Like Yellowstone KOA, Yellowstone National Park is absolutely beautiful and absolutely commercial. It’s hard to blame Wyoming for taking advantage to help their GNP, however, we are simply put off by the commercialization of it all. To help the Wyoming and Yellowstone economy we did buy ice cream, cowboy hats, and paid our yearly fee […]
We drove through Deadwood, following a challenged SUV from Oklahoma just for fun. The Buffalo KOA is kinda dusty, not as nice as usual, really just a stop over to Yellowstone. Good shower and laundry. Honestly, we’re tired of the road and are longing our own beds. Devil’s Tower was cool, but again ___ America’s […]
So there’s no way to clean this up. What we saw at Mt Rushmore was “A lot of ___ people all lining up for ice cream.” I’m ashamed to single out groups for shaming, I can’t even write the word I’m so ashamed. However, there are groups of people who visit places like this to […]
WW”M CERORTH Dakota is a lovely place, however if you’re just driving through on the way to somewhere else, be prepared to see a whole lot of nothing. We did have in interesting encounter at a gas station where the worker there lamented having to wear a mask because she wasn’t vaccinated. “I don’t like […]
Today was a travel day with a sobering stop in Minneapolis to visit and pay our respects to George Floyd, the man murdered by police officer Derrick Chauvin. The site is filled with messages of love and respect and justice. It was a sad and ironically also hopeful in a way. We’re staying at a […]
Home to the Badgers, UW Madison turned out to be an awesome stop and has also made the will-apply cut. We took a campus tour with enthusiastic students leaders who told us a bit about the history and goings on. The campus is pretty much in the city center and while Madison has a population […]
Wisconsin is known for Cheese, Beer, and Liquor, as the sign said, and for us it is a focus of the trip. Not for beer and liquor, but for cheese and colleges and a visit to our good friends in Stevens Point, Mark and Holly. UW Milwaukee was the first visit and it is a […]
Ok, Chicago, IL. There is only one reason to go to Chicago and that’s to visit Wrigley Field, home of the Cubs of the NL MLB. Many would argue it is baseball’s Mecca and we cannot argue. Finghin remarked that he had never felt as much passion from a crowd as the fans at Wrigley, […]
The turnaround point! Halfway through our trip we land at my niece Julie’s house, home to her husband Bill, my sister Sherry, Julie’s granddaughter’s Kayleigh and Kyleigh, and 5 dogs and 6 cats (5 kittens!). What a busy place! Julie organized a BBQ where my nephew’s Lonnie and Pat and niece Shannon joined along with […]
We decided not to stay in St Louis but we still saw the Mississippi River, and instead headed to a KOA in Casey, IL where we met Antonina, Papu, and her son Serge, the owb=wers of the KOA. Antonina is from Ukraine and Finghin was able to practice some Russian with here and she said […]
Like Yellowstone KOA, Yellowstone National Park is absolutely beautiful and absolutely commercial. It’s hard to blame Wyoming for taking advantage to help their GNP, however, we are simply put off by the commercialization of it all. To help the Wyoming and Yellowstone economy we did buy ice cream, cowboy hats, and paid our yearly fee to visit the park.
Today was our last camp in West Yellowstone. We chatted about this trip, how it met or didn’t meet our expectations, what we would do differently, what surprised us, and what we appreciated about the trip and each other. Overall it was a dream we made happen and that in itself is amazing.
We drove through Deadwood, following a challenged SUV from Oklahoma just for fun. The Buffalo KOA is kinda dusty, not as nice as usual, really just a stop over to Yellowstone. Good shower and laundry. Honestly, we’re tired of the road and are longing our own beds. Devil’s Tower was cool, but again ___ America’s commercialization of it make a mockery of the amazing landscape.
So there’s no way to clean this up. What we saw at Mt Rushmore was “A lot of ___ people all lining up for ice cream.” I’m ashamed to single out groups for shaming, I can’t even write the word I’m so ashamed. However, there are groups of people who visit places like this to consume and I suppose we owe them a debt of gratitude for providing the South Dakota economy such a benefit. A bit of research by Finghin revealed that fully 82% of the SD GNP is from tourism at Mt Rushmore.
I was struck by how these white, euro-centric men, imperialists all, looked down upon land sacred to indigenous peoples as if to say, “That’s right LOSERS!”. I found it disgusting in symbolism and a marvel of engineering.
The country is beautiful yet the people made it, as I joked to friends, “Disneyland South Dakota”. The KOA at Mt Rushmore is beautiful too, yet again the ___ people made it ugh. Finghin adds it is “very commercialized from gold panning to buying confederate flags in a self-described ‘Trump Country'” I wish it could have been a different experience for us.
The mad rush to see 4 dead presidents. The walk around was nice.
Buffalo burders.
No sign of Cary Grany and Eva Marie Saint.
4 dead presidents.
Yeah.
Testing the parenting limits.
Was a lovely spot.
Sunrise around 6.30am.
Sunrise around 6.30am.
The son does not rise at sunrise around 6.30am.
Me next to a wooden carving of myself as a much younger pioneer. Looking pretty good for being 166!
WW”M CERORTH Dakota is a lovely place, however if you’re just driving through on the way to somewhere else, be prepared to see a whole lot of nothing. We did have in interesting encounter at a gas station where the worker there lamented having to wear a mask because she wasn’t vaccinated. “I don’t like to be told what to do in that communistic way,” she said. Not being able to help myself I said, “Yeah like speed limit laws, and smoking bans!” to which she laughed, “What speed limits?” I could have added so many more “communistic” laws people take for granted in order to ensure safety, but yeah we’re on our holidays and what would be the point?
Bismarck has a nice museum (North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum) with nice old ladies docents who made us feel right at home. We walked around a bit but did not take any photos inside.
KOA at Bismarck it was just ok. Tomorrow is Mt Rushmore, WY.
Well, wifi is sucky in Winnemucca so images won’t upload. Might be a while before we can get to them.
Any who this is the blogging site of our, Finghin and myself, epic road trip from Petaluma to visit my sweet sister Sherry in Columbus Ohio. A year ago Finghin came up to me and said, “Hey, how about a road trip next summer?” Knowing him and his interest in everything eastern Europe, I thought he was intending on talking me into a trip to Turkmenistan. “No!” he said. “Ohio!”
So we left 5 June 2021 and our first night is in WInnemucca, NV, at the Silver Springs RV Park. It’s ok for the night. We’re both kinda tired, the heat and wind here are dehydrating us
Well, wifi is sucky in Winnemucca so images won’t upload. Might be a while before we can get to them.
Anywho this is the blogging site of our epic road trip from Petaluma to visit my sweet sister Sherry in Columbus Ohio. A year ago FInghin wanted to go on a road trip this summer and I assumed he meant eastern Europe, as he’s into everything there. Instead he said “Ohio!” So we planned, kitted out the truck, saved, and made it happen.
UPDATE: photos!
Finghin started driving on our cross country. He did the first 200 miles. A difficult trek over the Sierras for any driver the first time. He did great
Life on the road … is hard.
Nevada. Finghin has several states he wants to eliminate from his “bucket list”. One down.
Wifi is spotty so I’m going to leave it there for now. BRB.
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