From MT to ID to WA

I got a late start again, since I stayed up late last night (being very thankful to be in the world of the online-living again).

Even though I covered about the same distance, somehow, today seemed shorter. Maybe because it's the last leg of the trip. Maybe I'm just anxious to get here. In fact, I skipped lunch and I only took one nap!

BTW, I nearly choked on my food over breakfast (around 11:00 am MST), and I was paying attention to my food. So which of you, people, were talking about me?

Highs in the 80's today. Hardly any breeze. I figured I'd get darker this summer, more than usual, even if I stayed in the shade. And that's fine. Darker skin is more protected from the harmful effects of the sun, so it's a natural self-preservation mechanism.

Someday, I'm going to write a book on road psychology. How people behave when driving long distances. The concept of entrainment (where people tend to fall in step with the group) definitely comes into play. At one point, there were way too many cars on the road -- on both lanes. The speed limit had gone down to 65. People were all going 70. I released my cruise control and followed the 15-or-so-car caravan on the right lane to let people coming up fast behind me to overtake me. More cars followed behind me on my lane. Then it was as though everybody got hypnotized. We were all driving at the same speed. Even the cars who were about to overtake me slowed down a few carlengths behind me and stayed there. It was that way for several minutes; everybody keeping their position. Then I got bored, moved to the left lane, sped up, and pulled out of the pack. Then, as though the spell was broken, other cars started shifting around, speeding up a bit. The cars that were on the left lane came up close behind me. So, after giving myself some distance ahead of the lead car on the right lane, I moved back to the right lane and slowed down again. But when I looked back, the cars held back. In fact, the lead car on the left was nose-to-nose with the lead car on the right. And they all matched my speed. That's when I realized, people were afraid of getting caught speeding. That's why nobody wanted to go first. Well, I left the freeway soon after to get gas. And when I got back on, there was only the occasional truck on the road.

And then, near Snoqualmie, there was this silver car that came into the freeway. I moved to the left lane to let him in, but he sped up quickly, so I went back to the right lane behind him. Then he slowed down and I didn't want to reset my cruise control speed, so I overtook him. When I did, he matched my speed again, so he was right at my tail when I went back to the right lane. Then he went to the left lane to overtake me. I figured I didn't want to play games with this guy, so I slowed down from 75 to 73, he stayed at 8 o'clock. I slowed down to 70 to give him the hint. He did the same. I got frustrated and released my cruise control and went down to 60. He followed suit again. Then I looked at him to see what this guy was up to, and I saw him straining and looking nervously in his rear view mirror. When I threw up my hands, he realized there was no cop behind us and he cautiously moved ahead. He sped up again when we nearly caught up with another group of cars. He had no license plates; no wonder he was scared. It was probably a stolen car.

Two very cool moments on the road -- crossing the Columbia River and seeing Coeur d'Alene Lake.

I knew I had crossed into Idaho when I saw the sign in the mountains after cresting a steep climb. But I missed the sign coming into Washington. I guess I switched over to the Pacific Time Zone when I crossed into Idaho.

Snoqualmie didn't quite trigger any emotions, but seeing signs for North Bend did. I guess North Bend was the edge of the greater Seattle region that I emotionally consider home. When Jon and I were house-hunting in 1997, North Bend was the farthest east that we looked at.

The first two things I did when I got into town: 1) pick up the key to Katia's house, and 2) go to Cafe Ori for dinner and a mango pearl drink. :-)

A butterfly and a cloud of unnameable bugs caught in the filter right underneath the grill.

From SD to WY to MT

I left Rapid City around 11:30 am MST.

Around noon, I got to Sturgis and decided to just drive by, maybe catch a glimpse of the motorcycle-sized parking that Stephen talked about. I just followed the I-90 business loop through town and didn't see the motorcycle-sized parking. In fact, it was just an ordinary small town. But, as I was headed back to the main I-90, there it was -- the local Harley Davidson dealership. So I just had to swing by. This is what happens when you go to b-school; you visit the businesses that you read about like you visit a museum. I didn't even bother with the motorcycle museum just a block away. :-)

It was very windy in South Dakota, more so than yesterday during the tour.
Around 1:00 pm MST, I was in Wyoming, which is also beautiful with its very red soil and very green rolling hills, that kinda reminded me of California. I stopped for gas in a small town somewhere in Wyoming then took a short nap under a tree in a rest stop. It was an absolutely beautiful day -- sunny, breezy, blue skies, a few little white wisps of clouds. I could have hung a hammock under that tree and stayed the rest of the day.

There was a section of the highway where the asphalt was as red as the soil. I figured they probably used some of the local dirt in the mix. I thought that was cool.


Red asphalt

Around 5:30pm MST, I hit Junction 94, so the route after that point, I had already passed on my drive from WA to MN last year. In fact, I stopped for gas at Big Timber, MT, and I realized I got gas there before, when I saw the little gift shop off to the side of the gas station.

Yes, as I've said the first time I drove through here, Montana is definitely beautiful. I think I'll build my B&B near the Yellowstone River, which runs by the freeway, sometimes to the left, other times to the right.

There were more cars around Billings, MT. Probably the crowd leaving town for the long weekend.

When I drove last year, I realized that you're really driving with the same group of people because you keep overtaking them or they keep overtaking you. Today, there was this shiny new dark red SUV, hauling a beat-up trailer with a beautiful white horse. The horse turned its head to look at me with its left eye. It made me smile seeing the horse the first time I overtook them, so I remembered them. After I stopped for a nap, I overtook them again. That was fairly normal. Then about 30 miles to Butte, I overtook them a third time! Each time, the horse would look at me. :-)

I found the exit, I turned left, I saw the hotel sign, I turned left into a street by the hotel, and it turned out to be the freeway entrance back to I-90 going east. Well, I didn't want to go back up the mountains, so I took the first exit, which was Hwy 15 going north. I was getting worried that the first exit would be miles away. And it was. Five miles up an incline to a little town called woodville. So I exited and went back south on 15. Then on my way down, there was a sign for a scenic view exit. It was definitely a beautiful view of the city lights from that height. However, it was already very late and I was very tired. So I didn't stop.

Lo and behold! The hotel has free wireless Internet access! Hallelujah!

Gray Line Black Hills Tour

A view of Washington and a bit of Lincoln through a gap inside a little cave. more pics

Yup, it's really one of those big Gray Line busses. I was picked up right in front of my hotel. The driver's name is Randy and the couple who were picked up before me are actually from Vancouver, WA. We picked up ten more people, including a father and son, who were masochistically travelling cross-country on Greyhound, and a couple from Australia. If it weren't for the son, I would have been the youngest in the crowd.

Our stops:

• Borglum Historical Center in Keystone, SD. Borglum is the guy who carved the faces on Mount Rushmore.
• Mount Rushmore National Memorial. I followed the trail down to get closer to the mountain, and there was this little cave, which was actually a gap between a cluster of huge rocks. I wondered why they made the trail detour to this cave, then I looked up through a gap and saw the view in the picture above.
• Lunch. The day started out bright and sunny with a little wind. Before lunch, it started drizzling. After lunch (one hour later), freezing rain was pelting down and the winds were blowing hard.
• Crazy Horse Memorial. I got me a piece of rock blasted from the mountain.
• Custer State Park. We saw a few buffalo in the distance, some antelope(?), horses, and burros.
• Needles Highway. First, I thought it was named "Needles" for the pine trees. Then we went through the tunnels -- Talk about going through the eye of a needle!
• Iron Mountain Road. There were two full-circle turns. Imagine going south, then going around in a circle and under the bridge where you were to head east. That's what those full-circle turns were.

What I learned from Randy, the tour guide / bus driver:

• Ponderosa pines are red on one side and black on the other. And you can use them to guide you if you get lost in the woods where they grow. The red side always faces south, because the sun is mostly in the south side in the northern hemisphere, and the black mossy side always faces north. A mnemonic is to think of people living in Florida as being more sunburnt (red) than people in, oh, say, Minnesota. Mind you, I'm not saying that people in Minnesota are mossy....
• One of the other passengers asked what the difference was between a buffalo and a bison. Randy posed the question to the rest of us. Is it the size, the color, the humps? Well, when nobody responded, his reply was, "You can't wash your hands in a buffalo." :-) Get it?
• Every year, Custer State Park holds a lottery for a buffalo hunt every winter. Ten winners (out of about a thousand entries from all over the US) are chosen. If you are selected, you must send in $4K for the privilege to hunt a buffalo. You can bring your favorite rifle or the park rangers can lend you one. And the hunt goes like this: a ranger is at your disposal for three days, during which you go "shopping" for a buffalo. When you find a nice healthy fluffy juicy buffalo, you and the ranger crawl up very quietly to it, and you get to shoot it -- at point blank. Apparently, it's more humane and safer that way. Then you can have the head stuffed for your wall, have the hide tanned for your floor, and have the meat cut and frozen for your freezer. When all is said and done, you most likely have spent $9k. But apparently, buffalo meat has 20% fewer calories and 30% more protein than beef. And Randy added that the buffalo bulls "that participate in the hunt do so willingly." Uh-huh.
• In the Guinness Book of World Records, the most severe change in weather is in Black Hills -- 47-degree change within 2 minutes.

Wall Drug

One of the characters that live at Wall Drug. more pics

I'm staying in Rapid City, but I backtracked 50 miles today, just so I could see the infamous Wall Drug. Stephen mentioned it to me about a year ago as one of the places I should check out on my first drive from Seattle to Minneapolis. Since I took the northern route during the first trip, I figured I'd see South Dakota this time. The way Stephen described it, it didn't sound like much. All he said was, "You have to go to Wall Drug." What could be so special about a pharmacy?

Well, let me tell you what's so special about a pharmacy. It's a marketing blitz! That's what it is! Even before I crossed the border into SD, I saw a sign saying, "355 miles to Wall Drug". And that was just the beginning. There were 355 miles of billboards talking about Wall Drug! Souvenirs at Wall Drug. Indian art at Wall Drug. Largest collection of Western art at Wall Drug. Western clothing at Wall Drug. Five cent coffee at Wall Drug. Refreshing ice water at Wall Drug. The Traveler's Chapel at Wall Drug. New T-Rex at Wall Drug. A what? Yup! A dinosaur at Wall Drug.

When you take Exit 110 from the west, you see the town's water tower saying, "Wall - Home of Wall Drug". There's the typical freeway sign pointing to the left. Then a billboard saying four blocks to Wall Drug. Then another sign saying that an arrow to Wall Drug is coming up. Sure enough, there was another sign directing you to turn left to go to Wall Drug. And then you think you're lost because you expect a big sign saying "Wall Drug" when you see another billboard all the way in the back that says "Wall Drug parking" and asks that trucks please park on the gravel side.

To be fair, Wall Drug really is a drugstore. And then around it grew all these little shops. Either that or Wall Drug acquired all these little shops around it and became the biggest conglomerate of South Dakota. And then motels and B&B's sprouted around it and put up billboards saying they're only a few blocks from Wall Drug. And tour busses take people to see Wall Drug.

So, today, Wall Drug is two long blocks of stores facing each other. Not including the parking lots. The drugstore itself is just one little shop in the middle of one side. One of the entrances is reminiscent of Pike Place Market with people sculptures standing around or sitting on benches, way too many stuffed wild game and antlers, museum-like displays. The front looks a bit like a Western town. Behind the drugstore is a small lot called the "Wall Drug Backyard" with antique dioramas that move if you put a quarter in, horse sculptures, a jackalope, a miniature Mount Rushmore, a buffalo with fur, a huge rabbit with fur. Inside the building, there was a display where you can pan for your own gold/precious stones/whatever, more stores, more people sculptures, a stuffed bear (which I think is a real one because it's inside a glass box).

I was checking out the gold panning display when I heard an alarm on the other end of the building. People weren't flying out of there so I figured it was probably a false fire alarm. And then I heard the growls. Well, imagine a theme park display based on Jurassic Park. That's
what it is. But, hey, I'm easily entertained.

Actually, when I got to the "Backyard", the guy was already untethering the gate, but he said I still had lots of time, so I went in. He kept me from putting in a quarter in one of the dioramas because he said it's not good. The duck's foot is wobbly and the bunny's ear is broken. But he smiled to himself; he seemed amused that a grown woman would actually put a quarter into those things. So, when I asked him to play the T-Rex again, he accommodated me so I could record it. And after that, he continued turning off and unplugging the displays. He said I could still stay and take pictures, but the lighting wasn't good, so I thanked him and left.

So, anyway, I got some postcards and a few souvenirs, including three jackalope furs. Seriously.

I figure, the three most important industries in South Dakota are follows, in decreasing size:

• the tourism industry around Mt Rushmore,
• Wall Drug (which qualifies as an industry by itself), and
• the highway billboard industry.

And, oh, yeah, there must be a black beef industry around these parts, as evidenced by the black cows along the freeway, but it's smaller than any of the first three. Why? I saw more billboards than black cows. 'Nuf said.

From MN to SD

I was taking a picture of the bug splats on my windshield but caught a nice cloud formation too.

I started late yesterday. My first stop was Morrie's Subaru in Minnetonka for them to give Wapple a quick once-over in preparation for the trip. They changed my oil and rotated my tires as well. Then, after dropping off my keys with Jan, I was off. The highlights of the drive:

• My fortune cookie from lunch at a Chinese buffet in Albert Lea, MN : "Your life becomes more and more of an adventure!"
• A very friendly employee at a GoodYear store giving me directions to I-90.
• Bug splats on my windshield as numerous as the stars in the sky.
• A bee as big as my thumb getting caught in my windshield. Eeewwwww!
• Occasional downpours that cleaned my windshield.
• Five minutes after I cleaned my windshield, as many bug splats as I had before I cleaned it.
• A 15-minute nap at 3pm and a 10-minute nap at 7pm. (I only had two hours of sleep the previous night.)
• In Murdo, SD, a young waitress who admired my tiger-eye bracelet and said that tiger-eye was for protection. (I was wondering why I had the urge to take it with me.)
• In the same restaurant, a short-order cook with a blonde mohawk that looked like the fin of a fish.
• Intensely green grass, like the Windows XP wallpaper, just 200 miles to Rapid City.
• Gray asphalt, green grass, black cows, blue horizon, lavender clouds, red lining, orange sunset.
• Allelujah clouds: Instead of sun rays streaming down through the clouds, clouds streaming down from the sun.
• Crossing into Mountain time at 9pm CST 8pm MST.
• Playing phone tag with my travel agent about my PI plane tickets.

Mano ti sakam, anak ko?

One story that my mother and grandmother love to tell is an incident when I was a toddler. By that time, I had learned how to count in English and was absorbing a bit of Ilocano (a Filipino dialect) by osmosis.

It goes like this:

"Mano ti sakam, anak ko?" How many are your feet, my child?
"Tal-lo!" Three!

Well, "tal-lo" sounds more like "two" than "dua" does.

And so I thought that question would be a good name for this site, which would chronicle my travels. You know,... feet... travel...