Wyoming

It's currently 7am here in Wyoming, and we are awake and packed and ready to go. Why are we up so early on our vacation? Well we spent last night camping in the shadow of the Rockies, in Shoshone National Forest, and the temperature this morning was 37 degrees, so that provided me plenty of motivation to get up early and pack up the tent. The drive to Yellowstone yesterday was beautiful, and I will post pictures soon, but right now I'm picking up a campground's wireless and writing this in the car so I'll keep it brief.

Off to find coffee and then on to Yellowstone! We're at the half-way point for our road trip and today marks our turnaround point.

Badlands

As I mentioned in my last post about South Dakota, the drive was full of flat but slightly rolling plains, lots of cows, and even more billboards, until we saw the Badlands opening up on the left.
We took the separate route through the Badlands National Park, Route 240, and paid $15 to take the drive. It was the best $15 we've ever spent, it was absolutely amazing. It's hard to put into words the way it looks, so I took a million pictures and posted a couple so you can get a sense of it.
We easily could have taken an entire day driving through the park and stopping at every scenic overlook, but it was starting to get dark, and it was 8pm Mountain Time so we were getting hungry for dinner. The best part of the drive however was near the end when we were startled by several large mountain goats (I'm guessing that's what they were, if you are a zoologist please feel free to examine the image and offer your opinion) grazing on the side of the road. We stopped to take pictures and one moved in front of the car and started staring us down, looking like he was about to charge the Subaru!
He moved eventually though and we were able to continue on and out of the park. We went to Wall Drug but since their cafe was closed we crossed the street to the Cactus Cafe where R enjoyed a delicious Buffalo Barbecue sandwich and I had chicken fingers. We got back on the road and wanted to make it to Rapid City for the night. We had delusions of camping however a huge storm soon opened up and the car might as well have been swimming. The lightening was different from any I'd seen before, rather than seeing the clear strikes it lit up the sky in patches of lavender and was practically unceasing for over an hour.
When we finally made it to the campgrounds at 9pm (very much feeling that it was 11pm eastern time) we realized it would be $29 plus tax for just an empty spot to park the car which we were then going to sleep in the back of. R raised the point that we should just spend $20 more to get a hotel where we would have a real bed and a bathroom and save the camping for someplace cheaper (and dryer). That's how we ended up at the super posh Hotel Alex Johnson in Rapid City. Apparently we can live like kings in South Dakota because this room is amazing but it's as cheap as any others we stayed at. Looks like I'm moving to South Dakota, but only if I can have a Jackalope for a pet!

South Dakota

We have entered South Dakota! We started off with a drive along the Mississippi out of Minnesota, and then got on Route 90. First stop was the ultra-kitsch Corn Palace in Mitchell (see picture at bottom) and we just stayed long enough to get some necessary photos and postcards before getting back on the road.
We were just awestruck with the scenery, so flat that at one point we could see it pouring rain in another county. Billboards were a fun source of entertainment on the drive, with many pointing out the attractions in the area that we absolutely couldn't miss (according to them). We did stop at one, the 1800 town, it was a whopping $19 for R and I to tour the town and see all the props from the movie Dances with Wolves. But it was a nice break from driving and made for some great pictures.
The town it was in doesn't seem to have a name, it's just "22 miles west of Murdo, South Dakota." The 1880 town began in the 1970's and is now furnished with a number of old movie sets and props. It seems like the town has suffered from a downturn in traffic because it was quite the ghost town.
It was definitely a good dose of the travel-kitsch we were looking for on our trip, and I'm glad we got it when we did because Wall Drug was a gigantic disappointment.
Our travels yesterday did not consist solely of faded relics, we also visited the amazing Badlands, more on that later.

A Side Adventure to Galena, Il!

So yesterday Lauren and I decided to take a side trip to Galena, Il since our guidebook had written so eloquently about the town. Back in the 1840's the town was a boom town for lead mining and unlike the famous gold rushes of California everyone found lead and got rich digging it up. The result was a town full of the interesting homes and shops that the people built with their money. When the lead mines dried up though most of the town moved on (to those same California gold mines) leaving a ghost town of lavish homes. Since then the town has been restored to how it was in 1840 with great food and interesting places to explore.


After Galena we headed up to Minneapolis and I crossed the Mississippi Rover for the first time and now we are going to head out to South Dakota!

Chicago

For our time in Chicago we were lucky enough to be able to stay with family who live in Oak Park. This meant it was a short walk to the L (or maybe it's "El" I'm not sure) which we took into the city. Compared to Boston public transportation it seemed really fast. The fact that Chicago is laid out on a grid rather than using archaic cow paths for city planning (Boston is really cutting edge for these things) made it so easy to find our way.

We started off walking to the former Sears tower, now the Willis tower, to do the Skydeck tower. It was great to get to see Chicago from the top, and we went out on the glass viewing ledges where there's just some glass separating you and a 110-story drop, eek!
Next we worked our way on to Grant Park where we enjoyed the beautiful fountain, then on to Millennium Park. I loved the Lurie Garden there, shown above, which is this great wild looking prarie garden, in the middle of the city. There was just such great use of space there and interesting contrasts between the natural and the constructed. Millennium park also has "the bean" (shown below) which is a great piece of sculpture, an outdoor auditorium, some fantastic modern sculpture and fountains, and a wonderful curving footbridge.
We made it all the way to Navy Pier, walking along the river at some points, before taking the train back out to Oak Park and ending the day with a wonderful family dinner. I had thought before that I'd experienced Chicago but R and I covered so much on foot and I was able to see so many new things. I love the architecture, the sculpture, the public gardens, and the great green space. It was such a treat to walk around, especially on a beautiful day!