Not a particularly interesting drive today through Indiana and Ohio – stayed at campground ouside of Toledo that is mostly full time seasonal residents with campers.
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- Lots and lots of trucks on the road
Chicago to Toldeo OH
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Author Archives: Ofer
Galena, IL to Chicago
We camped on some private property and in the morning had a nice conversation with the owner, John, who runs a sawmill and has blueberry pickings on his property in the morning. We drove through country roads to our Motel near Chicago’s O’Hare airport. We then drove into the city to meet Andre’s friend Joe. They hadn’t seen each other for over 20 years. We had diner and walked around town.
Andre left on an early flight Tuesday morning so he could get back to work, and I have spent the past few days visiting my cousin Lisa and her family. Tomorrow I continue on East.
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- Chicago here we come…
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- Cloud Gate Sculpture nicknamed “The Bean”
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- Chicago Botanic Garden
Luverne, MN to Galena, IL
After traversing most of Minnesota, we crossed the Mississippi into Wisconsin, We then decided to follow the River route and drove south along the Missisippi , crossing back again into Iowa for part of the way. We made it into thw north west corner of Illinois at the end of the day.
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- Crossing the Mississippi
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- La Crosse, WI
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- View over La Crosse
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- Crossing the Mississippi again
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- The Great River Road
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- Farmland
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- Corn and soy….
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- Soy and corn
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- Illinois
Custer State Park, SD to Blue Mounds State Park, MN
We drove out of Custer State Park wit h closer views of Mt Rushmore and within an hour were in totally different scenery in Badlands National Park. We then had a long drive to cross SD. We did amuse ourselves with some Americana by going to Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. We finally crossed the state line into Minnesota and arrived at dusk at Luverne and pitched tent in the nearby Blue Mounds State Park. Not long after we had a pretty intense laser light show, that is a thunderstorm – see video below
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- Mt Rushmore
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- My Breakfast
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- Andre’s nutritious breakfast at the truck stop
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- Post Breakfast pinball
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- Dang !! He’s pretty good….
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- Badlands
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- Selfie at Badlands
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- Amazing colors !!
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- “I don’t feel so good after that truck stop food…”
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- At the stop on the banks of the Missouri.
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- The world’s *only* corn palace !!!
Day 6 – The Black Hills and Custer State Park
This day we did not make much eastward mileage, but toured around the Black Hills and stayed the night in Custer State Park.
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- Great Scenery in the Black Hills
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- Deadwood. Jennifer and I watched the HBO series, So was interesting to see the site, read some of the historical commentary and compare with the fictional series.
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- Andre had me walk 4-5 times across the door to get the shot as he liked it
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- Andre playing the slots – he walked away with $3 of winnings !!!
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- The Museum at Black Hills Institute in Hill City is home to the original 65-million-year-old “Stan,” one of the two most complete Tyrannosaurus rex fossils ever found. Andre was in the fossil “biz” in his early days.
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- We did the wildlife loop at custer state park around sunset and saw bison, prarie dogs, a ferret and owl among other animals
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- from this overlook you can see Mt Rushmore. (Center top here). The white area on the right is washington’s profile.
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- andre’s sunset shot
Billings,MT to Spearfish,SD (Black Hills)
The scenery started changing – flatter and vast empty plains. we visited the Little BigHorn Memorial site, but mainly drove the rest of Montana. Today we will not go very far – stay in the Black Hills area.
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- andre excavating for fossils
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- andres composition
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- andres as well – even though without flowers I think it better due to dark sky
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- dinner
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- garlic guac
3 Forks to Billings,MT
Picked up Andre at the Billings airport at midnight. Yay !!!
Our hotel for the night is at the end of the rainbow !!
Day 3 – St Regis, MT to 3 Forks, MT
Beautiful drive in Montana with a variety of landscapes – mountains covered with pines, others bare or with yellow grass. Rivers, praries and mountains carved out by mining. Spent over 4 hours flyering at the University of Montana in Missoula and another at Montana Tech in Butte.
Tonight I pick Andre up at Billings Airport.
Day 2 – Spokane WA to St Regis MT
I spent most of the day at a few colleges in Spokane and Coeur D’Alane, Idaho, posting flyers for The Cheap Textbook. Drove through a few passes in Idaho and Montana. Spending the night in St Regis – very cute private campground – nice showers and Wi-fi !!! (However no Sprint network coverage for my phone out here ;-))
Tomorrow Missoula MT and beyond.
Cross Country Day 1 – Seattle to Spokane
Started the cross country drive to Boston. 1st time for me doing this. 45 hours total of driving. I’ll be taking my time and my friend Andre will be joining me from Billings, MT to Chicago.
Jennifer is already in Boston (actually Somerville / Cambridge) – perhaps she will post an update from her end.
It’ll be I-90 most of the way
Scenery in WA varies as one drives east
It was sunny in Seattle….
Riverside Park In Spokane