Week 5, mostly in beautiful Custer State Park

Sat., 10/12.  This is the day we dropped Joe off at the Calgary airport for his flight home to Detroit.  Now, it's back to just John and me.  Today, we drove from Calgary to Billings, Montana.  This was a long, nine-hour drive, but we had a nice surprise right in the middle of it.  My cousin, John (I'll call him Johnny, to avoid confusion), and his wife, Dawn, have a home in Conrad, in northern Montana.  They also have a condo in Missoula, in western Montana, where he and his wife work.  They spend most of their time in Missoula.  As luck would have it, Johnny had arrived in Conrad Friday night, to spend the weekend.  On Saturday morning, he went pheasant hunting.  I was able to talk to him on the phone after he was done hunting.  We were going to be driving right by Conrad.  The timing was perfect, and he invited us for lunch.  Can you guess what he fixed us?  Pheasant tacos!  They were delicious.  Also, the home he and Dawn built is beautiful.  It was so nice to visit with him.  I can't imagine why I didn't take a picture of him and us.  I do regret that.  However, here's a picture of lunch, before it was cooked.

As I said, we spent the night in Billings.  We stayed in a motel called "C'mon Inn."  Cute, right?  This was a great motel.  The room was nice, and the indoor courtyard was outstanding.  It had a waterfall, creek, and pond.  Plus, a pool and five hot tubs.  It would be a great place for a family get-away.

Sunday, 10/13.  From Billings, we drove 8 hours across the rest of Montana and a part of Wyoming, eventually arriving in South Dakota.  We'll be staying here in beautiful Custer State Park for a few days.
This evening, we drove on Wildlife Loop Road, and saw lots of buffalo, some burros, pronghorns, white-tailed deer, prairie dogs, a coyote, and a mountain bluebird.

The burros are not shy.

The buffalo are completely unafraid of cars.

We spent the night in an almost-100-year-old cabin.  It was lovely on the outside; not quite so charming on the inside.

Can you see John, standing on the porch?

Monday, 10/14.  Today is rainy.  In fact, the forecast is for about 36 hours of rain, with the possibility of up to 12 inches of snow.  I've seen no sign of snow, and the temperature is about 39 degrees here, so we may luck out.  Although the snow would be beautiful, 12 inches is a bit much for maneuvering the twisty, hilly drives around here.  In four weeks of traveling, I think this is just our second rainy day.  We've decided to take the day off from sight-seeing.  We've moved into a very nice lodge room where we can relax and connect to the internet.  We have no phone service, but what do I expect, being in the middle of the woods? We'll check out the park visitor's center, and that's about all we have planned for today.  On a short drive we took today, we saw some female bighorn sheep and white-tailed deer grazing together.  

There are deer on the left, bighorn sheep on the right.

 Tuesday, 10/15.  We spent the day driving around the Custer State Park area.  Specifically, we drove to the snowy northern hills.  We wanted to see Sturgis (infamous for its annual motorcycle gathering), Deadwood (the final resting place of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane), and Spearfish, a pretty, little town with a beautiful nearby canyon.  That northern area did, indeed, get about a foot of snow yesterday.  They handle it quickly around here!  I heard someone say that the schools were delayed two hours--just two hours, after a snowfall like that!  The Spearfish Canyon drive was like a winter wonderland.  Later, we took a drive on Iron Mountain road.  It is a very twisty road, with many sharp turns, switchbacks, pigtails, and one-lane tunnels.  The tunnels are astounding, because they are positioned to perfectly frame Mount Rushmore through their openings.  We also went to Mount Rushmore this evening.  At sunset, the sculpture is lit up, which is a beautiful thing to see.  It was cold and windy while we were there.  We'll go back again tomorrow, when the day is warmer and we can stay longer.  By the way, Mount Rushmore just re-opened yesterday, after a 14-day government shutdown.  

This mountain goat is so cool.

This deer was walking in the stream, maybe to avoid the foot of snow.

I like the look of these snowy houses in Deadwood.

Spearfish Canyon

It's impressive to see Mount Rushmore lit up after sunset.

Here's one of the one-lane tunnels on Iron Mountain road.

Wednesday, 10/16.  Today was completely sunny, with a high of about 50 degrees--much warmer than yesterday.  We wanted to see and explore two things today--the Crazy Horse Memorial and Mount Rushmore.  The construction and creation of Crazy Horse have been ongoing since 1948. It is far from completion, but is very impressive.  The size of it is remarkable: the head of Crazy Horse is 87 feet high; by comparison, the Mount Rushmore presidents' heads are 60 feet high.  We saw the memorial fourteen years ago, and we could see the progress that has been done in that time.  The pavilion there includes a beautiful and impressive Native American museum.  We then went to Mount Rushmore.  We took a walk that passes just below the rubble that lies on the mountain below the sculptures.  It's pretty amazing to be able to get that close.  We took lots of pictures, of course.  We drove, again, on the twisty Iron Mountain road.  Just before sunset, we took another drive on Wildlife Loop Road, where we saw lots and lots of buffalo and deer, but no elk or big bucks.  We've had such a nice time in this beautiful Custer State Park.  

The impressive Crazy Horse Memorial

Mount Rushmore, up close

We came back to our lodge, to find this huge buffalo grazing right in front of our room's window.

We drove around a bend in the road, and saw this remarkable view of Washington's profile.  

Thursday, 10/17.  We left Custer State Park early this morning, driving east across South Dakota to the small town of Wall.  It's a town that has made itself famous by its self-promotion since 1931.  Back then, it became the place to go for a free glass of ice water.  Vacationers on their way to the newly-opened Mount Rushmore would stop for the water and stay to shop.  Later, they could get coffee for 5 cents a cup.  The water is still free, and the coffee is still 5 cents.  What started as a drugstore has expanded into a large mall-like place, with many shops.  It's very much a tourist attraction, and about a million people a year arrive there.   We then drove through nearby Badlands National Park--about an hour after they opened from the 16-day government shutdown.  Lucky us!  The Badlands is a remarkable and difficult-to-describe place.  The canyons and spires of rock resemble a mini-Grand Canyon; or, not-quite-like-Bryce Canyon hoodoos; or, in some places, giant sand castles; or, a colorfully pastel moonscape.  As I said, it's difficult to describe.  

We then drove east for the rest of this mostly drizzly day, finally arriving at our motel in Iowa, just south of the Minnesota line.   

This looks like a mini-Grand Canyon.

Here, I see giant sand castles.

This looks like a moonscape to me.  

I look a little uncomfortable, sitting next to my new pal at Wall Drug.

Friday, 10/18.  This was our last long day of driving, from northern Iowa to home.  Here's a summary of our trip.  This was a fun way to break in the new Explorer.  We drove exactly 8,762 miles over the 33 days of travel, through 17 states (a few of them twice), plus British Columbia and Alberta.  We had remarkably good weather, both warm and chilly, with only two full days of rain (besides a couple of rainy drives). Also, remarkably, we went to Grand Canyon before the national parks were closed; and, then, the parks opened just in time for us to go to Mount Rushmore and Badlands.  We were so happy to be able to include one week of travel with the Rachs; one week of travel with Joe; one week of time with most of the Hutchison family in southern California; and a week at the beginning and end of the trip with just John and me.  We were awed by the Redwoods and the beautiful and rugged northern Pacific coast, and thrilled by the Canadian Rockies.  In our last week, it was perfect to be able to slow down and spend three days in Custer State Park and the Mount Rushmore area before the drive to home, sweet home.

A reminder of our route

Week 4, with Joe

As I've said before, Joe flew out to Seattle, joining up with us on Saturday, Oct. 5th, the same day Kitte and Jim flew back to Michigan.  I've already described Joe's first day with us, as we tried to explore the very congested Seattle.

On Sunday, Oct. 6, we drove from Seattle to Vancouver.  We had heard that the next day was going to be rainy, and we wanted to be sure to see as much of the city as we could while the sun was shining.  For that reason, as soon as we checked into our motel, we drove right to the downtown (that is, the Gastown area), where there is an office for the Big Bus Hop-On Hop-Off company.  Some of the tour was good, especially the separate drive through the very large and lovely Stanley Park.  But about half of the tour was very disappointing and ineffective. Our overall impression of Vancouver was that it is like many other big cities: it was crowded and busy and diverse; much of it was attractive; some of it was not.  We were just not wowed by it.  Vancouver is in a beautiful setting, and we did like the Gastown area, the oldest part of the city.   Honestly, we were kind of happy to go back to our motel room at the end of the day.

Totem poles in Stanley Park

Vancouver has water on almost all sides

  Monday, Oct. 7.  Because we weren't very interested in going back into the city, we decided to take a drive north of there, on what is called the Sea to Sky Highway.  That sounded like it might be interesting, and it definitely was.  We loved the beautiful water of Horseshoe Bay, and then the drive into the mountains to Whistler.  In Whistler, we drove around an area that was built for Vancouver's 2010 Winter Olympics, to house the athletes.  This day of sightseeing suited us just fine.  Unfortunately, there was rain during much of the drive, but that's the way it goes sometimes.

Tuesday, Oct. 8.  We left Vancouver today, driving 5 hours NNE to the town of Clearwater.  Because we were driving north and driving up into the mountains, we were happy to have the heavy morning rain stop before it could become a big snowfall.  The drive was so beautiful--hills, mountains, waterfalls, golden aspen trees, snowy evergreen trees.  Clearwater is near the very, very large Wells Gray Provincial Park, so when we got to town, we just kept on going for a drive through a small part of the park.  The park has 39 waterfalls in it; we saw 3 of them.  We also saw a big, black bear, which was very exciting.

Snow!

Beautiful aspens and evergreens, with a river running through it.  :)

I'm pouring a waterfall out of my hand.

Wed., 10/9.  Today, we had a beautiful drive NE from Clearwater, British Columbia, to Jasper, Alberta. Jasper is a cozy, little town, surrounded by beautiful mountains.  It's at the north end of the large stretch of land that is Jasper National Park.  We explored a nearby area called Maligne Lake.  It's described as being a turquoise lake, but the day was very cloudy, so the color of the water was not very remarkable.  Our room for the night was in a nice cottage just off the shore of Patricia Lake--which, of course, was bordered by mountains.  We saw a group of big-horn sheep today, and two female elk.  We keep looking for a moose.

This is the impressive Mt. Robson, at the north end of Jasper National Park

John and Joe, at Patricia Lake in Jasper, where we spent the night

Pyramid Lake, a perfect mirror

Thurs., 10/10.  There are many particular days I was looking forward to on this wonderful, 5-week road trip, and this was one of them.  I've wanted to see the Canadian Rockies for a long time, and today was the day.  Our drive through Jasper and Banff National Parks was all I hoped it would be, and more.  For our entire drive (180 miles), we were surrounded by amazing mountains--just non-stop beautiful peaks and chains of mountains.  Most of them were snow-covered, or had large snowy ice fields near them.  Some of them had blue-green glaciers on them  Because glacier water is turquoise, that means that all of the melted water--the rivers and waterfalls and lakes--are that same amazing color.  The 3-and-a-half-hour drive took us about 8 hours because of all the many times we stopped to enjoy the beautiful scenery.  We spent the night in Canmore, just east of Banff.

Just a river--an amazing, turquoise river

Joe and I, enjoying the sights

Peyto Lake

Lake Louise

These are definitely Rocky Mountains.

Friday, Oct. 11.  We had a short and beautiful drive today--just two hours-- from Canmore to Calgary.  We drove downtown, parked, and walked around for a little while.  Calgary is an attractive city.  Like all cities, it has many buildings that are big and modern, and many that show their history.  The central part of the downtown has a few blocks that are pedestrian only, which made walking around very easy and interesting. There were a couple of street performers, even though the temperature was only 40 degrees.  This is Joe's last full day on vacation with us.  Tomorrow morning, bright and early, he'll get on a plane in Calgary, and fly home to Detroit.  We will definitely miss him.  John and I will then begin our fifth and last week of this road trip.

This was the view out our motel window this morning in Canmore.

Along with mountains all around us, this was the pretty drive we had on our way to Calgary.

Downtown Calgary

Week 3

So, to re-cap: During Week 1, John and and drove out to California.  Week 2 was in San Clemente and San Diego, enjoying the company of the family who lives there and the family who traveled to be there.

Now, I'll recall Week 3.  Early, very early, on Sunday morning, Sept. 29, five of us (John and I, along with Jim, Kitte, and Mary) drove from San Diego to San Francisco.  All the Californians we asked said we were crazy to do that drive in one day, especially on a Sunday.  This was always said with great emotion.  However, I was sure we could do it, and we did, with no problem whatsoever.  The first fun thing we did in the city was to go to the Painted Ladies, the iconic Victorian homes that are on the edge of Alamo Square. The day was clear, with no fog to hinder the view of the city in the background.

Mary and Kitte, in front of the Painted Ladies

Our second fun activity was driving down Lombard Street--the crookedest street in the world.  It is such an attraction!  Driving down the twisty street is fun, and standing at the top or bottom of the block, and watching the cars drive down, is just as fun.  John drove down it a couple of times.  :-)

That's John, in the white Explorer.  

We rented a house in San Rafael, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, for our two days in SF.  The home was so lovely and welcoming, we didn't want to leave when we finally arrived there that evening.

Mon., Sept. 30.  The five of us played in San Francisco all day.  What fun that was!  John is fearless about driving in big city traffic, so we drove up and down (and I do mean up and down!) every street and neighborhood that looked interesting.  Our first stop was at the Palace of Fine Arts, which is the only building left from the very opulent 1915 World's Fair.  It's now a park, and is so beautiful.
The next activity was a ride on a cable car!  That was so fun!  We've done it before, but I had forgotten how fun and how long the ride was.

 

Chinatown was eye-popping--not just the many colorful shops, but also the very, very narrow streets that we managed to drive on.

We spent a few minutes in the Fisherman's Wharf area, and then went to Ghirardelli Square for some chocolate shopping.
The city looked beautiful as we were leaving it.  The early evening sun was lighting it up and the fog was rolling in.

 

Tues., Oct. 1.  This was our Redwoods day!  We were all very excited about this.  :)  A picture speaks a thousand words, so here are some photos to describe our day of perfect amazement.

 

Wed., Oct. 2.  On this day, we drove up the coast of northern California and southern Oregon.  "Wow" was a word we all said several times.  There's really nothing else quite like those views of blue water, enormous rocks, and sandy beaches.  Again, the photos describe the scenes far better than I could.

Thurs., Oct. 3.  We continued driving up the coast of Oregon for awhile, seeing many more beautiful scenes, and then drove inland.  In Eugene, we stopped at Voodoo Donuts, which had been put on our must-do list by Chris and Barb.  The donuts were amazingly diverse--and so were the people we saw in this eclectic and free-spirited city.  From there, we drove to just south of Portland to spend the night.

Elk!  Lots of elk!

Fri., Oct. 4.  We drove from Portland to Seattle today, and spent the day playing in Seattle.  I had read that the best place to see the city is from Kerry Park, so we went there first.  We liked that perfect spot so much, we went back several more times that day and the next.  We also went to Pike Place Market, another must-do activity.  It's a really big market, several blocks long and two or three floors high, in the middle of the downtown.  There are shops that sell fish, flowers, produce, t-shirts, and many other things.  The Rachs went up to the top of the Space Needle, but John and I opted out of that.  They also took a ferry to Bainbridge Island.  Mary was meeting a friend of hers there; in fact, that's where they said goodbye to Mary on this trip.

Mary and Kitte shopping in Pike Place Market

The Rachs are in the ferry on the left, heading to Bainbridge Island

Beautiful sunset in Seattle, with Mt. Rainier in the background

Sat., Oct. 5.  On the last day of this 3rd week, Kitte and Jim flew home to Michigan, and Joe flew to Seattle!  In fact, we picked Joe up and dropped Kitte and Jim off at exactly the same time.  We took Joe to Kerry Park and to Pike Place Market.  All of our other attempts to tour the city were not very successful. The traffic was unbelievable, with construction all over the place, blocking our routes and causing backups for blocks.  We finally gave up, and decided to take a ferry to Bainbridge Island.  That was very nice and peaceful.  We had dinner at a marina, and then took the ferry back to the city.

Kitte and I, saying goodbye after a wonderful, fun week

John and Joe and Pike Place Market

Joe and I in Kerry Park, enjoying a Seattle sunset