Hannibal, MO to Clarksville, TN

Today’s last day of driving was a mad dash.  We woke up before sunrise and hit the road.  We drove through more corn as we headed toward St. Louis then started seeing the markings of a large city – developments, strip malls then tall buildings in the distance.  Since we were in such a rush, we didn’t have time to stop in the Gateway to the West, but we did see Busch Stadium, where the Cardinals play, and the Gateway Arch from the highway. 

South of St. Louis was more of the same – corn – as we crossed into Illinois and Kentucky.  Finally, just before noon we crossed into Tennessee and were immediately in our new city Clarksville.  And so ends our long distance travel for now.  It is quite the rite of passage to travel across the United States, and I actually hope to do it again.  Driving every day for a week is not too bad as long as the day’s driving does not exceed seven or eight hours.  I don’t think I would want to do more than a week; I definitely had reached my breaking point by the sixth night.  I look forward to exploring some more of America’s smaller tourist attractions.

Sioux City, IA to Hannibal, MO

Today was by far the longest day of the trip.  We made several interesting stops, but that meant getting to our final destination much later than desired.  To top it off, when we got to our hotel in Hannibal, they had booked us in a smoking room and had no non-smoking pet friendly rooms.  They were nice enough to find us another hotel with a non-smoking pet room, but the new hotel was so dingy and smelled like mold.  I don't know what would have been worse - mold or smoke?  Despite that aggravation, we did see a lot in Iowa and Missouri.

The drive was mostly through corn fields.  Our first stop was the John Deere factory in Waterloo, IA.  We unfortunately couldn't take the 90 minute tour because the dog was in the car, but we did go to the gift shop.

Someone is excited about tractors!

After John Deere, we drove a bit further east and stopped at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, IA.  Along the way, we listened to Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella.  The movie Field of Dreams is based on the book, but basically everything that happens in the movie happens in the first chapter of the book.  I definitely prefer the movie.  It was neat to see a baseball field in the middle of a corn farm, but it was not the most exciting stop.

When we arrived at the Mississippi, we saw her might because the direct southerly route we wanted to travel was totally flooded.  We had to go further east into Illinois then swing back southwest before being able to head south.  It was a cumbersome detour that really cut the time we had in Hannibal.

Hannibal, MO was a bit of a dumpy town, but the downtown area where Mark Twain's house is was cute.  We ate at Lula Belle's restaurant, which is in a former bordello.  Afterwards, we took a quick tour of the street where Mark Twain lived, which has been preserved.  We saw several landmarks from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer including the white picket fence and the home of Sawyer's crush, Becky Thatcher.  I would have liked to be able to actually tour the attractions, but we were there way past closing time.

Twain's House

HIstoric Hannibal, MO

While this road trip has been a great experience, we are all ready for it to be over.  Six hours to Clarksville, TN!

Someone is ready for this trip to be over!

Rapid City, SD to Sioux City, IA

Today was a long day of flat driving.  For as far as the eye could see everything was flat.  There were the occasional herd of cattle clustered in a grassy field, but otherwise, flat grass and corn.  Before leaving Rapid City, we of course had to visit the South Dakota Air and Space Museum at Ellsworth Air Force Base.  It was an air and space museum not much different from all the others we have been to (Andy loves planes!).  They did have an interesting exhibit about the Berlin Wall and the Berlin Airlift since some of the pilots involved in the Berlin Airlift were from Ellsworth AFB.  This base was also home to many underground nuclear missile silos during the cold war, and the museum had a replica of what one of the control rooms would look like.  They also offered a bus tour to a silo, but we unfortunately did not have enough time to see that.

South Dakota Air and Space Museum

The other interesting thing today was the world's only corn palace!  The small town of Mitchell, South Dakota decorates the outside facade of their civic center with corn.  There are panels of corn cobs making different designs and sections of the outside walls shingled with hay.  They also have the hallways of the civic center busting with corn history and facts.  They use the space in front of the stage in the hall for a giant gift shop and some other exhibits.  The walls of the inside area are covered with corn cob artworks.  It is truly ingenious because it gets people into the town and utilizes the space in the civic center on a daily basis.  As if that was not enough, across the street is a little village of gift shops.  Definitely the kind of thing I hoped to see on a cross-country road trip!

Corn Palace - all decorations are made of corn

Wall panel on inside of building made of corn cobs

Display of everything that is made of corn

After a lot of time in South Dakota, we entered Iowa and soon stopped for the night in Sioux City.  Sioux City has undergone a lot of downtown revitalization.  There is a lovely park along the river and a rejuvenated historic district where we ate a great Italian meal.  Tomorrow there will be much more flat driving through corn fields and hopefully more kitchsy Americana to stop and see! 

Billings, MT to Rapid City, SD

First thing in the morning the dog and I took a lovely walk around Billings.  The area of the city we were staying in was flanked by a rim of rock that was probably seven stories high.  It was very picturesque with tree lined streets and a beautiful green park near Montana State University Billings.  Soon after, we hit the road and stopped at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.  Being very ignorant of this aspect of American history - thanks Manchester school system - it was very educational to drive around the battlefield.  The whole situation is so sad and embarrassing for our country.  It is terrible that a group of people's whole way of life was canceled out by greed.  The landscape of the area is vibrantly green and hilly with very few trees dotted along the river.  I could just imagine the Sioux and Cheyenne peoples roaming the area on the hunt for buffalo.

Little Bighorn Battlefield

After this brief stop, we spent the rest of the day on the interstate traveling through Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota.  Despite being on the interstate, there was quite beautiful scenery.  It isn't like driving on the interstate on the east coast where there is so much traffic and commercial strip after commercial strip.  The interstate we traveled on today rarely went through a town and if it did the town was teeny tiny.  Take for example Buffalo, Wyoming where we stopped for lunch.  This town was very picturesque with lovely little western buildings.  We ate at a pleasant city park along a creek where I saw the most amazing playground ever - three stories with six slides!!  After lunch we passed into South Dakota.  Our first stop in South Dakota was a rest area with some very informative signs about the Black Hills and two very friendly welcoming committee members.  We were soon on to Rapid City where we ditched the dog and headed to Mount Rushmore (again, the difficulty of traveling with a dog in summer).

I-90 in Wyoming

There is nothing much to say about Mount Rushmore except that it was cool and touristy.  It was a lot like traveling through Crawford Notch in New Hampshire where tourist attractions like Storyland, Santa's Village, and Six Gun City abound.  The towns just outside of Mt. Rushmore were like western towns on a movie set with lots of neon lights added.  I am glad we went though so now we can say we have seen it with our own eyes.  We rounded out the day with a very heartland meal of fried cheese curds, chicken fried steak, and lemon meringue pie - good thing I had a salad for lunch!

Mount Rushmore

West Yellowstone, MT to Billings, MT

After a short morning walk around West Yellowstone - a town with every type of western souvenir anyone could ever want - we headed back into Yellowstone Park.  Am I ever glad we went to see Old Faithful the evening before!  Yellowstone is a crowded place.  We waited in a short line to get in the gate then about ten minutes later we were stuck in a small traffic jam - an elk was swimming in a pond next to the road.  All day trying to find parking required some patience, but nothing was impossible.  We headed towards the north of the park today to see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  Before getting there, we decided to stop and see more geysers because how can one ever have enough geysers?  First, we stopped at Gibson's Falls, Artists Paint Pots, and the Norris Basin where the Steamboat Geyser, Emerald Pool, and Porcelain Basin are.  Definitely, not great to have a dog in Yellowstone in the summer.  Since we couldn't bring her on any trails and we couldn't leave her in the car, we had to take turns seeing the attractions, which took twice as long.  There were many short trails (1-1.5 miles) around the geyser basins that we would have liked to hike on, but since we were going separately, it was not possible.  We saw a glimpse of what there is to see in the north part of the park, but we definitely have to go back sans pooch.

Gibson's Falls

Artist's Paint Pots

Porcelain Basin

The real attraction of the day was the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  It was amazing.  I have never seen the Grand Canyon, so probably this canyon would not have seen as amazing if I had.  However, it was the most beautiful canyon I ever saw.  The walls made a huge V shape down to a turquoise river.  The walls also had many varied browns, reds, and oranges due to the thermal activity.  It was quite the sight.

Upper Falls at Canyon

River in Canyon

Canyon Walls

On the way to the northeast exit of the park, we had a nice hour long drive through some very different terrain.  This area of the park was more mountainous with sections of forest and alpine meadows.  We did not catch a glimpse of any big horn sheep, but we did see hundreds of bison lounging in a meadow along a river.  We also saw a very ornery bison walking down the middle of a lane with many cars behind it.  No one seemed to mind though - it is the bison's territory after all - and it was a good thing no one minded because that bison was in no hurry to get off the road.

Once we exited the park, we entered back into Montana then back into Wyoming then back into Montana.  We traveled along the Beartooth Scenic Byway, which may have not been as quick as the interstate but was certainly beautiful.  Very soon after entering into Montana for the last time, we began to climb Bearclaw pass.  This 10,900 foot pass was at the same time a glorious and terrifying ride.  And of course, we drove into a huge thunder/hail storm just as we approached the top of the mountain.  I don't even know why/how they ever built this highway.  We were basically dangling off a cliff.  The view was spectacular though - alpine meadows, snowcapped rocky mountains - it was worth the fear and extra driving time.  By the end of the treacherous stretch, I was ready to be done driving, but we were still 59 miles from Billings, our stop for the night.  Luckily, Montana's speed limit is 70 mph on two lane back roads.  When in Rome!   We sped along north and arrived in Billings safe and sound.  Now I need a good night sleep for tomorrow's long drive to South Dakota.

Missoula, MT to West Yellowstone, MT

Our great day started with some morning exploration of Missoula.  Thanks to several recommendations from friends, who knew we knew so many people who had lived in/visited Missoula, I had a delicious Mocha at Liquid Planet, wonderful bagel sandwiches from Bagels on Broadway, and got a great view of the city from the end of Whitaker Street.  We also visited Fort Missoula Historic District where we saw much of the old Army base and lots of logging and farming equipment.

View of Missoula from the top of Whitaker Street

 
After leaving Missoula, we headed east over the Rocky Mountains.  Even though we took the interstate, it was a gorgeous drive.  Most of the landscape continued to be scrub land mixed with irrigated farmland.  Just before Bozeman, MT we left the interstate and headed south towards Yellowstone National Park.  As we entered the Gallatin National Forest the landscape became much more forested.  Although it was all evergreen forest, the trees were definitely not as tall as the forests back in the Pacific Northwest.

About 90 minutes south of the interstate we entered West Yellowstone where we quickly dropped the dog - poor abandoned thing - at the hotel and headed for Old Faithful.  Since dogs are not allowed anywhere in the National Park except parking lots and daytime highs tend to be sweltering in a parked car, we jumped on the opportunity to see the geysers of Yellowstone without worrying about a hot dog in the car.  And what a great decision it was!  Going at dusk meant thinner crowds and great light hitting the hot springs.  I knew Yellowstone was quite the attraction, but I had no idea how many geysers there were.  Once we got about ten miles into the park, there were geysers everywhere we turned.  We first stopped at the Fountain Paint Pot, which was a gurgling splattering mud hole.  There were also many other hot springs and geysers about this area.  It was a jaw-dropping scene.  I did not expect the landscape to be like that at all.  We could have spent the rest of the daylight stopping at all the spots along the way but decided to head directly to Old Faithful.

Fountain Paint Pot

We arrived just minutes before the next eruption.  There was a lot of steam then suddenly water started gurgling up over the edges.  Finally, after about five or ten minutes of waiting, the water and steam shot up about 130 feet into the air.  It was truly one of the most spectacular things I had ever seen.  After the natural show, we headed to dinner at the Old Yellowstone Lodge cafeteria.  Feeling like a classic Yellowstone meal experience, I had bison meatloaf, which was delicious.  A little after dinner we even got face-to-face with a wild bison chomping on grass near the geysers.  We had a lovely sunset walk around the rest of the geysers near Old Faithful - there were many.  I especially enjoyed the artwork warning visitors not to step off the path at risk of death by scalding.  Sadly, the family of a child who died by falling off the path in 1970 commissioned the artwork for the public outreach campaign.  We successfully did not fall off the path; however, there were several areas along the boardwalk where a visitor might get scalded by a erupting geyser - a bit scary.  After exploring the surrounding area, we circled back in time to see a second eruption.  On the way back north, we stopped at most of the other geyser basins.  We saw Biscuit Basin, which got its name from the biscuit like rocks that were spewed from the geyser after a strong earthquake in 1959;  Grand Prismatic Lake, which is the largest hot spring in the park; and the Great Fountain Geyser, although we didn't stay to see if it would erupt because the mosquitos were out in droves.  Driving through the park we also saw bison, elk, and a porcupine.  This is truly an awe-inspiring place that I feel so lucky to be able to visit.  Everyone NEEDs to come here!

Old Faithful

Kennewick, WA to Missoula, MT

We had a long but beautiful drive today.  We decided to continue on the backroads, which took us through some gorgeous and varied terrain - much better than what we would have seen from I-90.  First, we traveled through the rest of southeastern Washington, which continued to be scrub-steppe.  Because of modern irrigation, the scrub-steppe surrounds beautifully fertile fields.  We saw quite a few vineyards, wheat, apple orchards, and crops we couldn't identify.  We also drove through several very cute towns such as Walla Walla and Pomroy.  Near the Idaho border, the scrub-steppe got more mountainous as we headed along the north border of the Blue Mountains.  These bare mountains were unlike the densely forested mountains of western Washington.  I have never seen a state with such varied terrain, but that is probably only because I come from the land of tiny states.

Blue Mountains near the WA/ID border

Heading to Idaho

Once past the Blue Mountains, we went on to Idaho.  Our time in Idaho was quite enjoyable because we almost never were not in a state or national forest.  We started by driving along the north border of Winchester Lake State Park.  This area very quickly turned more forested but not densely forested.  The hills there were almost identical to those desert hills of eastern Washington, but with smatterings of evergreen trees.  We stopped in Orofino for lunch.  Orofino is interesting mostly because Lewis and Clark stopped near there to make dug-out canoes.  Their high school mascot is the Maniacs because of the nearby state hospital (obviously they don't worry too much about political correctness).  They are also apparently very concerned about pedestrian safety because they have little orange flags at the start of crosswalks the idea being the pedestrian picks up the flags and walks across the street with them for higher visibility.  The only person we saw crossing the street did not pick up a flag.  After Orofino, we drove through Clearwater National forest to the Montana border.  This area was much more densely forested.  It is also the trail taken by Lewis and Clark's expedition.  Almost the entire day, we were driving through forest along the Clearwater River then the Lochsa River, which was a beautiful way to travel.

Clearwater River near Orofino, Idaho            

Eventually, we climbed the Lolo Pass where we passed into Montana then found our way to Missoula where we will spend the night.  A nice surprise was our hotel's two giant indoor water slides.  Missoula is quite pleasant - totally surrounded by mountains of the scrubby desert variety - and we will hopefully do more exploring of Missoula tomorrow.