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The adventure continues…

Had a GREAT day yesterday. We woke up at our campsite, packed up quickly, and drove down to Mt. Rushmore just as it opened. What an incredible place. The morning sun was shining on the monument. Very cool! Jack – we got your present from there.

We then drove down to the Crazy Horse Monument. It’s an unbelievable story that Lee got Jeff onto a couple of years ago. This sculpture will be extremely impressive when it is finished, it’s already really awe-inspiring and only the head is done. A Native American author was selling his book there with a tagline mentioning that his ancestors created the original department of homeland security – fighting terrorism since the 1800’s. Love it…

The highlight of our day was Devils Tower. Absolutely unbelievable. Breathtaking. After taking pictures of the prairie dog town near our campsite, we did a four mile hike following the route of Richard Dreyfus up the side of the tower to its base. There is a one mile path that goes completely around the tower at its base. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. We hiked back down to our campsite (see picture) and camped overnight. We woke up early after a cool night (finally!) and we’re now on the road heading across Wyoming. If all goes as planned, we’ll be hiking in the Tetons tomorrow.

No Griswalds yet dad – and no aliens behind Devils Tower either.

Hope all is well!

Jeff & Amy

Well – the trip rolls on… We’re getting deeper and deeper into the red states.

Sounds like Hayley isn’t doing too well at Jack & Linda’s. Hang in there pup. Stop eating their backyard…that might help.

Mark & Steph – welcome home. Too bad we couldn’t meet out here somewhere. We’ll upload some pictures from Jenny Lake when we get there. It should look familiar!

The Badlands were incredible. That’s where the picture is taken. We took the Badlands Scenic Byway which was absolutely beautiful. The scenery went from flat prairie to gorgeous rock in a few miles. Unreal… Wall Drug was a riot. We got some tacky souvenirs and had some ice cream. Pretty fun day all-in-all.

We’re in the shadows of Mt. Rushmore right now. We’re off to Rushmore, Crazy Horse and Devils Tower tomorrow. 105 was the high temp today (112 at the bottom of the Badlands.) We’re supposed to have some high winds move through tonight and then MUCH cooler temps for the next few days. Devils Tower should have a high in the 70’s tomorrow.

Stupid observations:

Corn Palace: HUGE waste of time. The billboards make everything in SD look fantastic. The billboards also lied when they said this tourist trap was 3 minutes off the highway.

We now know what “Amber waves of grain” means…

MN speed limit: 70 MPH
SD speed limit: 75 MPH
We’re almost to the point of the average speed on the tri-state tollway in Chicago…

Based on the number of RV’s on the road, we’re not the only ones with flexible work schedules…

SD has really cool road kill. Much better than the usual squirrels and deer back in Wisconsin.

Anna Nalick is stalking us. We saw her perform at Summerfest and now she’s on every radio station out here…

SD is an interesting place. They’ve managed to take the Wisconsin Dells concept and expand it to an entire state!

That’s about it. Thanks to all for the comments. Sounds like Jack had a good time at Bill & Stel’s. Tracy – we’re looking forward to food, wine and civilization. We may or may not be able to check in over the next couple of days – all depends on wireless connections.
Love, Jeff & Amy

Road Trek 2005 is underway! We were on the road Friday at 5:30 a.m. Quick run to Oshkosh to drop our dog off with Amy’s parents. Thanks Mom & Dad Verwiel! Hope she’s doing well! We then hopped on 21 and raced across Wisconsin. We stopped in LaCrosse to drive up Granddad Bluff. Took some great pictures up there. We were then on I-90 westbound over the Mississippi and into Minnesota. I was a bit crushed that we didn’t have time to visit the SPAM museum in Austin, MN. We rolled into Walnut Grove, MN around 3:30 p.m. We established our campsite and then did the whole “Laura Ingalls Wilder” thing in town. It’s a neat museum and a nice visit for two history majors. We then drove out to the site of the original “dugout” house back in the 1800’s. Amy had a field day snapping pictures of wildflowers in a prairie restoration project in this area.

95 degrees today and pretty humid. I had a whole thought in my head about how I could gain sympathy about the heat on this trip. However, Amy and I later received an email from our friend Pete who is based in Iraq. He’s got us beat regarding temperature… (Great chatting with you Thursday night Pete…)

We’re off to Mt. Rushmore, The Badlands, and the Crazy Horse Monument on Sunday. See ya…

Love,

Jeff

P.S. – It’s unreal how much corn this country produces…