How to Get Your Humble Blogger into a Museum

The original car from the Beverly Hillbillies TV show.

Jethro, Granny, Uncle Jed, and Ellie May with Miss Jane and Mr. Drysdale.

Start with a ambient outside temperature of nearly 100 degrees. Add the original car from the Beverly Hillbillies TV hit of the 1960s, and move out of the way as I come running through the door. While browsing the brochure for the history museum on the campus of the College of the Ozarks, just outside Branson, we discovered the museum holds the original car used in the Beverly Hillbillies show. The very same car Uncle Jed drove the family to Californy in after they struck it rich in oil. Besides the car, there are a lot of interesting exhibits in the museum, mainly related to the music industry in the area and local history. There is also a phenomenal taxidermy collection from butterflies, to birds, to a wide range of big game, including the 9 foot standing polar bear. Even so, if you don't make it past Uncle Jed's jalopy, it's still worth the visit.

Music in the Mountains

Presley's Country Jubilee was the original show in Branson, which today is home to more than 40 theatres.

We decided to break up the long drive between Santa Fe and Florida by spending a few days in Branson, MO. We'd heard a lot of good things about the place from numerous RVers over the years and decided to check it out for ourselves. We arrived in the middle of a heat wave so we figured the best way to beat the heat was to swim in the cool waters of Table Rock Lake, where our campground was located, and take in some of the matinee shows offered on the famous Branson "strip." One we didn't want to miss was Presley's County Jubilee. The Presley's were an Ozark’s family who played the underground stages of the Missouri hills. Folks from all over would pack the caves to hear their legendary family performances. So many, in fact, the caverns couldn’t hold’em anymore.So the Presleys left the caves and bought themselves a piece of land out on an isolated two-lane stretch of asphalt just outside of town. Wasn’t long after that when their show opened in a brand new theater --Branson’s original country music theater. The Presleys were a smash hit. People from across the country lined up every night for a chance to hear the country and gospel music the Presley family loved to perform.Pretty soon, other theaters started popping up around the Presleys and, as they say, the rest is history. Today, Branson is home to more than 40 stages and hosts performances by more than 150 acts. It's a great place to visit if you like good old-fashioned entertainment. But be warned -- the place has a serious traffic and parking problem. If you don't like crowds, this might not be the place for you.

Fire in the Hills

From our campground, we could see the fires burning in the distant hills.

When we arrived in Santa Fe on July 7th, the area was in the middle of one of its worst dry spells in decades. About one-tenth of an inch had fallen since the beginning of the year. And massive wildfires had consumed hundreds of thousands of acres in the hills just west of Santa Fe, including the largest fire which had prompted the temporary closing of the Los Alamos laboratory. With our campground located south of the fires and a brisk southerly wind blowing for the duration of our entire visit, we were spared the dense smoke the blanketed areas north of the city. The smoke did make for some dramatic sunsets as the sun set behind the rising plumes. Thunderstorms finally arrived during the last 2 days of our stay which really helped in bringing the fires under control but only a sustained period of rain will truly put them out for good.

The City of Churches

French Romanesque meets adobe at St. Francis Cathedral.

Santa Fe is known for its collection of historic churches and cathedrals and perhaps the city's most widely recognized and photographed is the St. Francis Cathedral. First built on its current site in 1714, the cathedral has undergone several renovations and reconstructions, but has remained an active place of worship since that date. The current structure dates back to the 1880s. The cathedral also houses La Conquistadora, a statue of Madonna that is recognized as the oldest in the United States, dating from 1625.

A Shiny Truck Finish that Costs Only Pennies!

The truck undergoing its re-finishing.

And no buffing required! It does, however, require a good amount of glue and a lot of, well... pennies. Our friends Mike and Heather have a neighbor, Ron, who lives on the other side of the mesa in southern Colorado. Some time back, Ron decided to re-finish his old pickup truck in Abe Lincolns. He painstakingly glued more than 12,000 pennies, all facing upright, to the body of the truck over several months. Not only had he created a conversation piece, but he increased the value of the truck by $120. As time went on, however, it seems Ron started leaving a trail of pennies along the unpaved mesa roads and in the driveways of the folks he visited. Instead of pennies from heaven, on the mesa it's pennies from Ron. Seems the initial batch of glue just wasn't up to the standards for keeping currency affixed to a moving vehicle. So, Ron is in the process of "re-finishing" the truck with what he hopes is a more effective adhesive.

Running the Mighty Arkansas

Record snowmelt in the Rockies has pushed many of rivers in the West to record high levels. The Arkansas River, which originates near Leadville, Colorado, and runs east through Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, before joining the Mississippi River, is no exception. In fact, the most popular whitewater rafting section of the Arkansas, the Royal Gorge near Canon City, Colorado, was closed for 23 days due to unsafe high water conditions. It just so happened that the river dipped below the unsafe threshold on the day we had reserved to raft the Gorge. Paula and I have rafted whitewater on numerous occasions, but the first section of the Royal Gorge on this trip was the most intense and challenging single stretch we have encountered -- and that includes the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. And the fact we were able to run the Gorge with my niece and nephew, and our friends Mike and Heather, made it a special day.

Your humble blogger in the front left seat getting ready to swallow a mouthful of ice cold Arkansas River water.

A Western Road Hazard -- Falling Cows!

I thought someone was playing a joke when we came across this road sign in the town of Red River. But it is an official New Mexico DOT sign erected to warn motorists that, in addition to rocks, cows could fall onto the road from the hills above. The hillside slopes are free-range grazed and some are quite steep. After rains they get really slick as well. In some states, cows have fallen directly onto cars. The more frequent occurrence is when cows slip off the hillside and fall onto the road injuring themselves, and cars run into them.

I'm not sure what a motorist is to do if a cow comes falling out of the sky.

A Train Ride into the Clouds

The spectacular view from the summit of Pike's Peak.

In 1976, on a trip to Arizona with my cousin, David, we passed through Colorado Springs and attempted to drive his American Motors Gremlin to the top of Pike's Peak. We never made it. Ever since, I've wanted to someday return and get to the top. Driving my truck was not going to work so the next best alternative was the Pike's Peak Cog Railway. What's a cog railway? Conventional railroads use the friction of wheels upon the rails, called "adhesion", to provide locomotive power. A cog, or rack, railroad uses a gear, "cog wheel", meshing into a special rack rail (mounted in the middle between the outer rails) to climb much steeper grades than those possible with a standard adhesion railroad. An adhesion railroad can only climb grades of 4 to 6%, with very short sections of up to 9%. A "rack" railroad can climb grades of up to 48%, depending upon the type of rack system employed.The ride up the 14,110-foot mountain took about an hour and provided a great 360-degree view of the surrounding area.

The awe-inspiring view from Pike's Peak was the inspiration for Katherine Lee Bates to compose "America the Beautiful."

The Yodeling Waitress

Liz Masterson, our server, whose voice
caused an avalanche -- or did it?

The White Fence Farm has been serving fried chicken dinners
in Lakewood, Colorado, since 1973.

A few posts back (Sweetheart of the Rodeo), I mentioned how you never know when you are in the presence of a celebrity. On our brief pass through the Denver area, we ran into another celebrity while having a great fried chicken dinner at the White Fence Farm. Liz Masterson was our server and she did a wonderful job, but it seems her talents lie in other areas. Liz also performs western and swing music in Denver and was featured on an episode of "Mythbusters" during the 2007 season. Seems she is quite a yodeler as well as a musician and the show needed someone to test a theory that yodeling could trigger an avalanche. You can check out the episode on YouTube to see if Liz was able to dislodge the snow from the mountain.

Geysers, Mudpots, Hot Springs, and Fumaroles

A roiling mudpot just north of the Lake area.

Those four features make up the vast array of geothermal features scattered throughout Yellowstone National Park. And the fire below the surface that is responsible for providing the fuel for these spectacular sights is a massive active caldera. A popular BBC special claims the caldera could erupt at any time, causing vast destruction and loss of life for hundreds of miles around the park. Geologists studying the caldera, however, believe a major eruption is many (hundreds or thousands) years away. Fear of meeting one's doom at Yellowstone does not seem to have frightened tourists from flocking to the geothermal areas, by far the most popular spots in the park.

The magnificent travertine terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs.

The most famous geothermal feature in Yellowstone -- Old Faithful.

Springtime in Yellowstone?

Springtime Yellowstone --Arrowleaf bitteroot along the Blacktail Deer Creek Trail

Winter Yellowstone -- Paula navigating the snowbanks along the Howard Eaton Trail.

That's the question we were asking ourselves for the first week we were in the park. According to a park ranger we spoke with, the park normally receives 120 inches of snow per year. This year, more than 300 inches fell in Yellowstone. And temperatures remained low enough to delay spring melt by 3 to 4 weeks. So, for the first week in the park, we were confined to hiking trails in the lower elevations where most of the snow had melted. Our attempts to hike trails in the Lake and Canyon areas met premature ends because of the impassable banks of  the white stuff still at the higher elevations.

Urgint Need for Editers at Yellowstonf!!

This way if you need a kiss at Yellowstone.

I may be away from the office but that doesn't prevent me from practicing my annoying habit of noticing misspelled words on signs in public places. While Yellowstone may enjoy the title of most-famous national park, it is also, based on my observations, by far the leader in misspelled signs. Take the plural for bus. I know, Wikipedia claims that busses is acceptable. But busses will always refer to kisses in the style guide in my brain. Only the version with one "s" is acceptable. Anyway, just about every sign in the park referring to that mode of transportation uses the double "s." I also saw a sign pointing the way to a "Dinning Room," something I have no interest in checking out, and one advising not to park "vehilces" in the drive-through lane. Paula actually pointed out all the misspelled signs to a ranger who said they have probably been like that for a long time!

Why Yellowstone?

The vibrant yellow tones in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

The Lower Falls, one of the most photographed and painted waterfalls in the world.

Historians aren't exactly sure how the name Yellowstone came to identify the vast wilderness in northwestern Wyoming when it was set aside as a national park in the 1870s. One theory holds that it was because of the vibrant yellow hues found in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, a deep chasm carved into the very heart of the park. The canyon features the famous upper and lower falls of the Yellowstone River, which were especially impressive this year due to the record snowfall over this past winter. The canyon and the falls can be viewed from a series of impressive overlooks on both the north and south rims.

Celebrating Native American Heritage

Competition is serious at the annual Plains Indian Pow Wow.

We were lucky enough to be in Cody for the annual Plains Indian Pow Wow, a 2-day event featuring Native American dancing, food, and crafts. The Pow Wow is held on the grounds of the Buffalo Bill Museum and serves as a competition in various classes of dancing and attracts participants from Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, and the Dakotas. The costumes are striking, most made by hand by the participants themselves. I'm not sure exactly which dances the contestants were doing but one must surely have been the rain dance. While the first day of the event was sunny and pleasant, the second day brought rain and a bitter wind, canceling the final rounds of the competition.

Sweetheart of the Rodeo

Miss Cody Rodeo Bailie Allshouse with a shameless blogger and new rodeo fan.

In Wyoming, you never know when you are going to run into a celebrity. I can tell you  this -- you can find the 2011 Miss Cody Rodeo working behind the cash register in the cafe at the Buffalo Bill Museum. How do you tell a rodeo queen cashier from the run-of-the-mill variety? Check out the belt buckle. The one Bailie Allshouse, this year's queen, sported was big, shiny, and would hold its own against anything a world-champion prize fighter might parade around the ring. Bailie told us she is up for the 2012 Miss Wyoming Rodeo title this August and was a real sport about making the busy lunch crowd wait in line while she indulged a new fan in a photo. We're rooting for her to bring the title back to Cody this summer.

Why Did the Bison Cross the River?

Bison mothers and children taking part in morning water aerobics.

Your humble blogger snapped this shot while standing between the hungry herd and the good grass up the hill.

Your typical Yellowstone "wildlife" jam.

We aren't exactly sure, but as we were driving one morning in Yellowstone, we noticed a rather large herd of female bison and several calfs running toward the Yellowstone River. The river at this point was at near-record flow and about 50 degrees. The lead bison stopped at the water's edge, as if testing the water, then jumped in and proceeded to swim the 100 or so yards to the other side (where we were standing). Once they hit the shore, they shook
  themselves off like your average dog and took off running up the bank, across the road, and over the hill toward Mary Mountain. This first group was followed by another, then another, and finally a fourth group, all crossing the river and bounding up the other side. Word must have gotten out that morning that the good grass was on the other side of the river.

The World's Most Famous Suds

The best-selling bubble bath in the world has its own section in a Medora museum

I know you are anticipating a blog entry about beer, given my penchant for uncovering worthy microbrews as we make our way across the country. This story, however, is about real suds. The kind that used to create mountains of foam in your bathtub when you were a kid. In particular, this is about the biggest-selling bubble bath in history -- Mr. Bubble. 2011 is Mr. Bubble's 50th anniversary of cleaning the grime off of America's kids, all while putting a smile on Mom's face by not leaving a bathtub ring. What does this have to do with my travels, right? Well, I'll try to keep this clean.

Harold Schafer, the creative force behind Mr. Bubble and numerous other household cleaning products marketed by the Gold Seal Company, was a big benefactor to the Town of Medora, North Dakota, before he passed away about 10 years ago. The historic Roughriders Hotel was in a shambles and many other properties in the town were in need of improvement. Schafer invested in restoring the hotel and was the catalyst in transforming the Teddy Roosevelt-era village into the gateway to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. There is a museum in town celebrating the life of Harold Schafer, which includes a section devoted to the history of Mr. Bubble.

Mr. Bubble hits the big screen with Steve Martin in the 1980s film "The Jerk."

A Blogger's Nightmare

We have finally found the place in the world where the internet and cell phones have not penetrated. It's known as Yellowstone National Park. Due mostly to it's remote and mountain-shielded location, and partly to the National Park Service's attempt to keep the focus visitors having a "natural" experience, cell phone coverage is only available at certain points along the park roads and at varying times. One day we might have a signal near the beaver pond in Hayden Valley-- and the next day no signal in the same spot. Yellowstone is known for its "bear jams" where cars stop to look at wildlife (primarily bears and bison), blocking the road sometimes 20-30 cars deep. They also have cell coverage jams -- if there isn't an obvious animal near the side of the road, chances are all those cars have found a cell signal and they are taking advantage.

As for internet, nothing available in the park. Rumor is there are two suites at the Mammoth Hotel that have internet access, but that has not been confirmed. Park staff also have access to the internet, but they treat it like a big secret. Bottom line for campers like us, we are SOL until we get back to civilization sometime toward the end of the month.

So, if anyone was wondering why I haven't posted, that's the reason. We have not been carried away into the mountains by a grizzly bear.

Champagne Country

No, we didn't take a wrong turn and end up in France! Champagne Country is the moniker for the music played here at the campground by Vern and Rita Davis. They relocate to Medora each summer from Casper, Wyoming, and play a 4-hour set most nights during the summer. This is their 28th year. Vern plays guitar and sings songs from his deep repertoire of country and cowboy songs. Rita doesn't sing but plays the bass and keyboard. They specialize in taking requests from the audience. One night Jimmy Buffett's "Margaritaville" was followed by Don Ho's "Tiny Bubbles." Vern is 80 years old. In his younger days, he wrote several country hits and recorded in Nashville. He told the story of the time back in the early 1970s when he and his band got their big break to go on a nationwide tour. The night before they left, his drummer and bass player quit the band. Vern managed to find some last-minute fill-ins but they didn't work out. End of tour. Bye-bye big break. We've really enjoyed their songs and stories every night. Tonight is their day off and I really miss walking over and listening.

This guest vocalist will stick to blogging after his cameo with Vern and Rita Davis.

Keep the Maple Syrup Off of My Binoculars

The 57th Annual Theodore Roosevelt National Park Birdwalk and Chuckwagon Breakfast combines two of my favorite things -- birdwatching and eating. So, we did have some incentive to rise at 5 AM and drive into the park to participate in this year's event. More than 70 birdwatchers of all ages showed up. The group included serious birders who can identify birds by listening to a few call notes, those interested in adding to their bird lists (us), first-timers looking to see what birding is all about, and several who came exclusively for the pancakes, sausage, and cowboy coffee. With all of the flooding along the Little Missouri River in recent weeks, the conditions were perfect for birdwatching. The group identified 53 species of birds, one of the higher totals in the event's history. The locals were excited by the sighting of a red-bellied woodpecker, a rare sighting in North Dakota. We see them all the time at our backyard feeder in Gainesville so it was no big deal for us. We saw a Bullock's Oriole, which is only found in this part of the country. So we were really excited by that but the locals pretty much yawned their way past that tree.

More than 70 people showed up at 6 AM for birding and pancakes.

We added the Bullock's Oriole to our bird list.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Miles of hiking trails wind through the geologic formations at the park.

Wild horses roam throughout Theodore Roosevelt National Park

How did a National Park in the middle of North Dakota come to be named after a former US president from New York? In the winter of 1883, more than 20 years before becoming president, Theodore Roosevelt had suffered the double tragedy of losing his wife and his mother -- on the same day! To help him clear his mind and deal with his grief, he accepted the invitation of an acquaintance to spend some time big game hunting in the Badlands of North Dakota. He fell in love with the area and its people, so much so that he became partners in a cattle business and built a cabin where he could lead the "strenuous life" that he loved. But the big game hunting he came west for proved disappointing -- the last of the bison herds were gone, having been decimated by hide hunters and disease. After seeing the damage being done to the land and its wildlife, Roosevelt became an ardent conservationist. As president, he established the US Forest Service, proclaimed 18 national monuments, established five national parks and 51 wildlife refuges, and set aside land as national forests. The park was created and named in his honor to commemorate his vision and contributions to preserving wild lands. Today, the park offers the visitor access to those same lands that inspired Teddy Roosevelt.

Teddy Roosevelt's cabin has been restored and is open for tours at the visitor center.

Support Rails to Trails

We rode the 18-mile segment between Custer and White Elephant Junction.

Many communities around the country have converted no-longer-used railroad rights-of-way into trails for non-motorized use. As someone who enjoys traveling with my bike, I inquire about local bike trails as soon as we arrive at a new campground. More times than not, there is a rail trail in the area that offers a great way to see the area and satisfy the need to get some peddling time in. Custer, South Dakota, has the Mickelson Trail, a 109-mile rail trail that runs through the Black Hills. Conceived by former Governor George Mickelson, the trail connects the major towns in the Black Hills and, with no more than a 4% grade on any stretch, it is challenging enough but not so intimidating that it takes away from enjoying the scenery. We saw horses, bison, deer, cattle, sheep, goats, and even a couple of snakes along the way. If you have a rail trail in your community, get out there and ride it sometime. You'll get some great exercise and discover a whole new world right in your back yard.

...and the Sculpture Down the Road You Probably Don't Know

A few hills to the southwest of Mt. Rushmore is the Crazy Horse Memorial which, when finished, will dwarf that of the four presidents. But finishing it seems to be a long ways off. After Mt. Rushmore was completed, Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear and several fellow chiefs invited Korczak Ziolkowski to create a sculpture that "would let the white man know the red man has great heroes also." Korczak was an accomplished sculptor whose first place finish at the New York World's Fair attracted the attention of the Indian chiefs. Korczak started the sculpture in 1947 with $174 to his name and battled financial hardship, injuries, and advancing age until his death in 1982. After his death, the cause has been taken up by his wife and children, who are committed to seeing the sculpture completed. A strong believer in the free enterprise system, Korczak refused all offers of government assistance, relying on private donations. It's a great story, but after 64 years of work, only Crazy Horse's head has been completed. Like I mentioned, it'll be a long time before it's completed, if ever. In the meantime, there is a great Indian museum, sculptor's workshop, Native American Cultural Center, restaurant, and laser light show on the mountain to keep the tourists coming while the carving on the mountain plods along.

Compare the bronze sculpture of Crazy Horse in the foreground to the actual carved mountain behind. It took 67 years to get this far-- you do the math and let me know when you think it will be finished.

The Famous Sculpture You Know.....

That would be Mt. Rushmore. Envisioned as a way to bring tourists to South Dakota, the original idea by local visionaries was to have the faces of western heroes adorn a granite peak in the Black Hills. But, after the locals had trouble drumming up support for their idea, they called in the master sculptor of the time, Gutzon Borglum, who had just finished his work on Stone Mountain in Georgia. Borglum's choice of subjects, four U.S. presidents, promised to elevate the memorial from a regional enterprise to a national monument. Work on the sculpture began in 1927 and took 14 years to complete. Only 6 years were spent on actual carving-- the rest were spent lobbying Congress, cabinet members, and presidents to provide enough funding to complete the work. Washington was the first head finished (1930), followed by Jefferson (1936), Lincoln (1937), and Roosevelt (1939). Interesting tidbit -- carving of the Jefferson head was originally started to the left of the Washington head and was well underway before Borglum realized there was not enough suitable granite left to finish the work. They blasted Jefferson's head from the mountain and started a new one in its current location.

Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln keeping an eye on the more than 3 million visitors who come to their mountain every year.

How to Beat a Rainy Day? Head to a Cave

Giant flow stone formation in Jewel Cave, 345 feet below the Black Hills.

Rare cave boxwork formation in Wind Cave. Ninety-five percent of known boxwork is located in Wind Cave.

With 2 days of rain ahead of us, we took advantage of two magnificent caves in the Black Hills, both administered by the National Park Service. Jewel Cave National Monument and Wind Cave National Park are within 30 miles of each other, were discovered at about the same time by two separate people, and are ranked as the second largest and fourth largest cave systems in the world, respectively. But despite being so close together, they offer vastly different experiences for the visitor. Jewel Cave's formations are more ornate and the rooms much larger. Wind Cave is less spectacular but the passage through is much more confined. You really feel like you are exploring a cave. The really amazing thing about both of these caves is that they have only discovered about 5 to 10 percent of what they think is there. Over 130 miles of Wind Cave have been mapped and about 150 miles of Jewel Cave. That gives you some idea of how big these two caves might be.

The Panhandling Donkey

Sometimes when I exit I-75 in Gainesville, there's a person looking for handouts from the motorists waiting for the light to change at the bottom of the ramp. On the Wildlife Loop Road in Custer State Park, we came across this donkey who walked right up to the driver-side window, obviously recognizing a couple of out-of-town tourists who might just be gullible enough to fall for such an obvious ploy for some picnic lunch leftovers. We may be some thin-blooded flatlanders, but we didn't just roll into town on the tomato truck!! No handouts from us. Besides, he was making an ass of himself.

Threading the Needle (or How to Get a Big Truck Through a Small Hole)

One of the highlights of driving the Needles Highway in Custer State Park is passing through several narrow tunnels carved out of the Black Hills. The first one we encountered had a posted width of 8 feet, 4 inches. The width of my dual rear-wheel truck....8 feet. We did have the option of turning around. But, of course, that wouldn't have been any fun. So, with 2 inches to spare on each side of the truck and a park ranger holding up traffic in case I had to back out of the tunnel, in I went. Very slowly. And out I emerged without any new scratches on the truck. The other tunnel we came to had a width of a whopping 9 feet, so I went through that one steering with only one finger while fiddling with the radio.

My approach to Tunnel 6 on the Needles Highway.

In this photo, I am wondering if leaving blue paint on the tunnel walls is against park rules.

There Might Be a Missile Under That Bison Patty

For those of you who remember when the USA and the USSR were engaged in the Cold War, South Dakota played a key role in our ability to respond to a nuclear attack. Under the peaceful meadows just outside Badlands National Park lie more than 150 Minuteman missile silos. The Minuteman program was developed in the 1950s and each missile could travel over the North Pole and arrive at a target (presumably the USSR) in 30 minutes, delivering the explosive equivalent of 1 million tons of dynamite. Today, the National Park Service conducts tours through a former missile control center. There were 15 such centers in South Dakota, each capable of launching 10 missiles. So, we know where the control center was. But as to exactly where the missiles are.... well, they're somewhere out there among the bison and prairie dogs.

The grasslands as they looked this week.

The Minuteman control room as it looked in the 1960s.

Domino's-inspired artwork on the blast door of the control center.

Killer Marketing Idea -- Free Ice Water!!

Maybe not today, but back in 1931 in the town of Wall, South Dakota, a struggling pharmacist and his wife were just about to give up on making a go of it in this out-of-the-way hole in the wall (pun intended). But, with the creation of Mt. Rushmore just down the road, the wife convinces the husband to give it one more summer, thinking all those tourists needed a place to stop after a long day of travel. So, with the help of some strategically placed signs offering free ice water, the crowds started showing up at Wall Drug and the rest is history. Today, upwards of 20,000 people visit Wall Drug on busy summer days and the little drug store now features a mall, restaurants, two live cowboy orchestras, art galleries, and a western entertainment center. Oh, and they still give away free ice water -- 5,000 glasses every day during the summer.

Badlands

Ever since we arrived in Badlands National Park, South Dakota, I've been humming the Boss's "Badlands" from the Darkness on the Edge of Town album. The park was created in 1978, "Badlands" was released in 1978. Coincidence? Hmmm. Erosion is the lead player in this park. Wind, rain, and snow carry away thousands of tons of sedimentary deposits every year, leaving behind the colorful spires and formations. The area is surrounded by the Buffalo Gap National Grassland, so the rough peaks are a vivid contrast to the gentle waves of green prairie grass that stretch to the horizon. Some good hiking here, but you need to keep your eyes open for wildlife -- especially of the slithering variety.

The House of Sod

In the 1860s, the federal government came up with a plan to encourage settlement of the West by offering free land to settlers who were willing to stake a claim. Each family was offered 50 acres and received a deed to the land after 5 years of "proving it up." Many of the settlers were European immigrants who read about the offer in their homelands and came to America to strike it rich as land barons. They got the land they wanted, but with the land came a hard life of survival on the Great Plains. Because they could be constructed with little cost and with available resources, sod houses became a popular dwelling type among the settlers. We visited a sod house in Gothenburg, Nebraska, a community founded by Swedish immigrants. Up to nine people lived in this house, which consisted of two rooms and an outhouse. The black and white photo shows a typical sod house from the 1880s.

Wells to Windmills

We stayed overnight in Russell, Kansas, hometown of Senator Bob Dole. Russell was a booming oil town at one time and you can still see some working wells dotting the landscape in the area. The well pictured here was just outside the entrance to our campground. There is also strong visible evidence that the economy here is transitioning from oil-based to more wind-power based. We passed numerous wind turbine farms as we made our way west on I-70. I think it's a great place to put a windmill since the wind seems to be blowing all the time out here on the plains. The other photo here is of a wind turbine blade being trucked through Elwood, Nebraska, shortly after we left Russell. It must have been a couple of hundred feet long.