Days 34 and 35 - The drive home

We made it home after two day of 9 am to 5 pm driving and one night spent in Milan, OH. Total driving for the trip was 8,838 miles.

Day 33 – Cheese Curds

JC and Heather's Cheese Shop

We spent the day driving across Wisconsin (aka America’s Dairyland) down to Milwaukee where we are spending the evening. During the drive we saw tons of cheese shops and we stopped at the same one that JC and Heather stopped at on their honeymoon cross-country drive last month. We bought cheese curds (a local favorite) and a nice cheese sampler to take home. Then for lunch we tried fried cheese curds (another local favorite). They tasted very similar to Fried Mozzarella Sticks so no big deal for us. In fact, they could have used some Marinara sauce.

Wisconsin State Capitol

We made a stop in Madison to take a drive through the University of Wisconsin. Not impressed at all, but then neither of us liked them going in. And of course since Madison is also the state capitol, we stopped by to see the capitol. In case you are counting, this was our ninth state capitol. And after seeing so many buildings that were very similar in design, we think some of the states went together to get a discount on a volume purchase. Can you say "cookie cutter?"

Miller Park (Milwaukee, WI)

Did a little of sightseeing in Milwaukee. Not sure what I expected but the city seemed cleaner than what I had pictured. Miller Park looks nice from the outside but the Brewers were on the road tonight. We also took a ride down to look at Lake Michigan.

Most likely this is the last post from the trip. We drive 6.5 hours tomorrow to Milan, OH and 7 hours home the next day.  No sightseeing is planned so nothing to talk about.

Day 32 – Everything on a stick

Pig Grill for sale at the Mall of America

We started the day with shopping at the Mall of America, which is the largest mall in the US. I think technically the King of Prussia Mall is bigger if you count floor space in both malls, but the Mall of America has many more stores and is all under one roof and includes an amusement park in the middle. The size is jaw dropping.

Then we took a driving tour of St. Paul, the second and smaller of the Twin Cities, and coincidentally another state capitol. Who knew? We saw the Fitzgerald Theater, home for A Prairie Home Companion and also other local and national shows. It is named for F. Scott Fitzgerald, a native son of St. Paul. We even had time to drive to my old stomping grounds at the Unisys plant in Roseville where I went on business more times than I care to count.

Crowd at the Minnesota State Fair

Finally we closed the day with a late night at the Minnesota State Fair. It is the second largest state fair in the US (behind Texas) and the thing that struck us most is that they sell everything possible “on a stick”. Corn dogs are an obvious example, but they also had walleye, key lime pie, spaghetti and meatballs, fried pickles and almost anything else you could think of. I even took a picture of the sign advertising spaghetti and meatballs on a stick as I didn't think anyone would believe it. I still don't know how they do it.  The fair was also excellent for entertainment. We skipped the main stage entertainment (Journey and Joan Jett) and opted for the smaller (aka free) acts. 

Marcia Ball and Band 

We had the sublime pleasure of drinking Leinenkugel (a local beer) in the shade and listening to Marcia Ball rock out some New Orleans R&B. Her piano playing was fantastic and the band put us in the mood for going to New Orleans next month. She regularly plays at Jazz Fest. We also watched a lumberjack show and closed the night with Cashed Out, a Johnny Cash Tribute band. They were pretty good and the singer had all the right inflections, even though his voice wasn’t quite as deep as Johnny’s. All in all, this was our favorite of the three state fairs we attended this year.

Day 31 – Drive to Minneapolis

We had a couple of “Fargo” moments today which gave us a little insight into the city. First you need to realize that Fargo is a small city and only has a little more than 111,000 residents, but it is also the biggest city in North Dakota and has a full collection of fast food restaurants and other stores. We were therefore surprised to read an article on the front page of the Sunday paper with a picture showing about 20 cars in line waiting to get into their first Sonic Drive-In. Apparently the grand opening was such an event it caused a traffic jam and the Rotary had to volunteer to direct traffic there for a month. I guess they got a little tired of McDonalds. The second moment was hearing them pronounce the word “Bison” on TV. They pronounce it like “bye-zin” instead of “bye-son” as we do. I think that maybe that is maybe part of the famous Fargo (Fair-go) accent. Accent? You betcha.

World's Largest Prairie Chicken

The drive to Minneapolis was 4 hours long and not too interesting except for a stop at the World’s Largest Prairie Chicken. We decided to pass on seeing the World’s Largest Pelican at Pelican Falls or the World’s Largest Catfish as they were too far off of I-94. So what is a Prairie Chicken? In the 1800’s when the buffalo still were plentiful on the plains, this area of Minnesota and actually several other states was tall prairie grass and prairie chickens were also plentiful. However when the land was cleared for farming, the tall prairie grass was removed and the prairie chicken was driven to near extinction without their natural habitat. Another case of Americans running roughshod over the environment. Seems to be a constant theme in the west.

In Minneapolis we did a quick visit to their Institute of Art to see their impressionist paintings (good but not great) and also did a driving tour of the downtown area and the University of Minnesota.

Day 30 – World’s Biggest…

Enchanted Highway Sculpture

We spent last night in Dickinson, ND, which is in the North Dakota oil fields which have recently been booming due to all the fracking they are doing. As a result, North Dakota has the highest rate of new jobs created in the US and also a housing shortage, hence leading to the high price for a motel room in Dickinson. Not a problem for us as we used Hilton Points.

We drove to Fargo today, but made a detour to drive the “Enchanted Highway.” The Enchanted Highway is a 30-mile stretch of road which features numerous scrap metal sculptures at various points along the highway. Photo is of the “Tin Family.” Dad is 45-feet tall and the family was constructed of farm tanks, telephone poles, barb wire, and augers. We also saw deer, prairie pheasants, grasshoppers and Teddy Roosevelt sculptures among others.

Triceratops at North Dakota Heritage Center

Made a quick stop in Bismarck to see another State Capitol and take a tour of the North Dakota Heritage Center. It was free, of course. I was afraid it would be lame, but it turned out to have a great collection of dinosaur bones which were mostly found in North Dakota. It probably was the best collection of dinosaur bones in a single site that we have seen. Outside the museum was a statue of a local girl made good – Sacagawea (guide and interpreter for Lewis and Clark). Yes, we came across their trail again as the Missouri River, one of Lewis and Clark's main routes of travel, passes through Bismarck.

World's Largest Holstein Cow

World's Largest Bison

North Dakota seems to like to claim the “World’s Biggest” of about anything you can think of. We saw in order the World’s Largest 1) Holstein Cow, 2) Sandhill Crane and 3) Bison.  I stood beside them to give you an idea of their size. The cow was "udderly" gigantic.

One humorous thing we came across was a billboard in Fargo which simply said “Be Polite.” We think that a sign like that would be full of bullet holes and covered with impolite graffiti back in Philadelphia.

Day 29 – Big Sky, Badlands and Bison

Big Sky in Montana

We said goodbye to Havre, MT, and drove across the state to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park which is just across the border in North Dakota. The drive across Montana took 6 hours and was really pretty boring as the landscape was the same almost the whole way. The land was flat, basically treeless, and brown fields with occasional small towns that were spaced far apart. The one thing that was interesting was the sky. We could see why they call Montana the “Big Sky” country as you can see forever and there is really nothing to see but sky. The clouds were the big, puffy kind with flat, dark bottoms. I swear that they seemed only about a hundred feet above us but it had to be an optical illusion.

North Dakota Badlands (TR National Park)

Theodore Roosevelt National Park was the last of the 7 parks we plan to visit on this trip and the newest on our list, established only in 1978. The park honors Teddy Roosevelt who owned a ranch and lived here when he was in his 20s. He also was a big supporter of National Parks when he was president. The original log cabin where he lived is now located behind the visitor center. The park is a mixture of badlands and grasslands, so it is a natural habitat for wildlife including elk, bison and deer. 

American Bison (TR National Park)

We saw several prairie dog towns in the park and also saw bison 5 or 6 times, including a herd of about 30 in the distance. We saw this big one guy sitting near the road and taking in some sun and then also came across another who was blocking the road as we were leaving. He just casually strolled by our car and joined a female bison and her calf up on the hill above the road. He could have cared less about the cars.

Day 28 – Glacier National Park (Day 2)

Bird Woman Falls

Today was our last day at Glacier and we drove the Going-to-the-Sun Road through the park and exited on the eastern side of the park. It is a 53-mile drive through some of the best mountain scenery going. It is also an old road (finished in 1932) and therefore is very narrow, has a lot of switchbacks and almost no guardrails to speak of. I read that it gets so much snowfall, over 80 feet at the summit at Logan Pass, that avalanches keep destroying the guardrails, especially on the eastern side of the park. Needless to say the driver (me) didn’t do much sightseeing until he could pull over. Logan Pass at the summit marks the continental divide.

Going-To-The-Sun Road

We started in the valley that you can see in the second picture, climbed to 6,646 feet at Logan Pass and then all the way back down the eastern side of the park.

Home-made Razzleberry Pie

The weather was good again today, sunny but with a few more clouds. After spotting a bear and some deer yesterday and not having our camera handy, today we were super ready and of course saw no animals (except for some cows wandering free on the road outside the park). Isn’t that how it always is? After exiting the park, we stopped at the Park Café to have a piece of home-made pie based on Bill’s recommendations. Yum. It was enough to tide us over until dinner. Jeanne had peach and I had Razzleberry (a combination of raspberries and blackberries). And speaking of berries, I should give a shout out to the Huckleberry. It is apparently a Glacier National Park local favorite and we had it a couple of times. Last night we split a Huckleberry milk shake and for breakfast the hotel had Huckleberry scones (one of Jeanne’s favorites) and also fresh huckleberries. They look similar to blueberries but smaller in size and more tart.

Harvested Wheat Fields (Somewhere West of Havre, MT)

After the park, we drove east through upper Montana for about 180 miles to Havre. This part of Montana is extremely flat with vast wheat fields, some of which were being harvested as we passed. We could see mountains to the distant north across the plains but we think they were in Canada as the border is only about 25 miles away. Havre is definitely a railroad town as we can hear trains running almost constantly outside our window. Might be a long night.