Salmon River Trip (getting there) — July 2017
| Robert and I loaded up the car Saturday morning July 8 for our trip out to Idaho. The Lower Salmon trip was on, and I had a canoe to paddle. Driving it out was the only sane way to get it there. And the drive (every 10 years or so) is fun. |
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Sarah had the great idea to get us an atlas, so Robert navigated us across the country with that. It was a little shocking not to have the GPS telling us what lane to get in and where to turn. But we got used to it quickly. And that meant we were not slaves to the quickest route. And really, on a trip of 3000 miles, does 45 minutes really make a difference? We took 68 so we could go through the impressive Sidling Hill cut (and stopped for chips and guacamole there). |
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What would a road trip be without road food (and bending/breaking some rules, like not eating in bed)? We had overnights generally planned and a couple sights to see, but the plans were pretty loose. At our first night, in Dayton, Ohio, Robert found a brouchure for IMS: Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We were going by so, why not? |
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| We took the bus tour aound the track (at about 25 rather than 200 MPH). And that let Robert follow the winning tradition of kissing the bricks (a small strip of which are left in the Brickyard. Then we visited the museum and topped off the morning with lunch from White Castle. |
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| We spent that night in the Wisconsin Dells — without knowing it's the Waterpark Capital of the World. And without knowing that out hotel room came with waterpark passes. But we did advantage of the passes and stayed a couple extra hours in the Dells enjoying their speciality. As we were getting back on the road, I asked Robert to stare longingly at the waterpark we were leaving. Chula Vista was fun, but not our destination. |
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| We found an A & W Rootbeer for lunch and this cool wind farm on our way west. That was one significant change for me since my last drive across the country (in 1997): wind farms. |
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| We spent the night in Mitchell, South Dakota after a night time visit to the World's Only Corn Palace. It was closed by the time we got there, but we went back on our way out town and checked out the inside. There is a basketball stadium and practice court inside. When there are no games being played, they have a full souvenier shop made up of counters and shelves on wheels that they roll out onto to stadium's court. And the practice court becomes a museum of corn with displays and activities on wheels. |
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| After checking out the Corn Palace, we looked for the A & W in Chamberlain, but it's been closed for a while. We settled for a Subway for lunch. Then we stopped at the Minuteman Missle National Historic Site. There Robert added to his Junior Ranger badge collection after learning about the missles (mostly now decomissioned) ready to launch across the North Pole. |
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| Next stop, just down the road, Badlands National Park. It really is an odd site after driving across the prairie, grasslands and corn fields. And, of course, the Badlands means Wall must be really close. |
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While we savored our free ice water and enjoyed our jackalope rides, Wall is no less tacky than it was 20, 30 and 40 years ago. And in a sad turn, the promised T-Rex was nowhere to be found. We'd be warned not to wait the 15 minutes between roars for the animatronic action. But, alas, we could not find it to stand around and wait to be unimpressed. We spent the night in Rapid City where Robert found a brochure for the South Dakota Air and Space Museum (who knew?). We stopped by the next day (Wednesday the 12th) and were suitably impressed. As Robert says, if you don't try to put the planes inside, you can show off a lot more bigger planes. |
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| It was especially cool to hear it announced that if you went outside, you could see a B2 taking off; a benefit of being next door to Ellsworth AFB. I was most impressed by how loud a B2 is; and even more so when they explained that it's designed for low level, high speed bombing runs: 500 MPH at about 200 feet above the ground sound really scary. |
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| We next stopped at Mount Rushmore for the traditional photos. It is an impressive place and an impressive endeavor to carve those faces in the mountain. I never knew there was a plan (not yet executed on) to create a vault behind them to explain why they are there for future generations. |
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| And, of course, you have to stop at Crazy Horse if you're in the neighborhood. I didn't notice a lot of change from my last visit a couple of decades ago. I wonder when they will finish up and if I'll get to see it? |
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| One thing we did to prepare for this drive was to watch Close Encounters. That helped get us in the right mood to visit Devil's Tower next. We could only find this one small reference to the movie in the visitor's center. |
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| We spent the night in Buffalo, Wyoming after all our park visits. The next day we stopped in at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. It's name has changed since the last time I was there (no longer is it the Custer Battlefield)and the new memorial to the fallen Native Americans (from both sides of the battle) was impressive. |
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We spent Thursday night in Missoula, Montana after a stop in Bozeman looking for glue to repair the rigging on my canoe. Apparently the glue used didn't like the 100+ degree days with 80 mile an hour winds for hours on end. The manufacturer was duly apologetic and provided recommendations on a particular glue to use. Unfortunately the dealer in Bozeman was no longer selling it. Eventually we were directed to Barge Cement and a hardware store. Getting to Missoula meant Idaho was just around the corner! And that got us to Lewiston in time for me to reglue the rigging. While the Barge cement worked for the seat, it didn't hold the tie-downs. I have the official glue coming along with replacement tie-downs. |
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But we had to have a celebratory lunch in Lewsiton before we did anything else. Just over 3000 miles and 7 days later! And that was just to get to meet up with the rest of crew for the real trip. The next day, we slept in, played (or slept) in the pool, drove across the border to Washington (becuase we could) and Welcomed Sarah at the airport Saturday night. |
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| On Sunday, Robert and I took Sarah across to Washington for breakfast at Hazel's and then we relaxed in the pool as our group grew with new arrivals. |
| Sunday night we met our trip leader, Mark, and got our orientation and dry bags to pack. Monday we loaded up and headed to the Salmon! |
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Vacation notes:
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