The Final Word

Thursday, June 16, 2011

A Final Word

We spent our final night on the road at Cate’s in Windsor and in the morning we started for York on I-84. Three hours later we parked in front of our home at 21 Orin Lane tired but happy.

It was a monumental trip that took us 11,000 miles through the landscapes, cities, towns, and scenery of this wonderful country of ours. It was, as so many have said, the trip of a lifetime.

Time and time again I thought of the songs, “This Land is Your Land” and “America, the Beautiful”. I expect we will be sorting our memories for sometime to come.  Now and them someone will say, “What was your favorite part?” My answer will probably be, ”All of it.”

Thank you all for following along. I hope you found parts of the blog enjoyable and worthwhile.  I have been pasting the blog posts into MSWord as I went. The document with images is 105 pages long.  My plan is to edit the manuscript and print one copy to keep the memories fresh.

The images will remain in my computer so that now and then I can open a folder and remember. Perhaps I’ll find some time to print out some of the best pictures. I suppose I could create a PowerPoint Presentation to show at Christmas parties – probably not.

Dearborn, Michigan to Niagara Falls, Canada

Monday, June 13, 2011

Dearborn to Niagara Falls, Canada

The trip to Niagara Falls was uneventful and the landscape was very much like the landscape we had passed through in previous days.  We did skirt the southern edges of the Great Lakes but had only glimpses of them. We choose to enter Canada to reach the Canadian Falls and so we could say we had included a foreign country in our trip.

We arrived at Niagara Falls the city about 3pm. Our first thought was, “How do we find the falls?” We stopped at a visitor bureau and asked for a map they had displayed. The attendant said they didn’t have any. She did note that they did have another map but could only give it to people who were staying three or more days. Thank you very much.

Eventually we got some directions and drove on to find “The Falls”.  We drove into town and immediately saw the towering hotels on the bluff overlooking the river and the falls.  These were, we had previously learned, fully booked.

After paying $18.00 to park, we crossed the street to the viewing area and fought our way through the hordes of other viewers to the pathway along the river. What a mob!

We saw the falls, American and Canadian, and were suitably awed.  The Canadian Falls were, and are, spectacular. The roar of the blue-green water was pronounced. The base of the falls was nearly obscured by mist.

The American Falls were sedate and less impressive than the Canadian Falls.

We arrived, we looked, I photographed, and we left audibly wondering what else there was to do except look at the falls, eat, spend the night, and buy souvenirs.

There were no regrets. It was a worthwhile trip just to see the fabled falls and since it was too late for a honeymoon, we moved to the New York Thruway  to find a place to spend the night before continuing onto Windsor, Connecticut to spend our last night on the road with Cate, Carol’s niece.

Almost There

 Hotels Looming Over the Falls

The Park and Walkway Along the River West of the Falls -

not Much to See Here

The Crowds

The Lip of the Canadian Falls and the River

 Full View of the Canadian Falls

 The American Falls

Dearborn, Michigan The Henry Ford Museum

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Dearborn, Michigan, Greenfield Village

At 8:30am, we meet David, a former student of mine and the Railroad Specialist for the Henry Ford Museum. He meets us in the employee parking lot and gives us a ride to the Railroad Road Roundhouse on the museum grounds. We have tour of the railroad shop  filled with steam engines is various stage repair, huge complicated machines, bit and pieces of railroad cars and steam engine parts. We hear fascinating histories of the various pieces of equipment and we hear that Henry Ford loved trains and instead of collecting model trains, he collected the real thing.

One of the engines Henry collected runs everyday carrying visitors to the museum. The engine, built in 1873, is the oldest steam engine in daily service in the United States.

After our tour, David arranged for us to visit the museum as his guest. He went back his work and we set out to tour Greenfield Village. The first thing we did was board the steam train for an introduction to the museum grounds.

Henry Ford was not only a collector of trains; he collected buildings and artifacts to fill them.  We visited Mr. Ford’s birthplace, had tea in the yard of a English Cotswold Cottage, rode in a Model T Ford, watched glass blowers, a tinsmith and a potter practicing their trades; visited a house where Robert Frost had lived and written, talked with a museum interpreter in the house where Noah Webster had lived in New Haven, Connecticut.

Greenfield Village is a fascinating place to visit.  In addition to the above exhibits, we also stopped by Wilbur and Orville Wright’s Bicycle shop and talked with all sorts of interested people well versed in the history of the village and its various exhibits. The day passed swiftly and at 5pm, we returned to roundhouse to meet David. After the closing of the museum his job was prepare the steam engine for the next day and then return it to the roundhouse.

He climbed into the cab of the engine beckoning to us and saying; Come on!” Carol and I climbed up into the cab and watched as David pulled levers, blew the whistle, rang the bell and set the iron monster in motion. Fantastic!  David brought the smoke and steam belching behemoth to the coal car and loaded the engine with coal for the next day.

We then rode to the water tower and  filled the water tank.  That done, David drove the engine onto the turntable in front of the roundhouse. My job was to push the turntable around, complete with large engine, until it lined up with the track leading into the roundhouse. David drove the engine into the roundhouse and our excellent adventure ended in a cloud of steam. Thank you, David.

What a glorious day we had, and I had realized a childhood dream of actually being in the cab of a steam engine.

Tomorrow – Niagara Falls.

The Henry Ford Museum Steam Train

A Glimpse of Yesterday

 Cotswold Cottage from England

Model T Ford

                                                               The Potter

 Share Cropper's Cabin

Wright Brother's Bicycle Shop Where They Built Their Airplane

David, Our Steam Engine Engineer

The Steam Engine on theTurntable (With My Help)

Water Tower

Rochester,Minnesota to Dearborn, Michigan 6.11.2011

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Rochester, Minnesota to Dearborn, Michigan

The odometer reads 82,318 miles. The temperature is 57 degrees at 7.58 am as we leave Rochester for Dearborn, Michigan.

The sky is gray – no rain. This will be a day of crossing state borders as we pass through Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana (very briefly), and into Michigan. The landscape will change markedly from farmland to suburbia. Rather rolling through Big Sky country dotted farms we will be surrounded by an urban landscape for we approach and pass Chicago.  We will drive by communities whose names are familiar - Chicago, Ann Arbor, and Battle Creek – and never see one of them! Slowly the prairie lands have disappeared and mature trees that block our view of the countryside border the highways.

We have lunch in a “traveler’s oasis” suspended over I-90 west of Chicago and buy gas for $3.99 per gallon.

Somewhere along the way, we entered the Eastern Time Zone. Finally, my watch is correct again.

Passing Chicago, we come again to an agricultural landscape with a mixture of wooded areas and farmland. The farms are not as widely scattered as they were in Minnesota and all have large silos suggesting cows are more important than wheat.

We arrive at the Comfort Inn in Taylor, MI (a suburb of  Dearborn/Detroit) soon after 7pm. The temperature is 81 degrees. A very long day but we are officially “back east” – well almost.

Tomorrow will be a special day, one we have anticipated for some time. 

 We Saw Hundreds of Billboards During our Journey

This is the First Toll Taker We Have Seen on the Entire Trip

 Give Me a Home Where the Buffalo Roam (Please!)

Dairy Farms Have Replaced the Wheat Farms of rhe West

This Lovely Blue Bridge Marked Our Arrival in Dearborn, Michigan

Black Hills of South Dakota to Rochester,Minnesota 6.10.2011

Friday, June 10, 2011

From The Black Hills of South Dakota to Rochester, Minnesota

We packed our rain soaked camping gear and be our trip eastward toward Minnesota. As we passed through the Black Hills, I took a few more pictures including Mount Rushmore.

We drove east on I-90 through farmlands of South Dakota. We detoured along Route 240, known as “The Badlands Loop”, and into the fabled Badlands of South Dakota, I was unprepared for what I found there. Words fail me as I try to describe them. It was landscape sculpted by wind, water, and geologic forces.

The area is approached across lush green prairie with little hint of colorful formations soon to come into view- rounded hills, sharp peaks; a severely weathered and eroded landscape decorated with reds, yellows, and golds. I understood why they were called “The Badlands”. Certainly early travelers found them to be formidable area to cross.

The images I have included below best give a sense of this remarkable place.

We left the Badlands behind and continued toward our destination of Rochester, MN.

At 11:00 am, we entered the Central Time Zone,

As we approached the Mississippi River, which was swollen with floodwaters, the landscape became for heavily wooded and the character of the agriculture changed. Farms began have large barns and silos and were closer together and seemed smaller. Corn replaced wheat and dairy operations were the norm.

We crossed the Mississippi at 12:52 and drove on crossing the Minnesota border at 3:22 pm with 200 miles to go before reaching Rochester. We traveled through a verdant landscape of prairie lands or gently rolling hills – no mountains.

The journey from South Dakota covered nearly 600 miles and took us approximately ten hours. Gas was the cheapest yet - $3.68 per gallon.

Tomorrow we have another long trip to Dearborn, Michigan where we will spend a day visiting Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museums.

The Black Hills near our campsite

Mount Rushmore as we left The Black Hills

 

South Dakota Landscape

Images Below are All Images of The Badlands Landscape

The Mississippi River at Flood Stage

Thursday , June 9, 2911

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Horse Thief Lake, South Dakota

Black Hills

Rain, rain and fog and cold - hardly ideal camping weather but generally our weather has been good so I guess we should not complain too much. I had read about and wanted to see It.!

Our plan was to visit Mount Rushmore, Chief Crazy Horse and the Custer National Forest known for its wildlife and interesting geologic formations. We went first to the Chief Crazy Horse sculpture which is being created from a mountain a family who continuing the work of their father who had begun the sculpture as a tribute to Native Americans.

Only the face has been completed.  When completed the sculpture will the large in the world = or something like that.

We got to the site and the sculpture was obscured by clouds so we toured the very fine museum of the work and Indian culture. We also saw a superior movie about the family and the work of creating the sculpture. Outstanding.

I was looking at the cloud shrouded mountain when the clouds lifted and the there he was, Chief Crazy Horse. I rushed out to the car to get camera but forgot the keys and had to go back to get them and dashed back to the car, grabbed the camera, turned to take pictures and the clouds were back!  ARRGGHH!

We finally left to visit Custer National Park. The promised wildlife consisted of one Bison, four antelope and a gaggle of wild Burros begging treated.  Disappointed again.

We did however find some fascination geologic formations called “needles” – large pointed spires. They were enshrouded in clouds but fascinating.

We went on the Mount Rushmore to see George, Abe, Teddy, and FDR. Clouds again!!  *&^%$)((##!

Mount Rushmore Visitor Center was in our opinion too overdone, too grand, too tacky!

I did a few good pictures as we left the next day.

The Black Hills of South Dakota

Campsite on Horse Thief Lake

 Begging Burro

 Needles

 Lonely Bison

More Needles

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Yellowstone to Mount Rushmore, South Dakota

(Prologue – last night – June 10, 2011 – I did some catching up and added pictures where there were none for the last days in Yellowstone, etc. We are now in Rochester, MN preparing for the marathon run to Taylor, Michigan for two nights and visits to the Ford Museum and Greenfield Village.)

June 8^th was an underwater journey so to speak.  Plenty of rain. The camping gear was soaked and so was the landscape.

We left the campground and drove to Mammoth Springs through now familiar country.

The journey from Mammoth Springs out of the park was spectacular, winding as it did down from the mountains beside a raging river. (Guardrails beside the road are not a priority.)

The Yellowstone River Valley carried us in the Montana countryside through farming communities with cattle, sheep, and classic ranch countryside. The wide-open spaces!

At mile 475 on I-90, there was no sign of habitation naught but green hills, black highways, gray sky and a rest area.

The road unwound though a verdant landscape of small lakes, creeks and green, green, green. There were scattered, tilled fields and evidence of emerging crops – wheat? Therefore, we drove through Middle America aiming arrow straight for Rapid City, South Dakota past Indian settlements and a landscape that gradually changing to eroded hills, and reddish soil.

We passed briefly through a corner of Wyoming and then into South Dakota

Passing through Belle Fourche the geographic center of the United States before joining I-90 for Rapid City. At Rapid City, we joined Route 16 toward our destination- Horse thief Lake Campground.

We pitched our tent the shore the lake and hoped it would not rain as promised.

( June 12, 2011. I'm behind again! We are in Dearborn, Michigan and have spent the at Nenry Ford's Greenfield Village.

Niagra Falls tomorrow.)

Big Sky, Endless Prairie

Small Farm, Big Landscape 

Slowly Hills Appear

 A Red Trailer Amid a Sea of Green

Now and then a Colorful Outcrop

Bel Forche, South Dakota, Geographic Center of the USA

And Another Colorful Outcrop

The First Glimpse of the Black Hills of South Dakota