August 2, 2013

• Epic Road Trip, Day 3

  I got this blog done yesterday and hit submit only to discover somewhere along the way that my computer had gotten bumped off the Internet and couldn’t be reestablished without a reboot. I had a clipboard copy of the blog so I wasn’t worried but when the reboot was complete, my blog was completely gone. So, I’ll do my best to recreate my text but unfortunately I’d taken yesterday to explain a lot of stuff that, while it made an interesting blog, isn’t so interesting I want to say it twice, but I’ll see what I can do to entertain you without boring me.

  The best way to do that is to start with a picture.

  

  I wanted to explain how this trip got planned. I looked at a map of the US and figured out what I wanted to see, then I used yahoo.maps.com to figure out how to get there, adjusting it to add other places that were in the area that would be worth stopping for. Once I got the general outline I used 3 websites to help me plan. The first was, of course, geocaching.com. I followed each stage of the route, adding the caches along it into a bookmark that could be downloaded into my GPS. I took care to include caches just after turns so I’d have a trail of green boxes guiding me, even if I didn’t stop and find them. I also included a lot of earthcaches and virtuals, neither of which have physical containers, but which have either a geological lesson or just a cool place to learn something about (maybe the why, when, who of a statue or historical landmark). Since all those types have questions that need answered, I printed off the type, title and questions and put them in a 3-ring binder. Since I started this when I wasn’t perfectly clear about the trip they got out of order and I ended up filing them alphabetically by state, which got confusing and we ended up missing a lot.

  The second website I used was the AAA site’s trip planner. I was able to follow my established route and print off interesting and AAA approved attractions that didn’t cost much, if anything. I printed off info about museums and landmarks and visitor’s centers and filed them in another 3-ring binder in the order in which we’ll drive by.

  My binder was gorgeous. I had a page for the overview map, a page for my itinerary and then after that, I had a map and directions page printed out for that day’s journey (with a green file tab on the upper left), followed by that attraction options (with blue tabs descending on the right side), followed by my camping reservations confirmation letters (with blue tabs across the top). Each day had its own set of Things to Do and How to Get There. In the back of the binder I had daily average temperatures for the areas we’ll be, a list of all the Costco stores, the towns with the cheapest gas according to gasbuddy.com, addresses of people to send postcards to, and a few notes about places I might be wandering.

  Then I found another website on the Wackiest Roadsite Attractions. I went through that one and printed off the interesting ones. Then I checked yahoo.maps with the addresses and mixed them in with the AAA sites so I could know what was coming up next, knowing we wouldn’t have time for all of them but wanting to keep options open. By the time I was done, I had 3″ worth of binders and had borrowed a Nuvi, Jack, to help with navigation. Kendrah was in charge of Jack and the attractions/food/gas, I was in charge of GeePS and the geocaches and general routing. Quin, in the backseat, was in charge of snackage and the audio books and music CDs (each book had been removed from it’s case and put into a Ziploc bag, and he had a shoe box they all fit nicely into. It was a great arrangement).

  So.

  We left the campsite and found this horse statue in a park on the side of the road before we’d even gotten out of Big Timber. It was not in the book. It was only vaguely interesting, but Quin needed to get out and pick its nose, so we did.

  One thing that was in our book was Muffler Men. They became a bit of a focus for the trip and we wanted to find as many as possible. This was in someone’s back yard. Were we supposed to go back there and get pictures? I don’t know, but I left the engine running.

  Have you heard the term “knee high to a grasshopper”? Well, my kids are “knee high to a muffler man.”

  

  Then as we left, there was a bird desperately trying to distract us with flashing feathers and fashionable displays and I got my camera out just in time for her to settle down and look ordinary. But, she’s still kinda cute.

  

  The next item in the book that we stopped for was a display of a shoe created for the worlds tallest man. I assume there’s another out there somewhere, but we only saw this one.

  

  And, while this is a really nice shoe, it was really where it was displayed that made my heart flutter.

  You already know I have a bit of a boot obsession, right, so it won’t surprise you that drool was forming at my lips when I saw that I was in the center of a Montana Bootery. Oh yeah. As much as I like boots, I’d never really cared for cowboy boots. Till now.

  We must be in Montana!

  I didn’t have the spare money for a pair and didn’t have the spare room in the car (although if the first wasn’t an issue, I’d have let them sit on my lap the whole trip just so I could have them) so I refused to look at them too closely. I got some pictures, then I got a few more pictures, and then I noticed that my kids, apparently understanding my need to just stand there and take pictures had found a place to patiently wait for me. I think this may have been the only time they exhibited this kind of tolerance.

  

  We’d wasted too much time and it was time to move on because there was a muffler man around the corner.

  

  He was up high on the side of the building but impressive nonetheless. He’d been repurposed to hold a tire for the local shop, but you can tell from his hand position he originally was meant to hold something else. a Branding iron, perhaps. Although maybe it was a wooden spoon. He kinda has the look of a pirate ship’s cook. That may just be me.

  

  Rest areas often have caches, making them a twofer so we can pee and get a cache at the same stop. This rest area, however was a threefer because I had to take a picture of this “pet area” that made me laugh.

  We made our way to Little Bighorn National Monument which we’d read a lot about before the trip cause I knew I’d stop here. I was surprised with all the headstones like dominoes but then we learned it’s a military cemetery and I don’t think it matters which war you fought in or if you died in battle. All the stones have the name, rank and which war they were in carved on the front. Occasionally on the back would be the words “And His Wife….”

        

  

  When I first did this post I went on and on about my views of history and war but this time I think I’ll just caption a few pictures.

  

  This is the field where the Battles of Little Bighorn took place. Shots were fired from here, people died here. It was interesting to be so close to history.

     

  The white man just fell here, end of story, but the Indian warrior fell here while defending the Cheyenne way of life. These markers were scattered throughout the field but we could only see a few of them because of an interesting fact I didn’t know. Rattlestakes avoid paths. Who knew! But there (and elsewhere) we saw signs warning us to stay on the path due to rattlers. I was all for segregating myself from the snakes by staying on the path, but I wondered how the snakes knew.

  

  The white/bad guy side of the monument was a stone tower with the names of the people that died carved into it. However, the Indian/good guy side had cool artsy things with really neat walkways meandering through murals and quotes from wise Indian elders like, “Young men be brave!”. The coolest art was of these three horses with a mother running after her forgetful son with his shield and probably yelling at the other kid for falling off his horse before even reaching the battle. It was a touching scene.

  

  Having had enough of war and battles and injustices, real or imagined, we took our freshly minted $80 annual National Parks Pass and drove out of the park, stopping soon after to capture some horses.

  And tipis.  

  And our first sighting of red rocks.

  

  Then we cruised along enjoying the scenery.

  I liked the flat bits.

  I liked the hilly bits.

  And the wildlife, even if they look identical to the ones at home.

  

  We drove into Wyoming.

  And a bit later, South Dakota.

  You may not know that there’s a town in South Dakota that claims to be the Geographical Center of the US. In reality, the center is 13 miles north of the monument they created but it was so much more convenient for us to have it here that we didn’t mind missing the opportunity of bouncing up a rutted dirt road to see a pile of rocks that marks the real center.

    

  Quin took his turn at the center, then it was Kendrah’s turn.

  Then, finally, mine.

  

  Then I got a shot of the avenue of the flags. I searched out and found Washington’s flag, but with no wind to unfurl it, it looked just like a piece of green fabric hanging limply off a pole. Not exactly the best blog material so I’ll spare you.

  

  After that we noticed the sun was dipping pretty low on the horizon. We needed gas, we needed food, we needed to find our campsite and we had a lot of ground to cover.

  We got gas in the dusky light and drove through an Arby’s as the sky turned various shades of red and orange and the sun disappeared.

  We got off the main highway to follow the directions to the campsite. We took a circuitous route of 16 miles through constructions zones, one lane bridges, dirt roads on mountain passes through deep dark woods before, finally, we see a main road! Which….was the highway we’d turned off of earlier. Go figure.

  The campground was huge, but not well lit. The office was closed but I took the envelope with my name on it and learned I was in site 11. No idea how to get there but whatever. I spent about 10 minutes going down the wrong way on one-way roads, taking gravel roads that petered out in grass fields, shining my head lights in camp sites already settled in for the night. Kendrah spotted a tiny post with a number on it and we were able to figure out where we might be. I found a picnic table with a blank space next to it I was able to just barely fit my car into. There was a tree where my tent should have gone so I managed to pitch it between my car, the table and the neighboring van with just enough room to walk around. The front of the tent was about a foot and a half away from the road. As in, look both ways before exiting your tent, boys and girls. It was really, really tight.

  We managed to settle down and go to sleep like a good sardine, but a few hours later a car alarm went off. Horn blaring and lights flashing I had no idea which car was doing it. It could have been any one of about 10 sites and it still would have felt like it was inside the tent with us. Some lady yelled, “I barely touched it!”. I grabbed my key fob and started pressing buttons just in case the car was mine, although I’ve never known the alarm to go off unless someone locked inside was trying to get out (see future post for Day 23) and the alarm finally stopped. I don’t know if it was mine or not. I murmured “I’m sorry” to my kids and the lady outside cheerfully said, “Oh, that’s okay.”

  We went back to sleep.

   

   

  • 12:27 pm
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