Trip West

Overview

I mapped out all the places I want to see with google maps and it should be an interesting trip. I have a way to pick points in google maps and then download them to my GPS which makes finding those points very simple. I decided to rent a car because my car is getting a bit old (7 years) and Gloria's car which is newer is a lease so it doesn't have the miles available to me.

I decided to rent a car from Enterprise. It was the cheapest rate and there is one in Teaneck and they pick you up. Because the one in Teaneck is closed on Sundays (the day I wanted to leave) I picked up the car on Friday. It was a new SUV-- Hundai Sante-fe. It was a new car (it only had 800 miles) and even though I filled up my ipod with stuff for the trip, it had satelite radio and I used that for most of the trip.

I was originally going to go all the way to California. On my first day, I decided it didn't make sense to drive that far, as I was renting a car anyway, so I decided on a future trip I should fly out west to do California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. As you can see on the map below, I went as far west as Montana and Idaho before turning around to head back home.

Sunday April 11th, day #1

This was just a travel day. I drove from my house to Clarion, Pennsylvania which is about an hour from the Ohio border. I got a late start (11:00 AM on Sunday) so I only made it this far.

I stayed in Clarion on the way back on my first trip so it was a known entity to me and I liked it a lot. I had dinner at the subway and I could swear the guy behind the counter was the same guy that was there 3 years ago when I stayed there on my first trip.

Clarion

Monday April 12th, day #2

I drove from Clarion, PA to where a portion of the Lincoln highway was. For those of you who don't know, before there were intestates and before Route 66 there was the Lincoln highway which went cross country and was established in the 1920's. There are remnants of it still so I went to see it. A portion is near Akron, Ohio. From there I drove to Wauseon, OH which is about 30 miles from the Indiana border and I stayed there for the night.

Lincoln Highway

Wausean (Look at the size of the parking lot, it
is for trucks)

Tuesday April 13th, day #3

Went to South Bend, Indiana which is where Notre Dame is located, and toured around the campus there. From there I drove to a town called Chesterton, Indiana near the Indiana Dunes National Park which I was planning on touring the next day. My GPS went on the fritz so when I was in Chesterton I went to a local Best Buy and bought a new GPS which I ended up loving and using for the rest of my trip.

Notre Dame

Football Stadium (Notre Dame)

Wednesday April 14th, day #4

Indiana Dunes Park

Toured Indiana Dunes National Park in the morning and then drove to Springfield, Illinois to see where Lincoln was buried. After I saw Springfield I drove north to Mckean, Illinois for the night. I didn't realize Central Illinois is all farm country (makes NY State look urban). Every time I thought I saw a big building signifying a city it ended up being a big grain elevator instead. There are no cities in that part of Illinois.

Abraham Lincoln Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

Abraham Lincoln Memorial

Thursday April 15th, day #5

Drove to Carthage, Illinois to see where Joseph Smith (the father of the Mormons) was murdered. Getting to Carthage, Illinois I had to pass through more of rural Illinois. At one point, I was low on gas and there were no gas stations in the area.

When I got there I said to the tourguide "is this the place where Joseph Smith was murdered?" to which he responded "this is the place where Joseph Smith was martyred." The tourguide actually started crying when she explained the death of Joseph Smith. Oh well, I guess I'm not a mormon. From there I drove to somewhere in Iowa to see where Field of Dreams was made the next day.

Jail in Chatham

Friday April 16th, day #6

Drove in the morning to where Field of Dreams was made and then I started driving to the Minuteman Missile. Tour is given in South Dakota. Ended up in Luverne, Minnesota for the Sabbath.

Field of Dreams

Sunday April 18th, day #8

Drove to Kadoka, South Dakota to go on a Minuteman Missile tour the next day. Kadoka is a very small town which has basically one restaurant and two motels. Luckily the motel was actually decent enough (it even had Internet), but I can't say the same for the restaurant.

On the way, I stopped at a rest stop. When I looked up, I saw the Missouri River. I could not believe how big it was. I have a picture of it below.

I also stopped in Mitchell, SD, where the Corn Palace is located. I visited it on a previous trip, but since I stopped there to eat and the Corn Palace is right nearby, I had to go and see it. I didn't bother going in because I had been there before, but I took a picture of the outside (they redo the outside every year with fresh corn).

Missouri River

Corn Palace

Monday April 19th, day #9

Went on the Minuteman Missile tour which was very interesting. The US put all these missile sites on people's farms in South Dakota with nuclear missiles and they had 15 control centers controlling 150 missiles. Because of the Start Treaty signed by Reagan, the missiles and the control centers were destroyed but they preserved a missile and a control center (a control center controls 15 missiles) to give a tour of. It was very interesting. Below are pictures from both the control centers and a missile silo.

From there I drove to Spearfish, SD which is a beautiful canyon. It's actually right near Mt. Rushmore but since I was just there on a previous trip I didn't bother going again. Spent the night in Spearfish.

Missile Silo

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Control Center Living Quarters (above ground)

Vault Entrance for Missilers

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Spearfish Canyon

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Tuesday April 20th, day #10

Drove to Devil's Tower in Wyoming which is about an hour from Spearfish, SD and from there I drove to Montana to see where Custard's Last Stand was and I stayed near there for the night in Hardin, Montana.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devils_Tower_National_Monument

Devil's Tower

http://www.nps.gov/libi/index.htm

Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument

Wednesday April 21st, Day #11

I originally wanted to go on the Beartooth Highway which is a very scenic road which skirts the northern part of Yellowstone in Montanta. When I called up to find out the road conditions, the highway was closed because of snow (the downside of going early in the season), but some roads in Yellowstone were opened. After stopping in Billings, Montana, I drove to the north entrance of Yellowstone. I took the road that was opened to west Yellowstone which is on the west side on the park. It was surreal because the geysers were emitting smoke right next to the snow on the ground. I spent the night in the town of West Yellowstone, Montana.

Yellowstone

Buffalo in the Road

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Snow on the Ground!

Thursday April 22nd, Day #12

I drove from West Yellowstone to Butte, Montana (which Gloria calls butt). Butte, Montana has a big gash in the mountain called the Berkeley Pit which was an open copper mining operation in the 50's. When I was approaching the city from about 10 miles away, I was already able to see the gash. It's a mile long, half a mile wide and 1800 feet deep. They have a viewing stand in the city and when I went there I was in for a shock. The pit is full of water! When they stopped mining in 1980, they turned off the water pump and it started filling up. It has 900 feet of water in it. The water has a pH of 2.5 (highly of acidic) and it's one of the national Superfund cleanup sites. About 12 miles away from there in the city of Anaconda, where they smelted the copper and built a chimney for the smelter that was over 500 feet tall. The Washington Monument would easily fit in the chimney. From there, I drove to Dillon, Montana for the night.

Berkeley Pit is now a tourist attraction

Downtown Butte which has seen better days

Berkeley Pit

Friday April 23rd, Day #13

I drove to Arco, Idaho to see the world's first nuclear power-plant the EBR-I. When I was in Idaho I got off the highway to get gas and there was fresh snow on the ground. From there I went to Crater's of the Moon which is the biggest lava field in the world. Unlike most lava field, it's not from the volcano but the lava oozed up from the ground. From there I drove to Evanston, Wyoming which is on I-80 like Teaneck, only 2,000 miles away.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBR-I

EBR-I

http://www.nps.gov/crmo/

Craters of the Moon

Sunday April 25th, Day #15

After I visited the 2 sites in Idaho which are depicted in the page before this, I drove to Evanston, WY for the weekend. It's on I-80, the same as Teaneck, except it's 2000 miles away (for those of you who don't know, I-80 goes all the way from Teaneck to San Fransisco.) It gives new meaning to the Israeli term "yashar, yashar, yashar." I drove home over the next 5 days.

On the first day I drove 419 miles and stayed in Kimball, NE which is on the Wyoming and Nebraska border.

Monday April 26th, Day #16

On the second day I drove 433 miles to Lincoln Nebraska which is near the Iowa border. I stayed in Lincoln on a previous trip and loved it. I stayed at the same motel and I even think they gave me the same room which I had on the first trip.

Tuesday April 27th, Day #17

On the third day I drove 426 miles to Joilet, IL.

Wednesday April 28th, Day #18

On the fourth day I drove 425 miles to West Middlesex, PA which is on the Ohio and Pennsylvania border. When I got up that morning to start driving at 7:30 traffic was heavy but moving because of the proximity to Chicago. After about 15 miles where the turnoff to Chicago was traffic lightened considerably.

Thursday April 29th, Day #19

On the fifth day I drove home 376 miles to Teaneck, NJ. As Sara came home when I was away it was nice to see her.

Parting Thoughts

General Observations:
-You can tell the size of a town by the number of chain stores in it. If it has a Walmart, it's a major town. Otherwise it will have a Pamida or nothing. If it's big it will have all the major food chains like McDonald's, Subway, and Pizza Hut, ... But if the town is smaller, it may just have a subset of them or none at all. Some towns I went to had nothing.

-McDonald's has a senior discount in the afternoon. When I stopped for coffee in the afternoon, it looked like an old age home.

-Wifi is ubiquitous. Besides all the motels I stayed at, it's also in every McDonald's and Starbucks for free. Even rest stops have it now. In fact, it was so common I didn't bother using it in some places.