Traveling Across the Country--Part 1

Biddeford, ME--Erie, PA (16 hours)

If driving across the country wasn't enough of a prospect, how about driving east from Vermont to Maine, then turning right around and heading west?! Right-O...that is exactly how Lindsay and I began our journey west.

There isn't much to report about this leg of the journey. Oh, maybe the rain, the dreariness of central New York, and the depressing flatness of Erie, could evoke a few minor explitives and/or disgruntled shrugs, but there really wasn't much. When we reached Erie, we did stay in our one and only hotel for the trips duration--a dog-friendly Best Western that was so overpriced, we swore we were staying in a luxury suite overlooking Central Park. What was kind of funny though was the dog show that was scheduled for the following day in downtown Erie. We woke up to perfectly primped poodles, terriers, and what-have-yous prancing around the side door of the hotel. Mabel's feathers were ruffled.

Erie, PA--Chicago, IL (9.5 hours)
Off we go again. By now, I think we had just about had enough of the mid-Atlantic. We quickly got PA behind us, and in under an hour we were enjoying I-90 through Ohio (rain, and a lot of it!). Lindsay slept most of the way through this and the following state (Indiana--go Hoosiers!!), but woke up in Illinois to a tractor trailor blowing out one of its rear tires. Boring, I'm telling you. Once we hit Chicago, we paid our final astronomically-high toll, and slipped rapidly over the bridge into the city.

Once there, we were warned by our friend of a street fair going on throughout the neighborhood he lived in. To add our already bug-eyed shock of big city gawk, we now had to navigate pedestrians and blocked streets. It ended up not being all that traumatic, in fact, we found our buddy's apartment building in no time and herded Mabel right inside and into the safety of his apartment.

What we thought was going to a tricky little endeavor turned out to be pretty fun. Apparently, downtown Chicago is pretty pet-friendly, so we were able to find a Mexican restaurant with outside seating that also accomodated the young ruffian, Mabel. While there, she nearly ate a miniature poodle, but in all her performance was that of a solid "B" student. Not bad for being thrown to the fire after being in the car for over 20 hours.

Chicago also has beaches. It is on one of the great lakes, but it is still so strange and somewhat surreal like a scene from a Ray Bradbury novel. Prior to this trip our only experience with beaches has been at beach towns where the tallest building abutting the ocean beach was a 3 story motel, NOT a 15 story highrise. Mabel ate sand and water, but we are happy to report there were no sand castles.

Chicago, IL--Sioux Falls, SD (11 hours)
Back on the road. Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, all of these states offer mile after mile of straight and bleak roadways spanning endless asphalt along the I-90 corridor through the northern Midwest. Farm land, vast horizons, large trucks, minivans with children strapped to passenger seats playing video games and watching movies on televisions built into seats. This is middle America, and we wanted to forget about it as soon as we passed through it. I think this is where Lindsay and I started to act a little weird too, and Mabel began to notice something was strange with her parents.

One thing of interest was Castle Rock in Wisconsin. Out of the shrub-covered plains of milk country sprouted these strange pinnacles of soft sandstone. Lindsay and I both thought, "Hell, let's climb these!" But we soon found out that it was nothing more than choss (climber lingo for loss, dangerous, and otherwise unappetizing rock) that appeared to be solid.

It was also around this time that Lindsay began to wear her pajamas...all day long.

We arrived that evening to Sioux Falls, SD to a rally car race across the street from our campground and a barking dog with styrofoam-using, car camping owners to our left. We ate and quickly went to sleep.

The following morning was the first morning that it was truly cold out. Where the hell were our hats and gloves? Didn't know, didn't care, just eager to get motoring. By this time is was June 16th, and we were on schedule. Next stop, Eastern Wyoming...

Sioux Falls, SD--somewhere in Eastern Wyoming (15 hours)
With the windy city behind us, a great portion of the monotonous driving to our east and mountains somewhere to our west, Lindsay and I were revitalized and jazzed to get back on I-90 and push the speedometer back up to 80 mph again. She took the first leg of the driving, getting us to the 1880 Town--a put together old west town using original buildings and original artifacts from that time period. I thought it was going to be a tourist trap, but it wasn't. Replete with the "Dances with Wolves Museum" (a good portion of the movie was filmed on the plains surrounding this town), and original photographs of General Custer, Doc Holiday, and Theodore Roosevelt, I was in educator's heaven.

The walk through the town was quick, but you can see the remainder of our pictures on the slide show at the end.

We then headed for the Badlands, then Custer State Park (the Needles climbing area!!), and Mount Rushmore (overrated, but scenic nonetheless). Both Lindsay and I were shocked that the National Park Service allowed Tourons to hike all over the petrified mud towers in the Badlands. Granted, many of them are very low angle, but quite a few rise to dizzying heights with a fair bit of vertical ground to the summit.

After a quick drive thru of the Badlands, we set our sights on the Needles--a section of Custer State Park that is home to bowling pin-shaped spires of exfoliating granite. We were approached by a young, newly-married couple, asking if we'd seen a Brit named Richard. We thought they were talking about the famed British climber, Richard Heap, but they weren't. Nevertheless, they showed a great 3-pitch route up Aquarium Rock. It was climbed in the 50s at a traditional grade of 5.3--now I think it clocks in closer to 5.6. (The route was not very well protected at all...I think we used a total of 6 or 7 pieces of gear for the route, 2 of which were slung chickenheads. However, I think that was about par for any route in the Needles.)

Eastern Wyoming--Jackson, Wy (15 hours)
I'm not going to speak much about this beautiful part of the country. Instead, I'm going to say a few words, then let the slideshow take you on the leg of this journey.

Bison galore, mating burros, geysers, large predatory beasts, small foraging animals and bumper to bumper traffic. This is what Yellowstone was--Grand and glorious, humbling and humorous, the dichotomy of the natural world and American commercialism.

End of part 1...