G.W.A.-Day 8, 6/28

There are no pictures from day 8, the last day of travel. We drove through Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and made it home before dinner. After almost 4800 miles in eight days we were home and I will never drive that far that fast again (maybe).

Total miles driven=549.4
Time in car=8hr 48min

G.W.A-Day 7, 6/27

The only exciting part of day 7 was the two hours we spent in traffic going through Chicago. We drove through southern Minnesota (yawn), Wisconsin (snooze), Illinois, Indiana and into Ohio.

The Sears Tower. Madeline took at least 50 pictures as we drove through the city, but this one captures what we saw for two hours. We sat at one toll booth north of the city for almost 10 minutes; I had a nice conversation with the attendant.

This tollbooth represented freedom. It was the last one south of Chicago and after we passed through the traffic was gone.

Total miles driven=735.6
Time in car=13hr 13min

G.W.A.-Day 6, 6/26

On Day 6 we headed south from Spearfish into the Black Hills. We passed through Deadwood (I'm a big fan of the HBO series) and stopped at Mt. Rushmore. It was really interesting in a surreal way. I've seen the monument on so many things in my life that I was expecting these enormous heads erupting out of the ground, but they actually seem smaller in person. I suppose most pictures focus entirely on the heads, so you never see the large mountain that surrounds them. I usually don't like to read the exhibits in National Park visitor centers, but I enjoyed reading every word at Mt. Rushmore's.

We made it into Minnesota that evening, and there was a large thunderstorm that overflowed the hotel's pool during the night.

At Deandra's suggestion, we stopped at Wall Drug in Wall, SD. We counted over one hundred billboards along the 50 miles of interstate before you reach it.

Total miles driven=478.5

Time in car=8 hr 39min

More of Day 5, 6/25

This was my trip highlight, Baronette Peak (10,354') near the northeast entrance of the park. There were dozens of waterfalls cascading down the face of the mountain. If we had the time I would have loved to take a nap in the meadow, listening to the sound of the wind and water.

This is the Clark's Fork River canyon. It reaches 1200' in depth.

This was our first view of the Great Plains. We were in the Big Horn Mountains - the last peaks over 8,000 until you reach the Alps.

This is how Mad spent the last four days of the trip, unless she crawled in the back to take a nap.

Total miles driven=623.9

Time in car=10hr 40min

G.W.A-Day 5, 6/25

Mom took the hotel shuttle from the hotel in Bozeman to the airport at 5:30am. Madeline and I slept late, starting the pattern of the next few days. We would drive well into the night (Mad would usually fall asleep in the back seat), reach a hotel, sleep late and repeat. We would not have been able to do this if Dea and the little girls had come along, but then, they probably wouldn't have enjoyed all the driving anyway.

After leaving Bozeman we drove back to Yellowstone, stopped at Tower Falls, drove through the beautiful Lamar Valley and exited at the northeast entrance. We continued across Wyoming, crossing the Big Horn Mountains (like the Wind River Range, they were a revelation) and finally reached Spearfish, SD for the night. After the sun went down the bugs were hitting the windshield in such large numbers that it sounded like rain.

This is the Devil's Slide, on the road from the North entrance of Yellowstone To Livingston, MT. What is most interesting is that the different rock layers were laid down horizontally and faulting tilted the ground vertical.

Mad at the northern (Gardner, MT) entrance.

This was probably the highlight of the trip for Mad; a buffalo was leading a line a vehicles down the other lane.

This is the Lamar valley. We didn't see any wolves, but all the lumps on the far side of the river are buffalo.