Chicago to cowboy country - Jackson Wyoming

3/09/11

Clocking up the miles into Illonios, a bike tour, city lights, ascending the heights, take me out to the ball game and jazz.

Arrived in the ‘windy city’ home of the brownie, ferris wheel, cracker jacks and McDonald’s in th afternoon. After a classic ‘deep dish’ pizza – woah so much cheese we went on the famous ‘Bobby’s bike tour.’ It was 3 hours of fun, exercise and great spots. We rode to the boardwalk along the lake, through town, over the Michigan Bridge, and to the colourful water fountain. We were very vocal along the way making our sound effects and ring the bell, with me on Vernal the Chicago bike.

Afterwards we decided to go up the John  Hancock building to the Ambassador lounge on the 96^th floor – coz it was free and we could get drinks and dessert. I had a delicious chocolate mousse and drink. The view was spectacular especially out of the ladies ‘rest room’ overlooking the city. Some of the group headed home and a few of us went to check out the jazz in the home of jazz. We found an authentic bar with two bands working in tandem during the night. The others provided us with entertainment as we sat down and bopped to the jazzy beat.

Today we had a nice little sleep in and then headed out to the historic ‘Wrigley Field’ home of the Chicago Cubs. I went souvenir hunting and the game was actually gong quite quickly – not like the Yankees. After a few big hits and the score around 5-3 the heavens opened. It was quite funny watching the groundsmen cover the diamond and one guy fell over and was covered with the plastic! We decided not to wait for the rain delay and heaed back to our plush hostel.

The Kiwis and Aussies combined for dinner at a nice German place, lamb chops – yummo and a salad and then a few of us headed to the highest building in the USA and western hemisphere – Willis, formally Sear’s Tower, all the way up to the 103^rd floor and the world’s tallest building for about 22 years. The views were fantastic and I dared to go out on the glass bottom viewing deck and have a piccy taken. Once satisfied we did some souvenir shopping before heading back home to pack and enjoy a comfy bed.

4/09/11

800 clicks in one day, into state number 8, a Walmart experience, the mighty Mississippi, fun and games at the Spam Museum, stopping off with the green elf, no, leprechaun, no the Green giant and camping in Jackson Minnesota.

The ridgy didge American road trip is well under way and we are nearly half away across the USA. We stopped off to shop at Walmart for groceries, supplies and nibbles. Bought a great bargain – a mattress topper and yeh –  made my sleep  so much better.

We did a quick stop off at the Mississippi River for a photo opportunity and to see this massive river.

A bit of ‘cheesy’ America at the Spam museum learning about the history of spam. Zoe and I had a race canning the spam and she just got me – although afterwards we realised we hadn’t cooked it right in the process ; ).

Another great photo stop at the giant green man. He appears on cans of produce and many people were coming to see him. So they decided to raise the money to build the giant green man in Blue Earth, hmm maybe he should have been the giant blue man!

Arrived at camp in the evening and went for a hay ride around and around the camp site singing camp songs and scaring the local campers. We had a Minnesota fried chicken dinner and it was indeed finger licking good. Finished the night off with a camp fire entertained by Mikey (Peewee Herman) and some of his crazy, yet hilarious stories.

Looking forward to getting dressed up in 1800s gear tomorrow and a dusk hike around Mount Rushmore – yeehaa!

6/08/11

The wild wild west, dress ups, hiking around a lunar landscape in the badlands, spires, mountains and towers – all au natural – picturesque is an understatement.

1880s town was our a major stop on Monday. This little old town was just like being in an old western movie. So most of us joined in the spirit and played dress ups. The boys made great cowboys, some were Mexicans and the girls got dressed to kill. One Pochohontas but the rest of us were either prim and proper ladies or dressing dangerously. I even had to wear a petty coat – didn’t know how to tie it up but neither did one of the other girls ; ) and could swirl my dress around.

Kaz, Jen, looking very innocent in her bonnet and I went outside and were picked up by the horse and cart for a ride straight away. Jen even took the reins and drove us around the town. We then took some group photos with all our gear on and in the different venues like the hotel, jail and with the sign. Some of the girls didn’t want to give their outfits back – I was quite happy to ditch the petty coat and dress, as can be expected.

Next up we made our scenic journey to the Black Hills and to the Badlands, famous for their lunarscape qualities and pointy spires. It really was like being on another planet with the grey rock with reddish lines throughout. We were fortunate enough to go for a hike, even climb the wooden ladder and have a beautiful look out over the valley. Tried a few jumping photos and classic poses to get into the Trek America book. Was a little daunting descending down the ladder backwards, Larry and Bob flew back down. We set up camp against this mighty backdrop, played a little soccer and chatted to some Atlanta Georgian’s as we politely asked to use their power outlet to charge our batteries, phones and laptops. They told us that 2 people had been fatally wounded at Yellowstone in the past 3 weeks – uh oh, they recommended Bear spray – like a bear capsicum spray.

Tuesday was a magnificent day of God’s creativity on display. We drove through the Badlands with landscape changing ever so slightly continuously. It was very reminiscent of of the Grand Canyon but on a smaller scale and with greyer rocks. The Badlands were a very pleasant surprise for me.

The sites continued as we headed to Mt Rushmore. Wow, we saw George first and he was quite impressive, soon we could Abraham, Jefferson and Teddy. We watched the movie about the making of the Mountain. Originally meant to be western heroes, but the creator thought it would be better to be a national monument. Additionally it was meant to be from their waist up but lack of funds prevented this. The original sculpture dies before completion and his son continued the project. They used lots of dynamite to carve the features and a protractor from the head with a scale model to know the dimensions of the faces and where to carve to. After some souvenir shopping and a stamp in my National Parks passport we headed to a monument still under construction over 60 years later – Crazy Horse. It will be 563 feet high when completed and bear the image of Crazy Horse on his horse pointing over the valley.It is a family project and totally funded by donations. Today, September 6 was the anniversary of Crazy Horse’s death and the sculptor’s birthday. At the gift shop they had – old coins and coin jewellery – yeh. They had some South Dakota quarters crafted into jewellery like the fish and cross in the coin and friendship coin necklaces that broke off into a cross and heart and some other designs.  Crazy horse was actually better than Mt Rushmore in some ways and we got some great pics with the finished scale model, the real thing in the background and me doing the pointing pose which is very similar to my pose – woohoo. Maybe I can be Pointing Platypus or Sitting Roo.

Finally we made another picturesque drive to Devil’s Tower. It is circular spire/rock a little like a blob of jelly. There was some nice cloud cover to add to the effect at sunset as we pitched our tents to this incredible back drop. An amazing day, state number 10 for the trip and fantastic choice to ride shotgun today – I’m so loving it!

7/08/11

A freezing night, bye bye Devil’s Tower and the amazing red rocks and into Cowboy Country in Cody Wyoming. Cody was the classic cowboy town, named after something to do with Buffalo Bill. There was grid iron practice going on at the high School and we actually had some free time to shop for souvenirs. There were even authentic cowboy boots and hats. I grabbed a fossilised shark tooth for my nephew and a few postcards. We headed to the Irma for a gun show. Reserved our seats for $2 and wow it was loud, got a right every time they went off even though I knew they were coming and especially the 12 gauge. The show featured some well known characters – Maverick and Calamity Jane to name a few. All of the bad guys ended up dead!

Afterwards we headed back to our teepees – yeh we didn’t have to set up tents and Dave, Zoe and I set about cooking. I must say it turned out pretty well, no left over meat so we must have done something right. Tortellini with fried chicken, cheese and herbs with a salad.

We headed done town to check out the country folk and went to the silver dollar – where dollar bills are stuck to the ceiling. By the time we arrived there we were feeling pretty tired so after a little while Zoe and I headed home to our tepee. Whilst we were excited at first about sleeping in a tepee, the hard ground and open bottoms didn’t fill us with confidence – I was paranoid a creepy crawly may visit me or my bag of gear – a few spiders quickly appeared to give me a scare- yikes! 

Yellowstone tomorrow – I really hope to see a bear – from a distance of course , 2 people have been killed in the last 3 weeks.

8/09/11

The first national park in the world and what a grand one – trees, hills, rocks, geyers, waterfalls, lakes, elks, bison and there is still more to see!

We first past some beautiful country and lakes at Shoshone. Next we headed into Yellowstone. I was feeling a little queasy so I sat up the front – sorry Kat to steal your seat. The trip into the park would take 30 minutes – depending on the wild life. We weren’t disappointed – we had a quite a stop with a heard of bison. It was a little scary when the ranger came through tooting them and some started to run towards our van – luckily they know traffic and ran around it but it ws a little scary for a few seconds – which seemed like ages at the time. We checked out our camp site and then headed back into the park to see the geysers and the Grand Canyon – of yellowstone.

We tarted at Artists’ point for a great over look of the Southern Falls and sheer rock face and drops. We then headed to Old’s Tom’s hike and took the 400+ stairs down to the lookout. I must say I’d rather go up first and down second but anyway. It was well worth the effort!

Yellowstone has two thirds of the world’s  geysers. Phew do they stink of mustard, or boiled egg or sulphur maybe. We went on the loop around Old Faithful – which pretty much erupts every 77 minutes giver or take 10. It was set to go off at 4.56 pm. We looped around and saw a few small ones erupt 0 the triple and another one right in front of us. We made it back in time for Old Faithful a few minutes late. We were lucky to see it go off again at 6.20ish – ten minutes early but perfect timing for us as were leaving at 6.25pm. Had an Israeli dinner – egg, tomato and potato salad. Then we had to be very careful about what we left around and in our tents. All food in the van, no dropping on the ground and all toiletries in the locker. It was a little scary and we tried to jostle for tent position so we wouldn’t be the ones on the outside.

9.10.11

A beautiful day of rock pools, hiking and the hot springs –enter at your own risk!

Set out early to go on a hike near some hot springs. The prismatic lake was amazing with the different colours and we think there were some bear prints! Then headed up on hike to the lookout on a switch back trail. Another magnificent view of a smaller waterfall and the crater left from volcanic eruptions and the erupting geysers.

Stopped off for a tasty lunch at the Grill at Mammoth before headed out in search of the hot springs – enter at your own risk – can be too hot and scald and get microbes that can be harmful – yikes! Don’t get it on your face or in your nose was the instruction! It is formed where the boiling river and Yellowstone River meet so there is a mix of hot and cold water. Sometimes we would get a stream of hot water past us and the next second it was freezing cold! We sat and chatted for about an hour before getting out and drying ourselves off after using hand sanitiser and wipes for our faces.

Stopped one more time by a heard of bison on the way back frolicking in the fields – even rolling around before some crossed the road.

10/09/11

Later Yellowstone, into the Grand Tetons and through to the bucking broncos at Jackson, Wyoming.

Headed to the Grand Tetons today – a few Americans had said that they thought it was actually better than Yellowstone, so I hadto check that out. Only three of us were brave and fit enough to tackle the Canyon Springs hike. We caught a ferry across Jenny Island and then hiked to the Hidden Waterfall and Inspiration Point- a beautiful overlook of the snow-capped mountains behind us and still Lake in front of us. We then continued our trek through the bottom of the valley alongside the refreshing stream. We spotted some moose playing around and later having a drink many chipmunks and a beaver or badger. It didn’t seem to phased by us at first, then it checked out on e of the girls, then turned around to me and scooted off in the other direction. It was an awesome hike, one of the best I’ve done in some amazing scenery of mountains, jagged cliff faces, pines, a clear stream and wildlife all around us.

Next stop – Jackson, Wyoming. Actually set up camp early for a change and got ready to go to a ridgy didge Rodeo. It was better than I thought. Not many stayed on the bull in the first round for the 8 seconds – only one. Then there was the two man event where one goes for the head and the other to lasso their feet. The quickest was just over 5 seconds – woah. They also had bucking bronco rides, a few more successful at that and barrel races. The second round of bull riding was much more successful and one guy nearly got turfed into the crowd. Afterwards we went to the check out the ‘World Famous Million Dollar Cowboy Bar’ where the seats at the bar were actually saddles. Another fabulous day surrounded by God’s amazingly decorated canvas.