Transcontinental Trek 2011 Day 4: Bozeman to Seattle

We awoke to 36F and bright sunny skies, and were on the road by 7:30am. We headed across the valley and our first stop was at Wheat Montana. Elise was telling us about it last night. She loves their bread, and suggested we stop and get sandwiches for lunch, or pastries, etc.

Well, let me tell you, that place is awesome! Montana and Washington are huge wheat growing states, and the store/mill had everything from stone-cut oats, to yummy almond bearclaws.

We started to smell something burning in the truck again, and decided to stop at the Ford Dealership in Missoula. Of course, we arrived just as the mechanics were heading out to lunch, so we had an hour to kill.  Bob took on the role of Salesman of the Month and got his own office up front.

I hitched a ride with Richard (the dealership’s shuttle driver) over to Jacob’s Coat yarn shop.  Since we had time to kill, and no power in the truck to run the laptop and write the blog, I needed something to do with my hands.  Otherwise, I just knew I would drive Dave crazy!  The shop owner, Karen, was there and she showed me a huge selection of Montana wool.  It was sensory overload and I was in heaven!  I got 3 balls of absolutely gorgeous local wool. I am so excited to make something with them! On our way back to the dealership, Richard gave me a tour of the city.  I saw the theatre where Carol O'Conner's mnother lived, the window that Roosevelt (I think he said Roosevelt) gave a speech out of, the artsy neighborhoods, and the handmade carousel. 

By the time we got back to the dealership, Dave had made friends with everyone in the shop and on the sales floor.  Luckily, the only thing wrong with the truck was a blown fuse, caused by one of the power converters we were using.  Bob took it apart, and half of the board had melted.  No wonder we had smelled something burning!  We were back on the road around 3:30pm.

We are rising in elevation – heading into the mountains, and the temperature is dropping. We see more and more places with snow on the ground. At the Pintlar Scenic Route Rest Area, we got our first glimpse of snow-capped mountains!

Dave found a polygonia butterfly feeding on sap.

The flowers are not out yet, and since this butterfly species overwinters as adults, they must feed on what they can find – like this broken twig. Check out the subtle green spots on the underside of the wing.

The entire time Dave was working on getting a picture of this butterfly, the ground squirrels were making a ton of noise.

One of them got brave and ran out and grabbed a grape I had dropped on the grass. Then, another one ran out near the trash cans, and grabbed a plastic bag to haul back and use as nesting material. We caught a subtle movement up on the hillside, and got this quick snapshot of a coyote scoping out the squirrels.

As we crossed into Washington, I snapped this photo of a beautiful lake.

But, instead of seeing the rolling countryside and tranquil lake, you see bug guts covering the windshield! They sure grow them big out here!

The rain began, and then the wind picked up, and by the time we crossed the Columbia River there was a travel advisory. The Excursion was pushed out of our lane by the wind. It was sort of a bummer to cross the mountains and not be able to see them.  All along this route are historical markers and towns, that just beg to be explored.  Next time.  It rained all the way through the mountains and to Seattle. We pulled into our hotel in Kirkland, WA at about midnight.

Transcontinental Trek 2011 Day 3: Rapid City, SD to Bozeman, MT

Our wake up call rang with a blaring sound at 6:15am. It is a bright and sunny day - 59F. Amazing! The weather forecast last night was for severe storms all day. We stayed at a very nice Super 8 just of I-90 last night- $45/night. We had another king-size bedroom. In fact we stayed in exactly the same room as last night (room 101), but this hotel is much cleaner and better maintained. There was a SNAFU with our hotel reservations and Bob is at a different Super 8 about 3 miles away. This actually worked out well, because his hotel is on Mt Rushmore Drive, and we have to go that way to get to Mt Rushmore today.

Got Bob at 7:45am (Mountain Time) and headed out. According to the Mount Rushmore & Badlands guide to the National Parks, it is best to see Mt Rushmore in the morning light.

 It seems weird to see the Black Hills Forest in the middle of this seemingly endless prairie. But, here it is, tall Ponderosa Pines stretching high toward the sky. Like Colorado, the Black Hills has experienced a pine beetle infestation. Park staff has been working very hard to thin the forest to a more sustainable condition and to protect scenic old growth trees.

Coming around the bend at Keystone, I can see the Monument over the tree tops. Wow! It glows in the sunlight! As we enter the monument area we’re stunned at how HUGE the visitor’s center is. Not at all like what I remember from the 1970’s.

Now there is a gigantic parking garage, and multiple buildings with a Visitor’s Center, a Gift Shop, a Café, an Ice Cream Shop, Restrooms, and the Avenue of Flags. It is quite impressive - very windy too. We got here at the right time of day. There are only a few cars in the parking lot – which could probably hold 500 vehicles including RVs and busses. We need our windbreakers, even though it is in the 60’sF.

This year is the 70th anniversary of the completion of the Mount Rushmore carving. Beginning in 1927, over 400 workers helped sculptor Gutzon Borglum carve the faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln into the southeastern exposure of Mount Rushmore.

It was the dream of Doane Robinson, the superintendent of the South Dakota State Historical Society to create a massive mountain memorial carved from stone so large it would put South Dakota on the map. He enlisted the help of Senator Peter Norbeck and sculptor Borglum and together they chose the four great presidential figures for the carving to symbolize the birth, growth, preservation and development of a nation dedicated to democracy and the pursuit of individual liberty.

Each face is 60 feet tall and each eye is 11 feet wide. Washington’s nose is 21 feet long – all other noses are 20 feet long. Hmmm… is he a relative to the Russells???

We saw a chipmonk, white-winged race of Dark-eyed Junco along the Avenue of Flags, as well as Red Crossbills and White-throated Swifts. Pine Siskins were flying around the entrance to the monument, too.

Across from the Ice Cream Shop were a couple of Marmots sunning themselves on a rock.

We stopped in the Visitor’s Center and I got my National Parks Passport book.

Every time you visit a National Park, you can get your Passport book stamped with the date and each Park’s unique stamp and sticker. I am so excited! It’s all Kiwi Donovan’s fault. She turned me on to the Passport program last summer when she was on a trek to visit every National Park and Monument in the country. Now, I have my own Passport book to fill with stamps!

Dave spotted a Mountain Goat on the hillside, as we were leaving the viewing area and getting into the car. How cool!

We stopped down in Keystone and picked up some postcard stamps and headed back to Rapid City. Yesterday, we smelled something burning and we thought it was something electrical under the hood of the truck. Today, the cigarette lighters have stopped working. We’ve been using both of them to power our laptops, charge phones, etc. We called Andy at Spring Street – thank goodness they’re open at 7:30am – I was so relieved to hear Gretchen’s voice! Andy suggested we check the fuse, and sure enough it was blown. We stopped in the Ford dealership in Rapid City to replace the fuse and see if we need to have the wiring checked. We changed the fuse, but still no power in the front cigar plug. The backseat plug works, though. No mechanic available to look at the truck until tomorrow. We decided to just use the back plug and keep going toward Bozeman.

Noon – entered Wyoming. Dave spotted a Brewers Blackbird on the fence of Welcoming Center. What a nice Center! There is a huge petrified tree stump outside the door and a big dinosaur inside. It has begun to sprinkle. We saw our first mountain with snow on it to the north as we left.

We reached Sheridan, WY at 3pm in a steady downpour and strong winds – 41F. We’ve gone 1600 miles so far on our transcontinental Trek. By 3:40pm, we were entering Montana – still raining and windy and a little cooler – 38F. The rain finally ended around 6pm and by 7:30pm we were in Bozeman.

Steve and Elise had Bison steaks ready to go on the grill when we arrived at their home. Two Sandhill Cranes walked across their driveway as we pulled in. I walked out to the barn with Elise and met her horse Goldie. Goldie is a very pretty yellow horse (I’m sure there is a correct term for her color and breed), and I loved inhaling the scents of the barn. By the time we got back to the house after feeding Goldie, Steve announced that the steaks were done and we sat down to dinner with great wine, great food and great friends. Dave has missed being with Steve so much.

By 9:30pm we were heading to the Days Inn and before 10pm, Dave was sound asleep. He has slept better on this trip than he has in months. Maybe we should change our professions to over the road trucking!

Transcontinental Trek 2011- Day 2: Minnesota to South Dakota

May 9, 2011: Albert Lea, Mn to Rapid City, SD

7:21am 57F and so dark outside that I thought the hotel windows were treated with dark sunscreen. We had breakfast and got all our gear packed into the truck just before it began to rain. We heard our first Black-capped chickadee in the parking lot along with a Warbling Vireo. 80% chance of rain all day and night.

On I-90 W through Minnesota - pouring down rain. Wind so strong it is blowing the truck out of the lane. Water is pooling on the interstate, causing cars to slide. Wicked, strong rain with hail and visibility is only about 2 car lengths. Thank goodness the worst of it lasted only about 1 hr.

We stopped at the Blue Earth Rest Area once the rain had stopped.

It felt good to get out of the car and relax. That last stretch was hellacious. As we walked back to the car, Bob spotted two Northern Flickers at the edge of the woods. Suddenly, the air was full of the songs of warblers! The storm must have driven them down. We ran to the truck, grabbed our binocs, and within 30 minutes saw 48 species from warblers to grosbeaks to gray-cheeked thrushes. Wow! What a stop!

The more we move west the more the skies clear. The grass is greener here. By the time we reached Mitchell, South Dakota it was 77F and sunny. We stopped at Culver’s for a Butter Burger and a custard. We’re seeing Franklin’s Gulls in the pot holes, lots of Shovellers and a white pelican few over. I swear, if Dave hollers “look at that” and jerks the wheel one more time, we’re going to end up in the ditch!

At Chamberlain, there is an impressive Visitors Center overlooking the Missouri River. We stopped to go potty and walk a bit. There is a memorial to the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804. The party stopped here to rest and cross the river. Do you see the “Beware of Snakes” sign? Obviously, we just HAD to go down that trail! LOL

The Juniper Trees are in bloom, and look so beautiful.

I jumped in the driver’s seat. Dave and Bob’s bird list doubled within minutes! Swainson’s Hawk, Franklin’s Gulls. For miles and miles, we saw acres of prairie with Ring-necked Pheasants. All along the side of the interstate are signs advertising “Wall Drug” “As seen on Good Morning America, etc. So, we just had to stop in the town of Wall and check out this store that seemed to see everything!

Hmmm, he looks like he is really enjoying himself! We found a coffee shop and as I waited for my mocha latte, Dave found the love of his life!

This is Samiko, a 6 week old Bernese Mountain Dog.  I think he made me go back into that store 3 times to take more photos of this puppy.  Someday, he may get one for Christmas.

The Badlands are just 20 miles from here, so we decided to go back and drive through the Park and check it out. My family had come through here in the 1970’s when we took a 3 week trip across the country. I remember that the Badlands were my favorite spot of the northern leg of the trip.

Badlands National Park. We used Bob’s National Park pass and got into the park for free. We hadn’t made it into the park more than 1 mile, when we rounded a bend and saw a group of about 8 wild turkeys walking along the edge.

We pulled off at the Pinnacles Overlook and got our first glimpse of why this is called the Badlands.

This park is a geological landscape of buttes, spires, and rolling grasslands. Located on the edge of the Great Plains, this is part of the largest undisturbed mixed-prairie rangeland remaining in the U.S.

Established as a National Monument in 1939, the area was redesignated as Badlands National Park in 1978. The park encompasses about 64,000 acres and is considered one of the world’s richest mammal fossil beds. Last year, and seven year old girl participating in the junior ranger program noticed something eroding out of the side of a butte. After reporting it to a ranger and three days of excavation, the fossil was removed. Several weeks later the fossil was identified as the skull of a saber-tooth cat, Hoplophoneus that lived here over 30 million years ago. We stopped and walked along the boardwalk at the fossil exhibit area.

About 75 million years ago the Great Plains were covered by a shallow sea. Today, the bottom of the sea is known as the Badland’s Pierre (peer) shale. Over time, the Continental plates moved and pushed the land up. The climate was humid and warm with abundant rainfall and a dense subtropical forest developed on the land. This lasted for millions of years until eventually; climate change cooled and dried the area. The forest gave way to savannah and then to grassland. Wind and rain erosion have created this moonscape of deep gorges and jagged sawtooth ridges with rock layers in subtle hues of sand, rose, gold and green.

Today, the prairie contains nearly 60 species of grass and several species of wildlife. We saw:

 Bighorn Sheep,

a Black-tailed Prairie Dog colony, Mountain Bluebird,

Loggerhead Shrike,

Western Meadowlark,

Lark Sparrow,

Pronghorn,

Cottontail Rabbit, and Upland sandpiper, to name a few. As we left the Badlands and got back on I-90 W toward Rapid City, the rain began, but didn’t last long.

We got in to Rapid City around 9:30pm and had dinner at the Olive Garden. We’re staying at another Super 8 (go figure!) tonight, and I think I was asleep before Dave finished brushing his teeth!

Transcontinental Trek 2011 - Day 1 - Indiana to Minnesota

Sunday, May 8, 2011 – Mother’s Day

9:00am left home. 52F and misting rain. 2 hrs behind schedule already, and it wasn’t Bob’s fault! It was Dave. In typical Dave fashion, at 5:30pm last night, he hadn’t even been home yet to begin finding what he wanted to take to Alaska, let alone pack! So, his migraine set in, and we were up until midnight packing his stuff. Up at 6am, to finish packing, and now at 9:41am, I think he has finally begun to relax. Except, where are the wet wipes?

It never ceases to amaze me that among all of the chaos that is Dave Russell, he will bird. We hopped in the truck this morning, and the first thing he did was hand Bob and me our “Trip Bird Lists”, just in case we wanted to keep track of the birds we see (uh, huh). He had meticulously typed up and 3-hole punched sheets of his bird list and put them in a 3-ring binder (that was at 7am this morning), to keep next to his seat for the trip. So, now Bob and I too had a 12-page ABA bird list and several of Dave’s personalized lists for each segment of the trip. We are all set! As we shut the truck doors to begin our trip, Dave happily yelled out that the first bird of the trip was the European Starling walking across the driveway. Oh, and did I mention that while he and Bob were loading the last bags into the truck, the Eurasian Collared Dove was sitting on the wire above the garage singing.

We took a picture of the fields near home so we can compare them as we move across the country.  It's been raining so much, that farmers haven't been able to get into the fields yet.

10:45am, mile 50, Walmart stop in New Castle to grab lunch for the cooler and a clip board for Bob’s Bird List. Did I mention that its 12 pages long? Bird list is at 19 species. Oops, wait, Great Egret out the window - 20. Heat wave at 57F, and the rain has stopped. Just cloudy.

Stopped at the Salt Kettle Rest Stop in Illinois for a potty break. What a nice place! A pond with two fountains, a really great playground, and nice walking trails. Dave and Rafael stopped here last year on May 13th and the Azaleas were in bloom. Today, the bushes don’t even have the buds starting. It’s like we’re 2 weeks earlier this year instead of just 5 days.

We’re beginning to find Wind Turbine Farms. Ginormous structures with cables connecting one to another that are bigger in circumference than my arm.

At the Spoon River rest stop we came across this House Sparrow colony. If you look at the tree to the left of Dave and Bob, you will see the nests in the tree. I’ve never seen these “Weaver Finch” nests before, and think it is way cool how the sparrows build such intricate nests and live in clusters. One nest looked like an apartment complex, with several family groups living in it. So different….

The weather has warmed up to be in the 70’sF. We actually had to turn on the air conditioner! The truck is riding smooth, and we are listening to The Sheephearders Daughter by Elizabeth Moon, as we traverse the flat farmlands of Illinois and Iowa. As we crossed the Mississippi near Davenport, I looked hard for a Kite, but, nothing. The only raptors we’ve seen so far are Red-tails kestrals.

Stopped for dinner at a Longhorn Steakhouse in Waterloo, Iowa. Yummy steaks. We saw a display of belt buckles on the wall and Bob told us the story of how Toots Mansfield, World Champion All Around Cowboy 1943, lent Bob his saddle. That was the first time Bob retired. How cool is that? How old is Bob Holmes, really….?

More Wind Turbines in Iowa.
Pulled into the Super 8 in Albert Lea, MN at 10pm our time (9pm local time). Bob had called last week to get his own room (guess he’s uncomfortable seeing Dave naked), and was told that the hotel was full. Now, our truck was the only vehicle in the parking lot, and I was unsure if the facility was even open and operational. It looked a little sketchy. I swear, I will never understand Dave infatuation with Super 8 Hotels. They run the gamut of luxurious (rivaling Ramada’s and Hiltons) to shabby, stinky, filthy, flop houses reeking of vomit and urine. This one was old and the carpets were worn and stained, but it was clean and the front desk clerk was hysterically funny. Reveling us with a story from last night of a fiancé checking in and hiding from his betrothed (who spent the rest of the night checking every hotel for him)! Bob was able to get his own room and we got a room with a King size bed. Yeah!!!! I actually had more than the upper corner to sleep on! Very windy outside.  We slept hard all night.