Update Archive

Archive 9/8 - 9/20/2005:
9/8/2005 - (306 miles - 8 hrs – L:46F – H:93F) We left Custer and headed east toward Badlands National Park. The KOA we’re staying is right outside the NP, which makes it nice and close. The camp is mostly deserted. There are two or three other campers here, and they look like overnighters only. This is great! I have the place almost to myself!
We arrived in the early afternoon so we headed out to the Wounded Knee Massacre Site. It was a 70+ mile drive one way over irritatingly bumpy roads. I stopped for gas in Scenic, a small, one street town. None of the side streets were paved and the ‘Business District’ consisted of a gas station, two bars, a used goods store, and a souvenir shop (closed). As we crossed over into the Reservation there was a sign on the side of the road that should have read ‘No Littering’ but had been spray painted to say ‘No Whites’. When we arrived at the site, there is a big placard describing the events of the Massacre and a visitor center near the hill where the Indians were buried. It is a very sad, sobering place. I didn’t take any pictures. It didn’t seem appropriate. The visitor center made me kind of nervous. It listed the numerous times that treaties had been broken by the US Government, from the 1800s to 1973. The most recent display was information on equal rights movements in the late 1980s. I felt incredibly out of place and no so subtly unwelcome. That probably wasn’t the intent. It was probably some weird guilt on my part.
We drove home by a different route, passing through the towns of Martin, Swett, and Long Valley before arriving back in Interior. The storm clouds to our east were amazing.
I bought some firewood and a bag of marshmallows. I haven’t had a campfire this whole time, and hope to soon. It’s too windy now, but later, maybe tomorrow it won’t be.
9/9/2005 - (74 miles – 4.5 hrs – L:67F – H:95F) The thunder woke us up around 6:30 this morning. It only sprinkled a little bit, but the light show was amazing.
We headed into Wall, which is about 40 miles away. Diesel gas there is ‘only’ $2.89. I paid $3.09 yesterday in Scenic…. Anyway, I walked around Wall Drug for an hour or so…and of course I had to have some homemade ice cream. That place is huge!
Leaving Wall, we took the loop road through Badlands National Park. What a place, formed by thousands of years of the build-up and erode process happening again and again.
There wasn’t any wind, so I lit up my campfire and roasted a few brats and a bunch of marshmallows. Good times! I haven’t done that in years.
9/10/2005 - (94 miles - 4 hrs – L:61F – H:95F) We went back through a couple of the dirt roads winding through Badlands. We happened upon several herd of buffalo and a few big horn sheep… more like big horn goats, they have the oddest eyes.
That was pretty much it, we have a big move day ahead of us, and so we’re taking it easy.
9/11/2005 - (428 miles – 8.5 hrs – L:51F – H:91F) We moved today. I’m driving blind, never having been over this road before. We followed I-90 across South Dakota into Minnesota, all the way to Albert Lea. The trip went really well, except for the relentless, ceaseless, non-stop freaking wind. It is so much more work to pull the trailer through wind. I’d rather drive through rain. No to mention I think the DOT out here had a contest to see who could create the worst bump at the bridge joints. A few times I though the trailer was going to fly off, the bumps were so bad. When we arrived at camp my electrical cord refused to come out. I can only pull out about 4-feet, it’s all knotted up inside the cord box (no doubt due to one of those bridge joints!). One of my neighbors tried to help, but we couldn’t get to the cord unless we removed the cap on the outside of the trailer. Since I don’t have anything to put the cap back on with (sealant) I’ll have to wait until I can go buy some. I pulled the trailer up a few feet so the cord could reach and called it a day.
I did light up another campfire and roast a few more marshmallows. That is such fun! I’m tellin’ ya, it’s the small things. My neighbor came back over and told me about a few places I should go see while I’m in the area. I guess I’m going to stay for a few days after all.
9/12/2005 - (444 miles - 12 hrs – L:67F – H:82F) I took several scenic byways (there were four separate detours… what a mess!) to get to The House on the Rock in Wisconsin (Oh. My. God. I’m in Wisconsin!!). What a place! I’ve never seen such a comprehensive collection of such a huge variety of stuff. Alex Jordan started the house in the 1940’s and opened it to the public in 1960. The 200-acre complex contains the world’s largest carousel and tons of collections like you’ve never seen before. Over half a million people visit annually.
The plan was to go see the Effigy Mounds National Monument after our House on the Rock tour. Unfortunately, Effigy Mounds closed at 4:30PM so we didn’t make it in time. We headed back to camp, taking what was supposed to be a quicker way, but it was still hours before we arrived home.
9/13/2005 - (291 miles - 9 hrs – L:59F – H:83F) This morning we stopped at the SPAM Museum which is in Austin, MN. What a hoot! They have so many cool souvenirs and neat SPAM merchandise that it was hard not to buy something for everyone. Then I’d remind myself that I don’t know that many people who eat SPAM.
The 16,500-sq ft museum tells of the Hormel family history, how SPAM was developed and marketed, how it is made, how much of it is made and where it is sold. They even have the Green Midget Café where you can watch the Monty Python SPAM skit as many times as you like. If you’re in the area you must stop and check out that museum.
We drove on to the Effigy Mounds National Monument. I tried a new route, which looked decidedly more direct than the one we drove yesterday, but it still took forever to get out there.
The effigy (animal shaped) mounds were created between 750 and 1,400 years ago by American Indians. The upper Midwest is the only place where a culture regularly built mounds that seem to be in the shapes of birds, turtles, lizards, bison, and most commonly bears. With no written records and few surviving tribal stories and traditions, the origin and meaning of the effigy mounds remains a mystery. Dome-shaped conical mounds were built beginning about 3,000 years ago by people known as the Woodland Indians. By 1,600 years ago, during the Late Woodland period, the local Indian people began to build effigy mounds in the area from just west of the Upper Mississippi River to the western bank of Lake Michigan. Some effigy mounds contain evidence of fire – probably ceremonial - and some contain burial remains. European explorers arrived in the late 1600s and large numbers of American settlers began moving into the region in the 1840s. The land on which the mounds stood was logged, plowed, and converted into farmland. Surveys of northeastern Iowa in the 19th and early 20th centuries documented more than 10,000 mounds of all types. A hundred years later, fewer than 1,000 survived. On October 25, 1949, Effigy Mounds National Monument was established. Within in the Monument there are 206 known prehistoric mounds.
9/14/2005 - (444 miles – 9.5 hrs – L:43F – H:76F) We moved again today, finishing our push to Illinois. We covered 444 miles in roughly 9-1/2 hours. It was a good drive, no wind to speak of. We went south across Iowa, into Missouri and then over to Illinois. The roads in Missouri were crap. I don’t think I’ve ever driven over such needlessly bumpy roads. It seems clear to me that MODOT takes absolutely no pride in their craft. Otherwise why would such shoddy workmanship be allowed. Bumpy roads make me cranky.
Our camp is so completely different from where we just where. This is a Casino RV park and the sites are paved. It’s a nice one for all that. We checked in, unhooked and then caught up with some friends that live in the area.
9/15/2005 - (L:62F – H:78F) It rained a lot last night, thunder and lightening too. It continued raining most of the day, alternating between a light drizzle and a steady downpour.
I went to lunch and then out for dinner and drinks with friends. It’s nice to get out and do stuff like that. I don’t usually, so it’s a nice change of pace. Boy, am I out of practice!
9/16/2005 - (L:58F – H:68F) I didn’t do much of anything till later on, heading out for drinks with Dewayne and Chuck. Good times. We played catch-up and reminisced about back when we all worked together.
9/17/2005 - (L:55F – H:79F) Max and I drove out to the Cahokia Mounds today. I had thought that the Effigy Mounds were impressive. Cahokia is so much more. The city of Cahokia was inhabited from about A.D. 700 to 1400. At its peak, from A.D. 1100 to 1200, the city covered nearly six square miles and had a population as great as 10,000 to 20,000 in extensive residential sections. It was larger than London at the time. There wasn’t a larger city in the US until 1800 when the population of Philadelphia grew over 30,000. There were over 120 mounds, but the locations of only 109 have been recorded. Many have been altered or destroyed by modern farming and construction. About 69 are within the site boundaries. It is estimated that over 50 million cubic feet of earth was moved for mound construction. The Indians moved all that dirt on their backs, one basketful at a time. A basket will hold about 1.5 cubic feet of dirt. It took about 14,666,666 baskets full of dirt carried by people to create the mounds.
We had to stop at the World Largest Ketchup Bottle in Collinsville, IL. What a hoot!
I tooled around, driving by some old haunts, stopped at the American Legion bar I used to bartend at. The same guys were sitting there, in mostly the same places, like I’d never left. Amazingly enough they remembered me from when I worked there.
I met up with a family I used to hang out with when I lived here five years ago. We went to the Italian Festival in Collinsville (great thing about this area is all the beer related festivals, there is always one going on somewhere nearby). There were lots of food booths (yummy food!) and beer gardens and people watching galore. I had a blast. After the festival closed we went to the local VFW for karaoke (I even went up and sang with Kim and April – can you believe it!?!). What a great time!
9/18/2005 - (L:62F – H:82F) Didn’t do much of anything today.
9/19/2005 - (L:68F – H:94F) I met some of my former co-workers for lunch. Good times. Then I went over and had the trucks fuel filter changed. The really nice guy at the dealership printed out some information on a computer chip that would increase my gas mileage by about 20mpg… I’m going to have to look into that.
We had a hell of a storm pass through. Wow. I took some video of it. My poor Sony camera got so wet it won’t turn on anymore.
Storm Video – 238K
9/20/2005 - (L:67F – H:83F) If you haven’t seen “What the Bleep Do We Know” you simply must. Seriously, you gotta. It’s not what you would expect…. More of a documentary style than a regular movie, but boy oh boy is it good. It really makes you think.


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