Day 23 - Portland, OR

Portland is pretty cool. As we drove around, I kept comparing it to a really big Willie Street.  And they legalized weed last week, so toss that in there for good measure.  It seems to be a pretty hip, trendy, and fit town surrounded by a bunch of natural beauty, so its got a lot going for it.

I snuck out a little early to hit up Pip's Orignal Doughnuts.  I grabbed a dozen of these little pieces of wonderfulness and brought them back to the hotel.  I am not crowning anything best-ever, but damn, these were FINE little doughnuts.  The Nutella drizzled, raw honey dipped sea salt sprinkled 'Dirty Wu' was a special fave.  Well done, Pip's.

If Day 19 in Yellowstone was geothermal feature day, then today was waterfall day.  We trekked out of town into the Columbia River Gorge area.  The scenic byway that goes along the river is just a stunning piece of road and every couple of miles you can get out and hike up or down and see a magnificent waterfall.  

As an aside, we have ended up finding out about multiple other families travelling in various ways around the country this summer and we happened upon one of them at the start of our day.  The Wendt's are friends of family from McFarland, and Tana Wendt spied us in the parking lot of our first stop!  We got to meet Tana, her husband and three grown kids.  Great to meet them, great family and totally crazy to come across people from one town away from us when we are 2000 miles away from home.  Nice to meet you, Wendt's - safe travels for the rest of your trip, and keep your Mom in check with that selfie stick!

 Our first hike was Multnomah falls which is the top spot in the area due to its amazing waterfall.  The crowds confirmed its popularity it because it was pretty congested.  As we got higher up towards the top, however, it thinned out.  After a strenuous climb, we ate lunch 600' above the floor below.  Interesting that two days in a row (Space Needle and Multnomah Falls) we were about the same height off the ground.  Today was a lot more strenuous to get to, of course.

We made three more waterfall stops and logged about 9.5 miles today (and over 125 miles on the trip so far according to Kim the Fitbit Master).  Pretty good day, and the hiking went much better than it had last week.  The temps were about the same in the high 80's/low 90's, but we're slowly getting in better shape and we are also at about 80' of elevation vs. 8000' where we were when we struggled in Yellowstone.

We came back to the hotel for a little dinner (chow included at Staybridge Suites - thanks!) and then headed into Portland to get a little more city feel.  We stopped at Salt & Straw in the Northwest District for some ice cream.  I won't be crowning anything best-ever, but damn, that was some good ice cream.  I had the Goat Cheese Marionberry Habenero.  Awesome.  Kim tried their signature Sea Salt Caramel and that was crazy good as well.  If we weren't walking and hiking so much, we would weight 400 pounds by now...

We topped off the day with a Tram ride.  They have a nifty lift that goes up and back over their South Waterfront area.  Cool ride and beautiful view of the city from up-top.

Well done, Portland.  Thank for the good time.  We're continuing our long move south tomorrow with a little more National Park awesomeness.  Cheers.

- Jim

Pip's Original, Portland OR.  Hot out of the fryer.  Doughnut heaven.

Multnomah Falls, Columbia River Gorge Area, OR.  Kim, Mag and MK are on the bridge with their hands raised.

Me and the girls, Bridal Veil Falls, Columbia River Gorge, OR.

I can't remember which falls this was.  But it was pretty.

Menu boards at Salt & Straw, Portland, OR.  Yes, please.

The trams that run above Portland.

Day 22 - Seattle, WA to Portland, OR

Other than your traffic, you're beautiful, Seattle.

We hit downtown Seattle late morning in search of Maggie's Holy Grail - The Original Starbucks.  As with any good teenager, she loves all things Starbucks.   This pilgrimage has been the #1 spot she wanted to hit on the Trip.  Mission accomplished!  There was a line down the block filled with other seekers, so we waited with them, in the sun, basking in the best street jazz band I have ever heard.  Once in the store, we bought coffee swag only available in that specific store, waited in line for 30 minutes to get our drinks and then hauled arse to lunch at...

The Space Needle.  Tourists we are, so we could not miss it.  It's everything you would think - gift shop, pretty crowded, but actually pretty well done.  We ate lunch in the rotating restaurant 600 or so feet in the air (it was GREAT food...not cheap, but if you take into account that a ticket to the observation deck alone is $20-ish, and that is included with lunch, well the food isn't a bad deal.) and then walked to the deck for the panoramic views and a few pictures.

After coming back down from up high, we walked back to the Pikes Place Public Market for a great walk around.  Cleveland's public market was nifty, but Seattle is a whole 'nother level.  Artists everywhere with great quality stuff, food vendors, seafood, fruit and veggie producers, unbelievable flowers, and then on lower levels, all kinds of eclectic shops.  Everything you could imagine, and extremely well done.  There is also a lot of construction in the area which appears to be expanding the market even more.  Good call, Seattle.

We hit the road mid-afternoon with the thought of visiting Mt. St. Helens and learning some about that event's history, but we spent a little too much time in Seattle for that to happen and missed the visitor center hours, so we pushed on to Portland.  State #16!

Thanks, Washington.  It was a great couple days.  We will see what Oregon has in store for us tomorrow.  

 - Jim

The self-critical photographer in me hasn't been pleased with many shots this trip, but l LOVE THIS PICTURE! Click to enlarge if you wish.  Pike's Place Market, Seattle, WA.

The angels sang for Maggie when we walked in the door...

Happy Maggie and a boisterous server, The Original Starbucks, Seattle WA.

Classic market - Pike's Place Market, Seattle, WA.

Helluva view from 600+ feet up.  Space Needle Observation Deck, Seattle, WA.


Day 21 - Spokane to Seattle, WA

A funny hazard of hopping around like we are - you get up early to work on a blog post, realize you need something from the car, head down, and then walk in to the hotel to realize that for about three minutes (before coffee) you have absolutely no recollection of your room number.  Actually, you have a recollection, but it's of 10 room numbers from the previous two weeks. It's a fun few moments when you slide the key card into the door with fingers crossed, hoping for the little green light vs. getting a red one which would of course mean that someone thinks you are a stalker trying to get into their room.

Greetings from Seattle!  We learned yesterday that they have an average of 3 days a year at or above 90°.  Yesterday was their third in a row, so quite a heat wave and completely sunny, so certainly not the damp dreary Pacific Northwest we had heard so much about.

We arrived into town after an uneventful and relatively brief four hours in the car from Spokane.  The first stop was one of the original 'Let's Do That' ideas for the trip - a tour of the Boeing factory in Everett, WA.  It's the largest building in the world (by volume) and yes, it is completely unimaginably enormous.  So much so that it's really hard to put it all in perspective.  You get some visitor center exposure, a little history movie and then a bus ride to one side of the plant.  A walk and elevator ride gets you to an observation deck.  747's going down a very slow moving assembly line, looking like little toys.  The tour guide tossed a million facts and figures at us trying to describe the numbers. 40,000+ employees work in one building.  More than a million parts in each plane.  If they put football fields in the building, it is so big that they could play the all of the games in an entire NFL season inside the building in one weekend.  Disneyland could fit inside it and still have room for 12 acres of parking.  On and on.  Then a bus ride to the other side of the building (yes, you had to have a ride to the other side) to watch another line of planes and then back.  For the ex-manufacturing guy in me, it was pretty cool.

No pictures, however.  They didn't allow cameras, phones or basically anything to come along with you on the tour.  No camera or phone for me sort of felt like no pants.  We shall live with the memories!

We were then off to Seattle's waterfront area for a tour that took us via boat to Blake Island a few miles out into Puget Sound for the Tillicum Village experience.  This was a 4 hour deal, boat cruise, some history, dinner and some time on the island which is also a state park.

The food was a buffet with traditional Northwest Native American prepared salmon and other great related items.  The food was an A+.  The overall longhouse facility was also good.  After dinner there was a storytelling and dance experience related to several of the tribes which historically inhabited the area.  Overall pretty good, although a little hokey and contrived - more pre-recorded stuff vs. real live talent than I would have preferred, but overall good stuff.

After dinner we took a walk around the island and for me it was a highlight just to take a walk.  Even though this wasn't quite Pacific Northwest rainforest, it was pretty close. We were immediately in dense forest that we would never see back home - ferns as tall as we were, giant moss covered trees, etc.

Back on the boat and to the hotel for the night.  We will be hitting more Seattle this morning.  It is a big place, and the waterfront downtown area is all that and more as far as a large urban area.  We arrived for the tour right around when a Mariners MLB game was getting started so traffic and parking was a complete mess.  The girls also got several walk-by situations involving public recreational drug use.  One was humorous, one not so much.  Chalk up another educational experience, right?  Sort of kidding, but really not.  I won't dig into it in a blog post, but suffice to say that our wonderful suburban-raised kids continue to slowly get the veil lifted on everything the world has to offer.  That was part of the plan.

Cheers to a great Tuesday.  This morning we will ht Maggie's trip highlight!  And does anyone know of a coffee shop I can find in this town? ;-)

- Jim

Lighthouse and Mt. Rainier from Puget Sound.  Mt Rainier was STUNNING, 70+ miles away.

Seattle skyline from Puget Sound.

Bright and sunny in Seattle.  Wait, what?

Outside the longhouse, Tillicum Village, Blake Island near Seattle, WA.  We were greeted with clams when we arrived.  You tossed the shells and crushed them on the ground which formed the path to the longhouse.

Blake Island, WA.


Day 20 - Yellowstone N.P. to Spokane, WA

520 miles in 9 hours with only one stop.  Bladders run strong in the McNulty clan. And I wasn't even one of 'those' pushy Dads.

This was one of those pure travel days, heading west as far as we could reasonably go without stretching too much.  Although it wasn't full of highlights, my broken record blog posts describing us finding cool stuff in just about every situation continued again today.

You know how you know its going to be a good day?  When you are heading out of Yellowstone and you come across a mother Grizzly bear and her cubs.  Not sure why seeing these beasts in the wild is so captivating, but it is.  There were luckily Rangers nearby keeping people a reasonable ways away.  Several head shaking situations watching people and their children not having any clue what wild animals might be capable of.  Anyways, we watched Mama Bear lumber and two cubs scamper around for maybe 10 minutes before we headed out of the park.  Stupid grin on all of our faces.

As I mentioned above, we hit it hard, but we really do have our road warrior groove on.  Some 'by ourselves' time, some family talk time, some Harry Potter audiobook, some Friends DVD's and a lot of watching out the window at the amazing scenery.  One thing none of us has had any exposure to was wildfires.  We didn't get close to any action, but given a very dry and hot spring, they are popping up in many places.  Far Northwestern Idaho was thick with smoke as we drove though it. 

We got into Spokane about dinner time and were given a tip for a great local pizza joint.  We walked the mile or so over to it and...closed for the holiday weekend.  No worries, back to the room for a delivery order from pizza choice #2.  Kim and I then felt like a walk but the girls didn't, so the two of us headed off for a couple mile walk thru the nearby Spokane Riverfront Park.

You can count Spokane as yet another city where we will walk away saying, "Man, I had no idea how nice this place was".  The Riverfront Park was just beautiful - suspension walking bridges, rapids and falls, big convention and performing arts center and all kind of outside performance venues.  And since the kids weren't with us, Kim and I took the opportunity to have a little date - we played on the giant red wagon and took a ride on a turn-of-the-century carousel.  As we strolled back to the hotel, we agreed that Spokane felt like a city we could live in.  VERY limited exposure of course, but it really had a great vibe.  Good job, Spokane!

Tomorrow we finish heading west.  We will be West Coast for a very long stretch, pretty much from Canada to Mexico and everything in between.  The Pacific Northwest is one of the regions of the country I have never been to, so I am very excited to hit that area tomorrow.

Happy Monday to you all.  Hope your Holiday weekends ended up happy and safe.

- Jim

Mama Grizzly.  I am no nature photographer, so the short scampering cubs in the grass were beyond my reach.  She was a beauty and not to be messed with.

I am generally anti-bumper sticker.  Yellowstone got to me.

This was our hotel - it's a Holiday Inn and Suites!  They call it 'The Rock' since it's up on a cliff.  Pretty nice, not your usual Holiday Inn.  Spokane, WA.

Riverfront Park, Spokane, WA.

Riverfront Park, Spokane, WA.

Riverfront Park, Spokane WA.

Looff Carousel, Riverfront Park, Spokane WA

Day 19 - Yellowstone N.P.

Happy Independence Day!

Today was our 2nd full day in Yellowstone, and once again it was great.  Given a tougher day yesterday with heat and altitude, we throttled back a bit today.  We saw some amazing things, but the fact we continue to learn about this park - it is just enormous.  I see at least week at this park in our future, but as far as our Big Trip stop, we just scratched the surface of two sections.  We had some free time in the afternoon that we could have utilized for some sights, but in order to get to a substantially different part of the park would probably have involved 4 hours of driving and that wasn't something we wanted to tackle.

So - we did all things geothermal in the basins in and around Old Faithful and the surrounding area.  We hit Old Faithful early since it is so popular (especially on a holiday weekend) and it did not disappoint.  It is what it is, everyone knows what it looks like, but the sap in me really liked seeing something so iconic on July 4th.

After that, we walked around the area and saw a lot of hot and bubbly things.  We had lunch in the Old Faithful lodge and then drove a little farther.  More hot and bubbly.  And drove a little more.  You get the idea.  Lots of variety, lots of cool stuff, all of which seems like you are on another planet.  And really, who can get tired of discussing different types of hot sulfer eating microbes, right?  Yeah.  I'd be lying if I didn't say that we are not a little geyser'd out...  

Back to our cabin, changed for a nice dinner in the stately old Lake Yellowstone Hotel, a walk to get ice cream and watch a 4th parade put on by the park staff and then back to the cabin to start packing.

Yellowstone, you're awesome.  We will be back.  Tomorrow we're headed back west.  We will have another of those very long driving days.  We won't get all the way west tomorrow, but we will be there soon.

I hope you had a Happy and Safe 4th.  Sleep well.

- Jim 

Old Faithful, July 4, 2015.

Big Trippers, still smiling.  Well, except Jim is only sort of smiling.

Grand Prismatic Spring, Mid Geyser Basin, Yellowstone N.P.  Man, I wish I had my drone with me...

Mid Geyser Basin, Yellowstone N.P.

I swear I saw Indiana Jones around here somewhere...

This is one small section of the view of Lake Yellowstone that we had right in behind our cabin.  Stunning.

Happy 4th.

Day 18 - Yellowstone N.P.

Greetings, All.

Yellowstone National Park is stunning.

I am blogging to you from the business center of the Lake Yellowstone Hotel.  We aren't staying in the hotel ($450+ a night - yikes!), but we are in a cute little cabin just outside of the hotel and that gives us access to some of the swankiness.  The hotel is a complete gem, recently renovated Colonial joint.  You feel like early-1920's tourists when you are in the lobby.

Quick aside on the cabin - it was one of the first pieces of Big Trip positive vibe karma.  Kim was calling for lodging in the park early in the year.  Rookies that we were, we weren't aware that Yellowstone lodging basically sells out a year in advance, but when she was on the phone, someone cancelled their three night stay and we grabbed it right then.  Bam.  It's tiny, but two beds, electricity and a shower.  And it is smack dab in the middle of one of the most beautiful places on earth.

After waking up and having breakfast out of the cooler, we headed through the park and spent most of the day in the Yellowstone Grand Canyon area (not that Grand Canyon...Yellowstone has its own).  We hiked mainly the South Rim.  A few pictures below.  Uncle Tom's Trail, Artists Point and other work around the South Rim.  Breathtaking.

We had one of our first 'rough day' episodes, but just for part of the day.  Hiking got difficult for MK for a while.  I don't think it was any one thing, but between 8000 feet of altitude, mid-80° temps, sun, not in hiking shape yet and some VERY strenuous trails, we hit a wall.  Some air conditioning in the visitors center got us back at it and we spent the remainder of the afternoon walking around some very smelly geothermal attractions.  Pretty amazing stuff and we have probably seen about 1% of the park. Back out tomorrow for some July 4th hiking.  Hopefully will be able to check in again tomorrow.  

In the meantime, here is a challenge that I put out on Facebook every July 4th but probably won't get to because I won't have internet access until late. Your challenge is to read this (at least the first two paragraphs), and read it out loud:  Declaration of Independence

Be safe.

- Jim

(PS - you can click on the pics to launch them in a larger window.  A couple of these might be worth the effort.)

Artists Point, Yellowstone N.P.  I mean c'mon, are you kidding me?  I still don't think it was real.

Artists Point, Yellowstone N.P.  Looking the other way from the shot above.

Sigh.  So much beauty :-)

A little bit of rainbow action at the bottom of Lower Falls, South Rim, Canyon, Yellowstone N.P.

After the hike down and back up Uncle Tom's.

Did you know that there are more geothermal features in Yellowstone than the rest of the world combined? #science

Did you know that many geothermal features smell bad and my daughters might complain about it?

Badass buffalo.  #telephotolens

This cute guy was eating behind our cabin.

Our cabin in Yellowstone.

Day 17 - Cottonwood, ID to Yellowstone

Greeings!  Welcome to a short lame blog post with no pictures.  

A 500+ mile drive, much of it via winding roads through Idaho, landed us in Yellowstone N.P. late this evening. We're all exhausted but still smiling. 

We have a cabin on Lake Yellowstone for three nights. Not having to pack up for that stretch of time will be heaven.  

Bison, Bears and Elk (oh my) greeted us on the drive to our cabin, whetting our appetites for what we will see over the next couple of days. I am sure I will get sappy at some point thinking about spending July 4th with my family in a favorite park of Teddy R's. 

Brace yourself for pictures tomorrow, assuming the internet gods cooperate. 

- Jim

Day 16 - Coeur d'Alene to Cottonwood, ID

Woof.  More on that later.

We have talked about trying stand up paddle boarding for the last couple of years.  What better time than The Big Trip, and what better plan than Coeur d'Alene.  The lake has crystal-blue clear water, the morning was sunny and hot and the water was refreshingly warm.  Sort of adjective overload there; my lack of writing skills is showing. Everyone got up and really got after it (and almost everyone fell off at least once, too).  It's a core workout for sure, but tons of fun and our new friend Chad from Row Adventures was a total champ.

After paddle boarding, a quick change and then off to eat lunch at a local favorite that paddle board Chad recommended - Moon Time.  We've probably got 10 tips for places to eat so far, and we are 10/10.  Ask a cool local, they're always right!  Another great neighborhood joint, good eats, great beer selection, cool people.

After lunch, we were in the car and heading due south (NOT ON I-90!) for several hours through central Idaho to Cottonwood.  The drive was another amazing one with scenery ranging from pine mountains to dramatic stark hills to rolling fields.  Cottonwood is a very small town and home to a lodging spot that was one of the very first spots we picked out for the trip - Dog Bark Park Inn.  Words cannot adequately describe a giant beagle in the middle of a field that is also a bed and breakfast.  This place screams 'BIG TRIP', though - really the essence of what we want to be doing. It's FILLED with dog-related stuff and is really cute and quaint. 

We spent at least an hour at check in talking with the amazing owners, Dennis and Frances.  Hands down, the nicest people you will ever meet.  They came to Idaho from the east coast a couple decades ago and settled here to build a quiet, artistic life.  They hit it big on QVC with chainsaw art and built a giant beagle B&B.  Just your run of the mill folks, right?  Anyways, mission accomplished with this spot.

A tip from Dennis and Frances sent us out to the Keuterville Pub and Grub for dinner.  All exaggeration aside, this place is out there, man.  Like...out there.  Past the small town, down the road, past the monastery and then three miles of winding road further to Keuterville.  The proprietor Linda greeted us like long lost family, filled us up and took a picture with us behind the bar.

The trip is going very well for us. While we have been travelling, we have also been reading and thinking about some folk back home and others out on the road that have had some setbacks - some have been varying levels of annoyances and struggles, some have been life changing issues.  So once again, we count ourselves as thankful and very, very lucky.  

We will be in the car tomorrow morning for a very long drive, hopefully landing us safely in a spot that has often been the answer I have given when people have asked, 'What are you looking forward to the most..".  Cheers.

Stand Up Paddle Boarding with Chad - Coeur d'Alene, ID

Dog Bark Park Inn, Cottonwood, ID.

Inside the dog.  We're in the belly, the girls room is up in the head.

Dog bed.

The girls will be sleeping in the head.

Behind the bar with proprietor Linda at Keuterville Pub and Grub.

One of the many pieces on the wall in Keuterville.  Award winning at the Nez Pierce County Fair!

Day 15 - Belgrade, MT to Coeur d'Alene, ID

Hello, Idaho!

Another day, another state.  We have now hit 14 total. 

We dialed back the driving mileage a bit today.  Another wandering and windy trip on I-90 West got us through Montana and into Idaho.  The pines, modest mountain ranges, rivers and views are just non-stop around here.  And the smell.  I shall try hard to bottle some of the pine air.

We got into Coeur d'Alene mid-afternoon.  If you are not familiar, just Google some pictures.  I took a few shots below, but given what we did, it was hard to capture the grandeur of the setting - valley, water, pines - magnificent.  We checked in early, did some necessity stuff (laundry, etc.) and headed out to dinner.  Another complete score with the restaurant, a local family bar sort of place named Capones.  Great pizza, grinders and sides.  Plus, our waitress was a fine young lady sporting a 'Motion W' Wisconsin shirt (Hey, Michelle from north of Eau Claire - nice to meet you!).  She boasted the coolness of the city, lack of humidity and no mosquitoes.

After dinner we drove to Tubbs Hill Park and walked about 2 miles around the hill.  Great park, super views and good quiet family time outside of the car.

Most of the next week will have us doing a little back and forth around Idaho and Montana.  Our lack of straight-line driving is due to lodging choices - there are two specific places we really wanted to visit, but they are in high demand.  We got in, but the dates we got forced a little extra driving.  It will be worth it - stay tuned!  

Montana is the current 'State with the most badass bugs' award winner.

Capones = winner.  And save the selfie stick comments :-)

Tubbs Hill, Coeur d'Alene ID

Water, trees and a lot of cool activity.  I like this city.  Coeur d'Alene, ID.

They had a good day.  Tubbs Hill, Coeur d'Alene, ID.

Day 14 - Rapid City, SD to Belgrade, MT

When you first start planning a 10-ish week trip around this country, your first thought is that you are going to see everything and might struggle to fill all the time.  That thinking quickly starts to fade when you work on logistics.  You realize that, if you are travelling via car, you will have some long days, you will have to make choices, and you will skip things you really want to see.  Yesterday was a great day but it was 500+ miles in the car, mostly through some winding elevation.  We had to skip Crazy Horse, seeing the bison in Custer State Park, visiting Deadwood and heading up to Glacier NP.  And at the risk of getting too philosophical on a Tuesday morning, ain't that life?  We can choose to fill our lives with an endless variety of things and people.  We can't regret what we missed, just take in and value what we have chosen to do and who we have chosen to do it with.  Ok, enough of that!

Yesterday we took off out of Rapid City fairly early (despite being up late at the Mt. Rushmore lighting ceremony) and hit the road due west.  Interstate 90 West is our constant companion.  Interesting statistic: we could drive one mile out of this hotel, turn left, drive 1,242 miles on I-90, turn right, and drive 5 miles to our house.  Our only long stop for the day was Devils Tower National Monument.  No need to explain this one much - you get it from the pictures, except if you have never been there, you completely don't get it from the pictures.  The size, grandeur and I guess 'spirituality' of the place is really moving.  We had lunch in the shadow of the tower, took the hike around the base and then moved on.

The drive was long and winding.  We stopped a few times.  Dinner was at a cool Montana/Western styled steakhouse named Bull Mountain Grille in Billings, MT.  We have been doing a good job eating healthy but sort of tossed that out the door for dinner.  When we took off on our last leg about 8:00 pm, it was 100°.  As we drove, a front came through, winds looked to be about 50 mph and the temps dropped 30° over about an hour or so.  Pretty crazy conditions but the BigTripMobile has (knock on wood) been a complete champ to this point.

Shorter drive today as we move through Montana and creep into Idaho.  Have a great Tuesday!

Doesn't need a caption.

My hiking crew.  It was hot.  They are champs.

The photographer in me could spend a week walking around this place.

Day 13 - Pierre to Rapid City, SD

Happy Monday, Everyone!

Coming to you live from a lovely Holiday Inn and Suites in Rapid City, SD.  It was a really late night last night, so sending this off over coffee.  As an aside, we have almost exclusively stayed in Holiday Inn/IHG brand hotels so far.  They've treated us really well, so kudos to the brand.  I think following us around on our trip would have provided them a hell of a marketing opportunity, but none of their social media folks seemed to have any interest.  Ah well, their loss as the Big Trip continued in a good groove for another day!

Classic Midwest Americana today.  We left Pierre early and jumped on good ol' I-90 West for several hours until we hit...Wall Drug!  If you have been anywhere in South Dakota, you have either stopped there or seen 1000 billboards saying you should stop there.  We spent a good long time checking the place out, having lunch, drinking free ice water and soaking in the kitsch.  

From Wall we headed due south out of town and spent most of the afternoon in the Badlands. Quick note - JIM LOVES NATIONAL PARKS.  Those magical two initials: N.P.  To me they can generally do no wrong.  The girls have had little exposure to our NP system, and this was a great way to start what will be many in the next few weeks.  Awesome views, great hiking/scrambling/climbing (MK had the first 'injury' of the trip - a nice bloody knee after tripping over a rock.  She's tough, tho.)  and some good visitors center time for a little education.  Fantastic stop.

In the car again, I-90 west again to Rapid City to check in and have some cheapo in-room dinner and then off to Mt. Rushmore.  Are you kidding me on this day?  Wall Drug, Badlands and Mt. Rushmore?  We consciously put this stop at the end of the day.  I had been to this monument several times but had never seen the evening flag lighting ceremony. Any expectations I had for the ceremony were completely blown away.  The monument is a total must-see of course, but if you get the chance to be there late, do it!  You are in an outdoor amphitheater with maybe 1000 people, the monument looking over you in the background.  As the sun sets, a Ranger gives a wonderful 15-ish minute talk on the background of the monument.  After that, they play a really nice historical movie that gives you all kinds of context to the building of the monument and how each of the the President's history fits into the theme of the whole place. They light the monument for the evening and then they invited all people who have served in the military on to the stage.  About 100 folks came up, they were all individually introduced by name and branch (and to non-stop applause) and then all participated in a flag lowering ceremony.  Stunning and patriotic in a very subdued and non-corny way.  What a day - sorry for such a long post!

We are up early with a very long travel day in front of us, so thank you to South Dakota for a great few days.  Westward and into the mountains we go!  Smile and have a great Monday!

Wall Drug, Wall SD.

Lunch at Wall Drug.  Best frycake donuts in the world, BTW.

Jackalope.

Badlands NP

Beautiful scenery.  And a National Park.  Badlands NP.

Had a good day of scrambling in Badlands NP.

Taking a break in the shade, Badlands NP.

Mt. Rushmore National Monument, Keystone SD.


Day 12 - Albert Lea, MN to Pierre, SD

3750 miles in and all is well.  Lots of travel again today, trekking across the western half of Minnesota and a good chunk of South Dakota.  I warned the girls that they had not really seen flat, and they have not really seen billboards.  Today they got a good taste of both.

The morning drive got us to Sioux Falls.  I had driven thru but not visited before.  The Falls park which the city is named after is a complete beauty.  In addition to it being a Chamber of Commerce perfect weather day, there was also a big biking event going on, so the park was hopping, including food trucks!  In addition to some normal truck stuff, we tried Chislic.  MK knew about this South Dakota-only meat specialty from a school project so we gave it a whirl.  It's cubed meat on a stick.  I'm all about meat, and all about food on a stick, so thumbs up on Chislic.

After Sioux Falls, we drove on to Mitchell and the second biggest tourist trap in the state, The Corn Palace.  Sort of a let down since they were going through a major (annual?) overhaul of the exterior and it was not in all its splendor, especially from a photography standpoint.  We did the tour, though, got some Corn Palace gift shop swag and moved on to Pierre to finish the day.

Pierre is the state capitol, and not a whole lot to look at, but they did have a super old school walk-up only ice cream stand named Zesto.  How could you not love a place named Zesto, eh?  We all had a great treat, drove a round a little, stocked up on some basics and are settling down for the night.

All in all a good day.  Things should ramp up a bit tomorrow as we start to get to some real 'out-west' highlights.  Cheers until then.

- Jim

Picnic under a tree.  Perfect day in Sioux Falls.

The Falls in Sioux Falls, SD.

The Corn Palace mascot, Cornelius.  Serious marketing gurus in Mitchell, SD.

Are we tourists?  Yes we are!

If you're looking for ice cream in Pierre, SD, look no further.

Breaking Big Trip News!

Due to my limitations with hair and skin pigment, I needed a hat for The Big Trip. Super sunny weather finally caused me to bust it out today at Falls Park in Sioux Falls, SD.

I don't look good in hats. I had to shop FOREVER to find a hat that would cover my bald white head but not have me look tremendously dumb. I think I found a winner. The girls still hate it, but it's my job to embarrass them anyways. 

So, good followers, a mid-day family selfie from the road in front of The Falls in Sioux Falls with yours truly avec chapeau.  Please feel free to swipe me left or right Tinder-style. More tonight, have a great Saturday! 

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Day 11 - Wisconsin to Albert Lea

Two hours into the drive today, we crossed the Mississippi heading West.  It came to my mind that, if things go roughly according to plan, we would cross the river going the other direction somewhere around August 10th, probably in the delta as The Big Trip meets The Big Easy. Between now and then, many an adventure shall ensue.

Today was, by design, a light day.  Back into the swing, we took off mid-morning after finishing the re-pack.  We had the choice to wait and really push Day 1, but it  seemed best to split the time getting out west into a couple days.  Those of you who have gone from Madison to Rapid City in one drive before can understand the grind of doing that all at once.  Man, I am REALLY happy to be back on the road with my family.  One of those happy's that you think you are, but you aren't 100% sure of until you are actually in it. 

We hit Rochester at lunch time and stopped off for a picnic at the Quarry Hill Nature Center.  Nice spot, took a long hike around the center which was your classic educational sort of spot, largely built around some reclaimed quarry land.  Did a little fossil hunting and then continued on to Albert Lea via Austin, MN.  Stopped quickly in Austin to have a SpamBurger snack at Culvers (Austin is where Spam originated...awesome) and also picked up some Spam swag at a nearby gift shop.  The Spam museum is under renovation, so just FYI if you are planning your next vacation around that spot...

We hit Albert Lea, checked in to our hotel, and headed back to Austin to hit a GEM that we found online for dinner - Tendermaid Sandwiches.  Classic Big Trip - a lunch counter diner opened and basically  unchanged (including the same grill!) since 1938.  It's a loose meat sandwich joint, no frills menu, get a sandwich, chips, soda or a shake.  A great woman was working the whole place  - she cooked, waited on us and gave us all kinds of history, and of course the food was great.  Back to the room and a little swimming gets us to this post.  A good chunk of driving and travel kitsch coming tomorrow.  Have a good night, y'all.

Ham and Spam, Austin MN

MK found this, pretty sure it was a cephalopod.  Quarry Hill Nature Center, Rochester, MN

It's off menu, so you need to know to ask.

Fans of the loose meat.  Tendermaid, Austin MN.

A classic, since 1938.

We're Baaaaaaack!

Hey, Kids!

And now back to your regularly scheduled program.  We spent the last several days in the waterpark capitol of the world while the girls competed in a nifty 'Nationals' dance competition.  This re-arranged some of the initial Big Trip itinerary, but a great opportunity to participate and compete against some very high quality dancers, see many friends again for a little while and also get some rays!  We have checked the waterpark box off of the summer list, so no Wally World distractions while we are on our adventure.  Anyways, the park is closed and the moose out front should have told you...

 Unpacking the car and repacking is a little more of a chore than we would have initially thought and we are out of the groove a little, but we made a few tweaks and are super excited to get rolling again.  We are heading due west to start the day - flat land and tacky tourist stops, here we come! 

Jim's Jam for the day: 

We've got Willie with us.  Live @ The Grand Ole Opry

 Hopefully we will check in tonight.  Cheers!

- Jim

Day 10 - Ohio to Wisconsin, and a short hiatus

Greetings!

Yesterday was long and largely boring.  We drove from eastern Ohio to Wisconsin in one shot.  A nice Five Guys stop for Fathers Day lunch, but it was 'pedal to the metal' so we could cover ground.  The Complete 'Friends' DVD box set has been a complete savior so far (Thanks, Caviezel's!).

Many close to us know that we have had some personal (all good) commitments come up in Wisconsin that we need to attend to for a few days.  We will largely be staying in Big Trip mode, but we're not up to anything that we will be blogging about, so please stay tuned when we jump back on the road later this week.  Things will be heading west!

Cheers.

- Jim

Day 9 - Pittsburgh

Greetings and sorry for the blog delay.  Some serious extended hours and miles over the last couple of days.  As promised, Pittsburgh...was epic!  And also proof of the power in going with the flow.  Apologies in advance for the long post.

We went into the Steel City with basically no plan other than (sigh) the girls wanting to visit the Abby Lee Dance Company.  For the uninitiated, this is the studio behind the Dance Mom's TV show.  Personally the show drives me batty, but the girls (all three of them) love it, so we swung by to visit.  Despite thinking they had Saturday hours, they were closed.  We took some pics outside the building and happened to see a small sign in the door saying they had their final year-end show at a venue later that evening.  Hello, Karma...nice to meet you.  We couldn't find a way to locate tickets online but figured we would swing by the show and take our chances.

In the meantime, one of our best friends on 'winging it' days has been TripAdvisor.  The first place it pointed us to was the Duquense Incline.  The Inclines are turn of the century elevator/trolley/cable car hybrids that take you up the super steep hills around town.  Butt-tingling ride for sure, relying on original 150-ish year old technology, but so worth the trip.  The views up top were unbelievable. Kim and I had no idea Pittsburgh was such a beauty.

Stop #2 was another online suggestion, Bicycle Heaven (http://www.bicycleheaven.org/).  This bike shop/museum was tucked away in an old industrial park.  Two floors of an old warehouse and EVERY square inch was packed, packed, packed with THOUSANDS of bikes, bike parts, bike memorabilia, history, etc.  A mind boggling collection.  The owner was on site, gave us a personal tour around, took our picture for his Facebook site after learning about the trip and gave us the tip for our next stop.  Truly magical place, some pics below.

Stop #3 was lunch, another spot we saw on the Diners, Drive Ins and Dives TV show - Big Jim's.  The 'Big' may have something to do with Jim, but it really has to do with the portion sizes.  Food was solid, it was a dive, but each of us got about 3 days worth of food.  Good stop.

Next up was Randyland (http://randy.land/).  OK, stay with me here...I have called some other stops difficult to describe.  Forget about all of those.  Randyland is from another planet.  Randy is your classic creative free spirited artist, doesn't give a damn about what anyone thinks, preaches love and following your bliss.  He put all of this philosophy into about a third of a block of buildings, yards and grounds that is open to the public.  It's a kaleidoscope of hand painted stuff that you just ramble around and visit.  Randy is right out there, greeting everyone with his infectious, smiling, sincere, crazy personality.  I bought a shirt, we got pics, met folks from all over also visiting, and just soaked it all in.  As we drove away, we all asked, 'Did that really happen?'.  It did.

Last stop was the Hillman Performing Arts Center for the Abby Lee show.  We got there and the ticket situation remained unclear, but kind strangers once again came to the rescue, pointing us to an online spot where we got tickets and headed in.  The names don't mean as much to me, but we were on the sidewalk when Abby arrived (in giant pink curlers), she walked right by and said hi, we watched all the girls on the show dance many numbers, Kim, Mag and MK all got pictures with Melissa, we sat by Nia's family with Holly right in front of us.  It was basically their end of the year recital, so a long show but really good quality dancers. By the end of the show it was near 9:00.  We hit the road for a couple hours and stopped for the night.  

In the end, we loved Pittsburgh, partly because it was a beautiful city full of fun, but also because it fully proved to all of us that with a good attitude and an open mind, you can play a hand no matter what cards you are dealt.  Fingers crossed that this karma keeps following us. More tomorrow on a full travel day and a short upcoming hiatus on The Big Trip blog.   

- Jim

Reserved?!?  The BigTripMobile says 'Save the tears for your pillow!'

The Duquense Incline.  Magnificent.

Bicycle Heaven.  Room after room after room of bikes.

Need a chain guard (or any other part) for your classic Schwinn (or any other bike) in green (or any other color)?  They've got a dozen of each to choose from at Bicycle Heaven!

I know you are but what am I? Heh heh.

All roads lead to Randyland.

Randyland.

No caption needed.

Day 9 - Preview

Pulling off the Ohio Turnpike heading west just before midnight isn't conducive to a real blog update. Wanted to post so family/friends know we're in safely tonight and will be back at it tomorrow am. 

A real update coming later tomorrow. Preview - Pittsburg was epic!

An early Happy Fathers Day to all. Call your Dad if you can.  

- Jim

Day 8 - Harrisburg to Pittsburgh

If yesterday was no-brainer fun at Hershey, today was the opposite.  Conversations and visits that probably drove the girls a little crazy but that continued our theme of taking in things 'American'.

Stop #1 - Gettysburg.  We made a general Big Trip rule that we weren't going to duplicate many of the topics, and Gettysburg seemed to be the right choice for our Civil War exposure.  We listened to as much podcasting on the battle as the girls could focus on during our drive and then after a little prep in town, we went on a nice long horseback tour around the battlefield (and due to me screwing up scheduling, we had to get squeezed last minute in by the AWESOME folks at Hickory Hill Horse Farm - thanks Pam and Beth!)  It's hard to get your hands around the scope and gravity of that era and that battle, but riding the land and reading all the information around the scene was pretty awe inspiring.  The discussions with the girls really wandered but we touched on history, war, race, slavery and many other things.  Mission accomplished.

Stop #2 - A little levity between deep stops came via Kim making a complete U-turn on a back highway to visit Mister Eds Elephant Museum in Ortanna, PA. (www.mistereds.com). How to describe Mister Ed's...a huge Dells-like gift shop revolving around someone's elephant obsession with great homemade candy and outside gardens and a nature walk with flip flops hanging from the trees.  Completely 'Big Trip' and completely worth the stop.

Stop #3 - Flight 93 Memorial, Stoystown, PA.  Understated and gripping.  Another one that is hard to describe completely, but the current memorial did a very good job of simply describing the day, the background and then leading you out to the crash site and giving you time to look and reflect.  More emotional than I would have predicted.  It's really out there in the middle of the Pennsylvania countryside, but well worth the visit if you ever get the chance.

After a long winding ride through the Blue Ridge and Allegheny mountains, we arrived in Pittsburgh for the night.  We'll  try to take in some of the Steel City tomorrow. See you then!

- Jim

I love this picture.  Kim and MK discussing 9/11 at the Flight 93 Memorial.  The black low diagonal wall you see is where you stand to look over the crash site.  The white higher wall to the right has names of those who died in the crash.  The white wall is exactly aligned with the flight path.  The wood gate is what you look through to see the boulder in the distance (it's the small bump in the grassy field).  The boulder is the spot of impact.

Name Wall, Flight 93 Memorial, Stoytown, PA.

Gettysburg, PA.

Mister Ed's Elephant Museum, Orrtanna, PA.