction had me leave in the opposite direction than I wanted.  Today, I thought I would be clever and leave in the correct direction – well, I did the same thing that I did yesterday.  BUT – this time it turned out that this was the direction the GPS wanted me to go.  So I went the right way for the wrong reason.

2011 New York Trip-Day 5 – 07/24/2011 / 74949 / 11:10

2011 New York Trip-Day 5 – 07/24/2011 / 74949 / 11:10

I was reading until 2:30, I slept late and then had an emergency computer consult about computer problems at the home, so I got a late start.  I decided to revisit Mount Rushmore (my ticket from yesterday is good for the rest of the year) since I kind of rushed it yesterday and I still wanted to see the Crazy Horse Memorial. 

2011 New York Trip-Day 5 – 07/24/2011 / 00:45 am

2011 New York Trip-Day 5 – 07/24/2011 / 00:45 am

All is right with the world.  I found a blog regarding Nuvi760 problems – one of which was the same as mine. It seems if you hold the slide switch to the ‘on’ position for 8 seconds, it does some kind of master reset.  I raced down to the car (well, I walked kind of quickly) – and IT WORKED.  I was checking on Amazon and saw that the new Garmins are still pretty pricey - - - although still way less than the $600+ I paid for mine.  I am so glad I got it working before I started writing down map directions and before I ordered a new one.

Whew!

2011 New York Trip-Day 4 – 07/23/2011 / 74941 / 8:00 pm

2011 New York Trip-Day 4 – 07/23/2011 / 74941 / 8:00 pm

I managed to back track to Rapid City where I turned on my phone’s “HotSpot” and fired up my netbook to look for a motel (normally, I just tell my GPS to display the nearest Super 8, or whatever I am looking for.  I have enough trouble reading the printing on the tiny netbook screen – at dusk it is almost impossible to distinguish between “0”, “8” and “6”.  It took me three tries before I got the number right on some of the motels I called.  Most of the places I checked were either full or way more than I wanted to spend.  I guess weekends are bad days to not have a reservation.  I finally found a Motel 6 for $84.  The bad news: I had to get a smoking room.  Next came the adventure of finding the motel without a map.  I tried just using the brief directions from their website  Big mistake.  So, I pulled over, started up the netbook and used Mapquest to get some directions. I made the mistake of just looking at the map and thinking I could find it.  I pulled over again to look at the netbook (I had left it on).  I think God was trying to tell me something at this point.   When I opened the netbook all the way, Mapquest was displaying an ad for a local Alzheimer’s treatment center.  Anyhow, I gave up on Mapquest and switched to Google Maps.  I wrote down the 11 different turns I needed to get to the motel.  It is not easy driving on a busy street at night while trying to read a piece of paper with directions.  I ultimately found it only because of the huge sign they had.  Even then, the only way in I found went behind several motels on a really bad deeply rutted road.  I was sure I was going to bottom out. 

I finally got checked in around 9:00pm.  Naturally I am on the second floor, with no elevators, about 50 yards from the closest place I could park.  Good times.  I have to admit, it is a pretty nice room.  There is a rally long desk with a flat screen TV.  The desk has a panel built into it with RCA, USB, HDMI and VGA input connections. Now I have to figure out how I am going to navigate the rest of the trip. The silver lining is than God for my DroidX.  At least I could use it to give my netbook Internet access – and in a pinch I could use the Maps app.

I was really hungry – but of course there was nothing within walking distance (I really did not want to drive anywhere and get lost this late) and not microwave in the motel, so . . . I walked a couple blocks to a convenience store and bought a sumptuous repast of two hot dogs, a bag of potato chips and package of mini donuts for desert.

End of Day 4: 410 miles

2011 New York Trip-Day 4 – 07/23/2011 / 74916 / 6:40 pm

2011 New York Trip-Day 4 – 07/23/2011 / 74916 / 6:40 pm

Mount Rushmore National Monument

I still do not understand how in the heck someone can do a sculpture on this scale.  When I got back to the car, I was unpleasantly surprised to discover my GPS was DOA.  This is something I had not planned on.  I have a Rand McNally U.S. Road Atlas … but I am totally dependent on the GPS.  I have all of my stops programmed in.  To say I was distraught is to grossly understate my frame of mind.  I tried everything I could think of – even hooking it up via USB – still dead.

2011 New York Trip-Day 4 – 07/23/2011 / 16:00 / 74787

2011 New York Trip-Day 4 – 07/23/2011 / 16:00 / 74787

Devil’s Monument National Monument (from Close Encounters . . .)

This thing is really impressive.  It is as if some giant decided to make a huge rock tower and plop it down in the middle of nowhere.  I read that once a year, they allow a select group of climbers to climb up it.  This would NOT be a trivial undertaking.  The countryside leading up to the Tower is breathtaking in places.

2011 New York Trip-Day 4 – 07/23/2011

2011 New York Trip-Day 4 – 07/23/2011

Of interest only to Joe Pickett fans: When I entered Wyoming I could not help looking around and imagining seeing Joe Picket go by win his old pickup with his horse trailer behind and his dog on the seat next to him.  Every time I looked at the mountains, I wondered if those might be where one of his books was set.

2011 New York Trip-Day 4 – 07/23/2011 / 10:30 / 74555

2011 New York Trip-Day 4 – 07/23/2011 / 10:30 / 74555

For some reason I had thought that the Little Bighorn Battlefield would be a big detour.  I was wrong.  Ten miles out of Hardin it was a mile off of the road.  I believe this is the first battlefield I have ever visited.  It was very sobering to look at and walk on the beautiful fields, knowing how many thousands of soldiers and Indians died so brutally on it.  It is also a cemetery.  I was walking along trying to read the headstones.  The few that were legible often just said “Soldier died” and gave the date of the battle.  Then I saw the back of one of the headstones that read “Wife, died 1969”.  I scratched my head trying to figure out how what was going on.  It turns out that this is not just a burial site for Little Bighorn.  I saw headstones for WWI and WWII also.

2011 New York Trip-Day 4 – 07/23/2011 / 10:15 / 74539

2011 New York Trip-Day 4 – 07/23/2011 / 10:15 / 74539

Left Hardin, Montana Super 8

2011 New York Trip-Day 3 - 07/22/2011 / 19:30 / 74539

2011 New York Trip-Day 3 - 07/22/2011 / 19:30 / 74539

Stopped in Hardin, Montana for gas (33.6 mpg) and checked into the Hardin Super 8

The end for Day 3: 435 miles.

2011 New York Trip-Day 3 - 07/22/2011 / 14:50 / 74348

2011 New York Trip-Day 3 - 07/22/2011 / 14:50 / 74348

Stopped at the Museum of the Rockies (run by its next door neighbor, the Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana.  When I went in, I was looking through the visitor/tourist brochures and saw one for the American Computer Museum.  When I saw that it was less than a mile away and closed at 4:00, I hit the road and went to check it out.  It was great. A woman gave me a quick tour and then left me to wander around.  It was very small, but was great fun – and free.  It brought back a lot of memories – they had an IBM keypunch machine.  I impressed the woman who showed me around when I told her how when I was taking a programming class in college, I learned to cut my own card holes with a pocket knife and cover up others with tape to correct errors when I could not get to a machine to re-punch a card.  I had a really great time talking to the woman about old computer stuff.

Left at 5:15

Then, I went back to the Museum of the Rockies.  It was good – but nothing to get overly excited about.

2011 New York Trip-Day 3 - 07/22/2011

2011 New York Trip-Day 3 - 07/22/2011

I spent a lot of time driving I-20 through some part of Yellowstone.  Just trees and more trees and more trees.  I stopped at Ponds Lodge for junk food.  They had some kind of home-made fudge.  The clerk had just taken a box – telling me that he has worked there a week and could not resist the temptation any more.  I asked him how it was – and he offered me a free piece.  It was so good that I would have gotten some if I could have figured out how to keep it from melting before I got to New York.

It was fun watching a stream alongside the road – I think it was the Gallatin River.  I first noticed it as a really stream.  It would periodically split into two and then re-join.  The further I went, the bigger the stream got.  Every few miles I would see guys stopped along the road either sitting in lawn chairs and fishing or just standing up and casting.  The river eventually got big enough to have rapids and I could see groups of rafters going down the river.

2011 New York Trip-Day 3 - 07/22/2011 / 10:10 / 74104

2011 New York Trip-Day 3 - 07/22/2011 / 10:10 / 74104

Left Pocatello Super 8

2011 New York Trip-Day 2 - 07/21/2011 / 20:05 / 74104

2011 New York Trip-Day 2 - 07/21/2011 / 20:05 / 74104

Stopped in Pocatello, Idaho for gas (33.17 mpg)

Checked into the Pocatello Super 8

Today was the first time I have seen posted speed limits of 80 mph.  I have a constant tug-of-war between wanting to make good time and my obsession with getting good gas mileage.  So far I have been sticking to around 10 mph below the posted limits.

The end for Day 2: 472 miles (one more than yesterday)

2011 New York Trip-Day 2 - 07/21/2011 / 15:50-16:40 / 73676

2011 New York Trip-Day 2 - 07/21/2011 / 15:50-16:40 / 73676

Stopped for lunch/dinner at an Olive Garden in American Fort, Utah.

2011 New York Trip-Day 2 - 07/21/2011 / 15:50-16:40 / 73676

2011 New York Trip-Day 2 - 07/21/2011 / 15:50-16:40 / 73676

Stopped for lunch/dinner at an Olive Garden in American Fort, Utah.

2011 New York Trip-Day 2 - 07/21/2011 / 11:00 / 73665-73676

Kolob Canyons – this place is part of Zion National Park.  There is a really nice 4 mile drive into the canyon.  The views are spectacular.  There is a number of hiking trail heads off of the drive.  Where the drive loops around for the return, there was a 1 mile hiking trail.  I heard someone say that you could see the Grand Canyon from the end of the trail.  I almost did the hike . . . but it was 90+ degrees, I did not have my hiking shoes on, no sunblock on, I had no idea how difficult the climb was, and I could not get 127 Hours out of my mind. . . so I decided to be wise and walked back to the car instead.  I can definitely see the attraction of hiking in the area.