53 day road trip...by numbers

On the 30th of June, 7 of us left Millis at 8:45 a.m. to embark on a
53 day road trip which would include 26 stops, taking us through 23 states and 2 countries. We visited 19 National Parks, and a total of 26 cities/towns including 2 state capitals. To do this we traveled some 9,543 miles all tucked neatly in to 1 packed out Chevrolet Suburban. During the course of the entire trip, we averaged 16.9 miles per gallon (not bad –eh?), and spent some $1550 on gasoline. We packed 3 tents, and had to replace 2 of them due to the wind and rain damage they suffered in Galveston to give us shelter for the 27 total nights we spent camping. On 24 nights we were treated to a solid roof over our heads, 10 of those with friends and family, and 14 of them in hotels, many of which were not much better than sleeping in the tents! On 2 occasions, we broke our promise to only ‘eat local’ by having breakfast at McDonald's 1 morning and having desserts and delicious cocktails at the Rainforest Café in Galveston during our stay there. We did not break our ‘eat local’ pledge in Niagara Falls however, thanks to the $30 price tag for the fajitas for which we would normally pay $13. We made 1 visit to hospital for Ben’s mystery blister and one visit to the Ranger Station at the State Park in Galveston for the 3 kids stung by jellyfish in the Gulf. Even though the summer news stories were overflowing with accounts of bison charging, grizzlies attacking, floodwaters raging and murderers fleeing, the only trouble we managed to find ourselves in was 1 minor fender-bender in Texas and get this, we received 0 speeding tickets! Incredible. We arrived back in Millis at exactly 8:00 p.m. on the 20th of August (Papa’s 64th birthday) with 9 days of summer vacation left before we needed to get back to work and school on the 30th of August. Anyone ready for another road trip? I’m thinking we take the tour to Europe in the summer of 2014. How many countries can we hit in 6 weeks? Come on! Who's coming?

August 18 - Niagara Falls

On the 18th of August at about 7:30 p.m. we arrived at our final stop, Niagara Falls, Canada. After we unloaded I made a run to the supermarket to grab some food and wine for the evening’s meal. Later that night, as Emmett, Abby and I looked out over the falls, the lights of the casinos and streets glaring up at us as we sat some 20 stories above them, I asked them which they thought they liked better: the bright lights and flashing neon signs of a busy tourist city like Niagara or the bright glow of the stars in the dark sky of a quiet western town. Both agreed they’d take the black and starry sky over the glitzy city scene. Still, we all enjoyed the view of Niagara, which including a moving light display at the American Indian Casino across the border, and later, the lights of a few sparkling fireworks. My father-in-law treated us to a luxurious stay at the Marriot Fallsview Hotel and after we were all tucked up in bed, listening to the roar of the falls outside our window, we began to think about exploring the falls tomorrow. We enjoyed a leisurely lie in the next day. James was good enough to grab some coffee from the lobby and we sat, sipping our coffee and thinking about our day. Abby and Emmett wanted a swim in the pool – fine. Then we’d take in a little breakfast while I sat and worked on the blog, taking in the views. Then perhaps a little potter around the beautiful green park beside the falls. A little ride on the Maid of the Mist to cap it all off – perfect. But then the phone rang. James’ father (who had never been to Niagara before) had his sights set on taking a massive tour that would bring us up the Skylon Tower, to the Butterfly Garden just north of Niagara, and on journeys behind the falls as well as right up close to the falls on the Maid of the Mist (also included was the IMAX which we wouldn’t have time for, as well as a trip to Whirlpool State Park which we would do the next day). There was a quick debate over who wanted to do what (the older boys were all geared up for the tour as was their gram but the younger two were already in fits as their trip to the pool was being delayed by this discussion…). In the end, all 8 of us set out on the tour. It was a bit of a hectic tour and our guide was just so funny. Clearly he didn't feel the need to 'waste' money on the parking passes which were required for certain sites. Too simple, too boring, I don't know. It was much more fun for him to go screeching up to curb, sound the alarm for the passengers to disembark as quickly as possible while he jumped out and donned his traffic guard vest to usher us safely across the busy roads. All the while he squawked to us about the pick up plan - where to find him, how to get there safely. "Stay together!" yelled out the papa guide as we dodged the cars to get across to the falls. We stopped at the ridiculously overpriced 'Souvenir City' for lunch and a poke around the shops. Back on the bus, fudge tucked safely away in my bag (my saving grace), our guide continued on with the commentary (some times the facts, and some times his opinion) as we were shuttled from one sight to the next on our big adventure. In the end, it gave the one-day visitor a broad overview of the many attractions as well as the history of the area (did you know that the falls have receded 7 miles from their original position to where they are today?), but if you're ever in Niagara and you find yourself in line for this tour, be sure you have your sneakers on. A bright orange vest wouldn't hurt either....

Detroit

We stayed at the Hotel St. Regis, located in the New Center area in downtown Detroit. Housed in a beautiful, old, and what appeared to be recently refurbished building, it was a rather sleepy hotel, with the staff appearing to outnumber the guests (speaking of which, I was looking at the hotel website to gather a little information about the history of the building and discovered the that both Martin Luther King and Mick Jagger were once guests here…think they’ll add the Clark Family to that list of distinguished guests?). With the recommendation of one of the valets, we ordered up some ‘Pizza Papalis’ for dinner and James hit the streets in search of wine, finding a couple of bottles in a store where everything was kept behind glass and delivered through a little window by the cashier. The pizza and salad were delivered just a short while later, enough to feed all of the guests in the hotel, but rather than share, we opted to save our leftovers for lunch the next day. Initially when we put Detroit on the travel itinerary, we had planned to see the Motown Museum on day 2 but a good friend advised us otherwise and after a restful night’s sleep, off to Dearborn we went. So very glad we did. The Henry Ford Museum is so much more than a car museum and cannot be fully appreciated in 2, 4 or possibly even 6 hours. There’s just so much to see there including cars and locomotives and other pieces of Americana. Some of our favorite exhibits were the Dymaxion house (an idea that never really took off – thank goodness), the presidential motor cars (which included the John F. Kennedy limousine in which he rode through Dallas the day he was assassinated – did you know that both Johnson and Nixon continued to use the limousine even after President Kennedy’s death? That’s just a little creepy. Thrifty, but creepy…), ‘Heroes of the Sky’ (which reviewed the history of aviation) and ‘With Liberty and Justice for All’ (which explored America’s fight for freedom and had on display the beautifully restored Rosa Parks bus which museum-goers could board). We spent several hours touring these exhibits and got involved in some of the hands-on activities including designing and building our own cars with K’Nex and constructing paper airplanes and then testing our newly-made crafts on a course (never could manage the loop-the-loop but apparently it’s possible, even with a paper plane). By the time we pulled ourselves away from the museum at about 3 we still hadn’t done it all but we needed to get on the road. Last stop on this great American tour – Niagara Falls Canada.

Chicago

We quickly settled in to our rather cramped digs at the Red Roof Inn on Ontario Street in downtown Chicago. Just around the corner from the ‘Miracle Mile’ the accommodations did not offer a lot in terms of space and reminded me of when James and I went away for my 30th birthday (surprised me with a weekend away in New York City, awww, what a guy). We saw an amazing show (Bombay Dreams) and when we finally made it back to the hotel later that night, I nearly dislocated my nose when, upon entering the room, I almost walked straight in to the wall on the opposite side. This place had the same ‘cozy’ kind of feel to it. I tried to explain to the kids (who had been commenting non-stop on our cramped quarters) that we were staying in the middle of a city now – not a lot space in the middle of a city – and that rooms like this were much to be expected. Of course when we entered in to the Marriot Hotel just around the corner to purchase tickets for a city bus tour, all of that logic was lost (we nearly lost Emmett in the cavernous lobby). Oh, well, so much for that logic/lesson. The open-top, double-decker, hop on-hop off bus tour we took with the Chicago Trolley and Double Decker Company gave us a good overview of the city’s beautiful architecture. We hopped off to grab a Chicago-style, stuffed pizza at Giordano’s. While the other adults and all 4 children ooohhed and aaahhed and tucked in to piece after piece, I could only feign satisfaction as I quietly longed for my preferred pie – the straight-forward, thin-crust, cheese pizza at Pizzeria Regina in the North End of Boston. We made our way back on to the tour bus and didn’t get off again until we completed the whole circuit once round. We cashed in on some of the coupons that came in our bus ticket tour book, including the free chocolate at the Hershey store and the popcorn at Garrett’s. Now I want you to pay close attention to what I’m about to tell you. They do this popcorn at Garrett’s called the ‘Chicago Mix’ – caramel and cheese popcorn all mixed up in one little package. Sounds weird, I know and while the caramel popcorn is to die for, it’s the cheese popcorn that may very well kill you. The shiny orange-yellow coating will stain your fingers as well as your tongue and while eating the cheese popcorn on its own is not very appetizing, eaten together with the caramel, it is just fantastic. Who knew, right? The tins available for purchase are extraordinarily expensive but they sell smaller bags for a reasonable price and if you can somehow score a free sample like we did, you absolutely should. We walked up to Millennium Park to hunt around for a shiny something James had heard about. Not a lot to go on, but we didn’t have much trouble finding artist Anish Kapoor’s polished stainless steel sculpture which joined Chicago’s renowned collection of art in 2001 (also on our tour, we saw the Picasso in Daley Square but unfortunately missed Chagall’s mosaic The Four Seasons). The Kapoor sculpture is simple yet dynamic, and provides a different perspective of the city’s skyline as well as nearby Lake Michigan. It was an amateur photographer’s paradise as about a hundred people gathered around to pose and shoot themselves and their friends’ reflections in the giant, silver bean. As it was Steve’s last night on tour, he took us all out for a wonderful meal at the Weber Grill. Never heard of it and a little skeptical at first, Weber Grill turned out to be a delicious place to eat. A scrumptious meal from start to finish with everything cooked and grilled to perfection and you should have seen the size of the grills in the open kitchen! After dinner, James took his parents and Steve to Howl at the Moon which according to James was good, but not quite as fabulous as the one we went to in San Antonio. Apparently Howl at the Moon is opening up in Boston some time this year. James is considering making it a hat trick….

One very looooong drive

While visiting my sister in AZ, she told me about a recent conversation she had had with a friend of hers. In that conversation the friend told her that the ‘average’ time a visitor spends at a National Park is 15 minutes (which I really have a hard time believing because some people spend a week at a time at National Parks and that would mean many more people actually spend less than 15 minutes when they visit a National Park – which seems a little improbable, not to mention totally pointless). Well, if this little factoid is indeed true, today we didn’t do much to increase that average as we did our one and only ‘drive by’ National Park visit through the Badlands in South Dakota. Much as we would have liked to stop and take a walk or two, we had just under 1,000 miles to knock down on our way to Chicago on the agenda today, so we really didn’t have time for any sight-seeing along the way. So I don’t have a whole lot to say about the Badlands other than that it looked pretty cool. A nice place to get out and do some hiking. We’ll make a note and have to hit it better on our next road trip. The other 2 stops we made along the way to Chicago were Wall Drug in where else, Wall, South Dakota and the Corn Palace in Mitchell (again, another ‘drive-by’ affair). Wall Drug. How could we not stop at this famous shopping mall tourist-attraction… but I rather wish we hadn’t. If I’m being honest with you, it’s a lot tacky and just a little over-priced (except for the 5 cent coffee you can buy which sadly, isn't even worth the 5 cents so please do yourself a favor and no matter how desperate you are - don't buy the 5 cent coffee). That being said, we’ll still proudly display the bumper sticker (one free to each visitor) on our roof box. After leaving the Corn Palace in Mitchell (tough to explain, so just look it up), we drove, and drove, and drove and drove, until, at 2:00 a.m., we reached our next destination – Chicago.

Bear Country

Located just south of Rapid City, Bear Country offers tourists the opportunity to view, and if you’re lucky, get up close and personal, with a host of wild critters. We all enjoyed the experience as we led the caravan through the self-guided tour around the park and got a close look at the moose, bison, arctic fox, bighorn sheep, elk, coyote, bobcat, and mountain lion. As we passed through the massive steel gates at the entrance to the first animal enclosure, memories of Jurassic Park flooded my mind. Luckily the only time we found ourselves under attack was when a grizzly decided to take a little nibble out of the bag on our cargo rack (Aidan was in the car behind us and insists the bear was making a meal out of our cargo bag but I think one of the seams had just begun to pull a bit.). We finished our afternoon at the Bear Country by visiting some of the smallest creatures at the baby enclosures. From the three-footed red fox (dad bit her when she was pregnant and they couldn’t operate immediately so they had to amputate her infected leg after the pups were born – sounds like a nice guy…) to the baby bears (where we spent much of our time watching the cubs play with some lucky visitors who had won a drawing) to the badgers (who were running around like maniacs the whole time), we ended our day in the gift shop where we did not – thank goodness – buy any stuffed animals for the dogs to chew up when we got home or $5 lollipops that had small furry creatures ‘hugging’ them or even a T-shirt (although they had some really cute ones on sale). Nope. Just got the one bear-paw bumper sticker which is now displayed on the roof box. We left Bear Country and headed back to Keystone where we looked to find a place to eat from which we could do some people-watching. The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was on the week we were in South Dakota which made for some really cool sights (never saw so many motorcycles in all my life!) in downtown Keystone.

Mount Rushmore

We were up and out of the Spokane Creek Campground fairly early on so we would have time to really explore Rushmore before heading out to Bear Country for the afternoon. We took Iron Mountain Road (otherwise known at 16A) through Custer State Park, up and over Iron Mountain itself, finishing just beneath Mount Rushmore. The road is part of a scenic byway system and if you’re driving in this area of the Black Hills, is a must-see. There are winding steep roads, lots of wildlife and a few tunnels that provide beautiful framed views of Mt. Rushmore. One of my favorite parts of the trip was the ‘Pig Tail Bridges’ built in the 1930s and 40s and on the National Register of Historic Places in South Dakota. A "pig-tail" is a bridge where the road loops down and under the bridge, just like a piggy's tail. If you enjoy driving or taking scenic photos on the road, this is the place to be. If you or someone driving with you easily gets car sick, this is not the place to be. When we arrived at Rushmore, a light rain had begun to fall. We ducked inside to the reasonably priced restaurant for a delicious bottomless coffee (The Clark Camping Coffee James brews leaves a lot to be desired - sorry honey. What it lacks in flavor, it makes up for in coffee dregs. You hear what I'm sayin'? On top of that, I figured the hot coffee would keep my hands warm while we walked around outdoors. It was unseasonably cool – about 60 degrees - a far cry from the 90s they had been experiencing recently.). We grabbed a Junior Ranger book for Emmett so he could get to work on his last badge of the tour, and headed out towards the Avenue of the Flags that leads up to the monument. First impression – wow. I was somewhat surprised with how enthused I was. Although the sculpture itself is impressive, I think it was the work that went in to building it rather than the finished product that impressed me most. Sculptor Gutzon Borglum never saw his masterpiece finished. Working at such high altitudes, the low oxygen levels took its toll on Borglum’s already-deficient heart. His son Lincoln finished the work but his father probably would not have been pleased with the finished product. The elder Boglum intended to carve full busts of each of the 4 presidents (just Washington is complete) and the debris from the blasting that rested at the base of the mountain was to be removed when the monument was finished. One thing I had not heard of before my visit was the ‘Hall of Records’ located behind Lincoln. Borglum believed the hall should hold important documents, such as the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, as well as other important documents and records that catalogue America’s history. Once we finished viewing the monument, the Lakota Indian exhibit and the sculptor’s studio, we brought Emmett to collect his Junior Ranger badge. There we met a Ranger who was a Millis native, a very friendly guy who we chatted with for some time before heading out to Bear Country, where we were finally able to see the black bears and grizzlies we missed out on at Yellowstone (thank goodness).

Wyoming to South Dakota

Before we left Yellowstone, Emmett got his Junior Ranger Badge. It was 8:30 in the morning and not at all busy at the Fishing Bridge Visitor Center so the Ranger who awarded Emmett his badge did so with a special little ceremony, gaining the attention of the 3-4 other early morning visitors before crowning Emmett with his own ranger hat and then bestowing upon him the Junior Ranger badge (and a proper little sew-on badge it was; there are no plastic badges at the granddaddy of all national parks).
We climbed for hours up and over the Bighorn Mountains reaching an altitude of 9,033 feet at Granite Pass. So high were we that we found ourselves driving among the clouds. On our way down off the mountain, cows wandered just beside and sometimes on the highway in an open range area. We did a 180 when James spotted a young moose along the road. We found him munching on some plants along side the road and were very pleased with our find. We needn’t have patted ourselves on the backs too heartily. A few hundred yards along the road, we saw several more moose (these ones with great horns on them) also engaged in a mid-afternoon snack. They looked quite “majestic” as Ben put it with their big, velvety horns. We drove through small towns like ‘Shell’ where the population is just 50 and had to wonder, just how frequently are they having to change those signs? A few hours into our journey, we hit I-90 that runs clear across the country to Boston. We’ll stop off in South Dakota tonight though and try to get a glimpse of Mt. Rushmore. Tomorrow, we’ll hit Bear Country and the town of Keystone. We’re just now having a debate about whether or not Keystone Beer is brewed in Keystone, South Dakota. If it is, we’ll just have to have one won’t we? There’s that whole commitment we made prior to embarking on this trip to eat ‘local’....

A Quick Yellowstone Recap

Some personal favorites from our visit to Yellowstone:
Best Geyser Display=Fountain Geyser
Most Frequently Encountered Animal=Bison
Best Hike=Lower Geyser Basin (not really a hike but rather a stroll along the boardwalk; there’s not a lot of ‘hiking’ at Yellowstone due to the danger of stumbling into a hydrothermal feature – ouch)
Best Side Road Trip=Firehole Lake Drive (along southwestern rim)
Best Campsite=Madison (not that it was more fabulous than the site at Bridge Bay but at least we didn’t have a sign posted 5 ft beyond our ‘rustic’ tent site stating “area beyond closed; high bear traffic area; for your own safety, do not go beyond this sign”
Best Grand Canyon=the one in AZ (sorry Yellowstone)
Best Main Road Drive=all of them. No matter where you go at Yellowstone you will be treated to some truly amazing sights.

Yellowstone National Park

We all woke up at about 4:30 – cold, thirsty and needing the bathroom but there was no way I was stepping out of the car – it was 42 degrees outside! Too cold for me but the perfect temperature for the grizzlies to do a little hunting…. As I lay there not able to fall back asleep, Aidan suddenly announced he felt like he couldn’t breathe (I had been lying awake for some time listening to Abby panting, and I too felt I was working extra hard to fill my lungs) Was it the altitude? (We were spending the night at 7,000 feet.) Was it that the 5 of us were beginning to tap out the oxygen supply in our little car-coon? (Unlikely.) Or was it just so damn cold?! (Probably not…) Hmmm… Anyhow, we ended up cracking some windows and managed to make it through the night. We woke early, leaving the campsite by 8 and drove along to see Old Faithful. Along the way, we saw a family of bison (3 adults, 2 babes) munching on some grass by the river. Driving along the loop road gave such a wonderful overview of the park. Steam rose from the ground like thin wisps of cotton and further along, great clouds hung in the air, blanketing the trees and walkways around them. We thought we’d tuck in to some breakfast on the boardwalk along side Old Faithful as we waited for the next show. We didn’t have to wait too long and when Old Faithful erupted, she went for about 3 minutes (a fairly long eruption as Old Faithful eruptions go). After a quick stop in the Visitor Center and the shops which had far too many t-shirts to choose from, we snuck on to the back of a tour at the historic Inn, which was built in 1904. The rustic interior, done up with wood on the floors and walls, is so dark and the lighting so dim, I felt as though I could lose the person walking next to me if I wasn’t careful. The grand foyer which elevates 5 stories above your head has the most amazing exposed post-and-beam structure which includes a ‘Tree-house’ at the very top (Sadly, due to the fire code, people are no longer allowed to climb to the tree-house. Sorry kids.). All-in-all, the Inn is well worth a look if you’re ever in the area. Yellowstone Park is massive and we wouldn’t be able to do it all during our stay, so we identified some places we’d like to see and hit the road. At the Fountain Paint Pot Area, we saw geysers, as well as hot springs, fumaroles and mud pots. The geysers were very active, especially Fountain Geyser and in my opinion, the display rivaled that of Old Faithful. The colors in the hot springs shone a beautiful turquoise blue, even in the clouded, mid-afternoon sun. As we trotted along, we could hear the fumaroles hissing loudly while the steam danced delicately in to the air (and what a stink that sulfur has…rotten eggs anyone?), and finally, the mud pots, a beautiful brilliant white that bubbled and belched as we strolled along the boardwalk. Along the same route we saw bacterial mats of bright orange, yellow and brown which glistened under a thin layer of water. As my mother-in-law put it, the hydrothermal features at Yellowstone make you feel like you’re on a foreign planet. We stopped at the ‘Grand Canyon’ of Yellowstone, which was rather picturesque, and from the walkway, one could see a beautiful waterfall cascading down to a narrow river below. We camped the second night at Bridge Bay, setting one of the tents up just a few feet in front of a sign which warned hikers not to enter due to the ‘bear danger’. We managed to improve upon the sleeping arrangements in our ‘car bed’ (found the space blanket that I couldn’t put my hand on last night. Those things are loud but warm…) and had a wonderful warm nights’ sleep!