We Are Ready Now.......

Well after 37 days on the road, visiting 12 states and travelling over 6000 miles, it seems we have both decided we are ready now to go home.

It has been an amazing trip, we have seen so many things.  There were lots of firsts, lots of things and places we had seen before and some places we never dreamed of being.

Being on the track at the Indianapolis Speedway was something that was purely accidental, not planned and something we didn't even know was possible.  It was an incredible experience.




We experienced almost all forms of weather.  Temperatures went from a low of 14 degrees to a high of 70+.  We had bright sunshine and clear blue skies as well as dark cloudy icy cold gray days.  We had rain, sleet, ice pellets, snow and everything in between.  We saw rainbows and moonbeams.

Our trip this time included two visits to our most favorite place, Yellowstone.   What a difference two weeks makes.  The first visit to Yellowstone was warm, bright and clear.  The second visit two weeks later was cold, rainy and snowing.  We enjoyed both visits tremendously.  It was fun to see the park in the snow.  It has such a charm and in our opinion it is only enhanced by the snow.

We also had our first close close, way too close encounter with buffalo.  As we rounded a corner, there in the road were 5 buffalo.  They were in the road.   A couple oncoming cars waited, as we did, for the buffalo to decide which way they wanted to go.  You just don't rush a buffalo!  As they filed past the driver's side of our car (and I'm driving) I rolled up the window.....as if that would have helped any if the buffalo decided to drive!  I could have reached out of the window and touched two of them as they sauntered by!!!  

As we went through the highest elevation, at 9000 ft., it was storming pretty good.  Snow had covered the road except for the two tracks left by previous cars.  It got a bit  dicey for a few minutes but we made it through fine.  As soon as we got over the top and descended to lower elevations, it was much better.

Tonight we are in West Yellowstone, Montana.  It is just outside the western entrance of the park.  There are lots of closed roads for the season, construction on others and it's a bit difficult getting through and around the park right now.

We plan to be home probably in another 3-4 days.  We will probably see our beautiful San Francisco by Monday latest.  It's almost over, but we are ready to be home.   A good night's sleep doesn't seem to rejuvenate like it should.   Guess we are getting too old!

Although we are a bit tired and will need some down time at home to catch up on rest, we are two very happy people tonight.  Happy that we were so blessed to be able to make this trip, again, and happy that we have each other.

I think we will have one night somewhere in Idaho and in Nevada and then a stop to see Jim and Gail in Lincoln and then home.

Wayne and I both want to thank you for following our adventure and we hope that everyone will be able to do a RoadTrip someday just like we did.

Just as soon as we get home we are going to begin saving our pennies for the great Road Trip 2011 !!!!!  That is if the good Lord is willing and the creek don't rise!

Love to everyone
Wayne and Colleen

**Alert The Media !! NEWS FLASH! Wayne A. Stevenson, Jr. visits Mt. Rushmore on Monday, October 12, 2009 !! Write This Down !!

It's true, it's true, it's actually true!   Jim, Chad, are you listening?   Wayne actually saw Mt. Rushmore today !!!   Oh the applause is deafening, I know it!!!

We left Wall, South Dakota early this morning, well early for us.  It was about 7:00 or so.  We arrived at Mt. Rushmore around 8:30am.  It was nasty cold, mid 20's.  Yes, that's me and no, I didn't freeze all the way through!

That face says it all......this old lady is NOT a fan of cold, snowy weather in the 20's.

The entrance to the monument is very nice, of course it would have been nicer if it had been about 40 degrees warmer!

Yep, that's him!  My sweet husband Wayne standing at the entrance of Mt. Rushmore National Monument, who, as some of you know, had thumbed his nose at the monument during earlier visits to the area.  Well this time he went, he  took the plunge, he actually was in attendance at the foot of the monument.

We went inside the restaurant to get some breakfast since we hadn't eaten yet.  As you will remember if you saw the Hitchcock movie North by Northwest with Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint, there was a very important scene filmed in the restaurant.  It has, of course, been revamped and reconditioned quite a bit since then, but still basically the same room.

Notice the  gold hanging lights.  There is a wrought iron "man" hanging from a rope and seems to be hammering on the monument.

You can see the monument through the window of the restaurant.

Here are a few more Mount Rushmore facts for inquiring minds

• Borglum was 60 years old when he began working on the monument.
• Rushmore's granite faces tower over 5,500 feet above sea level.
• The carvings are scaled to men who would stand 465 feet tall.
• Each President's head is as tall as a six-story building.
• Over 800 million pounds of stone was removed from Mount Rushmore during the construction.
• Imagine climbing 506 steps to reach the top of Mount Rushmore-this was how many steps the workers had to climb each day!
• The president's noses are 20 feet long, their mouths 18 feet wide, and their eyes are 11 feet across!
• Did you know that Gutzon Borglum was a student of renowned French artist Auguste Rodin, and was one of America's most successful artists before even considering Mount Rushmore? His Mares of Diomedes was the first American work purchased by New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. He also has 5 statues on display at the U.S. Capitol Building.
• Here is an astonishing fact: no deaths occurred during the whole period of carving, just a few minor injuries.
• Can you imagine that with all the dynamite used?
  

Of course we made the obligatory visit to the Gift Shop. Got a few really useless things that will probably never be used, but isn't that what we do? No, just kidding. I got some very nice things and I have passed that desire to buy all the useless things that only gather dust when you get home.

It doesn't matter how many times you see this, in my opinion, it is always breathtaking.

Well, our visit to Mt. Rushmore finished and we were both sufficiently frozen, we leave the area and head west on I-90.  We are actually going to Yellowstone again on our way home, but with the weather so threatening and so much snow all  around us, we decided to take the interstate instead of the state highway that we normally would take.

We don't like being on the interstate because it is so impersonal and not  likely to be anything but tourist traps.  You meet more nice people in  little towns along little highways.  But today we decided to be safe,  not  sorry.  

This was especially when Wayne had a conversation  with a  park ranger at Rushmore who told him that in no way should we go through Wyoming (the shortest route), instead take I-90 thru Montana.  That cinched it, after our GPS lady, Google Maps, AND the park ranger said to take I-90, well you know....that's exactly what we did.

Tonight we are in Sheridan, Wyoming in a very nice Hampton Inn room and plan to travel the 4 hours remaining to get back into our nirvana, Yellowstone tomorrow.

We love it there.  There is a special peace that takes over your soul in Yellowstone.  We are so happy to get back there tomorrow.


Oh, and by the way, Wayne did say he was glad he went and enjoyed seeing Mt. Rushmore.   YEAAAA ~

Thanks to all for following us!

Love Love Love and Peace to everyone...

Wayne and Colleen

Snow in Wall, South Dakota..........WHAT???!!!

Yes, it's true, there is a big storm heading our way today, expected to drop 3-5 inches of SNOW  !!!

We decided to wait out the storm here and go on to see Mt. Rushmore tomorrow.  Since we are just wimpy Californians who don't deal with this on a regular basis, we really don't want to drive in the snow.  

Of course for those of you who know my history and know that 45 years ago I lived here and swore I would NEVER live here again OR in the snow, you might be saying to yourself "what is she doing there".  Well, I am saying that myself my friends, WHAT AM I DOING IN WALL SOUTH DAKOTA AGAIN AND IN THE ******* SNOW   !!!

Not to worry, we are fine, I'm just kidding!  Wayne actually loves Wall and of course Wall Drug.  Yesterday we spent a lot of time there and I noticed that the lady behind the counter in the cafe had a sweatshirt on that said "Wall Drug Staff".

So, of course me being me, I said to her "I noticed your sweat shirt, how can I get one?"  She replied that I couldn't that they were only for the staff.  But if I went around the corner there was a guy there who maybe could help me.

Around the corner I went and there stood 3 "guys" and I didn't know which one to address so I just marched up and said  "I noticed the lady around the corner having a sweat shirt on that said Wall Drug Staff and I want one, how do I get it?"

One of the men said, I'm sorry it's only for staff.  I told him that 45 years ago I WAS staff but that didn't seem to impress him so I walked off.  Next thing I know I hear "Ma'am?  Ma'am?"  only to turn around and see one of the other men signalling me to come over where he is.  We are now in the clothing dept and he says to the lady working there, take care of her (meaning me).  The lady said she would go up to see what sizes she had.  In just a moment she was back with my sweatshirt!!!  How cool is that?!

While we were waiting for her to come back, I asked the nice young man his name.  "Todd"  he said.  How profound that was, huh?  I told him that it was a nice name and that I had given it to my oldest son, who by the way was born when I lived her and is now 43 years old and a cop!  He was nice and appeared to be impressed by my news.

In just a minute she was back with the shirt, I paid for it, thanked everyone involved and walked away a happy woman!

OK, so here we are in a motel room at the Best Western Plains Inn, waiting for the storm to hit, destined to be in our room all day until it passes.  We are armed with bread, peanut butter, bananas, granola bars and one bag of M&M's from somewhere back a few days ago.  We are fine!

More later.....

Catch Up Time.....

Ok, so it's been a few days since I posted on the blog.  Sorry, there were a couple nights that we had no internet signal and others that I was just so tired I didn't have it in me.

But here we are, all together again and I will try to catch you up on what has been happening in the past 5 days or so.

Leaving Ottawa, Indiana, which was shall we say less than a desirable place for us, we drove to Madison Wisconsin.  Now for those of you who stayed awake in grammar school, Madison is the capitol of Wisconsin.   Madison is also the home of the University of Wisconsin Badgers.  The university has 40,000+ students and I think we saw at least half of those during our stay!

Madison is a beautiful city with the greatest older homes and such history.  The campus is spread out over a great area of the city and it must be a challenge to get from one building to the next if your schedule isn't handled with transportation in mind.

We loved Madison.  We really enjoyed being there and driving around seeing the sites.  There is a beautiful lake in the middle of the city and the most amazing capitol building.

We spent two nights in Madison to catch up on some rest and to let Wayne recover a bit more from his cold/flu.  We were at our favorite place, a Marriott Courtyard. The people there were so friendly and we felt right at home there.  And of course there is THAT bed again!  It is the most comfortable bed of all.

After two days rest, we left Madison Wisconsin and drove to Fairmont Minnesota.
We stayed at another Hampton Inn.  Very nice young man at the desk and a very nice room.  The Hampton Inn rooms are decorated differently than most rooms.  They incorporate dark wood and different things in the rooms.  They are really nice rooms.

From Fairmont Minnesota, we drove to Sioux Falls for a meeting with our attorney.  It was a very nice day.  It was nice and warm with mostly sunshine.  Our meeting was only about an hour so we left Sioux Falls and headed for Wall, South Dakota.

About 50 miles or so from Wall, it began to snow.  Yes, snow!  We got a room at the Best Western in Wall and went down to Wall Drug for dinner.  It's one of our favorite places, Wall Drug.  We stopped at a market to replenish our tea and water and other supplies and came back to our room.

Wayne checked the weather reports and it looks like we are in for a real snow storm on Sunday.  We had planned to leave here on Sunday for Mt. Rushmore but decided now to stay here until the storm blows over on Monday.

Wayne is feeling much better and I am still well and so far have escaped the bug he had.

From here on out until we get closer to home, it looks like we will be dodging snow storms.

More later.........
Love to all
Wayne and Colleen

Covered Bridges and Indy Speedway !!!

Yesterday was an amazing day.  We went out in search of the covered bridges I wanted to see so badly.  Parke County was supposed to be the place to see them.

For some reason, these old structures have some sort of charm for me.  It's such a piece of history and if they could speak they would tell us  about all the horse and buggy carriages that came through with the ladies in their finest and the men all dapper and having just had the weekly bath!

Yes, I do have a vivid imagination!

Just look at this, isn't it beautiful?  Can you hear the horses hooves? (hoofs?)
Aw c'mon, you can imagine can't you?


The reason they built covered bridges,  is that the roof kept the beams and timbers from being hammered by the weather.  To see the inside of one, you would wonder if it will ever come down.  They are as sturdy and strong as can be.

We saw several of these beautiful structures within just a couple miles.  Each bridge had the same thing painted above the entrance:  The year it was built; the name of the builder; the name of the bridge; and the instruction to "walk" through the bridge.  Obviously meaning to walk your horses.

This was the last one we saw and probably the most beautiful one.  It was certainly the longest one and was painted red.  It is over a beautiful river and the falls you see in the picture just add to the ambiance.   It is a beautiful setting for sure.

After leaving the area of the covered bridges, we encountered a sign on this very small badly paved road that said "Barn Sale"....being the nosey one, I said to Wayne, "let's stop there"....

We got out of the car, walked up to this huge white barn with 3-4 people inside.  Just outside the entrance was an old fashioned metal tub filled with a burning fire.  I stopped  just for a minute and warmed my hands, felt good.  The guy walked up and said "feels good don't it?"....my thoughts exactly!   He said he'd come on down here about 5:00 this morning and started it up.

We went on inside and there were table after table of the usual garage sale stuff but in these parts, it was a Barn Sale.  They had an old fashioned, I mean REALLY old fashioned stove they wanted $250 for and the note said "Firm".  I'm sure it would have been a good buy, but what would I do with it?

We bid the guy goodbye and asked if there were a nice place to spend the night somewhere nearby.  Well, that started a long conversation about how we could "go on down to the county line, over to ....."  none of which was either intelligible  to us or informative so we thanked him and got back into the car.

Then, after a few miles, we began to hear banjo's playing if you know what I mean.  Our GPS lady we were sure had lost her electronic mind since she had us driving on gravel roads only slightly wider than our car and badly paved roads.  After what seemed like an eternity, we finally found a real  road with real civilization and off we went.

It turned out we got a room in Indianapolis at the Hampton Inn.  We were really tired after our adventure that day.

Then, this morning, our GPS lady led us to the Indianapolis Speedway and boy what fun we had there!

We drove and drove and drove alongside the speedway, only to see the back of the stands.  Had no idea it was so big! Wow, it just went on forever!

Look!  There is an open gate!  Turn in, turn in!  The stern guard at the gate when asked if we could just come in for a minute to see the track responded with a very determined "Nope, not from this end"......she then went on to explain how we could get into the inside so off we went back to where we were to begin with.  Although her instructions were a bit confusing at first, they became crystal clear when we got to where she told us to go.

We went thru a tunnel, under the speedway and up into the inside of the track.  There was a huge building that housed a museum and two gift shops.  Reading the signs, we see there is a tour we can take ON the track!  How exciting.  

We go into the building and buy our tickets for the ride!  The tickets were a whopping $3 each!  Can't beat that price!  It's now 11:10 and the lady says the next ride leaves at 11:30.  Wow, not only accidentally finding this place but also our timing was  perfect!

We got onto the shuttle type bus thing, one of those 10-12 passenger vans you see taking people to and from airports and hotels.  We were the first on so we sat right in the front where I could video out the front window and the side too.

What a thrill that ride was!  They told us all sorts of details about the racetrack and history of it's drivers.  One of the things I found interesting was that to illustrate the speed the drivers are running, it would be like going the length of a football field in  .9 seconds!!  That is, less than one second to cover the length of a football field.  Now that's fast!!!

Entering the track

   Into turn one

                                                         The straightaway to the finish line.

The famous "Gasoline Alley"

The bricks remaining in the finish line.

I didn't know this, but they said that the original bricks were not taken up, but covered and are still there below all the  surfacing that has taken place since.

They left the ones in a few rows only at the finish line.

It was a thrilling morning for us and we are not even necessarily race fans!  It was an impressive place for sure.  

We left Indianapolis and headed west for the first time since we left home almost a month ago now.  We plan to go back and see Mt. Rushmore on the way home and of course we are going back through Yellowstone one more time!

You cannot absolutely cannot spend too much time in Yellowstone!

We are staying tonight in a place called Ottawa Illinois and I must say not to impressed.  We got into our room at the Holiday Inn Express and freshened up a bit.  We left to go find a nice place to have dinner.  Well we drove and drove and drove around and around and could not find anything but fast food places.  No "hot food you eat with a fork" as we used to say during baseball season.  

After spending too much time driving around, we just gave up, went to McDonald's and brought our "dinner" back in a paper bag!

Tomorrow will be another exciting day, I'm sure.  What will we find tomorrow?

More later.....

Love to all

Wayne and Colleen

Parke County Here We Come

What is Parke County you ask?  Hmmm?  You didn't ask?  Well I'll tell you anyway.  Parke County boasts the most covered bridges in the country.  There are 31 covered bridges along with Amish Communities.  It is for that reason that I decided a while back that I would like to see it.

This morning we are in Peoria, Illinois and will be in Parke County in just a few hours.  Since we left Sioux Falls on Friday, we have had nothing but cloudy, rain, overcast, rain, heavy dark clouds, rain and well, you get the picture.

Friday night we spent in Des Moines, Iowa and I haven't felt a bone chilling icy cold wind like that in a long time.  The wind was about 20 mph and went clear through to your bones.  Just unloading the car was a challenge.

Yesterday we drove from Des Moines, Iowa to Peoria Illinois.  It was a short trip, only about 4 hours but Wayne is feeling so bad that he was ready for a rest.  He is being such a trooper.  While we were still in Sioux Falls, I said we should probably just turn around, head west, and get him home.  Knowing how I had been looking forward to seeing Parke County, he said he wanted to try it so on we came.

After we see Parke County today and tomorrow, we will head back west and go back through Yellowstone and on the way, stop to see Mt. Rushmore.  We never have made it there yet and Wayne hasn't seen it.

There haven't been any pictures or videos for a while because we haven't seen the sun for a while and haven't taken any pics.  Today will be different, we will get lots of pictures.  The weatherman on tv has assured me that today (Sunday) will be bright and sun shiny for our day in Parke County.

We will get packed up here and head out soon.

Thanks for following us and our love to all.
Wayne and Colleen

Goodbye Sioux Falls

This morning we bid adieu to Sioux Falls.  Our week there did not work out as hoped, but we did get to see Nicole three times.  All three visits were supervised by her new Service Coordinator Jessica Bauers.  Yesterday, our third visit, was the first time we were "allowed" to take Nicole out  for lunch.  Of course the weather had been perfect all week until yesterday and it was cold and rainy.

Nicole's mother continues (11 years now) to be ....how can I say this nicely...a problem.  But we are continuing our fight and will prevail in the end.

Wayne is sick.  He caught some sort of bug and is all stuffed up and has a sore throat. I drove today so he could rest.  He insisted on going on with our trip.  I said this morning that I thought we should head home, but he knows how I was looking forward to seeing Parke County Indiana, (covered bridges and amish communities) so he said he wanted to go on.

I did agree that after Parke County, we would take a U turn and head back west.  We are going back through Yellowstone again and before that, will finally see Mt. Rushmore.  I used to live there so I've seen it but Wayne has never seen it.

We drove to Des Moines Iowa today.  It poured rain and blew an icy frigid wind all day.  We stopped in almost the first place we spotted, a Holiday Express and Wayne has been asleep for a while now.  I hope he wakes up feeling better.

Onward and Upward.......we are trying.