Rocks, rocks, rocks

I-70 took a bit of time. It was lovely of course. Mountainous.

Friday afternoon and Saturday morning were spent in Arches National Park. It was beautiful! There were so many colors between the sky and landforms. There were of course a number of arches as well, which were fun to see. It was pretty toasty out, but it worked out that I had an afternoon and a morning so I never hit the high heat time of day. I also somehow managed to avoid crowds (yay!!!). It was pretty empty when I was on the trails, but every time I left there were a ton of people coming up. The trails did confirm that I need to work out more!

 Delicate Arch

From Delicate Arch Trail 

Landscape Arch 

Double O Arch 

Devil's Garden Trail

Got to Salt Lake City this afternoon. It's nice, though to be honest I haven't gone around too much. Just checked out Temple Square and the city center then relaxing for a bit before hitting the road again.

SoDak Part Deux

I made it to Mount Rushmore! Yeah America! It was pretty impressive. Definitely amazing how much effort went into making this, and how much goes into maintaining it.

Unfortunately the trail down to the base was closed for insect spraying. Since I had extra time I decided to go to Custer State Park. Great decision! The drive to the park was great – crazy turns, “pigtail” bridges, a tunnel framing Mt. Rushmore. Once in the park there were buffalo herds that were wandering around by the road. The calves were really energetic, it was adorable.

I also saw some elk from afar. And there were wild donkeys… I’m sure people feed them because the encounter went like this.

Donkeys in the road, I should stop.

Oh hey new donkey friend, coming to say hi.

Hey! Stop chewing on my seat!

I was surrounded – 3 on the left and one more trying to shove his face into the window on the right. Luckily they were too short for the sunroof, but I think an effort was made. It was hilarious! I regret forgetting to take a video.

There were also prairie dogs. They did not come up to my car.

All of this was followed by a seriously dull drive through Wyoming on a road with only cows. No gas stations, signs, radio stations… just cows.

Finished the night in Castle Rock with Sara. Lilly made me breakfast in the morning in her play kitchen – bread and juice. It was very low calorie.

SoDak!

This may be unexpected but... I really like this state! It has so many of my favorite things... national parks, roadside attractions (both educational and what the huh?), baby cows.

The first stop was the Corn Palace which I didn't realize has corn on the outside AND inside. And they have basketball tournaments there. And graduations. I wouldn't be able to sit through a ceremony in the Corn Palace, I'd be too distracted by the corn. Mitchell has a bunch of cute stores too which is nice that it's not just the Palace.

Second stop was 1880 Town! This was completely unplanned and forced by the billboards. Which side note, this state LOVES some billboards. It's nice in that it gives you something to look at besides cows, but I hated Wall Drug by the time I got to Wall. Anyway, 1880 Town is a "ghost town" that has all of the buildings furnished in the 1880s style. I thought it was really well done overall. Could have used some more explanations though.

And the bonus was an entire exhibit with props from

Final stop was:

My streak of getting to national parks when the passes are closed for some reason continued (construction this time) and I only got to go on one of the trails I wanted to go on. I was both sad and happy because it was 95 degrees out. Thank the Lord it was insanely windy otherwise I would have melted.

The landscape colors were amazing. The pictures don't really do them justice because it was so bright out.

There were a ton of other places that were calling to me from the billboards, but alas there was no time. I think I need to come back.

This is happening in 5 days! Starting to stress out a bit... still a lot to do to get ready like, you know, pack.

Madison

I've had these photos in a draft for a while but of course I keep forgetting about them. Instead I've been writing really inspiring case studies and papers on the topic of supply chain risk management! I know, great right?

This is Camp Randall. I did buy football season tickets this year (sorry Spartans) and probably will again, but they're in the student section and lets face it - I'm too old for that mess. So I'll sell most of them again (if I get them, tickets sold out in 15 minutes last year.)

Downtown from Lake Menona

Union Terrace on Lake Mendota. It's really too bad the two lakes in Madison have such similar names. I get them so confused...

Union Terrace again at sunset. If ever in Madison this is a really lovely spot to sit. There's frequently music, you overhear some really amusing conversations, and you get to have drinks on a lake. Nothing bad there!

2012 = Year of the Roadtrip

January was Florida, April was Ireland (partial road trip at least), May is to California, August is from California... I need a November or December trip! Any suggestions?

Actually a group of us were discussing a post-Christmas December road trip to Central America but Mexico seems too iffy. So we're potentially flying instead. Problem solved!

This is becoming a bad travel blog rather than a my-life blog... or is it that I have no life outside of travel??

Road Trip Finale

Apparently I never posted this... I'm the worst. And now it's kind of the worst too.

Ok so, the last bit of the trip was actually the part I wanted to see most. We were going to Graceland!!! I was very, very (much) excited for this. First we stopped in Mississippi at the petrified forest, mostly out of curiosity. It was a nice walk. There were plenty of petrified logs, but they look like regular logs so... yeah. Neat anyway. This is an ancient log:

Petrified in the Petrified forest?

Next stop Memphis! Beale Street is pretty short, which is a bit surprising given how much it's advertised. There were a bunch of great music spots though and we did hang out for some very good bar shows.

But the main attraction was this place. It was everything I'd hoped it would be. I was prepared for it being small because a number of people had mentioned that, but I wasn't prepared for the all out gloriousness of the 70's time stop. I knew it would be great, but I didn't imagine THIS great.

Creepy monkey statue with mirror ceiling? Check.

Crazy carved wood chairs and carpeted ceiling? Check.  (no flashes allowed, boo.)

And there was more. So much more... folded fabric wallpaper, so many  mirrors.... 

Obviously there were the suits. Ryan and I were planning to get matching jumpsuits, but sadly they didn't have my size.

Best. Trashcans. Ever.

To even out my Elvis tour (which Ryan enjoyed, despite his initial skepticism) we also toured the Gibson factory. Unfortunately it was Sunday so my supply nerd tour loving self couldn't see anyone working, but there was WIP lying around so I pretended. I'm definitely impressed that there's so much manual work still put into making the guitars while maintaining high quality. If the quality is bad they destroy them - I'm imagining people rock star smashing them at lunch. In which case I'd like to apply for a job.

Word.

The remainder of the trip was fine... until Illinois. Of course. There we met intense fog followed by snow in Wisconsin. Uggggghhhhh.  

Grand total: 3,874.8 miles of fun! (and creepy monkey statues)