Road Trip Week 2

Now almost two months have passed since this week in our road trip.  So it is with the small pleasure of reliving it that I post these pictures.  It was so hard to choose, and I know I probably chose too many pictures, but really these are only a few of the ones I have!

After leaving Mackinaw Island, we drove across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, then Wisconsin, and Minnesota, where we stopped for lunch with the Haacks who now live outside of the Twin Cities, and on to Sioux Falls, South Dakota where we got to spend a night with these wonderful folks:  Christian, Nathan, Z, and Eden. It was fun to see their round river house, their rabbit, and their river.

The next morning Nathan kindly took us to Sioux Falls Seminary so Steve could have a Skype conference with 50 pastors he'd been meeting with once a month for several months. That successfully done, we headed west again.

Our destination that day was the Badlands, and this picture gives you just one glimpse of some of the rock formations that are unique to the national park.  I had always thought they were called Badlands because outlaws hid there to get away from lawmen.  Maybe they did, but this is a more plausible reason:

1. The Lakota people were the first to call this place "mako sica" or "land bad." Extreme temperatures, lack of water, and the exposed rugged terrain led to this name. In the early 1900's, French-Canadian fur trappers called it "les mauvais terres pour traverse," or "bad lands to travel through."

Our intent was to stay in the main campground, but when we got there it was full.  The only alternative was to drive 26 more miles into the Badlands on mostly dirt road to the "primitive" camp ground (no running water but there was a latrine), which we did. Though we thought we'd never get there, we did (the days are longer in the northern parts of this great country) in time to set up our tent and then enjoy one of the beautiful full moons of the summer over our campsite.  It was our first night of six in a row  camping in our new tent that we'd had sent to Christina's.  We were not disappointed. It was lovely! We woke up around 5 AM to the sound of buffalo snorting not far away.

                             

The next day was a big one.  As we drove out of the Badlands, we got a little more flavor for the area.

   

         

A parting Badlands shot featuring my foot next to a buffalo chip.  I didn't get any good pictures of the prairie dog towns, but they went on forever with (they said) a population of 5000 or more.  The little creatures were popping up and down next to their holes continuously as we drove through "their town."

On our way to Mount Rushmore we went through Wall, SD which is famous for its drug store. So of course, we had to stop. Nothing so amazing there, but we later found out when we met Randy and Shirley VanOsdol in Yellowstone that their daughter Sharon and her husband own the Dairy Queen in Wall.  We wished we had known so we could have stopped there!

                

It was very satisfying to use our National Parks Golden passes (they call them something different now) to get in to all the National Parks free and to camp for half price.  From Wall, we headed to Mount Rushmore. It was amazing, especially to read the story of who made it and why and how.

                             

Now on to the Black Hills, which are essentially in the same area.  We had reservations to stay at a "camping resort" after driving through a portion of the Black Hills and before we headed on to Wyoming.  Below our a couple of sights in the Black Hills.  Our camping resort featured very civilized camping spots with nice bathrooms and showers, a swimming pool, games of various sorts, and lots of RVs.  That night it rained cats and dogs with much thunder and lightning.  It was our new tent's first trial, and it passed with flying colors.  We did not get wet at all!  Yay!  Morning brought the sunshine.

                             

Black Hills water fall.

We saw bison both in the Black Hills and in Yellowstone.  Yellowstone has a population of about 4500, so they were very common to see.  This was a fellow in the Black Hills right beside the road.

ON TO WYOMING...one of the most beautiful places in the West and the place we spent the most time.

                

                  

As soon as we crossed over into Wyoming we had to stop and take some pictures of the already beautiful terrain.  The air was heavy with a sweet smell coming from these fields and fields of yellow clover.

We stopped for lunch in Buffalo, WY, which Steve felt was the quintessential Wyoming town.  (The TV show "Longmire" supposedly is set there.)  We went from place to place trying to determine the most authentic western atmosphere and ended up in a Mexican cafe. But we were excited to see "The Virginian" as a featured dining spot.  We hadn't remembered that Elliott had actually spent an externship there in Buffalo working with a veterinarian, so he knows the town much better than we do and says it has the same problems many remote rural towns do with drugs and unemployment.  Sad :(.

Leaving Buffalo and heading towards Yellowstone, we went through breath-taking scenery of the Big Horn Mountains.  This panorama is just a sampling.

Welcome to Yellowstone!  A dream of a lifetime come true for me.  I didn't even know that a huge lake is the center piece of Yellowstone. Our campground was very near the lake.  Here's another full moon (or I guess it's the same one) over Yellowstone Lake.

Indian Paint Brush in our campground.  I have to stop and take a picture for Grammy, who loved these flowers and always commented on them in Colorado.  They are particularly hardy in Yellowstone.

Lakeside sunsets above.

At the top of Elephant Back Loop Trail.  Just three weeks after this, a man of our age who worked in the park was killed and partially eaten by a grizzly with two cubs just off of this trail.  So sad.

Here is one of the brightly colored hot pots throughout Yellowstone.  They aren't all this beautiful blue color. Many are simply boiling mud.  I have a great video of Old Faithful going off, but I can't get it to load here.  (Refer to YouTube!) At one of the book stores in the park we bought a book which is journals of the early white explorers of Yellowstone.  We read aloud a number of their stories--really amazing.  Their descriptions were very accurate and picturesque of what we see today without the tourist walks, signs, and fences to keep us from scalding our legs.

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone was another gorgeous area I'd never known about. The pictures below are of the two falls in it.  One of the early explorers described perfectly the rainbow formed by the mist of the lower falls just as it still looks now--175 years later.

We walked down 350+ steps welded into the cliff side to see the bottom of lower falls and this beautiful rainbow.  We met a couple there (pre-arranged meeting) who we'd been at camp with at Cedar Campus, the InterVarsity camp Steve/Dad spoke at during the first week of our road trip.

Upper Falls

Have a nice warm experience next to a boiling lake.  Supposedly man or beast can break through the muddy crust at any moment scalding feet and legs.

                          

On our fourth day in Yellowstone, we had arranged to meet Randy and Shirley VanOsdol, old friends from our early married days who later moved to DC for a time and now live in Bozeman, Montana where he pastors a Christian Reformed church and they run a real estate business.  They are very outdoorsy and often come to Yellowstone to hike.  It poured rain on the little hike we took with them and these two of their grands (two who live in Wall, SD).  It was very special to see them!

On our way back to the campsite (a long drive of over an hour), we finally saw a grizzly off the side of the road in some bushes.  I was so glad to see one since that had been the big impression as a child--bears everywhere.  I think that used to be more the case when feeding bears was not so frowned upon so they often came to areas where people were.

And finally, our last morning.  Here we are packing up our campsite.  It had been a great place to be. That was our last night of camping on this trip.

Road Trip Week 1

I thought I would tell you about our trip and our days this way. If you want you can peruse it.😏 

We arrived at Cedar Campus last Saturday evening just in time for supper. We had spent the night in a miscellaneous motel in the Pittsburgh Minroeville area. Lots of memories of trips to Pgh. To see Grammy. It was pretty cool/cold and overcast or rainy the first three days there. But most of the folks there are return campers for whom Cedar Campus is their "special place." So they don't seem to notice the rain and cold. The campers were faculty and families from Midwestern universities plus some Intervarsity staff folks. It was fun to be there with Kevin, Amy, and David. They were in the cabin next door to ours. The facilities, as you might remember, are simple but very adequate. They've done a lot to keep it up and develop it, so somehow they've maintained a financial base that Bear Trap was not able to. There's a swimming pool now--very nice and heated, but it was just being heated up and cleaned at the beginning of the week. Towards the end of the week it was open but only at 64 degrees, which was warmer than the lake water though by a good bit. My memory of our cabin is that it was sort of alone in a wooded spot. I couldn't pick it out there though. I think perhaps other cabins have been built around it now.

Dad spoke three times--Sunday, Monday, and Thursday. He did a wonderful job with "Vocation as scholar" and of course was busy with talking with folks all the time. The alternate program times they had faculty couples speaking about aspects of their lives. Those were really great presentations too. People were really vulnerable about their experiences in the university and personally, which was encouraging and inspiring. There were a bunch of children participating in the kids' program as well. That made me remember when we were there 22 years ago. I think some of you and Dad did the swim test in order to do the sail boats. Amazing! It must've been freezing!

In the afternoons I did several hikes none of which are very long or strenuous but pretty along the water or in the woods, including the Narnia Trail which some of you remember. Twice we went on "The Bear" which is the larger pontoon boat for the sunset cruise which didn't happen until 9:30 pm. Dad and I went kayaking one afternoon. We headed out towards the sort of point beyond which is the main body of Lake Huron. We heard a motor boat coming fast towards us when we'd almost reached the point. They pulled up alongside and yelled, "did they tell you the boundaries for Kayaking?" We said no...but we were way beyond them, so we had to head back. 

On Tuesday was an afternoon and evening off so we went to Saud St. Marie (pronounced "Soo") where there are some major locks to allow ships to pass between Lake Superior and Lake Huron. We got to see two 600 foot long cargo ships pass through. It's an amazing feat of engineering. Lake H. Is 21 feet lower than Lake Superior so you see the ship come into the lock and then be lowered 21 feet before it goes out again. I don't know why we didn't take the family there in 1993. It's also a quaint town and right on the Canadian border. Whitefish is the big locally caught fish there, so we had a bowl of whitefish chowder before going back to camp where Dad was doing a book signing along with some other authors at camp.

We left there Friday morning and headed 40 minutes south to catch the ferry to Mackinac Island.

Lady slippers were everywhere!

Looking out from the meeting house at Cedar Campus.

Narnia Trail's end--the lamp post

Sunset from our cabin window--@9:30 PM each evening

A goose family

Sunset from the swimming beach at Cedar Campus

The weather turned beautiful the last couple of days with temps around 70 in the day and lots of sunshine. There are no cars at all or motorbikes (excepting one ambulance) allowed on Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw) Island. Everything is either by bike or horse drawn conveyance or horseback. That makes it a pretty unique place. We parked our car and most of our stuff on the main land and headed over via a breezy, chilly ferry ride. It's been gorgeous weather so far. We're staying two nights in two different Victorian bed and breakfasts. The island is a town full of gorgeous Victorian era homes and The Grand Hotel where the movie "Somewhere in Time" was filmed. There's also a wilderness area and a very resorty town full of fudge shops which are famous (even though fudge shops are at every resort town!)

Yesterday we rode bikes around the periphery of the whole island (only 8 miles) in the evening. It was really beautiful and pleasant except for some bugs which are definitely a factor up here in the north woods.today we hope to bike in the mid-level of the Island where we hear there are lots of nice paved trails as well as a historic fort. One of the most interesting encounters was with a summer resident whose cabin is right on the water about 3 miles from town. She and her husband let us see in their two little one-room cabins/shacks which he inherited from 4 generations back. They spend 5 months there a year with various extended family. They have to haul everything up by bike cart, do all their shopping that way. They can hire a horse drawn taxi for the heaviest stuff. The horses are all really beautiful and seem so well trained but maybe that's just being used everyday in real jobs.

Today was another beautiful day on the island. We relaxed with reading and writing in the morning. In the afternoon we rented bikes again and this time went to the interior of the island. We had to walk up a big hill to get to the level of a lot of bike paths, the carriage house, cemeteries, and a residential neighborhood for permanent residents. Three hours later brought us back down by the Grand Hotel and a bunch of amazing Victorian mansions that sit on a bluff overlooking the lake. We watched the professional for a wedding on the porch of the Grand Hotel and then saw about 4-5 other wedding parties going around the island in fancy carriages.

Dad at the bottom of Arch Rock.

A view on the water from the path circumnavigating the island.

Goose family with Mackinac Bridge in the background.

Beginning to be sunset over the bridge.

So many lilacs here blooming that the island air is scented with them in places.

A team I thought was really pretty

Our yesterday's B & B

More sunset

B&B backyard

Island circumference road 

Going back now to Saud St. Marie...the Army Corps of Engineers building at the locks 

First cargo ship approaching the lock

Entering the lock

Fully in and back gate closed as water begins lowering

Arch Rock from above looking down at the stone beach and the lake

Pano lake view

A huge and beautiful carriage horse with the day off--in the carriage stable

Some of the gorgeous houses on the bluff

View out the hallway window of our B&B