|
Tuesday,January 16, 2007: Wallaceburg
After packing up and
visiting Bertha, we got on the road about noon. We had made one stop for a last-minute gift
for Somer, too. It was a short travel
day since we were stopping for our first night in Wallaceburg. We had a great visit with Mom and dinner at
the Oaks. The van seems very full,
with Larry’s ski gear and clothes for every weather, plus food, leisure
materials and computer stuff. Is it
possible to travel light? Not,
apparently, if you’re a Hatt! Just to
complicate things, the Peru
trip that we were 90% certain was OFF, suddenly was 100% ON, as of about 5 pm
on Monday. So we had to scramble to
pay the travel agent and we’ll need to arrange passports, shots and so on
while we’re away. There’s only about a
3-week pause between when we return from this trip and leave for Peru. Yikes!!
[ (Larry’s
comments or additions will be in square brackets like these) We got away at noon today after a
brief visit with Grandma Hatt and a Somer pickup at Ikea. Gma Hatt was having her feet attended to so
we didn’t stay long. She recognized us
and seemed to understand our trip to an extent At Ikea we picked up a wooden easel
for Somer’s Christmas present. We are overnighting
in Wallaceburg at the normal Oaks motel.
We had a good visit with Gma P for the afternoon, and she came out
with us to the Oaks Restaurant for a nice dinner. We would have gone to the Black Sheep but
she was out there for lunch with a friend.
She wanted to bring her own car so she could drive herself home. Larry has set up the computer for the test
of remote access to the website and is actually making this post while Janice
is returning to the residence with Gma P.
I was greatly relieved that access to the website via FTP is working
like a charm; it would be tough to fix it from here. We plan on leaving early in the morning
and crossing the ferry at Walpole
Island
into USA. We then cross the north of Detroit
and head through Chicago
and plan to overnight in Madison,
Wisconsin. Madison
is where Janice spent several years after she was first married. We shall see if she remembers anything
about the locale!]
|
Wednesday, January 17,
2007:
Madison,
Wisconsin
We left Wallaceburg before 8am
and crossed at the Walpole
Island
ferry.[
Arriving USA ].
The US
customs agent confiscated our picnic roast beef, but otherwise we had no
problems. Larry did some fancy
navigating to avoid Detroit
and get us onto I90/94 heading for Chicago. We had a frigid ( and
meatless ) picnic at a rest stop and cruised into downtown Chicago
in the early afternoon. There were a
few very seedy areas, but the waterfront and downtown look quite
spectacular. We’ll have to go there
for a few days sometime and really see it.
From there it was a fairly uneventful run to Madison, Wisc. We got a
hotel on the outskirts and drove down to the capital square. [Wisconsin State
Capitol ] . It’s still gorgeous, but Rennebaum’s Drug Store is now a Walgreen’s. We had a beer and supper at what I think
was the pub we used to go to, but I wasn’t successful at identifying where we
lived 37 years ago. I certainly
recognized the frigid winds.
[ I have to put this
in. Just got a note from the McDonalds
in Maine. Babies aside these dudes rock! (
The Cool McDonalds ) ]
|
|
Thursday, January 18,
2007:
Chamberlain, South Dakota
[ Jan’s Post ] We got a
fairly early start from Madison
and headed west on I-90. It was a
windy day with snow in the air. That made
driving a bit tricky and we did see some cars in ditches. Other than the weather it was a n uneventful drive.
At Lacrosse, Wisc. , we saw the mighty
Mississippi
– mostly frozen over in this weather.
We climbed up out of the Mississippi
Valley
and onto the plains. Over the course
of the day we saw very flat and very rolling land, as well as some deep
“coulees” ( the local name for gulleys
). We both had come away without some
essentials so around noon
we found a Kmart and shopped for a bit.
We decided to eat at the grill rather than having another freezing
lunch out of the back of the van. The
weather cleared for awhile, then went back to
blowing snow. After more of that we
were nearly ready to get off the road at Sioux
Falls in mid-afternoon. However, once again it cleared, so we
motored on to Chamberlain
SD. From the front of our motel we can see the Missouri
River. Good
supper at the famous Casey’s Café (where Cracker Barrel got the idea )
|
Friday, January 19, 2007:
Gillette,
Wyoming
After a couple of days of pretty flat land and hard driving,
today was chock-full of interest. We
were on the road in time to see the sunrise in our rear view mirrors and
pulled off to get a better look. It
was beautiful – there is such an expanse of sky out here that it is quite
amazing. Our first adventure was the
scenic loop through the Bandlands. What wonderful formations and colours! The road
is only about 35 miles long, but we made frequent stops and took many
photos. We walked one very short
trail, to the edge of a canyon and then one longer one that climbed above a
very interesting rock formation, through the woods. At one overlook we could
see two herds of white-tailed deer, about 15 deer per herd. Interesting that
they divide up so evenly – Larry commented that he didn’t know they could
count! We stopped at the Visitors’
Center to watch the movie about the area.
It seems that it is equally brown in summer as now. [ Badlands
Pic1,
Pic2,
Pic3 ] The road brought us out at Wall,
South
Dakota – home of the famous
Wall Drug Stores. It’s much more than
a drug store now. The complex takes up
a whole long block of the down town area, and includes several areas with
specialty shops and a restaurant. We
picked up a few souvenirs and admired the local crafts, including the
beautiful Black Hills
gold which is several colours (yellow, white, pink,
green ). My
dad brought my mom a broach of it when he came here hunting about 45 years
ago and she still wears it occasionally.
It had warmed up a bit – we even ate our picnic lunch in the Wall Drug
parking lot, after nearly perishing at the early stops in the Badlands. Our next stop was
Mt.
Rushmore. The road is long and winds up and
downhill. There were few cars, just as
there have been for a day or two, on the highway. Anyway – Mount
Rushmore looks like the pictures, but also not. It’s higher on the mountain than I expected
and the carvings are a bit smaller.
Great to visit. Amazing to
imagine carving it out of the mountain. [ Mt.
Rushmore
Pic1,
Pic2,
Pic3 ] From there we took a cross-country route back to
I-90 through the Black Hills
National Forest,
passing through the famous frontier town of Deadwood. Turns out there’s
a casino about every 3 feet all over town.
Now we’ve stopped for the night at the Quality Inn in Gillette
Wyoming. Big plans for tomorrow and fingers crossed
for a few more days of good weather.
|
|
Saturday, January 20,
2007:
Mammoth Hot Springs,
Yellowstone National
Park,
Wyoming: Once again we were on the road in time to enjoy
the sunrise in our rearview mirror. It
was less spectacular than yesterday but enjoyable nonetheless. Our first mission was to find chains for
the tires. To that end we drove to a
Honda dealership in Sheridan,
Wyoming. They directed us to a tire shop down the
road. The manager there told us that our tires were a very unusual size and
no one carried chains for them. We
decided to try in Billings,
Montana anyway. Before that however, we visited the Little
Bighorn Battlefield site. It was
nearly deserted and very cold, but we both found it very moving. There are two memorials – one erected by
the US Army, to the memory of the soldiers who died there, and one by the
American Indians to the memory of the men, women and children who died there
in defence of their way of life. There are memorial stones scattered across
the area showing where soldiers and warriors fell. The small museum is excellent too. From there we headed to
Billings,
MT and really lucked in . We found a
tire store that was open ( unusual on a Saturday
afternoon [ in these parts ] and they directed us to their supplier who had
the cable chains we needed in stock.
We could breath easier with those in our possession for sure. We had lunch in Billings
and struck out for Yellowstone
National Park. As we neared our turn off the weather
really began to deteriorate and we drove the 50 miles to
Gardiner,
MT in heavy
snow. Once into the park [ back in Wyoming
] it was quite treacherous driving, winding through the hills. However we found the hotel, signed on for a
2-night package including 2 tours for tomorrow and a private hot tub
session. Delicious dinner in the
dining room and a early night. We even saw elk grazing around the hotel
here in Mammoth Hot Springs.
[ A very moving photo of part of the memorial to the Indians who
died at the Battle of Little Big Horn: Photo ]
|
Sunday, January 21, 2007: Mammoth
Hot Springs, Yellowstone: An early start to catch
the “ Wake Up the Animals tour [that took off] at 6:45. We and another couple were taken [ in the dark ] to Lamar
Valley
(the Serengeti of Yellowstone ). We
saw many, many bison and elk, some quite close to the vehicle. We also saw lots of ravens. The high
point though, was watching 4
wolves as they scouted a herd of elk and the elk used various tactics to fend
them off. While Larry was on the road
watching [ eyes in the binocs
], 2 coyotes trotted past him about 10 feet away. Overhead a couple of bald eagles soared and
swooped. The whole trip was amazing
and the scenery was spectacular. We
wee back at the hotel around 10:15
and did a quick trip to the Visitors
Center
to get trail maps. We walked to a
couple of the hot springs
near the hotel here at Mammoth then picnic’d in our
room. After lunch we headed out on a
tour to the Noris
Geyser
Basin. We had the same guide, Paul, but a very
different experience. A van picked us
and a family of 5 up at the hotel at 12:15,
but it only took us a couple of miles.
We transferred to a Bombardier snow-cat vehicle and were issued with
ear plugs. We then proceeded over
hard-packed snow roads, stopping at a few points of interest. There were few animals, none close up. But there were amazing hot
springs and areas with many
steam vents across a pretty broad area.
We saw frozen waterfalls and steaming streams full of [ tropical ] vegetation.
There were snow drifts and areas where the ground was hot enough that
the snow didn’t stay on it. At the
Norris
Basin
we hiked for about an hour and saw many manifestations of geothermal activity
– several “constant spouters” – small geysers that sploosh out water every few seconds or minutes, and steam
most of the time. The most impressive
was Steam Boat Geyser. It had several
10 foot eruptions while we watched and many smaller ones. It apparently has 70 foot eruptions fairly
often and “major” (!?!) every few years.
Then a noisy rough ride back to the hotel by about 4:45. [ a few drink in
the room, dinner, and that free hot tubing, a musical slide presentation from
a guide, put us to bed real
early.
|
|
Janice’s
Photos of Yellowstone, Lamar Valley
|
Larry’s
Photos of Yellowstone, Lamar Valley
|
|
Bison very near our van Pic1 Pic2
|
We were watching the wolves and a coyote passed me Pic1
|
|
Local scenery Pic1 Pic2
|
Bison through the windshield Pic1
|
|
|
Bison in the grass Pic1
|
|
Yellowstone Norris
Basin where the thermals and
geysers rule
|
Bison keeping pace with us Pic1
|
|
J & L travel by the Bombardier Snow Cat Pic1
|
Bison up real close
Pic1
|
|
Our tour group at a steam geyser Pic1
|
Buck elk posing Pic1
|
|
Circle formed circle caldron Pic1 Pic2
|
Bison on the road Pic1
|
|
Pool in the snow Pic1
|
Bison playing chicken with the van Pic1
|
|
Trees framing pool
Pic1
|
|
|
|
Yellowstone Norris
Basin where the thermals and
geysers rule
|
|
Janice’s Videos from the
Porcelain
Basin overlook trail
|
Jan at the caldron in the snow Pic1
|
|
Video
1
|
Hot pool in the snow
Pic1
|
|
Video
2
|
Path to scenic caldron
Pic1
|
|
|
|
