Other things we saw along the way

In Indiana we found a place that sold....  gizzards...  I'm not even sure what part of the body that is but,it is said that while having kicking contests with her grandkids, my great grandma use to say, "be careful or you'll strain your gizzard."  So, I am pretty sure, I don't want to eat something that can be strained while kicking.

I have ALWAYS wanted to go to Pennsylvania!  And now, I have!

       Chicago

We finally made it to Chicago!  Kelli and David let us crash at their place for 2 nights.  They are so awesome!  This is their cute place!  We love it!  It has further convinced Ethan that Chicago is the place he wants to be.  It is pretty enticing!

Kelli's street

Top of the Willis Tower. (formerly known as the Sears tower)  The boys were so brave!  Their mom, not so much!  But, if you look closely, you can see my fingers are hovering towards the edge.  

These were the coolest looking planters I have ever seen.  I'm not sure why I thought they were so cool but, they were pretty stinkin cool!

We got Chicago Style pizza and took it to Michigan Lake and ate there.  Super cool and super delicious!  

                            And the BEAN!!!!!!

Married with Children fountain.  It is called Buckingham fountain (I think).  

Iowa

I have to confess that this first picture is not in Iowa but, it is pretty close.  It is actually in Sioux Falls, SD.  We stopped to see some friends and we met at this park.  It was so pretty and I forgot to put it on the South Dakota page.

This is what we actually saw in Iowa.

Cute Leslie and Tom fed us dinner!  Tom was even nice enough to take the boys for a walk at the park with Trixie (the dog).  What a great place they have!  And, you may notice that I am holding what looks to be some very delicious pickle relish!  Not only does she feed me, she sends me on the road with yummy food!

And some more Iowa.

South Dakota

 This cool bike sculpture thing is off the side of the road somewhere before Crazy Horse.  I was half asleep and thought I must be dreaming it but, when I realized it really was there, we stopped to check it out.  There is a big pile of bikes in the middle and a large pipe and a sprinkle come out of the center of that.  I'm guessing they do some sort of ice thing with it in the winter.  I would love to see that.  So, then there is a big circle of bikes bordering a walkway thing.  It was most interesting!

And this is Crazy Horse.  It is huge!  When it is all done it will look like the white replica in the picture below.  They have been working on this for decades and they anticipate it taking decades more.  To give you some idea of the magnitude of this some of the measurements are; 

Mountain Dimensions When Completed
Entire Carving	641 feet long in the round
Entire Carving	563 feet high in the round
Crazy Horse's Face	87 feet, 6 inches (completed June 3, 1998)
Outstretched Arm	263 feet
Opening under arm	110 feet wide and 100 feet high
Hand	33 feet high
Pointing Finger	37 ½ feet long
Horse's Head	219 feet high (22 stories)
Horse's Mane	62 feet high
Horse's Ears	45 feet long
Horse's Eyes	16 feet wide; 13 feet high
Horse's Nostrils	25 foot diameter

(You may be thinking to yourself, "Wow!  Look at all those motorcycles."  Well, that is just a minute amount of the bikes we saw.  As it turns out, it was the Sturgis 73rd Motorcycle Rally.  We were lucky enough to travel through the last part of Wyoming and the entire state of South Dakota with this group!  If you read my post on facebook about the man who needed his mouth washed out with soap, he was with this group.)  

                                                                                       (I have no idea who the dude in the red shirt is.)




Peek-a-boo!

 Mt. Rushmore was pretty cool but, not as cool as I was anticipating.  I think that all the pictures you see of this are taken from a helicopter, right in front of the faces.  If you sit and ponder the amazingness of these faces, it's pretty cool.  But, the majesty of it was not what I was expecting.  On my travel scale, it is probably a 5.  It was out in the middle of nowhere, took forever to get to, and there wasn't much to do, other then look at it.  I feel terribly unloyal and unpatriotic saying this but, it is the truth and isn't that what this country is founded on?  Or was it life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?  Either way...


We spent the night in Keystone, SD.  A place that I would rather forget than talk about.  They did however have these cool super-sized wood/chainsaw carving things.  This one, in honor of the Sturgis rally.  It was pretty cool.

The Badlands

The badlands were so cool that I could hardly believe it!  I was and still am speechless about it!  Truly a MUST see!  It also is out in the middle of nowhere but, I thought, well worth the effort to get there!  We drove forever without seeing anything except corn and then we turned down a barely paved road and drove for a few miles and then all of the sudden, there it was!  A-MAZING!!  There is a driving loop that takes about an hour to drive if you drive without really stopping.  It took us about 3 hours.  At the end of the driving loop, they had a spot for you to climb on the rock and stuff.  It was one of my favorite parts of the trip!

Wyoming

The first stop, Casper, Wy

 This is the restaurant where we ate, when we FINALLY got to Casper.  The sign says "Enter at your own risk", and we still chose to eat there.  This was my kids first experience with second-hand smoke.  We walked in and they all looked like they were going to barf, choking and gagging.  Once I explained to them what the smell was and that it had nothing to do with the food, they were ok to stay.  Hahaha.

 This is how you swim when you have a cast.  Not so fun!

This was our scenery for 7 hours!  Mercy it was hard!

Goodbye Wellsville

After they packed up all our stuff, we moved all our mattresses into my bedroom and slept in there.  It was one big sleepover for 4 days.  I learned that when you are a kid and your parents tell you not to jump on the bed, it's not necessarily so that you don't break the bed frame.  The box springs can break too...  Looking back on that, it makes sense, since it is made with wood.  Heh heh, you're never too old to learn new things!